1970s – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Deep Purple – Woman from Tokyo

This song is all about the riff…it is a memorable riff… The song has drive and suspense. Woman from Tokyo peaked at #60 in 1973. This is one of the group’s most popular songs, but they never liked it very much. They didn’t start playing it live until they re-formed in 1984 after their 1976 split.

Because of endless touring and fatigue, Ian Gillan gave a six-month notice and stated that he was leaving the band after fulfilling all of his commitments in 1973. The album Who “Do We Think We Are” was released in January of 1973. The release generated the hit single “Woman from Tokyo.” “Smoke on the Water” was also busy that year becoming Deep Purple’s biggest hit of all-time.

After lead singer Ian Gillian left Deep Purple in 1973 they had two other lead singers before reforming in 1984…and they were David Coverdale and Joe Lynn Turner.

From Songfacts

Deep Purple started recording their Who Do We Think We Are in Rome in July 1972. At this point, the band had yet to tour Japan, but they had three shows scheduled there for August: two in Osaka followed by one at the Budokan arena in Tokyo. Drawing on Japanese imagery (“the rising sun,” “an Eastern dream”), they concocted a story of a lovely lady from that country who drives them wild.

Rome was sunny and relaxing, so the band spent a lot of time in the swimming pool in lieu of working. There was also a sound problem in the studio, and the only track they got out of those sessions was “Woman From Tokyo.” The rest of the album was done in Germany.

In 1973, this was issued as a single, achieving a modest chart position of #60 in America. It aged well and got a lot of airplay on AOR and Classic Rock radio stations, keeping it alive. The stretched out “Toe-Key-Oh” became a bit of an earworm and helped embed the song into many an auditory cortex.

On some compilations from the ’70s, this song is listed as “live,” which Roger Glover insists is a lie, since they never did the song live in that decade.

Woman from Tokyo

Fly into the rising sun
Faces, smiling everyone
Yeah, she is a whole new tradition
I feel it in my heart

My woman from Tokyo
She makes me see
My woman from Tokyo
She’s so good to me

Talk about her like a Queen
Dancing in a Eastern Dream
Yeah, she makes me feel like a river
That carries me away

My woman from Tokyo
She makes me see
My woman from Tokyo
She’s so good to me

But I’m at home and I just don’t belong

So far away from the garden we love
She is what moves in the soul of a dove
Soon I shall see just how black was my night
When we’re alone in Her City of light

Rising from the neon gloom
Shining like a crazy moon
Yeah, she turns me on like a fire
I get high

My woman from Tokyo
She makes me see
My woman from Tokyo
She’s so good to me

The Wonderful World of Sid and Marty Krofft

Growing up in the seventies watching shows on Saturday morning was a wonderful experience and Sid and Marty Krofft could really be on the strange side….but a great strange.

It has been rumored that the brothers were inspired by hallucination drugs such as LSD and or pot. The brothers have always denied this claim. Shows with titles H.R Pufnstuf and Lidsville (Puff and a Lid) and the lyrics led to accusations.

H.R. Pufnstuf, who’s your friend when things get rough?
H.R. Pufnstuf, can’t do a little, ’cause you can’t do enough!

A quote from them…”We screwed with every kid’s mind,” says Marty Krofft of the loopy shows — such as H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, and Land of the Lost — that he created with brother Sid in the early 1970s. “There’s an edge. Disney doesn’t have an edge.”…from Hollywoodreporter.

H.R. Pufnstuf – A boy with a talking flute got in a boat and then the skies turned gray and there in the sky was Witchiepoo… He ended up at a place with H.R. Pufnstuf (who has to be seen) his friends and talking trees…terrorized by Witchiepoo…. with a hint of psychedelic threw in…as was most of the shows they created. It’s awesome to know that kids watched this strange show… Give me this over Barney…

Lidsville – A boy falls down a large top hat at an amusement park and ends up in a land of Hats…there was also a genie named Weenie…who played Witchiepoo in HR Pufnstuf. The bad guy was Charles Nelson Reilly the magician and he would go around zapping people. The show is just plain bizarre…for me, it is the strangest show they did….and besides Land of the Lost my favorite.

Sigmund and the Sea Monsters – A couple of boys find a friendly sea monster hiding from his mean family of sea monsters. the boys hide Sigmund from everyone else. This is probably the most normal one of them all…It was a popular Saturday morning show.

The Bugaloos – Singing insects…Watch it…Most boys had a crush on the Butterfly Caroline Ellis.

The Banana Splits – An animal rock group with a catchy theme song…which all of the earlier shows had a catchy theme. This show was made by Hanna-Barbera but the costumes were made by the Krofft brothers.

The Land of the Lost – The best-written show of them all. Land Of The Lost post.

There were other shows like Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, The Space Nuts, The Lost Saucer and Wonder Bug but they were not in the same league as the top group. In these shows, the Krofft brothers moved away from the puppets…which they were known for… and the wild themes.

Sid and Marty Krofft also had an inside theme park in Atlanta

In 1976, a developer asked the Kroffts to develop a very cool amusement park for the new Omni International complex in downtown Atlanta. The World of Sid and Marty Krofft was the world’s first indoor amusement park, but due to poor attendance, it was closed after just six months. The Omni International building that contained the amusement park was renamed the CNN Center when the site was converted to the present CNN headquarters.

The brothers sued McDonald’s and won for ripping off H.R. Pufnstuf and Living Island. I can see a resemblance…

The Bugaloos

Lidsville

Sigmund and the Sea Monsters

The Banana Splits

Tanya Tucker – Delta Dawn

I’ve always liked this song and Tanya’s voice. This song was first recorded by Alexander Harvey in 1972. Tracy Nelson (who sang backup on the original) and Bette Midler put the song in their live repertoire before it became a country hit for a 13-year-old Tanya.

The song peaked at #6 in the Country Charts, #3 in Canada and #72 in the Billboard 100 in 1972.

Helen Reddy would take the song to #1 in the Billboard 100 in 1973.

Barbra Streisand passed on the song after the backing track had been recorded by her producer without her prior knowledge.

Delta Dawn

Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

She’s forty-one and her daddy still calls her “baby”
All the folks around Brownsville say she’s crazy
‘Cause she walks dowtown with a suitcase in her hand
Looking for a mysterious dark-haired man

In her younger days they called her Delta Dawn
Prettiest woman you ever laid eyes on
Then a man of low degree stood by her side
And promised her he’d take her for his bride

Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?

Jerry Reed – Amos Moses

I can still see the 8-track of Jerry Reed’s greatest hits in our car. Jerry was a great guitar player but that gets lost sometimes because of his later acting and image. He played guitar on his own recordings, as well as on sessions for Elvis, Bobby Bare, Porter Wagoner, Joan Baez, Ringo Starr, Willie Nelson, and others.

Frankly, I was surprised when I checked Billboard and saw how successful he was in the charts. He had 51 songs in the Country 100 charts…including three number 1’s and six top ten hits. In the Billboard 100, he had ten songs in the top 100 including two top 10 hits. Amos Moses was one of them… peaking at #8 in the Billboard 100 and #16 in the Country Charts in 1971…The other song was When You’re Hot, You’re Hot at #9.

His last number one in the country charts was “She Got the Gold Mine (I Got the Shaft)” in 1982… Why did I mention it? How could I not with a title like that?

The song appears in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Chet Atkins produced this recording.

This is from guitar player magazine. https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/tribute-jerry-reed

WHEN PEOPLE TALK ABOUT UNDERRATED guitarists, the name Jerry Reed often doesn’t even come up. That’s how underrated Jerry Reed is. More often viewed as an actor, singer, or variety show regular, Reed possessed mindboggling guitar technique that incorporated intricate fingerpicking, gorgeous cascading harp-style runs, and an infectious, funky sense of rhythm and humor. He got his start as a songwriter, penning “Crazy Legs” (which would be covered by Gene Vincent and later inspire an album of the same name by Jeff Beck) and “Guitar Man,” which caught the ear of Elvis Presley. By the mid-’60s, Mr. Guitar himself, Chet Atkins, had taken note of Reed’s amazing fingerstyle prowess and began producing and collaborating with Reed, most notably on the albums Me & Jerry and Me & Chet.

Amos Moses

Yeah here comes Amos
Now Amos Moses was a Cajun
He lived by himself in the swamp
He hunted alligator for a living
He’d just knock them in the head with a stump
The Louisiana law gonna get you Amos
It ain’t legal hunting alligator down in the swamp boy

Now everyone blamed his old man
For making him mean as a snake
When Amos Moses was a boy
His daddy would use him for alligator bait
Tie a rope around his neck and throw him in the swamp
Alligator bait in the Louisiana bayou
About forty-five minutes southeast of Tippitoe, Louisiana
Lived a man called Doc Mills South and his pretty wife Hannah
Well, they raised up a son that could eat up his weight in groceries
Named him after a man of the cloth
Called him Amos Moses, yeah

Now the folks around south Louisiana
Said Amos was a hell of a man
He could trap the biggest, the meanest alligator
And he’d just use one hand
That’s all he got left cause an alligator bit it
Left arm gone clear up to the elbow

Well the sheriff caught wind that Amos was in the swamp trapping alligator skin
So he snuck in the swamp gonna get the boy
But he never come out again
Well I wonder where the Louisiana sheriff went to
Well you can sure get lost in the Louisiana bayou
About forty-five minutes southeast of Tippitoe, Louisiana
Lived a cat called Doc Mills South and his pretty wife Hannah
Well, they raised up a son that could eat up his weight in groceries
Named him after a man of the cloth
Called him Amos Moses

Sit down on ’em Amos!
Make it count son
About forty-five minutes southeast of Tippitoe, Louisiana
Lived a man called Doc Mills South and his pretty wife Hannah

The Band – The Shape I’m In

The first Band album I ever bought was The Best of The Band. When I heard “The Shape I’m In” I knew I was going to like them. I knew the hits of course but the songs I never heard of at that point were great. I then started to buy their albums and loving this band. The song was off on the album Stage Fright and was a B side to the song “Time To Kill.”

There is a great version on The Last Waltz which is below. Robbie wrote the song for Richard to sing and at that time Levon, Rick, and Richard were heavy into heroin and drinking. The song peaked at #64 in Canada.

Robbie Robertson talks some about writing this song

At one time, there was talk that if you wanted to play like the angels, you had to dance with the devil—that heroin was a gateway to music supremacy. That myth was yesterday, but the power of addiction was still in full force. It hit me hard that in a band like ours, if we weren’t operating on all cylinders, it threw the whole machine off course.
This was the first time that writing songs was painful for me. In some cases I couldn’t help but reflect on what was happening behind the curtain. I wrote “The Shape I’m In” for Richard to sing, “Stage Fright” for Rick, and “The W. S. Walcott Medicine Show” for Levon—all with undertones of madness and self-destruction. While watching Richard pound out the rhythm on the clavichord, I couldn’t help but see the irony as he sang out, “Oh, you don’t know, the shape I’m in.”

The Shape I’m In

Go out yonder, peace in the valley
Come downtown, have to rumble in the alley
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in

Has anybody seen my lady
This livin’ alone would drive me crazy
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in

I’m gonna go down by the water
But I ain’t gonna jump in, no, no
I’ll just be lookin’ for my maker
And I hear that that’s where she’s been?

Oh, out of nine lives, I spent seven
Now, how in the world do you get to Heaven
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in

I’ve just spent 60 days in the jail house
For the crime of having no dough, no no
Now here I am back out on the street
For the crime of having nowhere to go

Save your neck or save your brother
Looks like it’s one or the other
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in

Now two young kids might start a ruckus
You know they feel you’re tryin’ to shuck us
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in

Grand Funk – The Loco-Motion

This is one band the critics roasted during the seventies but they were extremely popular. Led Zeppelin was also a critic’s target but their music has aged very well…Grand Funk not as much but with some exceptions… They did come out with some catchy hits …and this remake is one of them. I remember this song as a kid and I was captivated by it…I’ve always liked the overall sound of this recording that Todd Rundgren captured. He produced this album Shinin’ On (1974) and We’re an American Band the year before. He made a big difference with their sound.

Little Eva first took this song to #1 in 1962 and Grand Funk took it to Number 1 in 1974. The Locomotion was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin.

From Songfacts.

In our interview with Grand Funk drummer and vocalist Don Brewer, he explained: “The idea of Locomotion came when we were working on the Shinin’ On album in the studio with Todd (Rundgren). We had basically finished the album – ‘Shinin’ On’ was going to be the first single, and we were thinking about what we were going to do for another song. Mark (Farner) came in one day and off the top of his head was singing, ‘Everybody’s doing a brand new dance now,’ just for fun, and we all went, ‘Yeah, Grand Funk doing the Locomotion.’ It was a tongue-in-cheek kind of thing, and we said, ‘Let’s try it, let’s do it,’ so we sent off to New York, got the lyrics, and Todd had the idea of doing the song kind of like The Beach Boys’ ‘Barbara Ann’ where it sounded like a big party was going on, except Todd could really crank up everything with the hand claps and all of that stuff. It just had this huge sound to it – it sounded like a big party.”

The husband and wife team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote this. It was originally Recorded by Little Eva in 1962 – her version was also a US #1 hit.

This was Grand Funk’s biggest hit. Their other #1 was “We’re An American Band.”

Todd Rundgren started working with the band on their previous album, We’re An American Band. He helped Grand Funk move from long songs like “I’m Your Captain” to shorter songs that were huge hits and got lots of airplay.

Grand Funk had lots of success with cover songs. They also recorded popular versions of “Gimme Shelter,” “Inside Looking Out,” and “Some Kind Of Wonderful.” Says Brewer: “It was always a matter of taking a song and making it be ours. To do that, we as a band had to feel it. So when somebody came up with the idea of doing a cover song, it was like the whole band could feel, ‘Oh yeah, this feels great.’ We were really kind of a jam band in the studio, we would endlessly jam on stuff.”

The Locomotion

Everybody’s doing a brand-new dance, now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
I know you’ll get to like it if you give it a chance now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
My little baby sister can do it with me
It’s easier than learning your A-B-C
So come on, come on, do the Loco-motion with me
You gotta swing your hips, now

Come on
Jump up
Jump back
Well, now, I think you’ve got the knack
Wow, wow

Now that you can do it, let’s make a chain, now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
A chug-a chug-a motion like a railroad train, now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
Do it nice and easy, now, don’t lose control
A little bit of rhythm and a lot of soul

Come on, come on
And do the Loco-motion with me

Move around the floor in a Loco-motion
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
Do it holding hands if you get the notion
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)

There’s never been a dance that’s so easy to do
It even makes you happy when you’re feeling blue
So come on, come on, do the Loco-motion with me

(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
So come on, come on and do the Loco-motion with me
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
So come on, come on and do the Loco-motion with me
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)

Paul McCartney’s Lost ‘Bruce McMouse Show’ Film Heading to Theaters

Found the below article in Rolling Stone about this long-shelved concert footage/animation coming to select theaters January 21, 2019

Paul and Linda started this project in 1972 combining the 72 tour with animation about a mouse…Bruce McMouse to be correct.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/paul-mccartney-lost-bruce-mcmouse-show-movie-theaters-777090/

More details about the showings

https://www.denofgeek.com/us/culture/music/278570/paul-mccartney-will-release-lost-concert-film-in-theaters

Never-before-seen, The Bruce McMouse Show is a concert film with a difference. Paul McCartney opens with the story of how the band came to meet the inimitable impresario Bruce McMouse. Featuring the original Wings line up, live concert footage from Wings’ 1972 European tour is interspersed with animated scenes, introducing a family of mice living under the stage. After opening the film with ‘Big Barn Bed’ – taken from Wings’ LP Red Rose Speedway – the camera takes us down through the floorboards into this charming animated world. We see Bruce McMouse regale his children with stories from his past, when son Soily rushes into the room in a whirlwind of excitement announcing that “The Wings” are playing above them.

As the concert plays on, Bruce declares to his wife Yvonne that Paul and the band need his help. Bruce then proceeds to venture on stage to offers his services as producer. As the concert progresses, the animated scenes culminate with dozens of animated mice flocking to the venue to see Wings play. The film was directed by Barry Chattington and produced by Roger Cherrill with the live elements taken from four shows in Holland and Germany in 1972.

Paul viewed the initial concert edit and realized there was great potential in the material captured. Prior to the European tour, Paul had the idea of a family of mice and sketched the characters. Picking up the idea, Eric Wylam took Paul’s sketches and created the final McMouse family. This storyline was incorporated and used as a linking theme within the concert footage. The voice-overs for the animated mice took place at the end of 1973, recorded by Paul and Linda McCartney, Deryck Guyler, Pat Coombs and Derek Nimmo.

Production stretched from 1972 to 1977 when the film was complete, however, with changes in the band’s line-up and music scene, the project was shelved. ‘The Bruce McMouse Show’ has been fully restored in 2018 at Final Frame Post alongside a brand-new audio mix (stereo and 5.1) created at AIR Studios and mastered at Abbey Road.