SLS: I Read It In A Magazine

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I think the prompt Jim has given us for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday ranks as one of his longest: it is ‘to play a song related to Sigmund Freud’s id exhibiting instinctual drives that seek immediate pleasure or gratification without regard for reality.’ If that lost you somewhere along the way, his post The Psychic Apparatus explains in more detail. Basically, it boils down to “I wanna get laid.” Or something like that. There are some prime candidates for this – the Stones’ Satisfaction has to be high on the list – but I’m not going with it. Instead I’m playing two tunes today, one of them, I think, pretty obvious, the other is less well known.

Let’s start with the more unfamiliar one:

And for the lyrics, my now regular invitation to visit genius.com. I am a big fan of Richard Thompson, going right back to his beginnings in Fairport Convention, and have lost count of the number of times I’ve seen hm in concert – everything from early FC through his duo with former wife Linda, solo, with his own band, and for a special treat his unique presentation of 1,000 Years Of Popular Music, which somehow manages to include early religious music, Gilbert and Sullivan, traditional folk songs, Prince, The Beatles  and Britney Spears, among many others.

Like most of the songs he has recorded, Read About Love was written by Richard and was the opening track on his thirteenth album, Rumor And Sigh, which was released in May 1991 and peaked at #32 in the UK. It was released as a single, without success, though one of the other tracks on the album – I Feel So Good – made #15 on the US Alternative Airplay chart. The simplified spelling of the word “Rumor” is due to his taking the title from a posthumously published poem by the American poet (and Librarian of Congress) Archibald MacLeish: “Rumor and sigh of unimagined seas/ Dim radiance of stars that never flamed.” The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1992, but lost to R.E.M.’s Out of Time. This track is, I think, pretty self-explanatory: the lusts and desires of teenage boys (we’ve all been there, guys) with a pressing need to find out what they are missing out on, from whatever source they can find – except, perhaps, the real thing, which feels unattainable until they grow up a bit. But the picture books were fun, weren’t they? And this fits the brief perfectly, with its lack of regard for reality!

 

 

My second tune for today is, I think, much more likely to duplicate someone else’s choice but I’m going with it anyway, as I always liked the song and the video is great fun:

And hot on the tyre tracks of the red car, here come the lyrics.

Gimme All Your Lovin’ was the opening track on ZZ Top’s eighth album, Eliminator, which was released in March 1983 and peaked at #9 in the US, though it fared better elsewhere: #2 in both Canada and Australia, and #3 in the UK. Nevertheless, it is their most successful album, going Diamond in both the US and Canada for 11m and 1m sales, respectively, and 4x Platinum in the UK for 1.2m. On the album, credits for songwriting were assigned to  the three band members, Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard (a neat trivia point: only one of them didn’t have a beard, guess which one!)

Gimme All Your Lovin’ was the first of four singles taken from it, peaking at #37 in the US and #10 in the UK, going Gold here in the process for 400,000 sales. As you saw, the video followed a young male gas station attendant who is taken for a ride by a trio of women driving the vintage Eliminator hot rod (1933 Ford). The band appears and disappears, and they throw the attendant the keys to the car. The three main actresses were Jeana Tomasino from Wisconsin, Danièle Arnaud from Nice, France, and a third model Kymberly Herrin who dropped out of contact and was not paid. Tomasino had posed for Playboy in 1980, which may well be how she got this job. As a song about instant gratification without care of the consequences I think this is a good fit, though the guy’s only (partly) fulfilled lust was for the car, not the ladeez!

In 1993 the Finnish band Leningrad Cowboys, who I have featured previously for SLS, recorded a live cover version of this song on the Helsinki Senate Square, featuring the Red Army Choir with a bit of the National Anthem of the Soviet Union making its way into the arrangement, along with some of Händel’s Hallelujah Chorus as well. Having found that piece of trivia on Wikipedia I felt the need to seek it out: it is their usual piece of bonkers lunacy and is a real hoot, so have this bonus video on me:

That’s me done for the day, so as always I offer my thanks to Jim for running the show and giving us the opportunity to share music that we like. See you again for Tuesday Tunes? I hope so, and wish you well 😊

40 thoughts on “SLS: I Read It In A Magazine”

  1. Clive, I love ZZ Top. Who would have thought two guys with beards and one named Beard would be MTV video icons. Their fun videos with their outstanding music made watching and listening enjoyable. “Eliminator” deserved accolades, but the three had some awesome music before. I love the dual song “Waiting for the bus” and “Jesus left Chicago” which may not be the song names but the choruses. Keith

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  2. Quite a bouncy number for Richard, but he never fails to make you listen. ZZ aren’t really my cuppa, I find them a tad one dimensional but this one is so well known it seems wrong to dismiss it. Wow, that last oddball band came up with a hell of a Finnish. Nice and bonk-ers.

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    • I’ve been a Richard Thompson fan for approaching sixty years, and this one is so typical of his clever writing and wry humour. The ZZ Top complaint of being one dimensional applies to many bands, I think – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

      I love the Leningrad Cowboys – they offer something different, to put it mildly!

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  4. Very cool & fun songs, Clive! I’ve been a fan of ZZ Top since seeing them in concert in 1973 with Uriah Heep and Earth, Wind & Fire. The Leningrad Cowboys & The Red Army is one of the more out there groups; I’ve seen them before and think they’re a hoot! Good ones today!

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  6. Clive, I think you know by now I’m a Richard (and Linda) Thompson fan. A few years back he actually played about 45 miles from here, and idiot me didn’t go. Still kicking myself over that one. I would love to see that musical history show he does. Is it on an album or anything?

    I’m not a huge ZZ Top fan, but good to learn which one doesn’t have one 😉

    ❤ ❤ ❤ thank you for sharing the last video. Made my day!

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    • You missed a treat! As I said, I’ve seen him loads of times, and he is always great. The 1000 Years thing is in a box set, 2CDs and a concert DVD. It was released a while back but hopefully you can find it – I just checked Amazon UK and they have it for around £20. The show is the same one I saw, in which he was accompanied by Judith Owen and Debra Donkin. Recommend it highly!

      You worked out my ZZ Top clue ok, then 🤣

      That last one just had to go in. They are crazy but a lot of fun.

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  7. Great song selections, Clive.  The Richard Thompson song ‘Read About Love’ is a humorous cautionary tale about a socially inept dude who learns about sex and romance from magazines and books, leading to misguided actions.  The ZZ Top song ‘Give Me All Your Lovin’’ is part of a trilogy that has the same characters as ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ and ‘Legs’. 

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    • Thanks, Jim, I’m glad you liked them. Those are typically wry Richard Thompson lyrics, a very good song to start a very good album.

      ZZ Top had a run with those three, didn’t they 👍

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  8. What a catchy tune, the first song of Richard Thompson, which I had never heard before. I like the ZZ Top song, and I enjoyed the version by the Finnish band with the Russian choir.

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  11. Leningrad Cowboys and the Red Army Choir….Just for a brief time we thought that what had been was all over and the future would be fine….
    Didn’t take long to disassembled that wish.
    Thanks for that snippet all the same.

    Roger

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  13. great choices I had not heard your first one before but I enjoyed it – love the classic ZZ Top track and what a revelation the third one is – not heard of them before but I really enjoyed their performance 🙌

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