I love the guitars in this song. Great hooks all the way around. This song was not released as a single…I would have bought it.
This song was on their debut album All Over The Place. It was written by Hoffs and Peterson. The song has no mention of Dover in the lyric…the title comes from the poem Dover Beach, published by the Englishman Matthew Arnold in 1867. The beach in question is the one at the bottom of the white cliffs in Dover, England, as in the 1940 song “The White Cliffs Of Dover.”
When they released this song they were part of the Paisley Underground scene… a Los Angeles scene with bands like Rain Parade, The Dream Syndicate, Green On Red, and others. The Bangles were undoubtedly the most successful band to come out of that group of bands.
Their album All Over The Place was released in 1984. It didn’t have a hit single and the album only peaked at #80 on the Billboard 100, #32 in New Zealand, and #86 in the UK. However…the album sold respectively and stayed on the charts for 30 weeks and that set their next album up.
Their next album Different Light shot them to stardom with the hits Manic Monday, Walk Like An Egyptian and my favorite song by them… If She Knew What She Wants. They made just one more album called Everything before breaking up in 1989. It had the hits In Your Room and Eternal Flame.
Dover Beach, although not a single, remains on their current setlist.
Vickie Peterson: “Susanna and I were slightly geekish about opening the Norton Anthology of English Literature, flipping through that and going, ‘Hey, this is a great line.’ She had come across the Matthew Arnold poem Dover Beach at some point and that inspired that song, that idea of applying the fantasy of escape and the reality of what that would really mean. It was a really fun time to just mine the world for ideas.”
Dover Beach
If I had the time
I would run away with you
To a perfect world
We’d suspend all that is duty or required.
Late last night you cried
And I couldn’t come to you
But on the other side
You and I, inseparable and walking.
Yeah, oh woe.
If we could steal away
Like jugglers and thieves
But we could come and go
Oh, and talk of Michaelangelo.
Oh woe.
If we had the time (we had the time)
We had the time.
The day you looked at me
And it was on your mind
The world is no one’s dream
We will never ever find the time.
Oh woe.
If we had the time
I would run away with you
To a perfect world
(To a perfect world).
I hope you enjoy this Byrds cover by Tom Petty. One of the best B-side songs I can think of.
I posted The Waiting not long ago and talked about the similarities between The Byrds and Tom Petty. This Byrds song fits Tom Petty perfectly but the original song was not sung by McGuinn but by its writer…Gene Clark. Clark wrote this song in the mid-sixties when a girl he was seeing started to bother him. He also co-wrote Eight Miles High.
Although the song was the B side to The Byrd’s song All I Realy Want To Do, it gained a lot of promotion from Columbia Records and a lot of radio air time. It also became a classic rock standard, with dozens of artists giving their versions of the song.
This song was on Tom Petty’s solo album Full Moon Fever in 1989. The original name of the album was Songs From the Garage. It would have been an appropriate name for it. They worked on this album mostly in Heartbreaker Mike Campbell’s garage. This album caused a riff in The Heartbreakers. The other members thought Tom was going to leave the band. He kept reassuring them but they were not sure.
What’s unbelievable about it is, MCA rejected the album because they didn’t hear a single. This album would have 5 singles released from it.
Tom was absolutely stunned and depressed. He went back and added Feel A Whole Lot Better and the song Alright For Now and presented MCA with basically the same album again. There had been a regime change at MCA and this time they loved it. Ah…record companies…sometimes they are the spawn of Satan.
Although the album was released in 1989…Petty recorded it back in 1987 and 1988. MCA caused much of the delay when they rejected it.
Gene Clark of the Byrds: “There was a girlfriend I had known at the time, when we were playing at Ciro’s. It was a weird time in my life because everything was changing so fast and I knew we were becoming popular. This girl was a funny girl, she was kind of a strange little girl and she started bothering me a lot. And I just wrote the song, ‘I’m gonna feel a whole lot better when you’re gone,’ and that’s all it was, but I wrote the whole song within a few minutes.”
Tom Petty:“I didn’t see much of the Heartbreakers during that period, Mike I kept in touch with, of course, because he was working on Full Moon Fever with me. I never thought of leaving. And I kept reassuring them that I wasn’t going to leave. But I think there was some doubt in their mind.”
Feel A Whole Lot Better
The reason why, oh, I can’t say
I had to let you go, baby, and right away
After what you did, I can’t stay on
And I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone
Baby, for a long time, you had me believe
That your love was all mine and that’s the way it would be
But I didn’t know that you were putting me on
And I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone
Oh, when you’re gone
Now I gotta say that it’s not like before
And I’m not gonna play your games any more
After what you did, I can’t stay on
And I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone
Yeah, I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone
Oh, when you’re gone
Oh, when you’re gone
Oh, when you’re gone
Our small town got a record store in 1982. We had one in the seventies but it went out of business. In the new one…this is the first single I bought there. The store only lasted a year at the most but we enjoyed it while we had it. In 1982 you could not go to school, a store, or anywhere without hearing this song. If you didn’t hear it you heard someone hum it. Much like Another One Bites The Dust from two years earlier…you just couldn’t escape it.
In 2016 I saw The Who in Nashville and I didn’t know who was opening up. I was pleasantly surprised when Joan Jett was announced. She and her band were tight and very loud. The Who had ties with Jett back in 1979 as they helped finance Jett’s debut album Bad Reputation.
This was originally recorded by a British group called The Arrows in 1975, and it was written by their lead singer Alan Merrill and guitarist Jake Hooker. The song was released as a B-side with The Arrows’ “Broken Down Heart.” Co-writer Alan Merrill said “That was a knee-jerk response to the Rolling Stones’ ‘It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll.’ I remember watching it on Top of the Pops. I’d met Mick Jagger socially a few times, and I knew he was hanging around with Prince Rupert Lowenstein and people like that – jet setters. I almost felt like ‘It’s Only Rock and Roll’ was an apology to those jet-set princes and princesses that he was hanging around with – the aristocracy, you know. That was my interpretation as a young man: Okay, I love rock and roll. And then, where do you go with that?”
The Arrows did get their own TV show called The Arrows Show. It ran from 1976-1977 in the UK for two full 14-week seasons on the ITV network. It was this show that Joan Jett saw in 1976. A fun fact about the song. The Arrows were based in England, where they don’t use dimes. At that time they would put a sixpenny in the jukebox to buy a song. That would have had a different ring to it, but the original producer Mickie Most liked dime because it sounded American, and that’s the way The Arrows recorded it. Joan Jett didn’t really differ much from the Arrows version…just a little louder.
When the Runaways broke up in 1979, Joan Jett and her producer Kenny Laguna put her first solo album together with studio time and travel arrangements fronted by The Who. They struggled to get a record deal and had to form their own label, Blackheart Records, to release the album in America. Joan remembered The Arrows singing I Love Rock N Roll in 1976 while touring the UK and knew it sounded like a hit. She wanted the Runaways to cover the song but they turned it down. The reason they turned it down was that they had already covered a song called Rock and Roll by Lou Reed on their debut album and didn’t want another song with “rock” in the title at that time.
Jett recorded it with Paul Cook and Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols and released it as a B-side in 1979. Polygram Records owned that version of the song but they were not excited about the song or Joan Jett. They basically let her go and signed some of the other Runaways. Boy was that a mistake! Joan would end up being the best-known Runaway. Lita Ford was successful also along with Michael Steele with the Bangles but neither became as popular as Joan Jett…and this song was a big reason.
I like the original and both Jett covers. The hit version peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #1 in New Zealand, and #4 in the UK in 1982.
The album was called I Love Rock And Roll released in 1981. The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, #1 in New Zealand, and #25 in the UK in 1982.
The producers were Ritchie Cordell, Kenny Laguna, and Glen Kolotkin.
The song’s co-writer, Alan Merrill, died at 69 on March 29, 2020. Joan Jett offered condolences on Twitter, posting: “I can still remember watching the Arrows on TV in London and being blown away by the song that screamed hit to me.”
Joan Jett:“I think most people who love some kind of rock ‘n’ roll can relate to it. Everyone knows a song that just makes them feel amazing and want to jump up and down. I quickly realized, this song is gonna follow you, so you’re either gonna let it bother you, or you gotta make peace with it, and feel blessed that you were involved with something that touched so many people.”
Producer Kenny Laguna on Polygram Records: “They could care less about Joan Jett, they were busy signing every other Runaway. They thought Joan was the loser and they signed the other girls, who we’re all friends with, but I looked at the band and thought she was the Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the band. The company decided that if I would pay the studio cost of $2,300, I could have all the rights, and I got three songs. I got ‘I Love Rock and Roll’ with The Sex Pistols, I got ‘You Don’t Own Me’ – they did a great version of the Lesley Gore hit, and they did a song Joan wrote called ‘Don’t Abuse Me.’ So I buy these songs back. In the meantime, Joan has a couple of fans. Rodney Bingenheimer of K-ROCK, KMAC in Long Beach, BCN in Boston, LIR in Long Island, they were playing The Sex Pistols’ kind of cruddy version of the song, and it was #1 on the alternative stations. It was really alternative music, they were way-out stations that would play some pretty adventurous stuff, that’s why they would play Joan, because Joan was not getting a record deal, Joan was way on the outside, like a Fugazi of her day. We saw some kind of potential there. I remember these guys from the big record distributors in Long Island kept calling and saying, ‘This is a hit record, we’re getting so many requests for it.’ So we cut it over and did a really good version of it.”
THE 1979 VERSION
I Love Rock and Roll
I saw him dancin’ there by the record machine
I knew he must a been about seventeen
The beat was goin’ strong
Playin’ my favorite song
An’ I could tell it wouldn’t be long
Till he was with me, yeah me, singin’
I love rock n’ roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n’ roll
So come an’ take your time an’ dance with me
He smiled so I got up and’ asked for his name
That don’t matter, he said,
‘Cause it’s all the same
Said can I take you home where we can be alone
An’ next we were movin’ on
He was with me, yeah me
Next we were movin’ on
He was with me, yeah me, singin’
I love rock n’ roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n’ roll
So come an’ take your time an’ dance with me
Said can I take you home where we can be alone
An we’ll be movin’ on
An’ singin’ that same old song
Yeah with me, singin’
I love rock n’ roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n’ roll
So come an’ take your time an’ dance with me
Creedence cut through his song and stripped it bare with their version. I love Marvin Gaye’s version of this song but Creedence spun it into a garage band’s dream. I really like the steady drums that keep it tethered to earth. CCR’s drummer Doug Clifford played off of John Fogerty’s rhythm and it created the atmosphere of the song.
This is embarrassing but this song really hit my radar through constant commercials in 1987. It was used in California Raisin commercials that played, and played, and played more. When I would go to Hardees for lunch…they would give me a plastic figure of one of the raisins. Yea…I collected them. Former drummer of the Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsies, Buddy Miles, sang lead in those commercials.
Creedence’s album version was a whopping (I love using that word) 11-minute song. This was a change from their other compact songs. This of course was not an original. It was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. Strong came up with the idea and asked Motown writers Holland-Dozier-Holland to work on it with him. They refused to credit another writer, so Strong took it to Whitfield, who helped put it together…so it was credited to Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong.
In December 1975, CCR’s label Fantasy Records re-released the song as a single, which peaked at #43 on the Billboard 100 and #76 in Canada. This release came in the middle of some heated legal battles between the band and the label, which resulted in John Fogerty taking a 10-year break from making music. The song was edited down to a more reasonable length for radio.
The song was originally on their Cosmo’s Factory album released in 1970 which is possibly their best album.
Below….the first is one of the many commercials, the second was the single version, and the third is the album’s 11-minute version.
I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Ooh-ooh, bet you’re wondering how I knew
‘Bout your plan to make me blue
With some other guy that you knew before?
Between the two of us guys, you know I love you more
Took me by surprise, I must say, when I found out yesterday
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah
You know that a man ain’t supposed to cry
But these tears I can’t hold inside
Losing you would end my life, you see
‘Cause you mean that much to me
You could’ve told me yourself that you found someone else
Instead
I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah
People say “You hear from what you see
Not, not, not from what you hear.”
I can’t help but being confused
If it’s true, won’t you tell me dear?
Do you plan to let me go
For the other guy that you knew before?
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Ooh-ooh, I heard it through the grapevine
Not much longer would you be mine
Aah-aah, I heard it through the grapevine
And I’m just about to lose my mind
Honey, honey yeah
Lately, I needed to do something different so…tomorrow I will start“Under The Covers Week” here…nothing but covers next week. I hope you enjoy it. It’s good to breakup things once in a while.
When I posted the song Soul Deep by the Box Tops…CB reccomended the Gary US Bonds version and yes…it’s very soulful and and a great version. That got me listening to Bonds again and I can’t believe I forgot about this song. I remember this song in the early 80s but I haven’t heard it in forever. When heard This Little Girl in the early 80s I didn’t know much about Bonds. I soon found the song Quarter Till Three and more of his sixties hits. His voice is just golden and still is. He puts a ton of soul and grit into every song I’ve heard from him.
This song has a Springsteen feel for good reason. Bruce wrote it and backed Bonds in a comeback in the early eighties. This song and This Little Girl were the first hits Bonds had since the 60s. This one was on the album On The Line released in 1982.
Springsteen wrote more songs than he could record, and three of them went to Bonds: “This Little Girl,” “Your Love” and the title track. Springsteen and members of his E Street band also played on the album and worked on the production. “This Little Girl” was a hit, going to #11 in the US and reviving Bonds’ career. When Springsteen brought Bonds on stage a few times in 1981, the crowds were far more familiar with him. In 1982, Springsteen and his band worked on another album for Bonds… On the Line and more songs like Out of Work
The album Dedication peaked at #27 on the Billboard Album Charts, and On The Line peaked at #52. Out of Work peaked at #21 on the Billboard 100 and #22 in Canada in 1982. This was the last single to date to chart in the Billboard 100.
Out Of Work
Eight a.m., I’m up and my Feet beatin’ on the sidewalk Down at the unemployment agency All I get’s talk I check the want ads but there Just ain’t nobody hiring What’s a man supposed to do When he’s down and
Out of work I need a job, I’m out of work I’m unemployed, I’m out of work I need a job, I’m out of work
I go to pick my girl up Her name is Linda Brown Her dad invites me in He tells me to sit down The small talk that we’re making Is going pretty smooth But then he drops a bomb “Son, what d’ya do?”
I’m out of work I need a job, I’m out of work I’m unemployed, I’m out of work I need a job, I’m out of work Yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey, Mr. President I know you got your plans You’re doing all you can now To aid the little man We got to do our best to Whip that inflation down Maybe you got a job for me Just driving you around
These tough times, they’re enough To make a man lose his mind (I’m out of work) Up there you got a job but down here below
I’m out of work I need a job, I’m out of work I’m unemployed, I’m out of work I need a job, I’m out of work
Ooh, I’m out of work I’m out of work I’m out of work I’m out of work I’m out of work I’m out of work I’m out of work
Well everyone…this is powerpop’s 3000th post! I want to thank all of you for making this happen. There was a while when I started that I didn’t know if I would go on because as we all know…it’s sometimes hard to get started and known in word press. The big break for me came when Hanspostcard republished one of my posts (the 1967 movie Bedazzled) and I started to get a few readers and that grew. The reason I keep doing it is because of the comments…meeting like-minded people is the reason this is still fun so thanks again.
In the early 1990s, my cousin Mark and I shared an apartment in Nashville. On our answering service we would leave funny or what we thought were funny messages. I broke out the guitar and we did the chorus of this song as a message. It went over well but we got tired of hearing it every time someone called.
If I had to rank Tom Petty songs in my personal list. This song would come right behind American Girls as far as my favorite Tom Petty songs. I’m a huge Tom Petty fan and one of the reasons besides the music is this. At the time, Tom Petty was so popular his record label wanted to charge $1 more for the LP than the standard $8.98, but they backed down after he considered naming the album $8.98. Tom seemed to be a good man.
I bought the single when it came out in 1981 and then the album Hard Promises. This song has a Byrds feel and is reminiscent of the mid-sixties. It peaked at #19 on the Billboard 100, #6 in Canada, and #27 in New Zealand and it didn’t chart in the UK…the UK missed the boat on this one.
Tom seemed to always channel his inner Roger McGuinn. American Girl is a prime example. It sounds so much like Roger McGuinn that the first time Roger heard the song he asked his manager “when did I record this?” McGuinn met Petty and they got along great…McGuinn invited Petty to open up for him on his 1976 tour.
In the 1980s I watched the Gary Shandling Show faithfully and I remember that Tom Petty played this song on one episode.
Tom Petty:“I remember writing that one very well. That was a hard one. Went on for weeks. I got the chorus right away. And I had that guitar riff, that really good lick. Couldn’t get anything else. (Softly) I had a really hard time. And I knew it was good, and it just went on endlessly. It was one of those where I really worked on it until I was too tired to go any longer. And I’d get right up and start again and spend the whole day to the point where other people in the house would complain. “You’ve been playing that lick for hours.” Very hard.
It’s one that has really survived over the years because it’s so adaptable to so many situations. I even think of that line from time to time. Because I really don’t like waiting. I’m peculiar in that I’m on time, most of the time. I’m very punctual.
Roger [McGuinn] swears to me that he told me that line. And maybe he did, but I’m not sure that’s where I got it from. I remember getting it from something I read, that Janis Joplin said, “I love being onstage, it’s just the waiting.”
Roger McGuinn on hearing Tom Petty 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. I liked him enough to invite Petty and the Heartbreakers to open for us in 1976. When I covered ‘American Girl,’ I changed a word or two and Tom asked me if it was because the vocal was too high and I said ‘yes.’ I had fun with Tom’s song.”
Tom on the Gary Shandling show. I remember this episode.
Again thank you to everyone!
The Waiting
Oh baby, don’t it feel like heaven right now? Don’t it feel like something from a dream? Yeah, I’ve never known nothing quite like this Don’t it feel like tonight might never be again? Baby, we know better than to try and pretend
Honey, no one could’ve ever told me ’bout this I said yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The waiting is the hardest part Every day you see one more card You take it on faith, you take it to the heart The waiting is the hardest part
Well, yeah, I might have chased a couple women around All it ever got me was down Yeah, then there were those that made me feel good But never as good as I feel right now Baby, you’re the only one that’s ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now I said yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The waiting is the hardest part Every day you get one more yard You take it on faith, you take it to the heart The waiting is the hardest part
Oh, don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you Don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you I’ll be your bleeding heart, I’ll be your crying fool Don’t let this go too far, don’t let it get to you
Yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The waiting is the hardest part Every day you get one more yard You take it on faith, you take it to the heart The waiting is the hardest part
Yeah, the waiting is the hardest part
Woah-oh It’s the hardest part Woah-oh It’s the hardest part
A very smooth Eric Clapton song. He had a very clean guitar tone on this single. I bought this album when it was released . The single was released in 1983 and peaked at #18 on the Billboard 100, #83 in the UK, and #17 in Canada.
The song was off of Clapton’s Money and Cigarettes album. The song was written by Troy Seals, Eddie Setser, and Steve Diamond It was produced by the legendary producer Tom Dowds. Dowds produced Cream, Derek and the Dominos, and The Allman Brothers to mention a few.
The difference in this album was that Eric was actually clean and sober for the first time in many years. The 80s was not my favorite Eric Clapton era but he did have some good songs during that stretch.
This certainly is not the “screaming guitars” of Clapton long ago. I know many Clapton fans that did not like it but it fits in with the times and still sounds like an Eric Clapton song only a little smoother than usual.
Clapton has a very addictive personality. Alcohol, heroin, and fly fishing to name a few things. During the eighties when he got clean, he started to fly fish everywhere and any free time he had on tour. It also caused some trouble in his marriage because he seemed to be always fishing.
Eric Clapton: “That first summer of my recovery was one of the most beautiful I can remember, perhaps because I was healthy and clean, and I began to rent some trout-fishing days for myself, mostly on stretches of water in the neighborhood that had been specifically stocked for local fisherman… Fishing is an absorbing pastime and has a Zen quality to it. It’s an ideal pursuit for anyone who wants to think a lot and get things in perspective. It was also a perfect way of getting physically fit again, involving as it does a great deal of walking. I would go out at the crack of dawn and often stay out till nighttime… For once I was actually becoming good at something that had nothing to do with guitar playing or music. For the first time in a long time, I was doing something very normal and fairly mundane, and it was really important to me.”
Eric even made sure that when he was on tour, he was always close to fishing opportunities, often requesting that his manager, Roger Forrester, only book accommodations near fly fishing areas, often spending hours on the water before gigs.
The song regained popularity in 2010 when it was used in the T-Mobile HTC Magic myTouch 3G telephone commercial where Clapton appeared.
I’ve Got A Rock and Roll Heart
I’ve got a feeling we could be serious, girl;
Right at this moment, I could promise you the world.
Before we go crazy, before we explode,
There’s something ’bout me, baby, you got to know,
You got to know.
I get off on ’57 Chevy’s
I get off on screaming guitar.
Like the way it gets me every time it hits me.
I’ve got a rock and roll, I’ve got a rock and roll heart.
Feels like we’re falling into the arms of the night,
So if you’re not ready, don’t be holdin’ me so tight.
I guess there’s nothing left for me to explain
Here’s what you’re gettin’ and I don’t want to change,
I don’t want to change.
I get off on ’57 Chevy’s
I get off on screaming guitar.
Like the way it gets me every time it hits me.
I’ve got a rock and roll, I’ve got a rock and roll heart.
I don’t need to glitter, no Hollywood,
All you got to do is lay it down and you lay it down good.
I get off on ’57 Chevy’s
I get off on screaming guitar.
Like the way it gets me every time it hits me.
I’ve got a rock and roll, I’ve got a rock and roll heart.
I immediately liked this song when I heard it in 1984. The song originally was by Phil Phillips with the Twilights and they took it to #2 in 1959. Phil Phillips and George Khoury wrote this song. I knew Robert Plant wanted to distance himself from the hard sounds of Led Zeppelin when I heard this. I went out and immediately bought the single.
This version of the Honeydrippers included Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. I had forgotten that Brian Setzer was in it also but it makes complete sense. The members were…
Robert Plant – vocals
Jimmy Page – guitars
Jeff Beck – guitars
Paul Shaffer – keyboard
Nile Rodgers – guitar, co-producer
Wayne Pedzwater – bass
Dave Weckl – drums
Brian Setzer – guitar
Keith “Bev” Smith – Drums
That is some kind of band… a lot of great players in famous bands in this group. The song peaked at #1 in Canada, #3 on the Billboard 100, #12 in New Zealand, and #56 in the UK.
Robert Plant was actually quite horrified with this song’s success for The Honeydrippers. The A-side was “Rockin’ At Midnight,” with “Sea of Love” as the B-side. But the single got flipped. Plant feared that this would destroy his reputation and he would be typecast as a crooner, so he deliberately cut off the career of the Honeydrippers.
He thought about bringing them back in the 21st century with Ahmet Ertegün, but at the latter’s passing Plant put the idea on permanent hold. Robert can really sing those 50s hits quite well. I remember seeing him on the broadcast of the Concert for Kampuchea playing with Rockpile.
“Sea Of Love” Do you remember when we met? That’s the day I knew you were my pet I wanna tell you how much I love you
Come with me, my love, to the sea The sea of love I wanna tell you just how much I love you Come with me to the sea of love
Do you remember when we met? Oh, that’s the day I knew you were my pet I wanna tell you, oh, how much I love you
Come with me to the sea of love Come with me, my love, to the sea The sea of love I wanna tell you just how much I love you I wanna tell you, oh, how much I love you
Break out the spandex and striped pants because we are diving into the 1980s. It’s odd how some locations have songs that are played over and over and in other states or cities…hardly played at all. This was played in Nashville at the time like it was a top-ten hit so its chart placement surprised me…much lower than I thought it would be.
Growing up, I would go to my dad’s place in Nashville and hang out with my cousin Mark. He liked harder music and I learned a lot about the harder and heavy metal bands through him like Krokus. He loved this band and went to see them often, usually opening up for a bigger band. This song was played a lot here on our largest rock station and I went out and bought the single.
A funny story about Mark…he works as a cabinet maker and around 10 years ago or so he ended up working with the actual drummer (Jeff Klaven) of Krokus. He was the drummer they had at their peak and during this time. He had been out of the band for a long time but he would get Mark into concerts and take him backstage. Mark met the Scorpions on their tour bus through him. Krokus has released 18 studio albums so they have not been idle.
This song was released in 1984 along with another song off the album…a cover of The Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz. Midnite Maniac peaked at #71 on the Billboard Charts. The riff in this song is a winner. That is what attracted me to it because it keeps climbing and climbing and is incredibly catchy. The album peaked at #36 on the Billboard Album Charts and #83 in Canada.
Krokus was formed in 1974 in Switzerland and they started out as a progressive rock band but after seeing ACDC in the late seventies, they switched to more hard rock. Their breakthrough album was Headhunter released in 1983 which peaked at #25 on the Billboard Album Charts, #31 in Canada, and #35 in New Zealand.
Their name Krokus is German for crocus, a flower common throughout Europe.
One note about this album. Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance co-wrote “Boys Night Out” for The Blitz album (with lead singer Marc Storace and guitarist Fernando von Arb).
Midnite Maniac
Did you read it in the paper ‘Bout the danger comin’ your way She’ll tear you up at midnight Killer on the loose get out of her way
Sex machine terrorizing’ dream Lock the door tonight She’s got it all she can walk through a wall Better run for your life
And in the light of day In hidin’ she will stay Watch out at midnight Feel her shadow on your face
Midnight maniac she’s a killer at large Midnight maniac lock your door A) Cause she can’t be far B) She knows where you are
Did you hear it on the radio Crimes of passion makin’ the news It happened after midnight In your neighborhood could’ve been you
If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.
This episode was written by Gene Roddenberry
*** Before I start this review I want to tell everyone that I try not to give the ending away in any of these although they are over 50 years old…some people have not seen them. If you disagree with my stars (5 being excellent, 4 being very good, 3 being a good average show, 2 means below average, and 1 means downright bad)…please say something…change my mind. I usually get my summary from IMDB and add or subtract from them…there is no sense in reinventing the wheel***
I’m presenting Star Trek in order of air dates except for this one. It was only screened to NBC executives in 1965 and they are the last people to see it until October 4, 1988, when it was finally broadcast on television almost 20 years after Star Trek went off the air.
I love this pilot episode of Star Trek. A different cast almost completely except for Spock. He looks and acts a little different (see the smile) but still is Spock. One more cast member was recast. Actress Majel Barrett who played Number One was recast as Nurse Chapel in the TV series. She would go on to marry the show’s creator Gene Roddenberry. They would reuse much of the footage of the pilot for an excellent two-part episode called The Menagerie later on in season one.
Jeffrey Hunter was really good as Captain Pike but he didn’t want to commit to the series because he wanted to concentrate on movies. William Shatner has said in his book that the producers canned Hunter after his wife repeatedly stormed onto the set insisting on more flattering camera angles for her husband.
The original Star Trek pilot was rejected by NBC for being “too cerebral”, “too intellectual”, “too slow”, and with “not enough action”, so they commissioned a new pilot, which later became Where No Man Has Gone Before, starring a completely different captain… the one and only Captain James T. Kirk played by William Shatner.
What we learn from Captain Pike in this one is that he is questioning his life of being Captain of the Enterprise. He is tired of making life-and-death decisions for all of his crew. Of course, when he loses himself because of the Talosians, he snaps back and realizes that a quiet life is not for him. The real star to me was Susan Oliver as Vina. She was obviously beautiful and she did a great job acting in this part. You felt so bad for her when you see her true state.
This is an excellent show…NBC was wrong in its assessment of the show. I’m happy it turned out the way it did though because we would have never had the great original cast.
Summary
This is the pilot to the series that would star William Shatner. Only in this version, there is a different Captain, Christopher Pike, and with the exception of Mr. Spock, an entirely different crew. Now it begins when the Enterprise receives what appears to be a distress message. But when they get to the planet where the message was sent from, they discover that the supposed survivors were nothing more than illusions created by the inhabitants of the planet, for the purpose of capturing a mate for the one genuine surviving human, and Captain Pike is the lucky winner. While Captain Pike tries to cope with the experiments and tests that the aliens are conducting on him, his crew tries to find a way to rescue him. But the aliens’ illusions are too powerful and deceptive (at first).
CAST
Jeffrey Hunter – Captain Christopher Pike Leonard Nimoy – Mr. Spock Majel Barrett – Number One John Hoyt – Dr. Philip Boyce Susan Oliver – Vina Meg Wyllie – The Keeper Peter Duryea – Lieutenant José Tyler Laurel Goodwin – Yeoman J. M. Colt Clegg Hoyt – Transporter Chief Pitcairn Malachi Throne – The Keeper (voice) Michael Dugan – The Kaylar Georgia Schmidt – First Talosian Robert C. Johnson – First Talosian (voice) Serena Sande – Second Talosian Jon Lormer – Dr. Theodore Haskins Adam Roarke – C.P.O. Garrison Leonard Mudie – Second Survivor Anthony Jochim – Third Survivor Ed Madden – Enterprise Geologist Robert Phillips – Space Officer (Orion) Joseph Mell – Earth Trader Janos Prohaska – Anthropoid Ape / Humanoid Bird
When I want to hear rockabilly and pure rock and roll I play the Blasters. No studio embellishments, no gimmicks, no tricks…just rock and roll. So sit back and blast The Blasters on this Saturday.
The Blasters never had mainstream success…but popular radio back in the 80s would have been greatly improved by these guys. The Blasters are a rock and roll band formed in 1979 in Downey, California, by brothers Phil Alvin (vocals and guitar) and Dave Alvin (guitar), with bass guitarist John Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman.
This song was on their 1985 album Hard Line. Dave Alvin, the main songwriter of the band left right after the release of this album. John Mellencamp wrote and produced one song called Colored Lights on the LP.
The band has a cult following and during the 80s they had critical acclaim and recorded for Warners, but no big hits. In February of 1985, the album was released and again the band toured extensively and gained more media attention than ever. The Blasters promoted the album heavily and did a bunch of radio concerts and TV appearances including their third appearance on American Bandstand, a taped concert for MTV, and Farm Aid. In the summer a full concert was taped while on their European tour for a show called Rockaplast. The concert was aired only in Europe and was an outstanding performance.
Still, no hits, and Warners was trying to make them into a pop band and The Blasters just didn’t fit that bill. The Blasters are still together without Dave Alvin. His brother Phil still sings and plays guitar with the band.
Dave Alvin:“The night that Gene Taylor (piano player) left the Blasters was this gig in Montreal (Nov. 1985) and it was maybe the worst gig that I ever played. It was obvious that this wasn’t working anymore. The Thunderbirds had opened up the show and Gene just walked off stage at the end of the night and went right out the back door and got on the Thunderbirds bus and left. That night I decided I’m quitting. Everybody was so pissed off at each other. I flew to New York the next morning to do a Knitters gig at Irving Plaza and when I got to the gig, John said, ‘Billy’s (Zoom of X) leaving the band, you want to join?’ I said ‘Yeah!!’ without hesitation. Once I became a member of X, the Knitters became X.”
Here is a complete show from Rockpaplast
Rock & Roll Will Stand
There was a little night spot
On the outskirts of town
Where the beer was cheap
And the lights turned down
There was a boy on stage
Who could sing a little bit
Doing his versions
Of everybody’s hits
He told himself someday he’d have a
Millions fans
Everybody knows, Rock and Roll will stand
A Hollywood agent
Finally caught the boy’s act
Gave him a contract
And slapped him on the back
“On the dotted line
Please sign your name
You’re gonna get a star
On the Walk of Fame
Soon you’ll have the biggest record
In the land,
Everybody knows, Rock and Roll will stand!
“We’ll clean up your act
Take some more photos
Everybody loves you
The night of the show.
Annie’s little baby has grown up
To be a man
Everybody knows, Rock and Roll will stand!
At the Hollywood club
He gave his premier show
Some kids saw it from
The very last row.
The businessman said
“This is where it’s at!”
The kids said “Man,
We can do better than that”
They got some guitars
And went out to start a band
Everybody knows, Rock and Roll will stand.
There was a little night spot
On the outskirts of town
Another short drop
On the long way down
There’s guy on stage
Who never knew when to quit
Tellin’ everybody
He almost had a hit
But now he’s got a day job
Working with his hands
Everybody knows, Rock and Roll will stand.
“We’ll clean up your act
Take some more photos
Everybody loves you
The night of the show.
Annie’s little baby has grown up
To be a man
Everybody knows, Rock and Roll will stand!
Annie’s little baby has grown up
To be a man
Everybody knows, Rock and Roll will stand!
I remember hearing this song for the first time on the way to a baseball game that I was set to pitch. It was the best game I ever pitched. I didn’t have my best stuff at all but I pitched a one-hitter. There was one big problem…the other pitcher pitched a no-hitter and shut us out. I remember I walked someone and he was on second base. The ball was hit to left field and our left fielder Greg C****** dropped the ball and the run scored. We lost 1-0. I didn’t give Greg any grief but I can STILL see him drop that ball.
McClinton is an excellent singer and musician. He plays an eclectic mix of tough soul, blues, rock and roll, country, Tex-Mex, some reggae, and jazz. He is a guy that was never a huge star but should have been. I love his music because it’s so down-to-earth and rootsy.
The song was released in 1980 on Delbert’s album “The Jealous Kind.” Giving It Up for Your Love peaked at #8 on the Billboard 100.
Delbert has performed for years but this is his only Billboard top forty hit. He did reach #5 in the Country charts with Tanya Tucker with the song “Tell Me About It.” McClinton also won a Grammy in 1992 on a duet with Bonnie Raitt in a song called “Good Man, Good Woman.”
Some trivia about Delbert… he played the harmonica on Bruce Channel’s hit “Hey Baby.” Bruce Channel with Delbert had the Beatles supporting them during a few shows during the Love Me Do era. There was a rumor that Delbert gave John harmonica lessons…Delbert has said that John already knew how to play…he just gave him a few tips.
Delbert McClinton on showing John some tips: “These things are getting romanticized by everyone, They [The Beatles] were just another group of guys. They hadn’t yet changed the world. [But] we were all going to change the world, every one of us. And there was no doubt about it.”
Givin’ It Up For Your Love
Givin’ it up for your love – everything
Givin’ it up for your love right now
Givin’ it up for your love – I said everything
Givin’ it up for your love right now, right now
My heart is aching for you, I can’t stand it
I need your lovin’, am I so demanding?
I’m givin’ it up for your love – everything
I’m givin’ it up for your love right now
I’m givin’ it up for your love – everything
I’m givin’ it up for your love right now
Well, I thought about it
You know I’m not playing
You better listen to me
Every word I been saying
Hot is cold and cold is hot
I’m a little mixed up
But I’ll give it everything I’ve got
Don’t want your money, baby, don’t need your car
I’m doing all right, doing all right so far
I’m givin’ it up for your love – everything
I’m givin’ it up for your love right now
Givin’ it up for your love – everything
Givin’ it up for your love somehow
I know you told me
That you’d always love me
And I believed it was true
So I saved the best and I’m ready
My love only just for you
Come back here, come back real quick
My heart is aching and my body is feeling weak
I’ll be all right, yes, I’ll be OK
Come on now baby, listen to what I say
Don’t want your money, baby, don’t need your car
Been doing all right, doing all right so far
I’m givin’ it up for your love – everything
I’m givin’ it up for your love right now
I’m givin’ it up for your love – everything
I’m givin’ it up for your love somehow
I’m givin’ it up for your love – I said everything
I’m givin’ it up for your love right now
I’m givin’ it up for your love – everything
I’m givin’ it up for your love somehow
I’ve posted one other song by them called Down At The Night Club which is fantastic and still on my playlist.
The Creeps sound like they came from random garages in the sixties but it was the 1980s. I love the sound they got on this record. Like many of these bands in the 1980s…they sounded straight out of the late 60s…bless them! Who led with an organ in the 80s? Even for people who don’t like organs…the guitar is just as good.
This song is off of their debut album Enjoy The Creeps that was released in 1986. Critics have said that they never did translate the excitement of their live show to records but this one is good. They released it on a small label named Tracks on Wax which was a Swedish Garage Rock-label in the 80s.
They formed in Sweden in 1985. They were influenced heavily by the Animals and Yardbirds, Robert Jelinek (vocals, guitar), Hans Ingemansson (Hammond organ), Anders Olsson (bass), and Patrick Olson (drums). Whenever I think of music from Sweden I think of Abba…this is not Abba by any stretch of the imagination.
There was another band called The Creeps from Brno, Czech Republic. They were founded in 2005…this is not them.
I’m going to also add Down At The Night Club here. I would have bought that record if I would have heard it in 1986 over anything else in the charts here.
She’s Gone
She’s gone,
Out of my life.
I was wrong,
I’m to blame,
I was so untrue.
I can’t live without her love.
In my life
There’s just an empty s***e.
All my dreams are lost,
I’m wasting away.
Forgive me, girl.
(Chorus)
Lady, won’t you save me?
My heart belongs to you.
Lady, can you forgive me?
For all I’ve done to you.
Lady, oh, lady.
She’s gone,
Out of my life.
Oh, she’s gone.
I find it so hard to go on.
I really miss that girl, my love.
Come back into my arms.
I’m so alone,
I’m begging you,
I’m down on my knees.
Forgive me, girl.
(Chorus x2)
Lady, oh, lady.
My heart belongs to you.
Lady, can you forgive me?
For all I’ve done to you.
I bought the Rattle and Hum album when it came out in 1988. This song became one of my favorites on the album. It wasn’t a hit or even a single but the song stood out and Bono’s voice cut through with the lyrics.
The song was written by Bono and Bob Dylan. This album made me a fan of U2. I started to get into their earlier music after this. The band had changed their sound with this album. They released a fantastic single Angel of Harlem and that immediately made me a fan.
On their Joshua Tree tour when Bono woke up with the song in his head. He thought for sure it was a Dylan song that he was remembering. He drove out to Dylan’s place and asked if it belonged to him. Dylan told him wasn’t, and he helped Bono finish the song. Dylan had two writer credits on Rattle And Hum because U2 also covered All Along The Watchtower.
The song was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis Tennessee in 1987. Bob Dylan sings backup vocals on this track. There is one morbid fact about this song. Bono was staying with the Edge in a Beverly Hills mansion where he started the song. That mansion would be where the Menendez brothers would later kill their parents.
Bono:“Part of the rock star disease is stewing in your own juices. All writers think their feelings are important but a great writer realizes that though his feelings may be important, they’re not all important enough to share. ‘The palace of your shame’ describes how people build their lives into a monument of self-pity. Irish people love the melancholy. It’s that bitter sweetness that we do better than anyone else. I always reckon it’s the rain.”
“Love Rescue Me” Love rescue me Come forth and speak to me Raise me up and don’t let me fall No man is my enemy My own hands imprison me Love rescue me
Many strangers have I met On the road to my regret Many lost who seek to find themselves in me They ask me to reveal The very thoughts they would conceal Love rescue me
And the sun in the sky Makes a shadow of you and I Stretching out as the sun sinks in the sea I’m here without a name In the palace of my shame Said, love rescue me
In the cold mirror of a glass I see my reflection pass See the dark shades of what I used to be See the purple of her eyes The scarlet of my lies Love rescue me
Yea, though I walk In the valley of shadow Yea, I will fear no evil I have cursed thy rod and staff They no longer comfort me Love rescue me
Sha la la…sha la la la Sha la la la…ha la la… Sha la la la…sha la la la Sha la la la…sha la la Sha la la la…sha la la la Sha la la… I said love, love rescue me
I said love Climb up the mountains, said love I said love, oh my love On the hill of the son I’m on the eve of a storm And my word you must believe in Oh, I said love, rescue me Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah…
Yeah I’m here without a name In the palace of my shame I said love rescue me
I’ve conquered my past The future is here at last I stand at the entrance To a new world I can see The ruins to the right of me Will soon have lost sight of me Love rescue me
The first song I remember from “John Cougar” was Ain’t Even Done With The Night and then John kicked the door down with this song.
This was on American Fool and after that album he was known as John Cougar Mellencamp. The main thing is he was known all over after this album. He had four singles off of that album but two singles were huge. Hurt So Good and Jack and Diane. This song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, and #39 in New Zealand in 1982. MTV probably helped out a little but they were really good pop/rock songs. John kept his productions more timeless than some other artists. When you listen to many of them now…you don’t say…hey that’s so 80s. It could have been recorded in any era.
Mellencamp would start changing a little with his next album Uh Huh. He would become more of a “Heartland Rocker” and I started to think of him more like Springsteen and Petty. His peak to me came with the album Scarecrow. That is not saying he didn’t have more great albums because he did…but it’s hard to beat Scarecrow. His next six albums after that all went platinum.
Mellencamp’s friend was George Green, who received a composer credit on this song and went on to co-write many of Mellencamp’s hits, including Human Wheels, Crumblin’ Down, and Rain On The Scarecrow.
One thing I never knew…John Mellencamp at one time owned a tattoo parlor. This led to many family members getting tattoos that normally would not have them….like the “Hurts So Good” tattoo on his aunt.
Mellencamp won his first Grammy with this song: Best Male Rock Vocal Performance of 1982. In his acceptance speech he said, “I don’t know what to say, I’m just an idiot.”
John Mellencamp:“My friend George said, why didn’t I write a song with the title ‘Hurt So Good’? We thought of it as like a Shel Silverstein thing. I wrote it in three minutes, scrawled the first line in soap on the glass door in the shower. It was really just a joke. I think all good things probably started as jokes. Wasn’t God having a laugh when he made this whole place?”
John Mellencamp:“When I first started playing in rock bands, I didn’t realize how crude and mean other fellas could be. How crude they were with women and how crude women were. That led me to write a song called ‘Hurts So Good’ because I was playing in these bars and I just could not believe the lows people would go to with each other. The thing that surprised me is that it fit my personality perfectly. I fit right in with all that.”
Hurts So Good
When I was a young boy
Said put away those young boy ways
Now that I’m gettin’ older, so much older
I long for those young boy days
With a girl like you
With a girl like you
Lord knows there are things we can do, baby
Just me and you
Come on and make it a
Hurt so good
Come on baby, make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good
Don’t have to be so exciting
Just trying to give myself a little bit of fun, yeah
You always look so inviting
You ain’t as green as you are young
Hey baby, it’s you
Come on girl, now it’s you
Sink your teeth right through my bones, baby
Let’s see what we can do
Come on and make it a
Hurt so good
Come on baby, make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good
I ain’t talking no big deals
I ain’t made no plans myself
I ain’t talking no high heels
Maybe we could walk around, all day long
Walk around, all day long
Hurt so good
Come on baby, make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good
Hurt so good
Come on baby, now
Come on baby, make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good
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