The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Radio Show

Intro

      Welcome to Andy See’s (mostly) Rock N’ Roll Variety Show!  Today, we are going back to One Hit Wonderland with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.  Most of you probably only know them for the 1997 hit single The Impression that I get at the height of the Ska-Punk boom.  However, they made four studio albums before “Let’s Face it” and have had made five studio albums since then including one that just came out last Friday.  Unfortunately, “While we’re at it” came out too late for me to consider using any songs on this show.
      Anyway, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones had their roots in the Hardcore Punk scene of the early 80s.  Bassist Joe Gittleman played with Gang Green early in his career while singer Dicky Barrett (who turns 54 tomorrow) was a member of Impact Unit and The Cheap Skates.  Through the ever-rotating lineup of The Cheap Skates, a core membership formed of Gittleman, Barrett, guitarist Nate Albert, saxophonist Johnny Vegas (whose real name is Tim Burton and I swear I’m not making that up), ubiquitous on stage dancer and tour manager Ben Carr, and a drummer and trombonist who would be replaced after the first album anyway.  This band was going to be called The Bosstones, but an a capalla group used that name in the 1950s, so they changed to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones to escape legal problems.

Hope I Never Lose My Wallet

      The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ first album was “Devil’s Night Out” which was released in 1989.  If anyone felt that they would get any sort of nationwide fame, they would probably be committed since the Nirvana album “Nevermind” had yet to come out.  Ska purists didn’t like the punk and metal elements while Hardcore Punk fans didn’t like the Heavy Metal and Ska elements.  Nevertheless, it’s an upbeat party album with plenty of fun sounding songs.  However, if you look at the lyrics, our first song is about being afraid of change.  The song is called Hope I Never Lose My Wallet.

A Little bit Ugly (4:13)

      I should also mention the iconic plaid look of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.  After Barrett was seen wearing plaid in one show, plenty of fans started wearing it to concerts as well.  It was noticeable enough that they were able to be in some TV commercials endorsing Converse’s Chuck Taylor sneakers.  Perhaps the “it” in this song refers to the plaid clothes they wear as it makes them A Little Bit Ugly.
      Another great song on “Devil’s Night Out” is The Bartender’s Song.

Awfully Quiet

      “More Noise and Other Disturbances” released in 1992 was the second album The Mighty Mighty Bosstones made for Taang! Records which has an exclamation point and two As.  As the title indicates, it focuses more on their Punk and Heavy Metal influences than Ska.  In fact, the albums’ lead song is about how much the singer likes noise. Ironically the song is called Awfully Quiet.
      He likes noise, but I’m sure it stops when it’s time to go to sleep.

Where’d You Go

      Before cellphones became the standard for non-face-to-face communication, you wouldn’t be able to contact your family if you say, went shopping.  Walkie-Talkies were good for short range communication, but not for communicating across town.  However, I suspect this is more of a breakup song about wondering where a significant other has gone. The song in question is Where’d You Go.
      I’d give you more suggestions on what to listen to from “More Noise and Other Disturbances” but I just played that album’s two best songs.  The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were more focused on touring than songwriting at the time.

Toxic Toast

      I’m skipping “Don’t Know how to Party” and going straight to the 1994 album “Question the Answers”.  That album had The Mighty Mighty Bosstones taking inspiration from genres other than the ones I have already mentioned.  This song has significant Reggae influence and is about reminiscing on the past in some way, shape, or form.  The song is called Toxic Toast.

Bronzing the Garbage

      We're going from a song about reminiscing on the past to a song that I believe is about not being able to let go of the past.  I think that the name of this song is a metaphor for looking at the past through rose tinted glasses while glossing over the negative parts of whatever time we look back to.  At least that’s what I can gather from the lyrics about letting go of this garbage.  The song is called Bronzing the Garbage.
      Other great songs on “Question the Answers” include Kinder Words, Pictures to Prove it, and A Dollar and a Dream.

The Rascal King

      When “Question the Answers” was released in 1994, pop music was dominated by Grunge and Gangsta Rap.  So many songs seemed like three-to-four-minute PSAs about drug addicts and teen runaways.  However, the American economy improved into a full-on boom in the second half of the 90s and suddenly the pop music world became a formless mass of happy music for the rest of the decade.  One of the trends that started was Ska Punk boom as No Doubt and Sublime had some seriously successful albums while Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, and Rancid had more minor success.  While none of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ first four albums made it higher than 138th on the Billboard 200, “Let’s Face it” charted at #27.
      Anyway, our next song was inspired by James Michael Curly.  He was a politician from Boston with career that lasted from roughly 1910-50 with a resume that included four terms as Mayor of Boston (none of which were consecutive), one term as the Governor of Massachusetts, and three terms as a Representative of Massachusetts.  From what I can gather, he was popular with Irish Americans (Boston has one of the highest Irish American populations in the country) and while he was motivated by people with nothing, he became seriously corrupt in the process.  In fact, he won his last term as mayor while being investigated for corruption charges.  The song is called The Rascal King.
      I should also mention that if The Rascal King describes Curly accurately, whatever he did, he was determined to make that action big.  Also since The Rascal King was the follow up single to The Impression that I get, it peaked at #7 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart.

Royal Oil

      Our next song title doesn’t refer to any oil companies.  Rather, it’s a slang term for heroin.  Yep, we’ve got another anti-drug song on this show.  Unlike Guns N’ Roses, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones don’t seem to be notorious drug users so their take on this subject is considerably less hypocritical than Mr. Brownstone.  Regardless, this song is called Royal Oil.
      Technically Royal Oil did chart on the U.S. Modern Rock chart but only peaked at #22.

The Impression that I get

      The one hit status of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones is technically complicated.  This song didn’t even make the Billboard Hot 100, but only because it wasn’t released as a single.  In those days, record companies often didn’t release popular songs as singles so that album sales wouldn’t be disrupted.  This is why Don’t Speak by No Doubt didn’t chart and why I’ll be there for You by The Rembrants and Torn by Natalie Imbruglia didn’t chart as high as they should have.  It wasn’t until 1999 that Billboard changed this rule. Anyway, the song is about knowing how hard it is to lose a loved one but never having been tested with this event yourself.  It’s also about how people react to traumatic events in general which is a rarity in the relatively happy world of pop music (especially in the second half of the 90s).  It’s called The Impression that I get.
      While The Impression that I get didn’t chart on the Billboard Hot 100 for the aforementioned reasons, it did chart on the Billboard Hot Airplay list where it peaked at #23. Other great songs on “Let’s Face It” include Noise Brigade and Right Thing Wrong Then.  It’s also shocking to think that despite only peaking at #27, this album was declared platinum by the RIAA.  That means a million copies of the album were sold!  I don’t think a record that peaks that low could go platinum today for obvious reason.  It’s like the fall of the Roman Empire in my lifetime!

Let Me Be

      It took The Mighty Mighty Bosstones until 2000 to release their follow up album “Pay Attention”.  By that point, the Ska-Punk boom died because I think the novelty had worn off.  Our next song is one I can relate to.  I often have these times when I get all worked up over something that’s important yet I can do nothing about it.  However, I do cool down within a few minutes most of the time.  It seems that the singer of this song has a similar problem to mine.  The song is called Let Me Be.

So Sad to Say

      It’s kinda weird to think that I don’t have much to say about these songs, but the lyrics of a typical Mighty Mighty Bosstones song are simple and to the point.  This is no exception as it is a pretty simple breakup song.  The song is called So Sad to Say.
      So Sad to Say was the only song from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones to chart anywhere after “Let’s Face it” and even then, it only peaked at #11 on the Modern Rock Chart.

The Day He didn’t Die

      The album closer to “Pay Attention” comes off like a direct follow-up to The Impression that I get.  This is about someone who did die and the title refers to the day before this person’s death.  Whether Dicky Barrett took this death well is unknown.  The song is called The Day He didn’t Die.
      Other great songs from “Pay Attention” include The Skeleton Song, She just Happened, Riot on Broad Street, and Where You come from.

Like a Shotgun

      After releasing “A Jackknife to a Swan” in 2002, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones went on hiatus to work on side and solo projects.  It took them until 2009 to make another album in the form of “Pin Points and Gin Joints”.  I would play at least one song from that album except that Allmusic doesn’t have a review of it.  Allmusic not only has reviews of all of the other Mighty Mighty Bosstones albums, but also has reviews for many many other artists in other genres.  They even have reviews for obscure 70s smooth jazz flute players.  As such, I’m not sure which songs on “Pin Points and Gin Joints” are the best so I’m skipping to 2011’s “The Magic of Youth”.  What we got for our next song is one about the things in life that can throw us off.  I assume that it’s also about getting back up and facing the next challenge.  The song is called Like a Shotgun.

The Ballad of Candlepin Paul

      We have made it to the final song of today’s show.  What we have here is a song about bowling, but a different type of bowling.  My family and I are familiar with Tenpin Bowling but the type of bowling in this song is Candlepin Bowling.  In this game, the ball is smaller, the pins are thinner, and downed pins are not cleared between balls during players turns.  This makes scoring harder even though you get three balls per turn instead of two.  In 1992, Paul Berger bowled a 500 triple on TV (which I believe was his total score over three games).  Since Candlepin Bowling is popular in the New England states and the Canadian Maritime Provinces (the Provinces east of Quebec) The Mighty Mighty Bosstones made a song about him.  The song is called The Ballad of Candlepin Paul.
      Other great songs on “The Magic of Youth” include They will need Music and The Upper Hand.  While it’s taken The Mighty Mighty Bosstones seven years to make another album, they never went on hiatus.  Their albums are a consistent dose of happy music even if the lyrics aren’t always happy.  It’s likely for this reason that in Bojack Horseman, they are Mr. Peanutbutter’s favorite band.  May they continue to infuse Punk Rock with horns for years to come.