As it says on the tin title block, songs I like from major artists/bands…that you may not have heard before. Which is my way of saying they were either not released as singles or were not hits here.
Without a Doubt – Split Enz [1977]
A young Neil Finn had just joined his big brother’s band. I believe he didn’t write any songs nor sang lead vocals on the associated album; their third outing called Dizrythmia (which means jet lag). Tim Finn wrote and took lead vocals on this one. It seems a bit of a reflective confessional, as well as exploring relationship issues. A theme he continued on with over the years. The lyrics are complex and interesting.
Muskrat Love – America [1973]
This 1973 cover was a very minor hit. It seems to really divide the fans. No surprises there, it’s about two muskrats, snuggling up. And this is a muskrat:
Yet, America did a lovely, straight version (meaning: not satire). I initially used to skip it on my History (Greatest Hits) CD, but then I started to let it play. And play a bit more. Over the years it’s drifted into my I Like That Song list. In 1976 a cover by Captain & Tennille went all the way to Number 4 in the USA.
Fanny (Be Tender With My Love) – Bee Gees [1975]
1975. The Bee Gees were just about to roll into dance music, but could still do lovely ballads. This wasn’t a hit here, but more successful in the US and hit Number 1 in Canada.
Barry Gibb claims: “We had a housecleaner named Fanny when we stayed at 461 Ocean Blvd. [in North Miami Beach] during the making of Main Course. We were sitting in the lounge at Criteria [Studios] writing the song with the lyric idea, ‘Be tender with my love’. Maurice turned round and saw Fanny and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be a better song if it was a woman’s name in there, and you’re asking her to be tender?’ “
Speaking of dance music, I read they recorded this track on the same day as the pulsating and magical Jive Talkin’
Axiom – Father Confessor [1970]
Legends Glenn Shorrock and Brian Cadd were the core of this superb Australian band of the late 1960s and early 1970s. As the description of the clip says “After 3 consecutive Top 5 hits with Arkansas Grass, Little Ray Of Sunshine & My Baby’s Gone, plus a Top 10 debut album (a rarity for Aussie acts in 1970), Axiom released their 4th & final single “Father Confessor” as the 2nd single from their UK recorded 2nd album “If Only..”
It goes on “it was another superb song & featured those timeless harmonies of Aussie legends Glenn Shorrock & Brian Cadd. As always Cadd had also written the song with Axiom’s bass player Don Mudie. However by the time the 2nd album & single came out the band had broken up…”
The single and album “sank almost without a trace”
It’s a superb song. I couldn’t find any lyrics online, so – last year – transcribed them. Part of them seem to be:
You just go on making them feel good
Feeling better every day
You just go on with that same old smile
But there’s someone dyin’,
Someone cryin’ all the while
[Chorus]
God only knows what a lonely life a soul can live
(What a lonely man…)
Carrying every load around town
(Carrying every load…)
Every pain for every night you spend in bliss
Dreading ever Sunday comes around
Free Bonus! More Axiom
Have to tell the sad tale of this other wonderful Axiom song Ford’s Bridge (1970), which has a very American (i.e. country) influenced sound. Text from the excellent Milesago website:
“…Brian Cadd revealed to Debbie Kruger that the Australian reference in the song “Ford’s Bridge” (named after a town in Queensland) it was, in fact, the result of pressure from outside the band:
‘ … we wrote a song, which must have been all the stuff that I had left in my head from ‘Arkansas Grass’, which I called ‘We Can Reach Georgia by Morning’. We had done some rough mixes and somebody played some of them to Stan Rofe and Rofe got right off his bike about it and said that it was absolutely unconscionable for us to use Georgia and why couldn’t we use an Australian name? So I succumbed to the browbeating of everybody, and we found in the atlas a place in Northern Queensland called Fords Bridge, which had the right meter for the words … I never really got over that. It really hurt me, It annoyed me … I just got very annoyed with the parochialism. When it reached out and touched me and made me change a word in a song. I hated it.’ …”