THE BIG PAYBACK: Thank you, Greg

"I'm the Antenna
Catching vibration
You're the transmitter
Give information!"
- KRAFTWERK

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Someone always wanders into your life and changes everything. When it's for the better, we should thank them.

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G R E G

My friend Greg expanded my whole musical outlook. We were teenagers in a remote, conservative area circa 1980. Greg was a mischievous lunatic who would do anything without any qualms.

While I was recoiling from the slick corporate music scene into The Beatles and counterculture politics, Greg was the first to embrace Punk and New Wave. This seemed at odds, but Greg exposed to me to a range of new stuff that was advancing off of what I already loved.

Stephen, David, me, and Greg (in mock-Bowie-mannequin pose).

These were the real Indie years.

You could only see Rock acts on late night shows, sometimes. Magazines were few and cost too much. I taught myself the history reading back issues of Rolling Stone for free at the library. Verrry few Punk and New Wave acts were carried by major labels, and were promoted haphazardly at best. No college radio shows yet, no clubs, no tour circuit, no video channels, and almost no press, just obscure ads in fanzines and word of mouth. Bands were putting out indie records, but you had to mail-order them on pure faith, an impossible expense for most teenagers. Where I was, in the rural outskirts, everyone was still trying to process or erase the '60s, and this new '80s futurism stuff just seemed like evil alien shadows on the far horizon.

That's why Greg loved it. He went to all the little record stores and somehow ordered all of these. The few majors and many of the minor labels. He was ahead of the curve on everything. Whatever tore open the envelope, that's what he had to do.

The Clash. The Cars. The B-52's. Elvis Costello. Split Enz. Plastics. Gary Numan. Gang Of Four. The Jam. Talking Heads. Punk and New Wave and PostPunk and Psychobilly and Coldwave and Power Pop. Usually before they had been labeled.

We watched the new acts on maverick TV like "Saturday Night Live", the stellar "SCTV" from Canada, or most often on "Fridays", the L.A.-based competition. When Split Enz performed "I Got You" on "Fridays", it was the exact moment where my ambivalence faded and I was converted entirely to the new breed.

Sadly, my friend has passed on. To honor him on what would have been his birthday, this is a music playlist of all the wonderful music that Greg expanded my life with. When I hear these songs, Greg is eternal and as fearless as ever.

Thank you, my friend, for enriching our lives.

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"I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
Tryin' to anaesthetise the way that you feel"

- ELVIS COSTELLO


"She opened strange doors
that we'd never close again"

- DAVID BOWIE


"Electric angel rock and roller
I hear what you're playing"

- THE CARS


"By day we run, by night we dance, we do
I'm in love with the coming race
I've got the best, I'll take all I can get
I'm living for the Eighties"

- KILLING JOKE


© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• Thank You, Greg!, with Music Player!

• MUSIC 101: The 1980s, with Music Player!


• "Girl U Want" - Devo > Soundgarden > Polysics > Boyskout

• LADIES FIRST: "Demolition Man" - Grace Jones > The Police > Sting

• "Nightclubbing" - Iggy Pop > Human League > Grace Jones > Nine Inch Nails > Oasis

• "Love Is The Drug" - Roxy Music > Chic > Grace Jones > Duran Duran


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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ROCK Sex: "Taxman" - The Beatles > The Jam > Bangles > Beastie Boys > Cypress Hill > Sean Lennon

ROCK Sex tells you how it will be.

Today's relay race of cultural handoff is the song "Taxman".

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George Harrison wote the original in 1966, with the unusual assist of John Lennon on a few lines, and the even more unusual twist of Paul McCartney on lead guitar!

George's frustration over the insanely high tax rate of the UK at the time has become a perennial anthem because of its lyrics as much as its terrifically funky riff line, which grooves in the spirit of James Brown's "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" and the "Batman" TV Theme.

THE BEATLES -"Taxman" (1966)



Almost immediately the great Garage Rock band The Music Machine, led by Sean Bonniwell, did this seething cover. Lennon had contributed the two harmony lines calling out Harold Wilson and Edward Heath, who ran the two political parties of Britain. But Bonniwell changes that to President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary Of State Dean Rusk, as an unusually early and gutsy dig against the taxpayer-funded Vietnam War.

THE MUSIC MACHINE -"Taxman" (1966)



Pleasantly unexpected was this soulful version by Memphis great Junior Parker, with its slinky groove and reflective stance.

JUNIOR PARKER -"Taxman" (1970)



Later, anglophiles Cheap Trick did an original sequel, which mentions The Beatles and probably took its title from the lyrical cue "ah-ah, Mister Heath" in the original.

CHEAP TRICK -"Taxman, Mister Thief" (1976)



Contrary to their Punk peers, THE JAM openly owned up to their Mod and Beat roots. The bass riff of "Taxman" first triggered this song.

THE JAM -"Dreams Of Children" (1980)



...and then another song on the same album (US version)!
[They also did a cover of "And Your Bird Can Sing", as well.]

THE JAM -"Start!" (1980)



The Beatles' daughters then get into the queue.

THE BANGLES -"I'm In Line" (1982)



Here's that bass coupled with some of the rhythmic tumble of "Tomorrow Never Knows".

RIDE -"Seagull" (1990)



Having sampled The Beatles on their epochal PAUL'S BOUTIQUE (1989), which many consider the SGT. PEPPER of Rap albums, here's THE BEASTIES bringing it oddly full circle by covering The Jam.

BEASTIE BOYS -"Start!" (2000)



Staying on the HipHop tip, remember Junior Parker's version? Well, CYPRESS HILL did when they sampled it for this spliff bliss anthem.

CYPRESS HILL -"I Wanna Get High" (1993)



Here's the riff reaquipped on a groovy trip from the film OCEANS 12.

DAVID HOLMES -"Yen On a Carousel" (2004)



What would it sound like if Joe Meek remixed the REVOLVER album as a Spaghetti Western soundtrack?

OF MONTREAL -"Coquet Coquette" (2010)



Here's Sean Lennon and Les Claypool (Primus) abstracting it through prog-adelica.

THE LENNON CLAYPOOL DELIRIUM -"Mr. Wright" (2016)




© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• THE BRITISH INVASION!, with Music Player!

• BEATLESQUE Albums: 450 Alternate Universe BEATLES Albums You Need!, with 2 Music Players!

• BEATLESQUE Songs: 1966-esque, with Music Player!


• "Norwegian Wood" - The Beatles > Dylan > Murakami > PM Dawn > Cornershop

• "Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego!" - Funkadelic > Sly Stone > Beastie Boys


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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SAY WHAT?!: "Touch Me", The Doors

SAY WHAT answers the lyrical question, 'what did they just say?'

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In this occasional feature we'll look at playful asides that got slipped into songs. Sometimes it'll be entendres, backwards messages, or cheeky comments. Today it's "Touch Me" by The Doors.


If you listen to the end of the song, the triumphant coda has the chant, "Stronger than dirt!"

THE DOORS -"Touch Me" (1969)



This was an in-joke about the melodic resemblance to the popular Ajax detergent TV ad of the time, with its slogan, "Stronger Than Dirt!"

"Ajax: Stronger Than Dirt" #1




The Doors' song also bears a striking rhythmic resemblence to The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love".



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• Say What?!: "Funky Stuff", Kool & The Gang

• SAY WHAT?!: "The Cisco Kid", WAR

• SAY WHAT?!: "Good Girls Don't", THE KNACK


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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ROCK Sex: "You Can't Hurry Love" - The Supremes > Iggy Pop > The Jam > David Bowie

...with Music Player!

ROCK Sex thinks you can't beat a great beat.

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The Supremes amped up the Motown beat to spectacular effect in their smash hit "You Can't Hurry Love".

THE SUPREMES -"You Can't Hurry Love" (1966)



Iggy Pop turned that same beat around on his own "Lust For Life".

IGGY POP -"Lust For Life" (rec. 1978)



The neo-Mods The Jam used the beat in this song. At the time, the classic film "A Town Like Alice" had just been remade, and the title punned off of that.

THE JAM -"Town Called Malice" (1982)



As the Motown permeated New Wave and Pop in the mid-'80s, the beat became a shorthand for any Motown homage.

DAVID BOWIE -"Modern Love" (1982)



Here's the Glasgow all-female band Lustleg put their own spin on Iggy.
LUSTLEG -"Lust For Leg" (1997)



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There are scores of songs that use or peruse the beat, which you can hear on this Music Player.

The songs are in chronological order from 1966 to today.

This is a Spotify player. Join up for free here.


© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• YOU DON'T OWN ME: The Uprising of the 1960s GIRL GROUPS, with Music Player!

• SHE'S A REBEL: Decades Of Songs Influenced By The GIRL GROUPS, with Music Player!


• SHAKE AND FINGER POP! Soul Music and the Interior Truth, with Music Player!


• LADIES FIRST: "I'll Keep On Holding On!" - The Marvelettes > The Action

• LADIES FIRST: "Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)" - Kim Weston > The Doobie Brothers


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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