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Smithereens – Blood And Roses

I always liked this band and the sound they had in the 80s. I look at them the way I do at Big Star and The Replacements. Why didn’t they take off commercially? It makes no sense to me at all, but the charts and mainstream radio got this wrong. Now, let’s bring some power pop back to this power pop site!

This was the song that first gave The Smithereens national attention. It was released in 1986 on their debut album, Especially for You. It was based around a heavy bass line, which makes me happy, sharp guitar parts, and the voice of songwriter Pat DiNizio. The song had been around in some form before the band signed a record deal. It was part of the material they developed while playing clubs across New Jersey and New York. When it appeared as a single, college radio picked it up, and most importantly, MTV did as well.

DiNizio wrote this song after reading the 1946 novel “Blood and Roses” by British writer Helen MacInnes, though the lyrics were not a direct adaptation. Instead, he used the title to frame a story about a difficult relationship. Like many Smithereens songs, it drew from pop culture and personal memories.

It was produced by Don Dixon, who kept the arrangement sharp and tight, letting the rhythm section carry much of the song. It became the band’s signature song, still tied closely to the sound of American college radio in the mid-1980s, when guitar bands were finding an audience outside of mainstream radio. And that is where I was at the time!

The song peaked at #14 on the Billboard US Mainstream Rock Charts in 1986. The album peaked at #51 on the Billboard Album Charts.

Blood and Roses

It was long ago, it seems like yesterday
Saw you standing in the rain
Then I heard you say

I want to love, but it comes out wrong
I want to live, but I don’t belong
I close my eyes and I see blood and roses

Wild flowers in the springtime
October we were wed
In winter time the roses died
Her blood ran cold and then she said

I want to love, but it comes out wrong
I want to live, but I don’t belong
I close my eyes and I see blood and roses

It was long ago, it seems like yesterday
I saw you standing in the rain
Then I heard you say

I need your love, but it comes out wrong
I tried to live, but I don’t belong
I close my eyes and I see blood and roses
Blood and roses (roses)
Blood and roses (roses)
Blood and roses (roses)

Marriott and Lane – Lonely No More

I ain’t lonely no more
Got a woman, got a kid
Got a whole lot more
Got my own backyard
With a fence and a big front door

As big a fan of Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott as I am, I never heard their 1981 album Majik Mijits. Sometimes when I run across something, I get really excited. This is one of those times. Marriott is probably my favorite vocalist of that genre.

It was recorded in 1981 but not released until 2000, after both had passed. The opening song, Lonely No More, has a nice choppy rhythm and a fantastic groove. The lyrics are simple and repetitive, but they are so grounded in everyday life that I love them. I was 14 in 1981, and I would have bought this if it were released.

This album came from a reunion that probably surprised a lot of people. By the early 1980s, Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott had been apart for years. Their time in Small Faces was long behind them, and both had gone through hard stretches. Lane was dealing with multiple sclerosis, and Marriott had come through the rise and collapse of Humble Pie. When they crossed paths again around 1981, the old connection returned quickly. They had argued in 1969 when Marriott left the Small Faces, but their friendship was still there, and so was the music.

They recorded under the name The Legendary Majik Mijits, bringing in musicians from the British pub-rock world. The songs sounded natural, closer to musicians sitting together in a room than looking for radio play. Recording together again gave them a chance to step away from pressures and expectations. There was no pressure to recreate Small Faces. They were older, and the music reflected that.

The album sat in limbo for 19 years after it was recorded. Part of that came down to Lane’s health. Touring and promotion would have been difficult, and there was little interest in pushing the record without him being fully involved. Marriott said he did not want the album turned into something that forced Lane into a situation he could not handle physically. So the tapes stayed unreleased, almost becoming forgotten sessions. Majik Mijits finally appeared in 2000 and was remastered in 2014.

They did one show together. This next is from Lane’s website:

Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane got back together in 1981. Steve flew back from Atlanta, Georgia, to play a one-off gig with Ronnie at the Bridge House pub in East London. The gig on 1st September included the band Blind Drunk with old mates Jim Leverton on bass, Mick Green of the Pirates on guitar, Mick “Wynder K Frog” Weaver on keyboards, and Dave Hynes on drums. Sam Brown, daughter of Joe joined on backing vocals.

Lonely No More

I ain’t lonely no more
Got a woman, got a kid, lord, got a whole lot more
Can’t be lonely no more
Got my own back yard, I got my own front door

(lonely no more)
Can’t be lonely no more
(lonely no more)
How can I paint what I was now I ain’t gonna be lonely no more
(lonely no more)
(lonely no more)

I ain’t lonely no more
Sat here by the fire with my dog on the floor
Can’t be lonely no more
That’s one thing I know, lord, I’m certain, I’m so sure

(lonely no more)
can’t be lonely no more
(lonely no more)
How can I be what I was, don’t you see I can’t be lonely?
(lonely no more)
(lonely no more)

lonely no more
(lonely no more)
I ain’t lonely no more
got a woman, got a kid, I got a whole lot more
can’t be lonely no more
I got my own backyard with a fence and a big front door
look out

(lonely no more)
woo
(lonely no more)
(lonely no more)
lonely no more
(lonely no more)
can’t be lonely
(lonely no more)
can’t be lonely
(lonely no more)
can’t be…

Truck Project

First, I wanted to say that this weekend I will post, but I could be late in responding to comments…I will when I get breaks from this.

We have had this vehicle for around 17 years or so. It stopped running a long time ago, and we stored it at a friend’s house. I’ve had many offers on it (believe it or not), but I never wanted to sell it. A truck can come in handy, and my buddy Greg has an engine and transmission that would fit perfectly. It is a 1985 Chevy S-10 Durango. It’s not too pretty, but it will be able to get you from A to B, and it makes a great trash truck on the weekends.

This weekend (that’s the plan), he is going to show me how to take an engine out and put one back in. He has a diesel engine that went into a Chevy Luv in the 80s, and they get around 40 mpg. The truck was dirty as hell, and it took me 3 scrubbing bubbles cans to get the tree sap and everything else off of it. This week, after work, Greg and I took the grill, bumper, and headlights off. I guess you are never too old to learn.

I’ll let everyone know how it goes…hopefully everything will go through, and Saturday we will start. I will be commenting, but I will be late!

RMS Titanic… lifeboats and other things.

I can’t tell you how happy I was to get that reaction to the last Titanic post, and thank you all for reading. Thank you for indulging me. You all probably know these terms, but I didn’t, so if any of you were like me, this will help. The Bow is the front of the ship, and the Stern is the back end. The Port Side = left-hand side of a ship when you are on board and facing forward toward the bow. Starboard Side = right-hand side of a ship when you are on board and facing forward toward the bow. I’m going to tell you a not-so-well-known event about some fortunate luck the RMS Titanic had (yes, it could have been much worse), the lifeboat dilemma, and a couple of personal stories.

The coal fire. Before the iceberg ever struck RMS Titanic, a smoldering coal fire had been burning in one of the ship’s starboard coal bunkers, something not uncommon on steamships of the era (she had stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland before moving to the open Atlantic). To control it, stokers spent a couple of days shoveling an estimated 300 tons of coal from the starboard side over to the port side, a backbreaking task done in intense heat below deck. That weight shift reportedly gave the ship a slight port list (list = leaning) even before the voyage settled into the Atlantic. When the iceberg opened the starboard side to the sea, some historians believe that extra coal weight on the port side briefly helped counter the incoming flooding, slowing the list to starboard for a short time and giving the ship a little more balance during the early stages of the sinking. They did a computer simulation, and the computer said it should have sunk in 90 minutes. Then they entered the coal being moved, then the computer said it would take 3 hours, or 180 minutes. It really took 160 minutes, more on that with the next post.

When the call came for women and children first, there weren’t many wanting to do that. Lowering lifeboats was dangerous at that time, and many people have been killed doing that. You are 80 feet or so up in the air, being lowered into cold and darkness. It was incredibly dark on that moonless night. They had only the stars and the ship’s lights over the Atlantic.

Life Boats. One thing that I didn’t understand was why the Titanic didn’t have enough lifeboats for the people she carried. The maritime law at the time was based on the ship’s tonnage. The Titanic had more lifeboats than she needed by law. Also, the Titanic was built so you could cut her into 3 sections and she would float (so she was a lifeboat as well), but that was without damaging 5-6 compartments. Back then, lifeboats were there to ferry people between the sinking ship and a rescue ship. They were not meant to be boats that people would stay on for hours or days in the Atlantic. They were also fortunate that the ocean was calm that night, not usual for the Atlantic. These were not light fiberglass boats; they were heavy wooden boats, weighing almost 6 tons with all of the equipment!

They had 20 lifeboats (The 20 boats consisted of 14 standard wooden boats, two emergency cutters, and four collapsible boats), and they didn’t even get all of those off properly. Remember, they were lowered by davits (crane-like devices used on ships to support, raise, and lower equipment such as boats, anchors, or dinghies). The Titanic gave them 160 minutes, which, compared to other shipwrecks, is quite a bit of time. What they needed more than anything was more time. I’m not saying that it would be a bad thing to have enough lifeboats. But when you think about it, launching those boats back then from so high up (around 80 feet) was not easy. Imagine being lowered into complete darkness up 80 feet. That is why passengers didn’t want to leave the warm ship to freeze in the Atlantic. They still thought the Titanic would not sink. It took so long that it drew people into a false sense of security. There were so many ships in the shipping lanes that they thought another ship would be close by and they would have enough time. That night, the Californian was 20 miles away at most (Titanic’s crew saw the ship and kept signaling), but their Marconi (radio operator) operator had gone to bed, and Titanic’s pleas were not heard by them. It was heard by the Carpathia (further away), which came to the Titanic’s rescue, but she didn’t get there until around 4am the next morning. They picked up the survivors, but that is it. The Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912, and sank at 2:20am on April 15, 1912.

So yes, I do believe more lifeboats would be a good idea, but more training and also passenger drills would have made a huge difference. You must remember, though, when a ship is listing to one side badly, you have to use the other side to lower boats, which wipes out half of your lifeboats on the up high side. Now they have made davits that will handle the listing, I’m happy to say.

Personal Story: Charles Joughin (one of my favorites) was the chief baker aboard the Titanic, and his story became one of the most unusual survival accounts from the disaster. He knew he would not take a lifeboat seat, but he was going to help as many as possible and feel good at the same time. He didn’t give up, but knew what could happen. After the ship struck the iceberg, Joughin helped load women and children into lifeboats and threw deck chairs overboard so people in the freezing water might have something to cling to. Unlike many passengers who panicked, he stayed busy and calm as the ship’s final moments approached… Well, yes, he stayed calm and warm because, in between helping women and children, Mr Joughin would go to his cabin for shots of whiskey. When the final lifeboats departed, Joughin remained calm and rode the Titanic down like an elevator.⁣ Witnesses confirmed this. Luckily for him, there was no big suction from the stern going down. He was the last one to get off the stern as it plunged. He was picked up by a lifeboat and survived! He wasn’t falling down drunk, but he was highly buzzed, and he said he didn’t feel the 28-degree water and stayed in the water longer than most. Others say he was in the water longer than most that lived. He did a great job and saved a lot of lives.

Charles did everything he could, like sending bread to the lifeboats, helping to load people into them, throwing wooden chairs into the water for floatation devices, and still having time for a drink or two or three.

Personal Story: Fashion buyer and journalist Edith Rosenbaum (an older Edith in the 1970s above) boarded the RMS Titanic in first class after covering fashion collections in Europe, carrying with her a small toy pig music box given by her mother for good luck. When the ship struck the iceberg on April 14, 1912, Rosenbaum at first resisted leaving her cabin, worried about her belongings, but a crew member reportedly insisted she get into Lifeboat No. 11. She got the crew member to go get her toy pig. Finally, the crew member had to throw the pig into the boat just so that Edith would get in. The pig was a small mechanical music box that played the tune “La Maxixe.” During the long hours in the freezing Atlantic, she wound it up to calm frightened passengers and children in the lifeboat. Rosenbaum survived the disaster and later credited the pig with helping keep spirits up during the ordeal. The toy itself survived as well, becoming one of the more personal artifacts connected to the sinking of the Titanic.

No authenticated, fully intact lifeboats from the Titanic are known to exist today. Of the 20 boats, 13 were brought to New York by the Carpathia, where they were stored briefly, stripped for souvenirs, and likely broken up, sold, or re-purposed for other White Star Line vessels by 1913. Some plaques that went on them still exist, as shown above.

If you get really interested in the Titanic, I recommend two YouTube channels. These young guys are historians and have a huge passion. You have Mike Brady from Oceanliner Designs and Sam Pence from Historic Travels. Mike is very professional and personable. Sam is very personable and professional. Both are ship fans, especially the old steamer liners. I get lost in their YouTube sites.

The Prisoner – Checkmate

November 24, 1967 Season 1 Episode 9

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

Hard to believe…we are over halfway through. Checkmate is one of my favorites. This episode drops Number Six into one of the Village’s more elaborate games, a human chess match where the residents are sorted into opposing sides. The setup looks like a harmless diversion, but the rules are social as much as they are strategic. People are pushed into roles, told who their allies are, and encouraged to treat the other side as the enemy. Number Six plays along long enough to understand the board, but he’s really watching how quickly the Village can turn a crowd into pieces.

It starts with a strange human chess game in the Village, where people stand in for the pieces and obey the moves given to them. Number Six notices that the “queen” seems different from the others; she still has some independent spirit. He later learns from the old chess master that in the Village, people can be divided into two groups: those who obey and those who command. Number Six thinks that idea might help him find allies for an escape.

He begins testing people to see who still has a will of their own. He gathers a small group, including the Rook and a few others, and they build a raft in secret. The plan is to slip away by sea, but the Village is always built on suspicion. The problem is not just the guards or Rover; it is trust. Number Six believes he has found the difference between prisoners and collaborators, but the Village turns that against him.

Number Six tries to break that rhythm of the village by talking to both sides, refusing to treat the other group as less human. He looks for weak points in the setup, not just to win the game, but to prove the whole thing can be disrupted if people stop obeying the script.

The rook and Number 6 devise an escape plan, and this time, the rook is not really a stooge of the village…but he was suspicious, just like Number 6, which didn’t help with the plan. The chessboard is a symbol, but the message is clear: keep people separated, keep them competing, and they won’t unite against the ones running the game. In the Village, even play is a trap, and every move is watched, but he keeps aiming for the one move they can’t plan for, refusing to be just another piece. Be Seeing You!

…

Honeydrippers – Rockin’ At Midnight

Back in the ’80s, I remember seeing this band on SNL. Of course, the big thing at the time was that Page and Plant were working together again, although not with Zeppelin. I loved their sound, and I went out and bought the single Sea Of Love.

You know what I liked most about these recordings by the Honeydrippers? Rather than modernizing the song, they kept the arrangement close to the spirit of the original. The horns, piano, and guitar all feel like a small-club sound. It doesn’t have a huge, polished studio production.

This song was first written and recorded by Roy Brown in 1949. Brown’s version had that jump-blues energy that helped bridge swing music into early rock and roll. Roy’s original version peaked at #13 on the US R&B charts. Little Richard has mentioned Roy Brown as a huge influence.

I first really found out about Plant and his love of rockabilly through The Concert of Kampuchea. He sang the Elvis song Little Sister with Rockpile. Great performance of that song. So, when I heard the Honeydrippers, it sounded totally in place. Robert Plant had been talking for years about his love of early R&B and jump blues, the records he grew up with before Led Zeppelin. The Honeydrippers project gave him a way to step outside Zeppelin’s shadow and record the kind of songs that first got him interested in music.

The band’s floating members were incredible. Robbie Blunt was one, and he did a lot of great work on Plant’s solo music. To me, his guitar playing was just as identifiable as Plant’s voice; it was that important in Plant’s music. I would say the same thing about James Wisely, whose guitar playing was just as important to Chris Isaak. Other members included Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Nile Rodgers, Brian Setzer, Paul Shaffer, and many more. Talent was not an issue for this band.

Their album The Honeydrippers: Volume One peaked at #4 on the Billboard Album Charts, #40 in Canada, and #56 in the UK in 1984. The song peaked at #25 on the Billboard 100 and #18 in Canada.

A concert by The Honeydrippers

Rockin’ At Midnight

Have you heard the news?
There’s good rockin’ at midnight
Oh, I’m gonna hold my baby
With all my might
What a wonderful time we had that night
Hey, hey, there’s good rockin’ at midnight

Have you heard the news?
There’s good rockin’ at midnight
Oh, I’m gonna hold my baby
With all my might
What a wonderful time we had that night
Hey, hey, there’s good rockin’ at midnight

Now, sweet Charlie Brown and sweet Lorraine
They got caught on Caledonia’s land
Sioux City Sue, she told it all
Those fellas got drunk and they had a ball
Crying hey, hey
Good rockin’ at midnight

Well, two times

Well, I tell y’all about now Deacon John
He got so high they had to take him home
Hear the news about Ella Brown
He stole a chicken and he ran out of town
Hey, hey, there’s good rockin’ at midnight

Caledonia got drunk and grinning like a pig
She fell down and she lost her wig
Charlie Brown she laughed and she got sick
Caledonia got mad and grabbed a brick
Crying hey, hey, there’s good rockin’ at midnight

Oh now let’s go two times

Oh yeah

Oh yeah, wanna tell you all about now Deacon John
He got so high they had to take him home
Here’s the news about Ella Brown
He stole a lot of chickens and he ran out of town
Crying hey, hey there’s good rockin’ at midnight

Now, now, now Caledonia got drunk and grinning like a pig
She fell down and lost her wig
Charlie Brown she laughed and she got sick
Caledonia got mad and grabbed a brick
Crying hey, hey there’s good rockin’ at midnight

Uh, mm, rock
Gonna rock
Gonna rock
Gonna rock
Gonna rock
Gonna rock
Gonna rock

Well yeah I’m gonna rock
Gonna rock
We gonna rock
Ooh-hoo yeah we’re gonna rock
We’re gonna rock
There’s still rockin’ at midnight, midnight, midnight, midnight, yeah oh

Let’s go out ah

Now sweet Charlie Brown and sweet Lorraine
They got caught on Caledonia’s land
Soon pretty soon they told it all
Those girls got drunk and they had a ball
Crying hey, hey there’s good rockin’ at midnight

We gonna rock
We gonna rock
Yeah-es we gonna rock
Now, now, now we gonna rock
We gonna rock
Ooh-ah-yeah
Ooh yeah
Ooh yeah

International Submarine Band – Luxury Liner

It’s always great to hear Gram Parsons solo, with the Byrds, or with the Flying Burrito Brothers. I’ve heard of these guys but never listened to them. I’m happy I did now. It’s the so-called country rock, but with harmonizing that sounds great.

They were one of those bands that existed for only a short time but left a legacy. They formed in Los Angeles in 1966, and the band was built around singer, songwriter, and guitarist Gram Parsons. Parsons was interested in mixing traditional country music with rock, soul, and folk, long before the style had a name. At a time when psychedelic rock was dominating California, they were heading in the opposite direction. They were more toward pedal steel guitars and country storytelling.

The original lineup shifted a few times, but the best-known version included Parsons alongside bassist Chris Ethridge, guitarist John Nuese, and drummer Jon Corneal. The group played clubs around Los Angeles during a period when country music was still looked down on by much of the rock crowd. Parsons admired artists like George Jones and Merle Haggard, and he wanted to bring that sound into a younger rock audience. The band shared stages with folk-rock and psychedelic acts while carving out a different identity.

In 1968, the band released its only album, Safe at Home. Though it did not sell well at the time, the record later became recognized as an early blueprint for country rock. By the time the album arrived, Parsons had begun drifting toward The Byrds, where he would push country influences even further on Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

Years later, he revisited this song during his solo period, and it became one of the songs most tied to him. It also found new life when Emmylou Harris recorded it for her 1977 album Luxury Liner, helping introduce it to a wider audience.

Luxary Liner

Well a luxury liner, forty tons of steelIf I don’t find my baby now then I guess I never will

I’ve been a long lost soul for a long long timeI’ve been around, everybody ought to know what’s on my mindYou think I’m lonesome?So do I, so do I

Well I’m the kind of guy that likes to make a livin’ runnin’ ’roundAnd I don’t need a stranger to tell me that my baby’s let me downYou think I’m lonesome?So do I, so do I

Well a luxury liner, forty tons of steelNo one in this whole wide world can change the way I feel

I’ve been a long lost soul for a long long timeI’ve been around, everybody ought to know what’s on my mindYou think I’m lonesome?So do I, so do I

Patsy Cline – Crazy

I’ve heard and heard of Patsy Cline since I can remember. Where I live, she has never been forgotten. She was and still is a huge country star, but I never really considered a lot of her music pure country. I don’t mean that as a put-down, but it also had some jazz influence in there. One of the best voices in music, period.

She was born Virginia Patterson Hensley. Known in her youth as “Ginny,” she began to sing with local country bands while a teenager, sometimes accompanying herself on guitar. By the time she had reached her early 20s, Cline was promoting herself as “Patsy” and was on her way toward music stardom.

This song wasn’t a Patsy Cline-written song. It came from a young Willie Nelson, still trying to get a break in Nashville. He wrote it as a slow ballad, built around a melody that moved in ways most country songs at the time didn’t. Nelson pitched it around town, and it eventually reached producer Owen Bradley, who was creating what became known as the Nashville Sound: smoother arrangements, piano, light rhythm, and restrained backing vocals.

When Cline first heard it, she wasn’t much into it. The melody felt awkward, the phrasing didn’t land right, and it didn’t sit naturally in her voice on the first try. But Bradley heard something in it and pushed forward. The session took place at Bradley’s Quonset Hut studio in 1961. There was a problem from the start. Cline had recently been in a car accident and still had bruised ribs. That mattered because the song required long, controlled lines and soft phrasing, the kind that needs steady breath support.

The band included pianist Floyd Cramer, whose playing style gave the song its gentle feel. Cline struggled on the first attempts. The phrasing, especially the opening line, “Crazy, I’m crazy for feeling so lonely,” kept slipping out of place. They stopped the session and came back later. When she returned, she approached it differently by stretching the lines.

That second take is the one that stuck. The way she adapted it to her style because of the injuries ended up helping it. She doesn’t oversing it. She lets the pauses sit and it worked out beautifully. The song became one of Cline’s defining recordings and one of the most well-known songs in country and pop crossover history. It also helped establish Nelson as a songwriter to watch, even before his own recording career took off.

The song peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #2 on the Billboard Country Charts, and #8 in Canada in 1961.

Crazy

CrazyI’m crazy for feelin’ so lonely

I’m crazyCrazy for feelin’ so blue

I knewYou’d love me as long as you wantedAnd then somedayYou’d leave me for somebody new

WorryWhy do I let myself worry

Wonderin’What in the world did I do?

Oh… crazyFor thinking that my love could hold youI’m crazy for tryingAnd crazy for cryingAnd I’m crazy for loving youCrazyFor thinking that my love could hold youI’m crazy for tryingAnd crazy for cryingAnd I’m crazy for lovingYou

Billie Holiday – Fine and Mellow

Like with Bessie Smith, I keep coming back to this voice. In this one, she reminds me a little of Smith. Holiday’s voice could be aggressive or laid back, but always full of meaning and soul.

Holiday could truly call this song her own from top to bottom. She wrote it herself in 1939, at a time when much of her material came from professional songwriters and Tin Pan Alley publishers. This was the B-Side to Strange Fruit, but this song went on to become known as well.

This song was different because it came directly from her own life, built around a blues structure that fit her voice. Holiday had lived through enough difficult relationships by then that the words carried more weight than a typical mistreated song.

Though it was not one of her biggest commercial hits, it stayed with Holiday throughout her career. She returned to it often in live performances because it gave her room to interpret the story differently as she aged. By the 1950s, her voice had changed, rougher and more worn, but that only added credence to the song.

The most famous later version came in 1957 when Holiday appeared on the CBS television special The Sound of Jazz. Surrounded by an all-star lineup that included Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, and Lester Young, Holiday delivered a performance that many consider one of the most moving moments in television music history.

She took this simple blues song and made it feel like a private memory shared with the public.

Here is Billie singing Fine and Mellow in 1957 on The Sound Of Jazz. The entire show is up there if you want to watch it. It is incredible. She would pass away only two years after this was recorded. This is my go-to version of this song.

Fine and Mellow

My man don’t love meTreats me oh so meanMy man he don’t love meTreats me awfullyHe’s the lowest manThat I’ve ever see

He wears high trimmed pantsStripes are really yellowHe wears high trimmed pantsStripes are really yellowBut when he starts in to love meHe’s so fine and mellow

Love will make you drink and gambleMake you stay out all night longLove will make you drink and gambleMake you stay out all night longLove will make you do thingsThat you know is wrong

But if you treat me right babyI’ll stay home everydayIf you treat me right babyI’ll stay home everydayBut you’re so mean to me babyI know you’re gonna drive me away

Love is just like the faucetIt turns off and onLove is like the faucetIt turns off and onSometimes when you think it’s on babyIt has turned off and gone

RMS Titanic

First of all, no, this is not about the 1997 movie! Speaking of which, if you want to see more of the true story of the Titanic through a movie (though I highly recommend a documentary or better yet a book), watch A Night to Remember, which was filmed in 1958. Titanic experts have said that the 1958 movie is closer to the truth than the 1997 movie. What brought this up again on my radar was Titanic’s 114th anniversary on April 15, 2026. I felt like a kid again reading about this once great ship. This was one of my loves as a kid.

Along with growing up with baseball, dinosaurs, and The Beatles…I had other interests. The Titanic was so interesting to me because it was such a mystery. I was also interested in her two sister ships, The Olympic and the Britannic. I’ve read a lot of books and watched countless documentaries on the Titanic. One of my first non-Beatles books I ever read was the book by Walter Lord named A Night To Remember (the one they made the movie about). I’m reading one now called On a Sea of Glass: The Life & Loss of the RMS Titanic, and I would highly recommend it. It’s probably the best book I’ve ever read on this subject. You get to know the human side of this, which has been missing.

She was built well with new watertight compartments. Today’s ships have that feature. I remember the day in 1985 when they found her. I was so excited, but also bummed that she split in half while sinking. Although many said that the ship did split in half at the 1912 hearings, they were ignored, but were vindicated decades later. Why does this continue to interest me? I can’t tell you why.

The Titanic and her older sister, Olympic. They were hard to tell apart, but the Titanic was slightly larger and heavier; both were 882 feet and 9 inches long. Most of the pictures you see of the “Titanic” are really of the Olympic.

It was a safe ship, but its Achilles heel was found with that iceberg. Some modern ships would sink as well if the same damage happened. The Titanic had 16 watertight compartments and could take 4 of them being breached, but 6 were breached, and it was going to sink. It wasn’t a huge gash but just puncture marks. She took 2:40 minutes to sink; they have done tests with other ships of the period, and most sink within an hour or way less with the same damage. There are so many stories from that ship. I wanted to post this and see if there would be any interest in hearing some of the stories in future posts.

I’ll give you one story in this post, a short one. Isidor and Ida Straus sailed on this ship. They owned Macy’s Department Store. Isidor Straus was a co-owner of Macy’s and had served as a U.S. Congressman. He and his wife, Ida, were returning from Europe in April 1912, traveling first class on the Titanic. By all accounts, they were devoted to each other after more than 40 years of marriage.

When the ship struck the iceberg, and it became clear that lifeboats would be needed, the rule of “women and children first” was enforced. One of the officers did “women and children only” and sent half empty boats down. Ida was offered a seat in a lifeboat, and Isidor, as a man, was expected to remain behind. At first, Ida stepped toward the lifeboat. But when she realized her husband would not be allowed to go with her, she refused to leave him. She reportedly said words that have been passed down in different forms (where you go, I go), but the meaning is clear: she would not be separated from him after a lifetime together.

Isidor also refused special treatment. He was told he could take a place in a boat because his age and prominence, but he declined, saying he would not go before other men who were in greater need. Ida then gave her seat in the lifeboat to her maid, Ellen Bird, and even handed over her fur coat, telling her she would not need it anymore.

The last widely accepted account is that the two were seen sitting together on deck chairs, calm in the middle of chaos, waiting as the ship went down. Other accounts say they were seen holding hands near the railing as the end came. Either way, they chose to remain together rather than be separated.

Isidor’s body was later recovered at sea. Ida’s body was never found.

Their story became a symbol of loyalty and sacrifice at the time, often compared to the dignity shown by others that night. That included the ship’s musicians who continued playing as the situation worsened. In the years since, the Strauses have been remembered for what they valued most, staying together to the end.

When the maid made it home, she went to the daughter of the Straus family, Sara Straus. The maid (Ellen Bird) offered the coat back to the family, but the daughter said no. She told her that her mom wanted her to have it and to keep it in her memory.

The Titanic had heroes, like the crew who worked in the engine rooms to keep the lights on until the final plunge. They all lost their life. If those lights had not been on, many more would have perished. It’s an interesting ship and human story.

Titanic finds her voice again with 3 of her whistles salvaged from the ocean floor. The ship had 3 sets of three whistles. This one is a complete set. It didn’t take too much work to make these work again. It had not been heard since 1912.

The Prisoner – Dance of the Dead

November 17, 1967 Season 1 Episode 8

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

The dance macabre, or the dance of death, was an allegorical motif in medieval art to remind us that death is everywhere and unexpected. In this one, we have Mary Morris playing Number 2. The Village is trying to extract information from Number 6, who is under electronic hypnosis. They have an older colleague (number 42) of Number 6 asking him for information, but it doesn’t work. Number 2 makes it clear she doesn’t want Number 6 broken, but for him to agree voluntarily. This episode feels like it should have been earlier in the series.

Following a seemingly impromptu yet half-hearted escape attempt that leaves him collapsed on the beach, Number Six awakes to find that a dead man has washed up on the shore. This Number Six uses some kind of radio on the body in an attempt to contact the outside world about his plight. Of course, though, the Village knows about it already.

While all of this is going on, preparations are underway for a strange Carnival celebration, complete with masks, costumes, and a sense that the entire Village is waiting for some kind of performance. The episode never fully explains every detail, which gives it a dreamlike quality, as though Number Six has stepped into a ritual that has happened many times before. Number 6 does some spy work before that, exploring some rooms. He finds the man who washed ashore, whose info the village has altered the dead man’s info so when he is “found,” they will think it’s Number 6.

As the celebration begins, the atmosphere turns darker. The Carnival becomes a public trial, with Number Six placed in front of the crowd and forced into a role he never agreed to play. The villagers act as spectators and participants at the same time, blurring the line between justice and entertainment. He does call his old friend (dressed as a court jester) as a witness, but the village has destroyed him completely. He looks more like a living dead man. Like many episodes of The Prisoner, this one is less about plot and more about mood, control, and the way the Village tries to rewrite a person’s sense of reality. Be Seeing You!

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Paul Kelly – Darling It Hurts

Thought I would cover Paul Kelly today with this rock song Darling It Hurts. I’m starting to know his music more and more now. His Christmas song How To Make Gravy has been on my list since 2022. With this song, yes, I love that guitar, but that organ is what hooked me on this one. He kept the organ right below the surface, and it fits. Below is a quick rundown of Paul.

Paul Kelly was born in Adelaide, Australia, and began performing in Hobart in 1974. By 1976, he had relocated to Melbourne, working the pub circuit before forming the Dots, who released Talk (1981) and Manila (1982). He moved to Sydney in 1984 and, alongside Steve Connolly and Ian Rilen, released Post in 1985. The following year, he formed Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls and released Gossip (1986). The band later regrouped as Paul Kelly and the Messengers, issuing Gossip in the United States and following it with Under the Sun in 1987.

In 1993, Kelly published Lyrics, a collection of his songwriting, and continued evolving his sound with a new lineup that included Shane O’Mara, Bruce Haymes, Peter Luscombe, Stephen Hadley, and Spencer Jones. He has remained consistently active, continuing to record and release new material. His most recent album, Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train, arrived in 2021. Over the course of his career, Kelly has released 28 studio albums, along with 6 live albums, 8 compilations, and 64 singles.

This song was off his album Gossip, released in 1986. The song peaked at #19 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks. The album peaked at #15 in Australia and #34 in New Zealand. The album was in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.

This link will take you to a live version that YouTube would not let me embed.

Darling It Hurts

I see you standing on the corner with your dress so highAnd all the cars slow down as they go driving byThought you said you had some place to goWhat you doing up here putting it all on show?Darling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonight

Do you remember Darling how we laughed and criedWe said we’d be together till the day we dieHow could something so good turn so bad?I’d do it all again ‘coz you’re the best I’ve ever hadDarling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonight

See that man with the glad handsI want to kill him but it wouldn’t be rightNow here comes another man with the glad bagsI want to break him but it’s not my fightIn one hand and out the otherBaby I don’t even know why you botherDarling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonight

I see you standing on the corner with your dress so highAnd all the cars slow down as they go driving byIn one hand and out the otherBaby I don’t even know why you botherDarling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonightDarling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonightDarling it hurts to see you down Darlinghurst tonight

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Lookin’ Out My Back Door

I hope you are doing well on this Sunday!

When I first started to pay attention to the lyrics to this song…I would have bet Mr. Fogerty wrote it under the influence while looking out his back door. John said the song was written for his son Josh, who at the time was three years old. It was inspired by the Dr. Seuss book And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street. In the book, a kid is watching a parade go by with wondrous and magical animals and characters. Fogerty put the action “out my back door” to a place he could escape to.

I always loved the country feel of this song. It mixes country and some psychedelic lyrics. It sounded like a lot of John Fogerty songs from that period, it sounds simple on the surface but has a little more going on underneath than people think. It was released as a single along with Long As I Can See the Light, and it climbed high at a time when the band couldn’t seem to miss. What a single as well…doubt A-Side no doubt.

It is notable as the only time the country-style resonator guitar was used on a CCR recording. Fogerty purchased the Regal dobro from George Gruhn in Nashville after meeting bluegrass player Tut Taylor.

Here is what it is

The song was on the album Cosmo’s Factory… arguably Creedence’s best album. The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1969. The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100 and #1 in Canada. To show you the fickled charts, CCR never had a number one hit song. Could it have been just bad luck? Could it have been that Fantasy didn’t push them hard enough or that Capitol, RCA, and WB’s songs were a bigger priority to play?

They did hit number one in 2021. Have You Ever Seen The Rain topped the Rock Digital Song Sales chart in July 2021, over 50 years after its release, following a resurgence on social media.

Lookin’ Out My Back Door

Just got home from Illinois lock the front door oh boy!
Got to sit down take a rest on the porch.
Imagination sets in pretty soon I’m singin’