Good gawd. After that post last night, I was thinking about the other shit my brothers and I used to listen to. One thing I remember is that we were always looking for deep cuts that were as good or better than the popular songs from albums. Case in point: A song by the Edgar Winter Group came to mind. Not "Frankenstein", not "Free Ride", not even on that album, by far his best selling. It was a song on the album that followed, Shock Treatment. The song, written and sung by Dan Hartman, normally the bassist, was "Queen of My Dreams". It actually rocks harder than just about anything I've ever heard from Winter. Then again, Winter is on it but on "ARP bass" (ARP was a synthesizer). Derringer is absent and Hartman plays all the guitars. So, effectively a power trio. The guitar is good and crunchy. During the solo it's the speaker to speaker bean bag toss thing. Whatever, it was 1973. The drums are good too, classic seventies ham, "I've got a big kit and I'm gonna use every fuckin' piece of it" (in spirit if not in practice). Overall, it's a great rock 'n' roll song.
Steady yourselves folks. A horrible thing happened after that song became a favorite. After Hartman sort of disappeared (or maybe I wasn't paying attention), I kind of forgot about him, but not completely. Because a few years later I saw that he had a solo record. Alright! I thought. Another "Queen of My Dreams"!! No, friends, it was not. It was "I Can Dream About You". Think Rick Astley-era ear worm, you'll recognize it. It was a huge hit. I fucking hate that song. Thankfully that didn't change "Queen of My Dreams" to me, it just meant that Dan Hartman saw where the money was and went. What a dick.
Edgar Winter Group - Queen of My Dreams (streaming) at YouTube 1973
Dan Hartman - I Can Dream About You at YouTube 1984
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Turn it down! I’m on the phone!
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