Songs Of the Day: October 14-16, 2005
The Johnsons - Sylvia Plath
From the LP Break Tomorrow's Day,
Fever/Enigma Records, 1986
Scruffy the Cat - You Dirty Rat
From the EP "Boom Boom Boom Bingo,"
Relativity Records, 1987
The Flies - Is Love Real
From the EP "The Flies Get Burned,"
Homestead Records, 1985
More catch-up with some songs based on your comments and conversations. First, The Johnsons from Philadelphia with their swell cover of the Peter Laughner classic, then Boston's much-maligned Scruffy the Cat with one of their best pop songs. We conclude with the marvelous Flies, also from Boston, who were described as "Bob Dylan meets the Soft Boys" by (I believe) Gerard Cosloy back in the day.
14 Comments:
Requests? Flies, "Endless Summer.."
Nice....i actually booked The Johnsons into a tiny club in Cedar Falls, Iowa [Devin Hill's pre Dangtripper group, Smash Minstrel, was the opener], and they played like champs to about 12 people [my family and friends, pretty much]. I paid them 100 clams out of my own pocket, let them stay at my place....they bought me lunch the next day before heading to Iowa City. Easily the highlight of my extremely short booking career....love your site.
it's like being 25 again.....
Maybe it's because I was living in Boston at the time and loving most of their stuff, but why do you consider Scruffy The Cat to be "much-maligned?"
Mostly because of that batch of mean rock writers (all of whom I used to read religiously) like Cosloy (Conflict) and Byron Coley and Jimmy Johnson (Forced Exposure). Possibly Art Black (Away From the Pulsebeat). Scruffy were frequently derided in various corners of the fanzine world for being a staid bar band who appealed primarily to the college party crowd, and if you were there, then you know far more than I do about whether that was an accurate assessment or not, although I expect some of the ire was based on jealousy over the fact that they were quite popular. But they certainly weren't critical darlings.
Jon
I meant "suspect."
Jon
I was at a gazillion Scruffy the Cat and Johnsons' shows in the mid 80's, as I toggled back and forth between home in Boston and college in Philly. I think I may have even managed to get them on the same bill once. I was sort of a Johnsons uberfan--no small feat being a fan of a band which would continually shoot itself in the foot, professionally speaking. Occasionally I'd be invited on stage to play "Shake Some Action" with them. Later, the Wishniaks would cover the Johnsons' version of the Peter Laughner song "Sylvia Plath". We were big into covers of covers. The last Trolleyvox album had a kind of homage-to-Scruffy instrumental tune on it called "Chesterman", but who knows if Charlie knows of its existence. Scruffy did catch a lot of flack from the writers Jon mentioned, but I remember Scruffy shows being pretty packed full of all sorts of hip girls and boys who weren't afraid to dance to a great live band.
Andrew
Scruffy was never my favorite, but nor did they seem as bad as the Conflicts of the world made out. The worst I can say about them is that they're annoyingly catchy. I mean, I'm now going to have "My Baby (She's All Right)" in my head all day, and it's going to drive me nuts.
re: scruffy -- they really did sound like a bar band to me, and they had some major competition from other bands of that time/place who were doing more interesting things (imho). i particularly liked some of the stuff by the neighborhoods, who bear some resemblence to scruffy in approach. perhaps the most underappreciated album of that time is "burning in water" by moving targets.
Sweet trio of selections, Jon! I had no idea until now that Scruffy were bashed in their time, although hearing that this came from some of the easygoing folks whose work I usually skipped shouldn't have surprised me. Johnsons guitarist Mike Morrison was a favorite of mine. He actually rehearsed a few times with our band with the thought of replacing our recently "retired" lead guitarist, but then he got the offer to move to LA and move on up in the world of radio. Too bad for us. He was awesome.
Jim-
Byron Coley on the Wishniaks: "I feel safe in saying they'll blow the doors offa Bongos fans."
Which to me seemed like a nice compliment.
Jon
The entire Johnsons album 'Break Tomorrow's Day' is available for download at my site http://www.anditgoes.com/
Ths is a tribute to Philadelphia original local music, past and present.
Scruffy are genius, whatever to Cosloy! They sure were popular here in Boston. I still listen to Tiny Days about once a month.
I saw Scruffy a couple of times at the now-defunct Green Parrot in Neptune, NJ in the late 80s...one of the most entertaining live bands I've ever seen in a club.
And I have all of their official releases..."You Dirty Rat" and "Blue Russian" are dynamite songs...oh how I miss those guys!
Hello i'm from Spain and 34 years old. I think i'm the lonely Johnson's fan here! Nobody knows them. Break tomorrow days is my bible since 1987 when i buy it (sorry for my english). My song is Phototrails (ufff is great!). Can anybody give some more information about them? Actually they are playing?
Thanks!!
Angel.
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