We don't need no education. We don’t need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in the classroom. Teachers leave them kids alone

School Songs

“Good Morning School Girl” by Sonny Boy Williamson (1937)

“I Don’t Like Mondays” by The Boomtown Rats (1979)

“Another Brick in the Wall” Pink Floyd (1979)

School has such a huge impact on our lives that it is no wonder there are many, many songs about school and teachers. The songs vary, from hatred of school to love of school. It is a very formative emotional time so again, no surprise on the spectrum of emotions expressed over the years.

We seem to think that school should be a certain way – proper, orderly, rule-based. When it isn’t we seem to think that is bad or somehow a breaking of a taboo. Are we corrupted by that? Are they brain-washing us to think a certain way to fit into society? Does it really work? Do we have minds of our own?

ABBA : Take a Chance On Me (Switzerland '79)

If you change your mind, I'm the first in line. Honey I'm still free. Take a chance on me

Hip to be Square

“Take a Chance on Me” by Abba (1977)

Back in the day, I would sometimes buy albums on spec. I had maybe heard one song on the album; not really knowing what it was. Sometimes you were pleasantly surprised. This was one of those times.

Peeling it out of its cellophane the album cover showed (to me) a more mature set of two couples enjoying some champagne in the back of a limo....So I threw on the album (o.k. gingerly placed), not expecting a lot really.

A funky piano intro and this weird sound on the stereo leading into this punchy bass beat and this exotic euro sound floating around on top of it with those voices. Those voices – controlled yet somehow evocatively emotional. What was going on? Who the hell was this band? ‘Mamma Mia’ what the hell is that? Some Italian thing?

I'm goin' to Memphis, Memphis, Memphis Tennessee...

Johnny Cash - Behind Prison Walls

Chris Isaak - Memphis Recordings

Elvis Presley - The Memphis Recordings

Otis Redding - The Dock of the Bay

Gary Numan - Cars HQ

Here in my car I feel safest of all I can lock all my doors It’s the only way to live In cars

Pick of the Week

“Cars” by Gary Numan (1979)

If you are singing along to a song when driving, say researchers, you are paying more attention to your driving.  I think they are right, but clearly I am biased. The most intimate music we play is often behind the wheel of a car.

So let’s see, what would be the perfect driving song?

The song would have to enhance the experience of the short jaunt or the long haul. For longer trips the highway sound of your wheels has to kind of blend. A song with a steady rhythm and a strong beat for starters. It probably has guitars, decent drumming, and maybe a little cowbell for good measure.

Boogie Shoes by K.C. & The Sunshine Band

Girl, To Be With You Is My Fav'rite Thing Uh Huh And I Can't Wait Til I See You Again Yeah, Yeah

70’s Song of the week

“Boogie Shoes” by K.C. and the Sunshine Band (1975)

Some say Disco was spawned because the Nazi’s banned jazz. The next best thing was to develop clubs where they played records. The first ‘discotheques’ sprung up in WWII and continued after in clubs like the ‘Whisky a Go-Go” in Paris. The ultra chic set did not have exclusivity to this trend for long.

The seedy ‘Peppermint Club’ in New York spawned the short-lived dance craze ‘The Twist”. The culture of this was embedded in the teenagers who would drive the commercial direction of music. The Beatles would swoop in to NA in 1964 and no one cared about their ‘Twist” records anymore which had every variation you can imagine by this point.

There was something slightly Victorian about the new dance crazes though – you danced alone. There was no contact with the other person. Sock-hops and record parties in the sixties were somehow made safer to on-looking adults because of this.

Country-flavoured Rock for a Thursday...

Poco - Legend

Eagles - On the Border

Byrds - Mr. Tamborine Man

Flying Burrittos - Guilded Palace of Sin.

Duran Duran - Hungry Like The Wolf

In touch with the ground I'm on the hunt I'm after you Smell like I sound, I'm lost in a crowd And I'm hungry like the wolf

Pick of the Week

“Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran (1982)

My sister once shared an elevator with Duran Duran - that is as close as I ever got to this ‘Second British Invasion’ band of ‘80’s fame. With their slick designer clothes, professional production videos and pretty-boy looks, they were Princess Diana’s favorite band at one point.

The first real attention they got in 1981 was with their third single, “Girls on Film”. Directing duo, Godley and Creme told the management to do something erotic that would get people’s attention and that would be played on the new big screens that were starting to appear in night clubs. The video showed girls mud wrestling, fighting a sumo wrestler, and other suggestive images. The song went to number 3 in the U.K. and the voice of Simon Le Bon was starting to be well known in the U.K. Unfortunately some of the stops on their second tour coincided with riots; tension over unemployment and racial unrest.

The core band in 1981 was Simon Le Bon (vocals), Nick Rhodes (keyboards), John Taylor (bass), Andy Taylor (guitar) and Rodger Taylor (drums). (None of the Taylors were related and there is no relation to the drummer of the band Queen.)

By May of 1982 they release their second and most well know album “Rio” with songs “Hungry Like the Wolf”, “Save a Prayer”, “My Own Way” and title track “Rio”. They toured Australia, Japan and then opened for Blondie on the American tour.

The ‘Rio’ album did not do so well in the U.S. at first. The band was labeled as being ‘new romantic’, and it just did not work. They were more than Spandau Ballet or Adam and the Ants weren’t they? The British press had already dubbed them the ‘Fab Five’ comparing them to the Beatles. What was wrong?

At wits end as to how to sell Duran Duran in the U.S. Capital records hired famed producer David Kershenbaum to remix the songs more in the style of the popular EP dance track ‘Carnival” that was gaining popularity with DJs in the U.S. That was ticket. Appearing on a U.S. dance show performing “Hungry Like a Wolf” and “Rio”, the rerelease in November of 1982 finally kick-started the U.S. market.

Sam cooke - Only sixteen