This year may be the best ever for albums. You had Who’s Next (My number one), Led Zeppelin IV, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Goin On, and so much more.
We will start off with what I think is the greatest rock song ever played in a concert environment. I’ve seen The Who play Won’t Get Fooled Again twice and of all the concerts I’ve gone to… I’ve never heard anything this powerful live.
Roger Daltrey’s Scream is considered one of the best on any rock song. It was quite convincing…so convincing that the rest of the band, lunching nearby, thought Daltrey was brawling with the engineer.
Now let’s visit Led Zeppelin and they released IV or Zoso a few weeks after The Who released Who’s Next. Stairway To Heaven…this song is considered by some as the best song in rock history. The song was written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
Marvin Gaye released this great song and it came off the album of the same name. A powerful song from a powerful performer. The song was written by Al Cleveland, Renaldo Benson, and Marvin Gaye.
The Moody Blues released the album Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and this song was on it. It may be my favorite song by them. Story In Your Eyes.
Great melody in this song. I bought the album Every Good Boy Deserves Favour just because of this song and I ended up liking the album a lot. The song peaked at #23 on the Billboard 100 in 1971. The song was written by Justin Hayward.
This is almost a perfect song…by the one and only Janis Joplin. There are few artists who give everything they have all the time. Bruce Springsteen is one…Janis was one. On film it comes through…she gives everything she has and more. It was written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster.
She would die on October 4, 1970. Her nickname was Pearl and that was the name of her last album. She left $2,500 for her wake…. 200 guests were invited with invitations that read…”Drinks are on Pearl”…
My son bought us tickets to see The Exorcist in Clarksville, Tennessee last Sunday. The original movie was playing there. I saw it in 2000 when it was re-released and I was ready to watch it again on the big screen.
Seeing this on the big screen changes everything. William Friedkin, the director, managed to keep the dread atmosphere all the way through the movie and never let up. Friedkin worked on this film for the re-release and the colors pop out at you. He just passed away on August 7, 2023. If you get a chance to see it and this doesn’t upset you…do it. The book was written by William Peter Blatty.
At one time I considered this a horror movie but I’ve changed my mind about that. How can I put it in the same category as slasher movies or some of the stupid horror movies? This is a classic movie with horror elements and should be treated as such. Is it scary? Oh yes, it is…in fact, it’s the only movie to really scare and spook me but I would not belittle it by putting it in with some of those movies. That is not a knock on those other horror movies that have their place…but this one is playing in a different league. What makes it so effective is it feels so real. This is not set in Salem or ancient times but in modern times. A normal 12-year-old girl gets possessed…something that feels tangible.
A few years ago I wrote on the cultural impact of this movie. This time I just want to talk about the characters of the movie. It’s unbelievable how many other movies have stolen bits and pieces of this or the whole thing. A lot of copycat movies came out like The Omen (which is really good), Beyond The Door (a low-budget one that I liked), and more.
The characters in The Exorcist are all vital and necessary. There are no wasted moments in the film. I first saw it when I was around 15-16 on a VHS copy and for days I would look around corners. In 2000 I was an adult but it still got to me then. What impresses me about the movie are the characters. Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) and Father Lankester Merrin (Max Van Sydow) finally converge near the end of the movie.
The acting of Jason Miller who plays Father Karras is outstanding especially since this was his first role. Father Karras is a guilt-ridden man who is losing his faith. All of this plays a part in his transformation to help with the Exorcism. Miller was first a playwright and a good one and this started his acting career. Max Von Sydow was only 44 while playing an old Father Merrin and like Blair…if it wasn’t convincing the movie would not have worked.
Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) and Regan MacNeil play mother and daughter and are at the story’s center. Both do a great job and of course, Linda Blair was very convincing because if not…the movie would have died on the vine. Ellen Burstyn ties the movie together with her portrayal of Regan’s mom.
Another character who felt real was Father Dyer who was played by the real Father William O’Malley…he had the experience. Also, Lt William Kinderman (Lee J. Cobb) is super as the Police Detective. He is such a real sort of character that you have known some Kindermans in your life. You can see him softening people up to get information from them in a wise old man way.
It’s worth mentioning 90-year-old Vasiliki Maliaros who played Father Karras’ mother. It was her only acting role. William Friedkin saw her in a cafe and cast her.
No character is used too much or too little and its pacing is perfect. One of my favorite scenes of all time is in this movie. When Father Merrin pulls up in the taxi and walks in the fog with light coming from a street light and the house. You can take away a lot from the ending and it’s all subjective but for me, it’s good conquering evil…you may have a different thought.
The original trailer…it was ultimately banned by film executives over concerns it was too disturbing for audiences.
When I started to play bass I played loud…super loud. Sometimes I would do things on bass and people would be looking at our guitar player Ron thinking he did it. My bass always had some distortion…one of the reasons was it was a hollow body bass played loud…it would give feedback and distort a little. That is why when I first heard this song I liked it.
The Stranglers were labeled a punk band but it’s obvious they were better musically than their peers and they were able to keep that rawness.
The bass starts this song off and it is a great sound. It features the bass of J.J. Burnel taking no prisoners. Peaches was released in 1977 as a single from their debut studio album, “Rattus Norvegicus”. The song was written by the band’s lead singer and guitarist, Hugh Cornwell, and according to him, the inspiration for the song came from an incident he witnessed while touring in Belgium.
He saw this group of guys ogling a girl in a cafe saying hey….come and have a look at those peaches! It turned out that the peaches they were referring to were the khaki shorts she was wearing. Cornwell has stated that the song is essentially a critique of the voyeuristic male gazes and objectification of women.
In 2019, the song was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll” exhibit, solidifying its place in music history. The song is credited to Jean Jacques Burnel, Hugh Cornwell, Dave Greenfield, and Jet Black. The song peaked at #8 in the UK in 1977. The album peaked at #4 in the UK.
JJ Burnel: “In the very early days, in order to earn a bit of money, we had a little PA, and one day we were signed to a black label called Safari, which was more or less a reggae label. We hadn’t released anything. But the owner phoned us up one day and said, ‘Look, do you want a few pounds to augment your PA to a sound system?’ Well, we didn’t know what ‘sound system’ was.
So we turned up in part of London and we were the only white guys there. We stuck our PA to their sound system, and there was an awful lot of grass going about. We were kind of excluded from the line of grass. And lo and behold, I discovered sound systems, which were I suppose an early form of rap. You’d have a toaster: a black guy talking sort of stream of consciousness over mainly a bass and drums backing rhythm. Reggae. It was all reggae. What you might know as ‘dub.’ So you have a delay on the snare or something, there’d be a lot of separation and mainly bass speakers throughout the total.
So we stayed there for the whole gig. And at the end of it, I was hooked on the idea that the bass should be the most dominant feature. So I went back to where we were living and that night, came up with the three notes which constitute ‘Peaches.’ And of course, I wanted to make a reggae song out of it. But we didn’t quite get the snare in the right beat. But never mind. We Strangle-fied it. We interpreted a reggae theme in The Stranglers way, which became ‘Peaches.'”
Peaches
Strolling along minding my own business
Well there goes a girl and a half
She’s got me going up and down
She’s got me going up and down
Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches
Well I got the notion girl that you got some suntan lotion in that bottle of yours
Spread it all over my peelin’ skin, baby
That feels real good
All this skirt lappin’ up the sun
Lap me up
Why don’t you come on and lap me up?
Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches
Well, there goes another one just lying down on the sand dunes
I’d better go take a swim and see if I can cool down a little bit
‘Cause you and me, woman
We got a lotta things on our minds (you know what I mean)
Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches
Will you just take a look over there (where?) (there)
Is she tryin’ to get outta that Clitares?
Liberation for women
That’s what I preach (preacher man)
Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches
Oh shit!
There goes the charabang
Looks like I’m gonna be stuck here the whole summer
Well, what a bummer
I can think of a lot worse places to be
Like down in the streets
Or down in the sewer
Or even on the end of a skewer
Down on the beaches, just looking at the peaches
Down on the beaches, just looking at brown bodies
Down on the beaches, just looking at all the shot glasses
Down on the beaches, just looking at all the peaches
Down on the beaches, just looking at all the peaches
Down on the beaches, just looking at all the peaches
Down on the beaches
Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm
Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm
Mmm-hmm
Mmm-hmm
Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm
The Beatles officially broke up in April of 1970…I hate leaving the 60s behind. The seventies was the time of my childhood at the age of 3 through 13. My music tastes were formed in this decade by listening to…well mostly the 60s.
So let’s get started with The Grateful Dead. They released two of their most popular albums this year… Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. Two excellent albums and it was hard to pick a song off of them…but this one does quite nicely. It was written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter.
It’s George Harrison time again. When the Beatles broke up, no one knew what to expect from him. Well…George delivered a knockout punch with his album All Things Must Pass. At that time he was outselling John and Paul and just about everyone else. George wrote this song.
This was the opening track on the AQuestion Of Balance album by the Moody Blues, and at one point it was going to be the title track. The song was recorded several months earlier than the other tracks on the album and its title was shortened from “Question Of Balance” to “Question.”
When I was younger I started with this album and owned everything up until Long Distance Voyager. Their early seventies output is my favorite period but I liked their entire catalog as a whole. It was written by Justin Hayward.
This is what I wrote in my post on this song a while back...”The bass in this song punches you like a heavy-weight fighter and will roll you like wholesale carpet…the timing is absolutely perfect. I hear some Otis and Wilson Pickett in this song and it will make you move.” Huh…I still agree with me!
Groove Me has been a favorite of mine for so long. King Floyd takes almost a full minute to build up to the chorus and it’s well worth the wait when he kicks it in. Thank you King Floyd for writing this song.
This song by Simon and Garfunkel has become a standard. Bridge Over Troubled Water along with Georgia On My Mind was my mom’s favorite song…so I couldn’t leave it off. It was written by Paul Simon.
The bass line at the beginning of the song is iconic. The best version of this one is the live cut. Whipping Post was one of the first songs Gregg Allman wrote for the Allman Brothers. That bass intro has a time signature of 11/8…not a common one to use.
He was staying with friends and thought of the lyrics but could not find a pencil and paper so he wrote the lyrics on an ironing board with burnt matches in the middle of the night. He had to be quiet and not wake up his friend’s child. He caught hell for messing up the ironing board but I think it was worth it.
The Allman Brothers…much like the Grateful Dead could deliver live. They constantly toured early in their careers and played free concerts in parks all over to grow their audience. They released one of the best live albums of all time with At Fillmore East. Money wasn’t the thing…they built a grassroots following and they were probably more popular in New York than anywhere else for this southern band.
The song was originally on their debut album The Allman Brothers Band and it peaked at #188. A live version was on the At Fillmore East album and it peaked at #13 on the Billboard Album Charts and #44 in Canada in 1971.
Frank Zappa would sometimes cover this song live.
This is Gregg Allman from the book “My Cross to Bear”
So that first night, I laid me down to go to sleep on my attic couch, and I dozed off for a while. All of a sudden I woke up, because a song had me by the ass. The intro had three sets of three, and two little steps that allowed you to jump back up on the next triad. I thought it was different, and I love different things. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I wish the rest of them had come like this—it was all right there in my head, all I had to do was write it down so I wouldn’t forget it by the morning.
I started feeling around for a light switch, but I couldn’t find one anywhere. I was in my sock feet; I just had on my drawers and a T-shirt. I found my way into the kitchen and it was pitch-dark. I had my hands out and I touched an ironing board—thank goodness, instead of tripping over it, which would’ve made a terrible noise.
I was feeling all around the counters for a piece of paper. I couldn’t find any paper or a pencil anywhere, but I did find a box of kitchen matches. A car happened to go by, and its lights flashed long enough to allow me to see that red, white, and blue box. I knew I could use the matches to write with, because I had diddled around enough with art to know that charcoal would work.
I figured the ironing board cover would work as a pad, so I’d strike a match, blow it out, use the charcoal tip to write with, and then strike another one. I charted out the three triads and the two little steps, and then I went to work on the lyrics: “I’ve been run down, and I’ve been lied to …”
I got it all down on that ironing board cover, in the closest thing to shorthand as I could muster up. I was really proud that I didn’t wake Brittany up. The next morning, Hop raised so much fucking hell with me about that ironing board cover, but it worked out, and we got “Whipping Post” down that day…
The seldom-heard studio version.
Whipping Post
I’ve been run down and I’ve been lied to.
And I don’t know why, I let that mean woman make me a fool.
She took all my money, wrecks my new car.
Now she’s with one of my good time buddies,
They’re drinkin in some cross-town bar.
Sometimes I feel, sometimes I feel,
Like I been tied to the whippin’ post.
Tied to the whippin’ post, tied to the whippin’ post.
Good Lord, I feel like I’m dyin’.
My friends tell me, that I’ve been such a fool.
But I had to stand by and take it baby, all for lovin’ you.
Drown myself in sorrow as I look at what you’ve done.
But nothing seemed to change, the bad times stayed the same,
And I can’t run.
Sometimes I feel, sometimes I feel,
Like I been tied to the whippin’ post.
Tied to the whippin’ post, tied to the whippin’ post.
Good Lord, I feel like I’m dyin’.
Sometimes I feel, sometimes I feel,
Like I been tied to the whippin’ post.
Tied to the whippin’ post, tied to the whippin’ post.
Good Lord, I feel like I’m dyin’.
I first heard this song in the eighties when I bought the Tupelo Honey album. Wild Night and the title track caught my attention immediately. This song is very radio-friendly and so is the album to a large extent. It was released in 1971 and peaked at #28 on the Billboard 100 and #20 in Canada.
John Mellencamp also released a version in 1994 and the song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100. John did a great job but this is my go-to version. Van’s voice…you can’t beat it. If my fairy God Mother said to me…Max, you can have any voice you want…who will it be? It would be this man’s voice.
Ted Templeman, who would later produce another Van Halen, produced the Tupelo Honey album with Morrison. Musicians to perform on this track include Ronnie Montrose on electric guitar, John McFee on pedal steel guitar, Jack Schroer on saxophone, and Luis Gasca on trumpet.
I have always liked this album a lot. I have recommended some people to this album because it is very accessible compared to say…Astral Weeks. I love Astral Weeks by the way and I think it probably is his best album but it’s not as accessible when you first listen to it…not to me anyway. Van cleaned out a lot of leftover songs when he made this album but it is very enjoyable. The title track may be his finest song.
Van Morrison: “I wasn’t very happy with Tupelo Honey, it consisted of songs that were left over from before and that they’d finally gotten around to using. It wasn’t really fresh. It was a whole bunch of songs that had been hanging around for awhile. I was really trying to make a country and western album.”
Wild Night As you brush your shoes Stand before the mirror And you comb your hair Grab your coat and hat And you walk, wet streets Tryin’ to remember All the wild night breezes In your mem’ry ever
And ev’rything looks so complete When you’re walkin’ out on the street And the wind catches your feet Sends you flyin’, cryin’
Ooo-woo-wee! Wild night is calling, alright Oooo-ooo-wee! Wild night is calling
And all the girls walk by Dressed up for each other And the boys do the boogie-woogie On the corner of the street
And the people, passin’ by Stare in wild wonder And the inside juke-box Roars out just like thunder
And ev’rything looks so complete When you walk out on the street And the wind catches your feet And sends you flyin’, cryin’
Woo-woo-wee! Wild night is calling Alright
Ooo-ooo-wee! Wild night is calling, alright
The wild night is calling The wild night is calling
Come on out and dance Whoa, come on out and make romance Yes, indeed
Come on out and dance Come on out, make romance
[Instrumental & horn solo]
The wild night is calling, alright The wild night is calling
Come on out an dance Yeah, come on out ‘n make romance
Come on out and dance, alright Come on out, n’ make romance.
She said there’s dust and cobwebs on your north star There’s no more frost and campfire in your hair
When I hear a Ronnie Lane song it makes me relaxed… It sounds like he is playing to you on a back porch somewhere…very intimate. He was a very underrated songwriter and singer. He just happened to be in two bands (Small Faces and Faces) that had two of the best singers of their generation so he didn’t sing lead a lot in those bands but when he did he was great.
I’ll get in a mood where I have to hear something rootsy or down to earth. I usually pick either The Band or Ronnie Lane. We all know Lane’s sad story but the man loved to play music over making money as his career will tell you. The love was for the music…not the dollar. He would record anywhere like in the middle of a meadow, on a back porch, or anywhere the notion struck. Most weren’t commercial catchy but they meant something. Songs like this…are the reason I have a blog.
An album with Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane you would figure to be huge at the time. It wasn’t huge but it was a great album and has been highly regarded since.
In October of 1976, the Who closed a North American tour in Toronto, a show that would be the last with Keith Moon before a paying audience. The band took a break to pursue individual projects. Ronnie Lane had wanted Townshend to produce his album but he then wanted Townshend to collaborate writing on the songs. Townshend declined because he had never written with anyone before but they did manage to write the title track, Rough Mix, together.
The album ended up with Townsend songs and Lane songs. They did do a cover of a Don Williams song called Till All The Rivers Run Dry. Rough Mix didn’t draw a lot of attention at the time but is now considered a lost gem. Townshend has said in his book that there was a big argument where he shoved Ronnie Lane. Pete said it felt like he didn’t know his own strength because Lane felt like he was made out of paper. Later Pete found out about Lane’s multiple sclerosis.
The album peaked at #44 in the Billboard Album Charts, #70 in Canada, and #45 in the UK in 1977.
I usually don’t post covers of the song I’m covering but this one is tastefully done by Magpie Salute. It features Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes on guitar. Something tells me Lane would like this as well.
April Fool
She said I’ll see you in the morning, darling
I’ll see you when the kids have gone to school
But well I know tomorrow is your birthday
I know you know that you’re an April Fool
We used to roam so freely. It’s been so long
I’ll take my dreams to bed now, where they belong
She said there’s dust and cobwebs on your north star
There’s no more frost and campfire in your hair
I see your wheels they’re rustin’ in the backyard
I know that we’re not going anywhere
We used to roam so freely. It’s been so long
I’ll take my dreams to bed now, where they belong
I have always liked the sound of this song. I have heard covers of this but none compares to it for me. I grew up with the single that had the logo of Big Tree Records that was spinning constantly.
In 1985 Mötley Crüe covered this song. It peaked at #16 on the Billboard 100. Their version stayed true to the song and was a little heavier but didn’t have that groove that Brownsville Station had. John from 2 LOUD 2 OLD MUSIC did a fun competition between the two versions with people commenting.
This song peaked at #3 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, and #27 in the UK. The band did have another top 40 hit with “King Of The Party” which peaked at #31 on the Billboard 100. They also released 8 albums in the ’70s through the ’90s. Koda passed away in 2000 and the band reunited and released their 9th album in 2012 called Still Smokin’.
Brownsville Station was formed in Ann Arbor Michigan in 1969 and they dressed up in glam outfits and put on loud rock shows. They were a hard-working band…playing between 200 – 300 shows a year.
Michael “Cub” Koda and Michael Lutz wrote the song and Cub sang it. After Brownsville Station disbanded in 1979 he went on to be a DJ and a writer. He wrote the All Music Guide to the Blues, and Blues for Dummies, and some liner notes for other artists.
It took Koda and Lutz just a half hour to write the song and an hour for the band to record it. They didn’t think much of it, but the song became far and away their biggest hit. The owner of the record company hated the song and refused to release it as a single until so many requests came in from radio stations. He then relented and released it as a single.
Mike Lutz (Guitarist): “The funny thing is, when we got done with the album, Smokin’ is the last cut on the second side because nobody was really sure about it. But there was a radio station in Bangor, Maine and they started spinning it, and the phones just lit up.”
Mike Lutz: “Back in those days the whole thing was about being out on the road and pushing your product, developing a fan base, so with us it was still about doing that. It’s just that Smokin’ blew things wide open. We were making our reputation of being an energetic rock band. But after Smokin’ became a pop hit, people started to look at us as sorta bubblegum. It changed our career in that we became instantly popular to a lot of people, but it didn’t change the direction of the band.”
“We still did 320 one-nighters that year,” says Wreck. “And we drove ourselves to every gig.”
Smokin In The Boy’s Room
How you doin’ out there? Ya ever seem to have one of those days
Where it just seems like everybody’s gettin’ on your case?
From your teacher all the way down to your best girlfriend?
Well, ya know, I used to have ’em just about all the time
But I found a way to get out of ’em
Let me tell you about it!
Sitting in the classroom, thinking it’s a drag
Listening to the teacher rap, just ain’t my bag
The noon bells rings, you know that’s my cue
I’m gonna meet the boys on floor number two!
Smokin’ in the boys’ room
Smokin’ in the boys’ room
Now, teacher, don’t you fill me up with your rules
But everybody knows that smokin’ ain’t allowed in school
Checkin’ out the halls, makin’ sure the coast is clear
Lookin’ in the stalls, “No, there ain’t nobody here!”
Oh, my buddy Fang, and me and Paul
To get caught would surely be the death of us all
Smokin’ in the boys’ room
Smokin’ in the boys’ room
Now, teacher, don’t you fill me up with your rules
But everybody knows that smokin’ ain’t allowed in school
All right!
Oh, put me to work, in the school book store
Check out counter and I got bored
Teacher was lookin’ for me all around
Two hours later, you know where I was found
Smokin’ in the boys’ room (Yes indeed, I was)
Smokin’ in the boys’ room
Now, teacher, don’t you fill me up with your rules
But everybody knows that smokin’ ain’t allowed in school
One mo’!
Smokin’ in the boys’ room
Oh, smokin’ in the boys’ room
Smokin’ in the boys’ room
Smokin’ in the boys’ room
Now, teacher, I am fully aware of the rules
And everybody knows that smokin’ ain’t allowed in school!
Raise your hand if you thought this was Bob Dylan when you first heard it. I sure did…I heard it after I had heard Knocking On Heavens Door and I would have bet it was Bob. Gerry Rafferty was the singer on this song and he wouldn’t sound like this later on with Baker Street. It was written by the group’s guitarist Gerry Rafferty and keyboard player Joe Egan.
Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan signed a contract with an American company and they threw a party in Chelsea. Gerry and Joe were sitting at a table with 50 record executives and their wives (clowns and jokers). They were seated between two rather boring label executives. A few days later they wrote this song. So it was basically a parody of Bob Dylan’s style that poked fun at an industry cocktail party.
It ended up sounding like Dylan. Rafferty said: “That happened by chance, the vocal inflections are certainly reminiscent of Bob Dylan and, if I’ve taken anything from him, it’s his phrasing. I suppose the subject matter and the rather dark humor are akin to Dylan too.”
The song peaked at #6 in the Billboard 100, #8 in the UK, and #2 in Canada. Gerry Rafferty is singing the lead vocal with bandmate Joe Egan harmonizing with him. They were produced by some huge talent.. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. They did have a song that hit #25 on the Billboard 100 called “Star” but we will count this as a one-hit wonder.
Gerry Rafferty would go on to have a huge album City To City that produced big hits Baker Street and Right Down The Line. Joe Egan would eventually have a minor hit with a song called Back on the Road…after that he left the industry. He did help out on Gerry Rafferty’s 1992 album On A Wing and a Prayer.
Quentin Tarantino used this song in a horrific torture scene in Reservoir Dogs to great effect.
Gerry Rafferty: “It was just one of those songs, maybe about how life often seems like a series of events, so everything is related to everything else, no matter how remote.”
Stuck in the Middle with You
Well I don’t know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain’t right,
I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you
Yes I’m stuck in the middle with you,
And I’m wondering what it is I should do,
It’s so hard to keep this smile from my face,
Losing control, yeah, I’m all over the place,
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you
Well you started out with nothing,
And you’re proud that you’re a self made man,
And your friends, they all come crawlin,
Slap you on the back and say,
Please, please
Trying to make some sense of it all,
But I can see that it makes no sense at all,
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor,
‘Cause I don’t think that I can take anymore
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you
Well you started out with nothing,
And you’re proud that you’re a self made man,
And your friends, they all come crawlin,
Slap you on the back and say,
Please, please
Well I don’t know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain’t right,
I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you,
Yes I’m stuck in the middle with you,
Stuck in the middle with you, here I am stuck in the middle with you
I usually stay a few posts ahead. I’ve been stockpiling them and I’ve noticed that at least five songs were bands or artists only hit. I thought we would all have some fun this week and do something different. I’m going to post only One Hit Wonders through Friday. I like posting album cuts usually… but this week we will revisit some older hits. I’m starting off with a song that was one of the first songs I ever remembered.
Blues Image first came together in Florida in 1966. Florida in the sixties held a lot of future rock stars. You had the Allman Joys(Gregg and Duane Allman), Tom Petty, Bernie Leadon (Flying Burrito Brothers and The Eagles), Don Felder (Eagles), My Back Yard (future Lynyrd Skynyrd), Black Foot, The Classic IV, Jim Morrison, Stephen Stills…and I could go on. The state was full of talent at that point in time.
This band performed regularly in the Miami area and became the house band at a club called Thee Image, a venue that also featured groups such as Led Zeppelin, Cream, and The Mothers of Invention.
They eventually moved to California and signed a deal with Atco Records. They released their self-titled debut album in 1969. It made no impact on the charts but while making their second album they started to play around with a keyboard riff. Guitarist Mike Pinera came up with “Seventy-three men sailed up”… he came up with that line after noticing 73 keys on that particular keyboard. You can’t make this stuff up. Mike Penera and keyboard player Skip Konte wrote this song. The keyboard in question is a Rhodes Electric Piano.
That was the single to the second album called Open. This is a one-hit-wonder band but what an impressive one-hit. Ride Captain Ride made it to #4 in the Billboard 100 and the Canadian Charts. The album Open peaked at #147 in 1970.
I always thought this song was about some historical event…but no it was just made up. Mike Pinera joined Iron Butterfly in 1969 while recording this album, he also joined a band called Ramatam in 1972 with Mitch Mitchell, and The Cactus Band in 1973.
Mike Pinera’s wife: “Ride Captain is a story from his imagination. I know when he was in the studio recording that album, they needed another song and he wrote it on the spot. He came up with 73 from the keyboard having 73 keys. A lot of people say it relates to a few different stories.”
Ride Captain Ride
Seventy-three men sailed up from the San Francisco Bay,
Rolled off of their ship and here’s what they had to say.
“We’re calling everyone to ride along to another shore,
Where we can laugh our lives away and be free once more.”
Ride, captain ride on your mystery ship,
Be amazed at the friends you’ve got there on your trip.
Ride, captain ride on your mystery ship,
Be aware of the things others just might have missed
No one heard them calling, no one came at all,
‘Cause they were too busy watching those old raindrops fall.
As a storm was blowing out on the peaceful sea,
Seventy-three men were sailing off into history.
Ride, captain ride on your mystery ship,
Be amazed at the friends you’ve got there on your trip.
Ride captain ride on your mystery ship,
Be aware of the world others just might have missed
Ride, captain ride on your mystery ship,
Be amazed at the friends you’ve got there on your trip.
Ride captain ride on your mystery ship,
Be aware of the world othersjust might have missed
Ride, captain ride on your mystery ship,
Be amazed at the friends you have here on your trip.
Ride, captain ride on your mystery ship,
Be aware of a world others just might have missed.
I heard this song before I knew who Marriott was…I learned later he was the same singer as in Itchycoo Park and Lazy Sunday which didn’t compute. I really wish I could have seen this band live. His voice in this is nasty…a perfect rock voice for this song.
Do you want a song that rocks? Humble Pie tried something different than most hard rock bands at the time. Marriott combined hard rock with a gospel feel. This is one of the nastiest songs you will hear. It’s as sleazy as you can get but it rocks.
This is personally my favorite song by Humble Pie. The band also included Peter Frampton for a while and was known for their excellent live shows. In 1969 Marriott left The Small Faces and teamed up with Frampton to start Humble Pie. They were a very successful touring band and mostly concentrated on albums…much like The Faces. This song never charted but did get some FM play.
While touring in Kentucky, Marriott read that getting caught with drugs in that state would give you an automatic 30 days in jail. He was also thinking about a friend of the band’s who had been sent to jail for having a joint. Drugs were part of the culture back then and just a way of life on the road. He used a lot of street names for drugs like “Chicago Green” is pot, and New Castle Brown is a kind of heroin…not to be confused with Newcastle Brown which is ale. Black Nepalese Hash is a rare variant of hashish that hails from the Highland regions of Nepal.
Marriott has said that inspiration for the title came from a Humphrey Bogart/James Cagney movie he saw on TV, where Bogart plays a prisoner who gets sent to “30 days in the hole.”
30 Days in the Hole
Roll my tape
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Thirty days,
Anyone doin’ that one?
I’m doin’ that one
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
All right all right all right all right, yeah
Chicago Green, talkin’ ’bout Black Lebanese
A dirty room and a silver coke spoon
Give me my release, come on
Black Nepalese, it’s got you weak in your knees
Sneeze some dust that you got buzzed on
You know it’s hard to believe
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
That’s what they give you
30 days in the hole
I know
Newcastle Brown, I’m tellin’ you, it can sure smack you down
Take a greasy whore and a rollin’ dance floor
It’s got your head spinnin’ round
If you live on the road, well there’s a new highway code
You take the urban noise with some dirt with poison
It’s gonna lessen your load
30 days in the hole
That’s what they give you now
30 days in the hole
Oh, yeah
30 days in the hole
All right, all right
30 days in the hole
What you doin’ boy?
You here for 30 days
Get, get, get your long hair cut
And cut out your ways
Black Nepalese, it got you weak in your knees
Gonna sneeze some dust that you got busted on
You know it’s so hard to please
Newcastle Brown can sure smack you down
You take a greasy whore and a rollin’ dance floor
You know you’re jailhouse-bound
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
Oh, yeah
30 days in the hole
30 days, 30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
30 days in the hole
I somehow got a lot of singles from relatives when I was a kid. They just ended up at our house. I had the original single of this and I loved it and still do. Smokey has such a smooth and cool voice. I can’t tell you how much I like this song. It’s high on my list of all-time songs I love. I remember being 12 and going to baseball practice and listening to this song before I left…it stayed with me through practice in the heat and that night. His voice is pure gold.
To me, Smokey is like American royalty or a national treasure as people say. When your peers like Dylan, Lennon, and everyone else sing your praises…you are doing something right.
Stevie Wonder and Hank Cosby (producer) came up with the music for this song. Smokey Robinson listened to the song for a few days and decided it sounded like a circus so he came up with the lyrics based on the sad clown Conio from the opera Pagliacci. It was Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera about fatal jealousies in a traveling troupe of actors based on a real-life story… a case encountered by Leoncavallo’s father, who was a police magistrate in Naples. Pagliacci was around in the late 1800s.
It was recorded in 1967 and was just an album track on the album Make It Happen. In 1970 it was released as a single (with a new mix) and was a huge hit. The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #7 in Canada, and #1 in the UK. It was written by Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and Hank Cosby. It was recorded in 1967 but it was released in 1970.
It’s hard to believe but this song would be their only #1 hit on the Billboard 100 with Smokey. They had 42 songs in the top 100 and 6 top ten hits. Smokey would soon leave the Miracles after this song. He would be replaced by Billy Griffin on vocals. Now THAT had to be a hard gig to replace Smokey Robinson. Billy did a good job though because they had another number 1 with Love Machine Part 1. He does sound a lot like Smokey.
Smokey Robinson: “I was trying to think of something that would be significant, that would touch people’s hearts, but still be dealing with the circus, so what is that? Pagliacci, of course. The clown who cries. And after he makes everyone else happy with the smile painted on his face, then he goes into his dressing room and cries because he’s sad. That was the key.”
Below is Smokey Robinson telling the story of the song. Below that is the single version that we have all heard. What was it with those 60s-70s shows with the backdrops to the singers? Did they think it was Smokey Robinson and the Plumbers?
Tears of a Clown
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah
Now if there’s a smile on my face
It’s only there trying to fool the public
But when it comes down to fooling you
Now honey, that’s quite a different subject
But don’t let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
Really, I’m sad
Oh, I’m sadder than sad
You’re gone and I’m hurtin’ so bad
Like a clown I pretend to be glad
Now there’s some sad things known to man
But ain’t too much sadder than
The tears of a clown
When there’s no one around
Oh yeah, baby
Now if I appear to be carefree
It’s only to camouflage my sadness
In order to shield my pride I’ve tried
To cover this hurt with a show of gladness
But don’t let my show convince you
That I’ve been happy since you
Decided to go
Oh, I need you so
I’m hurt and I want you to know
But for others I put on a show
Oh, there’s some sad things known to man
But there ain’t too much sadder than
The tears of a clown
When there’s no one around, oh yeah
Just like Pagliacci did
I try to keep my sadness hid
Smiling in the public eye
But in my lonely room I cry
The tears of a clown
When there’s no one around
Oh yeah, baby
Now if there’s a smile on my face
Don’t let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
Don’t let this smile I wear
Make you think that I don’t care
Really, I’m sad
Hurtin’ so bad
A song I heard many many years ago. This is about as genuine as you can get.
What a beautiful song. Country or whatever you want to call it…it’s a great one. Gram Parsons and poet Tom Brown wrote this song. This song was on his last solo album Grievous Angel. Gram was not a country wanna-be…he was country. Keith Richards has said that Gram taught him everything he knows about country music. After hearing Gram Parsons…Merle Haggard wanted to produce him.
After leaving the Byrds, Parsons made a series of albums… Grievous Angel completes the cycle. Beginning with the Flying Burrito Brothers’ The Gilded Palace of Sin, the work progressed through Burrito Deluxe and Parsons’ earlier solo effort, GP.
I have not mentioned his singing partner yet. The wonderful and beautiful Emmylou Harris. Emmylou Harris was an unknown singer in her early twenties when Gram Parsons saw her perform at a folk club in Washington, D.C. in 1971. He recruited her the following year to sing on 1973’s classic album GP and the subsequent tour. She ended up on the GP album and this one…Grievous Angel.
Grievous Angel peaked at #195 on the Billboard Album Charts. If Parsons had survived it’s no telling what he and Emmylou would have done together. His voice wasn’t strong like Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard but it was so emotional that you were in the story with him.
This song describes the vision of home and love that haunts a wanderer through his travels across America.
Emmylou Harris: “I would say until I had met Gram and started working with him I didn’t really understand or have a real love or feel for country music. Like most of my generation, you know, country music was politically incorrect for us at that point. It was associated with Republicans and Right Wing and that sort of thing. He taught me the beauty and the poetry, the simplicity, the honesty in the music. And the love of harmony came from really singing with him.”
Emmylou Harris: Well, we got fired after our first gig. We had two weeks of rehearsal. And I was just in the band. I never worked with a band. I didn’t know how you did things. So I just recorded things as we went down. But Gram didn’t focus on the material from the record; he just wanted to play songs. So we sat around and played all these songs, but we never worked up a beginning, middle, and end. It was such a train wreck that first night. But actually, before we got fired, the club got closed down because Weather Report had played there a few days earlier, and they were so loud that an injunction was put against the club. So, technically, we really didn’t get fired.
Emmylou Harris: “I discovered my own voice singing in harmony with Gram, there is something about the uniqueness of two voices creating a sound that does not come when they are singing solo, and I have always been fascinated by that. That song, and our harmony, is kind of a pinnacle of our duet-singing together.”
Return of the Grievous Angel
Won’t you scratch my itch, sweet Annie Rich
And welcome me back to town?
Come out on your porch or step into your parlor
And I’ll tell you how it all went down
Out with the truckers and the kickers and the cowboy angels
And a good saloon in every single town
Oh, and I remembered something you once told me
And I’ll be damned if it did not come true
Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down
And they all lead me straight back home to you
‘Cause I headed west to grow up with the country
Across those prairies with the waves of grain
And I saw my devil
And I saw my deep blue sea
And I thought about a calico bonnet
From Cheyenne to Tennessee
We flew straight across that river bridge
Last night a half past two
The switchman waved his lantern goodbye and good day
As we went rolling through
Billboards and truckstops pass by the grievous angel
And now I know just what I have to do
Take it for me, James
And the man on the radio won’t leave me alone
He wants to take my money
For something that I’ve never been shown
And I saw my devil
And I saw my deep blue sea
And I thought about a calico bonnet
From Cheyenne to Tennessee
The news I could bring, I met up with the king
On his head an amphetamine crown
He talked about unbuckling that old bible belt
And lighted out for some desert town
Out with the truckers and the kickers and the cowboy angels
And a good saloon in every single town
Oh, but I remembered something you once told me
And I’ll be damned if it did not come true
Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down
And they all lead me straight back home to you
Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down
And they all lead me straight back home to you
Although I have heard this one a lot…I still listen when I hear it on radio. So many changes in this song that even after repeats…it’s interesting. Probably the number 1 known song by Jethro Tull. According to Songfacts Ian Anderson wrote the song and called it “a guilt-ridden song of confusion about how you deal with beggars, the homeless.”
Ian’s wife at the time, Jennie took photos of the homeless and showed them to Ian. Many of the lyrics describe actual homeless men. Jennie also wrote some lyrics from the photos, giving her songwriting credit and half the royalties from the song…they divorced in 1974.
Jethro Tull’s manager Burton Silverman commissioned an artist named Burton Silverman to do the watercolor cover of the album. He had seen Silverman’s work in Time Magazine earlier. Silverman took some pictures of Ian Anderson in his overcoat and ended up painting a very haggard-looking Anderson. Anderson was not happy with it at the time. Burton sued the band afterward because he didn’t think they had the right to use it for promotional items like T-Shirts.
An “Aqualung” is a portable breathing apparatus for divers. Anderson envisioned the homeless man getting that nickname because of breathing problems. Ian watched Sea Hunt and got ideas from that.
Aqualung the album peaked at #7 on the Billboard Album Charts, #5 in Canada, and #4 in the UK. Aqualung the song never charted but has constantly been played on Classic Rock radio without stopping.
Ian Anderson:“A guilt-ridden song of confusion about how you deal with beggars, the homeless… It’s about our reaction, of guilt, distaste, awkwardness, and confusion, all these things that we feel when we’re confronted with the reality of the homeless. You see someone who’s clearly in desperate need of some help, whether it’s a few coins or the contents of your wallet, and you blank them out. The more you live in that business-driven, commercially-driven lifestyle, you can just cease to see them.”
Ian Anderson on why it wasn’t a single: “Because it was too long, it was too episodic, it starts off with a loud guitar riff and then goes into rather more laid back acoustic stuff. Led Zeppelin at the time, you know, they didn’t release any singles. It was album tracks. And radio sharply divided between AM radio, which played the 3-minute pop hits, and FM radio where they played what they called deep cuts. You would go into a album and play the obscure, the longer, the more convoluted songs in that period of more developmental rock music. But that day is not really with us anymore, whether it be classic rock stations that do play some of that music, but they are thin on the ground, and they too know that they’ve got to keep it short and sharp and cheerful, and provide the blue blanket of familiar sounding music and get onto the next set of commercial breaks, because that’s what pays the radio station costs of being on the air. So pragmatic rules apply.”
Aqualung
Sitting on a park bench
Eying little girls with bad intent
Snots running down his nose
Greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes, hey, Aqualung
Drying in the cold sun
Watching as the frilly panties run, hey, Aqualung
Feeling like a dead duck
Spitting out pieces of his broken luck, oh, Aqualung
Sun streaking cold, an old man wandering lonely
Taking time, the only way he knows
Leg hurting bad as he bends to pick a dog end
He goes down to a bog and warms his feet
Feeling alone, the army’s up the road
Salvation a la mode and a cup of tea
Aqualung, my friend, don’t you start away uneasy
You poor old sod, you see it’s only me
Do you still remember
December’s foggy freeze
When the ice that clings on to your beard
It was screaming agony
Hey and you snatch your rattling last breaths
With deep-sea diver sounds
And the flowers bloom like
Madness in the spring
Sun streaking cold, an old man wandering lonely
Taking time, the only way he knows
Leg hurting bad as he bends to pick a dog end
He goes down to a bog and warms his feet
Feeling alone, the army’s up the road
Salvation a la mode and a cup of tea
Aqualung my friend don’t you start away uneasy
You poor old sod, you see it’s only me
Aqualung my friend don’t you start away uneasy
You poor old sod, you see it’s only me
Sitting on a park bench
Eying up little girls with bad intent
Snots running down his nose
Greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes, hey Aqualung
Drying in the cold sun
Watching as the frilly panties run, hey Aqualung
Feeling like a dead duck
Spitting out pieces of his broken luck, hey Aqualung
After the country post on Saturday…I looked through a lot of lists you all made. I listened…I want to thank Lisa for bringing this one up. It’s high time I did a post on Townes Van Zant. He was one of the best songwriters of the 20th Century.
What a songwriter Towns Van Zandt was…this song is probably best known for the Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson cover in 1983. The song peaked at #1 on the Country Billboard Charts and #1 on the Canadian Country Charts in 1983.
Willie Nelson has said that his and Merles duet album was almost complete but it lacked THAT song to put it over the top. Nelson said his daughter Lana suggested to him to listen to Pancho and Lefty by Townes Van Zandt. Willie then asked Townes what the song was about…and Townes said he didn’t know. Nelson then cut the track with his band. Willie and Merle had never heard that song before.
Nelson recorded it that night with his band and had to go and drag a sleepy Haggard (who was sleeping on his bus) to do the vocal part. The vocals were recorded in one take that night. They made a video of it and invited Townes to be in it. He was in the video as one of the Mexican Federales.
The royalties from this song helped Van Zandt through the years. He told a story of getting pulled over by a couple of policemen. His car sticker was out of date so he got into the police car and they asked him what he does for a living. He said he was a songwriter and the policemen shook their heads. He then told them that he wrote “Pancho and Lefty” and their eyes lit up and they started to grin. Pancho and Lefty were the policemen’s police radio code names. They let Townes go after that.
Van Zandt did not like fame or what came attached to it. It’s been reported that he turned down opportunities to write with Bob Dylan. He respected Dylan a great deal but it was the celebrity part he didn’t want. He never ended up on a major label through his career…by choice. Steve Earle counted Townes Van Zandt as his mentor, and the two formed a close bond in the years since their initial encounter in 1978.
Unfortunately, Earle also adopted Van Zandt’s drug and alcohol habits. So bad, in fact, that Van Zandt actually visited Earle during a rare moment in which Townes was sober. Earle told him “I must be in trouble if they’re sending you.” Earle eventually named his son after Townes… Justin Townes Earle.
The original song was on Van Zandt’s 1972 album The Late Great Townes Van Zandt.
For Willie’s Big 60 show, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson sang Pancho and Lefty. Bob covered the song sporadically in concert during the 90’s. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked “Pancho and Lefty” 41st on its list of the “100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time.
Townes Van Zandt on being invited to be in the video: “It was real nice they invited me,”they didn’t have to invite me and I made I think $100 dollars a day. I was the captain of the federales. And plus I got to ride a horse. I always like that. It took four and a half days and that video was four and a half minutes long…The money goes by a strange life, or elsewhere. I mean it doesn’t come to me. But money’s not the question. I would like if I could write a song that would somehow turn one five-year-old girl around to do right. Then I’ve done good. That’s what I care about.”
Townes Van Zandt: “I realize that I wrote it, but it’s hard to take credit for the writing, because it came from out of the blue. It came through me and it’s a real nice song, and I think, I’ve finally found out what it’s about. I’ve always wondered what it’s about. I kinda always knew it wasn’t about Pancho Villa, and then somebody told me that Pancho Villa had a buddy whose name in Spanish meant ‘Lefty.’ But in the song, my song, Pancho gets hung. ‘They only let him hang around out of kindness I suppose’ and the real Pancho Villa was assassinated.”
Pancho and Lefty
Living on the road my friend,
Is gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron,
Your breath as hard as kerosene.
You weren’t your mama’s only boy,
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye,
And sank into your dreams.
Pancho was a bandit boy,
His horse was fast as polished steel
He wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel.
Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words,
Ah but that’s the way it goes.
All the Federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness, I suppose.
Lefty, he can’t sing the blues
All night long like he used to.
The dust that Pancho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty’s mouth
The day they laid poor Pancho low,
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go,
There ain’t nobody knows
The poets tell how Pancho fell,
And Lefty’s living in cheap hotels
The desert’s quiet, Cleveland’s cold,
And so the story ends we’re told
Pancho needs your prayers it’s true,
But save a few for Lefty too
He only did what he had to do,
And now he’s growing old
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