No, that wasn't the Beatles
February 6, 2018 12:28 PM Subscribe
The Searchers, best known for songs like Love Potion No. 9 and their cover of Needles of Pins released a stunning album called "Love's Melodies" in 1981.
You won't find this album on Spotify, or youtube, but there are artifacts of it's existence online.
Half-Broken/Aged out Fond/Sound review
Another lovely review from 2011
A few tracks from the album:
Silver, a great album that harkens to what's about to come in a year or two with the Bangles
Everything But a Heartbeat another track that captures the spirit of the age in a brilliant rock n roll track that could almost be written by Elvis Costello
Another Night a tense track that captures a British sound somewhere between The Cure and The Police.
This album has (IMO criminally) never seen a CD or Digital release.
Enjoy!
h/t to hippybear for inspiring me to seek out and post more music to metafilter)
You won't find this album on Spotify, or youtube, but there are artifacts of it's existence online.
Half-Broken/Aged out Fond/Sound review
Another lovely review from 2011
A few tracks from the album:
Silver, a great album that harkens to what's about to come in a year or two with the Bangles
Everything But a Heartbeat another track that captures the spirit of the age in a brilliant rock n roll track that could almost be written by Elvis Costello
Another Night a tense track that captures a British sound somewhere between The Cure and The Police.
This album has (IMO criminally) never seen a CD or Digital release.
Enjoy!
h/t to hippybear for inspiring me to seek out and post more music to metafilter)
This is great, I'd love to see more posts like this. We inherited the "Needles and Pins" LP from an in-law so I'll have to check this out.
posted by johngoren at 12:57 PM on February 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by johngoren at 12:57 PM on February 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
The harmonies on that version of September Gurls are reminding me how bad I want there to be an alt-country cover of it.
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:03 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:03 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
h/t to hippybear for inspiring me to seek out and post more music to metafilter
Thanks for this! I would love to see random good music posts become a MetaFilter Thing, like goofy puppers and adorable/ vexing cats, and other feel-good animal posts.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:14 PM on February 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
Thanks for this! I would love to see random good music posts become a MetaFilter Thing, like goofy puppers and adorable/ vexing cats, and other feel-good animal posts.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:14 PM on February 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
This is great.
Another band mining the Byrds inspired jangle pop vein is The Red Button.
posted by COD at 1:29 PM on February 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
Another band mining the Byrds inspired jangle pop vein is The Red Button.
posted by COD at 1:29 PM on February 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
Huh. I've wasted a lot of my life digging through LP dollar bins and I don't remember ever seeing this album; I'll keep an eye out for it now.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:33 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:33 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
I believe The searchers inspired the byrds?
posted by Annika Cicada at 1:49 PM on February 6, 2018
posted by Annika Cicada at 1:49 PM on February 6, 2018
I believe The searchers inspired the Byrds?
McGuinn and Clark were products of the folk revival, and routinely cite their time as sidemen in it, Brill Building songwriters, and The Beatles as their big initial inspirations. After that, it branches out to include everything from John Coltrane to Ravi Shankar.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:59 PM on February 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
McGuinn and Clark were products of the folk revival, and routinely cite their time as sidemen in it, Brill Building songwriters, and The Beatles as their big initial inspirations. After that, it branches out to include everything from John Coltrane to Ravi Shankar.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:59 PM on February 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
Georgia Satellites did a nice cover of Almost Saturday Night.
posted by bwvol at 2:22 PM on February 6, 2018
posted by bwvol at 2:22 PM on February 6, 2018
FWIW, by 1981 the searchers were, as COD says, mining a vein that the Byrds thoroughly owned.
posted by Annika Cicada at 2:32 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Annika Cicada at 2:32 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
It's originally a John Fogerty song, I think, but Gene Clark also recorded a version of Almost Saturday Night on his lovely late-career album with Carla Olson, So Rebellious a Lover. (on edit: But Clark & Olson's album didn't come out until 1987..)
posted by Nerd of the North at 2:35 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Nerd of the North at 2:35 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Fantastic album. I remember buying it at E.J. Korvette's on Herald Square shortly after it came out. The song selection is absolutely choice. And yeah, "Almost Saturday Night" is inspired. The LP is one of the great comebacks of all time. If only the Beatles had done something like it.
posted by Modest House at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Modest House at 2:51 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Man, this is great stuff; thanks for the post!
> I remember buying it at E.J. Korvette's on Herald Square shortly after it came out.
If I'd known about it when it came out, I'd have rushed out (probably to the Disc-o-Mat in the Pan Am Building, where I worked at the time) and bought it and played it endlessly. That's my sweet spot in retro music.
posted by languagehat at 3:37 PM on February 6, 2018
> I remember buying it at E.J. Korvette's on Herald Square shortly after it came out.
If I'd known about it when it came out, I'd have rushed out (probably to the Disc-o-Mat in the Pan Am Building, where I worked at the time) and bought it and played it endlessly. That's my sweet spot in retro music.
posted by languagehat at 3:37 PM on February 6, 2018
Paul Carrack's cover of Everytime That You Walk in the Room is wonderful.
posted by emf at 7:53 PM on February 6, 2018
posted by emf at 7:53 PM on February 6, 2018
The Searchers ran with the same crowd as The Fab Four, in fact they almost signed with Epstein.
Gotta love that Rickenbacker, tho.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:56 PM on February 6, 2018
Gotta love that Rickenbacker, tho.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:56 PM on February 6, 2018
The Ramones cover needles and pins.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:21 PM on February 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:21 PM on February 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
The Ramones cover needles and pins.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:21 PM on February 6
Fkn. Cool.
Today a good day, a fun day no matter the gray, just in the door and here's this great cover of a great song and I am one happy man.
MetaFilter comes through yet again.
Thx St. Peepsburg, for pointing to that cover.
Thx Annika Cicada, for a great post to dig into and chase it down.
posted by dancestoblue at 11:07 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:21 PM on February 6
Fkn. Cool.
Today a good day, a fun day no matter the gray, just in the door and here's this great cover of a great song and I am one happy man.
MetaFilter comes through yet again.
Thx St. Peepsburg, for pointing to that cover.
Thx Annika Cicada, for a great post to dig into and chase it down.
posted by dancestoblue at 11:07 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Ooh I love The Searchers! Nothing of value to add but I wanted to broadcast that fact. Had no idea about this side of them, only the Don't Throw Your Love Away era.
posted by ihaveyourfoot at 5:17 AM on February 7, 2018
posted by ihaveyourfoot at 5:17 AM on February 7, 2018
To add to the Almost Saturday Night covers, here's my favorite.
posted by evilDoug at 6:54 AM on February 7, 2018
posted by evilDoug at 6:54 AM on February 7, 2018
This song is on the album, written by John Wicks and Will Birch from the Records (remember Starry Eyes?). Great song, but that video is something else.
On a related note, Will Birch is currently working on a Nick Lowe biography!
posted by alball at 4:49 PM on February 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
On a related note, Will Birch is currently working on a Nick Lowe biography!
posted by alball at 4:49 PM on February 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
Yo, Records, I'm really happy for you, I'ma let you finish, but Roky Erickson had the best "Starry Eyes" of all time! Of all time!!
posted by languagehat at 5:26 PM on February 7, 2018
posted by languagehat at 5:26 PM on February 7, 2018
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Almost Saturday Night
A Little Bit of Heaven
You Are the New Day
Radio Romance
Murder in My Heart
September Gurls
It's a solid and at times above average power pop LP, featuring 1/2 of the "Needles and Pins" era Searchers (Tony Jackson's replacement on vocals, Frank Allen, is a more than credible power pop singer, though).
posted by ryanshepard at 12:43 PM on February 6, 2018 [2 favorites]