Friday Night Music--Not Exactly Love Songs Edition

The myriad hair bands of the eighties and nineties wrote love songs by the dozen that essentially all sounded alike. Tonight I want to salute those bands that wrote the unconventional love songs that didn't quite meet the "power ballad" standard.

First we have AC/DC who wrote straight-forward rock and roll that was bluesy and infectious. The showman of the original band was the late Bon Scott and he rocks on this song about a woman who had, let's say, not the typical love song measurements (42' 39" 56"): Whole Lotta Rosie live. The video is not the best but the audio is decent:


Next we have Ray Davies and the boys with the classic Lola about a chance encounter with a chick who was not. It was groundbreaking to be sure and one of the songs that actually got some play for the highly underrated Kinks:



Next, the Dead with a song that was always one of my faves. Althea is about a highly complicated relationship. Jerry is on in this undated clip and he always seemed to enjoy playing it. Bobby resurrected it and played it several times on the Ratdog tours last year:



Finally a Bob Dylan song of a most-complicated love affair spanning years and many states. The Jerry Band played this song in a way that gave it new life and made this one of the most popular songs in the repertoire. Tangled Up In Blue always kicked live and this is a great version with Jerry in fine form at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA. Note the interplay with Melvin Seals, an excellent keyboardist and how Jerry always seemed to extract the best out of other musicians by bending and stretching a song to the point where you thought it couldn't go farther and always did. A truly smokin' version:



ve is a funny thing when looked at through the eyes of real people who write about as something more than a sex and good times fashion.