Throwback Tracks--December 8, 2016
Shaun Cordingley
It's absolutely freezing here, so I'm rolling out some classic rock.
It makes sense if you don't think about it:
The Guys From do not hold the rights to any of these songs, it is more our hope to expose our readers to new (*cough*) and different retro music, or re-expose them to things they may have forgotten about.
At the top of each section, will be the song name, followed by the artists' name linked to their website (if possible...which is totally hit and miss with oldies), so you can fall down the rabbit hole, finding and supporting what you dig.
Hells Bells - AC/DC
"Hells Bells" is one of those songs by Australian rock band AC/DC that I seem to forget how much I like it, and then I hear it again, love it, and then instantly stop thinking about. At the end of the day, a part of that may be the bell (I love that bell opening to this song so much, not to mention the fact that they had a 2000lb bell cast specifically for themselves; someday, I will buy my own giant bell...).
"Hells Bells" is off of AC/DC's 1980 album Back in Black (the first album without Bon Scott) and features that iconic double guitar sound that really typified the AC/DC of the 1980s (and features a great solo in the middle, as the best rock songs do). I probably also have a fondness for "Hells Bells" thanks to its inclusion in Who Made Who (the soundtrack to the amazing/silly horror movie Maximum Overdrive), and re-discovered it thanks to it's use in the trailer for the PS4 game Mad Max (which I recently picked up on a Black Friday sale)...
Now, you also pretty much know how the December/January Throwback playlist is going to start...
My White Bicycle - Nazareth
When most people think about Scottish rock band Nazareth, they seem to think about songs like "Love Hurts" or "Hair of the Dog", but for whatever reason I always think of their cover of the short-lived, 1960s psych-rock band Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle". I have been listening to this song since I was..probably...three?
Read into that whatever you will...
Nazareth released their single version of "My White Bicycle" in May of 1975, right after their release of Hair of the Dog, because the 1970s were weird like that, and you could release singles that weren't on your latest album because you had another album coming in six months; case in point, Nazareth released Greatest Hits in November of 1975 (which included "My White Bicycle"). "Bicycle" actually did quite well on its' own as a single, breaking into the UK Top 15, but I think it is not really remembered as much as it should be: it's a great hard rock love song to a bicycle.
Oowatanite - April Wine
Canadian rock band April Wine is one of those bands that sits one the periphery of classic rock that I enjoy (as in, I know they exist, and I think of a couple songs, but they're never in the conversation of bands I really dig from the 70s/80s), and then I get looking into their back catalog and realize that, holy ****, they were a great rock band.
Case in point, today, my folks suggested that I hadn't put an April Wine song in to a Throwback Tracks, and I thought "huh, yeah, plus I'm doing rock today", and have now spent a good half an hour listening to a whole pile of April Wine....and downloading a collection of their songs onto my playlists...
"Oowatanite" is what I ended up choosing for today, mostly because I love that train warning/guitar opening, and it's just a great example of a solid classic rock song. "Oowatanite" was the opening track off of April Wine's fourth album, Stand Back, the first Canadian rock album to go full platinum in Canada (and eventually double platinum), and the song itself became a staple of April Wine concerts (because let's be fair, it'd be a great song live: easy to sing along with, and it's about a great night...)
Rest assured, this will not be the last time I talk about April Wine....
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO) is another one of those great, Canadian rock bands from the 1970s, and their song "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" (from their 1974 album Not Fragile) is easily one of their best known. It's actually kind of funny, as Randy Bachman has said on a few occasions that it was actually written/performed as a joke: Bachman wrote it for his brother (who had a stutter), and the band use to play it as a work song (while working on Not Fragile) to check if the microphones, amps, etc. were working properly.
Which then, when it became a hit (including BTO's only #1 hit in the United States as a single), I imagine it all felt a little bit silly...but at the end of the day, "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" is bright & fun hard rock, that is weirdly layered to make it one helluva rock song.
...which you could make the argument borrows some guitar work off of The Who's "Baba O'Reilly", but honestly it feels more like an homage if anything.
The Breakup Song - The Greg Kihn Band
Wrapping us up this week is "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)" by American rock/pop rock band The Greg Kihn Band, which was the first single of of their (delightfully titled) fourth album Rockihnroll released in 1981. Essentially it's a catchy little pop rock song that laments about how there are really no great breakup songs anymore...which in 1981, is very true...80s rock was very much not good at melancholy (and let's be fair, this does not really nail that feeling either...it's a fun...breakup...song).
I'm probably most familiar with it thanks to its' use in things like Grand Theft Auto V, Let Me In, and the fact that Yelawolf sampled it...but it is a fun little track that I wanted to include this week because it's just so darn catchy, and if there's one thing we are totally missing on this list, it is catchy rock.
Here is the November 2016 Throwback Playlist--again we're lucky enough to get every track on the list, which is one helluva 90 minute experience (little bit of everything, and some epic swings).
In case you missed our previous Throwback Track playlists, here they are:
October 2016 Throwback Playlist,
September 2016 Throwback Playlist
Remember, as I use Apple Music, that is where the playlists live, but if you want me to look into other services, just hit me up on Twitter and we'll chat about it.
See you again next Thursday with some new....oldies...*cough*
-S (@Shauncord)