1986 Top Ten Songs: Steel Strings (#2)

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Hang tight, two more days of songs you’ve never heard by people you’ve never heard of, and then we’ll hit 1966! Thanks for hanging with me on this, because this is more of a personal look back at what I was listening to than what was popular at the time. The final two songs have a common thread (other than you’ve never heard them and never heard of the artists ), so let’s go back 40 years! #2: Steel Strings - Peter Case The connection is John Henry “T-Bone” Burnett, singer, songwriter, and producer extraordinaire. His records, great though they are, sold like hot tea in the desert, so in the mid-80s he turned his attention to producing “college rock” or “Americana” (although that term didn’t exist for music at the time). Among the albums he produced in that era: By the Light of the Moon by Los Lobos, King of America by Elvis Costello, Downtown by Marshall Crenshaw, his own album, tomorrow’s featured 1986 album…and this one. Dang, he was a busy little bee, wasn’t he! Most people who know his name know it because he was the music producer for the film O Brother, Where Art Thou, which is one of the biggest-selling soundtracks of the 21st century. But he makes great music on his own, and the albums he produced were mid-80s classics. That includes this one, the debut solo album by former Plimsouls member Peter Case. About the only thing you may know him for is co-writing “A Million Miles Away,” used in the movie Valley Girl, and writing the song “Two Angels,” used (as he said at a concert the night I asked him to do the song) as a backdrop for a sex scene in the HBO series True Blood. I’ve made up for what you haven’t heard. I’ve seen him twice, have all his albums, etc. etc. His songwriting is stinking brilliant. You listen to a song like “Entella Hotel” and you can feel the grit he’s describing. This song, about the ups and downs (mostly downs: “they used to play in the courts of kings, now they’re only made of steel when they’re on steel strings”) of being in the music business, makes you realize that, for every U2 or Madonna out there, you have a million “critically-acclaimed” bands and singers who are lucky to pay their rent after a month of touring. Here’s to them all. Steel Strings Written by Peter Case Recorded by Peter Case From Peter Case, 1986 The pink Cadillac is up for sale: