Last night my son and I went to see this film in Nashville at the Belcourt Theater at the screening. It opened up with Paul McCartney and Wings in very early seventies attire talking about how they met the Mcmouses. The one thing that surprised me…it was a smaller amount of animation that I anticipated. I thought it would be 60-40 animation but it was around 30-70 with Wings playing live on their 72 European tour and various film clips with the music. I’m not unhappy with the ratio because I wanted to hear Wings live more than seeing the animation.
They did use some soundstage shots mixed in with live shots also.
My biggest complaint was the voices of the mice were a little too animated…no pun intended but you could not understand what they were saying without straining. Wings were great though. This is the earliest video I’ve seen of Paul playing outside of the Beatles. The sound was great. The songs I can remember were Big Red Barn, Wild Life, Long Tall Sally, Seaside Woman, My Love, Hi Hi Hi, Mary Had a Little Lamb, C Moon, Blue Moon Over Kentucky, Maybe I’m Amazed, and there are a few more I’m forgetting.
The film is only 55 minutes long but a good representation of Wings in 1972. The band looked like they were having a lot of fun. I will get the film when it is released.
It’s a nice film that was made right before Live and Let Die and Band on the Run. The Bruce Mcmouse Show is not the best thing Paul has done…but a fun film all the same. It’s also a nice time capsule of the early seventies… Also, it was cool that at least 80 percent of the audience were college students…that gives me hope…and it was packed.
Now Paul…release the 1976 tour to the Theaters, please.
The song started out as a mistake, but one that Charles Wright liked. The record company didn’t want him to record it. “No one wanted to record it. I had to sneak a bass player, drummer, and engineer into the studio one Sunday and cut it in secret,” Wright recalls. “The president of Warner Bros. told me I made a mistake. So did every DJ that I played it for. But I had a feeling that it was a hit.”
Charles was right…it peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100 in 1970. It has become one of the most licensed songs of the last 40 years.
Express Yourself
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
You don’t ever need help from nobody else. All you got to do now:
Express Yourself!
What ever you do, do it good. What ever you do, do it good. All right…
It’s not what you look like, when you’re doin´ what you’re doin´. It’s what you’re doin´ when you’re doin´ what you look like you’re doin´!
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
They’re doin´it on the moon, yeah… In the jungle too. Everybody on the floor, now. Jumpin´ like a kangaroo. So let the horns do the thing they do, yo…
Some people have everything, and other people don’t. But everything don’t mean a thing if it ain´t the thing you want.
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
O, do it! O, do it. Do it to it. Go on and do it. Yo, do it. Give.
This song is all about the riff…it is a memorable riff… The song has drive and suspense. Woman from Tokyo peaked at #60 in 1973. This is one of the group’s most popular songs, but they never liked it very much. They didn’t start playing it live until they re-formed in 1984 after their 1976 split.
Because of endless touring and fatigue, Ian Gillan gave a six-month notice and stated that he was leaving the band after fulfilling all of his commitments in 1973. The album Who “Do We Think We Are” was released in January of 1973. The release generated the hit single “Woman from Tokyo.” “Smoke on the Water” was also busy that year becoming Deep Purple’s biggest hit of all-time.
After lead singer Ian Gillian left Deep Purple in 1973 they had two other lead singers before reforming in 1984…and they were David Coverdale and Joe Lynn Turner.
Deep Purple started recording their Who Do We Think We Are in Rome in July 1972. At this point, the band had yet to tour Japan, but they had three shows scheduled there for August: two in Osaka followed by one at the Budokan arena in Tokyo. Drawing on Japanese imagery (“the rising sun,” “an Eastern dream”), they concocted a story of a lovely lady from that country who drives them wild.
Rome was sunny and relaxing, so the band spent a lot of time in the swimming pool in lieu of working. There was also a sound problem in the studio, and the only track they got out of those sessions was “Woman From Tokyo.” The rest of the album was done in Germany.
In 1973, this was issued as a single, achieving a modest chart position of #60 in America. It aged well and got a lot of airplay on AOR and Classic Rock radio stations, keeping it alive. The stretched out “Toe-Key-Oh” became a bit of an earworm and helped embed the song into many an auditory cortex.
On some compilations from the ’70s, this song is listed as “live,” which Roger Glover insists is a lie, since they never did the song live in that decade.
Woman from Tokyo
Fly into the rising sun Faces, smiling everyone Yeah, she is a whole new tradition I feel it in my heart
My woman from Tokyo She makes me see My woman from Tokyo She’s so good to me
Talk about her like a Queen Dancing in a Eastern Dream Yeah, she makes me feel like a river That carries me away
My woman from Tokyo She makes me see My woman from Tokyo She’s so good to me
But I’m at home and I just don’t belong
So far away from the garden we love She is what moves in the soul of a dove Soon I shall see just how black was my night When we’re alone in Her City of light
Rising from the neon gloom Shining like a crazy moon Yeah, she turns me on like a fire I get high
My woman from Tokyo She makes me see My woman from Tokyo She’s so good to me
Growing up in the seventies watching shows on Saturday morning was a wonderful experience and Sid and Marty Krofft could really be on the strange side….but a great strange.
It has been rumored that the brothers were inspired by hallucination drugs such as LSD and or pot. The brothers have always denied this claim. Shows with titles H.R Pufnstuf and Lidsville (Puff and a Lid) and the lyrics led to accusations.
H.R. Pufnstuf, who’s your friend when things get rough?
H.R. Pufnstuf, can’t do a little, ’cause you can’t do enough!
A quote from them…”We screwed with every kid’s mind,” says Marty Krofft of the loopy shows — such as H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, and Land of the Lost — that he created with brother Sid in the early 1970s. “There’s an edge. Disney doesn’t have an edge.”…from Hollywoodreporter.
H.R. Pufnstuf – A boy with a talking flute got in a boat and then the skies turned gray and there in the sky was Witchiepoo… He ended up at a place with H.R. Pufnstuf (who has to be seen) his friends and talking trees…terrorized by Witchiepoo…. with a hint of psychedelic threw in…as was most of the shows they created. It’s awesome to know that kids watched this strange show… Give me this over Barney…
Lidsville – A boy falls down a large top hat at an amusement park and ends up in a land of Hats…there was also a genie named Weenie…who played Witchiepoo in HR Pufnstuf. The bad guy was Charles Nelson Reilly the magician and he would go around zapping people. The show is just plain bizarre…for me, it is the strangest show they did….and besides Land of the Lost my favorite.
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters – A couple of boys find a friendly sea monster hiding from his mean family of sea monsters. the boys hide Sigmund from everyone else. This is probably the most normal one of them all…It was a popular Saturday morning show.
The Bugaloos – Singing insects…Watch it…Most boys had a crush on the Butterfly Caroline Ellis.
The Banana Splits – An animal rock group with a catchy theme song…which all of the earlier shows had a catchy theme. This show was made by Hanna-Barbera but the costumes were made by the Krofft brothers.
There were other shows like Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, The Space Nuts, The Lost Saucer and Wonder Bug but they were not in the same league as the top group. In these shows, the Krofft brothers moved away from the puppets…which they were known for… and the wild themes.
Sid and Marty Krofft also had an inside theme park in Atlanta
In 1976, a developer asked the Kroffts to develop a very cool amusement park for the new Omni International complex in downtown Atlanta. The World of Sid and Marty Krofft was the world’s first indoor amusement park, but due to poor attendance, it was closed after just six months. The Omni International building that contained the amusement park was renamed the CNN Center when the site was converted to the present CNN headquarters.
The brothers sued McDonald’s and won for ripping off H.R. Pufnstuf and Living Island. I can see a resemblance…
I’ve always liked this song and Tanya’s voice. This song was first recorded by Alexander Harvey in 1972. Tracy Nelson (who sang backup on the original) and Bette Midler put the song in their live repertoire before it became a country hit for a 13-year-old Tanya.
The song peaked at #6 in the Country Charts, #3 in Canada and #72 in the Billboard 100 in 1972.
Helen Reddy would take the song to #1 in the Billboard 100 in 1973.
Barbra Streisand passed on the song after the backing track had been recorded by her producer without her prior knowledge.
Delta Dawn
Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today To take you to his mansion in the sky?
She’s forty-one and her daddy still calls her “baby” All the folks around Brownsville say she’s crazy ‘Cause she walks dowtown with a suitcase in her hand Looking for a mysterious dark-haired man
In her younger days they called her Delta Dawn Prettiest woman you ever laid eyes on Then a man of low degree stood by her side And promised her he’d take her for his bride
Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today To take you to his mansion in the sky?
Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today To take you to his mansion in the sky?
Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today To take you to his mansion in the sky?
Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today To take you to his mansion in the sky?
The first Band album I ever bought was The Best of The Band. When I heard “The Shape I’m In” I knew I was going to like them. I knew the hits of course but the songs I never heard of at that point were great. I then started to buy their albums and loving this band. The song was off on the album Stage Fright and was a B side to the song “Time To Kill.”
There is a great version on The Last Waltz which is below. Robbie wrote the song for Richard to sing and at that time Levon, Rick, and Richard were heavy into heroin and drinking. The song peaked at #64 in Canada.
Robbie Robertson talks some about writing this song
At one time, there was talk that if you wanted to play like the angels, you had to dance with the devil—that heroin was a gateway to music supremacy. That myth was yesterday, but the power of addiction was still in full force. It hit me hard that in a band like ours, if we weren’t operating on all cylinders, it threw the whole machine off course. This was the first time that writing songs was painful for me. In some cases I couldn’t help but reflect on what was happening behind the curtain. I wrote “The Shape I’m In” for Richard to sing, “Stage Fright” for Rick, and “The W. S. Walcott Medicine Show” for Levon—all with undertones of madness and self-destruction. While watching Richard pound out the rhythm on the clavichord, I couldn’t help but see the irony as he sang out, “Oh, you don’t know, the shape I’m in.”
The Shape I’m In
Go out yonder, peace in the valley Come downtown, have to rumble in the alley Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in
Has anybody seen my lady This livin’ alone would drive me crazy Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in
I’m gonna go down by the water But I ain’t gonna jump in, no, no I’ll just be lookin’ for my maker And I hear that that’s where she’s been?
Oh, out of nine lives, I spent seven Now, how in the world do you get to Heaven Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in
I’ve just spent 60 days in the jail house For the crime of having no dough, no no Now here I am back out on the street For the crime of having nowhere to go
Save your neck or save your brother Looks like it’s one or the other Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in
Now two young kids might start a ruckus You know they feel you’re tryin’ to shuck us Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in
Never-before-seen, The Bruce McMouse Show is a concert film with a difference. Paul McCartney opens with the story of how the band came to meet the inimitable impresario Bruce McMouse. Featuring the original Wings line up, live concert footage from Wings’ 1972 European tour is interspersed with animated scenes, introducing a family of mice living under the stage. After opening the film with ‘Big Barn Bed’ – taken from Wings’ LP Red Rose Speedway – the camera takes us down through the floorboards into this charming animated world. We see Bruce McMouse regale his children with stories from his past, when son Soily rushes into the room in a whirlwind of excitement announcing that “The Wings” are playing above them.
As the concert plays on, Bruce declares to his wife Yvonne that Paul and the band need his help. Bruce then proceeds to venture on stage to offers his services as producer. As the concert progresses, the animated scenes culminate with dozens of animated mice flocking to the venue to see Wings play. The film was directed by Barry Chattington and produced by Roger Cherrill with the live elements taken from four shows in Holland and Germany in 1972.
Paul viewed the initial concert edit and realized there was great potential in the material captured. Prior to the European tour, Paul had the idea of a family of mice and sketched the characters. Picking up the idea, Eric Wylam took Paul’s sketches and created the final McMouse family. This storyline was incorporated and used as a linking theme within the concert footage. The voice-overs for the animated mice took place at the end of 1973, recorded by Paul and Linda McCartney, Deryck Guyler, Pat Coombs and Derek Nimmo.
Production stretched from 1972 to 1977 when the film was complete, however, with changes in the band’s line-up and music scene, the project was shelved. ‘The Bruce McMouse Show’has been fully restored in 2018 at Final Frame Post alongside a brand-new audio mix (stereo and 5.1) created at AIR Studios and mastered at Abbey Road.
The below trailer scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. I had that scream in my head at night and I peeked around every corner. This is a 70’s B Drive-in type movie…but I enjoyed it. I could not talk my mom into taking me to see this one in 1977…I did convince her to take me to see The Car that same year.
It’s Alive was released in a limited run in 1974. It was reissued with the below commercial in 1977 and that is when I heard that damn scream. The budget was $500,000 and the US gross was over $14,000,000 and by 1977 it climbed over $30,000,000 worldwide. Mr. Cohen did very well… there were sequels….but of course!
The Davises have had a baby but they are not sending out any announcements. Most new parents are a little scared when they have a baby. The Davises are terrified. You see there is only one thing wrong with the Davis baby… IT’S ALIVE…(insert scream)
The movie is about a couple who have a killer mutant baby but it does have some social commentary about the medicines and chemicals we take that will cause trouble…as in mutant killer babies.
It was written, produced, and directed by Larry Cohen. The couple’s name was Frank and Lenore Davis…Lenore had been given contraceptive medicine and the doctor who prescribed the drugs to Lenore was contacted by a pharmaceutical company executive. The executive acknowledges that the child’s mutation may have been caused by the drugs. He tells the doctor that the child must be destroyed to prevent the discovery of the company’s liability.
It’s Alive Cast… Cast. John P. Ryan as Frank Davis, Andrew Duggan as the Professor, Sharon Farrell as Lenore Davism, Guy Stockwell as Bob Clayton, James Dixon as Lieutenant Perkins, Michael Ansara as the Captain, and William Wellman Jr. as Charley.
The film was followed by two sequels, It Lives Again (1978) and It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987) and a remake, It’s Alive (2009).
I first heard this song in the seventies and liked it. I ordered Three Dog Night’s Greatest hits off of television. They were very successful in the late sixties and seventies…songs like Joy To The World, Family of Man, Black and White, The Show Must Go On, etc… They racked up 11 top ten hits and 3 number 1’s… and 21 songs in the Billboard 100 altogether.
They were unusual because they had not one, not two…but three lead singers.
I always wondered what “Shambala” meant…now I know. The word ‘Shambala’ has a spiritual meaning in the Buddhist religion, and some Tibetan Buddhists believe that it is a mythical kingdom or a mystical land hidden somewhere in the Himalaya mountains…
The song’s writer, Daniel Moore, told this story. I remember getting excited about the sound of the word, ‘Shambala.’ Before I wrote the song, I called a friend, Eddie Zip, who I’d been working with and telling him, ‘That word Shambala has a magic sound to it, you ought to put together a band and call it Shambala, you couldn’t lose.’ We had just recorded one of his songs titled ‘Don’t Make God’s Children Cry.’ We were getting – ELEVATED!
I wrote the words and melody, a capella, driving on the Ventura Freeway in about 10 minutes. I got home, picked up my Martin guitar and had the music finished in 5 minutes; a pretty good 15 minutes.
The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 and #4 in Canada in 1973.
This is the commercial I ordered it from back in 1970s.
This was written by the songwriter Daniel Moore, and first released by the Texas songwriter B.W. Stevenson. Moore told Songfacts: “Regarding the song, ‘Shambala,’ it was written entirely by myself, Daniel Moore, in the fall of 1972. It was recorded by Three Dog Night in December of 1972. It was recorded by B.W. Stevenson in Late February, 1973 and released two weeks before the Three Dog Night version was released. During those two weeks B.W.’s version sold 125,000 single 45s. Then Three Dog Night released their version and sold 1,250,000 single 45s.”
Later in 1973, with the Three Dog Night version of “Shambala” climbing the charts, Stevenson released a carbon copy single called “My Maria” (credited to Stevenson and Moore), which peaked at #9 US, two months after “Shambala” hit #3.
‘In 1972 my brother, Matthew, called me and informed me that he had received a letter from Dorothy Beg at Lake Pleasant, Massachusetts that told him where and who he had been in his past lives. He had sent a letter to her requesting this information. After recounting several past lives the letter ended with, ‘My messenger tells me to tell you, ‘Let your light shine in the halls of Shambala.” In the phone conversation at that point Matthew said, ‘Shambala, what the hell is that?’
So I did some research and found dozens of references to the word Shambala, the 5000-year-old word originating from Sanskrit. Some were weird, some were goofy but the one I liked was found in Alice Bailey’s Treatise On White Magic. It basically said that there was a gigantic cavern under the Gobi Desert that has a replica of every evolving human being. And when that replica begins to light up or glow (meaning you are cleaning up your act and becoming more spiritual minded or raising your consciousness to a higher level), there is point where your replica gets bright enough to warrant a spiritual teacher being sent to you.
The recording session of my demo in 1972 was with Dean Parks and Jim Varley. Dean (playing bass) was sitting with me (I was engineering, playing the acoustic guitar and singing live) in the control room. We were wearing earphones with the speakers turned off, and 50 feet away at the other end of the studio on the other side of the glass with earphones, was Jim Varley playing drums. Twenty-eight years later I had Greg Beck overdub an electric guitar and that is what you hear on this recording. That’s the only time Dean Parks and Greg Beck have played together, according to Greg.
Three Dog Night heard the song through a publisher, Lindy Blaskey, who was working at ABC Dunhill Publishing. He called me and was very excited because he had gotten such a positive reaction from Three Dog Night and their producer Richie Podler. Anyway, they cut it, it was their single and it was a hit. Bless all of their hearts.
Postscript: In the Guinness Book of World Records, under Prophecies, there is a reference to Shambala where it says, ‘Any one who furthers the name, ‘Shambala’ shall be rewarded 100 times.’ And so it is.”
This was used in a commercial television advertisement campaign for Citgo Petroleum.
Cory Wells, who along with Danny Hutton and Chuck Negron was one of three vocalists in the band, sang lead on this track. Wells died in 2015 at age 74.
Shambala
Wash away my troubles, wash away my pain With the rain in Shambala Wash away my sorrow, wash away my shame With the rain in Shambala
[Chorus] Ah, ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Everyone is helpful, everyone is kind On the road to Shambala Everyone is lucky, everyone is so kind On the road to Shambala
[Chorus]
How does your light shine, in the halls of Shambala
I can tell my sister by the flowers in her eyes On the road to Shambala I can tell my brother by the flowers in her eyes On the road to Shambala
[Chorus]
How does your light shine, in the halls of Shambala
This haunted car movie was before Christine and though it’s not as good it is entertaining. It was panned when released but it does have a 6.1 in IMDB which is not terrible. The movie resembles Jaws but with a driverless demon car instead of a shark.
It’s a cross between a science-fiction and a horror film about an angry, driverless automobile that terrorizes a small Utah town for several days, squashing one hitchhiker, two bicyclists, one sheriff, one school teacher, and assorted policemen.
While much of the plot and dialog in The Car is pretty silly, there are some terrific moments in it, like the opening scene, where two bicyclists are rammed off a high bridge, which was reportedly the highest free fall stunt of its time. There’s also a scene where the car hides in the dark, then it flies through the window of a house, running over a woman in her kitchen.
The Car cast James Brolin, Ronnie Cox, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley, R.G Armstrong, John Rubinstein, and Elizabeth Thompson.
I talked my mom into taking me to see this movie when I was ten in 1977. She gave it a big thumbs down. As B movies go you can get much worse than this movie.
The Star of the film is The Car! Designed and engineered by legendary car builder George Barris, who was also responsible for such iconic movie vehicles as the Batmobile, The Munster’s Koach and many others, The Car began life as 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III Coupe.
Guillermo Del Toro is known to drive a replica of the Lincoln from the film. He is a fan of the movie.
It has its fans and detractors but it is remembered. Below The Car in this Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode with Maggie driving while chasing and hitting Millhouse.
A great pop song by Ace and this was their only top 40 hit. Paul Carrack was the lead singer of Ace. He went on to sing for Squeeze and Mike And The Mechanics and had a solo hit with “Don’t Shed a Tear.” He also worked as a keyboardist in Roxy Music and a backup musician for Frankie Miller.
This song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, and #20 in the UK.
Many listeners believed that this was a love song. The truth is that is was about bass player Terry Comer working with other bands (he played briefly with The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver before returning to Ace). He didn’t tell the members of Ace and they felt cheated.
This was Ace’s only hit. They broke up in 1977.
The bass introduction is borrowed from “Traveling Song” by the British folk rock group Pentangle.
When singer-songwriter Paul Carrack appeared on the BBC Breakfast news programme on June 29, 2009 he was asked about the inspiration for this song. Rather than being about a two-timing lover it was, he said, about another band who were “trying to nick our bass player”. “How Long?” was one of the first songs he ever wrote and remains one of his biggest hits. It was released on the Anchor label, copyright 1974, backed by “Sniffin’ About”, and produced by John Anthony for Neptune Productions. It has been recorded many times since. Terry Comer, the bass player a rival band were trying to “nick”, returned in time to play on the original recording.
How Long
How long has this been goin’ on How long has this been goin’ on
Well, if friends with their fancy persuasion Don’t admit that it’s part of a scheme But I can’t help but have my suspicions ‘Cause I ain’t quite as dumb as I seem And you said you was never intendin’ To break up our scene in this way But there ain’t any use in pretendin’ It could happen to us any day
How long has this been goin’ on How long has this been goin’ on
—- musical interlude —-
Oh, your friends with their fancy persuasion Don’t admit that it’s part of a scheme But I can’t help but have my suspicion ‘Cause I ain’t quite as dumb as I seem Oh, you said you was never intending To break up our scene in this way But there ain’t any use in pretendin’ It could happen to us any day
And how long has this been going on How long has this been going on How long
How long has this been going on How long has this been going on How long has this been going on How long How long has this been going o
I’ve been music heavy lately and wanted to live up more to the “eclectic” part of the blog’s name.
In first grade…I found the wonderous invention called Play-Doh. I loved making things and the smell of play-doh… I had a friend in school named Kevin…he would eat Play-Doh at times…I didn’t go that far. Kevin would deny eating it but when he smiled the teacher would see yellow, blue, and red all between his teeth… He would also eat crayons…Lost touch with Kevin after second grade when I assigned to a different school in our area which was closer…maybe that was for the best…
Today if I ever walk by Play-Doh I have to pick it up and do something with it. When my son was a kid we would make all sorts of things. I always loved taking the top off of a new one and trying to keep the colors separated…
Kevin where ever you are now…this post is for you.
In the 1930s Noah McVicker created a substance that looked like putty out of flour, water, salt, boric acid, and mineral oil. His family’s soap company — Kutol Products — in Cincinnati, Ohio, marketed his creation as a wallpaper cleaner.
It wasn’t until after World War II that Noah McVicker’s nephew, Joseph McVicker soon realized that Kutol Products’ wallpaper cleaner also could be used as modeling clay. In 1955, he tested the product in Cincinnati-area schools and daycares. The following year, the Woodward & Lothrop Department Store in Washington, DC, began to sell the clay, which McVicker had named Play-Doh. Noah and Joseph McVicker applied for a patent for Play-Doh in 1958, but the United States Patent Office did not officially patent the clay until January 26, 1965.
Captain Kangaroo had a part in the popularity.
When it was just a new company with no advertising budget, Joe McVicker talked his way in to visit Bob Keeshan, better known as Captain Kangaroo. Although the company couldn’t pay the show outright, McVicker offered them two percent of Play-Doh sales for featuring the product once a week. Keeshan loved the compound and began featuring it three times weekly.
Today, Play-Doh is owned by Hasbro that continues to make and sell the product through its Playskool line. In 2003, the Toy Industry Association added Play-Dohto its “Century of Toys List,” which contains the 100 most memorable and creative toys of the last 100 years.
Since its “invention,” over 700 million pounds of Play-Dohhave been sold around the world!
Maybe Ringo’s best solo song. Ringo is the only songwriter credited on this, but he had a lot of help from George Harrison, who was very generous in giving him full writing credit. The track (less Ringo’s vocal and horn parts) was already completed when Harrison gave it to him, and it included a scratch vocal by George (youtube video at the bottom).
The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada and #4 in the UK in 1971.
Pete Ham and Tom Evans from Badfinger are on this track.
If you listen carefully during the guitar solo, the backup singers throw in a “Hare Krishna,” which was mixed way down. This is a nod to George Harrison’s 1970 hit “My Sweet Lord,” where he sings the mantra.
This was Ringo’s first big hit as a solo artist (his cover of “Beaucoups of Blues” made #87 US a year earlier). From 1971-1975 he had a string of hits, including two #1s: “Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen.”
Peter Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger sang on the intro to this song (“It don’t come easy, ya know it don’t come easy”). Badfinger was signed to The Beatles’ Apple Records, and helped out George Harrison’s first solo album.
This song served Ringo well throughout his career. When he assembled his first “All Starr Band” in 1989 (featuring Dr. John, Clarence Clemmons, Joe Walsh and Billy Preston), this was the opening number on their tour. Throughout several subsequent incarnations of the band, “It Don’t Come Easy” typically remained at the top of setlist when they performed live.
Ringo performed this song with his good friend, musical cohort, and brother-in-law Joe Walsh when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.
Here is the George Harrison version
It Don’t Come Easy
One, two, One, two, three, four!
It don’t come easy You know it don’t come easy It don’t come easy You know it don’t come easy
Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues And you know it don’t come easy You don’t have to shout or leap about You can even play them easy
Open up your heart, let’s come together Use a little love And we will make it work out better
I don’t ask for much, I only want your trust And you know it don’t come easy And this love of mine keeps growing all the time And you know it don’t come easy
Peace, remember peace is how we make it Here within your reach If you’re big enough to take it
Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues And you know it don’t come easy You don’t have to shout or leap about You can even play them easy
Peace, remember peace is how we make it Here within your reach If you’re big enough to take it
I don’t ask for much, I only want your trust And you know it don’t come easy And this love of mine keeps growing all the time And you know it don’t come easy
This was on the great album Blood on the Tracks. In my opinion Bob’s best album of the seventies. When I first got this album I couldn’t quit listening to it and I really wore this song out. I could sing this song in my sleep…I know every word because it’s ingrained in my head.
This would make my top 10-15 Bob Dylan songs. I’ve seen Bob 8 times and the first 6 times I saw him I kept waiting for this song because with Bob you don’t know what you will get live. He finally played it on the 7th time and I was surprised the next time because it was the only older song he played.
The song peaked at #31 in the Billboard 100 in 1975.
Talking to Ron Rosenbaum, Bob Dylan once told him that he’d written “Tangled up in Blue”, after spending a weekend immersed in Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue.
Dylan wrote this in the summer of 1974 at a farm he had just bought in Minnesota. He had been touring with The Band earlier that year.
Blood On The Tracks was Dylan’s first album under his new contract with Columbia Records. He left the label a year earlier to record for David Geffen’s label, Asylum Records.
This was influenced by the art classes Dylan was taking with Norman Raeben, a popular teacher in New York. Dylan credits Raeben for making him look at things from a nonlinear perspective, which was reflected in his songs.
This is a very personal song for Dylan. It deals with the changes he was going through, including his marriage falling apart.
Dylan sometimes introduced this on stage by saying it took “Ten years to live and two years to write.”
Tangled Up In Blue
Early one mornin’ the sun was shinin’
I was layin’ in bed
Wondrin’ if she’d changed at all
If her hair was still red
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like
Mama’s homemade dress
Papa’s bank book wasn’t big enough
And I was standin’ on the side of the road
Rain fallin’ on my shoes
Heading out for the east coast
Lord knows I’ve paid some dues
Gettin’ through
Tangled up in blue
She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam I guess
But I used a little too much force
We drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out west
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin’ away
I heard her say over my shoulder
We’ll meet again some day
On the avenue
Tangled up in blue
I had a job in the great north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much
And one day the axe just fell
So I drifted down to New Orleans
Where I happened to be employed
Workin’ for a while on a fishin’ boat
Right outside of Delacroix
But all the while I was alone
The past was close behind
I seen a lot of women
But she never escaped my mind
And I just grew
Tangled up in blue
She was workin’ in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer
I just kept lookin’ at the side of her face
In the spotlight so clear
And later on as the crowd thinned out
I’s just about to do the same
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me “Don’t I know your name?”
I muttered somethin’ under my breath
She studied the lines on my face
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces
Of my shoe
Tangled up in blue
She lit a burner on the stove
And offered me a pipe
I thought you’d never say hello, she said
You look like the silent type
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century
And everyone of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin’ coal
Pourin’ off of every page
Like it was written in my soul
From me to you
Tangled up in blue
I lived with them on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafes at night
And revolution in the air
Then he started into dealing with slaves
And something inside of him died
She had to sell everything she owned
And froze up inside
And when finally the bottom fell out
I became withdrawn
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keepin’ on
Like a bird that flew
Tangled up in blue
So now I’m goin’ back again
I got to get to her somehow
All the people we used to know
They’re an illusion to me now
Some are mathematicians
Some are carpenters’ wives
Don’t know how it all got started
I don’t know what they’re doin’ with their lives
But me, I’m still on the road
Headin’ for another joint
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point
Of view
Tangled up in blue
I’ve always liked this song. It’s a bit of a soap opera but it’s a really good soul song. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 in 1970. The guitar had a rubberband type effect that was used on this song.
Because of the subject matter, Freda Payne did not want to record this at first. She thought the song was about a woman who was a virgin or sexually naïve and felt it was more suitable for a teenager. When Payne objected to this song, Ron Dunbar (co-writer of the song) said to her, “Don’t worry. You don’t have to like them! Just sing it,” and she did. Little did she know that this song would become her biggest hit and would give her her first record of gold.
The lead guitarist on this track was Ray Parker Jr., who later found success with the theme song for the comedy movie Ghostbusters.
There is some mystery to this song. Some people think it is about an impotent man, while others think it is about a frigid woman. In a Songfacts interview with Lamont Dozier, who co-wrote the song, he explained: “The story was, the girl found out this guy was not all there. He had his own feelings about giving his all. He wanted to love this girl, he married the girl, but he couldn’t perform on his wedding night because he had other issues about his sexuality. I’ll put it that way.
It was about this guy that was basically gay, and he couldn’t perform. He loved her, but he couldn’t do what he was supposed to do as a groom, as her new husband.”
This was released on Invictus Records, which Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland formed after they left Motown in 1968. Holland-Dozier-Holland produced the track and wrote it with their collaborator Ron Dunbar, but because of their dispute with Motown, the H-D-H trio couldn’t put their names on the label and credited themselves as “Edythe Wayne.” Members of the Motown house band The Funk Brothers played on the track.
Freda Payne is the older sister of Scherrie Payne, the final lead singer of The Supremes. Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote many of The Supremes’ hits.
According to 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Freda Payne said of this song: “It is about a wedding night that didn’t work out. I wondered why a girl would have a problem on her wedding night and why they would be in separate rooms, but they said, ‘Just learn it.’ I had no idea that it would be such a big hit.”
Band of Gold
Now that you’re gone, All that’s left is a band of gold All that’s left of the dreams I hold Is a band of gold And the memories of what love could be If you were still here with me
You took me from the shelter of my mother I had never known or loved any other We kissed after taking vows But that night on our honeymoon, We stayed in separate rooms
I wait in the darkness of my lonely room Filled with sadness, filled with gloom Hoping soon That you’ll walk back through that door And love me like you tried before
Since you’ve been gone, All that’s left is a band of gold All that’s left of the dreams I hold Is a band of gold And the dream of what love could be If you were still here with me
Ohhh
Don’t you know that I wait In the darkness of my lonely room Filled with sadness, filled with gloom Hoping soon That you’ll walk back through that door And love me like you tried before
Since you’ve been gone, All that’s left is a band of gold All that’s left of the dreams I hold Is a band of gold And the dream of what love could be If you were still here with me
Since you’ve been gone, All that’s left is a band of gold All that’s left of the dreams I hold Is a band of gold And the dream of what love could be If you were still here with me
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