Blondie - Plastic Letters (1978)

“Plastic Letters” by Blondie (1978)

Release Date: February 1978
Produced by Richard Gottehrer
Chart Positions: #72 (US), #10 (UK), #32 (Netherlands), #33 (Sweden), #38 (New Zealand), #64 (Australia)
Certifications: Platinum (UK)
Singles: “Kidnapper (Japanese only release)
“Denis” (#1 Europe, Belgium, Netherlands, #2 UK, #3 Ireland, #8 France, #9 Germany, #10 Austria, #12 Australia, #19 Sweden, #30 New Zealand)
“(I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear” (#8 Netherlands, #10 UK, #14 Belgium)

“Plastic Letters” was the second studio album recorded by new wave/punk band, Blondie. It was their first album to chart in the US as well as being the album released just before their major breakthrough “Parallel Lines.”

“Plastic Letters” by Blondie (Click Here) 

Less than a year after their self-titled 1976 debut, Blondie returned with the stronger, punkier `Plastic Letters', complete with their pop trash culture influences solidly intact. Again produced by 60s pop composer Richard Gottehrer, the songs on this second album have more drive, more attitude and, with the general increase in song-writing sophistication of everyone involved, must have indicated that the band were likely to deliver even better things in the near future.

The prowess of the band members became more evident as songwriters. Keyboardist Jimmy Destri's predilection for mod- infused new wave pop-rock was becoming increasingly clear with some absolute gems among his six contributions on the 13 tracks. `Fan Mail', `Contact in Red Square', `No Imagination', `Kidnapper' and the awesome rocker `Detroit 442' (with Chris Stein) all serve to anchor the harder, faster approach on this release. Stein's six are slightly less consistent, but `Youth Nabbed by Sniper' is a perfect companion piece to Destri's style while the awesome, giddy, acid-rock infused semi ballad, `Bermuda Triangle Blues', about a mysterious plane disappearance in said zone, is the album's super nova moment. Bassist Gary Valentine's `(I'm Always) Touched By Your Presence Dear' is also a high point. Debbie Harry and her partner (at the time) Chris Stein wrote the very and quirky “I’m On E.” The fast moving album highlight “Love At The Pier” was written by Deborah Harry and sports a strong percussive rhythm accented with moving surf guitar parts. The dark and melancholic “Cautious Lip” brings the album to a dramatic close.

Destri's keyboards soar into their own on this record while Deborah Harry's trademark sneer and coquettish phrasing become fully formed, stamping her as far more than just a good looking lead singer. There is something happening on `Plastic Letters' and, even not knowing back in 1977 what was to come, it must have pointed to a band that was not likely to fade away (and radiate) any time soon.

The first single release “Kidnapper” was only released in Japan but failed to chart. The second single “Denis” was a huge hit in Europe charting in many countries as well as charting #1 on the Eurochart Hot 100. Neil Levenson wrote “Denise”, his childhood friend, Denise Lefrak, inspired the song. In 1963, the song became a popular top ten hit in the US, when recorded by the American doo-wop group Randy & the Rainbows. The cover version by Blondie, re-titled "Denis", reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart in 1978 and charted all throughout Europe. The third single “(I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear” was written by Blondie bass player Gary Valentine, a/k/a Gary Lachman, for his then-girlfriend Lisa Jane Persky before his departure from the band. Valentine left Blondie prior to the recording of “Plastic Letters” to pursue a solo career.

"Denis"

Link to “Plastic Letters” (Click Here)

BLONDIE 

Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets (1974)

“Here Come The Warm Jets” (album) by Brian Eno (1974)

Release Date: January 1974
Produced by Brian Eno
Chart Positions: #151 (US), #26 (UK)
Certifications: N/A
Singles: N/A
Label: Island

Here Come the Warm Jets is the debut solo album by Brian Eno, credited only as "Eno". Produced by him, it was released on Island Records in January 1974. The musical style of Here Come the Warm Jets is a hybrid of glam rock and art rock, similar to Eno's previous album work with Roxy Music, although in a stronger experimental fashion. In developing the album's words and music, Eno used unusual methods such as dancing for his band members and having them play accordingly, and singing nonsense words to himself that would form the basis of subsequent lyrics. The album features various guest musicians, including members of Roxy Music (Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay), Hawkwind, Matching Mole and Pink Fairies, as well as Chris Spedding, and Robert Fripp of King Crimson, who collaborated with Eno a year before with the album "No Pussyfooting."

“Here Come The Warm Jets” by Brian Eno 

"Here Come the Warm Jets" peaked at number 26 on the United Kingdom album charts and number 151 on the US Billboard charts, receiving mostly positive reviews.

Eno recorded “Here Come The Warm Jets” in just twelve days in September 1973. The album’s most popular track, "Baby's on Fire" is a bizarre fantasy about a photography session involving a burning infant and unthinking, laughing onlookers. Art-guitar guru Robert Fripp provides a jagged solo on “Baby’s On Fire” The sentimental "Some of Them Are Old" is constructed around harmonies highly reminiscent of the Four Freshmen giving it a melancholy feel. It is worthy of note that the “frippertronics” guitars of “The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch” were later used on another Eno production, U2′s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” “Dead Finks Don’t Talk” is the closest thing to a Bowie song musically, predating “Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)” by some six years. All the lyrics to "On Some Faraway Beach" came to Eno in a dream. He would wake up often throughout the night to write down his dreams and from those scribblings would be lyrics to songs.

Eno has said about the song "Baby's On Fire," "Vocal techniques. That's something I've never even thought about. Why, I propose the question to myself do people sing certain ways at certain times in history? Why should I want to sing through my nose? What I like is when you get a combination of something that's very turned-down and dark and sinister, but not dramatic – very underhand and almost inaudible, as opposed to the kind of aggression that people like The Floyd use, which is very obvious assault. Iggy Pop does it as well."

Eno's compositions are quirky, whimsical, and catchy, his lyrics bizarre and often free-associative, with a decidedly dark bent in their humor ("Baby's on Fire," "Dead Finks Don't Talk").

"Baby's On Fire" (1974)

Brian Eno (1974)

Link to “Here Come The Warm Jets” (Click Here)

BRIAN ENO

#brianeno #eno

Roxy Music - Siren (1975)

“Siren” by Roxy Music (1975)

Release Date: October 24, 1975
Produced by Chris Thomas
Chart Positions: #50 (US), #4 (UK), #8 (Sweden), #9 (Netherlands), #15 (Norway), #3 (New Zealand)
Certifications: Gold (UK)
Singles: “Love Is The Drug” (#30 US, #2 UK, #3 Canada, #9 Netherlands, #15 Belgium, #18 Australia, #24 New Zealand, #39 Germany
“Both Ends Burning” (#25 UK)


“Siren” is the fifth studio album by English art-rock band “Roxy Music. This is the album that put Roxy Music on radio stations across the US due to their hit “Love Is The Drug.”

"Siren" by Roxy Music (Click Here)

“Siren” was well received by critics upon it’s release with many of them putting it amongst the best of the year. In the 1975 Pazz and Jop critics poll it was voted the 13th best album of 1975. Cream Magazine music critic, Dave Marsh, rated the album as the 4th best album of 1975 in his Book of Rock Lists. The album was ranked number 371 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The cover features band member Bryan Ferry's then-girlfriend, model Jerry Hall, on rocks near South Stack, Anglesey. Graham Hughes, working during August 1975, took the cover photo directly below the central span of the bridge on a south-side slope. He worked from sketches produced by Antony Price; with photography featuring Hall striking various poses. The idea for the location was Bryan Ferry's, after he saw a TV documentary about lava flows and rock formations in Anglesey, in which South Stack was heavily featured. Hall' recalled in her autobiography, Tall Tales that the blue body paint she wore to look like a mythical siren would not wash off. According to the model, Ferry took her back to his house to help her remove the paint. Jerry Hall left Ferry in 1978 to date Mick Jagger.

Producer Chris Thomas has worked with the most popular British musicians including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend and a host of others. Thomas produced a total of five albums for Roxy Music including “For Your Pleasure,” “Stranded,” “Country Life,” “Siren” and the live album “Viva.” Thomas met Bryan Ferry during recording sessions for Procol Harum.

The first single “Love Is The Drug” originated as an Andy Mackay instrumental which later Bryan Ferry added lyrics. The song was an instant hit in the UK where it zoomed up the charts to #2. It was kept off the top of the UK charts by a re-release of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” “Love Is The Drug” was their first song to bring attention to Roxy Music in the US where it received a good amount of airplay on progressive rock radio stations and eventually jumping over to Top 40 radio. The song peaked at #30 on the US Billboard chart.

"Love Is The Drug"

The second single “Both Ends Burning” was not nearly as successful but did manage to squeak out a #25 peak position on the UK singles chart. Singer Bryan Ferry recalled to The Mail on Sunday June 28, 2009: "We were on a punishing world tour schedule in 1975 and there were a lot of late nights to get the Siren album finished on time. I guess this was the inspiration behind this song.

Other album highlights include the Bryan Ferry/Phil Manzanera written “Whirlwind” and the Bryan Ferry/Eddie Jobson written “She Sells,” the latter a quirky song that is reminiscent of earlier classic such as “Do The Strand” and “Editions of You.”

Roxy Music (1975)

Roxy Music Siren (Alternate Album Cover 1975)

Link to “Siren” (Click Here)

ROXY MUSIC

The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope (1978)

“Give ‘Em Enough Rope” by The Clash (1978)

Release Date: November 10, 1978
Produced by Sandy Pearlman
Chart Positions: #128 (US), #2 (UK), #15 (New Zealand), #36 (Sweden)
Certifications: Gold (UK)
Singles: “Tommy Gun” (UK #19)
“English Civil War” (#25 UK, #29 Ireland)

“Give ‘Em Enough Rope” is the second studio album released by the influential British punk rock band The Clash. CBS Records released it on November 10, 1978 and was their first album released in the United States. Shortly after their first studio album “The Clash” was released in the US. “Give ‘Em Enough Rope” was well received by critics and fans, peaking at #2 in the UK and #128 in the US.

“Give ‘Em Enough Rope” by The Clash (Click Here)

The album's cover art was designed by Gene Greif, the front of which was based on a postcard titled "End of the Trail", photographed by Adrian Atwater and featuring Wallace Irving Robertson. The cover of the first US pressings showed the band's name written in block capital letters. Subsequent US pressings used a faux-oriental style font, which was then replaced with the more ornate faux-oriental style font used on the UK release. Before designing the Clash album cover Gene Greif had previously designed album covers for a variety of jazz musicians such as John McLaughlin, Lonnie Liston Smith and Woody Shaw. After his collaboration with The Clash he expanded to other punk, new wave and dance artists such as Gary’s Gang, Flash and the Pan, Nina Hagen and The B-52’s.

Sandy Pearlman, an American hard rock producer who was best known for discovering and producing Blue Oyster Cult, produced ”Give ‘Em Enough Rope.” The teaming was quite controversial within the punk community, the result was a much cleaner sounding album than The Clash’s debut, yet the more direct sound hardly tamed them.

“Give ‘Em Enough Rope” dealt primarily with political issues, terrorism, drug abuse and other contemporary subjects. "Tommy Gun" deals with Middle Eastern terrorism, specifically the hi-jacking of aircraft, while "Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad" is a commentary on the infamous "Operation Julie" drug bust that saw the largest LSD production ring in the world, based in Wales, dismantled by an undercover police operation. The song also makes a reference to the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" in the opening line, "It's Lucy in the sky and all kinds of apple pie". "Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad" was originally titled "Julie's in the Drug Squad", as listed on the original pressing of the album. The song's title was changed when Give 'Em Enough Rope was released on CD. "Guns on the Roof", is ostensibly about global terrorism, war and corruption, it was partly inspired by an incident that resulted in the Metropolitan Police's armed anti-terrorist squad raiding the Clash's Camden Market base. The Clash band members, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon, were arrested and charged with criminal damage (and later fined £750) for shooting racing pigeons with an air gun from the roof of their rehearsal building.

Rolling Stone Magazine described the album as being fire and brimstone with a sense of humor.

The first single release “Tommy Gun,” was The Clash's first Top 20 hit in the UK, peaking at #19, but failed to chart anywhere else in the world. The "Thompson Submachine Gun" or "Tommy Gun" for short, is the typical gun from the American prohibition era, where it was used by both the police and gangsters. A series of rapid snare drum beats by Topper Headon mimics the "rat-ta-ta-ta" sound of them, and were suggested by him during recording. It was after recording the drum tracks for "Tommy Gun" in one take each time with no mistakes that producer Sandy Pearlman labelled Headon "The Human Drum Machine." Joe Strummer said that he got the idea for the song when he was thinking about terrorists, and how they probably enjoy reading about their killings as much as movie stars like seeing their films reviewed.

"Tommy Gun"

The next single release was “English Civil War,” it charted at 325 in the UK and #28 in Ireland. Their sound was in the beginning stages of expanding to other parts of the world. The song is derived from an American Civil War song, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", written by Irish-born Massachusetts Unionist Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, which is in turn derived from the Irish anti-war song "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye". It was popular amongst both sides of the conflict.
Having learnt the song at school, Joe Strummer suggested that the band should update it. The lyrics, passionately delivered by Joe Strummer, discuss the band's fears about the rise of the National Front and radical, far-right-wing politics in the UK, and fears that this will cause tensions and riots on the streets. In April 1978 the song had its first live performance at a Rock Against Racism concert in Victoria Park. The song features a series of interlocking guitar parts assembled and overlaid. Oddly Mick Jones has two extravagant solos, unusual for a punk rock song in which solos and over-the-top instrumentation were profoundly shunned.

The Clash (1978)

Link to “Give ‘Em Enough Rope” (Click Here)

THE CLASH

Lene Lovich - Stateless (1978)

“Stateless” by Lene Lovich (1978)

Lene remained mostly unknown in the US, while with in the UK, the mysterious singer/songwriter/musician managed to score three top 40 hits. In her early years Lovich held a variety of jobs including go-go dancer, recorded screams for horror films and sang in a mass choir in the Royal Albert Hall. She was also one of thousands of audience members invited to sing along at the 1972 Lanchester Arts Festival at the Locarno Ballroom in Coventry when Chuck Berry recorded "My Ding-a-Ling" for Chess Records. Finally in 1977 Lovich received her big break when she was invited to write the sci-fi influenced lyrics to Cerrone’s dance club hit “Supernature.” “Supernature” reached #8 in the UK and #70 in the US and was a #1 US Dance club hit. One year later she released her debut album “Stateless.”

"Stateless" by Lene Lovich (Click Here)

“Stateless” was a solid hit throughout Europe and down under in 1978 reaching #35 in the UK, #17 Netherlands,  #13 Australia, #19 New Zealand and with little fanfare the album managed to make it to #137 in the US.

Lene’s quirky danceable new wave sound caught on in underground dance clubs throughout the US. While in other parts of the world her songs were being played in mainstream clubs and pop music radio. The song “Lucky Number” was somewhat a novelty that caught on in Europe much as did M’s “Pop Muzik” in the US. “Lucky Number” was a worldwide smash and reached Australia #2, UK and New Zealand #3, Netherlands #4, Belgium #5, Ireland #7 and Australia #18. The song is composed in D major at 120 beats per minute. The chorus, perhaps unpredictably, consists of four dissonant chords sung in rapid succession. “Lucky Number” is considered by many to be a defining song of the new wave era. Lene was off to a very strong start. This could have been the beginning of a long career of worldwide mega-hits. But for some reason she never caught on in the US, other than the occasional dance-club hit.

The album includes a deliciously propulsive remake of Tommy James and the Shondells “I Think We’re Along Now” ( Lene also recorded a Japanese version of the song). The darkly sinister "Home" played off the rumors concerning Lovich's exotic Eastern European background (she was actually from Detroit, but she could fake a great accent). “Say When,” the fast moving second single, was a Top 20 hit in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland.

"Lucky Number"

Lene Lovich (1978)

Link to “Stateless”: CLICK HERE

LENE LOVICH