Brilliant song by Steve Earle. I became a fan of Steve Earle when I heard “I Aint Never Satisified” off of the Exit 0 album. Copperhead Road was an actual road near Mountain City, Tennessee. It has since been renamed Copperhead Hollow Road, owing to the theft of road signs bearing the song’s name.
What is interesting is Earle tells a story of three generations, of three different eras, and shows how they intersect all in one song.
This song peaked at #10 in the Billboard Mainstream Charts, #45 in the UK, and #12 in Canada in 1988.
Earle himself called the album the world’s first blend of heavy metal and bluegrass.
When you wrote things like “Copperhead Road,” did you know you had something that would be a signature song?
Steve Earle: Yeah. I did. That song I did. “Guitar Town,” I didn’t. I just thought I was writing a song that was going to open my tour and open my record, because I’d seen Springsteen come out and open the show with “Born in the U.S.A.” on that tour. That’s really when I started writing that album, the day after I saw that tour. But it had such a utilitarian reason to exist for me that I thought that was it. So I was shocked when they made it a single and shocked when it was a hit. But “Copperhead” I knew.
From Songfacts
Copperhead Road is a real road in East Tennessee where moonshine was made and two generations later, marijuana was grown. The song tells the story of a soldier who returns home from Vietnam and starts trafficking marijuana.
Copperhead Road is a highly acclaimed album that came after an interesting year for Earle: he spent New Year’s Day of 1988 in a Dallas jail charged with assaulting a policeman, had to deal with various legal and business issues, and at one point had a message on his answering machine that said, “This is Steve. I’m probably out shooting heroin, chasing 13-year-olds and beatin’ up cops. But I’m old and I tire easily, so leave a message and I’ll get back to you.” He also married his fifth wife around the time the album was released.
Along with “Guitar Town,” this is one of Earle’s signature songs. When he wrote it, he knew it would catch on.
Copperhead Road
Well my name’s John Lee Pettimore Same as my daddy and his daddy before You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here He only came to town about twice a year He’d buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line Everybody knew that he made moonshine Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad He headed up the holler with everything he had It’s before my time but I’ve been told He never came back from Copperhead Road Now Daddy ran the whiskey in a big block Dodge Bought it at an auction at the Mason’s Lodge Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side Just shot a coat of primer then he looked inside Well him and my uncle tore that engine down I still remember that rumblin’ sound Well the sheriff came around in the middle of the night Heard mama cryin’, knew something wasn’t right He was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load You could smell the whiskey burnin’ down Copperhead Road
I volunteered for the Army on my birthday They draft the white trash first,’round here anyway I done two tours of duty in Vietnam And I came home with a brand new plan I take the seed from Colombia and Mexico I plant it up the holler down Copperhead Road Well the D.E.A.’s got a chopper in the air I wake up screaming like I’m back over there I learned a thing or two from ol’ Charlie don’t you know You better stay away from Copperhead Road
I enjoyed this song and album when it was released. It was somewhat of a comeback for Simon. I traveled to Graceland the same year it was released for the first time. I got ignored by the guide. It was 1987 and the guide brought up the Beatles and I asked a question about it…I cannot remember the question. The second question I asked was about Bruce Springsteen…how he supposedly climbed the gate to give Elvis the song “Fire” but Elvis wasn’t at home. She finally asked..do we have any more questions…and looked at me…” about Elvis?” I shook my head no and continued…
Part of this song is an account of Paul Simon’s marriage breakup with his first wife Peggy Harper. The nine-year-old “traveling companion” he refers to is their son Harper, who three years later, at the age of 12, accompanied his father on the Graceland tour. Harper Simon, born in 1972, developed into a singer-songwriter.
The song only charted at #81 in the Billboard 100 in 1987…which is surprising to me now. It got a lot of airplay at the time.
At first, Simon considered the word “Graceland” a placeholder title until he could come up with something better – maybe something that had to do with Africa. After a while, he realized the title wasn’t going away, and he got comfortable with it.
Paul Simon: “I couldn’t replace it. I thought, Maybe I’m supposed to go to Graceland. Maybe I’m supposed to go on a trip and see what I’m writing about, and I did.”
Paul Simon: “The track has a beautiful emptiness to it. That’s what made me think of Sun Records when it was nothing but slapback echo and the song.”
From Songfacts
Graceland is the mansion in Memphis, Tennessee where Elvis Presley lived; it is where Elvis is buried, and it is now a museum and popular tourist attraction. Paul Simon started calling his song “Graceland” after he came up with the track, which reminded him of the Sun Records sound where Elvis recorded.
Simon says this song is an example of “how a collaboration works even when you’re not aware of it occurring.” He traveled to South Africa in February 1985 and recorded with a variety of local musicians. One of these sessions was with an accordion player named Forere Motloheloa, who played on the song “The Boy in the Bubble.” These sessions produced a drum sound that Simon liked, which he described in the 2012 Graceland reissue: “The drums were kind of a traveling rhythm in country music – I’m a big Sun Records fan, and early-’50s, mid-’50s Sun Records you hear that beat a lot, like a fast, Johnny Cash type of rhythm.”
Simon put together a rhythm section comprised of three African musicians: guitarist Ray Phiri, fretless bass player Baghiti Khumalo, and drummer Isaac Mtshali. Simon played the drums for Phiri, and asked him to play something over it. Phiri started to play his version of American Country on electric guitar, which were chords not frequently used in African music: minor chords. When Simon asked him why he played that, Phiri responded, “I was just imitating the way you write.”
With Phiri playing his approximation of Amercian country, and Baghiti playing a straight ahead African groove on bass, Simon felt there was a commonality in the music, and he wrote a lyric to express that.
Simon describes that trip in the song; he drove to Graceland from Louisiana on Route 61, and the lyrics were his thoughts of the countryside: “The Mississippi Delta is shining like a National guitar.” When he finally got to Graceland, he took the famous tour.
This is the title track of Simon’s most successful album, selling over 15 million copies and winning a Grammy for Album of the Year. It is an album focusing mostly on African music, but it also explores other forms of non-mainstream music, like Zydeco. Simon considers this song to be less African-sounding than most of the other African-based tracks. The single also won Simon his third Record of the Year award – he previously won for “Mrs. Robinson” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Paul Simon’s visit to South Africa was no easy task, as many nations were boycotting the country because of their racist apartheid policy. However, the United Nations Anti-Apartheid Committee supported his efforts since he only recorded with black South African musicians and did not collaborate with the government in any way. This didn’t appease some critics, who felt that violating sanctions undermined efforts to effect change in the country, no matter his artistic intentions. Ultimately, the Graceland project helped raise awareness to the apartheid struggle and expose many South African musicians to a global audience. The sanctions were put in place mainly to prevent entertainers from performing lucrative gigs at the Sun City resort, and Simon did nothing to support the corrupt government there.
Regarding the lyrics, “There’s a girl in New York City who calls herself the human trampoline,” Simon explained to SongTalk magazine: “That line came to me when I was walking past the Museum of Natural History. For no reason, I can think of. It’s not related to anybody. Or anything. It just struck me as funny. Although that’s an image that people remember, they talk about that line. But really, what interested me was the next line, because I was using the word ‘Graceland’ but it wasn’t in the chorus. I was bringing ‘Graceland’ back into a verse. Which is one of the things I learned from African music: the recapitulation of themes can come in different places.”
Explaining the World Music component of this song in the album reissue, Simon explained: “The part of me that had ‘Graceland’ in my head I think was subconsciously reacting to what I first heard in the drums, which was some kind of Sun Records/country/blues amalgam. What Ray was doing was mixing up his aural recollections of what American country was and what kind of chord changes I played. So the whole song really is one sound evoking a response, and that eventually became a lyric that instead of being about a South African subject or a political subject, it became a traveling song. That’s really the secret of World Music is that people are able to listen to each other, made associations, and play their own music that sounds like it fits into another culture.”
Several months after the initial recording sessions, Nigerian pedal steel guitarist Demola Adepoju was added to the track. This added a sound familiar to both American and African music, as the pedal steel guitar is a popular instrument in West Africa.
This song has stood the test of time, but when it was released as a single, it only charted at #82 in the US and didn’t crack the charts in the UK. It didn’t fit neatly into any radio formats like “You Can Call Me Al,” so it lacked hit potential. It did find an audience as part of the album, which went to #1 in the UK and stayed on the charts for nearly two years. In America, the album peaked at #3 but stayed on the chart for 97 weeks.
Don and Phil Everly of the Everly Brother sang backup on this track. Paul Simon and his musical partner Art Garfunkel idolized the Everlys and recorded their song “Bye Bye Love” for their Bridge Over Troubled Water album. Simon said he heard “Graceland” as “a perfect Everly Brothers song.”
In a 1993 interview on Larry King Live, Simon said this was his favorite song.
The B-side of the single was “Hearts And Bones,” which can be found on the album of the same name, released three years prior to Graceland.
Simon’s second wife, Carrie Fisher, was the topic of some of the songs on his 1983 Hearts and Bones album, including the title track. They got married that year, divorced a year later, but kept an on-and-off relationship throughout the ’80s. Fisher told Rolling Stone, “‘Graceland’ has part of us in it.”
Graceland
The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National guitar I am following the river Down the highway Through the cradle of the civil war
I’m going to Graceland, Graceland Memphis, Tennessee I’m going to Graceland Poor boys and pilgrims with families And we are going to Graceland
My traveling companion is nine years old He is the child of my first marriage But I’ve reason to believe We both will be received In Graceland
She comes back to tell me she’s gone As if I didn’t know that As if I didn’t know my own bed As if I’d never noticed The way she brushed her hair from her forehead And she said, “losing love Is like a window in your heart Everybody sees you’re blown apart Everybody sees the wind blow”
I’m going to Graceland Memphis, Tennessee I’m going to Graceland Poor boys and pilgrims with families And we are going to Graceland
And my traveling companions Are ghosts and empty sockets I’m looking at ghosts and empties But I’ve reason to believe We all will be received In Graceland
There is a girl in New York City Who calls herself the human trampoline And sometimes when I’m falling, flying Or tumbling in turmoil I say “Whoa, so this is what she means” She means we’re bouncing into Graceland And I see losing love Is like a window in your heart Well, everybody sees you’re blown apart Everybody sees the wind blow
Ooh, ooh, ooh In Graceland, in Graceland I’m going to Graceland For reasons I cannot explain There’s some part of me wants to see Graceland And I may be obliged to defend Every love, every ending Or maybe there’s no obligations now Maybe I’ve a reason to believe We all will be received In Graceland
Whoa, oh, oh In Graceland, in Graceland, in Graceland I’m going to Graceland
A friend of mine who played guitar in high school got a bootleg of this song a year before it was officially released. His band was playing in the gym before we went on and they played this song. I thought they wrote it until I asked him. It’s a great-sounding song live.
It was an instant bar band song. It was a song you didn’t really have to rehearse…just one listen would do it.
This was the only big hit for the Georgia Satellites, although lead singer Dan Baird had a hit as a solo artist in 1992 with “I Love You Period.” They didn’t have another big hit but they did have some songs that got airplay on radio and MTV like Battleship Chains and a cover of Hippy Shake. This was one of the few straight-out rock and roll songs to hit the charts at this time.
It was released in 1986 and peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100 and #69 in the UK in 1987.
From Songfacts
Lead singer Dan Baird wrote this about the problems their drummer was having with his girlfriend. He wrote it in one sitting on their tour bus.
The video portrayed a shotgun wedding, complete with very pregnant bride and actual shotgun. It was directed by Bill Fishman, whose other credits include the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” and Good Charlotte’s “Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous.”
Many people thought the line “I’ve got a little change in my pocket, going jingle, linga, ling” was a reference to masturbation. The group denied this.
The group was signed to Elektra Records after executives heard a cheaply made 8-track demo of this song. Elektra gave the band a 5-figure budget to cut an entire album of material, but despite attempting several different recordings of “Keep Your Hands to Yourself,” none of these takes were as good as the demo. The demo was included on the album, and that is the version you hear.
Keep Your Hands To Yourself
I got a little change in my pocket going jingle lingle ling Want to call you on the telephone baby i give you a ring But each time we talk i get the same old thing Always no huggin no kissin until i get a wedding ring My honey my baby don’t put my love upon no shelf She said don’t give no lies and keep your hands to yourself
Cruel baby baby baby why you want to treat me this way You know i’m still your lover boy i still feel the same way That’s when she told me a story ’bout free milk and a cow And she said no huggin no kissin until i get a wedding vow My honey my baby don’t put my love upon no shelf She said don’t hand me no lies and keep your hands to yourself
You see i wanted her real bad and i was about to give in That’s when she started talkin’ true love started talkin’ about sin I said honey i’ll live with you for the rest of my life She said no huggin no kissin until you make me your wife My honey my baby don’t put my love on no shelf She don’t hand me no lies and keep your hands to yourself.
The album Damn The Torpedos broke Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to the masses.
In the US, Damn The Torpedoes was a big success and helped the band grow a huge audience. The album peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100, held out of #1 by Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
The song peaked at #15 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, and #3 in New Zealand in 1980.
Tom Petty: “This was a reaction to the pressures of the music business. I wound up in a huge row with the record company when ABC Records tried to sell our contract to MCA Records without us knowing about it, despite a clause in our contract that said they didn’t have the right to do that. I was so angry with the whole system that I think that had a lot to do with the tone of the Damn the Torpedoes album. I was in this defiant mood. I wasn’t so conscious of it then, but I can look back and see what was happening. I find that’s true a lot. It takes some time usually before you fully understand what’s going on in a song – or maybe what led up to it.”
From Songfacts
Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell wrote the music and Petty added the lyrics. In a Songfacts interview with Campbell, he told us about the recording process: “That was a hard record to make. It was a 4-track that I made at my house. Tom wrote over the music as it was, no changes, but it took us forever to actually cut the track. We just had a hard time getting the feel right. We must have recorded that 100 times. I remember being so frustrated with it one day that – I think this is the only time I ever did this – I just left the studio and went out of town for two days. I just couldn’t take the pressure anymore, but then I came back and when we regrouped we were actually able to get it down on tape.”
Mike Campbell: “When we were at the studio mixing it, I remember this one girl who was working in reception, she came in and heard the mix and she said, ‘That’s a hit, that’s a hit,’ and we looked at each other and said, ‘Maybe it is.’ You don’t always know. Sometimes you think certain things are surefire and people just don’t latch on to them and other things they do. You know when it’s good or not, but you don’t always know if it’s a hit. A hit record a lot of times is more than just the song, it’s the timing, the climate you put it out in, what people are listening to and what they’re expecting to hear and if it touches a nerve at a certain time.”
Campbell and Petty teamed up to write many of the band’s songs, including “Here Comes My Girl,” “Jammin’ Me,” and “You Got Lucky.” Mike also wrote the music for Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” and “The Heart Of The Matter.” When we asked him what was his favorite song he’s written, he said: “Refugee always makes me happy. Maybe because it was so hard to get on the tape, there was a time when I thought it would never come out, that we just can’t do it. It always sounds like it really captured a moment. If I had to pick one favorite, I’d probably pick that first.”
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed this in 1979 on their first Saturday Night Live appearance, where they also played “Don’t Do Me Like That.”
The band closed out their Live Aid set at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia with “Refugee.” The massive 1985 benefit concert was also staged in London the same day.
The band shot a music video for this song because they didn’t want to appear on The Merv Griffin Show in person. It did the trick, and the video aired on the show, allowing Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to promote the song without showing up. This was the only place they thought the video would air, but when MTV launched in 1981, it got lots of play on the network, which craved rock videos from American artists. The band became one of the most popular acts on MTV, feeding the network with cinematic productions for songs like “Don’t Come Around Here No More” and “Free Fallin’.”
During a Twitter Q&A in December 2011, Petty disclosed that Melissa Etheridge doing “Refugee” was the best cover of the song he ever heard. Etheridge’s version was recorded for her 2005 compilation album, Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled.
Refugee
We did somethin’ we both know it We don’t talk too much about it Ain’t no real big secret all the same Somehow we get around it Listen it don’t really matter to me baby You believe what you want to believe You see you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee)
Somewhere, somehow somebody Must have kicked you around some Tell me why you want to lay there And revel in your abandon Honey, it don’t make no difference to me baby Everybody’s had to fight to be free You see you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee) Now baby you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee)
Baby we ain’t the first I’m sure a lot of other lover’s been burned Right now this seems real to you But it’s one of those things You gotta feel to be true
Somewhere, somehow somebody Must have kicked you around some Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped Tied up, taken away and held for ransom It don’t really matter to me Everybody’s had to fight to be free You see you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee) I said you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee) You don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee), ah , ah
Looking back it’s kinda hard to believe that a fifties sounding band made a big splash among the big hair synth 1980s. In the seventies yes it would have been not only possible but probable because of a 50’s revival then.
Brian Setzer lead guitarist: ‘I couldn’t relate to prog rock. We never had any wizards in my neighborhood. We had ’58 Chevys and good-looking girls’
Brian came up with Stray Cat Strut back his garage in Long Island when he was 18. He wanted something slower than their other songs. It was about the three members, and the lives they were living. At that point, they were still called the Tomcats, but it became “stray” when they went to London.
They found a counterculture in London that related to the fifties music and style. The original group of people that came to see them included Chrissie Hynde, Joe Strummer, Lemmy and Glen Matlock.
Ronnie Lane from the Faces put them up and Dave Edmunds grabbed them at the Venue and said: “Let me produce you before someone else ruins you.” Dave did indeed produce them.
This song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 in 1983.
Black and orange stray cat sittin’ on a fence Ain’t got enough dough to pay the rent I’m flat broke, but I don’t care I strut right by with my tail in the air
Stray cat strut, I’m a (Ladies’ cat) I’m a feline Casanova (Hey, man, that’s where it’s at) Get a shoe thrown at me from a mean old man Get my dinner from a garbage can
Meow Yeah, don’t cross my path
I don’t bother chasing mice around, oh, no I slink down the alley looking for a fight Howling to the moonlight on a hot summer night Singin’ the blues while the lady cats cry “Wild stray cat, you’re a real gone guy I wish I could be as carefree and wild But I got cat class, and I got cat style”
I don’t bother chasing mice around I slink down the alley looking for a fight Howling to the moonlight on a hot summer night Singin’ the blues while the lady cats cry “Wild stray cat, you’re a real gone guy I wish I could be as carefree and wild But I got cat class, and I got cat style”
In 1988 I bought Cloud Nine by George Harrison. It stayed on my turntable and in my cassette player for months. This song is not my favorite on the album but I was happy to see George at the top of the charts for the first time since “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” in 1973.
The song was written and composed by Rudy Clark and originally recorded by James Ray in 1962 but it was not a hit for James.
ELO’s Jeff Lynne produced this song with Harrison. His influence can be heard in the backing vocals of the chorus. The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #2 in the UK, and #4 in NewZealand in 1988.
This song is the last number 1 song by a Beatle. Paul did have a number 1 album in 2018 with Egypt Station. Cloud Nine peaked at #8 in the Billboard Album Chart.
From Songfacts
This was written by Rudy Clark and originally recorded by James Ray in 1962. Harrison bought a copy of the single in the summer of 1963 when visiting his sister Louise in Illinois. Many years later when he was writing his Cloud Nine album, he remembered the song and decided to cover it.
Cloud Nine was Harrison’s comeback album. He hadn’t had a hit since 1981 with “All Those Years Ago,” and his previous US #1 was “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)” in 1973. Until the Beach Boys released “Kokomo,” Harrison had the record for longest span between #1 hits. “Got My Mind Set On You,” however, was his last single to chart.
Harrison released another album earlier in 1982 called Gone Troppo, which flopped. Proving that he could whip up a hit, he released this very simplistic cover song and it was a huge commercial success. A lot of Harrison’s work was well off the mainstream, using unusual instruments and based on Indian music. This proved that he could release a song requiring very little thought and send it up the charts. Predictably, many of Harrison’s ardent followers can’t stand this song.
Along with Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty, Harrison and Lynne formed The Traveling Wilburys in 1988.
Got My Mind Set On You
I got my mind set on you I got my mind set on you I got my mind set on you I got my mind set on you
But it’s gonna take money A whole lot of spending money It’s gonna take plenty of money To do it right, child
It’s gonna take time A whole lot of precious time It’s gonna take patience and time, um To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it To do it right, child
I got my mind set on you I got my mind set on you I got my mind set on you I got my mind set on you
And this time I know it’s for real The feelings that I feel I know if I put my mind to it I know that I really can do it
I got my mind set on you Set on you I got my mind set on you Set on you
But it’s gonna take money A whole lot of spending money It’s gonna take plenty of money To do it right, child
It’s gonna take time A whole lot of precious time It’s gonna take patience and time, um To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it To do it right
I got my mind set on you I got my mind set on you I got my mind set on you I got my mind set on you
And this time I know it’s for real The feelings that I feel I know if I put my mind to it I know that I really can do it
But it’s gonna take money A whole lot of spending money It’s gonna take plenty of money To do it right, child
It’s gonna take time A whole lot of precious time It’s gonna take patience and time, um To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it To do it right
Set on you Set on you
Set on you Set on you Set on you Set on you Set on you Set on you I set my mind on you I’m gonna set on you
This is the first song I heard by them and I liked it right away.
The Go-Go’s formed in the spring of 1978 but didn’t really get serious until 1979 when drummer Gina Schock joined. Her playing gave the music a more forceful punch, and her insistence on frequent practicing helped move the band from novelty to contender in the L.A. scene.
Guitar player Charlotte Caffey wrote this song. It peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100 and #3 in Canada. The song was on the album Beaty and the Beat which peaked at #1 in 1981 in the Billboard Album Charts.
The Go-Go’s are the first all-girl band to write the songs and play the instruments on a #1 US album.
Charlotte Caffey: “I thought it would be very clever to do ‘Going To A Go-Go.’ I thought, Well, let’s try working this out as a cover song. Which is really funny when I think about it. I was listening to it a lot one day, and later that night, the song came to me within five minutes. I don’t even know if it has anything to do with listening to that song, but this whole idea came to me. It was one of those things that just went right through me and came out my hand; I wrote it down, recorded it a little bit, and then brought it into rehearsal a few days later.”
From Songfacts
The Go-Go’s wrote their own songs, and along with the Bangles and The Dixie Chicks, are one of the most successful all-girl bands to do so. “We Got The Beat” was written by guitarist Charlotte Caffey, who drew inspiration from some Motown beats, specifically one that mentioned the name of her group.
In the ’70s, American female rockers like Suzi Quatro and The Runaways found the UK more receptive than their homeland, so The Go-Go’s followed this model, releasing an early version of “We Got The Beat” in the UK as their first single. It was issued on Stiff Records, which was home to The Specials and Madness, both groups The Go-Go’s toured with in England to promote it. It flopped, but the group fared far better in America, where they were signed to IRS Records by Miles Copeland, who managed The Police. In the US, “Our Lips Are Sealed” was released as their first single in the summer of 1981, followed by a new version of “We Got The Beat” in January 1982. This release was The Go-Go’s biggest hit, spending three weeks at #2 in April behind Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock And Roll.”
Jett was able to box them out of the top spot on the Hot 100, but Beauty And The Beat spent six weeks at #1, fending off Jett’s album. This made The Go-Go’s the first all-girl band to top the US albums chart, a mark that stood until 1999, when Dixie Chicks landed with Fly.
This plays in the opening scene of the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, where we meet the main characters in their natural habitat: the Ridgemont Mall. The song doesn’t appear on the soundtrack but got a lot of attention from the film. Other movies to use the song include:
Brimstone & Treacle (1982) Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997) Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) Poms (2019)
When The Go-Go’s formed in 1978, they had little experience but figured they could learn on the fly in the LA punk scene, where enthusiasm could make up for shortfalls in musicianship. The only seasoned member was guitarist Charlotte Caffey, who was a few years older and knew how to play when lead singer Belinda Carlisle asked her to join this new all-girl band. Charlotte took the offer, leaving her band The Eyes and becoming a key songwriter in the group along with Jane Wiedlin, the group’s other guitarist, who quickly developed into an excellent musician as well. In 1979, they replaced original drummer Elissa Bello with the more experienced Gina Schock; in early 1981 they swapped out bass player Margot Olavarria for Kathy Valentine, who had been in a group called The Textones and also wrote songs.
The narrative of the band having no idea how to play when they started stuck with them, but by the time they released their first album, Wiedlin and Carlisle were the only members without much previous experience. Those two became the most visible members and each launched successful solo careers after the band folded in 1985. Carlisle got a lot of help from Charlotte Caffey, who worked on much of her solo material.
The Go-Go’s played this and “Our Lips Are Sealed” when they were musical guests on Saturday Night Live, November 14, 1981. The group would often have a few drinks before their shows, but for SNL they didn’t take the stage until about midnight, so all that early drinking caught up with them, resulting in a rather sluggish performance.
In a Songfacts interview with Go-Go’s bass player Kathy Valentine, she said: “I think of ‘We Got The Beat’ as an anthem. It’s very trance-like, so you combine that trance factor with the beat and the anthem nature and it’s very unique.”
The song ties into the album title, Beauty And The Beat, which was Belinda Carlisle’s idea. The group’s first album, it was recorded in New York City with producer Richard Gottehrer, the man who gave us “I Want Candy.” The Go-Go’s were based in Los Angeles, so during this time they stayed together in suites at the Wellington Hotel in New York City, causing lots of mischief and having way too much fun.
The group brainstormed ideas for the cover and decided to go with a spa theme, showing the girls wrapped in towels with cream on their faces. Their art director, George DuBois, took the photos in the hotel, with shots of each member in the bathtub for use on the back cover. According to Kathy Valentine, their manager, Ginger Canzoneri, got the towels from Macy’s and returned them after the shoot. They used Pond’s cold cream on their faces.
This was performed by the cast of the TV series Glee in the 2011 episode “The Purple Piano Project.” Released as a single, this version went to #83 in the US.
This opens the musical Head Over Heels, based on the music of The Go-Go’s, which played on Broadway in 2018. When an oracle, played by Peppermint of RuPaul’s Drag Race, foresees a beatless future for the Elizabethan-era townsfolk of Arcadia, they respond with the tune.
We Got The Beat
See the people walking down the street Fall in line just watching all their feet They don’t know where they want to go But they’re walking in time
They got the beat They got the beat They got the beat Yeah, they got the beat
All the kids just getting out of school They can’t wait to hang out and be cool Hang around ’til quarter after twelve That’s when they fall in line
They got the beat They got the beat Kids got the beat Yeah kids got the beat
Go-go music really makes us dance Do the pony puts us in a trance Do the Watusi just give us a chance That’s when we fall in line
‘Cause we got the beat We got the beat We got the beat Yeah we got it!
We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat Everybody get on your feet we got the beat We know you can dance to the beat we got the beat Jumpin’ get down we got the beat Round and round and round
We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat We got the beat
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack I went out for a ride and I never went back Like a river that don’t know where it’s flowing I took a wrong turn and I just kept going
It’s hard to beat that as an opening verse…once I heard that I was hooked. Springsteen met Joey Ramone in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Ramone asked Bruce to write a song for his band, The Ramones. Springsteen wrote “Hungry Heart” that night but decided to keep it.
Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (Flo and Eddie) of The Turtles sang backup.
The song was on the album The River. The album peaked a #1 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1980. Hungry Heart peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100 in 1980. This was Springsteen’s first top 10 hit.
Bruce Springsteen:“I saw the Ramones in Asbury Park,” “and we were talking for a while and I was like, ‘Man I’ve got to write the Ramones a song.’ So I went home and I sat at my table and I wrote it in about the time it took me to sing it. I brought it in and we went to make a demo for it or I played it for [Johnny Ramone], and he said, ‘Nah, you better keep that one.’ He was right about that. It did pretty well.”
From Songfacts
This was Springsteen’s first Top 10 hit. Born To Run was a big album five years earlier, but did not have any hit singles. This song proved that Springsteen could not just sell concert tickets and albums, but could record hit pop songs.
This song explores a man’s wanderlust contrasted with his desire for a stable family life. Many of Springsteen’s songs are about wanting to get away, and in this song the main character concludes that he does not want to be alone.
Springsteen’s voice was slightly sped up on the recording, producing a higher vocal. Bob Dylan did the same thing on “Lay Lady Lay.”
This was used in the Tom Cruise movie Risky Business. It was the first time a Springsteen song was used in a film.
In the 1981 Rolling Stone reader’s poll, this was voted best single. Springsteen also won for Best Artist, Album, and Male Singer.
Bruce has the audience sing the first verse and chorus when he performs this live.
The single was backed with “Held Up Without A Gun.” This started a tradition of using songs that did not appear on his albums as B-sides.
This went to #28 when it was Reissued in England in 1995. The first time it was released it only went to #44.
Springsteen performed this with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at Young’s first annual Bridge School benefit concert in 1986.
Hungry Heart
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack I went out for a ride and I never went back Like a river that don’t know where it’s flowing I took a wrong turn and I just kept going
Everybody’s got a hungry heart Everybody’s got a hungry heart Lay down your money and you play your part Everybody’s got a hungry heart
I met her in a Kingstown bar We fell in love I knew it had to end We took what we had and we ripped it apart Now here I am down in Kingstown again
Everybody’s got a hungry heart Everybody’s got a hungry heart Lay down your money and you play your part Everybody’s got a hungry heart
Everybody needs a place to rest Everybody wants to have a home Don’t make no difference what nobody says Ain’t nobody like to be alone
Everybody’s got a hungry heart Everybody’s got a hungry heart Lay down your money and you play your part Everybody’s got a hungry heart
When this came out it took me a while to warm up to it… but after a few listens I liked it. They were all over MTV then when they were opening up for the Who’s “farewell” tour.
Clash drummer Topper Headon wrote the music and the original lyrics. After he wrote it he was fired from the band because of drug problems… In the meantime, the song became an enormous hit in the US. In the music video for the song, its original Clash drummer Terry Chimes at the kit (he had returned to replace Headon temporarily).
Joe Strummer decided to take Headon’s lyrics in a different direction. According to former Clash co-manager Kosmo Vinyl, Headon’s original words were a filthy ode to his girlfriend. Joe Strummer wrote the lyrics with a more political bent.
This was The Clash’s biggest US hit, and along with “Train In Vain,” one of only two that reached the Top 40. They had several Top 40 hits in England.
The song peaked at #8 in 1983 in the Billboard 100. The album Combat Rock peaked at #7 in the Billboard Album Charts.
From Songfacts The first line of Strummer’s re-written lyrics had a specific genesis: manager Bernie Rhodes was frustrated in the early Combat Rock sessions with every track ending up being really long (stuff like “Straight To Hell” and “Sean Flynn”) and in one session shouted, “Does everything have to be as long as raga?!” Strummer told Rolling Stone shortly before he died in 2002: “I got back to the hotel that night and wrote on a typewriter, ‘The King told the boogie men You gotta get that raga drop.’ I looked at it and for some reason I started to think about what someone had told me earlier, that you get lashed for owning a disco album in Iran.” This served as inspiration for the rest of the lyrics, about the people defying the Arab ruler (Shareef)’s ban on disco music and “Rocking the Casbah.”
“Casbah” (also spelled “Qasbah” or “Kasbah”) refers to walled areas in many North African towns, especially the one in Algiers. The lyrics use many different terms in humorous context from Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish and Sanskrit language and culture – along with Casbah, there are also Sharifs, Bedouins, Sheikh, kosher, raga and minerets in the song.
In the UK this single was backed on the B-side by “Long Time Jerk,” a song mostly written by bassist Paul Simonon about his then-girlfriend Pearl Harbour. “Jerk” wasn’t available anywhere else until it was included on the expanded Super Black Market Clash rarities compilation in 1993.
The US military used this as a rallying cry when they invaded Iraq in 1991. During Operation Desert Storm, Joe Strummer was irate over the song being one of the most requested on US radio because of the misunderstanding that it was an anti-Iraq in sentiment (a similar fate befell The Cure’s “Killing An Arab”).
With electronic sound effects and an intriguing video, this appealed to Americans more than any other Clash song, but it wasn’t a good representation of the band. For many young people in the US, The Clash were known as a British import with a catchy song, similar to MTV darlings like Thomas Dolby and A Flock of Seagulls. In England they were revered for breaking new ground as rock rebels.
When this became a hit, Joe Strummer considered leaving The Clash. He couldn’t justify singing rebellious songs when the band was rich and successful. In their early years, when they were struggling, their music was sincere, but he felt they were becoming a joke.
When the band broke up in 1985, it was speculated that their plan all along was to break up once they had conquered America, a feat that was achieved by “Rock the Casbah” becoming such a huge hit along with “Should I Stay or Should I Go?.”
The music video features an Arab and an orthodox Jewish person skanking, to go with the Middle Eastern theme. The parts of the Arab and Jew were played by Titos Menchaca (the sheik), and local theater director Dennis Razze (the Jew). Titos told us the story:
“We shot it in 1981 in and around Austin, Texas. This was a few months before MTV was even launched. At the time, I was a young film acting student (I had stage experience/training, but working in front of the camera is a different beast). My teacher was a guy named Loren Bivens. One day after class he mentioned that some guys were in from out of town to do some sort of film shoot. He didn’t know much about it but thought it’d be a good opportunity to work in front of a camera.
I chatted with them at their hotel room later. There was Don Letts, a rastah from London who would direct, John Hazard, ace camera man from New York, and some guy named Barry, who I later learned was their DP (director of photography). They explained that they were with the Clash and working in a brand new medium called “music videos” that bands were going to be using to pitch songs to record companies and other powers-that-be. It was such a foreign concept at the time that I didn’t think much about it after the interview until they called later and said they wanted me for the part of the sheik, they liked the contrast between my height (6’3″) and Dennis’, and the gig would pay $350 for one day’s work. NOW they had my attention.
This was Don’s directorial debut, so he was a bit unsure how to handle actors. But, he was extremely creative and we soon learned to glean from his instructions what he wanted from us in each scene.
A few quick notes about the shoot: The rock quarry scene near the beginning where I’m running – we shot that about 6 times because Don wanted to see dust flying off my shoulders à la Indiana Jones when he’s running from the natives at the beginning of the original Raiders movie which had just come out and was all the rage. He kept heaping more and more dirt on me and we kept doing takes until, mercifully, John and Barry told him it simply couldn’t be seen from that distance.
The scene where we’re jamming down the highway with the Austin skyline in the background – John was shooting out an open panel van door and there was lots of honking traffic behind us. That was real beer we were drinking all day.
For the final scene where we’re dancing in the crowd at the concert – some punk kept trying to worm his way into the shot and Don had to physically block him out (like a basketball player) so we could get the shot. (that venue has since been torn down to make a park).
We got to hang out with the band for a bit before the show. They struck me as quiet, serious. Sober, too. Joe Ely was there, also. That night, I hung out at a local reggae joint in Austin called Liberty Lunch (now torn down also) with Bivens, Barry, and these two brothers from New York who were former students of Bivens’ – in town to scout locations for their first feature, which Barry was going to DP for them.
I enjoyed some notoriety from the video when it became an MTV (and later VH1) mainstay, but that all kind of quieted down after a few years except for rabid fans of the band (of which there are many). I find it interesting that it has such social relevance now, as it did then. Maybe more. Also, kids today are rediscovering the Clash and when I do guest artist gigs at colleges my ‘cool factor’ shoots up immediately. Heh heh! Oh, by the way… Barry’s last name? Sonnenfeld. And the two brothers scouting locations? Joel and Ethan Coen. The movie? Blood Simple.
Dennis Razze, who played The Rabbi, told us: “A casting agent friend of mine suggested I audition for this video shoot, so on a lark I went down to the Sheraton Hotel that night to audition. At 8pm or so was a long line around the block of guys auditioning, and finally around 11pm I was ushered into the hotel room to meet three guys who were doing the shoot. Titos, who was a friend of mine, was next in line so we went in together. They had a boom box on which they played this song I had never heard (“Rock the Casbah”) and asked us to improv to it. We danced around a bit and did some interaction as the two characters they wanted – the Sheik and the Rabbi. When we were done they told us on the spot we got the job. We were told to be back there at 5am for makeup and costume!
I had to wear three layers of dark heavy wool and also fake “locks” that were glued to my sideburns. The day of the shoot was ungodly hot as Austin can be in the summer. Close to 100 degrees. They drove us around in a van from location to location and by mid day we had also met the band who didn’t have much to do with us (and I didn’t have a clue who they were). They had rented an expensive film camera to do the shoot (most people don’t realize that music videos were shot on film) The director loved the little bits I added like the “Fiddler on the Roof” dance and spitting beer in the pool. He encouraged me to have fun and I had no trouble being silly. As the day went by, I began to really like the song that they played over and over again at each location. The coolest thing was doing the scene with the armadillo – what a cool creature, bigger than I thought one might be.
We didn’t end the very long day till around midnight after the concert shoot which was absolutely crazy because they just worked us into the audience in front of the stage and shot us and the band in real time during the concert. I was drenched in sweat by that time, exhausted, and just wanted to go home to bed.
I never thought I would hear another thing about the video, but six months later, friends of mine form the East Coast would call and say they saw me on HBO and later MTV. (I never saw the video myself till almost two years after it was shot) We were paid a few hundred dollars for our work, and because there were no residuals in the early days of music videos, we never made another cent off of our success. Given the number of times over so many years the video has been aired, Titos and I would have made a sizable sum I think if the video had been shot a year later when it was determined that music videos would work the same way as commercials.
Combat Rock was recorded at the Electric Ladyland studio in New York. Topper Headon recalled to Mojo magazine November 2008: “I loved New York, the 24-hour city. (But) we’d lost that unity and had stopped hanging out together as friends, and would all turn up at the studio at different times, writing stuff as and when it came up. The sessions were supposed to start at two in the afternoon, though by the time everyone turned up it was seven. I got there early, and what else was I going to do except put down an idea?” That idea was the drum pattern and tune for this song.
Live performances of this song often took a different direction, since by this time the band had given up on taking a keyboard player on tour. This meant the piano part couldn’t be played live, and the song took on a heavier, more all-out rock feel in a live setting.
It was a live staple from its introduction in 1982 through to the band’s breakup in 1985. Joe Strummer was so proud of the song that it was one of the Clash songs that he performed live with his solo band, The Mescaleros (who did indeed have a keyboard player!).
Rock The Casbah
Now the king told the boogie men You have to let that raga drop The oil down the desert way Has been shakin’ to the top The Sheik he drove his Cadillac He went a-cruisin’ down the ville The muezzin was a-standing On the radiator grille
Shareef don’t like it Rock the Casbah, rock the Casbah Shareef don’t like it Rock the Casbah, Rock the Casbah
By order of the prophet We ban that boogie sound Degenerate the faithful With that craazy Casbah sound But the Bedouin they brought out the electric camel drum The local guitar picker got his guitar-picking thumb As soon as the Shareef had cleared the square They began to wail
Shareef don’t like it Rock the Casbah, rock the Casbah Shareef don’t like it Rock the Casbah, Rock the Casbah
Now, over at the temple Oh, they really pack ’em in The in-crowd say it’s cool To dig this chanting thing But as the wind changed direction Then the temple band took five The crowd caught a wiff Of that crazy Casbah jive
Shareef don’t like it Rock the Casbah, rock the Casbah Shareef don’t like it Rock the Casbah, Rock the Casbah
The king called up his jet fighters He said you better earn your pay Drop your bombs between the minarets Down the Casbah way
As soon as the Shareef was chauffeured outta there The jet pilots tuned to the cockpit radio blare As soon as the Shareef was outta their hair The jet pilots wailed
Shareef don’t like it Rock the Casbah, rock the Casbah Shareef don’t like it Rock the Casbah, Rock the Casbah
Shareef don’t like it, he thinks it’s not kosher Rock the Casbah, rock the Casbah Shareef don’t like it, fundementally can’t take it Rock the Casbah, Rock the Casbah
Shareef don’t like it, you know he really hates it Rock the Casbah, rock the Casbah Shareef don’t like it, really, really hates it
This was my favorite song off of the Lets Dance album released in 1983.
Stevie Ray Vaughan played guitar on this song. Bowie asked him to play on the Let’s Dance album after seeing him perform at a music festival.
David Bowie and Nile Rodgers wrote this song. Modern Love peaked at #14 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #2 in the UK, and #6 in New Zealand in 1983. The album was also produced by Bowie and Rodgers.
Nile Rodgers said that Bowie came into his apartment one day and showed him a photograph of Little Richard in a red suit getting into a bright red Cadillac, saying “Nile, darling, that’s what I want my album to sound like.”
How cool is that?
From Songfacts
This is about the struggle to find solace in love and religion. It has also been suggested this song contemplates the old adage “The more things change the more they stay the same.” Explaining how he remained a force in pop music for so many years, Bowie sings, “It’s not really work it’s just a power to charm.”
Bowie said this song’s call-and-response vocal arrangement “all comes from Little Richard.” A defining moment in Bowie’s childhood was when his dad came home with a copy of “Tutti Frutti.”
This sounds very similar to Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing.” They were both recorded around the same time and Bowie nor John were aware of each other’s song.
In 1987, Bowie re-recorded this with Tina Turner for a Pepsi commercial where he plays a scientist who creates the perfect woman (Turner), with a little help from Pepsi. The storyline is cribbed from the 1985 movie Weird Science.
Modern Love
I know when to go out Know when to stay in Get things done
I catch a paper boy But things don’t really change I’m standing in the wind But I never wave bye-bye But I try, I try There’s no sign of life It’s just the power to charm I’m lying in the rain But I never wave bye-bye But I try, I try Never gonna fall for
(Modern love) walks beside me (Modern love) walks on by (Modern love) gets me to the church on time (Church on time) terrifies me (Church on time) makes me party (Church on time) puts my trust in God and man (God and man) no confession (God and man) no religion (God and man) don’t believe in modern love
It’s not really work It’s just the power to charm I’m still standing in the wind But I never wave bye bye But I try, I try Never gonna fall for
(Modern love) walks beside me (Modern love) walks on by (Modern love) gets me to the church on time (Church on time) terrifies me (Church on time) makes me party (Church on time) puts my trust in God and man (God and man) no confession (God and man) no religion (God and man) I don’t believe in modern love
Modern love (modern love) Modern love (modern love) Modern love (modern love) Modern love (modern love) Modern love (modern love) Modern love (modern love) Modern love (modern love) Modern love (modern love) (Modern love) (Modern love) (Modern love) (Modern love) Modern love, walks beside me (Modern love) Modern love, walks on by (Modern love) Modern love, walks beside me Modern love Modern love, walks on by Modern love Never gonna fall for Modern love Modern love
Where were you on February 28, 1983? It’s very possible you were watching the final M*A*S*H episode. I was one of the 106 million that tuned in.
Goodbye, Farewell and Amen – The last episode of Mash. The show was so strongly anticipated that commercial blocks were sold higher than for the Superbowl that year… from Wiki… It still stands as the most-watched finale of any television series, as well as the most scripted watched TV show.
I always favored the Cars first two albums and those string of hits…but I did like their later output as well. Cars frontman Ric Ocasek wrote this song, but he didn’t sing the lead vocal…their bass player Ben Orr did.
The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 and #5 (1984) #4 (1985) in the UK
This was the Cars’ highest-charting US single and their second-highest charting UK single, the highest being “My Best Friend’s Girl.” In the UK, this hit #5 on its initial release. It was reissued one year later and reached #4. The royalties from its reissue were donated to the Band-Aid Trust.
The song was on the album Heartbreak City released in 1984 and peaked at #3 in the Billboard Album Charts.
From Songfacts
A very melancholy song by The Cars, this is written from the perspective of a guy who’s watching a woman (whom he presumably used to date) “going down the tubes,” trying to get her to take a hard look at what’s going on in her life.
Orr died of Pancreatic cancer in 2000. When he died, “Drive” was played in his honor at a memorial service at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Orr also sang lead on the first Cars hit: “Just What I Needed.”
The Cars resisted the urge to use automotive imagery in their songs; “Drive” is a rare instance where they did.
At the Live Aid concert, this was used as background music to film clips of famine stricken Africa. The group performed on the Philadelphia stage and included “Drive” in their set.
The video was directed by a 23-year-old Timothy Hutton, who had won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the movie Ordinary People. Hutton aspired to direct, so when Ric Ocasek of The Cars suggested he do it, Hutton jumped at the chance.
Hutton cast the Czechoslovakian model Paulina Porizkova as the female lead in the clip. Auditioning for the role was the first time she met Ocasek, whom she married in 1989.
The Cars performed this on Saturday Night Live on May 12, 1984.
This was used in two 2019 episodes of the TV series Arrested Development: “Saving for Arraignment Day,” and “Check Mates.” It was also used in the movies Midnight Heat (2007), Transformers (2007) and The Squid and the Whale (2005).
After the death of Princess Diana, the UK radio station XFM banned certain songs that might upset people. Their list of barred songs included “Drive.”
The song was covered by Sixx: A.M. on their 2014 album, Modern Vintage. Regarding the decision to record their own version, Nikki Sixx said: “We had started going down the street of [the Elvin Bishop hit] ‘Fooled Around And Fell In Love.’ One day I called [vocalist James Michael] up and just sang the opening line to ‘Drive’, and [he] said, ‘That’s a Sixx: A.M. song!’ I think it was an opportunity to cover a song that is so defined that you have to be very careful not to wreck it. That song is so loved by so many people, including us, that we really wanted to pay a real tribute to it, and I believe we have.”
“It’s such a simple song – the original version was so simple, but that’s what was exciting about it,” Michael added. “In a way, it’s a blank canvas, but you need to respect the simplicity … that’s what was so fun about the version we did, especially when [DJ Ashba] started doing his guitar solo. Even that had to be carefully structured around what the original song was.”
Drive
Who’s gonna tell you when It’s too late Who’s gonna tell you things Aren’t so great You can’t go on Thinking nothing’s wrong Who’s gonna drive you home tonight
Who’s gonna pick you up When you fall Who’s gonna hang it up When you call Who’s gonna pay attention To your dreams Who’s gonna plug their ears When you scream
You can’t go on Thinking nothing’s wrong Who’s gonna drive you home tonight
Who’s gonna hold you down When you shake Who’s gonna come around When you break
You can’t go on Thinking nothing’s wrong Who’s gonna drive you home tonight
A super positive song that I could listen to at any time. The song peaked at #17 in the UK in 1980 and re-charted at 76 in 1985.
The source of Marley’s inspiration for the lyrics of “Three Little Birds” remains disputed. They are partly inspired by birds that Marley was fond of that used to fly and sit next to his home. A friend of Marley, Tony Gilbert, was present at the time he was writing the song and said that Bob was inspired by things around him as he observed life.
Gilbert said he remembered pretty birds, canaries, who would come by the windowsill at Marley’s home. However, some say the three female singers in ” I Threes” were the “birds” Marley was talking about. Sometimes he would ask them ‘What are my Three Little Birds saying?”
Either way, it’s a fantastic song.
From Songfacts
This uplifting tune from Bob Marley & The Wailers’ ninth studio album, Exodus, is famous for its reassuring refrain, “Don’t worry ’bout a thing, ’cause every little thing is gonna be alright” – a message Marley received from the birds that frequented his porch stoop in Kingston, Jamaica. “That really happened,” he told Sounds magazine. “That’s where I get my inspiration.”
Despite the troubles Marley faced in Jamaica – in 1976, he survived a politically motivated assassination attempt connected to his support of Prime Minister Michael Manley – the singer still viewed the island as sacred place. “JA is one of the heaviest places in the West spiritually, regardless of what a go on,” he explained.
Marley’s friend Tony “Gilly” Gilbert was present when the singer wrote the song and confirmed Marley had several feathered friends. “It was just amazing how he put the words for ‘Three Little Birds’ together in a flow,” Gilbert told Vivien Goldman, author of The Book of Exodus: The Making and Meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Album of the Century. “Bob got inspired by a lot of things around him, he observed life. I remember the three little birds. They were pretty birds, canaries, who would come by the windowsill at Hope Road.”
The I Threes, Marley’s vocal backing trio, insist the song is actually about them. Group member Marcia Griffiths (who taught us the Electric Slide) explained: “After the song was written, Bob would always refer to us as the Three Little Birds. After a show, there would be an encore, sometimes people even wanted us to go back onstage four times. Bob would still want to go back and he would say, ‘What is my Three Little Birds saying?'”
She continued: “‘Three Little Birds’ was our song, officially for I-Three. It was more or less expressing how we all came together, when he says, ‘Rise up this morning, smile with the rising sun.’ We loved it. Even when we were recording it, we knew that it was our song.”
Marley’s son Ziggy Marley and Sean Paul recorded this for the animated films Shark Tale (2004) and Surf’s Up (2007). Several other artists have covered the song, including Robbie Williams, Karen David, Gilberto Gil, Billy Ocean, Monty Alexander, Alvin and the Chipmunks. Britain’s Got Talent alumna Connie Talbot recorded a popular version for her 2008 album, Over The Rainbow. The single went to #3 on the UK Independent Singles Chart and #1 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart in the US.
In 2013, Hyundai used a version remixed by Marley’s son Stephen Marley and DJ Jason Bentley (from the Legend: Remixed album) in its All-New Assurance Connected Care Campaign to reflect the automobile manufacturer’s new safety standards. In 2018, the company revisited the tune, this time enlisting Maroon 5 to record it in the Hyundai Santa Fe promotion for the FIFA World Cup. Maroon 5 also released a music video for their version.
Marley’s eldest daughter, Cedella Marley, adapted this into the children’s book Every Little Thing in 2012 and, two years later, the off-Broadway musical Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds. The story follows a shy little boy who is coaxed by three little birds to go outside and play.
This was used on the TV shows Boston Legal (“Helping Hand,” 2006), 90210 (“Another, Another Chance,” 2010), Smash (“The Coup,” 2012), and The Handmaid’s Tale (“Birth Day,” 2017).
This was also featured in the movies Club Paradise (1986), Strange Days (1995), In Her Shoes (2005), I Am Legend (2007), Funny People (2009), Ramona and Beezus (2010), and Strange Magic (2015).
Three Little Birds
“Don’t worry about a thing ‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright Singing’ “Don’t worry about a thing ‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright!”
Rise up this mornin’ Smiled with the risin’ sun Three little birds Pitch by my doorstep Singin’ sweet songs Of melodies pure and true Saying’, (“This is my message to you”)
Singing’ “Don’t worry ’bout a thing ‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright.” Singing’ “Don’t worry (don’t worry) ’bout a thing ‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright!”
Rise up this mornin’ Smiled with the risin’ sun Three little birds Pitch by my doorstep Singin’ sweet songs Of melodies pure and true Sayin’, “This is my message to you”
Singin’ “Don’t worry about a thing, worry about a thing, oh! Every little thing gonna be alright. Don’t worry!” Singin’ “Don’t worry about a thing” I won’t worry! “‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright.”
Singin’ “Don’t worry about a thing ‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright” I won’t worry! Singin’ “Don’t worry about a thing Cause every little thing gonna be alright.” Singin’ “Don’t worry about a thing, oh no! ‘Cause every little thing gonna be alright!
Anyone who follows my posts knows I don’t follow heavy metal but a cool riff is a cool riff. I liked this one the first time I heard it.
John Lennon has a distant connection to this song. Judas Priest was renting Tittenhurst Park (John Lennon’s former home) in 1980 to record their album British Steel. As they were watching television…guitarist Glenn Tipton said they saw John Lennon’s Imagine video and were in the very same room where it was filmed… he said they could imagine the piano and the white walls…and how surreal it was…
Rob Halford actually got the inspiration for the lyrics for Living After Midnight as his bandmates kept him awake by blasting out riffs and drum beats in the studio below.
He came downstairs to complain and said, Hey, guys, come on. It’s gone midnight…and they wrote the song.
Living After Midnight
Living after midnight, rockin’ to the dawn Lovin’ ’til the morning, then I’m gone, I’m gone
I took the city ’bout one A.M, loaded, loaded I’m all geared up to score again, loaded, loaded I come alive in the neon light That’s when I make my moves right
Living after midnight, rockin’ to the dawn Lovin’ ’til the morning, then I’m gone, I’m gone
Got gleaming chrome, reflecting steel, loaded, loaded Ready to take on every deal, loaded, loaded My pulse is racing, I’m hot to take This motor’s revved up, fit to break
Living after midnight, rockin’ to the dawn Lovin’ ’til the morning, then I’m gone, I’m gone
I’m aiming for ya I’m gonna floor ya My body’s coming All night long
The air’s electric, sparkin’ power, loaded, loaded I’m getting hotter by the hour, loaded, loaded I set my sights and then home in The joint starts flying when I begin
Living after midnight, rockin’ to the dawn Lovin’ ’til the morning, then I’m gone, I’m gone [repeat and fade]
This was Costello’s first American hit. He was a regular on the UK charts since his first release in 1977, but American singles never hit. Despite support in America from independent record stores, college radio and music journalists, his only chart showings to this point were two singles that bubbled under on the Hot 100: “Watching The Detectives” #108 and “Accidents Will Happen #101.
This song peaked at #36 in the Billboard 100 and #28 in the UK in 1983.
I do remember that MTV pushed the video pretty hard. The push helped the single. It wasn’t until 1989 that he managed another Top 40 hit, “Veronica,” which was helped by MTV.
Elvis Costello: “I wrote it just for a joke,” “But that’s often the way to write a hit record (laughs). We had a group on the road with us that was trying to write these very self-conscious pop jangly kind of songs and that was their trip. So I thought I’d tease them by writing something that was like what they did, only sort of better than them. I wrote it in ten minutes.”
From Songfacts
In this song, Elvis Costello is a novelist who tells his girlfriend that everything that happens in their relationship is source material for his book. On one hand, it’s very sweet that he’s taking the time to chronicle their relationship, but something about it is also kind of creepy, as he’s documented her transgressions and is now willing to use her own words against her in their arguments.
Esquire magazine once called this “the most intellectually satisfying pop song ever written.”
When Costello wrote this song, he envisioned it with a retro Merseybeat popularized by Liverpool groups of the ’60s (think Gerry and the Pacemakers and very early Beatles recordings). His producer, Clive Langer, heard hit potential in the song and convinced Costello to do a more contemporary arrangement, which they modeled on Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing.” The result was a modern R&B sound that served the song well.
“Everyday I Write The Book” got a push from MTV, which gave the video some spins and helped introduce Costello to younger audience. Radio stations in the US remained lukewarm on Costello, as he didn’t fit in on the Contemporary Hits or Rock playlists. Not that he was concerned; Costello’s indifference to popular taste earned him even more respect from his American fans.
The video was directed by Don Letts, who did a lot of work with The Clash and The Pretenders. In the clip, Elvis and his band (The Attractions) play in a studio stetting, wearing muted colors in stark contrast to the two backup singers, Caron Wheeler and Claudia Fontaine, who sport colorful dresses and head wraps. Old movie clips and random images like a man typing with boxing gloves are intercut throughout. These rather random videos did very well on early MTV, as they gave viewers a good look at the artist and provided some memorable visuals.
This was used in the films The Wedding Singer (1998) and Brooklyn Rules (2007). It is also heard in the 2001 Gilmore Girls episode, “The Breakup: Part 2.”
Elvis Costello told Uncut that he’s wanted “to write songs as good as Nick Lowe,” since he was 17. He added: “‘Everyday I Write the Book’ is a knockoff of Nick’s ‘When I Write the Book’ with a little Rodgers and Hart thrown in.'”
Everyday I Write The Book
Don’t tell me you don’t know what love is When you’re old enough to know better When you find strange hands in your sweater When your dreamboat turns out to be a footnote I’m a man with a mission in two or three editions
And I’m giving you a longing look Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the book
Chapter one we didn’t really get along Chapter two I think I fell in love with you You said you’d stand by me in the middle of chapter three But you were up to your old tricks in chapters four, five and six
The way you walk The way you talk, and try to kiss me, and laugh In four or five paragraphs All your compliments and your cutting remarks Are captured here in my quotation marks
Don’t tell me you don’t know the difference Between a lover and a fighter With my pen and my electric typewriter Even in a perfect world where everyone was equal I’d still own the film rights and be working on the sequel
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