Van Morrison – Almost Independence Day

Last year, one of my readers, MY, suggested this song, so this year I’m going to post it. This and the title track were the first songs to get my attention on this album. The drums and guitar really make this song so strong, along with Van’s voice, of course.

The intro to this song is worth the price of admission. Van Morrison and guitarist Ron Elliot trade guitar licks, and then Lee Charlton joins with some great jazz-influenced drumming. Van has said it was written in a stream of consciousness style. The recording was more of a jam than a thought-out, rehearsed process.

The song was on his 1972 album Saint Dominic’s Preview, and it closed the album in a way that only Van Morrison could do. It has that long, drifting feel that he was so good at during this period. You can feel the mood more than the story. This is the Van Morrison who could take a simple phrase and turn it into something epic. He can make any song feel spiritual.

When I got the album, I had a summer job in the middle of nowhere in a backwater town. I had to drive over an hour to get there, and Van kept me company singing about Safeway’s Supermarket, fireworks, and Redwood Trees. One listen to this album, and I’m young, carefree, and having a really good time living life. Music brings back memories, and this one makes me feel exactly like I felt then.

It’s easy to get lost in this song. I’ve always liked the Van Morrison songs that feel more like a place to visit than just a song. Almost Independence Day is one of those. It rolls and flows along at its own pace. Van has many songs that sound like memories, and this one sounds like a memory that is still happening.

The album peaked at #15 on the Billboard Album Charts and #14 in Canada in 1972.

Couldn’t find a live version but I did find this wonderful concert by Van.

Almost Independence Day

I can hear them calling way from Oregon
I can hear them calling way from Oregon
And it’s almost Independence Day

Me and my lady, we go steppin’ (we go steppin’)
We go steppin’ way out on China town
All to buy some Hong Kong silver
And the wadin’ rushing river (we go steppin’)
We go out on the, out on the town tonight

I can hear the fireworks
I can hear the fireworks
I can hear the fireworks
Up and down the, up and down the San Francisco bay
Up and down the, up and down the San Francisco bay
I can hear them echoing
I can hear, I can hear them echoing
Up and down the, up and down the San Francisco bay

I can see the boats in the harbor (way across the harbor)
Lights shining out (lights shining out)
And a cool, cool night
And a cool, cool night across the harbor
I can hear the fireworks
I can hear the people, people shouting out
I can hear the people shouting out (up and down the line)
And it’s almost Independence Day

I can see the lights way out in the harbor
And the cool, and the cool, and the cool night
And the cool, and the cool, and the cool night breeze
And I feel the cool night breeze
And I feel, feel, feel the cool night breeze
And the boats go by
And it’s almost Independence Day
And it’s almost, and it’s almost Independence Day

Way up and down the line
Way up and down the line…

Continental Drifters – Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway

I love finding bands like this. The Continental Drifters remind me that some of the best music never reaches the Top 40. This song has the sound of musicians who have nothing left to prove and are simply making the music they believe in. If you like The Band, The dB’s, or early Americana, I think you’ll find yourself coming back to this song again. I listened to two of their albums and you get a variety. You get female-driven songs like this, and you get male-driven songs like Mezzanine.

The band is made up of musicians who had already built impressive careers, including Susan Cowsill of The Cowsills, Vicki Peterson of The Bangles, The Dream Syndicate, Peter Holsapple of The dB’s, and several outstanding New Orleans musicians like Carlo Nuccio, a great New Orleans drummer and singer/songwriter. Everyone in the band could write songs, sing, and play multiple instruments, which gave them a rich sound without ever becoming cluttered. They never became a hit band, but musicians and critics knew just how special they were. Although they formed in Los Angeles, they eventually settled in New Orleans, and you can hear both musical worlds in their sound.

Some songs grab you the first time you hear them, and then some songs slowly work their way into your head. This one did that for me. I was drawn in by the title first. Then the guitars kicked in, and it had that loose, rootsy sound that reminds me of The Band. It feels like you’re riding down an endless highway with the windows down, even though the story underneath isn’t nearly as carefree.

The song was written by guitarist Vicki Peterson, formerly of The Bangles, and she also takes the lead vocal. She based it on a difficult cross-country trip with fellow band member Gary Eaton during a time when their relationship was coming apart. Instead of writing a typical breakup song, she wrapped it in the image of traveling across America. The result is a song that sounds hopeful on the surface but carries just enough sadness to make it memorable.

Without a major label, they released a song as a single in 1997. It served as a preview of the sound that would soon appear on Vermilion, the album that many fans consider their masterpiece.

I also wanted to give you another song by them called Mezzanine. Carlo Nuccio, a great New Orleans drummer, singer/songwriter, wrote this song and is singing the lead vocal.

Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway

It took two hours to drive out of post-quake l.a.
Where the freeway is sliced up like sheet cake
Got new tires I’m not gonna worry
Got three days to go so I’m not in a hurry
Get into tucson and what do I find
I’m having some trouble just keeping my mind
On the 10.

Driving by that detour we took
To watch the sunset at the scenic overlook
The light was lovely but to my surprise
The most violent colors were in your eyes
All the reds and yellows, black and blue
It’s what I remember from driving with you
On the 10.

On the 10.

Whoa oh, white noise and lightening
Ooooo on the radio, oh no.

Looking up a tree like a georgia o’keefe
And the texas stars are in high relief
University road, you think I’d have learned
So many new ways to get bitten and burned
At the devil’s river inn at three a.m.
Hey, give me those keys I gotta get
Back on the 10.

On the 10.

Whoa oh, white noise and lightening
Ooooo on the radio, go robert, go!

Feeling unbound of heart and breast
Got the visor down and I’m headed west
A little wiser now, I’m unimpressed
By the secret you and I confessed
On the 10 (whoa oh).

On the 10 (whoa oh)
On the 10 (whoa oh)
On the 10 (whoa oh).

dB’s – That Time Is Gone

One of the things I have always loved about the dB’s is that their music seems to exist outside of time. You can put on one of their songs from the early 1980s and then play this song from 2012, and there is no jarring difference. That’s exactly what happened to me when I first heard this song. If someone had told me it came from their earlier albums, Stands for Decibels or Repercussion, I would have believed them (I did at first). Instead, it opened Falling Off the Sky, the band’s reunion album released nearly three decades after their original run.

By the time Falling Off the Sky arrived in 2012, the original lineup of Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Gene Holder, and Will Rigby had traveled down different musical paths. Fans had waited years to hear them record together again. Reunion albums can be risky. Too often, they sound like musicians trying to recapture something that disappeared long ago. The dB’s avoided that trap by simply picking up where they left off.

This one is a perfect way to open the album. The guitar tone, the harmonies, and the melody stick with you long after the song ends. What impresses me most is how natural it all sounds. There is no attempt to modernize it at all. The dB’s understood something that many bands forget: great songs never go out of style. Peter Holsapple’s songwriting comes through with the track, giving it a reflective mood without losing its energy.

The dB’s never received the recognition they deserved outside of power pop circles, but songs like this one explain why musicians and fans continue to talk about them. Their sound was built on melody, harmony, and great playing rather than production tricks. That’s why this song could have fit comfortably on one of their early records. Sit back and enjoy.

That Time Is Gone

When you’re standing on the first step of the bus
And you’re asking yourself what are you doing this for
And you hand the man the ticket, find a place to sit
Try to rest on a night headed North
And you settle in your seat and your mind starts
Tripping on what it is you may be running from

You better wake up, wake up, wake up
That time is gone

Watch the world go by outside the window
As you lean against the greasy grey-green glass
And you’re trying to keep from sleeping
So you’re counting every moment that goes past
‘Cause you know when you sleep
You just dream a lot all night long

You better wake up, wake up, wake up
That time is gone
That time is gone
That time is gone
You better wake up, wake up, wake up
That time is gone

Every truck that passes, every cactus
Every bird is freer than you now
You got nothing holding you back, nothing tying you down
Freer than the law allows
And there’s no going back to go back to
One more time all that finished with and done

Johnny Burnette Trio – Lonesome Train

The first time I heard this song I was knocked out by that guitar sound. Not just the playing, but that incredible slapback echo that seems to jump right out of the speakers. You can buy countless pedals and plugins today that promise the same effect, but to my ears, nothing quite captures what they were doing in the 1950s. There is just something alive about it. I get all nerdy over this sound but I can’t help it.

The Johnny Burnette Trio was one of the wildest rockabilly bands of the era. They were formed by brothers Johnny and Dorsey Burnette, along with guitarist Paul Burlison; they blended country, rhythm and blues, and early rock into a raw sound. This song, recorded in 1956, became one of their signature recordings. It wasn’t a major hit at the time, but it became one of the defining records of rockabilly. Burlison’s guitar playing, along with Johnny Burnette’s vocal, gave the record an excitement that still comes across nearly seventy years later.

Paul Burlison always maintained that part of his distorted guitar sound happened because a tube in his amplifier had become loose during a rough drive to a studio. Rather than fixing it, he liked the gritty sound and kept playing. Whether every detail of that story is exactly as remembered has been debated over the years, but it’s one of rockabilly’s great legends. It helped point the way toward the distorted guitar sounds that became common in rock music years later.

I’m going to get a little technical on this subject…see nerdy again. One of the secrets behind that sound was the recording itself. In the 1950s, there were no digital effects and very few electronic echo units. Engineers often created an echo by using two tape machines. The signal was recorded on one machine and immediately played back on a second machine a fraction of a second later. By mixing the original signal with that of the delayed playback, they created the famous slapback echo that became a trademark of rockabilly. Studios also used echo chambers, actual rooms with a speaker at one end and a microphone at the other. The natural reflections inside the room produced reverb that sounded warm and real because it actually was. Every studio had its own sound, which is one reason records from that era have so much personality. You can tell if it’s a Stax or Motown by the sound in the sixties as well.

This song reminds me that sometimes limitations create the greatest music. The musicians couldn’t rely on technology to make a recording exciting. They had to play with energy, and the engineers had to invent ways to capture it. The result is a record that still sounds fresh today. If you want to hear rockabilly at its finest, with one of the greatest guitar sounds ever put on tape, this is a train well worth climbing aboard.

Below in the live cut, Johnny Black is on bass, filling in for Dorsey Burnette.

Lonesome Train

Lonesome train, on a lonesome track
I am goin’ away, ain’t comin’ back
I am goin’ somewhere far from my baby

On a lonesome train, on a lonesome track

A lonesome train, on a lonesome track
Got all my troubles in one big pack
My baby left me, so sad and lonely

On a lonesome train, on a lonesome track

Lonesome train, on a lonesome track
My girl don’t love me and that’s a fact
No use in livin’, no use in dyin’

On a lonesome train, on a lonesome track

On a lonesome train, on a lonesome track
I want my baby, I want her back
Don’t want to go on forever travelin’
On a lonesome train, on a lonesome track

Tom Waits – Ol’ 55

When most people think of Tom Waits (including me), they think of the gravelly voice and the experimental music he would make later in his career. I like that as well, but on his debut album, Closing Time, he sounded very different. He is such a great songwriter, and like the greats, he puts his soul into his performances. His voice in this is perfect to me.

This track caught my attention with its storytelling. The song was inspired by Waits’ driving home at dawn after spending the night with someone special. Rather than focusing on drama, he captured a simple moment that many people have experienced.

Musically, it’s built around a gentle piano and an arrangement that owes as much to folk and country music as it does to rock. Waits recorded the song during the sessions for Closing Time in Los Angeles. Producer Jerry Yester helped shape the album’s laid-back sound, allowing Waits’ songwriting to take center stage.

As most people who know me know, I’m not the biggest Eagles fan, to say the least, but I’m glad they covered this. Their version brought the song to a much wider audience and introduced many listeners to Waits’ songwriting. While Waits later joked about some of the band’s interpretations of his work, there is no question that their recording helped spread the song far beyond his usual fan base.

Today, it is a signature song from Tom Waits’ early years. It captures a side of him that is sometimes overlooked, the songwriter who could turn an ordinary drive home into something memorable. Long before he became one of music’s most unique voices, this song showed that he already knew how to tell a story and make listeners feel like they were right there beside him.

Ol’ 55

Well, my time went so quickly, I went lickety-splitly
Out to my ol’ fifty-five
As I pulled away slowly, feeling so holy
God knows I was feeling alive

Now the sun’s coming up
I’m riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishing I’d stayed a little longer
Oh Lord, let me tell you that the feeling getting stronger

And it’s six in the morning, gave me no warning
I had to be on my way
Well, there’s trucks all a-passing me and the lights all a-flashin’
I’m on my way home from your place

And now the sun’s coming up
I’m riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishing I’d stayed a little longer
Oh Lord, let me tell you the feeling getting stronger

And my time went so quickly, I went lickety-splitly
Out to my ol’ fifty-five
As I pulled away slowly, feeling so holy
God knows I was feeling alive

And now the sun’s coming up
I’m riding with Lady Luck
Freeway cars and trucks
Freeway cars and trucks
Freeway cars and trucks

Santana – Abraxas …album review

One thing I love about this album is that the percussion never feels like a decoration or forced. It drives the songs. Many rock bands added congas or timbales for color. Santana built the entire foundation of the music around them. That’s probably why those tracks still sound so powerful today. Carlos gets the notice, but Abraxas is really a statement in what a great band can do when every member is playing at their peak. I usually reserve saying that mostly for the Allman Brothers, Little Feat, and The Dead. I was just going to cover one song…but no…the album had me transfixed with its rhythms.

When Santana recorded Abraxas in 1970, they were no longer just another San Francisco band. Their performance at the Woodstock Festival the year before had turned them into stars almost overnight. Their debut album had already produced hits like Evil Ways, but on Abraxas, everything came together. The band was firing on all cylinders. Carlos Santana’s guitar was just scorching, and Gregg Rolie handled the vocals and keyboards, and the rhythm section was incredible. Rolie was always one of my favorite members, and I’m glad I got to see him live.

Santana was a music machine built around rhythm. Michael Shrieve’s drumming worked alongside the congas, timbales, and percussion of José “Chepito” Areas and Michael Carabello. The result was a sound that felt alive. Songs like Oye Como Va and Black Magic Woman seemed to move in several directions at once, yet never lost the groove. You can hear rock, jazz, blues, and Cuban influences all blending together. No one sounded like Santana in 1970, and nobody really has since.

Carlos Santana’s guitar playing deserves all the praise it gets, but what made this album special was that he wasn’t carrying the band alone. There wasn’t a weak link anywhere. That is one reason Abraxas still sounds great more than fifty years later. If you want to be transfixed, like I was, just put on the album with headphones and enjoy the rhythms that Santana brought.

The album produced classics like Black Magic Woman, Oye Como Va, and the beautiful instrumental Samba Pa Ti. I would also add Mother’s Daughter, its a song with an infectious groove written by Gregg Rolie. It became Santana’s first number-one album and remains one of the finest examples of Latin rock ever recorded. For me, Abraxas captures a band at the perfect moment. They had the hunger of a young group, the confidence that came from Woodstock, and enough talent to fill two bands. When I listen to Abraxas, I don’t just hear Carlos Santana, I hear a band at its peak.

The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in Canada, and #7 in the UK in 1970.

The Prisoner – Fall Out

February 1, 1968  Season 1 Episode 17

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

I wanted to say this before I start. These last episodes aren’t difficult to write about because they’re poorly made. They’re difficult because they’re symbolic rather than literal. They’re asking philosophical questions instead of telling a straightforward story. I like to be challenged as a viewer, and good and bad, this series does it. The proof is that we are still talking about it on a blog in 2026. Saying that, it took me weeks to write this.

Well, we are at the conclusion of this great series. There is something I would like to touch on first before we get into the episode. I would recommend not reading this if you want to see this episode, but look at and listen to the intro again that we have been seeing and hearing since day one. I personally think the show has been telling you something since the first episode.

Number Six: Where am I?
Number Two: In the village.
Number Six: What do you want?
Number Two: Information.
Number Six: Whose side are you on?
Number Two: That would be telling. We want information…information… information!!!
Number Six: You won’t get it!
Number Two: By hook or by crook, we will.
Number Six: Who are you?
Number Two: The new Number Two.
Number Six: Who is Number One?
Number Two: You are Number Six.
Number Six (running on the Village’s beach): I am not a number; I am a free man!!!
Number Two: [Laughter]

Now, let’s place a comma in part of this dialogue that we have heard since the beginning, and we have this:

Number Six: Who is Number One?
Number Two: You are, Number Six.

What power a comma has!

Now, whether you believe this or not is up to you, but in this episode, it basically plays it out. I’ve always thought (and thought WAY too much!) the Village works on several levels. On the surface, it is a prison. Underneath that, it is society. Underneath that, it is the complex human mind. Number Six spends the entire series fighting conformity, group thought, and control. But in the end, he may also be fighting parts of himself. So is Number 6 his own jailer? You are your own ruler. You are the person ultimately responsible for your choices.

Ok, let’s get to this episode and, IF I can put it in words. One word clears it up quite well, though… symbolism, because this episode is full of it.

After surviving the ordeal of the last episode, Once Upon a Time, Number Six is brought before the rulers of the Village. To his surprise, after a while, he is treated as a hero rather than a prisoner. A strange assembly gathers to celebrate his victory. Number Six is questioned, praised, and finally given the chance to help decide the fate of the Village itself. The proceedings feel partly like a courtroom fever dream.

As the ceremony continues, Number Six encounters several familiar faces from his time in the Village. He also comes face to face with the mystery that has haunted him since the beginning of the series: the identity of Number One. The answers he receives are anything but straightforward. The episode becomes increasingly surreal. Masks appear. Roles change. Gunfire, and all hell breaks loose. The line between reality and symbolism begins to disappear. What seems important one moment is swept aside the next.

In the final act, Number Six and his allies fight their way out of the Village and escape to London. Yet even after reaching home, there is a feeling that the struggle is not really over. The final scenes suggest that the forces represented by the Village exist beyond any single location.

Like much of The Prisoner, this episode leaves many questions unanswered. I’ve read and talked to fans about it. Some viewers see it as a story about freedom. Others see it as a warning about power and the prisons we create for ourselves. Whatever the interpretation, it remains one of the most talked-about endings in television history.

One side note: the Beatles allowed Patrick McGoohan to use the song All You Need Is Love in this one. It was something they didn’t normally do. They were such huge fans that they gladly gave McGoohan permission. Funny, the most violent scene in the series was going on with All You Need Is Love blissfully playing in the background.

One thing I love about Fall Out is that McGoohan seems less interested in answering “Who is Number One?” than he is in asking, “Now what will you do?” That’s why people are still debating it nearly sixty years later, including you and me today. This is the last episode, so thank you for reading. Remember, the Village will always be somewhere near you now and in 10 years. My closing remark on the series would be this. Patrick McGoohan wasn’t really giving us an answer. I think he was giving us a mirror. Be Seeing You!

Steve Earle – Guitar Town

It’s been too long since I posted a Steve Earle song, and it was time. I remember this one, along with I Ain’t Ever Satisfied got me into Earle in the 1980s. I first saw him in the late eighties open up for Bob Dylan. He played a longer set than Bob that night. Bob had to leave after 45 minutes because he got sick. The guy behind me yelled, “I know you are an old SOB but come on…” Bob was at the ripe old age of 48 when this happened.

By 1986, Steve Earle had been around Nashville for years. He had written songs for other artists, worked with legendary songwriters like Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. He spent a lot of time trying to get his own career off the ground. When Guitar Town was released as the title track of his debut album, it sounded different from much of what was coming out of Nashville at the time. It had country roots, but there was also a rock and roll energy running through it. The song helped launch Earle from respected songwriter to recording star.

Earle has said the meaning behind Guitar Town came from the struggles of a musician trying to make it. The lyrics tell the story of a young man leaving home with a guitar and dreams of success. Earle knew that world firsthand. He had spent years playing clubs, writing songs, and trying to find his place in the music business. The song captured both the excitement and gamble of trying a musical career. Even people who never picked up a guitar could relate to the idea of leaving home and taking a chance on a dream.

Earle was also very smart and talented. He would regularly hang out with some great songwriters and musicians. Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, and more. He learned from them, and you can hear it in his songs. When I hear his songs, they are so accessible. They are almost inviting you to listen.

The recording sessions for the album were produced by Tony Brown and Emory Gordy Jr. They gave the songs a tougher edge. Guitar Town featured ringing guitars and enough country flavor to fit the format while still sounding fresh. The combination worked. The single helped make the album one of the most acclaimed country releases of the year.

Looking back, Guitar Town helped open the door for a generation of artists who mixed traditional country music and folk with rock influences. Earle would go on to have a long and diverse career, but this song remains one of his signature recordings. Nearly forty years later, it still sounds like a young man with a guitar, a full tank of gas, and no intention of turning around.

Guitar Town

Hey pretty baby, are you ready for me
It’s your good rockin’ daddy down from Tennessee
I’m just out of Austin bound for San Antone
With the radio blastin’ and the bird dog on

There’s a speed trap up ahead in Selma Town
But no local yokel gonna shut me down
‘Cause me and my boys got this rig unwound
And we’ve come a thousand miles from a Guitar Town

Nothin’ ever happened ’round my hometown
And I ain’t the kind to just hang around
But I heard someone callin’ my name one day
And I followed that voice down the lost highway
Everybody told me you can’t get far
On 37 dollars and a jap guitar
Now I’m smokin’ into Texas with the hammer down
And a rockin’ little combo from the Guitar Town

Hey pretty baby don’t you know it ain’t my fault
I love to hear the steel belts hummin’ on the asphalt
Wake up in the middle of the night in a truck stop
Stumble in the restaurant wonderin’ why I don’t stop

Well, I gotta keep rockin’ why I still can
Got a two pack habit and a motel tan
When my boots hit the boards I’m a brand new man
With my back to the riser, I make my stand

Hey pretty baby, won’t you hold me tight
I’m loadin’ up and rollin’ out of here tonight
One of these days, I’m gonna settle down
And take you back with me to the Guitar Town

Roxy Music – Virginia Plain

This is one band, for one reason or another, that I’ve never posted. I tell people that their early music has some of the best bass sound of anyone. Ferry’s vocals in this song remind me a little of Lou Reed.

When I first saw the title Virginia Plain, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. That’s part of the charm of the song. It was released in 1972 as the debut single by Roxy Music; this song pretty much announced that this was not going to be just another rock band. It was glam, strange, catchy, and different.

Roxy Music was led by Bryan Ferry and featured a really good lineup that included Brian Eno. Ferry wrote this song and took the title from a painting he had created while attending art school. The song is interesting. The lyrics are full of images and characters that seem to come and go like scenes in a movie. I always heard it as a song that is more about creating a mood.

The recording was produced by Peter Sinfield; he was best known for his work with King Crimson. Musically, the song blended old rock and roll influences with futuristic sounds. It’s different thanks in part to Eno’s synthesizer and Ferry’s vocals. The result was something fresh and exciting. Although it was recorded after the band’s debut album had already been completed, the song was later added to subsequent editions because it quickly became one of their signature tracks.

This song was successful in the UK and helped establish Roxy Music as one of the most important bands of the glam rock era. Looking back, it still sounds unique. More than fifty years later, it remains a perfect introduction to a band that never seemed interested in following the rules. If you want to hear the moment Roxy Music arrived, this is a pretty good place to start.

The song peaked at #4 on the UK Charts and #6 in New Zealand. The album peaked at #10 in the UK in 1972. BTW… the model featured on the cover of Roxy Music’s album is Kari-Ann Muller. No, she, unlike their other models, didn’t date Bryan Ferry. She married Chris Jagger, Mick’s brother.

Virginia Plain

Make me a deal and make it straight
All signed and sealed, I’ll take it
To Robert E. Lee, I’ll show it
I hope and pray he don’t blow it ’cause

We’ve been around a long time
Just tryin’ to, tryin’ to but you
Make the big time

Take me on a roller coaster
Take me for an airplane ride
Take me for a six days wonder but
Don’t you, don’t you throw my pride aside besides

What’s real and make-believe?
Baby Jane’s in Acapulco
We are flyin’ down to Rio

Throw me a line, I’m sinking fast
Clutching at straws, can’t make it
Havana sound, we’re trying
A hard edge, the hipster jiving, oh
Last picture shows down the drive-in

You’re so sheer, you’re so chic
Teenage rebel of the week

Flavours of the mountain streamline
Midnight blue casino floors
Dance the cha-cha through ’til sunrise
Opens up exclusive doors, oh wow

Just like flamingos, look the same
So me and you, just we two
Got to search for something new

Far beyond the pale horizon
Some place near the desert strand
Where my Studebaker takes me
That’s where I’ll make my stand, but wait

Can’t you see that Holzer mane
What’s her name? Virginia Plain

6 String Drag – Gasoline Maybelline

With that title, I was helpless; I had to give it a try. I’m glad I did because it’s a great song and band. This is another band that was signed by Steve Earle on his E Squared Records label and another winner. What drew me in was the vocals. Not tight pop vocals but more like The Band’s loose style. I’ll also mention the intro that builds and builds.

Every now and then you run across a song title that makes you stop before you even hear the music. This song by 6 String Drag was one of those for me. The title immediately brings to mind hot rods, rock and roll, and the classic Chuck Berry song Maybellene. It turns out the music delivers exactly what the title promises. This song was released on the band’s 1997 album High Hat, the song mixed country, rockabilly, and roots rock into a sound that felt both old and new.

6 String Drag was formed in North Carolina and became one of the leading bands in the alt-country movement of the 1990s. While many groups in that scene leaned heavily into country influences, 6 String Drag never forgot the rock and roll side. This track is a perfect example. Driven by guitars, drums, and a stop-and-go format. It’s a great mixture of music that makes one.

The album High Hat was produced by Steve Earle, who recognized the band’s talent and helped bring them to a wider audience. Earle encouraged the group to embrace their love of traditional American music while keeping their own identity intact. The result was an album that blended country, rock, folk, and roots music in a way that sounded natural. This song became one of their signature songs and remains a favorite among fans of the band.

6 String Drag never achieved the huge commercial success of some of their contemporaries like Wilco and others. Songs like this show why they are still remembered by fans of Americana and alt-country. It has energy, great musicianship, and one of the coolest song titles you’ll ever hear.

If any of you are good at deciphering lyrics…could you fill in the ? in the lyrics? If so, please let me know, and I’ll fill it in. We will have the only complete lyrics to this song on the net!

Gasoline Maybelline

Soak me in gasoline
If you need more fire baby
I gave you everything it seems but me

Put me up higher than the tallest tree
I’ll come down baby then you’ll see
My broken knees please set me free

I can hold you [?] you
Oh come, don’t turn around
I’ll be gone

Go find somebody new
There’s nothing here for you
I gave you everything it seems but me

Take me down all the way to New Orleans
Leave me lying there on the street
I gave you everything it seems but me

I can hold you [?] you
Oh come, don’t turn around
I’ll be gone

Soak me in gasoline
If you need more fire baby
I gave you everything it seems but me
I gave you everything it seems but me

Jeff Beck & The Big Town Playboys – Crazy Legs …album review

I started to listen to this album and got hooked from the opening song. I kept listening to the entire album over and over. This could have been recorded in the 1950s… that’s how close they are to that sound.

Most people know Jeff Beck for his blazing guitar work on albums like Blow by Blow and Wired, but in 1993 he surprised a lot of fans by taking a sharp turn into rockabilly. Beck teamed up with the British revival group The Big Town Playboys to record Crazy Legs, an album dedicated to the music of Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps. For Beck, it was a chance to pay tribute to guitarist Cliff Gallup, the man he often called his biggest influence as a young player.

The Big Town Playboys had built a reputation in Britain by recreating the rhythm and blues, rockabilly, and jump blues sounds of the 1940s and 1950s. They were fronted by vocalist and pianist Mike Sanchez, the band was already well known among musicians. Beck had admired their work and felt they were the perfect group to help recreate the sound and spirit of Gene Vincent’s classic recordings.

The album was recorded and mixed at The Townhouse Studios in London and was produced by Stuart Colman. Rather than modernizing the songs, Beck and the band tried to capture the energy of the original recordings. They succeeded so well that I would have never guessed it was recorded in 1993.

The track list included Gene Vincent favorites such as Race With the Devil, Cruisin’, Pink Thunderbird, and the title track Crazy Legs. One of my favorites is Double Talkin’ Baby, where Beck just rips the guitar. His guitar work is remarkable because he deliberately restrained himself. Instead of the wah-wah-bar fireworks that made him famous, he focused on honoring Cliff Gallup’s style, showing just how deeply those early rockabilly records had shaped him. I could go on and on with the songs…but you’re essentially getting an album full of Gene Vincent’s sound, songs, energy, and a lotta love from Beck. It’s really hard to beat that.

Crazy Legs was never intended to be a huge commercial album. It hardly dented the charts, but that was never really the point. The record was a labor of love from a legendary guitarist paying his respects to one of his heroes. For fans who only know Jeff Beck from his later instrumental work, this album offers a look at the music that inspired him in the first place. Sometimes the best way to understand a great musician is to hear what they were listening to when they were young, and Crazy Legs does exactly that.

Here is a short concert at Ronnie Scotts! Great music and vibe

The Prisoner – Once Upon A Time

January 25, 1968 Season 1 Episode 16

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

This episode is basically a two-person show. Some of the best acting happens in this episode, and it is a life-and-death match between Number 2 and 6. One thing about this episode. It was recorded much earlier; it was the 6th show filmed. That is why Leo McKern, who appears in this, has a slightly different look in the last one.

As the series nears its end, Number Two decides there is only one way left to break Number Six. He takes him deep beneath the Village and subjects him to a process called “Degree Absolute.” The method strips away layers of a person’s life and personality. Number Six is forced to relive stages of his past. He moves backward through adulthood, youth, childhood, and even infancy. Number Two hopes that somewhere along the way he will discover why Number Six resigned and finally make him reveal his secrets.

Some of the very best acting is in this episode between Patrick McGoohan and a return of Leo McKern as Number 2. It is one of my favorite episodes. I’ll drop a little trivia here before we continue. The strain of filming this episode caused Leo McKern to suffer either a nervous breakdown or a heart attack (accounts differ), forcing production to stop for a time. You can tell how tense it was by just watching.

Most of the episode takes place in a single room. There are few sets and very little action. Instead, it becomes a contest between the two men. Number Two pushes and tries very much to manipulate. Number Six resists every step of the way. It’s like an emotional chess or tennis match. At times the process seems to be working. At other times Number Six turns the tables on Number 6. The line between prisoner and interrogator begins to blur. Patrick McGoohan and Leo McKern carry nearly the entire episode by themselves.

By the end, the strain becomes too much for both men. Number Six refuses to surrender the one thing he has fought to protect throughout the series, his individuality. The contest leaves both men exhausted and broken. Rather than finding the answers he wants, Number Two finds himself trapped by the very process he hoped would beat Number Six. It is one of the most intense episodes of The Prisoner. Two powerful personalities locked in a struggle over freedom and control. There is more, but I’ll let you watch and find out.

This was originally going to be the final episode of the first season. When it was decided to end the series, McGoohan used it as the springboard for the final episode he filmed to sum up the story. McGoohan has said this was his favorite episode of the series. Be Seeing You!