My Top Ten by Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo

   Yo La Tengo drummer/vocalist/somgwriter Georgia Hubley made my favorite Top Ten list in Spin Magazine's Alternate Record Guide, published in 1995. She helped me discover the classic Pretty Things album Parachute while giving a very nice nod to Christmas, a band made up of two brothers I befriended in elementary school. Pretty sure I was one of the first college radio djs to put Yo La Tengo's debut album, Ride the Tiger, on heavy rotation ( in 1985) so it has all evened out quite nicely.  

1. Syd Barrett : The Madcap Laughs/Barrett

2. Various Artists : The Beat of the Traps

3. Christmas : Ultraprophets of Thee Psykick Revolution

4. The Clean : Compilation

5. Roky Erickson and the Aliens [st]

6. Various Artists: Michigan Brand Nuggets

7. The Modern Lovers [st]

8. The Pretty Things : Parachute

9. Tall Dwarfs : Hello Cruel World

10. Them : featuring Van Morrison

40 Year Itch : Turned My Head Around

[Purchase]

“The Flamin’ Groovies have endured perhaps more hardships and disappointments than any of their fellow survivors, been screwed so many times by managers and record companies that it became a way of life, and been without a recording contract for so long that some of their best friends aren’t even sure if they are still together. … When the Flamin’ Groovies finally emerge, I can’t think of any band in the world with greater potential to create real mania and show the world what a rock and roll band should be.”
  music historian Greg Shaw, owner of Bomp! Records

  In early December of 1974, The Flamin' Groovies emerged from years of silence to  release a new single, perhaps the grooviest of their career. The perfect pop confection, released as the first single ever on Greg Shaw's Bomp! Records,  was "You Tore Me Down" b/w one of their Paul Revere and the Raiders covers "Him Or Me". ( They also did "Sometimes" on 1976's Shake Some Action).

    "You Tore Me Down" was written in just ten minutes by guitarist Cyril Jordan and Roy Loney's replacement, the more pop-minded Chris Wilson. They recorded it, "Slow Death" and "Shake Some Action" all on the same night in April of 1972 and spent years shopping it around before letting Shaw release the 45.  Good thing they did. Shaw's friend Seymour Stein was about to become head of Sire Records. In 1976, with the help of Dave Edmunds,  the Groovies would fill out the rest of what would become Shake Some Action, a true power pop classic.

Yo La Tengo's cover !!