Songs Of The Day 1/12/2017: John Howard – “Goodbye Suzie” + “Maybe Someday in Miami”

Sometime on Friday or possibly Saturday I'll be putting up the first mix of the calendar year 2017 up on Mixcloud. It's going to feature glam rock and bubblegum from the '70s. When I do genre-sweepers like that I look for a somewhat comprehensive resource containing lots of artists to look up, the obscurer the better, 'cause you know me. John Howard was on a list of "glam rock artists" that I found. I'm not sure I'll put him on the mix because his vibe might not be what I'm going for -- but man, did I fall for this guy's 1974 Kid In a Big World. It came out on CBS in England, but they decided not to grease the marketing engine very much because "Goodbye Suzie" on the grounds that it was "too depressing."

Two more Howard albums came out. Radio wouldn't bite on any of the singles. Many excuses why were offered, but Howard's A&R manager at CBS believed it was because Howard is gay, and his style of musicality drifted into effete piano-and-vocal pieces that ran counter to the alpha-male image CBS preferred their artists to project. Screw 'em. These two pieces are from Kid in a Big World and I love them deeply, even though I've only known them for about six hours. Howard's still around, by the way, making new music for a hopefully more tolerant environment, at least until a week from tomorrow.