Chocolate Watchband – I’m Not Like Everybody Else

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

Ennio Morricone – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly Theme

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.

Green On Red – Keith Can’t Read and Gravity Talks

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

I’m not easy I know
Gravity gravity talks

Jerry Lee Lewis – Rockin’ My Life Away

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

RMS Titanic – Charles Lightoller and “a bad omen.”

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.

The Prisoner – A Change Of Mind

December 15, 1967  Season 1 Episode 12

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!

Marah – Walt Whitman Bridge

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

Your memory, Your memory, Your memory
Blows away

Graham Parker – Discovering Japan

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

Led Zeppelin – When The Levee Breaks

Drums… one of the loudest, widest drum sounds I have ever heard. The song just rolls through you. The song was from the classic Led Zeppelin IV album. John Bonham’s drums were recorded in a stairwell at Headley Grange with the microphones planted 3 stories up. The drum sound echoed up and was captured on the mics, creating a very distinctive sound.

The song started as a 1929 blues recording by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy, written after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 devastated parts of the South. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant took that old blues foundation and turned it into something darker and heavier during the sessions in 1971. The band recorded much of it at Headley Grange, the old English house where Zeppelin liked to work away from the pressure of traditional studios. I will say that Zeppelin did credit these writers. 

Jimmy Page slowed the tape slightly during mixing, which gave Bonham’s drums even more weight and made the whole track feel thick. John Paul Jones added bass, harmonica, and subtle touches underneath it while Plant delivered the vocal almost like a warning coming through a storm. Page also layered slide guitar and backward effects across the track, giving it that swampy and almost haunted feeling. Even after dozens of listens, the recording still sounds huge. I do think it’s interesting that Page used his Danelectro guitar for the slide guitar part. A Danelectro is a cheap guitar (I have two), but they give you a unique metallic sound. He also used one on Kashmir. 

The band turned it into one of the heaviest tracks of the early 1970s without relying on speed and huge guitar. Hip-hop producers later sampled Bonham’s drum intro because nothing else sounded quite like it. Artists from the Beastie Boys to Dr. Dre borrowed pieces of it. That showed how far the song traveled past classic rock radio. The song still feels massive, like my walls are shaking every time Bonham hits the drums. Hmmm, maybe because I have the volume on 11…that helps. 

Jason Bonham: “It’s the drum intro of the Gods. You could play it anywhere and people would know it’s John Bonham. I never had the chance to tell dad how amazing he was – he was just dad.”

When the Levee Breaks

If it keeps on rainin’ levee’s goin’ to break
If it keeps on rainin’ levee’s goin’ to break
When the levee breaks I’ll have no place to stay.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan
Lord mean old levee taught me to weep and moan
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home
Oh well oh well oh well.
Don’t it make you feel bad
When you’re tryin’ to find your way home
You don’t know which way to go?
If you’re goin’ down South
They go no work to do,
If you don’t know about Chicago.
Cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good,
Now, cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
Thinkin’ ’bout me baby and my happy home.
Going, go’n’ to Chicago,
Go’n’ to Chicago,
Sorry but I can’t take you.
Going down, going down now, going down
going down now, going down, going down, going down, going down
Going down, going down now, going down
going down now, going down
going down now, going down
Going d-d-d-d-down
Woo woo

V-Roys – How I Got To Memphis

Steve Earle signed this band to his E-Squared Records label in the 1990s. Once I heard the opening guitar, I knew this was for me. The voice followed, and it hit that alt-country sweet spot. The V-Roys came out of the mid-1990s roots-rock and alt-country scene, led by singer and songwriter Scott Miller. This is one of those bands that just are so easy to listen to. I love when they slot into that mid-90s alt-country sound.

The band formed in 1994 in Knoxville and quickly built a reputation for mixing country, rock, and Southern storytelling. They fit alongside bands like the Bottle Rockets and early Wilco. The V-Roys always seemed tied to the Tennessee backroads and small-town life. By the time they recorded All About Town in 1998, the group had tightened into a strong live band. They were originally the Viceroys, but they were forced to abandon their original name after being threatened with a lawsuit by a Jamaican reggae band that already owned the rights to it.

This song was written by Tom T. Hall. He originally released this song in 1969, and it became one of his signature songs. Instead of trying to modernize it, the V-Roys keep the original rhythm but add electric guitars and a fuller band arrangement that fits the late-1990s Americana sound without losing the song’s feel.

Steve Earle reportedly encouraged the group to trust the songs and not overplay, which worked perfectly on this one. They kept the song grounded, and it worked. That approach made the track fit naturally beside the band’s originals. The band made two studio albums in the 1990s and a compilation album in 2011. This song was an unreleased 90s track on this compilation album called Sooner or Later.

How I Got To Memphis

If you love somebody enough
You’ll follow wherever they go
That’s how I got to Memphis
That’s how I got to Memphis

If you love somebody enough
You’ll go where your heart wants to go
That’s how I got to Memphis
That’s how I got to Memphis
I know if you’d seen her you’d tell me ’cause you are my friend
I’ve got to find her and find out the trouble she’s in

If you tell me that she’s not here
I’ll follow the trail of her tears
That’s how I got to Memphis
That’s how I got to Memphis

She would get mad and she used to say
That she’d come back to Memphis someday
That’s how I got to Memphis
That’s how I got to Memphis

I haven’t eaten a bite
Or slept for three days and nights
That’s how I got to Memphis
That’s how I got to Memphis

I’ve got to find her and tell her that I love her so
I’ll never rest ’til I find out why she had to go

Thank you for your precious time
Forgive me if I start to cryin’
That’s how I got to Memphis 

RMS Titanic – Schemes to Raise the Titanic…and personal stories

When I was a kid, I dreamed of finding and raising the Titanic. I could picture what it would look like and then take her to New York. Back then, many people thought she went down in one piece. Then, in 1980, they made a movie called To Raise The Titanic. Although it wasn’t a good movie, it was fun seeing their version of the raised ship. It actually matched my naive vision. I wanted so badly to walk on its deck. I’m keeping this post a little lighter at first anyway. Along with Walter Lord’s book, I remember hearing about crazy plans to raise her. Then, we will get into something more serious. 

Before it was finally found in 1985, there were many ideas about how to raise her, many of them based on guesses about where the ship was and what condition it might be in. Since nobody had seen the wreck, engineers and dreamers came up with plans that ranged from serious engineering proposals to ideas that sounded like science fiction. Because again, most people thought the ship was in one piece. 

One early idea was to attach giant electromagnets to the hull and lift the ship with cables from salvage ships above. Another proposal involved filling the Titanic with ping-pong balls or petroleum jelly to create buoyancy. In the 1960s and 1970s, some suggested pumping liquid nitrogen (it would take only 500,000 tons) into the wreck to freeze the water inside and out and make the ship buoyant enough to rise. Ironically, encasing it in an iceberg! You can’t make this stuff up.  Others thought about attaching enormous flotation tanks or inflatable balloons to the hull. There was also an idea to use millions of hollow glass spheres that would sink down and displace water around the ship, helping lift it from the bottom. But you had to find it first!

Even back right after she sank, there were plans to get the family’s possessions off the ship. Little did they know where it was, and nothing at that time could have got even near it. The maximum they could dive in 1912 would have been 90 to 100 meters (300–330 feet). Much shorter than the 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) it would take. 

Personal Stories

Most of the male passengers who survived the Titanic had to live with the stigma of surviving the wreck. That was because people automatically thought they took a child’s or a woman’s place. The truth is, there weren’t many at all like that. People did not want to get into a lifeboat at all at first. They wanted the warmth and the lit Titanic. They were sending out boats that were not completely full. They soon let some male crew members row, and if there were no women or children around, they would let a man get in. Boys over 13 years old were considered men. The crew was not immune to this stigma either. Although no one would want to put inexperienced men, women, and children in a lifeboat in the Atlantic without an experienced hand. 

Some of the crew were ridiculed by passengers when they woke them up and tried to get them on a lifeboat. The ship was never advertised as “unsinkable,” but many of the passengers believed that. The press used phrases like “practically unsinkable“. The company stated that the ships were “designed to be unsinkable as far as it is possible to do so,”  and many did think it was unsinkable. 

Frederick Fleet was one of the lookouts aboard the RMS Titanic and is remembered as the crewman who first spotted the iceberg that led to the sinking. Stationed in the crow’s nest with fellow lookout Reginald Lee, Fleet saw the dark shape directly ahead and rang the warning bell three times before telephoning the bridge with the famous message, “Iceberg, right ahead!” Although the officers reacted quickly by attempting to turn the ship, there was not enough time to avoid impact. Fleet survived the sinking by escaping in Lifeboat 6, but he later testified during official inquiries about the events of that night, including the absence of binoculars in the crow’s nest. Fleet struggled financially and emotionally and died by suicide in 1965 after his wife died, and he was evicted from his home at age 77 by his wife’s brother. He carried the weight of that night for decades.

Bruce Ismay was painted as the villain at the time, but not as much now. Ismay survived, and that was not what people wanted to hear. He was the chairman of the White Star Line and traveled aboard during its maiden voyage. As one of the most senior company officials connected to the ship, Ismay became controversial after surviving the sinking while many passengers and crew died. During the evacuation, he helped load lifeboats and eventually entered a collapsible boat shortly before the ship made its final plunge. After being rescued by the RMS Carpathia, Ismay faced harsh criticism in newspapers and public opinion, with many accusing him of saving himself while others stayed behind. Official inquiries found no evidence that he had disguised himself or taken a place from a woman or child, but his reputation never fully recovered. He resigned as chairman of the White Star Line and president of the International Mercantile Marine (IMM) in 1913. He lived the rest of his life close to his family, staying out of the public light as much as possible. His wife forbade anybody from bringing up the Titanic tragedy around him. 

The Prisoner – It’s Your Funeral

December 8, 1967  Season 1 Episode 11

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

This is what I would call the last “normal” episode. After this, it gets confusing.

In this episode, Number Six notices something different going on in the Village. A woman comes to him about an assassination attempt, but he thinks that she was sent by the village. She actually didn’t know that the village was watching her (Number 2 admits this). At first, Six thinks it may be another trap aimed at him, but he slowly realizes there is a real power struggle happening inside the Village itself.

The planned assassination is tied to rival political factions within the Village, with some officials believing the older Number Two has become weak or ineffective. The Village leadership, which normally appears united and all-powerful, is shown here as divided and suspicious behind the scenes.

This is to happen during the “Appreciation Day” festival, a public ceremony honoring the Village leadership. Even though he has no loyalty to Number Two, Six does not want to see someone murdered as part of a political game. Patrick McGoohan plays the episode in a restrained way, with Six acting more like an investigator than a rebel this time around. All the while, trying to figure out who is behind the assassination and why everyone seems terrified to speak openly.

As Appreciation Day approaches, the Village rehearses the ceremony with the same rigid discipline seen in many Prisoner episodes. There are ceremonial banners and staged movements, masking the danger underneath. Although he has every reason to hate Number Two and the Village itself, he refuses to stand by while someone is murdered. That moral stubbornness is one of the things that separates him from the people running the Village.

The climax (and it’s a good one) comes during the Appreciation Day celebration itself, when the assassination attempt is finally carried out. Number Six manages to intervene, and there is quite a struggle. Number Six could have gotten rid of Number 2, either one of them. The end is suspenseful when the assassination is supposed to happen. It shows that even when you work for The Village, you are a target as well. Be Seeing You!

…

Bottle Rockets – Doomsday Letter

Back when I did the post about dogs, I said I would revisit this band soon, and I’m doing that today! I just discovered this band in the past few months with the song I Love My Dog, and I love what I’ve heard. This particular song is right up my alley. It’s about Facebook, and all its negativity. 

They came out of Missouri in the early 1990s; they were built around songwriter Brian Henneman. Before forming the band, Henneman spent time around the St. Louis music scene and even played with Uncle Tupelo during their early years. The Bottle Rockets formed in Festus, Missouri, and quickly found a place in the alt-country movement alongside bands mixing rock, country, and blue-collar stories.

Their early records carried a bar-band feel, with songs about small towns, jobs, and people trying to get through everyday life. They were not trendy, and that helped them build a loyal following through constant touring and records that sounded real. This song was on the album Bit Logic, released in 2018 when the band was already more than 25 years old. By that point, Brian Henneman had settled into writing songs that looked at middle America without trying to romanticize it. This would be their last studio album. 

I really loved the production on their albums. The band recorded the songs quickly and tried to capture the feel of a live group in a room. That approach helped this song come across as more believable. It’s the timeless approach, and it works every time, at least to me.  They never had huge radio hits, but musicians and longtime fans stayed loyal because the records felt honest. Brian Henneman retired the band in March 2021 after a 28-year run, citing a desire to step away from touring and enjoy a normal life at home

Doomsday Letter

Hey Chicken Little, whatcha got cookin’?
The sky is fallin’, the sky is fallin’
You really wanna prove it but I ain’t lookin’
But you keep callin’, you keep callin’

I ain’t gonna read another doomsday letter
I’m leavin’ it to Jesus, man the odds seem better
Whatever I can do to keep my chin up is a damn good thing

Hey Nostradamus, I ain’t listenin’
To the bile you’re spewin’, the bile you’re spewin’
There’s way more left in the world that’s glistenin’
It’s not all ruin, it’s not all ruin

I ain’t gonna read another doomsday letter
I’m leavin’ it to Jesus, man the odds seem better
Whatever I can do to keep my chin up is a damn good thing

You can laugh and point and say my head’s in the sand
Well my toes are too, it’s a seaside view
Since I turned you off I found a wonderland
In the middle of your gloom
Right inside your gloom

Hey Grim Reaper, even if you’re right
I ain’t buyin’, I ain’t buyin’
Keeps me warm on a winter night
But just keep tryin’, just keep on tryin’

I ain’t gonna read another doomsday letter
I’m leavin’ it to Jesus, man the odds seem better
Whatever I can do to keep my chin up is a damn good thing
Whatever I can do to keep my chin up is a damn good thing
Whatever I can do to keep my chin up is a damn good thing

Robert Plant – Tall Cool One

When Robert Plant made his first solo album, I didn’t know what to think. I was expecting Zeppelin, but he threw a curve. Something that grew on me, and later I realized if Plant went back to Zeppelin style music, he wouldn’t have lasted long. I got my first car in 1983, and I was riding in style in my 1966 Mustang. Big Log is one of the first songs I remembered playing in that car. I have followed Plant ever since the Pictures at Eleven album.

This song came out in 1988 on the album Now and Zen, a record that gave Plant a major commercial comeback in America after a few years of uneven sales. The song was built around a rocking riff and a big arena-rock sound, but Plant and producer Tim Palmer also loaded it with Zeppelin history. He was trying to combine modern production with older rock influences.

I thought at the time, he was finally embracing his history and adding it to his approach. The music video made that clear by mixing old clips of Led Zeppelin with new footage of Plant performing. It shocked some fans because he had spent years distancing himself from Zeppelin. Sampling music was huge at this time, and the lawsuits were flying from older bands that were sampled. Plant didn’t have to worry about that in this one. He sampled his own Led Zeppelin catalog, including Black Dog, Whole Lotta Love, Dazed and Confused, Custard Pie, and The Ocean.

MTV played the clip constantly, and the song became one of Plant’s biggest solo hits, helping Now and Zen climb up the charts. The album peaked at #6 on the Billboard Album Charts, #4 in Canada, #7 in New Zealand, and #10 in the UK in 1988. The song peaked at #1 on Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts, #25 on the Billboard 100 Charts, and #87 in the UK, and #22 in New Zealand.

Long Cool One

Like a cat running in the heat of the night
Got a fire in my eyes, got a date with delight
Some kinda moaning in the heart of the storm
I’m gonna love you so hard, if you want your loving done
Lighten up baby I’m in love with you
With my one hand loose I am to satisfy
You like my loving machine, I like your bloodshot eyes
Real gone girl jumping back with the beat
I’ll be your tall cool one with those crazy feet
Lighten up baby I’m in love with you
I’m so tall and you’re so cute, let’s play wild like wildcats do
You’re gonna rock your tall cool one
I’m gonna say that – you’re gonna say – aaah
You stroll, you jump, you’re hot and you tease
‘Cause I’m your tall cool one, and I’m built to please
M-m-move over mister step on back in the crowd
‘Cause she’s a whole lotta sister ’bout to drive me wild
Lotta place I’ve seen, lotta names lotta words
No one compares to my real gone girl
Lighten up baby I’m in love with you

Firm – Radioactive

I was graduating from high school when I heard this band. There was a buildup about them because of the members. You had guitarist Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), singer Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company), drummer Chris Slade (Manfred Mann’s Earth Band), and the great bassist Tony Franklin (who worked with many). I went out and bought the single for this one. 

They managed to create a band that avoided nostalgia and sounded like a working group rather than a reunion act. The goal was to write fresh material rather than new Zeppelin or Bad Company songs. They did that because they didn’t really sound like either. The song was written by Paul Rodgers and became the band’s biggest single in the U.S., helped by heavy rotation on MTV during their peak.

The band itself released only two studio albums: the self-titled album in 1985 and Mean Business in 1986. Even with the short lifespan, The Firm gave Page a way back into recording and touring after a difficult stretch in the early 1980s. Page admitted it was never meant to last past two albums. Page was coming out of a difficult time after Zeppelin ended. 

Ok, yes, I love bass, and that stands out in this one. Tony Franklin used a fretless bass to get that smooth sound. I remember some older Zeppelin fans were unsure about the keyboards and production style, but the song found a younger audience that was already listening to harder-edged 1980s rock. Over time, this song became the signature track for The Firm and one of the better-known post-Zeppelin recordings connected to Jimmy Page. 

The song peaked at #28 on the Billboard 100, #75 in Canada, and #76 in the UK in 1985. The song was written by Paul Rodgers. 

Radioactive

Well I’m not uptightNot unattractedTurn me on tonight‘Cause I’m radioactiveRadioactive

There’s not a fightAnd I’m not your captiveTurn me loose tonight‘Cause I’m radioactiveRadioactive

I want to stay with youI want to play with you babyI want to lay with youAnd I want you to know

Got to concentrateDon’t be distractiveTurn me on tonight‘Cause I’m radioactiveRadioactiveRadioactiveRadioactive

I want to stay with youI don’t want to play with youI want just to lay with youAnd I want you to know

Got to concentrateDon’t be distractiveTurn me on tonight‘Cause I’m radioactive oh yeahOh yeah radioactiveDon’t you stand, stand too closeYou might catch it