1. Lunatic Fringe, Tom Cochrane
2. Kid Charlemagne, Steely Dan (…yes, there’s gas in the car!....)
3. Life During Wartime, Talking Heads
4. Eve of Destruction, Barry Maguire
5. Grab Your Gun, John Hiatt
Tom Cochran is better known for his Life is a Highway, especially after the cover by Rascal Flatts. One guy; two amazing songs which will live for a long, long, long time.
The entire Royal Scam album is a treatise in paranoia, but Kid Charlamagne is just laden with end-of-world, on-the-run imagery.
Barry Maguire’s angry screed is a Sixties classic. Maguire, fresh from folky froth with the New Christy Minstrels, almost spits out this song in anger. It’s something to see, and it expresses how we felt then, and more recently.
Grab Your Gun is a tip-of-the cap to the brilliant Hiatt, one of the most prolific songwriters of the last twenty years. Bonnie Raitt helped him immensely with her cover of his Crazy Thing Called Love, but oh man, he has got talent, the raspy voice and a lot to say.
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