124: All Things To Everyone

124. "Run Runaway" by Slade {#20; 4/84} [iTunes? Yes] {YouTube: Run Runaway  (My apologies to the Cars and the J. Geils Band. Slade most definitely has faces for radio, especially lead singer Neville "Noddy" Holder.) (And yes, he looks like a "Neville," doesn't he?)}

Rock singer? Hobbit? Rock singing hobbit?

"See chameleon lying there in the sun. All things to everyone, run runaway."

Usually I like a song that fires right out at you from the start. But, every once in a while a good, nice, long, slow build-up is good. This song is a good example of that. It's a full one minute and eight seconds until the first strains of a vocal "Oh yeah!" are heard, and a full one minute twenty-four seconds until the first actual lyrics come into play. And it's a great build-up of guitars and drums.

(Another great "slow-build" song is "Devil's Gun" by CJ & Company, which, I just found out, is not in my iTunes collection and is not available on iTunes. Facts to which I am left to say, "Fee-Fie-Foe-Fum.")

Of course, I had never heard of Slade before "Run Runaway," even though they were big in Britain for  "Cum On Feel the Noize," which was later stolen here in the states by Quiet Riot. (Here is a video of Slade doing the song: Cum On Feel the Noize: Slade, which is worth watching if for no other reason than the uninterested "dancing" girl in purple at just over the one minute mark.) So, in a way I guess we can thank Quiet Riot for bringing Slade to our attention here in America.

COMING UP NEXT: Heeeeere's Johnny!