Badfinger (Max)

Everclear – Father Of Mine

In the 90s I was really into this alt rock band.

Art Alexakis is the lead singer and songwriter of Everclear. This song is a scathing attack on his dad who left his family.

This song is about Art’s childhood when his parents split and it started a difficult life for Alexakis. After spending the first six years of his life living a in a comfortable suburb in Los Angeles area community of Redondo Beach, his parents divorced, leaving Alexakis to be raised by his mother. Left with far less income, his mother moved the family into projects near Culver City.

Alexakis, no longer had a father in his life, he struggled through childhood. At age 12, his brother, George, died of a heroin overdose. Then Alexakis’ 15-year-old girlfriend committed suicide. He also got into drugs, starting with marijuana and moving on to heroin, cocaine and alcohol before he got clean in 1989.

Everclear formed in 1991 in Portland Oregon. They released their first album World of Noise in 1993. Father of Mine was on the 1997 album So Much for the Afterglow.

The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard Alternative Charts, and #1 in the Canadian Alternative Charts in 1998.

Art Alexakis: “My feelings for my father haven’t necessarily changed, but my feelings about myself after writing that song have been much better. It was kind of a catharsis to put those feelings into words, it’s a way for me to get things out of my system. The song ‘Wonderful’ is very much like that too.”

Alexakis testified before congress on March 16, 2000 to endorse a child support bill.

From Songfacts

Art doesn’t speak with his father and can’t be sure if he’s heard this or not, but he knows that his stepsisters, who were raised by his dad, weren’t happy about this song.

As it states in the song, Alexakis really did get Christmas cards from his father containing $5.

This was remixed and included on Hope In Hockeytown, an album celebrating the Detroit Red Wings back-to-back Stanley Cup Victories.

Art talks about the song.

Father of Mine

Father of mine
Tell me where have you been
You know I just closed my eyes
My whole world disappeared
Father of mine
Take me back to the day
When I was still your golden boy
Back before you went away

I remember the blue skies
Walking the block
I loved it when you held me high
I loved to hear you talk
You would take me to the movie
You would take me to the beach
You would take me to a place inside
That is so hard to reach

Father of mine
Tell me where did you go
You had the world inside your hand
But you did not seem to know
Father of mine
Tell me what do you see
When you look back at your wasted life
And you don’t see me

I was ten years old
Doing all that I could
It wasn’t easy for me
To be a scared white boy
In a black neighborhood
Sometimes you would send me a birthday card
With a five dollar bill
I never understood you then
And I guess I never will

Daddy gave me a name
My dad he gave me a name
Then he walked away
Daddy gave me a name
Then he walked away
My dad gave me a name

Father of mine
Tell me where have you been
I just closed my eyes
And the world disappeared
Father of mine
Tell me how do you sleep
With the children you abandoned
And the wife I saw you beat

I will never be safe
I will never be sane
I will always be weird inside
I will always be lame
Now I’m a grown man
With a child of my own
And I swear I’m not going to let her know
All the pain I have known

Then he walked away
Daddy gave me a name
Then he walked away
My dad gave me a name
Then he walked away
Daddy gave me a name
Then he walked away
My dad gave me a name
Then he walked away

Bob Dylan – The Times They Are A-Changin’

I like this song a lot and I was drawn to it right away when I listened to it on my copy of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits…but I cannot connect to it like the listeners did in 64-65. It was more than a pop song.

Dylan wrote this in 1963 when the civil rights movement was underway and demonstrations against the Vietnam War were gearing up. It would become the anthem of his generation.

Sometime songs can sum up the generation and time they are released in and this one is one of the very few that does it.

The song was on Bob Dylan’s 3rd album The Times They Are a-Changin’ released in 1964. The song wasn’t released as a single until 1965 and it peaked at #9 in the UK.

On December 10, 2010 Sotheby’s in New York sold a single rather worn sheet of binder paper on which Bob Dylan wrote the original lyrics of his most famous song, The Times They Are A-Changin, probably in October 1963. This battered piece of paper with messy writing sold for $422,500.

https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=2750

The song was ranked number 59 on Rolling Stone‘s 2004 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”

Bob Dylan: “I wanted to write a big song, some kind of theme song, with short, concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. This is definitely a song with a purpose. I knew exactly what I wanted to say and who I wanted to say it to.”

From Songfacts

A call to action, “The Times They Are A-Changin'” became an anthem for frustrated youth. It summed up the anti-establishment feelings of people who would later be known as hippies. Many of the lyrics are based on the Civil Rights movement in the US.

Dylan recorded this song in October 1963. He first performed the song at a Carnegie Hall concert on October 26 that year, using it as his opening number.

On November 22, 1963, United States president John F. Kennedy was assassinated, which made this song even more poignant. This also presented a quandary for Dylan, who had to decide if he would keep playing the song; he found it odd when audiences would erupt in applause after hearing it, and wondered exactly what they were clapping for.

Dylan kept the song in his sets. It was issued on the album of the same name on January 13, 1964.

Dylan covered the Carter Family Song “Wayworn Traveler,” writing his own words to the melody and named it “Paths Of Victory”. This recording is featured on “Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3”. After writing that song, he re-wrote the words again, changed the time signature to 3/4, and created this, one of his most famous songs ever.

This was released as a single in the UK in 1965 before Dylan went there to tour. It became his first hit in that territory, climbing to #9 on April 21. British listeners liked what they heard from Dylan and made a run on his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (released in 1963), sending it to #1 on April 11. This marked the first time in two years that an album by a group other that The Beatles or Rolling Stones was #1 in the UK.

Dylan allowed this to be used in commercials for accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand in the ’90s. In 1996, he also licensed it for commercial use by the Bank of Montreal.

This song appears on the official soundtrack of the 2009 movie Watchmen. A cover of Dylan’s “Desolation Row” by My Chemical Romance also appears on the soundtrack. >>

Simon & Garfunkel covered this on their first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., in 1964. They were produced at the time by Tom Wilson, who also produced Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ album.

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Come gather ’round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
And you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin’
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’

Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue

Good morning everyone… hope you have a great Monday.

I bought the Emotional Rescue single when it was released. I also bought the album and it was a let down to me after the great Some Girls album. The title track is heavily leaning toward disco and I do like it. What attracted me to the song is the superb bass line in the intro.

Ronnie Wood played bass on the song and Bill Wyman played synthesizer. Ronnie is a great bass player. He played bass on Rod Stewart’s Maggie May. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100, #9 in the UK, and #1 in Canada.

The Stones played this for the very first time in concert on May 3, 2013, 33 years after they recorded the song. Keith Richards was not a fan of the song and it never made a Stones setlist until the first show of their 50 and Counting tour at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Mick Jagger: ‘We were just doing dance music, you know. It was just a dance music lick I was just playing on the keyboard. Charlie has a really nice groove for that.”

From Songfacts

This alienated many Stones fans who thought it was a sell out to disco, but it was still a Top 10 hit in the US and UK.

Mick Jagger sang much of this in a falsetto, which was the thing to do with disco songs. The Bee Gees did the same thing, but unlike The Stones, were never able to get back the fans they lost to disco.

Bobby Keys’ sax solo and Mick Jagger’s vocals were added almost a year after the rhythm track was recorded.

Jagger wrote this on an electric piano.

The video for this used the same thermal imagery effect as the album cover. It was cutting-edge visual stuff in 1980.

Emotional Rescue

Is there nothing I can say, nothing I can do to change your mind?
I’m so in love with you, you’re too deep in, you can’t get out
You’re just a poor girl in a rich man’s house
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Yeah, baby, I’m crying over you

Don’t you know promises were never meant to keep?
Just like the night, they dissolve off in sleep
I’ll be your savior, steadfast and true
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Yeah, the other night, cryin’, cryin’ baby yeah I’m cryin
Yeah I’m cryin, I’m your child baby, child,
Yeah I’m a child, I’m a child, I’m a child

You think you’re one of a special breed
You think that you’re his pet Pekinese
I’ll be your savior, steadfast and true
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
Ooh ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
Yeah, I was dreamin’ last night baby
Last night I was dreamin’ that you’d be mine
But I was cryin’ like a child
Yeah I was cryin’, cryin’ like a child
Could be mine, mine, mine, mine, mine all mine
You could be mine, could be mine, could be mine all mine

I come to you, so silent in the night
So stealthy, so animal quiet
I’ll be your savior, steadfast and true
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
I’ll come to your emotional rescue
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
Yeah, you should be mine, mine, ooh!

Mmm yes, you could be mine, tonight and every night
I will be your knight in shining armor
Coming to your emotional rescue
You will be mine, you will be mine, all mine
You will be mine, you will be mine, all mine

I will be your knight in shining armor
Riding across the desert on a fine Arab charger

Beatles Anthology 1…Desert Island Box Set

We are wrapping up Hanspostcard’s album draft…100 albums in 100 days. We went into extra innings extending four more picks from these categories… favorite Soundtracks, Greatest Hits, music related movie and now ending with Box Sets. This is my pick for the final round…the Box Set I would take to the island: Beatles Anthology 1

2020 ALBUM DRAFT- ROUND 14 PICK 6- BOX SETS- BADFINGER20 SELECTS- THE BEATLES -ANTHOLOGY 1

Now for my last pick in our draft. I’ve come full circle with the Beatles…back in July (hard to believe it was that long ago) it was the White Album and now the 1996 release of Anthology 1 that focuses on a happier but hectic time in the Beatles history.

I can’t explain how excited I was for this release. I was working at a wood shop…just a few months away from my first corporate IT job and I was about to buy this new Beatle CD with a new song. For the first time in my life I could buy a Beatle song that wasn’t recorded in the sixties called Free As A Bird. I had a friend I worked with that doubled as a distribution center driver during holiday season. My plan was to head to lunch the day it was released and buy it in a record shop…remember those? My friend came in with a thick CD case and said here you go…it was Anthology 1 and he said Merry early Christmas.

Anthology 1 covered everything in the time span of 1958-1964. You got a rare McCartney/Harrison song and a Lennon/Harrison song included. Also home studio taped songs and early Decca demos that were shopped and that I only read about until then. Many of the songs were listed in books but had been locked away in EMI’s vault. Also on this were live performances and alternate takes of the songs.

The Anthology series introduced the Beatles to a new generation. I had a couple of cousins who were all into New Kids On The Block…when Anthology came out they called me and said now they understood why I liked the Beatles and to this day they still do.

The other thing it did was to help Paul McCartney’s standing. After John Lennon was murdered he was put on a pedestal and Paul was a square. It was unfair. After the Anthology Paul’s reputation as a great songwriter and singer started to move up again in it’s rightful place…

Now to the song that really excited me. The first official new Beatle song in decades. Free As A Bird still stands up to me. George’s slide just cuts through you and it sounds modern yet older at the same time.

The video is hands down my favorite music video. It was still the mid 90s and CGI wasn’t what it would become just a just a few years later but this works well.

In Spite of All the Danger… a McCartney/Harrison song…the only one to be credited as such was recorded in 1958! One of the first recordings they ever did. You can hear those raw harmonies forming and this was part of the birth of the Beatles. They never properly recorded this song later on which is a shame. I like George’s solo on this one also. Paul will perform it in concert on occasion.

The home/demos were great to hear. Before the Cavern, Hamburg, and worldwide stardom…the start of it all. Hallelujah I Love Her So.

This Anthology covers so much and to see them grow just between 1958-1964 is something special…not to mention how much they grew with the two other Anthologies. Every band grows but usually not to this extent. So to my fellow castaways we have enough to keep us entertained. Thanks to everyone and thanks to Hans for hosting this. Hope to see you all back when the next draft starts.

…

Build-A-Band

Remember Build-A-Bear? Well this is the rock edition. I think this post may go under…” looked great on paper but…” but lets give it a try. Have you ever thought about if you could have a pick of any musicians living or dead and bring them together in their prime…what combinations would you come up with?

Who would you pick if you could pick anyone? We have a time machine so don’t worry…Jimi Hendrix is just a trip away. This is a discussion my friends and I have once in a while. I always wondered what a band with Keith Richards and John Lennon together would have sounded like…probably as raw as you could have sounded…a band with Big Star’s Alex Chilton and the Beatles Paul McCartney? It would be interesting.

There are many musicians I have left out…most likely they were here in previous editions that I’ve gone through in the past few weeks.

Now… I would want to make at least two or three different bands…a rock, hard rock, and a pop/rock band. Now I could go on and on…Soul, Blues, Funk, Country/Rock, and even Heavy Metal. Who would you pick? What would your “dream” band be? If I had time I would have listed around 10 different kind of bands…but these 3 will do for now.

Rock band.

John Lennon – Rhythm Guitar/vocals
Keith Richards – Rhythm guitar/vocals
Duane Allman – Lead guitar
John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) – Bass
Charlie Watts – Drums
Leon Russell – Keyboards
Rod Stewart (early seventies version) – Lead Vocals

Hard Rock Band

Jimi Hendrix – Lead guitar and vocals
Eric Clapton – Lead guitar and vocals
John Entwistle – Bass
Keith Moon – Drums
Steve Marriott (Small Faces and Humble Pie) – Lead Vocals
Jon Lord (Deep Purple) – Keyboards

Pop/Rock Band

Paul McCartney – Bass/Lead Vocals
Alex Chilton (Big Star) – Guitar/Lead Vocals
Elvis Costello – Rhythm guitar/Lead Vocals
Clem Burke (Blondie) – Drums
Brian Wilson – Keyboards/Vocals

Spirit – Nature’s Way

This is a song that I had forgotten about until Aphoristical brought it up on his blog a few months ago. The song that I remember the most by Spirit is the popular I Got a Line on You. I remember hearing this when I was a kid on the radio.

It wasn’t a big hit…it peaked at #111 in the Billboard 100 in 1971. The song was on the album Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. It peaked at #63 in the Billboard Album Charts, #49 in Canada, and #29 in the UK. The album is named after a 1963 horror movie called Dr. Sardonicus. Five years after its release, and with the original lineup split up, the album went gold.

Spirit guitarist and songwriter Randy California wrote “Nature’s Way” in San Francisco one afternoon while the band waited to perform at the Fillmore Auditorium. That environmental anthem coincided with the inaugural Earth Day celebration, becoming the first pop song to seriously address concerns about pollution and ecological problems.

At 15, Randy California (Randy Craig Wolfe) played guitar for Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, the New York band led by Jimi Hendrix…Hendrix dubbed him Randy California to avoid confusing him with another band member named Randy Palmer.

From Songfacts

This song is a reflection on mortality, and also a lament for the fate of the Earth, as nature is telling us that something is wrong.

It was a very personal song, and in some ways, his maxim. The song deals with how nature guides you, and that’s just what he did throughout his career. Spirit reached #25 US in 1969 with “I Got A Line On You,” a track from their second album, but the group remained on the fringes of breakout success, in part because they turned down an invitation to play Woodstock.

California got heavy into LSD and became even more mercurial. In 1970, he was riding a horse on the streets of Topanga Canyon when he fell off and fractured his skull. The same year, he wrote “Nature’s Way,” which was included on Spirit’s fourth album, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. California left the group in 1972 and the band splintered soon after. Sardonicus found a following and eventually sold over a million copies, prompting an iff-fated band reunion in 1976. California died in 1997 when he drowned while swimming in Hawaii.

David Briggs, who was one of Neil Young’s producers, produced this track. The back was dealing with a lot of internecine conflict at the time, and Briggs helped keep them focused and productive enough to complete the album.

Randy California recorded various versions of this song as a solo artist. In interviews, he sometimes talked about never being able to get it right.

This song is unusual in that every line begins with the phrase “It’s nature’s way.”

Nature’s Way

It’s nature’s way of telling you something’s wrong
It’s nature’s way of telling you in a song

It’s nature’s way of receiving you
It’s nature’s way of retrieving you
It’s nature’s way of telling you
Something’s wrong

It’s nature’s way of telling you, soon we’ll freeze
It’s nature’s way of telling you, dying trees

It’s nature’s way of receiving you
It’s nature’s way of retrieving you
It’s nature’s way of telling you
Something’s wrong
It’s nature’s way, it’s nature’s way
It’s nature’s way, it’s nature’s way

It’s nature’s way of telling you
It’s nature’s way of telling you
Something’s wrong
It’s nature’s way of telling you
It’s nature’s way of telling you
In a song, oh-h

It’s nature’s way of receiving you
It’s nature’s way
It’s nature’s way of retrieving you
It’s nature’s way
It’s nature’s way of telling you
Something’s wrong, something’s wrong, something’s wrong

Kinks – Picture Book

The guitar riff to this song is one to remember. When I heard Green Day’s song “Warning”I knew where they got the inspiration for their song.

Ray Davies wrote this about the nostalgic feel that comes from looking through photo albums. The song was originally written for a planned Davies solo project, but he relented and let The Kinks take a shot at it. It was recorded in May 1968 and released that November The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.

Davies, who also acted as producer, wanted the sound of the album to reflect its old-fashioned themes. He wanted it more low-fi.

The song was an album track but The song gained a new popularity when it was used on a Hewlett-Packard 2004 commercial promoting their digital cameras and printers that featured numerous “Pictures Of You” superimposed with each other.

Dave Davies: “Halfway through ‘Picture Book,’ I was trying to do a bit of jazz improvisation like Jo Stafford,” “You can almost hear Ray mimicking or singing across it, ‘scooby-dooby-doo,’ poking fun at what I was saying. That was quite a spontaneous album.”

From Songfacts

Along with Village Green‘s closing track “People Take Pictures of Each Other,” this song uses photography to drive home the album’s concept about holding onto and appreciating the past. “There’s more value in an old picture than there is now on iPhones,” Ray Davies told Rolling Stone in 2018. “I know a guy. He’s homeless and I chat with him sometimes in the street. He’s got a picture of his family in his pocket, and he’s always got a picture with him, he says, ‘For when things get really low'” (pause) “It’s all gotten cheaper because of iPhones.”

The vocal harmonies for the Village Green Preservation Society album were worked out by Ray Davies, Dave Davies and Pete Quaife round the piano. Dave Davies has fond memories of creating the sweet choirboy vocal harmonies to “Picture Book.”

Picture Book

Picture yourself when you’re getting old,
Sat by the fireside a-pondering on
Picture book, pictures of your mama, taken by your papa a long time ago.
Picture book, of people with each other, to prove they love each other a long ago.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Picture book.
Picture book.

A picture of you in your birthday suit,
You sat in the sun on a hot afternoon.
Picture book, your mama and your papa, and fat old Uncle Charlie out cruising with their friends.
Picture book, a holiday in August, outside a bed and breakfast in sunny Southend.
Picture book, when you were just a baby, those days when you were happy, a long time ago.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Picture book.
Picture book.
Picture book.
Picture book.

Picture book,
Na, na, na, na na,
Na, na, na, na na,
A-scooby-dooby-doo.
Picture book,
Na, na, na, na na,
Na, na, na, na na,
A-scooby-dooby-doo.

Picture book, pictures of your mama, taken by your papa a long time ago.
Long time ago,
Long time ago,
Long time ago,
Long time ago,
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John Mellencamp – Ain’t Even Done With The Night

This is John in his “Cougar” days. It was right before the floodgates opened for him with the album American Fool that would come in 1982.

This song came off of his 4th studio album Nothing Matters and What If It Did released in 1980. Ain’t Even Done With The Night peaked at #17 in the Billboard 100 and #15 in Canada. Mellencamp wrote the song.

He has been asked what is the worse thing he ever did for success. He replied that would be changing his name to Johnny Cougar but the record company had him in a corner.

In 1983 after the hugely successful American Fool album John had enough leverage to force his record company to use his real name. It would now be John Cougar Mellencamp.

Steve Cropper produced this album…he produced many artists for Stax records.

John Mellencamp: “I have probably never gotten along with any record company executive ever, except maybe one,” “And if they were such good businessmen, why aren’t they running Coca-Cola or other major corporations now?”

John Mellencamp: “I see things that other people don’t see,” he said in his Plain Spoken DVD. “I pay attention to detail. That’s where my songs come from. They’re not about me.”

From Songfacts

John Mellencamp got married at 18 and had his first child a short time later. He knew the vagaries of young romance and fear of commitment quite well, which certainly qualified him to write this song about a couple deeply in love, with the guy unsure what to do and the girl reassuring him.

This method of songwriting proved very successful and comes into play on this song: There was probably a time when your heart was beating like thunder, etching a memory so powerful you can remember the song that was playing on the radio.

This song came during a transitional period for Mellencamp, after his first hit but before his star turn. In 1978, “I Need A Lover,” a song from his second album, took off in Australia, giving him a leg up on the other young rockers he was competing against. From there, he set out to create hits, which he felt was essential to his survival – he was a strong-willed, hard-headed country boy who didn’t get along with his record label and most industry folks, so unless he could become invaluable, he wasn’t going to make it.

“Ain’t Even Done with the Night” came from his quest to make hit pop songs, and even thought he has shown no affinity for it, the song became one of his most enduring, showing up on playlists decades after it was first released.

It helped keep him on the charts until his breakthrough fifth album, American Fool, with the hits “Hurts So Good” and “Jack & Diane.” After that, he no longer had to care even a little what people think. His songs that followed are the ones he considers his best work.

This song falls smack in the middle of the “John Cougar” years – the name he used from 1979-1983; before that he was “Johnny Cougar.” In 1983 he started using “John Cougar Mellencamp,” then in 1990 just John Mellencamp.

Steve Cropper, who produced Otis Redding and many other acts at Stax Records, produced the Nothin’ Matters And What If It Did album.

Ain’t Even Done With The Night

Well our hearts beat like thunder
I don’t know why they don’t explode
You got your hands in my back pockets
And Sam Cooke’s singin’ on the radio
You say that I’m the boy who can make it all come true
Well I’m tellin’ ya that I don’t know if I know what to do

You say that’s all right, hold tight
Well I don’t even know if I’m doin’ this right
Well all right, hold tight
We can stay out all day or we can run around all night
Well all night, all night
Well it’s time to go home
And I ain’t even done with the night

Well I don’t know no good come-ons
And I don’t know no cool lines
I feel the heat of your frustration
I know it’s burnin you up deep down inside
You say that I’m the boy who can make it all come true
Well I’m tellin ya that I don’t know if I know what to do

…

Green On Red – Time Ain’t Nothing

Another blogger turned me on to this band and I’ve enjoyed them.

Green On Red were made up of Dan Stuart (vocals/guitar), Jack Waterson (bass), Van Christian (drums, later of Naked Prey) and Chris Cacavas (organ). They part of a California musical scene called Paisley Underground…it basically marriage of classic rock, punk, psychedelia, and garage rock…Green on Red brings in a Country element and more in their mixture.

This band is hard to describe because over their 7 studio albums and 3 EPs they changed and ended up more toward a rock/country feel. This song was released in 1985 on the EP No Free Lunch.

Time Ain’t Nothing

Walking down dusty roads
Looking for horny toads
With the sun on my back
Thinking about people past
Memories that never last
When you’re young and naive

Chorus

Time ain’t nothing
When you’re young at heart
And your soul still burns
I’ve seen rainy days
Sunshine that never fades
All through the night

Had a motorcycle at 10
Never got into heroin
I guess I want to live
Maybe get a house someday
Find a wife raise a family
That don’t mean you have to die

Chorus

Rod Stewart – I Was Only Joking

Of all the Stewart songs from 1976 and after this one may be my favorite.

Rod Stewart co-wrote this with guitarist Gary Grainger.

The Susie alluded to herein was known as Susannah Boffey when she met him as a 17-year-old art student in 1961. At the time, he was an unknown Roderick Stewart. In 1963, she gave birth to his daughter who was fostered out and eventually adopted by a wealthy couple from East Sussex.

Sarah had contact with Rod in the 80s but the two were not close. In 2010, Sarah Streeter was finally admitted to her father’s family, but she has had an on and off again relationship with her birth mother.

Rod’s daughter Sarah in the eighties…and Stewart and Susannah Boffey in the ealry sixties.

I Was Only Joking was off of the Foot Loose & Fancy Free album released in 1977. The song peaked at #22 in the Billboard 100, #56 in Canada, #5 in the UK, and #35 in New Zealand.

From Songfacts

Although it is intensely personal, this is a song with which any man of a certain age will identify, especially one who has failed to live up to his potential, lost the love of his life, or screwed up big time. And surely most of us can fill at least one of those categories.

Although written from a male perspective, most women too could say the same. By the time he recorded “I Was Only Joking,” Stewart was already an A-list performer; he would go on to amass a fortune of over $200 million, yet even the mega-successful have regrets.

“I Was Only Joking” alludes too to alcohol, which was only one of the substances he imbibed along the way. Drugs and alcohol are of course an occupational hazard for successful rock musicians due to the lifestyle.

The radio edit runs to 4 minutes 50 seconds while the album version runs to a full 6 minutes 7 seconds. Released as a double-A-side single with “Hot Legs,” it reached #5 in the UK.

I Was Only Joking

Ever since I was a kid in school
I messed around with all the rules
Apologized, then realized
I’m not different after all

Me and the boys thought we had is sussed
Valentino’s all of us
My dad said we looked ridiculous
But, boy, we broke some hearts

In and out of jobs, running free
Waging war with society
Dumb, blank faces stared back at me
But nothing ever changed

Promises made in the heat of night
Creepin’ home before it got too light
I wasted all that precious time
And blamed it on the wine

I was only joking, my dear
Looking for a way to hide my fear
What kind of fool was I?
I could never win

Never found a compromise
Collected lovers like butterflies
Illusions of that grand first prize
Are slowly wearin’ thin
Susie, baby, you were good to me
Giving love unselfishly
But you took it all too seriously
I guess it had to end

I was only joking, my dear
Looking for a way to hide my fear
What kind of fool was I?
I could never win

Now you ask me if I’m sincere
That’s the question that I always fear
Verse seven is never clear
But I’ll tell you what you want to hear
I try to give you all you want
But giving love is not my strongest point
If that’s the case, it’s pointless going on
I’d rather be alone

‘Cause what I’m doing must be wrong
Pouring my heart out in a song
Owning up for prosperity
For the whole damn world to see

Quietly now while I turn a page
Act one is over without costume change
The principal would like to leave the stage
The crowd don’t understand

…

Neil Young – Long May You Run

Neil wrote “Long May You Run” in tribute to Mort, his old 1948 Buck Roadmaster hearse.

Neil Young and his band The Squires posing with his hearse Mort (a 1948 Buick Roadmaster hearse Neil had nicknamed Mortimer Hearseburg) in Winnipeg, Manitoba in April 1965

“It had rollers for the coffin in the back, so we just rolled our our amps in and out. It was like they built it for us” The hearse broke down in Blind River in 1965 where Neil refused to abandon the hearse for two days until he finally gave up.

He soon bought another hearse, Mort Two, which Stephen Stills spotted him driving in Los Angeles in 1966 when Buffalo Springfield was formed.

Neil would later pay tribute to the original Mort in his song Long May You Run, the title track of The Stills-Young Band album. The album was released in 1976 and peaked at #26 in the Billboard Album Charts, #26 in Canada, and #12 in the UK.

Neil and Stephen Stills toured on this album and Mr. Young decided to leave tour abruptly. He did leave Stills a note: “Dear Stephen, funny how some things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach. Neil.”

The song charted in 1993 from MTV’s Unplugged…it peaked at #34 in the Mainstream Rock Song charts and #28 in Canada.

From Songfacts

Neil was in Canada driving to Sudbury when ‘Mort’ broke down in Blind River, June 1965. (Which is contradictory to the lyrics; “well it was back in Blind River, in 1962, when I last saw you alive”).

In 1976, Stephen Stills and Neil Young formed The Stills-Young Band and released an album called Long May You Run, which turned out to be somewhat ironic when the collaboration quickly stalled.

Stills and Young wrote separately for the album, which Stephen contributing four songs, and Young adding five, including the title track.

Stills is a longtime collaborator of Neil’s, having worked with him first in Buffalo Springfield and then in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. However, they had a falling out only nine days into the Long May You Run tour. Young decided to abandon the project, leaving Stills with a mere telegram to explain his departure. It read: “Dear Stephen, funny how some things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach. Neil.”

In addition to Young’s compilation album Decade this also appears on his 1993 album Unplugged.

The last ever Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien on Friday January 22, 2010 finished in style when O’Brien’s final musical guest, Neil Young, performed this song in what appeared to be a poke at NBC. O’Brien had been asked to move his slot to 12:05 a.m., and the TV host refused to move his show to such a late hour, and instead negotiated a $45 million exit deal.

Neil Young performed this song at the Closing Ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games to a rousing ovation of Canadian audience members.

Long May You Run

We’ve been through some things together
With trunks of memories still to come
We found things to do in stormy weather
Long may you run.

Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shining in the sun
Long may you run.

Well, it was back in Blind River in 1962
When I last saw you alive
But we missed that shift on the long decline
Long may you run.

Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shining in the sun
Long may you run.

Maybe The Beach Boys have got you now
With those waves singing “Caroline”
Rollin’ down that empty ocean road
Gettin’ to the surf on time.

Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Although these changes have come
With your chrome heart shining in the sun
Long may you run.

Paul McCartney – 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.

Paul and Linda were in Jamaica on vacation. They were staying at the same hotel as Dustin Hoffman, who was there filming the movie Papillon with Steve McQueen. The trio had dinner together one evening. Hoffman asked Paul, “How do you write songs?” Paul told him they just come out. Hoffman went on to ask if Paul could write about anything and Paul said yes.

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 said of Paul writing the song in front of him, the experience was “right under childbirth in terms of great events of my life.”

When Paul started to sing it Dustin got excited and said: After a moment he started singing it. Hoffman jumped up, shouting, “Look, he’s doing it! Go*damn it! Holy sh–!”

Paul agreed to do “Picasso’s Last Words” at Ginger Baker’s studio. Baker and some additional people from the studio filled some cans with gravel and shook them for percussion.

From Songfacts

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was one of the most inventive and prolific talents in 20th-century art. In his life he created over 20,000 artistic works, including his famous painting, Guernica, a commentary on the bombing of civilians in the Spanish Civil War. Picasso died in Mougins, France, while he and his wife Jacqueline were entertaining friends for dinner. His final words were “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more.” Sadly, Picasso’s passing left a legacy of bitterness and confusion as the artist died without leaving a will and his family ended up fighting amongst themselves for control of his billion dollar estate.

Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)

A grand old painter died last night
His paintings on the wall
Before he went, he bade us well
And said goodnight to us all

Drink to me, drink to my health
You know I can’t drink any more
Drink to me, drink to my health
You know I can’t drink any more

Three o’clock in the morning
I’m getting ready for bed
It came without a warning
But I’ll be waiting for you baby
I’ll be waiting for you there

So drink to me drink to my health
You know I can’t drink any more
Drink to me drink to my health
You know I can’t drink any more

Jet, ooo, ooo, ooo
Jet, ooo, ooo, ooo
Jet, ooo, ooo, ooo
Jet, ooo, ooo, ooo

Drink to me, drink to my health
You know I can’t drink any more
Drink to me, drink to my health
You know I can’t drink any more

I’ll be waiting for your baby, yeah yeh

Drink to me, drink to my health
You know I can’t drink any more
Drink to me, drink to my health
You know I can’t drink any moreDrink to me, drink to my health
You know I, hey ho, ho hey ho
Ho hey ho, ho hey ho
Ho hey ho, ho hey ho
Ho hey ho, ho hey ho
Ho hey ho, ho hey ho

Kinks – Working At The Factory

I first heard this song at Tower Records in 1986 while shopping for a Van Morrison album.

The song was on their twenty second studio album Think Visual released in 1986. The album peaked #81 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1986.

In America, the song “How Are You” was released and the B side was Working at the Factory. In the U.S., AOR disc jockeys flipped the single over and played Working At The Factory as though it was the second single. The song ended up peaking at #16 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart. The song got a lot of airplay in Nashville at the time.

The Kinks never was as popular as some of their peers as The Beatles, Stones, and The Who. One of the reasons is because during the sixties the Kinks were banned from touring the US for 4 years due to their on stage antics. Promoters complained to the American Federation of Musicians. The union had the power to withhold work permits for British musicians if they misbehaved on stage or refused to perform without good reason. That’s exactly what happened.

The Kinks have sold over 50 million records worldwide and have been cited as a big influence on a number of bands and a key reference point for many Britpop bands. The Kinks were awarded an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Service to British Music, and singer Ray Davies received a CBE in 2004, and was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to the arts.

Working At The Factory

All my life, I’ve been a workin’ man
When I was at school they said that’s all you’ll ever understand
No profession, I didn’t figure in their plans
So they sent me down the factory to be a workin’ man

All I lived for, all I lived for
All I lived for was to get out of the factory
Now I’m here seemingly free, but working at the factory

Then music came along and gave new life to me
And gave me hope back in 1963
The music came and set me free
From working at the factory

All I lived for, all I lived for
Was to get out of the factory
All I lived for, all I lived for
Was to get out of the factory

Never wanted to be like everybody else
But now there are so many like me sitting on the shelf
They sold us a dream but in reality
It was just another factory
I made the music, thought that it was mine
It made me free, but that was in another time
But then the corporations and the big combines
Turned musicians into factory workers on assembly lines

All we live for, all we live for
All we live for is to get out of the factory
We made the music to set ourselves free
From working at the factory

All my life I’ve put in a working day
Now it’s sign the contract, get production on the way

Take the money, make the music pay
Working at the factory
All I lived for was to get out of the factory

Never wanted to be like everybody else
But now there are so many like me sitting on the shelf
They sold us a dream that in reality
Was just another factory

Working at the factory

Chandler’s Wildlife

I’m taking a short detour from pop culture with this post so I do apologize but I wanted to share this. When I have time and get bored…which lately is rare since I’ve been busy at work…I watch Chandler’s Wildlife.

I ran across this guy’s youtube channel. Chandler Kamenesh works at a zoo or wildlife refuge. The guy is passionate about King Cobras . He personally owns two (Kevin and Justina) and he free handles all of the venomous snakes, alligators, and reptiles there including Rattle Snakes and Black Mambas. He has traveled to rescue King Cobras from danger. He recently went to Thailand to rescue 10 King Cobras locked in a concrete and wire housing. He uses his youtubes channel money for projects like that…

Chandler is in his early twenties and keeps you entertained by being somewhat goofy but I mean that in a good way. He genuinely loves reptiles and it shows. He has done this most of his life and is recognized as an expert in reptiles.

Once I started to watch one…I got hooked. Now when I have some downtime I will watch a new video post.

Like I said…Chandler can be goofy but he is serious and caring about these reptiles. The second video is much more serious and it shows him in Thailand rescuing the cobras.

Bonnie Raitt – Thing Called Love

Thing Called Love was written by John Hiatt for his 1987 album Bring the Family. Bonnie covered this song for her 1989 Nick of Time album.

Nick of Time was Bonnie Raitt’s breakthrough album. After years of endless touring and making albums it all paid off with this album. Nick of Time peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts and 3× Platinum in Canada.

The song peaked at #11 in the Billboard 100 in 1989. This is the song that really got me into the newer version Bonnie Raitt. I did like her earlier hit Runaway and I’d heard of her music and read about her. She paid her dues and I was happy to see her hit big. She is an extremely gifted slide guitar player and singer.

Bonnie Raitt on the video:

“VH1 was new, and there was an outlet for me to get that kind of exposure. I said that if Dennis Quaid, who was a good buddy of mine, would star in the video as my boyfriend, then I could act more flirty than if I tried to act like that in front of the camera. Because I’m not an actress, and I wasn’t used to videos. The way the song sounds so sexy, I said, that would make me more comfortable and relaxed.

“He said yes, and all my fears went away. Basically I was blushing the whole way, throwin’ it back at him, and he was suckin’ on a toothpick…. The combination of all those things made [the album] Nick of Time an amazing breakthrough.”

Thing Called Love

Don’t have to humble yourself to me,
I ain’t your judge or your king
Baby, you know I ain’t no queen of Sheba
We may not even have our dignity,
This could be just a powerful thing
Baby we can choose you know we ain’t no amoeba

Are you ready for the thing called love
Don’t come from me and you,
It comes from up above
I ain’t no porcupine,
Take off your kid gloves
Are you ready for the thing called love
I ain’t some icon carved out of soap
Sent here to clean up your reputation
Baby, you know you ain’t no prince charming
We can live in fear or act out of hope
For some kind of peaceful situation
Baby, how come the cry of love is so alarming

Ugly ducklings don’t turn into swans
And glide off down the lake
Whether your sunglasses are off or on
You only see the world you make

Are you ready for the thing called love
Don’t come from me and you,
It comes from up above
I ain’t no porcupine,
Take off your kid gloves

Are you ready for it
Are you ready for the thing called love
Don’t come from me and you,
It comes from up above
I ain’t no porcupine,
Take off your kid gloves

Are you ready for it
Are you ready for love, baby
Oooh yeah babe
Are you ready for love