Dave Schwensen's Blog, page 23

We’re Only In It For The Money

Sgt Zappa’s Lonely Cash Club Band

Okay Frank Zappa fans, settle down. I only grabbed the title from the 1968 Mothers of Invention album to use for this edition of The Classic Rocker. I haven’t heard the LP since… Well, I honestly don’t ever remember hearing it. I just always thought it was an attention grabbing title from an era of free concerts and free love, and deposited it into the mind vault for future use.

It took awhile, but right now seems like a good time. Allow me to use…

Rockers get i...

#298 – Still The Same

#298 – Still The Same by Bob Seger

Here’s some not so inside scoop. Detroit is not pretty. That’s not meant to be a put down, trust me on that because I also think it’s a very cool city. I just don’t think you’ll see the downtown featured on the cover Beautiful Vacation Locales Magazine (I just made that one up, by the way) anytime soon. It’s gritty and tough and definitely has a lived in feeling – if that makes any sense at all.

Let’s put it this way. Detroit is like a pair of broken-in jeans....

#299 – Sweet City Woman

#299 – Sweet City Woman by The Stampeders

This song hit the charts in May 1971 and in a way symbolizes a time for baby boomers when music was splintering off into countless directions. Music fans had their own ideas of what was cool, what was not cool – and what was just different. Of course which of those categories songs fell into and what we wanted to hear was determined by personal taste. But what we actually listened to couldn’t always be controlled.

It depended a lot on AM radio deejays a...

#300 – Jet

#300 – Jet by Paul McCartney & Wings

Rock’n Roller

If you follow the thought that good things come in 3′s, let’s team Jet with Hi, Hi, Hi and Junior’s Farm as a song trilogy that carried Paul McCartney back into the good graces of 70′s rock ‘n’ rollers. And just to prove this wasn’t a fluke from the composer of My Love (earlier) and Silly Love Songs (later) let’s add Helen Wheels to turn this into a Fab 4 Song List proving Sir Paul was still kickin’ some rock’n roll butt in the mid-1970′s.

I don...

The Major League Baseball Classic Rock Pyramid Scheme Game

“Let the games begin!” I’m not really sure who that quote is attributed to. It could be Emperor Nero or Alex Trebek as far as I know. I’m guessing it was someone, somewhere during the centuries in between. My money is on Dick Clark.

Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?

Even though my iPhone says it’s officially Spring I didn’t know for sure until I turned on ESPN and started seeing official Major League Baseball scores. The Boys of Summer are still wearing thermal underwear during the games played...

#301 – Mother Nature’s Son

#301 – Mother Nature’s Son by The Beatles

Mother Nature’s
Future Sir Paul

This was big. I’m not talking so much about the song, but the album(s) that introduced us to this countrified, low key acoustic solo performance by Paul McCartney. Mother Nature’s Son was almost hidden as the third song on the third side of The Beatles – which was then, now and will forever be referred to as The White Album. And even though it might have been overshadowed by songs still in heavy rotation on classic rock ra...

#302 – Hot Fun in the Summertime

#302 – Hot Fun in the Summertime by Sly and the Family Stone

Groovin’ into summertime fun

Sometimes the mind plays funny tricks. Like taking a U-turn from left to right, up to down and in this case, from cold to hot. In other words, we just went from Christmastime to summertime in a matter of only 24 hours.

The previous song featured The Jackson 5 with a young brother Michael singing about Santa Claus, which was already confusing since it had been almost two months since holiday records were sto...

#303 – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

#303 – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by The Jackson 5

I looked at the calendar while this song was still playing in my head. It was February 11th – 48 days after Christmas. If you feel inspired, please join me in a choral rendition of, “What the….??!!”

To be honest, I was actually tempted to skip this one on the Dream Songs list. I mean, what kind of wacko wakes up in February to Christmas music from The Jackson Five? Especially when he claims to be a Classic Rocker. Then I remembered one of...

#304 – Bits and Pieces

I wake up with music. It’s all explained in the About Dream Songs link above.

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#304 – Bits and Pieces by The Dave Clark Five

Healthy Living

A foot-stomper is a great way to describe this song. In fact, I remember reading an article years ago that members of the DC5 took a break while recording to have a few pints (U.S. translation: beers) in a pub (U.S. translation: a bar) near the studio. After getting back to work they set up a few wooden boards on the floor near a microphone and stomped their...

Top 3 British Classic Rock Winners on The Voice

Real or store bought?

I was feeling adventurous, which is much cooler than admitting I was bored. My classic rock station of choice was mired in an in-depth documentary on disco music narrated by a third-rate broadcasting school drop-out. This Casey Kasem wannabe, that I’m guessing could be the offspring of a guy who once wore a store-bought Barry Gibb Halloween costume to school, seemed completely unaware of the legendary mob-sanctioned liberation of our airwaves from disco music.

Macho Men...

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