Badfinger (Max)

Someone Who Really Didn’t Like Me

I felt bad after the story below happened. I’ve never been an angel but this was one time I didn’t know what was going on.

In 1990 our band was playing in a club called Ronnies every weekend. It was the best time we ever had playing at any place. They had a patio out back and the place was packed on weekends. I was single and was working three jobs, a full time and part time job trying to get ahead and playing music.

The weekends at Ronnie’s was from 8pm – 3am with 15 minute breaks Friday and Saturday. That took more out of me than my full-time job. After my part-time job every day I would go to the park and jog for 2-3 miles…it was the only way I could make it through Friday and Saturday nights. I’m not complaining because it was a great time in my life.

There was a bartender working there and she was really nice and cute and her name was Chrissy. She started to talk to me and we went out on a date after I had known her for a while. We had a good time and I was going to ask her out again the next weekend…This is where it gets interesting.

A week went by and the management of the club thought it would be a good idea to have two bands alternate sets over the weekend so we did that. The other band was good and played similar music. Both bands went over well but it was a pain changing up after sets. When they got off the stage I went up and shook hands with three of them but the drummer didn’t offer his hand back and just ignored me.

I was wondering why this guy ignored me. He shook hands and talked with the rest of us but me. Then I found out that he didn’t like me and I didn’t blame him. I discovered late that night that Chrissy was his girlfriend and he had heard I went out with her…which I had no clue that she had a boyfriend. I’m glad that double band arrangement only lasted one weekend. After that, we were the only band to play…and no I never asked her out again.

After a few more months the owner lost everything and that was the end of Ronnies…but not the end of the story.

A year or so later Chrissy called me up out of the blue and asked me how I’d been. I thought for a second that she missed my charming self (just kidding) and maybe she wanted to go out again…I was wrong. No, she called because she had a friend for me to go out with that I would be “perfect” for… She said her name was Dana and she was attractive, nice, but very quiet. I met Dana at a restaurant a few days later and she was everything Chrissy described her as…in fact I liked her better…so Dana and I started to go out regularly.

I met Dana’s parents after about a month of dating…They liked me and everything was fine until a familiar looking guy walked in the door with a shocked look. He ignored me…yes he was Chrissy’s boyfriend, the drummer from a year before… and the worst part was…he was Dana’s brother!

To tell you the truth it’s a wonder the guy didn’t pick up something and hit me over the head. Not only did I go out with his girlfriend (unknowingly but still)…now I was dating the poor guy’s sister. After that, he and I stayed clear of each other. Not a bad word was shared between us…not a word at all. Dana and I broke up after a couple of months but not because of that. We just didn’t click. I never understood why Chrissy didn’t clue me in on the brother situation.

I never met Dana, Chrissy, or her boyfriend (I don’t remember his name) again after that and I’m sure he was glad to be rid of the likes of me. I was like a bad penny to the guy.

We needed a drummer (good ones are hard to find) later on and part of me thought about calling the guy because he was a good drummer…but I wisely thought better of it.

Stone Temple Pilots – Sour Girl

The song made it to #3 in the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in 2000. I liked the song the first time I heard it. The video for the song features Sarah Michelle Gellar who was a big fan of the band.

The song was written by Scott Weiland and Dean DeLeo. Weiland was a gifted lead singer who also sang for Velvet Revolver until 2008. He passed away in 2015 from substance abuse.

From Songfacts.

Scott Weiland wrote the lyric about his first wife, Janina Castaneda. They got married in 1994, just as Stone Temple Pilots were becoming one of the biggest bands in America. Weiland admitted that he put her through hell with his capricious behavior that stemmed from his addictions.

When he wrote the song, the couple in the midst of a divorce, which was finalized in 2000. In this song, Weiland sings about how she will soon be free of him, “a happy girl the day that she left me.” In his memoir, Weiland wrote, “She had finally rid her life of a man who had never been faithful.”

In the line, “I pay the ransom note to stop it from steaming,” the ransom note is Weiland’s divorce settlement, which he said “took forever and cost me a fortune.”

Sour Girl

She turned away, what was she looking at?
She was a sour girl the day that she met me
Hey, what are you looking at?
She was a happy girl the day that she left me

What would you do?
What would you do if I follow you?
What would you do? I follow

Don’t turn away, what are you looking at?
He was so happy on the day that he met her
Say, what are you looking at?
I was a superman, the looks are deceiving

The rollercoaster ride’s a lonely one
I pay the ransom note to stop it from steaming
Hey, what are you looking at?
She was a teenage girl when she met me

What would you do?
What would you do if I follow you?
What would you do? I follow

What would you do?….

The girl got reasons
They all got reasons

What would you do?….

Hey, what are you looking at?
She was a happy girl the day that she left me
The day that she left me The day that she left me
She was a happy girl the day that she left me
The day that she left me The day that she left me
She was a happy girl the day that she left me

The Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star

The first ever video played on MTV was appropriately Video Killed the Radio Star. The song peaked at #40 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the UK and #6 in Canada in 1979. I’ve always liked this song but it took a few listens. It was written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes, and Bruce Woolley.

The Presidents of the United States of America also did a version of this song in 1998 that I like.

Here is a quote from Trevor Horn… “It came from this idea that technology was on the verge of changing everything. Video recorders had just come along, which changed people’s lives. We’d seem people starting to make videos as well, and we were excited by that. It felt like radio was the past and video was the future. The was a shift coming.”

From Songfacts.

Trevor Horn wrote this after reading a science fiction story about an opera singer in a world without sound (she was rendered obsolete). Said Horn: “Before I started Buggles I was a sort of loser record producer, I spent four years producing records for various people without ever making any money out of it or having any success at all. Mainly I just produced unsuccessful records because I couldn’t seem to lay my hands on a good song. Eventually, I got so fed up doing things that weren’t successful I decided that if I couldn’t find a good artist and a good song then I’d write it myself and become the artist, so I wrote this song called ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ with Bruce Wooley. I know the name’s awful, but at the time it was the era of the great punk thing. I’d got fed up of producing people who were generally idiots but called themselves all sorts of clever names like The Unwanted, The Unwashed, The Unheard… when it came to choosing our name I thought I’d pick the most disgusting name possible. In retrospect, I have frequently regretted calling myself Buggles, but in those days I never really thought much about packaging or selling myself, all that really concerned me was the record.”

This was the first video to air on MTV. The network launched August 1, 1981, and this provided the first evidence that MTV was going to make it.

The song was a big hit in England in 1979, but pretty much unknown in America, where it peaked at #40 in December 1979. When MTV went on the air, it was on only a few cable systems, but record stores in those areas started selling lots of Buggles albums. Radio stations weren’t playing the song and almost no one in the US had heard of the Buggles, so it was clear that MTV was selling records – an early indication of the network’s influence.

Video Killed The Radio Star

I heard you on the wireless back in ’52
Lying awake intently tuning in on you
If I was young it didn’t stop you coming through
Oh-a-oh

They took the credit for your second symphony
Rewritten by machine on new technology
And now I understand the problems you can see

Oh-a-oh
I met your children
Oh-a-oh
What did you tell them?

Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
Pictures came and broke your heart
Oh-a-a-a oh

And now we meet in an abandoned studio
We hear the playback and it seems so long ago
And you remember the jingles used to go:

Oh-a-oh
You were the first one
Oh-a-oh
You were the last one

Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
In my mind and in my car
We can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far
Oh-a-a-a oh
Oh-a-a-a oh

Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
In my mind and in my car
We can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far
Pictures came and broke your heart
Put the blame on VTR…

You are the radio star
You are the radio star
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
You are the radio star
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
You are the radio star
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
You are the radio star
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
You are the radio star

Oh-a-oh, oh-a-oh…

Monkees – Goin’ Down

I just rediscovered this song from watching Breaking Bad recently.

The Monkees “Goin’ Down” was released as the B side to Daydream Believer and reached only #104 in the Billboard 100. It was written by all four members of the Monkees and Diane Hildebrand. Micky Dolenz has a good pop/rock voice.

From Wiki

In 2012, the composition met with controversy for its unexpected use in the television show, Breaking Bad. Dolenz, who was unaware an abridged version of “Goin’ Down” was to be featured on the show, commented, “‘Goin’ Down’ has nothing to do with drugs, obviously. And I certainly don’t condone meth — that is nasty stuff that kills a lot of people and ruins a lot of lives. … On the other hand, I like the TV show, it’s very well-made. … And no, I didn’t make a penny”.

From Songfacts.

Peter Tork says this was based on Mose Allison’s “Parchment Farm.” It’s about a drunken guy who “ends it all” by jumping into the river, and immediately regrets it as he’s “Goin’ Down.”

Drummer Micky Dolenz sang lead.

All the Monkees got writer’s credit on this song.

This was released as the B-side of “Daydream Believer.”

Goin’ Down

Sock it to me…

Floatin’ down the river,
With a saturated liver,
And I wish I could forgive her,
But I do believe she meant it,
When she told me to forget it,
And I bet she will regret it,
When they find me in the morning wet and drowned.
And the word gets ’round.
I’m goin’ down
I’m goin’ down

A-comin’ up for air,
It’s pretty stuffy under there,
I’d like to say I didn’t care,
But I forgot to leave a note,
And it’s so hard to stay afloat,
I’m soakin’ wet without a boat,
And I knew I should have taken off my shoes.
Ah, it’s front-page news.
Goin’ down
Goin’ down

Hep Hep
Hep Hep
Hep Hep
Hep Hep
Hep
Hep Hep
Hep Hep

I wish I had another drink,
It wouldn’t be so hard to sink,
I should have taken time to think,
Besides I got the picture straight,
She must have had another date,
I didn’t need this extra weight,
I wish that I could see the way to shore.
I don’t want no more.
Goin’ down
I’m goin’ down

And now I see the life I led,
I slept it all away in bed,
I shoulda learned to swim instead,
And now it’s really got me stumped,
I can’t remember why I jumped,
I’d like to get my tummy pumped,
I can’t believe they drink this stuff in town.
This dirty brown.
Goin’ down
Goin’ down

I’m goin’ down, hep
Goin’ down
Hep Hep
Goin’ down Dga
Goin’ down goin’ down
Goin’ down goin’ down
Goin’ down

I wish I’d looked before I leaped,
I didn’t know it was so deep.
Been down so far I don’t get wet,
I haven’t touched the bottom yet.
This river scene is gettin’ old,
I’m hungry, sleepy, wet and cold.
She told me to forget it nice,
I should’ve taken her advice.
I only want to go on home,
I’d gladly leave that girl alone.
Wha-what a way to spend the night,
If I don’t drown, I’ll die of fright.
My pappy taught me how to float,
But I can’t swim a single note.
He threw me in to teach me how,
I stayed there floatin’ like a mama cow.
And now I’ve floated way down stream,
I know this has to be a dream.
If I could find my way to shore,
I’d never, never do this anymore.
I’ll give you three; I’ve been down nine,
I’m goin’ down just one more time.
Goin’ down
Ah dga, goin’ down
Dga goin’ down
Gah gah, goin’ down
I’m goin’ down
Go-go-go-goin’ down
Back back back back home
Back back back home
Back back back back home
Goin’ down
Goin’ down
I’m goin’ down
I’m goin’ back home
Back to my friends
Back to the one
Back to the truth
I’m goin’ home
Aahh

Now the sky is gettin’ light,
And everything will be all right.
Think I’ve finally got the knack,
Just floatin’ here lazy on my back.
I never really liked that town,
I think I’ll ride the river down.
Just movin’ slow and floatin’ free,
There’s a river swingin’ under me.
Waving back to the folks on shore,
I should have thought of this before.
I’m floatin’ on down to New Orleans,
Gonna pick up on some swingin’ scenes.
I’m gonna know me a better day,
I’ll go down groovin’ all the way.
Goin’ down A-ahh
Go-go-goin’ down

I’m goin’ down
Back back back to New Orleans
Back back back back home
I’m go-goin’ down
A-hep hep hep, hep
I’m goin’ on down
Hep, hep, hep, hep
I’m go-go-go-goin’ down
I’m goin’ down
Goin’ down
Go go
Auhh Hep, hep hep, hep
Hep, hep hep
Dga, dga dga, dga
Dga, dga dga, dga
Dga, dga dga, dga
Dga, dga dga
Got ta go
Got ta go
Got ta go back home
I’m goin’ down-down-down-down-down-down the river
Down-da-down-down-down the river, yeah
Gotta go gotta go
Gotta go gotta go
Down-nh-nh-nh
Hep, auh, hep, hep
(Fade out)

Big Wheel

Now, this was cool. I had a few friends with one but it was one thing I could not get. We lived on a dirt road with a gravel driveway. Big Wheels didn’t really work on gravel and dirt too well. I loved the pull-up brake you could engage on one wheel while you were coming to a stop and spin around.

You were low to the ground and with a good hill, you could really go. If it rained you would pedal that plastic wheel and go nowhere until you caught some traction.

The Big Wheel was developed by Louis Marx and Company in 1969. The toy was hugely popular in the 70s and 80s because of its low cost and partly because consumer groups said it was a safer alternative to the traditional tricycle or bicycle.

Different versions came out as it was copied by other companies. The Green Machine made by Huffy was a version of the Big Wheel.

Just in case you want to own an iconic 1970s Big Wheel…not just a Big Wheel but a Big Wheel Deluxe with the box…no problem just shell out $2,500.

Robert Plant – Alison Krauss – Please Read the Letter

This song was originally off the Walking Into Clarksdale album by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.

This version peaked at #20 in the U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 and #102 in the UK in 2009. I like the original version but Krauss’s harmony lifts this version up over that and turns into a great record. The arrangement to this version highlights the lyrics and enhances the song. It took a few listens but I was hooked after a while.

It won The Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 2009. The song was off of the Raising Sand album.

From Songfacts.

Both Krauss and Plant achieved their highest-ranking albums in the Billboard 200 chart under their own names with Raising Sand. It overtook Krauss’s placing for her earlier 2007 album A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection, which reached #10. Plant ‘s highest-ranking solo title had been the #4 peak of No Quarter in 1994. Ten years prior to that he’s also reached #4 with Volume One, a one-off side project by the Honeydrippers. Of course, Plant had been to the top of The Billboard 200 seven times as a member of Led Zeppelin.

This won for Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2009. Accepting the award, Robert Plant said: “When we started this project together, the whole game was a mystery. We gave ourselves three days, and we said if it doesn’t work, we’ll just take lunch, and I’ll go back to Wolverhampton. But we brought this song out and it’s been given that Nashville touch and it feels pretty good.”

Please Read the Letter

Caught out running
With just a little too much to hide
Maybe baby
Everything’s gonna turn out fine
Please read the letter
I mailed it to your door
It’s crazy how it all turned out
We needed so much more

Too late, too late
A fool could read the signs
Maybe baby
You’d better check between the lines
Please read the letter, I
Wrote it in my sleep
With help and consultation from
The angels of the deep

Once I stood beside a well of many words
My house was full of rings and
Charms and pretty birds
Please understand me, my
Walls come falling down
There’s nothing here that’s left for you
But check with lost and found

Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote

One more song just before we go
Remember baby
All the things
We used to know
Please read my letter
And promise you’ll keep
The secrets and the memories and
Cherish in the deep

Ah…

Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote
Please read the letter that I wrote

Pure Prairie League – Amie

This is a great country – rock song and its acoustic feel is great. The song peaked at #27 in the Billboard 100 and #40 in Canada in 1975.

This is an article from the Tennessean about Amie… written by Dave Paulson in 2016

“Amie, what you want to do? I think I could stay with you for a while, maybe longer if I do.”

“Aime” certainly has stuck around. The Pure Prairie League song — recorded in 1972 — took three years to turn into a hit, but has since endured for decades. The band’s Craig Fuller told the story of “Aime” to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Let’s take it back. Pure Prairie League is a band out of Ohio. You’ve done it the hard way; you’ve played the clubs, been on the road for years. In 1971 you finally attract the attention of RCA.

CF: RCA New York. They came to see us play a festival in Cleveland. … I think they brought the (A&R) fellow back with the power to sign. Then we played on the front porch of our house and they said, “Oh, that’s good, let’s do that.”

So you recorded the album “Bustin’ Out.” In terms of musicianship, it’s still one of my favorite records ever. It still actually sells CDs. And RCA signed you, but then they drop you. But “Amie” gets some airplay on country stations and airplay on pop stations and college stations and AOR stations. … So in 1975 they re-sign the band and put the single out.

CF: Well, when we recorded it in that mecca of country music Toronto, Canada, it was longer, and I think they edited it for radio and got it shorter. I guess you’re right. It kept bubbling there along and they decided to give it another shot promotion-wise.

Who is Amie?

CF: Just a song I wrote. Just an exercise in song craftsmanship.

Boy, people really dissect that song — about what it’s about. I’ll give you my take on it: The guy may have waited too long. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

CF: That’s just as fair as my take on it, because all I was doing was stringing words and music together.

There’s some genius to it. You fell into one, Craig, I’m telling you.

CF: I think the track on that song had a lot to do with it. We were up there luxuriating (with) a large budget for back then. We were in Toronto all summer right across from Maple Leaf Gardens. It took us all summer to record that record. It wasn’t even mixed yet and at that time Gordon Lightfoot came in. We had the whole (studio) blocked out in the days and Gordon Lightfoot would come in and record in the evening. He did a record in two weeks. Stompin’ Tom Connors, who was a guy from Canada, country kind of guy, he did a record in two nights. So we were just up there having a good time.

So tell me about the resilience of that song. Through the decades you’ve played it around the world. That’s one that everybody recognizes. So the lead singer of Evanescence, Amy Lee, apparently was named after that song, even though she spells it with a Y. I told you we were just in D.C. lobbying for songwriters two or three weeks ago and ran into another Amie that allegedly was named after that song. You’ve got to hear that a lot.

CF: I’ve had mothers come up and say, “I named my daughter Amie — and she named her daughter Amie.”

Wow. That means it’s been a while, right?

CF: Exactly. That was the joke.

So one last question, Craig. In your mind’s eye, did you get back with Amie?

CF: Amie is just a song so I get along with Amie really well.

Yeah, but did you get back with her? Have you ever thought about that?

CF: Does the character?

Yeah, does the character get back with her? Do they end up happily ever after or is it a hard lesson learned for him for the rest of his life?

CF: I suppose the protagonist of the song is just laying it out and then it’s up to her.

I love that version.

Amie

I can see why you think you belong to me,
I never tried to make you think,
Or let you see one thing for yourself,
And now you’re off with someone else and I’m alone,
You see I thought I might keep you for my own.

Amie, what you wanna do?
I think I could stay with you,
For a while maybe longer if I do.

Don’t you think the time is right for us to find,
That all the things we thought weren’t proper could be right in time,
Can’t you see which way we should turn together or alone,
I can never see what’s right or what is wrong,
‘Cause that take too long to see now.

Amie, what you wanna do?
I think I could stay with you,
For a while maybe longer if I do.

Come on now,
Amie, what you wanna do?
I think I could stay with you,
For a while maybe longer if I do.

Now it’s come to what you want, you’ve had your way,
And all the things you thought before just faded into gray,
And can you see that I don’t know if it’s you or it’s me,
But if it’s one of us I’m sure we both will see, yeah,
Won’t you look at me and tell me.

Amie, what you wanna do?
I think I could stay with you,
For a while maybe longer if I, longer if I do.

Amie, what you wanna do?
I think I could stay with you,
For a while maybe longer if I do.

I keep fallin’ in and out of love with you,
Fallin’ in and out of love with you,
Don’t know what I’m gonna do,
I keep fallin’ in and out of love with you.

Jim Stafford – Swamp Witch

Since it is Halloween I thought I would post this song by Jim Stafford. It reached #39 in the Billboard 100 and #46 in Canada in 1973. My sister had this single but to this six-year-old it was scary. The song described a town by the bayou with an uneasy relationship with the local Witch…which seems to be a prerequisite of a town near the bayou.

The town gets hit with a plague and the Witch (Hattie) helps the town out but not before they all thought Hattie caused the plague to begin with… She cures them and after that, they decide to fetch her from the woods…bad idea.

I think the lesson here is…leave well enough alone.

Swamp Witch

Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp
Where the strange green reptiles crawl
Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees
Like sausage on a smokehouse wall
Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes
An’ all of them watching you
Stay off the track to Hattie’s Shack in the back of the Black Bayou

Way up the road from Hattie’s Shack
Lies a sleepy little Okeechobee town
Talk of swamp witch Hattie lock you in when the sun go down
Rumors of what she’d done, rumors of what she’d do
Kept folks off the track of hattie’s shack
In the back of the Black Bayou

One day brought the rain and the rain stayed on
And the swamp water overflowed
Mosquitoes and the fever grabbed the town like a fist
Doctor Jackson was the first to go
Some say the plague was brought by Hattie
There was talk of a hang’n too
But the talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles
From the bowels of the Black bayou

Early one morn ‘tween dark and dawn when shadows filled the sky
There came an unseen caller on a town where hope run dry
In the square there was found a big black round
Vat full of gurgling brew
Whispering sounds as the folk gathered round
“It came from the Black Bayou”

There ain’t much pride when you’re trapped inside
A slowly sink’n ship
Scooped up the liquid deep and green
And the whole town took a sip
Fever went away and the very next day the skies again were blue
Let’s thank old Hattie for sav’n our town
We’ll fetch her from the Black Bayou

Party of ten of the town’s best men headed for Hattie’s Shack
Said Swamp Witch magic was useful and good
And they’re gonna bring Hattie back
Never found Hattie and they never found the shack
And they never made a trip back in
‘Twas a parchment note they found tacked to a stump
Said don’t come look’n again

Toss Across

I had this as a kid and would play it at family gatherings at our house. I bought an original one from 1969 from eBay a couple of years ago and still once in a while will play it. It plays like a carnival game. My son didn’t think much of it at first but when he started to play it…he liked it.

The game came out in 1969 by the Ideal Toy Company. The game was designed by Marvin Glass and Associates and created by Hank Kramer, Larry Reiner, and Walter Moe.

They still sell a version of it today.

It’s tic tac toe with bean bags…that about sums it up. Go Go Go for 3 in a row!

Now… please tell me what the little girl says after the dog drops the bag…please

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toss_Across

Stretch Armstrong

I remember having Stretch and stretch him I did. He lasted a few months before it happened. Mr. Armstrong sprung a leak and out came this gooey liquid everywhere.

Jesse Horowitz designed Stretch… he tried a sumo wrestler but it was too big and he dropped the idea. He thought about a stretch woman to rival Barbie but smartly dropped that idea.

In 1976 Stretch Armstrong was sold to the masses, and the $11 toy that made Kenner over $50 million in revenue had a secret: He was basically just a big sack of corn syrup… but to a kid…a fun $11 big sack of corn syrup.

The fad wore out after a while other companies started to do their own Stretch dolls. The Mega company started their own line with Batman, Spider-Man, and Superman stretchable figures. Kenner sued but by the time anything was done Stretch’s time in the sun was over and his popularity faded.

Maybe I shouldn’t have stretched Stretch so much…

Armstrong dolls in a box that aren’t leaking profusely from ’70s wounds can fetch over $1000 on auction sites, with especially rare versions or prototypes worth more.

The Small Faces – Lazy Sunday

Always been one of my favorites of the Small Faces. It came off the great album Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake. The Small Faces didn’t intend to release this song. Marriott was against his manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s decision to release this as a single and that was one reason why he left the group shortly afterward. The band didn’t take the song seriously and made it into a joke. Steve sang some of the voices with a cockney accent.

They were touring Germany and they picked up a music paper and saw it was not only released but a hit. Steve wanted a tougher image for the band and this was more of a pop song.

From Songfacts.

This Steve Marriott penned song has a traditional East End of London Music Hall sound. Keyboardist Ian McLagan recalled to Uncut magazine: “When Steve came in with this it was slower. We started taking the piss out of it while he was out of the room. The ‘Root-ti-doo-ti-di-day’ thing stop and he laughed when he came back in and heard us. So we cut it like that. It was a piss take!”

Marriott sang much of the song in a greatly exaggerated cockney accent. Drummer Kenney Jones told Uncut : “Steve had been a child actor, he was the first Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart’s Oliver in the West End. He brought back that theatricality to this.”

Lazy Sunday

A-wouldn’t it be nice to get on with me neighbours?
But they make it very clear, yhey’ve got no room for ravers
They stop me from groovin’, they bang on me wall
They doing me crust in, it’s no good at all, ah
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I’ve got no mind to worry
I close my eyes and drift away-a
Here we all are sittin’ in a rainbow
Gor blimey, hello Mrs. Jones, how’s old Bert’s lumbago? (he mustn’t grumble)
(Tweedle-dee) I’ll sing you a song with no words and no tune (twiddly-dee)
To sing in your party while you souse at the moon (oh yeah)
Lazy Sunday afternoon, I’ve got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift away-a

Root-de-doo-de-doo, a-root-de-doot-de-doy-di
A-root-de-doot-de-dum, a-ree-de-dee-de-doo-dee (doo-doo, doo-doo)
There’s no one to hear me, there’s nothing to say
And no one can stop me from feeling this way, yeah
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I’ve got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift away
Lazy Sunday afternoon
I’ve got no mind to worry
Close my eyes and drift a-
Close my mind and drift away, close my eyes and drift away

Scandal – Goodbye To You

Good song and singer in Patty Smyth. This song made it to #65 in the Billboard 100 in 1982. I would have sworn it made it higher than that. It was played heavily by MTV at the time. Scandal would have a top ten hit in 1984 with The Warrior.

from Songfacts.

This was written by Scandal guitarist Zack Smith. It’s a breakup song where Patty Smyth sings about moving on from a relationship. Smith wrote most of Scandal’s songs, while Smyth fronted the group, moving on to success as a solo artist and eventually marrying tennis star John McEnroe.

Patty Smyth credits MTV for this song’s success. The song didn’t get much radio airplay, but the video got a lot of spins on MTV. The clip was a typical, low budget, performance video, but Smyth was easy on the eyes and MTV was hankering for American Rock acts, especially females (note Pat Benatar’s early acceptance on the network).

Goodbye to You

Those times I waited for you seem so long ago
I wanted you far too much to ever let you go
You know I never got by, “I feel it too”
And I guess I never could stand to lose
It’s such a pity to say

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you

Could I have loved someone like the one I see in you
I remember the good times baby now, and the bad times too
These last few weeks of holdin’ on
The days are dull, the nights are long
Guess it’s better to say

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you

‘Cause baby it’s over now
No need to talk about it
It’s not the same
My love for you’s just not the same
And my heart, and my heart
And my heart can’t stand the strain
And my love, and my love
And my love won’t stand the pain
And my heart, and my heart
And my heart can’t stand the strain
And my love, and my love
And my love

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you

Now, could I have loved someone like the one I see in you
Yeah, I remember the good times baby now, and the bad times too
These last few weeks of holdin’ on
The days are dull, the nights are long
Guess it’s better to say

Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to you

Goodbye baby
So long, darlin’
Goodbye to you

Jerry Lee Lewis – What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)

The title alone made me want to listen to this song. This song went to #2 in the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and #1 in the Canadian Country Charts in 1968. Rod Stewart also made a great cover of this song. The Stewart version is the one I listen to the most, but I like both versions.

From Songfacts.

Jerry Lee Lewis took the song to #94 in the Billboard 100 in 1968, but that’s the only version of the song to chart in that country. Rod Stewart’s 1972 rendition was a much bigger hit in the UK, even though the song is very American in its subject matter.

This was written by Glen Sutton, who was the first husband of country singer Lynn Anderson. They married in 1968 and divorced in 1977. Anderson recorded a version on her 1971 album How Can I Unlove You.

It’s late and she is waiting, and I know I must go home,
But every time I start to leave, they play another song,
Then someone buys another round and whatever drinks are free,
What made Milwaukee famous has made a loser out of me.

Baby’s begged me not to go, so many times before,
She said love and happiness can’t live behind those swingin’ doors,
Now she’s gone and I’m to blame, too late I finally see,
What made Milwaukee famous has made a loser out of me.

What made Milwaukee famous has made a loser out of me,
What made Milwaukee famous has made a loser out of me.
What made Milwaukee famous has made a loser out of me.

8-Track Tapes

I had a stereo that had a record-able 8-track system built in. I would record straight off the radio to the 8-track and from records. I will add that it could be a miserable format to listen to music. If you had a favorite song that you wanted to hear a couple times in a row…get ready to wait till it came back around and then for the infamous “click” and you would switch tracks…and either wait some more or miss the beginning.

But there is more… you may be listening to a song and suddenly the song fades out for a while because it’s too long for the track and then finally the “click” and it finishes out on the next track.

William Powell Lear, the man behind LearJet, was also the inventor of the 8-track cartridge tape system. In 1964 William Lear convinced Ford to install the 8-track in their cars.

In September 1965, Ford Motor Company offered 8-track players as an option in their 1966 model cars. A Ford spokesperson reported that 65,000 players were installed in the first year. As a result of the popularity, the 8-track player soon became standard in all Ford cars.

In 1966 home units and portable units were offered. Now people could share their tapes with each other. The peak years of the eight-track were 1967 through 1975. Then, improvements in the tape quality of smaller cassettes and decreasing quality in eight-tracks led consumers away from the eight-track tape.

The last official release on 8-track was Fleetwood Mac’s Greatest Hits in 1988. By then though Compact Disc had taken over the market.

I did have quite a collection of official 8-tracks and self-made 8-tracks. I also have an old 8-track system in my closet…hey you never know.

This video is a must. It shows an Eight Track Museum. It is interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-track_tape

CB Radio

Before chat rooms, My Space, Facebook, cell phones, WordPress, or messenger we had CB Radio. In the 1970’s this fad took off.

When Al Gross invented the CB radio in 1945, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) quickly opened up radio services for personal users of the radio. in the 1960s businesses and hobbyist used the radio frequently.

In the early 1970s, the oil crisis caused gas to go up in price and the speed limit dropped to 55 mph. It was then people realized that CB’s could be used to spread the word about what gas stations had gas and what speed traps were set up ahead. Not only truckers were using the CB but it had caught on as a fad.

Movies such as Smokey and the Bandit helped popularize it more and also songs such as Convoy.

As a kid, I remember cars having the CB antennas and people at home. Everyone was getting into the game. People used CB slang and nicknames. Even The First Lady, Betty Ford, was on as “First Mama”…yea some cringe-worthy moments.

CB radio is still used today but the popularity is not like it was through the 70s and 80s… 10-4 (I just had to add that)