Dad Rock Hall of Fame: Van Morrison

It's no secret that we love some good blue-eyed soul around these parts.  But the time has come to pay homage to one of the most versatile white dudes of all time -- Van Morrison.  He's the rich man's Wilson Valdez; he can do it all: R&B, rock, soul.  In addition to his great singles (which will be discussed in more detail below), Van the Man played a hell of a live show (It's Too Late To Stop Now is considered to be among the top live albums of all time) and could put together a great album, too.  So without further ado, it's time to take a look at his storied career.

1) Them -- "Gloria"
One of Van's earliest hits provides a total classic and perhaps the most easily remembered chorus of all time.  This jam was a pretty big deal in the early to mid 60s, a time when rock and roll drove kids nuts.  It's startling some fifty years later to see their reactions, something that appears to happen rarely in this day and age.


2) "Jackie Wilson Said"
A feel-good jam.  After all, who doesn't want to let it all hang out.  It's a testament to this song that it's still standing after Dexy's Midnight Riders' god-awful cover.


3) "Into the Mystic"
One of Tony Kornheiser's favorite songs, and with good reason.


4) "Caravan" (feat. The Band)
Having watched The Last Waltz more times than I'd like to admit, I can say with some authority that Van absolutely steals the show on this one.  So much going right here: The Band, the velour outfit, the theatrical kicks, his general "out of it" demeanor, and his grand exit (complete with dramatic point and near-stumble).


5) "Brown Eyed Girl"
This one is kind of like "Born to Run" in that anyone who listens to classic rock radio with any regularity will tell you that it's overplayed, but it's for a good reason -- it's that good.  A tune that will be played at nearly every wedding until the end of time because it's a catchy, relatively inoffensive song that everyone loves.


--J.J. Gittes

Dad Rock Hall of Fame Watch: Dawes

Although the Dad Rock series has focused on the legends of yesteryear, this installment profiles an up-and-coming band that appears to be on its way to becoming the contemporary standard-bearer for the genre.  Dad Rock has largely been cast off as a dead letter, but Dawes is breathing life into the genre with its vintage 70s laid-back sound, showing that all that was old is new again.  With its harmony-infused folk rock, Dawes' 2009 debut album, North Hills, has drawn comparisons to Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, and the other L.A. bands of the era.  It's no wonder that the band has received the stamp of approval of two Gentlemen-trusted music resources: Philadelphia's own 88.5 WXPN, and Daytrotter, having done multiple sessions with each institution.  As the band's sophomore effort, Nothing Is Wrong, is coming out in early June, it's time to learn more about a band with a great summer sound who and is on the fast track to Dad Rock stardom.  Put on your Clubmasters, roll up the sleeves on your chambray shirt, and pour yourself a tall drink.  Summer's almost here.

A band that knows the value of a well-fitting button-down shirt.

1) "When My Time Comes"

With a driving beat like this, it's no surprise that Chevrolet tapped this jam to be their everyman's anthem in some recent TV spots.

2) "Love Is All I Am"

Just a really basic, pretty song that highlights the things that Dawes does exceedingly well: vulnerability, harmonies, and bass lines.

Dawes - Love Is All I Am (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: Dawes

3) "With A Little Help From My Friends"

Bands with only one album to their name usually need to sprinkle in a cover or two into their live sets in order to fill the time.  Dawes does a faithful rendition of Joe Cocker's legendary version of "With a Little Help from My Friends," better known as the theme song from "The Wonder Years."  Without getting too off topic, how ridiculous is it that reruns of that show are buried on The Hub?  At least "Arrested Development" and "Freaks and Geeks" (not to be confused with the other "Freaks and Geeks") reruns are on IFC.

4) "If I Wanted Someone"

The lead single from the new album has some teeth to it (a pretty solid guitar solo) while still sounding like a Dawes song.  This has me excited about the direction of the album, which I suspect will be getting a lot of play this summer alongside the new album from Booker T. Jones and the Roots, which is my clubhouse leader for Album of the Summer.

There you have it -- some well-dressed dudes making some laid-back jams to make those summer days move easy.

--J.J. Gittes

Dad Rock Hall of Fame: Hall & Oates

Although the inductees of the Dad Rock Hall of Fame to date have been rock bands (with the rock trending on the softer side, as Dad Rock tends to do), it's time to acknowledge an R&B band that was inoffensive enough for dads, yet awesome.  A band that featured two caucasian Philadelphians with a penchant for resplendent mustaches and smooth grooves.  A band that carried the torch for blue-eyed soul during the 1980s and may or may not have played a role in your conception.  That band is none other than Hall & Oates.

John Oates: My brother in mustache

1) "She's Gone" from Abandoned Luncheonette (1974)

"She's Gone" is Hall & Oates's first single, which only reached #70 when it was first released in 1974.  After the success of "Sara Smile" in 1976, the "She's Gone" was re-released and was a top 10 hit.  Thank God the masses came to their senses the second time around, as it's a total jam.



2) "Sara Smile" from Darryl Hall & John Oates (1976)

This was Hall & Oates's first top five single.  I maintain that it's their best song.  Fairly sparse in the lyrics department, but what's there is awfully heartfelt.  I would imagine this was the 1976 middle school dance equivalent of  "All My Life," but way better.



3) "Rich Girl" from Bigger Than The Both of Us (1976)

"Rich Girl," Hall & Oates's first #1 single, tends to affect people emotionally.  For most people, it elicits a smile or a tap of the toes.  For David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, it allegedly inspired him to go on a killing spree in the late 1970s.  Universal appeal, indeed.



4) "Kiss On My List" from Voices (1980)

This song makes the list for a variety of reasons, foremost among them being that it serves as the soundtrack to every sporting event Kiss Cam ever.  Also a #1 hit.



5) "You Make My Dreams" from Voices (1980)

One of the top feel good jams, as evidenced by its multiple placements in film.  It was a top five song for a reason.



6) "Private Eyes" from Private Eyes (1981)

This was Hall & Oates's third of six #1 songs (the other three being "I Can't Go For That," "Maneater," and "Out of Touch").  Although I think this might be their Jump the Shark moment, it's a guilty pleasure with a great sing-along chorus.



--J.J. Gittes

Dad Rock Hall of Fame: Phil Collins/Genesis

As it's been three weeks since the last induction into the Dad Rock Hall of Fame, I have decided to atone by giving you a two-fer mega-post.

With the recent and saddening news that Phil Collins is retiring from music, it is altogether fitting and proper to take this time to recognize his accomplishments -- not only those of his solo career, but also his success as a member of Genesis, where his tenure overlapped with that of the great Peter Gabriel for five years.  How successful was Phil Collins, you might ask?  Well, over the course of his career he sold more than 100 million albums, which puts him in the elite company of Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney as artists whose collected output as a solo artist solo and band member has sold that well.

A man so wealthy that he doesn't care what you think about his work on the Tarzan soundtrack.

What makes the Phil Collins story so interesting is that he wasn't the lead singer of Genesis when he joined -- he was just the drummer.  Once Gabriel left Genesis to pursue his immensely successful solo career, Collins went on double duty and was awesome at both.  Although Genesis was a great band before Phil began to sing, their greatest success came with him at the helm.  It's no wonder that analysis of his work and the Gabriel to Collins transition has been included in major American cinema.

Without further ado, here's (what I think is) the best of Phil Collins's illustrious career in no particular order

1) "Follow You Follow Me" from Genesis's ...And Then There Were Three... (1978)

This was Genesis's first big hit, and there's a reason why it's still played on classic rock radio.  This song, both simple and honest/vulnerable, has stood the test of time.



2) "Misunderstanding" from Genesis's Duke (1980)

I didn't think about this until I read the Wikipedia entry, but the bass line in the chorus is really similar to that of Sly and the Family Stone's mega-jam "Hot Fun in the Summertime."  Perhaps that's why this is such a great song.



3) "That's All" from Genesis's Genesis (1983)

This was Genesis's first top ten hit in America.  It was also serviceably covered  by Keane, a band that had a great debut album in 2004 but hasn't done much since.



4) "Against All Odds" from the Against All Odds soundtrack (1984)

This may be the peak of Phil Collins's life.  Not only did "Against All Odds," a song Collins wrote about his wife leaving him, top the charts at #1, it was also the subject of an excellent (and really funny) segment on This American Life.  Perhaps even more impressive than the song's success is the marvelous lettuce Phil was sporting at the time.  The most bizarre thing about this song?  Montell Jordan of "This Is How We Do It" fame covered it in what is perhaps the least hood move of all time.  How one man can make a song so funky and one so anti-funky is beyond me.



5) "Easy Lover" with Phillip Bailey (1988)

This song is so awesome for so many reasons.  It's the best black guy-white guy duet since McCartney and Wonder's "Ebony and Ivory." It features Phillip Bailey, who sang lead on some of Earth, Wind & Fire's great tunes but also unfortunately has opted to keep this horrendous haircut.  And perhaps most importantly, the video features the dynamic duo chillin' in a helicopter.  What more could you want?



Before we close up shop, I'd like to address why I didn't include "In The Air Tonight."  I think most people know the song and/or the bizarre Cadbury commercial with the gorilla drumming along.  More importantly, once I found out that the story was not what I thought it was about (the story about him calling out the guy who the song was about was an urban legend), I could never listen to it in the same way again.

There you have it.  Sorry about the delay, I'll try to post at a more regular clip in the future, although with finals a month away, I can't make any guarantees.

-- J.J. Gittes

Dad Rock Hall of Fame: Steely Dan

Much like Fleetood Mac, Steely Dan is a no-brainer first ballot Dad Rock Hall of Famer.  Steely Dan was basically two guys, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, and a bunch of rotating studio musicians.  This is worth mentioning because one of those studio musicians was Michael McDonald, not to be confused with the guy from MadTV, who later went on to become totally awesome in the Doobie Brothers and a solo career and then totally insufferable as the old guy who wouldn't stop singing Motown songs.

Steely Dan was also noteworthy because it was unabashedly music by bright people for bright people.  The lyrics are very smart and their music tended to incorporate a lot of different genres: jazz, R&B/soul, and rock, to name a few. In addition to being very witty, their songs often had great narratives, which sets their stuff apart in a big way--they didn't write a lot of typical "love songs." Although they never had a #1 hit, they had a ton of jams, including, but not limited to, the following: 

1) "Do It Again" from Can't Buy a Thrill (1972)
This was Steely Dan's first big single and a great example of their diverse influences, as this basically sounds like a Santana song--the beat, the guitar sound, the guitar solo, etc.

2) "Reelin' In the Years" from Can't Buy a Thrill
I would imagine this is probably their most popular song, and with good reason.  A sing-song chorus, multiple guitar solos and a driving beat, especially as the song progresses, are why you still hear this song on classic rock stations.


3) "My Old School" from Countdown to Ecstacy (1973)
This is probably one of my favorite songs.  For whatever reason I just feel good when I hear it, although on the merits, it's a total jam--the horns sections and the break-downs, especially at the end, are just too great.


4) "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" from Pretzel Logic (1974)
I was going to choose the title track from Pretzel Logic, but I couldn't find a suitable version on YouTube.  Instead, "Rikki" serves as a suitable substitute.


5) "Peg" from Aja (1977)
Probably the most Doobie Brothers-sounding Steely Dan song, as McDonald is on the track.

Additionally, I've got an extra soft spot in my heart for "Peg," as De La Soul sampled it for "Eye Know" off the classic 3 Feet High and Rising album.


So here's to you, Steely Dan.  Your nerd-cool musical stylings have held the test of time, and for that, you are to be congratulated.

--J.J. Gittes

Dad Rock Hall of Fame: Fleetwood Mac

After reading the list on McSweeney's yesterday about what your tastes in classic rock say about you (which I highly recommend), I felt compelled to act on a blog idea that I had been letting marinate for a bit -- a series of posts in defense of "Dad Rock."  Although I can't give you solid parameters of the genre outside of "music (probably soft rock) that your dad likes," it's like what Potter Stewart said about obscenity: you know it when you see it.

I had been thinking a lot about Fleetwood Mac lately after waking up to "Hold Me" on the clock radio last weekend and realizing that I had largely forgotten about them.  Not listening to the radio in the car and a never getting around to completely replenishing my hard drive after it died played a large part in this, but I maintain that the band is great and deserving of recognition as the inaugural inductee into the Dad Rock Hall of Fame.

Although even the band's most ardent supporters would not classify their work as high art, Fleetwood Mac got a lot of things right.  They captured the West Coast sound in ways that so many others have tried to emulate and sold tens of millions of records.  A big key to this success (and a vastly underrated hallmark of so many great bands) was having multiple lead singers -- the three-headed monster of Lindsay Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, and Christine McVie -- each of which had their own distinct style.  Not only did they make some big time jams, they pretty much all had coke problems and slept with one another, which was the emotional catalyst of their biggest album, Rumours (although I think their self-titled album, the first with Buckingham and Nicks, was their best).  It's like if Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice were one of the greatest American (yes, they were British/American but their success came after the Americans joined) rock bands.

Young Stevie Nicks -- a total babe and proof that you can only get two out of three.

With that said, here's some of my favorite Fleetwood Mac jams:

1) Christine McVie's "Say You Love Me" from Fleetwood Mac (1975)

2) Stevie Nicks's "Dreams" from Rumours (1977)





3) Lindsey Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way" from Rumours

4) Stevie Nicks's "Rhiannon" from Fleetwood Mac






5) Lindsey Buckingham's "The Chain" from Rumours



Other jams worth looking up include, but are not limited to: "Tusk," "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow," "You Make Loving Fun," "Gold Dust Woman," "Gypsy," and "Everywhere."

--J.J. Gittes