Chords for The Music Industry's War on 38 Special

Okay, music fans, welcome back.
It's Dave.
It's the Real Music Observer, observing real
music in real time for real people [N] just like you right there, [F#] just like me right here.
38 Special.
Yep, the music industry's war on 38 Special.
Now, when I do this provocative
[E] title, it is to call attention to the fact that radio, through focus testing and corporate
know-it-all type folks at these big mega radio stations, these iHeartRadio conglomerates,
Cumulus Media, whatever it is out there, [E] Clear Channel.
I know one [N] buys out another and one
doesn't exist anymore.
I haven't kept up with all the buyouts, but to me, it's just, it's
all the same.
It's, this is what we want you to hear, so tune in for the songs that, what,
we're telling [F#] you to listen to.
38 Special has been boiled down to probably two or three
songs.
Obviously, Hold On Loosely, a lot of people think, I'm serious, a lot of people,
especially younger people today, think Hold On Loosely is 38 Special's only hit song.
Like they're a one-hit wonder band from the South.
And boy, they scored big [N] with that
one.
What a great, they're like the Tommy Teutone of the South, right?
Wrong.
It's just,
okay, but I'll give radio two more songs.
So Caught Up In You is maybe the second tune,
or Caught Up In You is the correct title.
And Second Chance, which gets on the adult
contemporary stations, featuring the vocal stylings of the great Max Carl, who took over
for Don Barnes, who at that point had gotten really sick of touring and [A] needed a break,
and they recruited a guy who had his own mojo, a different style, but still, they were able to
keep going.
Let me give you a list of songs, and this is an abbreviated list.
These are the ones
[N] that I used to hear on the radio that I don't hear anymore.
If I'd Been The One, Back Where
You Belong, Rockin' Into The Night, which was the big one.
Now, on occasion, I might hear
Rockin' Into The Night on the radio, but it's got to be a really good classic rock station
with a little deeper, as far as album cuts go, like they need to go a little deeper.
And
apparently, Rockin' Into The Night nowadays is [Em] a deep cut.
Fantasy Girl.
Look, the Wild-Eyed
Southern Boys album, right up there with my High Infidelity and my Journey's Escape and
Four [C#] Under Four and Sticks Paradise Theater.
I had that album cover.
I had to hide from my mom
because of the girl with the shorts, even though it was [E] like a painting or a drawing or a cartoon
kind of thing.
I had, you know, like, whoo, this is way out [G] there.
This is risque.
I'm going to
get in trouble.
Had the album.
Loved that album cover.
[N]
Loved the music.
It was just terrific.
And while we're on the topic, the title track, Wild-Eyed Southern Boys, featuring a vocal
performance by both Donny Van Zant and Don Barnes.
So that's pretty cool.
Chain Lightning.
Oh, man.
When's the last time you've heard Chain Lightning on the radio, or Chain Lightning as it's spelled?
The thunderstorm intro, that killer guitar riff.
It's just the drama, the power in the song.
That was your late night 38 special, you know.
That was it.
That was the tune, Driving Down The Road.
You Keep Running Away.
Another terrific album track that was on at least one or two KTEL albums
back in the early 80s.
I haven't heard it on the radio since, I don't know, a long time.
Teacher,
Teacher from the movie Teachers, right?
Soundtracks.
38 Special was all over the
soundtrack stuff in the 80s.
Like No Other Night, [C#] more of a top 40 track, but [E] still rock and top 40.
Great song.
Nobody plays it.
Back to Paradise, another movie.
Revenge of the Nerds.
Was it one
or two?
I can't remember, but it was in it.
Hittin' and Runnin'.
Okay, now Hittin' and Runnin' is my
all-time favorite 38 Special track.
If you haven't heard Hittin' and Runnin', you need to go listen
to it.
It's just, I mean, flat out just kills it.
Go look at it.
Look the track up if you haven't
heard it.
They used to play it on a good rock station.
They used to play it all the time.
I
haven't heard it in 30 years or so.
Rock and Roll Strategy from the Max Carl era.
The title track
from that great album, which [D#] to me could have spelled disaster, but thanks to Second [E] Chance
and rock stations, yours truly was employed by one.
We played Rock and Roll Strategy.
We played
Little Sheba, and we also played Comin' Down Tonight, and we also played Hot Lanta.
So we
were playing a lot of tracks from that [G] album, and all of those feature the guitar greatness of Jeff
Carlisi, and again, the knockdown, drag you out, new vocals of Max Carl.
Then there's Somebody Like
You.
There's another tune from the previous 38 Special [E] album.
Used to be on the radio.
Has a
to be found.
The Sound of Your Voice, which topped the rock charts, Jim Peterik song, Max Carl singing,
1991.
Oh no, here comes the grunge-a-lanch.
It's [N] coming.
You can feel it because the label
is about to just say no more.
Now, these guys had gone from A&M Records over to this other label,
[G] and the other label sort of bailed on promoting this album because [B] there was another tune on this
album called The Signs of Love, and The Signs of Love would have been Second Chance Part Two
if it had been promoted, but by then [G] the label had bailed.
The industry was changing [D#] rapidly,
and 38 Special [G] eventually kind of broke up.
Back Alley Sally [A] gets an honorable mention.
It [D] did get some airplay, and that's a Donny tune straight up.
Look, this is just one of [F#] these things
where [G] if you love music, it's just tragic that so little variety and so little creative thought
goes into programming radio stations these days.
I got a friend of [G] mine who I plugged his radio
station a while back because it's a really good 80s mix of tunes.
I don't like all the music on
his radio station, but I love the fact that he's completely comprehensive, very thorough, and plays
pretty much everything that came out in the 80s, all different genres mixed together.
Folks, we're
in an age now where you can forget about these great [N] songs.
Again, hitting and running.
You've got
to listen to that track by 38 Special.
The guitar solo, I mean, this is a rock station type of tune,
album-oriented rock killer.
Everybody at their best, Don Barnes included.
Anyway, so that's it.
The music industry's war on 38 Special.
There's like three songs they play,
and they seem pretty content with those three, and I'm not.
So I'll be back