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.
A great “Keith” song on the great Stone’s album Some Girls released in 1978. Some of the lyrics make me laugh because of how honest they are. Maybe one of the best lines in Rock “I wasn’t looking too good but I was feeling real well”… It doesn’t get much more straightforward than that.
Some of the others are not so fun such as “Booze and pills and powders, you can choose your medicine, Well here’s another goodbye to another good friend.” In the world Keith was living in, it rang true. I’ve read that this line was about Keith’s good friend Gram Parsons who had died of a heroin overdose in 1973.
Richards recorded the song in five days without sleeping in March of 1978, a year after he was busted for heroin in Canada.
This and Happy are my favorite Keith Richards songs with the Stones. You Got the Silver is up there also. This is a Jagger/Richards song but Keith wrote most if not all of this one.
Great raw Rock and Roll song.
Keith Richards:“For sheer longevity – for long distance – there is no track that I know of like ‘Before They Make Me Run.’ That song, which I sang on that record, was a cry from the heart. But it burned up the personnel like no other. I was in the studio, without leaving, for five days… I had an engineer called Dave Jordan and I had another engineer, and one of them would flop under the desk and have a few hours’ kip and I’d put the other one in and keep going. We all had black eyes by the time it was finished… That’s probably the longest I’ve done. There have been others that were close – ‘Can’t Be Seen’ was one – but ‘Before They Make Me Run’ was the marathon.”
From Songfacts
This is about the rock and roll lifestyle that got Keith Richards in trouble. The song was recorded while he was out on bail after getting caught with heroin and arrested for drug trafficking in Toronto in 1977. He was found guilty of the lesser charge of heroin possession, and sentenced to probation.
Richards sang lead and did the majority of the work on this song. With Keith’s drug charges pending, Mick Jagger took a lot of control on the album, but this song was pretty much all Keith.
The original title was “Rotten Roll.”
Richard’s vocals were double-tracked to make them stand out.
A member of The Byrds, Parsons died in 1973 at age 26 after taking an overdose of alcohol and morphine. His corpse was stolen and burned in the Mojave Desert.
An engineer named Dave Jordan helped mix this song. He went on to work with groups like The Specials and The Pogues.
Before They Make Me Run
Worked the bars and sideshows along the twilight zone Only a crowd can make you feel so alone And it really hit home Booze and pills and powders, you can choose your medicine Well here’s another goodbye to another good friend
After all is said and done Gotta move while it’s still fun Let me walk before they make me run After all is said and done I gotta move, it’s still fun I’m gonna walk before they make me run
Watched my taillights fading, there ain’t a dry eye in the house They’re laughing and singing Started dancing and drinking as I left town Gonna find my way to heaven, ’cause I did my time in hell, oh yeah I wasn’t looking too good but I was feeling real well
Oh after all is said and done I gotta move I had my fun Let us walk before they make us run
After all is said and done I did alright, I had my fun But I will walk before they’ll make me I will walk before they’ll make me (run) I will walk before they’ll make me (run) I will walk before they’ll make me run
So if it’s all been said and done I gotta move I had my fun Let me walk before they make me run
So let me walk before they make me run I want to walk before they’ll make me run
I remember hearing about this Canadian band but I didn’t start listening to them until recently. Deke and Dave my Canadian friends have mentioned them while following their blogs. Teenage Head was sometimes known as Canada’s answer to the Ramones.
They are from Hamilton, Ontario and met in Hamilton Weston High school… friends Frank “Venom” Kerr and Gord Lewis formed the group in 1975 with bassist Steve Mahon (later changed his last name to Marshall) and Nick Stipinitz on drums. They took their name from a Flaming Groovies song title and quickly gained a loyal following on the Ontario club circuit for their raw energy, highlighted by Lewis’guitar work and front man Venom’s antics and natural charisma on stage.
Signing with Attic Records, Teenage Head issued their sophomore effort, Frantic City, in early 1980.
They played a show at the Ontario Place Forum, a prominent outdoor venue situated in a Toronto park. Over 15,000 people showed up but they venue wasn’t large enough to hold them. A drunken crowd tried to storm the entrances, sparking a battle with the police officers on hand…multiple injuries and arrests followed. The band woke up the next morning with their name in the papers. They lost some gigs but the publicity pushed “Frantic” up the charts and to gold status.
Teenage Head released Let’s Shake in 1980 and it made it to #88 in Canada.
Let’s Shake
OOH
Give me that opener, pass me that beer C’mon move your ass on out of here Well I guess you know I need some money But you are just too fat and ugly
Well you can’t dance, can’t keep up the beat Well that’s because you got size twelve feet Well don’t make me run, well don’t make me blush You’re just that girl I hate to touch
This song got me into Bob Marley. He wrote this song in 1967 and recorded it that year and released it as a single. It was later covered by Johnny Nash in 1972 and it peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100 for Johnny.
Bob Marley and the Wailers re-recorded it in 1973 for the “Catch the Fire” album. The Nash version was Bob’s first success outside of Jamaica.
It has been said that Bob Marley wrote this song for his wife Rita.
Bob Marley on Johnny Nash
“He’s a hard worker, but he didn’t know my music. I don’t want to put him down, but Reggae isn’t really his bag,” he said. “We knew of Johnny Nash in Jamaica before he arrived, but we didn’t love him that much: We appreciated him singing the kind of music he does – he was the first US artist to do reggae – but he isn’t really our idol. That’s Otis or James Brown or Pickett, the people who work it more hard.”
From Songfacts
Texas-born singer-songwriter Johnny Nash released his final US hit as a follow-up to his signature tune “I Can See Clearly Now.” Both singles were infused with the reggae sound he brought back from a 1967 trip to Jamaica, where he met up-and-comer Bob Marley. Not only was Marley an assistant producer on Nash’s album, but he also contributed a handful of tunes, including “Stir It Up,” a love song about stirring up desire that Marley wrote for his wife, Rita.
Nash’s version would become Marley’s first hit outside of Jamaica, but he originally recorded it with his own group, The Wailers. After Nash’s success, The Wailers recorded it again for their 1973 album, Catch a Fire. Marley’s version came to the forefront when it appeared on his greatest hits collection Legend in 1984, three years after his death.
In the UK, this was released as the first single, followed by the Nash-penned “I Can See Clearly Now.”
On this track, Nash is backed by the reggae band the Fabulous Five Inc.
A year before the album was released, Marley and Nash collaborated on the score for the Swedish film Vill sa garna tro, which cast Nash in a starring role – but things didn’t go as planned, mainly because no one could find Marley. John “Rabbit” Bundrick, Nash’s keyboardist and co-composer on the score, recalled in the liner notes for Marley’s Songs of Freedom: “I really don’t know what happened to Bob. All I do know is that his air ticket, Johnny’s guitar, and Johnny’s tape recorder all disappeared, along with Bob. Johnny never forgave him for taking his guitar. Bob disappeared as magically as he had arrived.”
Nash put his anger aside when “Stir It Up” became a hit, and invited Marley on a tour of the UK to promote the album.
Diana King covered this for the 1993 comedy Cool Runnings, about a Jamaican bobsled team competing in the Winter Olympics.
In the 2007 movie I Am Legend, Will Smith plays a Bob Marley-obsessed virologist who has survived a zombie apocalypse. When he finally meets another non-infected human, he is horrified to learn she’s never heard of Marley, so he puts on the Legend CD (note the album and movie titles), tells her it’s the best album ever made, and plays “Stir It Up.” Marley’s music is a theme throughout the film, as Smith’s character draws on it for faith. In the film, his daughter is named Marley.
“Stir It Up”
Stir it up; little darlin’, stir it up. Come on, baby. Come on and stir it up: little darlin’, stir it up. O-oh!It’s been a long, long time, yeah! (stir it, stir it, stir it together) Since I got you on my mind. (ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh) Oh-oh! Now you are here (stir it, stir it, stir it together), I said, it’s so clear There’s so much we could do, baby, (ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh) Just me and you.
Come on and stir it up; …, little darlin’! Stir it up; come on, baby! Come on and stir it up, yeah! Little darlin’, stir it up! O-oh!
I’ll push the wood (stir it, stir it, stir it together), then I blaze ya fire; Then I’ll satisfy your heart’s desire. (ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh) Said, I stir it every (stir it, stir it, stir it together), every minute: All you got to do, baby, (ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh) Is keep it in, eh!
(Stir it up) Oh, little darlin’, Stir it up; …, baby! Come on and stir it up, oh-oh-oh! Little darlin’, stir it up! Wo-oh! Mm, now, now.
Quench me when I’m thirsty; Come on and cool me down, baby, when I’m hot. (ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh) Your recipe is, – darlin’ – is so tasty, When you show and stir your pot. (ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh)
So: stir it up, oh! Little darlin’, stir it up; wo, now! Come on and stir it up, oh-ah! Little darlin’, stir it up! — [Guitar solo] — Oh, little darlin’, stir it up. Come on, babe! Come on and stir it up, wo-o-a! Little darlin’, stir it up! Stick with me, baby! Come on, come on and stir it up, oh-oh! Little darlin’, stir it up. [fadeout]
Blind Faith was a Supergroup made up of Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech. They released just one album… The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Chart, Canada, and the UK in 1969.
It was written by Steve Winwood with acoustic guitar playing by Eric Clapton and percussion by Ginger Baker. Many artists have covered this song but I’ve never heard anyone that can match the original.
Winwood wrote this and sang lead. Many critics thought that Blind Faith sounded a lot more like Traffic than Clapton’s Cream, which is what Clapton was going for.
This song was on the “Blind Faith” album in 1969. Blind Faith was only together for this album, a debut concert in Hyde Park, a Scandinavia and USA tour and then broke up shortly afterwards.
In concert they performed Cream and Traffic songs, which delighted the crowd and annoyed Eric Clapton greatly. These audiences preferred their older material instead of the newer Blind Faith songs.
Clapton began spending more time with opener Delaney Bramlett and less time with his own band, which prompted a 21-year-old Steve Winwood to take a more driving role in the band. Eventually, Clapton left the group following their final show in Hawaii.
This song never gets old to me.
From Songfacts
Clapton played acoustic guitar on this track, which is something he rarely did. In his previous group, Cream, he played long, intense solos, something he wanted to get away from with Blind Faith.
The album was released in the UK with a cover photo of an 11-year-old girl named Mariora Goschen. The cover photo because as famous as the album itself, since it showed Goschen naked and holding a model spaceship (a different cover with a band photo was used in the US and for stores that wanted an alternative in the UK).
Bob Seidemann came up with the concept and took the photo, which represents humankind’s relationship with technology (this was when the mission to put a man on the moon was big news). The band wasn’t yet named, and when Seidemann took the photo, he called it “Blind Faith.” Clapton decided that should be the name of the band.
Clapton sometimes plays this at his concerts, with a member of his band singing. His bass player Nathan East would often sing it.
A common misconception is that Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood reunited at the Crossroads Guitar Festival, July 28, 2007, however, the first true live reunion occurred two months earlier at an event called Countryside Rocks at Highclere Castle, Hampshire, UK on May 19, 2007. Steve Winwood performed his set and Eric came on later as a guest. Together they played this song as well as “Watch Your Step,” “Presence of the Lord,” “Crossroads,” “Little Queen Of Spades,” “Had to Cry Today” and “Gimme Some Lovin’.”
The band House of Lords covered this on their 1990 album Sahara. Other artists to record it include Joe Cocker, Yvonne Elliman, Gilberto Gil and Widespread Panic.
Can’t Find My Way Home
Come down off your throne and leave your body alone Somebody must change You are the reason I’ve been waiting all these years Somebody holds the key
Well, I’m near the end and I just ain’t got the time And I’m wasted and I can’t find my way home
I can’t find my way home But I can’t find my way home But I can’t find my way home But I can’t find my way home Still I can’t find my way home
And I’ve done nothing wrong But I can’t find my way home
Great single by Elton John released in 1972. It was off of his album Honky Château. Like Bennie and the Jets there are some words that I had no clue in what he was singing. The most commonly misheard lyric in this song is “Rocket Man, burning out his fuse up here alone.” I would mumble words through that until I caught a word somewhere down the line.
The inspiration for Bernie Taupin’s lyrics was the short story The Rocket Man, written by Ray Bradbury. The sci-fi author’s tale is told from the perspective of a child, whose astronaut father has mixed feelings at leaving his family in order to do his job. It was published as part of the anthology The Illustrated Man in 1951.
This was produced by Gus Dudgeon, who worked with David Bowie on his 1969 song “Space Oddity.” Both songs have similar subject matter. Elton practically owned the early seventies. Elton had 9 No. 1 Hits, 7 Top 10 Hits, and 67 Songs in the Billboard 100 so far.
The song peaked at #6 in the Billboard 100, #8 in Canada, and #2 in the UK in 1972.
From Songfacts
Space exploration was big in 1972; the song came out around the time of the Apollo 16 mission, which sent men to the moon for the fifth time.
Bradbury’s story was the basis for another song called “Rocket Man,” which was released by the folk group Pearls Before Swine (fronted by Tom Rapp) in 1970. Taupin says that song gave him the idea for his own “Rocket Man” (“It’s common knowledge that songwriters are great thieves, and this is a perfect example,” he said). In the Pearls Before Swine song, a child can no longer look at the stars after his astronaut father perishes in space.
The opening lyrics came to Bernie Taupin while he was driving near his parents’ house in Lincolnshire, England. Taupin has said that he has to write his ideas down as soon as they show up in his head, or they could disappear, so he drove though some back roads as fast as he could to get to the house where he could write down his thought: “She packed my bags last night, pre-flight. Zero hour, 9 a.m., and I’m gonna be high as a kite by then.”
From there he came up with the song about a man who is sent to live in space as part of a scientific experiment.
The song can be interpreted as a symbol of how rock stars are isolated from their friends, family and from the real world by those with power in the music industry. Some lyric analysis as part of the rock star isolation theory:
“I’m burning out his fuse up here alone” – Rocketing through space on stage.
“Higher than a kite” – Feeling outside the box called normal.
“Mars” – “The place he is when he’s high; don’t need to be raising children when you’re an addict. It’s a “cold” place, being an addict and larger than life when you want to be “Normal” and a “Rocketman” at the same time.
“Rocket Man” became a nickname for Elton John. As song-based nicknames go, it’s a good one, and Elton embraced it (Madonna hates the “Material Girl” moniker). In 1973, he started a record company called Rocket Records, which was the label that released Neil Sedaka’s comeback songs. In 2019, a biopic (billed as a “musical fantasy”) called Rocketman was released starring Taron Egerton as Elton John.
Around the 2:20 mark, some synthesizer comes into the mix, accentuating the space motif. Elton didn’t dabble in synths, so a studio engineer named Dave Hentschel played it. Hentschel operated an ARP 2500 synthesizer at Trident Studios in London, where producer Gus Dudgeon did overdubs and mixing for the album. When Dudgeon found out they had the synth, which was introduced in 1971, he had Hentschel play it and ended up using it in the final mix.
Hentschel got the call again on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album when Dudgeon had him create the opening section to “Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding” on the ARP. In the 1977 movie Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, an ARP 2500 plays the notes that summon the aliens.
When Elton played the Soviet Union in 1979, this was listed on the program as “Cosmonaut.”
This was Elton’s biggest hit to that point, outcharting his first Top 10 entry, “Your Song.” It had a huge impact on his psyche, as it gave him the confidence to know that he could sustain his career in music.
Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens’ nickname was “The Rocket,” which led to lots of highlight videos of him pitching in slow motion with this song playing in the background. He earned the nickname because of his outstanding fastball, but later came under scrutiny when the league learned that his rocket fuel may have been steroids. Clemens denied the allegations and was never convicted of steroid use.
Kate Bush covered this in 1991 for an Elton John tribute album called Two Rooms (a reference to John and Taupin writing separately). Her version hit #12 in the UK.
Bush told NME that this is one of her favourite songs of all time. “I remember buying this when it came out as a single by Elton John,” she said. “I couldn’t stop playing it – I loved it so much. Most artists in the mid seventies played guitar but Elton played piano and I dreamed of being able to play like him.”
When years Elton and Bernie Taupin asked Bush to record one of their songs for Two Rooms, she chose “Rocket Man.” They gave her complete creative control which was both exciting and a bit daunting for the singer. “I wanted to make it different from the original and thought it could be fun to turn it into a reggae version,” she said. “It meant a great deal to me that they chose it to be the first single release from the album.”
William Shatner performed a spoken-word version of this song at the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards, for which he was the host. Bernie Taupin did the introduction.
At a show in Anaheim, California on August 22, 1998, Jim Carrey joined Elton for a duet of this song. Carey gave a real performance before sitting at the piano and bashing his head into the keys.
On an episode of the television show Family Guy, Stewie does a spoken version of this song.
This was used in a 2017 commercial for Samsung’s Gear VR where an ostrich learns to fly after using the flight simulator on the device.
Speaking at the United Nations on September 19, 2017, American president Donald Trump excoriated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, referring to him as “Rocket Man” because of his missile program. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself,” Trump declared. This song immediately began trending.
This wasn’t the first time the phrase was used in this context: The Economist put Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, on the cover of their July 8, 2006 issue with the headline “Rocket Man.”
American country group Little Big Town covered the song for the 2018 Elton John tribute album Restoration. Their version features sounds from NASA’s Mission Juno. The Juno project explored the planet Jupiter unlocking some of the secrets of the planet and the sounds from Juno’s Waves radio instrument were weaved throughout Little Big Town’s harmonies.
“One of the main reasons why we chose ‘Rocket Man’ was because we were so intrigued by not just, of course, Elton John, but by using the sounds from the Juno project so we had all these Jupiter noises,” said Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild.
Rocket Man
She packed my bags last night pre-flight Zero hour nine AM And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then I miss the earth so much I miss my wife It’s lonely out in space On such a timeless flight
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time ‘Till touch down brings me round again to find I’m not the man they think I am at home Oh no no no I’m a rocket man Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time ‘Till touch down brings me round again to find I’m not the man they think I am at home Oh no no no I’m a rocket man Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids In fact it’s cold as hell And there’s no one there to raise them if you did And all this science I don’t understand It’s just my job five days a week A rocket man, a rocket man
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time ‘Till touch down brings me round again to find I’m not the man they think I am at home Oh no no no I’m a rocket man Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time ‘Till touch down brings me round again to find I’m not the man they think I am at home Oh no no no I’m a rocket man Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time And I think it’s gonna be a long long time And I think it’s gonna be a long long time And I think it’s gonna be a long long time And I think it’s gonna be a long long time And I think it’s gonna be a long long time And I think it’s gonna be a long long time And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
In 1981 I remember hearing Destroyer on the radio and was confused..Wait…is this a new version of All Day and All of the Night? I wanted that song so I bought the album. Give The People What They Want combines different styles. Punk, Rock, and a little New Wave was thrown in on a few of the songs. I had bought singles and a greatest hits by the Kinks but this was the first new Kinks album I purchased. It’s not considered among their best but I think it’s been underrated and the album still stands up today.
It didn’t get the recognition that their next album “State of Confusion” received because it didn’t have a huge hit single like Come Dancing. Songs like Better Things, Around The Dial, and Destroyer did get radio play though.
Two years after I bought the album I saw the Kinks live at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. They opened with “Around The Dial,” the opener off of this album.. Ray started to write songs that played well in arenas during this time. The concert was right up there with The Stones concerts to me. I was lucky to see the Kinks while they still were still releasing new albums.
Their energy was off the charts. They were approaching middle age but they had more energy than their opening band (The White Animals) who were in their early 20s.
The album opener… Around The Dial is a song that I totally can relate to today because of pre-programmed radio shows. It’s about corporations taking over radio and getting rid of the free form local DJ’s who played songs that their audience actually wanted to hear. This was starting to get popular in the late seventies…now it’s standard.
The song Give The People What They Want is my favorite song off the album. While writing Low Budget, their previous album, Ray was watching American TV including “That’s Incredible” where people did dangerous and insane stunts. He writes a fair statement about the viewing public…now and then. Parts of it are crude but is true to life. When Oswald shot Kennedy, he was insane, But still we watch the re-runs again and again, We all sit glued while the killer takes aim…
Ray borrowed his own riff from All Day And All Of The Night and repurposed it for Destroyer. He also revisits Lola in the song. Destroyer reached #3 on the Billboard Rock Top Tracks chart and #85 on the Billboard 100.
Better Things has a new wave feel to it and one of the few optimistic songs on the record. It’s the closing song on the album and changes the dark cynical tone of the album to a little more hopeful.
I finally brought an album to the island that wasn’t released in the 60s or 70s. This 1981 album rocks. It’s probably the hardest rock album that the Kinks ever produced…but it’s still unmistakably Ray Davies.
This has that Rickenbacker sound. This song was written by George Harrison, who was influenced by The Byrds song “The Bells of Rhymney.” This one has always been a favorite of mine by George.
If I Needed Someone was one of four songs Capitol Records held off of the American release of Rubber Soul. US audiences hadn’t heard the song until June 20th, 1966, which was the date of release for the American album Yesterday…And Today.
If I Needed Someone was the only George Harrison composition to have been performed live by The Beatles. The other songs that featured George on vocals were covers but this was the only original song before they stopped touring.
The Hollies received an early recording of “If I Needed Someone.” They proceeded to quickly record their own rendition of the song and release it as their next British single on December 3rd, 1965, the exact day that The Beatles’ released Rubber Soul.
The Hollies took the song to #20 on the British charts, and it became the first George Harrison composition to make the charts.
Roger McGuinn: “George Harrison wrote that song after hearing the Byrds’ recording of “Bells of Rhymney.” He gave a copy of his new recording to Derek Taylor, the Beatles’ former press officer, who flew to Los Angeles and brought it to my house. He said George wanted me to know that he had written the song based on the rising and falling notes of my electric Rickenbacker 12-string guitar introduction. It was a great honor to have in some small way influenced our heroes the Beatles.”
From Songfacts
It was not Ravi Shankar that introduced George to the wonderment of sitar, but Byrd traveler David Crosby shortly after Shawn Phillips had shown him the basic steps. In 1965 The Beatles toured the US and visited Ravi at World Pacific Studios where The Byrds had permanent residency. It was also here that Roger McGuinn’s Rickenbacker jingle jangle influenced Harrison’s “If I Needed Someone.” In turn, The Byrds were influenced by Harrison’s 12-string guitar work.
If I Needed Someone
If I needed someone to love You’re the one that I’d be thinking of If I needed someone
If I had some more time to spend Then I guess I’d be with you my friend If I needed someone Had you come some other day Then it might not have been like this But you see now I’m too much in love
Carve your number on my wall And maybe you will get a call from me If I needed someone Ah, ah, ah, ah
If I had some more time to spend Then I guess I’d be with you my friend If I needed someone Had you come some other day Then it might not have been like this But you see now I’m too much in love
Carve your number on my wall And maybe you will get a call from me If I needed someone Ah, ah
Jim told me about a Canadian theme coming up and I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss this one. Sloan is a great power-pop band that my two Canadian friends Deke and Dave told me about. The band never made a big impact on America and that was our loss. They formed in 1986 and still have the same band members.
When I found this song…the song and video are great. The video is a takeoff…a very good takeoff on the movie Easy Rider…the part where they buy the drugs at the airport from the Phil Spector character.
The song peaked at #6 in Canada in 1996.
It was released as the lead single from the band’s third studio album, One Chord to Another.
The music video for “The Good In Everyone” was filmed at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Band members Andrew Scott playing Billy (Dennis Hopper), Chris Murphy playing Wyatt (Peter Fonda), Jay Ferguson playing Connection (Phil Spector) and Patrick Pentland playing the Bodyguard. The entire introductory scene before the music begins is longer than the song itself.
Sloan
First off, here’s what you do to me You get rough, attack my self-esteem It’s not much, but it’s the best I’ve got And I thought you saw the good in everyone
Ooh, the good in everyone You see the good in everyone You see the good in everyone
I close my eyes, I can’t give it up I close my mind, I can’t get enough I’m in no shape, I gotta turn it off Just let it play The Good In Everyone
Ooh, the good in everyone You see the good in everyone You see the good in everyone You see the good in everyone Ooh, the good in everyone
A couple of years ago I was at Pam’s (All Things Thriller) site and read her character profiles on The Soprano’s characters…I liked it so much that when I thought about covering All In The Family…I asked Pam if she would consider covering Archie, Edith, Gloria, and Mike in the same way.
She not only agreed, but she has given me permission to post her writing on my site.
All In The Family changed the landscape of television and pop culture in the 70s. Some have said All In The Family was essentially a mirror held up to America at the time. It ran from 1971 – 1979 on CBS. The show was based on Til Death Us Do Part, a British sitcom about a conservative father and his liberal son-in-law. All In The Family may have been the most important television show in the 20th century.
The series spent five consecutive years at number one in the Nielsen ratings.
We will do these in installments on a Saturday. Today will be featuring Archie Bunker. The next will be following in the coming weeks. Hope you enjoy.
Remember Archie Bunker? If you’re around my age–mid forties to mid fifties–or older you do. And if you didn’t know him personally, you knew someone like him.
Your uncle…Your grandfather…The neighbor across the street.
The country was full of men like him back in the day.
Archie was a grumpy old man, except he really wasn’t that old. He was a middle aged guy stuck in a time warp of sameness…prematurely gray, paunchy, always in work pants, he looked the same when he was fifty as he did when he was thirty and vice versa
He enjoyed his paper, his beer…boxing and baseball on television….fat cigars and his chair. Especially his chair. Nobody could sit in that chair but Archie. Nobody.
And it wasn’t even that great of a chair…at least it was better than his wife’s. Edith. Her chair looked flat out uncomfortable.
Edith was a nice lady. And Archie loved her. He really did…Oh, he talked badly to her. Abusively… He was so domineering. And controlling.
I’m not saying that he cursed her, or, God forbid, raised his hand to her. He didn’t…He would have never done that, but the way he would tell her to stifle herself when she said something he didn’t like or if she was just getting on his nerves..
That kind of stuff wouldn’t fly today. And it shouldn’t.
Should have never flown then. Sadly, those attitudes weren’t that unusual in the 70s. There was a lot of backlash to the civil rights movement in the suburbs then…to women’s lib…to the intelligentsia…There were a lot more blue collar middle class people in the suburbs then.
The Bunkers lived in Queens, in a two bedroom, one bath, row house. They were probably about two rungs, on the plus side, from being lower middle-class. But they weren’t and that’s what counted.
Archie worked hard as a dock foreman to provide for his family. He really did. And he took good care of them.
It wasn’t easy for him either. He had to drop out of high school so he could work and take care of his mother when his dad died. From there he served in the Army Air Corps during WWII where he received the purple heart for being shot in the butt…
Yeah, that’s right. Archie got shot in the butt, but here’s the deal…he was on some cushy gig where he didn’t have to see combat, only he did see it. And when he saw it, he defended his country. And his friends. And himself.
He was a good father to Gloria, too. Of course, he wanted a boy, but from the moment she was born she had him wrapped around her finger.
Oh, he groused at her, too. A lot. But when Gloria miscarried her first baby–Archie’s grandson that he was so excited about–all he really cared about was her.
The way he sat on the side of her bed…and for the first time in his life, probably, he was speechless…the way he looked at her, so worried, just wanting her to be okay, said it all.
He was like that with Edith too. Very loyal to her.
And sometimes, ever so rarely, Edith would let him have it. She’d put her foot down and put him in his place. Those times were priceless.
But in the same way that Archie was misogynistic–because, make no mistake, he was–he was racist, too. He was unapologetically racist, though he would tell you that he wasn’t.
The fact is, Archie Bunker was so racist–it came so naturally to him–that he didn’t know the difference. To him, the Ku Klux Klan was racist, yes, but he was completely numb to the reality that they–the Ku Klux Klan–espoused 90% of his own political views…
That he was an equal opportunity insulter…he ribbed his son-in-law Mike, mercilessly about being Polish…he upbraided Catholics for being Catholic and Puerto Ricans for being Puerto Rican…that he believed there should be no violence and that there were some good people who were minorities was enough to keep him humane, but just barely.
Racism. Misogyny. Inexcusable then and inexcusable now.
Should it matter that he was a hard working, faithful husband and father that was wounded while serving his country during wartime? Are those enough attributes, enough mitigating factors to push Archie over the Mason/Dixon Line and onto the good side?…
That’s right, fellow Southerners, I said the good side. The South–during the Civil War–were the bad guys. Get over it..
I say yes.
Then again, I’m a middle aged white woman. I would say yes.
Joe Walsh’s career was slowing down when this came out. It was Walsh’s first album of entirely new music since Got Any Gum?
In 1990, Walsh reunited with former Barnstorm drummer Joe Vitale to co-produce Ordinary Average Guy. This album also features vocal and writing contributions by former Survivor lead vocalist Jimi Jamison as well as backing vocals by Ringo Starr.
This wasn’t Walsh’s best release by a long shot but the song was enjoyable. The song was written by Joe Walsh and Joe Vitale.
Walsh wrote this about his mid-life crisis. It deals with escaping the fame and fortune associated with the life of a rock star. This is a parody of Walsh’s previous release, “Life’s been Good to Me,” which is about rock star excess.
The song was off of Ordinary Average Guy and it peaked at #112 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1991. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks.
Ordinary Average Guy
I’m just an ordinary average guy My friends all are boring And so am I We’re just ordinary average guys
We all lead ordinary average lives With average kids And average wives We all go bowling at the bowling lanes Drink a few beers Bowl a few frames We’re just ordinary average guys Ordinary average guys
And every Saturday we work in the yard Pick up the dog doo Hope that it’s hard (woof woof) Take out the garbage and clean out the garage My friend’s got a Chrysler I’ve got a Dodge We’re just ordinary average guys Ordinary average guys
Ordinary average guy(3x) Ordinary average average guys
Ordinary average guy(3x) Ordinary average average average guys
The Ramones always seem to brighten my day. No pretentious songs or long drawn out solos. They get to the point and fast. This song is a little different their previous songs and it was one of their biggest hits.
Dee Dee Ramone and producer Daniel Rey wrote this song for the 1989 Stephen King movie Pet Sematary. Another Ramones song, Sheena Is A Punk Rocker, also appears in the film.
Stephen King was a big Ramones fan and even mentioned them in the book.
The music video for Pet Sematary was filmed at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in New York village…it was filmed in 1989. The video features cameos by Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie.
The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard Modern Rock Charts in 1989. The song was on the album Brain Drain.
Marky Ramone:“Stephen King is a big Ramones fan. … He’s a great guy, very tall, very intense-looking. His eyes are very intense, you can see he read a lot … and we hit it off. He asked us to do a song for the movie soundtrack. … He gave Dee Dee the book to read; he read the book and wrote the song in 40 minutes. I’m forever grateful I met the guy. He wrote a nice quote in the book about me. So thank you, Stephen.”
This is a link for more info on the song and video.
Under the arc of a weather stain boards Ancient goblins, and warlords Come out the ground, not making a sound The smell of death is all around And the night when the cold wind blows No one cares, nobody knows
I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery I don’t want to live my life again I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery I don’t want to live my life again
Follow Victor to the sacred place This ain’t a dream, I can’t escape Molars and fangs, the clicking of bones Spirits moaning among the tombstones And the night, when the moon is bright Someone cries, something ain’t right
I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery I don’t want to live my life again I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery I don’t want to live my life again
The moon is full, the air is still All of the sudden I feel a chain Victor is grinning, flesh is rotting away Skeletons dance, I curse this day And the night when the wolves cry out Listen close and you can hear me shout
I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery I don’t want to live my life again I don’t want to be buried in a pet cemetery I don’t want to live my life again, oh, no, oh, no I don’t want to live my life, not again, oh, no, oh, oh I don’t want to live my life, not again, oh, no, no, no I don’t want to live my life, not again, oh, no, no, no
Let’s see action Let’s see people Let’s see freedom Let’s see who cares
I had the Hooligans greatest hits double album when I was 13 and I first heard this song then. Pete originally wrote this for the Lifehouse project.
This was the first of three singles featuring material left over from the Lifehouse sessions. Let’s See Action’s working title was ‘Nothing Is Everything’ and features Nicky Hopkins on piano.
This was originally written by Pete Townshend for his aborted Lifehouse project, which was intended to be a Rock Opera similar to The Who’s Tommy and Quadrophenia. Many of the songs Townshend wrote for Lifehouse ended up on the 1971 Who’s Next album.
“Let’s See Action” was recorded for the album, but didn’t make the cut. Instead, it was released as a single in the fall of 1971 in the UK peaking at #16. In the US it remained unreleased until its inclusion on the Hooligans compilation album in 1981.
Pete Townshend released a under the radar solo album in 1972 from his demos. One of songs was Let’s See Action. Townshend’s version from Who Came First, is both longer and more energetic than the version by the band.
Roger Daltrey: “Pete was going through a terrible bitterness about the fact that Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp hadn’t got behind making Lifehouse as a film. But the reason they didn’t get behind it was because they couldn’t get to grips with the narrative, and I still feel to this day…even though Pete’s done his Lifehouse Chronicles box and done it as a radio play – well, I’m sorry but though there’s some incredible music in there and some sparks of theoretical and theological ideas, I think the narrative thread of the story is about as exciting as a f—ing whelk (snail) race!
But I always liked ‘Let’s See Action.’ It’s got that texture of explosive rock’n’roll bits mixed in with a laid-back, almost country feel. I still love the sentiment behind it, too.”
Let’s See Action
Let’s see action Let’s see people Let’s see freedom Let’s see who cares
Take me with you When you leave me And my shell behind us there
I have learned it Known who burned me Avatar has warmed my feet Take me with you Let me see you Time and life can meet
Nothing is Everything Everything is Nothing is Please the people Audiences Break the fences Nothing is
Let’s see action Let’s see people Let’s see freedom In the air Let’s see action Let’s see people Let’s be free Let’s see who cares
Let’s see action Let’s see people Let’s see freedom In the air Let’s see action Let’s see people Let’s be free Let’s see who cares
Give me a drink boy, wash my feet I’m so tired of running from my own heat Take this package and here’s what you do Gonna get this information through
I don’t know where I’m going I don’t know what I need But I’ll get to where I’m gonna end up And that’s alright by me
Let’s see action Let’s see people Let’s see freedom In the air Let’s see action Let’s see people Let’s be free And see who cares
Let’s see action Let’s see people Let’s see freedom In the air Let’s see action Let’s see people Let’s be free Let’s see who cares
Nothing, nothing, nothing Every, every, every, every Every, every, every, every Nothing, nothing, nothing Nothing, nothing, every
This is a great sounding song. He mentions historical figures by first name…I think John Lennon, Jerry Garcia, Vincent Van Gogh are among them and includes more…I love the guitar sound. I would recommend checking them out. Thanks to Hanspostcard for pointing them out.
This is a local band out of Pittsburgh that formed in the mid 80s at Indiana University of Pennsylvania where most of them were enrolled. They started out as a cover band and soon began playing original songs.
They were on their own label while making their first albums and then MCA took notice. They signed with them in 1996 but MCA started to pay more attention to their label mate Blink – 182 and didn’t push The Clarks. They signed with Razor & Tie after MCA and achieved success locally but not nationally.
The Clarks who play Power Pop have released 12 studio and live CDs selling nearly quarter of a million copies. they have built a fan base from over 20 years of performances an they sell out 7,500 seat venues in Pittsburgh and venues in the East coast and Mid-West.
This song was on the Let It Go album released in 2000.
It originally appeared on singer Scott Blasey’s 1999 solo album, Shine, but was then reworked by the entire band for its appearance on this album.
Dave Marsh Rock Critic: “They’ve got first-rate songs, they play together the way only bands who’ve truly lived with each other’s chops can, they can sing, and as far as I can tell, at the end of the story, they get the girl. What more do you want?”
Born Too Late
Vincent will you teach me how to paint Teresa will I ever be a saint John I really think your songs are great I was born too late
William will you teach me how to write Cassius will you show me how to fight Thomas A. I think I see the light I was born tonight
I’ve had a hard time leaving this town I’ve been losing everything that I’ve found I’m gonna search the sky, kiss the ground Build it up and tear it back down
I’ve had a hard time leaving this place I’ve been counting all the lines on my face I’m gonna curse the sky, hit the ground What goes up comes tumbling down
Jimi show me how you play that thing Elvis will I ever be a king and Jerry all the joy and love you bring I was born to sing
Martin Luther King show me the way Jesus Buddha teach me how to pray Christopher I think I see the bay I was born today
Whenever I hear this song I think of a story that Dick Cavett told. He said he met Janis in a restaurant and a Janis song was playing on a jukebox while they sat down. Cavett asked Janis what the name of it was…and she said “Down On Me.” Dick said “Wow, I guess that is one you cannot sing on television”…Janis smiled and said “Dick, it’s a gospel song.”
It was a traditional gospel song from the 20s that Janis reworked. The song was on the debut album of Big Brother & the Holding Company featuring Janis and the album had the same name. The song peaked at #43 in the Billboard 100 in 1967. The album was sloppy…Big Brother and the Holding Company were really raw with no polish. On their second album “Cheap Thrills” they would improve but Janis left after the that album to work with better musicians.
This is not the best Joplin song but I do like it.
Down On Me
Down on me, down on me, Looks like everybody in this whole round world They’re down on me.
Love in this world is so hard to find When you’ve got yours and I got mine. That’s why it looks like everybody in this whole round world They’re down on me.
Saying they’re down on me, down on me. Looks like everybody in this whole round world Down on me.
When you see a hand that’s held out toward you, Give it some love, some day it may be you. That’s why it looks like everybody in this whole round world They’re down on me, yeah.
Lord, they’re down on me, down on me, oh! Looks like everybody in this whole round world Is down on me.
Believe in your brother, have faith in man, Help each other, honey, if you can Because it looks like everybody in this whole round world Is down on me.
I’m saying down on me, oh, down on me, oh! It looks like everybody in this whole round world Down on me!
This is one of the most remembered songs from Jimi. According to Hendrix biographer Harry Shapiro, the song was probably inspired by Heather Taylor, who eventually married Roger Daltrey, the lead singer for The Who.
Kathy Etchingham, Jimi’s girlfriend at the time, also claimed to be one of many inspirations for “Foxy Lady.” I’m sure there are/were a lot of claims.
Hendrix recorded this on December 13, 1966. That same day, he made his first TV appearance on the British show Ready Steady Go. The Jimi Hendrix Experience had been together only 2 months at that point, but things moved very quickly. Three days later, their first single, “Hey Joe” was released.
Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at number 153 on its list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
The song was on the Are You Experienced album released in 1967. It peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Charts, #15 in Canada and #2 in the UK
Foxy Lady peaked at #67 in the Billboard 100.
From Songfacts
Hendrix opened for The Monkees on their 1967 tour. When he played this, the young girls who came for The Monkees and had no interest in Hendrix shouted “Davy!” when Hendrix sang “Lady,” resulting in “Foxy Davy,” and turning it into a tribute to their idol, Monkees lead singer Davy Jones.
This was featured in the movie Wayne’s World. It is used in a scene where Garth (Dana Carvey), sings it while thinking about his dream woman, played by Donna Dixon.
In the booklet for the Experience Hendrix CD, Hendrix was quoted as saying this was the only happy song he had ever written. He said that he usually just doesn’t feel happy when writing songs.
The title of this song has two alternate spellings: “Foxey Lady” (for release in America) and “Foxy Lady” (for release in the UK).
Foxy Lady
Foxey, foxey You know you’re a cute little heart breaker, ha Foxey, yeah And you know you’re a sweet little love maker, ha Foxey
I want to take you home, haha yeah I won’t do you no harm no, ha You got to be all mine, all mine Ooh foxey lady, yeah Foxey, foxey
Now-a I see you come down on the scene Oh foxey You make me want to get up and a scream Foxey, oh baby listen now I’ve made up my mind Yeah, I’m tired of wasting all my precious time You got to be all mine, all mine Foxey lady Here I come Foxey
Yeah I’m gonna take you home I won’t do you no harm no You got to be all mine, all mine Foxey lady Here I come baby, I’m commin’ to get ya
Ooh foxey lady yeah yeah You look so good foxey Oh yeah foxey Yeah give us some foxey Foxey foxey lady Foxey lady
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