Greatest Song Evah 1/10/25

Yer So Bad

“My sister got lucky, married a yuppie. Took him for all he was worth.” That is an outstanding opening line, and the followup is just as good. “Now she’s a swinger, dating a singer. I can’t decide which is worse.” That’s a perfect intro to one of the most delightfully playful songs in Tom Petty’s catalog.

Yer So Bad was the final single released from Petty’s first solo record Full Moon Fever, although it wasn’t completely Heartbreaker free. Mike Campbell played lead guitar on the album, and co-produced the record along with Petty and another crucial collaborator. This album came out several months after the release of the first Traveling Wilburys record, and the Jeff Lynne sound is very apparent. This was during the period when Lynne was so prolific that it seemed like every other song on the radio sounded like late period ELO, but Petty’s distinctive vocals helped it stand out from the pack.

I mentioned how playful this song is, and it has a wonderfully joyous kick to it, even though the song takes a dark turn in the second verse. That yuppie is contemplating suicide after all. All is well for the narrator at least. Because his lover is so bad, she keeps him grounded. This is the type of perfectly constructed 3 minute single that could have perfectly fit in any era. It’s so bouncy.

The 2004 Critics Consensus Part 4

And now for the dramatic conclusion. To recap, I aggregated an assortment of 2024 music critics polls to determine the consensus picks of the top albums of the year. Without further ado, here is the top 10:

10. Beyonce - Cowboy Carter

9. Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft

8. Tyler, the Creator - CHROMAKOPIA

7. Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee

6. Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven

5. Kendrick Lamar - GNX

4. Jessica Pratt - Here In the Pitch

3. MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks

2. Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood

1. Charli XCX - Brat

Early Memories

Every once in a while one of those social media prompts comes up asking people what was the first big news event that they remember. Jimmy Carter’s funeral reminded me of this, because a Presidential funeral was among my earliest historical recollections. I was born in 1966, so I was a bit too young to have clear memories of the Apollo 11 landing, among other major events of the era. I dove into a rabbit hole to match dates with events that I do in fact remember, and the winner is a bit shocking.

First off is one that is the actual earliest calendar wise, but I don’t think it had enough national significance to count. That was the death of Gil Hodges. Hodges, the Mets manager, suffered a fatal heart attack at the end of spring training in 1972. He was replaced by first base coach Yogi Berra. I watched a couple of spring training games on TV, and when the coaches were shown the Mets announcers mentioned that Yogi would be going into the Hall of Fame that summer. At the time I didn’t understand how he could manage the Mets if he was “going into” the HOF.

As for a Presidential funeral, I have vivid memory of seeing a flag draped coffin on TV. At the time I did not know that this was Harry Truman’s funeral. I DID know when Lyndon Johnson died a month later, and when I watched his funeral as well, exactly who he was and that he was recently President. My kindergarten classroom had the photo montage of all of the Presidents on the wall, and being that LBJ was one of the few whose photo was in color, he was very recognizable to me. As an aside, since 6 year old me saw 2 Presidential funerals only a month apart from each other, I naturally assumed that this was a frequent event. As a second aside, it dawned on me years later that in the year and a half between LBJ’s funeral and Richard Nixon’s resignation, Nixon was the only living President. Meetings of the President’s Club must have been a barrel of laughs then. I’m picturing Nixon sitting alone, eating a cupcake while wearing a party hat.

Another 1972 event I remember clearly was Apollo 17. I was so excited about it. Although it was scheduled to launch in the evening well past my bedtime, my parents still allowed me to stay up late to watch it. Sadly, there was a delay in the launch of a few hours, so my only chance to see the launch of a moon mission was gone. I’m not sure if I knew at the time that it was scheduled to be the final Apollo mission.

My Olympic fandom also began in 1972. I definitely saw at least some of the Munich Olympics. I’m not sure if I saw Olga Korbut at the time, or if my memories of her performance are from ABC’s constant reairing of her famous parallel bars routine. I am absolutely certain that I saw at least a few of Mark Spitz’s races. I also clearly remember the tragedy. I heard someone mention that the Olympics were on hold because Arab guerillas were in the Olympic Village. As a 6 year old kid I heard that differently. I couldn’t understand what “gorillas” were doing in the Olympic Village and why that caused a postponement of events.

Which brings me to what is the earliest news event that I remember. I didn’t quite understand what a primary was, I only knew that it was a big deal. There was a mention of the New Hampshire primary in TV Guide, and on the night of the primary the results ran on a ticker as I was watching my show that evening. It was a couple of months after New Hampshire when George Wallace was shot, and when I heard that news I immediately wondered how that would affect the primary. Yep, my entry in the Earliest News Event competition was the assassination attempt on George Wallace. What that says about me, I do not know.

Peter, Wayne, and Anita

Speaking of early memories, you might recall that last month I reluctantly revealed that the very first single that I purchased with my own money was The Streak by Ray Stevens. I’m less certain about my first album. I have a few from around the time when I started splurging for albums, but I honestly don’t know which one was first. I do have a few albums that were given to me as gifts when I was a child, including some that are as embarrassing as the Ray Stevens single is.

I actually own 3 albums by The Osmond Brothers. Yep, I was a fan. The Osmonds had several superficial similarities to the Jackson 5. Both were brother acts with 5 members. Both had a charismatic youngest member of the act who dominated the spotlight. Both had Saturday morning cartoons. Both had a baby sister whose eventual stardom would eclipse almost all of her older siblings. The difference of course is that whereas the Jacksons produced a string of all time great hits, the Osmonds - who were one of the whitest musical acts of their time - did not. Despite that, I have to admit that I connect them so closely to my childhood that they will always hold a special place in my heart. I was saddened to hear that Wayne Osmond, the second oldest of the singing brothers, passed away last week at the age of 83.

Peter Yarrow also passed away this week. As part of the trio Peter, Paul, & Mary they were the most commercial successful act from the early 1960’s folk revival. Their hit versions of Blowin’ In the Wind and Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right introduced the songs of Bob Dylan to a mainstream audience that had not yet heard the actual Dylan. Yarrow was also connected to one of my more annoying habits in college. I got a kick out of the fact that Puff the Magic Dragon was on the jukebox at the main off campus bar, so of course I made it a point to play that record as often as I could. Belated apologies to my classmates. Yarrow will always have a black mark on his name due to a conviction for molesting a 14 year old girl. It’s hard to think of him or hear his music without feeling some revulsion. Yarrow was 86.

Yarrow’s sins faded in the public mind over time. Not so with Anita Bryant, who has also just died. A pop singer with a handful of hits in the late 50’s/early 60’s, by the time I knew who she was it was almost entirely due to her role as spokesperson for Florida Orange Juice, for which her TV commercials were ubiquitous. That was until she became an infamous bigot, standing at the forefront of the anti-gay rights movement. She was a hateful person and she worked to make the world a worse place. In the end, she was a fairly obscure public figure for the last decades of her life. Her supporters pushed her aside in favor of people even more hateful and hurtful than her. Let that be a lesson. If you contribute nothing to the public but hate, you will have nothing to show for it in the end except for notoriety. Bryant was 84.

50 Years Ago - The Four Musketeers

There has been no shortage of adaptations of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel The Three Musketeers over the years, but I would suspect that the first one that most people think of is the pair of films directed by Richard Lester. The second of the two, The Four Musketeers, was actually a 1974 release in Europe but it did not hit American theaters until early 1975, so here it is.

The Lester movies show exactly why it is a property that is rebooted so frequently. It is a story that works on multiple levels. It’s a classic swashbuckling adventure which is also filled with political intrigue. Lester ramped up the more lighthearted elements, adding just enough slapstick humor without descending too deeply into farce.

Although 4 Musketeers was technically a sequel, both films were shot at the same time. The original intention was to present the entire novel as one epic movie, but the shoot was running so long that it would not have been ready by the promised release date. Thus, the producers ultimately chose to split it into 2 movies, a process which has become increasingly common. The problem was that the actors signed up for, and were only paid for, one movie. Union rules have since changed so that producers can’t pull those types of shenanigans anymore. If two movies are shot simultaneously, then the actors are informed of that ahead of time and compensated accordingly.

It actually worked out well to separate the two halves in such a way. The back half, while still funny, was significantly more dramatic. There was a major death, which probably would have too drastic of a pivot in tone had it been one big film as intended.

Like most movies, it succeeded as well as it did because it was cast so well. A young and brash Michael York as D’Artagnan. An uncharacteristically low key Charlton Heston as Cardinal Richelieu. A perfectly evil Faye Dunaway as Milady de Winter. Raquel Welch proving that she could be a skillful comedic actress if given the proper opportunity. Christopher Lee at his most Christopher Lee. The OG musketeers were relatively bland compared to the other characters, but Oliver Reed made for an outstanding Athos.

A full 15 years later most of the actors reunited for a third movie, but as anyone who has seen sequels to classic films with similarly long gaps such as the Chinatown or Last Picture Show sequels can attest, eventually there comes a point where it’s virtually impossible to recreate the magic. The first two movies are perfect as is.

Closing Laughs

From the other side of the country I’m still finding it impossible to wrap my head around the horror of the wildfires. To all of you in the LA area, please stay safe. We’ll speak again on Monday and hopefully there will be happier news that we can all share. See you then.