I hope everyone is having a great Sunday. I grabbed the album Morrison Hotel yesterday and was caught off guard by this song. I don’t remember it from when I originally played the album. The music is cool as hell with the guitar in a groove with the drums. I thought this could have been an instrumental and have been good…but the lyrics make it great.
Come to find out…the song started out as an instrumental as Robbie Krieger said: “I had written the music, we rehearsed it up, and it was really happening, but we didn’t have any lyrics and Jim wasn’t around. We just said, ‘Fuck it, let’s record it. He’ll come up with something.’ And he did. He took out his poetry book and found a poem that fit.”
I always liked album cuts…sometimes a little more than hits. This a great song on a Sunday to kick back to. I never thought of the Doors as the ultimate groove band but this one fits. Morrison Hotel peaked at #4 on the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in Canada, and #12 in the UK in 1970.
The lyrics about the Indians supposedly refer to a car accident that happened when he was a child. The accident involved some Indians and Morrisons thought the Indians joined his soul. The Blood in the streets in the town of New Haven lyric refers to when the singer was arrested in New Haven in 1967. Morrison was backstage with a girl. He explains it in the quote below.
Jim Morrison: “We started talking and we wanted some privacy and so went into this little show room. We weren’t doing anything. You know, just standing there talking, and then this little man in a little blue suit and a little blue cap came in there. He said ‘Whatcha doin’ there?’ ‘Nothin’.’ But he didn’t go away, he stood there and then he reached round behind him and brought out this little black can of something. It looked like shaving cream. And then he sprayed it in my eyes. I was blinded for about 30 minutes.”
Peace Frog
There’s blood in the streets
It’s up to my ankles
There’s blood in the streets
It’s up to my knees
Blood in the street
The town of Chicago
Blood on the rise
It’s followin’ me
Just about the break of day
She came in
And she drove away
Sunlight in her hair
Blood on the streets
Runs a river of sadness
Blood in the streets
It’s up to my thighs
The river runs down
The leg of the city
The women are crying
Red rivers of weeping
She came in town
And then she drove away
Sunlight in her hair
Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile
Egg-shell mind
Blood in the streets
In the town of New Haven
Blood stains the roofs
And the palm tress of Venice
Blood in my love
In the terrible summer
Bloody red sun of
Fantastic L.A.
Blood screams her brain
As they chop off her fingers
Blood will be born
In the birth of a nation
Blood is the rose of
Mysterious union
There’s blood in the streets
It’s up to my ankles
Blood in the streets
It’s up to my knees
Blood in the street
The town of Chicago
Blood on the rise
It’s followin’ me
As I was listening to Robert Earl Keen…CB sent me a link to the Stooges. A change of pace to put it lightly. I went on a binge of Stooges songs. You know what’s great about this song? Hard-driving music that doesn’t let up. This was punk before there was punk. For an added bonus I’m posting Iggy’s friend right after this post.
In 1969 this was about as hard and loud as you could get on a record. And yes…when you listen to this song… you will hear Christmas sleigh bells in the background. So, it’s a holly jolly tune about sexual submission. Now that is punk!
The song would not have worked with the masses because of the sexually explicit lyrics. Guitarist Ron Ashton came up with the driving riff. They were all sitting around and just throwing out words. They came up with the word God but didn’t want to include that in this song so they turned the letters around backward.
This song is on their self-titled album was released in 1969. This was released as a single the same year. John Cale of The Velvet Underground produced the album. The song was written by The Stooges… Dave Alexander, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, and Iggy Pop.
Iggy Pop: “I was in a band called The Stooges in a little town in Michigan called Ann Arbor, we weren’t a very empowered group of people. We were basically a kind of far-fetched group of dreamers, and our dream was to have a little rock band. A lot of people used to laugh at us.”
“We used to get pretty stoked on hash and grass, and one thing that we’d do on this hash and grass, we’d sit around and we’d imagine these kind of savage tribes, like ‘How are the Mongols when they just came in and killed everybody?’ Think of how it must have been when these little guys with these fierce faces on their little ponies going ‘Wooooo!’ Just killing and riding over all opposition in their path, and that was the kind of thing we were talking about.”
Iggy Pop: “I used to do ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog,’ and people just stared in horror,” he recalled. “And then I would do ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog,’ and people would just drink their beer and watch, kind of musing. And it got to the point where I did it and people were grooving. When I go out and do it now go out, they know all the words in the verses. So, that’s a beautiful thing.”
I Wanna Be Your Dog
So messed up, I want you here In my room, I want you here Now we’re gonna be face-to-face And I’ll lay right down in my favorite place
And now I wanna be your dog And now I wanna be your dog And now I wanna be your dog
Well, come on
And now I’m ready to close my eyes And now I’m ready to close my mind And now I’m ready to feel your hand And lose my heart on the burning sands
And now I wanna be your dog And now I wanna be your dog And now I wanna be your dog
Last week I ran across the one-off “supergroup” The Buzzin’ Cousins that John Mellencamp formed with Joe Ely, Dwight Yoakam, John Prine, and James McMurtry. I thought I would look around for any more that I don’t know about.
Many of you probably know this band but I had no clue about it. It’s been called different things like Eric Clapton’s Powerhouse. This band featured Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Steve Winwood, Paul Jones (Manfred Man) Pete York (Spencer Davis Group drummer), and Ben Palmer (piano, previously played with Clapton and Jones as a member of the Roosters and the Grands) and they recorded this in 1966.
This was meant to be and was a short-term one-off band that included some heavy players back in the day and huge historically. They recorded three songs that appeared on the Elektra Records compilation What’s Shakin’ in 1966. A fourth song, “Slow Blues”, was recorded but remains unreleased to this day.
It’s been said that I Want To Know was written by Paul Jones but he used his wife’s name in the credit…Sheila McLeod. I would guess for contract reasons. Also due to contractual restrictions, Stevie Winwood is listed as Steve Angulo. The songs are I Want To Know (Shelia McLeod), Steppin Out (Memphis Slim), and Crossroad (Robert Johnson) which Cream would later cover.
Later on these songs were released on collections by Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Steve Winwood. This was around the time that Jack Bruce was in Manfred Man.
I’m going to include their released discography here…all three songs.
I Want To Know
I want to know why do you always run around
I want to know why do you always run around
Every man I know is watching you pull me down
I want to know, do you really mean to hurt me
I want to know, do you really mean to hurt me
Well, I’m tryin’ to understand the dirty way you always treat me
I want to know if I can come home every night
I want to know if I can come home every night
Well, oh woman, oh woman, why can’t you try to treat me right
I wanna know, I wanna know
Hey hey I want want, I wanna know, oo oh
All right, what do you say
Well woman, oh woman, why can’t you try to treat me right
I’ve been waiting on this book since I read about the Beatles in the 70s as a kid. I knew the story…after a showdown with police Mal Evans was shot and killed on January 5, 1976. He was working on his autobiography at the time. Evans was the last person you would think would die that way…and in this case…he wanted it. Could the police have handled it better? Yes, but Mal had said that is how he wanted to go out. He forced the situation. He was only 40 years old.
Mal Evans along with Neil Aspinal were the roadies for the Beatles. Imagine that…2 roadies for the world’s biggest band. Mal worked at a telephone company in the early ’60s but he loved rock and roll…especially Elvis Presley. He would go see bands at the Cavern and struck up a friendship with George Harrison. George told him since he loved music…take a part-time job as a bouncer at The Cavern. The Beatles automatically liked him from the start. He was a big guy at 6’4″ but he never wanted to use violence. More times than not…he talked his way out of trouble. Aspinal was their only roadie and when Love Me Do and then Please Please Me came out…they needed another person because Aspinal was worn out.
The book covers his entire life and of course, focuses on the years 1963 – 1976. It’s a wonder we have the book at all. All of Mal Evan’s diaries and papers were lost for 12 years after he died. They were discovered by a paralegal who was looking through the basement of a publishing company. They were stored in 6 banker boxes so he had a lot of material including original lyrics to many Beatle songs. He kept about everything and you could say he was the Beatle’s first historian.
He made his mark in history. He was a talent scout for Apple and signed The Iveys which later became Badfinger. Without him pushing them they probably would not have been signed. After the Beatles broke up he continued to work for them as solo artists. Mal loved the Beatles and they in turn trusted him and Neil more than anyone else. He tried a few things like songwriting and he did get some songs covered. He also did a bit of acting appearing in a few of the Beatles movies and also a few with Ringo. When making sure The Beatles had some private space in public he would keep fans away to a point…but was always nice. He said he didn’t want to be rude to the fans who made the Beatles who they were.
His son Gary helped Womack with this book including full access to all of the papers left behind by Mal. His family were the ones who suffered. He was gone most of the time especially when the Beatles were touring. After touring was over he moved his family to London but still was rarely home.
I would highly recommend this book. Kenneth Womack had full access to his diaries and used many of the entries. This book turned up a lot of things about them that I had no clue about. It also gave a different look at their personalities on an everyday basis. Near the end, Mal went to the 2nd Beatles convention and spoke. He started to battle depression in the seventies after living in California and missing his wife and kids back in London. He picked up a girlfriend in California and that made his guilt worse. Drugs also affected him in the end.
If you are a Beatles fan…get the book. I wrote this book review originally with over 15 paragraphs but I was telling his story more than critiquing the book. At the end, Mal was working on his book and lined up a publishing deal. All the Beatles signed off on it and wanted to see Mal succeed. He was known for his kindness and loyalty. He told each Beatle in 1974 that he was leaving to do his own thing but continued to help them out.
Mal appeared in every Beatles movie but Yellow Submarine and you see him throughout Get Back.
He produced “No Matter What” by Badfinger
He helped Paul write Fixing A Hole and Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
The original producer of Keith Moon’s solo album
If anyone is interested…I’m including some of the Foreward by his son Gary Evans.
This book is the product of decades of toil. It would not have been possible without the initial determination of my father, Mal Evans, to capture the Beatles’ story as it unfolded before him. He knew, even in his earliest days as a bouncer at the Cavern Club door, that the boys were something special. As he traveled with them across the whole of England and, eventually, the world, he recorded his memories in the pages of his diaries and filled up notebooks with his drawings and recollections, all the while taking thousands of candid photographs and saving ephemera of all shapes and sizes—a receipt here, a scrap of lyrics there.
When my dad sat down to compose his memoir for Grosset and Dunlap in 1975, he realized the difficulty inherent in taking up a pen to capture his thoughts. Fortunately, he was aided by a stenographer, who transcribed his words to the letter, and by the sage advice of Ringo Starr: “If you don’t tell the truth,” he told my dad, then “don’t bother doing it.” And so, Dad did.
On January 4, 1976, when he simply couldn’t stomach the act of living another day, my father orchestrated his own demise in a Los Angeles duplex. He left behind the fruits of decades of collecting, along with a full draft of his memoir, which he planned to call Living the Beatles’ Legend: 200 Miles to Go. He had even gone so far as to plot out the book’s illustrations, with the assistance of a friend who had served as an art director, and mocked up a couple of cover ideas.
My dad’s death threw all this into disarray. For a time, Grosset and Dunlap made various attempts at publishing Living the Beatles’ Legend, but my mother, Lily, understandably distraught over her estranged husband’s tragic death, simply wanted his collection to be returned to our family back in England, so that we could sort things out for ourselves. As we later learned, in the days after my father died in Los Angeles, Grosset and Dunlap transported the materials from L.A. to New York City, eventually placing them in a storage room in the basement of the New York Life Building.
And that’s where they sat for more than a dozen years, to be rescued from the garbage heap only by the quick thinking of Leena Kutti, a temporary worker who discovered my dad’s materials—along with the diaries, the photographs, and the memoir—recognizing she was in the presence of a most unusual archive. When her efforts to raise the alarm with the publishing house fell on deaf ears, Kutti took it upon herself to march uptown to the Dakota, where she left a note for Yoko Ono, one of the few genuine heroes in the strange progress of my father’s artifacts. In short order, Yoko alerted Neil Aspinall, my dad’s counterpart during the Beatles years. With the assistance of some shrewd Apple lawyering, Neil saw to it that the collection was finally delivered to our family home in 1988.
For several years, my dad’s manuscripts and memorabilia were stored in our attic. I would periodically dip into them and reacquaint myself with the person whom I had lost when I was fourteen years old. Thumbing through the materials reminded me why I loved my father so dearly, in spite of the flaws that drove him away from us and led to his death at age forty. Over the years, my family has struggled with the idea of sharing Mal’s story. Then, in 2004, a forger created an international sensation when he claimed to possess Dad’s collection in a suitcase full of artifacts he had discovered in an Australian flea market. The news was quickly picked up and shared across the globe with much fanfare before it was proven to be a hoax.
To stem the ensuing confusion, my mum and I consented to a 2005 interview with the Sunday Times Magazine, even going so far as to allow the publication of a few excerpts from my dad’s diaries. The tide began to change for us in July 2018, when I decided to follow in my father’s, and the Beatles’, footsteps and retrace the famous “Mad Day Out” photo session on its fiftieth anniversary. I was joined that day by my good friend, actor and playwright Nik Wood-Jones. Along the way, we had the remarkable good fortune to cross paths with filmmaker and Beatles aficionado Simon Weitzman, who was on a similar mission.
As my friendship with Simon developed, I confided in him about the ongoing challenge of sharing my dad’s story with the world. He assured me that he knew just the guy to make it happen. Through Simon, I met Ken Womack via Zoom in 2020, during the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ken had already authored several books about the Beatles, but more important, Simon trusted him implicitly. Almost as soon as we began working together, I knew that Ken was the right collaborator to tell my dad’s story with the historical integrity it required. Over the years, I have come to understand the ways in which Beatles fans the world over adore “Big Mal,” and to his credit, Ken has been able to honor that connection while also mining the truth of my dad’s life, warts and all.
Working with our friends at HarperCollins, we are proud to share the present book with you—a full-length biography detailing my dad’s life with (and without) the Beatles. A second, even more richly illustrated book will follow in which we provide readers with highlights from my dad’s collection, including the manuscripts he compiled, the contents of his diaries, numerous drawings and other ephemera, along with a vast selection of unpublished photographs from our family archives and from his Beatle years.
The present effort simply wouldn’t have been possible without the saving graces of people like Leena Kutti, Yoko Ono, Neil Aspinall, Simon Weitzman, and Nik Wood-Jones. And now, thanks to Ken, readers will be able to experience my dad’s story with the vividness it deserves. Ken, you kindly lent me your ears over the past three years; I got by with more than a little help from you, my friend.
My father meant the world to me. He was my hero. Before Ken joined the project, I thought I knew my dad’s story. But what I knew was in monochrome; now, some three years later, it is like The Wizard of Oz, my dad’s favorite film, when the scene shifts from black-and-white Kansas to the dazzling multicolored brilliance of Oz. Ken has added so much color, so much light to my dad’s story. He has shown me that Mal Evans was the Beatles’ greatest friend. Yes, Big Mal was lucky to meet the Beatles, but the Beatles possessed even more good fortune when, for the first time, all those years ago, my dad happened to walk down the Cavern Club steps. The rest is music history.
I have always liked the song because it’s such a timeless song. This was before Justin Hayward and John Lodge joined the band.
The singer was Denny Laine who quit the Moodies in 1966 and was replaced by Justin Hayward. The Moody Blues started to open up for the Beatles in 1965. The two bands got close and Paul McCartney was a big fan of this song released the year earlier. Laine later ended up playing with Paul McCartney and Wings until 1980. During the 1976 Wings tour Paul stepped aside so Denny could sing this song.
What a mood this song creates. This was before the Moody Blues went searching for the lost chord…or evolved into an Art Rock type of band. They were just a beat group at this stage but the song’s arrangement pointed to a different direction. I would safely say this song was the most important one of their career because it broke them internationally. Without this song who knows what would have happened to them?
Ray Thomas and Justin Hayward tried singing it a few times live but as their music changed they dropped the song. The lineup that did this song was Graeme Edge (drums, backing vocals), Denny Laine (lead vocals, guitar), Mike Pinder (piano, backing vocals), Ray Thomas (backing vocals), Clint Warwick (bass, backing vocals). It was produced by Alex Murray.
The song was written by Larry Banks and Mike Milton Bennett and first released in 1964 by Bessie Banks. Her version did peak at #40 on the Cashbox R&B single charts. Bessie would be songwriter Larry Banks’s ex-wife. She said: “I remember 1963 Kennedy was assassinated; it was announced over the radio. At the time, I was rehearsing in the office of Leiber and Stoller. We called it a day. Everyone was in tears. “Come back next week and we will be ready to record ‘Go Now'”; and we did so. I was happy and excited that maybe this time I’ll make it. ‘Go Now’ was released in January 1964, and right away it was chosen Pick Hit of the Week on W.I.N.S. Radio. That means your record is played for seven days. Four days went by, I was so thrilled. On day five, when I heard the first line, I thought it was me, but all of a sudden, I realized it wasn’t. At the end of the song it was announced, “The Moody Blues singing ‘Go Now’.” I was too out-done. This was the time of the English Invasion and the end of Bessie Banks’ career, so I thought. America’s DJs had stopped promoting American artists”
The song peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100 #2 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1965.
Denny Laine: “It came in one of these suitcases full of records from America. This guy, James Hamilton, he was a friend of B. Mitchel Reed, who was a DJ, and he would send this stuff across. So I picked that one out especially because Mike Pinder was a piano player. (chuckles) We’d always get the gig where the piano would be out of tune and we’d get the slow handclap because they were waiting to tune the piano… (laughs) Anyway, we did ‘Go Now’ because it was a song with a piano in it.”
Go Now
We’ve already said “goodbye”
Since you gotta go, oh you’d better
Go now, go now, go now (go now, ooh)
Before you see me cry?
I don’t want you to tell me just what you intend to do now
‘Cause how many times do I have to tell you darlin’, darlin’
I’m still in love with you now
Whoa oh oh oh
We’ve already said “so long”
I don’t want to see you go, oh you’d better
Go now, go now, go now (go now, ooh)
Don’t you even try?
Tellin’ me that you really don’t want it to end this way
‘Cause darlin’, darlin’, can’t you see I want you to stay, yeah
Since you gotta go, oh you’d better
Go now, go now, go now (go now, ooh)
Before you see me cry
I don’t want you to tell me just what you intend to do now
‘Cause how many times do I have to tell you darlin’, darlin’
I’m still in love, still in love with you now
Ooh ooh ooh
I don’t want to see you go but darlin’, you better go now
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.
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
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)
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
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
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 cry I see no use in wondering why I cry for you
And now you’ve changed your mind I see no reason to change mine I cry
It’s through, oh-oh You’re giving me the same old line I’m wondering why You hurt me then, you’re back again No, no, no, not a second time
You know you made me cry I see no use in wondering why I cry for you, yeah
And now you’ve changed your mind I see no reason to change mine I cry
It’s through, oh-oh You’re giving me the same old line I’m wondering why You hurt me then, you’re back again No, no, no, not a second time
Not a second time Not a second time No, no, no, no, no No, no, no (not a second time)
I love tradition so here we are again! Happy New Year 2024.
For the past few years, this has been my first post in the New Year. If you have followed me for a while you should know this one.
Next to Auld Lang Syne, this is my favorite New Year’s Song. A favorite of mine from one of my favorite bands. Everyone… I wish you a Happy New Year in 2024.
You didn’t have to read my blog but you did and I really appreciate it…I want to thank all of you for reading and commenting in 2023.
This song sounds like it should have been a hit but it was never pushed as a single at the time. It was the B side to Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914) which is an experimental song and was a big surprise to the band that it was picked as the first single. Both are from the great album Odessey and Oracle in 1968. Several songs on this album could have been in the charts but Time of the Season was the only one that made it and it was a year after the album was released.
Bruce Eder of AllMusic gave the album five stars out of five, calling it “one of the flukiest (and best) albums of the 1960s, and one of the most enduring long-players to come out of the entire British psychedelic boom”.
On recording Odessey and Oracle…Rod Argent:
“We had the chance of going in and putting things down in the way we wanted people to hear them and we had a new studio, we walked in just after The Beatles had walked out [after recording Sgt. Pepper]. We were the next band in. They’d left some of their instruments behind … I used John Lennon’s Mellotron, that’s why it’s all over Odessey and Oracle. We used some of their technological advances … we were using seven tracks, and that meant we could overdub for the first time. And it meant that when I played the piano part I could then overdub a Mellotron part, and it meant we could have a fuller sound on some of the songs and it means that at the moment the tour we’re doing with Odessey and Oracle it means we’re actually reproducing every note on the original record by having extra player with us as well.”
This Will Be A Year
The warmth of your love Is like the warmth of the sun And this will be our year Took a long time to come
Don’t let go of my hand Now darkness has gone And this will be our year Took a long time to come
And I won’t forget The way you held me up when I was down And I won’t forget the way you said, “Darling I love you” You gave me faith to go on
Now we’re there and we’ve only just begun This will be our year Took a long time to come
The warmth of your smile Smile for me, little one And this will be our year Took a long time to come
You don’t have to worry All your worried days are gone This will be our year Took a long time to come
And I won’t forget The way you held me up when I was down And I won’t forget the way you said, “Darling I love you” You gave me faith to go on
Now we’re there and we’ve only just begun And this will be our year Took a long time to come
Yeah we only just begun Yeah this will be our year Took a long time to come
The harmonica intro to this song is dirty as hell. You can hear the slide cutting in like a knife while the rhythm is chugging along. The song was written by Sleepy John Estes, son of a Tennessee sharecropper and blind in one eye, in 1930. He wrote it as Milk Cow Blues. It was recorded in Memphis with piano, mandolin, and Este’s guitar.
Leaving Trunk was on Taj Mahal’s self-titled debut album released in 1968. Like Ry Cooder two years after…he had a great band backing him up. On slide guitar and harmonica is Taj Mahal. The great Jesse Ed Davis is on slide guitar also on this album as well as Ry Cooder on rhythm guitar.
He covered songs written by Estes, Robert Johnson, himself, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Blind Willie McTell. Leaving Trunk is a song that has been covered by many artists over the years, and it continues to be a favorite among blues fans. Secondhandsongs.com says it has 39 different versions to date. Everyone from Bob Willis to The Black Keys has covered this song. This album played a big part in influencing Duane Allman with Statesboro Blues.
I’ve listened to this album in the past few days I’ve been off of work. I’ve been rotating this one and the debut album of Ry Cooder. The slide guitar work on this album is blistering. I can’t state the importance of this album enough. I can see why Duane Allman was so inspired by it. I won’t go through the complete story but Duane was sick with a cold and his brother Gregg gave him a bottle of Coricidin and this album for Duane’s birthday. Below Gregg Allman tells it.
Gregg Allman: And then I looked on the table and all these little red pills, the Coricidin pills, were on the table. He had washed the label off that pill bottle, poured all the pills out. He put on that Taj Mahal record, with Jesse Ed Davis playing slide on “Statesboro Blues,” and starting playing along with it. When I’d left those pills by his door, he hadn’t known how to play slide. From the moment that Duane put that Coricidin bottle on his ring finger, he was just a natural.
Looking back on it, I think that learning to play slide was a changing moment in his life, because it was like he was back in his childhood—or maybe not his childhood, because it never seemed to me like Duane was a child, so it was more like going back to his first days of playing the guitar. He took to the slide instantly and mastered it very quickly. He practiced for hours and hours at a time, playing that thing with a passion—just like he did when he first learned to play the guitar.
Leaving Trunk
I went upstairs to pack my leavin’ trunk
I ain’t see no blues, whiskey made me sloppy drunk
I ain’t never seen no whiskey, the blues made me sloppy drunk
I’m going back to Memphis babe, where I’ll have much better luck
Look out mama you know you asked me to be your king
She said, “You kiddin’ man, if you want it, keep it hid
But please don’t let my husband, my main man catch you here
Please don’t let my main man, my husband catch you here”
The blues are mushed up into three different ways
One said, “Go the other”, two said, “Stay”
I woke up this mornin’ with the blues three different ways
You know one say, “Go baby, I want to hang up”
The other two said, “Stay”
Wake up mama, I got something to tell you
You know I’m a man who loves to sing the blues
Now you got to wake up baby, mama now
I got something, I got something to tell you
Well, you know I’m the man, I’m the man
Oh yes, and I love to sing the blues
Come on Davis
Come on, come on
I went upstairs to pack my leavin’ trunk, you know
I ain’t see no blues or whiskey made me sloppy drunk
I never seen no whiskey, the blues made me sloppy drunk
I go home baby and I lay down on the lawn
This song is for Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt is Gone But Not Forgotten. We lost Jeff Beck this year and he was a huge loss.
I hardly ever post instrumentals but this one is special. Keith Moon on drums, John Paul Jones on bass, Nicky Hopkins on keyboard, and Jimmy Page, on 12-string guitar along with Jeff Beck on slide guitar. John Paul Jones said the group that played on Beck’s Bolero was kicking around the idea of touring. They also were thinking about trying to get the Small Faces singer Steve Marriott but his management would not go for that.
Beck’s Bolero was recorded over one day on May 16th, 1966. At this point, Moon was unhappy in The Who, and this impromptu band did initially plan to record and release a full album, but contractual obligations…amongst other things, prevented them from ever doing it.
John Entwistle, who originally agreed to play bass in the session, pulled out at the last minute and was replaced with session ace John Paul Jones. Personally, I’m glad this didn’t gel because The Who would have stopped dead most likely.
When you listen to the song…there isn’t a doubt who was playing drums. Jeff Beck later claimed that Pete Townshend “glared like daggers at me” after he found out about the recording sessions.
Jimmy Page is credited with writing the song but Jeff has said no… that he worked more of it out. Instead of me writing out the differences…I’ll let Beck and Page do it below.
Jimmy Page: “On the ‘Beck’s Bolero’ thing I was working with that, the track was done, and then the producer just disappeared. He was never seen again; he simply didn’t come back. Napier-Bell, he just sort of left me and Jeff to it. Jeff was playing and I was in the box (recording booth). And even though he says he wrote it, I wrote it. I’m playing the electric 12-string on it. Beck’s doing the slide bits, and I’m basically playing around the chords. The idea was built around (classical composer) Maurice Ravel’s ‘Bolero.’ It’s got a lot of drama to it; it came off right. It was a good lineup too, with Keith Moon, and everything.”
Jeff Beck: “No, Page didn’t write that song, we sat down in his front room once, this tiny, pokey room, and he was sitting on the arm of a chair and he started playing that Ravel rhythm. He had a 12-string, and it sounded so full, really fat and heavy. And I just played the melody. And I went home and worked out the other bit [the up-tempo section].”
This song was the B side to Hi Ho Silver Lining which peaked at #14 in the UK in 1967. The song was later on Jeff Beck’s Truth album.
Jeff Beck: Me and Jim Page arranged a session with Keith Moon in secret, just to see what would happen. But we had to have something to play in the studio because Keith only had a limited time — he could only give us like three hours before his roadies would start looking for him. So I went over to Jim’s house a few days before the session, and he was strumming away on this 12-string Fender electric that had a really big sound. It was the sound of that Fender 12-string that really inspired the melody. And I don’t care what he says, I invented that melody, such as it is. I know I’m going to get screamed at because in some articles he says he invented it, he wrote it. I say I invented it. This is what it was: He hit these Amaj7 chords and the Fm7 chords, and I just started playing over the top of it. We agreed that we would go in and get Moonie to play a bolero rhythm with it. That’s where it came from, and in three or four takes it was down. John Paul Jones on the bass. In fact, that group could have been a new Led Zeppelin.
This song is a great way to start a year! Anytime you can hear Otis…you are on the right path! Have a Happy New Year! Get ready for 2024. Their voices sound amazing. They complimented each other very well. I just wished they would have had time to do more.
Stax’s house band, Booker T & the MGs, provides the backing. Note Booker T’s subtle but effective organ lending the song a spiritual element, while Donald “Duck” Dunn’s bass and Steve Cropper’s tasteful guitar licks ground the track’s rhythm
Stax was hoping to replicate the success of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Stax paired two of their greatest stars for the 1967 album King & Queen, which produced the hit “Tramp.” The album featured their takes on classics such as “Knock on Wood,” “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby,” “Bring It on Home to Me,” and “It Takes Two”
This song was on the King and Queen album released in 1967. This is the only album they got to make because Otis died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967. Carla Thomas would go on to a successful career with 2 top 20 hits plus many top 20 R&B hits.
I’m adding the song Tramp off of the album. This song peaked at #26 on the Billboard 100, #2 on the R&B Charts, and #1 on the UK R&B Charts in 1967.
New Year’s Resolution
I hope it’s not too late
Just to say that I’m sorry, honey
All I want to do
Is just finish what we started, baby
Let’s turn over a new leave
And baby let’s make promises
That we can keep
And call it a New Year’s resolution, hmmm
Oh, I’m a woman
And woman makes mistakes too
But will you, will you forget the changes
That I put you through
let’s try it again
Just you and me
And, baby, let’s see how happy honey, yeah
That we can be
And call it a New Year’s resolution, yeah, yeah, yeah
Many times we had our ups and downs
And times you needed me I couldn’t be found
I’m sorry
And I’m sorry too
I’ll never, never do it again, no, no, no
So baby before we fall out
Let’s fall on in, yeah, yeah
Oh, and we’re gonna try harder
Not to hurt each other again, oh
Love me baby, huh
Week after week
And baby let’s make promises
That we can keep
And call it a New Year’s resolution, yeah, oh
I know we can do it Carla
I’m gonna keep my promises
I’m gonna hold on that we can do it, baby
Oh, it’s not too late
You’re gonna love me
Nobody else
Oh Otis let’s finish what we started
Talk no mean
This song was released in 1967 by The Small Faces and it peaked at #16 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #3 in the UK. I was born in 1967 and cannot remember a thing but this song makes me feel like I was there. It was written by Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott. A psychedelic song that hit on both sides of the ocean which was rare for the Small Faces who never toured America.
Ronnie Lane had been reading a leaflet on the virtues of Oxford University which mentioned its dreaming spires. Several sources claim the song’s name is derived from the nickname of Little Ilford Park, on Church Road in the London suburb of Manor Park where Small Faces’ singer and songwriter Steve Marriott grew up.
The park is Manor Park’s Itchycoo Park (officially Little Ilford Park) in London. An “Itchycoo” is slang for a flower found in the park called a “Stinging Nettle,” which can burn the skin if touched. Ronnie Lane said “It’s a place we used to go to in Ilford years ago. Some bloke we know suggested it to us because it’s full of nettles and you keep scratching.”
Producer Glynn Johns used a new technique of phasing in the drum breaks. He got credit for doing that but it was his assistant that came up with it. The flange effect could be made by placing a finger on the supply reel creating drag, causing the machine to slow down, which increased the delay and lowered the pitch of the notches. The sound could be swept upward by doing the opposite…touching the take-up reel and speeding it up slightly.
Glyn Johns: I have often been given credit for this, but in fact the method used to achieve it was discovered by my assistant at the time, George Chkiantz, who demonstrated it to me as I arrived for the session. I thought it was a fantastic effect and decided to use it on the track we cut that afternoon. This happened to be “Itchycoo Park,” a song about taking LSD, as coincidence would have it, and if you listen you will see why it was so effective.
Glyn Johns: This was one hell of a band. They had a massive amount of energy that was unleashed on their audiences from the minute they hit the stage until they left it. If they had ever made it to America, they would undoubtedly have been as successful as any of the British bands that took it by storm in the sixties. That was not to be, as they broke up in 1969 before ever going there.
Ian McLagan: “I never liked ‘Itchycoo Park’ because me and Ronnie had to sing, ‘It’s all too beautiful,’ and you sing that a few times, and you think… It’s not. The ‘bridge of sighs’ is the one in Cambridge. The ‘dreaming spires’ are a reference to Oxford. Then ‘to Itchycoo Park… That’s where I’ve been,’ Ronnie was saying, ‘I didn’t need rich privilege or education. Found beauty in a nettle patch in the East End of London.”
Itchycoo Park
Over bridge of sighs
To rest my eyes in shades of green
Under dreaming spires
To Itchycoo Park, that’s where I’ve been
(What did you do there?) I got high
(What did you feel there?) well, I cried
(But why the tears there?) tell you why
It’s all too beautiful, it’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful, it’s all too beautiful
I feel inclined to blow my mind
Get hung up, feed the ducks with a bun
They all come out to groove about
Be nice and have fun in the sun
I’ll tell you what I’ll do (what will you do?) I’d like to go there now with you
You can miss out school (won’t that be cool?) why go to learn the words of fools?
(What will we do there?) we’ll get high
(What will we touch there?) we’ll touch the sky
(But why the tears there?) I’ll tell you why
It’s all too beautiful, it’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful, it’s all too beautiful
I feel inclined to blow my mind
Get hung up, feed the ducks with a bun
They all come out to groove about
Be nice and have fun in the sun
It’s all too beautiful, it’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful, hah
It’s all too beautiful, it’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful, it’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful, it’s all too beautiful
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