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Pop Rock Nation

Category: Music

  • The Infatueighties Countdown: #100: “Brass Monkey”

    So…nearly 21 years since “Licensed To Ill” was released and me and my 6th grade classmates were reciting the words to this song on the school bus, I figured I’d head over to my good friend Wikipedia and find out what a “brass monkey” actually is.

    Well, it appears that the old monkey can refer to either of two concoctions. One is a mixture of rum, vodka and orange juice (which sounds tasty, yet toxic) and the other is a 40 of malt liquor mixed with OJ (which I would imagine the Beasties were referring to), which is just gross. Those of you-and I know there are many-who are connosieurs of cheap beer know what malt liquor tastes like, and I think we can all agree that we’d much rather drink…well, anything. Add orange juice to the mix and…well, let’s just say I’m making the stank face just thinking about it.

    Anyway, that was one hell of a digression, wasn’t it? It took me a LONG time to appreciate the genius of “Licensed To Ill”. While The Beasties have gone on to create significantly more mature work and at least one genius album since (hello, “Paul’s Boutique”), the quaintness and (despite plenty of violence) almost cartoonish nature of “Ill” has stood up well over two decades plus. “Brass Monkey” was the only track that I liked initially, it’s my favorite track on the album to this day (although “Paul Revere” is a close second), and it still gets played whenever I feel like being mindless and silly. It’s a fantastic song to get fucked up to, which I suppose is it’s intended purpose. And if this isn’t already a karaoke favorite (I’ve never seen it performed), damn it, it should be.

    Here’s a live performance of the song from about four or five years ago. If this was shot at Madison Square Garden (which I think it was), then I was AT this show! After all this time The Beasties still put on a hell of a show, and MCA still sounds like he needs to gargle. Enjoy.

    Now come on everybody, let’s get…

  • The Infatueighties Countdown: #101: “Ain’t Nobody”

    Chaka Khan. Chaka-chaka-chaka-chakakhan. Chaka Khan. Oops,wrong song.

    A year before she had her biggest hit with a cover of a Prince album track, the woman whose momma named her Yvette Marie Stevens joined forces with her old band Rufus for the last time and produced this electro-soul classic. If they were gonna go out, I guess why not go out with this, right?

    The cover of the 45 for \"Ain\'t Nobody\" by Rufus & Chaka Khan.

    Some of you may remember “Ain’t Nobody” from the movie “Breakin’”,which it made an appearance in after it’d already become a hit. What some of you may not know is that the song, which was written by Rufus member David “Hawk” Wolinski, was originally earmarked for use on “Thriller” by Quincy Jones (I can hear Michael singing it). However, Wolinksi decided to keep the song and use it as one of the two studio tracks on “Live-Stompin’ at the Savoy”. Add Chaka’s unusual phrasing and one of her most powerful vocals, you wind up with one of the best-loved songs of her career, although it’s chart position (#22 pop) wasn’t exactly earth-shattering. Nevertheless, the song won Rufus & Chaka a Grammy, and to this day, no Chaka concert is complete without it.

    I did not realize this song had a video until, you guessed it, I popped over to YouTube earlier today. No big surprise that the rest of Rufus appears nowhere in this video. Nevertheless, witness Chaka in her full-fledged big-haired glory. And bust a move like Turbo and Ozone.

  • Sunday Shuffle: Do You Feel Me?

    I just bought a USB turntable and fell in love with it immediately. I’ve also found a local record store called “In Your Ear” that has tons upon tons of vinyl, most of which is 3 bucks or less. I went there last week and wound up with 31 albums, all of which are slowly making their way onto my iPod. Among the choices: “Still Crazy After All These Years” by Paul Simon, a ton of DeBarge (and El DeBarge solo stuff) and Marlon Jackson’s solo album. Yes, Marlon made a record. More on that some other time.

    We are now up to 16,939 songs (show-off). Here’s today’s seven:

    Track 1: “Baby Jane” by Rod Stewart: I can see how “serious” music fans would take everything Rod Stewart made after the mid Seventies and uniformly say “crap”, but damn it, my two favorite Rod songs are “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” and “Love Touch” (Mr. Cass, you’ve got to have my back here!). So bite me. “Baby Jane” was a hit single in 1983 or 1984, and had sort of a dance-rock flair to it. It’s a genre he mined intermittently throughout the Eighties, before he went the grizzled rock balladeer rout in the Nineties and turned into Barry Manilow with a raspier voice at the turn of the century. Listening to those standards albums, you appreciate his 80s music a lot more, don’t you “serious” music fans?

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