Now, this was cool. I had a few friends with one but it was one thing I could not get. We lived on a dirt road with a gravel driveway. Big Wheels didn’t really work on gravel and dirt too well. I loved the pull-up brake you could engage on one wheel while you were coming to a stop and spin around.
You were low to the ground and with a good hill, you could really go. If it rained you would pedal that plastic wheel and go nowhere until you caught some traction.
The Big Wheel was developed by Louis Marx and Company in 1969. The toy was hugely popular in the 70s and 80s because of its low cost and partly because consumer groups said it was a safer alternative to the traditional tricycle or bicycle.
Different versions came out as it was copied by other companies. The Green Machine made by Huffy was a version of the Big Wheel.
Just in case you want to own an iconic 1970s Big Wheel…not just a Big Wheel but a Big Wheel Deluxe with the box…no problem just shell out $2,500.
This song was originally off the Walking Into Clarksdale album by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.
This version peaked at #20 in the U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 and #102 in the UK in 2009. I like the original version but Krauss’s harmony lifts this version up over that and turns into a great record. The arrangement to this version highlights the lyrics and enhances the song. It took a few listens but I was hooked after a while.
It won The Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 2009. The song was off of the Raising Sand album.
Both Krauss and Plant achieved their highest-ranking albums in the Billboard 200 chart under their own names with Raising Sand. It overtook Krauss’s placing for her earlier 2007 album A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection, which reached #10. Plant ‘s highest-ranking solo title had been the #4 peak of No Quarter in 1994. Ten years prior to that he’s also reached #4 with Volume One, a one-off side project by the Honeydrippers. Of course, Plant had been to the top of The Billboard 200 seven times as a member of Led Zeppelin.
This won for Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2009. Accepting the award, Robert Plant said: “When we started this project together, the whole game was a mystery. We gave ourselves three days, and we said if it doesn’t work, we’ll just take lunch, and I’ll go back to Wolverhampton. But we brought this song out and it’s been given that Nashville touch and it feels pretty good.”
Please Read the Letter
Caught out running With just a little too much to hide Maybe baby Everything’s gonna turn out fine Please read the letter I mailed it to your door It’s crazy how it all turned out We needed so much more
Too late, too late A fool could read the signs Maybe baby You’d better check between the lines Please read the letter, I Wrote it in my sleep With help and consultation from The angels of the deep
Once I stood beside a well of many words My house was full of rings and Charms and pretty birds Please understand me, my Walls come falling down There’s nothing here that’s left for you But check with lost and found
Please read the letter that I wrote Please read the letter that I wrote
One more song just before we go Remember baby All the things We used to know Please read my letter And promise you’ll keep The secrets and the memories and Cherish in the deep
Ah…
Please read the letter that I wrote Please read the letter that I wrote Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote Please read the letter that I wrote Please read the letter that I wrote
This is a great country – rock song and its acoustic feel is great. The song peaked at #27 in the Billboard 100 and #40 in Canada in 1975.
This is an article from the Tennessean about Amie… written by Dave Paulson in 2016
“Amie, what you want to do? I think I could stay with you for a while, maybe longer if I do.”
“Aime” certainly has stuck around. The Pure Prairie League song — recorded in 1972 — took three years to turn into a hit, but has since endured for decades. The band’s Craig Fuller told the story of “Aime” to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.
Let’s take it back. Pure Prairie League is a band out of Ohio. You’ve done it the hard way; you’ve played the clubs, been on the road for years. In 1971 you finally attract the attention of RCA.
CF: RCA New York. They came to see us play a festival in Cleveland. … I think they brought the (A&R) fellow back with the power to sign. Then we played on the front porch of our house and they said, “Oh, that’s good, let’s do that.”
So you recorded the album “Bustin’ Out.” In terms of musicianship, it’s still one of my favorite records ever. It still actually sells CDs. And RCA signed you, but then they drop you. But “Amie” gets some airplay on country stations and airplay on pop stations and college stations and AOR stations. … So in 1975 they re-sign the band and put the single out.
CF: Well, when we recorded it in that mecca of country music Toronto, Canada, it was longer, and I think they edited it for radio and got it shorter. I guess you’re right. It kept bubbling there along and they decided to give it another shot promotion-wise.
Who is Amie?
CF: Just a song I wrote. Just an exercise in song craftsmanship.
Boy, people really dissect that song — about what it’s about. I’ll give you my take on it: The guy may have waited too long. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.
CF: That’s just as fair as my take on it, because all I was doing was stringing words and music together.
There’s some genius to it. You fell into one, Craig, I’m telling you.
CF: I think the track on that song had a lot to do with it. We were up there luxuriating (with) a large budget for back then. We were in Toronto all summer right across from Maple Leaf Gardens. It took us all summer to record that record. It wasn’t even mixed yet and at that time Gordon Lightfoot came in. We had the whole (studio) blocked out in the days and Gordon Lightfoot would come in and record in the evening. He did a record in two weeks. Stompin’ Tom Connors, who was a guy from Canada, country kind of guy, he did a record in two nights. So we were just up there having a good time.
So tell me about the resilience of that song. Through the decades you’ve played it around the world. That’s one that everybody recognizes. So the lead singer of Evanescence, Amy Lee, apparently was named after that song, even though she spells it with a Y. I told you we were just in D.C. lobbying for songwriters two or three weeks ago and ran into another Amie that allegedly was named after that song. You’ve got to hear that a lot.
CF: I’ve had mothers come up and say, “I named my daughter Amie — and she named her daughter Amie.”
Wow. That means it’s been a while, right?
CF: Exactly. That was the joke.
So one last question, Craig. In your mind’s eye, did you get back with Amie?
CF: Amie is just a song so I get along with Amie really well.
Yeah, but did you get back with her? Have you ever thought about that?
CF: Does the character?
Yeah, does the character get back with her? Do they end up happily ever after or is it a hard lesson learned for him for the rest of his life?
CF: I suppose the protagonist of the song is just laying it out and then it’s up to her.
I love that version.
Amie
I can see why you think you belong to me, I never tried to make you think, Or let you see one thing for yourself, And now you’re off with someone else and I’m alone, You see I thought I might keep you for my own.
Amie, what you wanna do? I think I could stay with you, For a while maybe longer if I do.
Don’t you think the time is right for us to find, That all the things we thought weren’t proper could be right in time, Can’t you see which way we should turn together or alone, I can never see what’s right or what is wrong, ‘Cause that take too long to see now.
Amie, what you wanna do? I think I could stay with you, For a while maybe longer if I do.
Come on now, Amie, what you wanna do? I think I could stay with you, For a while maybe longer if I do.
Now it’s come to what you want, you’ve had your way, And all the things you thought before just faded into gray, And can you see that I don’t know if it’s you or it’s me, But if it’s one of us I’m sure we both will see, yeah, Won’t you look at me and tell me.
Amie, what you wanna do? I think I could stay with you, For a while maybe longer if I, longer if I do.
Amie, what you wanna do? I think I could stay with you, For a while maybe longer if I do.
I keep fallin’ in and out of love with you, Fallin’ in and out of love with you, Don’t know what I’m gonna do, I keep fallin’ in and out of love with you.
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