King Harvest vs. Starbuck

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"Dancing in the Moonlight" vs. "Moonlight Feels Right"

the most country-funky '70s afternoon-rock moonlight smashes ever!

my inclination right now is still Starbuck, but I just bought a Collectables reissue CD of the King Harvest album with their hit today, for $1 at a Salvation Army in Quakertown, PA. So my opinion could change. (I already have the Starbuck album with their hit on it at home back in Queens. Will need to play them back to back someday, obviously, before I can be entirely definitive.)

xhuxk, Saturday, 1 October 2005 20:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Who's sold out to Starbucks now? Oh, wait, wrong thread.

(Sorry, Chuck.)

Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 1 October 2005 20:17 (eighteen years ago) link

I think my inclination is Starbuck, too; I like the sound of that record. Both good songs, though.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 1 October 2005 20:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Were either of these songs really country at all, though?

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 1 October 2005 20:30 (eighteen years ago) link

well, maybe not country in the '70s sense, but certainly country in the post-Eagles sense, I'd say.

Next:

"Amy" by Pure Prairie League vs. "Jackie Blue" by Ozark Mountain Daredevils!

xhuxk, Saturday, 1 October 2005 20:37 (eighteen years ago) link

(or maybe I mean post-Little Feat sense? I dunno.)

I have no idea what genre people in the '70s would've figured the moonlight songs belonged to. "Soft rock", I guess. But probably as much Doobies-soft as Eagles-soft when you get down to it; it's not inconceivable that both hits may have been played in discos at sometime or other. The King Harvest guys look like rough and tough bikers on their CD cover, which surprised me. My daugher Cordelia, 16, who recognized "Dancing in the Moonlight" the second I put it on ("this is the song where they go 'they don't bark and they don't bite,' right?"), said she always figured the guy singing the song was black. He isn't (and neither is the Starbuck guy. If anything, Starbuck are more disco, I think.)

xhuxk, Saturday, 1 October 2005 20:43 (eighteen years ago) link

If memory serves me correctly, the Starbuck track has a killer marimba solo on it. But I enjoy the hell out of Dancing In The Moonlight. King Harvest has the edge with their one hit over Starbuck with their one hit.

baht habit, Saturday, 1 October 2005 20:48 (eighteen years ago) link

x-post - Starbuck and Ozark Mountain Daredevils seem to have had a bit of a Todd Rundgren thing going on.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 1 October 2005 20:50 (eighteen years ago) link

most hip-hop ain't sample based anymore. which is why most of it sucks.

-- hstencil (hstenc!...), September 30th, 2005.

, Saturday, 1 October 2005 20:55 (eighteen years ago) link

I got confused and thought of that Anne Murray song "Shadows in the Moonlight", which also has a 70s soft rock post-Eagles country vibe whatever thing going. I dig that song too, actually.

sal mineo (aarana), Saturday, 1 October 2005 21:12 (eighteen years ago) link

They play the radio on Southern stations. 'Cause Southern belles are hell at night.

xhuxk, Saturday, 1 October 2005 22:22 (eighteen years ago) link

The Starbuck samples on iTunes are weird! They include what sounds like a horrible version of "Tell Her No."

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 2 October 2005 00:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Both "Moonlight" songs evoke '70s cocaine-infested wife-swapping parties when I listen to 'em now - the leery vocals, the smarmy come-on lyrics. I've gotta go with King Harvest for sentimental reasons alone - "Dancing In The Moonlight" was one of my first-ever 7" singles. Objectively, I'd have to say that "Moonlight Feels Right" is a better song, if only for the keyboard and xylophone parts.

"Amy" by Pure Prairie League vs. "Jackie Blue" by Ozark Mountain Daredevils!

Didn't we do that one already?

mike a, Sunday, 2 October 2005 01:43 (eighteen years ago) link

i think i prefer Thin Lizzy's "dancing in the moonlight"... great lyrics good sax solo... great greaser anthem actually. king harvest is just kinda like my burned out uncles in hawaiian shirts downing pina coladas.

Jack Dee, Sunday, 2 October 2005 23:00 (eighteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...
Definitely "Moonlight Feels Right". (Without a doubt). This song evokes memories of every time we staggered in as teenagers just a few hours before sun-up. Long live tan lines!

Paco, Thursday, 20 October 2005 03:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Starbuck wins, by the way (at least judging from the CD by each I now own). But King Harvest aren't bad.

xhuxk, Thursday, 20 October 2005 11:47 (eighteen years ago) link

"Amy" by Pure Prairie League vs. "Jackie Blue" by Ozark Mountain Daredevils!

Alternatively, I propose "Jackie Blue" vs "Brother Louie" by Stories.

King Harvest and Looking Glass (of "Brandy" fame) always sound like the same band to me. Heck, it's all Moustache Rock to me.

Oh, how about "Sweet City Woman" by The Stampeders vs. "Signs" by Five Man Electrical Band...or failing that, put it up against Mungo Jerry "In The Summertime"

Both "Moonlight" songs evoke '70s cocaine-infested wife-swapping parties when I listen to 'em now - the leery vocals, the smarmy come-on lyrics.

So true, particularly as regards the Starbuck song. And sonically, that song kills me...must be something in the keyboard and xylophone parts, as noted above.

Dell (Dell), Thursday, 20 October 2005 20:49 (eighteen years ago) link

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils vs. Stories, huh?

A country-rock band vs. a sorta glammish power-pop group - not a good match. Stick with the Pure Prarie League; "Amie" is way more compatible with "Jackie Blue."

Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Friday, 21 October 2005 00:10 (eighteen years ago) link

"Jackie Blue" owns pretty much everything else in this thread, except maybe "In the Summertime"

The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Friday, 21 October 2005 00:17 (eighteen years ago) link

"A country-rock band vs. a sorta glammish power-pop group - not a good match. Stick with the Pure Prarie League; 'Amie' is way more compatible with 'Jackie Blue.'"

But "Jackie Blue" (which I guess was a bit of an anomaly for them?) is way more Todd Rundgren than it is country. I agree with the Good Doctor that it slays everything in this thread, although "Moonlight Feels Right" is close!

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 21 October 2005 01:35 (eighteen years ago) link

Stories "Brother Louie" vs Earthquake "Emma" (or "Emmaline" if you prefer, since people seem to CALL the song that, though don't know if I've ever actually seen that title on vinyl) (vs Alan Vega "Every 1's a Winner vs Hose {w/ Rick Rubin} "You Sexy Thing" as I recall)

Hot Chocolate "Brother Louie" vs Janis Ian "Society's Child"

All versions of "Brother Louie" vs All versions of "Louie Louie"

xhuxk, Friday, 21 October 2005 12:03 (eighteen years ago) link

Hot Chocolate "Brother Louie" vs Janis Ian "Society's Child"

Hmm. Both have the same weird lead-in on the skin color -- "she was black as the night" / "your face is clean and shining black as night" -- but I'll take Ms. Ian just for the weird baroque and Wurlitzer pieces that are jammed in.

P.S. Chuck, have you ever heard Hot Chocolate's version of "Give Peace a Chance"?

Joe McCombs, Friday, 21 October 2005 20:33 (eighteen years ago) link

And I'll take Mister Ian, thanks. Mr. Ian Lloyd that is.

k/l (Ken L), Friday, 21 October 2005 20:56 (eighteen years ago) link

Jonathan Edwards'"Sunshine" vs. B.W. Stevenson's "My Maria?"

Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Saturday, 22 October 2005 00:17 (eighteen years ago) link

Chuck, did Earthquake cover "Emma"? I remember Hot Chocolate's single and Urge Overkill's much later remake.

Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 22 October 2005 00:20 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm feeling some "night the lights went out in georgia" too... i will agree "jackie blue" is tops

jack dee, Tuesday, 25 October 2005 16:41 (eighteen years ago) link

>Chuck, have you ever heard Hot Chocolate's version of "Give Peace a Chance"?<

Nope!

>Chuck, did Earthquake cover "Emma"?<

Yup! (So did Sisters of Mercy, I think.)

xhuxk, Tuesday, 25 October 2005 16:57 (eighteen years ago) link

five months pass...
Both of these songs sound like they could've been a musical number in The Aristocats.

(The AristoCATS. Not the documentary with Bob Saget in it.)

Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 20 April 2006 18:55 (eighteen years ago) link

six years pass...

moonlight feels right now one of my total fave 70's calypso synth-pop albums. its so great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r73DHkY0s0A&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q4oF-myFIM&feature=relmfu

scott seward, Tuesday, 28 August 2012 15:53 (eleven years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaWg4klMLTM

scott seward, Tuesday, 28 August 2012 19:22 (eleven years ago) link

five months pass...

the masters. your beardodisco better be PRETTY good to match this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gzWAq-H4J8

scott seward, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 01:31 (eleven years ago) link

your electro marimba disco better be PRETTY good to mess with this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj5sjcLm2ig

scott seward, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 01:35 (eleven years ago) link

some tastee pickin' in that first one...

Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 12 February 2013 14:53 (eleven years ago) link

eight years pass...

Stamford Symphony Principal Percussionist Dan Haskins Tribute to Bo Wagner (1945 -2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp628Vi_B58

meisenfek, Thursday, 26 August 2021 07:02 (two years ago) link

Oh my god, I was sincerely intending to make a 'Dancing in the Moonlight' vs. 'Moonlight Feels Right' poll a while back. Two of the most sublime radio rock hits of the '70s.

Marty J. Bilge (Old Lunch), Thursday, 26 August 2021 12:14 (two years ago) link


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