Clang & Clatter

You don’t need to be a fortune teller with a crystal ball to know it’s time for the Friday Five with IckMusic!

KISS - “Hooked on Rock and Roll” (1972 KISS/Lips Demos)
Demo that is, ironically, from back before KISS became a real rock ‘n’ roll band. Bop-shoo-bop, shoo-bop-bop-shoo-bop?! Seriously, best as I can tell, the collection of demos from which this comes was actually from Peter’s pre-Wicked Lester (and by extension, pre-KISS) band Lips.

Pink Floyd - “Goodbye Blue Sky” (The Wall, 1979)
“Look mummy, there’s an aeroplane up in the sky.”

KISS - “Black Diamond” (Alive!, 1975)
Considering today is Paul Stanley’s 60th birthday, it’s fitting that iTunes picked another KISS tune (maybe I should have made it an all-KISS playlist?). It’s hard to believe I was only 5 when this album came out, and I wish I had a nickel for every time I played guitar on a tennis racket pretending to be either Ace or Gene. Alive! is very nearly a perfect live album (overdubbing accusations aside) and contains the now definitive versions of their early hits (at least for the songs from the self-titled debut). Peter’s vocals on “Black Diamond” really make the song for me. I wish I could have frozen time for KISS at this moment right here.

Sugar - “Fortune Teller” (Copper Blue, 1992)
Though I was aware of Hüsker Dü in the 80s through a couple of mail-order SST compilation cassettes, I somehow missed out on Bob Mould’s excellent 90s output with Sugar. I guess I was too wrapped up with college, Anthrax, the burgeoning grunge scene, and MTV. I’m grateful that a co-worker introduced me to Sugar around 1999, a point in time where I was probably more prepared to appreciate it.

The Police - “Can’t Stand Losing You” (Message in a Box: The Complete Recordings, 1993)
A repeat from my January 6 Friday Five. Looks like my iTunes has a bit of a Police crush lately. At least it picked a good song.