"Never Surrender" by Don Felder

What’s goin’ on, Dialophiles? Tonight, we fine-tune a signal containing a track laid to wax by a former Eagle, but not the expected usual suspects Don Henley, Glenn Frey, or Joe Walsh. Check out guitarist Don Felder, and his ode to holding out for “Ms. Right”… 1982’s “Never Surrender”.

“It’s Saturday night again, everybody’s out on the street. You’re feelin’ so good my friend, you’re in love with every woman you see.”

Joining the Eagles in 1974, just in time to contribute to the On The Border LP, Felder helped evolve the Eagles’ from their country-rock beginnings to a mainstream rock sound, culminating in their masterpiece Hotel California, and it’s 1979 follow up, The Long Run. Following the group’s collapse in late 1980, all former bandmates pursued solo careers, including Felder, who contributed songs to the soundtrack of the animated motion picture “Heavy Metal” in 1981, (more on this later), and our the track which is our focus for today, “Never Surrender”, recorded for the awesome ‘80s time capsule “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”.

Featured as playing from the poolside radio during the scene in which Damone and Ratner (Richard Romanus and Brian Backer), offer to help Jennifer Jason Leigh’s “Stacey” and Phoebe Cates’ “Linda” with their math homework, “Never…” also made the grade as the fifth track on Felder’s 1983 Airborne LP, his only solo release, until 2012’s Road to Forever.

“It’s hard when you want somebody and it feels like anybody will do. It’s easy to soon forget what you need and what’s the right thing for you.”

Written by Felder with soundtrack king Kenny Loggins, who also lends harmony vocal (listen for the “and it feels like anybody will do” line in the second verse for the clearest example of Kenny’s vocal accompaniment), “Never…” contains guitar flourishes reminiscent of Don’s work in the Eagles’ classics “Life in the Fast Line”, and “Hotel California”. Listen for the “chugging” guitar sound, which is Don’s signature.

Not released as a single, “Never” never realized its full chart potential. Had it been released to Top 40 and rock radio, and to MTV with a proper video, I imagine the Felder/Loggins composition probably would have landed somewhere in the top 20… maybe just below the Top 10, but we can only offer conjecture on this point.

“Oh, brother, I hear you’ve discovered it’s time that you’re settling down… oh, brother, but I can’t help but wonder, just what will you settle down from?”

In addition to “Never Surrender”, the Fast Times original soundtrack contains tons of great tunes that you don’t have to be familiar with the film to enjoy. Lots of 70s and 80s classic rock and pop artists contribute, like Donna Summer (see the Dial’s review of her “Highway Runner” from 6/3/12), Jimmy Buffett, Stevie Nicks, Sammy Hagar, Oingo Boingo, Billy Squier, Graham Nash, and The Go-Gos, in addition to three solo tracks by several other former Eagles; Henley, Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmidt. Of course, the major hit from this compilation was Jackson Browne’s upbeat, yet melancholy US #7 masterpiece “Somebody’s Baby”.

After its original 1982 vinyl and cassette print run, (and probably 8-track as well), the Fast Times’ soundtrack was deleted by the record label and sadly remained out of print for years until 1995, when this great compilation was made available to music fans once more. Incidentally, the same day that Fast Times was back in the record stores, another long time unavailable soundtrack was finally re-released, 1981’s “Heavy Metal”, which contains Felder’s smoldering “All of You”, and the film’s secondary title track  “Heavy Metal (Takin’ a Ride)”, which was to be Don’s only Hot 100 charting track, at US #43.

So take a moment and surrender yourself to this classic 1982 cut which didn’t get the chance to be the sizable hit it deserved to be. And be sure to keep your receivers tuned to the Dial’s frequency next month, as we will be covering a noteworthy novelty song in the spirit of April Fools Day. No joke. See you then!

“Boy, never surrender… I know that’s it’s tough, but my boy… never surrender, hold out for love.”

"Ship of Fools" by World Party

Welcome back, Dialophiles! Put on your captain’s hats, and hoist the anchor. We’re preparing to set sail with Karl Wallinger and World Party aboard his “Ship of Fools”!

“We’re setting sail to the place on the map, from which no one has ever returned...”

World Party began purely as a solo project for Wallinger, formerly of the UK-based alternative-pop group The Waterboys, which were best known here in the states for their poetic 1985 track “The Whole of the Moon”.

Kurt draws clear inspiration from the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Motown, and elements of all of these inspirations can be clearly heard in this track. For example… the “woo-who-who” backing harmonies in the chorus are reminiscent of Motown vocal groups like The Supremes, and the Temptations in particular.

“Torn by the promise of the women and the lace… and the gold and the cotton and pearls…”

Peaking in 1987 at US #5 hot mainstream rock, and settling at #27 on the Hot 100, “Ship…” was the most successful single extracted from World Party’s debut ’86 LP Private Revolution. While the album featured assistance from some prominent session musicians, including Waterboys member Anthony Thistlethwaite, and vocalist Sinead O’Connor, the overwhelming bulk of the work was written, performed, and arranged by Kurt himself, a true musical genius in every sense of the word. Later World Party LPs added permanent members to the band such as ex-Icicle Works drummer Chris Sharrock of the 1984 new wave classic “Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)”, but World Party as a whole always remained Wallinger’s outlet for his clever, inspired pop songcraft.

“Listen baby, you will pay tomorrow… you’re gonna pay tomorrow… you will pay tomorrow.”

Throughout the years since it’s initial release, I’ve heard “Ship…” used several times to illustrate dissatisfaction with which ever political party happened to be in power at the time, usually in response to an unpopular or controversial government action. Given that its sarcastic lyrics do not align itself with one side or the other, it is the perfect song to punctuate criticism of any political action, and group. Essentially Kurt is commenting that the policies of government often create more problems than they are intended to solve… hence, not wanting to sail on the ship of fools.

So, whether Kurt personally wants to or not, we here at the Dial invite all of our loyal Dialophiles to take a sail on this Ship of Fools, and apply its commentary however you see fit.

“Save me... save me from tomorrow. I don’t want to sail with this ship of fools...”