Since becoming a Pop, I don’t get to listen to music in the manner to which I’d become accustomed for 20 or so years much anymore. Then there are the few nights when the planets align and the opportunity presents itself. Last night was such a night.
My choice? Badfinger baby. Badfinger Straight Up.
What an amazing album… Take it All
Name of the Game
Day After Day
Baby Blue
Money
Sweet Tuesday Morning
and others.
My dad worked for a religious record company when the album first came out and through that connection brought the LP home for me when I was a kid. I know he had no idea just how cool he was accidentally being or how much of an impact that gift would have on my choices in music from then on.
The only group on the Apple label beside the Beatles and with Harrison and Rundgren’s influence, this will always be a “must own.” Pete & Tom, we miss you guys.
Yeah, those guys definitely rock. I love their music.
When I hear Day After Day, I’m instantly transported back to the 70s, when we were having a big family picnic in a park, and that song came on the radio.
Though I always preferred the Nilsson version… somehow, knowing what happened to Pete and Tom gives the Badfinger rendition of “Without You” a terrible poignancy.
I would suggest you buying a copy of their second release on Warner Brothers, Wish You Were Here . They just about perfected their “power pop” sound on this album.
Too bad Warner pulled the album after only a few weeks, due to their management company pilfering money from an escrow account.
I just looked it up… 1974, last album with Pete Ham. Thanks! I’ll give it a spin.
I could swear Pete Ham was my guitar playing camp counselor back in 1969 masquerading under the alias of “Harry Golightly”. The separated at birthness of the two is staggering. And who the hell would actually name their kid Harry Golightly? Maybe the camp director, Henauder Titzoff, can shed some light on this.
Yeah, Badfinger and Big Star are 2 of the best bands of the 70s and nobody’s heard of them. I only discovered Badfinger about 5 years ago when I picked up Come And Get It: The Best Of Badfinger on a whim and was immediately hooked. I’d heard Come And Get It and No Matter What before but I’d had no idea who they were. Day After Day is a glittering, bittersweet pop masterpiece.
Badfinger rocks.
Only problem: when I listen to Badfinger in the car, I bruise my fingers slapping the steering wheel. I defy anyone to listen to Baby Blue and not rock out…the drum parts are damned irresistable.
I actually worked at a music store and one of the members of Badfinger was always coming in to chat. I don’t follow the band but I believe his name was Joey. He used to tell stories of hanging with Lennon and McCartney.
I also worked with Slim Dunlap from “The Replacements”. Great guy! Lots of cool stories. Man, that was a cool job!
Joey told me about a time when he first met John Lennon. He was over at his house with Paul and they were jamming. Now apparently John was a huge Dr. Pepper fan. He had a room in his basement filled with bottles of Dr. Pepper. Paul said “Whatever you do, don’t touch the Dr. Pepper.” As any musician knows, after a good jam one gets thirsty. So Joey didn’t heed Paul’s words and drank one of John’s sodas. John came home and saw Joey drinking his soda and hit the roof. I love that story. Joey is a really nice guy…
I won’t even get into the thousands of stories Slim Dunlap has told me…