Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don, and Dude.
The boys are back in town.
That's right.
It's Album Nerds podcast time.
I'm Dude.
I got Andy and Don with me.
Gentlemen, how are you feeling this fine, fine day?
Yeah, I'm doing good.
I'm doing good.
I'm just sitting here wondering what we could possibly be talking about on the show today.
Don, how about you?
It's going to be crazy.
Yes.
Possibly.
A little bit.
All right.
So this is the Album Nerds podcast.
We like albums.
We like talking to each other.
I generally just like talking.
So today we have got a great show for you.
We're going to pick three albums and go into those, answer a question, talk about what
we learned, and then spin the wheel of musical destiny to find out what kind of albums we'll
be talking about next time.
This time it's all about those one hit wonders.
One hit wonders.
It's a very common tale.
That's what I'm talking about.
So it was very important that we define this one.
So we turned to Wikipedia who defined it.
It's a one hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece
or work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success.
The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with only one hit single
that overshadows their other work.
And for the purpose of this exercise, we just used the US Billboard Hot 100 charts.
So each of us chose an album from a one hit wonder.
Yeah, one hit wonders.
Lots of fun.
A little harder than I thought because there's stuff you think is, but it isn't because maybe
they had another minor hit or you just didn't know they had another hit.
So we did a lot of digging, all of us.
I listened to Space Hog.
Oh, was it an alien?
What was that song?
Meantime?
Oh my gosh.
In the meantime.
I actually saw them.
They were on this brotherly love tour in the early 2000s.
This is the weirdest bill ever.
The Black Crows, Oasis, and Space Hog.
Space Hog were the openers because they all had brothers in their bands.
Oh wow.
That's a stretch.
Bobby McFerrin, Simple Pleasures, Don't Worry Be Happy.
I never listened to the whole album.
It's weird.
I mean, Bobby McFerrin is a respected jazz guy.
Go check it out.
It's got some weird stuff on it and a lot of covers.
The Dream Academy, they're self-titled, Life in a Northern Town, Simple Minds, a couple
of their albums, but Once Upon a Time with Don't You Forget About Me, surprisingly rocking.
Little Tuesday, Voices Carry, that's Amy Mann.
I found out that she had briefly been in the band ministry.
Lots of interesting stuff.
What?
Yeah, I know, I know.
Very briefly.
She had a relationship with that lead singer dude.
The one I was closest on was Nazareth, Hair of the Dog.
They're known for Love Hurts.
There we go.
Oh boy.
Sorry I didn't pick that one.
But yeah, so many others.
Cod's Goo Goo, John Waits, The Breeders.
I would have done Blind Melon or The Darkness had I not already picked albums by those bands
on previous episodes.
How did you guys do?
Well, I didn't have quite as big of a list as you this time, but-
That's only half.
I didn't even get into everything.
Wow man.
All right, I'll mention a couple.
Dr. John, In the Right Place, At the Wrong Time.
Must be the wrong time.
Very enjoyable record from the early 70s.
Ram Jam and their self-titled album, the track Black Betty.
That was on my list too.
I think I got enough of your listening list.
Yeah, pretty fun.
And one other one, Anita Ward.
I remember the track Ring My Bell from the late 70s.
Ring my bell.
She had a pretty good record that was on actually.
She's had a couple other minor hits or not big enough hits, but successful songs on that
record for her.
Well, I went back into my formative years.
I remember listening a lot to an album by Modern English called After the Snow, which
features the song I Melt With You, which is kind of weird because it actually wasn't a
hit at the time.
I think it came out in 84 or 85 and then it didn't actually chart, at least in the United
States until the 90s when it started showing up on like I Love the 80s compilations and
stuff like that.
But that's actually kind of like a solid sort of new wavy post-punk record.
We had done in the past that record from The Laws, which features There She Goes.
That would have been a really good pick for this theme.
And I was an early adopter of The Proclaimers.
Do you remember The Proclaimers, the 500 miles?
You were on that before Benny and June?
They were on the original Letterman show.
And I'm like, whoa, here's these weird Scottish dudes with glasses.
And I really liked the song.
And so yeah, I had that record, Sunshine on Leith, which is, it's solid.
It's a good record.
All right.
Let's move on to the songs that we picked or the albums that we picked.
You choo-choo-choose me?
Our next guests are a wonderful twosome here to perform a fantastic song from their day
of debut CD, St. Elsewhere.
Please welcome Niles Barkley.
Speaking of David Letterman, a little clip from his show introducing my selection here.
We are talking about the duo Niles Barkley and the record St. Elsewhere came out in April
of 2006.
The big single is entitled Crazy.
Like those strings kind of sounds like Rocky or something.
Yeah, I've never considered that sounding like Rocky before, but yeah, I suppose.
Okay.
So Crazy picked up number two on the Billboard Hot 100.
It was also a big hit in the UK, becoming the first UK single to top the charts on downloads
alone.
So this came out in 2006, just when that kind of like internet sales of music was really
becoming a thing.
And this album took advantage of that.
Probably a lot of iTunes purchases for 99 cents.
Word up, definitely.
So Niles Barkley is a duo comprised of CeeLo Green, who I think most notably before this
was a member of the Goodie Mob, which is like a hip hop collective from Atlanta, and producer
Danger Mouse, who at this time was a fairly unknown commodity.
He had done this cool mixtape called The Gray Album, which is like a mashup of Jay-Z and
The Beatles.
It was pretty popular on the internet, but didn't have much credibility yet in the music
industry.
So my three words to describe this record are crazy cartoon creation, going back to
the alliteration.
That's been a while.
Yeah.
I mean, this record, I really enjoyed it when it came out.
It was kind of fun going back to it after all these years.
It's like psychedelic funk soul pop, I guess I would say.
It's very high energy, kind of like a spastic sound.
Oh.
Just a colon.
Yeah, colon.
That's what I was feeling throughout the album.
Lyrically, this record feels very much like a therapy session, I would say.
Especially, CeeLo does all the writing and the singing, and he's working through some
demons on this record, I would say.
A lot of the tracks deal with kind of like this eccentric star persona that I imagine
is at least a portion of his personality.
Let's put another cut from the record.
This is the closer of last time.
Yeah.
So that one felt like a more sort of traditional kind of love seduction number done in a dancey
way.
The three words I chose to describe the album are psychedelic dance party.
I think that's mostly what it is.
Most of the tracks are danceable, and it's just the sonic experience is very psychedelic,
right?
There's a lot of little elements here and there thrown in, little subtle things that
you discover when you're listening on headphones, and that's what the psychedelic experience
is all about.
Yeah, I think CeeLo Green's vocals are just, I think, perfect for this experience.
I can't really imagine it with another vocalist.
It just seems to kind of match this kind of crazy or sort of wacky experience.
It is a unique voice because he certainly has vocal talent, and he has range.
He can do a lot of things with his voice, but it also just has this gruff, a unique
style.
To me, there was no variation.
It was just the same voice in every song without, I don't know.
The delivery in Crazy is fine, but then when it's the same exact delivery in every single
song, I just didn't think it was captivating in any way.
I would have liked to have heard some different voices, some pushing it at times or going
lower at times, but it was just the same drone for me.
I don't know about him.
I mean, I feel like he really explores a lot.
He does these little voices.
He has conversations with himself.
He has a pretty big range.
He does rapping as well as talk singing.
I think he's a fairly adept singer.
Maybe he's not a great singer, but he does a lot with his voice, I feel like.
I think my problem is comparing.
This to me is just lazy outcast.
It just has no personality for me.
I don't know.
I was very surprised that I wasn't into it, and I listened to it, I don't know, five times,
but I just couldn't catch a wave.
Couldn't catch a wave.
You guys keep talking and convince me.
Well, you did mention the outcast comparison.
That's where I went as well.
I still haven't, other than the record that we did, I still haven't really explored outcast
much, but this one seemed a bit more accessible to me.
Maybe it's just because it's maybe less hip hop-y than outcast.
The production of it still feels very much like a hip hop record with the low end and
all that.
This record to me very much feels like a product of the internet age.
It feels like a very digitally composed record, and we're exploring all these new things that
are possible at this time.
It feels to me very inorganic.
Yeah, it's true, yes.
Maybe that's part of the issue.
Maybe I'm not connecting to it because it doesn't feel analog at all.
Plus, I had aged out when this was popular.
I was not...
I mean, I heard the song, obviously, but I was not really seeking that at that point.
The style of music.
Yeah.
All right, we're going to play a little chart from the record.
This is kind of in the middle of the record.
It's called Just A Thought.
Yeah, I mean, I did connect with this because that's how I felt when I was listening to
the album.
Oh, jeez.
Surprised you didn't connect with Who Cares a few tracks later.
That was possible.
Yeah, I think you touched on it, Andy.
The internet age, the length of albums, the length of songs, it was just a little much
for me at times.
I love some of the Danger Mouse production.
I love the sounds underneath.
I was feeling more distracted by the vocals than connecting to them.
But that song explores themes of introspection, self-reflection, mental struggles.
I think that's kind of the thing throughout this record.
You didn't find that effective?
No, I didn't feel like sharing.
It felt more like just finding a thread to fit the songs.
I don't know.
It didn't feel like C-Low was really opening up to me, which is what I need.
Yeah, no, I think they were trying to sell this troubled rock star persona.
I don't necessarily know if it was coming from C-Low, but that's what they wanted to
project sort of.
Maybe that was the problem, wanting to project, wanting to be instead of just being.
The three words I used to describe this album were not crazy enough.
It wasn't dangerous in any way.
Like I said, the production and the music is really cool.
I just feel like more could have been done vocally with more voices, with more weird
sound effects and stuff that would have told the tale of craziness and introspection and
questioning yourself.
But it could have been worse too.
I've heard worse.
Fair enough, fair enough.
Yeah, so Norris Berkley would go on to release one more record.
They're supposedly working on their third, but they've been saying that for about five
years now.
We'll see if that ever comes to light.
But yeah, once again, the record is Saint Elsewhere, Norris Berkley.
If you haven't heard the full thing, I think that's interesting.
Listen, as long as you're not the dude.
I liked it.
It rocks, it rocks, it rocks for a meal with lots and lots.
That's Charles Berkley.
And I would take that over Norris Berkley.
It's terrible.
Terrible.
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me.
If you're enjoying the show and we hope you are, do us a solid and leave a review on Apple
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Maybe we made you laugh or you discovered an album you enjoy.
Leaving a review keeps the show going and helps other music fans find us.
Yes, I love technology, but not as much as you, you say.
But I still love technology.
The best part is Andy thought that was the artist that got the attention today.
Yes, so my pick for a one hit wonder is Gary Newman.
The album is called The Pleasure Principle, released in September 1979.
And the big hit here in the United States was a song called Cars.
So this song was actually inspired by an incident when Newman was driving.
Apparently he had annoyed the people in the car in front of him.
He was probably singing that really loud.
And when they got to a traffic light, I guess these people got out of the car and were basically
coming to get him.
And so he managed to escape in his car.
And so the song is basically about the idea that in this modern world, you can feel kind
of safe and protected in your automobile.
Also interestingly, this song was written on a bass guitar, the only song that Newman
has ever composed on a bass guitar.
He writes on a piano.
So those, he came up with that and then I guess the song came easy afterwards.
So The Pleasure Principle is, well, it's the first album under the name Gary Newman as
a solo album.
But actually he had done two albums under the name Tubeway Army, which were basically
also solo albums.
But the record label had fought him on that and wanted to do Tubeway Army because they
had some, I guess, legacy in punk rock.
They had kind of started out as a sort of a melodic punk rock group.
Gary Newman was born Gary James Webb in London in 1958.
He's an English musician who faced intense hostility from critics and fellow musicians
early in his career, but has since come to be regarded as a kind of an electronic music
pioneer.
So the three words I chose to describe the album are machines have souls.
So I think stereotypically with synth pop, it can feel sort of cold and lifeless.
Plus it's particularly early synth pop.
A lot of it is about technology and robots and science fiction and stuff like that.
But I think what's cool about this album is it actually does have live drumming.
A guy named Cedric Sharply, I think does a really good job on the album.
And also most of the bass guitar is also live and traditional.
And so I think that sort of sustains some life and pulse throughout the album.
Let's hear a little more.
Here's one called Me.
It's actually abbreviated M-E, which is mechanical engineering.
Beep bop boop bop beep bop beep bop.
I'm a computer.
Love that tune.
I love that song.
This is why we don't have more dance music on the show.
Don, I was going to ask you if the drums were real because I think that makes a huge difference.
I'm not a big electronic music guy, but one of the things I don't think offends me the
most about it is the fake drums, the drum machine stuff or the recycled beat stuff.
So I did connect with this.
That particular song, I think I had heard before.
I'd never listened to this whole album.
I was only aware of cars and it was one of those kind of, yeah, early days of MTV sort
of things.
I didn't think much about it.
So the song Me, the lyrics depict a person with mechanical eyes experiencing a sense
of detachment and longing for human connection, which kind of goes into what those stereotypes
about electronic music, especially in the early days, they did focus more on the mechanical
side of things.
His vocals are cold and detached, kind of contrasting the human and mechanical elements.
But it's a great song and I think this dystopian vision of a mechanized future was with the
emotional consequences that come was really what we thought about in the 80s about the
future and technology.
We couldn't have foreseen that instead it's become people just shedding on each other
with comments instead of it being a cold bleak thing.
Instead it's this very volatile landscape.
It's just interesting how different it turned out, at least so far until the machines take
over.
The three words I used to describe this album were rockin' computer nerd.
It really was the analog bits of it and the bass and elements that made this sound really
cool.
I mean, I really dug into this album.
I'm going to keep listening to it.
I'm going to see if I can find a copy on vinyl.
I see why he is considered an architect of synth pop and electronic derived music.
Shockingly interesting to me and maybe it'll...
I'm shocked.
...open my mechanical eyes a little bit to especially this era of synthesized music.
Yeah, one thing Newman was big on and I guess what appeals to me is just those sustained
synth notes.
He doesn't...
Yeah.
He's not like Rush going, do-do-do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do.
It's just like, do-do-do-do.
But just that eerie, dramatic sound that he gets out of the synths, which I like.
It's almost like a drone style at times.
It was like, do-do-do-do.
Yeah.
I mean, not completely dissimilar to Flock of Seagulls.
They had the same sustained synth notes.
They were on the One Hit Wonder list as well.
Well, let's hear another track.
This is Observer.
Yeah.
So my three words to describe this record are Henry Ford would be proud.
To me, this feels a little bit like a bit of a production line going out on this record
here.
Surprisingly, because I'm definitely a fan of Gary Newman.
I've definitely enjoyed a lot of his records over the years.
And this one, for whatever reason, didn't really resonate with me as much as I thought
it would.
I've played some of the singles, like the Cars track I enjoy quite a bit.
But I really, I almost thought I was Cars for starting up three or four times listening
through the record before you actually get to that point.
There's so many tracks that are in that same sonic palette, I guess I would say.
Similar sounding instruments and either almost similar compositions.
And this is something that's not uncommon in electronic music at all.
I think repetition is a big part of what's going on.
But I think what I liked most about it coming back to it this time was his lyrics.
Man, he really creates this dystopian world almost that he's living in.
And especially that track Observer where he's talking about watching people and judging
them from afar.
I found that pretty compelling.
I think he's pretty consistent throughout the record with that perspective.
As well as albums, I think really does feel like the album artwork where he is an outsider
looking in on this little creation he's made, which I really liked that whole idea.
And I think that I 100% bought in on.
I just felt like sonically a lot of the ideas were kind of just being moved around from
track to track, which wasn't super interesting after 45 minutes.
Musically, that did sound a lot like Cars in parts.
So I agree with you there, Andy.
I was going to interject with the differences, the lyrics, and you said it very well.
That is usually not important in electronic music.
It's just one line repeated over and over again.
And the lyrics here are very, well, let's say Don-ish.
This is English sort of mopey, I'm an outsider kind of music, but just with a different skin.
So Don, were you into this?
No, not really.
I knew of Gary Newman just from MTV and VH1 and stuff like that.
But yeah, when I was into electronic stuff, I was even into like OMD, who kind of came
out around the same time.
But yeah, Gary Newman wasn't really on my radar until maybe like the last 10 years.
I mean, I feel bad labeling him as a one hit wonder.
Technically, he's not in the UK.
The album before this one actually broke through and hit number one in England.
And there's a song called Our Friends Electric, which hit number one.
But he's had a long career.
And every album kind of built from the last, he didn't just keep doing the same thing over
and over.
And now if you hear him, he's much heavier.
It's an industrial sound.
But it's still, it's a lot of that dystopian kind of stuff.
So I definitely recommend his most recent albums if you want to check him out.
OK, so that was Gary Newman with The Pleasure Principle.
The pleasure principle.
That was unscripted.
Yeah.
Excuse me.
I'd like to ask you a few questions.
It's that time on the show when we ask ourselves a question.
So this week, what's your one hit wonder?
I guess we mean like what's your what's a success that you had and maybe didn't replicate?
My one shining moment of glory.
This is a very personal question.
For me, it came at age six.
That was my peak in life.
I went to the circus with my family.
I entered a coloring contest.
I had a color, a large picture of the circus.
It was very accurate with my coloring because they had all the lines.
I submitted it.
I won.
They called me up on stage.
I got to show my drawing to the entire audience, which was like probably the biggest advice
I'd ever given to you in my life at that time.
So it felt like.
Is that what inspired you to become a graphic designer?
And now I'm a famous colorer.
Do you still have that picture?
I wish I did.
I can picture it.
I'd love to post it on the socials.
I'll try to recreate it.
See, he easily could have just done what no one's going to know.
Just wrinkle up the coloring book paper a little bit.
Yeah, but I know just thinking back, like, so that I was the winner of all these, but
I didn't really, I never got any prize.
I just got the recognition.
It was kind of a rip off.
You sure your parents didn't take it?
Like stage parents?
So Andy's story kind of made me think about more childhood victories.
And I, one summer I entered into a big wheel race contest at the local grocery store.
Hinky dinky.
And, uh, hinky dinky.
I had a lot of fun with that name as a kid.
Hinky stinky, stinky dinky, you know.
That's right.
Very, that dinky is super ripe.
So the, the big wheel I had was a Spiderman machine.
It had two big back wheels and you had these sticks on the side to move the back wheels
instead of turning the front wheel.
Oh my gosh.
That's awesome.
You could spin out really, you know, you could do skids and stuff.
So they had this course set up in the parking lot at hinky dinky.
And we, we did the race and I was against a bunch of punks on normal big wheels and
smoked them.
Wow.
Cause I could, I could make those turns.
I don't remember what I won, but it was a Saturday morning.
I just remember thinking it was really awesome.
Plus getting to take my big wheel somewhere and ride it unusual place.
And, um, but yeah, it was, uh, that was a good day.
That's probably the only time I've won a sporting event.
That's cool.
Well, apparently, uh, you know, my biggest successes were in childhood as well.
Uh, although this one I believe was, was ninth grade might take a second to explain in gym
class.
It was like when we were doing basketball and I got, you know, I had to come up and
help the coach demonstrate, you know, some dribble move or something.
Uh, and he called up a, another kid who was this, um, this kid that just did not like
me, kind of like a little guy, but like a tough little guy.
And for some reason he just, you know, hated me.
It wasn't a bully because he was tiny, you know, um, like half the size of me, but he
was still just an asshole to me all the time.
He was jealous of you.
Maybe, maybe.
Uh, but anyway, so we were like demonstrating this move and then at some point he's got
to kind of pass me the ball and he kind of, when he did it, he just like launched it at
me.
Like I think expecting me to be like unprepared for it to hit me in the face.
Um, and I just nonchalantly caught it.
Just nice and easily.
And I knew that that crushed him.
Yeah.
So that's, you know, that's of all the things I've accomplished in my life.
That's, that's my favorite.
What was, what was, what was that bitch's name?
Uh, Jeff.
Eat it, Jeff.
Look, look who's got a podcast.
All right.
Well what was your one hit wonder?
Let us know.
We have Facebook, Instagram threads, uh, and of course, uh, discord album nerds.com slash
discord.
I said,
So I went with one hit wonder group thin Lizzie best known for the boys are back in town,
which I'm sure y'all have heard at sporting events at biker bars and pretty much anywhere
dudes are flexing.
So yeah, uh, thin Lizzie, the album is jailbreak from 1976, the bicentennial here in the U.S.
of a, but these fellows are from Ireland.
You wouldn't know it, but why don't we, uh, jump in and listen to my favorite song on
the album.
Cowboy song.
All right.
So, uh, band from Ireland, super Irish dudes, a lot of Irish folk in their, in their sound
did a song about being a cowboy.
They did a pretty good job too.
I think, you know, cowboy movies, Western films from the U S were very popular.
So people knew how to paint the picture.
Love the guitar riffs on that song.
Love Phil's Phil line it.
I love his voice and I love that delivery.
It's just, it's got swagger in it.
It sounds like a guy who's bucking Broncos.
So the album jailbreak was thin Lizzie's sixth album.
That's a long way to go to get, uh, your one hit wonder from, uh, boys are back in town.
So their earlier albums were more steeped in Irish tradition.
Uh, those elements were there.
I think this one was their last chance.
The record label is going to drop them.
So they, they, uh, Phil kind of took over songwriting duties and they made an effort
to be more accessible to us audiences and such.
The three words I used to describe this album were a groundwork for greatness.
So as I said, unusual for a one hit wonder to take six albums to get there, but they
built their sound.
They were a real band.
Also unusual for one hit wonder to lay the groundwork and have influence on a burgeoning
music scene.
So the stuff they were doing really influenced and shaped hard rock, the dueling guitars,
how that made its way into metal.
But I first discovered them really because I mean, I knew the boys were back in town,
but, uh, anthrax on the sound of white noise album, I think it was a bonus track.
They did a version of the cowboy song and I fell in love with the song and it led me
to the thin Lizzie.
It's cool.
All right.
So why don't we get into a song that's a little bit more Irish in its subject matter, but
still rocks pretty hard.
This is how it works.
My three words describe this record are thin, not scrawny.
I feel like this was a pretty meaty record.
There's a lot going on here outside of just kind of the rough and rowdy persona this band
had.
Yeah, I love the dual dueling guitar sounds, I guess, or the dual guitar sound that track
there, the closer emerald, I thought was awesome.
I wish that track was like five minutes longer and maybe the record was like another five
minutes longer too.
Or another 10 minutes longer.
You don't have to say that very often.
Yeah, I think it was just getting good as it, as it was coming to a close.
Yeah.
Sounds like warriors and jailbreak.
I thought were really good.
And the single is still, the single is pretty fun.
You know?
Yeah.
I think it's called The Second Town.
I didn't used to, I think I kind of was eye-rolly at it.
Because I think mostly because I saw Uncle Jesse on Full House playing that song and
I was just like, good God.
So that kind of ruined it for me for a while.
But yeah, it's a good song.
It's cool tune.
And I guess originally it was going to be about guys coming back from Vietnam, but the
record label wanted to dial that back.
So it just became about boys, you know, like a reunion of high school friends or whatever.
It's a very universal message, but yeah, I was impressed.
Like there's a lot of intricacies that happened throughout, especially with the guitars that
I thought were pretty interesting.
The only thing I didn't really care for was it was a track Romeo.
I like that song.
It was quite too poppy for me.
It really stuck out.
It was not really fitting with the rest.
I liked the sitting all on his O'Neal, Romeo, poor Romeo sitting out on his O'Neal.
It sounded-
You liked that lyric?
I thought it sounded kind of Irishy, you know, like, oh boy, oh, you know, it just had this,
I don't know.
I thought it was cool.
I didn't make the Irish, I didn't know the Irish connection, but still, O'Neal, come
on.
It's a nursery rhyme.
Yeah, there were moments where I definitely heard other bands like the Rolling Stones
at times.
They kind of have some of that, that stompy swagger.
There were a couple of riffs that I thought sounded very kiss-ish at times.
Totally agree.
It's like kiss with good lyrics.
Yes, better lyrics, yeah.
Yeah.
You know, I'll just throw in, we've talked about the dual guitars.
The story I heard was that they had a lot of turnover in the band over the years.
They formed in like 69.
Phil was sick of that, so he hired two guitar players, so if one left, they'd still have
someone that knew all the stuff.
I'd stick a backup.
So then they had two guitarists and then they started doing the dual stuff.
That's the story.
Might be true, may not be true.
All right, why don't we listen to another track?
This one is Warriors.
So Warriors was written by Lyna and Gorham.
The Warriors refer to heavy drug takers, which I thought was an interesting way of looking
at it.
I think Jimi Hendrix, he knows what he's getting into and just goes for it, which is, yeah.
Not how you typically hear drugs talked about.
Well, especially since he then had his own heroin struggles and hepatitis and illnesses
and died at an early age in 1986 or so.
So yeah, maybe should have looked at it a little differently, Phil.
Sorry.
Yeah, it didn't do well for Jimi Hendrix either.
So the words I chose for the album are give it a second, as in actually give it a second
listen.
So the first time listening through, it just kind of sounded like sort of typical rock
and roll, good or whatever.
And then, yeah, once I listened to it a second time, I don't know, all of a sudden I just
discovered the magic.
And I don't really, I have a hard time, I think, talking about this record because I'm
not sure what makes it good.
It's just like every song just hits the right chords and notes and it's just a good sounding
record and I really kind of fell in love with it.
And I guess it lives kind of somewhere in between that glam and metal.
It reminded me, I guess also because of the two lead guitars of Judas Priest, just a little
bit lighter.
And I imagine Thin Lizzy influenced Judas Priest a little bit or all those English metal
bands.
So I'm really surprised.
Good album.
Surprised that you liked it.
And surprised that I liked it so much.
Yeah.
I listened to their discography and this one is touted as their best and I think it is.
I'm tempted here, gentlemen, because I do think this was influential.
I do think this is, especially being a representation or representative of Irish rock and roll,
I think I'm going to have to nominate it and let you guys have an opportunity to shoot
me down.
Albinur's Hall of Fame.
I'm going to make you guys uncomfortable here.
So I say yes, it's influence, it's longevity and the fact that they were a one hit wonder
band that put in so much time, made so many records and so much music, this being the
high point, got to do it.
Your turn to say no.
Well, I was really anticipating Don maybe nominating Gary Newman for the Anos.
I thought about it.
I was not anticipating this.
Sometimes a vote is more, it's a vote for the record and more a vote of confidence in
the person who's nominating it.
True, true.
I did that for one of Don's picks and I was like, yeah, I think it's a good record and
I trust that you think it's a better record.
So maybe I'll get to that point at some point.
Yeah, that was the band, I think.
Yeah, exactly.
That was the band, which I've come to really like that record in the time in between.
So it paid off.
And Thin Lizzy was, if this helps at all, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
I believe in 2012.
Yeah, I don't doubt their influence.
It's really just the specific nine songs.
I'll say yes.
I'm feeling generous today.
Ha cha cha.
Yeah, I'm going to say yes as well.
Donnie Laakey.
Yes.
You know, even beyond, I mean, I know that they're an influential band, but just personally,
I just, I mean, I was really excited by the record.
That doesn't always happen.
Unexpectedly, Against All Odds, Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak, also a great song, the title track.
1976, Alvin Nerd's Hall of Fame, Memba.
All right.
So we went through a long list of one hit wonders over the years and we found a few
decent albums here to talk about.
What did we learn?
Well, I mean, I think the main thing I want to talk about here is our definition of a
one hit wonder.
And I would like to petition to change it.
Okay.
I think it's, I think, tell me if I'm wrong guys, is it, it's kind of a derogatory term
from my perspective.
If you were to call somebody, even if they weren't a musician, if I were to call down
a one hit wonder, would you say that was a compliment or am I taking a jab at you?
One hit wonders, it's a very common tale.
Yeah, it's derogatory for the most part.
See, I feel like that definition has changed over time because of the accessibility of
music where Blind Melon, as an example, one hit wonder, but being a fan of theirs, I know,
I knew that there was a base of people that love their records and love more about them
than that one song.
So I think as music has become more discoverable, one hit wonder just means that they had one
major mainstream hit, but that doesn't, that is no longer derogatory to me.
We did have a little bit of a battle leading into the show.
Wikipedia make the rules for us.
As we always do.
I think it's important to note, like when I hear the word hit, I'm just talking about
commercial appeal.
So it's not really a comment on art, how good their art is.
And all three, the three of us found good art on these albums.
You're crazy.
I think, I mean, the part I got caught up on, like, especially, you know, Gary Newman and
then Lizzie, they're such influential artists.
And when you hear the music covered all the time and you can hear similarities in modern
day music, to just call them like kind of like a one-off, you know, they just had this
fleeting moment of brilliance and everything after that was shit.
I think it's just totally missing the entire history.
I don't think it's about brilliance.
I think it's about a song being a hit.
I mean, so many of the one hit wonders I looked at on the list, like the Macarena, Mambo number
five, that kind of stuff.
That's just a bunch of people liked something.
And those same people may have liked Thin Lizzie because it was a catchy tune and they
didn't dig in or get into what was underneath.
I don't want to judge anybody without listening to the whole record, but I think there is
a subclass of one hit wonders who really are wonders that this happened to them.
Like they were right place, right time kind of thing, had the right beat, was a universal
enough of a message.
All the stars aligned and this thing came out and they made a bajillion dollars and
that they faded into obscurity afterward.
We needed the broader definition or this show would have sucked.
I agree.
I totally agree.
I just wish we could classify those two groups separately and not lump them all together.
I think that's a big mistake.
Okay.
One hit wonders and one hit blunders.
It's not bad.
I like that.
Let's break those out.
That's one to grow on.
I'm your density.
I mean your destiny.
Hi boys and girls.
It is again, once that, what the fuck am I saying?
Wow.
That was good.
All right.
Hi boys and girls.
It is once again that time where we decide what fate has in store for us next week.
We are going to circumvent fate here and take just into our own hands as we like to do every
few months or so and take a look at some of the new releases.
What's popping, what's cracking, what's new with the kids.
Oh God.
What's new with the kids?
You know I'm going to pick a band that's been around for 20 years or 30.
Be as it may, as long as it's a new release, it qualifies.
Next week we're going to be talking about new releases that have come out in the first
half of 2023.
We'll resume our usual programming after that.
All right Don, you and I got some digging to do.
Mr. Up With The Times Andy is going to be fine.
I'm sure he has a list of 300 albums so far that he's enjoyed this year and you and I
are going to have to start reaching deep into that barrel.
Let's see what we can dig up.
See what Gary Newman's working on.
Yeah, there you go.
Well, Culture Wall just came out with an album so we can do him again.
What's your favorite new release?
Who's your favorite one hit wonder?
What else are you listening to?
Let us know.
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Thank you so much for joining us on the album nerds podcast.
We'll catch you next time with some new releases for Q1 and 2 of 2023.
It's all business.
We're going to do, oh yeah.
Thanks for listening everybody.
I think Andy had a stroke before the...
As soon as we went to the wheel thing.
You reboot here.
I'll make you crazy.
CeeLo, you're fired.
I'll make you crazy.