In Demand

Other than the usual 3-minute tales of romance both won and lost there are a few Texas tunes with another common theme, that of abandonment when the chips are down. The tune So-Called Friend and this weeks' featured song In Demand being two of them. While this just might be a case of going to the same creative well as other performers do for romance it is otherwise interesting to me that more than a few songs address this theme. Since I have never read about why this subject might be important to the band I can only speculate that this might have its origins the waning popularity and career changes of the band members who moved from Altered Images. The members of a once-popular band labored in relative obscurity for a few years and had to overcome the challenges of a changing market until they found new and moderate success with Texas.

The several tunes that deal with fair-weather people goes into even further detail, remarking that there are people who only want to be associated with the band or an individual only after they gain some notoriety. It is not unreasonable to think that the support of fans and business contacts would vanish with new directions in music or the first poorly selling album, only to be inundated with well-wishers, friends and parasites when later a single climbs the charts.

In Demand was a pretty respectful hit for Texas back in 2000. The song performed well even in countries it was not officially released in, undoubtedly reaching a wider audience through various online resources. The music video is notable for featuring popular actor Alan Rickman, who didn't appear too bewildered (as most movie stars do when appearing in music videos) and there is little reason not to suspect his part in the video helped promote the song.

From the compilation Texas The Greatest Hits is In Demand, featuring lead vocal Sharleen Spiteri fleeing from the Papparazzi and flirting like crazy with Hans Gruber.

Winter's End

The 1993 album Ricks Road by the Scottish band Texas is the collection that is most influenced by American music. The entire album is about as Country as they get and is full of good old down home Blues, or at least a European interpretation of what American Blues sounds like. Most of the tracks sound heartfelt and like most gospel tunes have pleas to a higher power for salvation and succor. Lead vocal Sharleen Spiteri doesn't really reach too far or work to hard in this production and saves the wild talent and passion for only a select few tracks.

While a few of the tunes would easily be accepted during a church service the track Fearing These Days would not be out of place as background music for a politician on the campaign trail. The breakout track from Ricks Road is the song So-Called Friend, familiar perhaps to most Americans as the theme song to the 1994-1998 Ellen DeGeneres sitcom Ellen. Amusingly, Sharleen Spiteri's usually non-existent brogue momentarily sneaks into the song Fearing These Days and it is noteworthy because she typically speaks and sings in English with no discernible accent (at least to American ears). It was just humorous to notice because for a second it made me think of Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons.

Ricks Road was not their most well-received album and admittedly there are a few creative missteps that as a fan I can overlook far easier than a professional critic is willing to do. Often the band explores certain musical styles and with White On Blonde and The Hush it worked to great effect. But with Ricks Road it appears that the band is still trying to find a direction beyond trying too hard to garner a hit by sounding like any number of other contemporary pop bands of the time. Still, I generally enjoy most of the tunes on any given Texas album and Ricks Road is no exception.

As usual there are not many Region 1 videos of the band available so I cobbled this one together featuring Winter's End, a nice little Bluesy-pop tune. Enjoy.

Under Your Skin

Sunday is always Don't Mess With Texas day!

Several years ago one of the duties I performed to help out at a job I had was to transport cruise or merchant ship crew from the dock to their hotel or airport and back again. During layovers some employees or crew stayed off-ship or used air travel to get back home. Due to customs and immigration laws all the crew were supposed to stay at their lodgings but few of them did. Many hit San Diego for the nightlife (what little there is of it) and sometimes when it was time to go back to work I had to detour to pick the crew up at bars instead of their hotels. The most interesting group I ever transported were about ten Aussie sailors from a merchant ship. Crazy bastards all. I nearly got arrested twice driving them the 6 miles from the dock to their hotel.

One time I drove a group of about six sailors from the Philippines to a cheap hotel in the Sports Arena area where they would stay for a few days. I didn't speak their language (as far as they knew) and they didn't speak mine (as far as I knew) but I think I managed to round up all the correct crew members for a ride to their designated lodgings.

This was the year 2000 and I typically carried about ten CD's with me to play at work and in the car. About that time I was pretty heavy into Jazz, Show Tunes and Big Band music and rotated the albums out frequently. But no matter what CD's I carried around at least two of those were from the band Texas and those were usually White On Blonde and The Hush. Nobody else I knew admitted liking the band enough to buy a CD but not being a hipster who has their entire self-worth contingent on what other people think of them I didn't really care. I was always annoyed that Texas never toured in the Unites States but the reality is that there wasn't a market for them here.

After loading up all the gear the Philippine sailors piled into the van and I prepared to drive them to their hotel. I ejected the Martha Tilton CD from the dashboard player and inserted a random CD. It began to play and it just so happened to be The Hush, the most recent Texas album. The music started and my passengers yelled and started screaming "TEXAS! YEAH!" over and over. By the time I drove onto the highway they were all singing along to the tracks. I didn't know if I should be pleased or not. Texas couldn't get arrested in America yet these hard-working sea-dogs who walked down a rusty gangway from an equally rusty foreign cargo ship without wearing shoes on their feet knew all the lyrics by heart. Music, like hate, truly is a universal language. Not that we had any real trouble communicating. It was a thing, had to be there.

The following featured clip Under Your Skin is from Texas' 2003 album Careful What You Wish For. If I didn't already know the song was from Texas I'd swear it was a lost track from the Parallel Lines-era Blondie.

Say What You Want

Sunday is always Don't Mess With Texas day!

Though I had heard a few tunes from the band Texas prior to 1995 via my interest in imported music I had never really payed much attention to them. That changed when one day I was idly browsing the directory of a promotional CD given to me buy a car salesman. Not wanting to load the bloated proprietary adware that was surely bundled along with the information about a car I was interested in buying I poked around through the various folders. Looking for Easter eggs on a CD was one of those nerdy things I did back then.

Several years before companies thought it necessary to protect their product with nothing more than a warning they thought nothing of releasing promotional materials that contained free songs, videos and photos of musical bands stored in standard formats. For the most part these promotional materials were not recorded as data that could only be read via proprietary media players and files could be easily viewed and copied. Most companies did not anticipate, understand or could cope with the emerging peer-to-peer technologies and were unprepared for what could happen to their intellectual properties and how it would, for a short time, affect sales. A few years later the label that carried Texas would make them one of the first bands to flood the peer-to-peer networks with fake music files to discourage unauthorized downloading). Quite often fun and interesting stuff (relatively, that is) could be found in the folders of the random compact disc.

In one folder I found some video files and opened them. One video was an annoying animated squirrel that hosted the section featuring a car and one was random video of the car I was test driving. A few other files were interesting and were just CD extras of some sort. One was an an audio interview with the band The Cardigans and one was a music video from Paris Hampton. The final video was from the band Texas, it was 60mg big when most computers had trouble holding that much information on an entire hard drive and I played the hell out of it. I still have the original CD in storage and may be most noteworthy today for containing the only remaining existing recording of Paris Hampton performing her signature song Old Ghost.

Heavy with CGI that must have been scary expensive back when it was created in 1995 the Texas video was the song Say What You Want from their White On Blonde album. I had actually heard the song a few times before on the radio but it was the video that helped make me a Texas fan. For those who are influenced by that aspect of it in choosing your music, in the video Sharleen Spiteri has evolved from the young, scruffy-cute New Wave garage band performer into the sexy and hot woman that would be later be promoted so heavily in materials for The Hush era album. One could also see in the video the inklings of why Sharleen has such a large lesbian following.

The song received some respectable though short-lived American airplay back in 1996, possibly aided by being on the soundtrack of a movie. The Wu-Tang Clan also collaborated on the song for a later release and it was that version that was played in concert when Texas was touring.

Here is the video for Say What You Want, from their official channel.

I Don't Want A Lover

It's Sunday, so that means it's Don't Mess With Texas Day!

Why would a Scottish pop band not focusing on country or western music name their group after the most embarrassing state (after Kansas) in America? Actually, they didn't!

The inspiration for the band moniker Texas came not from the state but rather the 1984 film Paris, Texas. Oddly, there exists a number of pop-culture references to the film by various music groups. It appears that Paris, Texas the film is to musicians what Catcher in the Rye the book is to serial killers. The movie must strike some special chord with creative music types. Singer/Songwriter Sharleen Spiteri is on record as acknowledging that the band name may have diminished their chances to be heard in America as anyone observing the group's title would assume they were a country band and dismiss their work.

I Don't Want A Lover was the first big musical hit for Texas way back in 1989. The rock blues influence of Johnny McElhone (formerly of the New Wave bands Altered Images and Hipsway) and Sharleen was strong on the debut album, Southside. The song I Don't Want A Lover is notable for rising to a respectable place on Top Ten music charts and then several years later unexpectedly breaking into the charts again.

When We Are Together

Sunday is Don't Mess With Texas Day!

Texas is a band that due in large part to singer/songwriter Sharleen Spiteri has creatively always sought inspiration from decades of music. Their output is somewhat eclectic in nature. They don't just jump on whatever trend that happens to be popular at the time, rather they experiment with different styles. This is typically some time after the music they are referencing has dimmed in the public consciousness. The band has been variously blues, pop, pop-urban and alternative. Sharleen Spiteri cites Motown legend Diana Ross as one of her influences and this is particularly evident in the 1999 album The Hush. Several tunes are direct homages to the vocal styling of Ross. That unique Diana Ross pacing and tone can be clearly heard in the songs When We Are Together and Black Eyed Boy from their album The Hush.

So go ahead and spend a few minutes listening to When We Are Together. Like most music videos ever it's kind of pointless but it does have Sharleen splashing around in a pool, so there is that.

Admittedly, Texas and their music are not everyone's cup of haggis but I usually enjoy their work. I found out a little while ago that Sharleen Spiteri recently released the delightfully retro solo album Melody. While on break from the group in 2008 she worked on her own project. Many of the new tunes on Melody are stylistically reminiscent of the mod atmosphere of Swingin' 60s London. Melody features Spiteri on a trip into the ancient past, accomplished by channeling the artistic spirits of the talents of Nancy Sinatra, Dusty Springfield and even Petula Clark all while retaining her own unique voice.

Sunday is the Saddest Day

Forget Easter, Sunday is Don't Mess With Texas Day!

Texas, the pop-rock band formed in Glasgow, Scotland way back in 1988, that is!

I've followed Sharleen Spiteri and Texas for several years, ever since I discovered a 60mb video for Say What You Want hidden deep in the data folders of a promotional CD advertising a sports car. While the band and Sharleen as a solo artist get little to no airplay or exposure in this country, American audiences may be familiar with the band's music via various movie soundtracks such as Titan A.E., Ever After, Picture Perfect and the title theme for the sitcom Ellen.

Here is a song from 1996 from one of my favorite albums, White On Blonde. Good videos from the band are rare so this one with photos of Sharleen will have to suffice. I don't think anyone will really mind though. Enjoy!