ddiebenkorn, I don't see a pm -- please resend. fyi folks, I have been unemployed and trying to find new work, which is why I am overdue on getting "All Hopped Up" posted. Please bear with me, and I'll get this thread back on track soon.
NRBQ All hopped up 1977 Track Listing (from AMG) 1 I Got A Rocket In My Pocket Logsdon, McAlpin 2 It Feels Good Adams 3 Cecilia Dreyer, Ruby 4 Honey Hush Turner 5 Call Him Off, Rogers Adams 6 Doctor's Wind Spampinato 7 Ridin' In My Car Anderson 8 Things To You Adams 9 Still In School Spampinato 10 Help Me Somebody Anderson 11 Queen Talk Adams 12 That's Alright Spampinato 13 Bonanza Evans, Livingston not my favourite album but my favourite track by them : ridin' in my car a good mixture of fifties/sixties covers (honey hush, bonanza theme) and originals, although not as perfect as "yankee stadium" and "tiddlywinks"... overall 3.5/5
Where have I been? I missed out on a bunch of albums here ... I love ALL HOPPED UP. I've got the Red Rooster LP and the "Do The Bump" 45. Hell, I've got everything ... almost.
One of my favorite Q albums, along with At Yankee Stadium (and Scraps, and Workshop...). It has one of my favorite Q original songs, Ridin In My Car (also on the original version of Yankee Stadium), and my favorite Q cover song, I Got a Rocket in my Pocket, otiginally by Jimmy Lloyd. I love the line "Well 2-in-1's polish and 3-in-1's oil A lot of lip flippin' makes my bad blood boil" Full lyrics can be found here http://www.nrbqweb.com/lyrics/lyricsij.htm
My original copy on Red Rooster came with a white label mono 45 of "Ridin' In My Car"/"Do The Bump". Anybody else get this?
I have only heard this album in the Ridin' In My Car incarnation. So I have never heard Cecilia or Call Him Off, Roger but have heard Chicken Hearted and Start It Over and the High School band version of Ridin' In My Car! At any rate there are some absolutely great pop songs on this album. Obviously NRBQ albums typically go far beyond the confines of pop music and this one is no exception but it seems to have more pop nuggets than most of their catalog. Many of my favorite NRBQ tracks are present on this album. Ridin' In My Car truly is the surefire hit that never was. Still In School is all kinds of great. It Feels Good is amazing as is That's Alright. Their version of Rocket In My Pocket is very fun. If I was at whatever function the high school band played Ridin' In My Car at I would have been grinning ear to ear, it would have definitely made my day.
Got A Rocket In My Pocket & Ridin In My Car are 2 of the Q's absolute greatest moments....I would imagine they played those 2 live more than almost any other Q tunes!....I heard them play Ridin... a few times in the post-Big Al era with Joey singing,still great!! both Start It Over & Chicken Hearted woulda fit great on the original album....
sorry, I didn't move this thread along quicker. I was attempting to do comprehensive listings for each record, which don't exist in quite the same form as I was doing anywhere else on the web that I've seen. Everything out there is scattered among multiple sources or bare bones and plain. I'm hustling to find work after a long dry unemployment spell, and haven't had the time to do the kind of job I had started out doing and wanted to maintain. I figured that based on the amount of feedback to date, I had the space to take my time. If y'all want to move on without me, more power to you, just do an awesome job please.
no.. I'm being serious. I wasn't being facetious... lets not move this thread quickly please... these are really classic Q albums....
Years ago I managed to score an original pressing of "All Hopped Up" at a record show. That's the only copy I have and it's served me well all these years. I still don't have a copy of "Do the Bump", but I've heard it. This LP, for me, is where the current NRBQ sound has its real roots. So many classic Q tracks on this LP - beyond "Ridin' in My Car" which is arguably the Grand Defining NRBQ studio-cut of all-time. You get "Things to You", "That's Alright", "Still in School" and (for me) another Al Anderson classic "Help Me, Somebody". Now, I jumped onto the Q bandwagon long after this record came out, but when I first spun it on the turntable in the early 90's I could have sworn I had heard "Help Me, Somebody" years before. Did this song ever get any radio play? Or is it just one of those oddly familiar sounding things that's not all that well known in reality? In case folks haven't seen this yet - on Terry's website there is an ongoing interview (being posted in segments) with Terry sharing some insights and memories of the various incarnations of NRBQ. It just so happens that in the last segment, Terry recalls the story behind "I Got A Rocket in My Pocket" that is a real treat to read about! Check it out here from the man himself: http://www.terryadams.net/nrbq.html Cheers! ---------- Chris
How 'bout NRBQ's cover of the "Bonanza" theme? I think they all swapped instruments for that one. Dissonant doesn't cover it. Everyone gets the last note right, though.
For me, All Hopped Up really is where the Q sound/blend of the classic four (Terry/Al/Joey/Tommy) comes together. You could hear it happening on Workshop in some songs, but on All Hopped Up it is completely developed on all songs. From the perfect pop of Ridin’ In My Car, the bluesy Help Me Somebody, the pop/melodic It Feels Good & That’s Alright to the dissonance & humor of Bonanza and Call Him Off, Rogers. It’s all there! I feel that All Hopped Up through Grooves In Orbit is the absolute prime NRBQ. Every one of those albums = perfection.
As briefly mentioned earlier in this thread, "All Hopped Up" was re-issued in 1999 by Rounder in CD format, with new title (“Ridin’ in My Car”), new artwork, great remastered sound (Toby Mountain) and resequenced/bonus tracks. The extra songs, especially "Start It Over" (over-the-top guitar solo by Big Al) and "Chicken-Hearted", are not to be missed. Here's the reissue track listing (didn’t include “Cecelia” or “Call Him Off, Rogers” – too bad, they’re both really good): 1. Ridin' in My Car 2. Still in School 3. Help Me Somebody 4. Chicken Hearted (previously unreleased) 5. It Feels Good 6. Doctor's Wind 7. Start It Over (previously unreleased) 8. Honey Hush 9. Queen Talk 10. That's Alright 11. Things to You 12. Bonanza 13. She's Got to Know (previously unreleased) 14. I Got a Rocket in My Pocket 15. Ridin' in My Car (Marching Band Version) (previously unreleased) I’ve always thought “That’s Alright” is one of Joey Spampinato’s best songs, but the whole album is great, with the possible exception of the overtly commercial “Ridin’ in My Car.” I agree, this is the start of a run of classic ‘Q albums.
While I thoroughly enjoy RIDIN' IN MY CAR, I much prefer the original ALL HOPPED UP, which can be had as a Japanese cardboard-sleeved remastered reissue, with the original track line-up still intact. I have a European import CD on Line Records (I think) from 1991, also. Still, it's good that anything by NRBQ remains in print and available. Gotta have "Call Him Off, Rogers," no matter what.
Oh yeah. Can't wait to get to each of those albums, especially my beloved GROOVES IN ORBIT, the first "new" Q I bought on release day in May of 1983. It'd be six more long years until their next studio album (not counting SHE SINGS, THEY PLAY with the late Skeeter Davis a/k/a Mrs. Joey Spampinato (for a few years, anyway).
I really dont understand why they left the 2 tracks off the "Ridn..." album....there's plenty of room!! ....but Start It Over & the cover of Chicken Hearted are 2 of my all time fave Q tunes.... So let's just put me down for both being the bee's knees!
When do we start talking about the Big Bang of NRBQ's discography--the great "At Yankee Stadium" on Mercury/Phonogram? Here's some trivia: The album's working title was "The Hicks Go Mod". The album was pressed in three separate Phonogram plants in the U.S. so the band prepared a slightly different master tape for one of the plants--on the closing falsetto chorus of "Ain't No Free", you hear Al Anderson say "A bunch of sick guys". Anybody got a copy? More trivia: the Phonogram A&R guy who signed the Q was former Blues Project/Blood Sweat & Tears member Steve Katz.
Never heard that version of Ain't No Free, I don't think. But this was the song I heard on the radio in New Haven (along with radio ads for a show at Toad's Place using an excerpt of the song) that first made me aware of NRBQ. I bought the album soon thereafter, and the rest is history! It's still my favorite Q album (especially the original pressing with Ridin In My Car on it), and Ain't No Free is still one of my favorite Q songs.
Yankee Stadium was the first Q album I bought....I love The Young Fresh Fellows & they were often compared to the Q so I figured I should check em out......HOLY MOLY moment!... It's my fave rave Q album,from the cover art on down!..... Never heard of the variation on Aint No Free....what a cool factoid!
Hey John! I actually found a copy of this pressing of NRBQ At Yankee Stadium today. The LP I've had for years was not one of these rare ones. Spotted a copy at a favorite record haunt (where I was able to play it in the store) and bingo! I could clearly hear Al Anderson's studio chatter at the end of "Ain't No Free". Interesting to note that in the deadwax on side one of the rare copy is scrawled the phrase you mentioned as the working title "The hicks go mod" ! Thanks for the heads up about this pressing. Question (if anyone knows)....... was this move done to keep track of quality control of the record since the first run of the first Columbia album had a "bad batch"? -------- Chris
