1970s – Page 82 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

John Lennon – Jealous Guy

Lennon wrote this when he was in The Beatles. They recorded it as a demo called “Child of Nature,” which he’d written about their trip to India to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It didn’t make it onto any Beatles albums, so Lennon used it on his Imagine album with the lyrics changed to reflect his jealous nature. It was not released as a single in 1971.

The single reached #80 in the Billboard Hot 100 in1988, in conjunction with the release of the film Imagine John Lennon.

Joey Molland and Tom Evans of Badfinger both played acoustic guitar on this track. Badfinger was signed to the Beatles-run Apple label and George Harrison recommended to Lennon, “if you need some guitar players on Imagine, use the Badfinger guys.”

John Lennon said this about the song: My song, melody written in India. The lyrics explain themselves clearly: I was a very jealous, possessive guy. Toward everything. A very insecure male. A guy who wants to put his woman in a little box, lock her up, and just bring her out when he feels like playing with her. She’s not allowed to communicate with the outside world – outside of me – because it makes me feel insecure.

From Songfacts

John Lennon confronts the green-eyed monster in this song, where he sings about the fits of jealousy that controlled him. At the time, he was married to Yoko Ono, who believes the jealousy Lennon describes is not sexual, but more an unfounded feeling of inadequacy. “He was jealous about the fact that I had another language in my head, you know, Japanese, that he can’t share with me,” she told Uncut in 1998. “It was almost on a very conceptual, spiritual level. It wasn’t on a level of physical or anything ’cause I just would never give him a reason for that.”

Paul McCartney stated in the February 1985 issue of Playgirl: “He (John) used to say, ‘Everyone is on the McCartney bandwagon.’ He wrote ‘I’m Just a Jealous Guy,’ and he said that the song was about me. So I think it was just some kind of jealousy.”

Speaking with Rolling Stone months after Lennon’s death, she said that he made her write out a list of all the men she slept with before they met. “He wrote a song, ‘Jealous Guy,’ that should have told people how jealous he was,” she said. “After we started living together, it was John who wanted me there all the time. He made me go into the men’s room with him. He was scared that if I stayed out in the studio with a lot of other men, I might run off with one of them.”

Klaus Voormann played bass on this track. He was an old friend of the Beatles and designed the cover of Revolver. Other musicians were Jim Keltner on drums, Alan White on vibes and John Barham on harmonium.

In 1981 Roxy Music recorded this as a tribute to Lennon, who was murdered on December 8, 1980. Their version went to #1 in the UK. Many other groups have covered it as well, including The Faces and The Black Crowes.

Joey Molland recalled working with Lennon in an interview with Gibson.com, “It was great! He was just a plain-talking, regular guy. No b.s. at all. Now, of course, he was John Lennon, so he had that energy about him; he kind of lit up the room, you know? But he welcomed us, said he was thrilled to have us, and then he said, ‘The first song we’re going to do is something called ‘Jealous Guy.” It was pretty amazing, sitting there with your headphones on, hearing John Lennon singing this fantastic song. Totally remarkable.”

Yoko Ono contributed to the track’s lyrics. However, because of the public’s negative attitude towards her at the time, her role was downplayed. She told NME: “Well, if it was just John, [he] would have given me the right credit, but it was a difficult time. No famous songwriter would have thought of splitting the credit with his wife.”

Yoko added regarding her influence on the track: “I think it’s a good song from a women’s point of view as well. John was trying to create a fun song about going on a trip to Rishikesh. That might have been great too, but it ended up not being that.”

Jealous Guy

I was dreaming of the past
And my heart was beating fast
I began to lose control
I began to lose control
I didn’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry that I made you cry
Oh my I didn’t want to hurt you
I’m just a jealous guy

I was feeling insecure
You might not love me anymore
I was shivering inside
I was shivering inside
Oh I didn’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry that I made you cry
Oh my I didn’t want to hurt you
I’m just a jealous guy

I didn’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry that I made you cry
Oh my I didn’t want to hurt you
I’m just a jealous guy

I was trying to catch your eyes
Thought that you was trying to hide
I was swallowing my pain
I was swallowing my pain
I didn’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry that I made you cry
Oh no I didn’t want to hurt you
I’m just a jealous guy
Watch out baby I’m just a jealous guy
Look out baby I’m just a jealous guy

Ringo Starr – Back Off Boogaloo

Back Off Boogaloo was Ringo’s follow up to his 1971 hit It Don’t Come Easy. It was released as a single only in 1972.

Some say Ringo wrote this song about Paul McCartney to stop his snide remarks in the press about the other Beatles and also to make better music. I can see why some people saw that in:

Wake up, meat head
Don’t pretend that you are dead
Get yourself up off the cart

Get yourself together now
And give me something tasty
Everything you try to do
You know it sure sound wasted

That last line was because Paul was very fond of Cannabis at the time. Ringo has since cleared that up and said it was inspired by Marc Bolan of T-Rex. Bolan had often said the word Boogaloo and Ringo wrote the song. Later on, George helped him finish the song but didn’t want songwriting credit as was the case in It Don’t Come Easy.

The song peaked at #9 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in the UK in 1972.

Chris Welch wrote in Melody Maker: “A Number One hit could easily be in store for the maestro of rock drums. There’s a touch of the Marc Bolan in this highly playable rhythmic excursion … It’s hypnotic and effective, ideal for jukeboxes and liable to send us all mad by the end of the week.”

Back Off Boogaloo

Back off, Boo-ga-loo, I said
Back off, Boo-ga-loo, come on
Back off, Boo-ga-loo, Boo

Back off, Boo-ga-loo
What d’yer think you’re gonna do
I got a flash right from the start

Wake up, meat head
Don’t pretend that you are dead
Get yourself up off the cart

Get yourself together now
And give me something tasty
Everything you try to do
You know it sure sound wasted

Back off, Boo-ga-loo, I said
Back off, Boo-ga-loo
You think you’re a groove
Standing there in your wallpapers shoes
And your socks that match your eyes

Back off, Boo-ga-loo, I said
Back off, Boo-ga-loo, come on
Back off, Boo-ga-loo, Boo

George Harrison – Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)

Another positive song from George. The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #8 in the UK and #9 in Canada in 1973. Just another good song from George that continues his positive message.

“Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” replaced Wings’ “My Love” at number 1 on the Hot 100 singles chart…For the week ending 30 June that year, the Harrison and McCartney songs were ranked numbers 1 and 2 respectively.

George Harrison said this about the song: “Sometimes you open your mouth and you don’t know what you are going to say, and whatever comes out is the starting point. If that happens and you are lucky, it can usually be turned into a song. This song is a prayer and personal statement between me, the Lord, and whoever likes it.”

Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)

Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul

Om m m m m m m m m m m m m m
M m m my lord . . .

Please take hold of my hand, that
I might understand you

Won’t you please
Oh won’t you

Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul

Om m m m m m m m m m m m m m
M m m my lord . . .

Joe Tex – I Gotcha

My sister…lover of the Osmonds and everything unholy in music to me…somehow had this fun R&B groove single by Joe Tex. The song peaked at #2 in 1972 in the Billboard 100.

“I Gotcha” shows more than a little James Brown influence. Some say it wasn’t just influence but more than a little mocking. The two, who sometimes shared a stage, feuded quite a bit…dating back to the 50s. Tex said Brown copied his moves and later stole his girlfriend, Brown didn’t like the way Tex made fun of him. This supposedly led to an incident where Brown allegedly used a gun to fire a few rounds at Tex in a nightclub, then paid off the patrons with $100 bills so they wouldn’t call the police.

The battle began in earnest when James Brown stole Tex’s girlfriend, Bea Ford. Then, just to twist the knife, Brown sent Tex a letter telling him that he was through with the Bea and Joe could have her back. This led to the record “You Keep Her”, where Joe calls James out by name, saying he was better off without the Bea anyway.

Eventually, the two patched things up enough for Joe to write the line: “If I was a dancefloor, James Brown could mash potatoes on me all night long!”

From Songfacts

This was Joe Tex’s highest-charting career single as far as the Billboard Hot 100 was concerned. It is all original Joe Tex, in his own absolutely inimitable style – he’s known as one of the precursors of rap music.

While Joe Tex may have been charting on the Hot 100 since 1965, his previous highest score had been #5 for his breakout single “Hold What You’ve Got”. Since that time, he’d barely tasted the Top-10. This song was actually the B-side of “A Mother’s Prayer” – Radio station DJs would flip it and play this side instead, giving him his highest-charting hit.

We have yet another Tarantino hit! The film Reservoir Dogs features this song prominently. It’s used for the scene where three of the robbers transport the hostage cop to their warehouse hideaway, where they proceed to beat the nickels out of him, both because they suspect they were set up and just to work off some frustration after their robbery plan goes to pieces. The action is even choreographed to the music a little; watch Michael Madsen pulling off a length of duct tape in time to the lyrics for a beat or two.

Joe Tex re-recorded “I Gotcha” for his 1978 album Rub Down, this time as a ballad.

I Gotcha

I gotcha, uh huh, huh
You thought I didn’t see ya now, didn’t ya, uh huh, huh
You tried to sneak by me now, didn’t ya, uh huh, huh
Now gimme what you promised me, give it here
Come on

Hey

Good God

Hey

You promised me the day that you quit your boyfriend
I’d be the next one to ease on in
You promised me it would be just us two, yeah
I’d be the only man kissin’ on you, yeah
Now, kiss me
Hold it a long time, hold it
Don’t turn it a-loose, now hold it
A little bit longer, now hold it
Come on

Hold it
Hold it
Hold it
Hold it
Now ease up on me now, good god
Hey

Good God
Hey

The girl’s alright, y’all
Ha ha

Good God

You made me a promise and you’re gonna stick to it
You shouldn’t have promised if you weren’t gonna do it
You saw me and ran in another direction
I’ll teach you to play with my affection
Now, give it here

You never should’ve promised to me, give it here
Don’t hold back, now give it here
Don’t say nothin’, just give it here
Come on, give it here

Give it here
Give it here
Give it here
Give it to me, now

Good God

Hey

I gotcha
Shouldn’t made a promise to me
I gotcha

You never should’ve promised to me, gotcha
Give it on, here
I gotcha

You thought you got away from me, didn’t ya?
I gotcha
Ha ha ha
Oh, I gotcha

Give it on up, I gotcha
Give it on here, I gotcha

You tried to sneak by me, now didn’t ya?
Ha ha
I gotcha
Oh, I gotcha

Those Who Could Not Escape Their Character.

I’m not saying that these actors and actresses never acted in anything else but they ended up trapped in the role that ended up defining them good or bad. This list could have been much longer.

Bob Denver – Gilligan – I just picked Bob because he was the star of the show but a point could be argued that the entire cast of this show was eternally typecast. Bob Denver also played Maynard Krebs (which I loved) on The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis but Gilligan wins out.

Mark Hamill – Luke Skywalker – After he auditioned for the title role in 1983 movie Amadeus the director dismissed the idea saying “I don’t want Luke Skywalker in this film.” He has broken a little out of the image by doing voiceovers like the Joker in Batman animated cartoons.

Carrie Fischer – Princess Leia – Harrison Ford was able to break out more successfully than his other two co-stars in Star Wars. Carrie Fischer acted in a lot of movies but could never shake Princess Leia…she is forever frozen in time in the minds of teenage nerds at the time and now.

Christopher Reeve – Superman – He is said to have stated that he spent his career trying to “escape the cape.”… When I think of Superman…I do think of Christopher Reeve’s version

George Reeves – Superman – See Above

Barbara Eden – Jeannie – She appeared in many TV movies but nothing topped beautiful Jeannie. Larry Hagman did manage to escape his character in I Dream of Jeannie into another…J.R. Ewing.

Elizabeth Montgomery – Samantha – Everyone’s favorite witch. Like Eden she did many TV movies…a lot of them really good but is known for Samantha.

Don Adams – Maxwell Smart -Adams also provided the voices for the animated series Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales and Inspector Gadget but was

Anthony Perkins – Is Norman Bates and there is no arguing that.

Robert Englund – Freddie Kruger – and I don’t believe he minds at all.

The Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK

I was a little too young to get the Sex Pistols when they were together. They did have a huge influence while only releasing one album…Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols. I never was a big fan but this song is alright for what it is.

John Lydon talked about the song: “It flowed quite naturally to me. These are just long, long-term motivations that are there and you can’t, can’t, can’t ever underestimate the sheer driving energy poverty will bring you. Being denied everything and access to everything. Government, schools, the lot, tell you that you don’t count. You are scum. Go with flow or else. That’s an incredible driving energy, to be better than their estimation of you.”

From Songfacts

Anarchy is a society without government or law. The Sex Pistols were very anti-establishment (as were many young people in England), but the song isn’t actually advocating anarchy. “I have always thought that anarchy is mind games for the middle class,” frontman John Lydon told Rolling Stone. “It’s a luxury. It can only be afforded in a democratic society, therefore kind of slightly f–king redundant. It also offers no answers and I hope in my songwriting I’m offering some kind of answer to a thing, rather than spitefully wanting to wreck everything for no reason at all, other than it doesn’t suit you.”

This was the Sex Pistols’ first single, and it caused quite a stir in England with its lyrics advocating violence against the government. Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols was not released until a year later, partly because of distribution concerns: after hearing “Anarchy In The UK,” some organizations refused to ship the album. >>

Sid Vicious, who died of a drug overdose in 1979 and was the subject of the 1986 film Sid and Nancy, had not yet joined the band. Vicious replaced original bass player Glen Matlock after this was released. Along with the rest of the band, Matlock is a credited writer on the track.

The Sex Pistols were dropped by two record companies before finally releasing the Never Mind The Bollocks album with Virgin Records. Virgin had a hard time promoting this song because no one would let them advertise it. The subsequent record store and radio bans helped generate publicity that was more valuable than what they could have bought.

The manager of The Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren, put them together to deliberately cause controversy. He knew the band would stir up trouble and get a lot of media attention in the process. That’s what happens when you have a lead singer named Johnny Rotten singing that he was an “anarchist” and the “Antichrist.”

Recording this song proved rather difficult. The first sessions were produced by Dave Goodman, who was the band’s sound man for concerts. “He had never really produced anybody properly, so he didn’t have enough clout or wherewithal to tell Malcolm McLaren not to be in the studio,” Glen Matlock said in a Songfacts interview. “And Malcolm was like the devil at his ear, going, ‘It’s not exciting enough – it’s got to be faster.’ And it was getting faster and faster, and losing all its groove.

In the end, we effectively went on strike, and said, ‘No, it’s fine,’ and we got a different guy in, Chris Thomas, who has done some fantastic work over the years. We set up, started playing, and he said, ‘I think we’ve got it now.’

The first part of the song is from take three, and the second part is from take five. We were waiting for Rotten to turn up and do the vocals, and he didn’t rush down because he was like, ‘You’re useless, you can’t play. You’ve been in there for weeks.’ And we said, ‘No. We’ve done it.’ We were right all along – we just needed the right person to realize it. And then Steve loaded up the guitars over the next few days.”

The line, “I use the enemy” is a play on words: “Enemy” is actually “NME,” a British magazine called New Musical Express. The Sex Pistols were famous for manipulating the media, and NME apparently took the bait: they said in their review of this song, “Johnny Rotten sings flat, the song is laughably naïve, and the overall feeling is of a third-rate Who imitation.”

After this was released, the band went on a British talk show where they repeatedly swore at and berated the host, Bill Grundy. This caused a great deal of controversy, which resulted in their record company, EMI, dropping the band and pulling the single.

Here’s an explanation of the alphabet soup in the lyrics:

MPLA: A political group in Angola – the Movimento Popular de Libertacao de Angola.

UDA: The loyalist supporters in Ireland conflict. The UDA (Ulster Defence Association) supported Britain and opposed unification of Ireland.

IRA: The Irish Republican Army, who opposed Britain and were in favor of unification in Ireland.

As a publicity stunt, the band performed this song on the Thames River from a boat called “The Queen Elizabeth” on June 7, 1977. Celebrations were underway for the Silver Jubilee, celebrating the Queen’s 25 years on the throne. Two days later, she was scheduled to ride on the river as part of the ceremonies, so the Sex Pistols decided to make a mockery of it.

The plan was to perform the song as they were floating by the House Of Parliament, but they didn’t get close, as police intercepted the boat. The record company executives who organized the event were arrested when they docked.

The stunt got them plenty of press and boosted their punk rock bona fides. “That came about, oddly enough, just as a giggle because of not getting gigs,” Johnny Rotten explained in Melody Maker. I had in my mind not the slightest knowledge of there being a Jubilee at all. I was quite stunned by it all.”

Mötley Crüe often played this song in concert, and they recorded it for their 1991 compilation Decade of Decadence. While their version is still titled “Anarchy in the U.K.,” Vince Neil sang it as “Anarchy For the USA,” with the lyrics changed to make references to American entities, including the PMRC, an organization that led a crusade to keep albums with explicit lyrics from being sold to minors.

Glen Matlock told Mojo magazine that this is his favorite Sex Pistols’ statement. He explained: “Everything about it is just right. It’s one of those rare moments captured, the vibe, the groove, and the bass ain’t bad! It still sounds outrageous.”

Megadeth did a popular cover of this song that was included on their 1988 album So Far, So Good… So What! and also released as a single. A video was made for this version directed by David Mackie.

Guitarist Steve Jones told Mojo that he thought when the specific moment when he felt the Pistols had clicked was when “Anarchy in the UK” came into the fold. He explained; “We had the riff and Rotten was in the corner writing words and McLaren started grooving on it. It felt like we were onto something then.”

the Sex Pistols re-recorded this song for the video game Guitar Hero 3.

Anarchy in the UK

Right now ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
I am an anti-Christ
I am an anarchist
Don’t know what I want
But I know how to get it
I want to destroy the passerby

‘Cause I want to be anarchy
No dogs body

Anarchy for the U.K.
It’s coming sometime and maybe
I give a wrong time, stop a traffic line
Your future dream has sure been seen through

‘Cause I want to be anarchy
In the city

How many ways to get what you want
I use the best, I use the rest
I use the N.M.E.
I use anarchy

‘Cause I want to be anarchy
Its the only way to be

Is this the MPLA
Or is this the UDA
Or is this the IRA
I thought it was the U.K.
Or just another country
Another council tenancy

I want to be anarchy
And I want to be anarchy
(Oh what a name)
And I want to be an anarchist
(I get pissed, destroy!)

Janis Joplin – Mercedes Benz

This is based on a song called C’mon, God, and buy me a Mercedes Benz by the Los Angeles beat poet Michael McClure. Joplin saw McClure perform it, and on August 8, 1970, she reworked it into her own song, which she performed about an hour later.

This was a fun song off of Janis’s last album Pearl. The song did not chart as a single but the album peaked at #1 in 1971 after Janis died.

Janis Joplin never got a Mercedes Benz, but she did have a 1965 Porsche that was painted to become a piece of hippie art.

A lot of song facts for such a short song.

From Songfacts

As recounted in the Patti Smith memoir Just Kids, before her show at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, she went to a nearby bar (likely Vahsen’s, later renamed Little Dick’s) with her good friend, the songwriter Bob Neuwirth, and two more recent acquaintances, the actors Rip Torn and Geraldine Page. Joplin started reciting the line, “Oh, Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz” – the first line of McClure’s song. The four started banging beer mugs on the table to form a rhythm, and Neuwirth wrote down lyrics he and Joplin came up with on a napkin. They finished the song, and Janis performed it at the show, introducing it by saying, “I just wrote this at the bar on the corner. I’m going to do it Acapulco.”

That show was recorded and widely bootlegged, as it was her penultimate performance and the debut of “Mercedes Benz.” Joplin played her last concert on August 12 at Harvard Stadium and died on October 4.

The song is a social commentary on how many people relate happiness and self-worth with money and material possessions. Sung a capella in a blues style, Joplin was poking fun at the mindset that luxury goods will make everything better.

Janis Joplin is from Port Arthur, Texas, a small city close to the Gulf of Mexico near the Louisiana border. In the second verse, the line “Dialing for Dollars is trying to find me” refers to a segment the local NBC station ran called “Dialing for Dollars.” The station would announce a password on the air, then call a local phone number at random later on. If whoever answered knew the password, that person would win a cash prize. Variations of “Dialing for Dollars” ran in many cities throughout the United States and Canada in the ’60s and early ’70s.

This song spoke to the shift in the counterculture, as some of the impoverished musicians speaking out against the system were now very rich. As Barney Hoskyns, who wrote about Joplin and the song in his book Small Town Talk: Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock told us, “Rock was now big business, and a lot of money was flooding into the pockets of people who never expected to make it. This set up a mixture of expectation and guilt – they were acquiring a taste for the finer things but knew that a good hippie shouldn’t be materialistic. By the early ’70s it had all changed, and rock stars were the new Yuppies.”

Joplin recorded this song at Sunset Sound studios in Los Angeles on October 1, 1970 with producer Paul Rothchild, famous for his work with The Doors. It ended up being her last recording session, as she died three days later (she also recorded a version of “Happy Trails” as a 30th birthday present for John Lennon” in this session).

The Pearl album was just about finished when Joplin died. Rothchild included her raw take of “Mercedes Benz” on the album, leaving it a capella. A quip Joplin made before her vocal take – “I’d like to do a song of great social and political import” – was included as an introduction. In its unadorned state, the song showcased Joplin’s humor and raw vocal talent.

In the mid-’90s, Mercedes used this in commercials for their cars. It was one of the great misappropriations of a song in a commercial, as Joplin’s song was meant to convey the message that owning a luxury automobile does not make you a better person. Joplin’s estate – sister Laura and brother Michael – allowed Mercedes to use it.

There are three credited songwriters on this track: Joplin, Michael McClure, and Bob Neuwirth. McClure says he never earned a cent from his poetry, but “Mercedes Benz” paid for his house in the Butters Canyon section of Oakland, California.

In an interview published in hE@D Magazine, Michael McClure said that Joplin called him before recording the song to get his permission. She sang him the song, then he sang her his original version, and they both liked their own renditions better. “Then she asked me if she could sing it, and I agreed,” McClure said. “I had no idea that her songs were worth so much money.”

The soul singer Bobby Womack claimed credit for inspiring this song. According to Womack, Joplin got the idea for the song after riding in his new Mercedes 600. Womack was having success as a songwriter, and Joplin commissioned him to write a song for her Pearl album, which turned out to be “Trust Me.” She recorded that one (which also appears on the Pearl album), and asked for another.

As recounted in his Womack’s book Midnight Mover, he took her for a ride, and she was impressed with the new car. After a few blocks, she started singing: “Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedez Benz…”

When they returned to the studio, the band had gone home, but Joplin put down the vocal track.

This took place on October 1, 1970. As Womack told it, Joplin got a phone call, which he presumed was her drug dealer. She asked him to leave, they hugged goodbye, and Joplin was found dead three days later.

Mercedes Benz

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?
Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me.
I wait for delivery each day until three,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?
I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down.
Prove that you love me and buy the next round,
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?

Everybody!
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

Billy Joel – Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

I always liked this song. Billy Joel was inspired by the suite of songs on Abbey Road. It was never released as a single but has remained one of Joel’s best known songs. The song was on the album The Stranger which peaked at #2 in 1978.

The restaurant which inspired this song, since closed, was the Fontana di Trevi at 151 West 57th Street in New York City, right across from Carnegie Hall. Joel talked about the restaurant: “It was for the opera crowd, but the Italian food was really good. They didn’t really know who I was, which was fine with me, but sometimes you would have a hard time getting a table. Well, I went there when the tickets had gone on sale for my dates at Carnegie Hall, and the owner looks at me and he goes (in an Italian accent), ‘Heyyy, you’re that guy!’ And from then on, I was always able to get a good spot.”

From Songfacts

This song is about people who peaked too early: the popular jocks in class who went nowhere in life. Like most of Joel’s songs, he composed the music first, which in this case was inspired by The Beatles, specifically the suite of songs on their Abbey Road album where a few unfinished tunes were put together to create one coherent piece.

On an A&E special, Joel said he came up with the “Bottle of white bottle of red” line while he was dining at a restaurant and a waiter actually came up to him and said, “Bottle of white… bottle of red… perhaps a bottle of rosé instead?”

The “Things are okay with me these days…” part was an old piece of music he had written a long time before The Stranger album – he just changed the words around to update them. The third part of the song is an old song he had written called “The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie.”

Many towns on Joel’s stomping grounds of Long Island have a spot or field surrounded by trees called “The village green,” similar to the one he sings about here. Joel was in a gang (not a very rough one) in Levittown, Long Island called “The Parkway Green Gang.”

Joel outlined to USA Today how the Beatles inspired this song: “I had always admired the B-side of Abbey Road, which was essentially a bunch of songs strung together by (producer) George Martin. What happened was The Beatles didn’t have completely finished songs or wholly fleshed-out ideas, and George said, ‘What have you got?’ John said, ‘Well I got this,’ and Paul said, ‘I got that.’ They all sat around and went, ‘Hmm, we can put this together and that’ll fit in there.’ And that’s pretty much what I did.”

In a 2017 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Joel ranked this #1 on his list of the top Billy Joel songs. He has also cited “New York State Of Mind” as his favorite.

After adding Mike DelGuidice to his touring band in 2013, Joel began leading into this song in concerts with DelGuidice singing Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.” DelGuidice formed a popular Billy Joel tribute band called Big Shot, which get the attention of the real deal, who offered him a gig.

Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

A bottle of white, a bottle of red
Perhaps a bottle of rose instead
We’ll get a table near the street
In our old familiar place
You and I,face to face

A bottle of red, a bottle of white
It all depends upon your appetite
I’ll meet you any time you want
In our Italian Restaurant.

Things are okay with me these days
Got a good job, got a good office
Got a new wife, got a new life
And the family’s fine
We lost touch long ago
You lost weight I did not know
You could ever look so good after
So much time.

I remember those days hanging out
At the village green
Engineer boots, leather jackets
And tight blue jeans
Drop a dime in the box play the
Song about New Orleans
Cold beer, hot lights
My sweet romantic teenage nights

Brenda and Eddie were the
Popular steadys
And the king and the queen
Of the prom
Riding around with the car top
Down and the radio on.
Nobody looked any finer
Or was more of a hit at the
Parkway Diner
We never knew we could want more
Than that out of life
Surely Brenda and Eddie would
Always know how to survive.

Brenda and Eddy were still going
Steady in the summer of ’75
When they decided the marriage would
Be at the end of July
Everyone said they were crazy
“Brenda you know you’re much too lazy
Eddie could never afford to live that
Kind of life.”
But there we were wavin’ Brenda and
Eddie goodbye.

They got an apartment with deep
Pile carpet
And a couple of paintings from Sears
A big waterbed that they bought
With the bread
They had saved for a couple
Of years
They started to fight when the
Money got tight
And they just didn’t count on
The tears.

They lived for a while in a
Very nice style
But it’s always the same in the end
They got a divorce as a matter
Of course
And they parted the closest
Of friends
Then the king and the queen went
Back to the green
But you can never go back
There again.

Brenda and Eddie had had it
Already by the summer of ’75
From the high to the low to
The end of the show
For the rest of their lives
They couldn’t go back to
The greasers
The best they could do was
Pick up the pieces
We always knew they would both
Find a way to get by
That’s all I heard about
Brenda and Eddie
Can’t tell you more than I
Told you already
And here we are wavin’ Brenda
And Eddie goodbye.

A bottle of red, a bottle of white
Whatever kind of mood you’re in tonight
I’ll meet you anytime you want
In our Italian Restaurant.

Led Zeppelin – Trampled Under Foot

A bit different of a song for Led Zeppelin. This was on their great Physical Graffiti album…which was to me their last great album. This song peaked at #38 in the Billboard 100 in 1975. Led Zeppelin really was not a singles band but they did have 10 songs in the top 100 and 1 top ten song.

Led Zeppelin wasn’t a funk band but on this track they had something going. John Paul Jones played clavinet on this song that is just outstanding. Jones was the utility player for the band and probably the most underrated member.

The guitar had a great sound…Jimmy Page: It’s sort of backward echo and wah-wah. I don’t know how responsible I was for new sounds because there were so many good things happening around that point, around the release of the first Zeppelin album, like Hendrix and Clapton.

From Songfacts

The lyrics were based on Robert Johnson’s 1936 “Terraplane Blues.” A Terraplane is a classic car, and the song uses car parts as metaphors for sex: “pump your gas,” “rev all night,” etc.

This evolved out of a jam session. It became a concert favorite and a popular song on rock radio. When Led Zeppelin played it live, they would often jam on it, extending it with guitar and keyboard solos.

This is one of Robert Plant’s favorite Zeppelin songs. He sang it on his 1988 Now and Zen tour.

Led Zeppelin performed this at Carmen Plant’s 21st birthday party in 1989 with Jason Bonham on drums. Carmen is Robert’s daughter.

The “Talkin ’bout love” part was most likely nicked from the song “Love” by Curtis Knight and Jimi Hendrix.

Led Zeppelin did not release any singles in the UK until 1997 when “Whole Lotta Love” was released 18 years after it was written. In 1975, Zeppelin’s Swan Song label sent 5000 pressings of “Trampled Underfoot” to UK record stores as incentive to stock the Physical Graffiti album. These were labeled “Special Limited Edition” and became collectors’ items.

At Earls Court in 1975, Robert Plant introduced the song like this: “If you like the motor cars and the parts of the human body, then sometimes… you can get trrrrrampled under foot!”

“Trampled Underfoot” was probably named after the bassline being a repetitive boom, played with a Moog pedal.

Trampled Under Foot

Greasy slicked-down body, Groovy leather trim
I like the way you hug the road, Mama it ain’t no sin
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
Ooh, trouble-free transmission, helps your oil’s flow
Mama, let me pump your gas, mama, let me do it all
Talkin’ ’bout love, huh, Talkin’ ’bout love, ooh, Talkin’ ’bout
Take that heavy metal underneath your hood
Baby, I could work all night, leave a big pile of tubes
Talkin’ ’bout lo-ove, Talkin’ ’bout lo-ove, Talkin’ ’bout
Automobile club-covered, really built in style
Special is tradition, mama, let me feast my eyes
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
Factory air-conditioned, wind begins to rise
Guaranteed to run for hours, mama, and brand-new tires
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
Groovin’ on the freeway, blazes on the road
From now on my gasoline is even gonna conk your hair
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
I can’t stop talkin’ about, I can’t stop talkin’ about
Ooh, yeah-yeah, yes, ah, drive on
Ooh, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yes, I’m comin’ through
Come to me for service every hundred miles
Baby, let me check your valves, fix your overdrive
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
Ooh, yes, fully automatic, comes in any size
Makes me wonder what I did, before I got synchronized
Talkin’ ’bout lo-ove, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
Ooh, feather-light suspension, coils just couldn’t hold
I’m so glad I took a look inside your showroom doors
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout lo-oo-oh-ove, Talkin’ ’bout
Oh yeah, oh yeah, Oh, I can’t stop talkin’ about love
I can’t stop talkin’ about love
Ooh, let me go in down, go in down, go in down, go in down, go in down, yes, I
can’t stop talkin’ about
I can’t stop talkin’ about lo-oh’, baby
I can’t stop talkin’ about love, or my baby
I can’t stop talkin’ about love, my baby, uh, my baby,
my baby, yeah, Unnh, push, push, push it, push, push
Ounheahhonhouh

Boz Scaggs – Lowdown

This was his biggest charting hit. It peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 in 1976. It’s groove song I’ve always liked…very smooth and catchy.

Scaggs wrote this song with the keyboard player David Paich, who would later form the band Toto and write many of their hits. “Lowdown” was the first song that Scaggs and Paich wrote together…it was Silk Degrees producer Joe Wissert who put them together.

Boz Scaggs said: “We took off for a weekend to this getaway outside of LA where there was a piano and stayed up all night banging around ideas. We hit on ‘Lowdown,’ and then we brought it back to the band and recorded it. We were just thrilled with that one. That was the first song that we attempted, and it had a magic to it.”

From Songfacts

This was the second single released from Silk Degrees. The first was “It’s Over,” which charted at a modest #38 in May 1976. Scaggs had little name recognition at the time, and sales were stagnant for the album until an R&B radio station in Cleveland started playing “Lowdown.” Other stations followed suit, and it quickly became clear that the song had crossover appeal and hit potential. Scaggs’ label, CBS, released it as a single and it climbed to #3 on the Hot 100 in October, spurring sales of the album along the way.

The song is about a girl who doesn’t appreciate what her man gives her. The “dirty lowdown” is the honest truth – what Scaggs is encouraging this poor sap to face.

The word “Lowdown” was popular slang meaning a summary of what’s going on for real. The first Hot 100 entry with the term in the title came in 1969 with the instrumental “Lowdown Popcorn” by James Brown (#41, 1969). Next came Chicago’s song “Lowdown” (#35, 1971).

Along with keyboard player David Paich, two other future Toto members also played on this track: drummer Jeff Porcaro and bass player David Hungate. The Silk Degrees marked the first time that Scaggs used these studio pros, and it was also his first album produced by Joe Wissert, who was a staff producer at Columbia Records who had previously worked with Earth, Wind & Fire.

The crew for the album found just the right sound, a Disco-blend that could play in dance clubs and pool halls. Scaggs credits Wissert for giving him and the other musicians plenty of freedom in the studio, resulting in one of the most successful albums of the ’70s – Silk Degrees went on to sell over five million copies.

This won the Grammy for Best R&B Song of 1976, making Scaggs the first white artist to win the award (Leo Sayer was the second, taking the trophy the next year for “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.”)

The producers of Saturday Night Fever asked to use this in their movie, but Scaggs’ manager turned them down and instead used it in the movie Looking For Mr. Goodbar. Not a good move – Saturday Night Fever became one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.

Lowdown

Baby’s into running around
Hanging with the crowd
Putting your business in the street
Talking out loud
Saying you bought her this and that
And how much you done spent
I swear she must believe it’s all heaven sent

Hey boy you better bring the chick around
To the sad, sad truth the dirty lowdown

(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Taught her how to talk like that
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Gave her that big idea

Nothin’ you can’t handle
Nothin’ you ain’t got
Put your money on the table
And drive it off the lot
Turn on that old love light
And turn a “maybe” to a “yes”
Same old schoolboy game got you into this mess

Hey son, better get back on to town
Face the sad old truth, the dirty lowdown

(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Put those ideas in your head
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)

Yeah

Come on back down, little son
Dig the low, low, low, low, lowdown!

You ain’t got to be so bad, got to be so cold
This dog eat dog existence sure is getting old
Got to have a Jones for this
Jones for that
This runnin’ with the Joneses, boy, just ain’t where it’s at, no, no

You gonna come back around
To the sad, sad truth, the dirty lowdown

(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Got you thinking like that, boy
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)

I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who
Said I wonder, wonder, wonder, I wonder who
Oh, look out for that lowdown (ohh, I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
That dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty lowdown

Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who
Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who

Got you thinkin’ like that
Got you thinkin’ just like that
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Lookin’ that girl in the face is so sad
I’m ashamed of you

I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who

The James Gang – Funk #49

This song has been played a bunch on the radio but Joe Walsh’s intro doesn’t get old to me. The song peaked at #59 in the Billboard 100 in 1971.

The James Gang is best known for their guitarist, Joe Walsh, whose playing on this track helped establish him as a superstar guitarist. Walsh joined the Cleveland-based group in 1969 after making a name for himself as one of the top guitarists in Ohio. He replaced Glenn Schwartz in the band, who Walsh considers a mentor. They were a 5-piece when Walsh joined but was down to three when they released their second album James Gang Rides Again.

From Songfacts

With just three members, it meant Walsh had to play both rhythm and lead guitar parts, and also sing (he got a lot more help when he joined the Eagles in 1975). It was quite a learning experience for Walsh, who left the James Gang in 1971 after recording three studio albums with the group.

It was the producer Bill Szymczyk who signed the James Gang to ABC Records after seeing them perform at a show in Ohio. Szymczyk produced the band and began a long association with Joe Walsh, producing his solo albums and most of the Eagles output in the ’70s.

Walsh wrote this song with his bandmates, drummer Jim Fox and bass player Dale Peters. The song is about a girlfriend whose wild ways the singer just can’t tame (the female equivalent of Joe Walsh’s character in his solo hit “Life’s Been Good”). There isn’t much in the way of lyrics, as the song is mostly a showcase for Walsh’s guitar work. He explained in the book The Guitar Greats, “I came up with the basic guitar lick, and the words never really impressed me intellectually, but they seemed to fit somehow. It was a really good example of how we put things together, bearing in mind that it was a three-piece group, and I don’t think that there was any overdubbing. The only thing we really added was the percussion middle part, which the three of us actually played, putting some parts on top of the drums, but that’s the three-piece James Gang, and that’s the energy and kind of the symmetry we were all about.”

The first James Gang album (Yer’ Album, 1969) contained the track “Funk #48,” which according to producer Bill Szymczyk, got its title “out of thin air.” When they came up with what would become “Funk #49,” they were once again faced with no logical title based on the lyrics, and followed the sequence. There was a “Funk 50,” but not until Joe Walsh released it on his 2012 album Analog Man after being asked to rework “Funk #49” for the ESPN show Sunday NFL Countdown.

“Funk #49” became a staple of Album Oriented Rock and Classic Rock radio, but it wasn’t the biggest chart hit for the James Gang – that would be “Walk Away,” which made #51 in 1971 and was later reworked for Walsh’s 1976 solo album You Can’t Argue with a Sick Mind. “Funk #49” is one of Joe Walsh’s most popular songs, and by the mid-’70s he admitted that he couldn’t stand playing it anymore, but did so because fans loved it.

Funk #49

Uh, sleep all day, out all night,
I know where you’re going.
I don’t that’s a-acting right,
You don’t think it’s showing.
A-jumpin’ up, fallin’ down,
Don’t misunderstand me.
You don’t think that I know your plan,
What you try’n to hand me?

Out all night, sleep all day,
I know what you’re doing.
If you’re gonna a-act that way,
Think there’s trouble brewing.

Bruce Springsteen – Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?

After posting about Blinded By The Light yesterday…I was commenting with jeremyjames (Jeremy in Hong Kong) and he mentioned this song which was on the Greetings From Asbury Park debut album by Bruce Springsteen. I started to listen to this album in the 80s and it has remained one of my favorite albums by Springsteen.

I wrote this about the album last summer and started to listen to the album again Saturday afternoon. This was one of the many songs off the album that I liked at first listen and was surprised that I remembered most of the words to the song right off the bat.

“Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?” is a journey through an enjoyable play of words. It was written about a bus journey to a girlfriend’s house. Here is a sample of a verse

“Wizard imps and sweat sock pimps
Interstellar mongrel nymphs
Rex said that lady left him limp
Love’s like that (sure it is)
Queen of diamonds, ace of spades
Newly discovered lovers of the Everglades
They take out a full-page ad in the trades
To announce their arrival
And Mary Lou, she found out how to cope
She rides to heaven on a gyroscope
The Daily News asks her for the dope
She said, “Man, the dope’s that there’s still hope”

From Songfacts

This song is based on people and places Springsteen met in his early years as a songwriter. His father was a bus driver for a time, which helped inspire the song.

The barrage of images in the lyrics helped earn Springsteen the tag “The New Dylan,” a comparison he played down. He moved away from the Dylan style by writing less introspective, harder rocking songs on his next album, The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle.

This song started with the lyrics, something Springsteen did from time to time when he started out as a songwriter. Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. was his first album, and it marked a turning point in his songwriting: Instead of keeping the lyrics as simple and repetitive as possible to accommodate the bars he was playing with his bands, he started using elaborate wordplay to tell different stories, often within the same song – something you could do in a recording studio but not in a noisy club. This song makes passing reference to a number of characters but leaves the listener to decide their fates. Just what becomes of Mary Lou, the mongrel nymphs and the lucky, young matador who catches the rose is in the ear of the beholder.

Joan Fontaine pops up in the lyrics for no apparent reason:

Broadway Mary, Joan Fontaine
advertiser on a downtown train

She was an actress who starred in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Rebecca.

Does This Bus Stop At 52nd Street?

Hey bus driver, keep the change
Bless your children, give them names
Don’t trust men who walk with canes
Drink this and you’ll grow wings on your feet
Broadway Mary, Joan Fontaine
Advertiser on a downtown train
Christmas crier bustin’ cane
He’s in love again

Where dock worker’s dreams mix with panther’s schemes
To someday own the rodeo
Tainted women in VistaVision
Perform for out-of-state kids at the late show

Wizard imps and sweat sock pimps
Interstellar mongrel nymphs
Rex said that lady left him limp
Love’s like that (sure it is)
Queen of diamonds, ace of spades
Newly discovered lovers of the Everglades
They take out a full-page ad in the trades
To announce their arrival
And Mary Lou, she found out how to cope
She rides to heaven on a gyroscope
The Daily News asks her for the dope
She said, “Man, the dope’s that there’s still hope”

Senorita, Spanish rose
Wipes her eyes and blows her nose
Uptown in Harlem she throws a rose
To some lucky young matador

Isaac Hayes – Theme From Shaft

Shaft peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100 in 1971. In the beginning, the high hat starts and then that cool seventies wah wah pedal kicks in..a coolness just washes all over you.

Isaac Hayes was a songwriter for Stax records before he became a successful recording artist. He wrote some hits for Sam & Dave, including “Soul Man” and “Hold On I’m Coming.” Hayes explained Shaft: “The character Shaft was explained to me: a relentless character always on the prowl, always on the move. I had to create something to denote that. Otis Redding’s ‘Try A Little Tenderness,’ I had a hand in arranging that. At the end, Al Jackson was doing some stuff on a hi-hat, and I thought if I sustained that kind of thing on a hi-hat, it would give a relentless, dramatic effect, and it worked.”

The instruments were played by Memphis funk group The Bar-Kays. For a while, they were Otis Redding’s backup band… Can you dig it? “Shaft”

From Songfacts

This was featured in the 1971 movie of the same name starring Richard Roundtree. It was remade in 2000 starring Samuel L. Jackson as Shaft. Hayes made an uncredited appearance in the remake, but that wasn’t what he had in mind. According to Q magazine, Hayes agreed to write the Shaft theme after being promised the lead role but the promise wasn’t kept – he didn’t even get an audition.

This won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement and an Oscar for Best Original Score. The Oscar win made Hayes the first African-American to win an Academy Award in a composer category.

Future actress (she was on the TV shows Bosom Buddies and Family Matters) Telma Hopkins was one of the backup singers. That’s her saying “Shut Your Mouth!”, which became a bit of a catchphrase for Hopkins, whose character would often say it on her shows. Joyce Wilson was the other backup singer; she and Hopkins performed as Tony Orlando’s backup group Dawn.

The distinctive funk guitar and hi-hat cymbals make this a very recognizable song. It is often used in commercials and TV promos, sometimes with the product name put in place of the word “Shaft.”

Hayes was the voice of “Chef” on the TV show South Park. Despite being a cartoon, Chef usually found an opportunity to sing on each show.

There was also a TV version of Shaft, which lasted one season on CBS in 1973. Hayes contributed music to the series.

When Hayes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, he opened the ceremonies with this song.

Bart and Lisa sing this on The Simpsons episode “One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish.”

Theme From Shaft

Shaft
Who’s the black private dick
That’s a sex machine to all the chicks?
(Shaft!)
You’re damn right
Who is the man
That would risk his neck for his brother man?
(Shaft!)
Can ya dig it?
Who’s the cat that won’t cop out
When there’s danger all about
(Shaft!)
Right on
You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother
(Shut your mouth)
But I’m talkin’ about Shaft
(Then we can dig it)
He’s a complicated man
But no one understands him but his woman
(John Shaft)

Bruce Springsteen – Blinded By The Light

I know that the Manfred Mann version is more popular but I always listen to Bruce’s version of the song he wrote. It’s not as slick whatsoever…maybe that is the reason I like it so much. It’s raw and Bruce just pelts you with words over and over.

This song was the first cut of his album “Greetings From Ashbury Park” which is a very underrated album. The album peaked at #60 in the Billboard Album Charts.

This was Springsteen’s first single. It was released only in the US, where it flopped. It was, however, a #1 hit for Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in February 1977, becoming the only #1 Hot 100 hit Springsteen ever wrote. The Manfred Mann version was much more elaborately produced, and Springsteen hated it at first. It ended up earning him a very nice payout.

From Songfacts

Springsteen talked about this song in detail on an episode of VH1 Storytellers.A lot of the references are personal, to include people he knew or had met on the Boardwalks, or had grown up around, or were just direct personal references to himself:

“Madman drummers bummers” – Vinnie “Mad dog” Lopez, the first drummer in the E Street Band.

“Indians in the summer” – Bruce’s little league baseball team as a kid.

“In the dumps with the mumps” – being sick with the mumps.

“Boulder on my shoulder” – a “chip” on his shoulder.

“Some all hot, half-shot, heading for a hot spot, snapping fingers clapping his hands” – Being a “know it all kid growing up, who doesn’t really know anything.”

“Silicone Sister” – Bruce mentions that this is arguably the first mention of breast implants in popular music – a dancer at one of the local strip joints in Asbury Park.

He wrote this song in his bedroom, primarily using a rhyming dictionary. Or as Bruce put it, “the rhyming dictionary was on fire.”

Manfred Mann’s version replaces the line “Cut loose like a deuce” with “Revved up like a deuce.” In their version, “Deuce” was commonly misheard as “Douche.” Springsteen’s original line makes a lot more sense – a deuce is a 1932 Ford hotrod. On his Storytellers special, Springsteen said (in a jesting manner): “I have a feeling that is why the song skyrocketed to #1.”

Talking about the barrage of images he used in his early songs, Springsteen told ZigZag: “I see these situations happening when I sing them and I know the characters well. I use them in different songs and see them in shadows – they’re probably based on people I know or else they’re flashes, that just appear there. There’s a lot of activity, a whole mess of people… it’s like if you’re walking down the street, my songs are what you see, only distorted. A lot of songs were written without any music at all, it’s just that I do like to sing the words.”

After eight years playing in bars where audiences usually didn’t listen to or couldn’t hear the words, Springsteen used his first album to unload a ton of lyrics. All these lyrics helped earn Springsteen the tag “The New Dylan.” Singer-songwriters like James Taylor and Kris Kristofferson also shared the comparison, and Bruce went out of his way to shed the tag by making his next album a true rock record.

This was the first song on Springsteen’s first album. Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. featured a postcard on the cover that fans would look for any time they were near the town.

Along with “Spirit In The Night,” this was one of two songs on the album featuring Clarence Clemons on saxophone. The E Street Band became a much bigger part of Springsteen’s songs on his next album.

Springsteen wrote the lyrics first and filled in the music later. The only time he wrote this way was on his first album.

The working title was “Madman’s Bummers,” taken from words in the first line.

This was one of the songs that prompted Columbia Records to market the album by claiming “This man puts more thoughts, more ideas and images into one song than most people put into an album.”

Manfred Mann’s cover is the only Bruce Springsteen song to top the Hot 100. Near misses for Bruce have been “Dancing In The Dark” (#2 in 1984) and The Pointer Sisters version of “Fire” (#2 in 1979).

Springsteen wrote this after Columbia Records rejected his first attempt at an album, telling him to make some songs that could be played on the radio. He came up with this song and “Spirit In The Night.”

Madman drummers bummers and Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin’ kinda older, I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasing sneezing and wheezing, the calliope crashed to the ground
Some all-hot half-shot was headin’ for the hot spot, snappin’ his fingers, clappin’ his hands
And some fleshpot mascot was tied into a lover’s knot with a whatnot in her hand
And now young Scott with a slingshot finally found a tender spot and throws his lover in the sand
And some bloodshot forget-me-not whispers, daddy’s within earshot, save the buckshot, turn up the band

And she was blinded by the light
Oh cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
She got down but she never got tight, but she’ll make it alright

Some brimstone baritone anti-cyclone rolling stone preacher from the East
He says, dethrone the dictaphone, hit it in its funny bone, that’s where they expect it least
And some new-mown chaperone was standin’ in the corner all alone, watchin’ the young girls dance
And some fresh-sown moonstone was messin’ with his frozen zone to remind him of the feeling of romance

Yeah, he was blinded by the light
Oh, cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
He got down but he never got tight, but he’s gonna make it tonight

Some silicone sister with her manager’s mister told me I got what it takes
She said, I’ll turn you on, sonny, to something strong if you play that song with the funky break
And Go-Cart Mozart was checkin’ out the weather chart to see if it was safe to go outside
And little Early-Pearly came by in her curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride
Oh, some hazard from Harvard was skunked on beer, playin’ backyard bombardier
Yes, and Scotland Yard was trying hard, they sent some dude with a calling card, he said, do what you like, but don’t do it here
Well, I jumped up, turned around, spit in the air, fell on the ground and asked him which was the way back home
He said, take a right at the light, keep goin’ straight until night, and then, boy, you’re on your own
And now in Zanzibar, a shootin’ star was ridin’ in a side car, hummin’ a lunar tune
Yes, and the avatar said, blow the bar but first remove the cookie jar, we’re gonna teach those boys to laugh too soon
And some kidnapped handicap was complainin’ that he caught the clap from some mousetrap he bought last night
Well, I unsnapped his skull cap and between his ears I saw a gap but figured he’d be all right

He was just blinded by the light
Cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun
Oh, but Mama, that’s where the fun is
Ooh yeah
I was blinded
I was blinded
I was blinded
I was blinded
I was blinded
I was blinded
I was blinded
I was blinded

The Mr. Bill Show

I was a kid in the seventies and I would stay up and watch Saturday Night Live… Mr. Bill got my attention right away. The hapless Mr. Bill would live in fear of Mr. Hands and Sluggo.

The poor guy and his dog Spot were kicked, punched, buried, burned, stabbed, stepped on, and dropped from the Empire State Building. At school, there was a lot of Ohhhh Nooooo…when someone fell or got hurt.

Walter Williams invented Mr. Bill in 1973 and after SNL had a contest for anyone to submit home movies…Walter and Vance DeGeneres made the first film with an 8mm camera. Lorne liked Mr. Bill and it premiered in the first season…Walter wasn’t paid anything for them for a while but he kept sending them in and Lorne Michaels kept airing them.

Walter eventually was hired as a staff writer in the 4th and 5th season and wrote skits and for the Weekend Update. After the 5th season, he left the show with the original cast but did make a couple of more Mr. Bill’s for SNL that aired in 1981 to bring the total number to 24 Mr Bill Shows.

Mr. Bill’s popularity never completely waned and Walter Williams has made episodes for Fox TV and commercials for different products.

Vance DeGeneres originated “Mr Hands” and helped William film a few of the first films and later sued Williams for part ownership. The judge awarded DeGeneres some money but ruled that the basic idea was Willaims.

From Wiki…SNL Appearances

February 28, 1976 (The Mr. Bill Holiday Special)
October 16, 1976 (Mr. Bill Goes To A Party)
January 22, 1977 (Mr. Bill Goes To A Magic Show)
March 25, 1978 (Mr. Bill Goes To The Circus)
April 8, 1978 (Mr. Bill Pays His Taxes)
October 14, 1978 (Mr. Bill Goes To New York)
October 21, 1978 (Mr. Bill Moves In)
November 18, 1978 (Mr. Bill Goes Fishing)
December 2, 1978 (Mr. Bill Is Late)
January 27, 1979 (Mr. Bill Goes To Court)
February 24, 1979 (Mr. Bill Shapes Up)
March 17, 1979 (Mr. Bill Is Hiding)
May 12, 1979 (Mr. Bill Runs Away)
May 19, 1979 (Mr. Bill Goes To The Movies)
May 26, 1979 (Mr. Bill Visits Saturday Night Live; cold open)
October 13, 1979 (The All-New Mr. Bill Show)
November 3, 1979 (Mr. Bill Stays Home)
November 17, 1979 (Mr. Bill Builds A House)
January 26, 1980 (Mr. Bill Gets Help)
April 5, 1980 (Mr. Bill Strikes Back)
May 10, 1980 (Mr. Bill Gets 20 Years In Sing Sing)
December 20, 1980 (Mr. Bill’s Christmas Special)
April 11, 1981 (cold open with Chevy Chase)
October 17, 1981 (Mr. Bill Goes To L.A.; final appearance)

Interview with Walter Williams

http://www.mrbill.com/WWInterview.htm