I’ve always liked the Clash. Love the London Calling album and really started to listen to them when Combat Rock came out. I’ve never known much about them. This was the first song I ever knew by the Clash when I heard it on the radio in 1980.
They started off as a punk band but The Clash, unlike some other Punk bands, could really play and sing well…and above all else write some great songs. This song was written by
The song was released in 1979 and reached #23 on the Billboard Charts. It is listed by Rolling Stone Magazine at 298 in the top 500 songs of all time. Train in Vain was written by Mick Jones and Joe Strummer.
On the original vinyl copy of the album “Train Is Vain” isn’t listed on the tracklisting on the sleeve. The story is that the song was recorded for an NME promotional flexi-disc once the London Calling sessions were done, and the flexi-disc idea then fell through, leaving the song with no home. The band hastily tacked the song onto the end of the album just before vinyl pressing, but the sleeve had already been designed and there was no time to add it to the tracklisting. The only clue of it’s existence is in the run-out groove on Side 4, where the name is carved into the vinyl. On all subsequent releases (including the CD copy) “Train In Vain” is included on the tracklisting on the sleeve.
Probably my personal favorite sitcom of the seventies. It would not be rated as the best by many people or critics…I just like Newhart’s dry sense of humor. Bob Newhart also was in a sitcom in the 80’s called “Newhart” that was set in Vermont that sometimes people confuse with this show.
This show was set in Chicago with Bob playing psychologist Bob Hartley. He lived with his wife Emily Hartley in an apartment complex. He worked in an office building with a receptionist named Carol and an Orthodontist name Jerry. There is also a neighbor named Howard Borden…who sometimes can be just a little too out there (or dumb) but he is more like Bob and Emily’s child at times.
The show ran from 1972 – 1978 with 142 episodes. It was never a Nielson Rating giant despite following the Mary Tyler Moore Show but it was in the top 20 in it’s first few years.
A college drinking game originated from this show. Every time you heard “Hi Bob” you would consume alcohol…sounds like a better time than Yahtzee.
The show’s plot takes place usually in three different places. Bob at home with Emily, Bob with his patients, and Bob with Carol and Jerry. Elliot Carlin was a patient of Bob’s and the most pessimistic character I ever saw on a sitcom. He thought the worse of people and himself and often would puncture Bob’s optimism.
This show was part of CBS’s Super Saturday night lineup that featured All In The Family, The Jeffersons, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show and then The Carol Burnett Show. All of those shows are remembered today.
It is a smartly written sitcom…the two episodes I would recommend is “Motel” in season 2 episode 2 and the classic episode “Over the River and through the Woods” season 4 episode 11.
If you like a dry sense of humor this show is for you. Some trivia about the show, the bedspread, and sheets in Bob and Emily’s bedroom were designed by Suzanne Pleshette. She designed bedding for JP Stevens Utica brand.
The Bob Newhart Show might be the driest American sitcom to ever attain anything like major success. While the show was buoyed by running after The Mary Tyler Moore Show for much of its run, making it more of a beneficiary of a good time slot than a breakout hit, in some ways, Bob Newhart has aged even better than that series. Mary Tyler Moore was more historically important, but the center of the show is the uneasy tension arising from the increased entry of women into the workplace in the ’60s and ’70s, which gives the series a certain quaintness in 2014. Bob Newhart—produced by MTM Enterprises, the studio behind Mary Tyler Moore—is about the perils of trying to lead a mentally sound and fulfilling life in the morass of modern society. It’s a subject that will never go out of fashion—even if the series’ ’70s trappings and outfits seem occasionally ridiculous.
The Bob Newhart Show has gotten even more modern in tone with the passage of time, an unusual trick for a TV show. The complete series, collected on DVD for the first time by Shout Factory recently, centers on the home and work lives of Dr. Bob Hartley (Newhart), a Chicago psychologist whose life is rigidly defined by dealing with his patients—both individually and in the group therapy sessions that became a famous source of jokes for the show. The personalities at his office—orthodontist Jerry (Peter Bonerz) and their receptionist, Carol (Marcia Wallace)—are rarely the draw for the show, but they’re perfectly fine as foils both for Bob and his patients.
It’s on the other side of the series that the show crackles to life. When Bob goes home, he arrives to his wife, Emily (Suzanne Pleshette), and the relationship between the two is the thing about the show that most feels like something no network executive would ever greenlight today. The two are deeply in love, and reading between the lines of their dialogue also reveals they’re having lots of sex. But the show codes their conversation as their sex, taking a tip from the great screwball comedies of the ’30s and ’40s. There’s nothing they love so much as ribbing each other with jokes that would be acidic in lesser hands but feel affectionate coming from the mouths of Newhart and Pleshette. What’s more, the two don’t have children and rarely discuss having them. This was because Newhart didn’t want the show to turn into one where he played off of cute kids, but it played as quietly revolutionary at the time and even more so now. The Hartleys are eternally childless, finding their fulfillment in their professional lives and each other, building a marriage that’s more about finding a solid partner to navigate life with than anything else.
The Bob Newhart Show is also notable for breaking down into three rough eras of two seasons each. Where many other sitcoms of this era (the best ever for American sitcoms) were shepherded by a handful of the same producers from start to finish, Bob Newhart began life as a sort of drier, chillier riff on Mary Tyler Moore, under the tutelage of Lorenzo Music and David Davis. This version of the show, its weakest but still an enjoyable one, ran for the first two years, before spending the next two seasons with Tom Patchett and Jay Tarses working first as head writers, then as showrunners. Tarses’ darkly misanthropic streak and lack of love for the sitcom form blended well with a show about psychoanalysis, and the series became one of the darker sitcoms in TV history. By its fifth (and best) season, it was practically death-obsessed, with frequent riffs on suicide and serious psychological conditions. Yet these final two seasons (which gave some of the best TV writers in history their big break) also up an absurdist quality that was already in the show to quantities that hadn’t been seen in the sitcom since the heyday of Green Acres.
That absurdism also taught future writers who would work on shows starring Newhart a valuable lesson: Newhart, in and of himself, is not the driver of the story. He is, instead, the reactor, the modern man trapped in an absurd system and forced to remark quietly on how bizarre it is. Despite being deliberately low-concept, The Bob Newhart Show is one of the weirdest sitcoms in history, especially as it goes on. Even the characters who seem to be the most traditional sitcom types, like Bill Daily’s Howard Borden, go beyond what they initially seem to be (in Howard’s case, a generic dumb guy) and take on a specificity that other shows would avoid. Howard, for instance, is a navigator for an airline, who has terrible luck in love and a tendency to spiral blame for things he’s done wrong outward at others. What seemed like a generic riff on Mary’s Ted Baxter early in the show’s run becomes something else entirely—not a buffoon but, rather, a man limited by his own perceptions.
All of this reaches its apex in the show’s best character, Jack Riley’s Elliot Carlin, one of Bob’s patients and an almost perfect foil for Dr. Hartley, his dark, dour demeanor acting like a funhouse-mirror version of his therapist. The scenes between the two can feel like minimalist one-act plays at times, with Newhart and Riley bouncing off of each other in barely varying monotones that take on the vibe of complex business negotiations disguised as therapy sessions. In Carlin and Hartley, the show found two very similar men who looked at the dehumanizing state of American society of the ’70s and chose wildly different reactions. Hartley, an optimist, chose to believe people could improve themselves; Carlin, a pessimist, was pretty sure they never would. The genius of The Bob Newhart Show was how it knew Carlin was right but admired Bob Hartley for trying anyway.
This 1970 George Harrison song is off of the great album “All Things Must Pass.” It is often overlooked but its one of my favorite George Harrison songs. George wrote it in 1966 but it didn’t see daylight until 1970. He brought it up on the Let It Be sessions but he later said that John Lennon rejected it. That I don’t understand…I Me Mine was passed but not this one? I like “I Me Mine” but not like this one. Maybe George did more work on it afterward or it was the length of the song.
It resembles Hey Jude in its structure. It was the B side to My Sweet Lord which went to #1 on the charts. In Canada, this song was the preferred song and it went to #1 in Canada.
No one benefitted from the break up of the Beatles like George. He had so many songs that we had written and could not get enough of them on Beatles albums, understandably so with Lennon and McCartney. He released a 3 album set called “All Things Must Pass” in 1970.
George began recording this Isn’t It A Pity on June 2, 1970. Phil Spector produced it using his trademark Wall of Sound with heavy reverb. On the remastered version, the reverb is toned down a little.
This is from Timothy White’s interview with George Harrison that appeared in the Dec. 30, 2000, issue of Billboard:
Had you intended songs like “Isn’t It A Pity” to be things just for you?
No, I mean, this is the funny thing: imagine if the Beatles had gone on and on. Well, the songs on “All Things Must Pass,” maybe some of them I would probably only just got ’round to do now, you know, with my quota that I was allowed [laughs]. “Isn’t It A Pity” would just have been a Beatles song, wouldn’t it? And now that could be said for each one of us. “Imagine” would have been a Beatles song, but it was with John’s songs. It just happened that the Beatles finished.
What was the inspiration for “Isn’t It A Pity”?
It’s just an observation of how society and myself were or are. We take each other for granted — and forget to give back. That was really all it was about.
It’s like “love lost and love gained between 16- and 20-year-olds.” But I must explain: Once, at the time I was at Warner Bros. and I wrote that song “Blood From A Clone” [on the 1981 “Somewhere In England” album], that was when they were having all these surveys out on the street to find out what was a hit record. And apparently, as I was told, a hit record is something that is about “love gained or lost between 14- and 19-year-olds,” or something really dumb like that.
So that’s why I wrote “Isn’t Is A Pity” [laughs]; I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll get in on that!”
“Isn’t It A Pity”
Isn’t it a pity Now, isn’t it a shame How we break each other’s hearts And cause each other pain How we take each other’s love Without thinking anymore Forgetting to give back Isn’t it a pitySome things take so long But how do I explain When not too many people Can see we’re all the same And because of all their tears Their eyes can’t hope to see The beauty that surrounds them Isn’t it a pity
Isn’t it a pity Isn’t is a shame How we break each other’s hearts And cause each other pain How we take each other’s love Without thinking anymore Forgetting to give back Isn’t it a pity
Forgetting to give back Isn’t it a pity Forgetting to give back Now, isn’t it a pity
[6 times, fade the 6th:] What a pity What a pity, pity, pity What a pity What a pity, pity, pity
I first read about this concert-festival in a Grateful Dead biography… There is not much video footage from the concert. I never could understand why this concert didn’t hold up in history like some others like The Atlanta Pop festival and others. I’m not saying it should have been remembered like Woodstock because it’s cultural impact was like no others…but this drew more than any other festival including Woodstock.
An estimated 600,000 people came to this concert on July 28, 1973, in Watkins Glen N.Y. 45 years ago. Maybe the reason it is not as remembered is that only three bands performed…but the three bands were giant bands in their prime. The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers, and The Band.
From the bands themselves, almost all agree the sound check on Friday was better than the concerts.
Perspective about the concert by a member from each band.
Robbie Robertson from his book Testimony
Then we got a request from Bill Graham, who was putting together a show “just up the highway from us” at the Watkins Glen Raceway. We’d be performing with the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead. Playing some gigs could help us get “back on the stick,” as they say. We went up to Watkins Glen the day before the show for the sound check. Bill Graham said that the Dead would go on first and play for three or four hours—that was part of their thing, giving the audience their money’s worth. “Until the drugs wear off,” said Bill, laughing. We’d go on in the late afternoon, and the Allmans would take over at sundown. As we were leaving the sound check, it looked like cars were heading toward the racetrack from every direction. Bill said he expected maybe a hundred thousand or more. When we came back the next day, we couldn’t believe our eyes. Hundreds of thousands of people had showed up, and more just kept coming and coming. The crowds mowed down the high chain-link fences around the racetrack and filled the area as far as the eye could see. Bill was running around trying to make people pay admission, but the mobs were out of control. When it came time for the Band to take the stage, it started pouring. As we waited, hoping it was going to let up, Bill came over. “They’ve determined there are 650,000 people here. It’s the biggest concert in history.” The news was somewhere between an incredible accomplishment and a huge disaster. The rain started letting up, and Garth played some churchy, rainy-day keyboard sounds out over the crowd. When it was safe to go on, we decided to start our set with Chuck Berry’s “Back to Memphis.” And wouldn’t you know, as Levon sang that baby, the sun came out.
Gregg Allman from My Cross to Bear
Right before Brothers and Sisters came out, we played the festival at Watkins Glen with the Band and the Grateful Dead, in front of six hundred thousand people—the biggest show in history to that point. People always talk about Woodstock. Watkins Glen was like three Woodstocks. I think actually it might’ve been a little too big. They should have had people all the way around the raceway, and maybe had the stage in the center revolving real slowly, do a revolution in a minute. That’s not that complicated. A show like Watkins Glen was uncomfortable, because you know that you’re getting the show across to this many people, but you still got two times that many behind them. You could finish a song, take your guitar off, put it in the case, and latch it up before the last guy heard the last note. Sound ain’t all that fast, not compared to light.
When you’re playing in that situation, you’re kind of thinking about the end. Not that you’re wishing it to be over, but you can’t even hear yourself—that was back before we had the in-ear monitors. Everything was so loud. You just walk out there and start to wince before you even start playing. It’s hard to get any kind of coziness, any kind of feel with the audience. I guess there’s something about that many people seeing you all at once that’s real nice, but it’s just too much. You’re just like a little squeak in the middle of a bomb going off. But it was interesting, and it was a pretty fun day. People were OD’ing all over the place. And of course, Uncle Bill was there, which cured everything. It was exciting to be there and see it—and to be able to make ’em stand up, now that was something else.
Bill Kreutzmann from Deal
We made some questionable business decisions and we couldn’t sell records, but we sure could sell tickets. We sold around 150,000 tickets for a single show at a racetrack in Watkins Glen, New York, on July, 28, 1973. Yes, and more than 600,000 people ended up coming out for it. The lineup was just us, the Allman Brothers, and the Band. That show, called the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for what, at the time, was the largest audience ever assembled at a rock concert. In fact, that record may still hold today, at least in the U.S., and some have even proposed that it was the largest gathering in American history. Originally, the bill was supposed to just be the Dead and the Allmans, but our respective camps fought with the promoter over which band would get headliner status. The solution was that both bands would co-headline and they’d add a third, “support” act. The friendly (“-ish”) competition between us and the Allman Brothers carried through to the event itself. And yet, the memory that I’m most fond of and hold most dear from that whole weekend was jamming backstage with Jaimoe, one of the Allman’s drummers. We were just sitting in the dressing room, banging out rhythms, and that was a lot of fun for me. Jaimoe backed Otis Redding and Sam & Dave before becoming a founding member of the Allman Brothers, where he remains to this day. He’s a soulful drummer and just an incredible guy who is impossible not to like. As for the show itself, it is a well-known fact that the Grateful Dead always blew the big ones. Watkins Glen was no exception. However, we still got a great night of music out of it—the night before. The show took place on a Saturday, but by Friday afternoon there were already about 90,000 people in front of the stage. I’ve heard others place that number closer to 200,000. Either way, the audience was already many times the size of any of our regular shows, and the show was still a full day away. The only duty we had on Friday was to do a soundcheck, and even that was somewhat optional. The Band soundchecked a couple of songs. The Allman Brothers soundchecked for a bit. Then, perhaps spurred on by our friendly rivalry, we decided to one-up both bands by turning our soundcheck into a full-on, two-set show. Naturally, without any of the pressure of the “official show” the next day, we really let loose and played a good one. There was an eighteen-minute free-form jam that eventually made it onto So Many Roads, one of our archival box sets. It’s good music, all right, and it still holds its own. On the day of the actual show, we had to fly into the venue via helicopter because the roads were all backed up, like what happened at Woodstock. People left their cars on the side of the road and walked for miles to the gig. I remember looking down from the helicopter and seeing the most incredible impressionist painting, a Monet of heads, shoulders, tie-dyes, baseball caps, and backpacks, packed front to back. You couldn’t see the ground for the crowd. To this day, I’ve never seen anything else like that. Nowadays at large music events and festivals, they have golf carts for artists and crews to get around, but back then they used little motor scooters. Early, during the day of our supposed “soundcheck,” I commandeered one of these scooters and, because the venue was an actual racetrack, I decided to do a lap. This was before the gates were opened. The scooter went maybe fifteen or eighteen miles an hour, something stupid like that, and it took forever just to do one lap. But I did it. And that’s when I first started to get a feel for the scale of the event and just how large it was. During the Summer Jam itself, I watched the other bands play and I honestly thought the Allman Brothers played better on the big day than we did. As for the Band, well, they always sounded great.
If you have read this long…below is some crowd video and a little of the music.
This is my first attempt at a list. I have picked what I think were the top 20 double A-Sided singles in pop/ rock. I feel good until number 5…after that it gets hard. When I made the list I wasn’t counting how many copies they sold or just chart history. I tried to put their importance in history into account. and my preference…which of course means nothing but it’s fun…
Beatles – Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane The number 1 position is the only position that didn’t give me any trouble…
Beatles – Hey Jude/Revolution – What a single this is… Two of the Beatles best- known songs together for their first Apple release. A great way to start the Apple label.
Rolling Stones – Honky Tonk Women/You Can’t Always Get What You Want The Stones released this in 1969 and Honky Tonk Women when to number 1
Elvis – Don’t Be Cruel/Hound DogThis is cool fifties Elvis and untouchable. This record influenced young rockers all over the world.
Beatles – Something/Come Together George finally gets an A side and he runs with it and you have Come Together as the B side.
Rolling Stones – Ruby Tuesday / Let’s Spend the Night TogetherNo Chicago blues here but beautifully crafted pop.
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Proud Mary/Born On The Bayou This was the major breakthrough single for CCR and they kept coming.
The Band – Up On Cripple Creek/The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down The quality of this single is outstanding. Neither was a top 20 hit but they are still played to this day.
Beatles – Paperback Writer/Rain The bass jumps out at you on these recordings. Paul plays a Rickenbacker and boosted the level in the studio
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Down on the Corner / Fortunate Son Fortunate Son was John Fogerty’s angriest song and it made his feelings known.
Beatles – I Want to Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There The single that broke the Beatles in America. I like some of the other Beatle singles more but this one was huge and maybe the most important of their career.
Chuck Berry – Johnny B. Goode/Around and Around Johnny B. Goode is the song ever bar band is required to know. The guitar riff is eternal.
Rolling Stones – Bitch/Brown Sugar If I had to explain to an alien what Rock and Roll was all about without talking…I would hand them a picture of Keith Richards and a copy of Brown Sugar.
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Travelin’ Band / Who’ll Stop the Rain After playing Woodstock John went home and wrote Who’ll Stop the Rain
Sam Cooke – Shake/A Change Is Gonna Come A Change Is Gonna Come speaks for itself. What a beautiful song.
Queen – We Are The Champions/We Will Rock You Two of Rocks biggest anthems was released in 1977 and you could not go anywhere without hearing both
Beach Boys – Wouldn’t It Be Nice / God Only Knows God Only Knows is one of the most beautiful sounding songs ever.
Buddy Holly – Peggy Sue / Everyday Peggy Sue is probably the song Buddy is most remembered for…Everyday is a great song in itself… Buddy was a huge influence on The Beatles.
Beach Boys – I Get Around/Don’t Worry Baby I Get Around went to number 1 but Don’t Worry Baby is the reason this song is on the list.
Elvis Presley – Mystery Train / I Forgot to Remember to Forget Two classics by Elvis. Mystery Train’s guitar sound is just haunting.
Honorable Mentions
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Up Around the Bend / Run Through the Jungle
Ricky Nelson – Travelin’ Man / Hello Mary Lou
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising / Lodi
Chuck Berry – Sweet Little Sixteen / Reelin’ and Rocking
Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze / The Wind Cries Mary
Sam Cooke – Bring It on Home to Me / Having a Party
Ritchie Valens – Donna / La Bamba
John Fogerty – Rock and Roll Girls / Centerfield
Sly & the Family Stone – Stand! / I Want to Take You Higher
I thought about what would be the most recognizable riffs in rock music. This doesn’t mean I like these the best… I’m sure I missed many more. They are in no particular order.
Smoke On The Water – Probably the most well-known riff of Rock and Roll. I’ve heard so many beginning guitar players butcher this one… and I was one of them at one time.
Satisfaction – This helped start Keith Richards on his way to becoming The Human Riff. The intro is immediately recognizable.
Daytripper – John Lennon was no slouch creating memorable riffs. I Feel Fine, Yer Blues and Daytripper…My personal favourite is And Your Bird Can See
Black Dog – To my surprise, this riff was not Jimmy Page…it was written by the very underrated John Paul Jones
You Really Got Me – As soon as that early raw distorted guitar starts you know the very English Ray Davies is about to sing.
Another One Bites the Dust – It’s a Bass intro that won’t leave your head. When it came out I could not go anywhere without hearing someone hum, whistle, or sing it…it is infectious
Purple Haze – Jimi’s intro that shot him in the stratosphere.
Wild Thing and Louie Louie – Same three-chord pattern but you know what they are right away.
Baba O’ Riley – As soon as you hear the first 2 seconds…you know what it is.
Back in Black – AC/DC using the same chords over and over to great effect.
Honourable Mention… Hard Days Night, Can’t Explain, Sunshine of Your Love, Sweet Home Alabama.
This is another song I discovered watching Life On Mars. I never heard of the song much less Lindisfarne. It’s a feel-good, quirky song with bright harmonies. It was released in 1971 and went to number 5 in the UK.
The song was written by Lindisfarne member Rod Clements and sung by Ray Jackson. Some say the song parallels Mr Tamborine Man by Bob Dylan. I love finding “new” old music to listen to. Life On Mars provided me with a lot of music I never heard.
The mandolin solo in Maggie May by Rod Stewart was played by Ray Jackson. On the “Every Picture Tells A Story”album liner notes, it is stated that “The mandolin is played by the mandolin player in Lindisfarne. The name slips my mind.”
Meet Me On The Corner
Hey mister dream seller Where have you been. Tell me have you dreams I can see? I came along, just to bring you this song, Can you spare one dream for me?
You wont have met me, And you’ll soon forget. So don’t mind me tugging at your sleeve. I’m asking you, If I can fix a rendezvous, For your dreams are all I believe.
[Chorus] Meet me on the corner, When the lights are coming on, And I’ll be there. I promise I’ll be there. Down the empty streets, We’ll disappear into the dawn, If you have dreams enough to share.
Lay down your bundles, Of rags and reminders, And spread your wears on the ground. Well I’ve got time, If you’re dealing mine, I’m just hanging around.
[Chorus]
Hey mister dream seller, Where have you been. Tell me have you dreams I can see? I came along, just to bring you this song, Can you spare one dream for me?
Some songs you don’t expect to hear a cover of…this is one of them.
I bought this single in 1976 in a local record store we had in our small town called Sounds and Scenes (long gone but I love the name). I liked the song Good Vibrations and didn’t know at the time who did the original version.
He did an album called Faithful, full of covers and he performed them to the letter. I’ve listened to them and they are close but this one is really on it. He did Rain, Strawberry Fields, If Six Was Nine, and Bob Dylan’s Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine.
Todd Rundgren is very talented and I’m a fan of him and he did a great duplicate version of this song. My question now is why? He got so close…you have to wonder why he did it in the first place. But…who am I to question Todd Rundgren?
I usually don’t like when an artist covers a song and they change it so much you cannot tell what the song is… not a problem with this one…but I do like for an artist to put something of him or herself in it…Todd does exactly what he says in the album name… he was very faithful to these songs.
I got this album in 1986 and have never stopped listening to it. This is one of my favorite Springsteen’s albums. It was his debut album in 1973 and there is not a song on it I don’t’ like… It’s not very polished but that is ok. The songs have a stream of conscious feel to them. The album was critically praised but did not have huge sales.
The most famous song on the album is “Blinded By The Light” which was covered later by Manfred Mann Earth’s Band that peaked at #1 in 1977. They also covered another song off the album called “Spirit of the Night” which peaked at #20 in 1977.
Personally, I like Bruce’s versions of both songs much more. “It’s Hard to be a Saint in the City” is another great track and one of the most powerful songs he ever wrote. “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”
I hear Dylan and a Van Morrison influence in Bruce’s first album. It is rough and raw but worth the price of admission. My personal favorite is “Spirit of the Night.” This song hints at some of the characters and places that start populating Bruce’s musical world.
The song Growin’ Up is a complex and honest look at growing up and rebellion. Some lyrics…
“I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere, and you know it’s really hard to hold your breath
I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared, I was the cosmic kid in full costume dress
Well, my feet they finally took root in the earth, but I got me a nice little place in the stars
And I swear I found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car
I hid in the mother breast of the crowd, but when they said, “Pull down,” I pulled up
Ooh…growin’ up
Ooh…growin’ up”
This is a crazy good debut album. I like it a little better than his second album “The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle” but both albums were building up to everything crystallizing in his third…Born to Run.
Track Listing
Blinded By The Light
Growin’ Up
Mary Queen Of Arkansas
Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?
Lost In The Flood
The Angel
For You
Spirit In The Night
It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City
Spirit of the Night
Crazy Janey and her mission man were back in the alley trading hands
‘Long came Wild Billy with his friend G-Man all duded up for Saturday night
Well, Billy slammed on his coaster brakes and said, “Anybody wanna go on up to Greasy Lake?
It’s about a mile down on the dark side of route eighty-eight, I got a bottle of rose so let’s try it
We’ll pick up Hazy Davy and Killer Joe and I’ll take you all out to where the gypsy angels go
They’re built like light
Ooh, and they dance like spirits in the night” (all night)
In the night (all night)
Oh, you don’t know what they can do to you
Spirits in the night (all night)
Oh, in the night (all night)
Stand right up now and let it shoot through you
Well now Wild young Billy was a crazy cat and he shook some dust out of his coonskin cap
He said, “Trust some of this, it’ll show you where you’re at, or at least it’ll help you really feel it”
Well, by the time we made it up to Greasy Lake I had my head out the window and Janey’s fingers were in the cake
I think I really dug her ’cause I was too loose to fake
I said, “I’m hurt,” she said, “Honey, let me heal it”
And we danced all night to a soul fairy band
And she kissed me just right like only a lonely angel can
She felt so nice, just as soft as a spirit in the night (all night)
In the night (all night)
Oh, Janey don’t know what she do to you
Like a spirit in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
Stand right up and I let her shoot through me
Now the night was bright and the stars threw light on Billy and Davy
Dancing in the moonlight
They were down near the water in a stone mud fight
Killer Joe gone passed out on the lawn
Well now Hazy Davy got really hurt, he ran into the lake in just his socks and a shirt
Me and Crazy Janey was making love in the dirt, singing our birthday songs
Janey said it was time to go
So we closed our eyes and said goodbye to gypsy angel row, felt so right
Together we moved like spirits in the night (all night)
In the night (all night)
Oh, you don’t know what they can do to you
Them spirits in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
Oh, stand right up and let it shoot through you
Like a spirit in the night (all night)
All night (all night)
All night (all night)
All night (all night)
All night (all night)
All night (all night)
All night, ooh, ooh, man, all night
The night
Be-da-ba the night
In the night
I didn’t know much about Ronnie Lane when I watched this documentary. It covers his childhood through his tragic death and the period after he left the Faces. He was loved by his peers and a talented musician and songwriter.
Ronnie’s mom had Multiple Sclerosis and Ronnie was in denial about himself until he was diagnosed with it. I didn’t know about the documentary until I ran across it on youtube.
I would recommend this to any music fan.
Ronnie Lane was a Britsh songwriter and bass player. He started with the Small Faces as the bass player and he and Steve Marriott wrote most of bands songs. The Small Faces never toured America so they never really broke out big. They did have 11 top twenty hits in the UK but only one in America with Itchycoo Park charting at #16.
Steve Mariott left the Small Faces in 1968 and Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood joined Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Ian McLagan to start The Faces. The Faces released four albums between 1970-1973… First Step, Long Player, A Nod is as Good as a Wink…to a Blind Horse and Ooh La La. They were one of the top grossing touring bands.
After Rod Stewart’s solo career took off his interest in the band began to wane and in 1973 Ronnie Lane quit. After Ronnie left the Faces, they made no more studio albums.
Ronnie started his own folk-country band named “Slim Chance” and released a surprise hit single “Come On” in 1973 and it went to #11 in the UK. Ronnie had a unique idea of touring. His tour was called “The Passing Show” which toured the countryside with a circus tent and included a ringmaster and clowns.
In 1976 he owed a record company an album and he was in financial trouble. He asked Pete Townshend to help him record an album. The album was called “Rough Mix” and it was a very strong album with great reviews but the record company didn’t promote it and the sales were not great.
During the recording of “Rough Mix” Lane diagnosed with was Multiple Sclerosis. He still toured with Eric Clapton and others afterward and released an album in 1979 called “See Me.”
In 1983 Ronnie called some of his musician friends to do some charity concerts for the Research for Multiple Sclerosis. They were known as the ARMS (Action into Research for Multiple Sclerosis) Charity Concerts. Musicians such as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Steve Winwood, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, and more came out to support Ronnie.
Ronnie Lane died of Pneumonia while in the final stages of Multiple Sclerosis in 1997
An abbreviated look at some of the top managers in music.
Brian Epstein – Beatles
With no experience, he took the rough young Beatles and made them bigger than Elvis. That was considered impossible before he did it. No one from England ever made it in America…he would change all of that. Some people complained that he cleaned the Beatles up too much but that is the only way they would have been accepted in America.
They opened the doors for all the other British acts to follow. Brian cared about the Beatles and it wasn’t all about the money. He made a few bad deals but he was in uncharted territory. I would take Brian over anyone in this list.
Peter Grant – Led Zeppelin
Peter was big, impressive, and intimidating. He was a former wrestler who would resort to violence if necessary. He changed the business of touring to favor the artist. He demanded 90% of the gate money which that was unheard of at the time.
He fiercely protected their music. Going to record stores and demanding if any bootleg albums or merchandise was there to hand it over. At concerts, he would douse water over recording equipment of bootleggers. Peter was loyal to Led Zeppelin and that cannot be denied.
Albert Grossman – Bob Dylan – The Band – Janis Joplin
He was not liked in the folk community. He was all about commercial success for his artists and the folk fans called him Breadhead…Only in it for the money. Albert protected Bob and helped him to succeed. After Bob, he went on to manage the Band and Janis Joplin.
He built a mini-empire in Bearsville, NY. A recording studio, restaurants, and houses.
This is what Bob Dylan said about his first meeting with Grossman.
“He looked like Sydney Greenstreet from the film The Maltese Falcon, had an enormous presence, always dressed in a conventional suit and tie, and he sat at his corner table. Usually when he talked, his voice was loud like the booming of war drums. He didn’t talk so much as growl.”
Colonel Tom Parker – Elvis
The Colonel previously worked at carnivals and described Elvis as his “attraction.” He took an incredible 50% of Elvis’s earnings during his career and after his death. Elvis never toured internationally and some say it was because Parker was an illegal immigrant in the U.S. from the Netherlands, lacked a passport and never became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
No one can say that the Colonel didn’t make Elvis money but he controlled everything in Elvis’s life. He planned the Army induction, movies, and then the comeback in Las Vegas. In the end, he kept an unhealthy Elvis working while he accumulated huge gambling debts.
Kit Lambert – The Who
A flamboyant man with partner Chris Stamp managed the Who until the early seventies. Kit help shape their sound and image. Pete Townshend relied on him as an idea person. He helped Pete form the Tommy album as a rock opera and produced it as well.
Townshend has always maintained how important Kit was in his early songwriting. Lambert and Stamp were not great managers but they worked outside the box which is what the Who needed at the time.
Allen Klein – The Stones and Beatles
Allen was a master at negotiating contracts. He had the two biggest bands in the world and wanted the Who in the 70s…but Pete Townshend knew his reputation and dodged his control. He negotiated the Stones and Beatles huge record deals but also ended up owning the rights to the Stones early catalog.
Later with the Beatles John, George and Ringo wanted Klein as their manager but Paul wanted his father in law Lee Eastman. The rest thought he would be biased on toward Paul. The other Beatles signed with Klein but Paul wisely did not sign.
John, George, and Ringo eventually soured on Allen Klein after many questionable actions by Klein. It took years to untangle the mess he made.
Quote from George on Allen Klein.
“Because we were all from Liverpool, we favored people who were street people,” he said. “Lee Eastman was more like a class-conscious type of person. As John was going with Klein, it was much easier if we went with him too.” But he also noted that “years later, we formed a different opinion.”
I read this book not knowing what to expect but I did know of Glyn Johns… so many of my albums had his name on it…A name that is known throughout the music industry as a great recording engineer, producer, and mixer. Glyn has worked with huge rock groups such as The Rolling Stones, Beatles, Who, Small Faces, Led Zeppelin, The Band and more.
Glyn is a no-nonsense guy and unlike most of the autobiographies of musicians in that era, he never did drugs and always did his job well. Glyn wanted to be a singer and did make a few records, he covered Rolling Stones Lady Jane, but he stuck with engineering and gradually became a producer.
Back when Glyn started in the early sixties engineers did not graduate to producing. It was very much a British class system in the music industry. He became the first freelance engineer in the industry because of the clients he attracted. He was one of the first to record the Stones and he began a relationship with them that lasted for years. He knew the Stones because he was really good friends with Ian Stewart and even shared a flat with him.
The Beatles called him to engineer Let It Be and he also helped engineer some of Abbey Road. He worked on Led Zeppelin’s first album. He produced Steve Miller’s first albums and also the first couple of Eagles albums.
This book will be very interesting to classic rock fans. Many anecdotes about the Stones, Beatles, Who and others. Glyn minces no words and has a reputation for saying what is on his mind. He isn’t too technical about recording in the book, he keeps it at a fast enjoyable pace.
He worked on some of the most classic albums ever. The Stones 60’s albums and the classic stretch of albums the Stones released until Black and Blue. He worked on Who’s Next, Quadrophenia, Led Zeppelin, A Nod Is As Good As a Wink… to a Blind Horse, Who Are You, Slowhand, just to name a few.
One interesting thing that happened in 1969. Glyn met Bob Dylan and Dylan told Johns that he would like to make an album with the Beatles and Stones. Glyn went back to England very excited and told Keith Richards and George Harrison and they were all for it. Ringo, Charlie, and Bill said they would do it. John didn’t say no but Mick and Paul said absolutely not…leaves you to wonder what it would have sounded like…
At the bottom of the page, I copied his discography from Wikipedia…it is incredible.
Excerpt from Sound Man about the Stones.
While Keith, Charlie, and Bill drove the band rhythmically, Mick’s energy and intellect drove everything else. I was constantly amazed by his skill as a songwriter and by the extraordinary energy he managed to summon for his vocal performances in the studio. Both Mick and Keith would take an active part in the mixing process and drove me nuts making me mix a track for hours when I felt I had got it in the first couple of passes. We certainly did not always agree. I guess it would have been even more boring if we had. There were a couple of occasions when finally putting the album together I would play back earlier mixes that I had done on my own, to compare with the one they had chosen after hours of farting around, and in the cold light of day they would agree that mine were better. Equally, there were many occasions when they insisted on me changing a mix quite drastically from the way I heard it, with great effect. Working with the Stones for all those years certainly had some amazing moments and I am proud to have been associated with them during a period of time when their music was so influential. However, Charlie summed it up perfectly when asked in a recent interview his experience of being in the band for fifty years. He replied, “Ten years of working and forty years of hanging around.”
Excerpt about The Beatles Let It Be
I had been retained originally as an engineer and was quite happy with that, even when I realized that George Martin was not producing. He did come to Twickenham a couple of times to check us out. He had arranged for the gear to be loaned for the recording at Savile Row and turned up on the day we did the filming on the roof, but had nothing to do with the production of the music. At the outset I was quite embarrassed when I realized he was not going to be involved. A couple of days into the project I asked Paul where George Martin was, only to be told that they had decided not to use him. By the time we moved to Savile Row, George, realizing I was in an awkward position, was kind enough to take me to lunch in order to put my mind at rest, saying I was doing a great job, everything was fine, and I was not stepping on his toes in any way. What a gentleman he is. Having delivered the mixed master of my version of Let It Be, I approached each member of the band separately, asking if I could have a production credit on the album when it was released. I made it quite clear that I was only asking for that and not a royalty. Paul, George, and Ringo had no objection to my request but John was suspicious and could not understand why I was not asking for a royalty. I explained that I felt, because of their stature, the sales of the album would not be affected by my involvement one way or another, so a credit would be a fair settlement for what I had done, as by association it could only be positive for my career in the future. I never got an answer from John. As it turned out, none of this mattered, as in the end, after the group broke up, John gave the tapes to Phil Spector, who puked all over them, turning the album into the most syrupy load of bullshit I have ever heard. My master tape, perhaps quite rightly, ended up on a shelf in the tape store at EMI. At least my version of the single of “Get Back”/“Don’t Let Me Down” had been released in April 1969.
Below is Glyn’s discography…what a body of work.
Artist
Year
Album
Producer
Engineer
Mixing
Georgie Fame
1964
Rhythm and Blues at the Flamingo
The Rolling Stones
1965
December’s Children
co-eng.
co-mix.
The Pretty Things
1965
Get the Picture?
co-prod.
The Rolling Stones
1965
Out of Our Heads
co-eng.
co-mix.
The Rolling Stones
1966
Aftermath
co-eng.
co-mix.
The Rolling Stones
1966
Got Live if You Want It!
Chris Farlowe
1966
The Art of Chris Farlowe
The Small Faces
1966
Small Faces (Decca)
Chris Farlowe
1966
14 Things to Think About
Twice as Much
1966
Own Up
The Small Faces
1967
From the Beginning
Rolling Stones
1967
Between the Buttons
The Small Faces
1967
Small Faces (Immediate)
The Rolling Stones
1967
Flowers
co-eng.
co-mix.
The Rolling Stones
1967
Their Satanic Majesties Request
Johnny Hallyday
1967
San Francisco (EP)
The Rolling Stones
1968
Beggars Banquet
The Steve Miller Band
1968
Children of the Future
Twice as Much
1968
That’s All
The Pentangle
1968
The Pentangle
The Move
1968
Something Else from the Move
Spooky Tooth
1968
It’s All About
The Small Faces
1968
Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake
The Steve Miller Band
1968
Sailor
Gerry Temple
1968
Burn Up!
Procol Harum
1968
Shine on Brightly
The Move
1968
The Move
Easybeats
1968
Vigil
Traffic
1968
Traffic
Billy Nichols
1968
Would You Believe
The Steve Miller Band
1969
Brave New World
Family
1969
Family Entertainment
The End
1969
Introspection
The Beatles
1969
Abbey Road
Joe Cocker
1969
Joe Cocker!
Johnny Hallyday
1969
Johnny Hallyday
Led Zeppelin
1969
Led Zeppelin
The Rolling Stones
1969
Let it Bleed
The Steve Miller Band
1969
Your Saving Grace
Lambert and Nuttycombe
1970
At Home
Bob Dylan
1970
Self Portrait
co-eng.
The Rolling Stones
1970
Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!
Humble Pie
1970
Humble Pie
Philamore Lincoln
1970
The North Wind Blew South
Billy Preston
1970
That’s the Way God Planned It
Leon Russell
1970
Leon Russell
The Beatles
1970
Let it Be
Joe Cocker
1970
Mad Dogs & Englishmen
Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
1970
On Tour with Eric Clapton
The Move
1970
Shazam
The Band
1970
Stage Fright
co-eng.
Spooky Tooth
1970
The Last Puff
McGuinness Flint
1970
McGuinness Flint
The Faces
1971
A Nod Is As Good As a Wink… to a Blind Horse
Boz Scaggs
1971
Boz Scaggs & Band
Ben Sidran
1971
Feel Your Groove
McGuinness Flint
1971
Happy Birthday, Ruthie Baby
Jesse Ed Davis
1971
¡Jesse Davis!
Leon Russell
1971
Leon Russell and the Shelter People
Boz Scaggs
1971
Moments
Rita Coolidge
1971
Nice Feelin’
Howlin’ Wolf
1971
The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions
Humble Pie
1971
Rock On
Graham Nash
1971
Songs for Beginners
The Rolling Stones
1971
Sticky Fingers
co-eng.
co-mix.
Spooky Tooth
1971
Tobacco Road
The Who
1971
Who’s Next
co-prod.
Eagles
1972
Eagles
The Rolling Stones
1972
Exile on Main St.
co-eng.
co-mix.
Rita Coolidge
1972
The Lady’s Not for Sale
Neil Young
1972
Harvest
co-eng.
Nicky Hopkins, Ry Cooder, Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts
1972
Jamming with Edward
Chris Jagger
1973
Chris Jagger
Eagles
1973
Desperado
Eric Clapton
1973
Eric Clapton’s Rainbow Concert
The Faces
1973
Ooh La La
The Who
1973
Quadrophenia
co-prod.
co-eng.
Ric Grech
1973
The Last Five Years
Paul McCartney and Wings
1973
Red Rose Speedway
co-eng.
Gallagher & Lyle
1973
Seeds
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
1973
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
co-prod.
Gallagher & Lyle
1973
Willie and the Lapdog
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
1974
It’ll Shine When It Shines
co-prod.
The Rolling Stones
1974
It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll
Eagles
1974
On the Border
co-prod.
co-eng.
Gallagher & Lyle
1974
The Last Cowboy
Georgie Fame
1974
Georgie Fame
Fairport Convention
1975
Rising for the Moon
The Who
1975
The Who by Numbers
Andy Fairweather Low
1976
Be Bop ‘n’ Holla
Fools Gold
1976
Fools Gold
Joan Armatrading
1976
Joan Armatrading
Ron Wood & Ronnie Lane
1976
Mahoney’s Last Stand
The Rolling Stones
1976
Black and Blue
co-eng.
Buckacre
1976
Moring Comes
The Bernie Leadon—Michael Georgiades Band
1977
Natural Progressions
Pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane
1977
Rough Mix
Joan Armatrading
1977
Show Some Emotion
Eric Clapton
1977
Slowhand
Eric Clapton
1977
Backless
Craig Nuttycombe
1977
It’s Just a Lifetime
Joan Armatrading
1978
To the Limit
Paul Kennerly and various Artists
1978
White Mansions
The Who
1978
Who Are You
co-prod
co-eng.
Mark Benno
1979
Lost in Austin
Joan Armatrading
1979
Steppin’ Out
Live Wire (band)
1979
Pick it UP
Lazy Racer
1980
Formula II
Tim Renwick
1980
Tim Renwick
Paul Kennerly
1980
Legend of Jessie James
Danny Joe Brown
1981
Danny Joe Brown and the Danny Joe Brown Band
Jools Holland
1981
Jools Holland and His Millionaires
Midnight Oil
1981
Place Without a Postcard
Nine Below Zero
1981
Don’t Point Your Finger
Chris de Burgh
1981
Best Moves
The Clash
1982
Combat Rock
The Who
1982
It’s Hard
Local Boys
1983
Moments of Madness
Various artists
1984
ARMS Concert
Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Albert Lee,
1984
No Introduction Necessary
Téléphone
1984
Un Autre Monde
Bob Dylan
1984
Real Live
Immaculate Fools
1985
Hearts of Fortune
Téléphone
1986
Le Live
Roaring Boys
1986
Roaring Boys
The Big Dish
1986
Swimmer
New Model Army
1986
The Ghost of Cain
Joolz
1987
Hex
Spooky Tooth
1987
Spooky Tooth
Helen Watson
1987
Blue Slipper
Labi Siffre
1987
(Something Inside) So Strong
John Hiatt
1988
Slow Turning
Nancy Griffith
1989
Storms
Green on Red
1989
This Time Around (Green on Red album)
John Hiatt
1990
Stolen Moments
Summerhill
1990
West of Here
Del Shannon
1991
The Liberty Years
Energy Orchard
1992
Stop the Machine
Ethan Johns
1992
Independent Years
David Crosby
1993
Thousand Roads
Crosby, Stills, & Nash
1994
After the Storm
The Subdudes
1994
Annunciation
Jackopierce
1995
Bringing on the Weather
Bruce Cockburn
1994
Dart to the Heart
Joe Satriani
1995
Joe Satriani
The Beatles
1996
Anthology 3
co-eng.
Eric Clapton
1996
Crossroads 2: Live in the Seventies
The Rolling Stones and various artists
1996
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
Warm Jets
1997
Future Signs
Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings
1998
Struttin’ Our Stuff
Linda Ronstadt
1998
We Ran
Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings
1999
Anyway the Wind Blows
Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt
1999
Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions
Various artists
1999
Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons
John Hiatt and various artists
20o2
Disney’s The Country Bears
musical dir.
Bruce Cockburn
2005
Speechless
Andy Fairweather Low
2006
Sweet Soulful Music
The Clash
2008
Live at Shea Stadium
Ian McLagan & the Bump Band
2008
Never Say Never
+ mastering
Ryan Adams
2011
Ashes & Fire
Ben Waters
2011
Boogie 4 Stu: A Tribute to Ian Stewart
The Rolling Stones
2012
Charlie is My Darling: Ireland 1965
The Staves
2012
Dead & Born & Grown Up & Live
co-prod.
The Rolling Stones
2012
GRRR!
Band of Horses
2012
Mirage Rock
Ethan Johns
2012
If Not Now Then When?
Aaron Neville
2013
My True Story
Patty Griffin
2013
Silver Bell
Stephen Stills
2013
Carry On
co-prod.
co-eng.
co-mix
Bob Dylan
2013
Another Self Portrait (1969-1971: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10)
co-eng.
Benmont Tench
2014
You Should Be So Lucky
Ian McLagan & the Bump Band
2014
United States
Joe Satriani
2014
The Complete Studio Recordings
Bruce Cockburn
2014
Rumours of Glory (True North)
David Bowie
2014
Nothing Has Changed
co-eng.
The Small Faces
2014
Here Come the Nice: The Immediate Years 1967-1969
The Small Faces
20..
Greatest Hits: The Immediate Years 1967-1969
The Faces
2015
You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything: 1970-1975
Various artists
2015
Truckers, Kickers, Cowboys Angels: The Blissed-Out Birth of Country-Rock , Vol. 7: 1974
One of the most self-deprecating books I’ve ever read. Howard Kaylan goes through his career with the Turtles who never really took themselves too seriously. They wanted to be the American Beatles…just like every other band at the time but did it with a sense of humor. They were a singles band that had quite a number of top 40 hits. According to Howard, they lucked into most of it. They only wrote a couple of their hits.
Their hits included “Happy Together” #1, “It Aint Me Babe” # 8, “She’d Rather Be With Me” #3, Eleanor #6, “You Showed Me” #6 and many more.
After the Turtles broke up, he and Mark Volman went by the name “Flo and Eddie,” for legal reasons and made a career of unusual rock-comedy albums and developed a following. They immediately began playing with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and was there when Frank was pushed off the stage at the Rainbow. They were also in the Zappa movie 200 Motels.
After Zappa, they worked as a duo and released a lot of albums for many different labels. They were more known for their live performances and they were a good opening act. Howard and Mark were columnists, radio hosts, session backup singers, talk show hosts, actors, composers, and anything else to make ends meet. They did the background vocals on Hungry Heart by Bruce Springsteen.
Howard and Mark wrote the Strawberry Shortcake theme and they wrote music for the Care Bears.
Another rock autobiography…big surprise! But unlike some of the others…Howard wasn’t rich and could not live off of royalties or constant touring like many of the other rock stars that have spilled it all recently. After the breakup, The Turtles could not even tour as the Turtles until later on because of their label. They were broke many times but opportunities would pop up like being radio hosts and would help them make it to the next big thing.
Now they tour on the Happy Together tour with other artists and have been doing it since the eighties off and on.
They ended up owning their name and the master recordings from the 1960s because the label went broke and they were smart enough to get the rights… Howard and Mark were the first to sue rap artists for sampling their material without paying for it. They won and now everyone has to pay to sample anything from another artist. The Turtles were the first big artists with a catalog to sign with Rhino Record and helped the label to take off.
It may be the funniest of all the recent biographies. He ran into a lot of famous people and even made a movie out of meeting the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix in 1967 at the Speakeasy in London called “My Dinner With Jimi.”
It is a funny book with a lot of laughs but you have to scratch your head while reading about Howard making the same mistakes over and over. For Howard, it was drugs, women, marriage, drugs, a girlfriend, divorce, marriage and more drugs…maybe it’s not that much different from the richer stars after all.
I was never a big Turtle fan. I have an account with Audible and this was recommended. Overall I did enjoy it.
Below is an excerpt from the book about meeting The Beatles in 1967 and John Lennon being vicious toward Turtle rhythm guitar player Jim Tucker… Today Jim Tucker denies this ever happened. He said that John didn’t even say a word to any of them so who knows?
Paul said, “I really enjoyed your record.” And then, to me, “Great voice, man. Nice set of pipes.” I was bursting. Then Lennon. “Yeah, that’s a lovely bit of Flower Power in the middle there with those ba-ba-bas.” And then all three of them sang the ba-ba-bas. And we were all beside ourselves with swollen pride. “So, where did you learn to sing?” Paul asked me. “High school choir, I guess. Then we formed the band and started playing local clubs, you know, a little bit of R&B stuff—” “What kind of R&B stuff.” “Oh, you know, ‘Money,’ ‘What’d I Say,’ ‘Justine’…” “‘Justine’ by Don and Dewey? I love that song.” And then Paul began to sing the Crossfires’ trademark soul song. I joined in on the answers and the chorus. Ringo played spoons on the tabletop while the customers watched and Lennon looked on as if bored to death. When we were done, there was a smattering of applause and Paul said, “That was great. I’d love to do that with my band some day. You sing great.” “Oh my God, thank you,” I gushed. “Still, it is a bit sappy on your record there when you sing ‘invest a dime’ with that cry in your voice. A bit light in the loafers, if you ask me.”
“What?” Yeah, I became defensive all right. “We’re just trying to be the American version of you!” “Touché” said McCartney. “Well, that’s not bloody likely, is it?” Lennon piped in. His eyes skipped from Turtle to Turtle, checking us out for the first time. “And what do you call that guy over there?” John pointed at Tucko, who was cowering in his wrinkled brown suit, thrilled just to be noticed. “That’s Jim Tucker, our rhythm guitar player “ “Bad suit, son. And an even worse haircut. Did you tell your barber to give you a Beatle cut? It’s awful, man. You give rhythm players a bad name.” Tucko, oblivious, stumbled for words. “You’re like a god to me, man. You guys changed my life.” Much to his credit, Pons tried, in vain, to turn the conversation around. “We just heard Sergeant Pepper and I’ve got to thank you on behalf of the entire world for the greatest album of all time!” Paul graciously nodded thanks and toasted us with his beverage. But John was not to be denied. “Tucko, is it? I could have a lot of fun with that name. Let’s see… Tucko Tucko, bo bucko, banana fanna fo fucko…” Tucker winced and Lennon saw the weakness and went in for the kill. “There was a boy named Tucko, a very stupid fellow—” Finally, Jim realized that he was the butt of Lennon’s abuse and could hold back no longer. “What is your problem, man? You’re supposed to be the Beatles! I fuckin’ loved you guys and you turn out to be assholes.” Lennon feigned shock and recoiled at the words. “Tsk, tsk … such language. What would your mum say?” “She’d say you were a dick, that’s what! Man, was I wrong. You’re a total shit! I’m sorry I ever met you!” Lennon shook his head slowly, savoring every syllable. “You never did, son. You never did.” And with that, Jim Tucker walked away from the table, up the stairs, and into a cab. And, following the few British shows we had lined up, Jim flew home and never played music again. The Turtles would continue on as a five-piece band from that time forward. The other guys followed Jim upstairs, and our goodbyes were a lot sadder than our hellos had been.
Living in the south during the 1970s I knew about the sheriff named Buford Pusser. Hollywood made some enhancements no doubt but… Many small towns in the south were crooked. The town I lived in blocked all restaurant and store chains from moving in…and a few other things. A man that lived in our town ended up writing a small pamphlet book about the place and all of the shenanigans going on and he ended up with a bad case of dead. At least that was the tale I was told when I was young.
I do remember hiking in the woods as a kid and running up on a copper contraption. It was older but it was no doubt on what it was used for…
The movie is not a great five-star flick but it’s a good entertaining film about what happened in McNairy County Tennessee with the big stick carrying Sherriff Buford Pusser. They definitely massaged the truth and you will not get the “Rock” in this one. I don’t really look at it as true or not…just an entertaining movie. It has more of a realism feel than the most current remake.
It’s a vigilante drama and a revenge fantasy that paces itself pretty well. Joe Don Baker is believable in this movie. If you hate violence this is not for you. The Sheriff almost single-handedly cleans up the town with the aid of a big stick. The film is cleaned up and not as grainy as I remembered. You will see the future 70s pinup singer Leif Garret as the Sheriff’s son…also future Rockford Files dad Noah Beery Jr. I watched the movie recently and it holds up better than I remembered.
The cast included Joe Don Baker, Elizabeth Hartley, Leif Garrett, Dawn Lyn, and Noah Beery Jr.
My wife and I traveled to Memphis to visit Graceland in the late 90s. On the way back home we got lost (pre-GPS and I have no sense of direction) and ended up in McNairy County. I remembered the name and we looked up we saw Pusser’s old home which was turned into a museum. We walked in and the lady working there was super nice. We sat on his couch, looked at his car, badges, guns, and uniforms. Before I left I could not resist…I just had to buy one of those big sticks…which was just an ax handle with his name and also a VHS tape of the Sherriff’s story. They may not allow so much freedom now.
It was pretty cool being able to touch and walk around freely after the “stay behind the rope!” mentality at Graceland…which I understand completely…Hey it’s the home of the big E. If you ever go to Graceland and if you have a couple of hours to spare, drive to this museum it is interesting… it’s like going back in time to the mid-seventies…it was just a fluke that we found it but it was fun.
Off topic of the movie again but Jimmy Buffet had a Buford Pusser story. I’ve heard this from different sources but this is from http://www.buffettworld.com… The movie was good but this would have been GREAT to see.
In 1974, Jimmy Buffett had a run-in with famed “Walking Tall” sheriff Buford Pusser. The story is referred to in “Presents To Send You” from the 1974 album A1A and also in “Semi-True Stories” from the 1999 album Beach House On The Moon. In both songs, few details are mentioned. But at a show in 1974 at the Exit Inn in Nashville, just a few months after the incident, Buffett took some time to tell the crowd about the altercation:
“There were a lot of rumors circling around that I had an encounter with this young man. Which are true. We finished doing our recording over at Woodland Studio, real happy that the album had come out so well. All the lightweights had went out to get a few bottles of champagne and celebrate. Sammy Creason and Chuck Nease and I decided to go out and get a bottle of Cuervo Gold Tequilla and 3 straws. We went at it and in 15 minutes we were just knee-crawlin’ drunk. So we proceeded to the flashiest night spot in town, the roof of the King of the Road Hotel.
We’re there dining and dancing. Ronnie Milsap was on vacation. Sammy Creason was with me, so we provided just a gala of entertainment. Me on acoustic guitar so drunk I couldn’t hit the chords and him just pounding the drums out in 3-quarter time. Ran everybody out. We got the screaming munchies and we were going to Charlie Nickens to eat. And I couldn’t find my rent-a-car, which was parked somewhere amidst thousands of cars in the parking lot of the fabulous, plush King of the Road hotel. It was a little bitty car. It was hiding among many big ones there. And there was a Tennessee Prosecutors convention going on there. If they had made it to room 819 they would’ve had a closed door case.
So I stood on the hood of this car with a pair of… actually, they were old Ra Ra’s that I bought in Miami for 2 bucks. They were white and brown old Ra Ra’s but they were golf shoes so I had to take the cleats out but they still had the posts in them so they clicked a lot. I was standing on the hood of this particular car and as fate would have it it belonged to a rather large man who came up behind me and threatened my life real quickly. And I hadn’t been in a fight since junior high school on the city bus in Mobile. He came up and said “Son you stay right there, you’re under arrest”. So I politely turned around and said “You kiss my ass”. He didn’t. Instead he followed me over to the car which Sammy had found. I got in the driver’s side and Sammy got in the passenger’s side. My window was up, his was down and this fellow poked his head in and said “Would you like for me to turn this car over?”.
I was not scared of this individual. I just thought he was some ex-football player turned counselor. And Sammy said “look whatever damage we did ABC will pay for everything” which was awfully generous of Sammy since he didn’t have the authority to say so. Being a good company man I took up for my company and said “No they won’t. I’m still gonna beat your ass if you don’t leave us alone”. With that he pulled up then stuck his big head and his hand in and grabbed me by my hair until it separated from my head. I had a big bald spot on the back of it and I looked like a monk for about 3 months. Then he punched Sammy right in the nose. We knew he wasn’t kidding. So Sammy defended himself bravely with a big pen. He starts stabbing at this man’s arm trying to get it out of the window because we couldn’t start the car because with the new modern features of ‘74 automobiles you can not start your car unless your seat belt’s buckled and we were too drunk to get ours hooked up.
So we sit there while this man pounded the hell out of both of us. I looked over at Creason and I said “Sammy I don’t wanna die in a Gremlin.” Eaten by a shark, killed in a plane crash, but what’s my mother gonna say? Smashed to death in a Gremlin in the parking lot of the plush King of the Road hotel. Nope. So I mustered all the courage and energy I had and all the coordination I had left in my poor body and got the seat belt buckled and went to Charlie Nickens. We ordered our barbecue and on the way back we hit the Jefferson St. Bridge. Luckily there was no one around so we just backed up and headed for the hotel.
Got back, and we decided that this man may be lurking in the bushes or else may have been snorkeling around in the pool trying to scoop up coins that people threw in. So we decided to defend ourselves with a classic southern weapon: a tire tool. So we destroyed the back end of the Gremlin looking for the tire tool, found it. Walked through the lobby of these prosecutors, and we had caused a turmoil by this time. And got up to the 8th floor where we were staying and figured we were all safe. But I had forgotten my key.
So I had to go back downstairs and Sammy said well you take this I’m not going back down there. And he gave me the weapon, which I stuck in my back pocket. Walked down into the plush lobby of the plush King of the Road hotel, walked up to the desk and asked for the key to my room. This man snuck up behind me and took the tire tool out of my back pocket. I whipped around and I said “look you, that was for my protection and you started this whole thing. I didn’t mean to get on your car and I’m still gonna beat your ass if you don’t quit bothering me.” At this point, two detectives seized me, drug me into the elevator and said “son, we would call the police and have you arrested. You’ve caused quite a disturbance here tonight. But we figure your just lucky to be alive because that was Buford Pusser.” And I went “Oh. 8th floor please.”
Those glasses and Rickenbacker equals the sixties rock band. One of my favorite guitar players ever. I loved the jangling 12 string Rickenbacker that McGuinn is famous for… Roger heard George Harrison use one and then McGuinn took it to a new level in songs like Eight Miles High.
I was lucky to see him solo in 1987. He will not rip into a Hendrix solo but the sound he gets out of his 12 string Rickenbacker is great. On the songs, he did only on his 12-string acoustic he makes them sound full without a band.
His sound is the sound of the mid-sixties. He was a founder of the Byrds and was with them through all of their incarnations. The jangly pop, country rock, and the more rock music jamming faze in the early seventies.
The Byrds started in 1964 and lasted until 1973. McGuinn was the only member to remain with the band the entire run. Personally, I like all of the phases of the band. The last phase is probably the least well known but with Clarence White playing guitar with his B-Bender was fantastic. Songs like “Lover of the Bayou,”” Ballad of Easy Rider,” and “Chestnut Mare” are memorable.
McGuinn also collaborated with Bob Dylan on the soundtrack “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” and joined Bob in the mid-seventies on his Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
The Byrds influenced many artists like Elvis Costello, The La’s, Wilco, REM, and The Jayhawks but the one I think of the most is Tom Petty. Tom helped revive the jangly sound in the seventies with American Girl which sounded very close to McGuinn. This is Roger talking in 2014:
“When I heard ‘American Girl’ for the first time I said, ‘when did I record that?’ I was kidding but the vocal style sounded just like me and then there was the Rickenbacker guitar, which I used. The vocal inflections were just like mine. I was told that a guy from Florida named Tom Petty wrote and sings the song, and I said that I had to meet him.
Roger invited Tom to open up for him in 1976 and they were friends after that. Roger released an album in 1991 titled “Back To Rio” with help from Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, and others.
His solo career was never too successful until 1989 with a country hit “You Aint Going Nowhere” that made it to number 6 in the Country Charts. That was ironic after being told by Nashville disc Jockey Ralph Emery in 1968 that the song wasn’t country when the Byrds covered it. In 1991 he had his most commercial album “Back To Rio” that made it to #44 on the Billboard Charts and two singles “King of the Hill”#2 and “Someone To Love”#12.
Roger, Chris Hillman, Marty Stuart are currently doing a small tour for the 50th anniversary of Sweetheart of the Rodeo…I see the Ryman on there and I see me there.
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 