Run-DMSteve

  • Lord of the Hair Dyes

    Toys in the Attic Aerosmith 1975 You don’t have to be a music critic to sense that Aerosmith sucks dead bears. If Led Zeppelin and AC/DC were battleships, Aerosmith would be barnacles. If my roof was leaking, I’d nail Aerosmith LPs over the leaks. Exposing their vinyl to acid rain…

  • How’s that for suck: A fair and balanced look at Yes

    “Owner of a Lonely Heart” Yes 1983 Yes has been around so long, they had to postpone their first gig until Sir Francis Drake could defeat the Spanish Armada. In the 1970s, Yes and a collection of art-school escapees including King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Traffic, Pink Floyd, and Emerson, Lake…

  • Get yer covers out (take 2)

    My learned colleague Clark Hays raises an excellent question about Cat Power and her cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Why didn’t I mention it in my round-up of Stones covers? Power released this song on The Covers Record (2000). On this disc she planes 12 mostly obscure tunes…

  • Get yer covers out

    As part of the grueling research methodology I employ to produce this blog, I just finished listening to 50 Rolling Stones covers. Results: The Italians win! Gold: Italy (Franco Battiato, “Ruby Tuesday”) Silver: France (Freedom Dub, “Emotional Rescue”) Bronze: USA (The Folksmen, “Start Me Up”) Runners-up: The Concretes, “Miss You”…

  • Disco time tunnel

    “Celebration” Kool & The Gang 1980 Kool & The Gang must forever live in the shadow of K.C. & The Sunshine Band. Their song “Celebration” deserves better. It lacks the lyrical wit of the K.C. catalog*, but it packs a similar joyfulness and rhythmic insistence. “Celebration” could easily have been…