1970s – Page 58 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody…Epic Rock Songs Week

This made a huge comeback courtesy of Waynes World in 1991. In the eighties my buddies would pile into my Mustang and turn this song up to 11. We loved to see people’s reactions…so when I saw it in Wayne’s World…. in their car I had to laugh…but we didn’t have a Pacer though.

So many overdubs took place that the tape was virtually a transparent. All the oxide had been rubbed off. They hurriedly made a copy so they could preserve what they had already. They were working with a 24 track machine but they still had to bounce tracks. They used `180 overdubs… The song took 3 weeks to record. The song was on A Night At The Opera album.

The song reminds me of Good Vibrations and A Day In The Life…short melodies combined together to make one whole. The song was so different in 1975 and it’s so different today…it still holds up.

The song peaked at #1 in the UK in 1975…#9 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #1 in New Zealand in 1976.

With Wayne’s World help it re-charted. #1 in the UK in 1991. #2 in the Billboard 100, #18 in Canada, and #16 in New Zealand in 1992.

Again because of the movie it re-charted… #33 in the Billboard 100, #25 in Canada, #45 in the UK, and #20 in New Zealand in 2018-19.

Bohemian Rhapsody” had reached the Top 40 in three different decades (’70s, ’90s and ’10s).

The video was directed by Bruce Gowers, the video was shot in three hours for £3,500 at the band’s rehearsal space. Gowers got the gig because he was one of the few people who had experience working on music videos…he ran a camera on a few Beatles promotional clips, including the one for “Paperback Writer.”

Brian May: “That was a great moment, but the biggest thrill for us was actually creating the music in the first place. I remember Freddie coming in with loads of bits of paper from his dad’s work, like Post-it notes, and pounding on the piano. He played the piano like most people play the drums. And this song he had was full of gaps where he explained that something operatic would happen here and so on. He’d worked out the harmonies in his head.”

From Songfacts

Freddie Mercury wrote the lyrics, and there has been a lot of speculation as to their meaning. Many of the words appear in the Qu’ran. “Bismillah” is one of these and it literally means “In the name of Allah.” The word “Scaramouch” means “A stock character that appears as a boastful coward.” “Beelzebub” is one of the many names given to The Devil.

Mercury’s parents were deeply involved in Zoroastrianism, and these Arabic words do have a meaning in that religion. His family grew up in Zanzibar, but was forced out by government upheaval in 1964 and they moved to England. Some of the lyrics could be about leaving his homeland behind. Guitarist Brian May seemed to suggest this when he said in an interview about the song: “Freddie was a very complex person: flippant and funny on the surface, but he concealed insecurities and problems in squaring up his life with his childhood. He never explained the lyrics, but I think he put a lot of himself into that song.”

Another explanation is not to do with Mercury’s childhood, but his sexuality – it was around this time that he was starting to come to terms with his bisexuality, and his relationship with Mary Austin was falling apart.

Whatever the meaning is, we may never know – Mercury himself remained tight-lipped, and the band agreed not to reveal anything about the meaning. Mercury himself stated, “It’s one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it. I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them.” He also claimed that the lyrics were nothing more than “Random rhyming nonsense” when asked about it by his friend Kenny Everett, who was a London DJ.

The band were always keen to let listeners interpret their music in a personal way to them, rather than impose their own meaning on songs, and May stated that the band agreed to keep the personal meaning behind the song private out of respect for Mercury.

Mercury may have written “Galileo” into the lyrics for the benefit of Brian May, who is an astronomy buff and in 2007 earned a PhD in astrophysics. Galileo is a famous astronomer known for being the first to use a refracting telescope.

The backing track came together quickly, but Queen spent days overdubbing the vocals in the studio using a 24-track tape machine. The analog recording technology was taxed by the song’s multitracked scaramouches and fandangos: by the time they were done, about 180 tracks were layered together and “bounced” down into sub-mixes. Brian May recalled in various interviews being able to see through the tape as it was worn so thin with overdubs. Producer Roy Thomas Baker also recalls Mercury coming into the studio proclaiming, “oh, I’ve got a few more ‘Galileos’ dear!” as overdub after overdub piled up.

Was Freddie Mercury coming out as gay in this song? Lesley-Ann Jones, author of the biography Mercury, thinks so.

Jones says that when she posed the question to Mercury in 1986, the singer didn’t give a straight answer, and that he was always very vague about the song’s meaning, admitting only that it was “about relationships.” (Mercury’s family religion, Zoroastrianism, doesn’t accept homosexuality, and he made efforts to conceal his sexual orientation, possibly so as not to offend his family.)

After Mercury’s death, Jones says she spent time with his lover, Jim Hutton, who told her that the song was, in fact, Mercury’s confession that he was gay. Mercury’s good friend Tim Rice agreed, and offered some lyrical analysis to support the theory:

“Mama, I just killed a man” – He’s killed the old Freddie he was trying to be. The former image.

“Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he’s dead” – He’s dead, the straight person he was originally. He’s destroyed the man he was trying to be, and now this is him, trying to live with the new Freddie.

“I see a little silhouetto of a man” – That’s him, still being haunted by what he’s done and what he is.

Queen made a video for the song to air on Top Of The Pops, a popular British music show, because the song was too complex to perform live – or more accurately, to be mimed live – on TOTP. Also, the band would be busy on tour during the single’s release and thus unable to appear.

The video turned out to be a masterstroke, providing far more promotional punch than a one-off live appearance. Top Of The Pops ran it for months, helping keep the song atop the charts. This started a trend in the UK of making videos for songs to air in place of live performances.

When the American network MTV launched in 1981, most of their videos came from British artists for this reason. In the December 12, 2004 issue of the Observer newspaper, Roger Taylor explained: “We did everything we possibly could to avoid appearing in Top Of The Pops. It was one, the most boring day known to man, and two, it’s all about not actually playing – pretending to sing, pretending to play. We came up with the video concept to avoid playing on Top Of The Pops.”

The group had previously appeared on the show twice, to promote the “Seven Seas of Rhye” and “Killer Queen” singles.

The video was very innovative, the first where the visual images took precedence over the song. The look, with the four band members peering up into the shadows, was based on their 1974 Queen II album cover, which was shot by Mick Rock, who got the idea from a publicity photo of Marlene Dietrich striking a similar pose in the movie Shanghai Express. (Rock told Songfacts: “I showed it to Freddie and said, ‘Freddie, you could be Marlene Dietrich! How do you fancy that?’ And he loved it.”)

The two big effects used in the video were the multiple images that appear in the “thunderbolts and lightning section,” which were created by putting a prism in front of the camera lens, and the feedback effect where the image of the singer travels to infinity, which was done by pointing a camera at a monitor (like audio feedback, this is something you usually tried to avoid, but when harnessed for artistic purposes, was quite effective). At the time, the video looked high-tech and futuristic. It was also the first music “video” in the sense that it was shot on video instead of film.

This was Queen’s first Top 10 hit in the US, peaking at #9 on April 24, 1976. In the UK, where Queen was already established, it went to #1 on November 29, 1975 and stayed for nine weeks, a record at the time.

This got a whole new audience when it was used in the 1992 movie Wayne’s World, starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey. In the film, Wayne and his friends lip-synch to it in his car (the Mirth Mobile), spasmodically head-bobbing at the guitar solo. As a result of the movie, it was re-released as a single in the US and charted at #2 (“Jump” by Kris Kross kept it out of #1).

In America, this marked a turning point in Queen’s legacy. The band’s 1982 album Hot Space contained a side of disco-tinged tracks at a time when disco was anathema to rock fans. The album had disappointing sales in the US, and also cost Queen in credibility. Their tour to support the album would be Freddie Mercury’s last with Queen in America, and the band was largely forgotten there for the rest of the decade. When Wayne’s World revived “Bohemian Rhapsody,” American listeners remembered how cool Queen really was, and they the ringing endorsement from Wayne and Garth to back them up.

At 5:55, this was a very long song for radio consumption. Queen’s manager at the time, John Reid, played it to another artist he managed, Elton John, who promptly declared: “are you mad? You’ll never get that on the radio!”

According to Brian May, record company management kept pleading with the group to cut the single down, but Freddie Mercury refused. It got a big bump when Mercury’s friend Kenny Everett played it on his Capital Radio broadcast before the song was released (courtesy of a copy Mercury gave him). This helped the single jump to #1 in the UK shortly after it was released.

There was a single version released only in France on a 7″, cut down to 3:18, edited by John Deacon, but beyond the initial pressing of this French single, the only version recognized is the album version, at 5:55. This little-heard French single started right at the piano intro, and edited out the operetta part. Brian May admitted that there may have been additional parts for the song on Freddie’s notes, but they were apparently never recorded.

In 1991, this was re-released in the UK shortly after Freddie Mercury’s death. It again went to #1, with proceeds going to the Terrence Higgins Trust, which Mercury supported.

Elton John performed this with Axl Rose at the 1992 “Concert For Life,” held in London at Wembley Stadium. It was a tribute to Freddie Mercury, who died of AIDS the year before. In 2001, Elton John got together with Eminem, who like Axl Rose, was often accused of being intolerant and homophobic. They performed Eminem’s “Stan” at the Grammys.

When this was re-released in the US, proceeds from the single went to the Magic Johnson AIDS Foundation. Johnson and Freddie Mercury were two of the first celebrities to get AIDS. Rock Hudson, who succumbed to the disease on October 2, 1985, was another.

Thanks to this track, A Night At The Opera was the most expensive album ever made at the time. They used 6 different studios to record it. Queen did not use any synthesizers on the album, which is something they were very proud of.

In an interview with Brian May and Roger Taylor on the Queen Videos Greatest Hits DVD, Brian said: “What is Bohemian Rhapsody about, well I don’t think we’ll ever know and if I knew I probably wouldn’t want to tell you anyway, because I certainly don’t tell people what my songs are about. I find that it destroys them in a way because the great thing about about a great song is that you relate it to your own personal experiences in your own life. I think that Freddie was certainly battling with problems in his personal life, which he might have decided to put into the song himself. He was certainly looking at re-creating himself. But I don’t think at that point in time it was the best thing to do so he actually decided to do it later. I think it’s best to leave it with a question mark in the air.” >>

A Night At The Opera was re-released as an audio DVD in 2002 with the original video included on the disc. Commentary from the DVD reveals that this song had started taking shape in the song “My Fairy King” on Queen’s debut album. >>

In 2002, this came in #1 in a poll by Guinness World Records as Britain’s favorite single of all time. John Lennon’s “Imagine” was #2, followed by The Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”

The name “Bohemian” in the song title seems to refer not to the region in the Czech republic, but to a group of artists and musicians living roughly 100 years ago, known for defying convention and living with disregard for standards. A “Rhapsody” is a piece of Classical music with distinct sections that is played as one movement. Rhapsodies often have themes.

Roger Taylor (from 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh): “Record companies both sides of the Atlantic tried to cut the song, they said it was too long and wouldn’t work. We thought, ‘Well we could cut it, but it wouldn’t make any sense,’ it doesn’t make much sense now and it would make even less sense then: you would miss all the different moods of the song. So we said no. It’ll either fly or it won’t. Freddie had the bare bones of the song, even the composite harmonies, written on telephone books and bits of paper, so it was quite hard to keep track of what was going on.” Kutner and Leigh’s book also states that, the recording included 180 overdubs, the operatic parts took over 70 hours to complete and the piano Freddie played was the same one used by Paul McCartney on “Hey Jude.”

Ironically, the song that knocked this off the #1 chart position in the UK was “Mama Mia” by Abba. The words “Mama mia” are repeated in this in the line “Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go.” >>

The story told in this song is remarkably similar to that in Albert Camus’ book The Stranger. Both tell of a young man who kills, and not only can he not explain why he did it, he can’t even articulate any feelings about it. >>

You can make the case that the song title is actually a parody, and a clever one at that. There is a rhapsody by the composer Franz Liszt called “Hungarian Rhapsody,” and “Bohemia” is a kingdom that is near Hungary and was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Furthermore, “Bohemian” is an adjective for something unusual or against convention, and the song is just that.

So, “Bohemian Rhapsody” could be a clever title that not only parodies a famous work but also describes the song. In a nod to the Liszt composition, Queen would go on to release a live DVD/CD package in 2012 titled “Hungarian Rhapsody,” featuring their famous shows behind the Iron Curtain in Budapest on the Magic tour in 1986.

This song was covered by Constantine M. (featuring the cast of We Will Rock You) and also by The Flaming Lips for the 2005 Queen Tribute album Killer Queen. Another popular cover is by Grey DeLisle, who did it as an acoustic ballad for her album Iron Flowers.

Queen fans, and also Brian May, often colloquially refer to the song as “Bo Rhap” (or “Bo Rap”).

The name “Bohemian Rhapsody” makes many appearances in popular culture:

Session 14 of the popular anime series Cowboy Bebop is named “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

The Jones Soda Company has a drink named “Bohemian Raspberry” in honor of this song.

In one of the episodes of the TV miniseries Dinotopia, a character cheats on a poem project by using the first part of the song as his entire project. The inhabitants, having never heard the song before, are amazed at the sound of it.

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett used some of the lyrics in their book Good Omens. The main character (Crowley) plays it in his car all the time. They also refer to other Queen songs, but mostly “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

The Mexican group Molotov sampled the chorus for their Spanish-language rap version of this song called “Rap, Soda and Bohemias.” It appears on their 1998 album Molomix.

In 2009, The Muppets Studio released a video featuring the Muppets performing this song. It was first web video for The Muppets, and it was extremely popular: the video was viewed over 7 million times the first week it was up. The furry ones changed the song a bit, omitting the lyrics that begin, “Mama, just killed a man” with Animal screaming “Mama!”

In an interview with Q magazine March 2011, Roger Taylor was asked if this seemed like a peculiar song when Mercury first suggested it? He replied: “No, I loved it. The first bit that he played to me was the verse. ‘Mama, just killed a man, dah-dah-la-dah-daah, gun against his…’ All that. I thought, ‘That’s great, that’s a hit.’ It was, in my head, a simpler entity then; I didn’t know it was going to have a wall of mock Gilbert and Sullivan stuff, you know, some of which was written on the fly. Freddie would write these huge blocks of mass harmonies in the backs of phone books.”

The song is one of Freddie Mercury’s great mysteries – according to everyone in the band, only he knew truly how it would come together, and according to some sources, its genesis could have come many years earlier. Chris Smith, the keyboard player in Mercury’s first band Smile, claimed that Freddie would play several piano compositions at rehearsals, including one called “The Cowboy Song,” which started with the line, “mama, just killed a man.”

In sharp contrast to the rest of the song’s recording and composition, Brian May’s signature solo before the opera section was recorded on only one track, with no overdubbing. He stated that he wanted to play “a little tune that would be a counterpart to the main melody; I didn’t just want to play the melody.”

It is one of his finest examples of creating a solo in his mind before playing it on guitar; something he did many times throughout Queen’s career. His reasoning was always that “the fingers tend to be predictable unless being led by the brain.”

Weird Al Yankovic took the entire song and sung it to a polka tune, called simply “Bohemian Polka,” which is on his 1993 album Alapalooza. >>

Panic! At The Disco covered the song in 2016 for the Suicide Squad soundtrack, having previously played Queen’s epic tune during their live shows. Frontman Brendon Urie told Beats 1’s Zane Lowe:

“I know right that’s a monster to tackle but it was so much fun. I love that song so much. We’ve been playing it live for a few years and it just made so much sense to try it.

It really just gave me a bigger respect for how that song was written. I mean the song was there, all the pieces were there. It was just figuring out each harmony piece by piece. But man, what a monster of a vocal song. It’s so crazy there’s just like thirty-four vocals stacked on top of each other. It’s incredible. I know right that’s a monster to tackle but it was so much fun. I love that song so much. We’ve been playing it live for a few years and it just made so much sense to try it.”

Panic! at the Disco’s cover peaked at #64 on the Hot 100. It was the fourth version to reach the chart following Queen’s original, The Braids from the High School High movie soundtrack (#42, 1996), and the Cast of Glee (#84, 2010).

In the 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody, Rami Malek stars as Freddie Mercury. In May, the trailer was released, showing some scenes where the song is discussed, including a part where they record “the operatic section.” There is also this exchange:

Record company executive: “It goes on forever! It’s six bloody minutes!”

Mercury: “I pity your wife if you think six minutes is forever.”

That record company executive is played by Mike Myers, who revived the song in Wayne’s World.

The song made its third visit to the top 40 of the Hot 100 in November 2018 when it zoomed in at #33 following the release of the Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack. , something only Prince has done before, with “1999.”

Thanks to the film Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen had a big role at the 2019 Oscars ceremony. The band (with Adam Lambert on vocals) opened the show, performing “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions”; Mike Myers and Dana Carvey introduced a tribute to the film with their scene from Wayne’s World. The film was nominated for five awards, winning four: Leading Actor (Rami Malek), Film Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. It lost Best Picture to Green Book.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I’m easy come, easy go
A little high, little low
Anyway the wind blows, doesn’t really matter to me, to me

Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh
Didn’t mean to make you cry
If I’m not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body’s aching all the time
Goodbye everybody I’ve got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooh (anyway the wind blows)
I don’t want to die
I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning very very frightening me
Gallileo, Gallileo
Gallileo, Gallileo
Gallileo Figaro, magnifico

I’m just a poor boy and nobody loves me
He’s just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity

Easy come easy go, will you let me go
Bismillah! No we will not let you go, let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go, let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go, let me go
Will not let you go, let me go (never)
Never, never, never, never, never let me go
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
For me
For me

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
Oh, baby, can’t do this to me, baby
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here

Ooh yeah, ooh yeah

Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters nothing really matters to me

Anyway the wind blows

Big Star – Back Of A Car….Power Pop Friday

If you want great power pop pick up a Big Star album…take your pick between their three original albums.

This song was on Radio City released in 1974…their second album and follow up to their debut…Big Star #1 Record. Although Chris Bell had quit the band after the release of #1 Record…Andy Hummel (bass player) stated that Chris Bell came back and helped with this song and O My Soul but received no credit.

Back of a Car slowly builds into a great song. The album got some better reviews than the first but Stax again could not distribute their album…so only around 20,000 copies were sold at the time.

Alex Chilton laid down great guitar for this song. Jody Stephens’ drums fills through the song are busy but adds to the over all sound.

Back Of A Car

Sitting in the back of a car
Music so loud can’t tell a thing
Thinking ’bout what to say
I can’t find the lines

You know I love you a lot
I just don’t know, should I not?
Waiting for a brighter day
I can’t find a way

I’ll go on and on with you
Like to fall and lie with you
I love you, too
Wo wo wo

Baby, I’m too afraid
I just don’t know if it’s okay
Trying to get away
From everything

Why don’t you take me home
It’s gone too far inside this car
I know I’ll feel a whole lot more
When I get alone

I’ll go on and on with you
Like to fall and lie with you
I love you, too
Wo wo wo

Sitting in the back of a car
Music so loud can’t tell a thing
Thinking ’bout what to say
I can’t find the lines

ZZ Top – Cheap Sunglasses

The main reason I like ZZ Top is the tone that Billy Gibbons gets on his guitar…especially in the 1970s. The song is on Degüello released in 1979 and the album peaked at #24 in the Billboard Album charts. The song peaked at #89 in the Billboard 100 in 1980.

The inspiration for this song came when ZZ Top would tour in cars. When they stopped at gas stations they would see cardboard displays of cheap sunglasses. They ended up buying a lot and throwing them into the crowd.

The band wrote the song on a trip to Austin, Texas as they were passing La Grange. He came up with lyrics to all three verses in the span of 20 miles.

Billy Gibbons: “The hip trip for us was to throw them into the audience as an offering. We ran out and we couldn’t get any more. So we now have to make to do with Sanford Hutton’s creations out of New York. The Ray Ban Wayfarer was the original cheap sunglasses. You could buy a pair for six bucks originally. I saw a catalog from 1959, and by then they were up to eight bucks. We had to take a bad rap from an optometrist who said ‘Don’t wear ZZ Top’s cheap sunglasses. They’re bad for your eyes.’ There was an optometrists’ convention in Hawaii and there was a huge poster – this woman with a pointing finger saying, ‘Don’t wear cheap sunglasses.’ I suppose I’ll have to agree. There is a cutoff point where optical considerations must be taken into account. At that point in time, they are not intended to be used for negotiating the entire afternoon.”

Songfacts

ZZ Top took some time off after their 1976 album Tejas. When they returned to action in 1979, punk rock had emerged, emboldening the band to cut loose, with less concern about what FM radio might play. That attitude led to songs like “Manic Mechanic” and “Cheap Sunglasses.”

The band also came back with a new look: Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill had their long, flowing beards for the first time with the album. Gibbons and Hill claim they didn’t consult each other before growing them.

Billy Gibbons played the main guitar line through a 200-watt Marshall Major amp with a blown tube, which gave him the “bulbous, rotund sound.” He told Guitar World: “There’s also a little bit of digital delay for that Bo Diddley impersonation at the tail out, and a Maestro ring modulator, which produces the strange tag to each verse. It appears three times, and it’s a pretty funny sound. That is one insane effect put to good use.”

Cheap Sunglasses

When you get up in the morning and the light is hurt your head
The first thing you do when you get up out of bed
Is hit that streets a-runnin’ and try to beat the masses
And go get yourself some cheap sunglasses
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah

Spied a little thing and I followed her all night
In a funky fine Levis and her sweater’s kind of tight
She had a west coast strut that was as sweet as molasses
But what really knocked me out was her cheap sunglasses
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah

Now go out and get yourself some big black frames
With the glass so dark they won’t even know your name
And the choice is up to you cause they come in two classes
Rhinestone shades or cheap sunglasses
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah

Led Zeppelin – All My Love

This synth driven song was a memorable one from the In Through The Out Door album. It’s not your usual love song. It’s about Robert Plant’s son Karac who died in 1977 from a stomach virus when he was 5 years old. Robert has said “It was paying tribute to the joy that he gave us as a family.”

Some Zeppelin fans didn’t like this album as much. I have always liked the album but I don’t consider it their best or worse. Like with Who songs…the drums here are a stand out.

John Bonham and Jimmy Page didn’t take to the song too well. They thought it was a little too soft for Zeppelin. Page said it was fine on the album but he would not have wanted to go in that direction in the future.

Robert and John Paul Jones wrote this song.

Robert Plant: “In Through The Out Door wasn’t the greatest thing in the world, but at least we were trying to vary what we were doing, for our own integrity’s sake,” “Of all the (Led Zeppelin) records, it’s interesting but a bit sanitized because we hadn’t been in the clamor and chaos for a long time. In ’77, when I lost my boy, I didn’t really want to go swinging around- ‘Hey hey mama say the way you move’ didn’t really have a great deal of import anymore.”

From Songfacts

Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant and bass player John Paul Jones wrote this. The band had drifted apart, with guitarist Jimmy Page and drummer John Bonham hanging out together and rarely showing up on time for recording sessions. As a result, many of the songs on In Through The Out Door were put together by Plant and Jones, with Page and Bonham adding their parts late at night.

This changes key on the last chorus.

You don’t hear much synthesizer in Led Zeppelin’s canon, but “All My Love” contains a synth solo played by John Paul Jones. In Through The Out Door was recorded at Polar Studios in Stockholm, which was owned by Abba. Benny Andersson of Abba had a Yamaha GX-1 synth in the studio that Jones used on the track.

This was only played live during Led Zeppelin’s 1980 tour of Germany.

Robert Plant had another son, Logan, in 1979 before In Through The Out Door was released. He has talked about how his images of Logan and Karac sometimes blur together, with his joy for Logan’s life tempered by the pain of Karac’s death. Plant’s 1993 solo track “I Believe” is also about Karac.

All My Love

Should I fall out of love, my fire in the light
To chase a feather in the wind
Within the glow that weaves a cloak of delight
There moves a thread that has no end

For many hours and days that pass ever soon
The tides have caused the flame to dim
At last the arm is straight, the hand to the loom
Is this to end or just begin?

All of my love, all of my love
All of my love to you, oh

All of my love, all of my love, oh
All of my love to you

The cup is raised, the toast is made yet again
One voice is clear above the din
Proud Arianne one word, my will to sustain
For me, the cloth once more to spin, oh

All of my love, all of my love, oh
All of my love to you

All of my love, all of my love, yes
All of my love to you

Yours is the cloth, mine is the hand that sews time
His is the force that lies within
Ours is the fire, all the warmth we can find
He is a feather in the wind, oh

All of my love, all of my love, oh
All of my love to you

All of my love, ooh yes, all of my love to you now
All of my love, all of my love
All of my love, love, sometimes, sometimes

Sometimes, sometimes, oh love
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Ooh yeah, it’s all my love

All of my love, all of my love, to you now

All of my love, all of my love
all of my love to, to you, you, you, yeah
I get a little bit lonely

Groucho Marx…August 19, 1977

43 years ago Groucho Marx died on August 19, 1977 and the news of his death was swallowed up by Elvis dying 3 days before. Groucho was 87 years old and still was popular among college kids partly due to a resurgence of the Marx Brothers movies. He was constantly photographed with Rock Stars (Alice Cooper, Queen) and movie stars in the mid-seventies.

The Marx Brothers remain my favorite comedy team hands down. All of them were talented and Harpo and Groucho in particular never fail to make me laugh.

I’ll leave you with some Groucho Quotes.

He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.

Some people claim that marriage interferes with romance. There’s no doubt about it. Anytime you have a romance, your wife is bound to interfere.

I have nothing but respect for you — and not much of that.

Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him.

Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.

I intend to live forever, or die trying.

A man’s only as old as the woman he feels.

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?

I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.

I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.

I sent the club a wire stating, PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER.

CSN – Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes is an epic song. It has four distinct sections that are woven together with an acoustic and those harmonies holding it all together.

The last verse is in Spanish and is about Cuba. It was sung in Spanish because Stephen Stills didn’t want it easily understood since it had little to do with the theme of the song.

Here’s the translation: “How nice it will (or would) be to take you to Cuba The queen of the Caribbean Sea I only want to visit you there And how sad that I can’t, damn!”

Stills put that part in simply because the song had gone on forever and he didn’t want it to just lay there at the end.

The song peaked at #21 in the Billboard 100 and #11 in Canada in 1969.

Graham Nash: “When Stephen Stills first played me this song, I wondered what planet he was from,”

Stephen Stills: “It started out as a long narrative poem about my relationship with Judy Collins. It poured out of me over many months and filled several notebooks. I had a hell of a time getting the music to fit. I was left with all these pieces of song and I said, ‘Let’s sing them together and call it a suite,’ because they were all about the same thing and they led up to the same point.”

From Songfacts

This runs 7:22. The single is three minutes shorter then the album version. Many FM radio stations played the album cut.

The title is a play on words. “Suite” is a reference to a part of a classical composition, but it can also be interpreted as “Sweet.”

This wasn’t their first single, or even their biggest, but certainly one of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s most well-known songs. It established the harmony style that would be the group’s trademark for years to come

This opened Crosby, Stills and Nash’s set at Woodstock in 1969. The event ran long, so they didn’t go on stage until 3 a.m. the third night (The Who set a precedent by going on at 5 a.m. the night before). They played 16 songs in their set, the first nine acoustic and the last seven electric. Those who left to get to work Monday morning not only missed Crosby, Stills and Nash, but didn’t see Jimi Hendrix close out the festival.

Crosby, Stills and Nash played this at Live Aid in 1985. Organized by Bob Geldof, Live Aid was a benefit for famine relief in Africa. Crosby, Stills and Nash also played “Teach Your Children” and “Southern Cross.”

Nash Stephen Stills spoke to Rolling Stone magazine about this song: “It was the beginnings of three different songs that suddenly fell together as one. Actually on the demo the middle part is not exactly how they would play. Half of it is it just falls off in its own – but we actually split it in half, and they got started singing and boom, there it went. Once it all was there then we just kept adding parts. When I wrote it I used cardboard shirt-blocking, you know those things from the cleaner’s – ’cause they were harder to lose than pieces of paper and they didn’t crumple up. I could line them up on music stands and they’d stand up.”

Nash revealed to Rolling Stone that of the CS&N trio, Stills was the only to play on this song. All three contributed vocals. Nash was impressed when he heard it.

Judy Collins recalled to Mojo magazine the effect this song had on her after Stills played it in her hotel room. She said: “He sang me Suite Judy Blue Eyes and, you know, broken hearts are a very good inspiration – and I just caved in and I suppose I made promises I couldn’t keep. We both had personal struggles.” Collins’ battle was with alcohol.

Suite Judy Blue Eyes

It’s getting to the point where I’m no fun anymore
I am sorry
Sometimes it hurts so badly I must cry out loud
I am lonely
I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are
You make it hard
Remember what we’ve said and done and felt about each other
Oh, babe have mercy
Don’t let the past remind us of what we are not now
I am not dreaming
I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are
You make it hard

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Tearing yourself away from me now you are free
And I am crying
This does not mean I don’t love you I do that’s forever
Yes and for always
I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are
You make it hard
Something inside is telling me that I’ve got your secret
Are you still listening?
Fear is the lock and laughter the key to your heart
And I love you
I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are
You make it hard
And you make it hard
And you make it hard
And you make it hard

Friday evening
Sunday in the afternoon
What have you got to lose?
Tuesday morning
Please be gone I’m tired of you
What have you got to lose?
Can I tell it like it is? (Help me I’m sufferin’)
Listen to me baby
It’s my heart that’s a sufferin’ it’s a dyin’ (Help me I’m dyin’)
And that’s what I have to lose (To lose)
I’ve got an answer
I’m going to fly away
What have I got to lose?
Will you come see me
Thursdays and Saturdays?
What have you got to lose?

Chestnut brown canary
Ruby throated sparrow
Sing a song, don’t be long
Thrill me to the marrow

Voices of the angels
Ring around the moonlight
Asking me said she so free
How can you catch the sparrow?

Lacy lilting lady
Losing love lamenting
Change my life, make it right
Be my lady

Que linda me la traiga Cuba
La reina de la Mar Caribe
Cielo sol no tiene sangreahi
Y que triste que no puedo vaya oh va, oh va

Grateful Dead – Truckin’…Drug Reference Week

What in the world ever became of sweet jane?
She lost her sparkle, you know she isn’t the same
Livin’ on reds, vitamin see, and cocaine,
All a friend can say is “ain’t it a shame?”

This wraps up Drug Reference Week. Thanks to all for reading and commenting…I hope you have enjoyed it.

This is the first Grateful Dead song I remember hearing. I heard it before I knew who the Grateful Dead were… the line Busted, down on bourbon street, set up, like a bowlin’ pin stuck with me. The line happened in real life for the band.

Every member of the Dead except Pigpen and Tom Constanten (who left the band immediately after the New Orleans incident) was included in the bust, along with several members of their entourage and some local associates.

Along with the others… Owsley Stanley, then a tech for the band as well as a well-known LSD producer…was arrested.

All of the 19 people caught in the raid were booked for possession of some combination of marijuana, LSD, barbiturates, amphetamines, or other dangerous non-narcotic drugs. It carried a penalty of 5 to 15 years in prison.

New Orleans police seem to fear that their good town will become the next Haight-Ashbury.

After posting bail money, the Dead were almost out of funds. They added an extra show in New Orleans and persuaded Fleetwood Mac to stay for the additional performance as well.

At the gig, a hat was passed around the audience to collect some additional cash for legal expenses. Most of the charges from the New Orleans bust were eventually dropped…but the Dead got a great sound out of the ordeal!

The song was written by Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter, Phi Lesh, and Bob Weir.

Truckin’ peaked at #64 in the Billboard 100 in 1971.

Jerry Garcia: “They had great fun with us, the southern cops. They had just what they wanted: hippies. Oh, boy.”

From Songfacts

The ’60s was a time for traveling and discovering your place in the world. Sometimes what you found was an empty existence that just keeps repeating itself day to day. Having to deal with everyday life when you were always waiting for some kind of revelation to expand your consciousness was often depressing. The Grateful Dead sang of acceptance of banality and the drive to continue their search for epiphany.

One verse in particular: “What in the world ever became of sweet Jane, she lost her sparkle. Well you know she isn’t the same. Living on reds, vitamin C and cocaine? All a friend can say is ain’t it a shame.” seems to refer to the endless desperation that overtakes some people. They turn to drugs to provide meaning in their lives. This of course fails and spirals their lives into deeper depression. Drugs are for enhancing a good time spent with good friends. They cannot provide answers to the meaning of life. The previous verse speaks to commonplace usage and the consequences of accepting illegal activities as a normal part of your life. You often get “busted” by the police.

Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir are the credited writers on this track along with their lyricist Robert Hunter.

The line, “Busted, down on Bourbon Street” refers to an incident on January 31, 1970 when members of the band were arrested in a drug bust that netted 19 people in New Orleans. The group was in town to play two shows at a club called the Warehouse, and the raid happened the morning after their first show at the French Quarter hotel where they were staying. Lesh, Weir and drummer Bill Kreutzmann were all arrested along with crew members and fans of the band who had joined them at the hotel.

The story made the front page of the New Orleans Times-Picayune the next day, and drew national attention, with Rolling Stone running an article on the incident. Owsley Stanley, a Dead associate known for his pioneering work with LSD, was also arrested and labeled the “King of Acid” in the Times-Picayune piece. According to the Rolling Stone article, the band paid for bail and legal fees for all 19 arrested.

Truckin’

Truckin’ got my chips cashed in. keep truckin’, like the do-dah man
Together, more or less in line, just keep truckin’ on.

Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on main street.
Chicago, new york, detroit and it’s all on the same street.
Your typical city involved in a typical daydream
Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.

Dallas, got a soft machine; houston, too close to new orleans;
New york’s got the ways and means; but just won’t let you be, oh no.

Most of the cast that you meet on the streets speak of true love,
Most of the time they’re sittin’ and cryin’ at home.
One of these days they know they better get goin’
Out of the door and down on the streets all alone.

Truckin’, like the do-dah man. once told me “you’ve got to play your hand”
Sometimes your cards ain’t worth a dime, if you don’t lay’em down,

Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me;
Other times i can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.

What in the world ever became of sweet jane?
She lost her sparkle, you know she isn’t the same
Livin’ on reds, vitamin see, and cocaine,
All a friend can say is “ain’t it a shame?”

Truckin’, up to buffalo. been thinkin’, you got to mellow slow
Takes time, you pick a place to go, and just keep truckin’ on.

Sittin’ and starin’ out of the hotel window.
Got a tip they’re gonna kick the door in again
I’d like to get some sleep before i travel,
But if you got a warrant, i guess you’re gonna come in.

Busted, down on bourbon street, set up, like a bowlin’ pin.
Knocked down, it get’s to wearin’ thin. they just won’t let you be, oh no.

You’re sick of hangin’ around and you’d like to travel;
Get tired of travelin’ and you want to settle down.
I guess they can’t revoke your soul for tryin’,
Get out of the door and light out and look all around.

Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me;
Other times i can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.

Truckin’, i’m a goin’ home. whoa whoa baby, back where i belong,
Back home, sit down and patch my bones, and get back truckin’ on.
Hey now get back truckin’ home.

Black Sabbath – Sweet Leaf…Drug Reference Week

Not a big surprise here…this song is about marijuana, and makes little attempt to disguise it. The band did a lot of marijuana and many other drugs around this time.

The sound at the beginning is Tony Iommi coughing after inhaling marijuana smoke from a bong and it was looped.

They got the name from a pack of Irish Cigarettes that said “It’s the sweet leaf.” They thought that Sweet Leaf was a great description of marijuana, and the entire band wrote the song together.

The song was on Master of Reality. The album peaked at #8 in the Billboard Album Chart, #5 in the UK, and #6 in Canada.

From Songfacts

The guitar riff was taken from Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention’s “Hungry Freaks, Daddy.” This riff can also be heard at the end of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “Give It Away” and is the basis for the song “Rhymin’ and Stealin'” by The Beastie Boys.

A Sabbath tribute band from Denmark is named Sweet Leaf.

This has been covered by Next Step Up, Stock Mojo, Garbage, Ancient, Ugly Kid Joe, Butthole Surfers, Mogwai, Stereolab, Agent Steel, Pimpadelic, Cadaver, and Widespread Panic.

Sweet Leaf

Alright now
Won’t you listen?

When I first met you, didn’t realize
I can’t forget you, for your surprise
You introduced me, to my mind
And left me wanting, you and your kind, oh yeah

I love you, oh you know it

My life was empty, forever on a down
Until you took me, showed me around
My life is free now, my life is clear
I love you sweet leaf, though you can’t hear, oh yeah

Come on now, try it out

Straight people don’t know, what you’re about
They put you down and shut you out
You gave to me a new belief
And soon the world will love you sweet leaf, oh yeah baby

Come on now, oh yeah
Try me out baby, alright, oh yeah
I want you part of this sweet leaf, oh yeah
Alright, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh try me out
I love you sweet leaf, oh

Fleetwood Mac – Gold Dust Woman…Drug Reference Week

Rock on gold dust woman
Take your silver spoon
Dig your grave

Stevie Nicks wrote this song and it’s on their most successful album, Rumours. The album was made in turmoil with everyone going through relationship problems and on top of that…drugs were everywhere…hey this was the mid-seventies.

Nicks has never been clear on the meaning, you can make a good case that it is about cocaine, which the band was consuming in quantity during the Rumours sessions.

This song was the B side to You Make Loving Fun in America…and Don’t Stop in the UK.

Stevie Nicks: Gold Dust Woman was a little bit about drugs ~ it was about you know keeping going. It was about cocaine. And, uh, you know after all these years since I haven’t done any cocaine since 1986 I can talk about it now you know. But it was ,ah, at that point ~ it was ~ I don’t think I had ever been so tired in my whole life as I was when we were like – doing that. You know I think it was shocking me ~ the whole rock’n’roll life ~ was really heavy and it was so much work and it was so everyday intense you know. Being in Fleetwood Mac was like being in the army. It was like you have to be there. You have to be there and you have to be there as on time as you can be there. And even if there nothing you have to do, you have to be there. So Gold Dust Woman was really my kind of symbolic look at somebody going through a bad relationship, and doing alot of drugs, and trying to just make it ~ trying to live ~ you know trying to get through it to the next thing.

Cris Morris recording assistant on the album: “Recording ‘Gold Dust Woman’ was one of the great moments because Stevie was very passionate about getting that vocal right. It seemed like it was directed straight at Lindsey and she was letting it all out. She worked right through the night on it, and finally did it after loads of takes. The wailing, the animal sounds and the breaking glass were all added later. Five or six months into it, once John had got his parts down, Lindsey spent weeks in the studio adding guitar parts, and that’s what really gave the album its texture.”

From Songfacts

In Mick Fleetwood’s book My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac, he explains that it took Nicks eight takes to get the vocal right, and they were recorded early in the morning. Fleetwood described Nicks as “hunched over in a chair, alternately choosing from her supply of tissues, a Vicks inhaler, a box of lozenges for her sore throat and a bottle of mineral water.”

Among the artists who have recorded this song: Waylon Jennings, Hole, Sheryl Crow and Sister Hazel.

Lindsay Buckingham played a dobro on this track. The dobro is an acoustic guitar with a single resonator with its concave surface uppermost. The inventor of the resonator guitar, John Dopyera, together with his brothers Rudy, Emile, Robert, and Louis, developed the dobro in 1928. They named it as a contraction of Dopyera Brothers’ coupled with the meaning of “goodness” in their native Slovak language. Gibson acquired exclusive use of the dobro trademark in 1993 and the guitar corporation currently produces several round sound hole models under the dobro name. One of these ornate guitars is featured on the cover of Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms.

For insight on Buckingham’s performance, we spoke with Jerry Douglas, an esteemed dobro player with 14 Grammy Awards to his credit. Said Douglas: “He’s an electric guitar player so I noticed that technique right away. He’s using it for more of a texture. He’s not going to be a bluegrass dobro player and he’s not trying to be. He’s a great guitar player and I think he chose to use the dobro in that situation for a texture more than for a guitar part. It went deeper than that for him. He needed to set that song apart from the rest of the songs and one of the ways to do it and one of the ways to actually get to the subject matter quicker, change it from the rest of the songs, was to use a different kind of guitar, and the dobro was perfect for that.”

Gold Dust Woman

Rock on gold dust woman
Take your silver spoon
Dig your grave

Heartless challenge
Pick your path and I’ll pray

Wake up in the morning
See your sunrise loves to go down
Lousy lovers pick their prey
But they never cry out loud
Cry out

Did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
And is it over now do you know how
Pick up the pieces and go home.

Rock on ancient queen
Follow those who pale
In your shadow

Rulers make bad lovers
You better put your kingdom up for sale
Up for sale

Well did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
And is it over now, do you know how
Pickup the pieces and go home.

Well did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
And now tell me
Is it over now, do you know how
Pickup the pieces and go home
Go home
Go home

Pale
Shadow
Of a woman
Black widow
Pale
Shadow
Of a dragon
Dust woman

Pale
Shadow
Of a woman
Black widow
Pale
Shadow
She’s a dragon
Gold dust woman
Woman, woman

Lynyrd Skynyrd – The Needle And The Spoon…Drug Reference Week

This song has a cool walk down intro along with some harmonics. I like the dynamics of the song when it kicks in.

This one has gotten some significant FM play in my region. It was written by Allen Collins and lead singer Ronnie Van Zant…Van Zant was warning about the dangers of hardcore drugs, which the band was just learning about.

The song was on their sophomore offering Second Helping. The album had their biggest hit, Sweet Home Alabama. They released their debut album the year before and their fan base was growing after opening up on The Who’s Quadrophenia tour. The album peaked at #12 in the Billboard Album Chart and #9 in Canada.

In the 2015 edition of Guitar World Magazine, the solo to this song was listed as the #19 best of all time.

The Needle and The Spoon

Thirty days, Lord, and thirty nights
I’m coming home on an airplane flight
Mama waiting at the ticket line
Tell me son, why do you stand there cryin’?

It was the needle and the spoon
And a trip to the moon
Took me away
Took me away

I’ve been feeling so sick inside
Got to get better, Lord, before I die
Some doctors couldn’t help my head, they said
You’d better quit, son, before you’re dead

Quit the needle, quit the spoon
Quit the trip to the moon
They gonna take you away
Lord, they gonna take you away

It was the needle and the spoon

I’ve seen a lot of people who thought they were cool
But then again, Lord, I’ve seen a lot of fools
I hope you people, Lord, can hear what I say
You’ll have your chance to hit it some day

Don’t mess with a needle or a spoon
Or a trip to the moon
They’ll take you away

Lord, their gonna bury you boy
Don’t mess with the needle
Now I know, I know, I know, I know, I know

1970’s TV Catch Phrases

In 2018 I did a Slang from the Seventies post but on this one, I wanted to concentrate on TV Catch Phrases. It’s funny that some people would tune into shows just to hear them…waiting for JJ to say Dy-no-mite in Good Times.

Lookin’ Good! – Chico and the Man

Stifle Yourself – All In The Family

Dy-no-mite Good Times

Who Loves Ya Baby? – Kojak

Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry – The Incredible Hulk

Good night, John Boy – The Waltons

Kiss my grits! – Alice

Book ’em Danno – Hawaii Five-0

Jane, you ignorant slut – Saturday Night Live

God wll get you for that – Maude

Humble Pie – Black Coffee

Black Coffee was written by Ike and Tina Turner. It originally recorded by R&B duo Ike & Tina Turner for their 1972 album Feel Good.

The Humble Pie version was released in 1973. It was on the double album Eat It that peaked at #13 in the Billboard 100. Each side of this double album is different: Side 1 features Steve Marriott penned rock and roll; Side 2 has classic R&B covers; Side 3 is a collection of acoustic Steve Marriott songs; finally Side 4 features Humble Pie live in concert.

Steve Mariott contacted Venetta Fields and asked her to find two other women to form a trio of backup singers. Fields chose Clydie King and Billie Barnum. The toured with Humble Pie and they were called the Blackberries.

Steve Marriott: “I just sang it ‘cos I loved the song and it was an interpretation of somebody else’s lyrics. People should have known that I’ve been into black music for years anyway.”

Black Coffee

Black coffee is my name
Black coffee is not a thing
Black coffee, freshly ground and fully packed
Hot black coffee, boys, mmm that’s where it’s at, mean it.

Way back you all know since I don’t know when
See I got hungover before I was 10
You see my skin is white but my soul is black
So hot black coffee, that’s where it’s at.

(Black coffee) That’s what I’m talkin’ about boys
(Black coffee) That’s what I mean
(Black coffee) Ooh you’ve got to feel it in your hand
(Black coffee) Hmm yeah
(Black coffee).

Well you hear that
Some black tea, well it can’t compare with me
Black tea (can’t compare with me) that’s right
Black tea, well it’s as good as, it’s as good as, it’s as good as it can be
But it’s a cup of black coffee that a working man needs to see, yeah.

In America, well it’s the land of the free
You can get what you want if you’ve got some do re me
Well travelling far and I work like a slave
Now I’m independent, and you know I get laid.
I got me a job and I build me a place
I got a spit of black coffee, oh how good it tastes
I said a dime is all it costs in the States
For a cup of black coffee, how good it tastes

(Black coffee) Alright
(Black coffee) Oh
(Black coffee) It’s what I want now, it’s what I need
(Black coffee) To suit my soul, to suit my soul now
(Black coffee) It’s what I want, it’s what I need
(Black coffee) It’s where it’s at, it’s where it’s at
(Black coffee) Oh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_It_(album)

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Travelin’ Band

Seven thirty-seven comin’ out of the sky
Won’t you take me down to Memphis on a midnight ride
I want to move
Playin’ in a travelin’ band

This one is a rocker and doesn’t let up. It came off of perhaps their best album Cosmo’s Factory and was released as a double A-side single with Who’ll Stop The Rain on the other side.

“Travelin’ Band” is very similar in style to the music of Little Richard, which Fogerty saw as a heartfelt tribute to the singer. Specialty Records, which owned Richard’s catalog, saw things differently and sued the band, reaching a settlement to earn some royalties from the song.

After the basic track was cut, John Fogerty went back to the studio and added many of the instrumental parts, including horns and piano, which he played himself.

Travelin’ Band/Who’ll Stop The Rain peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100, #4 in Canada, and #8 in the UK in 1970.

From Songfacts

Written by lead singer John Fogerty, this song is all about the hectic lifestyle of Creedence Clearwater Revival and their road warrior ways. In 1969, the band toured constantly and played many of the major festivals, including Woodstock. There was a rush of excitement in going from place to place, but as their drummer Doug Clifford explained, their baggage was constantly getting lost (“baggage gone, oh well”) and they spent a lot of time waiting around in the heat during those famous festivals. The traveling got easier for the band when they got their own private plane.

The lawsuit claimed the Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly” was being copied, but Creedence bass player Stu Cook said he thought it sounded more like “Long Tall Sally.” Cook described the song as a combination of ’50s Rock classics, but not a ripoff of any one song.

Travelin’ Band

Seven thirty seven comin’ out of the sky
Won’t you take me down to Memphis on a midnight ride
I want to move
Playin’ in a travelin’ band
Yeah
Well I’m flyin’ ‘cross the land tryin’ to get a hand
Playin’ in a travelin’ band

Take me to the hotel baggage gone, oh well
Come on, come on won’t you get me to my room
I want to move
Playin’ in a travelin’ band
Yeah
Well I’m flyin’ ‘cross the land, tryin’ to get a hand
Playin’ in a travelin’ band

Listen to the radio talkin’ ’bout the last show
Someone got excited, had to call the state militia
Want to move
Playin’ in a travelin’ band
Yeah
Well, I’m flyin’ ‘cross the land, tryin’ to get a hand
Playin’ in a travelin’ band

Here we come again on a Saturday night
With your fussin’ and your fightin’ won’t you get me to the rhyme
I want to move
Playin’ in a travelin’ band
Yeah
Well, I’m flyin’ ‘cross the land, tryin’ to get a hand
Playin’ in a travelin’ band

Playin’ in a travelin’ band
Playin’ in a travelin’ band
Won’t you give myself a hand?
Playin’ in a travelin’ band
Well, I’m flyin’ ‘cross the land, tryin’ to get a hand
Playin’ in a travelin’ band

Charlie Daniels (1936-2020) – Uneasy Rider

I said would you believe this man has gone as far
As tearin’ Wallace stickers off the bumpers of cars
And he voted for George McGovern for president

Charlie Daniels passed away on Monday, July 6, 2020. I wrote this up the next day but forgot to post it. He was a country music legend. While I wasn’t a huge fan he was part of my childhood. He was an incredible musician…he played with Dylan, George Harrison, and many other greats… along with having a very successful career himself. The man at 83 had booked a tour this year but it was canceled of course.

Charlie had more serious hits than this… This is a novelty song and not a great representation…it’s spoken word country…but it’s one that is a little different because it captures the time.

I first heard this song in the mid-seventies. It brings back a lot of memories for me as a kid. I thought it was extremely funny although I knew nothing about McGovern, Wallace, John Birch, Tokin’ on a number, or much of anything. I did know what mag wheels and a peace sign was so that was a start. The song is about a long-haired guy that walks into a redneck bar to use a phone. He ends up playing on the conspiracy-minded rednecks there to get free…

I remember we would see hippies (or anyone) harrassed on television shows…My dad would always take their side. “Why are they bothering them…it’s just hair! (as my mom would shake her head) If I was 20 I would grow my hair out”…and he eventually did when he got old. My dad taught me a lot about equality…and to treat everyone the same…no one is better no one is worse.

This song peaked at #9 in the Billboard 100 in 1973. He would go on to have 9 songs in the Billboard 100 and two top 10 hits.

In the country charts, he would have 33 songs in the top 100 and three top ten hits.

Charlie Daniels: “I used to do a little bit of record producing. I used to produce a group called the Youngbloods that were headquartered in San Francisco. And we were doing a live album, and we did part of it at the Fillmore East and West, and we did part of what used to be called a rock festival, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was one of those big three-day affairs where everybody in the world played. And that day I think it was the Youngbloods and the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane, and I don’t know who else.

And all these people were there at the motel. And they were these long-haired hippie-type people. The movie Easy Rider had not been out very long, and here we were sitting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with all these long-haired people, and I think a lot of them had the impression that if they were to get two blocks away, that somebody was going to run out with a pair of shears and cut their hair and threaten their life. I was born in the South, and to me this attitude was just kind of funny, and that’s where the idea came from. I just took a guy and put him in a fictitious situation, and extricated him. But of course there’s no truth to it other than just being around people that kind of had a fear of redneck bars.”

Daniels says the line in the song, “I just reached out and kicked ole Green Teeth right in the knee,” “He had tartar on his teeth, and they actually turn green if they don’t get it off. I don’t think he practiced very good dental hygiene. And that’s where that came from; he had little spots of green on his teeth.” Daniels did not, however, kick him. “Maybe I should have,” he says, “but I didn’t kick him.”

Uneasy Rider

I was takin’ a trip out to LA,
Toolin’ along in my Chevrolet
Tokin’ on a number and diggin’ on the radio

Just as I cross the Mississippi line
I heard that highway start to whine
And I knew that left rear tire was about to go

Well the spare was flat and I got uptight
‘Cause there wasn’t a fillin’ station in sight
So I just limped down the shoulder on the rim

I went as far as I could and when I stopped the car
It was right in front of this little bar
A kind of a redneck lookin’ joint called the Dew Drop Inn

Well I stuffed my hair up under my hat
And told the bartender that I had a flat
And would he be kind enough to give me change for a one

There was one thing I was sure proud to see
There wasn’t a soul in the place except for him an’ me
And he just looked disgusted an’ pointed toward the telephone

I called up the station down the road a ways
And he said he wasn’t very busy today
And he could have somebody there in just ’bout ten minutes or so

He said now you just stay right where yer at and I didn’t bother
Tellin’ the durn fool
I sure as hell didn’t have anyplace else to go

I just ordered up a beer and sat down at the bar
When some guy walked in an’ said who owns this car
With the peace sign the mag wheels and four on the floor

Well he looked at me and I damn near died
And I decided that I’d just wait outside
So I laid a dollar on the bar and headed for the door

Just when I thought I’d get outta there with my skin
These five big dudes come strollin’ in
With this one old drunk chick and some fella with green teeth

And I was almost to the door when the biggest one
Said you tip your hat to this lady son
An’ when I did all that hair fell out from underneath

Now the last thing I wanted was to get into a fight
In Jackson Mississippi on a Saturday night
‘Specially when there was three of them and only one of me

Well they all started laughin’ and I felt kinda sick
And I knew I’d better think of somethin’ pretty quick
So I just reached out an’ kicked ol’ green-teeth right in the knee

He let out a yell that’d curl your hair
But before he could move I grabbed me a chair
And said watch him folks ’cause he’s a thoroughly dangerous man

Well you may not know it but this man’s a spy
He’s an undercover agent for the FBI
And he’s been sent down here to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan

He was still bent over holdin’ on to his knee
But everyone else was lookin’ and listenin’ to me
And I laid it on thicker and heavier as I went

I said would you believe this man has gone as far
As tearin’ Wallace stickers off the bumpers of cars
And he voted for George McGovern for president

Well he’s a friend of them long-haired hippie type pinko fags
I betcha he’s even got a Commie flag
Tacked up on the wall inside of his garage

He’s a snake in the grass I tell ya guys
He may look dumb but that’s just a disguise
He’s a mastermind in the ways of espionage

They all started lookin’ real suspicious at him
And he jumped up an’ said just wait a minute Jim
You know he’s lyin’ I’ve been livin’ here all of my life

I’m a faithful follower of Brother John Birch
And I belong to the Antioch Baptist Church
And I ain’t even got a garage you can call home and ask my wife

Then he started sayin’ somethin’ ’bout the way I was dressed
But I didn’t wait around to hear the rest
I was too busy movin’ and hopin’ I didn’t run outta luck

And when I hit the ground I was makin’ tracks
And they were just takin’ my car down off the jacks
So I threw the man a twenty an’ jumped in an’ fired that mother up

Mario Andretti would of sure been proud
Of the way I was movin’ when I passed that crowd
Comin’ out the door and headin’ toward me in a trot

An’ I guess I shoulda gone ahead and run
But somehow I couldn’t resist the fun
Of chasin’ them just once around the parkin’ lot

Well they’re headin’ for their car but I hit the gas
And spun around and headed them off at the pass
Well I was slingin’ gravel and puttin’ a ton of dust in the air

Well I had them all out there steppin’ an’ a fetchin’
Like their heads were on fire and their asses was catchin’
But I figured I oughta go ahead and split before the cops got there

When I hit the road I was really wheelin’
Had gravel flyin’ and rubber squeelin’
An’ I didn’t slow down ’til I was almost to Arkansas

I think I’m gonna re-route my trip
I wonder if anybody think I’d flipped
If I went to LA via Omaha!

Linda Ronstadt – You’re No Good

Great song by the one and only Linda Ronstadt. “You’re No Good” was written by Clint Ballard, Jr., who also wrote songs for Connie Francis and The Hollies.

This song had been around for a while before Linda Ronstadt took it to the top of the chart. It was originally recorded by Dee Dee Warwick in 1963. Her version stalled at #117.

The song was on the album Heart Like A Wheel produced by Peter Asher and it peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Chart and #7 in Canada.

Heart Like a Wheel became Ronstadt’s first album to hit the top spot on the Billboard Top 200 album chart and spent four weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Country Album chart in early 1975.

The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #7 in Canada, and #24 in New Zealand in 1975.

Linda Ronstadt: “I thought the production on ‘You’re No Good’ was very good but [that] I didn’t sing it very well. As a song it was just an afterthought. It’s not the kind of song I got a lot of satisfaction out of singing.”

From Songfacts

One of the most blatant and memorable songs in the “no-good man” milieu,

Betty Everett had more success with her version, which went to #51 in 1964. First released on her 1963 album of the same name, Everett recorded the song at Chess Records in Chicago, with Maurice White on drums (White, who later formed Earth, Wind & Fire, was a staff drummer at Chess early in his career). Everett was a former gospel singer who, like Ronstadt, had a very powerful voice. Her next single, “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss),” became her biggest hit.

The song made one more chart appearance in 1964 when the British male band Swinging Blue Jeans switched the gender and took the song to #97 in the US and #3 in the UK, where it became the best-known rendition of the song.

A decade later, Ronstadt started performing the song and recorded it with her producer Peter Asher. Released as a single from her fifth album, the song was a huge breakthrough for Ronstadt, whose chart success to this point was sporadic (her biggest hit to then: “Long, Long Time” at #25). She became one of the biggest stars of the ’70s, known for her musical versatility and impressive vocal range. Most of her hits were cover songs, including the follow-up, “When Will I Be Loved,” originally recorded by the Everly Brothers.

This song makes it quite clear that the lowdown guy is no good, but in the second verse, Ronstadt turns it around, as she’s done some bad things herself and deserves some comeuppance:

I broke a heart that’s gentle and true
Well I broke a heart over someone like you
I’ll beg his forgiveness on bended knee
I wouldn’t blame him if he said to me
You’re no good

By the third verse, she’s back to bashing the guy:

I’m telling you now baby and I’m going my way
Forget about you baby ’cause I’m leaving to stay

Heart Like A Wheel was the first album Peter Asher produced for Ronstadt, and the results were spectacular. With his duo Peter & Gordon, Asher had a #1 hit in 1964 with “A World Without Love,” and later became head of A&R at The Beatles’ Apple Records, where he began a longstanding relationship with James Taylor.

In a Songfacts interview with Asher, he explained that getting the most out of Ronstadt meant listening to her and honoring her ideas. “I may have listened to her with a bit more attentiveness than others had in the past,” he said. “There was, particularly back in that era, an element of, ‘Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that, I know what’s best.’ Linda knew a lot and was not given credit for it.”

Van Halen recorded this for their second album. It was one of many successful cover songs by the group; Others include Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman,” The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” and Martha & the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street.” This is the only cover on the album. Between 1978-1983, Van Halen released an album a year. Since they toured constantly, including cover songs on the albums helped ease the songwriting burden.

You’re No Good

Feeling better now that we’re through
Feeling better ’cause I’m over you
I learned my lesson, it left a scar
Now I see how you really are

You’re no good
You’re no good
You’re no good
Baby you’re no good

I’m gonna say it again
You’re no good
You’re no good
You’re no good
Baby you’re no good

I broke a heart that’s gentle and true
Well I broke a heart over someone like you
I’ll beg his forgiveness on bended knee
I wouldn’t blame him if he said to me

You’re no good
You’re no good
You’re no good
Baby you’re no good

I’m gonna say it again
You’re no good
You’re no good
You’re no good
Baby you’re no good

I’m telling you now baby and I’m going my way
Forget about you baby ’cause I’m leaving to stay
You’re no good
You’re no good
You’re no good
Baby you’re no good

I’m gonna say it again
You’re no good
You’re no good
You’re no good
Baby you’re no good
Oh, oh no
You’re no good
You’re no good
You’re no good
Baby you’re no good

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Like_a_Wheel