The 100 Greatest Songs Of 1978 #1. Werewolves of London (1 Viewer)

[timschochet]

19. Joe Walsh “Life’s Been Good” (from …But Seriously, Folks) 

https://youtu.be/BXWvKDSwvls

Joe Walsh’s masterpiece epic might be one of the funniest rock songs ever written. Lines like “I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do” are still so classic all these years later. At a time when punk rock and the critics were ripping the excesses of mainstream rock in an almost Calvinist fashion, with the Eagles being a prime target, Walsh delivered a superb response of “Yeah, so what?” 
Of course this is all delivered with legendary riffs  and a sublime performance. I particularly have always loved the combination of acoustic and electric guitars that are interspersed throughout. A brilliant tune. 

 

[UncleZen]

I like this song.  I fell like I love it if it was sang by someone else.  Anyone know a good cover of this?

Sarcasm? In any case, there's Always the original

And I like this cover too......China Sky

 

[timschochet]

18. Patti Smith Group “Because the Night” (from Easter) 

https://youtu.be/c_BcivBprM0

Bruce Springsteen wrote the melody but couldn’t come up with good lyrics, so Patti Smith added her own, and recorded the definitive version (although 10,000 Maniacs did a pretty great cover a decade or so later.) Smith’s strange vocal style is perfect for this tune. 

 

[rockaction]

19. Joe Walsh “Life’s Been Good” (from …But Seriously, Folks) 

https://youtu.be/BXWvKDSwvls

Joe Walsh’s masterpiece epic might be one of the funniest rock songs ever written. Lines like “I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do” are still so classic all these years later. At a time when punk rock and the critics were ripping the excesses of mainstream rock in an almost Calvinist fashion, with the Eagles being a prime target, Walsh delivered a superb response of “Yeah, so what?” 
Of course this is all delivered with legendary riffs  and a sublime performance. I particularly have always loved the combination of acoustic and electric guitars that are interspersed throughout. A brilliant tune. 

18. Patti Smith Group “Because the Night” (from Easter) 

https://youtu.be/c_BcivBprM0

Bruce Springsteen wrote the melody but couldn’t come up with good lyrics, so Patti Smith added her own, and recorded the definitive version (although 10,000 Maniacs did a pretty great cover a decade or so later.) Smith’s strange vocal style is perfect for this tune. 

Wherever they are, they're way too low. 

Naw, these are great songs borne of different scenes and couldn't be more different, yet are both anthemic and sweeping in their own way. Walsh has that monster, monster riff. Patti almost scats frenetically over her instrumentation until she hits her vocal crescendo, as it were. 

They both work. 

High Holiday season is over, as is Hanukkah (which feels like it started early this year, but I'm largely ignorant of such things. I only know because KTLA had it like nearly a month ago). But allow me to wish you a happy Christmas spirit and Happy New Year's, tim. 

Peace. 

 

[timschochet]

Wherever they are, they're way too low. 

Naw, these are great songs borne of different scenes and couldn't be more different, yet are both anthemic and sweeping in their own way. Walsh has that monster, monster riff. Patti almost scats frenetically over her instrumentation until she hits her vocal crescendo, as it were. 

They both work. 

High Holiday season is over, as is Hanukkah (which feels like it started early this year, but I'm largely ignorant of such things. I only know because KTLA had it like nearly a month ago). But allow me to wish you a happy Christmas spirit and Happy New Year's, tim. 

Peace. 

You too sir! 

 

[Zeppelin]

24. Molly Hatchet “Dreams I’ll Never See” (from Molly Hatchet) 

https://youtu.be/jTZHHQplIX8

Southern rockers Molly Hatchet covered one of their idols, Greg Allman, on their debut album, but they completely reworked the song and made it their own, from that fantastic opening guitar to Danny Joe’s gruff, irresistible vocals. Fun fact: the record featured a drawing of a fantasy warrior by none other than the great Frank Frazetta. 

What a great song. 

 

[Zeppelin]

19. Joe Walsh “Life’s Been Good” (from …But Seriously, Folks) 

https://youtu.be/BXWvKDSwvls

Joe Walsh’s masterpiece epic might be one of the funniest rock songs ever written. Lines like “I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do” are still so classic all these years later. At a time when punk rock and the critics were ripping the excesses of mainstream rock in an almost Calvinist fashion, with the Eagles being a prime target, Walsh delivered a superb response of “Yeah, so what?” 
Of course this is all delivered with legendary riffs  and a sublime performance. I particularly have always loved the combination of acoustic and electric guitars that are interspersed throughout. A brilliant tune. 

One of my all time favorite songs. 

 

[FairWarning]

Don’t know anything about the artist but the song is outstanding.  This is one of those songs that always gets turned up to enjoy.  

He is another who I throughly would have had a bigger career.  A top 5-10 song for me from this year.

 

[FairWarning]

20. Elvis Costello “Pump It Up” (from This Year’s Model) 

https://youtu.be/3Y71iDvCYXA

Breaking out the top 20 for 1978 with this classic tune  from Elvis C, perhaps the hardest rocker he’s ever done. That video makes me nervous though- what the hell is he doing with feet? 

I don’t remember this song back in the day, Joe Jackson was much bigger in my area.  This is a top 5 song to me using revisionist history. 

 

[timschochet]

17. The Rolling Stones “Miss You” (from Some Girls) 

https://youtu.be/KuRxXRuAz-I

Earlier in the thread @wikkidpissah speculated that I  would rank this song below some of the tunes from Grease. Not much chance of that. I have no shame in loving Grease, but I’m not crazy. Besides, there’s some Puerto Rican girls that are just dying to meet me. 

 

[rockaction]

I'm gonna beat tim to the reveal! I'm gonna beat tim to the reveal! 

 

[rockaction]

I didn't beat tim to the reveal! 

 

[timschochet]

16. Chic “Le Freak” (from C’est Chic) 

https://youtu.be/aXgSHL7efKg

Very few folks in the music industry have ever had as much talent as Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. Their song production was unparalleled at the time, and this is a prime example. It was considered disco but it’s really more funk, and that guitar riff is simply as good as anything from 1978. 

 

[timschochet]

15. The Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated” (from Road to Ruin) 

https://youtu.be/bm51ihfi1p4

Quite the opposite of the last song selected, this is of course one of the Ramones’ all time classics. A bam bam bam bam…

 

[Doug B]

15. The Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated” (from Road to Ruin) 

I wonder if this 1995 (?) scene from My So Called Life revived this song a bit in the public consciousness. Jared Leto as heartthrob Jordan Catalano singing lead.

 

[scorchy]

15. The Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated” (from Road to Ruin) 

https://youtu.be/bm51ihfi1p4

I didn't "discover" the Ramones until 1987 or so but this was immediately my favorite of theirs. 

Were the Ramones mainstream at all in 1978 or was punk totally a niche/urban thing?

 

[FairWarning]

I didn't "discover" the Ramones until 1987 or so but this was immediately my favorite of theirs. 

Were the Ramones mainstream at all in 1978 or was punk totally a niche/urban thing?

The latter.  I remember reading about them in Rolling Stone back in the day, never heard them until the early 80’s.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Were the Ramones mainstream at all in 1978 or was punk totally a niche/urban thing?

They were pretty niche where I grew up (AA Co, MD), though I believe WHFS (which I didn't listen to much) played them quite a bit. I remember them more from: a) Rock & Roll High School (I think 1979), and b) by reading about them the Rolling Stone History Of Rock & Roll in 1980 or 1981.

 

[E Street Brat]

24. Molly Hatchet “Dreams I’ll Never See” (from Molly Hatchet) 

https://youtu.be/jTZHHQplIX8

Southern rockers Molly Hatchet covered one of their idols, Greg Allman, on their debut album, but they completely reworked the song and made it their own, from that fantastic opening guitar to Danny Joe’s gruff, irresistible vocals. Fun fact: the record featured a drawing of a fantasy warrior by none other than the great Frank Frazetta. 

I like this song.  I fell like I love it if it was sang by someone else.  Anyone know a good cover of this?

That is a cover.  Maybe look up the original by the Allman Brothers. 

 

[timschochet]

14. The B-52s “Rock Lobster” (released as a single) 

https://youtu.be/n4QSYx4wVQg

If the Ramones were considered weird in 1978, imagine what people, thought of THIS band (that is, the rare ones who actually heard this song when it was originally released nearly a year before the first album. 
Watching the video I had forgotten how gorgeous those two girls were young. 

 

[John Maddens Lunchbox]

14. The B-52s “Rock Lobster” (released as a single) 

https://youtu.be/n4QSYx4wVQg

If the Ramones were considered weird in 1978, imagine what people, thought of THIS band (that is, the rare ones who actually heard this song when it was originally released nearly a year before the first album. 
Watching the video I had forgotten how gorgeous those two girls were young. 

13 spots too low. As much as I liked alternative, punk, the emerging electronica and new wave, this song blew my mind. Still does. When I was a younger man frequenting pubs and clubs, anytime there was a musician playing stuff, I always asked if they could play Rock Lobster. If they tried, i threw them some money or a drink. 

Within the last 5 years my daughters class had this song as part of a weird dance that the teacher came up with for the christmas special. Only time I have been excited to sit through a school concert. 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

14. The B-52s “Rock Lobster” (released as a single) 

https://youtu.be/n4QSYx4wVQg

If the Ramones were considered weird in 1978, imagine what people, thought of THIS band (that is, the rare ones who actually heard this song when it was originally released nearly a year before the first album. 
Watching the video I had forgotten how gorgeous those two girls were young. 

I'm with JML. This is probably top 5 for me in '78. Revolutionary AND fun. 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

13 spots too low.

Crossing over from your discussion of Midnight Oil in Bracie's 1988 thread, what do you think of their debut album that came out in '78? (I doubt I'm spotlighting because Tim would consider it way too obscure.) I love it and am fascinated by it. It mixes elements of punk and mainstream rock, which would have been heresy in the US or UK at the time. It's like the message that that wasn't kosher hadn't yet made it to Australia. 

 

[rockaction]

16. Chic “Le Freak” (from C’est Chic) 

https://youtu.be/aXgSHL7efKg

Very few folks in the music industry have ever had as much talent as Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. Their song production was unparalleled at the time, and this is a prime example. It was considered disco but it’s really more funk, and that guitar riff is simply as good as anything from 1978. 

Sick string raking and riffage. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards brought something else to the table, as Uruk could tell you twenty times better than I could (in fact, I pretty much owe my re-evaluatiion or newfound consciousness of their effect and import to Uruk. I might still be in the dark about that). 

15. The Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated” (from Road to Ruin) 

https://youtu.be/bm51ihfi1p4

Quite the opposite of the last song selected, this is of course one of the Ramones’ all time classics. A bam bam bam bam…

This is the first song I had heard by them, probably because there was a video for it. Just a totally different two and a half minute blast from the otherworld. Of course, Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket To Russia had come before this, but this was the grabber, their hit from Ramones Mania, which was the conduit and gateway for all of us not-yet adherents to their style. This would probably be in the top five for me from that year. 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Sick string raking and riffage. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards brought something else to the table, as Uruk could tell you twenty times better than I could (in fact, I pretty much owe my re-evaluatiion or newfound consciousness of their effect and import to Uruk. I might still be in the dark about that).

It is CRIMINAL that Chic is not in the RRHOF. I picked one of their songs for the Hall of Very Good playlist in GP4. 

 

[rockaction]

It is CRIMINAL that Chic is not in the RRHOF. I picked one of their songs for the Hall of Very Good playlist in GP4. 

Interesting. Yeah, probably so, all things considered about the HoF. Jay-Z is there. Something would tell me that songwriters and multi-instrumentalists as influential as Chic (Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards) should be there. Probably more so than bands like The Hollies. 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Probably more so than bands like The Hollies. 

It seems like there was a lower bar to clear if you were from the '60s hippie scene and didn't suck. Bands like The Hollies and The Zombies (as good as some of their stuff was) being in is like Ted Williams using the Veterans Committee to get his friends into the Baseball HOF. 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Yes, I just compared Jann Wenner to Ted Williams. 

 

[northern exposure]

I wonder if this 1995 (?) scene from My So Called Life revived this song a bit in the public consciousness. Jared Leto as heartthrob Jordan Catalano singing lead.

Foreshadowing of Thirty Seconds To Mars?

 

[shuke]

On 12/22/2021 at 11:18 AM, timschochet said:
24. Molly Hatchet “Dreams I’ll Never See” (from Molly Hatchet) 

https://youtu.be/jTZHHQplIX8

Southern rockers Molly Hatchet covered one of their idols, Greg Allman, on their debut album, but they completely reworked the song and made it their own, from that fantastic opening guitar to Danny Joe’s gruff, irresistible vocals. Fun fact: the record featured a drawing of a fantasy warrior by none other than the great Frank Frazetta. 
Expand  

I like this song.  I fell like I love it if it was sang by someone else.  Anyone know a good cover of this?

That is a cover.  Maybe look up the original by the Allman Brothers. 

Someone finally got the joke. 

Molly Hatchet is horrible.

 

[John Maddens Lunchbox]

Crossing over from your discussion of Midnight Oil in Bracie's 1988 thread, what do you think of their debut album that came out in '78? (I doubt I'm spotlighting because Tim would consider it way too obscure.) I love it and am fascinated by it. It mixes elements of punk and mainstream rock, which would have been heresy in the US or UK at the time. It's like the message that that wasn't kosher hadn't yet made it to Australia. 

Midnight Oil were never a band I liked. All the cool kids did, so I listened to stuff they hated. I’m sure I am familiar with all the old Oils, bus trips to and back from school for 6 years were 90% AC/DC, 9% Midnight Oil and 1% Wham....I am not kidding. First album, not Make it Big.  2 hours of AC/DC a day for 6 years tends to spoil the appetite. The day Bon Scott died.... Total silence on the bus for 1 hour. The Oils? Head Injuries, Place without a Postcard, Bird Noises...the debut were heavily played on those bus trips. When 10, 9, 8 etc came out those old ones went out the window. 

I was a weird kid, as may be evident lol, i was mainly obsessed with singles and the Oils just didn’t release them......just checked wiki. Made a liar out of me, they did, but the band ddn’t promote them the way other artists did. They truly did things their own way. Despite some revolutionary bands, Australian Music was often years behind the innovation. Midnight Oil made their name through a fanatically dedicated following who really dug the crossover you are talking about. They didn’t do press, so I couldn’t read about them. Radio didn’t play them, at least the ones i listened to, so I couldn’t hear them. Live gigs and word of mouth was was where it was at and I was too young at the time. School Bus trips was where it was at lol

All the stuff I hated cause the cool kids liked it, Like the Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen and yes early U2, etc, i have since come to at least appreciate. Not so the Oils. Scarred Memories. 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Live gigs and word of mouth was was where it was at and I was too young at the time. School Bus trips was where it was at lol

All the stuff I hated cause the cool kids liked it, Like the Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen and yes early U2, etc, i have since come to at least appreciate. Not so the Oils. Scarred Memories. 

Damn, it sounds like they were the Australian equivalent of The Grateful Dead. 

In the US, they started to make inroads into the college-music scene when 10, 9, 8... came out, but people like me who were in high school in the late '80s generally never heard them until Diesel and Dust came out. 

 

[John Maddens Lunchbox]

Damn, it sounds like they were the Australian equivalent of The Grateful Dead. 

In the US, they started to make inroads into the college-music scene when 10, 9, 8... came out, but people like me who were in high school in the late '80s generally never heard them until Diesel and Dust came out. 

Oh no, definitely not. The Australian pub rock scene was brutal. The Grateful Dead would not have survived. You had to play #### holes in front of horrible, violent people. Ac/DC were the first band to really struggle through that with relentless hard work. They took that hard work to the US mainly and slogged through anonymity, playing key fan bases and building through that relentless slog. It gave future Australian bands a blueprint for how to break the crucial US market. INXS followed 6-7 years of relentless hard work to break through the same model as AC/DC. Midnight Oil followed a similar path, but they were smarter. Not so much hard work. Not playing to crowds that werent worth their time etc. 

Big Australian bands that were too early for this blueprint, but would have succeeded if they knew how were Skyhooks, Sherbet and Daddy Cool. Poor management and trusting the wrong people killed their chances.

This blueprint broke many Australian bands who either werent good enough or gave up when the work got too hard. Bands like Cold Chisel, Mi-Sex and Dragon were huge in Australia, but they couldn’t get through to US audiences. INXS gave a huge leg up to Cold Chisel singer Jimmy Barnes by duetting with him on the cover of the Easybeats song,  Good Times. Barnes by this stage was done with the US. 

Any alternative Australian band like the Reels or the Saints, either copped incredible abuse (The Reels) or got the hell to London, like the Saints, Go-Betweens, Triffids. Anyone who dressed new wave or tried to put a synth on stage....god help them. These bands like Psuedo Echo and Kids in the Kitchen had to aim at the teenies. 

 

[E Street Brat]

Someone finally got the joke. 

Molly Hatchet is horrible.

I really liked their first two albums. 

 

[Jackstraw]

Sarcasm? In any case, there's Always the original

And I like this cover too......China Sky

Yep. I was a huge Allman Bros fan. They cracked my head open like a casaba melon with Dreams dozens of times. Bett's Haynes era or Truck's Haynes you were getting unbelievable guitar either way. Like the king kong bass line of the original as well. Loved the Allmans control of pace and volume. Started chill, worked you up to a crescendo and back down again. Wash rinse repeat. 

 

[UncleZen]

Yep. I was a huge Allman Bros fan. They cracked my head open like a casaba melon with Dreams dozens of times. Bett's Haynes era or Truck's Haynes you were getting unbelievable guitar either way. Like the king kong bass line of the original as well. Loved the Allmans control of pace and volume. Started chill, worked you up to a crescendo and back down again. Wash rinse repeat. 

I think all Deadheads, myself included, are fans of the Allman Bro's. They, along with the Dead, were game changers in music. 

 

[Grace Under Pressure]

Rock Lobster. Huge.

Count me in with the Allman Brothers. 

 

[JaxBill]

I like this song.  I fell like I love it if it was sang by someone else.  Anyone know a good cover of this?

2nd gen Cover

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I think all Deadheads, myself included, are fans of the Allman Bro's. They, along with the Dead, were game changers in music. 

The only thing the Dead and the Allmans had in common was that some of their songs were long.

Other than that, ABB cruises to a win. They were probably the best self-contained guitar-and-stuff band America has produced.

 

[timschochet]

13. The Undertones “Teenage Kicks” (released as a single) 

https://youtu.be/PinCg7IGqHg

Fearghal Sharkey and The Undertones exploded out of Northern Ireland in 1978 with this infectious punk anthem. Well, they exploded in the UK, anyhow. In the USA, nothing, nada, ever. Even after the New Wave radio stations appeared a couple of years later you would never hear an Undertones tune. I first heard them in the mid 80s when a friend got their debut album at an import store. By then Sharkey had quit the band and formed a short lived duo with an ex-Depeche Mode founder called The Assembly which produced one absolutely brilliant single that nobody heard either. Ah well…

In any case “Teenage Kicks” is a classic of the era. 

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Sick string raking and riffage. Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards brought something else to the table, as Uruk could tell you twenty times better than I could (in fact, I pretty much owe my re-evaluatiion or newfound consciousness of their effect and import to Uruk. I might still be in the dark about that). 

It is CRIMINAL that Chic is not in the RRHOF. I picked one of their songs for the Hall of Very Good playlist in GP4. 

Interesting. Yeah, probably so, all things considered about the HoF. Jay-Z is there. Something would tell me that songwriters and multi-instrumentalists as influential as Chic (Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards) should be there. Probably more so than bands like The Hollies. 

By now, I'm sure my undying hatred of what Jann Wenner and his inbred brood of idiots did to warp the way folks think about R&R is probably tiring to most of you. And I bought that oceanfront property in Kansas for many years. I knew something was wrong when reading that stuff but, oh my yes, I bought in. Shame on me.

As for Chic. I'm almost talked out about them. If folks don't want to see/hear how good and influential they were, I can't convince them. All you have to do is listen to what they actually did to hear how good they were, and then listen to about a third of what came out in the first half of the '80s to hear how influential they were. Partly because Rodgers himself produced and played on a bunch of those records, but also because of Tony Thompson's drumming style. And then there's Bernard Edwards, who is - IMO - on the Mt Rushmore of best and most influential bass players in rock history. 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

By now, I'm sure my undying hatred of what Jann Wenner and his inbred brood of idiots did to warp the way folks think about R&R is probably tiring to most of you.

Nah, because I agree with most of it. 

 

[rockaction]

13. The Undertones “Teenage Kicks” (released as a single) 

https://youtu.be/PinCg7IGqHg

Fearghal Sharkey and The Undertones exploded out of Northern Ireland in 1978 with this infectious punk anthem. Well, they exploded in the UK, anyhow. In the USA, nothing, nada, ever. Even after the New Wave radio stations appeared a couple of years later you would never hear an Undertones tune. I first heard them in the mid 80s when a friend got their debut album at an import store. By then Sharkey had quit the band and formed a short lived duo with an ex-Depeche Mode founder called The Assembly which produced one absolutely brilliant single that nobody heard either. Ah well…

In any case “Teenage Kicks” is a classic of the era. 

They were big with pop punks in the mid 90s. Went to a Riverdales/Queers/Boris The Sprinkler show (wave if you know '90s pop punk) and the remembrance of them was all over the place, from drawn-on hats to homemade t-shirts, they were a favorite of the Boston pop punk set at the Rat that night. 

I met a bunch of like-minded punks at the show that night, and they all gave me their number to hang out, but I never took them up on it. Probably a bunch of Boston suburbanites as we were on the train back out to Alewife. Ah well, memories. 

 

[Jackstraw]

The only thing the Dead and the Allmans had in common was that some of their songs were long.

Other than that, ABB cruises to a win. They were probably the best self-contained guitar-and-stuff band America has produced.

Dead dominated the parking lot. 

I liked the Dead being a little more diverse. Jerry ballads. Americana stuff like Jack a Roe, Friend of the Devil etc. Phil Lesh dropping bombs. Three show runs without many if any repeats. Always surprises. Two set shows. Drum space. A lot to like. 

Saw both of them a bunch. Huge crossover with audiences. But single best show between the two of them I ever saw would be the Allmans. 

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Dead dominated the parking lot. 

I liked the Dead being a little more diverse. Jerry ballads. Americana stuff like Jack a Roe, Friend of the Devil etc. Phil Lesh dropping bombs. Three show runs without many if any repeats. Always surprises. Two set shows. Drum space. A lot to like. 

Saw both of them a bunch. Huge crossover with audiences. But single best show between the two of them I ever saw would be the Allmans. 

I'm sure it's just me, but I don't care about the parking lot. Only what's on the records. 

I don't hate the Dead or anything, but a little of them goes a long way with me.

 

[John Maddens Lunchbox]

13. The Undertones “Teenage Kicks” (released as a single) 

https://youtu.be/PinCg7IGqHg

Fearghal Sharkey and The Undertones exploded out of Northern Ireland in 1978 with this infectious punk anthem. Well, they exploded in the UK, anyhow. In the USA, nothing, nada, ever. Even after the New Wave radio stations appeared a couple of years later you would never hear an Undertones tune. I first heard them in the mid 80s when a friend got their debut album at an import store. By then Sharkey had quit the band and formed a short lived duo with an ex-Depeche Mode founder called The Assembly which produced one absolutely brilliant single that nobody heard either. Ah well…

In any case “Teenage Kicks” is a classic of the era. 

Great, great song. 

Legendary UK disc jockey John Peel rated it his favorite song of all time. John Peel was so revered that artists considered it a great honor to be invited in for his Peel Sessions, which were released on vinyl and some are very valuable these days. I have a few myself. When Peel died, the BBC played this song ad nauseum. 

As for Feargal Sharkey, after the Assembly he did a solo album that had a huge hit with “A Good Heart” written by Maria McKee. It was number one in the UK and Australia. It was followed up by You Little Thief which was top 5 in the same countries. What was interesting about those songs is that they were written by ex lovers about each other. A good Heart (these days is hard to find) was written by McKee about the ex. You little thief (you little whore) by her ex lover. 

In trying to break the US market with these songs, music execs had no idea how to say his name, so they drew pictures. A picture of a Fur. A picture of a Gull. A picture of a Shark. A picture of a Key.

Music execs thought he was called Coatbird Fishlock. Interestingly enough Sharkey did become a prominent music executive in the 90s.

 

[rockaction]

At the risk of too much loose association, I'm wondering if anybody here has read A Visit From The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan's novel about certain lives revolving around one sort of musical center. I was just reminded because of Sharkey from JML's post, who was a former member of a punk band going on to become a music executive. 

I ask because there probably aren't too many books considered "great novels" (Egan's is, actually) of the postmodern period of literature that center around punk rockers becoming music executives. Just curious if anyone has it, has seen it recommended, or has read it. I have happened to have stumbled across it and lapped it up like a thirsty dog. It's a great, great book, IMHO, though one can certainly critique my personal great book canon if one were so inclined. 

 

[timschochet]

12. Journey “Lights” (from Infinity) 

https://youtu.be/tNG62fULYgI

“Lights” is one of the best songs ever in praise of a city, and it might just be Journey’s best ever song as well. Steve Perry’s vocals soar. 

 

[scorchy]

At the risk of too much loose association, I'm wondering if anybody here has read A Visit From The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan's novel about certain lives revolving around one sort of musical center. I was just reminded because of Sharkey from JML's post, who was a former member of a punk band going on to become a music executive. 

I ask because there probably aren't too many books considered "great novels" (Egan's is, actually) of the postmodern period of literature that center around punk rockers becoming music executives. Just curious if anyone has it, has seen it recommended, or has read it. I have happened to have stumbled across it and lapped it up like a thirsty dog. It's a great, great book, IMHO, though one can certainly critique my personal great book canon if one were so inclined. 

Loved it.  Planning on rereading in the spring as it's one of the assigned books for my son's English class.

 

[krista4]

At the risk of too much loose association, I'm wondering if anybody here has read A Visit From The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan's novel about certain lives revolving around one sort of musical center. I was just reminded because of Sharkey from JML's post, who was a former member of a punk band going on to become a music executive. 

I ask because there probably aren't too many books considered "great novels" (Egan's is, actually) of the postmodern period of literature that center around punk rockers becoming music executives. Just curious if anyone has it, has seen it recommended, or has read it. I have happened to have stumbled across it and lapped it up like a thirsty dog. It's a great, great book, IMHO, though one can certainly critique my personal great book canon if one were so inclined. 

OH loves this book.  I've picked it up a couple of times and not been able to get into it, though each time I've felt like it was me, not the book.  Need to try again.