1960s – Page 20 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Human Beinz – Nobody But Me ….One Hit Wonder Week

It’s something about those 1960s garage band songs that I really like. Songs like Louie Louie, A Little Bit Of Soul, Hang On Sloopy, and the list goes on and on. They were not epic complicated songs…no just fun songs for everyone to enjoy and relate to.

This is one of the most negative songs ever recorded. The word “no” appears 100 times and “nobody” gets sung 46 times, according to rock critic Dave Marsh.

A couple of years ago, as I did with House MD, I found an older show called The Office and I loved it. I binged it twice through. They did an incredible one-take intro using this song in the 7th season that I’ll have posted below.

I give them an A+ on having a unique band name… They were an American rock band from Youngstown, Ohio…originally known as The Human Beingz but their name was spelled wrong (Beinz) on their contract but they just left it that way. I remember hearing this on Kill Bill Vol 1 and also on oldies radio stations through the years. The song peaked at #8 on the Billboard 100 in 1968.

This was a cover…and that surprised me. It was originally done by the Isley Brothers in 1962. It was written in the studio by Ronald Isley, Rudolph Isley, and O’Kelly Isley, Jr.

Another trivial thing about this song… these are the dances it lists… The Shingaling, The Skate, The Boogaloo, and The Philly. And if you listen to the end of the song…their bass player Mel Pachuta is hitting an empty Pepsi bottle with a drumstick. The producer wanted something different and that made him happy. You can clearly hear it at the end.

Nobody But Me

No-no, no, no, no-no-no, no, no-no, no, no-no
Na-no, no, na-no, no-no, na-no, no-no, no, no-no, no

Nobody can do the (Shing-a-ling) like I do
Nobody can do the (Skate) like I do
Nobody can do (Boogaloo) like I do
Nobody can do (Philly) like I do

Well, don’t you know
I’m gonna skate right through
Ain’t nobody do it but me
Nobody but me (Nobody but me)

Yeah, I’m gonna spin, I do
Ain’t nobody do it but me, babe
(Nobody but me)
Well, let me tell you nobody
Nobody but me

Let me tell you, nobody
(Nobody) nobody
(Nobody) nobody
(Nobody) nobody
(Nobody) nobody
(Nobody) nobody
(Nobody) nobody
(Nobody)

No-no, no, no, no, no-no-no, no, no-no, no, no-no
Na-no, no, na-no, no-no, na-no, no-no, no, no-no, no

Nobody can do the (Shing-a-ling) like I do
Nobody can do the (Skate) like I do
Nobody can do (Boogaloo) like I do
Nobody can do (Philly) like I do

Ooh, yeah
Nobody, nobody
Nobody, nobody

Steve Miller – Living In The U.S.A.

We’re living in a plastic land
Somebody give me a hand, yeah

I really like the organ in this song as well as the race car that’s revving up… it’s so vibrant. Miller also sets the mood with the harmonica he is playing. It’s too bad his earlier albums get lost in the shuffle because of his success from The Joker on. Those albums show a different Miller than the masses know from his big hits.

This song was released in 1968 on the Sailor LP which was the Steve Miller Band’s second LP. The album peaked at #24 on the Billboard Album Charts and #27 in Canada. Although the song was popular in the late 1960s, it truly gained a resurgence on rock radio in the late 1970s due to the success of the Fly Like an Eagle album.

Out of all Steve Miller songs…this one may be my favorite. This song peaked at #92 and then charted again at #49 in 1974. It wasn’t a big hit but it did get played on FM radio. Boz Scaggs was in Miller’s band at this time and sang harmonies.

Steve Miller: I had come out of a radical environment at the University of Wisconsin in the early ‘60s. I had been a Freedom Rider in the Civil Rights campaign and then I got involved in the Vietnam War demonstrations and debates. That was all going on, and then I ended up out in California where the psychedelic revolution was taking place. So when you combine those things, it was very powerful [creatively].

“Living in the U.S.A.” was put together with the idea of playing at the Democratic National Convention in 1968 in Chicago. That was the one where the cops beat everybody up—Mayor [Richard] Daley brought out the Chicago police. So it was a political tune. It came out, and it was kind of a hit. Then it went away, and then about five or six years later it sold 100,000 copies in a week in Philadelphia for no reason whatsoever.

Living In The U.S.A.

Stand back, stand back
Stand back, stand back

Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.

Where are you goin’ to
What are you gonna do
Do you think that it will be easy
Do you think that it will be pleasin’, hey

Stand back, what’d you say
Stand back, I won’t pay
Stand back, I’d rather play
Stand back

It’s my freedom
Ah, don’t worry ’bout me, babe
I got to be free, babe
Hey

Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.

Stand back, dietician
Stand back, television
Stand back, politician
Stand back, mortician

Oh, we got to get away
Living in the U.S.A.
Come on baby, Owwww

I see a yellow man, a brown man
A white man, a red man
Lookin’ for Uncle Sam
To give you a helpin’ hand
But everybody’s kickin’ sand
Even politicians
We’re living in a plastic land
Somebody give me a hand, yeah

Oh, we’re gonna make it, baby
Oh, we’re going to shake it, baby
Oh, don’t break it
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Come on baby, hey
Hey, hey
In the U.S.A., babe yeah

Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Don’t worry ’bout me, babe
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Living in the U.S.A.
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
I got to be free
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Come on try it, you can buy it, you can leave it next week, yeah
Somebody give me a cheeseburger

Rolling Stones – Honky Tonk Women

Of all the Rolling Stones songs I have posted…B sides and album cuts…I’m astonished that I haven’t posted this one. This is one of the Stones’ best 60s singles. It’s B side was You Can’t Always Get What You Want. I consider Jumping Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Women, and Brown Sugar their best rock singles. A case could be made for Satisfaction and Start Me Up as well.

When the Stones finished this recording on June 8, 1969…they drove to Brian Jones’s house to fire him. By this time he was trying to get himself clean of drugs and actually was getting better. He also had an arrest on his record that would stop the Stones from touring at the time. He started to record demos on his own and other people have said that it sounded like Creedence Clearwater Revival and that style. He would die on July 3, 1969, from drowning in his pool under a lot of controversy that still is questioned to this day. The song was released on July 4, 1969

This song was also the track that introduced Stones fans to guitarist Mick Taylor. The former member of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers was brought in to replace founding member Brian Jones. Taylor, only 20 at the time, provided the glue for the song, helping the transition from verse to chorus. Guitarist Ry Cooder also was an inspiration for the song.

The song started on a trip that Richards and Mick Jagger took to Brazil. Inspired by the cowboys working the ranch where they were vacationing, the two started knocking together a Hank Williams/Jimmie Rodgers-inspired tune, with Jagger using the countrified tone of the music as inspiration for his lyrical ode to the working women of the Old West. That version you can hear in Country Honk on the Let It Bleed album. Honky Tonk Women was released as a non-album single.

The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, in the UK, in New Zealand, and #2 in Canada in 1969.

Keith Richards: ‘Honky Tonk Women’ started in Brazil. Mick and I, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg who was pregnant with my son at the time. Which didn’t stop us going off to the Mato Grasso and living on this ranch. It’s all cowboys. It’s all horses and spurs. And Mick and I were sitting on the porch of this ranch house and I started to play, basically fooling around with an old Hank Williams idea. ‘Cause we really thought we were like real cowboys. Honky tonk women. And we were sitting in the middle of nowhere with all these horses, in a place where if you flush the john all these black frogs would fly out. It was great. The chicks loved it. Anyway, it started out a real country honk put on, a hokey thing. And then couple of months later we were writing songs and recording. And somehow by some metamorphosis it suddenly went into this little swampy, black thing, a Blues thing. Really, I can’t give you a credible reason of how it turned around from that to that. Except there’s not really a lot of difference between white country music and black country music. It’s just a matter of nuance and style. I think it has to do with the fact that we were playing a lot around with open tunings at the time. So we were trying songs out just to see if they could be played in open tuning. And that one just sunk in.”

Honky Tonk Women

I met a gin-soaked, bar-room queen in Memphis
She tried to take me upstairs for a ride
She had to heave me right across her shoulder
‘Cause I just can’t seem to drink you off my mind

It’s the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues

I laid a divorcée in New York City
I had to put up some kind of a fight
The lady then she covered me with roses
She blew my nose and then she blew my mind

It’s the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues
It’s the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues

It’s the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues

Shirelles – Will You Love Me Tomorrow

Great song that was highly influential at the time and now. I always thought this song was a pop masterpiece. Not a teen pop opera but more like a pop novella. I put it in the same class as Be My Baby…without the Brian Wilson worship temple.

Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote this song. Some radio stations didn’t play it because of the suggestive lyrics. Tony Orlando, who was then a teenager, wanted to record this song. Don Kirshner told him that it would not sound right coming from a guy. As much as I never really cared for Kirshner…he was right in this case. Orlando did record an answer song called “Not Just Tomorrow But Always” using the name Bertell Dache.

Goffin and King worked for Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music. He assigned them to work on a Shirelles song. He liked it so much that he thought he would try to get into Columbia by offering it to the label head but was rejected. Kirshner said afterward it was “The best thing he ever did for me.”

Shirelles lead singer Shirley Alston initially didn’t like the song. She thought it was “too Country and Western” for the New Jersey group to sing. Their producer Luther Dixon convinced her they could do it in their style, and asked King and Goffin if they could add strings and turn it into an uptempo song, which they did.

The Shirelles had been charting songs since 1958 but this was their first huge hit. Will You Love Me Tomorrow peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #3 in New Zealand, and #4 in the UK in 1960. The Shirelles were the first black female group to have a #1.

Will You Love Me Tomorrow

Tonight you’re mine, completely
You give your love so sweetly
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes
But will you love me tomorrow

Is this a lasting treasure
Or just a moment’s pleasure
Can I believe the magic in your sighs
Will you still love me tomorrow

Tonight with words unspoken
You say that I’m the only one
But will my heart be broken
When the night meets the morning sun

I’d like to know that your love
Is a love I can be sure of
So tell me now and I won’t ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow

So tell me now and I won’t ask again
Will you still love me tomorrow
Will you still love me tomorrow
Will you still love me tomorrow

Spencer Davis Group – I’m A Man

I’ve always liked those Steve Winwood singles released in the mid-sixties by The Spencer Davis Group. This song was the last single by The Spencer Davis Group released to feature Winwood. After this, he would leave them and form Traffic. Steve Winwood has one of the most distinctive voices in rock. You know his voice anywhere.

Steve Winwood and producer Jimmy Miller wrote this song. This is not the same song by Bo Diddley named I’m A Man. After this Jimmy Miller would start producing The Rolling Stones in their five-album stretch that became their foundation. Chicago would later record a version of this song.

This song was released as a non-album single in 1967. I’m A Man peaked at #1 in Canada, #10 on the Billboard 100, and #9 in the UK. Not only did Steve Winwood leave but his bass-playing brother Muff Winwood left as well.

Some say the song is a tribute to the African-American musical tradition, especially the blues and the R&B genres. Steve Winwood, the composer, was heavily influenced by the likes of Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, and other black artists who had revolutionized popular music in the 1950s and 1960s.

After this Steve Winwood would go on to Traffic, Blind Faith, and then a huge solo career. The two huge songs of The Spencer Davis Group are Gimme Some Lovin’ and this one. They are hard to beat.

Steve Winwood: “We were kind of experimenting with what is now called world music – it didn’t exist then – but Afro-Caribbean music which we’d been listening to, ‘I’m A Man’ was actually significant because it was the last Spencer Davis Group song before Traffic. So it was a significant transition because we were using these Afro-Caribbean elements in that music and then we went on in Traffic to combine that with many more elements like folk music and jazz and rock to try and combine all these elements.”

Here is a live version…I’ve never seen a bass player use a thumb pick before.

I’m A Man

Well, my pad is very messy
And there’s whiskers on my chin
And I’m all hung up on music
And I always play to win

I ain’t got no time for lovin’
‘Cause my time is all used up
Just to sit around creatin’
All that groovy kind of stuff

But I’m a man, yes I am
And I can’t help
But love you so

I got to keep my image
While suspended from a throne
That looks out upon a kingdom
Full of people all unknown

Who imagine I’m not human
And my heart is made of stone
I never had no problems
And my toilet’s trimmed with chrome

Well, I’m a man, yes I am
And I can’t help
But love you so

But I’m a man, yes I am
And I can’t help
But love you so

I got to keep my image
While suspended from a throne
That looks out upon a kingdom
Full of people all unknown

Who imagine I’m not human
And my heart is made of stone
I never had no problems
And my toilet’s trimmed with chrome

I’m a man, yes I am
And I can’t help
But love you so, no no

I’m a man, yes I am
And I can’t help
But love you so

Yes I’m movin
Yes I’m movin
Don’t you know that I’m movin
Yes I’m movin
Don’t you know that I’m a man
Yes I’m movin
(Don’t you know that I’m a man)

…

Max Picks …songs from 1968

1968

It was a turbulent year, to say the least. We lost two proponents of peace—Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. Other events include the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive, riots in Washington, DC, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and heightened social unrest over the Vietnam War, values, and race.

The music was also toughened up by moving away from psychedelic music. The social climate and The Band’s album Music from Big Pink had a lot of influence on this. You still had psychedelic music released but overall, music was more stripped down to the basics.

Let’s start off with The Band…Music From Big Pink was one of the most important albums ever released. Its influence was everywhere. The song The Weight was also later included in the movie Easy Rider.

The Beatles would release the super single Hey Jude/ Revolution and The White Album. I could go with many songs like Lady Madonna, Hey Jude, Back in the USSR, Helter Skelter, Dear Prudence, and the list is almost endless… but I’ll go with Revolution. This song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney…but mostly Lennon.

The Rolling Stones released what some considered their best song ever with Jumping Jack Flash. It was written by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

Maybe the first supergroup in rock…Cream with White Room. Pete Brown wrote the lyrics and Jack Bruce wrote the music. Bruce was inspired by a cycling tour that he took in France. The “white room” was a literal place: a room in an apartment where Pete Brown was living.

Now we will go with the legendary Otis Redding singing (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay.

The song is a true classic. Stax guitarist Steve Cropper wrote this with Redding. Cropper produced the album when Redding died, including this track with various songs Redding had recorded the last few years.

Redding died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967, a month before this song was released (January 8, 1968) and three days after he recorded it. It was by far his biggest hit and was also the first-ever posthumous #1 single in the US.

…

Ronettes – Be My Baby

Some people have said they cannot comment on this post…some can some cannot…I’ve emailed WP and am trying live chat but of course, it’s not open. So it might let you leave a comment…and it might not

The Ronettes were Veronica (Ronnie) Bennett, her sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. One of the great songs of the sixties.

I’m a huge fan of this song and The Ronettes. I like many of the female groups of the early sixties like The Marvelettes, Martha and the Vandellas, The Shirelles, and the Supremes but no one sounded like Ronnie Spector. But… I’m not the fan that Brian Wilson has been since he heard the song.

Count Brian Wilson as a huge fan of this song. Well, being a fan is an understatement…he was totally obsessed with this song. He was driving in the 60s when he heard it and had to pull the car over and analyze the chorus. He then bought the single and put it in his home jukebox and played it endlessly. In the seventies, as his fellow Beach Boys would be recording in his basement…he would be blasting Be My Baby at full volume with the curtains closed. One great thing came out of his obsession… it inspired him to write Don’t Worry Baby.

Mike Love remembered Wilson comparing Be My Baby to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Wilson told The New York Times in 2013 that he had listened to the song at least 1,000 times. Beach Boy Bruce Johnston gave a higher estimation: “Brian must have played ‘Be My Baby’ ten million times. He never seemed to get tired of it.” He also called it the best song ever recorded. Brian Wilson’s daughter Carnie has one distinct memory from her childhood, listening to, and more accurately being woken up with, Be My Baby.

Brian Wilson: “I felt like I wanted to try to do something as good as that song and I never did, I’ve stopped trying. It’s the greatest record ever produced. No one will ever top that one.”

To me, this song is brilliant and one of my favorites… although I wouldn’t go as far as Wilson did. It’s one of Phil Spector’s best-produced songs. The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #2 in New Zealand, and #4 in the UK.

This was the first Ronettes song produced by Phil Spector and released on his label, Philles Records. It also featured Spector’s “Wall Of Sound” production technique, where he layered lots of instruments and used echo effects.

Don’t expect to find B-side gold on many of Spector’s singles. Spector had Tommy Tedesco and Bill Pitman (session musicians) record a throwaway instrumental that he called “Tedesco And Pitman.” Spector made sure the B-sides of his singles were garbage so there was no doubt what song should be played. This also allowed him more studio time to craft the hit.

The future Ronnie Spector was the only Ronette to sing on this. Phil Spector rehearsed her for weeks and had her do 42 takes before he got the sound he wanted. Spector and Bennett got married in 1968, and they divorced in 1974. Ronnie Spector said the home they shared was pretty much a prison for her.

She woke up on her wedding night to workers erecting a barbed-wire fence around the estate. Bars were soon installed over windows, and intercoms in all the rooms. Ronnie was rarely allowed out alone, unless with a life-size dummy of Spector in the passenger seat of her car. But the worst was being unable to perform on stage.

I never heard about Ronnie Spector until the 80s when she appeared on the Eddie Money song Take Me Home Tonight. After that, I looked up all I could about her.

Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich wrote this song. As was his custom, Phil Spector also took a songwriting credit on the track. Producers did that in the 50s and 60s and it was wrong.

One thing I respected about George Martin…he blew the whistle on the hugely successful producer Norrie Paramor in the early sixties to a young David Frost who roasted Paramor on his show “That Was the Week That Was”. Paramor would force artists to record his songs for B sides and also take writers’ credit for others. Frost kept Martin’s name out of it. No one ever found out who dished out the goods to Frost about Paramor.

Be My Baby

The night we met I knew I needed you so
And if I had the chance I’d never let you go.
So won’t you say you love me,
I’ll make you so proud of me.
We’ll make ’em turn their heads every place we go.

So won’t you, please, be my be my baby
Be my little. baby my one and only baby
Say you’ll be my darlin’, be my be my baby
Be my baby now, my one and only baby
Wha-oh-oh-oh.

I’ll make you happy, baby, just wait and see.
For every kiss you give me I’ll give you three.
Oh, since the day I saw you
I have been waiting for you.
You know I will adore you ’til eternity.

So won’t you, please, be my be my baby
Be my little. baby my one and only baby
Say you’ll be my darlin’, be my be my baby
Be my baby now, my one and only baby
Wha-oh-oh-oh.

So come on and, please, be my be my baby
Be my little baby my one and only baby
Say you’ll be my darlin’, be my be my baby
Be my baby now, my one and only baby
Wha-oh-oh-oh.

Be my be my baby be my little baby.
My one and only baby oh oh,
Be my be my baby oh,
My one and only baby wha-oh-oh-oh-oh.
Be my be my baby oh,
My one and only baby
Be my be my baby oh,
Be my baby now

Small Faces- Rollin’ Over

They have become one of my favorite 60s rock bands. The biggest reason is their lead singer + guitarist…Steve Marriott.

If the Small Faces would have had a good or even decent manager they might have had a longer career and be more remembered today. They had a couple of great songwriters, Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. A superb drummer with Kenney Jones and keyboard player Ian McLagan

In my opinion, they had the best singer of any band at that time with Marriott. Other singers like Paul Rodgers and Robert Plant have said they both owed a debt to Marriott. The pure energy he gave off live is incredible. If I could build a rock band from scratch with anyone I wanted…Steve Marriott would be my singer…plus he was a great guitarist. Keith Richards wanted him to replace Mick Taylor when he left the Stones.

I always thought America had a skewed view of Small Faces. The only two songs played in America were Lazy Sunday and Itchycoo Park. One of them sounds like a music hall song and the other psychedelic. I like them but they were a driving band with a harder edge than either of those songs. Rollin’ Over is not their best song but I always have liked it. It was the B-Side to Lazy Sunday.

This song was off their biggest album Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake. It’s a rocking song that reminds me of what was to come in Marriott’s Humble Pie and the later Faces. It was written by Marriott and Lane as was most of their songs. Listen to this song and All or Nothing and see the difference between the two hits in America.

The album peaked at #1 in the UK and #159 on the Billboard 100. The reason they didn’t hit more in America? Their manager Don Arden would not pay for them to tour here per Kenney Jones. During their peak in the UK, Arden paid the band just £20 a week (around $50 at that time) plus a clothing allowance. Kenney Jones said they have just recently received some of the royalties that were stolen from them by Arden.

Rollin’ Over

Goodbye sunshine, I’m on my wayI’ll be long time gone by the break of dayTell everyone that I’m gonna find itThere ain’t nothin’ gonna stop me

Rollin’ overRollin’ over (save all your lovin’ ’til I get home)Rollin’ over (ooh, the sweetest lovin’ sunshine that I’ve ever known)Tell everybody I’m gonna find itThere ain’t nothin’ gonna stop me

Rollin’ over, shak-do-wayWah-wah-doo, yeah-yeah-yeah (rollin’ over)Shak-do-way (rollin’ over)Yeah-yeah-yeah (rollin’ over)Shak-do-way (rollin’ over)Yeah-yeah-yeah (rollin’ over and over)Shak-do-way (rollin’ over)Yeah-yeah-yeah (rollin’ over)Shak-do-way (rollin’ over)Yeah-yeah-yeahShak-do-way

Max Picks …songs from 1967

1967

This year contained the Summer of Love and psychedelia was everywhere. This year alone had many of my favorite songs I still listen to. I want to start with a song that I think is one of the best of the sixties. The Kinks Waterloo Sunset.

People ask me my favorite Beatles song all of the time. Usually, I say A Day In The Lif e but this one comes really close. The Beatles released Sgt Peppers this year but also released one of…if not the best single ever with Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane. Strawberry Fields was credited to Lennon/McCartney but Lennon is said to have written most of it.

Speaking of favorites…this is one of my top songs from the 60s and ever. Procol Harum with a Whiter Shade Of Pale. Gary Brooker and Keith Reid were credited with writing the song but Matthew Fisher the former keyboard player in the band sued for partial writing credit and won on July 24, 2008. Now the song’s writing credit is Reid-Brooker-Fisher. Gary Brooker and Fisher wrote the music and Reid wrote the lyrics. This was the first song Procol Harum recorded.

Another landmark song…The Doors in Light My Fire. The organ intro to this song by Ray Manzarek is one of the most iconic intros in rock. I first heard this song as a kid and automatically loved it. It is the song that the Doors are most known for. I like the album version that is longer and has more of a solo.

The four band members were credited for writing this song Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger, John Densmore, and Ray Manzarek.

This one is a no-brainer…the one and only Aretha Franklin with Respect…and I have plenty of it for her. It was written by the great Otis Redding.

…

Who – Summertime Blues

I wrote this for Dave’s site when he asked a group of bloggers to pick a song that signifies “summer” to you. Now summer is starting to wind down…I thought I would post this one.

I first heard this song by The Who. The Who’s version is a good one for bar bands to play but it’s hard to keep it under control in a bar setting. It must be loud before it works…although it’s fun to see some patrons with their hands over their ears…it’s best to limit that.

Eddie Cochran wrote Summertime Blues with his friend Jerry Capehart and released it in 1958. Capehart helped Cochran get a record deal. Capehart said: “There had been a lot of songs about summer, but none about the hardships of summer.” With that idea and a guitar lick from Cochran, they wrote the song in 45 minutes.”

The song was going to be a B side of the Cochran single “Love Again” written by Sharon Sheeley. The record company wisely made the decision to make Summertime Blues the A side. In 1960 Sheeley was his girlfriend and was in the car that crashed killing Cochran. She died in 2002 five days after having a cerebral hemorrhage.

I like the Cochran version…and the Who version…and they are completely different. I’ve always loved the way The Who covered Summertime Blues. If I had a time machine… The Who would be a stop to see them live at this time. The version they released in 1970 was on their album Live At Leeds…a great rock live album. The song peaked at #27 on the Billboard 100, #8 in Canada, and #38 in the UK in 1970.

Live at Leeds would be my pick for the best rock live album ever. The album peaked at #4 on the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, and #3 in the UK. It’s raw, raucous, and in your face…in other words, a great rock song!

Summertime Blues

Well, I’m a gonna raise a fuss, I’m a gonna raise a holler
I’ve been working all summer just to try and earn a dollar
Well, I went to the boss, said I got a date
The boss said “No Dice, son, you gotta work late”

Sometimes I wonder, what am I gonna do
There ain’t no cure for the summertime blues

Well, my mom and poppa told me, “Son you gotta earn some money
If you want to use the car to go out next Sunday”
Well, I didn’t go to work, I told the boss I was sick
He said “You can’t use the car cause you didn’t work a lick”

Sometimes I wonder, what am I gonna do
There ain’t no cure for the summertime blues

Gonna take two weeks, gonna have a fine vacation
Gonna take my problems to the United Nations
Well, I went to my congressman, he said, quote
“I’d like to help you son but you’re too young to vote”

Sometimes I wonder, what am I gonna do
There ain’t no cure for the summertime blues

Buck Owens – Buckaroo

I remember watching Buck Owens and his red, white, and blue guitar on Hee Haw on Saturday nights. He wasn’t the musician that Roy Clark was…but who is? Owens had a great band and he was a really good musician to boot. This song is a cool instrumental. I want to thank Run-Sew-Read for suggesting this one. It’s probably my favorite song by Owens.

And for those to whom this applies… Happy Labor Day!

In the 1950’s and 60’s Bakersfield California became an unlikely birthplace for a new sound…The Bakersfield Sound. Universally recognized as ‘The Country Music Capital of the West Coast’ and “Nashville West”, Bakersfield is the birthplace of what would become known worldwide as the Bakersfield Sound.

Who are some of the examples of this sound? Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Both artists cut their teeth at the bars and honkytonks around Bakersfield before gaining international success. Later on, Dwight Yoakam carried on this sound with outstanding results.

Buck’s genre of country music was different. It was the Bakersville style of country. He didn’t have that exaggerated Southern voice with tractor lyrics. Well in this song…he didn’t have a voice at all! It’s an instrumental from 1965 and you can hear the British invasion seeping in Buck’s country song.

Buck Owen’s guitar player was a man named Don Rich. He was an excellent guitar player and helped Buck become successful. Not only was he a great guitarist but he was Buck’s best friend also. He died tragically in a 1974 motorcycle accident after leaving the studio. Owens pleaded with Rich to stop riding it but Rich kept on. Buck Owens refused to talk about it until the late nineties. He said: “He was like a brother, a son, and a best friend. Something I never said before, maybe I couldn’t, but I think my music life ended when he died. Oh yeah, I carried on and I existed, but the real joy and love, the real lightning and thunder is gone forever.”

This song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts and #60 on the Billboard 100 in 1965. In the video below…Don Rich is on the left.

Music Explosion – A Little Bit Of Soul

I hope you are having a great Sunday!

This is a good song for a beginner on guitar plus it’s a cool 60s pop/rock song. I bought the single when I was a kid after I heard it on AM radio. The Music Explosion was an American garage rock band from Mansfield, Ohio. It’s one of those songs that will stick in your head all day…in a good way.

Their record company Laurie didn’t like the song and was reluctant to release it. They finally did and it became a local hit in Ohio. After that, they got some promotion in California and the song took off.

Songs like this were important to rock music. One-hit wonders gave the stage to many garage bands not named Stones, Beatles, and Who. Many times they played simple melodies with a variation of Louie Louie chord pattern like this one. After they were released…many unknown artists like the future Allman Brothers, Tom Petty, and others were playing these songs in clubs, parties, and well…garages.

The Music Explosion disbanded in 1969. Their only other hit on the Hot 100 was 1967’s “Sunshine Games,” which peaked at #63 on the Billboard 100. It was written by John Carter and Ken Lewis.

The song peaked at #1 in Canada and #2 on the Billboard 100 in 1967. I sometimes hear this song in shows…it was featured in The Wire in the 2004 episode “Middle Ground.”

Their other hit…Sunshine Games

Little Bit Of Soul

Now when you’re feelin’ low and the fish won’t bite
You need a little bit o’ soul to put you right
You gotta make like you wanna kneel and pray
And then a little bit of soul will come your way

Now when your girl is gone and you’re broke in two
You need a little bit o’ soul to see you through
And when you raise the roof with your rock’n’roll
You’ll get a lot more kicks with a little bit o’ soul

And when your party falls ’cause ain’t nobody groovin’
A little bit o’ soul and it really starts movin’, yeah

And when you’re in a mess and you feel like cryin’
Just remember this little song of mine
And as you go through life tryin’ to reach your goal
Just remember what I said about a little bit o’soul

A little bit o’ soul, yeah (a little bit o’ soul)

Five of my Favorite Country Songs

The good thing about Star Trek being over is…I can start posting a couple of music things on Saturday and Sunday.

I grew up near Nashville so it did leave its imprint on me but I don’t listen to modern country music. I do include some songs that are more country/rock but they fit what I like. They are in no particular order…well my favorite admittedly is the top one.

Hope you enjoy the small sample platter of country songs.

This song is my favorite of the Flying Burrito Brothers. It came off their great album The Gilded Palace of Sin. It didn’t chart at the time. Parsons wrote this song with Burrito bass player Chris Ethridge while the band was living in their San Fernando Valley house that was dubbed “Burrito Manor.”

Merle Haggard was a constant on the radio here with my parents. He wrote so many classic songs and this is one of them…Mama Tried.

Merle Haggard wrote this song while serving time in San Quentin prison for robbery. The song is based on his life, and how his mother tried to help him but couldn’t… Mama Tried came out in 1968 and peaked at #1 on the Country Charts and #1 in the Canada Country Charts in 1968.

The man had 38 number-one hits, 71 top-ten hits, and 101 songs in the top 100 in the country charts. Merle is one of my favorite country artists. If only the new ones would listen and learn.

Hank Williams is one of my favorite country artists. He could write songs of great quality but the ironic thing is…this one is one of the few he didn’t write. His nickname…The Hillbilly Shakespeare is true to form. Hank Williams released this song in 1949 and it peaked at #12 on the Country Charts. It was written by Leon Payne.

Loretta Lynn is my favorite female country singer with apologies to Dolly Parton. This is a song that she did with Jack White called Portland Oregon. If the modern country was like this…I would listen. Their voices go really well with each other. Country radio would not play it but the album still peaked at #2 on the Country Charts and #24 on the Billboard Album Charts and #1 on the UK Country Charts in 2004.

They didn’t win any country music awards but came away with two Grammys.

I love the build-up to this song…Jack White builds this up and Loretta starts singing around 1:40.

Now to finish it out with 5 songs…I thought I would add Dwight Yoakam who was inspired by Buck Owen’s Bakersville Sound. The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Country Charts and at #3 in Canada in 1993. It was written by Yoakam and produced by Pete Anderson.

The song was on Dwight’s album This Time. The album peaked at #4 in the Billboard Country Album Charts, #1 in the Canada RPM Album Charts, and #25 in the Billboard Album Charts.

…

Ike and Tina Turner – River Deep, Mountain High

I’ve never been a huge fan of Phil Spector. He did produce some classic songs that I really like but sometimes he went crazy with the Wall of Sound and reverb a little too much. This one to me, is one of his greatest recordings.

The song has an epic and massive feel to it. It was written by Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, and Phil Spector. Greenwich and Barry were married from 1962-1965 but kept working together after their divorce. They were one of the most successful songwriting teams of the sixties. The song was written for Tina Turner because her strong-as-hell voice would cut through.

Phil Spector put everything he could into this song. The song was, Spector thought, destined to be his masterpiece. He didn’t want Ike Turner around trying to change things so he gave Ike 20,000 dollars to NOT show up at the studio. Phil wanted to hand-pick the musicians that backed Tina Turner. The song would still have his name but Ike happily counted his money and stayed at home. Ike Turner knew he won either way. If it was a hit he would prosper and if not…he would take charge again…which he did.

Spector hadn’t had a hit for eighteen months and he was obsessed with the production of this one song for around six months. It was going to be his masterpiece. Some thought it was. George Harrison called it a perfect record. Brian Wilson was floored. But the masses had moved on. “River Deep Mountain High” was a hit in England — and a total flop in America.

The song peaked at #88 on the Billboard 100, #3 in the UK, and #62 in Canada in 1966. After the failure of the song in America, Phil Spector was devastated and went into seclusion and didn’t produce anything for a few years.

Phil Spector: “I just wanted to go crazy for four minutes on wax.”

River Deep – Mountain High

When I was a little girl
I had a rag doll
Only doll I’ve ever owned
Now I love you just the way I loved that rag doll
But only now my love has grown

And it gets stronger, in every way
And it gets deeper, let me say
And it gets higher, day by day

And do I love you, my oh my
Yeah river deep, mountain high, yeah yeah yeah
If I lost you would I cry
Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

When you were a young boy, did you have a puppy?
That always followed you around
Well I’m gonna be as faithful as that puppy
No I’ll never let you down

‘Cause it grows strong, like a river flows
And it gets bigger baby, and heaven knows
And it gets sweeter baby, as it grows

And do I love you, my oh my
Yeah river deep, mountain high, yeah yeah yeah
If I lost you would I cry
Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

I love you baby like a flower loves the spring
And I love you baby, like a robin loves to sing
And I love you baby, like a school boy loves his pet
And I love you baby, river deep, mountain high

Baby baby baby oh baby
Awh awwwwwwwwwww

Do I love you my oh my, yeah
River deep, mountain high
If I lost you would I cry
Oh how I love you baby, baby, baby, baby

Rolling Stones – Salt Of The Earth

Let’s drink to the hard-working people
Let’s drink to the lowly of birth
Raise your glass to the good and the evil
Let’s drink to the salt of the earth

This song is on my favorite Rolling Stones album, Beggars Banquet. There is not a bad song on the LP. This one and Prodigal Son I always liked. The album peaked at #5 on the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in the UK, and #3 in Canada in 1969.

I played this album to death. As with most Stones albums, you get what you get…rock, blues, and a little country thrown in the mix. I got this album when I was 12 and it opened my eyes wide to the Stones…much more than a collection of their hits would ever do.

This album is not considered up there with Sticky Fingers or Exile On Main Street but I have the strongest connection to it. I’ve always related Beggars Banquet to the White Album. They were both released in 1968 and were raw and honest. No studio trickery to either…a big departure from the psychedelic era of 1967 for both bands. I think the Stones and Beatles also owe a nod to The Band’s rootsy music (Music From Big Pink) which was influencing everyone around this time.

I learned that a greatest hits package from The Beatles and Rolling Stones was NOT enough. Those two bands taught me to buy albums and not just rely on the “hits” which even at that time were worn out. You never got the really good songs that lay hidden like this one. The two well-known songs off of the album were great like Sympathy for the Devil and Street Fighting Man but I liked some of the others just as much. Now with certain artists…yes, a Greatest Hits package is fine but not with the Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and a few more.

I don’t think Jimmy Miller gets enough credit for their sound. That is not a knock against the Stones but the Miller-produced albums are special. He produced them during their 5 album stretch golden period. Keith and Mick Jagger both sing on this with the Los Angeles Watts Street Gospel Choir singing background…Nicky Hopkins is on piano. It was written by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

The title refers to the working class…they are “The salt of the Earth.” Jagger later said: “The song is total cynicism. I’m saying those people haven’t any power and they never will have.”

Speaking of albums. My friend Paul has a massive site with album reviews called The Punk Panther Music Reviews. I can almost promise you he will have what you are looking for.

Also, Graham has a wide selection of albums that he reviewed…it’s called Aphoristic Album Reviews. When I want to see album reviews I go to those two sites. I hardly ever do album reviews because frankly, I’m not that good at it but I still try once in a while.

Salt Of The Earth

Let’s drink to the hard working people
Let’s drink to the lowly of birth
Raise your glass to the good and the evil
Let’s drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier
Spare a thought for his back breaking work
Say a prayer for his wife and his children
Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

And when I search a faceless crowd
A swirling mass of gray and
Black and white
They don’t look real to me
In fact, they look so strange

Raise your glass to the hard working people
Let’s drink to the uncounted heads
Let’s think of the wavering millions
Who need leaders but get gamblers instead

Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows
And a parade of the gray suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio

And when I look in the faceless crowd
A swirling mass of grays and
Black and white
They don’t look real to me
Or don’t they look so strange

Let’s drink to the hard working people
Let’s think of the lowly of birth
Spare a thought for the rag taggy people
Let’s drink to the salt of the earth

Let’s drink to the hard working people
Let’s drink to the salt of the earth
Let’s drink to the two thousand million
Let’s think of the humble of birth