1980s – Page 10 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Field Of Dreams

If you build it they will come

I was reminded of this movie while reading John’s blog on Saturday. This movie appeals to more than baseball fans. It’s sci-fi, fantasy, and drama with a little baseball. It would probably be in my top twenty movies of all time. I’ve always thought that baseball is the perfect sport to film a movie around. More than any other sport it lends itself to drama and comedy. You do not have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this movie.

It has a little bit of everything. Historical figures, time travel, baseball, and a great soundtrack. Some don’t know but Moonlight Graham was a real ball player. His name was Archibald Wright “Moonlight” Graham and he played one game in 1905 without getting an at bat for the New York Giants. John McGraw was his manager. He retired from baseball after that and became a doctor.

The movie makes me think of my father who passed away in 2005. He got me interested in baseball. While growing up he was a Brooklyn Dodger fan while his brothers liked The Yankees. My dad’s favorite player was Jackie Robinson. He loved the way he could disrupt a game with his baserunning. He passed that along to me and I’ve passed it to Bailey my son. I think at times…he could have been a Yankees fan like his brothers. That would have been different. I would have actually liked Reggie Jackson.

As far as baseball movies go…this one tops the list for me. I also would recommend The Natural, The Sandlot, Bull Durham, A League of Their Own, Pride of The Yankees, Eight Men Out, The Bad News Bears (Only the original), and Major League…in no order.

Kevin Costner has experience in baseball movies…Bull Durham, For The Love Of The Game, and this one. Like John said…he had his best reviews in them. What a cast this movie has. Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Amy Madigan, Burt Lancaster, and more.

The two actors that made a big impression on me were James Earl Jones and Burt Lancaster. They dissolved into their characters and became Terrance Mann and Moonlight Graham respectively. I will also add that Amy Magidan plays the most understanding wife on the planet.

My only problem with the movie…this would not affect anyone else sane from enjoying it but…Shoeless Joe Jackson was LEFT-HANDED for goodness sake. Why couldn’t they have turned Ray Liotta around when he hit in the movie. Ok…I know that is being picky…but come on.

The field built for the film is still there in Dubuque County, Iowa. There was a MLB game played there in 2021. MLB plans to return there.

Here is a summary from IMDB.

“If you build it, he will come,” is what thirty-six-year-old novice farmer Ray Kinsella hears several times over the course of days from a bodiless voice emanating from somewhere in the cornfield on his Iowa farm. Later, he has a vision that the “it” is a baseball field, the “he” is Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was infamous for his association in the Chicago 8, the eight players of the 1919 White Series who were banned for life from the sport for throwing games in exchange for money from gamblers. Although it was proved that Jackson did take money, it was never proved that he participated in throwing any of the games. Ray grew up with baseball, his long-deceased father, John, who played in the minor leagues, lived in Chicago during that infamous year, and told stories to Ray about it and Jackson when he was growing up.

He was estranged from his father at the time of his death, something that he now regrets. With the moral support of his wife, Annie, he tears up part of their cornfield to build that baseball field. He eventually hears the voice telling him other things, always without a clear understanding on his part of what it all means. One he believes it has to do with is famed ’60s writer Terence Mann, now a recluse who stopped writing because he, renowned as the voice of his generation, didn’t always want to be the answer to his generation’s problems. Another he believes has to do with it is Archie “Moonlight” Graham, who played only one half of one inning of one major league game in 1922 and died in 1972.

Ray’s voice-led path may be difficult to achieve since cynical Mann may not have the same direction of the voice as him and Graham is dead. He will have to work through these puzzles to understand the full meaning of what the voice wants for him, which may not happen if he and Annie lose the farm and thus the baseball field, a real possibility due to the latter taking away from earning income from the farm, especially as Annie’s cutthroat brother, Mark, who says he is looking out for her best interest, will do whatever needed to get Ray back to what he considers reality of earning a living from the farm.

Plimsouls – Lost Time

I thought I would live up to my blog’s name today and feature some power pop. I featured A Million Miles Away a few years ago by the Plimsouls but I just listened to their debut album and it’s great…so I thank CB for bringing them up again.

Peter Case began his musical career in the late 1970s in Los Angeles, where he formed The Nerves, a pioneering power pop/punk rock trio. The Nerves are best known for their song “Hanging on the Telephone.” It was later covered by Blondie, and it reached #5 on the UK singles chart.

After The Nerves disbanded, Case formed The Plimsouls in 1978. The band released several albums and EPs and gained a dedicated following for their live performances. They released their self-titled debut album in 1981 and it contained this song. The album peaked at #153 on the Billboard Album Charts.

This is the common story of Power Pop bands for some reason. A few bands that play Power Pop will break through and stay there like The Cars and Cheap Trick. Most bands though continually release good albums but never catch on more than once or twice. The Plimsouls continued to release music and tour throughout the 1980s, but they never achieved mainstream commercial success on the level of some of their peers. One In A Million was their most successful song because it was in the movie Valley Girl in 1983.

The band broke up after their 1983 album Everywhere At Once. They reunited without drummer Louie Ramírez to make an album called Kool Trash in 1995. They did get one of the best drummers in rock to replace Ramirez though. Clem Burke of Blondie played with them for a short while.

Lost Time

I still remember those days
Inside the school house
Dreaming out the windows
Like the words were never all

Counting hours,
Praying on my knees
All i need was being
Cared for my beliefs

From the first step that i took outside
I made it to ya in a straight line
Catching up, up for lost time

(get dressed) we’re making up for lost time

(get dressed) we’re making up for lost time
(get dressed) we’re making up for lost time

who’s got a minute that’s been waiting for the green light
but catch you in it and they’ll keep you awake all night
i catch it still long enough to show my hands
i got no time to spend waiting for the plans

from the first step that i took outside
i made it to ya in a straight line
catching up, up for lost time

(get dressed) we’re making up for lost time
(get dressed) we’re making up for lost time
(get dressed) we’re making up for lost time

i tried living, day to day
what you get ain’t what you see
i tried breakin every way
but they always got their hands on me

from the first step that i took outside
i made it to ya in a straight line
we’re catching up, up for lost time

(get dressed) we’re making up for lost time
(get dressed) we’re making up for lost time
(get dressed) we’re making up for lost time

(get dressed) we’re making up for lost time
(get dressed) we’re making up for lost time
(get dressed) we’re making up

up up for lost time
up up for lost time
up up for lost time

…

Lyle Lovett – If I Had A Boat

But Tonto he was smarterAnd one day said kemo sabeWell, kiss my ass, I bought a boatI’m going out to sea

Since I have been going over Texas Songwriters…I have saved Lovett for a while. I knew of him because his name is huge where I live and I’ve seen him on differrent shows throughout my life. So I started to listen to some of his music recently with high anticipation and was not disappointed.

The thing about these songwriters I like so much are the lyrics. What surprised me were the lovely melodies that sold those lyrics to listeners. You can write the best set of lyrics in the world but without a good melody they will just stay just lyrics.

He was born in the German farming community of Klein, Texas and was influenced by blues and country greats such as Ray Charles, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, and more. His music has a little bit of everything in it. Western, folk, swing, jazz, bebop, blues, and gospel music. Lovett earned two degrees from Texas A&M University in Journalism and German, and music was his career of choice. One of his roommates in college was no other than fellow Texas songwriter Robert Earl Keen.

Lovett said that this song was based on a true story. He did try to cross a pond on a pony but he wished he had a boat when it happened. This song was about getting away from things and not being tied down.

This song was released in 1987 on the album Pontiac. The song peaked at #66 on the Billboard Country Charts. The album peaked at #12 on the Billboard Country Album Charts, #18 in Canada, and #117 on the Billboard Album Charts.

He was asked if him and Robert Earl Keen were trying to carry on with the tradition that Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark started. He answered: There’s a direct line from those guys to Robert and me. We learned how to play those Guy Clark songs from Guy’s first record, and we sought out Guy and Townes as we came up, because we admired them so much, and got to know them. So their version of storytelling, their take on what a song was supposed to be, was something that Robert and I actively pursued.

On what Texas is to him: Texas is just home. I’m tethered here and lack perspective. My whole experience, every day in my life, is wrapped up in being from here. I’m what in the horse business we call barn blind. I really like my horses better than anybody else’s.

Lyle Lovett: Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.

If I Had A Boat

And if I had a boatI’d go out on the oceanAnd if I had a ponyI’d ride him on my boatAnd we could all togetherGo out on the oceanI said me upon my pony on my boat

If I were Roy RogersI’d sure enough be singleI couldn’t bring myself to marrying an old DaleWell, it’d just be me and TriggerWe’d go riding through them moviesThen we’d buy a boat and on the sea we’d sail

And if I had a boatI’d go out on the oceanAnd if I had a ponyI’d ride him on my boatAnd we could all togetherGo out on the oceanI said me upon my pony on my boat

The mystery masked man was smartHe got himself a Tonto‘Cause Tonto did the dirty work for freeBut Tonto he was smarterAnd one day said kemo sabeWell, kiss my ass, I bought a boatI’m going out to sea

And if I had a boatI’d go out on the oceanAnd if I had a ponyI’d ride him on my boatAnd we could all togetherGo out on the oceanI said me upon my pony on my boat

And if I were like lightningI wouldn’t need no sneakersI’d come and go wherever I would pleaseAnd I’d scare ’em by the shade treeAnd I’d scare ’em by the light poleBut I would not scare my pony on my boat out on the sea

And if I had a boatI’d go out on the oceanAnd if I had a ponyI’d ride him on my boatAnd we could all togetherGo out on the oceanI said me upon my pony on my boatI said me upon my pony on my boat

Paladins – Keep On Lovin Me Baby

I hope you are all doing well on this Saturday! This will fill your rockabilly quota of the day.

Here is some 1980’s roots rockabilly. What caught my attention is the relentless guitar on this track plus the groove. The guitar player is Dave Gonzalez and the tone reminds me of Stevie Ray Vaughn. This song was written by blues guitarist and songwriter Otis Rush.

The Paladins are from San Diego and were into rockabilly. They billed their music as Western Bop. They played a combination of rockabilly and vintage country together with a blues groove. They were founded in 1980 by guitarist Dave Gonzalez and bass player Thomas Yearsley.

Dave Gonzalez’s initial influences came from his mother, who listened to Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and the Rolling Stones. He mixed this with his father’s love of country singers Buck Owens and Merle Haggard who also made a strong impression on him. As he got older he got into blues artists like B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Johnny Winter.

Put that all together and you come up with a varied roots style.

They did some tours with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Los Lobos, The Blasters, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. This song was on the Let’s Buzz! album released in 1990. They were nominated for the 1990 Entertainer Music Awards but lost out to the Beat Farmers…but they won two years later.

Dave Gonzalez and bass player Thomas Yearsley along with drummer Brian Fahey are still a top attraction at clubs at the present time. They have recorded five singles, nine full-length studio records, and three live albums.

Keep On Lovin Me Baby

I want you to love me (repeat) woh yeah.
Oh baby i’m so glad youre mine…
I want you to kiss me…
Woh baby i’m so glad you’re mine…

Early every morning, sometimes late at night i can
Feel your tender lips they make me feel alright.

Keep on loving me baby…
Woh baby i’m so glad you’re mine…

Ronnie Dawson

Again…a big thank you again to Phil Strawn who gave me the necessary information so the story could be told and much of it from a personal view.

One of the performers in The Big D Jamboree was Ronnie Dawson. He was from Dallas Texas and was nicknamed “The Blonde Bomber.” His father Pinkie showed him how to play the mandolin, drums, and bass guitar. Dawson attended Southwestern Bible Institute in Waxahachie but was expelled. After that, he appeared regularly on the Big D Jamboree Radio Show in Dallas in 1958 as Ronnie Dee and the D Men. Dawson was known to be highly energetic on stage. Many thought he got it from Elvis but he said no, he learned it from the dynamic Pentecostal revivals he attended.

The Jack Rhodes song “Action Packed” was Dawson’s first release in 1958 on the Backbeat label. After that came the 1959 Rockin’ Bones and this time it was on the Rockin’ Records label. It was issued under Ronnie’s own name with “The Blond Bomber” added. Though Ronnie toured nationally with Gene Vincent and appeared on TV, his records gained no more than regional airplay.

The next 3 paragraphs are from Phil. Back in the early ’60s, there was a club on Mockingbird Lane in Dallas called The Levee. It was a sing-along Dixieland place that was popular at the time. The band was banjos, a doghouse bass and a clarinet and sax. Burgers and pitchers of beer made up the menu. Southern Methodist University was two blocks away, across Highway 75, so most of the clientele were students and couples in their twenties. The famous Egyptian Lounge was next door. It served the best Italian food in Dallas and was a known hangout for the Dallas Mafia and other wise guys.

EPSON MFP image — At a Levee Singers gig at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, around 1961 or 62. Phil’s dad is also playing a tenor banjo, as is Ronnie.

Smokey Montgomery, the banjo player for the Light Crust Doughboys, started the Levee with Ed Burnett, who was also his partner in Summit Sounds, a well-known recording studio on Greenville Ave. Ronnie was playing with the Doughboys, so Smokey asked him to play with the banjo band in order to add some youth to the mix. He was a huge hit, and the business tripled. The coeds loved him; their boyfriends hated him. The Levee bounced along all through the 60s until the fad went flat. In the mid-70s, Ronnie was into the progressive country music scene and started a band called The Steel Rail. I don’t remember the drummer, lead, or bass players’ names, but the legendary Tommy Morrell played the pedal steel while Ronnie sang and tore up his Strat.

The old Levee club was empty, so Ronnie leased the space and opened a club called “Aunt Emma’s,” a nod to his favorite aunt. On opening night, Ronnie asked my dad to come down and add some fiddle to the band, which he did. I took my guitar, just in case he needed another player. The place was full up, with a line down past the Egyptian. Around 11 pm, Johnny Paycheck strolled in the door. He had finished a gig in Dallas and heard about Ronnie’s new club, so he stopped by to sit in. Of course, he did all of his hits and played for at least an hour. After that, word got around that Aunt Emma’s was the place to go for the new outlaw country; it out-drew Willie Nelson’s Whiskey River which was a few blocks away on Greenville Ave.

He made several singles in the early sixties with Dick Clark’s Swan Records. He also did some session work. He played on Paul & Paula’s “Hey Paula. After Elvis died rockabilly started to make a comeback.

Dawson’s career experienced periods of obscurity. However, he continued to perform and record music throughout his life, earning a cult following among rockabilly enthusiasts. In the 1980s and 1990s, he experienced a resurgence of interest in his music, performing at festivals and recording new albums.

In the 1980s Ronnie was just beginning. A fifties revival was happening in the UK and he became popular there. This led Dawson to tour Britain for the first time in 1986. He was blown away by the audience’s reception. Dawson sounded purer than most of his peers from the 1950s and he put on a more energetic show.

He recorded new material for No Hit Records, the label of British rockabilly fan Barry Koumis, which was leased in the USA to Crystal Clear Records. No Hit Records also reissued his recordings from the 1950s and early 1960s on a 16-track LP called “Rockin’ Bones” and an extended 2-CD version of which was released by Crystal Clear in 1996.

Ronnie was still performing until the early 2000s when health problems started. He passed away in Dallas on September 30, 2003, at the age of 64.

Phil Strawn: He was a great guy and close friend. After his death from lung cancer, which shocked us all because he never smoked cigarettes but did partake of other smokable plants, his wife, Chris, held a wake at the Sons of Herman Hall in Deep Ellum. You couldn’t stir the musicians and rock stars with a stick; the ballroom on the second floor was packed. I remember Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Michael Martin Murphy, Robert Earl Keen, and Robert Duvall being there. George Gimarc, a noted Texas music historian, has a treasure trove of photos and reel-to-reel recording tapes of Ronnie dating back to the Big D Jamboree and American Bandstand. He refuses to share or part with any of his collections. I told him, that’s okay, leave a few to me when you bite the dust. There is no need for me to approve of your article; you write great music history, and Ima sure this one will also be stellar.

Ronnie Dawson: “At that point in my life, I was so ready to get out of Dallas. I was really ready to go, and I just blew up when I got over there. … I couldn’t believe it. All these people started embracing me. I was in heaven. I didn’t want to go home.”

He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, in 1998.

…

Tommy Tutone – 867-5309 / Jenny

I never knew this in the 1980s but the singer is not Tommy Tutone…that is the band’s name. They were led by Tommy Heath and Jim Keller and originally called themselves Tommy and the Two-Tones.

If you were listening to the radio in the eighties you remember this song. A great little power pop song that gave you a phone number you could not forget. The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard 100 and #2 in Canada in 1982. After it became a hit I started to think about the poor souls who had that number under different area codes. It changed their lives…

Mrs. Lorene Burns, an Alabama householder formerly at +1-205-867-5309; she changed her number in 1982: When we’d first get calls at 2 or 3 in the morning, my husband would answer the phone. He can’t hear too well. They’d ask for Jenny, and he’d say “Jimmy doesn’t live here anymore.” … Tommy Tutone was the one who had the record. I’d like to get hold of his neck and choke him.

The song, released in late 1981, initially gained popularity on the American West Coast in January 1982… many who had the number soon abandoned it because of unwanted calls.

Asking telephone companies to trace the calls was of no use, as Charles and Maurine Shambarger (then in West Akron, Ohio at +1-216-867-5309) learned when Ohio Bell explained “We don’t know what to make of this. The calls are coming from all over the place.” A little over a month later, they disconnected the number and the phone became silent.

Jim Keller, the lead guitarist of the band, claims that Jenny was a girl he knew and that some friends wrote her number on the wall of a men’s room as a prank. Keller says he called her and they dated for some time. Yet Alex Call, who co-wrote the song with Jim Keller, claims there was never any Jenny and that 867-5309 came to him “out of the ether.” They are lucky no one got to them and…get hold of his neck and choke him.

Alex Call: “Despite all the mythology to the contrary, I actually just came up with the ‘Jenny,’ and the telephone number and the music and all that just sitting in my backyard. There was no Jenny. I don’t know where the number came from, I was just trying to write a 4-chord rock song and it just kind of came out.

This was back in 1981 when I wrote it, and I had at the time a little squirrel-powered 4-track in this industrial yard in California, and I went up there and made a tape of it. I had the guitar lick, I had the name and number, but I didn’t know what the song was about. This buddy of mine, Jim Keller, who’s the co-writer, was the lead guitar player in Tommy Tutone. He stopped by that afternoon and he said, ‘Al, it’s a girl’s number on a bathroom wall,’ and we had a good laugh. I said, ‘That’s exactly right, that’s exactly what it is.’

I had the thing recorded. I had the name and number, and they were in the same spots, ‘Jenny… 867-5309.’ I had all that going, but I had a blind spot in the creative process, I didn’t realize it would be a girl’s number on a bathroom wall. When Jim showed up, we wrote the verses in 15 or 20 minutes, they were just obvious. It was just a fun thing, we never thought it would get cut. In fact, even after Tommy Tutone made the record and ‘867-5309’ got on the air, it really didn’t have a lot of promotion to begin with, but it was one of those songs that got a lot of requests and stayed on the charts. It was on the charts for 40 weeks.”

867-5309 / Jenny

Jenny Jenny who can I turn to
You give me something I can hold on to
I know you’ll think I’m like the others before
Who saw your name and number on the wall

Jenny I’ve got your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny don’t change your number

Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Jenny jenny you’re the girl for me
You don’t know me but you make me so happy
I tried to call you before but I lost my nerve
I tried my imagination but I was disturbed

Jenny I’ve got your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny don’t change your number
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine

I got it (i got it) I got it
I got your number on the wall
I got it (i got it) I got it
For a good time, for a good time call

Jenny don’t change your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny I’ve called your number

Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine

Jenny Jenny who can I turn to (eight six seven five three oh nine)
For the price of a dime I can always turn to you (eight six seven five three oh nine)

Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine (five three oh nine)
Eight six seven five three oh nine
Eight six seven five three oh nine (five three oh nine)
Eight six seven five three oh nine (five three oh nine)

Rockpile – Fool Too Long

Happy April Fools Day!

Fool Too Long is a song from the 1980 album Seconds of Pleasure. The song was written by Nick Lowe, who was one of the key songwriters and vocalists in Rockpile. It’s a catchy rock tune with elements of power pop and new wave with the underlying old rock sound.

Nick Lowe (lead vocals, bass), Dave Edmunds (lead vocals, guitar), Billy Bremner (backing vocals, guitar), and Terry Williams (drums)— had been writing, recording, and playing live together for years before they released just one album at least under the Rockpile name.

One of the reasons they only recorded one album is record label issues. Rockpile was signed to different labels in different regions, with Dave Edmunds signed to Swan Song Records (co-owned by Led Zeppelin) in the United States and Nick Lowe signed to Columbia Records in the UK. These label differences complicated the band’s recording and promotional efforts. They actually recorded more but on other people’s records. They were the backing band for Dave Edmunds’s Tracks On Wax 4, side one of a Mickey Jupp album, and more.

Before the band recorded Seconds of Pleasure, the name “Rockpile” had already been used as the title of an album by Dave Edmunds that he released in 1970. Edmunds subsequently toured as “Dave Edmunds and Rockpile,” with a band that included Williams on drums. However, the group became known as Rockpile didn’t form until Lowe and Edmunds began recording together in the mid-1970s.

The album peaked at #27 on the Billboard 100, #29 in Canada, and #34 in the UK in 1980.

Fool Too Long

I should have realised babe a long time ago
When you told me that you loved me but you didn′t any more
You ran around with anyone all behind my back
You asked me to forgive you I went and took you back

Well I thought you learned your lesson then
But now I see it happen again
And I’ve been a fool too long
I had you figured out all wrong
I′ve been a fool too long
And I ain’t gonna be a fool no more

I should have seen the signs babe the writing on the wall
When all those other guys started coming round to call
You told me that you changed but that was just a lie
When you said I was your only I was just another guy

Well if I’m the one who pays the rent
I gotta have one hundred percent
Cos I′ve been a fool too long
I had you figured out all wrong
I′ve been a fool too long
And I ain’t gonna be a fool no more

…

Roy Orbison – You Got It

Roy was making a great comeback in the late eighties. He was a member of the hottest band at the time…The Traveling Wilburys. He had just finished a new album called Mystery Girl in November of 1988. He confided in Johnny Cash that he was having chest pains and he would have to have it looked at…he never did. It was so nice hearing Roy on the radio again with You Got It.

The Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 was rising in the charts and he flew to Europe to do a show and came back and did a few more in America. On December 6, 1988, he flew model planes with his kids and after dinner passed away at the age of 52.

It was written during the Christmas season of 1987 and recorded in April of 1988 with Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and Phil Jones providing the backing track. The song is credited to Orbison, Lynne, and Petty. It’s pretty obvious it was produced by Jeff Lynne. Jeff was a busy man during this time. He would produce George Harrison’s Cloud Nine, Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever, and Orbison’s Mystery Girl.

The track is quite significant to the career of Jeff Lynne as it was his first entry into the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and his only Top 10 Country hit, peaking at #7 in 1989. Jeff’s only other Billboard Hot Country chart entry was the following Roy Orbison single, California Blue, which peaked at #51 later that year.

I remember watching the Traveling Wilburys video “End of the Line”. They made the video after Roy passed away… when his part came up they showed an empty rocking chair with Roy’s picture beside it.

You Got It featured Jeff Lynn, Tom Petty, and Phil Jones.

You Got It was released in 1989 and it peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, #3 in the UK, #7 on the Billboard Country Charts in 1989.

You Got It

Every time I look into your loving eyesI see a love that money just can’t buy

One look from you, I drift awayI pray that you are here to stay

Anything you want, you got itAnything you need, you got itAnything at all, you got it, baby

Every time I hold you I begin to understandEverything about you tells me I’m your man

I live (I live)My life (my life)To be (To be)With you (with you)No one (no one)Can do (can do)The things (the things)You do (you do)

Anything you want, you got itAnything you need, you got itAnything at all, you got it, baby

Anything you want (you got it)Anything you need (you got it)Anything at all

Do-do-do-do-doo (oh)Do-do-do-do-doo (oh, yeah)Do-do-do-do-doo (yeah, yeah, yeah)(You got it)

I’m glad to give my love to youI know you feel the way I do

Anything you want, you got itAnything you need, you got itAnything at all, you got it, baby

Anything at all (you got it)BabyYou got it

Clash – Brand New Cadillac

This was a great cover by The Clash. It was on the London Calling album released in 1979. They started off as a punk band but The Clash, unlike some other Punk bands, could really play and sing well…, especially Mick Jones. He was probably the best pure musician in the band.

The song was originally by Vince Taylor and released in 1959. It was the B side to a song called Pledging My Love. Taylor wrote the song but Tony Sheridan is credited with the cool guitar riff running through the song. The song’s riff reminds me of the original Batman riff…or really the other way around.

The Clash’s version of the song is the best-known. They did it in one take. It was the B side to the single London Calling. The single peaked at #46 in the UK in 1988 re-release. It also peaked at #64 with another UK re-release in 1991.

Rolling Stone magazine named London Calling the best album of the ’80s. It should be noted that it was first released in the UK in December 1979. In the US, it was released two weeks into January 1980, meaning that from a US perspective, it’s a 1980s album.

I like Vince’s version just as well… a good rock song through and through.

Brand New Cadillac

DriveDrive

My baby drove up in a brand new CadillacYes, she didMy baby drove up in a brand new CadillacShe said, “Hey, come here, daddy”I ain’t never comin’ back

Baby, baby, won’t you hear my plea?Yeah, come on, sugar, just come on back to meShe said, “Balls to you, big daddy”

Baby, baby, won’t you hear my plea?Oh, oh, come on, just hear my pleaShe said, “Balls to you, daddy”She ain’t comin’ back to me

Oh GodBaby, baby, drove up in a CadillacI said, “Jesus Christ, where’d you get that Cadillac?”She said, “Balls to you, daddy”She ain’t never comin’ backShe ain’t, she ain’t comin’ backShe ain’t never comin’ backShe ain’t never comin’ backShe ain’t never comin’ back

…

Car Songs…Part 1

In my Fred Eaglesmith post on Saturday, two comments caught my attention. One was Keith telling me when he was a DJ they would play car songs at certain times. Then Obbverse mentioned… that would be a good post for someone…and indeed he was right.

When I was a teenager…a car wasn’t just a car…it was freedom. It was a key to an adult world we wanted eagerly to jump into. Ok…I’ll have songs with either the word “car” in them or with a model of a car in the title only. If not I would have 80 percent of Springsteen songs…not a bad thing at all but I will play by those rules.

Janis Joplin – Mercedes Benz

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

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

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

Wilco – Bull Black Nova

Many thanks to Obbverse for recommending this one. This song is a dark one…very dark. It’s somewhat cryptic and open to interpretation but one thing it does show… guilt, betrayal, and the consequences of one’s actions…and the narrator possibly killing his girlfriend. This song was released in 2009 on the album Wilco (The Album). The song was written by Wilco… Glenn Kotchie, Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Mikael Jorgensen, Nels Cline, and Pat Sansone.

If I am the one, blood on the sofa
Blood in the sink, blood in the trunk
High at the wheel of a bull black Nova
And I’m sorry as a setting sun
This can’t be undone, can’t be outrun

Bruce Springsteen – Cadillac Ranch

I could probably do a post just on Cadillac songs.

This song is a great little rocker off of The River. This is one of many early Springsteen songs featuring cars. Some others were “Thunder Road,” “Backstreets,” and “Racing In The Street.” Bruce used the Cadillac image again in 1984 on “Pink Cadillac.”

Springsteen used Cadillac Ranch as a metaphor for the coming of death.

There is a real Cadillac Ranch.

In 1974 along Route 66 west of Amarillo, Texas, Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh 3. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh 3’s fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt

T Rex – Jeepster

This song was on the 1972 album Electric Warrior. The music was supposedly based off of the Willie Dixon song You’ll Be Mine.

Jeepster was recorded live in the studio. The recording happened entirely organically and was not overdubbed. Marc Bolan, amid a performance, jumped up and down as he played his guitar, shaking the microphone stands. The sound of those stands was kept in the song. Producer Tony Visconti saw them as important features of the overall mood of the track and chose to include them.

K.C. Douglas-Mercury Blues

Mercury Blues was written by the Blues musicians K.C. Douglas and Robert Geddins in 1949. It was originally titled “Mercury Boogie.” The song was made famous 44 years later by Alan Jackson, whose 1993 cover peaked at #2 on the Billboard Country charts. The song has also been covered by Steve Miller, David Lindley, and Meat Loaf.

Herman Brood – Saturday Night

A while back CB sent me Herman Brood’s name and a few links but we had talked about other bands and Brood got lost in the shuffle. I started to listen and the guy has some seriously good songs. He was a musician, singer-songwriter, an artist, and an actor. He was in five movies with the last one released in 2000. His voice got me right away…it’s different and unique. This guy was a true artist.

I hear rock, blues, and some pub rock in there also. Most of his songs are radio-friendly and they rock. Probably the biggest reason he didn’t hit more was his hedonistic lifestyle which grew worse as the years went by.

Herman Brood was born in Zwolie in the Netherlands. After finishing art school he started off as a keyboard player in a band called The Moans in the early sixties. At the end of the sixties, Brood was part of the blues band Cuby + Blizzards. When he took a break from music… he got into trouble. Brood quickly slipped into crime. Burglary and drug trafficking and, as a consequence, a small stint in jail.

He released his first album in 1977 called Street and followed it up with 1978’s Shpritsz and Cha Cha. In 1979 he released Herman Brood & His Wild Romance. This album was released in America only. It contained tracks from Shpritsz also. The album peaked at #122 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1979. The song Saturday Night peaked at #35 on the Billboard 100.

The classic line-up of The Wild Romance was formed in November of 1977: Dany Lademacher (guitar), Freddie Cavalli (bass) Cees “Ani” Meerman (drums) supplemented with The Bombitas (background vocals). This album’s songs were recorded quickly and mostly cut live in the studio. That is why this album sounds so alive when you hear it. The album featured 15 short-driven songs.

He continued making music through the 80s releasing 8 albums in that decade and 4 in the 90s. He also started to paint and do pop art with screen prints.

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

During the end of his life, he tried to refrain from taking drugs but just couldn’t quit. He died in 2000. Like with the Beat Farmers, it was hard to pick one song out but I will be doing more so I will get to him again soon.

Saturday Night

he neon light, of the Open all night
Was just in time replaced by the magic appearance of a new day-while
A melancholic Reno was crawling on his back just in
Front of the supermarket door-way child

Hey girl, on a cold summer night
As we stood on the corner
As a man passed by and asked us
What we were doing what we need
As he pointed his big fat finger
To the people hangin’ round at the corner of the – other side of street
Oh well

Doin’ nothing, just hanging around
What do you mean doin’ nothing Sir
So we had to hit him to the ground
Doin’ nothing just hanging around
His head all busted lookin’ just a little to wise child

I just can’t wait
I just can’t wait for Saturday night
For Saturday night
For Saturday night
Saturday night

Saturday night
Saturday night
Saturday night

I just can’t wait
I just can’t wait

…

Beat Farmers – Happy Boy

My little dog spot got hit by a carHubba hubba hubba hubba hubbaPut his guts in a box and put him in a drawerHubba hubba hubba hubba hubba

This past weekend I posted a Beat Farmers song…well actually two and the album. If you would have scrolled down to the last track on that album…this is it. On Nashville’s station WKDF a disc jockey would play this song quite a lot in the mornings and afternoons.

My best friend growing up is named Ron. Ron played guitar in our band and we absolutely loved this song. We would go around and just break out singing this song over and over again. I even had a Kazoo I would take around with me.

If you are feeling low…this should pick you right up or send you even further down! The song is on the Tales Of The New West album.

Happy Boy

I was walkin’ down the street on a sunny dayHubba hubba hubba hubba hubbaA feeling in my bones that I’ll have my wayHubba hubba hubba hubba hubba

Well I’m a happy boy (happy boy)Well I’m a happy boy (happy boy)

Oh ain’t it good when things are going your way, hey heyMy little dog spot got hit by a carHubba hubba hubba hubba hubbaPut his guts in a box and put him in a drawerHubba hubba hubba hubba hubba

Well I’m a happy boy (happy boy)Well I’m a happy boy (happy boy)

I forgot all about it for a month and a halfHubba hubba hubba hubba hubbaI looked in the drawer and started to laughHubba hubba hubba hubba hubba

Well I’m a happy boy (happy boy)Well I’m a happy boy (happy boy)

…

Rodney Crowell – She Loves The Jerk

John Hiatt released this song in 1983 on the album Riding With The King which was his sixth album. Like all his other efforts at this time, the album was a critical success but little heard or bought by the public. They both are great versions of the song.

In 1986 Rodney Crowell released his album Street Language which was on Columbia Records for his first release on that label. He left Warner Brothers at the time and brought in Booker T. Jones to produce this album. He had some heavy hitters on this album. Vince Gill, David Lindley, Dave Loggins, and Anton Fig just to name a few.

The album peaked at #38 on the Billboard Country Charts and #177 on the Billboard Album Charts. The song peaked at #71 on the Billboard Country Charts in 1986. This was the album before Diamonds and Dust that soared to number 1 in the Country Charts with 5 number 1 Country hits.

John Hiatt said it was written in 1982 while he was living in Los Angeles at the time. The inspiration came from earlier in his life… the first girl he ever thought he was in love with. He was 15 and she was 18 and it was unrequited love. Another artist who covered this song was Elvis Costello. He released the demo version of it.

She Loves The Jerk

We’ve talked it to death, cryin’ on the telephone
Nights when he drinks at home
She has to whisper throught her tears
“Johnny,” she says, “You’d never do these things to me”
But I can never make her see he’s wasted such precious years
Well, “You married the wrong guy” is all I ever say

He’s a no good so and so, but she’ll never let him go
Though she knows it will never work, she loves the jerk
She loves the jerk

He was the guy always out on the make
I guess he had what it takes to turn the heads of pretty girls
She thought he would change; the worst of us will settle down
But he couldn’t stay out of town, not even with this precious pearl
Now she lives with the lies and the bumps and the bruises

He’s a no good so and so, but she’ll never let him go
Though she knows it will never work, she loves the jerk
She loves the jerk

Well, I hang up the phone and I pretend she’s in my arms
What I wouldn’t give for just one-tenth of what she gives Mister Charming

He’s a no good so and so, but she’ll never let him go
Though she knows it will never work, she loves the jerk
She loves the jerk

…

Beat Farmers – Goldmine

CB sent me a link to The Beat Farmers. I knew heard of them but at first, I was thinking hard punk. I then realized and I remembered. I first heard of the Beat Farmers in the 1980s. WKDF in Nashville was at one time the premiere rock station in Nashville. Anyway, during some spots they would play a song by the Beat Farmers that was both strange, dark, and fun. I’ll get to that one on the next Beat Farmers post-Wednesday.

I’ve listened to this album at least 5-6 times this week. The hardest part was picking one song to post on…so I’m going to pick one but include two. The one I picked has a rockabilly feel to it but that is not necessarily the sound of the entire album.

The Beat Farmers formed in San Diego California in 1983. They went to a studio with a $4000 budget, and they recorded Tales Of The New West. The album was released in 1985. The members were Country Dick Montana, Jerry Raney on guitar, Rolle Dexter on bass, Buddy Blue on guitar, and Joey Harris on guitar. They did a tour opening up for the Blasters and then signed a 7 Record Deal with CURB Records…which turned out to be a mistake…they fought for years to get away from them.

They also had several solo projects like Country Dick’s Petting Zoo, Country Dick’s Garage, Jerry and Joey acoustic, Jerry and Buddy jam nights, and the Pleasure Barons. Country Dick was recording a solo effort. Dick also worked with Mojo Nixon.

Together they released 6 albums and 15 singles + EPs. The band came to a halt on November 8, 1995, when Country Dick Montana died on stage. They have occasionally got together since then.

Below is the album Tales Of The New West… Give it a listen. They have a great base sound and their songs vary.

A cover of The Velvet Underground There She Goes Again

Goldmine

Well you can’t say that you are mine no moreWe’re history, I’m walking right out the doorWell you can have your men and your liquor tooBut without me baby whatcha gonna doBaby you lost a goldmine when you lost me

I was faithful and I shared everything that I ownI was always there when you cried babe I’m feeling aloneBut I ain’t no chump and you’re gonna findThat those men that you’ve been seeing are the hurting kindAnd I don’t need you running on back to me

Well the smile that you’re wearing gonna disappearWhen you see that I was rightWell you’ll rue the day that you pushed me tillI walked right out of your life

Well there’s plenty of women that can keep me satisfiedAnd I don’t need your cheating or your foolish liesWell I ain’t gonna miss none of your embraceSo go shake that thing in someone else’s faceBaby you lost a goldmine when you lost me

Well folks have got to reap just what they sowAnd you got some things-a coming to you don’t you knowYou’ll get no more loving or sympathyFrom the lonesome fool that you thought was meBaby you lost a goldmine when you lost me

…

Chris Stamey – From The Word Go

Chris Stamey formed the power pop band The dB’s with Peter Holsapple in 1978. A band that admired Big Star and followed their footsteps in releasing some critically acclaimed albums that did not sell. Chris Stamey even played bass for Alex Chilton in 1977.

The dB’s were a great unknown power pop band…who would influence many bands but not sell many records. They were from Winston-Salem, North Carolina but the group was formed in New York City in 1978. The members were Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Will Rigby, and Gene Holder.

Stamey left the dB’s for a while in the 80s to pursue a solo career. He formed a record company in New York in 1978 called Cars Records and managed to release Chris Bell’s (Big Star guitarist, singer, and songwriter) single I Am The Cosmos.

From The Word Go was on Stamey’s second solo album It’s Alright. It was released in 1987 and is the only solo album of his to be released on a major label A&M/Universal. He has released 8 solo albums over a career that is still going now. The dB’s released an album in 2012.

Chris Stamey on Big Star:“They were my favorite, and as far as I knew they were popular all the way across America. At least for that moment, I forgot about Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.”

Sorry…I could not find the lyrics