Listen: Crazy Little Thing Called Love / Queen QueenCrazy.mp3

After their first few singles, and by ’76, Queen officially resided in the ‘not friendly to punk rock’ space. Their music and image fitted totally with the helium sound and mustached look of US AOR radio – so not only did my attention wander, but in fact they were now considered the enemy.

Well I was wrong and my defiance softened. To be fair, they admittedly had singles all along that were secret pleasures. The video for ‘I Want To Break Free’ was a riot and a lot of our crowd realized, these guys are actually okay. Plus who is anyone, least of all me, to deny ‘Under Pressure’ or ‘Radio Ga Ga’?

Vividly remember that moment I sat up and really took notice. It was on an uneventful Saturday evening, watching SNL, as Queen literally unleashed one of TV’s best ever live music performances. ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, with the added keyboardist (anyone know who that is?) decimated any previous prejudice. A mad dash to the wall shelf followed, checking the Queen 7″ collection – and the filling-in process began the very next morning, bright and early, when I hit the garage sales then moving on to The Record Archive’s backroom.

I turned to Corinne, jaw dropped, spurting out some exclamation. She was nonplussed by Queen during those days, exactly like the rest of us, but in her typical smooth one-up way simply said, and this is an exact quote: “I always loved Queen”. Right.

Listen: A Fool In Love / The Frankie Miller Band FrankieMillerFoolInLove.mp3

Listen: Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever / Frankie Miller's FrankieMillerLovingYou.mp3

I saw Ray LaMontagne on SNL last night. I’d heard endless raves about the guy. With an 10 piece band, and an exhausting ‘mean it’ delivery, I realised I’d already seen it back in ’76 from Frankie Miller. I didn’t bother watching his second song, but instead went to the record library.

Often sighted as a blue eyed, gravel voiced soul legend, Frankie Miller successfully survived punk during the late 70′s, being nicely accepted along with Thin Lizzy and Jess Roden as ‘ok to like’ – well he was really good so not such a surprise.

I was interested in just about anything from Chrysalis back then. Must have been the lime green generic sleeves, but being a hip indie of the day was a plus. Yes, I was an indie snob in my youth too. Between The Winkies, Blodwyn Pig, Tir Na Nog, early Jethro Tull, Steeleye Span and Robin Trower – they were fine label.

I remember Tommy Nast, then the overnight DJ on WBBF, playing this as his first song of 1976, just after midnight on New Year’s morning. Why I was listening baffles me – I think we were in the car. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. They were a strict mainstream Top 40 station with a dependably wretched playlist – but I did hear this happen. Tommy had previously been with WSAY, a twisted AM progressive rock anomaly – and his taste plus knowledge of music were a logical path to playing Frankie Miller. He must’ve gotten shit for it.