He did turn up at the Atlanta Pop Festival, however...
― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 00:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 00:21 (eighteen years ago) link
This man speaks the truth
― Cunga (Cunga), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 01:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Wednesday, 7 September 2005 03:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― JAS, Wednesday, 7 September 2005 03:49 (eighteen years ago) link
I was supposed to go last night to BeeBeeKing's to see him on a comp from my buddy who was playing in the band but, somewhat mysteriously, all the tickets to the sold-out show that were reserved for the band seemed to have disappeared, so dud for that reason, but otherwise classic.
Where is the love for "Kathleen McArthur"?
― Ruud Haarvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 17:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 19:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 19:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Wednesday, 2 August 2006 19:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ice Cream Electric (Ice Cream Electric), Thursday, 3 August 2006 02:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― Matt Golden (goldmatt), Thursday, 3 August 2006 08:02 (seventeen years ago) link
"I'm Comin' Home" is like cheapass songwriting at it's BEST, a vague rip of "Jumpin' Jack Flash"'s riff and the chorus from "He's So Fine" and it fucking WORKS. Just got a crappy "as advertised on TV!" US cdouble vinyl comp for cheap and man, it's all good. And it's missing so many songs that've been mentioned on this thread!
― President Evil, Thursday, 5 July 2007 10:05 (sixteen years ago) link
Also "Cat's Eye in the Window" IS "Horse w No Name". Bubblegum rips off a lot, and so leaves itself open for same due to lack of respect to "art" going both ways?
― President Evil, Thursday, 5 July 2007 10:11 (sixteen years ago) link
"He has sold, to date, over 100 million records and has been awarded 23 gold singles and 9 gold and platinum albums."
...according to James' website. But I believe it. It's mind boggling how many classic songs this dude has written. As a singles band, I think the Shondells (and James solo) rivals the Monkees. Is that crazy to think?
― QuantumNoise, Thursday, 5 July 2007 15:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Hell no. And as mentioned upthread, I think, it was interesting to see how often he got covered in the eighties and how so many of those covers were big hits! A transitional character, if you like. Liminal even. (I'll stop there.)
Sadly, the most recent cover I can think of is REM doing "Draggin' the Line."
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 5 July 2007 15:31 (sixteen years ago) link
in addition to the 30 or so absolutely perfect and transcendent pop songs already mentioned, i feel compelled to add a word or two on behalf of 1969's "on behalf of the entire staff & management," from the tommy james experimental era. it's basically an early guided by voices song, right down to the way the lead vocal is recorded. and james isn't that much older than robert pollard. the replacements could've covered it too, circa "treatment bound." and, um, it's great.
― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 5 July 2007 16:12 (sixteen years ago) link
How about the production on "Ball of Fire"? I know somebody else mentioned the tune, but hell, talk about lo-fi weirdness long before Sebadoh!
― QuantumNoise, Thursday, 5 July 2007 16:54 (sixteen years ago) link
actually, it was you, fact checking, that mentioned it before.
I don't think the James' penned "Tighter, Tighter" gets enough love; well, except on certain oldies stations.
― Cunga, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:11 (sixteen years ago) link
speaking of "ball of fire," can someone tell me what the first line is? i hear "scarlet hovering my head," which makes no grammatical sense whatsoever but kind of does make sense with the rest of the song (which, by the way, makes for a fairly excellent 9/11 song!). is there some word or piece of syntax that i'm missing in there?
― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:28 (sixteen years ago) link
according to songmeanings.net you're right
― Curt1s Stephens, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:31 (sixteen years ago) link
excellent. that's confirmation enough for me!
― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:33 (sixteen years ago) link
i've had a tommy james 2cd comp for a while, but never really listened to 'Draggin' the Line' before, which is my new favourite song.
another two that aren't mentioned above but are really wonderful are 'She' and 'Loved One'
― derrrick, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:23 (sixteen years ago) link
Fucking Mirage!
― PappaWheelie V, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:44 (sixteen years ago) link
I have a hard time saying anything bad about TJ&Shondelles. In fact, the later into their catalog, the better, yeah...
― dell, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Cellophane Symphony ('69) has way good moments going on
― dell, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:50 (sixteen years ago) link
"Evergreen" from that record is a psychedelic sloe-jam of sorts, while "Making Good Time" is something that should have been covered by Elvis circa '75. It just has that kinda vibe. Vaguely swamprock, and name-checking different cities and stuff.
― dell, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh, yes. Yes. "Loved One" is...yeah. If you like "Tighter, Tighter", then...
― dell, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Dude was a GREAT singer. Maybe still so now, dunno. Can anyone report?
saw him in coney island this summer and he was kinda great. he was headlining a straight-up oldies bill, and the average age of the crowd was easily over 50. first up, johnny maestro and the brooklyn bridge ("worst that could happen") did their name proud with some nice singing over pedestrian bar-band arrangements. next up, jay black simply can't sing anymore -- i mean, really really really has no vocal skills whatsoever -- and he knows it and he spent 70 percent of his stage time telling stories and cracking jokes, which he's damn good at. dude is hilarious. he too had the pedestrian bar-band oldies lounge thing behind him. then they cleared the stage for tommy & the shondells, who came out with marshall stacks, leather pants, long hair, etc., and who were a mix of old guys and one or two young ringers who look like they play in wooden shjips in their spare time. they turned up the volume from roughly three to roughly 12, scared more than a few 60- and 70-year-olds out of the venue, sang every song you could legitimately expect to hear (i.e. most of their rhino anthology, including "mirage," "ball of fire" and other faves from this thread), and quite legimately rocked. when oasis tour the oldie circuit in 2035, i imagine they will sound similar, and i will be ok with that, though they won't be as good.
― fact checking cuz, Sunday, 30 December 2007 00:41 (sixteen years ago) link
so classic i can't even believe it.
― Emily Bjurnhjam, Sunday, 30 December 2007 00:48 (sixteen years ago) link
great story fcc, thanks.
― dell, Sunday, 30 December 2007 00:56 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, awesome story
― QuantumNoise, Sunday, 30 December 2007 02:14 (sixteen years ago) link
i wonder if Tommy knows about this whole garage/60s pop subculture? maybe he's been listening to little steven's show?
...although he should be legitimately pissed about not receiving the kind of lip service a lot of these retro bands pay to far inferior bands from the 60s.
― QuantumNoise, Sunday, 30 December 2007 02:16 (sixteen years ago) link
Anytime he wants to do a European tour, I'm there!
― Soukesian, Sunday, 30 December 2007 02:32 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, i found a fantastic 2005(or so?) version of Crystal Blue Persuasion on youtube. he's still awesome.
Mirage is great, as is Out Of The Blue.
― derrrick, Monday, 31 December 2007 08:27 (sixteen years ago) link
Tommy James in 2006
Crystal Blue Persuasion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m9d4IyCmIs
I Think We're Alone Now - not a great video, but you can tell he's still got it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzmmwsOjl7s
Crimson and Clover!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6444EeeQBiw
― derrrick, Monday, 31 December 2007 08:34 (sixteen years ago) link
look over yonder what do you see?
― andrew m., Wednesday, 30 July 2008 04:44 (fifteen years ago) link
just picked up travelin' from '70 on roulette. much goodness on here. bloody water, travelin', gotta get back to you.
"candy maker" is the jam!
― andrew m., Wednesday, 30 July 2008 04:47 (fifteen years ago) link
Read about fifty pages of his memoir Me, The Mob, And The Music and it's very good.
― Bali Eiffel Tower Hai (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Was he involved with the Mob?
― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:10 (thirteen years ago) link
You'll have to read the book ;)
― Bali Eiffel Tower Hai (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:15 (thirteen years ago) link
Let's put it this way: the very beginning of the book, the incident which prompts him to tell his story, is the death of Morris Levy. Do you know who that is?
― Bali Eiffel Tower Hai (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:16 (thirteen years ago) link
Ah, I see. I forgot they were on Roulette!
― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:18 (thirteen years ago) link
Morris Levy is such a colorful character, his cameo in Ahmet Ertegun's biography steals the show from the subject http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bkrev/hitmen-nyt.php
― Bali Eiffel Tower Hai (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:53 (thirteen years ago) link
"Meet the Comer" off of Christian of the World = vocal melody from Neil Young's "Helpless"
"bad vibrations everywhere..."
― dell (del), Monday, 16 August 2010 16:04 (thirteen years ago) link
Long CBC interview about the mob stuff:http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2011/02/11/tommy-james-the-mob-and-the-music/
― brio, Sunday, 13 February 2011 03:47 (thirteen years ago) link
uggest Ban PermalinkOne night when I was like 13, I was working on a poetry assignment for my Grade 8 english class, we had to assemble our own poetry anthology, meeting certain requirements, and only so many could be lyrics from songs, blah blah blah, this is not important, anyway, it was really late, like maybe 10 or something, or maybe later, because I was the only up in my house and I was working in the kitchen, but I called into the crappy radio station and requested "Crimson & Clover" and they played it, and maybe even put me on the air for like 5 seconds, I don't remember, but they definitely said my name. Which is an uncommon name. That's important to remember.Two years later, I meet this girl at a party. We talk for a while and finally feel friendly enought to tell each other our names. She looks at me and says "You're XXXXX? Did you ever request 'Crimson & Clover' on such-and-such FM? You're soooooo rad!"I got kissed with tongue for the first time that night.
― My Huckleberry Friend (Horace Mann), Friday, February 20, 2004 7:46 AM (6 years ago)
This is a fucking great story!
― Peter Pepsi (Abbbottt), Sunday, 13 February 2011 04:00 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp2u0sgwvPQ
― degrading the enemy narrative (_Rudipherous_), Saturday, 26 March 2011 20:02 (thirteen years ago) link
"ah dig snow and the rain and the bright sunshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine"
who is gonna groove to Tommy with me today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv3WB2loIA4
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 17:38 (ten years ago) link