Feeling the beat of nostalgia yet? Let's take a walk through musical memory lane where the Beastie Boys' raucous anthems fuel a wild college party and a talent show throwback to the Class of '84 at my high school. Picture this: the kitchen floor at a UMass bash caves in under the weight of dancing feet or The Hammer Band covers a classic song. It's a vivid reminder of the way tunes can tether us to the past while keeping our hearts thumping in the here and now.
And what's a jam session without the raw energy of a live crowd? The Music In My Shoes Mailbag highlights the Top 5 Favorite Live Albums of listener, Barry from Canton. From the heart-thumping tracks of Lynyrd Skynyrd and KISS to the soulful authenticity of Bob Seger and the unforgettable "Jersey Girl" by The Boss himself, we celebrate the live music that's etched into our very beings.
We finish off discussing Echo & the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon and Thompson Twins - Into the Gap. This episode is your backstage pass to the music that continue to resonate through generations.
Please Like and Follow our Facebook page Music In My Shoes.
You can contact us at musicinmyshoes@gmail,com.
Feeling the beat of nostalgia yet? Let's take a walk through musical memory lane where the Beastie Boys' raucous anthems fuel a wild college party and a talent show throwback to the Class of '84 at my high school. Picture this: the kitchen floor at a UMass bash caves in under the weight of dancing feet or The Hammer Band covers a classic song. It's a vivid reminder of the way tunes can tether us to the past while keeping our hearts thumping in the here and now.
And what's a jam session without the raw energy of a live crowd? The Music In My Shoes Mailbag highlights the Top 5 Favorite Live Albums of listener, Barry from Canton. From the heart-thumping tracks of Lynyrd Skynyrd and KISS to the soulful authenticity of Bob Seger and the unforgettable "Jersey Girl" by The Boss himself, we celebrate the live music that's etched into our very beings.
We finish off discussing Echo & the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon and Thompson Twins - Into the Gap. This episode is your backstage pass to the music that continue to resonate through generations.
Please Like and Follow our Facebook page Music In My Shoes.
You can contact us at musicinmyshoes@gmail,com.
Music. He's got the feeling in his toe-toe.
Speaker 2:He's got the feeling in his toe-toe. Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge and you're listening to Music in my Shoes. That was Fig Thrill kicking off Episode 15. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. So the big football game was on the other day and watching the pre-game and I saw this hype video. They showed this hype video for the chiefs and it had the Beastie Boys song Fight for your Right and it reminded me of this party I went to back in 1989 at the University of Massachusetts and it's just funny how little things can kind of trigger a memory. Well, for some reason, while I'm watching this hype video that they had, did you see the hype video at all?
Speaker 1:Jim, I didn't see the hype video.
Speaker 2:Well, it was a hype video and they played the Beastie Boys Fight for your Right, and they're singing Fight for your Right to party and just showing all kinds of clips of them. But it brings me back, like I said, to 1989. A friend of mine and some of his friends rented out kind of like a farmhouse up in Massachusetts outside of the University of Massachusetts and they had this party and this party was a lot of people there, let's just say okay, A ton of people that showed up to this party and you're kind of like everything seems to be going alright, considering there's a lot of people in this farmhouse. Farmhouse it's not that big and it's starting to get to where it's kind of tough a little bit to move around because there's so many people there.
Speaker 1:If the Beastie Boys break through the wall, I'm gonna lose it.
Speaker 2:No, but you're close. Okay, we have music playing, the music's going, everybody's having a good time, and then Beastie Boys Fight for your Right to comes on, and that's when everybody just has to turn it up a notch. At that point there was this guy, matty Matt, who had champagne bottles and started shaking them up and trying to shoot out the light bulbs. You had people dancing, kind of jumping up and down, and the next thing you knew, in the kitchen of this old farmhouse the floor collapses. Oh no, the people standing there are like four feet down At least it was only four feet.
Speaker 2:Yes, it wasn't that far. It was pretty good. Not really pretty good, but it was pretty good that they didn't have to fall very far. But it just amped up when that Beastie Boys song came on, that it was just incredible. You kind of were the whole night wondering, hey, how are things gonna turn out? Well, that song told us how things were gonna turn out, for sure.
Speaker 1:Whose house was this?
Speaker 2:So it was actually an ex-NFL player owned the house and he was renting it out. He was renting out to my friend Paul and some of his friends Guy Chris Tyler, who's no longer with us, rest in Peace Another guy that goes by the name of Chain Daddy and, I believe, another guy named Dave and renting it out to them, chain Daddy, I've actually seen the last couple of years at dead-end company shows at City Field and we have talked about this story and other parties there at the University of Massachusetts in 1989. Good times, very good times, still remembering it, and it's funny how this hype video from the big game could trigger this memory. So while we're talking about that, I see an internet ad during the big game where they parody the song flash dance. What a feeling. So it brings me back memories of my high school senior variety show, which was back in February 1984. So basically it was a talent show. It's put on by the seniors, the class 84 show. You know it was heavy on music theme skits, so they don't rate you or anything. You just kind of audition for it and you make the cut. Then you're in the show.
Speaker 2:The show was three nights, I think it was. I think it was a Thursday night, friday night and a Saturday night, so it had a lot of Michael Jackson, jackson Five at that time. You know, michael Jackson was really popular and the Jackson Five music was making a lot of a big comeback. I would say All right. And there were skits from cat juggling with stuffed animals. A bunch of senior girls did an act based on Cindy Lomper song girls just wanna have fun and that song at the time was only three and a half months old, you know, still a new song, and they're just kind of doing their thing. So back to what got me thinking about this in the first place the flash dance song. There was a skit called maniac and where they dressed up like Irene Cara and they did their own dance version of the song maniac from the movie. And if you remember, you know, had that I don't know what kind of shirt you would call that, where it's kind of hanging off the short.
Speaker 1:It was like a sweatshirt that you cut the collar out of, or something.
Speaker 2:Right, and then it kind of hangs off from the shoulder, sort of like the shirt that everybody wore in the matrix in like the real world. Yes.
Speaker 1:You know, it's like this used to be clothes. It is all we got.
Speaker 2:That's it. So a bunch of the senior guys did the skit where they were dressed up like Irene Cara doing this maniac thing, which was funny as heck it really was. You know, they were kind of trying to do all the dance moves from the movie. You weren't expecting it at all, but it was fun, it was enjoyable. So there was a band, the hammer band I think they called themselves.
Speaker 2:I had a bunch of guys and they were gonna do a version, cover version, of Van Halen's Jump and somehow they had said to me and another friend of mine, my friend Eddie, they said, hey, can you guys come out and dance, like right at the very end of the song? We're like sure that's fine. Well, somehow on the first night the very end of the song was, you know, maybe 30 seconds from the end of the song. And then, I think on the second night it was like halfway through the song and I think by Saturday night, soon as the band went on, they started playing. Boom, we just went out and we just started doing our stuff and what I remember is being able to do like David Lee Roth-like type jumps, things that I could never do today and it was just so much fun. It really was a lot of fun. They actually sounded pretty good as they were playing and did a really good job.
Speaker 2:I had an audition to be in the scene of Variety Show and I actually auditioned to do tap dancing to the song the Love Cats by the Cure. See you soon, all right, jimmy. Hey, that was good. Where did the xylophone come from?
Speaker 1:The xylophone has been sitting here in my studio the whole time. It's just minding its own business, waiting for somebody to say love cats.
Speaker 2:Really yeah, I've never noticed it before.
Speaker 1:It's been right there.
Speaker 2:Well, very timely. I noticed that you were not using mallets. It looked like you're using a pair of scissors.
Speaker 1:It's pair of scissors. Yeah, the xylophone did not come with the mallet.
Speaker 2:Well, you did a pretty good job there with the scissors, I have to admit. Thank you, You're welcome. So, love cats, obviously you know the song, Jimmy, the song that came out in October of 83, popular at the end of 83, popular in the beginning of 84. And I thought I could fake my way through tap dancing. I kind of mentioned that and thankfully the tryouts were closed. You know, the door was closed. You would try out and it was inside the auditorium where they were going to do the show but everybody else had a wait outside so you didn't have people, you know, either clapping or booing or laughing or whatever it is. I was terrible, I don't know why. I thought that I could tap dance to the love cats. So for people that don't know the love cats, Jimmy, like you know it's kind of got a bass words like boom, boom, boom, boom. It's kind of an old school feeling type song. You know you could probably see someone trying to tap dance to it. Yay, nay, yeah.
Speaker 1:I could see you like. Did you wear like a suit or anything? Did you wear a top hat or anything?
Speaker 2:No, I didn't wear anything. I mean, I wore just regular clothes, I didn't wear anything.
Speaker 1:Did you own tap shoes? No, well, you were just tap dancing in tennis shoes.
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 1:Well, that's why it didn't work, Jim.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was terrible. I think that I attempted to put like tax, you know, in the bottom is what I tried to do, and then you probably hurt yourself. Yeah it just it was so bad and I remember, while I was doing it, saying this is terrible. But I don't, I don't want them to think that I think it's terrible.
Speaker 1:You don't want to quit in the middle?
Speaker 2:I'm not quitting, I'm going to keep going on. The Love Cats is a much longer song than what you think it is. Yeah, and I was hoping at some point they'd be like all right, we've seen enough. No, they put me through the misery of like trying to do it through the whole entire song.
Speaker 1:Oh, one time my wife and I did Paradise by the Dashboard Lights as karaoke, as a joke Right. Everybody else in the karaoke place at the bowling alley were dead serious about karaoke and it was obvious they did not think what we were doing was funny after the first verse and we had to go that whole like seven minutes song that is a long song forever. Yeah, yes.
Speaker 2:So the karaoke people did not like the parody? No, and they take that very serious. I know that we have some listeners that either run karaoke or go to see karaoke, and I've actually gone to witness this and it is a very serious thing. So you did commit some sort of foul.
Speaker 1:It was very painfully apparent, but there was no backing out. I mean really, we should have just said stop right there.
Speaker 2:There you go. That is absolutely perfect. I like that. I do do like that. Well, next up on the show is always good to hear that Jimmy Love it. Love it, first the xylophone and then that. What could be better?
Speaker 1:Hey, it's just turning into a musical extravaganza here.
Speaker 2:I agree with you on that. So on the music in my shoes, mailbag, I thought I'd kind of talk a little bit about how we actually got to this point. So I know that people would text email, talk to me, call me, put things on the Facebook page music in my shoes on Facebook and leave in different comments and I would talk about them. And this guy, tommy Carter, said to me hey, it would be nice if you mentioned some of those comments with the people's names, because people like to hear their names. And I said I kind of like that idea. That sounds good to me. That's when I had mentioned to you. And the next thing you knew it was kind of like a David Letterman thing where David Letterman would say he's going to do something and Paul Schaeffer just whips out a tune and just like you do every time we have the music in my shoes, mailbag or love cats, yeah or love cats.
Speaker 2:We might have to do that more in the future. Or think of other xylophone songs. I think we can do some songs by the violin fems, but we'll that's a whole nother.
Speaker 1:Thing.
Speaker 2:There you go. We'll have to look at that, but that's how that came up and I think it's been great. People have really been receptive to it. We've actually gotten more comments, more texts, more people calling. It really has been something that's been successful for us. So thank you to Tommy Carter for that idea to use it. So, jimmy, do you remember on the last episode we talked about Cheap Trick at Budakon and I said it was in my top 10 live albums of all time, and then we kind of talked about that you said top five.
Speaker 2:I think you're right about that. And then we kind of talked about some albums. You know you rambled off some, I rambled some. Well, barry in Canton contacted and gave us his top five albums. So Are you ready for this? We're gonna start from number five and we're gonna go up to number one, because I think I think this was pretty cool. So number five Leonard Skinner. One more from the road. It was recorded July 1976 at the Fox Theater here in Atlanta, Georgia play it pretty for Atlanta.
Speaker 2:There you go, and it was released in September so it wasn't that long after it was recorded that they actually released it. So that's number five. That actually would be in my top ten. I also Got a call from another person that had said wait, where is Leonard Skinner? One more from the road. So we actually had a couple people that had mentioned that my favorite song Obviously free bird on that album is, is my favorite, but my second one would be call me the breeze. I just absolutely love that. I mean Great singing, great guitar work, great piano. Everything about that song is just Unbelievable. I could listen to that a million times over. The reason I can't listen the free bird a million times over is because it's so long. Right, but great one. So number four you can?
Speaker 1:you can cheat and just jump forward to the guitar solo, though, if you want.
Speaker 2:You could do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you could do that, it's not the same, though it's like you got to put in the time yeah yeah, I mean, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 2:You got to put in the time, go through the grind of everything, they're way to heaven same exact thing. What stairway to heaven? No, no difference. Number four kiss alive too. Now I know you mentioned kiss alive to on the last episode. Yes, and that was released in October of 1977. So why don't you talk a little bit about that, since you are part of the kiss army?
Speaker 1:Yes. So it has so many great songs on it because they had a live one, which had was a good album, but by the time of live two came out they had even more. Like all of their great studio albums had already come out. And it's got everything on it. It's got opens up with Detroit Rock City. You know classic kiss opener. You've got Love gun calling dr Love, christine 16. Shock me. I mean they say we're gonna. We got a little surprise for you tonight. We're gonna bring out ace fraley lead guitar. Shock me. And it's like is that a big surprise? He's in the band, but anyway, that was the surprise and Apparently ace had some issues with earth's gravity and other things. So the fact that he was able to stand up at the mic that night, maybe that was a surprise to the guys in the band.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:They had their issues. They had their issues.
Speaker 2:I love ace.
Speaker 1:Ace was my man in the band. I love him. I love his guitar playing. I appreciate the fact that somebody else in the mail bag loves kiss live too. So what was he got next?
Speaker 2:So actually he told me that his parents took him and his best friend to see kiss. He was in like the fourth or the fifth grade at the time and thought it was just the coolest thing, just loved it, loved it.
Speaker 1:Those parents were more adventurous than mine. I could never get them to take me.
Speaker 2:I didn't really like kiss a whole lot so I never even thought to ask. But You're right, his parents were adventurous and he got to see them and that was pretty cool. Number three on Barry's top five live albums Bob Seeger, live bullet. So that came out in April of 1976 and On that album opens up with a song by Tina Turner, opens up with a song called nukbush city limits and it's got Traveling man. It's got a van Morrison song. I've been working, it's got turn the page.
Speaker 2:I think everybody knows that song. Great, great song by Bob Seeger doesn't cover a bow diddly, the bow diddly song, the bow diddly would sing great song, rambling gambling man, catman do, and Ends up the album with let it rock, which was a Chuck Berry song which I think that, like everybody in a band you know, in the 60s, in the 70s, everybody at some point played let it rock. Hmm, so good version of good version of let it rock, and that is Barry's number three. Number two Bruce Springsteen and the East Street band live 1975, 85, and that came out. I believe it was November of 1986 and the reason that I think that is because I was dating someone that wanted that for Christmas. So do you remember they used to release everything like right before the Christmas holidays so they could sell a ton of it and, you know, get it out to people. So I remember Buying that and how happy she was that she got that for for Christmas. And I'm gonna jump to my favorite song on the album is Actually the last song on it and it's called Jersey girl and it's Tom Waits song. Tom waits wrote it and it's recorded in July of 1981.
Speaker 2:The song starts off slow. It kind of reminds me of like a slower version of under the boardwalk. So Bruce starts singing tonight I'm gonna take that ride across the river to the Jersey side, so that's. You know that's huge. You know people are always talking about going to New York, being part of the big city, mm-hmm. Here. The way that I take it is that you have someone going from New York that wants to cross the river and go over to Jersey for his Jersey girl.
Speaker 2:The audience Absolutely erupts when he says that crossing over to the Jersey side and it's really, really cool, starts to sing a little bit about the Jersey Shore. You know people in New York, new Jersey, pennsylvania, all in that area. You know most people have been to the Jersey Shore at one point or another, at least seen it on MTV, you know, know it by that. So the crowd again goes wild. It's just a really, really cool song of just a perfectly written song by Tom weights that Bruce Springsteen sings. We talked about Tom waits a couple of episodes ago where he sat in with the Replacements and did some work with them. Never in a million years that I think that I would bring up Tom waits, you know, in two out of three episodes.
Speaker 2:Yeah did not think that.
Speaker 1:I've got a great Tom waits thing that you should look up. There was this album that came out probably I don't know mid to late 90s and it was all these bands covering the Ramones. Right, and Johnny Ramone told all the bands he said the only criteria I have is that shouldn't sound anything like us. He wanted people to reinvent the things, like like the Red Hot Chili Peppers did Havana affair. That was like this really Chili Peppers funky kind of version. And anyway, tom waits does this incredible version of the return of Jackie and Judy. That is worth looking up.
Speaker 1:Really if you like the Ramones, you like Tom waits.
Speaker 2:I'll definitely check that out. I know some listeners actually listen to the replacements with Tom waits because I did hear back at that time from them and they thought that it was pretty cool how you know they Rehearsed it. They didn't release it as a regular you know any of the songs as regular songs, but even the rehearsals were good enough that you want to just keep listening to. So I definitely appreciate that update on Tom waits Because, again, who thought that we would talk about Tom waits as much as we have three times? There you go. So on the Bruce and the East Street Band album, the live album, it's got you know, thunder Road, adam raised the cane, it's got fire. It's hard to be a saint in the city. I mean, it's got a lot of the Bruce Springsteen songs that people want to hear Rosalita, back streets, hungry heart, I could go on forever with it. But I really, really really like that Jersey Girl song. It's just something about that song. It's just a real good feel-good song.
Speaker 1:And Is it? Is it a last song on the record?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the last song on the record, so we're gonna move to the number one live album Per Barry. Okay, and are you ready for this? Yes, elvis Presley, aloha from Hawaii. Yeah, that's a good one. All right, so that was actually recorded. It wasn't even recorded.
Speaker 2:It was actually broadcast live via satellite on January 14th 1973, but not in the US and it wasn't because I believe the Super Bowl was that day and they they don't want to broadcast it and try and compete with the Super Bowl. They broadcast it like a 90-minute special. I think it was in the spring. So it's got some songs that you know we're Definitely Elvis type songs. At the time he was doing CC rider. It's got burning love, george Harrison Something. He does a cover of that by the Beatles, my way, johnny be good Hound dog fever American trilogy, which you know at the time I think that was one of his. You know songs that everybody wanted to hear. Then can't help falling in love, just to you know name some of the songs that he had. So I think that's pretty cool that you have, you know, a big group of Different people for this top five again Leonard Skinner, kiss, bob Seeger, bruce Springsteen and Elvis Presley.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would guess that Hawaii is the closest that Elvis ever came to leave in the country because you know Colonel Tom wouldn't let him leave the country, because conspiracy theories say that Colonel Tom wasn't allowed to leave the country and that's why Elvis never played Europe. But you know he flew to Hawaii.
Speaker 2:He was in the army, came home from the army and that was it never went back. Yeah so yeah, he did play there. Anything is a possibility with Colonel Tom, as we've talked about previously on music in my shoes.
Speaker 2:Yep so One other thing about Barry Barry's actually seen Taylor Swift four times. So he's seen Taylor Swift twice when his kids were younger and he took them to see her and then he went and saw her when his kids were older, just because he enjoyed the show. So he's actually seen her I believe three, definitely three, maybe even four times that he's seen her says she does a great show. I'm sure yeah, so that's pretty cool. All right, I like people that can be honest about what they like because, again, there's no winners or losers here in the world of music.
Speaker 1:Taylor Swift's definitely a winner, I think, in the world of music.
Speaker 2:She won the big game. Yeah, you won the big game. Music in my shoes mail bag.
Speaker 2:So we've talked about the radio station WLIR before and they used to do this thing called Screamer of the Week, and Screamer of the Week was the best new song from the week. So it didn't necessarily mean it came out that week. It could have been, you know, within the last week, two, three, four weeks or so, and I think it was on Thursdays and they would play these songs and each DJ would pick a song that they thought should be the Screamer of the Week and they would give a reason why it should be and they would, you know, have this contest and people would call up and it was kind of cool. I used to listen to it as much as I possibly could on every Thursday. So one song that was Screamer of the Week the third week of February 1984, echo and the Bunnyman, the Killing Moon, 40 years ago, that song I thought was absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2:The first time that I heard it I went out. I bought the 12 inch single. The cover of it had, like you know, like this big moon on it. It was incredible. The song still is just as good now as it was back then has definitely stood the test of time in my eyes. So not long before that we had talked about Simple Minds, had Waterfront, which was definitely a different kind of song. That song came out and then, on the heels of that, we had, you know, the Killing Moon. That came out. Some fantastic songs, some great songs. What do you think about the Killing Moon, jimmy?
Speaker 1:It's a great song. Yeah, it's a classic. It's got that moody kind of feel to it. It's got, you know, the minor key. It's just a nice song.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean Will Sargent plays guitar, does a fantastic job with it. I think his guitar work is as big a part of why it is a great song as the vocals. The way that it's sung, the way that it comes across Like it is just. I mean, it's one of those songs to me that you can feel the song when it's sung and when it's played. It does go on a little bit at the end there, but I'm all right with that. I like the song. I really really do like the song. They're coming up. They're coming on tour this spring. I'm actually planning to go see them. I'm looking forward to it. It's been a long time since I've seen them play, but that song is one of the top of the pops for me, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1:I saw them at Chastain with the Violent Femmes about five years ago or something maybe it was a little bit longer and they would trade every night. One band would open for the other and this particular night on their tour, echo was opening and it's Chastain and people have their picnics out and people are just getting settled and the sun is still out and they were not happy about the fact that people were not paying enough tension to Echo and the Bunnymen and it was pretty funny. He would just pick people out in the audience. He's like hey, you're looking at your phone, look up at me, I'm up here on stage. Yeah, I don't know if I did the accent right, but that's what it felt like.
Speaker 2:It was better than what I could do. And you're right If you don't know Chastain and the way that it's set up, especially when they have the tables and the food, it can really set you off, as it did, because you're used to playing. I think most musicians are used to playing in the dark or at least where it's light, and now it's gonna get into the dark.
Speaker 1:But, like you said, having people that are opening up wine bottles and eating cheese and looking at the phone Because summer doesn't get dark till after nine and they're playing at like seven, 30 or eight. It was just one more important and you wanna get to.
Speaker 2:Chastain early just because of all the traffic, so you're willing to sit through whoever the opening band is, how to me, if it's.
Speaker 1:Echo and the Bunnymen.
Speaker 2:Echo and the Bunnymen. I'm like woo, you know. So I saw Echo and the Bunnymen in 1987. I saw them at Jones Beach and they played either the night before or two nights before. They played in New York City and they actually had Rayman Zarek join them and cause he had produced I wanna say it was Bedbugs and Ballyhoo maybe and he actually played like one song with them and I thought that was so cool and I had heard about it and I was like, oh, I wonder if he's gonna come out tonight. And he didn't come out that night. No, but that was actually a pretty cool show because it was Gene loves Jezebel open up. Then it was Echo and the Bunnymen and then it was New Order.
Speaker 2:Yeah so it was a real cool bill, really enjoyed the show and I was really close up on the floor, super duper close up on the front there. So it was a lot of fun. So next we're gonna get into the Thompson Twins. They released an album back in February 1984. Again 40 years ago into the gap.
Speaker 2:First single off that was Holme. Now that actually came out in November of 1983. And that was a screamer of the week in December of 1983 on WLIR. Dr Doctor, that was a screamer in February of 1984. You Take Me Up was a screamer in April of 84, sister of Mercy, a screamer of June 1984, the Gap Screamer in March of 84. And then they also had a song day after day. That was a really good song. That wasn't a screamer but I really did like that. So sometimes, because WLIR would get imports sent over we talked about that where they would have them flown over the next day air and they would pick them up at the airport they would play the songs that they liked in a different sequence than what the actual singles that were released, because they had the album that was released only in the UK and they would do it in a different way and that was one of the ways that they did it here.
Speaker 1:That's really fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was pretty cool. I enjoyed it. I liked how they picked songs that they liked and it wasn't any companies telling them that they had to do it. This is what they were going to do. Well, on that note, that's it for episode 15 of Music in my Shoes. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios located here in Atlanta, georgia, and to victory, for our very own podcast music. This is Jim Boge, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, keep the music playing.