Barracuda - Heart
Record: Little Queen, 1977
Lyrics:
Heart - Barracuda Lyrics | SongMeanings
Video:
Heart - "Barracuda" (1977) - YouTube
Best Video: None. But appreciate the 2 older rock stars jamming together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P8HD0fbZso
Cover:
Heart "Barracuda" Cover by Moriah Formica and @Brooke C - YouTube Didn’t know who Moriah Formica was but she does a fantastic cover. Looked her up.
Quote:
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Now nearly 20 years old, Miss Formica has forged a promising future for herself by gaining support from rock heavyweights such as Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale who states that Moriah is “The future of rock,” Maroon 5’s Adam Levine who calls her “The next great female rock singer,” and Miley Cyrus, who simply considers her a “Rock Goddess.”
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Awards:
On May 22nd 1977, "Barracuda" by Heart entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #84; fifteen weeks later on August 28th, 1977 it would peaked at #11 {for 1 week} and it stayed on the chart for 20 weeks...
And on October 8th, 1977 it peaked at #2 {for 1 week} on the Canadian RPM Singles chart
Lyrics & Meaning:
It’s about scummy people in the music industry.
Quote:
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... anger towards an ad Mushroom Records placed in trade publications implying that Ann and Nancy were lesbians having an affair. The song focuses on Ann's rage towards a promoter who came up to her after a concert in Detroit asking how her "lover" was. She initially thought he was talking about her then-boyfriend - band member Michael Fisher. After the promoter revealed he was talking about her sister Nancy Wilson
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Song references a porpoise and barracuda. Porpoise is sister Nancy, Barracuda is the scummy guy.
Misc Notes:
Some controversy about Palin using it in the 2008 RNC National Convention. The campaign did get the “performance rights” but not the Heart’s “permission”. Heart said they donated the proceeds to the Obama campaign.
Quote:
When Heart entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, they played "Barracuda" last in a 3-song set. By this time, the Wilson sisters were the only original members still with the band, but it was the Little Queen lineup that got inducted: Roger Fisher, Howard Leese, Michael DeRosier and Steve Fossen. There was some bad blood between the Wilsons and their former bandmates, and at first, Ann and Nancy ruled out a reunion. In the end, they appeased fans by performing "Crazy On You" with the classic lineup, but did "Barracuda" with their current band along with some of their Seattle-based friends: Chris Cornell (who inducted them), Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) and Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains).
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The guitar riff is fantastic.
Quote:
Wilson said their 1977 hit "Barracuda" was lifted from a contemporary band, and they weren't too pleased about that.
"We had been touring and opening for a band called Nazareth in Europe," she noted. "Nazareth had a hit with this Joni Mitchell song that they covered called ‘This Flight Tonight’ that kind of had that riff, so we kind of borrowed that and we made it into ‘Barracuda.’"
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Looked it up, and sure enough ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylW6sC6NNhY