I had a friend’s dad who owned their 1969 greatest hits album when I was in sixth grade and we wore it out. Broken Arrow and Expecting to fly were the ones we played over and over and heard something we missed on the previous play.
Buffalo Springfield were only active between 1966-68 but had a huge impact on other artists. The band was very talented……with Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Bruce Palmer, Dewey Martin and Jim Messina who replaced Bruce Palmer. They had some great songs like Mr Soul, Now days Clancy Can’t Even Sing, Burned, Expecting to Fly, Bluebird, Rock and Roll Woman, Broken Arrow and their big hit For What It’s Worth…
Ritchie Furay and Steven Stills had played together in the Au Go Go Singers. Bruce Palmer and Neil Young had played together in the Mynah Birds. That band featured Rick James on lead vocals and was signed to Motown.
It was written by Neil Young. The song peaked at #98 in the Billboard 100 in 1968.
Expecting to Fly
There you stood on the edge of your feather, Expecting to fly. While I laughed, I wondered whether I could wave goodbye, Knowin’ that you’d gone. By the summer it was healing, We had said goodbye. All the years we’d spent with feeling Ended with a cry, Babe, ended with a cry, Babe, ended with a cry.
I tried so hard to stand As I stumbled and fell to the ground. So hard to laugh as I fumbled And reached for the love I found, Knowin’ it was gone. If I never lived without you, Now you know I’d die. If I never said I loved you, Now you know I’d try, Babe, now you know I’d try. Babe, now you know I’d try, Babe.
They were the first mostly white band signed to Motown Records in 1966. So who was the band’s lead singer? A young AWOL American sailor who went by the name of Ricky James Matthews, later Rick James. On lead guitar you had Canadian Neil Young.
The band lasted from 1964 to 1967.
The band didn’t last a long time but the memorable lineup was Rick James, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, Rickman Mason, and John Taylor. Neil and Bruce would later be members of Buffalo Springfield. Earlier members Goldy McJohn and Nick St. Nicholas would later become members of Steppenwolf.
Canadian rocker Neil Merryweather was also an earlier member of the band.
Neil joined in 1965 and Neil and James wrote some songs together and they were recorded…but the band’s manager apparently misappropriated their advance money from Motown and they fired the manager. In return, the manager informed Motown that the band’s singer was AWOL from the Navy. Rick James was taken into custody and incarcerated by the Navy. “It’s My Time” remained unreleased, and Motown scrapped plans for a Mynah Birds album.
The music was not released until the single was included in the 2006 box set The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 6: 1966
Neil and Bruce bought a hearse…yes a hearse when Rick was detained and drove to California to start Buffalo Springfield.
The Mynah Birds were a really good band. In a biography of Neil Young called Shakey… Jimmy McDonough writes this:
The Mynah Birds—in black leather jackets, yellow turtlenecks and boots—had quite a surreal scene going…. Those lucky enough to see any of the band’s few gigs say they were electrifying. ‘Neil would stop playing lead, do a harp solo, throw the harmonica way up in the air and Ricky would catch it and continue the solo.’
Neil Young:“We got more and more into how cool the Stones were. How simple they were and how cool it was.” James had them play “Get Off My Cloud” and “Satisfaction”—before the braids, cocaine, and sequins, Rick James “fancied himself the next Mick Jagger.”
The band did get back together with different members when Rick James returned in 1967…but they soon broke up.
If you want to read more about them check out the links below.
“Shake” was written and originally recorded by Sam Cooke. Cooke’s version reached #7 on the Billboard 100. Cooke was a huge influence on Otis Redding; along with “Shake,” Redding also recorded covers of Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” “Chain Gang,” “Cupid,” “Nothing Can Change This Love,” “Wonderful World,” and “You Send Me.”
The song peaked at #47 in the Billboard 100 in 1967.
Otis made a huge impact at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival along with The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin.
The album this was on was Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul and it peaked at #77 in the Biullboard Album Charts in 1966.
Shake
Shake! (Everybody say it!) Shake! (Early in the morning) Shake! (Late in the evening) Shake! (In the midnight hour) Shake! (When the time’s going bad, now) Shake! Shake with the FEELING! Shake with the FEELING!
Listen while I’m talkin’ to you now Tell you what I’m gonna do now There’s a new thing going around now I’ll tell what to put down now
You move your body all around And just shake Thats the way you do it Shake, Shake, Shake it baby Shake it like a bowl of soup Let your body loop de loop Put your hands on your hip Come on and let your backbone slip Move your body like your hip And just shake!
Shake early in the morning Shake early in the evening
A Ring-A-Ling-a-Ling Honey, Shakin’ is the greatest thing But if you really roll Gotta do the thing with SOUL!
Shake shake with all your might now If you do it, do it right now Put your hands on your hip,yeah Come on and let your backbone slip Move your body like your hip And just shake
(God have mercy now!) Early in the morning Early in the evening All night long, y’all! If you really want to roll Gotta do the thing with SOUL! Shake shake with all your might If you do it, do it right Let your body loop de lite Shake! Everybody say it, Shake! One more time, Shake! Everybody louder, Shake! One more time, now, say Shake! Everybody a bit louder, Shake!
I binged watched Bewitched during the lockdown and some afterward. The first five seasons were probably the best. Having the lovely Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) as a wife who could twitch her nose and whip up anything you desired…doesn’t sound half bad…therefore… I never understood Darrin…either Darrin.
Bewitched was full of funny characters. Mr and Mrs Kravitz next door. Uncle Arthur (the great Paul Lynne), Aunt Clara, Maurice, Endora, and a cast of witches and warlocks. The show stuck the characters with the same actors/actresses for the most part. The continuity was pretty good in this show with one big exception…the two Darrins. More on that in a few.
The show was about a mortal (Darrin Stevens) that married a witch (Samantha Stevens) and Darrin does not like Samantha to use her powers. Endora the mother-in-law was a witch that played the stereotypical mother-in-law but one that could Darrin into a horse if she so pleased.
One of my favorites was Aunt Clara played perfectly by Marion Lorne. The character Aunt Clara collected doorknobs. The writers did that because Marion Lorne actually collected doorknobs from everywhere… The producers of the show would ask to borrow one if they wanted one for a different look for the show.
A funny story about Marion Lorne is that she once called Elizabeth Montgomery and said, with her trademark stammer, to come to her hotel residence right away as she seemed to have actual magical powers like her character. Every time she clapped her hands, her TV set would change the channel. What Marion didn’t know was that the bracelets on each of her arms made contact when she clapped her hands, and the sound was the same as a remote control, which operated as tuning forks in those days. Montgomery never told her this.
The two Darrins. The first Darrin was Dick York. The second Darrin was Dick Sargent.
Dick York had severe back problems and a pain pill addiction. He was on for almost 5 full seasons. He came down with a fever during the last part of the 5th season and collapsed on an episode. He entered the hospital and never came back to the show. His career essentially ended then.
The next season Dick Sargent took over with no explanation to the audience. Sargent was never as popular with the audience and the ratings soon dropped. The show lasted 8 total seasons before ending in 1972.
It’s a fun show to watch and it had some great actors and actress that would show up. Agnes Moorehead who played Endora was part of the Mercury Theatre with Orson Welles.
Bewitched had some really good effects for the time. I grew up on this show in syndication.
As you may have guessed by now I’m an extreme fan of power pop. This list was hard to write…I kept changing most of it… but I knew the top choice and worked from there.
I just gave my self ten choices or I would have gone on and on. A lot of artists and their songs were left off…such as Todd Rundgren, The Cars, Sloan, The Lemon Twigs, The Flamin’ Groovies, The Shivvers, The Jayhawks, and too many more to mention.
10. The Ride – Twisterella– 1992 – I found this a few months back and have been listening to it ever since.
9. The Records – Starry Eyes– 1979 – Great song. Starry Eyes would end up being The Record’s best-known song. Robert John “Mutt” Lange produced their debut album for The Records.
8. The La’s – There She Goes– 1990 – A very good power pop song that has no verses…It just repeats the chorus four different ways four different times…but that doesn’t matter.
7. Cheap Trick – Voices– 1980 – One of my top Cheap Trick songs. Robin Zanders voice sounds great in this Beatlesque song.
6. The Who –Pictures of Lily– 1967 – When this song came out Pete Townshend coined the name “power pop” and this song is about the childhood…lusts…of a boy.
5. Raspberries – Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)– 1974 – An epic song by the Raspberries. Not their most popular…that would be “Go All The Way” but this encapsulates everything power pop is about. Bruce Springsteen on Overnight Sensation: It’s one of the best little pop symphonies you’ll ever hear.
4. Big Star – The Ballad of El Goodo – 1972 – The tone of the guitars, harmonies and the perfect constructed chorus keeps me coming back listen after listen.
3. Badfinger –No Matter What– 1971 – The only band to make this list twice. Why? because this song defines the crunchy power pop of bands like Cheap Trick to come.
2. Tom Petty – American Girl– 1977 – The Rickenbacker, the hook, and a Byrds sounding track.
Badfinger – Baby Blue – 1972 – The number one song was the easiest decision of the list. The rest were changed a few times…this one for me is a no-brainer. This song is the perfect power pop song…strong vocals, Crunchy Brit guitar, great hook, and great melody
My favorite psychedelic song and it was on Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. The “Lucy” who inspired this song was Lucy O’Donnell (later Lucy Vodden), who was a classmate of John’s son Julian Lennon when he was enrolled at the private Heath House School, in Weybridge, Surrey.
It was in a 1975 interview that Lennon said, “Julian came in one day with a picture about a school friend of his named Lucy. He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.”
Many thought Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds was about LSD because of the initials but John denied it all of his life. I believe John because he was honest about much worse than this…John went to great lengths to deny any drug connotations involved in this song.
John did say he was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. He wrote the song with help from Paul. One of the highlights of this song is Paul’s bass playing. His walking bass line builds suspense through the song and then kicks in with the chorus.
This was banned by the BBC for what they thought were drug references. A Day In The Life was also banned off of the same album.
John Lennon: “I didn’t even see it on the label. I didn’t look at the initials. I don’t look – I mean I never play things backwards. I listened to it as I made it. It’s like there will be things on this one, if you fiddle about with it. I don’t know what they are. Every time after that though I would look at the titles to see what it said, and usually they never said anything.”
From Songfacts
The identity of the real Lucy was confirmed by Julian in 2009 when she died of complications from Lupus. Lennon re-connected with her after she appeared on a BBC broadcast where she stated: “I remember Julian and I both doing pictures on a double-sided easel, throwing paint at each other, much to the horror of the classroom attendant… Julian had painted a picture and on that particular day his father turned up with the chauffeur to pick him up from school.”
Confusion over who was the real Lucy was fueled by a June 15, 2005 Daily Mail article that claimed the “Lucy” was Lucy Richardson, who grew up to become a successful movie art director on films such as 2000’s Chocolat and 2004’s The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers. Richardson died in June 2005 at the age of 47 of breast cancer.
Lennon affirmed this on the Dick Cavett Show, telling the host, “My son came home with a drawing of a strange-looking woman flying around. He said, ‘It’s Lucy in the sky with diamonds.’ I thought, ‘That’s beautiful.’ I immediately wrote the song about it.”
It’s not just fans that didn’t believe him: Paul McCartney said it was “pretty obvious” that this song was inspired by LSD.
In our interview with Donovan, who was good friends with John Lennon and joined The Beatles on their 1968 retreat to India, he made the point that Lennon often thought in terms of artwork, and like Donovan did on this song “Wear Your Love Like Heaven,” Lennon painted images in his head that became the lyrics for this song. “When we put the painter’s brush down and we picked up the guitar, a lot of the songwriters started ‘painting’ songs,” he said. “You’d just have to think of John’s ‘Picture yourself on a boat on a river’ – you’re actually in a movie or you’re in a painting. ‘Tangerine trees and marmalade skies’ – he’s painting.
The images Lennon used in the song were inspired by the imagery in Through The Looking-Glass, the sequel to the book Alice In Wonderland. “It was Alice in the boat,” Lennon explained in a Playboy interview. “She is buying an egg and it turns into Humpty Dumpty. The woman serving in the shop turns into a sheep and the next minute they are rowing in a rowing boat somewhere and I was visualizing that.”
George Harrison played a tambura on this track. It’s an Indian instrument similar to a sitar that makes a droning noise. He had been studying with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, who is the father of Norah Jones.
Elton John released a cover version of this song in 1974 that hit #1 in the US the first week of 1975. Elton is the only artist to top the tally with a Beatles cover, although Peter & Gordon took “A World Without Love,” which was written by Lennon and McCartney, to #1 in 1964.
John Lennon sang and played guitar on Elton’s “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” but reportedly forgot some of the chords and needed Davey Johnston, Elton John’s guitarist, to help him out. Lennon made a surprise appearance in Elton’s Thanksgiving concert in New York and performed three songs, which proved to be his last public performance.
Actor William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk on Star Trek, covered this in his dramatic, spoken-word style. In at least one poll, this version was voted the worst Beatles cover of all time.
In 1974, Johanson and Gray named the 3 million-year-old Australopithecus fossil skeleton they discovered (the oldest ever found) Lucy, after this song because it was playing on the radio when Johanson and his team were celebrating the discovery back at camp. >>
Lennon said “The girl with kaleidoscope eyes” turned out to be Yoko: “There was also the image of the female who would someday come save me… a ‘girl with kaleidoscope eyes’ who would come out of the sky. It turned out to be Yoko, though I hadn’t met Yoko yet. So maybe it should be ‘Yoko in the Sky with Diamonds.'”
During the media controversy over this song in June of 1967, Paul McCartney admitted to a reporter that the band did experiment with LSD.
In 2004, McCartney addressed the issue of drugs in an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper: “‘Day Tripper,’ that’s one about acid. ‘Lucy In The Sky,’ that’s pretty obvious. There are others that make subtle hints about drugs, but it’s easy to overestimate the influence of drugs on The Beatles’ music. Just about everyone was doing drugs in one form or another, and we were no different, but the writing was too important for us to mess it up by getting off our heads all the time.”
A group called John Fred and his Playboy Band had a #1 hit in 1968 with “Judy In Disguise (with Glasses),” a song that is a parody of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.”
In the Anthology one of the Beatles referred to being on LSD as like seeing through a kaleidoscope. Although Lennon denied this is about drugs, it does refer to “The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.”
This song is very distinctive musically: It’s in three different keys and uses two different beats.
Lennon admitted to British journalist Ray Connolly in an interview around the time of the break-up of the Beatles that he didn’t think he sang this song very well. “I was so nervous I couldn’t sing,” he said, “but I like the lyrics.”
In 2004 the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced the discovery of the universe’s largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers gave the star the catchier name of “Lucy” from this song.
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Picture yourself in a boat on a river With tangerine trees and marmalade skies Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly A girl with kaleidoscope eyes
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green Towering over your head Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes And she’s gone
Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Ah
Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers That grow so incredibly high
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore Waiting to take you away Climb in the back with your head in the clouds And you’re gone
Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Ah
Picture yourself on a train in a station With plasticine porters with looking glass ties Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes
Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Ah Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Ah Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds Lucy in the sky with diamonds
The Kinks are a band that I saw in 1983. Along with The Who and Paul McCartney they were among the best bands, I saw live.
Kinks lead singer Ray Davies wrote this song while he was a student at Hornsey School of Art in London. Ray was running out of ideas, so he decided to record the song he had written in college. The group put down the backing track, but he couldn’t remember the words, so he went home and wrote them the next day on the train ride into the studio.
This was released as the first single from the album Kinda Kinks. “Tired of Waiting for You” was a hit, peaking at #6 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the UK, #3 in Canada in 1965.
Dave Davies:“The recording went well but there was something missing and it was my raunchy guitar sound. Ray and I were worried that putting that heavy-sounding guitar on top of a ponderous song might ruin it. Luckily it enhanced the recording, giving it a more cutting, emotional edge. In my opinion ‘Tired Of Waiting’ was the perfect pop record.”
From Songfacts
When the Kinks released their first album in 1964, they scored a huge hit with the Davies-penned “You Really Got Me,” which was followed by the sound-alike “All Day And All Of The Night.”
In this song, Ray Davies sings about a girl who has him under her spell. Problem is, she keeps stringing him along and it’s wearing him out. The vocal is suitably weary, lacking that adrenaline rush of their previous hits. This discontent would play out for real throughout 1965 as The Kinks were dispatched to one show after another, doing promotional appearances along the way. It quickly became clear that there was a great deal of animosity in the band and that they couldn’t keep up the pace for long.
Tired Of Waiting
So tired Tired of waiting Tired of waiting for you
So tired Tired of waiting Tired of waiting for you
I was a lonely soul I had nobody till I met you But you keep a-me waiting All of the time What can I do?
It’s your life And you can do what you want Do what you like But please don’t keep a-me waiting Please don’t keep a-me waiting
‘Cause I’m so tired Tired of waiting Tired of waiting for you
So tired Tired of waiting Tired of waiting for you
I was a lonely soul I had nobody till I met you But you keep a-me waiting All of the time What can I do?
It’s your life And you can do what you want Do what you like But please don’t keep a-me waiting Please don’t keep a-me waiting
‘Cause I’m so tired Tired of waiting Tired of waiting for you
So tired Tired of waiting Tired of waiting for you For you For you
After reading the John Entwistle biography I’ve been listening to the Who for the past week and a half. Tommy is not my favorite Who album…but the album does contain a lot of good songs. Tommy did make a huge mark in pop culture…a movie and Broadway play has been made from the story.
The riff is simple and powerful. A very good song that adds to Tommy. Like some of the other songs…I’m Free was written before Tommy was thought of but Pete fit what songs he had with the new ones to make the story.
Tommy was the breakthrough album for the Who in America. A concept album about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy who…you guessed it…loves pinball. On the album the Who’s sound is subdued but on tour, they presented it loud and aggressive as only the Who could be.
The album peaked at #4 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1970. I’m Free peaked at #37 in the Billboard 100 in 1969.
Pete Townshend: ‘I’m Free’ came from ‘Street Fighting Man.’ This has a weird time/shape and when I finally discovered how it went, I thought ‘well blimey, it can’t be that simple,’ but it was and it was a gas and I wanted to do it myself.
The guitar sound in this version sends shivers down my spine. Compare it to the album version below this one.
I’m Free
I’m free I’m free And freedom tastes of reality I’m free I’m free An’ I’m waiting for you to follow me
If I told you what it takes To reach the highest high You’d laugh and say ‘nothing’s that simple’ But you’ve been told many times before Messiahs pointed to the door And no one had the guts to leave the temple!
I’m free I’m free And freedom tastes of reality
I’m free I’m free An’ I’m waiting for you to follow me
When I see the word “authorized” I get really skeptical that they will not tell the complete story. This one proved me wrong. John’s son Christopher had said that this book was going to be warts and all. He was correct in that. I was super excited to read this. In the past year, I re-read Pete Townshend’s autobiography, Roger Daltrey’s autobiography, and re-read Keith Moon’s biography by Tony Fletcher and to top it off the Kenney Jones biography.
John actually wrote 4 chapters himself in 1990 when he wanted to write his own book. He soon grew tired of it and just stored it away. Rees did manage to incorporate some of what he wrote that included stories about him and Moon I never heard. John Entwistle is the least written about of the four. Any info on him is nice and a lot of this was new to me. Rees goes over the highlights and you don’t get dragged down at any point. The only thing I didn’t like was…like Daltrey’s autobiography it’s short…only 320 pages long.
The book goes through the history of the Who that Who fans know but with a lot of anecdotes. I found out more about John’s life than I ever knew. You see where he developed his black humor and he was probably the best pure musician in that band. I would recommend this book to any rock music fan. You get some funny stories also…
One about the Who opening up for the Beatles and listening to them through monitors in the dressing room rolling on the floor laughing hearing The Beatles sing obscene words to their songs “I Want To Hold Your ****”…A Hard Day’s ****. because the screaming was so loud and they couldn’t be heard out front.
John was a bass hero of mine growing up. I started off learning trying to learn the riffs he did by slowing Who albums with my finger so the riffs would be slower…but they were still fast. Most bass players fill in the empty space but with the Who, there wasn’t much empty space because of Moon’s playing. He played what amounted to lead bass and it worked well…his harmonics made up for the lack of other instruments.
Keith Altham (journalist): John was an enigma. That he was the best bass guitarist of his generation is not in dispute, but because of the peculiar demands placed upon him by The Who he wasn’t a bass player in the accepted sense of the term because he didn’t play bass like anyone else, any more than Keith Moon played the drums like anyone else or, for that matter, Pete Townshend the guitar. “His playing was so dextrous and inventive that he was often indistinguishable from a second guitar.”
Lemmy:“He’s the best player in Rock and Roll ever…no contest”
John Entwistle:“I just wanted to play louder than anyone else …
Bill Wyman: John was the Jimi Hendrix of bass players
What I like about Zeppelin is change. Every album took a step in another direction. It wasn’t just the bombardment of hard guitars like the first album. They stepped into folk, reggae, rockabilly, soul, blues, country, and rock and roll. The fans and critics complained at times especially over Led Zeppelin III.
I’ve always liked this song. John Paul Jones’s bass stands out in this song. His bass in some Zeppelin songs is back in the mix a bit. The lyrics were inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien and similar themes appeared on subsequent Led Zeppelin albums. In this song they did what they did best…light and dark…soft and hard. The dynamics they worked on would later culminate into Stairway to Heaven.
This song was on Led Zeppelin II that they recorded all over in different studios on their first tour. They recorded this song in New York.
The album Led Zeppelin II peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, and #1 in the UK.
From Songfacts
Some of Robert Plant’s lyrics in this song were inspired by the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of The Rings. The references are to the adventures of the Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, as he goes to “the darkest depths of Mordor” and encounters “Gollum and the evil one.” Plant later admitted in an audio documentary that he was embarrassed by the Tolkien references, as they don’t make all that much sense – a fair maiden wouldn’t be found in Mordor, and Gollum would want nothing to do with her anyway, since his only concern is the precious ring.
This is one of Led Zeppelin’s most enduring songs, but they never performed it live from start to finish while the band was active. It was in their set when Zeppelin reunited for a one-off concert at the O2 Arena in London on December 10, 2007. John Bonham’s son Jason filled in on drums at that show.
What John Bonham played as percussion to supplement his drums on this song is not clear. It sounds like bongos, but has been reported to be a plastic garbage pail or a guitar case.
The concept of the troubadour “rambling on” – going from place to place and constantly moving forward – is one Robert Plant embraced. In his post-Zeppelin career, he went from one project to the next, refusing to fall back on nostalgia. It was Plant who kiboshed the proposed Led Zep reunion tour in 2007.
The group Train covered this on their 2001 Midnight Moon album. Their lead singer, Pat Monahan, was once in a band that did entire sets of Zeppelin songs. Producer Brendan O’Brien heard Train’s version and agreed to produce their second album.
This was sampled by the Insane Clown Posse for the song “50 Bucks” on their rare album Psychopathics From Outer Space and was also the single that accompanied The Pendulum #7, a 12-comic series of the group done by Chaos! Comics.
Along with “Going To California,” this is one of two Led Zeppelin songs used in the 2019 indie film The Friend. The band agreed to license the songs at a much lower rate than usual after hearing pleas from the filmmakers. The movie tells the true story of Nicole Teague, a woman with terminal cancer. The songs were part of her story and played an important role in the narrative.
Ramble On
Leaves are falling all around It’s time I was on my way Thanks to you I’m much obliged For such a pleasant stay But now it’s time for me to go The autumn moon lights my way For now I smell the rain And with it pain And it’s headed my way
Ah, sometimes I grow so tired But I know I’ve got one thing I got to do
Ramble on And now’s the time, the time is now To sing my song I’m goin’ ’round the world, I got to find my girl On my way I’ve been this way ten years to the day Ramble on Gotta find the queen of all my dreams
Got no time for spreadin’ roots The time has come to be gone And thoough our health we drank a thousand times It’s time to ramble on
Ramble on And now’s the time, the time is now To sing my song I’m going ’round the world, I got to find my girl On my way I’ve been this way ten years to the day I gotta ramble on I gotta find the queen of all my dreams
I ain’t tellin’ no lie Mine’s a tale that can’t be told My freedom I hold dear How years ago in days of old When magic filled the air ‘T was in the darkest depths of Mordor I met a girl so fair But Gollum, and the evil one Crept up and slipped away with her Her, her, yeah Ain’t nothing I can do, no
I guess I keep on rambling I’m gonna, yeah, yeah, yeah Sing my song (I gotta find my baby) I gotta ramble on, sing my song Gotta work my way around the world baby, baby Ramble on, yeah Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, my baby Doo, doo, doo, doo Doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo doodoo
I gotta keep searching for my baby (Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby) I gotta keep-a-searchin’ for my baby (My, my, my, my, my, my, my baby) Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I can’t find my bluebird I listen to my bluebird sing I can’t find my bluebird I keep rambling, baby I keep rambling, baby
I was watching WKRP and Johnny Fever was playing this song. I heard a few of the lyrics and found it. Although Johnny Fever is a fictional character…he has great taste. This song was released after Otis had died in an airplane crash in1967. Love Man was released in June 1969 and featured songs Redding had recorded in 1967. The album was produced by Steve Cropper, and featured Booker T. and the M.G.’s.It was on the album of the same name.
Matthew Greenwald of Allmusic said that apart from “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”, the album’s title track was “one of Otis Redding’s finest and most commercial sides that he cut at the end of his brief career.”
The song peaked at #72 in the Billboard 100, #17 in the Billboard R&B Charts, and #43 in the UK.
The album peaked at #8 in the Billboard R&B Charts in 1969.
Love Man
I’m a Love Man Call me the Love Man Oooh, baby I’m the Love Man That’s what they call me I’m a Love Man Six feet one weigh two hundred and ten A Long hair… Real fair skin A long legs and I’m-a out-a sight There ain’t no doubt I’m gonna take you out, ‘Cause I’m a love man That’s what they call me I’m the Love Man Make love to you in the mornin’ Make love to you at night now Make love to when you think about it I’ gonna bet you Everything’s alright ‘Cau…’Cau…’Cau…’Cau…’Cause I’m a love man Ooh baby I’m a love man That’s what they call me I’m a Love Man Say there goes a love man Six feet one weigh two hundred and ten Long hair… Real fair skin I’m long legged and I’m-a out-a sight My, my babe I’m gonna take you out ‘Cause I’ a love man Ooh baby I’m a love man Take your hand; let me holler one time…AAWW!
Love man that’s all I am now I’m just a love man Ooh baby call me a love man Yes I am, I’m just a love man Let me tell you somethin’ Which one of you girls want me to hold you? A Which one of you girls want me to kiss you? Which one of your girls wants me to take you out? Go on I got you, gonna knock you all night ‘Cause baby I’m a love man All right, Ooh, baby I’m a love man Let me tell ya! I’m sayin’ I’m just a love man, good ol’ man I’m just a love man, fancy man I’m just a love man, good ol’ man I’m just a…..
This was the follow-up to The Ronettes hugely successful debut single “Be My Baby.” Like “Be My Baby,” this was written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, and produced by Phil Spector using his famous “Wall Of Sound” technique. Be My Baby is hard to beat but Ronnie is fantastic in this one also.
The song was released not long after the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, which put a damper on sales of upbeat singles. The Ronettes were never able to match the success of “Be My Baby.”
The song peaked at #24 in the Billboard 100 in 1964.
From Songfacts
Cher sang backup on The Ronettes version, and later recorded it on her own in a much slower, more dramatic style. Her version was produced by Phil Spector, and was released as the B-side of “A Woman’s Story,” which was Spector’s first production for Warner-Spector Records, his collaboration with Warner Brothers.
Twice, covers of this song peaked at #8 in the UK chart, bettering The Ronettes’ version. The first came in 1973 when the Welsh singer/guitarist Dave Edmunds recorded it as a homage to Phil Spector. Then in 1980, the American rock group the Ramones had their only UK Top 20 hit when their cover, which was produced by Spector, also reached #8. Edmunds’ version was the first single released on the Rockfield label, available through RCA.
Jeff Barry’s protégé Andy Kim took this song to #9 in the US with this 1969 version. Kim, who co-wrote the massive Archies hit “Sugar, Sugar” with Barry, grew up in Montreal and had never heard the song when he stumbled across it in Barry’s office and started playing it. “I see this sheet music and the chords,” Kim said in a Songfacts interview. “I pick up the guitar and I’m playing this song, and I’m singing this song that I had never heard of. Jeff walks in, and he says, ‘Hey man, I heard you through the door. I love what you’re playing, but that’s not how the song goes.'”
“We went in the studio and the idea was for us to make this record together, because it really sounded great in the office,” he continued. “To work with Jeff that way was the magic of it all. We went to A&R Studios – Studio A or 1, whatever they called it at the time. A huge room. Sat in the middle of this huge recording space with a microphone next to the guitar. Jeff went into the booth, and was kind of the metronome. He just clapped and hummed along the way – what he needed from me was to get one guitar down from beginning to end. I was able to do that five more times on separate tracks, and it would bounce back and forth. And if you do that, there are overtones and there is a sound without drums or anything. So that’s how the song was built – one instrument at a time. Drums were played by hand, percussion. Then Chuck Rainey came in to put bass on the song, and everything just glued together.”
Kim’s version was #1 for two weeks in his native Canada and earned him a Juno Award as his country’s Top Male Vocalist.
Baby, I Love You
Woa-oh, woa-oh oh oh Have I ever told you How good it feels to hold you? It isn’t easy to explian And though I’m really trying I think I may start crying My heart can’t wait another day When you kiss me I’ve just got to say
(Baby, I love you) come on, baby (Baby, I love you) ooh-ee baby (Baby, I love only you)
Woa-oh, woa-oh oh oh
I can’t live without you I love everything about you I can’t help it if I feel this way Oh, I’m so glad I found you I want my arms around you I love to hear you call my name Oh, tell me that you feel the same
(Baby, I love you) come on, baby (Baby, I love you) ooh-ee baby (Baby, I love only you)
Woa-oh, woa-oh oh oh
Come on, baby (baby, I love you) come on, baby (Baby, I love you) ooh-ee baby (Baby, I love you) come on, baby (Baby, I love you) ooh-ee baby (Baby, I love you) oh, oh (Baby, I love you) oh, oh (Baby, I love you) oh, oh
I’ve heard many versions of this song but when I heard Rick Danko sing it with the Band…that was it.
Long Black Veil was written in 1959 by Danny Dill with Marijohn Wilkin. Dill called it an “instant folk song.” One of Dill’s inspirations was a newspaper story about a mysterious woman who, wearing a black veil, repeatedly visited the grave of film star Rudolph Valentino.
Long Black Veil tells a compelling story from an unusual perspective. It is told from the grave by a man who was hanged for a murder he did not commit. He could have saved himself but chose not to because his alibi carried a terrible price: “I’d been in the arms of my best friend’s wife.”
It was originally recorded in Nashville by Lefty Frizzell, produced by Don Law. The peaked #6 on the Country Music Charts.
The Band’s version was on Music from Big Pink. The album peaked at #30 in the Billboard Album Charts and #18 in Canada in 1968.
Now considered a standard, it has been covered by many artists including Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Hornsby, and many other artists.
Long Black Veil
Ten years ago on a cool dark night There was someone killed ‘neath the town hall light There were few at the scene and they all did agree That the man who ran looked a lot like me
The judge said “Son, what is your alibi? If you were somewhere else then you won’t have to die” I spoke not a word although it meant my life I had been in the arms of my best friend’s wife
She walks these hills in a long black veil She visits my grave where the night winds wail Nobody knows, no, and nobody sees Nobody knows but me
The scaffold was high and eternity neared She stood in the crowd and shed not a tear But sometimes at night when the cold wind moans In a long black veil she cries over my bones
The acoustic guitar part that Paul wrote to this song is iconic now. The first few bars and you know what it is without hearing anything else. This song added to the texture of The White Album. On the same album you had the bone-crunching Helter Skelter, the rock and roll of Back in the USSR, the great pop of Sexy Sadie, the hard blues of Yer Blues, and then you have this song. It was credited to Lennon and McCartney but Paul wrote this one alone. The White Album was released in 1968 and it peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the UK, and #1 in Canada.
Paul McCartney wrote this about the civil rights struggle for African Americans after reading about race riots in the US. He penned it in his kitchen in Scotland after he heard about an incident in Little Rock when the federal courts forced the racial desegregation of the Arkansas capital’s school system.
Paul McCartney met two of the women who inspired the song in 2016.
Paul McCartney: “I was sitting around with my acoustic guitar and I’d heard about the civil rights troubles that were happening in the ’60s in Alabama, Mississippi, Little Rock in particular,” “I just thought it would be really good if I could write something that if it ever reached any of the people going through those problems, it might give them a little bit of hope. So, I wrote ‘Blackbird.'”
Dave Grohl: “It’s such a beautiful piece of music, perfect in composition and performance, and in its lyrics and in the range of his voice. Just learning that song made me a better guitar player and gave me a better appreciation of songwriting. To me it’s just musical bliss.”
From Songfacts
Only three sounds were recorded: Paul’s voice, his Martin D-28 acoustic guitar, and a tapping that keeps time on the left channel.
This tapping sound is a bit of a mystery, although in the Beatles Anthology video McCartney appears to be making the sound with his foot. Some sources have claimed it is a metronome.
The birds were dubbed in later using sound effects from the collection at Abbey Road, where the song was recorded.
McCartney did not have ornithological intentions when he wrote this song. In England, “bird” is a term meaning “girl,” so the song is a message to a black girl, telling her it’s her time to fly:
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
The guitar accompaniment for this song was inspired by Bach’s Bourrée in E minor for lute. This is often played on classical guitar, an instrument Paul McCartney and George Harrison had tried to learn when they were kids. McCartney told Mojo magazine October 2008: “We had the first four bars (of the Bourrée in E minor) and that was as far as my imagination went. I think George had it down for a few more bars and then he crapped out. So I made up the next few bars, and (sings his four-note variation Bach’s theme) it became the basis of ‘Blackbird.'”
This is one of the songs novice guitar players often try to learn, as it’s one of the most famous finger-style tunes. The singer Donovan claims some credit for teaching The Beatles a technique similar to the one McCartney used here when they were on a retreat to India in early 1968.
The word “bird” had been floating around Paul McCartney’s musical lexicon since 1958 when the Everly Brothers had a hit with “Bird Dog,” a song about a guy trying to steal another dude’s girl. McCartney was a huge fan of the Everly Brothers.
There have been hundreds of covers of this song. Perhaps the most enduring is Brad Mehldau’s instrumental jazz version, released in 1997. The only charting version of the song was by the Cast of Glee, which took it to #37 in 2011. Other notable covers include renditions by José Feliciano, Billy Preston, Sarah Vaughan, Jaco Pastorius, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bobby McFerrin and Dwight Twilley. The Doves did a cover in 2002 for the soundtrack to the TV series Roswell.
The singer-guitarist Kenny Rankin recorded it for his 1974 album Silver Morning. McCartney was a big fan of Rankin’s rendition: when the Songwriters Hall of Fame induced Lennon and McCartney in 1987, McCartney skipped the ceremony but had Rankin accept the award on his behalf and perform “Blackbird.”
The “broken wings” concept had been fluttering about for a while, notably in Kahlil Gibran’s 1912 story The Broken Wings. (The Beatles song “Julia” uses lines from one of Gibran’s poems, but McCartney has never cited him as an influence on “Blackbird.”) In 1985, the American group Mr. Mister released their #1 hit “Broken Wings,” which was directly inspired by The Broken Wings and like “Blackbird,” used the line, “Take these broken wings and learn to fly.”
At the Academy Awards ceremony in 2016, Dave Grohl performed this song to accompany the “in memoriam” segment, recognizing those in the movie industry who died the previous year.
Blackbird Singing is the title of a book of poems McCartney wrote.
This is one of about 12 Beatles songs that McCartney often played in his live shows throughout his career. It lends itself to live performance because it is rather compact (it runs just 2:18) and can be played with just a guitar.
Blackbird
Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these sunken eyes and learn to see All your life You were only waiting for this moment to be free
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly Into the light of a dark black night
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly Into the light of a dark black night
Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise You were only waiting for this moment to arise You were only waiting for this moment to arise
I heard this song when I was younger. It wasn’t on the radio but a friend of mine who had some old Fleetwood Mac albums. Peter Green was/is a great guitar player and his voice fit the band perfectly.
This is among the last songs Peter Green wrote before quitting the band. A consistent riff carries the rhythm, while Green wails the lyrics. At the time, he was taking a lot of acid, but has always maintained this was about the evils of money.
The song didn’t chart in America but did peak at #10 in the UK in 1969.
Judas Priest covered this on their Hell Bent for Leather album in 1979.
Peter Green:“When I woke up I found I was writing this song. Next day I went out to the park and the words started coming. The Green Manalishi is the wad of notes, the devil is green and he was after me. Fear, inspiration is what it was, but it was that tribal ancient Hebrew thing I was going for. Ancient music.” More recently he admitted, “It took me two years to recover from that song. When I listened to it afterward there was so much power there… it exhausted me.”
From Songfacts
As Green explained in a 1996 interview with Mojo, the song is about the evils of money: the Green Manalishi was the devil manifested as a wad of cash. Green explained: “I had a dream where I woke up and I couldn’t move, literally immobile on the bed. I had to fight to get back into my body. I had this message that came to me while I was like this, saying that I was separate from people like shop assistants, and I saw a picture of a female shop assistant and a wad of pound notes, and there was this other message saying, ‘You’re not what you used to be. You think you’re better than them. You used to be an everyday person like a shop assistant, just a regular working person.’ I had been separated from it because I had too much money. So I thought, How can I change that?”
Peter Green built quite a legend by giving away most of his money. He gave most of his savings to a London-based charity called War On Want, which provided aid to developing nations, mostly in Africa. Green explained: “Last thing at night they used to put pictures on telly of starving people and I used to sit there eating a doughnut and thinking, Why have I got this big stash that I don’t need when probably I’m going to die with it and all this is going on?”
Rumors had it that “Green Manalishi” was a kind of LSD, but Peter Green insists that is was about money. It was based upon a recurrent dream he had in which he woke up unable to move while messages about money formed in his brain. Green recalls: (from an article by Neil Slaven on Union Square Music)
In retrospect, the song seems like an obvious cry for help from Peter Green, but this wasn’t so clear to his bandmates, who say that his descent was a gradual process, and that they didn’t read so much into this song. “Peter going off the rails was not an immediate thing,” Mick Fleetwood explained. “He left Fleetwood Mac under the most controlled circumstances.”
Fleetwood Mac – Green Manalishi (With The Two-Prong Crown)
Now, when the day goes to sleep And the full moon looks The night is so black that the darkness cooks
Don’t you come creepin’ around Makin’ me do things I don’t wanna do
Can’t believe that you need my love so bad Come sneakin’ around tryin’ to drive me mad Bustin’ in on my dreams Makin’ me see things I don’t wanna see
‘Cause you’re da Green Manalishi with the two prong crown All my tryin’ is up, all your bringin’ is down
Just takin’ my love then slippin’ away Leavin’ me here just tryin’ to keep from followin’ you
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