Listen: It’s Cold Outside / The Choir ChoirCold.mp3

Tis the season to be…..playing songs about cold weather. ‘It’s Cold Outside’ peaked at #68 in Billboard in early June ’67 and proves all this nonsense about lyrics fitting the season is hollow. Actually, I recall the record picking up airplay ever so slowly when initailly released in December ’66, so I guess the intention was a wintertime hit.

Despite it’s revered spot in garage rock history, it’s more a sentimental memory for me. I used to light up when it came on the air that winter, as it got played quite early in the upstate New York area. The looser WOLF jumped on it straight off, and by spring/summer slow poke WNDR was on board.

Summer ’67, repeated again in ’77 and even ’87, represents many a fantastic single. It was hard to keep up with all the hits and new releases.

But you gotta love this naive, sloppy garage band performance – despite it currently residing a bit too comfortably in the power pop catagory, a genre that usually has me running in the opposite direction.

Listen: Ramblin' Gamblin' Man / Bob Seger System BobSegerRamblin.mp3

In ’68 this bordered on garage rock. Caught my ear the very first time it came on the air. I forever associate it with The Choir’s ‘It’s Cold Outside’, a terrific single despite it’s overflowing power pop sweetness. Probably Bob Seger’s finest moment. Mind you, this is coming from someone who never listened beyond to his other work, except when he got real traction years later and his stuff couldn’t be avoided. I would always cut him a break though, his heart seemed in the right place and despite his appearance, it appeared he loved to ‘rock’.

I was equally impressed when he showed a true card: even he wanted to be like The Cramps. His ‘Old Time Rock And Roll’ is the perfect corporate rock, cleaned up, MTV friendly version of the pure primal blueprint: The Cramps ‘God Damn Rock And Roll’. What a compliment. He got film usage, mainstream American ‘Rock’ radio play and a license to print arena tickets out of it – while The Cramps resided happily in the tunnels beneath hell. Yet another example of Lux Interior’s lyrical genius:

Jill’s bucket Jack had to hold,
Humpty dunked it ’til it done explode,
Even before Van Gogh had art
Adam & Eve did it in the park

They did that Goddamn Rock n Roll
The kind of stuff that don’t save souls
Ain’t nothin’ good about it that I know
I dig that Goddamn Rock n Roll

(lyrics reprinted without permission)

Listen: Goddamn Rock And Roll / The Cramps CrampsGodDamn.mp3