Author: ernopepper

639. Peter and Gordon

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(March 2025) Episode 639 is PETER AND GORDON. Very like Chad & Jeremy from a couple episodes ago: a UK duo featuring Everly-ish vocals in the early British Invasion. What Peter and Gordon had going for them is proximity to the Beatles, socially and musically; Paul wrote their early hits and dated Peter’s sister Jane Asher. They offered fine, middle-of-the-road 60s pop, but struggled to keep up with trends. Peter and Gordon didn’t go as far as Chad & Jeremy’s full-bore attempt at tudor psychedelia, just venturing into baroque pop. Both duos were done by decade’s end. Peter became a long-time producer.

Favourite album: In London for Tea

Favourite song: A World Without Love

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The Ultimate Peter & Gordon (compilation)

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638. The Gap Band

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(March 2025) Episode 638 is THE GAP BAND. They reached their commercial peak in the early 80s with fun synth-bass funk hits like “You Dropped a Bomb on Me.” Their first two mid-70s albums on small labels were typical funk of that period (my preference). But their major label start in 1979 gave a run of albums that closely approximates the Earth, Wind & Fire formula of complex funk and ballads (that’s a good thing). By the mid-80s and 90s they adopted the synth-driven idiom of the time, which is not my kind of soul/funk. Even at their peak, though, they could be repetitious – “Burn Rubber (Why You Wanna Hurt Me),” “Early in the Morning,” “You Dropped a Bomb on Me” and “Party Train” are basically the same song.

Favorite album: The Gap Band (1977)

Favorite song: Knuckle Head Funkin’

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A greatest hits will suffice (although be prepared for repetition), although I direct deeper divers to the first two small label albums

637. Billie Holiday

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(March 2025) Episode 637 is BILLIE HOLIDAY. One of the most distinctive American voices. She widened the aperture of jazz with the instrumentality of her voice (from horn players she admired like Louis Armstrong) and bringing in lived experience to her songs (from blues singers she admired like Bessie Smith) (also maybe why I liked her “Strange Fruit”). Personally, this style of jazz isn’t my cup of tea, but her signature voice sells it.

Favorite album: Lady Sings the Blues

Favorite song: Strange Fruit

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The mid-50s recordings on Verve and Clef

636. UFO

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(March 2025) Episode 636 is UFO. There’s a category of rock bands that start out with interesting/innovative stuff in the late 60s/early 70s but then descend to decades of boring, rote hard rock. Think Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Status Quo … and UFO. Their first two albums were consummate space rock, followed by two good albums of heavy 70s rock, which was their commercial peak. But then their output flattened out into album after album of the most banal hard rock. I assume this is evidence such pablum sells, but not to me. That part was a slog (I listen so you don’t have to). However, UFO is cited as paving the way for the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which is why I did this episode. The only song I recognized from classic rock radio was “Too Hot to Handle,” a cock rock gem.

Favourite album: UFO 2: Flying

Favourite song: Flying

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The first four albums, especially the first two space rock ones.

635. Chad & Jeremy

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(February 2025) Episode 635 is CHAD & JEREMY. Coincident with the first wave of the British Invasion, Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde offered light-pop/folk rock songs. “Yesterday’s Gone” puts them in the Merseybeat mode, while their most famous piece, “A Summer Song,” is in the vein of Simon and Garfunkel and the Everly Brothers. This approach characterized their 1963-66 recordings, which is fine, but put them out of step with the emergent R&B bands. Chad & Jeremy regrouped with 2 ½ psychedelic albums, a sound that I personally favor, although not it’s representative of what they were known for.

Favourite album: The Ark

Favourite song: A Summer Song  

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Albums: A best-of is fine. But those who dig 60s psychedelia should check out their baroque-pop stylings on Of Cabbages and Kings and The Ark.

634. Parquet Courts

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(February 2025) Episode 634 is PARQUET COURTS. Take equal parts 80s college rock, 90s indie/alt, 00s angular rock, add a pinch of 60s Velvet Underground, and you have Parquet Courts. They were a very welcome find, running counter to my general disappointment/lack of interest in 21st century ‘rock’ bands. Their music is creatively quirky, with clever or snarky lyrics. Their 2018 album Wide Awake! is their most accessible, but that signaled an incorporation of electronic beats that dominated 2021’s disappointing Sympathy for Life. I prefer the off-kilter simplicity of earlier albums.

Favorite album: Light Up Gold

Favorite song: Stoned and Starving

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Albums: Light Up Gold, Sunbathing Animal, Human Peformance and Wide Awake!

633. Elliott Carter

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(February 2025) Episode 633 is ELLIOTT CARTER, one of the most notable American composers of the late 20th century. His early works are neoclassical but evolved to modern and “ultra-modern” styles, and he became known for his rhythmic complexity. He used conventional formats and did not go experimental (such as to electronic or mixed media), but it is still challenging to the ear. I really like his stuff. His legacy is enhanced by his longevity; he composed some 20 pieces after he turned 100 years of age. It’s a shame he is not better known compared with other American composers (looking at you Gershwin).

Favorite piece: Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei

Favorite chamber piece: String Quartet No. 3

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Try my favorite pieces and if you like, move into the symphonies, concertante and chamber pieces.

Composer Elliott Carter at the piano in 1989.

632. The Marvelettes

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(February 2025) Episode 632 is THE MARVELETTES, one of the earliest successful Motown acts. “Please Mr. Postman” is their most popular song and representative of their early 1960s pop-oriented girl group sound. Their second phase commenced in 1967 as they shrunk to a trio and adopted a more soulful sound per the trends within Motown. Not among the top girl groups for me, but they had some enjoyable songs.

Favorite album: The Marvelettes (pink album)

Favorite song: The Day You Take One (You Have To Take The Other)

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A greatest hits will do. I prefer the four albums in their second phase (1967-70)

631. Sourvein

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(February 2025) Episode 631 is SOURVEIN, a band out of the North Carolina sludge metal scene. By the time of their first full album they had evolved into a solid stoner/doom metal sound with low slow guitars and backgrounded screeching vocals. Key contributor to that approach was guitarist Liz Buckingham who later went on to join my favorite band in the doom genre: Electric Wizard. As I always say with sludge/stoner/doom metal, it’s not for everyone but I love it.

Favorite album: Black Fangs

Favorite song: Fangs

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Try Will to Mangle or Black Fangs

630. Bobby Womack

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Episode 630 is BOBBY WOMACK, a significant contributor to soul music as a songwriter, guitarist and solo artist. He got his start in a group called the VALENTINOS (also covered here) with his brothers, and then as guitarist for Sam Cooke and other famous artists before recording on his own in 1969. His early 70s albums are high quality soul and funk material, accentuated by his gritty voice. He had a revival in the 1980s but the tone of the soul music from that decade is not to my tastes.

Favorite album: Understanding

Favorite song: Everything’s Gonna Be Alright

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Fly Me to the Moon (1969), Understanding (1972), Facts of Life (1973),

I Don’t Know What the World Is Coming To (1975)