Badfinger (Max)

Alejandro Escovedo – Always A Friend

But if I do you wrong, smoke my smoke, drink my wine
Bury my snake skin boots somewhere I’ll never find

CB took a break from fishing and posted a song on Friday by Alejandro Escovedo. He sounded fantastic along with his band, featuring some great players like Peter Buck on guitar. I had never heard of Alejandro Escovedo but immediately liked what I heard. I started to go through his discography and I hit this song. He has a lot of good songs and needs to be heard.

I’ve found this world of Texas musicians and songwriters with some like Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Townes Van Zant, Guy Clark, Kris Kristofferson, and now I add Alejandro Escovedo to that growing list. These guys are some of the best singer-songwriters ever but only a few are well known. Escovedo combines power with excellent writing. Many times both don’t go together but when I heard some of his live performances you get the raw rock but with intelligent writing.

He was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1951, one of 12 children. His family was deep in music with his father playing in mariachi bands and swing combos before and after he migrated from Mexico. Later, Alejandro moved to California and saw acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Buffalo Springfield, the Doors, the Seeds, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. After that, he started to get into bands such as the New York Dolls and Stooges. Those two bands were a big influence on him.

Here is a very brief musical history. He began his musical career as a guitarist with the punk band The Nuns, in 1975. He then played with Judy Nylon in 1980 and cofounded Rank and File, in 1981. He left Rank and File and began True Believers with his brother Javier in 1982. The True Believers disbanded in 1987 and after that, he performed with The Alejandro Escovedo Orchestra, the Setters, and Buick MacKane. In 1992 he released his first album Gravity. Since then he has released 17 albums including La Cruzada in 2021.

Alejandro didn’t know it but Bruce Springsteen was a fan of his work. On April 14, 2008, Bruce was in Houston, Texas touring and he wanted Alejandro to come up with him on stage. Bruce loved this song as it was the lead single off of Escovedo’s album Real Animal released in 2008. The E Street Band learned it that day just so Bruce could play with Alejandro.

Alejandro Escovedo on being called up to sing with Bruce. “We were two hours out! I get there late, of course, like an hour before the show, He takes me to the dressing room, he has all the lyrics written out, he’s already run the band through it at sound check, and he and I sing it alone in the dressing room together.”

“And then I go out and see my first Bruce show, which just chopped my head off. It was unbelievable. I had never realized the magnitude and power. I was like, oh my God, I forgot how big rock ‘n’ roll could be.”

Alejandro Escovedo: “Those four minutes on stage with Bruce were more important than the 33 years I’ve been playing music. It just changed my life. It was like being blessed by the Dalai Lama. Suddenly all those years of working really hard and struggling, someone said, ‘You’re alright. You’re good at what you do. You deserve to be up here.’”

Always A Friend

Wasn’t I always a friend to you?
Wasn’t I always a friend to you?
Do you wanna be my friend?
Do you wanna be my friend?

Every once in a while honey let your love show
Every once in a while honey let yourself go
Nobody gets hurt no, nah
Nobody gets hurt

We came here as two, we laid down as one
I don’t care if I’m not your only one
What I see in you, you see in me

But if I do you wrong, smoke my smoke, drink my wine
Bury my snake skin boots somewhere I’ll never find
Still be your lover baby, oh oh, oh oh, oh oh

Wasn’t I always a friend to you?
Wasn’t I always a friend to you?
Do you wanna be my friend?
Do you wanna be my friend?

Every once in a while honey let yourself go
Every once in a while honey let your love show
Nobody gets hurt no, no
Nobody gets hurt

Well, I could be an astronaut on the wrong side of the moon
Or wrapped up like a baby on a bus under you
Wherever I go you go with me

But if I do you wrong, take the master suite, I’ll take the floor
Sleep in late, get your rest, I’ll catch up on mine
Still be your lover, baby, oh oh, oh oh, oh oh

Wasn’t I always a friend to you?
Wasn’t I always a friend to you?
Every once in a while honey let your love show
Every once in a while honey let yourself go, yeah
Nobody gets hurt, it’s only love, love, love
Oh oh, oh oh, oh oh

…

Tornados – Telstar

Dave posted this on January 16th on his Turntable Talk series. The theme was instrumentals. The problem wasn’t finding one…it was choosing one between all of the instrumentals out there.

I can’t really say how this song makes me feel. It still sounds futuristic, but I also feel nostalgic about an era before my time. It sounds both uplifting and melancholy at the same time.

This was the best-selling British single of 1962. It was also the first song by a British group to hit #1 in the US. This did not happen again until The Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in 1964.

The legendary Joe Meek wrote and produced this song. This was an adventurous instrumental record for the time and ahead of its time. The song took off and peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, in Canada, New Zealand, and the UK in 1962.

Meek was ahead of his time. He was doing things in a studio that the Beatles found years later like playing things backwards and getting different effects in 1962. Meek was a genius at recording. Some say he was a mad genius because some say he had mental illnesses and a narcissistic personality disorder. There is a movie I would recommend watching… Telstar: The Joe Meek Story.

An instrumental with space sound effects, this was inspired by the Telstar communications satellite, which was launched shortly before this song was written. Telstar had been launched for 5 weeks when this song came out. Telstar no longer functions but still orbits the earth to this day.

The Tornados were a club band that disliked the song, but Meek added his effects at his home studio above a leather shop in northern London. An overdubbed Clavioline keyboard provoked spooked space effects, while a backward tape of a flushing toilet evoked all the majesty of a space-bound rocket. The Clavioline was an early electronic keyboard that could create a range of otherworldly sounds, to play the main melody of the song, which he then layered with other instruments and sound effects to create an orchestral and ethereal sound that evokes the vastness and wonder of space.

The Tornados received little money from the song. Meek had leased the record to Decca Records and having negotiated a 5% royalty of the record sales he received 29,000 pounds, very little of which was passed on to The Tornados.

I’ve listened to the first demo of it and it’s not like anything the finished product sounded like.

A little more on Meek…that’s who developed this song. George Martin had just left EMI in 1965 and the head of EMI was Sir Joesph Lockwood. Lockwood thought of Joe Meek as a suitable replacement for Martin. Martin still produced the Beatles as a contractor, but Meek could fill in his other EMI duties. Meek was told about the job offer but he didn’t want to give up his independence, but it was tempting. Meek was unable to decide. On January 17, 1967, Sir Joseph finally called him to press for a decision. Meek joined the meeting accompanied by his lawyer. It’s not known how the meeting went, only the result is known: Joe Meek said no. Meek would be dead of a murder (his landlady) suicide the next month.

Captain Beefheart – Diddy Wah Diddy

I’ve heard Captain Beefheart off and on through the years. To put it lightly…he was different.

Captain Beefheart was born Don Van Vliet and was a prodigy sculptor in his childhood. I first heard about him from a Beatles book…as I did with a lot of the artists I know. John and Paul were fans of his albums Trout Mask Replica and Safe As Milk.

This is one of Captain Beefheart’s most conventional and accessible songs and it has a nasty sound to it that I like. It has a great blues feel to it. Like Frank Zappa…he wasn’t for everyone. Speaking of Frank Zappa, he grew up with Vliet in California and they hung out as teenagers. Both of them bring something different to the table.

I would like to explore more of his music in the future. His music can be very abstract as he will switch tempos and experiment. I go in knowing I’m not going to be hearing many radio-friendly songs and I found a lot of songs that I like. I’ve been listening to Captain Beefheart closely for a few weeks now… I like a lot of what I’m hearing. He took chances like no one else.

This song was released as a promotional single back in 1966 with the B side as “Who Do You Think You’re Fooling.” Diddy Wah Diddy was written by Willie Dixon and Bo Diddley. Bo Diddley released this song in 1956.

There are two stories about how he got his name – the one he gave to David Letterman was that he chose it because he had a “beef in his heart” about how humanity was ruining the environment.

The second was in one of Frank Zappa’s biographies. “His girlfriend, Laurie, lived in the house with him, along with his Mom (Sue), his Dad (Glen), Aunt Ione and Uncle Alan… The way Don got his ‘stage name’ was, Uncle Alan had a habit of exposing himself to Laurie. He’d piss with the bathroom door open, and if she was walking by, mumble about his appendage – something along the lines of: ‘Ahh, what a beauty! It looks just like a big, fine beef heart.”

I have more to come from Captain Beefheart. I want to dip into some of his non-conventional songs.

The B-Side Who Do You Think You’re Fooling

Diddy Wah Diddy

I gotta gal down in Diddy Wah Diddy
(Diddy Wah)
Ain’t no town an it ain’t no city
(Diddy Wah)
She loves her man, just is a pity
Crazy ’bout my gal in Diddy Wah Diddy

(Diddy Wah)
This little girl is sweet as she could be
(Diddy Wah)
I know she’s in love with me
(Diddy Wah)
A lovely face, she’s so pretty
(Diddy Wah)
But she’s still way down in Diddy Wah Diddy

(Diddy Wah, Diddy Wah, Diddy)
(Diddy Wah, Diddy Wah, Diddy)
(Diddy Wah, Diddy Wah, Diddy)

Ain’t no town, an it ain’t no city
But oh, how they love in Diddy Wah Diddy)

(Diddy Wah)
(Diddy Wah)
(Diddy Wah)

(Diddy Wah)
She kissed me all the time
(Diddy Wah)
She gonna turn me outta my mind
(Diddy Wah)
Anything, she says she’s ready
(Diddy Wah)
Run right back to Diddy Wah Diddy
(Diddy Wah)
(Diddy Wah)
(Diddy Wah)
(Diddy Wah)

Ain’t no town, ain’t no city
Lord, how they love in Diddy Wah Diddy)

(Diddy Wah)
(Diddy Wah)

Buzzin’ Cousins – Sweet Suzanne

While researching a post about Joe Ely I came across this band. What a band it was. This was a one-off supergroup that was formed in the 1990s. I love jangle and this song has it…it’s called Sweet Suzanne and was written by John Mellencamp…he did assemble a supergroup. They all take turns singing lines…

The members included John Mellencamp, Joe Ely, Dwight Yoakam, John Prine, and James McMurtry. Mellencamp said this was his answer to The Travelin’ Wilburys. The band’s one-and-done status was by design, Mellencamp said. I wouldn’t expect an album or anything, It really was a one-shot deal.

In 1992, Mellencamp made his acting and directorial debut in the film Falling From Grace, a drama that cast the Midwestern singer as a country-music star who gets caught up in a Jerry Springer-level family drama during a trip home to Indiana. He needed another song for the soundtrack album.

The band all traveled to Bloomington Indiana to record the song in Mellencamp’s studio. They all stayed in a Best Western and McMurtry said: “Not long after I checked in, there was a knock on my door. I opened the door and there was John Prine and Joe Ely. Prine had a half-empty pint bottle of vodka in his hand and a big grin on his face. I don’t remember what happened after that.”

This song was from the Falling From Grace soundtrack. The song was an outtake from either The Lonesome Jubilee or Big Daddy album. Sweet Suzzane peaked at #68 on the Billboard Country Charts in 1992.

Released as a single to country radio, the song ended up being nominated for the 1992 CMA Award for Vocal Event of the Year. It lost to Marty Stuart and Travis Tritt’s This One’s Gonna Hurt You (For a Long, Long Time).

Sweet Suzanne

Now, Right now,
Look at the place I`m in,
When I think about things that I could have done
It´s impossible for me to pretend.
But I see it now as the lights grow dim
and the world starts to close its eyes.
I just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.
I hear the music playin`
but I no longer understand,
Around the corner, down the street
It’s got to be better than where I am.
I see it all now, as the light grows dim
And the world starts to close its eyes.
I just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.
I just wanted to say goodnight,
Just wanted to see if everything was all right,
Just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.
Time goes by
Oh, so quietly,
Hazy days and memories
And in the end there was only me.
Wouldn`t have been, I ask sometimes,
But I see myself inside this rhyme.
Enjoyed what I had back then,
Would I do it again?
Well, I see it now
As the lights grow dim
I just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.
I just wanted to say goodnight,
I just wanted to see if everything`s all right
Just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.
I just wanted to say goodnight,
I just wanted to see if everything` s all right,
I just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.

Elvin Bishop – Fooled Around and Fell In Love

Some songs really take me back to a place I was when I heard it. This one was going roller skating with my sister who took me along with her. I never understood why my 16-year-old sister wanted to talk to guys while I was having the time of my life skating as an eight-year-old.

If you hear the rest of Elvin Bishop’s catalog…you wouldn’t believe this came from him. It’s a love song and a good one. Bishop is a blues guitarist who played in The Paul Butterfield Blues Band before forming his own group in 1968. Mickey Thomas who sang the song was a vocalist in Bishop’s band and sang lead on “Fooled Around And Fell In Love” and would later sing in Jefferson Starship.

Elvin can sing but his voice is suited more for blues. Elvin wrote the song and thought Mickey Thomas could sing it better…Mickey did a great job with it. The song peaked at #3 on the Billboard 100, #34 in the UK, and #22 in Canada in 1976.

In 2015, Bishop was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and again in the Blues Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2016. Many younger listeners discovered this song when it was used in the 2014 film Guardians Of The Galaxy and included on the soundtrack, which went to #1 in America.

I stumbled across a newer cover of this song that I really like around 6 months ago…it’s by the Winery Dogs. The band included Richie Kotzen, Billy Sheehan, and drummer Mike Portnoy. Give it a listen as well…they stayed true to the original and it sounds good.

Elvin Bishop: “My voice is very plain. It’s better suited for blues. It’s been good for me, because it’s made my songwriting strong, because to really get over with a voice like mine, which is not a thrill in itself – the quality of the voice – you have to have a strong story and really good words to capture people’s imagination.

And that tune, I gave it a try. The producer, Bill Szymczyk, said, ‘We need one more piece of material here. You got anything else laying around?’ I said, ‘Well, there’s this tune I wrote the other day.’ Well, not the other day. I’d actually tried to get a couple of other people to sing it, but somehow it didn’t work out. I said, ‘How about this ‘Fooled Around and Fell In Love’?’ We cut a track, it was a really nice track. I tried singing it, and I said, ‘That’s not buttering my biscuit, my vocal on this. Why don’t we give Mickey a shot at this?’ And the producer said, ‘Well, that’s big of you.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t think so. It’s just common sense, you know?’ And Mickey just tore it up.”

Fooled Around and Fell In Love

I must have been through about a million girls
I’d love ’em then I’d leave ’em alone
I didn’t care how much they cried, no sir
Their tears left me cold as a stone

But then I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love, yes I did
I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love

It used to be when I’d see a girl that I liked
I’d get out my book and write down her name
Ah, but when the, the grass got a little greener over on the other side
I’d just tear out that page

I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love, since I met you baby
I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love

Free, on my own is the way I used to be
Ah, but since I met you baby, love’s got a hold on me
It’s got a hold on me now
I can’t let go of you baby

I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love, oh yes I did
I fooled around, fooled around, fooled around, fooled around,
Fooled around, fooled around, fell in love
Fooled around, fooled around, fooled around, fooled around,
Fooled around, fooled around, fell in love
I fooled around, fell in love
I fell in love, I fell in love, yes I did

Stevie Wonder – I Was Made To Love Her

Of all Stevie Wonder songs…this one is at the top of the list for me.

Anything Stevie does I like. Sometimes when I hear a song it takes a few times for me to like it but this one…hooked me the first time. This song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, and #5 in the UK Charts in 1967. The song was written by Wonder, Lula Mae Hardaway, Henry Cosby, and Sylvia Moy. Lula Mae Haraway was Stevie Wonder’s mother.

The producer was Henry Cosby. He said to get the right vocal out of Wonder he took him to a Baptist church in Detroit. He had Stevie imitate the preacher. To do that Stevie wanted people in the studio with him when he was singing it. He said he had to feel the presence of people. Cosby then went outside the studio and pulled in people from the street who were passing by.

There is some dispute on who played bass on this song…Carol Kaye or James Jamerson? Allan Slutsky who wrote Standing In The Shadows of Motown disagrees with Carol Kaye on this song. He says that James Jamerson played bass in this session. The people he contacted from Motown swear it was James Jamerson. The Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team said it was Jamerson, and Hank Crosby, who co-wrote it and did production on this song, signed an affidavit saying that the bass line was performed by Jamerson.

Either way…you can’t go wrong with either of those bass players.

Carol Kaye: “The first four bars were written, so that thing was pretty straight. The first bar was written to give me an indication of what they wanted the rest of the tune. And then another part I can remember was written – that triad lick was written. And I screwed that one up. (laughing) I mean, you always remember when you make a mistake on the hits. And I made plenty of mistakes, but the feel of the record was good. And that’s the main thing. So the rest, I was on my own. No problem, a lot of chromatics and just aiming for the triads and stuff.”

Stevie Wonder: “Kind of speaks of my first love to a girl named Angie, who was a very beautiful woman. Actually, she was my third girlfriend but my first love. I used to call Angie up and, like, we would talk and say, ‘I love you, I love you,’ and we’d talk and we’d both go to sleep on the phone. And this was like from Detroit to California, right? You know, mother said, ‘Boy, what you doing – get off the phone!’ Boy, I tell you, it was ridiculous.”

I Was Made To Love Her

I was born in Little Rock
Had a childhood sweetheart
We were always hand in hand
I wore hightop shoes and shirt tails
Suzy was in pig tails
I know I loved her even then

You know my papa disapproved it
My mama boo-hooed it
But I told them time and time again
“Don’t you know, I was made to love her
Built my world all around her”
Yeah, hey, hey, hey

She’s been my inspiration
Showed appreciation
For the love I gave her through the years
Like a sweet magnolia tree
My love blossomed tenderly
My life grew sweeter through the years

I know that my baby love me
My baby needs me
That’s why we made it through the years
I was made to love her
Worship and adore her
Hey, hey, hey

All through thick and thin
Our love just won’t end
‘Cause I love my baby, love my baby, ah
My baby love me
My baby needs me
And I know I ain’t going nowhere

I was knee-high to a chicken
When that love bug bit me
I had the fever with each passing year
Oh, even if the mountain tumbles
If this whole world crumbles
By her side, I’ll still be standing there

‘Cause I was made to love her
I was made to live for her, yeah, hey, hey, hey
Ah, I was made to love her
Built my world all around her
Hey, hey, hey

Ooh, baby, I was made to please her
You know Stevie ain’t gonna leave her, no
Hey, hey, hey, ooh-wee, baby

Max Picks …songs from 1984

1984

We have some mega hits this year and some alternative hits.

Prince – Purple Rain – This is the song that really made me a Prince fan. I will always say that I liked his Around the World in a Day the best but the title song of Purple Rain is great.

Prince and his peers such as Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, and Michael Jackson were the artists who defined the decade of the 1980s in the top 40. In the late 70s my sister had a single that I would listen to. It was called “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and I didn’t pay attention to the artist. Later on, around the time Purple Rain came out…I looked at the single again and was surprised to see it was Prince. He had chart success before this but this album and movie broke him out internationally.

R.E.M – So. Central Rain – The song was on their Reckoning album released in 1984. REM. avoided the sophomore slump with Reckoning. It’s hard to beat this song as the first single off the album. I always thought So. Central Rain stands as one of the group’s most melodic songs.

The band chose to work with Murmur producers Don Dixon and Mitch Easter. They recorded the album in just a few weeks. Peter Buck told Rolling Stone magazine: “We were going through this streak where we were writing two good songs a week, We just wanted to do it; whenever we had a new batch of songs, it was time to record!”

Stevie Ray Vaughan – Voodoo Child (Slight Return) – Around this time is when I noticed SRV. I heard his guitar playing in songs and then watched him later on Austin City Limits. His guitar playing was on another level. I’d never seen anyone that aggressive on guitar. I was never a huge fan of many of his songs but I was of his guitar playing. He did an excellent cover of this song.

He covers a Jimi Hendrix song here. This song is like an atom bomb going off. From the first words “Well, I stand up next to a mountain and I chop it down with the edge of my hand” you know Stevie means business.

The song was on his second album Couldn’t Stand The Weather.

The Replacements – I Will Dare -I Will Dare was released in 1984 as an independent single and then included on their Let It Be album. I loved this song in the 80s and after hearing it in the past weeks…it was like the first time I listened to it. Peter Buck from REM is playing the intro to this song. Paul Westerberg wrote the song and plays mandolin. The Replacements were my top band of the 80s bar none.

Let It Be was the third full album by the band’s original lineup: lead singer and songwriter Paul Westerberg, guitarist Bob Stinson, bassist Tommy Stinson, and drummer Chris Mars.

This song should have cracked the top 40 but it didn’t…mostly because they were on a small Minneapolis record label named Twin/Tone.

Bruce Springsteen – Born In The USA – Springsteen wrote this about the problems Vietnam veterans encountered when they returned to America. Vietnam was the first war the US didn’t officially win, and while veterans of other wars received a hero’s welcome, those who fought in Vietnam were mostly ignored when they returned to their homeland.

The other song that has someone really ripping the vocals is “Twist and Shout” sung by John Lennon with the Beatles. I remember back in the 80s Chrysler offered Springsteen $12 million to use this in an ad campaign with Bruce… Springsteen turned them down so they used “The Pride Is Back” by Kenny Rogers instead. Springsteen never let his music be used to sell products at that time.

I knew a couple of Springsteen fanatics before this album came out. They loved everything Bruce but after this album…they wanted nothing to do with him. Why? Because he wasn’t their secret anymore. For me, I guess it would be like if Big Star had hit huge…but I would love it!

…

Rhoda

Rhoda was a popular show in the seventies, a spinoff of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. I’ve been watching The Dick Van Dyke Show, MTM Show, Rhoda, and Phyllis. I might watch Lou Grant after that.

The MTM Show (7 seasons) had three spinoffs and all of them were mostly successful. Rhoda (5 seasons), Lou Grant (5 Seasons), and Phyllis (2 Seasons).

Rhoda

Although the show starred Mary Tyler Moore, it was the ensemble that made it work. One of my favorite characters in the MTM show was Rhoda Morgenstern. She was played brilliantly by Valerie Harper. Harper once said that Mary was who every girl wanted to be, Rhoda was probably who they were, and Phyllis was who they feared they would become.

Rhoda was a self-deprecating Jewish neighbor who envied Mary Richards but ended up her best friend. Her and Mary’s relationship was an important part early on in the show. She left after the 4th season to start her own show, Rhoda. She would move out of Minneapolis and back to where she grew up, New York. She left the show only for a small vacation but fell in love while in New York. Harper didn’t really want to leave the MTM show. She asked Moore what would happen if her show failed. Moore told her that Rhoda would just move back to Minneapolis and be on the show again.

Rhoda also had a fantastic cast. Julie Kavner (Marge Simpon’s voice), played her sister. The legendary actress Nancy Walker played her mom. Harold Gould as her father and an underrated actor named David Groh played her boyfriend and soon-to-be husband and ex-husband.

It also included one of the most famous television characters that was never seen. Carlton Your Doorman, who was voiced by Lorenzo Music, was a very popular character in the mid to late seventies. I remember people inserting “This is Carlton Your Doorman” in jokes at school at the time.

Other than the character Rhoda, the show had a different feel than the MTM Show and that is a good thing. They didn’t really copy but it was an ensemble show and didn’t rely on just Harper. The episode in the 1st season of Rhoda and Joe getting married…drew in 52 million Americans for that broadcast. That would turn out to be a mistake as far as the writers were concerned.

They found out shortly that writing for Rhoda as a married woman didn’t work as well. They complained she lost her edge. I really don’t see that but in the 3rd season, they had Joe and Rhoda divorce. After that happened CBS was swamped with hate mail on them getting a divorce. David Groh said that he personally received hate mail from fans at least a year after he was gone.

The writers say it was essential to happen but Rhoda was beating the MTM show in ratings in the first 3 seasons. It was a good show and it’s a shame they messed with the couple that the show revolved around. After the divorce, the ratings started to decline but it did last until the 5th season aired in 78 and 79. It was appropriate it didn’t last until the 1980s…Rhoda belongs to the seventies and the seventies to Rhoda. A 1980s Rhoda just wouldn’t have felt right.

Moore and Harper did make a TV movie in 2000 called…Mary and Rhoda. It was a 90s-style TV Movie but it was nice seeing them both again. Harper seemed the same wise-cracking character but Moore was different and more affected by age. The movie was a pilot…it was the most watched TV program that night but plans were scrapped.

Of all the famous intros to TV shows…this one with the music and closing scene…you can feel the paneling, shag carpet, see the avocado green, harvest gold, taste the fondue, and any seventies items you could want.

“My name is Rhoda Morgenstern. I was born in the Bronx, New York in December, 1941. I’ve always felt responsible for World War II. The first thing I remember liking that liked me back was food. I had a bad puberty; it lasted 17 years. I’m a high school graduate. I went to art school. My entrance exam was on a book of matches. I decided to move out of the house when I was 24; my mother still refers to this as the time I ran away from home. Eventually I ran to Minneapolis, where it’s cold, and I figured I’d keep better. Now I’m back in Manhattan. New York, this is your last chance!”

…

Zombies – Time of the Season

The Zombies were a band of excellent musicians…some of the best of the British Invastion. In 1968 they released Odessey and Oracle and in 1969 this song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 and #1 in Canada. The Zombies had already broken up by the time this song hit.

The Zombies had practically no budget when they made this album. They wanted orchestration on this album but couldn’t afford it but they figured something out. The Beatles just finished Sgt Pepper when the Zombies entered the studio. John Lennon had left his Mellotron so the Zombies used it instead of orchestration.

During the recording of the single, the band were arguing with each other. The biggest argument was between keyboardist Rod Argent, who wrote the song, and vocalist Colin Blunstone was over the line, “When love runs high.”Blunstone thought the high note at the end of the line was very hard to do and yelled at Argent. He told Argent that if he thought it was so easy he should sing it.

Blunstone ended up singing the song and doing a terrific job. The song is now a huge classic. The album has been remembered as one of the best pop albums of the sixties.

The first two singles flopped so The Zombies said enough was enough and broke up. Then came Al Kooper whoh really liked this album. He worked at Columbia Records and persuaded Clive Davis to release this record in America. He thought it had a poteintal for a hit single.

Al Kooper pushed this album to Clive Davis and that was a big reason it was released in America. After the band broke up Rod Argent formed “Argent” and Colin had a successful solo career in the UK.

In 2017, the four surviving original members (Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent, Chris White and Hugh Grundy) re-united for a North American tour marking the 50th anniversary of the recording of Odessey and Oracle.

Colin Blunstone: “It was written in the morning before we went into the studio in the afternoon, and I kind of struggled on the melody, Rod and I had quite a heated discussion – he being in the control room and me singing the song – and we were just doing it through my headphones. Because it had only just been written, I was struggling with the melody.

“It makes me laugh, because at the same time I’m singing, ‘It’s the time of the season for loving,’ we’re really going at one another.”

Time of the Season
It’s the time of the season
When love runs high
And this time, give it to me easy
And let me try with pleasured hands
To take you in the sun to (promised lands)
To show you every one
It’s the time of the season for loving
What’s your name?
Who’s your daddy?
(He rich) Is he rich like me?
Has he taken, any time (any time)
(To show) to show you what you need to live
Tell it to me slowly (tell me what)
I really want to know
It’s the time of the season for loving
What’s your name?
Who’s your daddy?
(He rich) Is he rich like me?
Has he taken, any time (any time)
(To show) to show you what you need to live
Tell it to me slowly (tell me what)
I really want to know
It’s the time of the season for loving

Alice Cooper – Under My Wheels

This song was off the Killer album. It peaked at #59 on the Billboard 100. The album peaked at #21 on the Billboard Album Charts, #11 in Canada, and #27 in the UK in 1971.

One of my favorites of Alice Cooper. The song wasn’t a giant success but it has remained in Alice’s set since it was released in 1971. The song’s impact can be seen in its inclusion in movies, TV shows, and video games. It has been covered by several other musicians, including Poison and Motörhead.

The guitar solo in this song is played by Rick Derringer. The songwriters were the group’s guitarist Michael Bruce and bass player Dennis Dunaway along with producer Bob Ezrin. The song is about a guy who accidentally runs over his girlfriend in the new car he just bought.

Alice Cooper has blended styles throughout his career. He has had Heavy Metal, rock, hard rock, and plain-out pop.

Alice Cooper’s real name is Vincent Furnier. Alice Cooper was the name of the band, but the name became so associated with the lead singer that he took it.

The band did a good job spreading the rumor that “Alice Cooper” was the name of a girl who was accused of being a witch in the 1600s, saying she contacted them through an Ouija board. Furnier later explained that he made it up when he was thinking of a sweet, innocent-sounding name that would contrast against their shocking stage show.

Cooper is a big family man which contradicts his reputation. Cooper is a born-again Christian and believes in the devil enough to have genuine supernatural fear. He’s never taken a Satanist stance and warns other bands against it. When he was a kid, his family was poor and there were very few presents. Now, Cooper goes crazy on Christmas, buying lots of gifts for his family.

Dennis Dunaway: This was another song that I wrote. I remember singing the song to Glen Buxton about this guy who’s just bought a brand new car and he’s going over to pick up his girlfriend and take her to the movies. Glen was like, ‘We don’t do girl songs!’ And I was like, ‘No, the guy runs over the girl.’ So he said, ‘Oh, OK.’ Ha ha! Anyway, Under My Wheels is about a guy who accidentally runs over his girlfriend, who he’s trying to impress with his new car. It was a fairly decent hit in America, and we also plugged it in Britain. We did a Killer tour over there when the single had just been released.

“Under My Wheels”

The telephone is ringing you got me on the run I’m driving in my car now anticipating fun
I’m driving right up to you babe I guess that you couldn’t see yeah yeah
But you were under my wheels why don’t you let me be
’cause when you call me on the telephone saying take me to the show
And then I say honey I just can’t go old lady’s sick and I can’t leave her home
The telephone is ringing you got me on the run I’m driving in my car now
I got you under my wheels I got you under my wheels I got you under my wheels
Got you under my wheels yeah yeah I got you under my wheels
Aah the telephone is ringing you got me on the run I’m driving in my car now anticipating fun
I’m driving right up to you babe I guess that you couldn’t see yeah yeah
But you were under my wheels why don’t you let me be
Yeah yeah got you under my wheels yeah yeah I got you under my wheels
I got you under my wheels got you got you got you got you
Under my wheels got you under my wheels wheels wheels wheels

Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris – Love Hurts

This song has been covered many times. The one that is probably the most popular is by the hard rock band Nazareth. This version was the one that Nazareth heard to base their version on. It was written and composed by the American songwriter Boudleaux Bryant, who was a very prolific and successful songwriter for other artists throughout the 1950s and beyond.

Gram and Harris’s version is my favorite version of the song now. It was on Parson’s Grievous Angel album released in 1974. Parsons and Harris had a great musical partnership. You can hear it in this song on how their voices weaved together.

Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris

On the album… James Burton played electric lead guitar, Herb Pederson on rhythm, and Al Perkins on pedal steel. Bernie Leadon played dobro, and Byron Berline added some fiddle and mandolin. Linda Ronstadt always contributed vocals to a Harris-Parsons song that I will cover next.

Harris was talking about the making of the Grievous Angel Album: “Gram was in really good shape for that album, and we were really tight from working on the road together. The band knew what they were doing and we had the charts together by the time we got into the studio. We went in and, man, it was really fast – we did the tracks in five days and then a second five days for the vocals which were nearly all first or second takes. For all extent and purposes ist should be regarded as a ‘live’ album.”

“We didn’t really write songs together. He always carried those songs around in his head. He just needed a little prodding to get them out. That’s all I did. I helped him with a line here and there. I’d suggest something but those were his songs. I didn’t dispute the credit on ‘In My Hour Of Darkness’, which he gave to me. I think that was probably because at the same time, there was this big thing about that stupid album cover.”

What Harris was referring to about the cover was that it made Gram’s wife upset. It was originally a cover of Parson and Harris that Gram picked out. Parson’s manager was Phil Kaufman and he said that Gretchen Parsons, Gram’s wife, found out about the picture and fought with Parsons. So, she had the picture removed when it was released because Gram had passed away in September of 1973 and this album was released in 1974.

The Everly Brothers were the first to cover it, but they never released the song as a single. They planned to release this as a single, but industry politics got in the way. Their version is very good as well but Harris and Parson’s voices just sounded so good together for this particular song.

Emmylou Harris: “I really liked working with Gram, it was a completely new experience for me. I was a little weary at first because of Los Angeles and Hollywood and all, and I was very much East Coast orientated. I was very much on my guard but Gram was a very real person and, whenever I went out there, I always felt that I was in some kind of protective bubble. It was never Los Angeles itself, but always working with Gram and the music, and I kept myself in a very small circle.”

“It was the first time to have ever lost a close friend. I’m sure that all people have lost someone who is very dear to them, but Gram was young and so full of life. There are people who say ‘well, it was bound to happen’… but not to me because Gram was the most alive person I ever knew and breathed a whole lot into me and into my life. So he still remains very much alive in my heart.”

“Eventually Gram will find his place in history. He had a real creative vision of his own as a writer. Perhaps there is a shadow of that inspiration on my records but it’s not the gut level thing.”

Here is a live version from Gram and Emmylou from 1973.

Love Hurts

Love hurts, love scarsLove wounds and marsAny heart not toughNor strong enoughTo take a lot of painTake a lot of painLove is like a cloudHolds a lot of rain

Love hurtsMmm-mm, love hurts

I’m young, I knowBut even soI know a thing or twoI’ve learned from you

I’ve really learned a lotReally learned a lotLove is like a stoveBurns you when it’s hotLove hurtsMmm-mm, love hurts

Some fools think of happinessBlissfulness, togethernessSome fools fool themselves, I guessBut they’re not fooling me

I know it isn’t trueKnow it isn’t trueLove is just a lieMade to make you blue

Love hurtsMmm-mm, love hurts

Love hurtsMmm-mm, love hurtsOh-oh, love hurts

Fats – Domino – I’m Walking

I bought some records at a relative’s yard sale when I was really young. A Chuck Berry album, The Doors LA Woman album, and this single. So for a dollar, I took home a great deal. This one is an excellent song with a beat that won’t leave you.

Antoine “Fats” Domino Jr. was not flashy and wild like some of his 1950s peers such as Elvis, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis. The first I heard of Fats Domino was on “Happy Days” and the song Blueberry Hill.

Domino was the youngest of eight children in a musical family, he spoke Creole French before learning English. At age 7 his brother-in-law taught him how to play the piano. By the time he was 10, he was already performing as a singer and pianist.

This song was inspired by a comment a fan made to Domino after Domino’s car broke down: “Hey, look at Fats Domino, he’s walking!” Domino then thought to himself, “Yeah, I’m walking,” and wrote the song as he walked.

Domino wrote this song with Dave Bartholomew, a fellow New Orleans musician who did a lot of work arranging and composing songs for him. One thing about the song that just jumps out is the sax solo by Herbert Hardesty. He also played on Ain’t That A Shame.

It peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100 and #19 in the UK in 1957.

Domino received The Lifetime Achievement Grammy, a National Medal of the Arts from President Bill Clinton, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fats semi-retired in the 80s and said he would not travel outside of New Orleans.

He lived in New Orleans During Hurricane Katrina, he lost most of his possessions and he and his family were rescued by the Coast Guard. He unselfishly made many personal appearances to raise money for the hurricane relief. His house was hit hard and he lost his National Medal and gold records but George Bush gave him another medal to replace the lost one and the RIAA gave him replacement gold records.

To raise money for repairs for his own home, friends and fellow musicians recorded a tribute album, Goin’ Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, featuring the likes of Robert Plant, Elton John, and Sir Paul McCartney. He was living in New Orleans at the time of his death on October 24, 2017.

I’m Walkin’

I’m walkin’, yes indeed, and I’m talkin’ ’bout you and me
I’m hopin’ that you’ll come back to me (yes)
I’m lonely as I can be, I’m waitin’ for your company
I’m hopin’ that you’ll come back to me
What ‘ya gonna do when the well runs dry?
You’re gonna run away and hide
I’m gonna run right by your side, for you pretty baby I’ll even die
I’m walkin’, yes indeed, I’m talkin’ ’bout you and me
I’m hopin’ that you’ll come back to me

I’m walkin’, yes indeed, and I’m talkin’ ’bout you and me
I’m hopin’ that you’ll come back to me (yes)
I’m lonely as I can be, I’m waitin’ for your company
I’m hopin’ that you’ll come back to me
What ‘ya gonna do when the well runs dry?
You’re gonna sit right down and cry
What ‘ya gonna do when I say bye-bye?
All you’re gonna do is dry your eye
I’m walkin’, yes indeed, I’m talkin’ ’bout you and me
I’m hopin’ that you’ll come back to me

The Inmates

CB and I were emailing each other and he sent me a few links to this band. They were a great British pub band that formed in 1977. They got together after the split of another band named The Flying Tigers. As CB and I have done these…I usually give you a “sample platter” of them and later on I’ll concentrate on one song at a time in a later post. This should introduce you to them.

The first thing I noticed was how good their songs sound. Many pub bands I’ve heard have a muddy sound to them but this band sounded clear and great. I do remember one of their songs…it was a cover of the Standells Dirty Water. Their producer until 1989 was a guy named Vic Maile who helped shape their overall sound. He was a winner…he worked with artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, The Pirates, Hawkwind, Motörhead, The Godfathers, The Kinks, Small Faces, Dr. Feelgood, Girlschool, and the Deep Fix. Most of those bands I’ve covered.

They released nine studio albums and three live ones between 1979 and 2008. They were considered a Pub band but you also hear a lot of that great 1960s garage sound in lead singer Bill Hurly’s voice. They remind me of pre-Godfathers…they take no prisoners and come right at you. Their songs are rough and raw but their melodic and catchy at the same time. Their choice of covers is quite interesting. They pick many songs you wouldn’t think.

They also made a tribute live album to the Beatles called The Inmates Meet The Beatles: Live In Paris. They did it in their style and made the songs their own which is a great way of doing it. They even managed to take one of the very few Beatles songs I don’t like and turned it on its head. I like their version of it…Little Child.

Enough of me babbling on…let’s listen to the Inmates. I’ll start off with one that you should know. I do remember this song and this version. Their first album First Offence peaked at #40 on the Billboard Album Charts. The song Dirty Water peaked at #51. I’ve included songs from their first three albums.

The next song is a cover of a song called The Walk by Jimmy McCracklin and His Band originally released in 1958.

This song is Sweet Rain off of their 2nd album Shot in the Dark released in 1980. I can hear a lot of Them in this one. The guitar in this has an older sixties feel. This was the B-Side to the song below.

This song is the A-Side to Sweet Rain called Stop, It Baby off of their 2nd album Shot in the Dark released in 1980. It jumps and moves…very catchy.

This one called She’s Gone Rockin’ was off of their third album Heatwave in Alaska It was released in 1982.

Tom Waits – I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You

I was commenting on Aphoristical’s blog and he listed the 10 best Tom Waits songs. I’ve heard Waits through the years and I’ve liked what I’ve heard but never listened to his debut album. I knew more of his later music than his beginning. After reading Graham’s site it got me listening to Wait’s debut album and it shocked me with his voice…but forget that…it’s a damn good album called Closing Time. The comment I left on his site was “Unlike most artists…I know more of him in the later parts of his career. I never heard your number 1 song…that floored me! Great song and that voice…I like that voice.”

A few weeks ago I listened to the album and the songs really stuck with me. The three top songs to me are this one, Grapefruit Moon, and Ol’55. The album is one that music fans should listen to. I had forgotten which song that Graham had number one so after I picked the one I wanted to post about…I went to link Graham’s site and yes…he picked this one…I see why. You know…this is why we do these blogs… to learn.

I rarely do this but I like how Waits takes the opposite approach in this song. Instead of hoping he can go to the next step with this woman…he is aware of the potential risks and heartbreak that come with falling in love. He is trying to place a wall between any thought of it. The vulnerability of a closely guarded world-weary man. Waits is a great songwriter and many times takes a different approach which I can appreciate.

Closing time was released in 1973 and it charted at #44 on the German charts and #29 in Ireland. On secondhandsongs.com it lists 36 versions of the song.

I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You

One, two, three, four

Well, I hope that I don’t fall in love with you

‘Cause falling in love just makes me blueWell, the music plays and you display your heart for me to seeI had a beer and now I hear you calling out for meAnd I hope that I don’t fall in love with you

Well, the room is crowded, people everywhere

And I wonder, should I offer you a chair?Well, if you sit down with this old clown, take that frown and break itBefore the evening’s gone away, I think that we could make itAnd I hope that I don’t fall in love with you

Well, the night does funny things inside a man

These old tomcat feelings you don’t understand

Well, I turn around to look at you, you light a cigaretteI wish I had the guts to bum one, but we’ve never metAnd I hope that I don’t fall in love with you

I can see that you are lonesome just like me

And it being late, you’d like some companyWell, I turn around to look at you, and you look back at meThe guy you’re with, he’s up and split, the chair next to you’s free

And I hope that you don’t fall in love with me

Now it’s closing time, the music’s fading out

Last call for drinks, I’ll have another stout

Well, I turn around to look at you, you’re nowhere to be foundI search the place for your lost face, guess I’ll have another roundAnd I think that I just fell in love with you

Beatles – Not A Second Time

This was on the American album Meet The Beatles (the UK version would be With The Beatles) that I first heard when I was a kid. Lennon’s voice in this is fantastic. It’s a bit more sophisticated than many of their other songs at the time. The lyrics and the chord structure are really good.

I’ve always liked this song and the song drew a serious review from William Mann. Willaim Mann was the music critic of The Times in London. The article, titled “What Songs The Beatles Sang…,” was printed on December 23rd, 1963, just over a month after the release of the album “With The Beatles” in the UK. This critical analysis was unlike any media exposure The Beatles were getting up to this time, most of which consisted of reports on the mass hysteria that accompanied their appearances or their hair.

“Harmonic interest is typical of their quicker songs, and one gets the impression that they think simultaneously of harmony and melody, so firmly are the major tonic sevenths and ninths built into their tunes, and the flat submediant key switches, so natural is the Aeolian cadence at the end of ‘Not A Second Time’ (the chord progression which ends Mahler’s Song of the Earth).”

Mann would go on to say that Lennon and McCartney were “the greatest songwriters since Schubert.”

Pop music wasn’t considered important enough for serious music critics to review. Lennon and McCartney had no formal musical training. They wrote by feel, which Lennon said in 1973: “Intellectuals have the problem of having to understand it. They can’t feel anything. The only way to get an intellectual is to talk to him and then play him the record. You couldn’t put a record on and just let him hear it.”

The effect of William Mann’s review had such a lasting impact that the subject was still raised in a 1980 interview shortly before John’s death. His last words on the subject of Aeolian cadences were, “To this day I don’t have any idea what they are. They sound like exotic birds!”

This is one Lennon and McCartney song that was written solely by John Lennon. He said he was influenced again by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

Not A Second Time

You know you made me cryI see no use in wondering whyI cry for you

And now you’ve changed your mindI see no reason to change mineI cry

It’s through, oh-ohYou’re giving me the same old lineI’m wondering whyYou hurt me then, you’re back againNo, no, no, not a second time

You know you made me cryI see no use in wondering whyI cry for you, yeah

And now you’ve changed your mindI see no reason to change mineI cry

It’s through, oh-ohYou’re giving me the same old lineI’m wondering whyYou hurt me then, you’re back againNo, no, no, not a second time

Not a second timeNot a second timeNo, no, no, no, noNo, no, no (not a second time)