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.
I hope all of you are doing well. While on break getting things done I have written up a few posts because I like to stay ahead. For the first time, I probably wrote up more movies than music. I was emailing CB and he mentioned this album to me by T-Bone Burnett which I’ve known more as a producer. He produced artists like Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, Gregg Allman, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Elton John, Leon Russell, Los Lobos, Roy Orbison, The Counting Crows, and many more.
When I started to listen to the album it surprised me. I was expecting more of a straight blues feel but I got everything. Rock, country, blues, soul, rockabilly, and most of all…Americana. I’ve listened to the entire album around 5-6 times this week. CB doesn’t steer me wrong…an outstanding album. The song that really stood out at first was I’m Coming Home…that one hooked me. He wrote all the songs on the album and co-wrote two of them.
TruthDecay was his second album and it was released in 1980. He did release an album in 1972 under the name J. Henry Burnett called The B-52 Band & the FabulousSkylarks. He has released 15 albums in total and one this year called The Other Side. None of them were commercial blockbusters but his work received critical acclaim though…and it’s just flat-out great.
He was born in St Louis but was raised in Fort, Worth Texas. He began his career in the 1960s. His first big break came in the mid-1970s when he joined Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, a traveling concert tour that introduced him to a wider audience and connected him with other rising musicians.
Recently, Burnett has been involved in developing a new form of high-fidelity analog music recording technology, which he calls“Ionic Originals.” He wants to develop an alternative to digital formats for preserving and sharing music.
Give this album a listen. I’ll pick out a couple of songs that I like but here is the entire album on YouTube. Spotify doesn’t have this one. In order from the top there Boomerang, Pretty Girls, and my favorite I’m Coming Home.
I’m Coming Home
I been lost and all alone
Like a statue made of stone
But now I’m coming home
I fell for a painted face
Thought I’d fallen out of grace
But now I’m coming home
I’m coming home
Hold me to your breast
Let me stay and rest
In your tenderness
I’m coming home
Back where I belong
Still you’re love is strong
Roll away the stone
I’m coming home
I said my prayers, made my plan
Set out for the promised land
And now I’m coming home
I saw how you pay the price
For some distant paradise
And now I’m coming home
See pop shows near Nashville
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I watched this 1963 movie growing up and it scared the hell out of me. For a while when I passed a tree full of birds…I always did a second take. Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense and the movie works today. Tippi Hedren (Melanie), Rod Taylor (Mitch), Jessica Tandy (Mitch’s mom Lydia), and Suzanne Pleshette (Annie) starred in this movie.
Like The Shining…it’s a movie where you can find deeper meanings or just sit back and enjoy a great film. There is a lot of ambiguity in this movie…everything is not spelled out for you. Why are the birds so angry? Why are they attacking people?
Hitchcock built suspense probably better than anyone. I’ll use this one scene for an example. In one scene you see Tippi Hedren waiting outside of the school. You hear the kids singing a song. She looks around and there are some Monkey Bars and you see one bird landing on them. She sits down on a bench and smokes. After a few drags she looks around and there are 3 birds on the bars…repeat this a few times and more and more birds are on them. Then the bars are full of Birds and this is when she gets concerned and asks Pleshette’s character to evacuate the school as birds start dive-bombing the kids. It goes from 0 to 100 in a matter of 2-3 minutes.
That scene set up the action in the cafe that followed soon after… when all hell broke loose in the town of Bodega Bay. No one really believed Hedren’s character Melanie when she told people about the birds attacking. That is until it started to happen outside and they all saw what was going on. This was after the kids from the school were attacked while running toward their homes.
Hitchcock used silence and stillness in scenes better than anyone else not named Buster Keaton. His scenes would draw out the tension and then he would strike. Sometimes he didn’t strike and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. The direction and the acting were great obviously. This movie is 61 years old this year and it still works.
Pleshette’s character Annie was an ex-girlfriend of Mitch and the dynamic between her and Melanie was fantastic. I also have to mention Lydia, Mitch’s possessive mom, who has a fear of being abandoned. You see the bond between her and Melanie grow as the film goes on.
Most of those birds were real and sometimes tied to Hedren by thread. Many of the cast had some injuries while making this movie.
The Plot from IMDB
Melanie Daniels is the modern rich socialite, part of the jet-set who always gets what she wants. When lawyer Mitch Brenner sees her in a pet shop, he plays something of a practical joke on her, and she decides to return the favor. She drives about an hour north of San Francisco to Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends the weekends with his mother Lydia and younger sister Cathy. Soon after her arrival, however, the birds in the area begin to act strangely. A seagull attacks Melanie as she is crossing the bay in a small boat, and then, Lydia finds her neighbor dead, obviously the victim of a bird attack. Soon, birds in the hundreds and thousands are attacking anyone they find out of doors. There is no explanation as to why this might be happening, and as the birds continue their vicious attacks, survival becomes the priority.
Quotes
Boy in Diner: Are the birds gonna eat us, Mommy?
______________________________________
Cathy Brenner: [crying] When we got back from taking Michele home, we – we heard the explosion and went – went outside to see what it was. All – all at once the the birds were everywhere. All at once, she pushed me inside – and they covered her. Annie! She pushed me inside!
Animal Trainer Ray Berwick: “We had about 12 or 13 crew members in the hospital in one day from bites and scratches,” he said. “The seagulls would deliberately go for your eyes. I got bitten in the eye region at least three times, and Tippi got a pretty nasty gash when one of the birds hit her right above the eye.”
It’s great to be back with everyone today. I know I know…we just finished up with the Kinks a few weeks ago but I wrote this one for the Kinksathon but decided to use another post. This was like uncovering a gem. This is not a Ray Davies song but his brother Dave wrote and put some heartfelt vocals into this. His voice and the sound of his voice sound great…I love the slapback echo they added.
Dave wrote this song about a friend he had named George Harris. Him and George were going to form a band and they were really tight but George got hooked on drugs bad. This was all before the Kinks formed. Dave Davies said: “We were dear friends, actually, George and I were going to start a band, but he got too heavily into drugs and it kind of pulled us apart. The drug thing was like a three-way affair. He died of a methamphetamine overdose. They found him departed … he was young. I always felt it was going to be me and him. I didn’t think at that age that it was going to be me and Ray. So I really kind of wrote it to him; ‘Strangers on this road we are on, we are not two we are one.’ It was like, what might of been if he hadn’t died so tragically.”
The singer of this song mentions a friend who seems to have separated from him. What emerges is not just a portrait of his lost pal but also of the person who’s searching for him. A Hank Williams line “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” influenced Dave in this song as well…with is line if I live too long I’m afraid I’ll die.
The song came off the album Lola vs. Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part 1 which had the massive hit Lola. Maybe that is the reason this song got overlooked. Many Kinks fans love this song but the radio doesn’t hardly play it. The album peaked at #35 on the Billboard 100 and #33 in Canada in 1970. Unfortunately, there was never a part 2.
The song was used in the 2007 film The Darjelling Limited.
Dave Davies: “I was going through a lot of change, personally – spiritual stuff and getting into different philosophy, I was 15 at the time when we first started. And we had success, we were touring, and it doesn’t really give you a chance to grow up.”
Ray Davies on the part 1 album: Lola Versus Powerman… was good versus evil, obviously, and in Volume Two, I sketched out how you become your worst nightmare, how the good man goes so far he becomes the evil person he always fought against. But we had to do another tour, we had the RCA deal, and we had other recording projects that we had to work towards, and it got lost, unfortunately.
Here is Dave in 2017 doing it acoustically.
Strangers
Where are you going, I don’t mind
I’ve killed my world and I’ve killed my time
So where do I go? What will I see?
I see many people coming after me
So where are you going to, I don’t mind
If I live too long I’m afraid I’ll die
So I will follow you wherever you go
If your offered hand is still open to me
Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two, we are one
So you’ve been where I’ve just come
From the land that brings losers on
So we will share this road we walk
And mind our mouths and beware our talk
‘Til peace we find, tell you what I’ll do
All the things I own I will share with you
And, if I feel tomorrow like I feel today
We’ll take what we want and give the rest away
Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two, we are one
Holy man and holy priest
This love of life makes me weak at my knees
And when we get there, make your play
‘Cause soon I fear you’re gonna carry us away
And a promised lie you made us believe
For many men there is so much grief
And my mind is proud but it aches with rage
And, if I live too long I’m afraid I’ll die
Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two, we are one
Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two, we are one
This one was released way before Drive-In Movies but yes it was shown as the second feature at many drive-ins in the day…and probably still is!
I loved this movie as a kid. This one along with The Wolfman, Dracula, and the original King Kong. I went to school the next day saying “It’s Alive It’s Alive It’s Alive!” This movie was directed by James Whale and produced by Universal Pictures, is one of the most iconic films in the horror genre and a cornerstone of early Hollywood cinema. Based loosely on Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus.
I always considered it one of the most iconic films ever made. The story moves fast and there are no slow moments. They said all they needed to say in this movie with an hour and eleven minute run time. Jack Pierce, a legendary makeup artist, created the Monster’s look, which included the now-iconic flat head, heavy brow, bolts in the neck, and large boots. This visual representation of the Monster is what we remember now when Frankenstein gets mentioned in pop culture.
The big guy in this movie is film legend Boris Karloff. This is the film he is best remembered for and the sequels. The role was originally offered to Bela Lugosi but he declined it. Karloff also was in The Mummy in 1932. Frankenstein was frightening and a big reason was his eyes. They were menacing along with his slow movements.
The monster could be gentle but Dr Frankenstein’s assistant Fritz (better known as Igor later on) accidentally drops the normal brain and the brain that the doctor used was an abnormal one. After the monster is alive, Fritz can’t help himself and tortures the poor guy with a torch…big mistake by the late Fritz.
I never had much sympathy for Dracula but for Frankenstein I do. He never asked to be born or reborn. The scene with the little girl showed that the monster had a good side but was also heartbreaking. She showed him flowers and how flowers floated in water. He really enjoyed that but he didn’t know any better and threw the girl in to see her float…she didn’t. After the girl, the village chases the monster down.
Making a human being from spare parts… I’m reminded of a quote from Jurassic Park… Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.
Plot IMDB
Henry Frankenstein is a brilliant scientist who has been conducting experiments on the re-animation of lifeless bodies. He has conducted experiments on small animals and is now ready to create life in a man he has assembled from body parts he has been collecting from various sites such as graveyards or the gallows. His fiancée Elizabeth and friend Victor Moritz are worried about his health as he spends far too many hours in his laboratory on his experiments. He’s successful and the creature he’s made come to life is gentle but clearly afraid of fire. Henry’s father, Baron Frankenstein, brings his son to his senses, and Henry agrees that the monster should be humanely destroyed. Before they can do so, however, the monster escapes, and in its innocence, it kills a little girl. The villagers rise up intent on destroying the murderous creature.
I had some time today so I thought I would publish a couple of posts. It will be nice to post today until I come back in a couple of weeks.
Drift Away is one of the most perfect singles I remember. Much like Baker Street…a single where everything is right. This is one of the first songs I remember hearing and liking. That guitar intro and tone hooked me into this song. Gray said in an interview that the song’s hook of “Gimme the beat boys and free my soul” has been misheard and incorrectly sung as “Gimme the Beach Boys,” “Gimme the wheat boys” (proposed for a cereal commercial), “Gimme the peat moss,” and “Gimme the meatballs.”
The song was recorded at Quad Studio in Nashville. Drift Away was written by producer/songwriter Mentor Williams. Mentor is the brother of Paul Williams. Mentor initially intended the song for John Henry Kurtz, an actor and country artist who recorded the song in 1972. However, Dobie Gray’s version, recorded the following year, became the definitive rendition.
Drift Away has been covered by various artists over the years, including a version by Uncle Kracker in 2003, which featured Dobie Gray himself. That version was also a hit, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and introducing the song to a new generation.
The Rolling Stones recorded a version of Drift Away for their “It’s Only Rock and Roll” album in November of 1973 but it didn’t make the album and has never been released except on bootlegs. It is a great version…made for Jagger’s voice but nothing tops the original.
Drift Away peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100 and #7 in Canada in 1973. You would think this would have been the start of something huge but it was his only top 10 hit on Billboard. He did have a hit in 1965 with The In Crowd which peaked at #8 in Canada and #13 on the Billboard 100.
Reggie Young, a session guitar player, played the famous intro to this song. His song Reggie Young Jr. said: “Dobie Gray asked my father to join him in playing ‘Drift Away’ live. This was the first time since 1973 that they had played the song together. In the ’80s my father was showing another guitar player how to play the intro to ‘Drift Away,’ but the other guy said he thought that my father was playing it wrong. In fact he was playing in the wrong key. Also, when this was re-recorded in 1997 for Gray’s CD Diamond Cuts, he declined, as he didn’t think he could do it any better than he did on the original.”
Mentor Williams: “I think one of the hardest things for me to learn about songwriting was to really expose my feelings and weaknesses and to write personal, emotional things. As soon as I started doing that, I realized other people were relating to my songs. You can study how to write and spend a lot of time writing, but without this emotional content in a song, it’s just not there. ‘Drift Away’ was a big breakthrough for me. It was a song where it suddenly was okay for me to write about being hurt and let people know that I had been hurt and I wasn’t afraid to expose my feelings.”
Drift Away
Day after day I’m more confused
So I look for the light in the pouring rain
You know that’s a game that I hate to lose
I’m feelin’ the strain, ain’t it a shame
Oh, give me the beat boys, and free my soul
I want to get lost in your rock and roll and drift away
Beginning to think that I’m wastin’ time
I don’t understand the things I do
The world outside looks so unkind
I’m countin’ on you to carry me through
And when my mind is free
You know a melody can move me
And when I’m feelin’ blue
The guitar’s comin’ through to soothe me
Thanks for the joy that you’ve given me
I want you to know I believe in your song
Rhythm and rhyme and harmony
You help me along makin’ me stro
I’ve taken a few breaks this year because of work but now I need one for myself. I plan on being out until October 4th… I’ll be doing some things around the house and getting projects done I’ve wanted to finish.
Who knows…I may start posting again before then…we will see but right now I need some time. I hope you are all doing well and I’m looking forward to coming back refreshed.
Max
I’m going to leave you with one of my favorite songs of all time…I plan to post more Big Star when I get back.
I won’t only review classic movies or cult movies…sometimes car chase movies will get in here. This movie is special to me because parked in the lobby of the Nashville Theater I saw this movie in… was Eleanor the car that was actually in the movie. I got to touch it and it was like touching gold to a 7-year-old. I remember watching the trailer and my aunt taking me to see it. My mom would not have approved of me seeing this movie but my rebellious aunt took my sister and me to see it.
This is not the best-acted film but the spirit of it is awesome. It was made on a low budget of $150,000 but made 40 million at the box office. It was written, directed, produced, and starring H.B. “Toby” Halicki. It became famous for its car chases and destruction scenes, especially the lengthy, chaotic chase near the film’s conclusion.
There is a 40-minute car chase in this movie. Any mistakes stayed in and they added to the action. In one scene Eleanor hits a telephone pole and the pole falls on Eleanor and it wasn’t planned…they just keep going which adds to the realism. During the filming of the final chase, Eleanor sustained over 90 accidents and collisions. Halicki, who performed most of his own stunts, was injured multiple times.
There was a remake in 2000 with Nicolas Cage (who I like) and Angelina Jolie but NO…the original was so much better. Why was it better Max? Because the crashes and everything was real. The wrecks were real and there was nothing faked. Some of the actors were actual cops and some thieves were real in this movie as well. Halicki wanted everything to feel as real as possible, so there were no special effects or green screens for the action scenes. All the stunts were performed live, which added to the film’s authenticity.
With the exception of a few extras, the bulk of the bystanders/members of the public in the movie are real people just going about their business who had no idea that a film was being made. This caused several incidents where people assumed a real police pursuit was in progress, with many trying to help the accident “victims”. This was guerilla filmmaking at it’s best.
I’ll give you a quick plot line. The movie follows a group of car thieves led by insurance investigator Maindrian Pace (played by Halicki) as they attempt to steal 48 high-end cars in five days. The plot itself is secondary to the car action.
This is not Gone With The Wind by any stretch of the imagination but if you want to see some very cool muscle and sports cars… this is the movie for you. He showed you exactly how to steal cars in the 70s and get away with it. The first half of the movie can drag at times but it sets you up for the last 40 minutes of that chase.
I will watch this movie every couple of years and I get caught up in the chase and how they switched Vin numbers, and motors, and hid what they were doing.
I always had a soft spot for The Guess Who. Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings could write some really great songs. Both of them shared the credit on this one. I had a greatest hits package by the Guess Who given to me by a relative. At the time, I thought the Guess Who and The Who were the same. The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive were regulars on A.M. Radio in the 1970s. Randy Bachman would leave The Guess Who in 1970 and form BTO.
The Guess Who formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1958. They would release their version of Shakin’ All Over in 1965. Their name came about when their label Quality Records released their first hit single (“Shakin’ All Over”) credited only to “Guess Who?” in an attempt to build a mystique around the band. They wanted the public to believe that this was a possible British band. The real name of the band was “Chad Allan & The Expressions,” but radio station DJs continued to refer to them as “The Guess Who.” when playing subsequent singles.
This song was on the album Canned Wheat released in 1969. The album had three charting singles No Time, Undone, and Laughing. The album peaked at #91 on the Billboard Album Charts and #23 in Canada. The song peaked at #1 in Canada, #5 on the Billboard 100, and #16 in New Zealand in 1969-1970.
The most significant reunion occurred in 1983 when Bachman, Cummings, Kale, and Peterson reunited for a concert and the live album Together Again. In 2000, another major reunion tour, “Running Back Thru Canada,” featured Bachman and Cummings and was a huge success, reviving interest in the band.
No Time
(No time left for you)
On my way to better things
(No time left for you)
I’ll find myself some wings
(No time left for you)
Distant roads are calling me
(No time left for you)
Mm-da, mm-da, mm-da, mm-da, mm-da
No time for a summer friend
No time for the love you send
Seasons change and so did I
You need not wonder why
You need not wonder why
There’s no time left for you
No time left for you
(No time left for you)
On my way to better things
(No time left for you)
I’ll find myself some wings
(No time left for you)
Distant roads are calling me
(No time left for you)
Mm-day, mm-gay, mm-day, mm-gay, mm-day
No time for a gentle rain
No time for my watch and chain
No time for revolving doors
No time for the killing floor
No time for the killing floor
There’s no time left for you
No time left for you
No time for a summer friend
No time for the love you send
Seasons change and so did I
You need not wonder why
You need not wonder why
There’s no time left for you
No time left for you
No time, no time, no time, no time
No time, no time, no time, no time
I got, got, got, got no time
I got, got, got, got no time
I got, got, got, got no time
No, no, no, no, no, no, no time
No, no, no, no, no, no, no time
I got, got, got, got no time
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no time
I got no time, got no time, got no time, no time, got no time
Got no time, got no time
The Who Are You album was not the best album The Who released but it has its bright spots. Pete Townshend wrote this song and he said The Who would never use any disco elements in their songs. To his credit, they never used any. At this time Pete was hanging around with some of the punk bands like The Clash…so that makes sense.
The Who Are You album peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, and #6 in the UK in 1978.
Kenney Jones had the hardest job in the music world at the time. Replacing Keith Moon was an impossible task. He didn’t play in the same style, although not many did, but he did a good job. He was eventually forced out of the band 3 years later when Roger wanted something different. Roger said that Jones was a great drummer but didn’t fit The Who.
The Who after Moon’s passing was this… whether to get a Moon-styled drummer or get someone more traditional. If they’d gone with the former, Blondie’s Clem Burke or Mitch Mitchell would have fit the bill, as Zak Starr does now. But I doubt Clem was known enough to warrant consideration. That leaves a candidate who would not duplicate Moon’s frenetic approach…in Kenney Jones. Pete Townshend wanted stability and more of a straight beat. That is fine…but when they did that they didn’t sound like themselves as much…and Pete was probably happy about that fact.
I liked the Face Dances album a lot when it was released and I still do. Kenney did a great job on that album but with older Who fans…the drums were just as big of a part of the music as the singing and guitar. In other words, Kenney Jones could not win. He was more of a traditional drummer in a band that was not known for that. Entwistle also toned down his bass playing because he would play off of Moon and be all over the place.
Sometimes I wish they would have packed it up like Zeppelin did after Bonham died but I enjoyed a lot of the music that The Who released after Moon died. Jones was in a no-win situation.
Pete Townshend: With ‘Sister Disco’, I felt the need to say that the group would never, ever, in any way do anything like the Bee Gees. We stand over here and what we stand with is all right. They might say we’re boring old farts but we still feel more at home with the boring old farts than any of that crowd.
Pete Townshend: For this track I spent a lot of hours programming my analogue sequencers in my ARP 2500 studio synthesizer. It isn’t quite Kraftwerk, but in 1976 I don’t think they were doing much better. This is a perfect example of the progression I was making towards theatrical music writing. I was trying to evoke absurd Baron Munchausen musical textures. Roger sounds so seriously intent about everything that the pomposity becomes real and threatening rather than pictorial.
Pete Townshend: It’s got nothing to do with disco at all! It’s only a series of lines put together. The chorus ‘Goodbye Sister Disco, now I go where the music fits my soul’…that is not an indictment of disco music. I like a lot of disco music; I even like discos. It’s to do with saying goodbye to, I think, a sort of self-conscious poseur kind of thing The Who had been for such a long time.
Roger Daltrey: I really like ‘Sister Disco’ but I don’t necessarily understand what he’s saying. I do understand what he’s trying to say but I don’t know whether it comes off. It was a song about getting too old for discos and that whole line that Pete sings, ‘Goodbye Sister Disco, I go where the music fits my soul,’ is kind of operatic; it’s a bit pompous. That’s why I personally didn’t sing that line because I can’t…when Pete sings it he’s got enough kind of tongue-in-cheek quality to get away with it and it works, but if I sang it, it would be a total disaster.
This is a rehearsal version with Kenney Jones on drums getting ready for the 1979 tour. The first without Keith Moon.
Sister Disco
As I walked through that hospital door
I was sewn up like a coat
I got a smile from the bite of the wind
Watched the fresh fall of snow
I knew then that my life took a turn
I felt strong and secure
And with adhesive tape over my nose
I felt almost demure
Goodbye Sister Disco
With your flashing trash lamps
Goodbye Sister Disco
And to your clubs and your tramps
Goodbye Sister Disco
My dancing’s left you behind
Goodbye, now you’re solo
Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind
Bye, goodbye Sister Disco, now I go
I go where the music the music fits my soul
And I, I will never let go, I’ll never let go
‘Til the echo of the street fight has dissolved
I will choose nightmares and cold stormy seas
I will take over your grief and disease
I’ll stay beside you and comfort your soul
When you are lonely and broken and old
Now I walk with a man in my face
Ooh, a woman in my hair
I’ve got you all lookin’ out though my eyes
My feet are a prayer
Goodbye Sister Disco
With your flashing trash lamps
Goodbye Sister Disco
And to your clubs and your tramps
Goodbye Sister Disco
My dancing’s left you behind
Goodbye, now you’re solo
Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind
After all of the talk of The Shining yesterday I watched a few more scenes of the movie and then ran across this Jerry Lee Lewis live cut on YouTube. I pulled it up on Spotify and Jerry Lee entertained me while I painted our upstairs bathroom as fast as my arms would go. I combined painting while playing air drums. This could be an Olympic event!
Yes, today I will have to clean some paint on the base boards and on the ceiling…but it was worth it.
The album is called Live At The Star Club Hamburg released in 1964. This album is one of the best live rock albums I’ve ever listened to. The Star Club in Hamburg was one of the most important music venues of the era, having acts like The Beatles just a few years before. It was known for a crowd that demanded high-energy rock and roll, making it the perfect stage for Lewis. The audience was full of businessmen, dock workers, crooks, prostitutes, mobsters, and college kids. They all wanted hard-driving music.
The song was written by Claude Demetrius in 1957. It became famous through its association with several artists, such as Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. Per secondhandsongs it’s been covered 126 times. I heard it first by Elvis but I love this live version by Jerry Lee. In this live version, he was backed up by The Nashville Teens, an English rock band, formed in Surrey in 1962.
If you have time check out the entire live album. You can’t go wrong with Jerry Lee. To show you what the critics thought… magazines such as Rolling Stone, Mojo, Digital Dream Door, Goldmine, and the NME all have this live album listed among the best live albums of all time.
The Killer Live below has the entire Star Club album on it. Click play on Spotify and enjoy your Sunday.
Mean Woman Blues
Hmm, I got a woman mean as she can be Yeah, I got a woman mean as she can be Sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me
Well, I ain’t braggin’, it’s understood Everything I do, well, I sure do it good Well, I got a woman mean as she can be Oh, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me, yeah
Well, she’s got ruby lips, shapely hips Boy, she’d makes ol’ Jerry flip I got a woman mean as she can be Oh, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me, yeah
Well, I like a little coffee, like a little tea Jerry, Jerry, it’s the thing for me I got a woman mean as she can be Oh, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me
Oh, a-ha, a-ha, a-ha-ha, ooh a-ha Hmm, uhm, uhm Easy now, ahh ooh, brr ha-ha-ha-ha Yeah, and let’s go one time
Hey, I got a woman mean as she can be Yeah, got a little woman as mean as she can be Well, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me
We all know the great album Brothers in Arms from Dire Straits, but sometimes those brothers are “at arms” rather than in them. In this part of the mini-series with Max (Thats Me!) from PowerPop he talks about Duane and Gregg Allman from The Allman Brothers… Randy from https://mostlymusiccovers.com posted this a few months back right here.
Rare Live Footage of “Statesboro Blues” (1970)
Duane (born November 20, 1946) and Gregg (born December 8, 1947) Allman were born in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up with a loving but tough mother. Their father, Willis Turner Allman, was murdered in 1949 when Duane was 3 and Gregg was 2. They were raised by their strong mom Geraldine Robbins Allman. Geraldine never remarried because she was scared that a new husband might not treat the boys well. They lived in Nashville for a while but then moved to Daytona Beach and grew up there. Geraldine would soon go to a school to get her accounting degree and send the boys to Castle Heights Military Academy on two separate occasions in Lebanon, Tennessee.
The brothers were almost completely different except in music. Duane lived life on the very edge. Always doing things excessively, be it riding a motorbike, drugs, cars, or playing guitar. Gregg was much more conservative, thoughtful, and worried about the future. Gregg saved up his money from a paper route to buy a Silvertone acoustic guitar early on. He had $21, but the man at the store also wanted tax, so Gregg’s mom kicked in 95 cents.
In 1960, Duane had a small Harley Davidson and wrecked it. He quit school early and continued his partying ways. After a while, he started to get jealous of Gregg’s ability on guitar. Pretty soon they would be fighting over the guitar and the mom soon got Duane a guitar after he sold what was left of the Harley. Gregg showed Duane chords and Duane soon passed Gregg in ability. One, he had a natural gift, and two he had more time through the day. Soon Gregg and Duane started a band called The Allman Joys.
More Rare Live Footage “Whipping Post” (1970)
They developed a following as they started to tour in Florida after Gregg graduated from High School in 1965. Gregg had thoughts of being a dentist if it didn’t work out in music. Duane kept Gregg’s enthusiasm up through the rough times and kept him focused on his keyboard playing, songwriting, and vocals. They soon moved to California to start the band Hourglass and were signed. After two years Duane quit and moved back to the south. After Duane formed the band that would become The Allman Brothers…he called Gregg to come back home to sing. The brothers had a good relationship but were not above fights here and there. Gregg said that he was always Duane’s little brother and would listen to Duane like a second dad. Duane was killed on October 29, 1971, on a motorcycle. Gregg never got over it and it accelerated his drug use. He died on May 27, 2017, at age 69.
This song is on the Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde album by the Byrds. It’s a really good song and the song’s origin is interesting. It was written in response to an on-air argument with Ralph Emery, who was an all-night country DJ on a country radio station at the time. It was written by Roger McGuinn and Gram Parsons. The song was an open letter to Emery.
Before I get into the song which I really like…I want everyone to know I’m not downing Emery because of this. I grew up with Ralph Emery on television in the 1970s. I was never a fan because his show wasn’t in my age group. To be fair to Ralph…he did invite Roger McGuinn on his show in 1985 when Vern Gosdin covered Turn, Turn, Turn and Roger played guitar. He was on there more than once so it was all in the past by that time. Times had changed so much by the 80s…rock and country went together by then but in the 60s Buck Owens touched on it but not many people were doing both…the Byrds with Gram Parsons were pioneers in a way with Sweetheart Of The Rodeo.
In 1968 The Byrds were in Nashville promoting their new country album Sweetheart of the Rodeo and got a cool reception at the Grand Ole Opry. They got into an argument with Emery on air when he said that “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” wasn’t country and then proceeded to call them long-haired hippies and would not play the record. He also didn’t understand what the song meant and Roger told him that Dylan wrote it…well that didn’t help!
Ralph Emery would not budge…It was the 1960s in a very fifties Nashville and Ralph could not get past the hair although they didn’t have excessively long hair. It would open up a bit in the early seventies with Outlaw country music by Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings. That movement would soon join traditionalists and the outlaw crowd together. They Byrds helped, in their own way, to make that happen.
The lyrics were about the narrow-mindedness of then certain segments of the country music industry. Lines like “He’s the all-American boy” and “he don’t like the way we play” reflect the hate that McGuinn and Parsons felt from some in Nashville. The title, “Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man,” is a dig at Emery, suggesting that he was more of a conventional figure who could not appreciate or understand the Byrds’ approach to country music. But I’m glad it happened because we got a good country-rock song out of it.
Chris Hillman: “There was the funny story with Ralph Emery, the DJ in Nashville, where he had The Gilded Palace Of Sin tacked on the wall outside of his office, and with a big red pen it said, ‘This is not country music.’ Roger and Gram had gone to do an interview with him when we were all still with the Byrds, and Ralph was such a jerk to them then that they wrote that song “Drug Store Truck Driving Man”. A classic! I wish I’d written a part of that. But later, whenever I’d go on his show with the Desert Rose Band, Ralph would ask, “Did you write that song?” Finally, I had to say, “No, but I wish I had!” So when Roger was on later, Ralph would say, “Well, how is Gram doing?” and Roger would answer, “He’s still dead.” McGuinn was pretty darned quick in those situations!”
I’m adding a live version and a hell of a story by Jason and the Scorchers…on how they played this song and it found a spot on Ralph Emery’s TV show in the early 80s.
Ralph Emery when he invited McGuinn on his show in 1985
Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man
He’s a drug store truck-drivin’ man
He’s the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He’ll be lucky if he’s not in town
Well, he’s got him a house on the hill
He plays country records till you’ve had your fill
He’s a fireman’s friend he’s an all-night DJ
But he sure does think different from the records he plays
He’s a drug store truck-drivin’ man
He’s the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He’ll be lucky if he’s not in town
Well, he don’t like the young folks I know
He told me one night on his radio show
He’s got him a medal he won in the War
It weighs five-hundred pounds and it sleeps on his floor
He’s a drug store truck drivin’ man
He’s the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He’ll be lucky if he’s not in town
He’s been like a father to me
He’s the only DJ you can hear after three
I’m an all-night musician in a rock and roll band
And why he don’t like me I can’t understand
He’s a drug store truck-drivin’ man
He’s the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He’ll be lucky if he’s not in town
Jack Nicholson on Stanley Kubrick: Everyone pretty much acknowledges that he’s the man and I still feel that underates him.
This movie keeps you coming back. If you ask 15 people on what the movie meant…you would get 15 different answers. The movie is so much more than the quoted lines like REDRUM and Here’s Johnny! Every time I watch it I get something different out of it. This won’t be the last Kubrick movie I feature on here.
In 2016 or so…we saw this movie on the big screen on Halloween and it changed the movie completely for me. It made me appreciate it more than I did and that is saying a lot. The film drips with ambiguity. The Shining has to be one of the most dissected movies ever filmed. The cast was absolutely perfect. I also connect to the movie in different ways. It was released in 1980 and they filmed it in 1978 and 1979 and the hotel reminds me of that time so well.
Stanley Kubrick directed this movie and we see Jack Torrance slowly go insane and the drama builds throughout. There are no wasted scenes in The Shining…each scene has a purpose and it’s not wasted. The scenes are hard to explain. There is an open space of silence in many of them so you focus on what’s going on. The bathroom scene with Jack and Grady is careful and deliberate. Nothing else matters in the story except right now in each scene.
Stephen King wrote the book but did not like Kubrick’s interpretation of it. Usually 9/10 times I’m a book guy…on this movie/book, I’m not. I liked Stanley’s vision for the movie over the book. Kubrick didn’t explain everything to you and it’s stronger because of that. You also get isolation, madness, and the supernatural, leaving viewers with many questions about the true nature of the Overlook Hotel.
I have read complaints about Nicholson’s performance being too far over the top. I totally enjoyed his performance and I think Shelley Duvall is seriously underrated in this movie. I can’t imagine what she went through…she had to stay on edge and hysterical through half the movie. Danny Lloyd (5 years and turned 6 through filming) was great as Danny in the film. Kubrick kept Lloyd very reserved in the right spots and he doesn’t overact like some child actors do. The additional character actors fit their roles perfectly. Who would have thought Scatman Crothers would be cast in a movie like this? He was great at his role as was Philip Stone as Delbert Grady and Joe Turkel as Lloyd the Bartender.
Now the music…it makes it. Very few films I’ve seen where the music flows with the dialog. In one scene featuring Jack and Danny sitting on a bed…the orchestration goes up with a question and falls with an answer. The atmospheric synthesizer they used in this movie and A Clockwork Orange adds to the movie greatly. When you are watching the film you feel isolated like Jack, Wendy, and Danny and the music again adds to that.
The two scenes that still scare me when I see it in the movie? A simple scene really but when Wendy finds Jack’s novel she finds out what he’s been typing on a typewriter for a very long time. It sends chills up me when I see that. What a perfect way to show someone has gone insane without saying any dialogue.
The other one is when Danny is riding his Big Wheel or Trike down the hallways and you hear the wheels changing from carpet to hardwood floors…what will be around the next corner? Then the twins appear…that gives me the creeps…forever and ever and ever.
I’ve read a lot of Shining theories and all are all different. There are so many theories like… There were no ghosts at all, it was all in Jack’s head and what happened is what he wrote, it was all in Wendy’s head, the Hotel is really hell, it’s a reminder of the Holocaust, and even down to viewing the film forward and then backward. I think most (there are plenty more) of these are too far out there but that shows you what Kubrick built into this film…you WANT to watch it again and again. I watched it twice before writing this.
Plot IMDB
A psychological horror film centered around the Torrance family: Jack (Jack Nicholson), his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd). The story follows them as they move into the isolated Overlook Hotel for the winter, where Jack takes a job as the hotel’s caretaker. The hotel’s eerie history, which includes murder and supernatural occurrences, begins to affect Jack, who is struggling with writer’s block and a history of alcoholism. Meanwhile, Danny, who has psychic abilities called “the shining,” starts experiencing terrifying visions of the hotel’s past, including the ghostly Grady twins and a river of blood flowing from an elevator.
As time passes, Jack descends into madness, influenced by the hotel’s malevolent forces. He becomes increasingly violent and erratic, eventually attempting to murder his family. The film culminates in a tense chase through the hotel’s hedge maze
Quotes:
Wendy Torrance: Well, I’m very confused, and I just need time to think things over!
Jack Torrance: You’ve had your whole fucking life to think things over, what good’s a few minutes more gonna do you now?
__________________________________________
Lloyd: Women: can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
Jack Torrance: Words of wisdom, Lloyd my man. Words of wisdom.
___________________________________________
Jack Torrance: Hi, Lloyd. Been away. Now, I’m back.
Lloyd: Good evening, Mr. Torrence. It’s good to see you.
Jack Torrance: It’s good to be back, Lloyd.
Lloyd: What’ll it be, sir?
Jack Torrance: Hair of the dog that bit me.
Lloyd: Bourbon on the rocks.
Jack Torrance: That’ll do ‘er!
I remember this trailer back in 1980…it’s one of the best trailers I’ve seen of any movie. Modern trailer makers should study this one.
Thanks to Dave who published this on TurnTable Talk. This time the subject was more of rock’s arty album covers…well of course I had to pick this one.
I’ll never forget buying the Sgt Pepper album. I bought it in 1977, 10 years after it was released, and I played it constantly. I remember opening it and finding this cool sheet of cardboard that contained a cutout mustache, paper pins, Sgt stripes, a cool photo of the Beatles, and Sgt Pepper himself! Thinking back…it’s cool that they included these 10 years after the release date. Here is what a 10-year-old Max found in the album. I wore that mustache for days.
I would venture to say that Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is probably the most famous album by anyone. Personally, I never thought it was their best, but I know many Beatles fans who do think that. If they had added “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” (which most bands would have done) and maybe dropped “Lovely Rita” and “When I’m 64”, then I would have probably considered it the best. Now, after saying that…I like both of those songs, don’t get me wrong. “ Lovely Rita” as a 10-year-old caught my attention. I think Revolver is very hard to beat and that is their best album artistically…personally as most of you know I have a soft spot for “The White Album” and that is my personal #1.
Sgt. Pepper’s is their most ambitious artistic statement, I think, but I listen to Revolver more often, I think it has higher replay value to me anyway. That is like comparing a great work of art by your favorite painter – you love both but see something else in one so it’s very subjective. As far as packaging… now that is where Sgt Pepper knocks it out of the park.
For really the first time on a massive scale, an album was like a work of art. The Beatles standing as Sgt Pepper’s band with a massive audience behind them. Beside them includes the younger Beatles and behind includes everyone from WC Fields to Lenny Bruce. John wanted Jesus and Hitler on the cover but was talked out of it by Sir Joesph Lockwood, the chairman of EMI.
It was designed by artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth. The cover features the band members dressed in colorful, military-style outfits standing in front of a collage of life-sized cardboard cutouts of famous people. Surrounding The Beatles are cutouts of various cultural icons, artists, actors, musicians, and other notable figures. Some of these include Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Karl Marx, and Oscar Wilde.
There are five people still alive who were on the cover as of right now. Bob Dylan (top right), Dion DiMucci (smiling blond guy above and to the left of Lennon), Larry Bell (between Lennon and Starr), and obviously Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
The cover cost approximately £25,000 ((equivalent to £573,000 in 2023)) to produce, which was a significant amount for an album cover at the time. In comparison, most album covers in the 1960s typically cost around £50. The high cost was due to the elaborate design, the custom-made costumes, the creation of the collage with life-sized cutouts, and the use of wax figures borrowed from Madame Tussauds.
The Beatles recorded their debut album Please Please Me in a remarkably short amount of time. The entire recording process for the album took approximately 9 hours and 45 minutes of studio time. Now let’s fast forward five years from 1962 to 1966-67. The Beatles used up to 700 hours of recording time to record Sgt Pepper. The reason why is because they wanted more tracks than just four. They connected two four-track machines together and recorded the album. That wasn’t done all of the time, and they experimented as they went. This album is one of the most important in music history if only because of the newer recording techniques and how far music advanced because of it.
Going off different memories of the albums by people who were there by the time. Some of them said that all you had to do was walk down a UK street and you would hear it from the windows. It was massively popular and peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1967. It also peaked at #1 on the Billboard CD charts in 1987 when it was re-released.
The following year The Band changed the course of music in some ways. they released Music From The Big Pink and influenced a generation. Bands started to play more earthy, more roots-oriented music. The Beatles did that by recording the rootsy “White Album”.
To close out…Sgt. Pepper was a game changer. Not one single was released from the album…it does need to be listened to as a whole.
A Day In The Life
I read the news today, oh boy About a lucky man who made the grade And though the news was rather sad Well, I just had to laugh I saw the photograph
He blew his mind out in a car He didn’t notice that the lights had changed A crowd of people stood and stared They’d seen his face before Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords
I saw a film today, oh boy The English Army had just won the war A crowd of people turned away But I just had to look Having read the book I’d love to turn you on
Woke up, fell out of bed Dragged a comb across my head Found my way downstairs and drank a cup And looking up, I noticed I was late Found my coat and grabbed my hat Made the bus in seconds flat Found my way upstairs and had a smoke And somebody spoke and I went into a dream
I read the news today, oh boy Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire And though the holes were rather small They had to count them all Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall I’d love to turn you on
This song was included on possibly their best album…Led Zeppelin 4 or Zoso… whichever name you know it by. It was released in 1971, which I think was the best year for rock albums. A few weeks before this album, The Who released their huge album Who’s Next.
I liked that they switched gears in this song and kept it a ballad. Plant has often mentioned that part of the song was a tribute to Joni Mitchell, whom he and Page admired. Her song California also inspired this song.
Zeppelin recorded this album at Headley Grange. It is an old, remote mansion in Hampshire, England, and they recorded there frequently. The informal, relaxed atmosphere helped the band focus and be creative.
They used a mobile recording studio, the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, which allowed them to record in various parts of the mansion, capturing different acoustics. Page has talked about recording Bonham underneath a staircase for the sound quality. For this song, however…it was recorded in Headley Grange’s lawn outside in the grass.
Bonham didn’t play on this one and Page played a 6-string and 12-string acoustic guitar. John Paul Jones plays the mandolin on it. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page wrote this song…it’s a great album track.
The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard 200, Canada, and the UK in 1971.
Going To California
Spent my days with a woman unkind
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine
Made up my mind to make a new start
Going to California with an aching in my heart
Someone told me there’s a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair
Took my chances on a big jet plane
Never let ’em tell you that they’re all the same
Oh, the sea was red and the sky was grey
Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today
The mountains and the canyons start to tremble and shake
As the children of the sun began to awake
Watch out
Seems that the wrath of the gods
Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow
I think I might be sinking
Throw me a line, if I reach it in time
I’ll meet you up there where the path runs straight and high
To find a queen without a king
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings
La la la la
Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin’ to find a woman who’s never, never, never been born
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams
Telling myself it’s not as hard, hard, hard as it seems, mmm, ah
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