Badfinger (Max)

Band – I Shall Be Released

This song is for Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt is a song off a debut album. I picked The Band and their debut album, Music From Big Pink, released in 1968.

Every once in a while, a song doesn’t just sound like it was written in stone; it feels like it was. I Shall Be Released is one of those songs. That’s the magic of The Band. They could turn a Dylan lyric into a backwoods hymn, all soul and no showbiz.

There is a very solemn song with a religious hymnal feel to it. The song is not commercial, not meant to be a hit, sell a million copies, but just pure music at its best. There are no pretensions or gimmicks…this is the Band at one of its many peaks.

Richard Manuel, whose voice always sounded like it was teetering on the edge of breaking, whether from emotion, exhaustion, or both, delivers a vocal here that’s just haunting. He makes Dylan’s already powerful lyrics sound like the final words of a man who’s seen too much and still manages to believe that salvation might come… someday.

Bob Dylan wrote this in 1967, but his version was not officially released until 1971 on his Greatest Hits Vol. II album. The Band, which backed up Dylan on his first electric tour, recorded it for Music From Big Pink, their first album. Their version is the most well-known. Bob wrote it after his motorcycle accident in 1966. Some have said the song represents Dylan’s search for personal salvation.

Everyone under the sun has covered this song, but the Band’s own rendition was released first and is probably the best-known version.

The song was the B side to The Weight released in 1968. Music From The Big Ping peaked at #30 in the Billboard 100 and #18 in Canada. That wasn’t the biggest thing, though…the album helped change the landscape of popular music from the psychedelic harder rock to more earthy roots music.

I Shall Be Released

They say everything can be replaced
They say every distance is not near
So I remember every face
Of every man who put me here

I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released

They say every man needs protection
They say that every man must fall
Yet I swear I see my reflection
Somewhere so high above this wall

I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released

Now, yonder stands a man in this lonely crowd
A man who swears he’s not to blame
All day long I hear him shouting so loud
Just crying out that he was framed

I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released

…

Stevie Ray Vaughan – The House Is Rockin’

It was back on a winter’s night in a friend’s (Chris) house that I first heard and saw Stevie Ray Vaughan in the mid-1980s. His house had a sunken living room and a rise that the kitchen table sat on at the end. I was on the rise with my amp, and he called me over to the television. He pushed in an old VHS tape of SRV on Austin City Limits that he recorded. It knocked me out…not since seeing clips of Hendrix did I see such an aggressive guitar player. He was even more aggressive than Hendrix.

This two-minute burst of pure energy was a hell of a single. SRV played guitar not by numbers but by precise feel. Like Neil Young, he played by feel but without the wandering…just powerful, precise notes. In this song, I can hear a lot of Jerry Lee Lewis as well. It was written by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Doyle Bramhall and recorded in Memphis.

This song is on the 1989 In Step album. Vaughan had just gotten sober, and this was his first record at the time. This is the last solo album to be released during his lifetime. He made an album with his brother called Family Style, and it was released a month before his death.

This song peaked at #18 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts in 1989. The album peaked at #33 on the Billboard 100. Tragically, Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash just over a year after In Step was released. But “The House Is Rockin’” still stands as one of his top singles.

I could watch this man play all day long. His playing was so inspired and electric. I play guitar, but not really big solos as much. He took licks and solos to a new level.

The House Is Rocking

Well, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’If the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother, come on in

Kick off your shoes, start losin’ the bluesThis old house ain’t got nothing to loseSeen it all for years, you start spreading the newsWe got room on the floor, come on, baby, shake something loose

Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother, come on in

Well, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother, come on in

Walking up the street you can hear the soundOf some bad honky tonker’s really layin’ it downWe’ve seen it all for years, and got nothin’ to loseSo get out on the floor, shimmy ’til you shake somethin’ loose

Well, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Well, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother knockin’Yeah, the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother, come on inI said the house is a-rockin’, don’t bother, come on in

…

Cry Of Love – Peace Pipe

When CB sent me a link to this band, the first name that popped into my pointy head was Steve Marriott, who I think was the best vocalist of his generation. In the middle of grunge, this band came out of nowhere and sounded like a reimagined Humble Pie or Free. The singer Kelly Holland has been compared to various singers such as Steve Marriott, Paul Rodgers, and Chris Cornell…so I wasn’t far off.

In the nineties, Grunge music was king and hard rock was being heard by The Black Crowes and Guns N’ Roses, but there wasn’t a bunch of mainstream success from many others. This band had bad timing written all over them. It’s a shame because they were a very talented rock band. I talked to Deke about them, and he bought some of their CDs at the time, but they were gone before they really got started. They seemed set up to do a lot of damage and have huge success.

They burned bright in the early 1990s. They were known for their soulful, blues hard rock sound that stood apart from the grunge. They were formed in 1991 in Raleigh, North Carolina. They released two albums in total: Brother in 1993 and Diamonds and Debris in 1997.

Peace Pipe peaked at #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks in 1993. They had another song called Bad Thing peaked at #2 on the same chart in 1994.

Lead singer Kelly Holland quit the band after their first big tour because he didn’t like life on the road. He was replaced by Robert Mason (Warrant’s lead singer), and they made the album Diamonds and Debris, which spawned a hit single Sugarcane, that peaked at #22 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks in 1997. It’s a great song! They broke up soon after.

The band took their name from Jimi Hendrix’s 1971 posthumous album, The Cry of Love. That album was compiled by engineer Eddie Kramer and drummer Mitch Mitchell and featured some of the final studio recordings Hendrix was working on before his death. That was only the beginning of Jimi Hendrix’s posthumous albums.

This band had a lot of talented musicians. The bass player Robert Kearns later played with Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Audley Freed played guitar with The Black Crowes, and now Kearns and Freed play with Cheryl Crow.

The band had hits and were set up to do big things, but when Holland quit that pretty much sealed it for them. Unfortunately, Kelly Holland passed away in 2014 from an abdominal infection.

Peace Pipe

In the heat of the morningIn the eye of the sunHear the wind start blowingSee the horse and the gunNow the peace pipe, it ain’t smokin’All the promises are brokenIn the heat of the morningSee the horse and the gunAll in the name of God somehowOh-oh-oo-whoa!Tearing the temple downBurn down the sacred ground!Tear the temple down!In the name of God somehow…Burn down the sacred ground!

In the dead of the evening,When the spears come down,Say a prayer for the plowboyOn the killing ground.Now the peace pipe, it is broken,All the shaman’s gone unspoken.In the dead of the eveningWhen the tears come down, yeah!All in the name of God somehow…Oh-oh-oo-whoa!Tearing the temple downBurn down the sacred ground!Tear the temple down!In the name of God somehowBurn down the sacred ground!

All in the nameAll in the name

All in the name of God somehowHey, hey! Oh-oh, yeah, yeah! Oh-oh-oo-whoa!Burn down the sacred ground!Tear the temple down!In the name of God somehowBurn down the sacred ground!Hey, hey! Yeah, yeah! Oh-oh-oo-whoa!Burn down the sacred ground!Burn down the sacred ground!Burn down the sacred ground!Burn down the sacred ground!

…

Temptations – Papa Was A Rolling Stone

This song is just about the coolest song ever. It was a long way from My Girl a few years earlier. That innocent sound is gone, replaced with hardness and grit, not to mention strings and a wah-wah.

The song was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. The first recording wasn’t by The Temptations, but by The Undisputed Truth, a psychedelic soul group also produced by Whitfield. Released in May 1972, their version had a rawer, less refined sound and was under four minutes long. It charted but not huge, peaking at #63 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Temptations version peaked at #1 (of course) in the Billboard 100, #14 in the UK, and #12 in Canada in 1972. This was the last big hit recorded in Motown’s famous Studio A, located in a two-story house in Detroit. Most of Motown’s studio work had moved to Los Angeles by then, but The Temptations still recorded in Detroit.

Whitfield reworked the song for The Temptations. By 1972, they had transitioned from smooth Motown pop to a grittier sound under Whitfield’s guidance in what some called psychedelic soul. The intro alone runs nearly four minutes in the full album version, which is a lot for a mainstream soul song. The band initially hated the long instrumental sections, feeling like it sidelined them, but the track’s success changed their minds.

The B side to this single was Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone (Instrumental). Both sides of the single won Grammy awards. The A-side won for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus, and the B-side took the award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance.

Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone

It was the third of September
That day I’ll always remember,
Yes, I will
‘Cause that was the day that my daddy died
I never got a chance to see him
Never heard nothin’ but bad things about him
Mama, I’m depending on you
To tell me the truth
Mama just hung her head and said, “Son,..

Papa was a rolling stone.
Wherever he laid his hat was his home.
And when he died, all he left us was alone.
Papa was a rolling stone, my son.
Wherever he laid his hat was his home.
And when he died, all he left us was alone.”

Hey, mama!
Is it true what they say that papa never worked a day in his life?
And, mama, some bad talk goin’ round town sayin’ that papa had three outside children and another wife,
And that ain’t right
Heard them talking papa doing some store front preachin’
Talked about saving souls and all the time leechin’
Dealing in debt and stealing in the name of the Lord
Mama just hung her head and said,

Papa was a rolling stone, my son.
Wherever he laid his hat was his home.
And when he died, all he left us was alone.
Papa was a rolling stone.
Wherever he laid his hat was his home.
And when he died, all he left us was alone.”

Hey, mama,
I heard papa called himself a “Jack Of All Trades”
Tell me is that what sent papa to an early grave?
Folks say papa would beg, borrow, steal
To pay his bills
Hey, mama,
Folks say papa never was much on thinking
Spent most of his time chasing women and drinking
Mama, I’m depending on you
To tell me the truth
Mama looked up with a tear in her eye and said, “Son,..

[Chorus]
Papa was a rolling stone (well, well…)
Wherever he laid his hat was his home
And when he died, all he left us was alone
Papa was a rolling stone
Wherever he laid his hat was his home
And when he died, all he left us was alone.”

I said, “Papa was a rolling stone (yes, he was, my son)
Wherever he laid his hat was his home
And when he died, all he left us was alone
My daddy was (papa was a rolling stone), yes, he was
Wherever he laid his hat was his home
And when he died, all he left us was alone.”

Beatles – She Said, She Said

At this point during recording, Revolver was nearly finished. They were worn down and creatively drained, but also ambitious. This song was the final track recorded for the album, and it came under a lot of pressure. They had to nail it quickly because the album deadline was looming. It has been said that this song was the first time an LSD experience directly influenced a song by them.

George Harrison deserves an assist credit with this song. Lennon had the core of the song but was struggling to pull the parts together. George Harrison jumped in to help him link two unfinished song fragments, the “She said / I know what it’s like to be dead” part and the “When I was a boy” section. This last-minute patchwork was crucial: without Harrison, it’s possible She Said She Said wouldn’t have been finished in time.

Love the guitar sound and the brilliant bridge to this song. It was inspired by the actor Peter Fonda, who was on an acid trip along with George Harrison and John Lennon while they were together in a mansion in California. Accounts vary as to how events unfolded, but there is a consensus that Fonda kept saying “I know what it’s like to be dead,” which ended up being a key line in the lyric.

This is one Beatles song that Paul did not play on. He got in an argument with the rest of them and walked out the door before they recorded it, so George Harrison is playing bass. The song was on Revolver, which is considered by many the best album the Beatles produced…and by some the best by anyone.

George Harrison: “I don’t know how, but Peter Fonda was there. He kept saying, ‘I know what it’s like to be dead, because I shot myself.’ He’d accidentally shot himself at some time and he was showing us his bullet wound. He was very uncool.”

She Said She Said

She said, “I know what it’s like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad.”
And she’s making me feel like I’ve never been born

I said, “Who put all those things in your head?
Things that make me feel that I’m mad.
And you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “You don’t understand what I said.”
I said, “No, no, no, you’re wrong.
When I was a boy everything was right,
Everything was right.”

I said, “Even though you know what you know,
I know that I’m ready to leave
‘Cause you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “You don’t understand what I said.”
I said, “No, no, no, you’re wrong.
When I was a boy everything was right,
Everything was right.”

I said, “Even though you know what you know,
I know that I’m ready to leave
‘Cause you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “I know what it’s like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad.
I know what it’s like to be dead…”

Underdog Is Here!

There’s no need to fear…Underdog is here!

Thanks, Keith, for hosting this and coming up with this great idea! Today, we go back to Saturday mornings. This was when we sat in front of the TV with our favorite cereal and watched hours of cartoons. So I asked my guests to write about their favorite cartoon or cartoon character growing up.

When I was growing up, we kids had two prime times for cartoons. Saturday mornings were our Super Bowl, packed with classics from Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera. Even Land of the Lost—though live-action—was a can’t-miss favorite. But not all the best cartoons aired on Saturdays. Every weekday morning, from 6 to 7 a.m. before school, we had another dose of animated fun, with shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle and Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse keeping us entertained.

Underdog debuted October 3, 1964, on the NBC network under the primary sponsorship of General Mills, and continued in syndication until 1973 (although production of new episodes ceased in 1967, for a run of 124 episodes.

Underdog’s secret identity was Shoeshine Boy. He was in love with Sweet Polly Purebred, who was a news reporter. I would watch this cartoon before going to school in 1st and 2nd grade. Underdog would use his secret ring to conceal pills that he would take when he needed energy. NBC soon put an end to that.

For many years, starting with NBC’s last run in the mid-1970s, all references to Underdog swallowing his super energy pill were censored, most likely out of fear that kids would see medication that looked like the Underdog pills (red with a white “U”) and swallow them. Two instances that did not actually show Underdog swallowing the pills remained in the show. In one, he drops pills into water supplies; in the other, his ring is damaged, and he explains that it is where he keeps the pill—but the part where he actually swallows it was still deleted.

The shows introduced such characters as King Leonardo, Tennessee Tuxedo, Commander McBragg, Klondike Kat, and more. Underdog was voiced by Wally Cox. Underdog always talked in rhyme and I’m a sucker for that in this and Dr Seuss. Two of the villains every week were Simon Bar Sinister and Riff Raff.

W. Watts Biggers teamed with Chet Stover, Treadwell D. Covington, and artist Joe Harris in the creation of television cartoon shows to sell breakfast cereals for General Mills. The shows introduced such characters as King Leonardo, Tennessee Tuxedo, and Underdog. Biggers and Stover contributed both scripts and songs to the series.

When Underdog became a success, Biggers and his partners left Dancer Fitzgerald Sample to form their own company, Total Television, with animation produced at Gamma Studios in Mexico. In 1969, Total Television folded when General Mills dropped out as the primary sponsor (but continued to retain the rights to the series until 1995; however, they still own TV distribution rights.

Underdog became a pop culture icon, with reruns airing for decades. The character was featured in toys, comics, and even a 2007 live-action film starring Jason Lee as the voice of Underdog. The theme song remains one of the most recognizable in cartoon history.

Big Sugar – Diggin a Hole

I was looking for a band to cover, and CB sent me a link to this terrific Canadian band. I liked the music right away. The first thing I noticed was the great musicianship on the songs. They are the real deal musically, and the guitarist Geordie Johnson is top shelf, and so is the bass player Garry Lowe.

They were formed in Toronto in the late 1980s, initially as a blues trio built around the guitar work of frontman Gordie Johnson. Before Big Sugar became popular, Johnson started out backing legends like the Muddy Waters alumni and Mavis Staples.

Another member who made them sound distinctive was bass player Garry Lowe. Lowe joined Big Sugar in 1994 and played on eight of their albums. He bridged the reggae and Rastafarian culture of his native Jamaica with a rock audience. Lowe was sometimes criticized for working in Big Sugar by Rastas and Jamaican music followers who wanted him to keep reggae pure, but he continued to play and blend his style into others.

They have released 11 studio albums since 1991 and 2 live albums. Their last studio album was released in 2020 and is called Eternity Now. Their success has been mostly in Canada, with one song getting some US airplay with You Better Get Used To It.

I’ve been listening to different cuts, and they cover a lot of ground. They have some heavy blues riffs, some reggae rhythms, roots music, with a pinch of psychedelia here and there. Their breakthrough album was Five Hundred Pounds, which hit big on Canadian college radio at the time.

This song was on the 1996 album Hemi-Vision. It was their biggest hit in Canada, peaking at #9 in the Canadian Charts. I asked my friend Deke if he had heard of them, and he has seen them live a few times. He also sent me this video of Jack White (who is a fan) who is releasing their album Five Hundred Pounds again on vinyl.

Diggin A Hole

Got my head in a haze
Feel like a cat in a cage
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Digging a hole in my heart
Give me the lies on page
I’m feelin’ twice my age
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Digging a hole in my heart

Digging a hole is that the way you treat me
Digging a hole just tie me up and beat me

Got my head in a haze
Feel like a cat in a cage
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Give me the lies on page
I’m feelin’ twice my age
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Digging a hole in my heart

Digging a hole is that the way you treat me
Digging a hole just tie me up and beat me

Got my head in a haze
Feel like a cat in a cage
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Give me the lies on page
I’m feelin twice my age
I’ve been crying for days and I’m falling apart
Digging a hole in my heart
Digging a hole is that the way you treat me
Digging a hole just tie me up and beat me

Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

This ~~song~~ explosion is like an atom bomb going off. From the first words “Well, I stand up next to a mountain and I chop it down with the edge of my hand” you know Jimi means business. This is no boy band, folk cafe, or pop song. Jimi is shooting to kill. This song is off the great 1968 Electric Ladyland album. From the tone of the guitar and how he spits out the lyrics, the song is a masterpiece. The guitar riff is one of, if not the best. There was another song called Voodoo Chile that was recorded, but it is a different song.

This song was recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience in May 1968, during the sessions for Hendrix’s third and final studio album, Electric Ladyland. The day before this was recorded, Jimi, Steve Winwood, Jack Casady, and some others had a jam in the studio called Voodoo Chile. This song was almost an accident after they built this song with a riff from the previous day.

A camera crew from ABC-TV came by to film Hendrix for a documentary. Hendrix, always the showman, wanted to give them something great. So, he grabbed his guitar, and the Experience basically created “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” on the spot. It was a stripped-down, turbo-charged echo of the longer “Voodoo Chile” jam from the previous day. This time built around that now-iconic riff.

Unfortunately, that footage from this day is said to be stolen. The footage of the previous day’s jam was left alone. Did the thief die and leave the unattended films to rot into dust? Are the reels locked away in some forgotten vault or stashed in an attic? Were the films destroyed in a fire, deliberate or accidental? Is some private collector viewing them at this moment? We may never know.

The readers of Music Radar voted this the very best rock riff ever. That is saying a lot, but I can’t fight that much at all. If you are wondering, Guns N Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine came second in the poll and Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love” third.

Voodoo Child (Slight Return) was released in the UK after his death. It peaked at #1 in 1970. It was his only number 1 hit in the UK.

Joe Satriani: “It’s just the greatest piece of electric guitar work ever recorded. In fact, the whole song could be considered the holy grail of guitar expression and technique. It is a beacon of humanity.”

Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

Well, I stand up next to a mountain
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well, I stand up next to a mountain
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well, I pick up all the pieces and make an island
Might even raise a little sand
Yeah

‘Cause I’m a voodoo child
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child, baby

I want to say one more last thing

I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
I’ll give it right back to you one of these days, hahaha
I said I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
I’ll give it right back one of these days
Oh yeah
If I don’t meet you no more in this world, then
I’ll meet you in the next one
And don’t be late
Don’t be late

‘Cause I’m a voodoo child, voodoo child
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child, baby

I’m a voodoo child, baby
I don’t take no for an answer
Question no
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child, baby

Neil Young – Down By The River

This song and Like a Hurricane are high on my list of Neil’s songs. I also like the live versions of this song, which can stretch into 15 minutes at times. He keeps it interesting.

Young traded licks with Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse, Neil wrings every drop of feeling out of a few simple chords as he always does. He has always been one of the best at getting everything out of one simple note. That is why he is one of my favorite guitar players. He doesn’t do it with technical brilliance or flash, just total feel. He can sit on one note and make it scream.

This song was on the 1969 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere released in 1969. Crazy Horse was on the album also…Crazy Horse included Danny Whitten – guitar, Billy Talbot – Bass, and Ralph Molina on drums. The album included Cinnamon Girl and Cowgirl in the Sand. This was the first album of many to feature Crazy Horse.

Neil Young wrote Down by the River and Cinnamon Girl in 1968, reportedly during a bout of high fever and delirium while bedridden with the flu at a house in Topanga Canyon, California. That is a great day’s work, sick or not. Young used a Gibson Les Paul nicknamed “Old Black,” run through a small Fender amp cranked to overdrive for a natural distortion.

The album peaked at #32 in Canada and #34 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1970. Down by the River didn’t chart, but Cinnamon Girl did peak at #25 in Canada. With the chorus of “I shot my baby down by the river,” this song gets your attention. In a 1970 interview, Neil Young cleared it up: “There’s no real murder in it. It’s about blowing your thing with a chick. See, now in the beginning, it’s ‘I’ll be on your side, you be on mine’. It could be anything. Then the chick thing comes in. Then at the end it’s a whole other thing. It’s a plea… a desperation cry.”

Neil Young: “I’d like to sing you a song about a guy who had a lot of trouble controlling himself, he let the dark side come thru a little too bright.” The explanation goes on the describe the murder, the killer’s arrest and, finally, the guilt he feels as he realized what he’s done.”

Neil Young: “I’m trying to make records of the quality of the records that were made in the late Fifties and the Sixties, like Everly Brothers records and Roy Orbison records and things like that. They were all done with a sort of quality to them. They were done at once. It’s just a quality about them, the singer is into the song and the musicians were playing with the singer and it was an entity, you know. It was something special that used to hit me all the time, that all these people were thinking the same thing, and they’re all playing at the same time. It happens on a few cuts, you can hear it. I think “Cinnamon Girl,” “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,” and “Round And Round” has that feeling of togetherness, although it was just Danny and me and Robin Lane.”

Down By The River

Be on my side I’ll be on your side, baby
There is no reason for you to hide,
This much madness is too much sorrow,
It’s impossible to make it today,
Hey, hey, ooh-ooh

She could drag me over the rainbow,
Send me away.

Down by the river
I shot my baby
Down by the river,
Dead, shot her dead.

You take my hand, I’ll take your hand,
Together we may get away.

Thin Lizzy – Cowboy Song

This song starts off slow, and then it really kicks the door in. They had bigger hits such as The Boys Are Back in Town and Jailbreak, but this song is really good. It’s always been at the top of my Thin Lizzy song list. It has a cinematic feel to it. I like this one because of a great moment after the bass break, and Phil kicks it in full force. I love dynamics when they are done right, and this is.

What a groundbreaking band Thin Lizzy was at the time. You had a black Irish singer-bass player, Phil Lynott, who reminded people of Van Morrison singing and a little of Springsteen in some of his writing…all in a harder rock format. I always liked Thin Lizzy because of two things. The brilliant Phil Lynott and the dual guitar lead that this band made popular.

The song was written by Phil Lynott and drummer Brian Downey, tells the story of a drifting cowboy longing for love. It was released as a single in 1976 and peaked at #77 on the Billboard 100. The song was on their Jailbreak Album. The album peaked at #18 on the Billboard Album Charts, #5 in Canada, and #10 in the UK.

The members of Thin Lizzy were bassist and singer Phil Lynott, Drummer Brian Downey, guitarist Brian Robertson, and guitarist Scott Gorham. Gary Moore was a member for a few months and also Them’s keyboardist Erix Wrixon but Moore and Wrixon didn’t stay long.

I first heard the song on the Live and Dangerous album that was released two years later.

Scott Gorham: “Cowboy Song” originally began as a joke. During a writing session, Lynott half-seriously suggested they try to write a “cowboy song.” But as the ideas started flowing, it took on a life of its own… one of the best songs we ever did.

Phil Lynott biographer Mark Putterford: “a cross between Clint Eastwood and Rudolph Valentino, with a bit of George Best thrown in for good measure. Philip strode into the sunset of his own imagination and always, of course, lived to fight another day.”

Cowboy Song

I am just a cowboy, lonesome in the trail.
Starry night, campfire light, and the coyote calls where the howlin’ winds will.
So I ride out to the ol’ sundown. I am just a cowboy, lonesome on the trail.
Lord I’m just thinking about a certain female.
And the nights we spent together, riding on the range.
Looking back, it doesn’t seem so strange.

Roll me over and turn me around. Let me keep spinning ’til I hit the ground.
Roll me over and let me go, riding in the rodeo.

I was took in Texas, I did not know her name.
But Lord all these southern girls, they seem the same.
But down below the border, in a town in Mexico,
I got my job busting broncs for the rodeo.

Roll me over ans turn me around, let me keep spinnin till I hit the ground.
Roll me over and let me go, running free with the buffalo.

Roll me over, and I’ll turn around.
And I’ll move my fingers up and down.
Up and down.

It’s ok amigo, just let me go.
Riding in the rodeo.

Roll me over and turn me around, let me keep spinning till I hit the ground.
Roll me over and let me go, riding in the rodeo.
Roll me over and set me free, the cowboy’s life is the life for me.

Steely Dan – Dirty Work

I’ve always liked Steely Dan, and this song is at the top of my list. You don’t hear this one as much as Hey Nineteen or others, but I love it. It sounded different than many of their other songs, and there is a reason for that. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker wrote the song, but it was sung by David Palmer. Palmer left the band soon after.

Palmer was brought into Steely Dan as a vocalist because the label, ABC Records, had concerns about Donald Fagen’s unconventional singing style. Palmer handled lead vocals on a few tracks from Can’t Buy a Thrill, including this song and Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me). Fagen eventually took over all lead vocals as Steely Dan evolved into more of a studio band than a touring band.

Fagen and Becker had a reputation and were infamous for requesting take after take, pushing musicians to their breaking point. I love reading some of the stories about this band. It probably was a pain for some of them, but it worked well for Steely Dan.

This song came off the 1972 Can’t Buy a Thrill album. It’s a song about an affair from the man’s point of view. Palmer did a great job on the song and helped Steely Dan build an audience. The song is well known, but it did not chart because it wasn’t released as a single here.

Becker and Fagen debated leaving the song on the album. It has since also been recorded by other artists, including The Pointer Sisters, Iain Matthews, and Melissa Manchester.

Dirty Work

Times are hard
You’re afraid to pay the fee
So you find yourself somebody
Who can do the job for free
When you need a bit of lovin’
Cause your man is out of town
That’s the time you get me runnin’
And you know I’ll be around

I’m a fool to do your dirty work
Oh yeah
I don’t want to do your dirty work
No more
I’m a fool to do your dirty work
Oh yeah

Light the candle
Put the lock upon the door
You have sent the maid home early
Like a thousand times before
Like the castle in its corner
In a medieval game
I foresee terrible trouble
And I stay here just the same

I’m a fool to do your dirty work
Oh yeah
I don’t want to do your dirty work
No more
I’m a fool to do your dirty work
Oh yeah

Cars – My Best Friend’s Girl

This song is from The Cars’1978 great debut album. This album has been known by fans as their “greatest hits.” It was one of the best debut rock albums ever released. It is a power pop masterpiece. They were all simple songs, but totally effective. The album contained Good Times Roll, My Best Friend’s Girl, Just What I Needed, Moving In Stereo, and Bye Bye Love. All of which still gets played.

This song is full of catchy hooks, but what makes it special to me is guitarist Elliot Easton’s rockabilly licks flowing through it. Ric Ocasek wrote and sang the song, which peaked at #44 in the Billboard 100, #3 in the UK, and #55 in Canada in 1978. Speaking of Elliot Easton, he was their secret weapon. The guy could have made any song catchy by just inserting his guitar licks.

The song sounds both old (Easton’s licks) and modern with Greg Hawke’s synthesizer in the background. Hawke would color a song but hardly ever take it over. It’s been covered by multiple artists, featured in films and TV shows, and still sounds fresh.

The album The Cars peaked at #18 on the Billboard Album Charts, #50 on the Canadian Album Charts, #29 in the UK, and in New Zealand it peaked at #5 in 1978. It seems New Zealand appreciated it much more and realized they were here to stay. They were one of the few power pop bands that had a somewhat long career. The two singers were usually Ric Ocasek (who was also the main songwriter) and bass player Benjamin Orr. Their voices were very similar.

Below, Ocasek explains how he wrote the song.

Ric Ocasek: Nothing in that song happened to me personally. I just figured having a girlfriend stolen was probably something that happened to a lot of people. I wrote the words and music at the same time: “You’re always dancing down the street / with your suede blue eyes / And every new boy that you meet / he doesn’t know the real surprise.” The “suede blue eyes” line was a play on Carl Perkins’s “Blue Suede Shoes.” When I wrote, “You’ve got your nuclear boots / and your drip-dry glove,” I envisioned the boots and gloves as a cool ’50s fashion statement.

With the last line of the chorus, “But she used to be mine,” you realize the guy didn’t steal his best friend’s girl—his friend stole her away from him.

My Best Friend’s Girl

You’re always dancing down the street
With your suede blue eyes
And every new boy that you meet
He doesn’t know the real surprise
Here she comes again
When she’s dancing ‘neath the starry sky
She’ll make you flip
Here she comes again
When she’s dancing ‘neath the starry sky
You kinda like the way she dips
She’s my best friend’s girl
She’s my best friend’s girl
And she used to be mine
You’ve got your nuclear boots
And your drip dry glove
And when you bite your lip
It’s some reaction to love

A Replacements Revival

Thanks, Dave, for asking me to participate. Dave wanted us to pick a band we would like to see reunited based on reality and not bringing people back to life. A lot of bands that I would love to get back together, but most have deceased members, and under his rules, we cannot raise them again. Allman Brothers, The Band, Big Star, and many others where one or a few are alive. I considered The Kinks because Ray and Dave Davies are still alive, along with Mick Avory, the drummer. I also considered REM, CCR, J Geils, and The James Gang. Even if Dave had said we could resurrect people, I still would not pick The Beatles. I’m forever grateful they didn’t try it before Lennon passed. There is no way they would have lived up to people’s expectations.

The Replacements, Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, and Chris Mars are still doing well. Their lead guitar player, Bob Stinson, passed away in 1995. He was replaced by Slim Dunlap in the ’80s when Bob quit. Slim passed away in 2024. He didn’t tour with them in the teens when they DID reunite because of a stroke he had in 2012.

They reunited in 2012 and started to tour, which lasted until 2015. They sold out huge arenas, made more money, and played in front of more fans than they did in their prime. Although their last show in Chicago drew over 50,000 people in 1991.

They had a penchant for shooting themselves in the foot in the ’80s over and over. Grabbing their new producer and tearing his clothes off and throwing him in the hall, saying the F word on Saturday Night Live and then getting banned, guest hosting a radio show and picking old blues records they knew had cuss words, and getting kicked out of there, and opening up for Tom Petty and breaking in Petty’s dressing room and stealing and wearing his wife’s clothes on stage (they finished the tour though…Petty had a sense of humor), refusing to make videos, knowing that record executives from big labels were coming to watch them and getting drunk playing TV theme songs plus KISS covers all night long. No need to add more things…you get the point.

I’ve heard from people who saw them in their prime. They usually have two things to say about them if they have seen them at least twice. “The best rock and roll band I’ve ever seen or heard” OR “The most drunken display I’ve ever seen” but even when they said that…they said they liked them and they still beat most bands. It does make sense, though. They started off as a punk band and slowly developed into a rock band when Westerberg developed as a songwriter. They had a rebellious spirit to the end.

Personally, I think if they had played the music company game like REM, they could have been popular in the mainstream. They had some of the strongest songs of the 1980s because of Paul Westerberg, and I put his songwriting on the level of Springsteen. Now let’s get into the songs of the band. I think many of their songs rival The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Stones, or anyone you could throw out there. Bastards of Young, Here Comes A Regular, Alex Chilton, Androgynous, Can’t Hardly Wait, I Will Dare, Left Of The Dial, Unsatisfied, Kiss Me on the Bus, Skyway, Color Me Impressed, The Ledge, and so many more. If they had gotten proper airplay, I have no doubt they would have been hits.

Most indie bands were out of touch with the mainstream at the time, and that is the reason they all had such a large fan base. It started to cross over, though in the late eighties or early nineties at last, but by that time…The Replacements were winding down. This is a band I would want to see again, clicking on all cylinders. From the reviews of all of their reunion shows…they were on.

So Paul and Tommy…how about one more go around? Please include some TV Themes and KISS cover songs…just because you can. If you guys are happy…we will be.

…

Merle Haggard – I’m A Lonesome Fugitive

Whenever I hear this man’s voice, it takes me back to my dad, who would listen to his songs in our red Plymouth Valiant. Songs like Sam Hill, Swinging Doors, and others, he would have blasting at 7 in the morning.

Merle was genuine through and through. He didn’t run from his past but used it to tell stories and warn people about going the wrong way. Merle wasn’t posing; he was the real deal. This song helped shape the outlaw country movement before it had a name.

Most people know that he spent his early adulthood behind bars for a failed attempt at robbery. While in San Quentin State Prison, Haggard wrote many songs while dreaming of freedom and life beyond the bars of a cell.

He knew a couple of inmates, James Rabbit and Caryl Chessman. Haggard and James Rabbit hatched a plan one night to escape (they would hide inside a desk he was building in the prison furniture factory), though at the last moment, Rabbit advised Haggard not to take part in the plan. Rabbit escaped, was recaptured, killed an officer, and was brought back to San Quentin to be executed. It was the first of many events to change something in Haggard’s criminal ways.

What is surprising is that Merle did not write this song. It was written by Liz Anderson and her husband, Casey Anderson, a songwriting couple who were fans of Haggard and knew of his prison past. When they sent the song his way, it clicked instantly. Haggard later said he related to it so personally that he felt like it had to be his.

The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts, and the album of the same name peaked at #3 on the Billboard Country Album Charts.

One of my biggest concert regrets is that I never saw this great artist live.

I’m A Lonesome Fugitive

Down every road there’s always one more cityI’m on the run, the highway is my home

I raised a lot of cane back in my younger daysWhile mama used to pray my crops would failNow I’m a hunted fugitive with just two waysOutrun the law or spend my life in jail

I’d like to settle down but they won’t let meA fugitive must be a rolling stoneDown every road there’s always one more cityI’m on the run, the highway is my home

I’m lonely but I can’t afford the luxuryOf having one I love to come alongShe’d only slow me down and they’d catch up with meFor he who travels fastest goes alone

I’d like to settle down but they won’t let meA fugitive must be a rolling stoneDown every road there’s always one more cityI’m on the run, the highway is my homeI’m on the run, the highway is my home

…

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Born on the Bayou

This song is so ominous with that noise and then tremolo guitar opening. I’m ready to follow whatever comes next after that. What came after was the other instrument in the band that no other band had or could match, John’s voice. I think of Little Richard, but with a little more control. We will revisit Richard in this post. The song was the B side to Proud Mary and never did chart, but it remains one of their best-remembered songs. It should be a law, you have to wear headphones with the volume at 11 when you listen to this song. Fogerty’s voice will amaze you.

When you listen to the song, you are in a bayou, whether you want it or not. You have hound dogs barking, rolling with a Cajun Queen, running through the backwoods bare, and all the inhabitants of the bayou within your reach. Although none of the band members were from Louisiana (they were based in California), Fogerty created a vivid, swampy Southern sound that came to define CCR’s identity with this song.

John Fred was a singer (Judy In Disguise), and he played a part in this song. Fred was from Louisiana, and when Creedence played a show in Baton Rouge in 1969, he met Fogerty at a rehearsal and offered to take him to a real bayou. They drove 15 minutes to Bayou Forche, where they ate some crabs and crayfish, which helped give Fogerty the idea for this song.

The song was on their album Bayou Country, released in 1969. The album contained Proud Mary and one of my favorite CCR songs Bootleg. On making the album, John said: Everybody wanted to sing, write, make up their own arrangements, whatever, right? This was after ten years of struggling. Now we had the spotlight. Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame. ‘Susie Q’ was as big as we’d ever seen. Of course, it really wasn’t that big…I didn’t want to go back to the carwash.” The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard album charts, #14 in Canada, and #62 in the UK.

I found one of the most interesting covers of this song. Little Richard (I have it below) covered it in 1971. After a 2:00 spoken intro, his voice blasts into it, and it feels just right.

John Fogerty: “We were the #7 act on the bill, bottom of the totem pole. And as the first guys to go on, we were the last to soundcheck before they opened the doors. It was like, ‘Here’s the drums, boom, boom; here’s the guitar, clank, clank.’ I looked over at the guys and said, ‘Hey, follow this!’ Basically, it was the riff and the attitude of ‘Born on the Bayou,’ without the words.”

John Fogerty: “Born on the Bayou,” “Proud Mary,” and “Choolgin'” were all connected in John Fogerty’s mind. In Bad Moon Rising, he said, “I was writing these at night, and I remember that Bobby Kennedy got killed during this time. I saw that late at night. They kept showing it over and over. ‘Bayou’ and ‘Proud Mary’ and ‘Chooglin” were all kind of cooking at that time. I’d say that was when the whole swamp bayou myth was born—right there in a little apartment in El Cerrito. It was late at night and I was probably delirious from lack of sleep. I remember that I thought it would be cool if these songs cross-referenced each other. Once I was doing that, I realized that I was kind of working on a mythical place.”

If you want to hear a live version by CCR, I couldn’t find a good video except the audio right here.

Born on the Bayou

Now, when I was just a little boyStandin’ to my daddy’s kneeMy papa said, “Son, don’t let the man get youAnd do what he done to me”‘Cause he’ll get you‘Cause he’ll get you now, now

And I can remember the fourth of JulyRunnin’ through the backwood bareAnd I can still hear my ol’ hound dog barkin’Chasin’ down a hoodoo thereChasin’ down a hoodoo there

Born on the bayouBorn on the bayouBorn on the bayou, Lord, Lord

Wish I was back on the bayouRollin’ with some Cajun QueenWishin’ I were a fast freight trainI’m just a chooglin’ on down to New Orleans

Born on the bayouBorn on the bayou, mm, mm, mmBorn on the bayou, do it, do it, do it, do itAlright

Oh, get back, boy

And I can remember the fourth of JulyRunnin’ through the backwood bareAnd I can still hear my ol’ hound dog barkin’Chasin’ down a hoodoo thereChasin’ down a hoodoo there

Born on the bayouBorn on the bayou, oh, ohBorn on the bayouAlright, do it, do it, do it, do it