You can’t win ’em all, nor should you. In this case, I didn’t even try, as these just weren’t anywhere near the Buttsteak wheelhouse. Still, my mind was spinning on ’80s related music and I’d listened to a LOT from these particular bands back in the day, starting with the “big music” era of Mike Scott’s Waterboys, and especially their 1985 opus “This Is the Sea”.

After that album, founding bassist/ keyboardist Karl Wallinger stepped out to man his successful one-man project World Party and really let his Brian Wilson/ Beatles/ Zombies flag fly with chiming guitars and harmonies and poppy, spiritual, soulful gentle psychedelia. “Goodbye Jumbo” came in 1990 and sported the sunny gem “Put the Message In the Box”, one of my all-time favorite songs. If you’re wondering why I didn’t record a version of “Way Down Now”, well… now so am I…

In the meantime, the Waterboys had taken a surprising hard turn into a traditional Celtic folk meets Van Morrison lane and come out sparkling as well. “Fisherman’s Blues” is off their 1988 record of the same name, as is the affectionate “And a Bang On the Ear” (basically meaning a kiss on the side of the head).

Been hoping for years to take a stab at these songs, and hopefully did ’em some justice.

JK

Put the Message in the Box (World Party, Goodbye Jumbo, 1990)

Fisherman’s Blues (Waterboys, Fisherman’s Blues, 1988)

And a Bang on the Ear (Waterboys, Fisherman’s Blues, 1988)

You can’t win ’em all, nor should you… but occasionally things do fall in line. I wouldn’t have picked “Pretty in Pink” to be a fight and “Overkill” to be accepted right away but the Fabulous Flying Buttsteaks ended up picking up both of these tunes. Not surprisingly, given particular contributions of Fitz and Fuzzy and the New Guy on these songs, the full ‘Steak certainly brings more mojo than these tidy versions here. But figured I’d share…

JK

Pretty in Pink (Psychedelic Furs, Talk Talk Talk, 1981)

Overkill (Men at Work, Cargo, 1983)

You can’t win ’em all, nor should you. And, honestly, sometimes it seems a fair miracle that the prickly and musically diverse Buttsteak organization ever agrees on ANY songs to cover. We do try and get some boxes checked for everybody, though, and the cuts here represent some balloons I floated over to the gang around the time of one or more of our “recent” get-togethers. As I like to sometimes do, I started some demo versions, both to give myself a chance to try the songs on for size and to provide the fellers with something they could listen to rather than relying on the ol’ imagination. Well, as happens, the versions stalled out but I managed to go back and wrap ’em up. The song list varies from the good idea to less good, with songs that I think we should still do and some middle-of-the night head-scratchers. Happy to spill the beans on any and all! Ayway, good clean fun, and will include some more on another post.

JK

Life During Wartime (Talking Heads, Fear of Music, 1979)

Next to You (The Police, Outlandos d’Amour, 1978)

We Got the Beat (The Go-Go’s, Beauty and the Beat, 1981)

Only You (Yaz(oo), Upstairs at Eric’s, 1982)

I Held Her In My Arms (Violent Femmes, The Blind Leading the Naked, 1986)

Seven Seas (Echo and the Bunnymen, Ocean Rain, 1984)

I’m FAR from the only one for whom Neil is perennially and indisputably the central musical figure.  Man, I could just cover his songs forever.  His songwriting and playing and artistic vision in general… His particular guitar tone and style, lyrical wit and sincerity, simultaneous looseness and unswerving focus.  There is nothing more to be added.  So I’ve added some covers!  At least these are of a couple deep cuts/ stone cold classics.  These versions have been sitting around literally for years:

“Winterlong” (Neil Young, Decade, 1977): Semi-secret pop greatness, for many years available only on the “Decade” collection (still the best “best of” compilation out there, from then ’til now)… 

“The Emperor of Wyoming (Neil Young, S/T, 1969):  Secret instrumental greatness from that first, weird, good-not-great, first solo LP.  I realize Neil is THE Les Paul guy but, all respect to Old Black, it’s always fun to bust out the Gretsch and twang away.  Having the Bigsby tremolo to play with really suits my limited guitar skills!  This one also benefits from the baritone and some nice sounding “pianner”, and apparently dates from a time when I still knew how to play a little pedal steel…

Still clearing out the cobwebs, this batch of songs had been in the stalled-out production line since the 2015, partly as an attempt to live inside some songs for the Buttsteaks to possibly cover.  I prefer working on songs in pairs, probably out of ingrained A side/ B side bias, so there are three 45’s here, to my thinking anyway…

Out of these, the Buttsteak Family Circus ended up picking up only “Friday I’m in Love” and doing a nice job of it (including the bridge section that I’ve never taken much of a shine to, and left out of this basement laboratory version).  We’d covered the other Cure song, “Push”, and the Smiths’ “What Difference Does It Make” WAAAAaaayy back in the pre-Buttsteak days of ’87 (along with some other still-neglected hits) but likewise left those in the dustbin of history.  “Please, Please, Please…” was recorded just because it’s one of my favorite Smiths’ songs and I’m still convinced it could work in the right format.

The other “single” is, in my mind, done in the style of the underestimated, late-era, Joe Strummer-fronted Pogues. “If I Should Fall from Grace With God” I did as a St. Patrick’s thing.  Was hoping to pick up  “London Calling” for the Buttsteaks, thinking it a no-brainer but we ended up leaving it on the slag heap. It may yet rise again.