Thursday, March 3, 2022

The 1981 Listening Post - Tommy Tutone - Tommy Tutone 2

 Tommy Tutone - Tommy Tutone 2



#404

September 23 1981

Tommy Tutone

2

Genre: Power Pop Rock

4 out of 5




Highlights:

867-5309/Jenny

Shadow on the Road Ahead

Which Man Are You

Only One


How did he get away with this? Movies, for eons, have had to use “555” as a prefix to avoid prank calling (and immediately escort you out of the reality of the movie) and yet, here’s Tommy providing the aural graffiti wall to every douche-nozzle who decided to ring this one up.

Did you? I never did. Is there someone out there with this number? Do they hate their lives? Do they enjoy the randos calling any time of day, month, year?

Here’s a tidbit: Tommy (Tutone) Heath did not write the monster hit. That was his guitarist, Jim Keller and Alex Call. 


Another bit of tid: Springsteen so obviously nicked this riff for his trash single “Radio Nowhere” that it started me on a real ire fest of the subject of Bruce. He followed it by ripping of a KISS riff for a song on Working on a Dream and just recently appeared in a “We should all find a way to the middle” Jeep commercial. Bruce doesn’t need the money and I’m not ready to reach across the aisle to normalize people who acted seditiously while wearing “Camp Aushwitz” t-shirts. I apologize for the politics but, I wouldn’t care what party it was, if they do that, they earn my anger. 

Which means I now hate Jeep.

And, although I will see him in concert, I declared that I would consider not this morning. 

Also, Keller should have sued Bruce. Bruce has Jeep money, man.

I want to smack them for sounding like John Mellencamp on “Shadow on the Road Ahead” but, I don’t think John had really refined his sound and they are already doing it better.


I don ’t think anyone really realizes how close Tommy Tutone flirts with southern rock. If they just committed to it, they probably could have been on the vanguard of that scene.  (“Which Man Are You” “No Way to Cry”)


There’s nothing bad on this record. I almost listed “Only One” as a highlight cuz, it’s a nifty little tune, too. In fact, the whole rekkid is an exemplar of well crafted late 70s/early 80s Power Pop. Screw it. Let’s add it!




https://music.apple.com/us/album/tommy-tutone-2/268543713

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