September 2020 – Page 2 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Beatles – If I Needed Someone

This has that Rickenbacker sound. This song was written by George Harrison, who was influenced by The Byrds song “The Bells of Rhymney.” This one has always been a favorite of mine by George.

If I Needed Someone was one of four songs Capitol Records held off of the American release of Rubber Soul. US audiences hadn’t heard the song until June 20th, 1966, which was the date of release for the American album Yesterday…And Today.

If I Needed Someone was the only George Harrison composition to have been performed live by The Beatles. The other songs that featured George on vocals were covers but this was the only original song before they stopped touring.

The Hollies received an early recording of “If I Needed Someone.” They proceeded to quickly record their own rendition of the song and release it as their next British single on December 3rd, 1965, the exact day that The Beatles’ released Rubber Soul.

The Hollies took the song to #20 on the British charts, and it became the first George Harrison composition to make the charts.

Roger McGuinn: “George Harrison wrote that song after hearing the Byrds’ recording of “Bells of Rhymney.” He gave a copy of his new recording to Derek Taylor, the Beatles’ former press officer, who flew to Los Angeles and brought it to my house. He said George wanted me to know that he had written the song based on the rising and falling notes of my electric Rickenbacker 12-string guitar introduction. It was a great honor to have in some small way influenced our heroes the Beatles.”

From Songfacts

It was not Ravi Shankar that introduced George to the wonderment of sitar, but Byrd traveler David Crosby shortly after Shawn Phillips had shown him the basic steps. In 1965 The Beatles toured the US and visited Ravi at World Pacific Studios where The Byrds had permanent residency. It was also here that Roger McGuinn’s Rickenbacker jingle jangle influenced Harrison’s “If I Needed Someone.” In turn, The Byrds were influenced by Harrison’s 12-string guitar work.

If I Needed Someone

If I needed someone to love
You’re the one that I’d be thinking of
If I needed someone

If I had some more time to spend
Then I guess I’d be with you my friend
If I needed someone
Had you come some other day
Then it might not have been like this
But you see now I’m too much in love

Carve your number on my wall
And maybe you will get a call from me
If I needed someone
Ah, ah, ah, ah

Carve your number on my wall
And maybe you will get a call from me
If I needed someone
Ah, ah

Sloan – The Good In Everyone

Jim told me about a Canadian theme coming up and I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss this one. Sloan is a great power-pop band that my two Canadian friends Deke and Dave told me about. The band never made a big impact on America and that was our loss. They formed in 1986 and still have the same band members.

When I found this song…the song and video are great. The video is a takeoff…a very good takeoff on the movie Easy Rider…the part where they buy the drugs at the airport from the Phil Spector character.

The song peaked at #6 in Canada in 1996.

It was released as the lead single from the band’s third studio album, One Chord to Another.

The music video for “The Good In Everyone” was filmed at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Band members Andrew Scott playing Billy (Dennis Hopper), Chris Murphy playing Wyatt (Peter Fonda), Jay Ferguson playing Connection (Phil Spector) and Patrick Pentland playing the Bodyguard. The entire introductory scene before the music begins is longer than the song itself.

Sloan

First off, here’s what you do to me
You get rough, attack my self-esteem
It’s not much, but it’s the best I’ve got
And I thought you saw the good in everyone

Ooh, the good in everyone
You see the good in everyone
You see the good in everyone

I close my eyes, I can’t give it up
I close my mind, I can’t get enough
I’m in no shape, I gotta turn it off
Just let it play The Good In Everyone

Ooh, the good in everyone
You see the good in everyone
You see the good in everyone
You see the good in everyone
Ooh, the good in everyone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_in_Everyone

All In The Family / Archie Bunker

A couple of years ago I was at Pam’s (All Things Thriller) site and read her character profiles on The Soprano’s characters…I liked it so much that when I thought about covering All In The Family…I asked Pam if she would consider covering Archie, Edith, Gloria, and Mike in the same way.

She not only agreed, but she has given me permission to post her writing on my site.

All In The Family changed the landscape of television and pop culture in the 70s. Some have said All In The Family was essentially a mirror held up to America at the time. It ran from 1971 – 1979 on CBS. The show was based on Til Death Us Do Part, a British sitcom about a conservative father and his liberal son-in-law. All In The Family may have been the most important television show in the 20th century.

The series spent five consecutive years at number one in the Nielsen ratings.

We will do these in installments on a Saturday. Today will be featuring Archie Bunker. The next will be following in the coming weeks. Hope you enjoy.

All Things Thriller

Remember Archie Bunker? If you’re around my age–mid forties to mid fifties–or older you do. And if you didn’t know him personally, you knew someone like him.

Your uncle…Your grandfather…The neighbor across the street.

The country was full of men like him back in the day.

Archie was a grumpy old man, except he really wasn’t that old. He was a middle aged guy stuck in a time warp of sameness…prematurely gray, paunchy, always in work pants, he looked the same when he was fifty as he did when he was thirty and vice versa

He enjoyed his paper, his beer…boxing and baseball on television….fat cigars and his chair. Especially his chair. Nobody could sit in that chair but Archie. Nobody.

And it wasn’t even that great of a chair…at least it was better than his wife’s. Edith. Her chair looked flat out uncomfortable.

Edith was a nice lady. And Archie loved her. He really did…Oh, he talked badly to her. Abusively… He was so domineering. And controlling.

I’m not saying that he cursed her, or, God forbid, raised his hand to her. He didn’t…He would have never done that, but the way he would tell her to stifle herself when she said something he didn’t like or if she was just getting on his nerves..

That kind of stuff wouldn’t fly today. And it shouldn’t.

Should have never flown then. Sadly, those attitudes weren’t that unusual in the 70s. There was a lot of backlash to the civil rights movement in the suburbs then…to women’s lib…to the intelligentsia…There were a lot more blue collar middle class people in the suburbs then.

The Bunkers lived in Queens, in a two bedroom, one bath, row house. They were probably about two rungs, on the plus side, from being lower middle-class. But they weren’t and that’s what counted.

Archie worked hard as a dock foreman to provide for his family. He really did. And he took good care of them.

It wasn’t easy for him either. He had to drop out of high school so he could work and take care of his mother when his dad died. From there he served in the Army Air Corps during WWII where he received the purple heart for being shot in the butt…

Yeah, that’s right. Archie got shot in the butt, but here’s the deal…he was on some cushy gig where he didn’t have to see combat, only he did see it. And when he saw it, he defended his country. And his friends. And himself.

He was a good father to Gloria, too. Of course, he wanted a boy, but from the moment she was born she had him wrapped around her finger.

Oh, he groused at her, too. A lot. But when Gloria miscarried her first baby–Archie’s grandson that he was so excited about–all he really cared about was her.

The way he sat on the side of her bed…and for the first time in his life, probably, he was speechless…the way he looked at her, so worried, just wanting her to be okay, said it all.

He was like that with Edith too. Very loyal to her.

And sometimes, ever so rarely, Edith would let him have it. She’d put her foot down and put him in his place. Those times were priceless.

But in the same way that Archie was misogynistic–because, make no mistake, he was–he was racist, too. He was unapologetically racist, though he would tell you that he wasn’t.

The fact is, Archie Bunker was so racist–it came so naturally to him–that he didn’t know the difference. To him, the Ku Klux Klan was racist, yes, but he was completely numb to the reality that they–the Ku Klux Klan–espoused 90% of his own political views…

That he was an equal opportunity insulter…he ribbed his son-in-law Mike, mercilessly about being Polish…he upbraided Catholics for being Catholic and Puerto Ricans for being Puerto Rican…that he believed there should be no violence and that there were some good people who were minorities was enough to keep him humane, but just barely.

Racism. Misogyny. Inexcusable then and inexcusable now.

Should it matter that he was a hard working, faithful husband and father that was wounded while serving his country during wartime? Are those enough attributes, enough mitigating factors to push Archie over the Mason/Dixon Line and onto the good side?…

That’s right, fellow Southerners, I said the good side. The South–during the Civil War–were the bad guys. Get over it..

I say yes.

Then again, I’m a middle aged white woman. I would say yes.

Joe Walsh – Ordinary Average Guy

Joe Walsh’s career was slowing down when this came out. It was Walsh’s first album of entirely new music since Got Any Gum?

In 1990, Walsh reunited with former Barnstorm drummer Joe Vitale to co-produce Ordinary Average Guy. This album also features vocal and writing contributions by former Survivor lead vocalist Jimi Jamison as well as backing vocals by Ringo Starr.

This wasn’t Walsh’s best release by a long shot but the song was enjoyable. The song was written by Joe Walsh and Joe Vitale.

Walsh wrote this about his mid-life crisis. It deals with escaping the fame and fortune associated with the life of a rock star. This is a parody of Walsh’s previous release, “Life’s been Good to Me,” which is about rock star excess.

The song was off of Ordinary Average Guy and it peaked at #112 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1991. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks.

Ordinary Average Guy

I’m just an ordinary average guy
My friends all are boring
And so am I
We’re just ordinary average guys

We all lead ordinary average lives
With average kids
And average wives
We all go bowling at the bowling lanes
Drink a few beers
Bowl a few frames
We’re just ordinary average guys
Ordinary average guys

And every Saturday we work in the yard
Pick up the dog doo
Hope that it’s hard (woof woof)
Take out the garbage and clean out the garage
My friend’s got a Chrysler
I’ve got a Dodge
We’re just ordinary average guys
Ordinary average guys

Ordinary average guy(3x)
Ordinary average average guys

Ordinary average guy(3x)
Ordinary average average average guys

Ordinary average guy(3x)
Ordinary average….

…

Ramones – Pet Sematary

The Ramones always seem to brighten my day. No pretentious songs or long drawn out solos. They get to the point and fast. This song is a little different their previous songs and it was one of their biggest hits.

Dee Dee Ramone and producer Daniel Rey wrote this song for the 1989 Stephen King movie Pet Sematary. Another Ramones song, Sheena Is A Punk Rocker, also appears in the film.

Stephen King was a big Ramones fan and even mentioned them in the book.

The music video for Pet Sematary was filmed at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in New York village…it was filmed in 1989. The video features cameos by Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie.

The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard Modern Rock Charts in 1989. The song was on the album Brain Drain.

Marky Ramone: “Stephen King is a big Ramones fan. … He’s a great guy, very tall, very intense-looking. His eyes are very intense, you can see he read a lot … and we hit it off. He asked us to do a song for the movie soundtrack. … He gave Dee Dee the book to read; he read the book and wrote the song in 40 minutes. I’m forever grateful I met the guy. He wrote a nice quote in the book about me. So thank you, Stephen.”

This is a link for more info on the song and video.

https://tidal.com/magazine/article/pet-sematary-an-oral-history/1-54455

Pet Sematary

Under the arc of a weather stain boards
Ancient goblins, and warlords
Come out the ground, not making a sound
The smell of death is all around
And the night when the cold wind blows
No one cares, nobody knows

I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery
I don’t want to live my life again
I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery
I don’t want to live my life again

Follow Victor to the sacred place
This ain’t a dream, I can’t escape
Molars and fangs, the clicking of bones
Spirits moaning among the tombstones
And the night, when the moon is bright
Someone cries, something ain’t right

I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery
I don’t want to live my life again
I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery
I don’t want to live my life again

The moon is full, the air is still
All of the sudden I feel a chain
Victor is grinning, flesh is rotting away
Skeletons dance, I curse this day
And the night when the wolves cry out
Listen close and you can hear me shout

I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery
I don’t want to live my life again
I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery
I don’t want to live my life again, oh, no, oh, no
I don’t want to live my life, not again, oh, no, oh, oh
I don’t want to live my life, not again, oh, no, no, no
I don’t want to live my life, not again, oh, no, no, no

Who – Let’s See Action

Let’s see action
Let’s see people
Let’s see freedom
Let’s see who cares

I had the Hooligans greatest hits double album when I was 13 and I first heard this song then. Pete originally wrote this for the Lifehouse project.

This was the first of three singles featuring material left over from the Lifehouse sessions. Let’s See Action’s working title was ‘Nothing Is Everything’ and features Nicky Hopkins on piano.

This was originally written by Pete Townshend for his aborted Lifehouse project, which was intended to be a Rock Opera similar to The Who’s Tommy and Quadrophenia. Many of the songs Townshend wrote for Lifehouse ended up on the 1971 Who’s Next album.

“Let’s See Action” was recorded for the album, but didn’t make the cut. Instead, it was released as a single in the fall of 1971 in the UK peaking at #16. In the US it remained unreleased until its inclusion on the Hooligans compilation album in 1981.

Pete Townshend released a under the radar solo album in 1972 from his demos. One of songs was Let’s See Action. Townshend’s version from Who Came First, is both longer and more energetic than the version by the band.

Roger Daltrey: “Pete was going through a terrible bitterness about the fact that Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp hadn’t got behind making Lifehouse as a film. But the reason they didn’t get behind it was because they couldn’t get to grips with the narrative, and I still feel to this day…even though Pete’s done his Lifehouse Chronicles box and done it as a radio play – well, I’m sorry but though there’s some incredible music in there and some sparks of theoretical and theological ideas, I think the narrative thread of the story is about as exciting as a f—ing whelk (snail) race!

But I always liked ‘Let’s See Action.’ It’s got that texture of explosive rock’n’roll bits mixed in with a laid-back, almost country feel. I still love the sentiment behind it, too.”

Let’s See Action

Let’s see action
Let’s see people
Let’s see freedom
Let’s see who cares

Take me with you
When you leave me
And my shell behind us there

I have learned it
Known who burned me
Avatar has warmed my feet
Take me with you
Let me see you
Time and life can meet

Nothing is
Everything
Everything is
Nothing is
Please the people
Audiences
Break the fences
Nothing is

Let’s see action
Let’s see people
Let’s see freedom
In the air
Let’s see action
Let’s see people
Let’s be free
Let’s see who cares

Give me a drink boy, wash my feet
I’m so tired of running from my own heat
Take this package and here’s what you do
Gonna get this information through

I don’t know where I’m going
I don’t know what I need
But I’ll get to where I’m gonna end up
And that’s alright by me

Let’s see action
Let’s see people
Let’s see freedom
In the air
Let’s see action
Let’s see people
Let’s be free
And see who cares

Let’s see action
Let’s see people
Let’s see freedom
In the air
Let’s see action
Let’s see people
Let’s be free
Let’s see who cares

Nothing, nothing, nothing
Every, every, every, every
Every, every, every, every
Nothing, nothing, nothing
Nothing, nothing, every

…

The Clarks – Born Too Late….Power Pop Friday

This is a great sounding song. He mentions historical figures by first name…I think John Lennon, Jerry Garcia, Vincent Van Gogh are among them and includes more…I love the guitar sound. I would recommend checking them out. Thanks to Hanspostcard for pointing them out.

This is a local band out of Pittsburgh that formed in the mid 80s at Indiana University of Pennsylvania where most of them were enrolled. They started out as a cover band and soon began playing original songs.

They were on their own label while making their first albums and then MCA took notice. They signed with them in 1996 but MCA started to pay more attention to their label mate Blink – 182 and didn’t push The Clarks. They signed with Razor & Tie after MCA and achieved success locally but not nationally.

The Clarks who play Power Pop have released 12 studio and live CDs selling nearly quarter of a million copies. they have built a fan base from over 20 years of performances an they sell out 7,500 seat venues in Pittsburgh and venues in the East coast and Mid-West.

This song was on the Let It Go album released in 2000.

It originally appeared on singer Scott Blasey’s 1999 solo album, Shine, but was then reworked by the entire band for its appearance on this album.

Dave Marsh Rock Critic: “They’ve got first-rate songs, they play together the way only bands who’ve truly lived with each other’s chops can, they can sing, and as far as I can tell, at the end of the story, they get the girl. What more do you want?”

Born Too Late

Vincent will you teach me how to paint
Teresa will I ever be a saint
John I really think your songs are great
I was born too late

William will you teach me how to write
Cassius will you show me how to fight
Thomas A. I think I see the light
I was born tonight

I’ve had a hard time leaving this town
I’ve been losing everything that I’ve found
I’m gonna search the sky, kiss the ground
Build it up and tear it back down

I’ve had a hard time leaving this place
I’ve been counting all the lines on my face
I’m gonna curse the sky, hit the ground
What goes up comes tumbling down

Jimi show me how you play that thing
Elvis will I ever be a king
and Jerry all the joy and love you bring
I was born to sing

Martin Luther King show me the way
Jesus Buddha teach me how to pray
Christopher I think I see the bay
I was born today

…

Janis Joplin – Down On Me

Whenever I hear this song I think of a story that Dick Cavett told. He said he met Janis in a restaurant and a Janis song was playing on a jukebox while they sat down. Cavett asked Janis what the name of it was…and she said “Down On Me.” Dick said “Wow, I guess that is one you cannot sing on television”…Janis smiled and said “Dick, it’s a gospel song.”

It was a traditional gospel song from the 20s that Janis reworked. The song was on the debut album of Big Brother & the Holding Company featuring Janis and the album had the same name. The song peaked at #43 in the Billboard 100 in 1967. The album was sloppy…Big Brother and the Holding Company were really raw with no polish. On their second album “Cheap Thrills” they would improve but Janis left after the that album to work with better musicians.

This is not the best Joplin song but I do like it.

Down On Me

Down on me, down on me,
Looks like everybody in this whole round world
They’re down on me.

Love in this world is so hard to find
When you’ve got yours and I got mine.
That’s why it looks like everybody in this whole round world
They’re down on me.

Saying they’re down on me, down on me.
Looks like everybody in this whole round world
Down on me.

When you see a hand that’s held out toward you,
Give it some love, some day it may be you.
That’s why it looks like everybody in this whole round world
They’re down on me, yeah.

Lord, they’re down on me, down on me, oh!
Looks like everybody in this whole round world
Is down on me.

Believe in your brother, have faith in man,
Help each other, honey, if you can
Because it looks like everybody in this whole round world
Is down on me.

I’m saying down on me, oh, down on me, oh!
It looks like everybody in this whole round world
Down on me!

Jimi Hendrix – Foxy Lady

This is one of the most remembered songs from Jimi. According to Hendrix biographer Harry Shapiro, the song was probably inspired by Heather Taylor, who eventually married Roger Daltrey, the lead singer for The Who.

Kathy Etchingham, Jimi’s girlfriend at the time, also claimed to be one of many inspirations for “Foxy Lady.” I’m sure there are/were a lot of claims.

Hendrix recorded this on December 13, 1966. That same day, he made his first TV appearance on the British show Ready Steady Go. The Jimi Hendrix Experience had been together only 2 months at that point, but things moved very quickly. Three days later, their first single, “Hey Joe” was released.

Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at number 153 on its list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”

The song was on the Are You Experienced album released in 1967. It peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Charts, #15 in Canada and #2 in the UK

Foxy Lady peaked at #67 in the Billboard 100.

From Songfacts

Hendrix opened for The Monkees on their 1967 tour. When he played this, the young girls who came for The Monkees and had no interest in Hendrix shouted “Davy!” when Hendrix sang “Lady,” resulting in “Foxy Davy,” and turning it into a tribute to their idol, Monkees lead singer Davy Jones.

This was featured in the movie Wayne’s World. It is used in a scene where Garth (Dana Carvey), sings it while thinking about his dream woman, played by Donna Dixon.

In the booklet for the Experience Hendrix CD, Hendrix was quoted as saying this was the only happy song he had ever written. He said that he usually just doesn’t feel happy when writing songs.

The title of this song has two alternate spellings: “Foxey Lady” (for release in America) and “Foxy Lady” (for release in the UK).

Foxy Lady

Foxey, foxey
You know you’re a cute little heart breaker, ha
Foxey, yeah
And you know you’re a sweet little love maker, ha
Foxey

I want to take you home, haha yeah
I won’t do you no harm no, ha
You got to be all mine, all mine
Ooh foxey lady, yeah
Foxey, foxey

Now-a I see you come down on the scene
Oh foxey
You make me want to get up and a scream
Foxey, oh baby listen now
I’ve made up my mind
Yeah, I’m tired of wasting all my precious time
You got to be all mine, all mine
Foxey lady
Here I come
Foxey

Yeah
I’m gonna take you home
I won’t do you no harm no
You got to be all mine, all mine
Foxey lady
Here I come baby, I’m commin’ to get ya

Ooh foxey lady yeah yeah
You look so good foxey
Oh yeah foxey
Yeah give us some foxey
Foxey foxey lady
Foxey lady

…

Band – It Makes No Difference

Rick Danko conveys so much hurt, loneliness and heartache in this song. You can feel his pain with every word he sings. It’s one of the best vocals of pure suffering I’ve ever heard. He sounds like a man at the end of his tether because of a hopeless love affair.

The Band’s later material sometimes gets neglected since their first two albums were so good. This song was on the Northern Lights – Southern Cross album released in 1975.

The album peaked at #26 in the Billboard 100 and #27 in Canada.

Robbie Robertson: “I thought about the song in terms of saying that time heals all wounds,” he said. “Except in some cases, and this was one of those cases.”

Robbie Robertson: “I wrote this song specifically for Rick to sing, and when we first started discovering the possibilities, it kept expanding to more levels of emotion. What Garth and I could add to finalize the statement of this song was purely instinctual.”

From Songfacts

This was included on the soundtrack to The Last Waltz, a 1978 documentary about The Band directed by Martin Scorsese, named after the group’s 1976 concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The group also performed the song during the concert, which was a basis for the film.

This was included on the sound Solomon Burke covered this on the 2005 album Make Do With What You Got. Other covers include My Morning Jacket on the 2007 album Endless Highway: The Music of The Band and the 2012 album Love for Levon, and Over the Rhine on the 2013 album Meet Me at the Edge of the World.

It Makes No Difference

It makes no difference where I turn
I can’t get over you and the flame still burns
It makes no difference, night or day
The shadow never seems to fade away

And the sun don’t shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

Now there’s no love
As true as the love
That dies untold
But the clouds never hung so low before

It makes no difference how far I go
Like a scar the hurt will always show
It makes no difference who I meet
They’re just a face in the crowd
On a dead-end street
And the sun don’t shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

These old love letters
Well, I just can’t keep
Cause like the gambler says
Read ’em and weep
And the dawn don’t rescue me no more

Without your love I’m nothing at all
Like an empty hall it’s a lonely fall
Since you’ve gone it’s a losing battle
Stampeding cattle
They rattle the walls

And the sun don’t shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

Well, I love you so much
It’s all I can do
Just to keep myself from telling you
That I never felt so alone before

…

Hot Chocolate – You Could’ve Have Been A Lady

I heard this a lot when I was a kid. The song was written by Hot Chocolate members Errol Brown and Tony Wilson. The song peaked at #22 in the UK in 1970. I also heard the version by April Wine.

You Could’ve Been A Lady was released by Hot Chocolate as a non-album single, the song later appeared on the 2009 reissue of Cicero Park.

While the Hot Chocolate version of “You Could Have Been a Lady,” never charted in the Billboard 100, April Wine, a Canadian rock band, took the song to #32 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in Canada in 1972. A decade later and they would have their biggest American hit with Just Between You and Me.

Both bands did a great job. It’s a good catchy little rock song.

Could Have Been A Lady

You could’ve been all right
You could’ve been here tonight
You could’ve been sweet as wine
You could’ve been a lady

They all love you, you’re a good girl
When you awake you’ll find another man
Lying beside you
They all need you, they all want you
Well, I’ll be surprised if you realised
Where you’re going to

You could’ve been all right
You could’ve been here tonight
You could’ve been sweet as wine
You could’ve been a lady ….

If I tell you where you’re going to
You’d laugh in my face, I’m out of place
Mind your business
They all want you to make love to
Well, I’ll be surprised if you realised
Where you’re going to

You could’ve been all right
You could’ve been here tonight
You could’ve been sweet as wine
You could’ve been a lady ….

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na ….

All right
You could’ve been here tonight
You could’ve been sweet as wine
You could’ve been a lady

…

Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home…Desert Island Albums

This is my seventh-round choice from Hanspostcard’s album draft…100 albums in 100 days.

2020 ALBUM DRAFT- ROUND 7- PICK 6- BADFINGER20 SELECTS- BOB DYLAN- BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME

he not busy being born
Is busy dying

I was a kid when I first heard a Bob Dylan song and it was Knocking On Heaven’s Door. I liked the song but didn’t think much else about it. Later I heard about him while reading about the Beatles. This man was armed with words that caught everyone’s attention. The books would describe his voice as crude but effective with other adjectives thrown in the mix. I then bought his greatest hits. I received that great Dylan poster with the album that had “ELVIS” formed in his hair…I thought what a cool guy.

I then purchased Bringing It All Back Home and I was a bigger fan. I loved his voice right away. He didn’t sing like McCartney, Lennon, Elvis, or anyone like that but it worked…his voice had soul and passion. I found out why a generation before me followed him like the Pied Piper…it all became clear. Whether you understood or agreed.. his voice and words meant something. Bob wasn’t a product.

It was Dylan who inspired the Beatles and it was The Beatles who inspired Dylan…they played off of each other and took popular music to new exciting places.

This album angered a lot of his fans. After being a folk singer armed with his acoustic and his bag of words…he blew people away. Then this album came out with electric instruments. That did not go down well with the folk fans. One side of the album was acoustic and the other side full of raw electric songs. Some of his fans would boo him at concerts as soon as the band backed him up on the rock section. That didn’t slow Bob down at all…he knew what he was doing was right and he would not yield to the boos or naysayers.

On top of all of this…the album was recorded in three days…three days (January 13,14, and 15 1965). That’s not enough time for most artists to get a decent outtake.

These songs…where do I start? Lets start with the opener Subterranean Homesick Blues and the line “You don’t need a weather man
to know which way the wind blows.” How many hippies have quoted that line? I learned this song by heart much like I did Tangled Up In Blue later on.

It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) is a song that verse after verse amazes me. His voice in this song is perfect… almost like a preacher behind a pulpit. Bob sings about commercialism, hypocrisy, politics, and warmongering for starters. It’s wrong to pick out a lyric in this song without posting all of them but I will…”Made everything from toy guns that spark, To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark, It’s easy to see without looking too far, That not much is really sacred” I mean…holy hell…who comes up with that? It fits just right with today’s commercialism.

Love Minus Zero/No Limit is a over looked song by Bob that very well could be my favorite off of the album. This contains one of my favorite Dylan lyrics. “She knows there’s no success like failure, and that failure’s no success at all.” Lyricists would kill for lines like that…Dylan would make a habit of it. He helped raised the standards for songwriters. No longer would serious artists get away with simple rhyming lyrics.

She Belongs To Me took a while for me to get this one. For the longest time I skipped it on the album but then…one day it clicked. “She’s got everything she needs, She’s an artist, she don’t look back, She can take the dark out of nighttime
And paint the daytime black.” it has since become one of my favorites.

I’m not going to add more videos to the already full post but it was a coin toss on which ones to go over. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, Mr. Tambourine Man, Outlaw Blues, Gates of Eden, Maggie’s Farm…and all of them are worthy. Bob released three albums between March 22, 1965 and June 20, 1966. Those albums were Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisted, and Blonde on Blonde. Those alone would be a hall of fame career for any other artist but Bob was just getting warmed up.

This is my first non-band album on my island and I couldn’t have picked a better artist or album. Listening to Dylan never gets old because you continually find something new you didn’t hear before.

1. Subterranean Homesick Blues
2. She Belongs To Me
3. Maggie’s Farm
4. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
5. Outlaw Blues
6. On The Road Again
7. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream
8. Mr Tambourine Man
9. Gates Of Eden
10. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
11. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

…

Bruce Springsteen – Brilliant Disguise

God have mercy on the man
Who doubts what he’s sure of

I was 20 years old when I heard that lyric for the first time and a chill went through me. Brilliant Disguise I would play over and over again.

Springsteen sings this from the viewpoint of a man who is conflicted over a romantic relationship. Although he claims the song is not directly about him, Springsteen was having problems in his marriage to his first wife, Julianne Phillips, and they divorced soon after.

This was the first single off Tunnel Of Love, an album Springsteen recorded in his home studio in New Jersey. Tunnel of Love is one of my favorite albums by Springsteen. The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, Canada, and the UK.

The song peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100, #9 in Canada, and #20 in the UK in 1987.

Bruce Springsteen: “I guess it sounds like a song of betrayal – who’s that person sleeping next to me, who am I? Do I know enough about myself to be honest with that person? But a funny thing happens: songs shift their meanings when you sing them, they shift their meanings in time, they shift their meanings with who you sing them with. When you sing this song with someone you love, it turns into something else.”

Brilliant Disguise

I hold you in my arms
As the band plays
What are those words whispered baby
Just as you turn away
I saw you last night
Out on the edge of town
I wanna read your mind
To know just what I’ve got in this new thing I’ve found
So tell me what I see
When I look in your eyes
Is that you baby
Or just a brilliant disguise

I heard somebody call your name
From underneath our willow
I saw something tucked in shame
Underneath your pillow
Well I’ve tried so hard baby
But I just can’t see
What a woman like you
Is doing with me
So tell me who I see
When I look in your eyes
Is that you baby
Or just a brilliant disguise

Now look at me baby
Struggling to do everything right
And then it all falls apart
When out go the lights
I’m just a lonely pilgrim
I walk this world in wealth
I want to know if it’s you I don’t trust
‘Cause I damn sure don’t trust myself

Now you play the loving woman
I’ll play the faithful man
But just don’t look too close
Into the palm of my hand
We stood at the alter
The gypsy swore our future was right
But come the wee wee hours
Well maybe baby the gypsy lied
So when you look at me
You better look hard and look twice
Is that me baby
Or just a brilliant disguise

Tonight our bed is cold
I’m lost in the darkness of our love
God have mercy on the man
Who doubts what he’s sure of

Waylon Jennings – Luckenbach, Texas (Back To The Basics Of Love)

I love the Outlaws…

The song was written by Chips Moman and Bobby Emmons. Waylon Jennings was in Moman’s American Studios in Nashville recording Luckenbach, Texas when Willie Nelson happened to drop by for no particular reason.

Jennings saw him and asked him to sing with him on this. So Willie ended up adding his voice to the final verse, providing a couple of lyrical changes in the process.

Chips Moman used reverse psychology on Waylon to get him to record this song. Chips told him “here’s a song that you can’t cut because I’ve got it promised to someone else, but can I get your opinion on it?” It worked, Waylon took the bait and told Moman “I’m gonna cut that song.”|

Suddenly the tiny town of Luckenbach was besieged by network reporters and camera crews. Over one hundred city-limit signs have been stolen from the town since Jennings’ famous record was first released in 1977, and ironically neither Waylon nor the song’s writers Chips Moman and Bobby Emmons ever made their way to Luckenbach, Texas.

The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard Country Charts, #25 in the Billboard 100, and #1 in the Canadian Country Charts, and #46 in the Canadian RPM Charts in 1977.

Luckenbach Texas

Let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas
With Waylon and Willie and the boys
This successful life we’re livin’
Got us feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys
Between Hank Williams’ pain songs and
Newbury’s train songs and “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain”
Out in Luckenbach, Texas, ain’t nobody feelin’ no pain

So baby, let’s sell your diamond ring
Buy some boots and faded jeans and go away
This coat and tie is choking me
In your high society, you cry all day
We’ve been so busy keepin’ up with the Jones
Four car garage and we’re still building on
Maybe it’s time we got back to the basics of love

Let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas
With Waylon and Willie and the boys
This successful life we’re livin’ got us feudin’
Like the Hatfield and McCoys
Between Hank Williams’ pain songs and
Newbury’s train songs and “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain”
Out in Luckenbach, Texas, ain’t nobody feelin’ no pain

Let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas
Willie and Waylon and the boys
This successful life we’re livin’s got us feudin’
Like the Hatfield and McCoys
Between Hank Williams’ pain songs
And Jerry Jeff’s train songs and “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain”
Out in Luckenbach, Texas, there ain’t nobody feelin’ no pain

ELO – Last Train To London

Last Train to London was on the Discovery album released in 1979. Dave (A Sound Day) covered this album and he has some great trivia on who the model was on the cover. Click on there and see who it was…it will probably surprise you.

I had this album and there are two songs I really liked off of it other than the big hits. One of them is this one and the other was The Diary of Horace Wimp.

Jeff was happy to admit that he appreciated disco. Shine a Little Love and Last Train To London certainly pointed that way.

This album generated four top-ten UK singles, a successful new milestone in spite of the fact that this was the first which the group did not support with a tour.

Last Train To London peaked at #39 in the Billboard 100, #28 in Canada, and #8 in the UK.

Discovery peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Chart, #1 in the UK and #3 in Canada.

Jeff Lynne: “I love disco. I love it and I always have loved it, ever since I first heard that ‘bang, bang, bang, bang!’ And I realized, ‘Wow! You just keep the bangs in and fill the holes in with something else.’ And it worked. I mean Shine A Little Love is the perfect example, right there. And Last Train To London. I really enjoyed doing disco.”

Last Train To London

It was 9-29, 9-29 back street big city
The Sun was going’ down, there was music all around
It felt so right

It was one of those nights
One of those nights when you feel the world stop turning
You were standing there, there was music in the air
I should have been away, but I knew I’d have to stay

Last train to London, just heading out
Last train to London, just leaving town
But I really want tonight to last forever
I really wanna be with you
Let the music play on down the line tonight

It was one of those nights
One of those nights when you feel the fire is burning
Everybody was there, everybody to share, it felt so right

There you were on your own
Looking like you were the only one around
I had to be with you, nothing else that I could do
I should have been away, but I knew I’d have to say

Underneath a starry sky
Time was still but hours must really have rushed by
I didn’t realize, but love was in your eyes
I really should have gone, but love went on and on

…