Thursday, November 1, 2007

The Ides of March - "Vehicle" (1970)

My next two entries are going to be devoted to early 70's one-hit wonder bands that prominently featured horns. They were often mistaken for Chicago or Blood, Sweat & Tears (and still are).

Chicago-based garage band The Ides of March added uncharacteristic horn to this song and wham, they had a monster hit for Warner Brothers.

This song had more hooks than a Hellraiser movie, from the unmistakable horn motif, to the driving rhythm guitars and the melody itself. Right in the middle, what we all called the "cheesy guitar solo," but looking back at it, I can name about 100 worse solos than this one.

Get a load of that album cover too -- what's
that about?

"Vehicle" exudes a ridiculous amount of cool -- "I'm the friendly stranger in the bright sedan/Won't you hop inside my car?"

Notable geek trivia about "Vehicle": songwriter and guitarist Jim Peterik went on to form the 80's rock group Survivor and write most of their hits like "Eye of the Tiger" and "The Search is Over." And if I recall, he wrote some Bryan Adams hits too.

Peterik actually has a great web site where he has a
two-part article explaining how he wrote "Vehicle!"

While I found this totally wild obscure TV musical spot below of The Ides of March lip-syncing their way through "Vehicle" (dig the clothes and the light blue kerchief around Peterik's neck!), it's worth noting that if you go onto YouTube, it's ridiculous how many videos there are of local cover bands and
marching bands covering this song.



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