Have You Heard?: GOING UNDERGROUND [2011]

You know that great feeling when you hear a song you don't recall ever hearing before and you get excited and find out who sings it so you can hear it again? And then you find it and you play it over and over wondering why you can't remember ever hearing it? That happened to me today. I was listening to this fantastic 3CD UK compilation from 2011 on shuffle when I heard "Prime Time" by The Tubes (THE TUBES?!) stood out above the rest of the admittedly awesome tracks and I listened to it about five or fifteen times before letting the shuffle continue and with my trusty crossfade set at about six seconds the next song flowed in seamlessly, almost as if it was the same song. So not only was I high on a new re-discovery, I was given the bonus of a ridiculously syncopated crossfade. Ladies and gentlemen, it was a perfect storm.

So let me start from the beginning. Last week, I was listening to Going Underground via Spotify with the ten missing songs linked in from the Local Files folder and playback set on shuffle. It's a great compilation, one that I have enjoyed many times since it's release in 2011, featuring many songs that got no play here in the States and sprinkled with a few recognizable hits as well. The tracks are all from 1977-1982, a fertile period covered frequently on British compilations. In fact, the year after Going Underground (named after a song by The Jam that appears as the album's first track) was released, the label (Universal Music TV) released a very similar compilation titled Teenage Kicks 1977-1981: The Music That Changed Everything.

Despite the overlap of a few tracks, I picked that one up, too. It's only got 60 tracks spread across the three discs and it sort of almost lives up to its title for this bloke. In a mix with tracks from Rhino's Left Of The Underground and No Thanks boxes and a few each from the Stiff, Cash From Chaos and 1-2-3-4 box sets, both Going Underground and Teenage Kicks could anchor a really sweet mix of late punk and early new wave from both the UK and the US. I'd have to close out the mix with the iconic Iggy Pop lending his restrained vocals to the Teddybears droning Cars-like track, "Punkrocker."

But getting back to Going Underground, after about 45 minutes of listening, the drums and synths gave way to a female vocal. Sounded a bit like Blonide's Debbie Harry and then the chorus hit, all smooth hooks and blended harmonies. I glance at the second display to see who it is I'm listening to and enjoying and I see Prime Time - The Tubes. Straight to discogs.com to look it up. And then I see it - Produced & Engineered by Todd Rundgren. Of course. I seem to have developed a sixth sense for the man's productions.

Turns out it was a Top 40 single in the UK, peaking at number 34 in a ten-week run. Earned the band an appearance on Top Of The Pops and this unnamed show. The female singer is Re Styles, a frequent collaborator of The Tubes from 1975-1980. I do not yet have the album from 1979 that "Prime Time" is on, a concept album called Remote Control based on Jerzy Kosiński's book Being There, which was made into a Peter Sellers film that same year. So the song seems to run long as I listened through to the end without jumping back to the beginning to hear it again and I look at the display again just to see how much longer because I had just listened to it a bunch of times and I didn't remember the part I was hearing though it sounded like the same song.

On the monitor, I see Airport - The Motors and I listened through until that song was obviously over and then I queued up both songs to recreate the magic I had just heard and lo and behold it was nearly seamless: the beat, the vibe and even the synth sound of "Airport" was close to that of "Prime Time." So it turned out to be a great day for the re-discovery of a couple of tracks that had been there in my collection all along. The Motors song reminds me of New Musik which led me to listen to a few New Musik songs and the day just got better and better. If you've never had the pleasure of listening to Going Underground, enjoy the playlist below. It is chock full of songs you need to know though I only mentioned two of them. It is cool to think that there was this alternate popular music landscape in the UK and that we only knew about the tip of the iceberg here in the States at the time because very few hits crossed over. Check the chart stats down below to see when and how the songs performed in the UK. Half the songs were Top 10 hits with four rising to the top of the chart.

year	UK peak pos.		title	artist
1980	1		Going Underground	The Jam
1978	7		Hong Kong Garden	Siouxsie & The Banshees
1978	12		Ever Fallen In Love...	Buzzcocks
1978	24		Pump It Up	Elvis Costello & The Attractions
1980	1		Geno	Dexy's Midnight Runners
1980	3		Turning Japanese	The Vapors
1978	3		My Best Friend's Girl	The Cars
1978	8		Ça Plane Pour Moi	Plastic Bertrand
1980	4		Dog Eat Dog	Adam & The Ants
1979	3		Lucky Number	Lene Lovich
1978	4		Airport	The Motors
1978	5		Because The Night	Patti Smith Group
1978	1		Rat Trap	The Boomtown Rats
1977	8		No More Heroes	The Stranglers
1978			Another Girl Another Planet	The Only Ones
1977	9		Do Anything You Wanna Do	Eddie & The Hot Rods
1979	17		Making Plans For Nigel	XTC
1979	5		Money	The Flying Lizards
1978	4		Jilted John	Jilted John
1979	16		Jimmy Jimmy	The Undertones
1979	7		Banana Splits	The Dickies
1978	9		If The Kids Are United	Sham 69
1978	5		Hanging On The Telephone	Blondie
1979	6		My Sharona	The Knack
1979	13		Is She Really Going Out With Him?	Joe Jackson
1979	2		Up The Junction	Squeeze
1977			Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll	Ian Dury & The Blockheads
1979	17		Back Of My Hand	The Jags
1980	12		I Got You	Split Enz
1979	37		Rock Lobster	The B-52's
1979	1		Video Killed The Radio Star	The Buggles
1979	34		Stop Your Sobbing	Pretenders
1977	5		2-4-6-8 Motorway	The Tom Robinson Band
1979	10		Into The Valley	Skids
1979	12		Sound Of The Suburbs	The Members
1977	22		Sheena Is A Punk Rocker	Ramones
1979	9		Milk And Alcohol	Dr Feelgood
1979	11		King Rocker	Generation X
1979	34		Prime Time	The Tubes
1980	51		Whip It	Devo
1978	17		Top Of The Pops	The Rezillos
1979	7		Babylon´s Burning	The Ruts
1978	9		Public Image	Public Image Limited
1978			I Am The Fly	Wire
1979			Boys Don't Cry	The Cure
1980	13		Love Will Tear Us Apart	Joy Division
1981	43		Pretty In Pink	The Psychedelic Furs
1981	2		Kids In America	Kim Wilde
1979			They Don't Know	Kirsty McColl
1981	6		Reward	The Teardrop Explodes
1981	6		The Swords Of A Thousand Men	Tenpole Tudor
1980	5		Eighth Day	Hazel O'Connor
1979			I Heard It Through The Grapevine	The Slits
1977	5		Egyptian Reggae	Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers
1979	6		Gangsters	The Specials
1979	8		On My Radio	The Selecter
1980	17		Private Life	Grace Jones
1981	65		Genius Of Love	Tom Tom Club
1979			Broken English	Marianne Faithfull
1978	19		Germ Free Adolescents	X-Ray Spex
1981	25		I'm In Love With A German Film Star	The Passions
1979	14		The Number One Song In Heaven	Sparks
1978	6		Being Boiled	The Human League
1979	28		Life In Tokyo (Part 1)	Japan
1980			We Got The Beat	The Go-Go's
1980	34		C·30 C·60 C·90 Go!	Bow Wow Wow