1970s – Page 12 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Van Morrison – Caravan

Just a perfect song. I listen to it and can’t believe it wasn’t a hit. When I bought the Moondance album I zeroed in on this song. I then heard Van Morrison on The Last Waltz singing it and it was a clincher.

The performance of this song on the Last Waltz for me may have been the best performance in the film and that says a lot. I’ve seen Van live one time and his voice seemed stronger in person than on record…if that is possible. This song blends folk rock, R&B, and jazz styles perfectly.

The album is one of his great ones. It has some great songs like And It Stoned Me, Moondance, These Dreams of You, Brand New Day, Crazy Love, and Come Running which all sound like they belong on the radio. Morrison’s love of radio influenced this song heavily.

This was his second album for Warner Brothers following up the critical smash Astral Weeks. This album peaked at #29 on the Billboard Album Charts, #46 in Canada, #36 in New Zealand, and #32 in the UK in 1970. His albums never charted too high. The highest in the 70s was for Saint Dominic’s Preview at #15 on the Billboard charts in 1972.

Van Morrison: I could hear the radio like it was in the same room. I don’t know how to explain it. There was some story about an underground passage under the house I was living in, rumors from kids and stuff and I was beginning to think it was true. How can you hear someone’s radio from a mile away, as if it was playing in your own house? So I had to put that into the song, It was a must

Caravan

And the caravan is on it’s way
I can hear the merry gypsies play
Mama mama look at Emma Rose
She’s a-playin with the radio
La, la, la, la…

And the caravan has all my friends
It will stay with me until the end
Gypsy Robin, Sweet Emma Rose
Tell me everything I need to know
La, la, la…

Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher radio
Turn it up, turn it up, so you know, radio
La, la, la, la…

And the caravan is painted red and white
That means ev’rybody’s staying overnight
Barefoot gypsy player round the campfire sing and play
And a woman tells us of her ways
La, la, la, la…

Turn up your radio and let me hear the song
Switch on your electric light
Then we can get down to what is really wrong
I long to hold you tight so I can feel you
Sweet lady of the night I shall reveal you
Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher, radio
Turn it up, that’s enough, so you know it’s got soul
Radio, radio turn it up, hum
La, la, la, la…

Purina Chuckwagon Commercials

I loved these commercials when I was a kid. I wasn’t allowed to have a dog in the house (which is probably why I’ve had three Saint Bernard house dogs). Some poor dog would be bewildered by a miniature chuck wagon, then scurries through the home and into the kitchen cabinet or tv after it.

In 1967, Purina launched “Chuck Wagon” as their latest dog food innovation. Packaged as dry dog food, adding warm water would rehydrate the serving to some extent, as well as cause the meal to produce its own gravy

The commercials had a Western theme, playing into Chuck Wagon’s branding as a hearty, wholesome meal for dogs. The animated mini chuck wagon would appear from unexpected places—such as behind a cabinet door, under a table, or from inside a dog food bag…creating a playful and imaginative effect. I can’t tell you how much this worked during that time period.

In some shots, stop-motion animation was used, where the wagon was moved frame by frame to give the illusion of self-propelled motion. In other cases, puppetry techniques such as invisible wires or rods helped guide the wagon across the floor.

Now… this was hard to believe but in 1983 Atari released a video game based on this commercial called “Chase the Chuckwagon.“

Magic 8 Ball

I was told as a kid that a Magic 8 Ball could predict the future. I bought it hook line and sinker…I was also told by my older sister (8 years older) that snakes bite the second person in a line while I was merrily leading the way hiking in the woods as a 5-year-old…so I caught on pretty quick after I stepped on a snake…didn’t get bit though…but I never let her forget it.

I bugged my mom till she got me the mysterious Magic 8 Ball. I was amazed at this toy…well it wasn’t a toy to me. I thought this was great. So being 5-6 years old I thought I would put it to use… Oh, Magic 8 Ball should I color in the encyclopedias with my crayons? I shook it up and waited for the triangle to give me the answer… “signs point to yes”…those signs must have pointed in a different direction than my Mom… she wasn’t a fan of the Magic 8 ball after that.

Abe Bookman invented the Magic 8 Ball, a fortune-telling toy currently manufactured by Mattel.

During World War II, a man named Alfred Carter in Cincinnati created a tube-like fortune-telling toy. To help him he got his brother-in-law to help…that would be Abe Bookman. they created a 7″ tube device with glass on both ends with a pair of floating dice with responses. It was sold as the “Syco-Seer: The Miracle Home Fortune Teller.” Their company was called Alabe Crafts.

Carter died in 1948 and Bookman revised it into a crystal ball but it still didn’t sell really well. Then the Brunswick Billiards company commissioned Bookman to make them one shaped like an 8 ball as a promotional giveaway.

After the giveaway was finished Bookman kept producing them shaped like an 8 ball.

The Magic 8 Ball that we have known since then has contained a 20-sided polygon inside a hollow plastic ball, floating in a liquid-filled, 3-inch diameter tube. The liquid largely consists of dark blue ink and alcohol. The predictions, yes, no, or non-committal, appear on each triangular face of the polygon.

Bookman marketed it as a conversation piece, a paperweight and then a toy.

Ideal Toys bought Alabe Crafts in 1971. Next, Tyco Toys bought the ball in ’87. Mattel owns it today and sells one million units a year.

Here are the magical statements of the Magic 8 Ball

As I see it, yes
Ask again later
Better not tell you now
Cannot predict now
Concentrate and ask again
Don’t count on it
It is certain
It is decidedly so
Most likely
My reply is no
My sources say no
Outlook good
Outlook not so good
Reply hazy, try again
Signs point to yes
Very doubtful
Without a doubt
Yes
Yes, definitely
You may rely on it.

Moody Blues – Story in Your Eyes

Great melody in this song. One of the best rock songs of its era. I bought the album Every Good Boy Deserves Favour when I heard this song from Columbia House. I would say that this song made me a Moody Blues Fan. The Moody Blues are sometimes described as a progressive band, but unlike some progressive bands, they kept a good pop/rock sensibility…some have called them an “Art”rock band which fits much better to me. And…the bass in this song is great.

If you were stuck on the orchestral sounds of Days of Future Passed, The Story in Your Eyes might have caught you off guard…in the best way possible. The song was released in 1971 as the lead single from Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, this Justin Hayward-written song is one of the Moody Blues’ most energetic, guitar-driven tracks, proving they could rock with their harder peers.

The album title, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour comes from a mnemonic phrase used to remember the notes on the lines of the treble clef. E, G, B, D, F, (Every Good Boy Does Fine) from bottom to top.

The song peaked at #23 on the Billboard 100, and #7 in Canada, in 1971.

Justin Hayward: “Despite its personal nature, ‘The Story in Your Eyes’ is also kind of about the band, We’re part of the fire that is burning, and from the ashes we can build another day.” “There’s a kind of confession in it, as we were soon about to go through a rather awkward phase.”

Justin Hayward: “The song just sprung out of my acoustic guitar one day while I was at home. I was just playing my Martin D-28…I don’t know for certain if it’s from ’55 or ’57, but it’s been with me since 1969 and the first thing that came to me was the middle-eight section. And from there, the rest of the song came together.”

“Only a couple of weeks before entering the studio, I had done a version of it with Mike (keyboardist Mike Pinder) at his place, with just me playing the guitar and him working out the piano part for the outro. Mike then did eight or 12 tracks of Mellotron, bouncing from one machine to another. And it only sounded good when he had done it and multitracked it.”

“When it came time for the electric guitar part, I used a Cherry Red 1963 [Gibson] ES-335 that I’ve had since 1968. The electric guitar that opens the song including feedback that’s in tune to an A note…and goes all the way through the song is the ES-335 direct into the Normal chan

nel of an AC30 Top Boost turned up full. In the solo and at the end, that’s the ES-335 again through a Marshall Reverb-Fuzz Unit.”

Story in Your Eyes

I’ve been thinking about our fortune
And I’ve decided that we’re really not to blame
For the love that’s deep inside us now, is still the same
And the sound we make together
Is the music to the story in your eyes
It’s been shining down upon you now, I realize

Listen to the tide slowly turning
Wash all our heartaches away
We are part of the fire that is burning
And from the ashes we can build another day
But I’m frightened for your children
And the life that we are living is in vain
And the sunshine we’ve been waiting for
Will turn to rain

When the final line is over
And it’s certain that the curtain’s gonna fall
I can hide inside your sweet sweet love
Forever more

Grateful Dead – Fire On The Mountain

I like a couple of Fire on the Mountain songs: The Marshall Tucker Band and this one. They’re two totally different songs, but both are really good. I want to thank Jim for this because he sent me some information about this song in an email.

Fire on the Mountain’s music was primarily written by one of the Grateful Dead’s drummers, Mickey Hart, with lyrics by the band’s lyricist, Robert Hunter. The song’s groove reflects Hart’s rhythm sensibilities, while Hunter’s lyrics (as with most of his) are open to interpretation and rich with imagery.

The song initially existed as an instrumental titled Happiness is Drumming, which appeared on Mickey Hart’s 1976 solo album, Diga. The instrumental version already contained the core melody. The song evolved into the version that the Grateful Dead began performing live in 1977 and eventually included on their 1978 album Shakedown Street.

The first time I heard the song was a live video of The Grateful Dead playing in Egypt in 1978. I’ve watched that concert many times, and it’s fantastic. This song was one of the songs that got me into the band. When they played it live, the song was frequently paired with Scarlet Begonias.

The Dead didn’t always do commercially huge songs but some songs like this one…should have been at least released as a single.

Robert Hunter: “Written at Mickey Hart’s ranch in heated inspiration as the surrounding hills blazed and the fire approached the recording studio where we were working.”

Fire On The Mountain

Long distance runner, what you standin’ there for?Get up, get out, get out of the doorYou’re playin’ cold music on the barroom floorDrowned in your laughter and dead to the coreThere’s a dragon with matches that’s loose on the townTakes a whole pail of water just to cool him down

Fire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountain

Almost ablaze, still you don’t feel the heatIt takes all you got just to stay on the beatYou say it’s a livin’, we all gotta eatBut you’re here alone, there’s no one to competeIf Mercy’s a business, I wish it for youMore than just ashes when your dreams come true

Fire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountain

Long distance runner, what you holdin’ out for?Caught in slow motion in a dash for the doorThe flame from your stage has now spread to the floorYou gave all you had, why you wanna give more?The more that you give, the more it will takeTo the thin line beyond, which you really can’t fake

Fire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountain

…

Keep On Truckin’ Poster

I have this hanging in my music room. I saw it on shirts, bumper stickers, and walls everywhere once upon a time. This phrase was used in a song from the 1930s called “Truckin’ My Blues Away” by Blind Boy Fuller and is the origin of this image.

In the seventies as a kid…I remember this phrase and picture everywhere. I saw bumper stickers, pics in magazines, and on patches for pants. In one local restaurant I went to as a kid they had this poster in the dining room. Fast forward to the 90s and the picture was still there. The place was sold in the 2000s and I tried to get the poster but they threw it away…arghhhh. It would have been cool to have that original one.

Besides the smiley face…it’s one of the most iconic graphics of the 1970s. It was created by Robert Crumb for Zap Comics in 1968. The image was used many times without his permission for years. It was claimed that the Trademark symbol ™ was not on the original drawing.

Crumb went to court and the court ruled it Public Domain. The decision was later reversed in 1977. He sued many for using it including Amazon 2005. Crumb also came up with Fritz the Cat…

Quotes from Robert Crumb on the drawing.

For a while I was most well known for that [the Janis Joplin album cover, and for “Keep on Truckin’.” That was a drawing that came out of LSD trips, and the words came from a Blind Boy Fuller song from 1935. I drew it in my sketchbook and then for Zap. It sort of caught the popular imagination. It became a horrible popular thing.

Take Keep On Truckin’… for example. Keep on Truckin’… is the curse of my life. This stupid little cartoon caught on hugely. … I didn’t want to turn into a greeting card artist for the counter-culture! I didn’t want to do ‘shtick’—the thing Lenny Bruce warned against. That’s when I started to let out all my perverse sex fantasies. It was the only way out of being “America’s Best Loved Hippie Cartoonist.”

Who – The Seeker

People tend to hate me
Coz I never smile
As I ransack their homes
They wanna’ shake my hand

Good Who song that was not as well known as some of their others. In 1999 it was featured in the movie “The Limey”. This was The Who’s first single released after Tommy. I first heard it in the early 80s and it helped me become a huge Who fan.

Like most of Townshend’s songs around this time it was influenced by spiritual teachings and figures such as Meher Baba. It was recorded at IBC Studios in London during the sessions for Who’s Next but wasn’t included on that album. It’s been covered by Rush, The Smithereens, Joe Lynn Turner, Leslie West, and Nick Piunti.

The song was released as a single only at the time. After that, it was on the great album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy released in 1971. It’s one of my favorite compilation albums. That album introduced me to pre-Who’s Next music. This one has a raw power to it and it’s pushed by Pete’s riff and Keith Moon driving the song along.

In 1970 The Seeker peaked at #44 in the Billboard 100, #19 in the UK and #21 in Canada.

Pete Townshend: “It sounded great in the mosquito-ridden swamp I made it up in – Florida at three in the morning, drunk out of my mind. But that’s where the trouble always starts, in the swamp.”

The Seeker

I’ve looked under chairs
I’ve looked under tables
I’ve tried to find the key
To fifty million fables

They call me The Seeker
I’ve been searchin’ low and high
I won’t get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

I asked Bobby Dylan
I asked the Beatles
I asked Timothy Leary
But he couldn’t help me either

They call me The Seeker
I’ve been searchin’ low and high
I won’t get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

People tend to hate me
Coz I never smile
As I ransack their homes
They wanna’ shake my hand

Focusing on nowhere
Investigating miles
I’m a seeker
I’m a really desperate man

I wont get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

I learned how to raise my voice in anger
Yeah but look at my face ain’t this a smile

I’m happy when life’s good and when its bad I cry
I got values but I don’t know how or why

I’m lookin’ for me
You’re lookin’ for you
Were lookin’ at each other and we don’t know what to do

They call me The Seeker
I been searchin’ low and high
I wont get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

Bigfoot

No, it’s not a new or old rock band. I have posted on many icons and events of the 1960s-1970s but never really concentrated on this big fellow.

I know as a kid…Bigfoot was part of the culture and kids thought yea…he is real. Native American legends tell of large, hairy human-like creatures that have been part of Indigenous cultures across North America for centuries. Many tribes have their own names and variations of Bigfoot, each with distinct characteristics and significance.

The most famous film clip was the Patterson-Gimlin footage from 1967.

Jeffery Meldrum is a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, and he’s known for being one of the few academics to openly study Sasquatch. “It’s all so easy to say, ‘Obviously that’s a man in a fur suit.’ Until you see it up against a man in a fur suit.”

The National Geographic documentary Mystery 360: Bigfoot Revealed, where they went absolutely all-out to try and recreate the Patterson-Gimlin bigfoot with modern technology (suit and all…) but ultimately couldn’t. Before this documentary, everyone assumed there was someone with a gorilla suit.

No matter how real the subject in the film appears, how much muscle movement you think you see, or how unhuman they claim the gait is, the subject has no corroborating specimen, and can therefore be no more than a question mark. The film has always been, is, and likely always will be an unsettled controversy.

In 2003 Bob Heironimus, a retired Pepsi bottler from Yakima, Washington came out and said that he played Bigfoot in the film. “It’s time to let this thing go. I’ve been burdened with this for 36 years, seeing the film clip on TV numerous times. Somebody’s making lots of money off this, except for me. But that’s not the issue — the issue is that it’s time to finally let people know the truth.” Heironimus, 63, makes his full “confession,” as he calls it, in a published book by paranormal investigator Greg Long. He also wanted money from the film and filed a suit but it never went anywhere.

Tom Malone, a lawyer in Minneapolis, on behalf of Bob Gimlin, an associate of the now-dead Bigfoot filmmaker. “I’m authorized to tell you that nobody wore a gorilla suit or monkey suit and that Mr. Gimlin’s position is that it’s absolutely false and untrue.” And the mystery lives on . . .

Many have broken the film down frame by frame and investigating it. It’s really interesting.

I remember on television that some shows featured Bigfoot. The Six Million Dollar Man featured Bigfoot and don’t think we were all watching at the time. There has been many documentaries on him and movies including Harry And The Hendersons. We cannot forget the monster truck Bigfoot.

Bigfoot is part of our popular culture and will probably always be but I would guess he peaked in the 1970s.

The Stabilized Clip

Bread – Down On My Knees

Bread was known as a light pop band in the 1970s. When I heard this I realized they stuck their toe in the power pop water. It sounded familiar when I heard it a few years ago. I then remembered…it was on their 1973 greatest hits album that my sister had.

Band members David Gates and James Griffin wrote this song at the Royal Lancaster Hotel during their first trip to London. Griffin wrote a lot of songs for Bread but the record company always seemed to pick David Gates songs for singles. This song was the B-Side to the song Diary.

The song was off their Baby I’m-A Want You album released in 1972. It was their fourth LP, which proved to be the highest-charting studio album of the band’s career and provided them with four top-40 hits. The hits were “Mother Freedom” – #37 “Baby I’m-a Want You” – #3 “Everything I Own” – #5 “Diary” – #15. That was quite impressive in the 70s when record companies usually didn’t release a lot of singles from an album. In the 1980s it became commonplace to squeeze as many singles as possible. Bread though…was more of a singles band to begin with.

It was their first album without founding member Robb Royer… Although his departure was due to increasing tensions between him and Gates, Royer continued to write songs with Jimmy Griffin, who remained in the band, hence Royer’s name still turning up in the credits as the co-composer of Dream Lady and Games of Magic. They replaced Royer with studio keyboardist Larry Knechtel who was a member of the Wrecking Crew.

James Griffin: “The lyric doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me – I think we were each writing about different things. But the song got a lot of airplay, and people seemed to like it.”

Down On My Knees

I’ve told you before
Don’t you hear what I say?
I won’t take it no more
no more making me stay

Down on my knees
You know I’m down on my knees, yeah
Yes I’ve been down on my knees, but I’m through begging please
I wont get back on my knees, yeah

Nobody knows what your putting me through
Nobody knows if it’s worth it for you
Nobody sees you got me down on my knees, yeah
Well I’ve been down on my knees, well I’m through begging please
don’t put my back on my knees, yeah

You know that I always loved you
Never placed myself above you
Don’t let me go with my ways that I could
Don’t tell me no with my ways that you would

Down on my knees
You’ve brought me down on my knees, yeah
Well I’ve been down on my knees, but I’m through begging please
don’t put me back on my knees, yeah

You know how I always loved you
There’s no time that I have tried to place myself above you

Down on my knees
You know that I’m down on my knees, yeah
Well I’ve been down on my knees, but I’m through beggin’ please
don’t put me back on my knees, yeah
Ya I’ve been down on, but I’m through begging please
don’t put me back on my knees

Paul McCartney – Soily

He wrote this song in 1971 and with the Wings they played it live for years. It’s not a love ballad by Paul…it’s a rock song with the same intensity as Juinor’s Farm. In 1974 the Wings recorded an in-studio live version that they were going to release on the album One Hand Clapping. They also shot a video while they were there for a documentary.

The album was shall we say… delayed. It didn’t see the light of day until June 14, 2024…over 50 years after it was recorded. It was recorded right after Band On The Run was released. I like hearing Paul reaching for a distorted guitar in his songs. I wish he would have done more through his career. Paul could write good rock songs such as Juinor’s Farm, Jet, Let Me Roll It, and a few more.

The video portion didn’t get released until 2010 when it appeared in a box set for Band On The Run. The 4K version hit theaters in September of last year. This song didn’t get released to the public until Wings Over America. It was the B side to Maybe I’m Amazed…both versions of course live. The film was going to be Paul’s way of introducing a new Wings.

Guitar player Henry McCullough and drummer Denny Seiwell had left Wings right before the recording of the Band on the Run album. New members…guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton took their spots. They would use this song as an opener through the years and an encore at some shows. It’s a song that is meant to be played live and was never featured on a studio album.

The One Hand Clapping Album peaked at #10 on the UK Charts and #74 on the Billboard 100 in 2024.

Jimmy McCulloch was probably the most talented guitar player Paul ever had in Wings. He famously made it when he was 16 with Thunderclap Newman. However, he had a lot of problems. He was somewhat depressed and when he wasn’t he was drinking heavily there were many arguments between the two men and he often would target Linda for her lack of musical talent. It really came to a head around the time of London Town when Jimmy quit.

Paul McCartney: “Looking back on it [the Wings era], it’s a lot better than I thought, though some of it is just not played as well as The Beatles. My son plays a lot of Wings, so I’m re-listening, and there’s good shit that I’d forgotten about. A lot of the lyrics were off the wall, drug stimulated. Things like ‘Soily – the cat in the satin trousers says its oily’. What was I on? I think the answer is stimulants.”

Soily

One, two
One, two, three, four!

Well, people gathered here tonight
I want you to listen to me
To your left and to your right
We’ve got some pretty soily company

Readers, writers, farmer, priest
Breed controller, born deceased
Indian, lawyer, doctor, dog
And a plumber with a fattened hog

Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
Yes, he did!

Well, come on, baby, that soily song
Soily people
Well, come on, baby that’s fine now
Yeah

Romans, Italians, country men
I want you to listen to me
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again
We’ve got some pretty soily company

Liars, cheaters, jungle chief
Saint, believer on relief
Action painter, Hitler’s son
And a commie with a tommy-gun

Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
You know he’s right
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Ooh, yeah yeah

Well, come on, baby, that soily song
Soily people
Yeah, come on, baby, that’s going round
Yeah!

People gathered here tonight
I want you to listen to me
To your left and to your right
You’ve got some pretty soily company

Readers, writers, farmer, priest
Saint, believer on relief
Hitler’s painter, action son
And a commie with a tommy-gun

Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
Soily, soily
Yeah, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
Yeah, soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily, yeah
Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers said it’s oily
And you know he’s right
Ooh yeah!

…

Dr Feelgood – Milk and Alcohol

Oh, how I love some British Rock. I want to thank Clive for bringing this song to my attention. I first learned about Pub Rock a few years ago from CB and Dave. The Motors are the first band I knew about and then Brinsley Schwarz. The genre sounded like raw rock and roll with a lot of power and punch. I could relate after playing in many bars myself through the years. There is a feel to that music…a lot of loud guitar and sweat which I enjoy.

I’ve been told that “pub rock” was not a compliment at the time. It started in the UK in the early 1970s. It was the anti-progressive and glam rock at a time when they were popular. It’s more of roots-type music which is right up my alley. Not that I don’t like glam and progressive but I like the stripped-back approach.

Dr Feelgood was formed in Caney Island, Essex, in 1971. Their members included Lee Brilleaux on vocals and harmonica, Wilko Johnson on guitar, John B. Sparks (Sparko) on bass, and John Martin on drums. They were one of the main bands in pub rock along with Brinsley Schwarz. They got their name from a Johnny Kidd and The Pirates song Dr. Feelgood. I’ve read different origins but that came from their official site.

By 1973 they were getting popular on the pub circuit and released their debut album in 1975 called Down By The Jetty. They released Milk and Alcohol in 1979 and it was written by Nick Lowe and John Mayo. Doesn’t it seem there were like 5 Nick Lowes back then? The man was everywhere. The song was influenced by Lowe drinking Kahlúa-milk drinks after a John Lee Hooker in the United States. It was inspired by a Hooker lyric about milk, cream, and alcohol.

The song peaked at #9 on the UK charts in 1979. This was the only top 10 song of their career. It was on the 1978 album Private Practice which peaked at #41 on the UK Album Charts that year. A version of the band is still going on now with different members.

Milk and Alcohol

White boy in townBig black, blue soundNight club, I paid inI got a stamp on my skin

Main attraction dead on his feetBlack man rhythm with a white boy beatThey got him on milk and alcoholThey got him on milk and alcohol

Stay put I wanna goHard work, bad showMore liquor, it don’t helpHe’s gonna die, it breaks my heart

I decided eventuallyThis ain’t doing a thing for meThey got him on milk and alcohol

They got him on milk and alcohol

They got him on milk and alcoholThey got him on milk and alcoholThey got him on milk and alcoholThey got him on milk and alcohol

Got up, I walked outTo the car, start it upFeel bad, sad nightI never saw a red light

Sirens were a screamin’ all aroundI pulled on over and I shut her downA black cop gave me a shove with his gunSaid up against the wall and don’t make a runThey got me on milk and alcoholThey got me on milk and alcohol

…

Overlooked Pop/Rock Masterpieces

I hope I’m wording this right and what I’m trying to get across are songs that are not just regular pop/rock songs. Some of these have sections instead of 3 or 4 chords and it’s over with. Intricate songs to duplicate and fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. I’ll give you an example…Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody or The Beach Boys Good Vibrations. Those are not songs you just run into a studio and record in one take. Many of these songs took days, weeks, or months to get right recording different sections.

I usually like down-to-earth and rootsy kind of songs but sometimes I do like listening to these great songs. These are overlooked by the masses with people often connecting with a big hit by the band instead. I’ve picked 3 songs to present here. Being a musician…I can sure appreciate what it took to record these.

Overnight Sensation (Hit Record) – The Raspberries

I posted a Raspberries song this weekend but this one remains my number 1 song even over Go All The Way because it’s so epic.

Overnight Sensation (Hit Record) is an epic, ambitious, grand, lofty, extravagant, and brilliant song from the Raspberries. They were swinging for the fences when they made this song and they hit it out of the park. It’s on the album Starting Over released in 1974.

Put some headphones on and listen to this completely to the very end… When I hear it, I think this is what it would sound like if The Who, Beach Boys and Beatles made a song together…this would be it. Musically you have a little of everything. Sliding bass lines, tasteful guitar licks, great vocals, a sax solo that gives way to more lyrics as the song morphs into an AM radio sound… and then comes a solo piano.

Stay until the very end because they dupe you into a fake ending and the drums will come in as if the world is going to end. Then… a Beach Boys final huge crescendo wave will wash over you like a warm summer moonlit night. It’s a wall of sound of ecstasy that you wish would go on forever.

Bruce Springsteen: “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record) should go down as one of the great mini-rock-opera masterpieces of all time”

Broken Arrow – Buffalo Springfield

The song Broken Arrow is a song that was made in sections and it’s hard to explain it with words… Something is haunting and beautiful about it. I listen to it now and it’s like Buffalo Springfield’s own A Day In The Life. It was produced in 1967 during the psychedelic era. One of my favorite songs of all time…any song with the lyric “He hung up his eyelids and ran down the hall” grabs my attention. Neil Young wrote this beautiful song. Gregg Allman cornered Neil backstage somewhere in the 2000s and pleaded with him to start playing this song again. He did when Buffalo Springfield reformed.

Care Of Cell 44 – The Zombies

This is one of my favorite pop songs of the 1960s. The vocals are reminiscent of the Beach Boys. It’s a sunny and bright song musically about a guy writing to his girl…in prison. The song doesn’t express or explain why she is in prison just that he will be with her when her stay is over.

The song is arranged beautifully. with the vocal-only arrangements, You can hear Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney’s influence on this recording. Chris White’s (Zombies bass player) bass playing is phenomenal in this song.

It is on the album Odessey and Oracle, one of the best albums of the sixties. The hit song on the album is Time of the Season but it is full of great songs. It charted a year after it was released at #95 in the Billboard 200 album charts in 1969. The song/album would be on my desert island list.

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Maryann Price – Sweetheart (Waitress in a Donut Shop)

If that title looks familiar, we covered Maria Muldaur yesterday with her album Waitress in a Donut Shop. This is where Muldaur got the name for it. She released it a year after this version by Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Dan didn’t sing this but Maryann Price did. Her voice is very unique when she gets going. She doesn’t sound like everyone else.

Because of Christian, Randy, and CB, I have been really connecting with the jazz songs they have posted in the past and talked about. This is why I still blog because I love expanding my musical range and tastes. I will have to admit…as much as I like Maria Muldaur’s version of it…this version swings a little more.

I knew nothing about her until in the past few weeks when CB told me about Dan Hicks and his band The Hot Licks. She can easily cross genres and do about anything from Jazz to Pop to Swing. She has worked in many bands from Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks, Asleep At The Wheel, The Kinks, and more. I like her because she is different and caught my attention. Let’s find out a little about her.

At the age of 17, she was singing commercial jingles in her hometown of Baltimore. She moved on to sing jazz in Las Vegas and then moved to San Francisco in 1969. She soon joined Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks and along with Naomi Ruth Eisenberg (“The Lickettes”) as singers.

The Licketts — Naomi Ruth Eisenberg and Maryann Price

In 1973 the band broke up and when they did…Ray Davies pounced on that opportunity. Davies asked her to come to England and record with the band. She stayed with the Kink’s for a year, touring extensively and recording…she sang on the album Preservation Act 2. When that was finished she returned to America and formed the Girtones with former Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks guitarist John Girton. In 1980 she joined the Texas band Asleep At The Wheel.
She has since gone on to a successful solo career based in Austin, Texas, and also reunited with Naomi Ruth Eisenberg for a live album in 2004 called Live At The Freight + Salvage.

Now back to the song at hand. This was on the Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks album Last Train To Hicksville released in 1973. I’ve been listening to this album on Saturday and it’s a combination of all kinds of music with Dan and the Licketts singing. I hear swing, jazz, pop, and more. The musicianship on this album is top-notch. The song was written by the songwriter Ken Burgan. Maryann is still going strong in Austin Texas.

Sweetheart (Waitress in a Donut Shop)

Sweetheart, but it doesn’t beat for meIt beats softly in love but not for meSweet lips I know I’ll never kissYou’re what I’m afraid I must miss

I’m a waitress in the donut shopI see him on his morning stopHe talks of love but he’s thinking of his sweetheartShe gives him a rough time

He gives me his dime and then partsSoft sighs, soft and pretty moansIn dreams I can make you my own

I’m a waitress in the donut shopI see him on his morning stopHe talks of love but he’s talking about his sweetheartShe gives him a rough time

He gives me his dime and then partsSoft sighs, soft and pretty moansIn dreams I can make you my ownIn dreams I can make you my own

Raspberries – I Wanna Be With You

This song is for Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt is (drum roll please…) a forgotten band. I picked The Raspberries but also talked about Badfinger and Big Star.

I still remember the first time I heard this song on AM radio. I must have been around 7 or 8, walking into my sister’s wood-paneled room. It was playing on WMAK, a station I’ll never forget. The disc jockey, Coyote McCloud, was a legend in Nashville back in the early seventies—everyone tuned in to hear him. It’s funny how clearly I can recall that moment like it was just yesterday.

I wasn’t lucky enough to be a teenager in the 1970s, but whenever I listen to The Raspberries, it feels like I’m transported back in time. I can picture myself in 1973, driving my first car with their greatest hits blasting, feeling the freedom and excitement of the era. The music has a way of making it real.

I’ve always considered the top three power pop bands to be Big Star, Badfinger, and The Raspberries. Together, they captured everything that makes power pop great… soaring vocals, great melodies, and that perfect balance of guitar crunch and jangle. What an incredible time for the genre, with all three bands active at the same moment in history. They may not have found the level of commercial success they deserved, but their influence on music has been huge.

These bands didn’t just define power pop… they set the standard for what the genre could be. Badfinger and The Raspberries managed to crack the Top 20 a few times, but Big Star didn’t even get that far…which is nothing short of a crime. Bands like Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, KISS, REM, The Cars, and The Replacements owe them a lot. These three bands do pop up every once in a while. The Raspberries Go All The Way was in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, Badfinger’s Baby Blue was in the last episode of Breaking Bad, and Big Star’s In The Street was the theme song to That Seventies Show.

The Raspberries were more than just a band…they were a Cleveland supergroup, formed from the city’s best local acts. The lineup was indeed super… Eric Carmen as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist, Wally Bryson on lead guitar with his signature crunchy riffs, Jim Bonfanti on drums, and Dave Smalley on bass. Their sound was a seamless blend of their influences—The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, and The Beach Boys—woven together into power pop perfection.

The Raspberries did have 7 singles to chart and 4 top forty hits with I Wanna Be With You being one of them. This song peaked at #16 on the Billboard 100 and #17 in Canada in 1973. It was the first single from their second LP, Fresh.^[It became their second-greatest US hit. They broke up in 1975 after releasing their album Starting Over. Eric Carmen wrote this song.

Their best-known song was Go All The Way which peaked at #5 in 1972.

Alex Chilton (Big Star): “I remember when I first heard the Raspberries, Big Star was in a van traveling around doing some dates and we heard Go All the Way on the radio, and we said, ‘Wow, those guys are really doing it!’ I thought that was a great song.”

I Wanna Be With You

If we were older we wouldn’t have to be worried tonight
Baby oh I want to be with you so bad
Oh baby I want to be with you
Oh yeah?
Well tonight tonight we always knew it would feel so right
So come oh baby, I just want to be with you

Someday’s a long time and we’ve been waiting so long to be here
Baby oh I want to be with you so bad
Oh baby I want to be with you
Oh yeah?
Well tonight tonight we always knew it would feel so right
So come oh baby, I just want to be with you

Hold me tight our love could live forever after tonight
If you believe in what you’re doing is right
Close your eyes and be still

Baby, oh I want to be with you so bad
Oh baby I want to be with you
Oh yeah?
Well tonight tonight we always knew it would feel so right
So come oh baby, I just want to be with you

Oh I want to be with you so bad
Oh baby I want to be with you
Oh yeah?
Baby I want to be with you so bad

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Maria Muldaur – Trouble In Mind

I was listening to Maria Muldaur and this song popped up in the recommended songs. I usually only do studio cuts but this one was just too good. I had to post this because what a band and what a groove these musicians have. I love the way she sounds here and she lets it go. The backing band is tremendous. You have Leon Russell, Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, and Willie Nelson. How better of a band could you ask for? You will also get a two-for-one today…I’m including a song by her called I’m A Woman.

Maria Muldaur…all I knew from her was the pop song Midnight At The Oasis…it is a brilliant pop song but the more I listened…the more I was surprised. I saw her sing with Dan Hicks and other artists and when I dug into her history the more I was impressed.

She became a part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene in the early 1960s. She was part of The Even Dozen Jug Band and later with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. She got into so many different types of music like blues, gospel, R&B, jazz, and big band music. Her influences were the best… Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie are two of them.

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were huge fans and she has worked with the best. Jerry Garcia, Paul Butterfield, Linda Ronstadt, Elvin Bishop, The Doobie Brothers, Wendy Waldman, and more. She has released over 40 solo albums starting in 1973 and that is not counting her earlier band albums with The Even Dozen Jug Band, Jim Kweskin and The Jug Band, and with her then-husband Geoff Muldaur. When you add those…the number gets into the 50s.

The song I’m A Woman appeared on her 1974 album Waitress in a Donut Shop. I’ve been listening to that album and it’s one that I would recommend everyone checking out. The album did well…it peaked at #23 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1974.

I’m going to close with this. Many times an artist is defined by their major hit…that does an injustice on Muldaur. That is not a putdown on “Midnight at the Oasis”…I think it’s brilliant… but she is so much more than that. I’ve never been into awards but she has been nominated for 5 Grammy Awards.

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