1970s – Page 24 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Herman Brood – Saturday Night

A while back CB sent me Herman Brood’s name and a few links but we had talked about other bands and Brood got lost in the shuffle. I started to listen and the guy has some seriously good songs. He was a musician, singer-songwriter, an artist, and an actor. He was in five movies with the last one released in 2000. His voice got me right away…it’s different and unique. This guy was a true artist.

I hear rock, blues, and some pub rock in there also. Most of his songs are radio-friendly and they rock. Probably the biggest reason he didn’t hit more was his hedonistic lifestyle which grew worse as the years went by.

Herman Brood was born in Zwolie in the Netherlands. After finishing art school he started off as a keyboard player in a band called The Moans in the early sixties. At the end of the sixties, Brood was part of the blues band Cuby + Blizzards. When he took a break from music… he got into trouble. Brood quickly slipped into crime. Burglary and drug trafficking and, as a consequence, a small stint in jail.

He released his first album in 1977 called Street and followed it up with 1978’s Shpritsz and Cha Cha. In 1979 he released Herman Brood & His Wild Romance. This album was released in America only. It contained tracks from Shpritsz also. The album peaked at #122 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1979. The song Saturday Night peaked at #35 on the Billboard 100.

The classic line-up of The Wild Romance was formed in November of 1977: Dany Lademacher (guitar), Freddie Cavalli (bass) Cees “Ani” Meerman (drums) supplemented with The Bombitas (background vocals). This album’s songs were recorded quickly and mostly cut live in the studio. That is why this album sounds so alive when you hear it. The album featured 15 short-driven songs.

He continued making music through the 80s releasing 8 albums in that decade and 4 in the 90s. He also started to paint and do pop art with screen prints.

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

During the end of his life, he tried to refrain from taking drugs but just couldn’t quit. He died in 2000. Like with the Beat Farmers, it was hard to pick one song out but I will be doing more so I will get to him again soon.

Saturday Night

he neon light, of the Open all night
Was just in time replaced by the magic appearance of a new day-while
A melancholic Reno was crawling on his back just in
Front of the supermarket door-way child

Hey girl, on a cold summer night
As we stood on the corner
As a man passed by and asked us
What we were doing what we need
As he pointed his big fat finger
To the people hangin’ round at the corner of the – other side of street
Oh well

Doin’ nothing, just hanging around
What do you mean doin’ nothing Sir
So we had to hit him to the ground
Doin’ nothing just hanging around
His head all busted lookin’ just a little to wise child

I just can’t wait
I just can’t wait for Saturday night
For Saturday night
For Saturday night
Saturday night

Saturday night
Saturday night
Saturday night

I just can’t wait
I just can’t wait

…

Bread – Everything I Own

This is another post for my sister. Bless her heart… she did introduce me to pop music and I do thank her for it. Now there were very few I really liked but Bread wasn’t a teeny bopper band…just a soft rock hit machine in the early seventies. So, Tammy, I hope you enjoy reading this. I’ve included my sister Tammy and another with her and a stupid little kid who wanted a JJ hat.

Tammy

Tammy with the author…I wanted a hat like JJ

This is a band I heard from my sister’s record collection. I have to admit when I hear one of their songs now…I know all of the lyrics and it is 1972 again.

I’ve always called them a guilty pleasure but hell…I like them. When I hear one of their songs I’m listening to them with my sister again. The thing about this band is that they could whip out an electric guitar and rock with songs like Mother Freedom. They could also do power pop…yes power pop with a song I’ll be posting soon. Here is a take on this song by my friend Matt.

David Gates is a wonderful songwriter and he wrote the hits basically but James Griffin and Robb Royer also wrote songs. Their songs were not bad at all but they were in a band with a great songwriter. He knew how to write a hook and a wonderful melody…and words we all can relate to.

David got started early. David’s girlfriend in the early sixties was the sister of singer/songwriter Leon Russell. Once he’d heard Leon’s material, he was inspired to write songs himself. He became a session musician and played on Jackie De Shannon’s demos. Six months had passed and he wasn’t making much headway until Johnny Burnette recorded his song The Fool Of The Year in 1962 and that was enough for him to keep writing.

This song was not romantic… it was written for Gate’s father after he passed away. Gates says that his father was a kind and gentle man and took the time to teach Gates to read and write music and play various instruments. He was influential in introducing Gates to classical music, which, in Gate’s words is his foundation. He attributes the song title to the kind words of his father after Gates sent his mother a gift of an orchid, which was more than he could at the time. Gate’s father was touched by the gesture and said that Gates could have “Everything she owned”.

They released a lot of material between 1970 – 1973 and constant touring caused fatigue to set in. All eleven of Bread’s charting singles between 1970 and 1973 had been written and sung by Gates. Elektra Records had always selected Gates’ songs for the A-sides of the singles, while Griffin felt that the singles should have been split between the two of them.

Something I didn’t know is that in 1996, after being broken up for years, reunited and toured the United States, South Africa, Europe, and Asia. After that, they went their separate ways.

Everything I Own peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, #32 in the UK, and #9 in New Zealand in 1972.

A Jamaican singer Ken Booth also recorded a version of this song and it peaked at #1 in the UK

David Gates on his Dad: “My success would have been so special to him as he was my greatest influence. So I decided to write and record Everything I Own about him. If you listen to the words, ‘You sheltered me from harm, kept me warm, gave my life to me, set me free,’ it says it all.”

David Gates: “My father was kind and gentle and revered by everyone. People will do what you do, not what you say. He always had time for me and taught me to read and write music, play various instruments and introduced me to classical music, my foundation. One year I sent my mom an orchid for her birthday, she was so touched that my dad wrote to tell me I could have had ‘anything she owned’ in return. My father died in 1963 and I wanted to write a song in memory of him. He did live to see some of my early progress towards success, but not the major songs or stardom with Bread. As with all my songs, the music led and the words tried to keep up, but they came pretty quickly. I wrote the lyrics, ‘I would give everything I own just to have you back again’ so that they could be interpreted as a love song, but when I played it for my wife, she knew right away that it was about my father. She cried.”

David Gates: “The recording session with Bread felt pressurized because I wanted to convey the emotion in the vocal that existed when I played it with an acoustic guitar,” Gates said. “The covers [by Rod Stewart, Shirley Bassey and Boy George] have all felt genuine, and it is magical to sing. Everything I Own has reached farther than any other song I’ve ever written. It’s a tribute to the song and Ken that it was able to go reggae.”

Everything I Own

You sheltered me from harm
Kept me warm, kept me warm
You gave my life to me
Set me free, set me free
The finest years I ever knew
Were all the years I had with you

And I would give anything I own
I’d give up my life, my heart, my home
I would give everything I own
Just to have you back again

You taught me how to love
What it’s of, what it’s of
You never said too much
But still you showed the way
And I knew from watching you

Nobody else could ever know
The part of me that can’t let go

And I would give anything I own
I’d give up my life, my heart, my home
I would give everything I own
Just to have you back again

Is there someone you know
You’re loving them so
But taking them all for granted?
You may lose them one day
Someone takes them away
And they don’t hear the words you long to say

I would give anything I own
I’d give up my life, my heart, my home
I would give everything I own
Just to have you back again
Just to touch you once again

Max Picks …songs from 1991

1991 was a huge improvement over the prior year.

1991

U2 – One

This is one of my top U2 songs… it was on the album Achtung Baby released in 1991. the song peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100 in 1992. Johnny Cash covered it on 2000’s American III: Solitary Man,..the video is at the bottom of the post.

The Edge talks about when they came up with it: Suddenly something very powerful happening in the room. Everyone recognized it was a special piece. It was like we’d caught a glimpse of what the song could be. It was a pivotal song in the recording of the album, the first breakthrough in what was an extremely difficult set of sessions.

The band wrote this song in Berlin after being there for months trying to record Achtung Baby. The Berlin Wall had just fallen, so the band was hoping to find inspiration from the struggle and change. Instead, they found themselves at odds with each other and unable to do much productive work.

Most of the song was written in about 30 minutes and it rejuvenated the band creatively. When they left Berlin, they had little to show for it except for this song, but they were able to complete the album back home in Ireland with this song as the centerpiece of the album.

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

A friend of mine moved to Seattle in the early 90s for a job. He called me at some point and told me about the music scene there and something big was happening. He said he had just seen a band in a dingy club with a left-handed blonde guitar player who had a strong voice named Nirvana.

I was the same age as Kurt Cobain. When this song came out it was more than popular. It was instantly embedded into the culture. I did like the rawness of it but I would have never guessed it would have been so popular. I just didn’t click with grunge music.

When I first heard it…what did I think of? More Than a Feeling by Boston.

Kathleen Hanna, the lead singer of the group Bikini Kill, gave Cobain the idea for the title when she spray painted “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit” on his bedroom wall after a night of drinking and spraying graffiti around the Seattle area. In his pre-Courtney Love days, Cobain went out with Bikini Kill lead singer Tobi Vail, but she dumped him. Vail wore Teen Spirit deodorant, and Hanna was implying that Cobain was marked with her scent.

Kurt Cobain said that he was trying to write the ultimate pop song. He said he was basically trying to rip off The Pixies.

Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend

Great power pop song by Matthew Sweet. The song reached #4 on the Alternative Billboard Chart in 1991. The song was off of his 3rd album of the same name. The album was Sweet’s breakthrough album.

The song has a little of everything in it…noisy guitar, loud drums but with a pop melody.

Tom Petty – Into The Great Wide Open

I’ve always liked this song and album. I saw them on this tour and it would be the only time I got to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The song is a cautionary tale about stardom and the record business. The album of the same name peaked at #13 in 1991. This was the first Heartbreakers album since Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) in 1987. Tom Petty released his solo album Full Moon Fever two years before this.

The video to the song was well made. Petty later commented that he was approached about making a movie out of the song. The video not only featured Johnny Depp but also Faye Dunaway.

REM – Losing My Religion

I hope everyone is having a happy Monday…at least as happy as it can be.

I heard early REM albums from friends. They really made an impact with college kids and built a following. Then they released The One I Love and the dam burst. This song took it a step higher.

Peter Buck has commented that after this song’s success that the bands popularity soared. He mentioned that R.E.M. went from a respected band with a cult following to one of the biggest bands in the world.

The title is based on the Southern expression “lost my religion,” meaning something has challenged your faith to such a degree you might lose your religion or cool.

REM was surprised when their record label chose this song as the first single from Out Of Time. Running 4:28 with no chorus and a mandolin for a lead instrument, it didn’t seem like hit material, but it ended up being the biggest hit of their career.

Michael Stipe revealed the lyrics about obsessional love were heavily influenced by The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” which he called “the most beautiful, kind of creepy song.”

….

Max Picks …songs from 1990

1990

The La’s – There She Goes

This song played a key part in making me love the power pop genre. It’s one of my favorite power pop songs of all time. It was originally released in 1988 but wasn’t played over in America until 1990. So I’m cheating on this but I had no way of hearing it before then.

A song by a British band called The La’s. A very good pop song that has no verses…it just repeats the chorus four different ways four different times. It was written by the singer Lee Mavers and recorded in 1988 and remixed and released again in 1990. It only peaked at #49 in 1990 in the US.

Many people think the song was about heroin. Paul Hemmings an ex-guitarist for the band denies that rumor. Either way, it is a perfectly constructed pop song. It’s been covered by a lot of artists but probably most successfully by Sixpence None the Richer. I’ve always liked The La’s version the best.

The Black Crowes – Hard To Handle

When I heard this song in 1990 I was thrilled because it sounded like the Faces of the 70s. It was plain rock and roll and had a timeless quality about it. I waited the entire 1980s for rock and roll like this to be back on the mainstream charts. The Replacements were the other rock band but not in the charts. It happened occasionally (Georgia Satellites and Guns and Roses) but not much. This song was originally recorded by Otis Redding, who wrote it with Allen Jones and Al Bell. It was the only cover song on The Black Crowes debut album which sold over five million copies.

The album also had songs like Jealous Again and She Talks To Angels. I knew things were changing when I saw the success of their album.

The two other versions that I like are Otis Redding and Grateful Dead version with Pigpen taking the lead.

The Replacements – Merry Go Round

This one is off of their last studio album All Shook Down. I was going to conclude with this one having one off of their studio albums but there is one more coming next week.

This is not my favorite off the album but it did have a commercial sound for that time and it’s something that I thought would have charted in the Billboard 100. Merry Go Round did peak at #1 on the alternative charts. The album peaked at #69 in the Billboard Album Chart in 1990.

“Merry Go Round” was written about the lives of Westerberg and his sister Mary (“They ignored me with a smile, you as a child”).

The band went to Los Angeles to make a video for Merry Go Round. With Westerberg’s okay, Warner Bros. hired Bob Dylan’s twenty-three-year-old son Jesse Dylan, who was just starting to direct.

AC/DC – Thunderstruck

As much as I love Angus Young’s intro to this…it’s his brother’s rhythm guitar that makes this song go. Brothers Angus and Malcolm Young wrote this song.

A side note to this song. In 2012 a couple of Iranian uranium-enrichment plants were hacked and their computers shut down but not before blasting Thunderstruck at maximum volume like you are probably doing right now or will be soon.

The album was recorded with producer Bruce Fairbairn at his Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, where he also produced Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and the Aerosmith albums Permanent Vacation and Pump. It was the group’s first time working with Fairbairn.

Sinéad O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U

This song was everywhere in 1990. Prince wrote this song in 1984 but didn’t release it. He gave it to a group called The Family that was signed to his label. The Family included it on a 1985 album but it never went anywhere. Five years later it became the biggest hit of 1990. Prince recorded his own version as well, but it wasn’t released until 2018, two years after his death.

It was O’Connor’s manager, Fachtna O’Kelly, who suggested she record a version of the track. O’Kelly knew it would be perfect for her.

…

Freddy Fender – Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

I remember Freddy Fender as a kid and this song. I remember it being played everywhere. It was a huge crossover hit and I saw him on television at the time singing it on different shows.

Freddy Fender wrote and recorded it in 1959 for a small label. It wasn’t until 1975 that he was able to release it again under his name. He and some band members were charged with pot possession in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1960.

Fender served 3 1/.2 years in prison until he was pardoned by Governor Jimmie Davis. There was a condition though…he had to stay away from anywhere that served alcohol. In the late sixties, he started to work in a garage and play music on the weekends.

He started to record again in 1974 and struck gold with his first two releases. Before the Next Teardrop Falls peaked at #1 in the Billboard Country Charts, #1 on the Billboard 100, and #1 on the Canadian Country Charts. Wasted Days and Wasted Nights peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts, #8 on the Billboard 100, #2 on the Canadian Country Charts, and #6 in Canada in 1975.

He would have more number 1s in the Country Charts for Billboard and Canada. Later on, Fender would later join the Texas Tornados and Los Super 7.

Here is Freddie with the Texas Tornados doing the song.

Wasted Days Wasted Nights

Wasted days and wasted nightsI have left for you behindFor you don’t belong to meYour heart belongs to someone else

Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?

Don’t you remember the dayThat you went away and left me?I was so lonelyPrayed for you onlyMy love

Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?

Don’t you remember the dayThat you went away and left me?I was so lonelyPrayed for you onlyMy love

Wasted days and wasted nightsI have left for you behindFor you don’t belong to meYour heart belongs to someone else

Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?

Garland Jeffreys – New York Skyline

This is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard. I’ve never lived in New York but you get a sense of what it’s like in this song. I don’t post ballads much but this one I just had to.

Jeffreys is a Brooklyn, N.Y.-born singer/songwriter who has released 15 studio albums in his 53-year career. His mixed heritage Puerto Rican and African-American is mirrored in his music, which embraces rock, soul, R&B, and reggae. He began his career performing solo in Manhattan clubs in 1966 after attending college at Syracuse University as an art major, where he became friends with Lou Reed. He then spent some time in Italy studying art before returning to further his education at New York’s Institute of Fine Arts.

He seemed on the cusp of making it so many times but never crossed that bridge. Jeffreys was named the most promising new artist of 1977 by Rolling Stone magazine, and positive pieces about Jeffreys appeared in the Village Voice and the New Yorker. He was friends with peers like Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Bob Marley, John Lennon, and Joe Strummer.

This song was included on the 1977 album Ghost Writer. The album also included my favorite song by him so far…Wild In The Streets. I have posted a couple of posts on him before and he hits me the same way that Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, and Graham Parker do.

Fellow blogger MusicCityMike made a video/post about Ghost Writer back in 2020. Take a look at it if you can.

Wild In The Streets was released as a single in 1973 but it was included on Ghost Writer.

New York Skyline

Baby JeanVaudeville queenShe love to ragtime in the nightI know I?m gonna miss my baby JeanCause she treats me oh so right

But the New York SkylineIt?s calling me home tonightFemale, feline, feminine,She?s been making my world so bright

Hindsight, foresightSometimes we?ve got no sight at allNew love, true loveSometimes we?ve got no love at all

But the New York Skyline it?sCalling me home tonightFemale, feline, feminine,She?s been making my world so bright

New York Skyline, New York SkylineI can see those city lightsAnd I can feel those neon signsBright lights, big cityWell it must be modern timesYes it must be modern timesWell it must be modern times

Max Picks …songs from 1989

1989

Tom Petty – Free Fallin’

Free Fallin’ may be the song he is most remembered by. Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne wrote and recorded “Free Fallin’” in just two days, the first song completed for Full Moon Fever. “We had a multitude of acoustic guitars,” Petty told Rolling Stone of the song’s Byrds-y feel. “So it made this incredibly dreamy sound.”

Tom Petty: “There’s not a day that goes by that someone doesn’t hum ‘Free Fallin” to me or I don’t hear it somewhere,” “But it was really only 30 minutes of my life.”

Replacements – I’ll Be You

My favorite band of the 1980s. I was so amazed to hear The Replacements on mainstream radio at this time. This was the closest the Replacements came to having a “hit.” It peaked at #51 on the Billboard 100 and #1 on the Modern Rock Charts in 1989. The song did expand its audience with younger kids coming to see them without knowing their back catalog. This was an annoyance to some of the band members who some nights didn’t play I’ll Be You.

The line, “Left a Rebel without a clue” was later borrowed by Tom Petty into his hit, “Into the Great Wide Open,” in 1991. The Replacements opened up for Petty in his 1989 tour with the Heartbreakers.

Roy Orbison – You Got It

Roy was making a great comeback in the late eighties. He was a member of the Traveling Wilburys and he finished a new album called Mystery Girl in November of 1988. He confided in Johnny Cash that he was having chest pains and he would have to have it looked at…he never did.

The Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 was rising in the charts and he flew to Europe to do a show and came back and did a few more in America. On December 6, 1988, he flew model planes with his kids and after dinner passed away at the age of 52.

I remember watching the Traveling Wilburys video “End of the Line”. They made the video after Roy passed away… when his part came up they showed an empty rocking chair with Roy’s picture beside it.

You Got It featured Jeff Lynn, Tom Petty, and Phil Jones.

Bonnie Raitt – A Thing Called Love

Thing Called Love was written by John Hiatt for his 1987 album Bring the Family. Bonnie covered this song for her 1989 Nick of Time album.

Nick of Time was Bonnie Raitt’s breakthrough album. After years of endless touring and making albums it all paid off with this album.

This is the song that really got me into the newer version Bonnie Raitt. I did like her earlier hit Runaway and I’d heard of her music and read about her. She paid her dues and I was happy to see her hit big. She is an extremely gifted slide guitar player and singer.

Neil Young – Rockin’ In The Free World

This is from our favorite Canadian Neil Young. It surprised me that this was released in 1989. I remember it the most in the 90s.
This was inspired by the political changes going on at the time, and was highly critical of George Bush Sr. Some of the lyrics mock Bush’s campaign speeches: “We got 1,000 points of light, for the homeless man,” “We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand.”

Rocking In A Free World was written in February 1989, as Neil Young toured the Pacific Northwest. Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini had just issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie because of his controversial novel The Satanic Verses and Russia had recently withdrawn its forces from Afghanistan.

Pearl Jam has performed this song from time to time with Young, who said that Neil is their musical mentor. The first time they performed it together was at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, where the “Jeremy” video won four awards. Young came on as a surprise guest.

…

Lynyrd Skynyrd – On The Hunt

Sometimes as a guitar player, you come up with a riff that you know is good…this riff must have made Allen Collins happy when he thought of it.

It was released on their third album Nothin’ Fancy in 1975. The album was produced by Al Kooper who signed the band and produced their first three albums. Near the end of the sessions, it was decided that Kooper would leave and not produce them anymore. The sessions were tense so he told them he would rather be their friend than their producer so they parted on good terms.

They premiered the song live in Paris in 1974. Nothin’ Fancy was not one of their best albums but did contain some staples for them. Saturday Night Special, Whiskey Rock-a-Roller, and this song On The Hunt. Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zant wrote this song in 1974.

Bob Burns and Artimus Pyle

Right before this album it was decided that the drummer Bob Burns needed to part from the band. He was getting more erratic personally. He had some mental issues that the large amount of drugs and drinking certainly didn’t help. The worst occasion was when he went to see the Exorcist. After he saw that he started to see demons everywhere. While in England he was in the 3rd or 4th floor and threw the hotel’s cat out of the window. He thought the cat was the devil himself. The other band members, even the tough Ronnie Van Zant, were not comfortable around him.

They called up Charlie Daniels and asked him if he knew any drummers, so Daniels told them about Artimus Pyle so he joined. No doubt about it, Pyle was a better drummer but he also fit the band perfectly at that time. Pyle had been marking time and making friends as a session drummer for the likes of both Marshall Tucker and The Charlie Daniels Band. Pyle was a former Marine, a health enthusiast, and a Vegan for the most part. He wasn’t all natural though. He would normally take LSD while they were flying and staying at hotels.

The biggest problem with making the album was that they did not have the time to write the songs and arrange them before they recorded them. On their previous two albums, they had that luxury….even the solos were planned out in every song. The record company wanted something now so they had to write in the studio.

Now that many reviewers have looked back on the album…it has got favorable reviews now. As I have said before…they only released 5 studio albums (not counting one after the crash that had their pre-fame material on it) and three of them would be classic albums. Two of them would be very good…other rock bands at the time would have taken this album and loved it. Their live album released in 1976 is one of the best in rock. It shows the band in great form…the one who opened up for the Stones and made a statement at the 1976 Knebworth event.

Al Kooper: Each record got harder to make, and on the third record [Nuthin’ Fancy]we really battled it out and it was getting dangerous in terms of our friendship. At the last day of the third record, I told them that I didn’t want to produce them anymore — that I would rather be their friend than their producer. I think they had suffered as much as I had and were glad to hear that.

The third album was a very tough album to make because they didn’t have the preparatory time that they had on the first two albums. For instance, the guitar solos were not composed. They were made up in the studio.

On The Hunt

I said baby mama, I don’t know your name
But I said baby, sugar I can play your game
Every night when we leave the hall
I see you hanging around
You wanna ride in my big black car baby
Wanna go uptown

[Chorus]
I know who you are baby
I know what they call you girl
Never put you down baby
I’m just like you baby, I’m on the hunt

I know lady
People gonna talk about you and me
Let me say one thing mama, sugar I do as I please
And if you wanna love me baby, I’m your man
And all those high-falutin’ society people
I don’t care if they don’t undertand

[Chorus]

My daddy told me a long time ago
Said there’s two things son
Two things you should know
And in these two things you must take pride
That’s a horse and woman, yeah
Well both of them you ride

Osmonds – Crazy Horses

Please don’t disown me after this…but a Led Zeppelin and Osmond’s story is too hard to pass up. I have played this song to people without telling them who did it…none of them guessed it.

My sister would aggravate me when I was 4 or 5 by playing their records repeatedly. All I could remember was looking at that album and being blinded by that bright glaring smile they all had. So this post is for my sister who probably would not have liked this particular song…but that is probably why it stuck with me.

This is a comment on YouTube about this song “This is what happens when Mormons finally have caffeine.“

I hate to admit it…but this song is not that bad. The Osmonds had this song banned in South Africa, not because of their wild image but because the word Horse meant heroin there. The keyboard at the intro with the slide sound was a YP-30 Yamaha organ with a portmento slide.

A few years after this song…The Osmonds were invited to see Led Zeppelin at Earls Court by the band. They went backstage and met Zeppelin’s family. The Osmonds even used their sound system when they played Earls Court ourselves the following night.

I have to admit…it’s a pretty damn hard song. It peaked at #14 on the Billboard 100, #2 in the UK, and #6 in Canada in 1972. Hmmm wonder how close we came to a Black Sabbath – Osmonds tour in the early seventies?

There was a positive message with the song…it was an environmental song about pollution… an allegory for mankind’s destructive tendencies. As much as I hate to…I’ll give them their due. They stepped out of the teenybopper box they were in and tried something different.

Jay Osmond: I remember we went in a day early because we were using Led Zepplin’s sound equipment. And so we went in to watch them and those guys were so fun and cool. We went backstage and played frisbee with their kids and then they invited us to come up and play with them on ‘Stair Way To Heaven’. And I’ll never forget, The Osmonds and Led Zepplin on the same stage.

Merrill Osmond: “Before that, my brothers and I had been what’s now called a boy band… all our songs were chosen for us by the record company. But now, having been successful, we wanted to freak out and make our own music. We were rehearsing in a basement one day when Wayne started playing this heavy rock riff. I came up with a melody and Alan got the chords. Within an hour, we had the song. I had always been the lead singer, but I sang Crazy Horses with Jay. The line “What a show, there they go, smoking up the sky” had to be sung higher, so I did that and Jay did the verses because his voice was growlier, and this track was heavier than anything we’d ever done.”

Donny Osmond: “Ozzy Osbourne actually told me that ‘Crazy Horses’ is one of his favorite rock and roll songs. “The problem is my teenybopper career was selling like crazy and it overshadowed anything we did as a rock and roll band.”

Donny Osmond: We had a wall of Marshalls in the studio. It was so loud that you couldn’t even walk in the studio, so we had to play the organ from the control room. My brother Alan actually played it on the record. I played it live. But the secret to it was a wah-wah pedal. We opened the wah-wah just enough to get that really harsh kind of a piercing sound, but it was the loudness of the Marshalls that got us that sound. And then we doubled it. That was the secret to that sound.”

This is a song off of that album…they borrowed a Zeppelin riff for this one.

Crazy Horses

There’s a message floatin’ in the air.
Crazy horses ridin’ everywhere.
It’s a warning, it’s in every tongue.
Gotta stop them crazy horses on the run.

What a show, there they go smokin’ up the sky, yeah.
Crazy horses all got riders, and they’re you and I.
Crazy horses (repeat 3 times)

Never stop and they never die.
They just keep on puffin’ how they multiply.
Crazy horses, will they never halt?
If they keep on movin’ then it’s all our fault.

What a show, there they go smokin’ up the sky, yeah.
Crazy horses all got riders, and they’re you and I.
Crazy horses (repeat 3 times)

So take a good look around,
See what they’ve done, what they’ve done —
They’ve done–
They’ve done–
They’ve done–
They’ve done.

Crazy horses.

Allman Brothers – Wasted Words

There is nothing better than sitting back on a cool Fall day and listening to the Allman Brothers.

The album Brothers and Sisters was released in August 1973. This was almost two years after Duane Allman had died. Around a year later on November 11, 1972…their bassist Berry Oakley died on a motorcycle within a few blocks of where Duane crashed. Some of the band members have said…Berry died on the day that Duane died but his body just kept moving until a little over a year later. He never got over Duane dying and his drug and alcohol use escalated. He was on his motorcycle and hit a bus. He went back to his house and they took him to a hospital where he died a short time later.

Let me say this about Berry Oakley. He is sadly overlooked today. Not only was he a superb blues bass player but he had something that not all blues bassists have. He had a great sense of melody…I would compare him to Paul McCartney in that department. In the middle of those jams, you would hear the bass playing these wonderful countermelodies…he was unique in that way.

The Allmans recorded Brother and Sisters between October and December of 1972. It was a monster hit for the Brothers. It contains the last songs that Oakley ever played on. Berry Oakley played on this song and the huge hit Ramblin’ Man that he recorded shortly before his death. They had try-outs for another bass player but Jaimo’s friend Lamar Williams won out easily. He played with the band until they broke up briefly in 1976. He developed lung cancer at the age of 32 from exposure to Agent Orange during his Vietnam service and died in 1983.

Gregg Allman wrote this and Dickey Betts played a slide on the song. He didn’t like playing slide because of Duane. When Duane died instead of replacing him with another guitar player…they recruited the great piano player Chuck Leavell. That was a smart thing to do because of the comparisons to Duane on whoever would have taken that spot. Dickey had to play slide when they played their older songs but it’s something he stayed away from on newer songs when he could.

The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #42 in the UK. What helped the album was Ramblin’ Man and Jessica, two of their most classic songs. They toured with this album and played sold-out stadiums and arenas. A little later they would lease The Starship… the same one that Led Zeppelin used in the seventies. They were up there with The Who, Led Zeppelin, and the monster bands of the seventies.

The first time I heard of the Allman Brothers was on SNL where Dan Ackroyd played Jimmy Carter talking down a caller on acid. I was around 9 when I heard it and it stuck. I have it below.

Wasted Words

Can you tell me, tell me, friend, just exactly where I’ve been?
Is that so much to ask I’ll pay you back no matter what the task
You seem really sure ’bout something I don’t know,
Take that load off, looks like chest’s about to go
Your wasted words already been heard, are you really god, yes or no?

Well, all day and half the night you’re walkin’ round lookin’ such a fright
Good is it me or is it you?
I’d make a wager and I’d hope you lose
Time’s gone, looks like Rome is ’bout to fall,
Next time take the elevator, please don’t crawl
Your wasted words so absurd, are you really Satan, yes or no?
Tell me now baby?
Ooh hoo
Oh

Well, I ain’t no saint and you sure as hell ain’t no savior
Every other Christmas I would practice good behavior
That was then, this is now, don’t ask me to be mister clean
Baby, I don’t know how
Ring my phone ’bout ten more times, we will see,
Find that broke down line and let it be
Your wasted words will never be heard, go on home baby and watch it on TV

Weekday soap-box specialty, you know what I’m talkin’ ’bout now
By the way, this song’s for you, sincerely, me

Max Picks …songs from 1988

1988

Three albums shaped this year for me. One was by The Traveling Wilburys, U2, and the other was by Keith Richards..

Traveling Wilburys – Handle With Care

This was the hit that kicked the Wilburys project off the ground. George Harrison and Jeff Lynne started the ball rolling… Initially an informal grouping with Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, they got together at Bob Dylan’s Santa Monica, California studio to quickly record an additional track as a B-side for the single release of Harrison’s song This Is Love. This was the song they came up with, which the record company immediately realized was too good to be released as a single B side. They also recorded “You Got It” at the session, which helped convince them to record an album together.

The title Handle With Care came when George Harrison saw the phrase on the side of a cardboard box in the studio.

Tom Petty on Bob Dylan: “There’s nobody I’ve ever met who knows more about the craft of how to put a song together than he does. I learned so much from just watching him work. He has an artist’s mind and can find in a line the keyword and think how to embellish it to bring the line out. I had never written more words than I needed, but he tended to write lots and lots of verses, then he’ll say, this verse is better than that, or this line. Slowly this great picture emerges. He was very good in The Traveling Wilbury’s: when somebody had a line, he could make it a lot better in big ways.”

Steve Earl – Copperhead Road

Brilliant song by Steve Earle. I became a fan of Steve Earle when I heard “I Ain’t Never Satisfied” off of the Exit 0 album. Copperhead Road was an actual road near Mountain City, Tennessee. It has since been renamed Copperhead Hollow Road, owing to the theft of road signs bearing the song’s name.

What is interesting is Earle tells a story of three generations, of three different eras, and shows how they intersect all in one song. Earle himself called the album the world’s first blend of heavy metal and bluegrass.

U2 – Angel Of Harlem

This song has an old feel and a lot of power. It was on the Rattle and Hum album. I’ve talked to many U2 fans who don’t like the album a lot but it is my favorite album the band did. It broke a little from their previous albums. The Edge backed off the reverb and delay some on this album. They traded their “new wave” sound for Americana and I loved it. Rattle and Hum is very rootsy and raw. For me and I’m sure I’m in the minority…this song was one of the best singles of the 80s. I could hear Van Morrison doing this. This song is what made me go back and listen to the rest of their catalog. This album is not The Joshua Tree Part II…they go down a different path like great bands do.

The “Angel of Harlem” is Billie Holiday, a Jazz singer who moved to Harlem as a teenager in 1928. She played a variety of nightclubs and became famous for her spectacular voice and ability to move her audience to tears. She dealt with racism, drug problems, and bad relationships for most of her life, and her sadness was often revealed in her songs. She died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1959 at age 44.

Angel of Harlem was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis.

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car

When I heard this song it sounded so different than other songs at the time. It’s a well-written song lyrically and musically that has a folk feel to it. It could have been a hit in any era… the lyrics got my attention. While they’re standing in the welfare lines / crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation / wasting time in the unemployment lines / sitting around waiting for a promotion.

The song remains one of my favorites from that era. I always thought this song was an instant classic. It could have been released in 1973.

A still unknown Tracy Chapman was booked to appear down the bill at the Nelson Mandela birthday concert at Wembley Stadium on June 11, 1987. She had no reason to think her appearance would be the catalyst for a career breakthrough. After performing several songs from her self-titled debut during the afternoon, Chapman thought she’d done her bit and could relax and enjoy the rest of the concert.

That would not be the case… later in the evening, Stevie Wonder was delayed when the computer discs for his performance went missing, and Chapman was ushered back onto the stage again. In front of a huge prime-time audience, she performed “Fast Car” alone with her acoustic guitar. Afterward, the song raced up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

Keith Richards – Take It So Hard

When I heard this song with the opening riff coming from that 5-string G turning that he is known for I loved it. I bought the album Talk is Cheap which some reviews half-jokingly called the best Rolling Stones album in years (It WAS!). The song got plenty of play on rock stations at the time. It peaked at #3 in the Mainstream Rock Tracks. The album was recorded in a period when Mick and Keith were feuding with each other about the direction of the Stones. They were not recording or playing live. “You Don’t Move Me Anymore” off of the album points right at Mick.

Personally, I’ve always liked Keith’s voice. Happy, Salt of the Earth, You Got the Silver, and Before They Make Me Run rank among my favorite Stones songs. This song would fit on any Stones album.

Mick Jagger – Memo From Turner

This song should have been a Rolling Stones song but it was on the soundtrack of a movie Jagger did in 1969. It’s my absolute favorite thing Jagger ever released under his name only. The slide guitar in this song is just downright nasty. Ry Cooder did the honors in this song.

Mick Jagger starred in this movie called Performance in 1970. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel so I’ll paste the plot from IMDB:

Chas is an East London thug who works for gangster Harry Flowers and his associates (although they don’t use the word gangster to describe themselves). Chas is generally sadistic in his nature and thus revels in his work. But his sadistic nature also pervades his personal life. As such, he will work on his own personal agenda outside of the work for Harry. It is in this vein that an encounter with Joey Maddocks, a man with whom Chas has a history, leads to Chas needing to hide out from Harry and his associates. Ultimately Chas feels he needs to clandestinely leave the country. In the meantime, he, based solely on a private conversation he overhears between strangers, manages to take refuge in the basement of a Notting Hill flat owned by a man named Turner, who lives there with two female companions named Pherber and Lucy. Chas considers their lifestyle bohemian and one of free love, which is outside of his mentality. Turner is an ex-rock musician who has lost his “demon” and thus his desire to be a performer. As Chas makes arrangements for his departure out of England, he gets caught up in Turner’s lifestyle, Turner who is working on his own agenda in spending time with Chas.

I saw this movie in the 1980s…it’s a good movie. It’s not Mary Poppins by any stretch of the imagination so you will be seeing an R-rated movie that can border on X. They had to cut a few scenes to make it an R back then. Jagger does a great job in it…it’s been said more than playing himself in this film… he was playing his ex-bandmate Brian Jones.

The song was credited to Jagger/Richards and on some takes only Jagger. There were 3 versions of the song. The first take was from Mick with some of the band Traffic backing him but it wasn’t officially released. The 2nd version was a version of it by The Stones with Ry Cooder on slide. The third version was recorded in 1970 featuring Mick Jagger, Ry Cooder on slide guitar, Russ Titelman (guitar), Randy Newman (piano), Jerry Scheff (bass), and Gene Parsons on drums. That is the one that everyone knows.

Keith Richards didn’t want anything to do with it. He was not happy with the love scenes between his actress girlfriend Anita Pallenberg and Mick Jagger. Keith held a lot of resentment over that for a long time and let Mick know in his 2010 book Life. He ripped Jagger pretty well over it and it took them a few years to start talking again.

This is a very dirty and grimy song…it would have been a perfect fit on Exile On Mainstreet or Sticky Fingers. Any Goodfellas fans out there might remember it in that movie.

The song peaked at #32 on the UK Charts in 1970.

Memo From Turner

Didn’t I see you down in San Antone on a hot and dusty night?
We were eating eggs in Sammy’s when the black man there drew his knife
Didn’ you drown that Jew in Rampton when he washed his sleeveless shirt
With that Spanish-speaking gentlemen, the one we all called “Kurt.”

Come now, gentleman, there must be some mistake
How forgetful I’m becoming, now you fixed your business straight

I remember you in Hemlock Road in nineteen fifty-six
You’re a faggy little leather boy with a smaller piece of stick
You’re a lashing, smashing hunk of man
Your sweat shines sweet and strong
Your organ’s working perfectly, but there’s a part that’s not screwed on

Weren’t you at the Coke convention back in nineteen sixty-five
You’re the misbred, grey executive that I’ve seen heavily advertised
You’re the great, gray man whose daughter licks policemen’s buttons clean
You’re the man who squats behind the man who works the soft machine

Come now, gentleman, your love is all I crave
You’ll still be in the circus when I’m laughing, laughing in my grave

When the old men do the fighting and the young men all look on
And the young girls eat their mothers meat from tubes of plastic on
So be wary please my gentle friends of all the skins you breed
They have a nasty habit that is they bite the hands that feed

So remember who you say you are and keep your noses clean
Boys will be boys and play with toys so be strong with your beast
Oh Rosie dear, don’t you think it’s queer, so stop me if you please
The baby is dead, my lady said, “You gentlemen, why you all work for me?”

Eric Clapton – Promises

I had this single when I was a kid that was passed down to me from someone. This was before I knew about Cream, Yardbirds, or anything else. It was probably my first impression of Eric Clapton. When I did hear Cream it was a bit of a shock.

A country rock song by Eric Clapton that’s always been a favorite of mine. It was released in 1978 and peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #82 on the Country Charts, #37 in the UK, and #7 in Canada. This song was from his Backless album. At the time when Clapton was influenced by Don Williams the country artist.

His album Slowhand was released the year before this album. He kept the same producer, Glyn Johns, and recorded in the same studio (Olympic in London). This album was laid-back like Slowhand. It also has a country feel with Tulsa time and this song Promises. The album is not as critically acclaimed as Slowhand…this single was the only hit song on the album.

The album peaked at #8 on the Billboard Album Charts, #22 on the Canadian charts, #18 in the UK, and #22 in New Zealand in 1978. The female singer in this song is Marcy Levy. She wrote Lay Down Sally with Clapton and George Terry.

It was written by Richard Feldman and Roger Linn

Promises

I don’t care if you never come home
I don’t mind if you just keep on
Rowing away on a distant sea
‘Cause I don’t love you and you don’t love me

You cause a commotion when you come to town
You give ’em a smile and they melt
Having lovers and friends is all good and fine
But I don’t like yours and you don’t like mine

La la, la la la la la
La la, la la la la la

I don’t care what you do at night
Oh, and I don’t care how you get your delights
I’m gonna leave you alone, I’ll just let it be
I don’t love you and you don’t love me

I got a problem. Can you relate?
I got a woman calling love hate
We made a vow we’d always be friends
How could we know that promises end?

I tried to love you for years upon years
You refuse to take me for real
It’s time you saw what I want you to see
And I’d still love you if you’d just love me

I got a problem. Can you relate?
I got a woman calling love hate
We made a vow we’d always be friends
How could we know that promises end?

Jerry Jeff Walker – Pissin’ In The Wind

Pissin’ in the wind, bettin’ on a losing friend
Makin’ the same mistakes, we swore we’d never make again
And we’re pissin’ in the wind, but it’s blowing on all our friends
We’re gonna sit and grin and tell our grandchildren

I heard this song as a kid…where and when I can’t tell you but it came back to me as soon I started to play it. There was no way country radio would have played this back in 1975 so I sure as hell didn’t hear it there. You know what is really odd? I’ve been blogging for 7 years and never have I had a song with “piss” in the title…and this is the second song TODAY I’ve written up with that word in the title. I decided against posting them back to back so I picked another song to follow this post.

I had forgotten about this song until Randy and CB brought up Jerry Jeff Walker. You know his most famous song very well, Mr Bojangles. That song was made popular by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. When I get into something…I usually fall hard for it. That is the reason you have seen weeks of Texas songwriters. The writing is so consistently good. Walker was not Texan born but he settled in Texas in the 1970s and stayed there for the rest of his life.

This song is funny and different. He used a Dixieland clarient in a country song which is a wonderful mixture. Needless to say, this is not one of his serious songs but I love the loose feel of it. On top of that, he throws a fun jibe at Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind.

The song was on the critically praised album Ridin’ High. The album charted at #14 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1975.

Pissin’ In The Wind

Pissin’ in the wind, bettin’ on a losing friend
Makin’ the same mistakes, we swore we’d never make again
And we’re pissin’ in the wind, but it’s blowing on all our friends
We’re gonna sit and grin and tell our grandchildren

About the time I called this guy it was four in the morning
Teach me the words to the song I was humming

He just laughed and he said that the ole grey cat is sneakin’ down the hall
But all he wants to know is who in the hell is paying for the call

Chorus

Now this Nunn called me up, it was eight in the morning
Wanted to know how in the world am I doin’
He just laughed and he said get together boy, and fall on by the house
Some Gonzo buddies would like to play anything your’s picking now

Chorus

Now we worked and we suffered and struggled
Makin’ our record till we got it right
Now we’re waiting on the check to come sneaking down the hall
Like that old time feeling
That we never should have ever put the record out at all

Chorus

That the answer my friend is just pissin’ in the wind
The answer is pissin’ in the sink

….

Max Picks …songs from 1987

1987

I listened to the radio in 1987 a little more than in the previous 3 years or so. The albums that really got my attention were George Harrison’s Cloud Nine and the Replacements album that’s one of my favorites of the 1980s…Please To Meet Me… it was recorded in the Memphis studio where Big Star recorded. It was also the year of the Grateful Dead…a huge top-ten album and single.

Grateful Dead – Touch Of Grey

I knew of the Grateful Dead from an older brother of a friend I had. I had heard of them as a kid in the seventies before I actually heard them. I knew some of their songs and the Garcia song Sugaree. I always pictured this heavy tough metal band with a name like that. Whenever they toured they would draw a massive amount of fans despite having no top ten hits…until this song. After this song, they drew a larger amount of attention and fans.

When this came out in the 80s, it was like Deadmania. With MTV suddenly everyone was talking about them. While big success is great it did cause some trouble at some of their concerts. Chilled-out Deadheads followed them around the country for decades. Some financed their travels by hawking food, T-shirts, and handicrafts…not to mention pot and LSD usually peacefully. Through the years more would add to the fold…some described it as a giant community more than a regular concert. In 1987 they suddenly had an influx of new young fans (Touchheads) and some didn’t know what the band was about. Along with them came some gate crashers and riots.

With the backing of the band, older Deadheads handed out flyers on how to act, trying to mellow out the newer crowd.

Robert Hunter started writing the lyrics to this song in 1980, and the Grateful Dead first performed it in 1982. They played it sporadically over the next few years and finally recorded it for their 1987 album In The Dark.

George Harrison – We We Was Fab

I loved this song when I heard it. To hear George sing about his time with The Beatles surprised me. Of all the Beatles George seemed to have the most resentment and some of it was understandable. A few years after this he would join the remaining Beatles and start on The Beatles Anthology. George wanted Paul to be in this video but Paul was tied up at the time. He asked George to put a left-handed bass player in the video with a walrus mask and tell everyone it was him.

George co-wrote the song with Jeff Lynne, who also co-produced the album that shortly pre-dates the two of them forming The Traveling Wilburys. ‘When We Was Fab’ is a musical nod to the psychedelic sound that the Beatles had made their own. George used a sitar, string quartet, and backward tape effects.

He also got some help from Ringo. Starr played drums on this track and a few others on the album. Harrison says that when he started writing the song, he had Ringo’s drumming in mind for the intro and the overall tempo

Replacements – Alex Chilton

The Replacement’s tribute song about Big Star and Box Tops lead singer, Alex Chilton. The song was off the album Please To Meet Me. One of my favorite bands of all time singing about a singer in one of my favorite bands. This would be my number 1 song of 1987.

The Replacements recorded Pleased To Meet Me in Memphis at Ardent Studios, the same studio as Big Star. The man behind the board was Jim Dickinson, who produced the storied third Big Star album. Alex came into the studio a few times while the Replacements were working on the record (and laid down a guitar fill for “Can’t Hardly Wait”), but the band avoided the awkwardness of playing “Alex Chilton” whenever Chilton was around.

R.E.M. – It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

This song came off of the great Document album. With some REM songs, it takes a few listens for me but this one… the first time was enough to know I really liked it. It was recorded in the Sound Emporium in Nashville, Tennessee. The song peaked at #69 in 1988. The song was inspired by Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan and you can tell.

Michael Stipe said: “The words come from everywhere. I’m extremely aware of everything around me, whether I am in a sleeping state, awake, dream-state or just in day to day life. There’s a part in ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It’ that came from a dream where I was at Lester Bangs’ birthday party and I was the only person there whose initials weren’t L.B. So there was Lenny Bruce, Leonid Brezhnev, Leonard Bernstein… So that ended up in the song along with a lot of stuff I’d seen when I was flipping TV channels. It’s a collection of streams of consciousness.”

Los Lobos – La Bamba

This band had been around a long time before this song came out. They formed in 1973 and released their first album in 1978. They opened for bands such as The Clash and The Blasters so they got exposed to a lot of different audiences.

They recorded some Ritchie Valens covers for the movie La Bamba and their cover of the title track made them known internationally. The song was number 1 almost everywhere including the US, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.