Bradley's Buzz

The Bubbatunes Vaults 10

Here we are as we edge closer to the end of the Bubbatunes vaults and onto some other Bradley rant, but for the next two posts we're still going through the catalog of my compilations and album reissues; today we have some glorious additions including a Swivek (gasp) comp, a Blondie (gasp) comp, a couple of very rare firls of Knots Landing comps that I can guarantee will never see the light of day in a record store and a slip into some Branigan territory. Sure, you've read about some of these in old posts but hey, it's a Holiday week and besides I've added more notes (gasp!)

bub 55 Lisa Hartman - COULD BE MAGIC (2005)
The holy grail in Lisa Hartman music, this is the CD all the Knots knuts really want - full of rare televison and movie songs from my Lisa, Could Be Magic had a lot of research, a lot of time and a lot of love put into it. My pal Shae came up with the music, very hard to find and very hard to manipulate but he did it, cuz well he's super cool that way - and then I took those songs and manipulated and "remasterd" as best I could. The problem wiht movie and TV songs are the lengths and the background noise in them - a lot of songs are cut mid way to cut to another scene, some are done at the beginning and then the show cuts to another scene before going back to the song, and for those Shae was awesome in putting some songs together. I tried to put the more perfect songs at the beginning and go from there - for some of these though edited versions of a real song are complete songs in themselves. For most fans they want the songs Lisa sang on Knots Landing. In her first stint on the show when she played Ciji Dunne, Lisa did a lot of songs she recorded herself on her Letterock album but there were moments of different songs in Ciji's catalog including an excellant version of "Sometimes When We Touch" and Journey's "Open Arms" though it should be noted the Journey song was never done in one full scene so it's one that had to be meshed together, and a thrill for many, a version of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" sung with Julie Harris that the characters of Ciji and Lilimae sang at a block party.

When Lisa returned to Knots Landing the following year as Cathy Geary her singing was fairly limited, Gary caught her singing Journey's "Separate Ways" at a bar towards the end of the season and the only other time she sang was at the piano in the ranch where she finished a full verse of Linda Ronstadt's "Love Has No Pride" before being interrupted. But the following season, Cathy got a job singing at Isadora's and then went onto her boy's religious program so she was like a walking performing American Top 40 singing the hits of 1984-85 and continuing the following season (her last on the show). So we get a ton of little gems, some are full completions (though like I said they are shorter versions of the real song) including Corey Hart's "Never Surrender", "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" (which was done as a kind of mini video in the series), Pat Benatar's "We Belong", Survivor's "The Search Is Over", Foreigner's "That Was Yesterday", Rick Springfield's "Love Somebody" ( a real highlight though it's too bad it's one of those that had to be meshed together), a wonderful cover of Bee Gee's "Words" and the ultimate in fan favs the synthesized religious "Jehovah".

But Lisa performed else where as well including her stint as Neely O'Hara in Valley Of The Dolls '81 where she rocked it out with Could Be Magic's opening track "However Dark The Night" and a different take of "Why Baby" which would end up on her Letterock album. Also included is another rarity that is thrilling in how well I got it to sound, the theme song "It Could Be Magic" from her short lived 1977 sitcom Tabitha.

There's also some songs from a TV special Lisa did in early 1979 entitled The Lisa Hartman Show : Hot Stuff - we have the title of that show here (no, it's not a Donna Summer cover which would've been so cool), and a duet with Ricci Martin (different Ricci than Ricky) who is the son of Dean Martin and starred with Lisa in the movie Just Tell Me You Love Me; here the duo take on Kenny Loggins/Stevie Nicks with a version of "Whenver I Call You 'Friend'" and also from the special is what I do belive is Shae's favorite - a rousing version of the Beatles' "The Long & Winding Road".

The 39 song Could Be Magic may seem a little dautning but you have to remember a lot of these are about 2 minutes long at best with most of the second half of the compilation comprised of songs that just end because the scene was cut. But for the Lisa Hartman enthusiast this is a real find.

Track List:
01. However Dark The Night 02. Sometimes When We Touch 03. Why Me? 04. The Long & Winding Road 05. Love Somebody 06. Never Surrender 07. Words 08. How Am I Supposed To Live Without You 09. Love Don't Live Here Anymore 10. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) 11. We Belong 12. I Can Dream About You 13. Jehovah 14. Whenever I Call You Friend 15. Open Arms 16. Dancing In The Street 17. The Race Is On 18. The Search Is Over 19. That Was Yesterday 20. It Could Be Magic 21. Will The Circle Be Unbroken 22. Why Baby '81 23. Ease On Down The Road 24. Where The Boys Are Live 25. You're The One 26. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow 27. Love Has No Pride 28. Beat Of A Heart 29. Games - Alternate Version 30. Time After Time 31. Let's Be Lovers Tonight 32. If Love Must Go - piano version 33. Don't Tell Me About It 34. Don't You Love Me Anymore - Alternate 35. Tender Evening 36. Caroline 37. Something's Not Right 38. Hot Stuff 39. Run Around

DOWNLOAD COMING SOON!

bub 56 Kim Lankford - YOU'RE THE ONE (2005)
The only EP in our list, this is another for the real die hard Knots Landing fan. Kim Lankford played Ginger Ward, schoolteacher and would be singer married to himbo Kenny Ward who was a record producer but didn't want his wife recording music or fulfilling a dream particularly after she had a baby. But that didn't stop our Ging, no siree, after being called in at the last minute to record a demo for husband Kenny ("One Too Many") she caught the ear of hot new producer Andy Moore. Andy wanted Ginger to record more but Kenny wanted nothing to do with it. So after listening to the demo repeatedly (something Kenny would do a year later with a Ciji Dunne song), Ginger went behind Kenny's back and started working with Andy. Kenny realized how good his wife was while picking up their daughter at the studio while The Ging ripped into a rock song ("New").

Following that third season episode, The Ging's singing career seemed to have been put on the back burner. But in the fourth season 1982-83, Gary and Kenny started working with Ciji Dunne and were all about putting her career to the front burner stroyline, something Ginger didn't like. Particularly when The Ging took up (off camera) with a father in her baby daughter's play date group and they wrote a song. She showed it to Kenny, he scofed but the minute Ciji needed a new song for her set out came the song Ginger and her unknown partner wrote. Ciji sang "You're The One" while The Ging's eyes bugged out and her nostrils flared. She threatened Ciji, Ciji countered back, "If I'm up there doing something you want to do, that's your problem not mine," and she did have a point. But The Ging got her way by the end as Ciji Dunne never showed up for her own album launch and it was up to Ginger to carry the song home. As Ginger sang "You're The One" (the song featured on this faboo little Bubbatune), Ciji's body washed ashore - dead as a Knots Landing singing career.

But don't feel too bad, Ciji came back in sorts as Cathy Geary, and Ginger Ward ran off to Nashville with her husband and baby when producer superb Jeff Munson offered Kenny a producing job and Ginger a recording contract.The last we saw of the Ging was in 1997 when she shoed up in Knots Landing for Mack & Karen's 15th anniversary and though she never mentioned if she ever had a hit record, she did say she divorced the cheating Kenny who apparantly was never very good in the sack anyway.

And with that little bio I give the one and only Kim Lankford recording You're The One featuring that live performance from the night Ciji washed ashore, along with her "One Too Many" track that caught Andy Moore's attention though that stupid Kenny is heard talking Andy in the middle of it; and the first version of "One Too Many" the Ging sings with a piano to get into the groove of things. Finally is the rock song "New" our girl sings at the end of that first season 3 episode though again Kenny and Lilimae are yacking over parts of it.

Track List:
01. You're The One 02. One Too Many 03. New (demo) 04. One Too Many (demo version)

Download KIM LANKFORD - YOU'RE THE ONE EP

bub 57 LAURA BRANIGAN - Help You Say Goodbye (April 2006)
It's so sad that this woman with the enormous pipes is gone, but her music will last forever and now it will be forever immortalized in a bubbatunes collection. Titled after the set's closing track "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye", the song is very touching and very sweet, and in fact with all three verses dealing with saying goodbye and its inclusion of a death, I'm surprised it hasn't been a country song yet. The highlight of this comp to me isn't the singles, though they're here ("Gloria", "Solitaire", "Self Control") but a little ditty from her Branigan 2 album called "Deep In The Dark." The song is actually set to the music of "Der Kommisar" with English lyrics, but it was hard to find (thank you all the Branigan fans on the yahoo groups) and it's something everyone should hear. The set also includes Laura's much better versions of Alphaville's "Forever Young", Michael Bolton's "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You" and Celine Dion's "Power Of Love" - and actually Laura recorded the latter two before the more famous counterparts.

Track list:
01 Gloria 02 The Lucky One 03 Maybe Tonight 04 Imagination 05 Solitaire
06 Shattered Glass 07 Forever Young 08 Deep In The Dark 09 How Am I Supposed To Live Without You 10 Self Control 11 Hold Me 12 Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow 13 Spanish Eddie 14 Power Of Love 15 Dim All The Lights 16 Foolish Lullabye 17 Moonlight On Water 18 How Can I Help You Say Goodbye

bub 58 BLONDIE - On The Balcony (April 2006)
I know I make far too many Blondie & Benatar compilations but is it my fault they have so many great songs? This collection was inspired by my pal Amy Cissell who said she would like to have Blondie songs that weren't hits, just to hear some of the more classic sounds Debbie & The Boys had to offer (and thus running out to buy Blondie for herself of course), so after many months of planning I came up with On The Balcony, the Blondie album cuts. Using songs from all eight of their albums, I think I've done a pretty good job to represent Blondie to the ones unfamiliar, but more importantly I made a really great Blondie collection of MY favorite album cuts.

Blondie went through a few incarnations in their musical endeavors so instead of putting these songs in order we go through the zig zag world of these musical geniuses. So we start On The Balcony with the aweome tin chug opening of "Angels On The Balcony" from 1980's Autoamerican, we start off the ultimate album song compilation. From the very fist Blondie album in 1976 we get the great Jimmy Destri song "Look Good In Blue", the bluesy country of "Little Girl Lies" with some of the most cleverly written lyrics ever by Miss Debbie, the West Side Story inspired "A Shark In Jets Clothing" complete with finger snaps, and the rousing "Kung Fu Girls". From 1977's darker Plastic Letters album comes more punky confection in "Detroit 442", "I'm On E", and "I Didn't Have The Nerve To Say No" before venturing into the mother lode of 1978's Parallel Lines which we feature with 5 songs - Jimmy's "11:59", Debbie's "Just Go Away", "Will Anything Happen", "Pretty Baby" and "I Know But I Don't Know" then onto one of my all time fav album Eat To The Beat with Jimmy's (he is my favorite you know) "Accidents Never Happen" and "Living In The Real World" plus "Shayla", "Die Young Stay Pretty"; Autoamerican is reperesented by the aforementioned pseudo title track of the compilation, plus more Jimmy in "Do The Dark" and the rocking "Walk Like Me", and the punchy "Go Through It", while 1982's original swan song The Hunter once again taps into Jimmy's world with "Danceway" but goes the spy route with their version for the James Bond film with "For Your Eyes Only" and the last two albums No Exit (1999) and The Curse Of Blondie (2003) are represented by the country tinged "The Dream's Lost On Me" and the pop of "Rules For Living" respectively.

Track list:
01 Angels On The Balcony 02 Will Anything Happen 03 Accidents Never Happen 04 I Didn't Have The Nerve To Say No 05 Little Girl Lies 06 Go Through It 07 Pretty Baby 08 Detroit 442 09 Shayla 10 Walk Like Me 11 The Dream's Lost On Me 12 Living In The Real World 13 Kung Fu Girls 14 Danceway 15 I'm On E 16 Rules For Living 17 Do The Dark 18 I Know But I Don't Know 19 A Shark In Jets Clothing
20 Die Young Stay Pretty 21 11:59 22 For Your Eyes Only 23 Look Good In Blue 24 Just Go Away

bub 59 SWIVEK - Blanche & Wither (April 2006)
Can you even believe it - a Swivek compilation! Yes, that's right for the first time in history, Bubbatunes is releasing a Swivek comp not available by any other means. Actually, the reason this isn't an actual Swivek release on our regular label is the fact there are some of these songs that just can't be released, legal reasons, people saying "No" etc. but that shouldn't stop the regular fan from having them now should it? So with Blanche & Wither, I give you a bunch of b-sides, rare songs never released (some not really complete or just left for dead), some never before heard and some that should be known. The track list is done in chronological order from when they were recorded starting in 1999 and going through October of 2005.

From a very early recording session comes the Parick English music written title track which was released on the 2002 EP Rhinelander though it was recorded in 1999 around the time of the debut Swivek album Drab. Then when I started working on Mexican Gods in the summer of 2002 a few songs got shuffled and thrown off, including "Allright Now" which did appear as a b-side on the Cherry Go Go single, "We Live For Love" is a mellow electronic cover of the Pat Benatar song and it really isn't very good at all but hey it's rare. Also recorded but scrapped was "Zombie Dance (Come For You) " a song I liked but it never worked right. I even tried re-recording it for Bruised in 2003 but there's just something missing, maybe one day I'll go back again. Also recorded right after Mexican Gods was released is the ballad "Thoughts Of You (Fly)" written after my friend Shawn passed away. It was released on the Wish single in the summer of 2002. Incidentally recently I've been re-recording the vocals on the Mexican Gods songs and included was a re-recording of "Allright Now" and I'm working up a new vocal take on "Thoughts Of You (Fly)" - I'm not sure what I'll do with any of them but I think the song deserves a better vocal take.

From the Bruised sessions in 2003 comes "Just Go", "Teenage Dream (Cool Kids)" and "Boyfriend" - all which ended up on singles pllus the metallic electronic creepy-ish "You Don't Know" which was recorded as a B-side but never made it on a release, so there you go another unreleased track.

Then the perhaps infamous Poprock sessions - what happened is this, in the summer of 2004 I began working on a new Swivek album I was going to call Happiness Is Hard. I recorded a few songs including "The End Of The World" and "Make A Level Sunrise" and then I decided to use some instrumentals of quirky pop written and performed by Louis Bustamante of Tiki Lab. I wrote lyrics for about 5 songs and started recording them including "Bee Boo", "Ecstasy", "Seafish" and two Blondie covers - "Island Of Lost Souls" and "In The Flesh" that I thought we could use. Once I combined the tracks I did on my own and the Louis tracks I liked how they worked together and decided I'd change the name of the album to Poprock. The ultimate in all of the songs, I thought was the Charles Mason lyrics of "California Boy" a lyric written just for me so I recorded them over a track by Louis and sent all the tracks to Louis tracks to mix up while I worked on the rest of the album. As it would turn out, Louis worked with them a bit but put them away and then later decided he wanted to use the instrumentals for his own musical project so all the songs had to be shelved. But why should you suffer without hearing them? It all worked out anyway, as the songs I worked on alone became the Happiness Is Hard album and it's one of the best in the Swivek catalog. As for Charlie's dirty little ditty I'm going to go back to it one day and perhaps turn it inot a punk song instead.

"The One To Fall" and "Help Her" are both songs that were also recorded during the Happiness Is Hard session though they were written once I didn't have the other tracks anymore. But with other songs stronger and Patrick from Orange Television stepping in with a great little track, we didn't these two. "The One To Fall" ended up on the Where The Boys Are single while "Help Her" is another one I'd like to redo someday as it was written about my crazy Aunt and I'd like to see it redone.

The final track is one of my all time favorite Swivek tracks - "Crypt Keeper" a punky little electronica number written for the Flexible Records Halloween compilation Ghastly, it's hilarious and fun and actually quite entertaining.

Track List:
01 Blanche & Wither 02 Allright Now 03 We Live For Love 04 Zombie Dance (Come For You) 05 Thoughts Of You (Fly)06 Just Go 07 Teenage Dream (Cool Kids)
08 Boyfriend 09 You Don't Know 10 The End Of The World (demo) 11 Bee Boo 12 Make A Level Sunrise (original version) 13 California Boy14 Ecstasy15 Seafish 16 Island Of Lost Souls 17 In The Flesh18 The One To Fall 19 Help Her 20 Crypt Keeper


bub 60 Quarterflash - MAKE IT SHINE (May 15, 2006)
Rindy Ross and her gang are best known for the "Harden My Heart" single but there are many a good piece of 80s rock to be found on here. My ultimate fav song by the band has always been "Make It Shine" - an upbeat little number enforcing positive attitude while breaking down in the middle to a drum induced refrain (I love those), "Find Another Fool" is probably my favorite single by the band but "Take Me To Heart" may come in a close second. One of the most overlooked songs in their entire catalog is the title track to their second album Take Another Picture - the song is a punchy number reflecting the fear of fading away before your time is done - "Please take another picture, I don't want to fade away..." but the actual verses are what sucks me in - "I saw a picture hidden in the bedroom underneath father's ties/ a beautiful woman caught naked forever/ black strip over eyes/ I still remember that picture/ the image is sharp and clear/ and I'll never erase that eyeless face still smiling all these years..." Clever.

There are other gems to be found in the Quarterflash catalog that you may have forgotten about or never knew existed. "Don't Be Lonely" was the B-side to "Harden My Heart" and also included on Fast Times At Ridgemount High - a fun little ditty set to a chug beat and full of beacking vocals; and a fairly risque little ditty from the first album called "Valerie" about the girl in art school who had what appears to be a lesbian crush on the singer. They never say "yo! she's a lesbian" but even when I was a kid I could figure it out.

By the time Quarterflash recorded their third album they were actually fading away but that doesn't mean they didn't have some fine tunes left in them. The singles "Walking On Ice" and "Talk To Me" may have been lacking the ultimate pizzazz of earlier songs but they were still quite catchy and "Love Without A Net" is the 80s personified, which means I love it.

Track List:
01 Make It Shine 02 Find Another Fool 03 Don't Be Lonely 04 Take Me To Heart 05 Love Without A N et (You Keep Falling) 06 Valerie 07 Nowhere Left To Hide 08 Harden My Heart 09 Shane10 Walking On Ice 11 Take Another Picture 12 Love Should Be So Kind 13 It Don't Move Me 14 Right Kind Of Love 15 Eye To Eye 16 Talk To Me 17 Try To Make It True 18 Critical Times 19 Night Shift

and now we've made it through #s 55-60 so there's only one more batch of Bubbatunes to go through, and I just know you're itching to read about them, so we'll be back very soon!

Labels: Bubbatunes, Kim Lankford, Knots Landing, Laura Branigan, Lisa Hartman

posted by swivek @ 8:16 AM