You want to stay out with your fancy friends I'm telling you it's gotta be the end Don’t Bring me down....grrooss!

70’s Pick of the Week

“Don’t Bring Me Down” by Electric Light Orchestra (1979)

When Electric Light Orchestra, aka ELO released the album “Discovery”, my friends and I called it ‘Disco –Very’. Not that we didn’t like the album, but it was that all groups around that time seemed to go through a disco phase, even the Rolling Stones, and this was ELO’s disco album. The strange thing about ELO is that they never had a number one hit in the U.K. or in the U.S., yet they have had the most top 40 songs in the U.S. than any band in history.  Weird huh?

Birmingham, England’s Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne set out to make pop songs that had a bit of classical music interwoven. Wood left after the debut album and its lukewarm reviews. Lynne of course went on to write, arrange and produce every album after that – all 11 of them.

Hello Daddy, hello Mom I'm your ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb Hello world I'm your wild girl I'm your ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb

70’s Pick of the Week

“Cherry Bomb” by the Runaways (1977)

Long, long before the Donnas, and the so-called Riot Grrl movement of the ‘90’s came the trailblazing, unwittingly feminist band, the Runaways.

When teenagers Sandy West and Joan Jett met, they wanted to form a rock band - not a very popular idea at a very male-dominated time in rock history. The great thing about them is that they wrote, played their own instruments and performed world-wide. The problem was that their audience, also teenagers, could not get into the bars they played in. While they were a great success in Europe and especially Japan, they never really gained anything more than a cult following in North America.

The legendary, bizarre producer Kim Fowley had given drummer Sandy West, Joan Jett’s phone number and told them to get together to see if they could do anything. The group originally started as trio with Micki Steele (later of the Bangles), who toured clubs in Los Angeles.  Steele eventually got fired and was replaced.  Soon after, Lita Ford (lead guitar) and Jackie Fox (bass) were hired to round out the group.

There is no sense in pretending. Your eyes give you away. Something inside you is feeling like I do. We've said all there is to say...

Pick of the Week

“Breakdown” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976) 

When I was a teenager my friends and I decided to go skating at the Lagoon. To go to the rink we had to go down this steep hill (85^th Street) that was on the edge of town. It was of course winter, and the road was icy. The cars in those days were huge. The B-52s refer to a ‘Chrysler as big as a whale’ which was not that much of an exaggeration. We were travelling in a Plymouth I think. So if a Chrysler can be compared to a blue whale, it was only as big as say a hump-back whale. The radio was playing “Don’t Do Me Like That” by Tom Petty. For whatever reason the driver of the car (yes, we were inexperienced) lost control of the car and it spun around a few times, plunging down this road. Everyone cringed and grabbed a hold of something. Miraculously we ended up going back down the hill in the same direction, didn’t hit anything and no one hurt. We looked at each other and thought “What the hell just happened?” and down the hill we went. This was all to the tune of “Don’t Do me Like That” mind you, so it is kind of engrained in my memory now. Loved Tom Petty that day and still do.

Oh my little pretty one, pretty one When you gonna give me some time Sharona When you make my motor run, my motor run Gun it coming, off the line Sharona

Quick Hit

“My Sharona”, The Knack (1979)

If you snapped on the radio in 1979 you may have heard “Born to Be Alive” by Patrick Hernandez, or “Good Times” by Chic. In the midst of the new wave craze an American band, dressing up in the skinny ties hit us with “My Sharona” that year. This crazy little song went to #1 and sold a million copies. The album “Get the Knack” sold over two million copies in the U.S. alone.