Category: 1960s

Yardbirds – For Your Love

This is the song that introduced the Yardbirds to me. I got into them heavily as a teenager. I just found one of my old Jr High notebooks with band names on the front, and The Yardbirds are on there. I always thought this was a different-sounding pop hit. Yes, you have the harpsichord, but the song also has a couple of time signatures. 

The song was written by Graham Gouldman, a teenage songwriter whose knack for hooks would later find full bloom in 10cc. For Your Love was handed to them by manager Giorgio Gomelsky, who saw the group’s potential beyond the blues clubs. The song offered a chance on the pop charts. Clocking in at under 2:30, it was compact, catchy, and just different enough to resonate with people. This was one of the few hit pop songs at the time to feature a harpsichord. 

And for Eric Clapton, it was the final straw. Clapton wanted blues, and Gomelsky wanted hits. He couldn’t get behind its commercial lean. Within weeks of its release, he was gone, off to join John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, where the amps were loud and the blues roots ran deeper.

The song peaked at #6 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #3 in the Uk in 1965. This song was more pop than blues. This inspired Eric Clapton to leave the Yardbirds because he feared they were becoming too commercial.

The Yardbirds had three of Rock’s greatest guitar players pass through them. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. They had such a raw edge to them with Jeff Beck, so that is the version I like best.

Jim McCarty on the songs by Graham Gouldman: “Well, they were always very original. Very interesting songs, very moody, because they were usually in a minor key, the ones we did, anyway. ‘For Your Love’ was an interesting song, it had an interesting chord sequence, very moody, very powerful. And the fact that it stopped in the middle and went into a different time signature, we liked that, that was interesting. Quite different, really, from all the bluesy stuff that we’d been playing up till then. But somehow we liked it. It was original and different.”

Jim McCarty: “To try and get a hit song in those days was quite a difficult thing to do for us. We could come up with ideas, but our first hit song was very important for us. And with ‘For Your Love’ we heard it and had the demo of it and it sounded like a hit song to all of us. Yeah, there wasn’t a problem doing that. It was the sort of thing that you relied on to get into that other echelon, to have a hit song. All our contemporaries were having hit songs: The Beatles and the Stones and the Moody Blues and Animals, they were all having #1 hits and we were really trying to keep up.”

For Your Love

For your love
For your love
I’d give you everything and more and that’s for sure
(For your love)
I’d bring you diamond rings and things right to your door
(For your love)
To thrill you with delight,
I’d give you diamonds bright
Double takes I will excite,
Make you dream of me at night
For your love
For your love
For your love
For your love,
For your love
I would give the stars above
For your love,
For your love
I would give you all I could
(For your love)
(For your love)
I’d give the moon if it were mine to give
(For your love)
I’d give the stars and the sun for I live
(For your love)

Spencer Davis Group – Gimme Some Lovin’

I heard this song on an oldies channel in the mid-1980s, and it sounded so fresh and powerful. I remember wanting to know more about them, but books on the Spencer Davis Group were in short supply at that time. Before I started blogging, I knew very little about this band.

Let’s talk about the not-so-secret weapon here: Steve Winwood. The kid was 17, but he sings like a man three divorces deep with a gospel choir in his chest. He is simply electric when he plays or sings. No buildup, no easing into it, it’s all gas, no brakes, and all the more thrilling because of it. A teenage Steve Winwood, somehow sounding like a man who had lived five blues lifetimes by age seventeen.

The song peaked at #1 in Canada, #7 on the Billboard 100, #5 in New Zealand, and #2 in the UK in 1966. Steve Winwood’s voice and his B-3 organ drives this song. The Spencer Davis Group formed in 1963, with Spencer Davis on guitar, Pete York on drums, and Muff Winwood on bass, while his brother Steve Winwood, remarkably, was just 14 years old.

By 1966, the Spencer Davis Group had a few hits under their belt in the UK (Keep On Running, Somebody Help Me), but they needed something fast to keep the momentum going. Their producer, Jimmy Miller (who later remade the Stones) asked for an original song that would go over well in the US. So Steve Winwood sat down at the Hammond, punched out that legendary riff, and the band built the rest around it in about 30 minutes. Steve Winwood, Spencer Davis, and Muff Winwood are listed as the writers. 

In 1980, The Blues Brothers returned this song to the Billboard Top 20 when their cover reached #18.

Gimme Some Lovin’

Well, my temperature is rising, got my feet on the floor
Crazy people rocking ’cause they want to some more
Let me in baby, I don’t know what you got
But you better take it easy ’cause this place is hot

And I’m so glad you made it, so glad you made it
You got to gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’ everyday

Well, I feel so good, everything’s getting high
You better take it easy ’cause the place is on fire
Been a hard day and I had no work to do
Wait a minute baby, let it happen to you

And I’m so glad we made it, so glad we made it
You got to gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’ everyday, yeh

Well, I feel so good, everything’s getting high
You better take it easy ’cause the place is on fire
Been a hard day nothing went too good
Now I’m gonna relax, buddy everybody should

And I’m so glad we made it, hey hey, so glad we made it
You got to gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’ woo ooo
Gimme some lovin’, gimme, gimme some lovin’

Gimme, gimme, gimme some of your lovin’, baby
You know I need it so bad woo ooo
Gimme some of your lovin’, baby

Band – I Shall Be Released

This song is for Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt is a song off a debut album. I picked The Band and their debut album, Music From Big Pink, released in 1968. 

Every once in a while, a song doesn’t just sound like it was written in stone; it feels like it was. I Shall Be Released is one of those songs. That’s the magic of The Band. They could turn a Dylan lyric into a backwoods hymn, all soul and no showbiz.

There is a very solemn song with a religious hymnal feel to it. The song is not commercial, not meant to be a hit, sell a million copies, but just pure music at its best.  There are no pretensions or gimmicks…this is the Band at one of its many peaks.

Richard Manuel, whose voice always sounded like it was teetering on the edge of breaking, whether from emotion, exhaustion, or both, delivers a vocal here that’s just haunting. He makes Dylan’s already powerful lyrics sound like the final words of a man who’s seen too much and still manages to believe that salvation might come… someday.

Bob Dylan wrote this in 1967, but his version was not officially released until 1971 on his Greatest Hits Vol. II album. The Band, which backed up Dylan on his first electric tour, recorded it for Music From Big Pink, their first album. Their version is the most well-known. Bob wrote it after his motorcycle accident in 1966. Some have said the song represents Dylan’s search for personal salvation. 

Everyone under the sun has covered this song, but the Band’s own rendition was released first and is probably the best-known version.

The song was the B side to The Weight released in 1968. Music From The Big Ping peaked at #30 in the Billboard 100 and #18 in Canada. That wasn’t the biggest thing, though…the album helped change the landscape of popular music from the psychedelic harder rock to more earthy roots music.

I Shall Be Released

They say everything can be replaced
They say every distance is not near
So I remember every face
Of every man who put me here

I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released

They say every man needs protection
They say that every man must fall
Yet I swear I see my reflection
Somewhere so high above this wall

I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released

Now, yonder stands a man in this lonely crowd
A man who swears he’s not to blame
All day long I hear him shouting so loud
Just crying out that he was framed

I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released

…

Beatles – She Said, She Said

At this point during recording, Revolver was nearly finished. They were worn down and creatively drained, but also ambitious. This song was the final track recorded for the album, and it came under a lot of pressure. They had to nail it quickly because the album deadline was looming. It has been said that this song was the first time an LSD experience directly influenced a song by them.

George Harrison deserves an assist credit with this song. Lennon had the core of the song but was struggling to pull the parts together. George Harrison jumped in to help him link two unfinished song fragments, the “She said / I know what it’s like to be dead” part and the “When I was a boy” section. This last-minute patchwork was crucial: without Harrison, it’s possible She Said She Said wouldn’t have been finished in time.

Love the guitar sound and the brilliant bridge to this song. It was inspired by the actor Peter Fonda, who was on an acid trip along with George Harrison and John Lennon while they were together in a mansion in California. Accounts vary as to how events unfolded, but there is a consensus that Fonda kept saying “I know what it’s like to be dead,” which ended up being a key line in the lyric.

This is one Beatles song that Paul did not play on. He got in an argument with the rest of them and walked out the door before they recorded it, so George Harrison is playing bass. The song was on Revolver, which is considered by many the best album the Beatles produced…and by some the best by anyone.

George Harrison: “I don’t know how, but Peter Fonda was there.  He kept saying, ‘I know what it’s like to be dead, because I shot myself.’  He’d accidentally shot himself at some time and he was showing us his bullet wound.  He was very uncool.”

She Said She Said

She said, “I know what it’s like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad.”
And she’s making me feel like I’ve never been born

I said, “Who put all those things in your head?
Things that make me feel that I’m mad.
And you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “You don’t understand what I said.”
I said, “No, no, no, you’re wrong.
When I was a boy everything was right,
Everything was right.”

I said, “Even though you know what you know,
I know that I’m ready to leave
‘Cause you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “You don’t understand what I said.”
I said, “No, no, no, you’re wrong.
When I was a boy everything was right,
Everything was right.”

I said, “Even though you know what you know,
I know that I’m ready to leave
‘Cause you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.”

She said, “I know what it’s like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad.
I know what it’s like to be dead…”

Underdog Is Here!

There’s no need to fear…Underdog is here!

Thanks, Keith, for hosting this and coming up with this great idea! Today, we go back to Saturday mornings. This was when we sat in front of the TV with our favorite cereal and watched hours of cartoons. So I asked my guests to write about their favorite cartoon or cartoon character growing up.

When I was growing up, we kids had two prime times for cartoons. Saturday mornings were our Super Bowl, packed with classics from Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera. Even Land of the Lost—though live-action—was a can’t-miss favorite. But not all the best cartoons aired on Saturdays. Every weekday morning, from 6 to 7 a.m. before school, we had another dose of animated fun, with shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle and Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse keeping us entertained.

Underdog debuted October 3, 1964, on the NBC network under the primary sponsorship of General Mills, and continued in syndication until 1973 (although production of new episodes ceased in 1967, for a run of 124 episodes.

Underdog’s secret identity was Shoeshine Boy. He was in love with Sweet Polly Purebred, who was a news reporter. I would watch this cartoon before going to school in 1st and 2nd grade. Underdog would use his secret ring to conceal pills that he would take when he needed energy. NBC soon put an end to that.

For many years, starting with NBC’s last run in the mid-1970s, all references to Underdog swallowing his super energy pill were censored, most likely out of fear that kids would see medication that looked like the Underdog pills (red with a white “U”) and swallow them. Two instances that did not actually show Underdog swallowing the pills remained in the show. In one, he drops pills into water supplies; in the other, his ring is damaged, and he explains that it is where he keeps the pill—but the part where he actually swallows it was still deleted.

The shows introduced such characters as King Leonardo, Tennessee Tuxedo, Commander McBragg, Klondike Kat,  and more. Underdog was voiced by Wally Cox. Underdog always talked in rhyme and I’m a sucker for that in this and Dr Seuss. Two of the villains every week were Simon Bar Sinister and Riff Raff.

W. Watts Biggers teamed with Chet Stover, Treadwell D. Covington, and artist Joe Harris in the creation of television cartoon shows to sell breakfast cereals for General Mills. The shows introduced such characters as King Leonardo, Tennessee Tuxedo, and Underdog. Biggers and Stover contributed both scripts and songs to the series.

When Underdog became a success, Biggers and his partners left Dancer Fitzgerald Sample to form their own company, Total Television, with animation produced at Gamma Studios in Mexico. In 1969, Total Television folded when General Mills dropped out as the primary sponsor (but continued to retain the rights to the series until 1995; however, they still own TV distribution rights.

Underdog became a pop culture icon, with reruns airing for decades. The character was featured in toys, comics, and even a 2007 live-action film starring Jason Lee as the voice of Underdog. The theme song remains one of the most recognizable in cartoon history.

Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

This song explosion is like an atom bomb going off. From the first words “Well, I stand up next to a mountain and I chop it down with the edge of my hand” you know Jimi means business. This is no boy band, folk cafe, or pop song. Jimi is shooting to kill. This song is off the great 1968 Electric Ladyland album. From the tone of the guitar and how he spits out the lyrics, the song is a masterpiece. The guitar riff is one of, if not the best. There was another song called Voodoo Chile that was recorded, but it is a different song. 

This song was recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience in May 1968, during the sessions for Hendrix’s third and final studio album, Electric Ladyland. The day before this was recorded, Jimi, Steve Winwood, Jack Casady, and some others had a jam in the studio called Voodoo Chile. This song was almost an accident after they built this song with a riff from the previous day. 

A camera crew from ABC-TV came by to film Hendrix for a documentary. Hendrix, always the showman, wanted to give them something great. So, he grabbed his guitar, and the Experience basically created “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” on the spot. It was a stripped-down, turbo-charged echo of the longer “Voodoo Chile” jam from the previous day.  This time built around that now-iconic riff.

Unfortunately, that footage from this day is said to be stolen. The footage of the previous day’s jam was left alone. Did the thief die and leave the unattended films to rot into dust? Are the reels locked away in some forgotten vault or stashed in an attic? Were the films destroyed in a fire, deliberate or accidental? Is some private collector viewing them at this moment? We may never know.

The readers of Music Radar voted this the very best rock riff ever. That is saying a lot, but I can’t fight that much at all. If you are wondering, Guns N Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine came second in the poll and Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love” third.

Voodoo Child (Slight Return) was released in the UK after his death. It peaked at #1 in 1970. It was his only number 1 hit in the UK. 

Joe Satriani: “It’s just the greatest piece of electric guitar work ever recorded. In fact, the whole song could be considered the holy grail of guitar expression and technique. It is a beacon of humanity.”

Voodoo Child (Slight Return)


Well, I stand up next to a mountain
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well, I stand up next to a mountain
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well, I pick up all the pieces and make an island
Might even raise a little sand
Yeah

‘Cause I’m a voodoo child
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child, baby

I want to say one more last thing

I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
I’ll give it right back to you one of these days, hahaha
I said I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time
I’ll give it right back one of these days
Oh yeah
If I don’t meet you no more in this world, then
I’ll meet you in the next one
And don’t be late
Don’t be late

‘Cause I’m a voodoo child, voodoo child
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child, baby

I’m a voodoo child, baby
I don’t take no for an answer
Question no
Lord knows I’m a voodoo child, baby

Merle Haggard – I’m A Lonesome Fugitive

Whenever I hear this man’s voice, it takes me back to my dad, who would listen to his songs in our red Plymouth Valiant. Songs like Sam Hill, Swinging Doors, and others, he would have blasting at 7 in the morning. 

Merle was genuine through and through. He didn’t run from his past but used it to tell stories and warn people about going the wrong way. Merle wasn’t posing; he was the real deal. This song helped shape the outlaw country movement before it had a name.

Most people know that he spent his early adulthood behind bars for a failed attempt at robbery. While in San Quentin State Prison, Haggard wrote many songs while dreaming of freedom and life beyond the bars of a cell.

He knew a couple of inmates, James Rabbit and Caryl Chessman. Haggard and James Rabbit hatched a plan one night to escape (they would hide inside a desk he was building in the prison furniture factory), though at the last moment, Rabbit advised Haggard not to take part in the plan. Rabbit escaped, was recaptured, killed an officer, and was brought back to San Quentin to be executed. It was the first of many events to change something in Haggard’s criminal ways.

What is surprising is that Merle did not write this song. It was written by Liz Anderson and her husband, Casey Anderson, a songwriting couple who were fans of Haggard and knew of his prison past. When they sent the song his way, it clicked instantly. Haggard later said he related to it so personally that he felt like it had to be his.

The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts, and the album of the same name peaked at #3 on the Billboard Country Album Charts. 

One of my biggest concert regrets is that I never saw this great artist live. 

I’m A Lonesome Fugitive

Down every road there’s always one more cityI’m on the run, the highway is my home

I raised a lot of cane back in my younger daysWhile mama used to pray my crops would failNow I’m a hunted fugitive with just two waysOutrun the law or spend my life in jail

I’d like to settle down but they won’t let meA fugitive must be a rolling stoneDown every road there’s always one more cityI’m on the run, the highway is my home

I’m lonely but I can’t afford the luxuryOf having one I love to come alongShe’d only slow me down and they’d catch up with meFor he who travels fastest goes alone

I’d like to settle down but they won’t let meA fugitive must be a rolling stoneDown every road there’s always one more cityI’m on the run, the highway is my homeI’m on the run, the highway is my home

…

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Born on the Bayou

This song is so ominous with that noise and then tremolo guitar opening. I’m ready to follow whatever comes next after that.  What came after was the other instrument in the band that no other band had or could match, John’s voice. I think of Little Richard, but with a little more control. We will revisit Richard in this post.  The song was the B side to Proud Mary and never did chart, but it remains one of their best-remembered songs. It should be a law, you have to wear headphones with the volume at 11 when you listen to this song. Fogerty’s voice will amaze you. 

When you listen to the song, you are in a bayou, whether you want it or not. You have hound dogs barking, rolling with a Cajun Queen, running through the backwoods bare, and all the inhabitants of the bayou within your reach. Although none of the band members were from Louisiana (they were based in California), Fogerty created a vivid, swampy Southern sound that came to define CCR’s identity with this song. 

John Fred was a singer (Judy In Disguise), and he played a part in this song. Fred was from Louisiana, and when Creedence played a show in Baton Rouge in 1969, he met Fogerty at a rehearsal and offered to take him to a real bayou. They drove 15 minutes to Bayou Forche, where they ate some crabs and crayfish, which helped give Fogerty the idea for this song.

The song was on their album Bayou Country, released in 1969. The album contained Proud Mary and one of my favorite CCR songs Bootleg. On making the album, John said: Everybody wanted to sing, write, make up their own arrangements, whatever, right? This was after ten years of struggling. Now we had the spotlight. Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame. ‘Susie Q’ was as big as we’d ever seen. Of course, it really wasn’t that big…I didn’t want to go back to the carwash.” The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard album charts, #14 in Canada, and #62 in the UK.

I found one of the most interesting covers of this song. Little Richard (I have it below) covered it in 1971. After a 2:00 spoken intro, his voice blasts into it, and it feels just right.

John Fogerty: “We were the #7 act on the bill, bottom of the totem pole. And as the first guys to go on, we were the last to soundcheck before they opened the doors. It was like, ‘Here’s the drums, boom, boom; here’s the guitar, clank, clank.’ I looked over at the guys and said, ‘Hey, follow this!’ Basically, it was the riff and the attitude of ‘Born on the Bayou,’ without the words.” 

John Fogerty: “Born on the Bayou,” “Proud Mary,” and “Choolgin'” were all connected in John Fogerty’s mind. In Bad Moon Rising, he said, “I was writing these at night, and I remember that Bobby Kennedy got killed during this time. I saw that late at night. They kept showing it over and over. ‘Bayou’ and ‘Proud Mary’ and ‘Chooglin” were all kind of cooking at that time. I’d say that was when the whole swamp bayou myth was born—right there in a little apartment in El Cerrito. It was late at night and I was probably delirious from lack of sleep. I remember that I thought it would be cool if these songs cross-referenced each other. Once I was doing that, I realized that I was kind of working on a mythical place.”

If you want to hear a live version by CCR, I couldn’t find a good video except the audio right here.

Born on the Bayou

Now, when I was just a little boyStandin’ to my daddy’s kneeMy papa said, “Son, don’t let the man get youAnd do what he done to me”‘Cause he’ll get you‘Cause he’ll get you now, now

And I can remember the fourth of JulyRunnin’ through the backwood bareAnd I can still hear my ol’ hound dog barkin’Chasin’ down a hoodoo thereChasin’ down a hoodoo there

Born on the bayouBorn on the bayouBorn on the bayou, Lord, Lord

Wish I was back on the bayouRollin’ with some Cajun QueenWishin’ I were a fast freight trainI’m just a chooglin’ on down to New Orleans

Born on the bayouBorn on the bayou, mm, mm, mmBorn on the bayou, do it, do it, do it, do itAlright

Oh, get back, boy

And I can remember the fourth of JulyRunnin’ through the backwood bareAnd I can still hear my ol’ hound dog barkin’Chasin’ down a hoodoo thereChasin’ down a hoodoo there

Born on the bayouBorn on the bayou, oh, ohBorn on the bayouAlright, do it, do it, do it, do it

Fleetwood Mac – Man of the World

And there’s no one I’d rather beBut I just wish that I’d never been born

I have to thank obbverse and CB for their enthusiasm for this version of the band. It really made me look back into their catalog more and find these great songs. This song in particular, really hit me hard lyrically and musically. Incredibly haunting and beautiful.  After a couple of listens, it has stuck with me ever since. 

The more I hear this early stuff by Fleetwood Mac, the more I like it. I knew about it from friends growing up who had these albums, but never really explored them until around 5-6 years ago. This song really shows how much soul Peter Green had in him. This song was part song, part confession, and so genuine. The song peaked at #2 in the UK in 1968. This version of the band was rooted in British blues and driven by the Green.

He wrote this song during a time he was getting wary of the fame, wealth, and the music business. A song that someone who appears to have everything but is lost. Green was battling depression and had begun experimenting heavily with LSD. Within a year, he would walk away from Fleetwood Mac entirely, unable to cope with the spotlight and pressure. What followed was a long period of mental health struggles, hospitalization, and silence for many years.

This song was released as a standalone single in April 1969. It marks one of Green’s most poignant personal songs, a ballad that stands apart from the blues-heavy sound the band was known for during its early years.

Peter Green quit Fleetwood Mac a year after this was released and gave all his money away to charity. He played some with Fleetwood Mac in 1971 but vanished. In 1977, Mick Fleetwood arranged a record deal for Green, but it fell through when Peter refused to sign the contract.

Mick Fleetwood: “It’s a sad song. Had we known what Peter was saying… What’s that line? ‘How I wish that I’d never been born.’ You know, whoa. It’s pregnant with passion, it’s a prayer, it’s a crying out.”

Ian Anderson has a nice cover of this song as well.

Man of the World

Shall I tell you about my lifeThey say I’m a man of the worldI’ve flown across every tideAnd I’ve seen lots of pretty girls

I guess I’ve got everything I needI wouldn’t ask for moreAnd there’s no one I’d rather beBut I just wish that I’d never been born

And I need a good womanTo make me feel like a good man shouldI don’t say I’m a good manOh, but I would be if I could

I could tell you about my lifeAnd keep you amused I’m sureAbout all the times I’ve criedAnd how I don’t want to be sad anymoreAnd how I wish I was in love

Beatles – Lovely Rita

I got Sgt Pepper in 1977 when I was 10. I sat there for hours, staring at the cover and listening to this music I had never heard before. This is one of the songs that grabbed my attention. I liked Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Good Morning, Good Morning, and Lovely Rita, but that quickly expanded. 

This song isn’t about a real person. It was Paul making up the character (I have his quote below) after hearing in America that they called Parking Meter Women “Meter Maids.” John didn’t particularly like the song because he liked songs about real things. He hardly ever just made things up…Lennon would write about people he knew or his experiences.

The Beatles recorded their debut album, Please Please Me, in a remarkably short amount of time. The entire recording process for the album took approximately 9 hours and 45 minutes of studio time. Now let’s fast forward 5 years from 1962 to 1966-67.

The Beatles spent up to 700 hours in the studio recording Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. One of the main reasons was their desire to go beyond the limitations of the standard four-track recorder. To achieve this, they linked two four-track machines together—an innovative move at the time—and experimented throughout the process. While this technique wasn’t commonly used, it allowed them to push the boundaries of what was possible in the studio. Sgt. Pepper’s remains one of the most important albums in music history, not just for its songs, but for the groundbreaking recording techniques that helped shape the future of music.

The following year, The Band changed the course of music in some ways. They released Music From The Big Pink and influenced a generation. Bands started to play more earthy…more roots-oriented music. The Beatles did that by recording the rootsy White Album.

Beatles - Lovely Rita Lyrics

Paul McCartney: “I was bopping about on the piano in Liverpool when someone told me that in America, they call parking-meter women meter maids. I thought that was great, and it got to ‘Rita Meter Maid’ and then “Lovely Rita Meter Maid’ and I was thinking vaguely that it should be a hate song: ‘You took my car away and I’m so blue today’ and you wouldn’t be liking her; but then I thought it would be better to love her and if she was very freaky too, like a military man, with a bag on her shoulder. A foot stomper, but nice. The song was imagining if somebody was there taking down my number and I suddenly fell for her, and the kind of person I’d be, to fall for a meter maid, would be a shy office clerk and I’d say, ‘May I inquire discreetly when you are free to take some tea with me.’ Tea, not pot. It’s like saying ‘Come and cut the grass’ and then realizing that could be pot, or the old teapot could be something about pot. But I don’t mind pot and I leave the words in. They’re not consciously introduced just to say pot and be clever.” 

John Lennon: That’s Paul writing a pop song. He made up people like Rita, like a novelist. You hear lots of McCartney influence going on now on the radio: these stories about boring people being postmen and writing home.

Lovely Rita

(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)

Lovely Rita, meter maid
Nothing can come between us
When it gets dark I tow your heart away

Standing by a parking meter
When I caught a glimpse of Rita
Filling in a ticket in her little white book
In a cap she looked much older
And the bag across her shoulder
Made her look a little like a military man

Lovely Rita, meter maid
May I inquire discreetly
When are you free to take some tea with me?

Rita

Took her out and tried to win her
Had a laugh and over dinner
Told her I would really like to see her again

Got the bill and Rita paid it
Took her home, I nearly made it
Sitting on the sofa with a sister or two

Oh, lovely Rita, meter maid
Where would I be without you
Give us a wink and make me think of you

(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)
(Lovely Rita, meter maid)

…

Otis Redding – Hard To Handle

I first heard this song in 1989 or 1990 by the Black Crowes. I loved it from the minute I heard it. It was great to hear a rock/soul song on the radio at the time, with a throwback feeling to the early seventies. I soon found out that it was an Otis Redding song when a friend played me a video of Pigpen of the Dead singing the song and told me. 

This song was recorded in 1967, just months before Redding’s tragic death in a plane crash on December 10th of that year. He never got to see the song’s success. It was one of several tracks released posthumously as part of his 1968 album The Immortal Otis Redding, which compiled unreleased material from his final sessions. The song was written by Otis Redding, Allen Jones, and Al Bell. Jones and Bell were key figures at Stax Records. Bell was a top executive, and Jones was a prolific producer and songwriter.

The song by Otis peaked at #51 on the Billboard 100 (this is why charts don’t matter all of the time), #38 on the Billboard R&B Charts, and #15 in the UK in 1968. It must be said, though, it was released as the B side to a song called Amen, a terrific soul/gospel song, so it didn’t get the full exposure it could have with an A-side slot. 

I just saw a picture I had never seen before. Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding are talking, probably at Monterey. 

Otis’s live reputation was growing stronger after Monterey. I would have loved to have heard Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding play together. It’s not like one wasn’t enough, but I could only imagine what they would have sounded like. 

The Dead with Pigpen doing lead vocals. 

Hard To Handle

Baby, here I am, I’m a man on the sceneI can give you what you wantBut you got to go home with meI’ve got some good old lovingAnd I got some in storeWhen I get through throwing it on youYou got to come back for more

Boys and things will come by the dozenThat ain’t nothing but drug store lovingPretty little thing, let me light your candle‘Cause mama, I’m sure hard to handle, now, yessir’am

Action speaks louder than wordsAnd I’m a man with a great experienceI know you got another manBut I can love you better than himTake my hand, don’t be afraidI’m wanna prove every word I sayI’m advertising love for freeSo won’t you place your ad with me?

Boys will come a dime by the dozenBut that ain’t nothing but ten cent lovingPretty little thing, let me light your candle‘Cause mama I’m sure hard to handle, now, yessir’am

Baby, here I am, I’m a man on the sceneI can give you what you wantBut you come go home with meI’ve got some good old lovingAnd I got here in storeWhen I get through throwing it on youYou got to come back for more

Boys will come a dime by the dozenBut that ain’t nothing but drug store lovingPretty little thing, let me light your candle‘Cause mama, I’m sure hard to handle, now, yessir’am

Give it to me, I got to have itGive it to me, good ol’ lovingSome of your good loving

…

Byrds – My Back Pages

I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now

This is my favorite song by the Byrds. I like the Byrds’ arrangement of this great Bob Dylan song. Roger McGuinn’s voice plus Rickenbacker is always a winning combination. Dylan recorded his version in 1964 on his Another Side of Bob Dylan album. I fell for the song because of the line, I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now. Just a great phrase from a catalog that is full of them. 

On the countless Dylan songs that are covered, I will usually like Dylan’s version better…on this one, I prefer the Byrds. The song peaked at #30 on the Billboard 100 in 1967. It’s one of those songs that I so wish I could have written. Even the title is cool because “My Back Pages” is not uttered in the song. 

Bob Dylan helped the Byrds a lot with Mr. Tambourine Man and other songs. The Byrds, in turn, helped widen Bob’s popularity to the new rock audience that was developing, which may not have heard some of these songs as much. 

In 1992 the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert happened, and my cousin had the complete concert on VHS. He had a satellite, so I didn’t have to wait for it to be released almost a year later. I’ll never forget this song being played with Roger McGuinn sharing the stage with Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Neil Young.

Roger McGuinn: “I don’t try to interpret what Bob meant when he wrote the song. He doesn’t do that, and to do that, you spoil it for people who have a different meaning of the song.”

The song being played at Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary concert. Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn, Neil Young, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and a bunch more. 

 

My Back Pages

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Countless with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
We’ll meet on edges, soon, said I
Proud ‘neath heated brow

Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
Rip down all hate, I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
Sisters fled by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

My guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Brenton Wood – Gimme Little Sign

I had forgotten about this song until I read about it in a biography. I remember working in the 1980s and listening to an oldies channel, and I heard this one quite a bit. I just learned the title from the book. It’s a song that just makes you feel good. 

This song has been covered and sampled by many. Unlike Motown and Stax…Wood came in from left field with a whole different vibe in the late 1960s. He is known primarily for The Oogum Boogum Song and this song. He was born Alfred Jesse Smith and adopted the stage name of Brenton Wood…possibly from the Los Angeles neighborhood Brentwood. 

He stayed active from the sixties on and released his last album in 2009 called Lord Hear My Prayer. He had a few more top 40 songs in the 60s, but never hit the top ten again. 

This song peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #17 in Canada, #8 in the UK, and #20 in New Zealand in 1967. Giimme Little Sign was written by Alfred Smith, Joe Hooven, and Jerry Winn. Brenton got a resurgence in popularity in the new century with his songs’ inclusion in various films and television shows, such as Almost Famous, Don’t Worry Darling, and Big Little Lies.

We lost Mr. Wood on January 3, 2025, at the age of 83. 

Gimme Little Sign

If you do want me, gimme little sugarIf you don’t want me, don’t lead me on girlBut if you need me, show me that you love meAnd when I’m feeling blue and I want youThere’s just one thing that you should do

Just gimme some kind of sign girlOh, my babyTo show me that you’re mine girlOh, yeah

Just gimme some kind of sign girlOh, my darlingTo show that you’re mine girlAll right

If you do want me, gimme little sweet talkIf you don’t want me, don’t lead me on girlBut if you need me, show me that you love meAnd when I’m feeling down, wearing a frownYou be there when I look around

Just gimme some kind of sign girlOh, my babyTo show me that you’re mine girlAll right

Just gimme some kind of sign girlOh, my babyTo show me that you’re mine girlAll right

Just gimme some kind of sign girlOh, my babyTo show me that you’re mine girlOh, yeah

Just gimme some kind of sign girlOh, my darlingTo show me that you’re mine girlAll right

Just gimme some kind of sign, signJust gimme some kind of sign girlOh, my babyTo show me that you’re mine girlAll right

…

Don Covay – Mercy, Mercy

The first thing I noticed was the guitar part at the beginning. I thought to myself, the style sounded familiar. Two people came to mind, and I can’t believe I guessed it. The two people that I thought of were Curtis Mayfield and Jimi Hendrix. After researching the song, I was batting 500…it was Jimi Hendrix, but 2 years before he was The Jimi Hendrix.

I read about Don Covay and how he wrote Chain of Fools for Aretha Franklin and more songs in the ’60s through the ’80s. Covay wrote the number 1 hit for Chubby Checker called Pony Time and also co-wrote Peter Wolf’s first solo album in the early eighties with good success.

Covay was the son of a Baptist preacher. He began his musical career singing gospel with his family’s group, the Cherry Keys. Following his father’s death, the family relocated to Washington, D.C., where Covay’s musical interests expanded into the soul/R&B genre.

He was a great songwriter. His songs have been covered by Gene Vincent, Wanda Jackson, Chubby Checker, Connie Francis, Steppenwolf, The Daughters of Eve, Bobby Womack, the Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett, Small Faces, Grant Green, Bonnie Raitt, and Peter Wolf.

The song peaked at #35 on the Billboard 100 in 1964. The Rolling Stones covered this song on their album Out of Our Heads in 1965. It was the lead-off track of the album.

Curtis Knight: Jimi Hendrix, and I all used to live in the same apartment building – around 81st Street [near the A1 Studio] … Don Covay came around shopping for a record deal. He used to go down to the Harlem clubs looking for somebody to use … on songs he was looking to sell to Atlantic [Records]. He’d say, ‘I got this tune I want you to help me with … come on down to the studio … Can you sing this part? Can you play this part?

Steve Cropper:  I hadn’t worked with Don [Covay] yet, but I asked Jimi to show me that great lick he played. [Later] Jimi took my guitar and started playing that sucker upside down. I laughed and told him, ‘I can’t learn that lick by looking at it that way.

Mercy, Mercy

Have mercyHave mercy, babyMmm, have mercyHave mercy on me

Well, I went to see a gypsy and had my fortune readShe said, “Don, your baby’s gonna leave you”Her bag is packed up under the bed and I cried

Have mercyHave mercy, baby, yeahHave mercy, yeahHave mercy on me

I said if you leave me, baby, girl, if you put me downWell, I’m a goin’ to the nearest river, childAnd jump (jump) overboardAnd drown, but don’t leave me (jump, jump, jump, jump)

Have mercyHave mercy, baby, mercyYeah, have mercyHave mercy on me

Well, now, hey, hey baby, hey, hey nowWhat you tryin’ to do, huh?Hey, hey, baby, hey, hey nowPlease don’t say we’re through

I said if you stay here, baby, I tell you what I’m gonna doI’m gonna work two jobs seven days a weekAnd bring my money home to you (bring it, bring it)

Well, I said mercy (mercy), mercy (mercy)Mercy (mercy), mercy (mercy)Mercy (mercy)

…

Bobby Fuller Four – I Fought The Law

I fought the law and the law won

When I hear this song, I think of it as an early punk song. It’s a song that garage bands can sink their teeth into. I Fought The Law is pure rebellion. At the same time, it has a Buddy Holly feel, and there is a reason for that. The Crickets’ Sonny Curtis wrote this song, and he played with Holly off and on, and when Buddy died, he took over the lead guitar for The Crickets. Earl Sink was brought in to sing it and to sound like Buddy. Thanks to Randy for that info!

The Crickets recorded this song in 1959 with Sonny Curtis playing guitar and singing. In 1962, Paul Stefen and the Royal Lancers recorded it, and it was a local hit in Milwaukee, but it didn’t break nationally. Sammy Masters released a version in 1963 as well. 

Bobby Fuller was a Texas-born rock & roller heavily influenced by Buddy Holly. He formed The Bobby Fuller Four in El Paso before moving to L.A. Bobby was DIY before DIY was cool, he built a home studio in his parents’ house in El Paso and recorded local singles there with his brother Randy Fuller.

In the early ’60s, Bobby moved to Los Angeles to chase bigger opportunities. He signed to Mustang Records (run by Bob Keane, who also discovered Ritchie Valens). He then formed The Bobby Fuller Four with his brother Randy and other rotating members. In 1965, the band recorded I Fought the Law with a tighter arrangement, crisp guitar work, and Fuller’s vocals. It was released in late 1965 but hit the charts in 1966. 

Fuller was found dead in the front seat of his mother’s car shortly after I Fought The Law became a national hit. His death was ruled a suicide, but there were signs of foul play, and the investigation was tainted, leaving the circumstances of his death a mystery, and rumors continue to run rampant to this day. The song peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #11 in Canada, and #33 in the UK in 1966. Sonny Curtis would later write “Love Is All Around,” The Mary Tyler Moore Theme.

The Clash covered this song in 1979 and changed the lyrics from “I left my baby” to “I killed my baby.” So they made it quite a bit darker. Their version got them noticed in the US.  

Rick Stone (roadie for Fuller): My mom, Mary Stone, wrote music with Bobby at our home at 7420 Catalpa Lane in El Paso, Texas. Bobby did NOT have gas in his mouth when he was found in the car, but he did die of asphyxiation. Bobby had “I Fought The Law” released on his own label in El Paso two years earlier where it was a Top 10 Hit regionally. The original lyric was “Robbin’ people with a six gun,” but he would sing it as “Zip Gun,” “Shotgun” or “Six Gun,” and joked about other guns when he sang it live.

I Fought The Law

I’m breakin’ rocks in the hot sun
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the law won

I needed money ’cause I had none
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the law won

I left my baby and I feel so sad 
I guess my race is run
But she’s the best girl I’ve ever had
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the law won

Robbin’ people with a six-gun
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the law won

I miss my baby and the good fun
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the law won

I left my baby and I feel so sad
I guess my race is run
But she’s the best girl I’ve ever had
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the law won