Worth Another Listen - The Undertones

God, I loved The Undertones. Hitting the airwaves in the late 70s and hitting their stride in 1980, The Undertones were everything I though Punk music should be about. They were raw, bold, brash, not pretty, taking the best of the 60s rock bands and bringing a drive and beat matched with testosterone. The put out four albums before giving up the ghost in 1983.



Here is another 'live' performance on British television of Here Comes The Summer.

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Worth Another Listen - Sylvester

Sylvester was the Grand Dame of Disco, and few would even try to compete. The bitch could sing, and out drag anyone. She was wicked, gorgeous and talented, and there wasn't anyone who could tell her any differently. She was spectacular at a time when no drag queen was supposed to be.



Sylvester worked with a San Francisco based group called the Cockettes, described as a psychedelic drag troupe, a flamboyant group of hippies. She was part of the group in the early 70s, and usually performed Bessie Smith songs. Soon, Sylvester went out solo, and released the first album in 1973. In 1978, Sylvester released You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) which was a smash hit. Do You Wanna Funk followed it with another hit, and was featured in a movie I posted about - Longtime Companion.



Of course, who could miss the double entendre of a drag queen singing about feeling mighty real? How fierce was that!



Although I was never lucky enough to catch a live performance, they are legend in their greatness. One song Sylvester often performed was You Are My Friend, a ballad. Due to corporate issues, I couldn't find any copy but this one, with a slide show of pictures with the live audio.



Sylvester left us way too soon. He passed on December 16, 1988, following a battle with AIDS. But she was one drag queen who paved the way for so many to come, like Boy George, Pete Burns, RuPaul and others. And how about the boy songbirds with a falsetto, like Jimmy Sommerville, or even str8 boys Robin Thicke? Without those 41 years on this planet, who knows what the LGBT landscape would look like. Thank you, Sylvester.

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Worth Another Listen - Midge Ure

Now, back in the 80s, I was madly in love with Midge Ure, yet another Scotsman. He was the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, Ultravox. He had an amazing voice, and was very hot. Then he worked with Bob Geldof, and together they wrote Do They Know It's Christmas?, the huge single to raise money for African Famine Relief. Ultravox also performed at Wembley Stadium for Live Aid. So, Midge was also good-hearted and had cool friends. Aside from the wife and being str8, I thought he would be a perfect boyfriend for me.

In 1986, Midge ventured out on a solo career, and I was loving it. He released The Gift, and I was all over it. It was followed by Answers To Nothing, Breathe, and Pure. His first solo single was If I Was, and I still love that damn song, and think the video just makes me happy.

Like so many of us, Midge has aged a bit. But dammit to Hades, I still think he is hot. He still performs in the UK, so there is little chance I will get the chance to see him.

Midge Ure with Bob Geldof in 2004, Midge Ure aging beautifully.

Ultravox had that dense rock sound I was [and still am] so very fond of. I could, of often would, listen to Ultravox all day long. Songs like Vienna, Lament, All Stood Still, We Came To Dance, Love's Great Adventure, and Hymn, I was a very happy camper. Here is a clip of Ultravox playing Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, followed by Vienna from their set at Live Aid. Great stuff!

You can find out more about Midge on his website.

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Great Women - Linda Ronstadt

I do notice that my music collection is rather testosterone driven, filled with male singers. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate some great female singers, and one of those is Linda Ronstadt. From her days with the Stone Ponies to now, the woman has a magnificent gift with that voice of hers. I remember when she was singing country-fried rock, pop, rock, standards, Mexican music for her father, to the amazing things she did with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris in Trio.

She was a pinup girl in the 70s, he posters selling along side Farrah Fawcett. Her albums sold huge numbers, combining great music and outrageous vocals. She covered Roy Orbison and The Rolling Stones with ease. I can ever be sure which album is my favorite, it could be Simple Dreams, Hasten Down The Wind, or Prisoner In Disguise. Here is a clip from a live concert, Linda singing Down So Low from Hasten Down The Wind.

But I have to say, I do love Blue Bayou. It is from the album Simple Dreams, and it showcased her control and exquisite phrasing. Not an easy song, and she delivers just perfectly.

Linda Ronstadt has no official website, but there is a rather complete unofficial page.

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Worth Another Listen - The Flying Lizards

It is Monday morning, and most of us are getting back to work. Whether we love the job or hate it, we do it for one reason - the paycheck. To celebrate this, I ventured back to 1979 and The Flying Lizards. The song is Money (That's What I Want). While it was also recorded by The Beatles, it was not written by them, instead by Motown writers Janie Bradford and Berry Gordy Jr. in 1959 and recorded by The Beatles in 1963.

The Flying Lizards were an experimental British band, whose members included Robert Fripp. Fripp has an amazing resume, with his playing in King Crimson to working on albums with Peter Gabriel, David Bowie and many others. He did a couple of instrumental albums with The Police guitarist Andy Summers. The work of The Flying Lizards tended to be on the deconstructed, avant-garde side of life.

This was the one hit for The Flying Lizards. Enjoy.

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Worth Another Listen - Paul Weller

Paul Weller is another of my British rockers I have followed thru several bands. Paul started out with the seminal Punk band The Jam inn the mid-70s, and then the more pop/jazz influence of a forerunner of the 'Mod' sound, The Style Council for most of the 80s, before he finally went solo and became the rocker with soul. Later he mainly was a soulful singer, and pissed off his many of his British fans, who felt he sang like an American, not a Brit.

I will say, although I love Paul's talent and voice immensely, he has never been a great looker. He wasn't bad in those early years, but in more recent times, as he struggled to maintain a 'youthful' style, it only made him look older, like that creepy guy middle-aged guy hanging with the high school kids. Anyway, as much as I loved The Jam and Style Council, some of his best stuff was solo, including this cover of a Rose Royce tune.

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The Amazing Jimmy Somerville

Before there was American Idol and Adam Lambert, there was an extremely gifted and out singer named Jimmy Somerville.



He was the lead vocalist for the Bronski Beat and The Communards before he embarked on a solo career. Like Lambert, he was known for his amazing range and fearless use in soaring vocals. The difference is that Jimmy was forming the Bronski Beat the year Lambert was born. Somerville moved easily between Hi N-R-G mixes, to blues-inspired ballads. There was the amazing Why? and Smalltown Boy, and the soulful Need A Man Blues and It Ain't Necessarily So while with the Bronski Beat. The Communards had sucess with dance hits Don't Leave Me This Way and Never Can Say Goodbye as well as the AIDS-inspired ballad, For A Friend.



Jimmy never stood behind a coy answer about his sexuality. And unlike Elton John, he wwas never 'married' nor transitioned with the cover of being bisexual. Of course, that might be tough when he was singing songs like There's More To Love Than Boy Meets Girl and Read My Lips (Enough Is Enough). Most of the songs he sang he had either co-written or wrote himself. In the mid 90s, he took some tie off and left England for San Fransisco to work in the AIDS community projects so he could bring what he learned back to England.



This year, Jimmy released his 6th solo project, Suddenly Last Summer, available only as a digital download from iTunes. It is a collection of acoustic covers of songs he found on his iPod, ranging from the flirty My Heart Belongs to Daddy to the Blondie song Hangin' On The Telephone, to a heart wrenching a cappella version of (Sometimes I Fell Like A) Motherless Child, recorded live for a crowd demanding yet another encore. His Walking After Midnight owns more to anonymous sex and tea rooms than it does to Patsy Cline's original. For me, it is great to hear him sing once again, and and have a great time doing it.

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