Ever since hearing Robbie Blunt, who played with Robert Plant on his first 3 albums, I wanted to know more about him. Bronco was the first major band he was in, and I love the results. His style was so unique and helped make Plant’s signature sound after Zeppelin. One listen to Big Log, and you can hear the uniqueness of his guitar playing. He didn’t have that sound in this, but really tasteful guitar playing. Bronco wasn’t formed for hits; they made really good, solid albums. My UK readers, do you remember this band?
Bronco never really became a well-known band, but for a few years in the early seventies, they were one of those British bands that blended country rock, blues, and folk in a way that fit right alongside bands like Buffalo Springfield, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and The Band. They formed in 1969 around singer Jess Roden after he left The Alan Bown Set. They signed with Island Records during the label’s peak years, when they had many roots-style bands. This song and album are very seventies-sounding, which makes sense, of course.
Robbie Blunt joined on guitar alongside Kevyn Gammond, and even then, you could hear the tasteful style that later became so important. Blunt is not a super flashy player. He worked more in mood, tone, and feel.
Their first album, Country Home, came out in 1970 and had a laid-back country-rock sound with harmony vocals and touches of blues. Around this period, Bronco toured the US and played shows at places like the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles. Blunt later talked about seeing Duane Allman during that trip, something that left a real impression on him as a guitarist.
This song is off the Country Home album. Jess Roden and Robbie Blunt wrote this song.
I listened to some tracks of Van Zandt, Miami Steve, or Little Steven… any of his monickers gives you heartfelt Americana soul music. One band he always pushes is The Rascals, and I can see why. You hear that influence in his music, along with the Jersey Shore sound he helped create. This song is so tuneful, and some tasty guitar licks are going on, especially in the intro. Listening to this album was a pleasure, song after song. His passion really comes through his voice in this one.
This song came from Little Steven’s 1982 album Men Without Women. At that point, Steven Van Zandt was still a major part of the E Street Band, but he wanted something of his own. He grew up loving soul records, girl groups, and the Phil Spector sound. Those influences were all over this album. The sessions took place at the Power Station in New York. Van Zandt wanted the record to sound alive. Not polished to death. He wanted horns, echoes, and emotion.
The recording is hard into soul music. The horns punch through the mix while the guitars and rhythm section keep it grounded in rock and roll. Van Zandt and horns have a great history, like Sixteenth Avenue Freeze Out. There are stories that Springsteen added backing vocals during parts of the sessions, which gave the album even more of that Asbury Park spirit without turning it into an E Street record.
A lot of the material on Men Without Women had been around since the Southside Johnny days. Van Zandt was writing constantly then. Songs moved around between projects depending on where they fit best. This song ended up fitting perfectly on this album because it captured that mix of street soul and rock-and-roll. The record did not become a massive commercial hit, but over the years fans have come back to it. The song still sounds real today. It feels like musicians in a room, playing for the song rather than for the charts.
Until The Good Is Gone
Hmm-hmm hmm-hmm hmm-hmm hmm
Yeah, we always stood on the same block way back then Waiting to find out where in the world we fit in Then something on the radio changed everything we’d been Ever since, I need it, over and over again
Where it comes from baby, I don’t know That same old something just won’t let me go It’s too late baby, it’s been too long Don’t try to stop me ’till the good is gone
Now listen, it seems like only yesterday I could hear big mama call, (yes) Get the boys and meet me down at the union hall, (yes) And always in the background even after everybody’s gone It was something on the radio saying, “Come on, come on”
Where it comes from baby, I don’t know, no no That same old something ain’t gonna let me go Oh it’s too late baby, it’s been too long Don’t try to stop me ’till the good is gone
Let me hear you now Say yeah, yeah, alright Come on
Oh, yeah yeah yeah Now baby Oh Woah
So many others never beat the city line They weren’t so different, they just ran out of time You need something in your soul baby that’s gonna keep you strong Oh that kind of good never ever ever never gonna go wrong
Where it comes from baby I don’t know, don’t know That same old something just won’t let me go Oh it’s too late baby, it’s been too long Don’t try to stop me ’till the good is gone Say one more time Don’t try to stop me ’till the good is gone One more time Don’t try to stop me ’till the good is gone Oh let me hear you say it Yeah, yeah, yeah Let me hear you say it Say yeah, yeah, yeah One more time Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah honey Oh yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah yeah), sing Say yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), say everybody say Yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah) Say one more time Yeah (yeah)…
I remember being so curious when I saw Elvis Costello’s debut album. My first thought at 10 years old was, who is this skinny guy with Buddy Holly glasses named Elvis? I found out quickly who the skinny guy was…
Costello had been away from The Attractions for years in the studio. This album Brutal Youth felt like a return. An album with the band chemistry that helped make those late 70s records so sharp. The Attractions, Steve Nieve, Bruce Thomas, and Pete Thomas played on much of the album. Costello later said songs like this reminded him how powerful the band could still sound together.
The song itself came fast. Costello said he wrote it during a one-day burst where he also came up with songs like Rocking Horse Road and Pony St. He would crank up his guitar loud and ad lib and then go back and see what was worth saving. He said: “I would work for about half an hour with the guitar cranked up really loud, and make a tape of just anything that came into my head. I did it in bursts, and then I listened to see if any of it was interesting. A lot of it was gibberish.”
The title of this song came from the Tomb of the Spanish Kings at El Escorial, where thirteen steps supposedly created a feeling of dread as people descended. Some said the song poked at the growing culture of twelve-step recovery programs that were everywhere in the early 90s.
The recording captured the late seventies energy. The guitars are jagged and loud. The ending guitar solo sounds almost out of control, which I love! Critics at the time heard it as Costello reconnecting with the energy of This Year’s Model and Armed Forces.
13 Steps Lead Down
When nobody knows she puts on secret clothes And lies in the meadow with her hands tied behind her back I won’t refuse if you know how to use it Just stop playing that ugly drug music
Thirteen steps lead down Thirteen steps lead down There’s commoners and kings And everyone’s a prisoner of Paper and glue And a decent pair of scissors So tonight I’m drinking to your health Because I just can’t stand myself
Thirteen steps lead down Thirteen steps lead down Thirteen steps lead down Thirteen steps lead down
She stands and fails On fashion fingernails Her lovers have her walking ’round On instruments of torture And one of them is poisonous The other is a thief they say So what one could give to her The other cannot take away
When nobody knows she puts on secret clothes And lies in her splendor for a picture opportunity Cover up that bruise, put on patent leather shoes Just stop playing that bad mood music baby
Thirteen steps lead down Thirteen steps lead down There’s commoners and kings And everyone’s a prisoner of Paper and glue And a decent pair of scissors So tonight I’m drinking to your health Because I just can’t stand myself
Thirteen steps lead down Thirteen steps lead down Thirteen steps lead down Thirteen steps lead down
I want to thank Jim Adams at https://jimadamsauthordotcom.wordpress.com/. I helped Jim with a computer problem a while back, and he sent me something worth far more than the time we spent repairing it. He sent me my favorite Grateful Dead album, Wake of the Flood. When I heard Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo a few years ago, I knew I had to check that album out.
Most of what I know about the Grateful Dead I credit to Jim. After a few listens to the album, I realized it stacked up well against American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead. In time, I started to move it toward the top. This song is one of the album’s standouts. It was written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia.
The sessions were important because it was the first Grateful Dead studio album released on their own label after leaving Warner Bros. Keith Godchaux’s piano and Garcia’s guitar gave it that late-night feeling that fit Hunter’s lyrics perfectly. Instead of building toward a huge climax, the band let the song breathe. That became part of its power.
The song was influenced by a nightmarish acid trip that Hunter had in 1969. The Dead usually placed it late in the second set after long jams and space sections. I’ve gone back and listened to a lot of live versions of this song. Garcia’s guitar solos on the song changed from night to night. Some versions were calm and soft. Others became explosive by the end.
The song would not show up live until June 17, 1972, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. That night was also the final show for Pigpen with the band. From the start, it sounded different from a lot of the Dead’s material. It was quieter and more reflective.
The song was played live 328 times by the Grateful Dead between 1972 and 1995. Its final performance came on July 6, 1995, only weeks before Garcia died.
Stella Blue
All the years combine They melt into a dream A broken angel sings From a guitar In the end there’s just a song Comes crying like the night (wind) Through all the broken dreams And vanished years
Stella Blue When all the cards are down There’s nothing left to see There’s just the pavement left And broken dreams In the end there’s still that song Comes crying like the wind Down every lonely street That’s ever been
Stella Blue I’ve stayed in every blue-light cheap hotel Can’t win for trying Dust off those rusty strings just One more time Gonna make em shine
It all rolls into one And nothing comes for free There’s nothing you can hold For very long And when you hear that song Come crying like the wind It seems like all this life Was just a dream Stella Blue
If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.
This is where the show started to become more chaotic. Before resigning, Number Six had worked on a mind transfer experiment with Professor Seltzman. The Village wants to kidnap the professor (Seltzman) to get information from him. The professor had a machine that could transfer a person’s thoughts and consciousness into another. The Village could transfer someone’s thoughts and consciousness into another person like the professor, but they could not reverse it. For that, they would have to track the Professor down.
The best way was to transfer Number 6’s consciousness to another person, and then he would be forced to find Professor Seltzman and reverse it. They knew Seltzman wouldn’t give up information freely, so they placed Number Six’s consciousness into another man. That man is Colonel Sinclair, who is loyal to Number 1. Now, Number 6 is inhabiting Sinclair. From here on out until we get to the end, Number 6 is in Sinclair’s body. Sinclair’s thoughts are back at the village in Number 6.
This unique “freaky Friday” style body-swap plot was actually written out of necessity. Actor and series creator Patrick McGoohan needed to travel to the United States to film his role in the feature film Ice Station Zebra, so the writers created a storyline that allowed another actor (Nigel Stock) to stand in as Number Six. So until the end, Sinclair is really Number 6
Sinclair leaves the Village and heads back to London to his home. He tries to contact people from Number Six’s old life. Nobody recognizes him because he no longer looks like himself. Sinclair also reconnects with Number Six’s former fiancée. She begins to believe his story after hearing details only Number Six would know.
We have some serious spy business as well. My favorite part of this episode is when Sinclair gets a note that was given to his fiancée before he was kidnapped. It’s a number to pick up some picture slides from a photo business. The government has already seen them, but they couldn’t figure the code out. Sinclair works through them to get the message. Now Sinclair (again Number 6) is going to reconnect with Professor Sinclair, and the Village knew that he would, so they follow. That was the whole point of this.
They ended up kidnapping both of them. Sinclair returns with the professor, hoping to reverse the process before it becomes permanent. The transfer is finally reversed, and Number Six gets his own body back. This episode ranks near the bottom with a lot of fans and critics, but I thought it was fun and I liked the ending…it was a wonderful twist. Be Seeing You!
I have been writing about the RMS Titanic on my blog, and I think it fits the pop culture theme I have, but I would like to write about the Olympic, Britannic, and other ships like the SS Edmund Fitzgerald and the RMS Empress of Ireland. But I thought it would work better in a separate blog. I won’t be posting a ton to it, but it will give me a place to write about them without disrupting the flow at powerpop.blog. If you are interested, come along, but I get it if you are not. That is why I’m making this blog. A release valve for me to explore this subject when I find something interesting. Thank you all for reading as always.
My friend Greg sent me this band in a text message. I listened to it and some of their other songs; the lead singer sounds more like Jagger than Jagger does in some songs. I love the late sixties with the cool band names. The Incredible Grateful Shrinking Chocolate Marshmallows. Wow…if only it were still the late 60s! Little did I know when I heard this song that it has a KINKS connection.
This song was written by Ray Davies in 1966. The original version was sung by Dave Davies and released as a B-side to Sunday Afternoon in England. The Chocolate Watchband took the song and pushed it into rougher territory. It fit right in with the late 1960s garage scene where bands wanted fuzz guitars, attitude, and songs about not fitting in. The Watchband that mixed garage rock with psychedelia. This song became one of the tracks fans connected with because it sounded defiant without trying too hard.
This is really strange. The song was on the album The Inner Mystique, which had an odd history because producer Ed Cobb used session musicians and outside singers on the first side of the album. The actual band members mainly appeared on the second side, which included this song. The band had largely fractured and disintegrated. Taking advantage of this, their producer/manager Ed Cobb hired anonymous session musicians to record the instrumentals and other tracks to fulfill the record requirements.
The second side helped give those tracks more of the real Chocolate Watchband sound. Rough guitars. Garage rock energy. Less polished than what the label wanted.
I’m Not Like Everybody Else
I won’t take all that they hand me down And make out a smile, though I wear a frown ‘Cause I’m not gonna take it all lying down ‘Cause once I get started, I go to town
‘Cause I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else
And I don’t want to walk about like everybody else And I don’t want to live my life like everybody else And I won’t say that I feel fine like everybody else ‘Cause I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else
But darling, you know that I love you true Do anything that you want me to Confess all my sins like you want me to There’s one thing that I will say to you
I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else
And I don’t want to walk about like everybody else And I don’t want to live my life like everybody else And I won’t say that I feel fine like everybody else ‘Cause I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else
Like everybody else Like everybody else Like everybody else Like everybody else
If you all want me to settle down Slow up and stop all my running ’round Do everything like you want me to There’s one thing that I will say to you
I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else
And I don’t want to walk about like everybody else And I don’t want to live my life like everybody else And I don’t want to stay confined like everybody else ‘Cause I’m not like everybody else I’m not like everybody else
Like everybody else (Like everybody else) Like everybody else (Like everybody else) Like everybody else (Like everybody else) Like everybody else
I’ve always wanted to acknowledge this guy. Ever since I saw and heard The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. His scores are excellent and are just as important to the movies as the actors were. It was hard to pick one, but this one has never left me, and it made the movie what it was as much as Clint Eastwood did.
When the film was released in 1966, the music spread far beyond movie theaters. Radio stations played the theme like a hit single. Rock bands admired it because it sounded raw and modern instead of a Hollywood-finished score. You can hear its influence in everything from surf music to punk and alternative rock. Over the years, the theme has been sampled and used in commercials, sports events, and television shows. Morricone later became one of the most respected film composers in history. He won a competitive Academy Award for The Hateful Eight in 2016. Still, this song remains the one most tied to his name.
This was one of those pieces of music that changed the sound of movie scores. Before it came along, westerns usually used big orchestras or a western guitar. He tried something completely different. He used coyote-like howls, whistling, electric guitar, cracking snare drums, bells, and chanting voices. The strange sound matched the dusty world that director Sergio Leone was creating in his spaghetti westerns. Morricone and Leone had known each other as kids in Rome, and when Leone started making westerns in the 1960s, he turned to Morricone to build something different. Even people who never saw the movie recognized those opening notes.
The recording sessions mixed trained orchestra players with unusual sounds and effects. Singer Alessandro Alessandroni provided the whistle and vocal parts that helped make the track what it is. Leone often played Morricone’s music on the set before scenes were filmed, which was unusual at the time. It helped actors and camera crews move with the rhythm and mood of the score.
The album peaked at #4 on the Billboard Album Charts while staying on the charts for over a year. I went to Aphoristic New Music Reviews on Thursday. He featured an artist named Jessie Ware. When I clicked on play…there was this theme she worked into her song, so it still works after all these years. Graham also showed me a link to the MANY different artists that have sampled this.
I usually just pick one song out, but I couldn’t decide which one. So I thought, hmmm, my blog, my rules today, so we are going to have a two-for-one Saturday! I’ve read where someone said about this band…it’s alt country meets the Replacements. In some songs, that is true. Some of their songs sound epic, and they were reaching for something big…and many times pulled it off.
I have to give WordPress credit for knowing about this band. I missed them in real time, or I would have been buying their records. I found out about them through a fellow blogger and have been listening to them ever since. This is what I wanted the mainstream to be in the 80s and why I listened to more alternative and heartland rockers. Green On Red had a quality that I talked about in earlier posts. You can hear a car wreck coming, but they pull it between the lines just in time!
They had everything I like in a band. A raw sound that was in no way polished. They were always one of those bands that critics loved but radio mostly ignored. They came out of the Paisley Underground scene in the early 1980s, but unlike some of their peers, they were harder into country-rock and the Stones-style rock. They were made up of Dan Stuart (vocals/guitar), Jack Waterson (bass), Van Christian (drums, later of Naked Prey), and Chris Cacavas (organ). It’s basically a marriage of classic rock, punk, psychedelia, country, and garage rock.
Keith Can’t Read never became a hit, but that was the story of Green on Red. They influenced a lot of bands that came later in alt-country and Americana, yet they stayed underground. Dan Stuart had a way of writing about losers, addicts, drifters, and broken friendships without turning it into self-pity. He is a very underrated songwriter. The song was on the album Here Comes The Snakes released in 1989.
Gravity Talks was the title track of the 1983 debut album by Green on Red, and it captured the band right at the point where garage rock, psychedelia, country, and desert atmosphere all collided together. The song never became widely known, but it became one of those tracks roots-rock fans have praised for years. That whole album had a reputation as a lost classic. Critics later described it as reckless, ragged, and impossible to neatly categorize. I love the organ in this one and Dan’s voice. His voice is instantly recognizable.
Keith Can’t Read
Get outta the street right now Your in the way The red light has turned to green I ain’t got all day
There ain’t no pictures in this book Just dirty pages take a look
If you think your woman is good to you Think about when you’re away from her What you put her through
There ain’t no pictures in this book Just dirty pages take a look
Get off of your knees right now Your looking up my nose Girl that ain’t gonna cut no ice Heaven knows
Gravity Talks
Suppose you really knew What’s it all about And someone you thought you knew He asked you out
I’m not easy I know Gravity talks
Suppose you really thought You had it in the bag And an old man he walked up And he took it all
I’m not easy I know Gravity gravity talks
Suppose you really knew What’s it all about And someone you thought you knew He asked you out
Jerry Lee wasn’t called The King or The King of Pop. No, his nickname was …The Killer. He took no prisoners, and his fifties live performances are among the best. He was the original punk and did exactly what he wanted. He had that rock and roll spirit like no other. He wasn’t universally loved because of it, but that is the point!
This song came from an interesting period in the career of Jerry Lee Lewis. By 1979, Lewis had already been through the wild Sun Records years, country chart success in the late 1960s and 1970s, and years of heavy touring. That kept him working even when trends changed around him. Elektra Records signed him during that time and released the self-titled album Jerry Lee Lewis in 1979. The record tried to bring Lewis back toward a tougher rock and roll sound while still keeping his country roots. This song fit him perfectly.
The song was written by Mack Vickery. The recording sessions happened in Los Angeles in 1979 with producer Bones Howe. Lewis was backed by a great group of session players that included Elvis’s ex-guitarist James Burton (love the solo in this one by Burton) and drummer Hal Blaine. Instead of smoothing out Lewis’s sound too much, the sessions kept things driving. Lewis attacked the piano hard, and his vocal sounded rough in that Jerry Lee way.
The arrangements mixed rockabilly, country, and straight rock and roll without trying to modernize him too much for the late 1970s. That was probably one reason the track still holds up well today. It didn’t have that late-seventies smooth professional sound that was big in LA. Although the album was not a massive commercial success, it brought a lot of attention, and this song became one of the songs people remembered most from the record.
The song sounds like Lewis singing about himself. Years later, when another genre discovered Jerry Lee Lewis through documentaries and the Great Balls of Fire! movie, this song found a new audience. The song peaked at #18 on the Billboard Country Charts and #34 in Canada in 1979.
Rockin’ My Life Away
Fourteen ninety-five, and nineteen fourty-eight I threw a rockabilly party on my last birthday But it was good, rockin’ my life away I just movin’ and groovin’ And gettin’ it both night and day I got a gal called Milly, she’s chilly pepper hot She know how to roll, and she know how to rock I’m rockin’, rockin’ my life away Oh, and a boogie woogie baby I like to do it both night and day Ah ah oh
Steamliner, fleetliner, military brass She knows the general’s daughter but the killer’s got brass I’m rockin’, rockin’ my life away, ah ah I’m just movin’ and a-groovin’ And rockin’ both night and day
And I’m rockin’, rockin’ my life away I’m just movin’ and groovin’ And boogyin’ both night and day I’m just rockin’, rockin’ my life away I’m just rockin’ and rollin’ my life away My name’s Jerry Lee Lewis and I’m damn sure here to stay
Charles Hebert Lightoller: Mr. Lightoller was born on March 30, 1874, in Chorley, Lancashire. This man lived a full life. He was stranded on a deserted island for 80 days, survived the sinking of the Titanic (while saving many lives), sunk a German U-boat in WW1, and did something at 66 years old that topped everything else. When I first read about Lightoller, I didn’t know what to think of him; he was strict on the women and children first policy. He interpreted it as women and children only on the Titanic. But in that situation, I can see why. This was standard practice at the time. Lifeboats were not seen as a way to save everyone. But as a way to ferry people from one ship to another. I would suggest watching a documentary or reading a book about this man.
He lived a life that almost reads like fiction. Before the RMS Titanic disaster ever happened, he had already been through shipwrecks and survival situations that would have broken most people. As a young sailor in the 1880s, he was aboard the ship Holt Hill when it caught fire in the Indian Ocean. Lightoller and others escaped in small boats and were stranded on a deserted island for 80 days, with little food or water, before being rescued. Years later, he joined the White Star Line and became Second Officer on the Titanic. On the night of April 14, 1912, he worked steadily as the ship sank, loading women and children into lifeboats and refusing to panic even as the decks tilted into the freezing Atlantic. When the water finally swept over the bridge, Lightoller was pulled under against a ventilator grate before a blast of air forced him back to the surface. He survived by climbing onto an overturned collapsible lifeboat with other men and was the highest-ranking officer to survive the sinking.
During World War I, he served in the Royal Navy and commanded torpedo boats and destroyers in dangerous waters. He fought at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 aboard HMS Garry, where his ship rammed and sank a German U-boat, an action that earned him recognition for bravery. Lightoller also took part in Atlantic convoy duty and anti-submarine patrols during the war.
Most people would have spent the rest of their lives talking about surviving the Titanic, fighting in WW1, and being shipwrecked, but Lightoller still had another chapter ahead of him. During World War II in 1940, when British troops were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk, the British government called for civilian boats to help with the evacuation. Lightoller was 66 years old by then, old enough to stay safely at home, but instead he took his small motor yacht, the Sundowner, across the English Channel himself with his son and a young Sea Scout. German aircraft were attacking the beaches and the Channel was filled with burning ships and wreckage, but Lightoller pushed on anyway. The Sundowner was built to carry around 20 people comfortably, yet Lightoller brought back more than 120 exhausted British soldiers packed onto the little boat. He could easily have been killed during the crossing, but the same calmness he showed on Titanic appeared again at Dunkirk. He was shot at and bombed by German airplanes. It turned Charles Lightoller into one of the few men connected to two of the most famous sea stories of the 20th century.
He married in 1903 to Iowa Sylvania Zillah Hawley-Wilson, whom he was married to until he died in 1952. They had 5 children: Frederick Roger, Herbert Brian, Richard Trevor, Sylvia Mavis, and Claire Doreen. Roger was killed on March 9, 1945, near the end of the war; Herbert Brian was killed on September 4, 1939, near the start of the war.
His famous boat, the Sundowner, is being refurbished and saved. I want to thank Bruce Goodman for helping me with research about Charles Lightoller.
A Bad Omen
When RMS Titanic first pulled away from Southampton on April 10, 1912, thousands of people lined the docks to watch the biggest ship in the world begin her maiden voyage. As her massive propellers started turning, they created a strong suction in the harbor. Nearby was the smaller liner SS New York, tied up alongside the dock. The force from Titanic’s spinning propellers snapped New York’s mooring ropes and pulled the ship toward Titanic’s stern. For a few tense minutes, it looked like the two ships might collide before tugboats rushed in to push New York away. Titanic missed her by only a few feet. Many passengers and dock workers were shaken by what they had just seen.
Below is a picture taken on the Titanic which shows just how close the SS New York was to her.
Afterward, some people quietly called it a bad omen. In the early 1900s, sailors and passengers often believed strange accidents before a voyage meant trouble ahead. At the time, most people brushed it off as just the danger of handling a ship so large in a crowded harbor. But after the disaster, survivors and historians looked back on the near collision with SS New York as one of the eerie moments connected to Titanic’s short life. It is possible that even a moderate collision on April 10, 1912, could have changed history.
If you are wondering what the RMS stood for, it stands for Royal Mail Ship (or Royal Mail Steamer). It was a prestigious designation indicating that the vessel was contracted by the British government to transport mail for the Royal Mail Service
Below is an excellent video, but long on Charles Lightoller’s heroism at Dunkirk.
If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.
Last week I said that this episode starts going into more different territory, but after rewatching it, it doesn’t go too far at all. Overall, it does stay rooted more in what we have been seeing…but don’t worry, a change is coming.
Number Six becomes the target of a campaign against people labeled “unmutual.” In the Village, that word is used for anyone who refuses to fit in. Citizens are expected to smile, cooperate, and agree with the system. Number Six does none of that. Soon, people begin turning against him in public meetings. They accuse him of being selfish and dangerous. The Village leadership pushes the idea that independent thinking is a disease that needs to be cured.
The episode plays heavily on public pressure and mob behavior. Number Six is brought before committees where crowds openly criticize him. Number 2, played by John Sharp, oversees the process and talks about “Instant Social Conversion” (a euphemism for a lobotomy). The treatment is supposed to remove aggression and rebellious behavior. The procedure was just a psychological trick, though. They did not use the lasers or anything to do a lobotomy. They just gave him drugs to alter his personality. The reason for not really doing it is that it would destroy his brain and he would be useless to them. After he woke up from being knocked out on the table, Number Six wakes up smiling. He is not sure at first what was going on.
He is back at his home, and the doctor (Number 86) is slipping a drug in his tea. He sees this and avoids taking it. She does it again later, and Number 6 switches the tea, and she drinks it. Now she is drugged, and he gets the truth out of her and hypnotizes her into telling Number 2 that the Instant Social Conversion worked on him. Before she does, Number 6 pays a visit to Number 2 and reinforces that the drugs are working. Number 6 is allowed to talk to the village and get other people with secrets to tell them. In other words, Number 6 sets up Number 2 like a bowling pin and, with the help of the drugged Number 86, turns the village against Number 2. It’s a wonderful thing to see! You know, after re-reading what I wrote, half the battle in describing this show is the lack of proper names. It gets confusing following Numbers.
Behind the scenes, McGoohan and the staff were exhausted. McGoohan drove everyone, including himself, to the brink. It started to show in the scripts and the different directions it would take. I’m sure I will repeat this in the future, but while some say the show got too bizarre, we are still talking about it almost 60 years later…all for a 17-episode spy drama in the late 1960s. So that is a success to me. Be Seeing You!
My friend Ron (Hanspostcard) recommended this band to me not long ago. I had mentioned the V-Roys, and he asked if I had heard of these guys. This is another band that Steve Earle signed to his E-Squared Records in the 1990s. Like the V-Roys song from yesterday, this one took one listen, and I was sold. Ron had said that live, they were a lot like the Replacements but just more alt-country.
They came out of Philadelphia in the late 1990s. The band centered around brothers Dave Bielanko and Serge Bielanko. They mixed rock, folk, soul, and bar-band energy into something that sounded rough around the edges but real. Early records like Let’s Cut The Crap and Hook Up Later Tonight built a small following, but Kids in Philly in 2000 really put them on the map. That album captured city streets, broken people, late nights, and hope, all wrapped inside loud guitars and singalong choruses.
The band toured hard for years. They became known for long, wild live shows and a loyal fan base. Bruce Springsteen even praised them during that period. Marah never quite broke into the mainstream, but they built a reputation as one of those bands that people discovered and held onto like The Replacements, Big Star, and others. They kept pushing their mix of heartland rock and the personal Philadelphia stories.
This song came off the 2005 If You Didn’t Laugh, You’d Cry album. This was recorded after a difficult stretch for the band. They had dealt with industry pressure and changing lineups, and the record felt more stripped down and personal because of it. Dave Bielanko wrote songs about Philadelphia, working-class life, and trying to keep going when things were falling apart around you.
This song captured that feeling perfectly. The Philadelphia bridge itself became a symbol for movement and escape. You are tied to the city, no matter how far you drove. Acoustic guitars, rough vocals, and a live feel. The band never wanted things to be too clean. They liked records that sounded lived-in and not crystal clear. That approach gave the song its emotional weight.
The album did not sell in big numbers, but fans connected deeply with it. This song became their signature song.
Walt Whitman Bridge
Got seven dollars to my name Got sixteen cigarettes somehow I just ain’t smoked yet Got two shoelaces and two shoes I should toss ‘em on the telephone wire as a monument to my blues
I’m goin’ down to get a coffee Gonna mean one less buck Maybe six will bring me luck Got a little shake I kept in the fridge Gonna drink my bean and walk out smoking on the Walt Whitman Bridge
Faraway from these winter streets On a cloudless day Your memory Blows away
Got a leather wallet on a chain Got a picture of my lover’s lips before they dried up under my kiss A prayer in my heart I’m too scared to recite Oughtta toss that stale loaf of words to the birds as a monument to my whole life
Faraway from these winter streets On a cloudless day Your memory, Your memory, Your memory Blows away
The first Graham Parker album I listened to was his debut, Howlin’ Wind. I went in order, and this one was his fourth studio album, and I have enjoyed his albums. I still need to listen to his 90s output. This is one of my favorite albums by him, no doubt. It’s full of great songs like Local Girls, Saturday Nite is Dead, and Protection is just a few of them.
This song was one of the many standout tracks from Squeezing Out Sparks, released in 1979 by Graham Parker and The Rumour. By that point, Parker had already built a reputation as one of the stronger British songwriters to come out of the pub rock era. The song was reportedly inspired by Parker’s fascination with Japanese women and culture during a period when Japan was becoming more visible. Parker later admitted the title and lyrics were partly tongue-in-cheek.
The Rumour was the perfect band for Parker’s vocal style. Guitarist Brinsley Schwarz helped drive the track with sharp rhythm. The producer Jack Nitzsche gave the album an edgy sound that kept the focus on the band. The sessions for Squeezing Out Sparks took place at a time when Parker was frustrated with the music business. He kept getting overlooked commercially compared to some of his contemporaries.
Over the years, this song became one of the songs most associated with Graham Parker. It was never a major hit single, but it became an FM radio favorite and a live staple. Many fans and critics still point to Squeezing Out Sparks as Parker’s strongest album. The album did well as it peaked at #40 on the Billboard Album Charts, #79 in Canada, and #18 in the UK. The album was helped out by the single Local Girls that got a lot of play on MTV but failed to chart.
This video is an entire concert, but I pasted it with Discovering Japan on the time stamp. It’s worth watching the entire concert, but when you click play, you will hear this song.
Discovering Japan
Her heart is nearly breaking The earth is nearly quaking The Tokyo taxi’s braking It’s screaming to a halt There’s nothing to hold on to When gravity betrays you And every kiss enslaves you She knows how hard a heart grows Under nuclear shadows
She can’t escape the feeling Repeating in her head When after all the urges Some kind of truth emerges He felt the deadly surges
Discovering Japan Discovering Japan
The G.I.’s only used her They always ran right through her Giving an Eastern promise That they could never keep Seeing a million miles Between their jokes and smiles She heard their heart denials
As the tears run sideways down her face, face Ah, with the time in the tune of a different race, race
And as the flight touches down My watch says eight oh two That’s midnight to you Midnight to you Midnight to you
I dreamed of long collisions In Cadillac Panavisions I shouted sayonara It didn’t mean goodbye But lovers turn to posers Show up in film exposures Just like in travel brochures
Discovering Japan Discovering Japan Discovering Japan Discovering Japan Discovering Japan Discovering Japan
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 