“A song that was not originally released as an album single, or never became a single.” That is what Jim is asking us to play for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, as his post Should Have Been A Single tells us. Boiling that down, I think that means “play a good album track,” which leaves us a pretty wide playing field! Having seen how others often play hard and fast with Jim’s themes, or ignore them completely, I’ve decided to cheat a bit myself this week. I’m playing you two songs, both of which are superb album tracks but did actually appear on the 7 inch vinyl format. One was a B-side, and the other was actually released as a single, but only in the Netherlands, so I’m kind of treating that as not having happened. There’s nothing on Wikipedia about it having been a chart hit, so I think I’m safe!
I’m leading with that Dutch non-hit:
And playing by the “rules” here are the lyrics:
As the video shows, Dirty Work was a track on Steely Dan’s debut album, Can’t Buy A Thrill, which was released in November 1972, the month after I started at uni, although we didn’t get it here until January 1973, and it became a huge part of the soundtrack to my three years there. To my ears, the album is a masterpiece, which I’ve loved ever since I first heard it. I have owned it on vinyl, cassette, CD and now it resides in my Apple Music library. Ten tracks of absolute musical perfection. If you haven’t heard it, what have you been doing with your life! It is, quite frankly, the best debut album ever (maybe a suggestion there for a future theme, Jim?). It reached #17 in the US and #38 in the UK, and has been certified Platinum in the US and Gold in the UK. The album’s cover features a photo of a line of prostitutes in Rouen, in France, though it was banned in Spain, where a photo of the band was used instead. That was hardly the worst thing that General Franco did, though!
Messrs Becker and Fagen ‘borrowed’ the title from Bob Dylan: it is the opening line of his song It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry. As per Wikipedia, the song’s lyrics describe an affair between a man and a married woman, sung by the man. The singer recognises that the woman is using him, but is too infatuated to end the affair. The second verse lyric “Like a castle in its corner in a medieval game” references the rook, aka castle, a piece in chess – a hobby of Walter Becker’s. Dirty Work has featured in an episode of The Sopranos, in the movie American Hustle, and in several other tv shows. Wikipedia lists a number of cover versions, none of which I have ever heard, nor do I intend to: I really hate to think what Kenny Rogers did to it, though his record company had the decency to release it only in New Zealand. I’ll stick with the original, thanks!
The second tune I’m playing you today was first released as the closing track on the Boomtown Rats’ third album, The Fine Art Of Surfacing, in June 1979:
This was another album that I bought when it first came out, and still love to this day. It peaked at #7 here in the UK and has been certified Gold, and even got to #73 in the US, no doubt on the back of the publicity surrounding the opening track of side two, a little ditty called I Don’t Like Mondays. The band toured extensively in the US prior to the album’s release and a couple of its tracks reflect their views on American society. When The Night Comes was the B-side to the single version of Someone’s Looking At You, another track on the album, which was released in January 1980 and reached #4 in the UK. So yes, maybe I’m cheating a little for today’s theme, but why not? Two great songs, one by one of my favourite bands and the other by a band who I think deserved far more success than they achieved in the US.
That’s it for today. I’ll see you again for Tuesday Tunes, where I’ll be playing more songs in my current mini-series 😊
