This week on Musical Musings we do something gloriously different. Rather than one band and five songs, my guest Jarrett McCall arrives with an alphabet. Jarrett recently took on a challenge organized by @metaphoralaura on X — the hashtag was #USAtoZ — to run through American bands letter by letter, A to Z, and this episode is his pick of the ones he chose, every one of them, by his own happy insistence, drawn from the 1970s. He’s titled it USA A-Z (Missing Some!), and the “missing some” is the whole charm of it: we get C, D, F, H, J, L, P, R, S, V and W, and cheerfully skip the other fifteen letters. What that leaves is less a greatest-hits run than an accidental map of a whole decade — in the space of an hour Jarrett’s alphabet sweeps up power-pop, Akron art-rock, Miami Latin disco, arena rock, P-Funk, Detroit folk, New York synth-punk, California hard rock, Alabama soul-rock and lush LA vocal-group pop.
We travel in order down his list, and it’s a wonderful whiplash of a journey: Cheap Trick’s teen anthem “Surrender” gives way to DEVO’s Brian Eno-produced “Gut Feeling,” then Foxy’s Miami groove “Hot Number,” Jefferson Starship’s “Jane,” Parliament’s “Ride On” from their love letter to Washington D.C., and the astonishing “Sugar Man” by Rodriguez — the Detroit songwriter who was a superstar in South Africa and Australia without ever knowing it, as the film Searching for Sugar Man later told the world. From there it’s the confrontational electronics of Suicide’s “Keep Your Dreams,” Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” (a song Eddie wrote as a punk parody), and Wet Willie’s loose Southern strut “Weekend.” Then comes Jarrett’s cheeky twist for the final two, filed not by band name but by album title: the Beach Boys land under H for Holland, the record they famously flew to the Netherlands to make, and the 5th Dimension close us out under L for Living Together, Growing Together. Eleven letters, one decade, and just about every sound America made in the seventies. Tune in and let Jarrett take you through the alphabet — gaps and all.
Hopefully in a few weeks we’ll be back with Volume 2 – the missing letters!
Tracklist
- Cheap Trick — Surrender — Heaven Tonight
- DEVO — Gut Feeling (Slap Your Mammy) [2009 Remaster] — Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (2009 Remaster) [Deluxe Edition]
- Foxy — Hot Number — Hot Numbers
- Jefferson Starship — Jane — Freedom At Point Zero
- Parliament — Ride On — Chocolate City
- Rodriguez — Sugar Man — Cold Fact
- suicide — Keep Your Dreams — Cheree
- Van Halen — Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love — Van Halen (Remastered)
- Wet Willie — Weekend — Which One's Willie?
- The Beach Boys — Leaving This Town — Holland (Remastered 2000)
- The 5th Dimension — Ashes To Ashes — The Essential Fifth Dimension
