Hooker only needed a guitar and that voice to make any song interesting. If you ever needed proof that less really is more, play this song.
There’s a reason John Lee Hooker didn’t need a band on this song. He was the band. A one-man rhythm machine with a foot that kept better time than some drummers I’ve seen on stage. In a way, this song is blues stripped to its bones. No solos. No pyrotechnics. Just mood, repetition, and that unmistakable voice. He doesn’t shout to get your attention; he commands, and you come running.
The song was recorded in Detroit, Michigan, where Hooker had relocated in the late 1940s. It was released in 1951 on Modern Records. It features Hooker on guitar and vocals, accompanied by minimalistic instrumentation.
He was fresh off the success of Boogie Chillen, and while that earlier hit was electric blues, this song was something different; smokier and more intimate.
This 1951 song was his first R&B #1 since Boogie Chillen in 1948. It also peaked at #30 on the US Hot 100 that year. It was a hit in the juke joints and on jukeboxes. It made people lean in, not turn up. And it cemented Hooker’s place as something far more than a bluesman.
I’m In The Mood
I’m in the mood, baby I’m in the mood for love I’m in the mood, baby I’m in the mood for love I’m in the mood, in the mood Babe, I’m in the mood for love
I say, nighttime is the right time, to be with the one you love You know when the night come, baby got no use so far away
I’m in the mood I’m in the mood, babe I’m in the mood for love I’m in the mood, in the mood, baby In the mood for love
I said, yes my mama told me, “Don’t leave that girl alone” But my mama didn’t know, God know, yeah, I wouldn’t put it down
I’m the mood I’m in the mood, baby, mood for love I’m in the mood, I’m in the mood Babe, in the mood for love
It’s always a pleasure listening to their music. I guess the Waterboys primed me for this band. This song is more bare bones, which I really like. You can smell the smoke and feel the soot in this song.
I thought for sure that Shane MacGowan wrote this one, but no, it was folk singer Ewan MacColl, the father of Kirsty MacColl. It was written back in 1949. Kirsty entered the Pogues’ orbit two years later with the timeless Fairytale of New York.
The Pogues’ version on their 1985 album Rum Sodomy & the Lash is sparse and haunting. With this song, they tapped into something universal: every working-class kid’s longing to burn the place they grew up in, even if they love it too much to leave. The song is about Salford, a city in Greater Manchester, England, but after the Pogues were done with it, it could have been about Pittsburgh or anywhere else.
Where other bands might have polished the song into oblivion, the Pogues played it rustic, and it works. This isn’t a punk song in sound, but it is in spirit. When MacGowan sings these dismal lyrics, you believe every word. The song peaked at #27 in Ireland and #62 in the UK. The album peaked at #13 in the UK, and #17 in New Zealand in 1985.
Dirty Old Town
I met my love by the gas works wall Dreamed a dream by the old canal I kissed my girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town Dirty old town
Clouds are drifting across the moon Cats are prowling on their beat Spring’s a girl from the streets at night
Dirty old town Dirty old town
I heard a siren from the docks Saw a train set the night on fire I smelled the spring on the smoky wind
Dirty old town Dirty old town
I’m gonna make me a good sharp axe Shining steel tempered in the fire I’ll chop you down like an old dead tree
Dirty old town Dirty old town
I met my love by the gas works wall Dreamed a dream by the old canal I kissed my girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town Dirty old town Dirty old town Dirty old town
Ever since I heard his growling voice singing the Devil with the Blue Dress On / Good Golly Miss Molly medley, I’ve been a fan of Mitch Ryder. Even his name is cool. He has released more than 25 albums as a solo artist and with the Detroit Wheels. He was born William Sherille Levise Jr. Outside of the medley, I didn’t know much about him, so I spot listened to his songs on albums through the years. He gives a big variety to pick from and some catchy songs.
This should have been a classic rock song from the ’80s. It doesn’t get played much, but it sounds great, and it captures both the producer’s and Mitch’s sound. The producer of this song was John Mellencamp. John was influenced by Mitch, along with Bob Seger and Bruce Springsteen. It was written by Keith Sykes in 1980 and has been covered by George Thorogood and the Destroyers as well. I do remember hearing this song in the early eighties, as it got some play here in Nashville.
Lyrically, the song is about making it or wanting to make it. Ryder doesn’t use a metaphor here. He spells it out, literally, because that’s what ambition sounds like when you’re clawing your way up from a bar stage to something bigger. It was on the 1983 album Never Kick a Sleeping Dog at the height of Mellencamp’s career. At times in rocking songs, and I’m going to use a phrase I read some critic use years ago, his voice sounded like sandpaper dipped in gasoline. I mean that in the best way.
He also does a cover of Prince’s When You Were Mine, and Mitch owns it. I have included the video of that one from MTV. Great song as well.
B.I.G. T.I.M.E.
Well when you hear the bell it’s nine o’clock That’s the time when you start to rock Gonna push the hair up outta my face We gonna rock the rafters right offa this place
Yeah, it’s alright You and me Yeah, we gonna have a B.I.G.T.I.M.E
Goin’ out tonight we gonna rock, rock, rock And we don’t care if they call the cops, ha ha Gonna get my girl we gonna dance dance dance And later go home and make romance
Yeah, it’s alright You and me Yeah, we gonna have a B.I.G.T.I.M.E
Yeah, it’s alright You and me Yeah, we gonna have a B.I.G.T.I.M.E
Well, my mama told me when I left home She said “Boy you were born to roam But you better remember just one thing, son You gotta always try to have some fun.” See upcoming pop shows Get tickets for your favorite artists
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So, it’s alright You and me Yeah, we gonna have a B.I.G.T.I.M.E
Great documentary about motorcycle racing of all kinds. I still drool over these vintage motorcycles. For the early seventies, it gives you some fantastic footage of what it was like racing on a motorcycle.
I love documentaries, but I wasn’t sure this one would interest me…but it did. I’m not a motorcycle guy, and I only rode some when I was a teenager, but this 1971 documentary kept me glued. I would recommend this to anyone, young or old. The longer I watched, the more I got hooked.
Steve McQueen is in this film, and he helped finance it because he believed in it so much. He is not in it a lot, but he was a gearhead. It was made by Bruce Brown, the same filmmaker who made “Endless Summer,” an excellent documentary about Surfing. Again, I’m not a surfer by any means, but it was also very interesting. I saw the surfing one first, and I got hooked, so I went to this one. It swapped out surfboards for motocross bikes, waves for dirt trails, and sandy blond beach bums for sunburned gearheads with calloused hands and battered helmets.
This film follows about every kind of motorbike competition you can think of… it centers on off-road competition rather than road riding. While Steve McQueen was the draw and provided a lot of the backing to the film, the two main motorcyclists they follow are today’s leaders in their field. The two were Mert Lawwill and Malcolm Smith.
Mert was one of the early pioneers in the off-road bicycling world, having introduced the first production mountain bike. He also developed prosthetic limbs for amputees.
Malcolm owns a dealership and runs Malcolm Smith Racing, a producer of off-road rider equipment. Smith was inducted into the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1978, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1996, and the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.
I gained a lot of respect for these men who gave their lives to this sport they loved. They traveled around the country with broken vehicles, raced with broken arms and backs to do something they loved without much pay. Brown didn’t over-explain anything. He just showed it. And that’s the charm. On Any Sunday, it doesn’t try to sell you the sport; it invites you to ride with them.
This documentary helped change the image of motorcyclists. There was a “sequel” to this documentary called On Any Sunday: The Next Chapter in 2014.
After watching it, I wanted a motorcycle really bad…But I let the thought pass by and got a Jeep instead.
The most commercially successful of the Beatles. Paul was so blessed with huge musical talent. Undoubtedly, he was the most talented musician in the Beatles. That’s not to say he hasn’t written some bad songs, but as a musician, he could have played with anyone. There is a story that Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix wanted to collaborate on a project and attempted to recruit Paul on bass.
He has had so many hits that it would be impossible to not leave one off. Paul is known for his pop hits, but when the mood struck, he could rip out rock and roll with the best of them. I always liked it when Paul would write something with loud guitars. In a stretch in the early 70s, he had quite a few of them. One of them I liked but didn’t make this list was Hi, Hi, Hi.
Junior’s Farm – This one doesn’t get played as much as some others, but it’s my favorite Paul song.
Let Me Roll It – I always thought this one could have been written and performed by John Lennon.
3. Band On The Run – One of Paul’s masterpieces. He pretty much stuck 3 short songs together on this, like he did on Abbey Road.
4. Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me) – The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso died at the age of 91 on April 8, 1973. News of his passing reached Paul McCartney when he was in Jamaica.
While having dinner there with Paul McCartney, Dustin Hoffman told the story of the death of Pablo Picasso and his famous last words, “Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can’t drink anymore.” Picasso then went to bed and died in his sleep.
Paul had a guitar with him and immediately played an impromptu chord progression while singing the quote. Thus, “Picasso’s Last Words” was born, later recorded and added to the album Band On The Run in 1973. Hoffman later said of Paul writing the song in front of him, the experience was “right under childbirth in terms of great events of my life.”
5. Sally G -I’ve always liked B-Sides… Let’s listen to some Liverpudlian Country Music. I cannot hear this song without thinking of my grandmother. Her name was Sally, and yes, her last name started with G. She lived to the ripe old age of 96.
6. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five – This song was on arguably McCartney’s best album, Band On The Run. It didn’t chart, but it was released as the B side to the song Band on the Run, and it was played quite a bit on the radio. One of my favorite McCartney album tracks.
Nineteen Hundred And Eighty-Five was never performed live by Wings, and only became part of McCartney’s live set in 2010.
7. Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey – I remember hearing this before I knew who Paul McCartney was…it was unbelievably catchy, but I had no clue what it was about…still don’t.
Paul combined pieces of various unfinished songs to create this… in the later years of The Beatles, he helped do this for the Abbey Road Medley. As a result, Uncle Albert – Admiral Halsey contains 12 different sections over the course of its 4:50 running time.
8. Jet – It was a terrific single…I like the B side (Let Me Roll It) more, but I love this song. Tony Visconti, who did a lot of production work for David Bowie and Thin Lizzy, did the orchestration on this song.
9. Listen to What the Man Said – It’s far from his best song, but it’s a good pop hit. It was recorded for the album Venus and Mars. It was a song that McCartney had high hopes for, but early recordings did not live up to the song’s potential. The missing ingredient was Jazz musician Tom Scott’s sax solo. They ended up keeping the first take that Tony Scott played on.
10. Maybe I’m Amazed – I’ve always liked the original version of this song the best. The studio version of this song was never released as a single (no tracks on the album were), but it is one of the most remembered songs on McCartney’s first solo album McCartney. “Maybe I’m Amazed” was written in 1969, just after The Beatles broke up, about Linda.
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