miko2 | (no subject)

Today's Song: Coudln't Get It Right by The Climax Blues Band

For some reason I've always associated the Climax Blues Band with the Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. You do remember who the Electric Mayhem were, don't you? They were, of course, the official rock band of the Muppet Show. Band members were: Dr. Teeth (piano, vocals, band leader), Sgt. Floyd Pepper (bass, vocals, Animal handler), Animal (drums, screaming), Zoot (tenor saxaphone), and Janis (guitar, vocals).

I think the reason these two bands are linked in my head is partly to do with the cover of Gold Plated, the record that I owned for years that included a copy of Couldn't Get It Right. On the cover you see someone with stringy long blonde hair which reminds me of Janis, and he's playing a saxaphone, which reminds me of the Muppet band as a whole. Also the Muppet band was intended to represent a sort of classic hippie blues rock group, and that's essentially what the Climax Blues Band was.

I thought of this song the other day and wanted to listen to it. Realizing that even if I might own it on cd, I wouldn't be able to find it easily (and I probably don't own it after all), I decided to download it from iTunes. It's always been one of my favorite rock songs from that era. It also clearly earns the needs more cowbell seal of approval.

Couldn't Get It Right - Climax Blues Band (videoless video)

A funny thing. The Climax Blues Band only had two really big hits. One was Couldn't Get It Right. The otehr was the ballad I Love You. This was a huge hit for them in 1981, but apparently aside from songwriter Derek Holt, the band members hated this tune. They refused to play it on tour and refused to put it on compilation cds (according to the band article in Wikipedia anyway -- no source is credited for the statement). Holt left the Climax Blues Band only a year later to form another band. In any case you can't find I Love You on most of their greatest hits cds (it's on the 2 cd set "25 Years: 1968-1993" but it's absent from "Got It Right - The Best Of Climax Blues Band", "20 Greatest Hits", and "Collection '77-'83" among others). This means, of course, that it's also not found on iTunes, which carries "20 Greatest Hits". This pisses off fans of that song, of course. ^_^