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 never knew that Buddy Holly covered this song…somehow I missed or forgot that he covered it.
This was recorded back in 1956 as one of his first recordings. It wasn’t released until 4 years after he died. The original version is just Buddy on guitar and vocals and Jerry Allison on drums. Producer Norman Petty then overdubbed the other instruments with help from a band called The Fireballs.
I consider him the beginning of power pop. His Fender playing a clean jangling melody. Songs like Maybe Baby, Peggy Sue, and Words of Love influenced future artists like The Beatles, Hollies, Bob Dylan, and the list is endless. He wrote his own songs and is still influencing artists today with a recording career that only lasted less than three years.
Buddy Holly’s music is still relevant almost sixty years after he passed away in 1959. He didn’t have a big voice like Elvis, Little Richard, or some of his peers but he wrote and crafted beautiful melodies for his voice to weave through.
This song peaked at #4 on the UK Charts and #116 on the Billboard 100 in 1963. The song was on an album called Reminiscing. The album peaked at #2 on the UK Album Charts and #40 on the Billboard Album Charts.
Not only was he a great songwriter but also a great producer and he would have only got better. Unlike many of his fifties counterparts, I believe that Buddy Holly would have fit in the music scene post-Beatles. I always thought his best songs were in front of him. Most of his music transcends the fifties and would have fit nicely in the sixties.
Here are two versions…the bottom WITH the overdubs and the other the original raw recording.
Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley buy baby a diamond ring If that diamond ring don’t shine He gonna take it to a private eye If that private eye can’t see
He better not take that ring from me Won’t you come to my house back at home Take a-my baby on away from home Love a-that photo, where ya been Up to your house and gone again Bo Diddley caught a fat cat
To make a-pretty baby a Sunday hat Bo Diddley caught him a nanny goat To make a pretty baby a Sunday coat Bo Diddley, Bo Diddley have you heard My pretty baby says she wants a bird
Chris Stamey formed the power pop band The dB’s with Peter Holsapple in 1978. A band that admired Big Star and followed their footsteps in releasing some critically acclaimed albums that did not sell. Chris Stamey even played bass for Alex Chilton in 1977.
The dB’s were a great unknown power pop band…who would influence many bands but not sell many records. They were from Winston-Salem, North Carolina but the group was formed in New York City in 1978. The members were Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Will Rigby, and Gene Holder.
Stamey left the dB’s for a while in the 80s to pursue a solo career. He formed a record company in New York in 1978 called Cars Records and managed to release Chris Bell’s (Big Star guitarist, singer, and songwriter) single I Am The Cosmos.
From The Word Go was on Stamey’s second solo album It’s Alright. It was released in 1987 and is the only solo album of his to be released on a major label A&M/Universal. He has released 8 solo albums over a career that is still going now. The dB’s released an album in 2012.
Chris Stamey on Big Star:“They were my favorite, and as far as I knew they were popular all the way across America. At least for that moment, I forgot about Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.”
Starting with The Who’s Tommy album…everything after that gets noticed. Their brilliant early singles sometimes get criminally overlooked. Personally, and I know I am in the minority, I think many of their early singles trump both the Beatles’ and Stones’s early singles. The Who and Kinks didn’t have the quality of the sound of those bigger bands…but that was the point. Those singles were exciting and raw…a few experimental. Paul McCartney was influenced heavily by The Who when he wrote Paperback Writer and Helter Skelter.
On July 8, 1989, I traveled to Atlanta Georgia to see The Who for the first time. Nashville at that time had no place really big enough for them to play. Vanderbilt wasn’t allowing rock concerts at their stadium at that time. I’ll never forget when The Who played this song that night. Roger forgot the words to it and said “I don’t know the bloody words to this song.” I found the clip and I’ll have it below.
The only part of that concert that bothered me was the volume or the lack of really. Entwistle had to turn down his volume and they carried a brass section with them because of Pete’s tinnitus. It sounded great of course but not as in your face as when I saw them in Nashville in 2016. My only guess is now the PA equipment is better because The Who were much louder in 2016 than when I heard them in 1989.
Describing The Who’s next new single (Pictures of Lily)…Pete Townshend coined the term “Power Pop” to describe this song before it was released. It made it to #4 in the UK Charts, #60 on the Billboard 100, and #36 in Canada in 1967. The song tells the story of a father giving his son risque pictures of a woman taken in the 1920s…and after a while, the son finds out that she had died many years ago.
It is a song about the lust of a teenage boy…we will keep it at that. John Entwistle played the French Horn on this that he later didn’t like.
Pete Townshend: On Karen’s (his future wife) bedroom wall were three Victorian black-and-white postcard photographs of scantily dressed actresses. One was the infamous Lily Langtry, mistress of Prince Edward, later King Edward VII, and one sunny afternoon while Karen was at work I scribbled out a lyric inspired by the images and made a demo of ‘Pictures of Lily’. My song was intended to be an ironic comment on the sexual shallows of show business, especially pop, a world of postcard images for boys and girls to fantasise over. ‘Pictures of Lily’ ended up, famously, being about a boy saved from burgeoning adolescent sexual frustration when his father presented him with dirty postcards over which he could masturbate.
John Entwistle: “The thing I hate about ‘Pictures Of Lily’ is that bloody elephant call on the French horn. I also hated the backing vocals, the mermaid voices, where we’d sing all the ‘oooooohs.’ I hated ‘oooooohs.'”
Below is the concert I was at when Roger forgot the words. It’s around the 1:36 mark.
Pictures Of Lily
I used to wake up in the morning I always feel so glad I got so sick of having sleepless nights I went and told my dad
He said, “Son, now here’s some little somethings” And stuck them on my wall And now my nights ain’t quite so lonely In fact I don’t feel bad at all (I don’t feel bad at all)
Pictures of Lily that make my life so wonderful Pictures of Lily that let me sleep at night Pictures of Lily that solved my childhood problem Pictures of Lily, they make me feel alright
Pictures of Lily (pictures of Lily) Pictures of Lily (Lily, oh Lily) Pictures of Lily (Lily, oh Lily) Pictures of Lily (pictures of Lily) Pictures of Lily, pictures of Lily Pictures of Lily, pictures of Lily
And then one day things weren’t so fine I fell in love with Lily I asked my dad where Lily I could find He said, “Don’t be silly”
“She’s been dead since 1929” Oh, how I cried that night If only I’d been born in Lily’s time It would have been alright There were always pictures of Lily to help me sleep at night Pictures of Lily to help me feel alright
‘Cause me and Lily are together in my dreams (my mind) And I was wonderin’, mister, have you ever seen?
Pictures of Lily to help you sleep at night Pictures of Lily to help you feel alright
‘Cause me and Lily are together in my dreams And I was wonderin’, mister, have you ever seen Pictures of Lily?
This song played a key part in making me love the power pop genre. It’s one of my favorite power pop songs of all time. It was originally released in 1988 but wasn’t played over in America until 1990. So I’m cheating on this but I had no way of hearing it before then.
A song by a British band called The La’s. A very good pop song that has no verses…it just repeats the chorus four different ways four different times. It was written by the singer Lee Mavers and recorded in 1988 and remixed and released again in 1990. It only peaked at #49 in 1990 in the US.
Many people think the song was about heroin. Paul Hemmings an ex-guitarist for the band denies that rumor. Either way, it is a perfectly constructed pop song. It’s been covered by a lot of artists but probably most successfully by Sixpence None the Richer. I’ve always liked The La’s version the best.
The Black Crowes – Hard To Handle
When I heard this song in 1990 I was thrilled because it sounded like the Faces of the 70s. It was plain rock and roll and had a timeless quality about it. I waited the entire 1980s for rock and roll like this to be back on the mainstream charts. The Replacements were the other rock band but not in the charts. It happened occasionally (Georgia Satellites and Guns and Roses) but not much. This song was originally recorded by Otis Redding, who wrote it with Allen Jones and Al Bell. It was the only cover song on The Black Crowes debut album which sold over five million copies.
The album also had songs like Jealous Again and She Talks To Angels. I knew things were changing when I saw the success of their album.
The two other versions that I like are Otis Redding and Grateful Dead version with Pigpen taking the lead.
The Replacements – Merry Go Round
This one is off of their last studio album All Shook Down. I was going to conclude with this one having one off of their studio albums but there is one more coming next week.
This is not my favorite off the album but it did have a commercial sound for that time and it’s something that I thought would have charted in the Billboard 100. Merry Go Round did peak at #1 on the alternative charts. The album peaked at #69 in the Billboard Album Chart in 1990.
“Merry Go Round” was written about the lives of Westerberg and his sister Mary (“They ignored me with a smile, you as a child”).
The band went to Los Angeles to make a video for Merry Go Round. With Westerberg’s okay, Warner Bros. hired Bob Dylan’s twenty-three-year-old son Jesse Dylan, who was just starting to direct.
AC/DC – Thunderstruck
As much as I love Angus Young’s intro to this…it’s his brother’s rhythm guitar that makes this song go. Brothers Angus and Malcolm Young wrote this song.
A side note to this song. In 2012 a couple of Iranian uranium-enrichment plants were hacked and their computers shut down but not before blasting Thunderstruck at maximum volume like you are probably doing right now or will be soon.
The album was recorded with producer Bruce Fairbairn at his Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, where he also produced Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and the Aerosmith albums Permanent Vacation and Pump. It was the group’s first time working with Fairbairn.
Sinéad O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U
This song was everywhere in 1990. Prince wrote this song in 1984 but didn’t release it. He gave it to a group called The Family that was signed to his label. The Family included it on a 1985 album but it never went anywhere. Five years later it became the biggest hit of 1990. Prince recorded his own version as well, but it wasn’t released until 2018, two years after his death.
It was O’Connor’s manager, Fachtna O’Kelly, who suggested she record a version of the track. O’Kelly knew it would be perfect for her.
This one is only 16 years old…for this site that is practically brand new!
When I first heard this I thought this song had a Stevie Wonder feel to it…none of my friends shared the same opinion… Nonetheless, it’s a good song. It’s a straight-ahead pop song without much production.
James Morrison is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist from Rugby, Warwickshire. James attributes his gravelly voice to a near-fatal childhood bout of whooping cough. The song peaked at #3 on the Billboard Triple-A Charts in 2009. The song was written by James Morrison, and Barry and Mark Taylor.
The song was on his second studio album Songs for You, Truths for Me, which peaked at #49 in the Billboard 100 in 2008.
“Nothing Ever Hurt Like You” received critical acclaim and was well-received by audiences. While it did not win any major awards, it helped James Morrison’s career as a respected singer-songwriter.
Nothing Ever Hurt Like You
1, 2, 3, 4
Oh, oh, oh,
Yeah yeah yeah
HeyIf loving you is easy,
Playing by the rules,
But you said love taste so much better when its cruel
To you everything was just a game,
Yeah you played me good,
But I want you, I want you, I want you,
So much more than I should,
Yes I do.I’ve got my hands up so take your aim,
Yeah I’m ready,
There’s nothing that we can’t go through,
Oh it hit me like a steal freight train,
When you left me,
And nothing ever hurt like you,
Nothing ever hurt like you.I was naive and wide eyed,
But you made me see,
That you don’t get to taste the honey,
Without the sting of a bee,
No you don’t.Yes you stung me good,
Oh yeah you dug in deep,
But ill take, ill take it, ill take it
Till I’m down on my knees.
I’ve got my hands up so take your aim,
Yeah I’m ready,
There’s nothing that we can’t go through,
Walk a thousand miles on broken glass,
It wont stop me,
From making my way back to you,
Its not real till you feel the pain,
And nothing ever hurt like you,
Nothing ever hurt like you.Oh everything was just a game,
Yeah you played me good,
But I want you, I want you, I want you,
I want you, I want you.I’ve got my hands up so take your aim,
Yeah I’m ready,
There’s nothing that we can’t go through,
Walk a thousand miles on broken glass,
It wont stop me,
From making my way back to you,
Its not real till you feel the pain,
And nothing ever hurt like you,
Nothing ever hurt like you.
I remember Freddy Fender as a kid and this song. I remember it being played everywhere. It was a huge crossover hit and I saw him on television at the time singing it on different shows.
Freddy Fender wrote and recorded it in 1959 for a small label. It wasn’t until 1975 that he was able to release it again under his name. He and some band members were charged with pot possession in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1960.
Fender served 3 1/.2 years in prison until he was pardoned by Governor Jimmie Davis. There was a condition though…he had to stay away from anywhere that served alcohol. In the late sixties, he started to work in a garage and play music on the weekends.
He started to record again in 1974 and struck gold with his first two releases. Before the Next Teardrop Falls peaked at #1 in the Billboard Country Charts, #1 on the Billboard 100, and #1 on the Canadian Country Charts. Wasted Days and Wasted Nights peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts, #8 on the Billboard 100, #2 on the Canadian Country Charts, and #6 in Canada in 1975.
He would have more number 1s in the Country Charts for Billboard and Canada. Later on, Fender would later join the Texas Tornados and Los Super 7.
Here is Freddie with the Texas Tornados doing the song.
Wasted Days Wasted Nights
Wasted days and wasted nights I have left for you behind For you don’t belong to me Your heart belongs to someone else
Why should I keep loving you When I know that you’re not true? And why should I call your name When you’re to blame For making me blue?
Don’t you remember the day That you went away and left me? I was so lonely Prayed for you only My love
Why should I keep loving you When I know that you’re not true? And why should I call your name When you’re to blame For making me blue?
Don’t you remember the day That you went away and left me? I was so lonely Prayed for you only My love
Wasted days and wasted nights I have left for you behind For you don’t belong to me Your heart belongs to someone else
Why should I keep loving you When I know that you’re not true? And why should I call your name When you’re to blame For making me blue?
Something about Bob Seger…the man paid his dues. Bob started in 1961 in the Detroit music scene in the Decibels. He kicked around in different bands through the years. His break-out song is this one. His friend, 19-year-old Glen Frey, plays acoustic guitar and sings backup on this song.
The song was a big hit in Michigan and eventually started to climb the charts. The song peaked at #17 on the Billboard 100 in 1969. It would be 1975 before Seger broke nationally. After hearing Gimme Some Loving by the Spencer Davis Group, Seger wanted that organ in a song. Bob Schultz, a Seger’s band member, played it on this track. From then on it became a part of the live sound.
Seger has had an interesting career. Before Against The Wind, before Night Moves, before the Silver Bullet Band even existed, Bob Seger made gritty, experimental garage rock. It was far from the radio hits that made him famous, and much closer to the punk of fellow Michigan musicians like Iggy Pop. At this time he would hang out with The Stooges and The MC5. They would eventually fade away but Seger matured as a songwriter and became a hit machine.
I’ve always liked Bob Seger. He gets heavy play here in the south and many of his songs have been played to death…but not this one. I like the rawness of this single.
Bob Seger: “We’d had a few records that were popular around town and you’d hear on the radio a lot, but, yeah, that was a little different. That was a hit.”
“I wasn’t necessarily a great songwriter at that time, I think I focused more on playing the guitar and singing… even though Dylan and Van Morrison were important to me and influences on me. That craft was something that developed slowly.”
A live version
Here is a very early look at Bob Seger
Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man
Yeah, I’m gonna
Tell my tale, come on
Come on, ha, give a listen
Cause I was born lonely
Down by the riverside
Learned to spin fortune wheels
And throw dice
I was just thirteen
When I had to leave home
Knew I couldn’t stick around
I had to roam
Ain’t good looking
But you know I ain’t shy
Ain’t afraid to look
A girl in the eye
So if you need some loving
And you need it right away
Take a little time out
And maybe I’ll stay
[CHORUS]
But I got to ramble (rambling man)
I got to gamble (gambling man)
Got to, got to ramble (rambling man)
I was born a rambling, gambling man
Yeah, yeah, yeah….
Ha ha, bring it on
Come on down, yeah
All right, here we go
Now, now
I’m out of money
Cause you know I need some
Ain’t gone run out of loving
And I must run
Gotta keep moving
Never gonna slow down
You can have your funky world
See you round
Cause I got to ramble (rambling man)
I got to gamble (gambling man)
I got to ramble (rambling man)
Lord, I’m a rambling, gambling man
Oh, I’m just a rambler
Yeah, I’m just a gambler
Come on and sing along
Cause I’m just a rambler (rambling man)
Lord, I’m a gambler (gambling man)
I’m a rambler (rambling man)
Yeah, I’m a rambler…
This song was released in 1985 from their album Ain’t Love Grand. They had made a change in the producer spot. They replaced former Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek with Michael Wagner. Manzarek had produced all of their albums up to this point. The band wanted a more accessible sound.
X was formed in Los Angeles in 1977 and comprised of founding members singer John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, drummer D.J. Bonebrake, and singer Exene Cervenka. With their first album in 1981, their album Los Angeles was critically praised and considered a great one of that period.
The band was founded by Doe (real name John Nommensen Duchac) and Zoom. Soon Doe would bring his girlfriend Exene Cervenka to band practice, she was a poet and the band liked her work so she joined permanently. When trying to think of a name…Doe looked around the band members and focused on Exene Cervenka. Her unusual first name was shortened to X…Exene to X…
After Manzarek saw them live…he really connected to the lyrics. He was instantly struck by the lyrics to X’s song Johny Hit And Run Paulene: ‘He got a sterilized hypo, to shoot a sex machine drug/He got 24 hours, to shoot Paulene between the legs.’ Manzarek thought to himself…those are not lyrics…those are poetry.
The song peaked at #27 on the Billboard Mainstream Charts and the album Ain’t Love Grand peaked at #89 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1985.
Tensions were rising in the band and Zoom left and would be replaced for a bit by Dave Alvin of The Blasters. X announced they were breaking up in 1998 but would do a last tour. They did a farewell tour with Zoom back on guitar.
They reunited and from 2004 onward, X has continued to perform frequently around North America.
Billy Zoom: “I think it’s the best songs we’ve ever done, and the best-produced record, and the best-engineered, and the best-sounding record we’ve made. It’s the first one I’m really happy with. The others were always kind of hit-and-miss.” Doe said, “Sonically, it’s designed to fit into radio airplay. We’re waving a typical… somewhat typical sounding carrot under radio listeners’ noses. Then they’ve got the opportunity to see that there’s more going on.
Burning House Of Love
Drive by my house late at night
You can see from the freeway above
No silhouette, but a light left on
Burning there for love
Burning there for love
Smoke is rising from the fire
Coming out my back door
I’m inside, sound asleep
Cigarette on the floor
Burning there for love
Burning there for love
Well, I can still remember
A couple of years ago
When the smoke and flame called my name
It was a burning house of love
Yeah, a burning house of love
A burning house of love
Burning house of love
Burning house of love
Oh, I can still remember
A couple of years ago
When the smoke and flame called my name
Was a burning house of love
Yeah, a burning house of love
A burning house of love
The rusty nail over our front door
Is where I hung our tears in the rain
I threw that horseshoe into the weeds
I’ll see what luck can bring
I’ll see what luck can bring
Now, you’re in your bed and I’m in mine
On either side of town
I think I might take a ride
And burn your love house down
Like a burning house of love
Burning house of love
I can still remember
A couple of years ago
When the smoke and flame called my name
Was a burning house of love
Yeah, a burning house of love
A burning house of love
Burning house of love
Burning house of love
Burning house of love
Burning house of love
Underneath a pork pie hat Until hell freezes over Maybe you can wait that long But I don’t think Ronnie Milsap’s gonna ever Record this song
I somehow missed this Hiatt song. I absolutely love the guitar on this track. Come to find out there is a reason I like it. Ry Cooder is on guitar, Nick Lowe on bass, Jim Keltner on drums, and Paul Carrack on keyboards and backing vocals. Later on, B.B. King and Eric Clapton covered this song.
Hiatt had only four days to make an album and this song kicked off his 1987 album Bring The Family. The song has a cool groove and shuffle to it. Hiatt was in Nashville at the time when he took a trip with his family to Memphis which of course inspired this song.
He mentions Ronnie Milsap in this song. At the time Nashville was known to make slick country songs. They would produce the soul out of a song. Milsap was listening though. On his next album, he recorded a John Hiatt song called Old Habits Are Hard To Break and yes… he inserted some Memphis funk in the song. Probably more than Hiatt could have thought at the time. Another thing that was happening at this time was Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle were shaking Nashville out of its rut.
Hiatt found himself drawn to the city’s renowned musical history and culture. I’m not sure how it was in the 1980s as much but now on Beale Street, there is always something interesting going on.
John Hiatt: “It sounds like a car with four bald tires, it’s like a four-man groove sputtering down the road, and I really like the record for that.”
John Hiatt: “It’s a day trip, only three hours, and it’s a terrific city, I’d been there before and there is truly something in the air, although there’s nothing going on musically speaking, they say. It’s just a great town and one of the only truly integrated cities in America, it seemed to me, where black people and white people actually live together in the neighborhoods and not only that, seem to get along I was real impressed by that.”
John Hiatt and The Goners…featuring Sonny Landreth…I really like this live cut. They add another dimension to the song.
Memphis in the Meantime
I got some’n’ to say little girl You might not like my style But we been hangin’ around this town Just a little too long a while You say you’re gonna get your act together Gonna take it out on the road But if I don’t get out o’ here pretty soon My head’s going to explode Sure I like country music And I like mandolins But right now I need a Telecaster Through a Vibrolux turned up to 10
Let’s go to Memphis in the meantime baby Ahw, Memphis in the meantime girl Let’s go to Memphis in the meantime baby Memphis in the meantime girl
I need a little shot of that rhythm baby Mixed up with these country blues I wanna trade in these ol’ cowboy boots For some fine Italian shoes Forget the mousse and the hairspray sugar We don’t need none of that Just a little dab’ll do ya girl Underneath a pork pie hat Until hell freezes over Maybe you can wait that long But I don’t think Ronnie Milsap’s gonna ever Record this song
Lets go to Memphis in the meantime baby Let’s go to Memphis in the meantime girl Lets go to Memphis in the meantime baby Let’s go to Memphis in the meantime girl
Maybe there’s nothin’ happenin’ there But maybe there’s somethin’ in the air Before our upper lips get stiff Maybe we need us a big ol’ whiff
If we could just get off-a that beat little girl Maybe we could find the groove At least we can get ourselves a decent meal Down at the Rendezvous ‘Cause one more heartfelt steel guitar chord Girl, it’s gonna do me in I need to hear some trumpet and saxophone You know sound as sweet as sin And after we get good and greasy Baby we can come on home Put the cow horns back on the Cadillac And change the message on the Cordaphone But
Lets go to Memphis in the meantime baby Let’s go to Memphis in the meantime girl Lets go to Memphis in the meantime baby Let’s go to Memphis in the meantime girl
I’m a talking about Memphis I’m talkin’ ’bout Memphis Memphis
A few weeks ago I covered an artist named Alejandro Escovedo, a Texas singer-songwriter who has been around since the early seventies. I’ve recently listened to the album The Pawn Shop Years and it’s fantastic. The band was named after the T. Rex song Buick MacKane and I see the similarities.
They formed in 1989 and began recording songs for the album that would be released in 1997. They mostly played around Austin and they were a mix between garage and glam rock…and it sounds great. Escovedo had just broken up with his band The True Believers when all of this happened. They were popular in Austin and they had some trouble with people accepting Buick MacKane because they thought it would be The True Believers part two.
If you want to hear a 1990s rock album that sounds like the early seventies…this is the one. Instead of checking out a few songs…check out the album. I’ve posted two songs by them to give you a hint. These guys are not going to give you lush ballads…every song is turned up to 11. They use feedback in many of the songs and it’s so refreshing to hear that. I missed these guys in the 90s but…better late than never.
My only disappointment with this band is that they didn’t make any more albums. I’ve never messed with Spotify much but I thought I would post a link to their album at the bottom.
Rick Reger, Chicago Tribune: “A part-time project recorded over three years by musicians who passionately care about the fact that they’re having a great time in the process, ‘The Pawn Shop Years’ comes, conquers and destroys with far more devastating effect than many a self-important hard rock band purporting to do this for a living.”
This is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard. I’ve never lived in New York but you get a sense of what it’s like in this song. I don’t post ballads much but this one I just had to.
Jeffreys is a Brooklyn, N.Y.-born singer/songwriter who has released 15 studio albums in his 53-year career. His mixed heritage Puerto Rican and African-American is mirrored in his music, which embraces rock, soul, R&B, and reggae. He began his career performing solo in Manhattan clubs in 1966 after attending college at Syracuse University as an art major, where he became friends with Lou Reed. He then spent some time in Italy studying art before returning to further his education at New York’s Institute of Fine Arts.
He seemed on the cusp of making it so many times but never crossed that bridge. Jeffreys was named the most promising new artist of 1977 by Rolling Stone magazine, and positive pieces about Jeffreys appeared in the Village Voice and the New Yorker. He was friends with peers like Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Bob Marley, John Lennon, and Joe Strummer.
This song was included on the 1977 album Ghost Writer. The album also included my favorite song by him so far…Wild In The Streets. I have posted a couple of posts on him before and he hits me the same way that Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, and Graham Parker do.
Fellow blogger MusicCityMike made a video/post about Ghost Writer back in 2020. Take a look at it if you can.
Wild In The Streets was released as a single in 1973 but it was included on Ghost Writer.
New York Skyline
Baby Jean Vaudeville queen She love to ragtime in the night I know I?m gonna miss my baby Jean Cause she treats me oh so right
But the New York Skyline It?s calling me home tonight Female, feline, feminine, She?s been making my world so bright
Hindsight, foresight Sometimes we?ve got no sight at all New love, true love Sometimes we?ve got no love at all
But the New York Skyline it?s Calling me home tonight Female, feline, feminine, She?s been making my world so bright
New York Skyline, New York Skyline I can see those city lights And I can feel those neon signs Bright lights, big city Well it must be modern times Yes it must be modern times Well it must be modern times
This one is an excellent power pop song. This is what power pop is all about. It’s a radio-friendly catchy song with some power behind it. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at listening to his solo works and his 70’s band Grin.
Across The Tracks was on the 1983 album Wonderland. The album is very accessible with catchy songs and his vocals are strong.
Most people know Nils Lofgren from The E-Street Band. He joined them in 1984 to replace Steven Van Zandt. When Van Zandt came back, Bruce made the correct decision to keep both guitar players. Nils also played for Neil Young in the seventies. Lofgren joined Neil Young’s band in 1968 at age 17, playing piano on the album After the Gold Rush. Lofgren would maintain a close relationship with Young, appearing on his Tonight’s the Night album and tour among others. He was also briefly a member of Crazy Horse, appearing on their 1971 LP and contributing songs to their catalog.
He was born in Chicago and he moved to the Washington, D.C., area as a teenager. His first instrument was the accordion. He was also a competitive gymnast in high school, a skill that popped up later in his career. I remember seeing him with the E Street Band and he would do a flip from a trampoline. You can also see it in this video.
From 1971 to 1974 Lofgren was in a band he founded in 1969, a band named Grin. After landing a record deal in ’71 the band released 4 critically-acclaimed albums but met with little commercial success. He followed that band up with some solo albums that weren’t huge commercial successes but he earned the respect of his peers as an excellent guitarist and singer-songwriter.
Across The Tracks
Across the tracks there’s a girl who loves me Just as much as I love her We are unified still crucified Just because we live across the tracks, yeah
White or black, day or night What’s the difference when you’ve hurt someone? You can walk tall, you can act small Any fool can fire a gun
Across the tracks there’s a girl who loves me Just as much as I love her We are unified still crucified Just because we live across the tracks, yeah alright yeah
So we slip away and pretend to play And it said how families make you run If my daddy ever caught me kissing her I believe he would shoot his son
But we’re growin’ up and there’ll come a day When the real world makes us run away Now we live in shame and play their silly game Soon we’ll be gone and I don’t have to say, yeah
Across the tracks there’s a girl who loves me Just as much as I love her We are unified still we’re crucified Just because we live across the tracks, yeah
Across the tracks, across the tracks We won’t stand forever across the tracks Across the tracks, across the tracks, oh
“If looks could kill, it would have been us instead of him”.
I got the White Album and Abbey Road in the winter of 1981 and immediately fell in love with both, mainly the White Album. The sheer volume of variety knocked me out. I had heard a lot of the songs already but this album changed me musically. When our band started to play I always wanted a variety in our sets. I wanted to play the loudest raunchiest song and then the next one be the quietest song ever. One example would be AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long and then…Wonderful Tonight. I try my best for the blog to be like that also. John Denver one day and then The Stones…it’s warped…but so am I.
This song stuck in my head for months but I didn’t mind. John wrote this one while all of the Beatles were in India visiting the Maraharshi. It’s based on a true story. When they were there they did meet a hunter who shot tigers. The hunter’s name was Richard A. Cooke, and his wife Bronwyn explained that Richard, “had asked the Maharishi if it was a sin to kill a tiger. John and George were in the room. Maharishi’s response was, ‘Life destruction is Life destruction.’ Rik has not shot anything since. He became a freelance photographer for National Geographic.”
Richard Cooke in the blue shirt
This event ended the hunting career of Richard Cooke III. He decided instead to take up professional photography, working as a freelancer for The National Geographic Society for the next 40 years. His mother Nancy remained friends with fellow meditator George Harrison until his death in 2001.
Sometime in 1969, Capitol released “Bungalow Bill” on a short lived format called “Playtape,” which was a tape cartridge made for portable players. Since there wasn’t much tape allotted to a cartridge, it took five volumes to contain most of the songs on the “White Album,” “Bungalow Bill” being featured on “The Beatles Vol. III.” These tapes are highly sought after today and are quite valuable.
It was widely known that John Lennon didn’t write fictional story songs. He was amazed that Paul wrote so many about fictional people like Rita the Meter Maid or Desmond and Molly. The only fictional departure from this song’s actual story is the throwback reference to comic books that John enjoyed during his childhood in the late ’50s and early ’60s. “Captain Marvel – The World’s Mightiest Mortal.”
It’s John’s voice through the verses that I like…he could make any song sound interesting.
John’s lyrics contain “zapped him right between the eyes.” This American comic book reference to someone ‘zapping’ someone was something that John thought to be humorous, so he added it into the story as an inside joke, emphatically repeated afterward as “ZZZZAP!”
The White Album was released in 1968 and peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Chart, #1 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and #1 about everywhere else. The sessions were not the happiest time for the band but they came up with the most eclectic batch of songs they ever produced.
John Lennon: “At the Maharishi’s meditation camp, there was a guy who took a short break to go away and shoot a few poor tigers and then came back to commune with God. There used to be a character called Jungle Jim and I combined him with Buffalo Bill. It’s a sort of teenage social-comment song. It’s a bit of a joke.”
Paul McCartney: “This is another of his great songs and it’s one of my favorites to this day because it stands for a lot of what I stand for now. ‘Did you really have to shoot that tiger’ is its message. ‘Aren’t you a big guy? Aren’t you a brave man?’ I think John put it very well.”
John Lennon: “I had a sort of professional songwriter’s attitude to writing pop songs, I’d have a separate ‘songwriting’ John Lennon who wrote songs for the sort of meat market, and I didn’t consider them, the lyrics or anything, to have any depth at all. Then I started being me about the songs…not writing them objectively, but subjectively…I think it was Dylan that helped me realize that.”
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?
He went out hunting with his elephant and gun
In case of accidents, he always took his mom
He’s the all-American bullet-headed Saxon mother’s son
All the children sing
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?
Deep in the jungle where the mighty tiger lies
Bill and his elephants were taken by surprise
So Captain Marvel zapped him right between the eyes
All the children sing
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?
The children asked him if to kill was not a sin
“Not when he looked so fierce”, his mommy butted in
“If looks could kill, it would have been us instead of him”.
All the children sing
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?
Free Fallin’ may be the song he is most remembered by. Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne wrote and recorded “Free Fallin’” in just two days, the first song completed for Full Moon Fever.“We had a multitude of acoustic guitars,” Petty told Rolling Stone of the song’s Byrds-y feel. “So it made this incredibly dreamy sound.”
Tom Petty: “There’s not a day that goes by that someone doesn’t hum ‘Free Fallin” to me or I don’t hear it somewhere,” “But it was really only 30 minutes of my life.”
Replacements – I’ll Be You
My favorite band of the 1980s. I was so amazed to hear The Replacements on mainstream radio at this time. This was the closest the Replacements came to having a “hit.” It peaked at #51 on the Billboard 100 and #1 on the Modern Rock Charts in 1989. The song did expand its audience with younger kids coming to see them without knowing their back catalog. This was an annoyance to some of the band members who some nights didn’t play I’ll Be You.
The line, “Left a Rebel without a clue” was later borrowed by Tom Petty into his hit, “Into the Great Wide Open,” in 1991. The Replacements opened up for Petty in his 1989 tour with the Heartbreakers.
Roy Orbison – You Got It
Roy was making a great comeback in the late eighties. He was a member of the Traveling Wilburys and he finished a new album called Mystery Girl in November of 1988. He confided in Johnny Cash that he was having chest pains and he would have to have it looked at…he never did.
The Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 was rising in the charts and he flew to Europe to do a show and came back and did a few more in America. On December 6, 1988, he flew model planes with his kids and after dinner passed away at the age of 52.
I remember watching the Traveling Wilburys video “End of the Line”. They made the video after Roy passed away… when his part came up they showed an empty rocking chair with Roy’s picture beside it.
You Got It featured Jeff Lynn, Tom Petty, and Phil Jones.
Bonnie Raitt – A Thing Called Love
Thing Called Love was written by John Hiatt for his 1987 album Bring the Family. Bonnie covered this song for her 1989 Nick of Time album.
Nick of Time was Bonnie Raitt’s breakthrough album. After years of endless touring and making albums it all paid off with this album.
This is the song that really got me into the newer version Bonnie Raitt. I did like her earlier hit Runaway and I’d heard of her music and read about her. She paid her dues and I was happy to see her hit big. She is an extremely gifted slide guitar player and singer.
Neil Young – Rockin’ In The Free World
This is from our favorite Canadian Neil Young. It surprised me that this was released in 1989. I remember it the most in the 90s.
This was inspired by the political changes going on at the time, and was highly critical of George Bush Sr. Some of the lyrics mock Bush’s campaign speeches: “We got 1,000 points of light, for the homeless man,” “We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand.”
Rocking In A Free World was written in February 1989, as Neil Young toured the Pacific Northwest. Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini had just issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie because of his controversial novel The Satanic Verses and Russia had recently withdrawn its forces from Afghanistan.
Pearl Jam has performed this song from time to time with Young, who said that Neil is their musical mentor. The first time they performed it together was at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, where the “Jeremy” video won four awards. Young came on as a surprise guest.
Sam Mendes has directed some huge films like 1917, American Beauty, Road To Perdition, and Skyfall to name just a few.
This looks interesting and new…and potentially groundbreaking. In recent years Queen and Elton John got a biopic treatment but I never thought someone would try The Beatles because it was a lot to put into one movie. Well this will be four different movies that will intersect through the perspective of each Beatle.
Each film will be told from the point of view of a different band member, and will eventually “intersect to tell the astonishing story of the greatest band in history.” Sony will distribute the films worldwide in 2027 and with this intriguing promise: “The dating cadence of the films, the details of which will be shared closer to release, will be innovative and groundbreaking.”
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 