Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.
How I love these early Sun Record artists. There were more there besides Elvis, Jerry Lee, Orbison, Perkins, and Cash. The key to this song to me is that the guitar plays a hell of a rhythm through the song. The saxophone break cuts through the recording with a great solo.
In January 1954, Ike Turner brought the young Billy Emerson to Sam Philips’ attention. He would cut some great songs at Sun but not any hits. He wrote songs covered by Elvis, Junior Wells, Willie Mabon, Wynonie Harris, and Buddy Guy.
Move Baby Move was cut in Memphis, Tennessee in October 1954 by Billy Emerson (piano and vocal), Luther Taylor (trumpet), Charles Smith (alto saxophone), Bennie Moore (tenor saxophone), Elven Parr (guitar), and Robert Prindell (drums); the song was written by Billy Emerson.
This song uses the melody of “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”, using an uptempo rocking arrangement. Emerson’s voice drives it home.
Billy Emerson:“At Sun,Sam Phillips was always wanting to hear something different, and back then I could just go away and think of something different to record overnight.”
Sam Phillips:“Billy Emerson wrote such great songs. He was one of the very best.”
Move Baby Move
Stop banging on the door and come on in this house
Stop banging on the door and come on in this house
Kick off your slippers and tip here quiet as a mouse
You passed by the house and I was laying here wide awake
You passed by the house and I was laying here wide awake
You’d better stop that cattin’ and give this dog a break
You gotta move, baby, move
You gotta move, baby, move
You gotta move, baby, move
You gotta move, baby, move
Well, you won’t do right and you know I ain’t no fool
You gotta go that line and watch the way you do
You gotta go that line and watch the way you do
If you don’t stop rappin’ then you and me are through
You’d better pack your rags and move on down the line
You’d better pack your rags and move on down the line
I’m tired of this jive and I won’t stop by crying
You gotta move, baby, move
move, baby, move
move, baby, move
move, baby, move
Well you won’t do right and you know I aint no fool
I was playing my guitar while looking around on youtube and found this. I’m not a great guitar player whatsoever but I know enough to know how hard this is.
Roy Clark makes this look easy and believe me when I tell you…it’s not! He meshes many different techniques and styles in this. I don’t know if you remember in the 80s “finger plucking” was big (around 2:16)…here is Roy doing a little bit of that in the 70s. I’m not a huge country fan but I am a Roy Clark fan…he had a skill set that was unbelievable. He could play country, polka, heavy metal, blues, bluegrass, rock, jazz, or soul.
You can see Tony Randall and Jack Klugman just stop acting and start admiring. Roy Clark was known as a country artist but he could play anything with strings. He starts playing around 27 seconds in…watch his right hand at first and listen to the different rhythms… it is mind-boggling. To play this…your wrist would have to be tension free and very flexible…the plucking part that comes later in the video is great.
I would love to hear from guitar players about this from any genre.
Everyone seemed to like the first one so I thought I would bring it back. I did list many of the lyrics that you suggested in the comments on the other post…SO… this post was written by all of us…and uh…the ones that actually wrote the songs!
Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear,it’s not dark yet but it’s gettin’ there... Bob Dylan
The sunshine bores the daylights out of me…Rolling Stones
I asked Bobby Dylan, I asked The Beatles, I asked Timothy Leary, but he couldn’t help me either, they called me the Seeker…The Who
Cows are giving kerosene, the kid can’t read at seventeen, the words he knows are all obscene, but it’s alright… The Grateful Dead
You take what you need and you leave the rest, but they should never have taken the very best… The Band
Wild thing you make my heart sing you make everything groovy… The Troggs
There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away… Bruce Springsteen
Rich man, poor man, beggar man thiefyou ain’t got a hope in hell, that’s my belief… ACDC
The farther one travels the less one knows the less one really knows …The Beatles
My friends are gone and my hair is grey I ache in places I used to play…Leonard Cohen
Whatever gets you through the night … John Lennon
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung …The Replacements
Oh, let the sun beat down upon my faceand stars fill my dream I’m a traveler of both time and space… Led Zeppelin
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls, It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola La-la-la-la Lola… The Kinks
She keeps her Moet et Chandon in her pretty cabinet “Let them eat cake”, she says just like Marie Antoinette… Queen
Shammy cleaning all the windows singing songs about Edith Piaf’s soul… Van
You can’t be twenty on Sugar Mountain though you’re thinking that you’re leaving there too soon… Neil Young
Hello darkness, my old friend I’ve come to talk with you again…Simon and Garfunkel
I’ve always liked this song. I will admit I never heard the song until 1988 on a great tv series called “Almost Grown” that starred Tim Daly… that of course was canceled midway through the first season. It’s a psychedelic rock/soul song. There are four versions…one in 1966 and two trippier versions in 1968..different in length only…and the album version…I prefer the album version (11:06). Any song that uses the word…I guess it’s a word…”psychedelicized” has got my support.
This song has worked extremely well in films and on television as a soundtrack of the sixties. It’s powerful and punchy and doesn’t let up.
It was released in 1968 and peaked at #11 on the Billboard 100 and #9 in Canada. After listening to it I want to wear tie-dye and protest something…anything. The Chambers Brothers were from Mississippi and started out as a gospel act. They wrote this song after relocating to Los Angeles, where they rented a two-story house.
It was written by two of the four Chambers brothers, Joe and Willie. Joe wrote most of the lyrics after sitting in on a class at UCLA with Timothy Leary and taking LSD. Willie put the music together and contributed the line, “My soul has been psychedelicized.”
Below is the “brilliance” of record executives…in this case Clive Davis. Davis tried to forbid them to record the song. The following is Willie Chambers telling the story (its a bit long but important):
“After we signed with Columbia Records, there was a big party with all the food and booze and all this stuff. All the important people were there and we got to meet all of the head hogs and Clive was there. He was there for a couple of hours and he says, ‘Well, I must be going, I have other appointments.’ He immediately leans back in the door, ‘Oh, by the way, that song ‘Time Has Come Today’ that you guys do, we won’t be doing that. We won’t do that kind of s–t on this label.’
That was it, and he walks away. I looked at my brothers, and we were looking at each other like, ‘What the heck?’ And our producer [David Rubinson], he was in tears now – he was crying. He says, ‘I’ve waited my whole life to record this song, now he’s going to tell us we can’t record it. Why?’
A couple of days went by and our producer came by and said, ‘I don’t give a s–t what he says, we’re going to record that song. When we get our recording date, you guys show up an hour early, we’re going to go in the studio, we’re going to turn on the tape, we’re going to play it live, we’re going to do it like a live performance. We’re going to record it and whatever we get we’re going to have to live with it. We can’t play back, we can’t overdub, we can’t splice, we can’t fix something if there’s a mistake, we’re just going to have to live with it.’ He says, ‘I’m probably going to lose my job, but that’s how important it is to me to record this song.’
Later on, Joe and I went to Columbia Records to have a pow-wow with Mr. Davis to have him explain to us just why he thought we shouldn’t record this song. We didn’t have an appointment with him, we just showed up. We were six-feet-four tall, angry black guys. So, we walk in to the receptionist and we say, ‘We need to speak to Mr. Davis.’
So, we kind of forced our way into his office and we said to him, ‘Why can’t we record this song?’ He says, ‘It’s not the kind of music that black guys produce or play.’
Clive says, ‘You’re four black guys, you’re going to be sending up that stream into the world, ‘Time Has Come Today.’ It’s too profound of a statement for four black guys to be saying to the world.’
That was his reason. He says, ‘We’ll get a white artist to record the song, it’s not your kind of music.’ My brother Joe says, ‘What do you mean it’s not our kind of music? We wrote this.’
So, after having that conversation with him, we were ready to do whatever the producer said. We were going to record it anyway.
When we got our moment, we went in the studio and did it in one take. ‘Time Has Come Today’ was done in one take. There was no listening back – we couldn’t listen back. When we came to the end of it, we had no idea where it was going to go. Once we ended it, we shut down the machines and then we left the studio and came back at the time we were supposed to.
Clive Davis didn’t find out about it until it had been mixed, prepped and released. When he found out, he fired everybody he could. He fired our producer, I think he fired the guy that opened the door for us. He fired everybody that got involved with recording that song.”
The Ramones did a great cover of this song.
Time Has Come Today
Time has come today
Young hearts can go their way
Can’t put it off another day
I don’t care what others say
They say we don’t listen anyway
Time has come today
(Hey)
Oh
The rules have changed today (Hey)
I have no place to stay (Hey)
I’m thinking about the subway (Hey)
My love has flown away (Hey)
My tears have come and gone (Hey)
Oh my Lord, I have to roam (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)
Now the time has come (Time)
There’s no place to run (Time)
I might get burned up by the sun (Time)
But I had my fun (Time)
I’ve been loved and put aside (Time)
I’ve been crushed by the tumbling tide (Time)
And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time)
(Time)
Now the time has come (Time)
There are things to realize (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time [x11]
Oh
Now the time has come (Time)
There’s no place to run (Time)
I might get burned up by the sun (Time)
But I had my fun (Time)
I’ve been loved and put aside (Time)
I’ve been crushed by tumbling tide (Time)
And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time)
(Time)
Now the time has come (Time)
There are things to realize (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
I learned about this band from Graham at Aphoristic Album Reviews. I think the subject of this song is brilliant. It’s the title song on the album Expert In A Dying Field. The album was released in September of 2022 and is their 3rd studio album to date. It peaked at #1 in New Zealand and #80 in Australia in 2022.
Through the years in power pop…the lyrics take a back seat to the music many times. The Beths music excites me because they don’t produce empty songs…they have substantial lyrics to go along with their irresistible hooks.
The Beths are a band out of New Zealand, that was formed by Elizabeth Stokes in 2014. The songs are full of guitar hooks along with Stokes’s clever writing and voice… make them fun to listen to. They have some 90s indie sound with a little of the 60s thrown in at times.
The members include Elizabeth Stokes ( lead vocals, rhythm guitar ), Jonathan Pearce (lead guitar, backing vocals), Benjamin Sinclair (bass, backing vocals)
and Tristan Deck (Drums, backing vocals).
After quickly building a fan base in New Zealand and Australia with their live shows, Auckland’s the Beths burst onto the broader indie scene with an infectious, hook-crammed debut, 2018’s Future Me Hates Me. As suggested by the album’s title, Elizabeth Stokes’ self-depreciating lyrics were part of its charm, and the follow-up, 2020’s Jump Rope Gazers, reflected an even more hapless outlook as it explored strained relationships caused by the band’s new life on the road. Without skipping a hook, third album Expert in a Dying Field delves still deeper into melancholy, with lyrics navigating a breakup as well as pandemic life. Churning fuzz and ringing lead guitar begin a downcast but nonetheless driving opening title track that asks, “How does it feel/To be an expert in a dying field?/How do you know/It’s over when you can’t let go?” The song’s chorus picks up multi-tracking, vocal countermelodies, group harmonies, and crashing cymbals by its final incarnation.
It could be said that much of the album continues in kind, with memorable melody after memorable guitar hook after air-drum-compelling fill on a series of songs that border on midtempo, but the way it plays out is something much more off-balance. The Beths lean on the accelerator three tracks in, on the polyrhythmic “Silence Is Golden,” for instance, a song whose punky, racing rhythms and guitar histrionics are matched by a rambling, lilting vocal that only stops to breathe before the chorus’s repeated “Silence is golden.” Nearing the halfway point of the track list, the two-minute “I Want to Listen” is a gentler, McCartney-esque ditty with more complex chords and shifting harmonic progressions than are typical for the onetime jazz majors. Later, the chanting “Best Left” (“Some things are best left to rot”), while still wistful in tone, plays to the arena crowds. The group have said that Expert in a Dying Field was made with live performance in mind, and on that point, it delivers, right up until the plaintive closing ballad, “2 a.m.,” which finds Stokes left alone in a flash of headlights (“There’s a song that never fails to make you cry”). The album also delivers on vulnerable, rock-solid songs, a juxtaposition the Beths continue to master.
Elizabeth Stokes: “I really do believe that love is learned over time. In the course of knowing a person you accumulate so much information: their favorite movies, how they take their tea, how to make them laugh, how that makes you feel. And when relationships between people change, or end, all that knowledge doesn’t just disappear. The phrase ‘Expert in a Dying Field’ had been floating around my head for a few years, I was glad to finally capture it when writing this tune.”
Elizabeth Stokes: “When I first started this band … I was looking back towards [what] I liked when I was younger, sweetly sung melodies and super depressing lyrics”
Expert In A Dying Field
Can we erase our history? Is it as easy as this? Plausible deniability I swear I’ve never heard of it And I can close the door on us But the room still exists And I know you’re in it
Hours of phrases I’ve memorized Thousands of lines on the page All of my notes in a desolate pile I haven’t touched in an age And I can burn the evidence But I can’t burn the pain And I can’t forget it
How does it feel (how does it feel) To be an expert in a dying field? And how do you know (how do you know) It’s over when you can’t let go? You can’t let go, you can’t stop, you can’t rewind Love is learned over time ‘Til you’re an expert in a dying field (How does it, how does it feel?)
The city is painted with memory The water will never run clear The birds and the bees and the flowers and trees They know that we’ve both been here And I can flee the country For the worst of the year But I’ll come back to it
How does it feel (how does it feel) To be an expert in a dying field? And how do you know (how do you know) It’s over when you can’t let go? You can’t let go, you can’t stop, you can’t rewind Love is learned over time ‘Till you’re an expert in a dying field
Can we erase our history? Is it as easy as this? Maybe in other realities The road never took this twist And I can close the door on us But the room still exists
How does it feel (how does it feel) How do you know (how do you know) Can’t stop, can’t rewind Love is learned over time ‘Til you’re an expert in a dying field
It was my senior year in high school and I was listening to Cream’s greatest hits on a spring day. I had the greatest hits cassette in my car…I heard this song with the windows down and at first, I thought…no this can’t be Cream. It grew on me and I love the song. I like when a band does something different. After blitzing audiences with Crossroads, Whiteroom, Sunshine of Your Love, and Strange Brew…out comes this song. It’s not my favorite Cream song…that would be Badge but this one always makes me smile.
The song was recorded during the Wheels On Fire album sessions but not released on that album. Eric Clapton and Martin Sharp wrote the song for the film The Savage Seven released in 1968. It peaked at #64 on the Billboard 100, #37 in Canada, and #40 in the UK and was released on that soundtrack and a single.
Cream released four albums in four years and called it a day in 1969. They would split with Clapton having the most successful career. They would reunite in 1993 for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They had a proper reunion in 2005 with four shows at Royal Albert Hall and three shows at Madison Square Gardens.
I remember the 40th Atlantic Anniversary concert held on May 11, 1988. It was rumored that Led Zeppelin and Cream were going to reunite. Led Zeppelin did, probably to their regret, but Cream didn’t attend. I watched it hoping that Cream would play.
Cream appeared on the Smothers Brothers and mimed this song. Who the hell knows what it means but when I heard “And the elephants are dancing on the graves of squealing mice. Anyone for tennis, wouldn’t that be nice?” I was hooked. It’s hard to get it out of your head once you listen to it.
Anyone For Tennis
Twice upon a time in the valley of the tears The auctioneer is bidding for a box of fading years And the elephants are dancing on the graves of squealing mice. Anyone for tennis, wouldn’t that be nice?
And the ice creams are all melting on the streets of bloody beer While the beggars stain the pavements with fluorescent Christmas cheer And the Bentley driving guru is putting up his price. Anyone for tennis, wouldn’t that be nice?
And the prophets in the boutiques give out messages of hope With jingle bells and fairy tales and blind colliding scopes And you can tell they’re all the same underneath the pretty lies. Anyone for tennis, wouldn’t that be nice?
The yellow Buddhist monk is burning brightly at the zoo You can bring a bowl of rice and then a glass of water too And fate is setting up the chessboard while death rolls out the dice. Anyone for tennis, wouldn’t that be nice?
This song was on Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled album, the first one with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
I know that Rumours is the big album of Fleetwood Mac but I have a special place for the Buckingham and Nicks debut album with the band. For me, it was up there with Rumours. The songs include Monday Morning, Rhiannon, Landslide, Over My Head, World Turning, and this song. It was the tenth album by the band and was released in 1975. I have to admit that I favor it now over Rumours because of the extensive play of that album.
After Bob Welch left the band in 1974 the band was talking to producer Keith Olsen and he played Mick Fleetwood the Buckingham and Nicks album. Mick liked the guitar player and wanted to hire him to take Welch’s place. Buckingham would not join unless they took Stevie Nicks…which they did.
This album had 3 top twenty hits (Say That You Love Me, Rhiannon, and Over My Head) and songs like Landslide and Monday Morning that remained favorites by fans. Say That You Love me peaked at #11 on The Billboard 100, #29 in Canada, and #40 in the UK.
The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, #23 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand. Christine McVie wrote this song and personally, besides Buckingham…she is my favorite singer/songwriter in the band.
From Wiki: Shirley Eikhard covered “Say You Love Me” and released it as single several weeks in advance of Fleetwood Mac in early June 1976. Eikhard’s version became a Canadian top 40, peaking at No. 34; Fleetwood Mac’s version, released only a few weeks later, peaked at No. 29 in September. That version is below.
Say That You Love Me
Have mercy baby, On a poor girl like me, You know I’m falling falling, Falling at your feet.
I’m tingling right, From my head to my toes, So help me help me, Help me make the feeling grow.
‘Cause when the loving starts and the lights go down, And there’s not another living soul around, You woo me until the sun comes up, And you say that you love me.
Pity, baby, just, When I thought it was over, And now you got me runnin’, runnin’, Runnin’ for cover.
I’m begging you for, a bit of Sympathy, If you use me again, It’ll be the end of me.
‘Cause when the lovin’ starts and the lights go down, And there’s not another living soul around, You woo me until the sun comes up, And you say that you love me.
I guess I’m not as strong, As I used to be, If you use me again, It’ll be the end of me.
‘Cause when the lovin’ starts and the lights go down, And there’s not another living soul around, You woo me until the sun comes up, And you say that you love me.
‘Cause when the lovin’ starts and the lights go down, And there’s not another living soul around, You woo me until the sun comes up, And you say that you love me.
Say that you love me, Say that you love me, Say that you love me.
I love Leon’s soulful playing and that voice. I’m reading a book now about a lady named Chris O’Dell who worked for the Beatles at Apple records. She dated Leon Russell for around 4 months before she went back to London to finish working for Apple. I’ll be reviewing the book in a few weeks…after the Beatles, she worked for Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and The Rolling Stones.
O’Dell was Peter Asher’s personal Assistant and she booked studio time for the Beatles and other artists. George Harrison was working on a Jackie Lomax session and needed a piano player. George wanted Nicky Hopkins but he was in America so O’Dell mentioned Leon Russell who visited Apple earlier that day. George was ecstatic and later on, Ringo and George played on Leon’s sessions at Trident studio. After work, she walked into the studio and they were recording this song. She began to figure out it was about her (she is a Pisces) and that was Leon’s way of saying he fell in love with her.
This is not the only song inspired by Miss O’Dell. George Harrison wrote a song called Miss O’Dell and Leon wrote another song about her called Hummingbird. Both Pisces Apple Lady and Hummingbird were on his debut album released in 1970 along with his song about Rita Coolidge that Joe Cocker covered… Delta Lady.
Leon was able to get Ringo, George, Charlie Watts, Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, Bonnie and Delaney, Steve Winwood, Jim Gordon, B.J. Wilson, Mick Jagger, Joe Cocker, and more…on this album.
The album Leon Russell peaked at #60 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1970.
Leon Russell:“I met her when she was working at Apple Records. We had a little thing for a minute. She wrote an autobiography, and she sent me an advance copy. I’m sorry to say, as a young man, I was capable of some actions I’m not proud of. So I was afraid to read the advance copy, I gave it to Jackie [his bass player Jackie Wessel] and I said, ‘Will you read this and see if there’s any untoward activity in it?’ He read it and said, ‘It’s a beautiful little show-business autobiography. There’s no untowardness in it.’ So I was happy.”
Pisces Apple Lady
Get off your bottle Go down and see a friend He’ll know what to do, lordy When you tell him how bad it’s been He said you oughta get away To the English countryside This cryin’ won’t help you now boy Why don’t you look how many tears you’ve cried
When I got down to Chelsea I had no expectations Oh, But to get away from the delta girl And the painful situation But I hardly had the time Oh, to laugh and look around And I found my heart was a-goin’ again Like a-English leaps and bounds (yeah)
And she’s a Pisces apple lady When she speaks softly She screams, (She really got herself together) whoa-whoa (oh-oh) And she’s a Pisces apple lady Took me by surprise And I fell into a hundred pieces I said a-right before her eyes
Now were together All the way to L.A. I know she that loves me ‘Cause she can brighten up a smoggy day If I believed in marriage Oh, I’d take her for my wife And move on down into high gear baby For the rest of my natural life
And she’s a Pisces apple lady When she speaks softly She screams, (She really got herself together) yes she does (oh-oh) And she’s a Pisces apple lady Took me by surprise And I fell into a hundred pieces I said a-right before her eyes
Any Chuck Berry song is a good song. This one is from the sixties and you can tell with the smoother production.
Berry was in jail between October 1961 and October 1963 for bringing a 14-year-old Apache waitress across a state line. During his time in jail he wrote some future hits. You Never Can Tell, Promised Land, No Particular Place To Go, and this song. Nadine was released in February of 1964, the month the Beatles hit America. The Rolling Stones would follow soon after. Both bands would cover Berry’s songs and boost his catalog.
In the UK, his popularity was helped by two compilation albums released in 1962 and 1963 that peaked in the top 10 there to keep his music alive when Berry couldn’t record or tour.
Marshall Chess, who was the son of Chess founder Leonard Chess was Chuck’s road manager when he got out of jail. Marshall said that Berry looked rough when he got out and Leonard gave Marshall $100 and told him to buy Chuck some clothes. When they got back from that, Berry recorded Nadine.
The lyrics to this song and most of Chuck’s songs flow so easily. If you want to know what American teenage culture was like in the 50s and early sixties…listen to Chuck Berry.
I remember Bruce Springsteen commenting about Chuck Berry. He said Chuck influenced him because Bruce started to write songs like he was really talking to people and the words flowed naturally like Chuck’s did. He mentioned the lyric:
I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back And started walkin’ toward a coffee-colored Cadillac
Springsteen had said he never had seen a coffee-colored Cadillac but he knows what one looks like now because of Chuck’s description. The song peaked at #23 on the Billboard 100, #23 in the R&B Charts, and #23 in Canada in 1964.
Nadine
I got on a city bus and found a vacant seat,
I thought I saw my future bride walking up the street,
I shouted to the driver hey conductor, you must slow down
I think I see her please let me off this bus
Nadine, honey is that you?
Oh, Nadine
Honey, is that you?
Seems like every time I see you
Darling you got something else to do
I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back
And started walkin’ toward a coffee colored Cadillac
I was pushin’ through the crowd to get to where she’s at
And I was campaign shouting like a southern diplomat
Downtown searching for her, looking all around
Saw her getting in a yellow cab heading up town
I caught a loaded taxi, paid up everybody’s tab
With a twenty dollar bill, told him ‘catch that yellow cab
She move around like a wave of summer breeze,
Go, driver, go, go, catch her balmy breeze
Moving through the traffic like a mounted cavalier
Leaning out the taxi window trying to make her hear
This post is about phone scammers and what they will do to con people out of money. I usually stay into pop culture but I thought I would stray a little bit today. There are some good youtube channels on shutting them down or limiting their damage.
Recently, I received an email from “The Geek Squad” below saying that my subscription to the Geek Squad will be renewed. There is one problem with this statement…I’ve never used the services of Geek Squad…ever. I’m sure Geek Squad is a fine business but I’m in IT so I really don’t need them.
I knew this was a scam…the first clue…always look at the email address they send it to you from. This one is from “Budsch| Billing Dept. <budschuetz8235@gmail.com>.” Now…why would Geek Squad or Amazon be sending bill info from a Gmail account? They would never do that.
I called them and had some fun. I toyed with them for a while acting dumb and getting them aggravated just because…I truly hate scammers. They take advantage of people, especially older people who don’t know. They steal thousands of dollars a day from people who just don’t know computers or are just tricked.
These YouTubers will hack into the scammer’s computer and delete their files and sometimes warn people when they are getting scammed. They have been successful in shutting many of the scammers down.
I’ve seen some of these guys show a picture of the scammer, delete their files, get into their security cameras, and cause general mayhem and close down scam call centers. Many of them work together to take them down. The best one I’ve found is Scammer Payback but there are many to pick from…all of them have a sense of humor and are entertaining.
As a teen, when I first heard these lyrics I liked it right away. Let’s swim to the moon, Let’s climb through the tide…pretty heavy stuff for a 13-year-old. This was released as the B-side of “Love Me Two Times.” The lyrics got to me and also the slide guitar that Robby Krieger played…it is hypnotic.
Jim Morrison wrote the lyrics while he was living on a rooftop in Venice Beach, California. At night everything was clear, so he would look into people’s windows, study what they were doing, and watch their TV sets.
When Jim Morrison first met Ray Manzarek this was the poem that Morrison recited for him that he wrote. Manzarek remembered Morrison from the UCLA film school. He liked the poem so much that he convinced Morrison to form a band.
They first tried to record this song as a straight blues song but it didn’t work as well so Manzarek suggested a “rock tango. This was the first song recorded by The Doors. It was left off their first album because they felt their performance wasn’t good enough. It appeared on their second Strange Days album released in 1967.
The Doors would continue to play this song for years live. It was a song that Morrison could improvise on and he did. Some of the live versions reveal a link to a sort of death by drowning – whether murder, suicide or simply going too far. Morrison sings in live performances, referring to “fishes for your friends” and “pearls for your eyes.”
There were bootlegs of Blondie covering this song circulating in the 70s…a live version but not a studio version. The studio version was released on the box set Against the Odds 1974–1982which was just released in August of this year.
Robby Krieger:I played with the Doors, the first song we rehearsed was Moonlight Drive. I played the slide, and they all loved it; that’s probably why I ended up being in the band. John had brought Jim over to my house one day and I played some slide for them. Then we all got together the next day at this guy named Hank’s house. I had this old Magnatone amp which was really cool. It was like a Twin, but really funky, and it had a great growl to it. I think one of the speakers was blown. It was kind of like having built-in distortion.
There are two versions of Moonlight Drive on The Doors Box Set. One is the original demo, which I didn’t even play on, and the other version is the very first recording we ever did as the Doors. That version was supposed to be on our debut album, but we ended up not using it, and a different arrangement was recorded for the second album. I always liked that first version! The funny thing is, we lost track of it for years. We finally found it when we were compiling material for the box set.
Ray Manzarek: “I knew instantly we had found ‘it,’ that indefinable, transcendent something that Kerouac refers to, I remember showing Robby the chord changes for a simple ‘G’ progression. He pulled out his bottleneck and said, ‘I’ve got an idea for this, something sort of liquid-like.’ A lot of The Doors music came to be like that – water-y. That came from living on the beach. We were actually there, whereas even The Beach Boys, for instance, didn’t really live on the beach.”
Moonlight Drive
Let’s swim to the moon, uh-huh
Let’s climb through the tide
Penetrate the evenin’ that the
City sleeps to hide
Let’s swim out tonight, love
It’s our turn to try
Parked beside the ocean on our
Moonlight drive
Let’s swim to the moon, uh-huh
Let’s climb through the tide
Surrender to the waiting worlds
That lap against our side
Nothin’ left open and no
Time to decide
We’ve stepped into a river on our
Moonlight drive
Let’s swim to the moon
Let’s climb through the tide
You reach your hand to hold me
But I can’t be your guide
Easy, I love you as I
Watch you glide
Falling through wet forests on our
Moonlight drive, baby
Moonlight drive
Come on, baby, gonna take a little ride, down
Down by the ocean side, gonna get real close
Get real tight
Baby gonna drown tonight
Goin’ down, down, down
This is the second Led Zeppelin book I’ve reviewed in a row…hope you are not getting too tired of it. I’m moving on to something else with my next book.
This is a good book about Led Zeppelin by Bob Spitz. This book surprised me when I read it. The reason is that Spitz wrote a biography of the Beatles that felt uninspired with no new info…I was thinking this one might be the same. Well, I was wrong…this book is the best book I’ve read on Led Zeppelin and that includes Hammer of the Gods and others.
The book uncovered things I didn’t know and gave a different point of view on instances that happened. There are constants about the band that run through every book about them. John Paul Jones was the constant professional and multi-instrumentalist of the band. JohnBonham was an incredible drummer but could flash in a violent rage at any minute. Robert Plant the optimistic never say die singer who would change after his family’s bad car accident. Jimmy Page was the absolute leader of the band until he couldn’t function in that role because of the different chemicals he was taking.
Below is a Swan Song band Detective with a weary Jimmy Page asleep on the couch behind them.
Detective… A Swan Song band with Jimmy Page fast asleep at the photo session.
One thing that was known about the band is that they had an inferiority complex about The Rolling Stones. This is explored more in this book. They couldn’t understand why the press and celebrities hung out and liked the Stones and not them… although Zeppelin outsold them. The answer to that was pretty obvious…other bands such as The Who could shrug off bad reviews and go on…Led Zeppelin would call the critics out from the stage. The press was also threatened by manager Peter Grant and touring manager Richard Cole to give good reviews. Zeppelin also barred the press for years…so it wasn’t a big mystery here except to them.
On the 1977 tour the press was given some rules by the band:
Never talk to anyone in the band unless they first talk to you.
Do not make any sort of eye contact with John Bonham. This is for your own safety.
Do not talk to Peter Grant or Richard Cole – for any reason.
Keep your cassette player turned off at all times unless conducting an interview.
Never ask questions about anything other than music.
Most importantly, understand this – the band will read what is written about them. The band does not like the press nor do they trust them.
Hmmm….wonder why they weren’t as liked as much as the Rolling Stones by the press and public? They also became more separated from their audience in the later 70s.
The book also focuses on their vanity label Swan Song. Drugs had taken over by that time and no artists were really cared for except Bad Company who was hot right out of the gate. Any questions from a Swan Song artist would fall on deaf ears because no one was really running the label. By this time, Grant carried a bag of cocaine and dipped it out with a bowie knife. He stayed secluded at his mansion surrounded by his security cameras… like in a scene out of Scarface.
The band was the top band in the world but in 1975 it all changed with Robert Plant’s car accident that left him recouping for months while his wife was hurt more seriously. In 1977 a guard that worked for Bill Graham stopped a kid from getting a Led Zeppelin sign off their door…all hell broke loose. That was Peter Grant’s son. Grant rounded up his “security” people and beat the guard and they almost popped his eye out. After that happened they played what was to be their last show in America. A few days later Robert Plant’s son Karac died of a respiratory virus.
All in all, it was a good book and I would recommend it to any rock fan. I am a fan of the band, especially the albums between Led Zeppelin III and Physical Graffiti. I wasn’t a big fan of the bombastic blues songs as much as the light-heavy moments. The book tells you how management built walls around them while being surrounded by violence, threats, and later on drugs.
I’ve always loved this song and I just read in the news that The Beatles released a new video to this song. This song was on what many consider their best album…Revolver.
If you lived in America at the time…you didn’t have this song if you bought Revolver. Capital Records left it off the American version. You would have to buy the album Yesterday and Today to get it
There were a lot of rumors about this song’s origin. Some rumors said it was John’s attack on straight society. It was much more simple than that. Lennon wrote this as a tribute to staying in bed, which he liked to do even when he wasn’t sleeping. He would later write a song titled “I’m So Tired” which resided on the White Album.
Maureen Cleave, the journalist, wrote of John Lennon: “He can sleep almost indefinitely, is probably the laziest person in England.” She went on to clarify that she meant physically lazy, not intellectually lazy.”
The Beatles were experimenting with this album with sound effects and backward guitar and other effects. The yawning effect is a guitar recorded backward. A few seconds before the yawn comes in, you can hear John Lennon say, “Yawn Paul.”
It was conceived by George Harrison in a late-night session, inspired when a studio engineer accidentally flipped a tape…Harrison was amazed at the effect and decided to do it for real. So he wrote down a solo and then played it twice, once forwards and once backward, with fuzz effects on one track.
George Harrison: “We turned the tape over and put it on backwards, and then played some guitar notes to it, just playing little bits, guessing, hoping it fitted in…We were excited to hear what it sounded like, and it was magic.”
Revolver broke recording boundaries and developed processes that are still used today. The bass was one thing to be boosted as in the singles around this time. Paperback Writer and Rain the bass came through like never before.
They toured on this album and it would be their last tour. It was full of tension because of Lennon’s Jesus remarks and they were tired of not being heard. The touring equipment still wasn’t up to where people could hear over the screaming. Our band would play in 200-capacity clubs and we had more powerful equipment than the Beatles did playing in big arenas and sports facilities.
They were well into the beginnings of the studio experimental phase of their career. Therefore, I’m Only Sleeping, along with all of the other material from Revolver, was never performed live, nor could it have been because the technology just wasn’t there at that time to play these songs accurately.
Revolver peaked at #1 in the US, Canada, and the UK in 1966.
Ringo Starr:“I believe we taught George Martin how to keep the tape rolling,” he lost that old attitude that you only press the button when you are going to do the take. We began to have the tape rolling all of the time.”
I’m Only Sleeping
When I wake up early in the morning
Lift my head, I’m still yawning
When I’m in the middle of a dream
Stay in bed, float up stream (float up stream)
Please, don’t wake me
No, don’t shake me
Leave me where I am
I’m only sleeping
Everybody seems to think I’m lazy
I don’t mind, I think they’re crazy
Runnin’ everywhere at such a speed
‘Til they find there’s no need (there’s no need)
Please, don’t spoil my day
I’m miles away
And after all
I’m only sleeping
Keepin’ an eye on the world going by my window
Takin’ my time
Lyin’ there and staring at the ceiling
Waiting for a sleepy feeling
Please, don’t spoil my day
I’m miles away
And after all
I’m only sleeping
Keepin’ an eye on the world going by my window
Takin’ my time
When I wake up early in the morning
Lift my head, I’m still yawning
When I’m in the middle of a dream
Stay in bed, float up stream (float up stream)
Please, don’t wake me
No, don’t shake me
Leave me where I am
I’m only sleeping
This song has a Rolling Stones connection in the lyrics. I love the first line “She had hair like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965.” Shrimpton dated Mick Jagger before he was with Marianne Faithful. The second reference is an odd one to Bill Wyman, the Stones’ bass player.
The song was on their debut album Especially for You released in 1986. They had released a couple of EP’s before this album. Pat DiNizo wrote the song and was influenced by the title of the H.P. Lovecraft short story, “Beyond the Wall of Sleep.” The song was about Kim Ernst. She was the bass player of The Bristols.
Pat DiNizo:“We’d done a gig with The Bristols, four fabulous women who looked, sounded and dressed like Roger McGuinn’s The Byrds, Kim had black hair, really long: ‘She [had hair like] like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965, she had legs that never ended, I was halfway paralyzed. She was tall and cool and pretty, and she dressed as black as coal. If she asked me to I’d murder, I would gladly lose my soul.’ Our first two hits were ‘Blood And Roses,’ about suicide, and this one, ‘If you’d ask me to I’d murder’—very dark material [laughs].”
In 1985 they recorded the album at The Record Plant, the famous recording studio that hosted John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen among others. They had to save up gig money to record.
Drummer Dennis Diken:“Those sessions actually almost didn’t happen, we had recorded Beauty and Sadness in Studio B. That was the room where Springsteen recorded The River, and a lot of other big stuff was done there. Studio A was also famous for historic sessions; John Lennon worked there. But we were the low guys on the totem pole, so we got a call on the afternoon of Good Friday 1985—when we were supposed to go in that night—saying, ‘Sorry, but we have a more important session booked in B now. We’re going to have to kick you upstairs to C,’ which was a much smaller room.
“We got on the phone with each other and said, ‘Hey, this ain’t too cool. Maybe we should wait until larger rooms become available again,’ but in the end, reluctantly, we went for it.”
The album peaked at #51 in the Billboard Album Charts. The song peaked at #23 in the Mainstream Rock Play charts.
Behind The Wall Of Sleep
She had hair like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965
She had legs that never ended
I was halfway paralyzed
She was tall and cool and pretty and she dressed as black as coal
If she asked me to I’d murder, I would gladly lose my soul
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Well she held a bass guitar and she was playing in a band
And she stood just like Bill Wyman
Now I am her biggest fan
Now I know I’m one of many who would like to be your friend
And I’ve got to find a way to let you know I’m not like them
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Got your number from a friend of mine who lives in your hometown
Called you up to have a drink
Your roommate said you weren’t around
Now I know I’m one of many who would like to be your friend
And I’ve just got to find a way to let you know I’m not like them
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Behind the wall of sleep
Behind the wall of sleep
Behind the wall of sleep
What a rocking band they were in the 70s. They had one of the best frontmen in the era of Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, Rod Stewart, and Mick Jagger. Peter Wolf could keep up with the best.
This song is different from their previous releases to this point in 1978. Their earlier music was more frantic and upbeat. I was listening to some of their seventies music and I had forgotten about this one. I love the guitar work in this song as subtle as it is. It doesn’t have a magical hook that gets you but it’s the feel of the song that I like. The song was written by Peter Wolf and Seth Justman.
The song peaked at #35 on the Billboard 100, 58 in Canada, and #74 in the UK in 1978. The song was off the album Sanctuary and it peaked at #49 in the Billboard 100 and #53 in Canada.
The band came out of the Boston club scene in the late sixties. I always thought they should have been bigger than they were in the 1970s. They didn’t hit their commercial peak until the early 80s with Love Stinks, Come Back, and then the hugely popular Freeze-Frame album in 1983.
After the huge success of Freeze-Frame, Peter Wolf left. The band wanted to go in a techno/pop direction and Peter Wolf disagreed. They continued without their lead singer but weren’t too commercially successful.
One Last Kiss
Just one last kiss Before I walk out the door I’m gonna hold you tighter Than I ever did before
And I, I never promised you The things you promised me And I, I can’t justify The way it’s gotta be
And the good times are the best times The bad times fade away The good times are forever But now, baby, the last time is today
Just one more night There’s no time for anymore I’m gonna tell you something That you’ve never heard before
But I, I can’t find the words To ease your lovers pain And I, I know the feeling’s gone I can feel it in my veins
And the good times are the best times The bad times fade away The good times are forever But now, baby, the last time is today
One last kiss
And the good times are the best times The bad times fade away The good times are forever But now, baby, the last time is today
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