Bradley's Buzz

Today's Bubbatune - Tanya Tucker

To me, Tanya Tucker is the Pat Benatar of country music. They are both sassy firecrackers that sing with pure passion and anger. Their interpretations of love songs are never so much as “Please don’t leave me I’ll die,” as they are, “You fucked it up buddy, don’t let the door hit you in the ass.” I love that attitude and I think that’s why even though I’m not a huge country music fan, Tanya’s music has always appealed to me. But what’s great about Tanya is not only is she a spitfire with a rock and roll attitude, she actually made a rock album in 1979. This little ditty Tear Me Apart, produced by none other than Mike Chapman – the man responsible for Blondie’s greatest albums and Pat Benatar’s debut. In fact Blondie’s Eat To The Beat, Pat’s In The Heat Of The Night and Tanya’s Tear Me Apart all came out within months of each other.. that Mike, that Tanya..

TANYA TUCKER – TEAR ME APART (bub39)
Album reissue designed by Bradley Jacobson

Tracks:
1 . Blind Love
2. Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone
3. Somebody Must Have Loved You Right Last Night
4. San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)/
I Left My Heart In San Francisco
5. Tear Me Apart
6. Crossfire Of Desire
7. Better Late Than Never
8. I’ve Never Said No Before
9. Shady Streets
10. By Day By Day
11. If You Feel It (Bonus Track)
12. Brown Eyed Handsome Man (Bonus Track)
13. Not Fade Away (Bonus Track)
14. Lover Goodbye (Bonus Track)


THE STORY

If any of my friends ever had that Tanya Tucker attitude firmly entrenched it was Holly Quarderer. Holly was a wild child with wild hair and giant bifocals who would tell you and anyone within earshot exactly how she felt, and exactly what was wrong with you. For some reason, no matter what she said or did to you, you couldn’t help but love her. Maybe it was because what she said was usually the truth – it just wasn’t what you wanted to hear. She was one of the most original people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

I met her while working my very first job, the Burger King. Now known as the BK, it was a crappy job but it was an interesting place to meet people. Holly worked the same shifts as I did and at first I was a tad scared of the girl. She was a diligent worker but she seemed to be ready to kill you if you looked at her the wrong way. Silently, I loved her.

Eventually, we ended up at a party together for Holly loved to drink. God, she loved to drink. Finally, we had something to talk about. The more sarcastic and drunk she got, the more sarcastic and drunk I got. We bonded immediately!

Holly was such an ace drinker; she once got rip snorting drunk at a bonfire the night before her SATs. She got hammered, she fell, she bled, she lost her glasses and she showed up for her tests at 6:30 am ready for the challenge and still half in the bag. Being Holly she ended up with the second highest SAT scores in her high school and in the top 2% of the country. This was Holly.

Holly also had a child. A high school tragedy if you will. Ironically, the father of her child was someone I had known. Pat Hoen and I were in a band together when we were in the 4th grade. His dad was in a real band so their house was full of instruments. We would get together, Pat, Bobby Hallas and I and perform our songs. My very first song was written as part of that band, the Cats.. a classic ditty I’d love to drag out again called “Dragon’s Fire” and based on the poetic workings of Stevie Nicks.

But this story isn’t about my band or Holly’s rambunctious child for that matter, this is about the woman herself. That mother known as Holly.

Holly would rather smack you than talk about something and though she never hit me, I did chuckle often when she would go into attack mode on others. Basically, she was harmless but she was so unpredictable you never knew what she was really capable of. But if you were on her good side, you had a friend who would do anything for you including throwing her black mane over her face, sporting her bifocals and doing her rendition of Cousin Itt.

When Holly went to her high school reunion she ran into a girl I used to date. I know “You dated a girl?” but it’s true, it’s all true. Anyway, the girl had heard through the grapevine that is Wausau Wisconsin that her ex boyfriend was gay. She didn’t believe it and refused to let the subject drop when she ran into Holly. Holly, having no patience for people or stupidity, simply said, “I think it was having sex with you that made him gay.” Then she headed to the bar and left the girl standing in her homophobic track.

Holly knew of course that wouldn’t make someone gay but she felt she had had all she could take of the stupid comments coming from the girl. For some reason I’ve always believe there was a lot more being said prior to Holly’s statement but I think I’m better off not knowing.

Meanwhile, Holly herself was a tad sexually ambiguous. Not because she looked asexual or anything, it was just that sex didn’t really drive her at all. She got laid a lot but never seemed to care for it. If she didn’t get it, she didn’t care, if she got it, she was better than them anyway.

But Holly ended up meeting a boy she was particularly fond of. As it turns out, the first night Holly met him she was bombed and they slept together. Finally, she liked the old sackerooni, but all was bliss for there was another girl who had her eye on the boy.

Holly immediately took action. Instead of going ballistic and trying to keep the boy away from the girl, my Holly took a different approach. She befriended her enemy and was immediately taken into the girl’s confidence. Holly found out everything about the girl, where she lived, what she drove, why she liked the boy, if she had told the boy she liked him. Everything you ever wanted to know, Holly found out – that girl never stood a chance against the Quarderer.

One night, there was a party at the boy’s house and Holly wasn’t there. She later found out that the girl – her rival, slept with the boy. Holly didn’t take the news too lightly so she went to the girl’s car and sliced up her tires. It was a subtle form of revenge of course but Holly wasn’t stupid enough to actually make a threat or behave in a manner that would make people think she were jealous. She was much too cool for that.

At the time, my best pal Lisa Glassford and I were sharing an apartment in this little four plex. We had ourselves a ball all the time and would spend every waking hour together, however there were those times when she would sleep and I would end to the local bar to have a drink or twenty.

One particular night, my other best pal Melsie and I had spent the entire night drinking and boozing. Her boyfriend at the time Jeremy felt the pair were probably not able to drive all the way back to Mosinee that night so they spent the night at my apartment. Of course I always enjoyed the “after bar” party anyway so we came home, drank some more and headed to bed.

At about 3 o’clock in the morning I heard a knock on my bedroom door. Lisa quietly opened the door and whispered, “Brad, Holly’s here.”

I was stunned and couldn’t figure it out, “What?” I wondered through my still inebriated state. “She’s here and she has a six pack and a knife!”

Holly then busts through the room past Lisa carrying the six-pack – one open and in her hand and yes indeed a knife. She sat on the bed, handed me a beer and told me, “The cops are after me.”

Lisa went back to bed and I heard the whole sordid tale. It seems Holly was at that boy’s house again and this time she was talking to that tramp that had slept with him. The girl still thought of Holly as one of her closest friends so she informed Holly that someone had slashed her tires and she had to go buy all new ones.

Upon hearing the news that the girl had new tires, Holly excused herself, stole a six-pack and knife from the kitchen drawer and headed to the girl’s blue Rambler to once again slice the tires.

Holly got through the first two when she spotted a black and white coming up the street. She immediately started running and didn’t look back until she got to my house about two miles away.

Heaving and scared, she knocked on the door and told Lisa, “The cops are after me, you have to let me in.” Lisa of course let her in, but my poor Glassford was already quite confused as she had gone to bed hours before in a perfectly quiet apartment and woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning to find two naked drunk people on her living room floor and another drunk carrying a six-pack and wielding a knife. Such was the life for my roommates!

As it turned out, I don’t think the cops even saw Holly that night but what a fun night it turned out to be.

To me, the story of Holly Quarderer could come right out of the Tanya Tucker biography. Miss TT also has some problems with men, booze, police and attitude. In one story Tanya tells some woman was trying to get her man and was all up in Tanya’s face at a bar. Tanya tried to ignore the girl but she wouldn’t let up and eventually Tanya had to clock her!

Incidentally, the character of Haley Osbourne in my script for Carlton Heights is based on the great Holly Quarderer and for those of you who read it, don’t be too surprised if the above story somehow makes it into an episode.

As for Holly herself, I moved to Minneapolis a few months later and completely lost track of her but something tells me where ever she is (rumor has it she wanted to move to Phoenix by an aunt) she is going to be just fine and God help anyone who tries to screw that up.

THE SONGS
I recently figured out how to take my vinyl records and load them into my computer so I can then burn the vinyl onto CD for all those classic albums that haven't seen a CD release yet. The very first one I HAD to do was Tanya Tucker’s Tear Me Apart.

The album has intrigued me ever since I was a little kid. The album was the follow up to 1978's TNT which had shown Miss T heading to a more pop/rock orientated style than the country she had been known for. It only made sense to me that she would go this route as she was only about 19 years old at the time and though she had made country records for the last 6 years, I could hear the rock voice in her just itching to come out.

Around 1978/79 producer Mike Chapman approached our girl about producing a full on rock album for her even (according to Tanya) offering not to charge her if the album wasn't successful.

Mike Chapman is one of my all time fav producers, having taken Blondie to brand new heights in 1978 and through to the end of the first incarnation of their career. He also produced parts of Pat Benatar's debut album that came out in October 1979. Rumor has it that Tanya Tucker was even in the recording booth during Blondie's Eat To The Beat sessions early in the summer of 1979. Anyway, Mike had also been responsible for Nick Gilder's "Hot Child In The City", The Knack's album (“My Sharona”), Smokie, Sweet ("Ballroom Blitz") and Suzi Quatro ("Happy Days" Leather Tuscadero).

So he opted to take our girl into the valley and record what would become Tear Me Apart. I've always liked the album but due to bad vinyl copies, I was never able to fully appreciate it until now when I could clean it up and I have to say I love it, love it. In fact can't stop listening to it - just for added effect I added "bonus tracks" to my copy of four of the more rocking songs from TNT.

Listening to it in 2005, Tear Me Apart isn't as radical, or rock and roll for that matter, as it probably was upon its release. There are even twinges of country on some of the songs but in 1979 and with Mike Chapman at the helm, I'm sure the album was perceived as completely out there.

As for the music, Tanya sounds incredible - she is harsh, she is raw, she is fun! The album opens with the straight up in your face rock of "Blind Love". Tanya as the rock goddess is a very convincing thing once you hear this number, with its keyboards and drums. Of course the rock and roll reflected on Tear Me Apart is a little more subtle than say Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker" but it is very much in the vein of Suzi Quatro and Sweet - the glam rock/southern rock hybrid Mike Chapman had been perfecting for years.

Mike even uses his own back catalog for Tanya's album with "Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone" and "Tear Me Apart" - both of which were done by his other female protégé Suzi Quatro. To me Tanya's raspiness really takes the songs to new levels, particularly “Lay Back In The Arms Of Someone.” The song was chosen, as the first single and it should’ve been a huge hit if not in country (it has some twang to it) at least on the 1979 pop scene. It an interesting note Juice Newton known as the pop/country queen recorded the song the same year only Juice’s was more country sounding… strange isn’t it?

Despite the album’s rock flavor, it’s ironically the ballads that have really captured me. The first ballad we hear is "Somebody Must've Loved You Right Last Night" the story of an affair from the wounded woman's point of view set to a 1979 synthesized keyboard. The song contains such brazen delights as "I don't think that smiles for me/you didn't make it home till after 3" but it's the chorus and her delivery which grabs me.. "Somebody must've loved you right last night cuz you're so faraway today/somebody turned your love light on in a different way." The second verse continues with “Don’t you get tired of using me,” a line which she growls so furiously I get chills. “Am I just the fool you come home to/after someone else has had the best of you?” The song shows the guts behind the glory that is Tanya Tucker. Sure, she’s being used and sure she’s sad but she’s not about to let you just walk in without getting her say in. I think it’s one of Tanya's best vocal performances and one of her best songs.

“San Francisco (Be Sure Wear Flowers In Your Hair)/I Left My Heart In San Francisco” always seemed to be such a strange selection. Particularly since this was the time in Tanya’s life where she was hitting the Hollywood scene with fervor. Perhaps she wanted to celebrate California life in general and found this song (s) to be the best way to do it. The song has some good guitar playing in it but it doesn’t particularly stand out as anything much more than filler, though the added change in the song to incorporate “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” (the only line of that song used here) is a fairly creative turn.

"Tear Me Apart" and its next number "Crossfire Of Desire" are more rock in flavor than anything else on the album. “I’ve been seen in the back of a limousine/I may not own it but it’s bigger than you’ve ever seen/She drives away and thinks she’s a star/if you think she’s a tease you won’t get far/Tear Me Apart/if you want to win my heart” growls the Texas Queen in the title track.

“Crossfire” is a pretty hilarious song in terms of its subject manner. The crossfire Tanya finds herself in is whether to cheat with a complete stranger or head home to her lover. Typical flavor for a country tune I think but the piano churning and the synthesized guitar riff coming through shines as Tanya says, “I know he would never understand if passion finds me in a one night stand/but I can’t let the pleasures so close at hand slip by.” What a slut, I love her.

“Crossfire Of Desire” has the additional delight of a killer sax solo and backup vocals whispering "crossfire" filling up the middle of the song before the guitars kick back in and Tanya finishes up the cut.

Both "Tear Me Apart" and "Crossfire Of Desire" are absolutely spectacular songs and wonderful vehicles for Tanya's voice, which can be very fairly argued is pretty much made for rock and roll (which is why she's so wonderful when she growls in her country tunes).

“Better Late Than Never” is a strange little song but one strange little song I can’t get enough of. The song opens with Tanya half singing/half talking; “The insults and the punches flew/just like they always have” and then she growls, “He knocked me down and left the room/but I came running back/and I said, “Hey look around/Hey look in the mirror/Lay your ego down/it will get so much clearer.” The song has by this time become a country rock hybrid with a twangy guitar pushing the drama through. The chorus is almost brilliant as Tanya delivers, “Put up the flag/lay down your weapon/this perpetual battle royal here is a long way from Heaven/Call it a mistake/or call it whatever/let’s just call it off/better late than never.”

The second verse continues the talk/sing part before breaking into some of my favorite lines ever, “So you keep the car/and all those passionate letters/it won’t get you that far/they won’t make you feel better…” The chorus comes up again and before we get another refrain Tanya crashes in singing, “I’m through with you, you son of a ….” And I fall off my chair every time I hear it! In fact, don’t be too surprised if you hear a Swivek rendition in the near future.

"I've Never Said No Before" is the ballad that is more in the Tanya vein people were probably used to in 1979. Ever since 1975's Tanya Tucker album, Tanya was moving slowly into a more pop attitude and was would incorporate electric guitar, keyboards and the like into her ballads. “I’ve Never Said…” could have fit in on any of those country albums and a reworking today would no doubt work on one of her albums. The song is typical Tanya rhetoric, opening with "I've never said no before/ I didn't know how/ I've never said that before now", moving into the verses where she growls and croons, "you need the peeerrrfeeect looooove, it's just not me.." before breaking into the song's crescendo of "It's easy to see what you're doing to me/you're stealing my heart/I've got to let goooo..." and quietly ending with, "I've never said no before/I didn't know how/for your sake I'm saying 'No' now."

I love songs like these. It’s a love song yet not really. It’s not a poor poor me type of song, instead it’s a song saying, “You better stay away from me because I could fuck you up like Holly Quarderer” and that’s sad, but brilliant.

"Shady Streets" is another one that could easily be re-recorded today - part ballad, part upbeat - it's very reminiscent of the pop flavorings offered on TNT. Again, it’s not much of a bombshell compared to the other tracks but the imagery is nice as Tanya hopes to find life on those elite shady streets while wearing shiny shoes, something that has apparently eluded her up to this point. Plus Tanya’s voice is so enchanting to me. The passion that comes through on even the most mundane lyric leaves me in a trance. Tanya from the age of only 13 has the power to make you believe she is feeling ever single shred of emotion being described and I’m left rooting she finds those damn shiny shoes and her life works out.

Tear Me Apart ends with "By Day By Day" a jaunty run through pseudo rock that works almost as country as it is firmly based in the Southern rock mode. Piano jumping, drums and high hats thumping, gospel chorus crooning; it has it all. Tanya's "whoohs" add to the fun feeling coursing through the track, “Did you ever wake up sweating from a midnight dream…” is the song’s smoky opening line while Tanya continues, “You sit there smiling/ but if you could read my brain/you’d see yourself under the wheels of this runaway train/and you know that train keeps getting closer baby day by day/day by day now.” The song is pure Tanya Tucker declaring she’s “One part woman, one part wild, one part machine” and you better beware cuz that train known as Miss T keeps getting closer day by day now.

The musical break in the middle of the song is filled with a piano/sax combo solo that keeps this little bluesy train love song chugging down the track until Tanya is left screaming, “By day by day by day by day” and a full on vocal choir ending. It’s really quite a little ditty and a great way to end what has fast become my ultimate favorite Tanya Tucker album.

To make this the ultimate foray into the all too brief rock world of Tanya Tucker, I added "If You Feel It", "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", "Not Fade Away" and "Lover Goodbye" from the TNT album. TNT came out the year prior to Tear Me Apart and was Tanya’s way of whetting her noodle into more pop/rock fair. The songs on that album are all contemporary pop for the most part with the exception of the final track, “Texas (When I Die)” which was probably her most country song ever.

But the pop songs she did were quite infectious. “If You Feel It” is probably the song that most mastered the pop side of Tanya during this period. Starting with a synthesized intro and then going into a piano/guitar driven track, there’s choir vocals added and one of the catchiest choruses, “If you feel it/you can have it/if you want it/come and get it..”

“Brown Eyed Handsome Man” is the type of rock songs Tanya had been doing since 1975. Perhaps feeling secure enough to cover a 50’s rock song rather than do something terribly radical like 1979 rock. The song is a Chuck Berry song and with the exception of Tanya’s voice it’s not all that different or radical from the original, which isn’t bad as it is a fun song with one of my favorite lines, “The beautiful daughter couldn’t make up her mind between a doctor and a lawyer man/her mama said, “go out and get yourself a brown eyed handsome man/just like your daddy was!/a brown eyed handsome man.” For some reason it reminds me of my brown eyed handsome Alf.

“Not Fade Away” is another cover, this time of the Crickets. “I’m gonna tell you how it’s gonna be/you’re gonna give your love to me,” declares Tanya at the very beginning of the song and I’m ready to give it to her. This song was actually released along with “Texas (When I Die)” as double A sided 45 and then sent out to the public and radio stations. It was a fairly good marketing plan, as the country stations would play the one side and the rock station would play this song. It worked a little as “Not Fade Away” hit #70 on the pop charts.

“Lover Goodbye” is the other hard rocker from TNT included here. A perfect little number lauding the death of one more sad love affair. “When rain clouds come there’s bound to be thunder/when lightning strikes/it’s gonna light up the night/when lovers lie/you’re bound to lose your lover/and that is why I’m telling you goodbye..” Again this song was released in the US as a double sided 45 with “I’m The Singer You’re The Song” as the country side. This time the rock song didn’t fair quite as well as “Lover Goodbye” bubbled under the top 100 peaking at #103 on the pop charts. In the UK it was released as its own single with “If You Feel It” as the Bside. But it didn’t score over there either.

When listening to this collection of songs I am always amazed at why it didn’t score. Maybe people didn’t like change. Rock fans didn’t want some country star coming over to their territory; the country fans didn’t want their ‘little dynamo’ headed to the scary side of rock. Either way, this album isn’t much different than anything else released by a female rock singer. It’s not as hardcore as Pat Benatar’s release of the same year but it’s not all that different from Ellen Foley’s Night Out and it’s gutsier than Olivia Newton-John’s Totally Hot, which scored huge.

Either way I think the album is great and even my Alf who doesn’t care for much had a straight face when he said he didn’t know why it wasn’t a popular album either, and he lived in the rock teenaged world of 1979 so he knows what he’s talking about.

Due to the dismal reception Tear Me Apart received and the tabloids constantly busting her in rather compromising positions around Los Angeles, Tanya's father grabbed her and brought her back to her "senses" to which put her back to country records with 1980's Dreamlovers and though the next albums were good, as every Enquiring mind knows her personal affairs remained rather out of order. Eventually, she’d completely clean up and start making really excellent country records again, though she still kept up with her Ms. Bad Ass…she busted up bars, she had two children out of wedlock refusing to name the father in public, she doesn’t give a rip what you think about her…

It's really Mike Chapman who was the loser in the whole situation because MCA Records got their money from Tanya in other albums, we as fans got a fabulous little look at what could've been and Tanya got to sing rock and roll. But Mike, he offered to do this pro bono if it wasn't a hit and I get the impression he may have had to dip into all that Blondie savings to pay his condo that month.

As for Tear Me Apart, it's my hope this album sees the light of day on CD - preferably with the artwork I created for it and the bonus tracks, as I firmly believe it is the most overlooked album in Tanya's career but one that should definitely not be ignored. Thankfully, I learned how to work that damn computer.

posted by swivek @ 10:25 PM