THE CALL - "Modern Romans" (1983)

 

The Call had a top 100 hit in 1983 from their album titled "Modern Romans," but chances are if you're under the age of 40, you've probably never heard it.

Biblical implications and anti-war sentiment, that's what this song is all about!

People have been writing anti-war songs since at least 1914 when The Peerless Quartet recorded

 "I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier."

The 60's were rife with anti-war songs like the classic "Eve Of Destruction" written by P.F. Sloan, and recorded by Barry McGuire which somehow made it to number one on the charts, and yet despite it all, the pleas for peace have pretty much fallen on deaf ears. I guess human beings are just not made to get along, but that has never stopped the poets and songwriters from trying to stop the madness.

Here's what Michael Been and The Call had to say about it. 

THE CALL - "The Walls Came Down"

THE GUN - "Gun" (1968)

You might be familiar with "Race With The Devil" from this 1968 LP by The Gun, or this amazing album cover by Roger Dean, but here's an instrumental tune that's a little more obscure but seriously cool.

I do admit that I like short songs, but I sure wish this one was longer! 

THE GUN - "Rupert's Travels" 

THE PRIMATES - "We Are The Primates" (1986)

 

As far as I can tell, this 1986 LP by The Primates was their solo effort.

This record sounds like it would have been a later Seeds LP but with more grungy guitars. 

 

 

Here's a flyer from one of their shows that I just put up on eBay for any of you fans.

"We Are The Primates" is a fun record with lots of songs worth listening to.

Here's one I really like because it is literally just my kind!

THE PRIMATES - "Just My Kind" 

WHERE'S OUR ROCKET PACKS?

 

Rich here. For those of us who grew up watching "Rocket Man" movie serials on Saturday afternoon TV, we felt that a certain promise was implicit -- in The Future, we would all have jet packs we could strap to our back, and fly. 

 

Once the Space Age started in earnest in the early Sixties we felt that if The Future had not quite arrived just yet, it was coming soon. But except for a scene in a James Bond film (1965's "Thunderball"), no rocket packs emerged in the Sixties. Nor in the Seventies. 

 

By the Eighties, the grumbling started: "Where's our rocket packs?" But and now here it is, over a quarter-century since the new Millennium began, and we still have no rocket packs. 

 

Hasn't the Future arrived, yet? 

 

Thanks to the Eighties alternative band Daniel Amos for asking the question that's been on our minds for 40 years now.

DANIEL AMOS - "(It’s The Eighties So Where's Our) Rocket Packs"

THE SINISTER CLEANERS - "Goodbye Ms Jones" (1986)

 

I've had this EP by The Sinister Cleaners titled "Goodbye Ms Jones" for a couple of decades, and I've never understood why this band from Leeds, UK was not more popular.

The lead song off of this four tune EP is a good one, and I think it should have been a hit for them.

In my world, this is classic and vintage 1986! 

THE SINISTER CLEANERS - "I'll Never Forget This"

JAMES WHITE AND THE BLACKS - "Off White" (1979)

 

What's not to like about this 1979 album by James White And The Blacks? Well, basically nothing, that's for sure.

I probably should have presented the song "Contort Yourself," but you can look that up easily enough yourself.

This was a great group of musicians, and when you can do a better version of a classic song done by Marilyn Monroe, then I'd say that's quite an accomplishment, and James White And The Blacks easily pull it off.

And besides, it's absolutely true, we are having a heat wave, mentally, physically and every other way that you can possibly think of! 

47 years later, and James White's got as good of an explanation as anyone! 

 JAMES WHITE AND THE BLACKS - "(Tropical) Heat Wave" 

EYES - "Topological Lies" (1979)

 

Eyes, or The Eyes were a Los Angeles based punk band that recorded in 1979. Their only other release was an EP that included two other bands, The Controllers, and The Skulls.

The A side of this single was "TAQN," or "Take A Quaalude Now."

I actually prefer the flip side, mostly because I like the impressive title.

EYES - "Topological Lies"