Bradley's Buzz

BubbaTUNESday - bub135 Cher - Misses

Welcome back to our BubbaTUNESday!

First I have some pretty cool news, so despite all the work and effort I put into my Bubbatunes to create some reissued albums that are no longer or never have been on CD, every now and then it's all for naught cuz some company up and actually puts out the CD. A few months ago, Wounded Bird released Lisa Hartman's Til My Heart Stops and I was ecstatic and now in really cool news a company called Cherry Pop released the first two Kim Wilde albums with bonus tracks and album art and next month they will release the third album.. so someone finally got it right! And now those Kim Wilde releases are officially out of print on Bubbatunes...

But what is in release from Bubbatunes are two brand new ones coming up in the next few weeks but before we can get to them, we have to look at the last two from 2008 - a couple of compilations that were made as gifts but really are a gift to myself as well... and our first one is a certified diva who has had some ups and downs, we are going to concentrate on the downs

bub135 CHER - MISSES (December 2008)
When she's good she's really good and when she's bad - she's divine.. Cher has certainly had her ups and downs in her career but the beatch keeps coming back, but in between her numerous come back success stories there are a slew of lesser charting songs that are still very entertaining if not downright good. I decided with all the Best Of Cher albums out there it was high time there was a Worst of Cher sort of.. as these songs aren't bad, they just weren't hits.

So we have Cher Misses which spans most of her career lows opening with some great 60's gems - some which were on her excellant though overlooked album 3864 Jackson Highway which was recorded at the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. These cuts are some of my all time fav Cher songs including her cover of "For What It's Worth" (you may not know the title but it's the Buffalo Springfield song 'stop children what's that sound/ everybody look what's goin down") which was a single but didn't chart, then there's a B-side "The First Time" about well you can guess, but boy is she ptent on it, "Classified 1A" is a super cool Sonny Bono Vietnam song that is apparantly one of Cher's favorite songs, and my favorite of the bunch, "I Walk On Guilded Splinters" is so cool you will just about wet your undies.

After this string of songs, Cher started to have some hits again both with Sonny and without catapulting to the early 70's with the Dark Lady, Gypsys songs. Then her variety show ended, she split with Sonny and signed on with David Geffen at Warner Brothers Records where she wanted to re-emerge as a rock star. It didn't really pan out.

1975's album Stars is considered by many Cher fans to be her best performance ever and it certainly does have its moments including the Indian Reservation vs. Government sting in "Geronimo's Cadillac" which was lifted as the first unsuccessful single from the album. Also her cover of "Bell Bottom Blues" is really, really good.

Since Stars didn't do much to promote Cher as a rock goddess, she upped the ante for the next album I'd Rather Believe In You in 1976 complete with hippy cool schtick looks on the cover, but alas the album didn't provide any hits or even bother charting but it gave us a cool single with "Long Distance Love Affair" (not the Sheena Easton song) and another cover, this time "Knock On Wood" done in a cool R&B stomp like the original and two years before Amii Stewart would rearrange it and create a disco classic.

Warner Brothers decided Cher's newfound rock woman wasn't fairing very well so they set her back up with Snuff Garrett who had delivered the Dark Lady, Gypsys etc. songs. So what we get from her album Cherished is a slightly watered down version of those story songs including the single "War Paint & Soft Feathers" which is basically a combo of "Half Breed" and "Gypsys Tramps & Theives" but its good, it just came out about four years too late.

Cher would record one more album with Warner Brothers Allman & Woman, a duet set with her then husband of two minutes Gregg Allman (also released in 1977) but it didn't chart and there weren't any songs that really jumped out at me to even bother putting on Missed... so we move to a more successful time.

1979 brought Cher another comeback when she signed to Casablanca and they made her make a disco album...she got a gold album and a top ten single with Take Me Home out of the deal but it was a little harder to follow up. The second single "Wasn't It Good" was re-arranged into both a 7" single and a 12" version and though it charted very low on the charts (enough to warrant being on this comp) it wasn't a hit and you won't see it on very many Cher compilations but it's just as good if not better than "Take Me Home."

Also from the Take Me Home album comes "Git Down (Guitar Groupie)" which was the flip side to a single released from the next album (we'll get to that) but it's just so damn good it should've been a hit... a little more rock than disco it's all about a lady from the Valley who follows the hottest axe in town cuz she really knows how to git on down... it's excellant.

The final Take Me Home release was the third single, a country/pop song that comes out of nowhere - "It's Too Late To Love Me Now" is actually a really good ballad but again it didn't come anywhere near the top 100 chart.

Following the moment of success with Take Me Home, our girl recorded another album right away Prisoner. An album that lunged between discofied pop and new wave pop and sometimes would be rock. It really isn't as good as I remembered it but it certainly has its moments including the lead off single "Hell On Wheels" which did score low on the charts but certainly didn't classify as a hit. The second single "Holdin' Out For Love" is super fun and bouncy and the Pointer Sisters would even record it as a Bside around 1980 but again Cher didn't score with this one though I think it would've made a more radio friendly single than "Hell On Wheels" still it didn't chart anywhere.

Our girl tried one more disco tune out for size with "Bad Love" produced by Giorgio Moroder for the soundtrack to the film Foxes in 1980. Though it wasn't released as a single it's a great song and needed to be a hit.

Cher's final Casablanca album found her as the front person to the rock outfit Black Rose. Once again she was after a rock goddess moniker and once again it didn't work out for her. The album, the would be tour, the man she was dating in the band - it all fell to crap but it didn't give us one kick ass tune to place on Misses - "Never Should've Started" where Cher starts singing and I swear you don't even recognize her - right away anyway.

Two years later Cher signed onto Columbia Records and gave us one of her own personal favorite songs "I Paralyze" produced by John Farrar, Olivia Newton-John's main go to man. The album fizzled, the single fizzled - the lead off single (girl groupie bop pop) "Rudy" failed... and to tell you the truth I don't know why. I remember Cher performing "I Paralyze" On Solid Gold like every week yet the song didn't chart at all. The whole album is pretty good and Cher says she still plans on re-recording "I Paralyze" one day, we'll see how that works out for her.

After I Paralyze, Cher hit the big screen and began making movies and lots of money, so she decided to try once again and be a rock goddess and this time it worked. Her 1987 self titled rock album was a big hit with three fairly big singles but one final single didn't quite do it for the radio world - "Main Man" was the final single released from Cher following the success of "I Found Someone", "We All Sleep Alone" and to a smaller extent "Skin Deep".

But because Cher is one of my all time favorite albums I had to include two songs that weren't singles but could've been huge - I just bet. "Perfection" is a rocking ditty that starts off with Cher singing with Bonnie Tyler and Darlene Love about how perfect life could be except love sucks, one of my all time fav lines ever is in the song - "when love is here to stay / then its gone today/ you've got a list of lovers lookin' like a resume" Ha!

The other song from Cher on our collection is "Give Our Love A Fightin' Chance" which is full of gun and fighting cliches but rocking and I love it and you should too.

Our final song on Misses is another one that is from this big height period of Cher's career but didn't score as high as her other singles of the time - "You Wouldn't Know Love" is another bitchy rocker from her Heart Of Stone album (which I believe is one of her biggest selling albums) and it did score on the charts but not in the way the other singles "If I Could Turn Back Time", "Just Like Jesse James" and the title track did..

So there you have Cher in all of her missed glory... I hope you enjoy it. Next week we look at our last compilation from last year and it's from a gal I like to think of as forever ciji - can u figure it out?


bub135 CHER - MISSES (2008)
Track List: 01. I Walk On Guilded Splinters 02. For What It's Worth 03. The First Time 04. Classified 1A 05. Geronimo's Cadillac 06. Bell Bottom Blues 06. Long Distance Love Affair 07. Knock On Wood 08. War Paint & Soft Feathers 09. Git Down (Guitar Groupie) 10. Wasn't It Good (Single Version) 11. It's Too Late To Love Me Now 12. Hell On Wheels (Single Version) 13. Holdin' Out For Love (Single Version) 14. Bad Love 15. Never Should've Started 16. Rudy 17. I Paralyze 18. Give Our Love A Fighting Chance 19. Perfection 20. Main Man 21. You Wouldn't Know Love

For a limited time:
Download bub135 CHER - MISSES

Labels: bub135, BubbaTUNESday, Cher, Rarities

posted by swivek @ 8:16 AM 1 comments

What 2 Do

So very sorry for not writing as of late but it suddenly occured to me I have a bunch of self induced projects going on. First and foremost I'm still working on that damn new Swivek album, but with all the work going into it I can tell you it's going to be good. I even wrote three new songs in the last few weeks so things are a rocking. Obviously with next week being Thanksgiving and Christmas only a few weeks away, I'm pushing the date for Everybody Hates You to next year... but it will be sometime in the early parts. This gives me the extra time to fine tune the songs I am definitely including, finally figure out the track list - there are 8 songs for absolute sure - "Everybody Hates You", "Art Attacks", "Wounded", "Rock Hard", "Fabulous", "Cry Baby", "This Is A Town" and "Suck Out The Sun" -

luckily the only reason I can't come up with a definite track list is I like all 23 (yes 23!) songs I recorded for the album... and I'm going to have my pal Jules come over and add her angelic voice to some harmony on a few songs and since she's as busy as a busy busy b, I'll be lucky if she can hit the mic before New Year's.... plus with the extra time we can make a video or two! I really want to shoot a cool (as cool as cheap can be) for the next single which will be "Rock Hard"... I also am sending some songs over to my ingenius godson/nephew Z who makes videos with his friends so he can whip up a Swivek video...

Then I just realized I HAVE to go Christmas shopping this weekend or anyone not in my immediate residency won't get their Christmas presents on time. Luckily, I found some cool things for my little nephew - he's fun to shop for.

and for almost two years now I've been promising the second (and final) season of Carlton Heights, and I have my notes all together and the first episode almost complete, but it just takes me a bit to get back into it.. and everytime I hit the computer I end up working on music. So once that's wrapped up we'll be good to go.

And then there's that little Bubbatunes CD re-release project that is never ending.. hopefully I will have a couple more before year's end including a few more Kim Wilde CDs, two Cheryl Ladd CDs, Scott Baio, Kirsty MacColl and a few more... I know what would you do without my odd taste in tunage...

and for the Cher fan who loved "Prisoner" and was looking for more Cher, I have to search out the blog with "Take Me Home" on it, but I'm sure it's here somewhere and as for the other Cher albums on CD, they're still a coming - sometime in the future, I plan on putting, "Stars", "I'd Rather Believe In You", "Allman & Woman" and "Cherished" on CD and a compilation of Cher Misses (the songs that just didn't hit)...

Alright I'm off to find something to do... but will be next week with more posts ( I swear )

Labels: Bubbatunes, Carlton Heights, Cher, Cheryl Ladd, Kim Wilde, Kirsty MacColl, My Life In La La Land, Scott Baio, Swivek

posted by swivek @ 1:02 PM 2 comments

Brad On Wheels

Labels: Cher, Free download, Hell On Wheels, Jim Bray, Roller Boogie, Swivek

posted by swivek @ 10:02 AM 0 comments

BubbaTUNESday Black Rose

bub 128 Black Rose – Black Rose
(June 17, 2008)

It’s so hard to be incognito when you’re Cher – even in her times of less than stellar stardom, the girl couldn’t help but be featured on the cover of magazines for just being Cher. So perhaps she was a little naïve in thinking that she could front a rock band without anyone noticing. Such was the idea behind Black Rose in 1980.

After done her discofied Casablanca Records, Cher picked up with her boyfriend at the time Les Dudek and his pals forming a rock band – Black Rose. Of course there was press all around and the minute she headed out front during concerts people snickered. Who did she think she was? She’s Cher for Christ’s sake not Pat Benatar. But Cher had always wanted to sing rock and roll, not disco, not syrupy ballads. It’s funny that she would come back in 1987 with the rock chick persona in full and be embraced. Oh well times change I guess.

In 1980, the reaction was less than stellar and I actually don’t know why. The opening cut was the first single and is my favorite on the album “Never Should’ve Started.” It starts out slow and hits big and it’s about three minutes into the song before you even realize it’s Cher singing. This could’ve been big if people actually didn’t know Cher was on it.

There’s only 8 songs total on the Black Rose album but of those there are a few highlights to be found – “Young & Pretty” is a moody rock song about making it in La La Land, “Julie” is a complete rock balls to the wall song with Cher bitching about the bitch that is Julie – and it’s co-written by Bernie Taupin AND Mike Chapman! “We All Fly Home” is classic late 70’s rock in it’s glory.

The whole Black Rose album is actually good for Cher’s first foray into rock and roll and though it didn’t chart, didn’t sell and didn’t even launch a single, it showed that Cher could wrap that warble around real guitars instead of just gypsy music box songs, disco dangles and sugary ballads. In fact there was one person who felt Cher could rock – Meat Loaf who did a duet with her “Dead Ringer For Love” in all its Jim Steinman rockin’ glory that was released as a single in 1981 where it was a big hit in the UK proving the United Kingdom liked Cher a rocking.

Black Rose – Black Rose (bub128)
Track List:
01. Never Should’ve Started 02. Julie 03. Take It From The Boys 04. We All Fly Home 05. 88 Degrees 06. You Know It 07. Young And Pretty 08. Fast Company
Bonus Track
09. Dead Ringer For Love (with Meat Loaf)

DOWNLOAD BLACK ROSE

Labels: Black Rose, bub128, Bubbatunes, BubbaTUNESday, Cher

posted by swivek @ 11:58 AM 0 comments

BubbaTUNESday Cher - Prisoner

bub 127 Cher – Prisoner (1979; 2008)
(June 17, 2008)

It didn’t take long for our girl to hop back onto the recording stool and come up with another album for Casablanca – in fact by my calculation, it was probably only a few months for Prisoner, came out in 1979 as well.

The album didn’t do nearly as well as Take Me Home, but according to those know it alls at Wikipedia, the album did go gold though it didn’t seem to chart very high – if at all.

Regardless of the chart positions and sales, this was an album Cher apparently wanted to make. I’m sure Casablanca pressured her into another disco-fied album but our sassy gal was a little too smart to just go that route.

Inserted in between dancey disco is some rock and some pop and some of just about everything. An 8 song collection handled and mostly written by Bob Esty and Michele Aller with Cher supervising, these were all songs for Cher about Cher for Cher fans. She wanted the peeps to know what was going on in her life and how she felt, but couldn’t be bothered to write the songs herself (I kid.)

None the less, we have some interesting dips into Cher’s world – the ultimate and best track on the whole set is “Hell On Wheels” – an opus ride into roller disco with some rock edges to it. This was when Cher was actually spinning her roller skates at LA roller discos every night. It’s completely brilliant and just happened to have “Git Down (Guitar Groupie)” from Take Me Home as a B-side on the 7” making it one of the best singles to come out in the 70s.

“Holdin’ Out For Love” bee bops through a poppy keyboard and was the second single. The story of being tripped up in love before and deciding this time she’s “holding on/ holding in/ holdin out for love..” It’s actually pretty catchy.

The opening title track is an opus of sound that fills the whole first six minutes of the album and is one of the highlights of the album, but in all honesty as much as I wanted to love Prisoner as a whole album it kind of falls short.

Mirror Image and Outrageous! are classic examples into the personality of Cher – particularly how the paparazzi and people saw her. The cool keyboard lines in “Mirror Image” make it stand up a bit more than “Outrageous” but in both cases I think the lyrics kind of weight it down.

The same goes for “Boys & Girls” a full on rock song full of fire and fun, you would think. Once those lyrics start flying out it’s hard to keep concentrated. There’s just something that doesn’t work for me.

While “Shoppin’” is just something everyone has to hear. It’s about, well shoppin’ – one of Cher’s past times and as much as I would even love to love it just on sheer camp value, I think she’s too serious about it for it be just for fun; while “Holy Smoke!” is actually catchy and fun as she talks about the ills of the modern world. With a little re-write here and there it would’ve been great!

I may be acting a bit harsh on Prisoner, after all I did take all this time to put together the music, do the artwork, include lyrics and the whole shizz – but that has a lot to do with the fact the artwork and promo works for Prisoner are brillz! The best cover shot of Cher’s albums ever! Plus the whole of the album is actually a piece of Cher history and it’s definitely worth hearing and having for the big Cher fans.

A CD version was released as an import along with the Take Me Home but I think the album was remixed and the fact is it’s damn hard and expensive to find and with the ultimate brilliance of the album artwork on both Take Me Home and Prisoner, neither of which was reproduced for that CD, the Bubbatunes are really the best Cher re-releases ever – plus we have bonus tracks and bonus bonus tracks.

The 7” versions of the two singles “Hell On Wheels” and “Holdin’ Out For Love” are here as is the super cool “Bad Love” – a song she did in all Giorgio Moroder coolness for the film Foxes in 1980 (a movie which had “On The Radio” by Donna Summer as the theme song)… and thanks to Amoeba Records, I found the 12” of “Hell On Wheels” which is even longer than the album version plus it was backed with a 12” version of “Git Down (Guitar Groupie)” and though neither are mentioned in my artwork, they are here in the download just for you!... Don’t tell Cher.

Cher – Prisoner (bub126)
Track List:
01. Prisoner 02. Holdin’ Out For Love 03. Shoppin’ 04. Boys & Girls 05. Mirror Image 06. Hell On Wheels 07. Holy Smoke! 08. Outrageous
Bonus Tracks:
09. Hell On Wheels (Single Version) 10. Holdin’ Out For Love (Single Version) 11. Bad Love 12. Hell On Wheels (12” Version) 13. Git Down (Guitar Groupie) (12” Version)

DOWNLOAD CHER – PRISONER

Labels: bub127, BubbaTUNESday, Bubbtunes, Cher, Hell On Wheels, Prisoner

posted by swivek @ 11:53 AM 3 comments

Of Strippers, Monsters and Deep Voiced Broads

What a weekend! First, have any of you ever done body shots off of a stripper? Yeah, me either. My pal had a little birthday bash this Saturday and all he wanted was a huge bottle of vodka and a male stripper so in the land of La La, dreams do come true and he got them both. I have never been to a house party where a real live stripper showed up. I was of course expecting some beefy man dressed as a cop to jump in and pretend to bust us, but instead we got a skinnier yet pretty buff boy who came in, did some shots, turned on the tunes and did acrobatics all over the guests - it was pretty interesting to say the least - the very least...

The next day the Leivas, I and our pal Tommy did a little brunch at a small cafe on Hollywood Boulevard before walking over to Graumann's Chinese Theater where we sat through Cloverfield - a new monster movie that was pretty frickin' good. I actually loved it, though since its from JJ Abrahams of Lost, I figure I have to see it a few more times to catch all the goods. Though rumor has it, if you watch the ending shot - there's a part where the camera is focused on the ocean and you can see something fall into the water - thus maybe just maybe letting us know where the monster came from. The strange thing is, I thought I had seen something fall in the water and thought maybe it was just me... oh well, if you haven't seen it - go, it's pretty fun. Though the hand held camera work had the Leivas in a bit of a tizz...

and in the saddest part of this Martin Luther King day, one of my favs has passed on. Suzanne Pleshette who made the original Bob Newhart Show so enjoyable died yesterday. You may (or may not recall) that the first time I voted in California the Leivas and I walked over to the fire station to cast our votes and there in line was Suzanne and her husband Tom Poston. I was so excited - it was way more exciting than the time Michael Jackson came into my store.. I mean this was frickin' Suzanne Pleshette...

The whole weekend was topped off by getting a gift certificate for Amoeba from my mom and her boyfriend Bob and a $50 gift card from my father. So of course I hit up Amoeba, though I also (of course) forgot both the gift card and the gift certificate but that didn't stop me from buying some excellant things - okay excellant to me anyway including the vinyl LPs of Cher's Take Me Home and Prisoner, Pointer Sisters' rock album Priority and Melissa Manchester Emergency - don't judge me... I also picked up a ton of 45's for a dollar each including a bunch of Sheena Easton as she had the tendancy of putting out B-sides that never appeared on her albums and I am continually trying to get all of my top 100 singles of the 80's in actual 45 form, I only have a few more to go...



For an extra treat - here is an old video of Man 2 Man's "Male Stripper" - our stripper didn't allow cameras so this is as close as you can get...

Labels: Amoeba Music, Cher, Cloverfield, Life In La La Land, Male Stripper, Man 2 Man, Prisoner, Take Me Home

posted by swivek @ 11:07 AM 0 comments

Cher & Cher Alike

Well here's something you don't see everyday - a little bit of discofied Cher from 1979 - yep a few years before MTV ever debuted, our crazy girl donned her skates and made herself a video full of hunky 70's porn star looking men... need I even tell you how you brilliant I think this is??? I may have to film an homage, I wonder where I would find an outfit like that??

Labels: 70s videos, Cher, Hell On Wheels, MTV

posted by swivek @ 10:49 AM 3 comments