1980s – Page 41 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

David and David – Swallowed By The Cracks

This was a duo from the eighties I really liked. This song peaked at #14 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Hits in 1986. The album Boomtown peaked at #39 in 1986 and it contained three radio hits. Welcome to the Boomtown, Ain’t So Easy, and Swallowed by the Cracks.

The two Davids were David Baerwald and David Ricketts. They broke up after their only studio album which really disappointed me because I was really looking forward to their next album. There is hope though…in 2016 it was reported that they are working on their second album.

Boomtown was a very underrated album. David Baerwald’s voice is so down to earth and the lyrics and melodies were really good. This album got lost in the mega album 80s.

They did work later with Sheryl Crow on her Tuesday Night Music Club album.

Swallowed By The Cracks

I once was a dancer
I was young once like you
Though I know I don’t look it
Jumped high as the sky

Had fire in my eyes
And legs like a stallion
And I had a girl and I loved her
My best friend was her brother

We were on top of the mountain that summer
Thought we’d never be swallowed by the cracks
Fallen so far down
Like the rest of those clowns begging bus fare back

Swallowed by the cracks
Our pride worn down talking times gone by
Like everybody else
Swallowed by the cracks

We would never be swallowed by the cracks
We would talk through the night
About what we would do
If we just could get started

I would choreograph
Eileen she would act while
Steve was a writer
Then Stevie ran away and get bored

Eileen took a job in a store
Me I became this drunken old whore
‘Cause you see we’d be swallowed by the cracks
Fallen so far down

Like the rest of those clowns begging bus fare back
Swallowed by the cracks our pride worn down
Talking times gone by like everybody else

Swallowed by the cracks
Swallowed by the cracks
You see we’d be swallowed by the cracks
Maybe it ain’t over I can see it’s up to me

You only out when you stay out you stay out when you don’t
Believe we could drive around in circles getting nowhere
All night long getting drunk with strangers telling lies
And singing along with the jukebox baby
Swallowed by the cracks

Jon Butcher – Wishes

When I heard this guitar intro I was surprised, to say the least. In the late eighties after hearing Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai endless finger tapping and scales on guitar.. this was refreshing. Jon Butcher sounded like he was inspired by Jimi Hendrix and it showed in this song….but he didn’t just sound like Hendrix in his other songs.

These comparisons to Hendrix were because of Butcher’s onstage appearance and mannerisms, patterned after Hendrix, and his choice for the band name Axis, which was a reference to Hendrix legendary album Axis: Bold as Love. Butcher’s stated influences are Richie Havens, John Lennon, Phil Lynott, Bob Dylan, and Taj Mahal and today he maintains that the Hendrix comparisons are superficial and has been quoted as saying “Being black, left-handed, and playing a Stratocaster created certain inevitable comparisons, particularly in the early days”.

This song peaked at #42 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Song Chart in 1987.

Wishes

It’s late at night in the neighborhood
And the thieves have all gone to bed
They can hear your heartbeat in the distance
As you lay down your weary head

But don’t worry, ’cause the dawn is breaking
In another room halfway around the world
And you can’t waste your life
Wishing upon a star

‘Cause if wishes were horses
If wishes were horses
If wishes were horses
Then dreamers would ride
Huh, yes they would

A girl lives her life missing
Some things that she never had
Spends too much time in the unemployment line
You see in her eyes that it drives her mad

Deep within her constitution
Her pride and her dignity show through
So she works that dream
‘Cause it’s all she can do

If wishes were horses
If wishes were horses
She says: if wishes were horses
Then dreamers would ride
Yes they would

Now I’m looking
All around me for the answers
And I know you’re looking hard too
I know what you’re thinking
Maybe wishes come true

If wishes were horses
If wishes were horses
I know, if wishes were horses
Then dreamers would ride

The Call – When The Walls Came Down

This one I remember from the video more than airplay. A simple but effective riff to open the song and there is also The Band member Garth Hudson playing with The Call. That is what got my attention when I saw the video in the 80s. When The Walls Came Down peaked at #74 in the Billboard 100 and #17 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs in 1983.

Guitarist Michael Been stated, “There was a great deal happening politically – Grenada, Lebanon, or the government saying the Russians are evil and the Russian government probably saying the same about us. That kind of thinking inspired me to write the last lines of ‘Walls Came Down’.”

When The Walls Come Down

Well they blew the horns
And the walls came down
They’d all been warned
And the walls came down
They stood there laughing
They’re not laughing anymore
The walls came down

Sanctuary fades
Congregation splits
Nightly military raids
The congregation splits
It’s a song of assassins
Ringin’ in your ears
We got terrorist thinking
Playing on fears

Well they blew the horns
And the walls came down
They’d all been warned
But the walls came down
I don’t think there are any Russians
And there ain’t no Yanks
Just corporate criminals
Playin’ with tanks

Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya (Wake up)
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya
Ya ya ya ya ya ya (Come on, come on, come on, come on)

Billy Squier – Lonely Is The Night

I liked some of Squier’s earlier songs. This song peaked at #28 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs in 1981. The song was on the Don’t Say No album which peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1981. The album had four well-known songs on it including The Stroke, My Kind of Lover, In The Dark, and this one. This song has always had a Led Zeppelin feel to me.

Squier asked Brian May of Queen to produce this album but because of scheduling conflicts, he couldn’t do it but recommended Reinhold Mack who produced the Queen album The Game…who ended up producing this album. Squier worked out of Boston and worked with at one time or another Ric Ocaskik, Joe Pepper, and Tom Shultz.

My second concert was a Billy Squier concert on November 30, 1982, in Nashville at the Municipal Auditorium. The Auditorium has been around since the early sixties and I remember seeing the No Smoking signs at the beginning of the concert…by the end you couldn’t see them because of the smoke. Nazareth opened up for Squier.

My first two concerts were REO and Billy Squier…My sons first two concerts were Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr…I told him he had a much better beginning than I did in his concert history…his third was Bob Dylan.

From Songfacts

In a 1982 interview with Sounds magazine, Squier explained that he doesn’t write songs when he’s on the road, which keeps him away from topics like groupies and parties. Said Squier: “‘Lonely Is The Night’ for example is nothing to do with the fact that I’m in a rock band, but it does have to do with the fact that you can be by yourself in a room somewhere and not know what to do, be scared to death of having to go out and find something.”

Lonely Is The Night

Lonely is the night when you find yourself alone
Your demons come to light and your mind is not your own
Lonely is the night when there’s no one left to call
You feel the time is right, say the writing’s on the wall

It’s a high time to fight when the walls are closin’ in
Call it what you like it’s time you got to win
Lonely, lonely, lonely your spirit’s sinkin’ down
You find you’re not the only stranger in this town

Red lights, green lights, stop and go jive
Headlines, deadlines jammin’ your mind
You been stealin’ shots from the side
Let your feeling’s go for a ride

There’s danger out tonight, the man is on the prowl
Get the dynamite, the boys are set to howl
Lonely is the night when you hear the voices call
Are you ready for a fight, do you wanna take it all?

Slowdown, showdown waitin’ on line
Show time, no time for changin’ your mind
Streets are ringin’, march to the sound
Let your secrets follow you down

Somebody’s watchin’ you baby, so much you can do
Nobody’s stoppin’ you baby, from makin’ it too
One glimpse’ll show you now baby, what the music can do
One kiss’ll show you now baby, it can happen to you

No more sleepin’, wastin’ our time
Midnight creepin’s, first on our minds
No more lazin’ ’round the TV
You’ll go crazy, come out with me

Feelin’ lonely
Lonely is the night
Feelin’ lonely
Lonely is the night
Lonely, lonely, lonely

Don Henley – The Heart Of The Matter

This is a very well written song. Mike Campbell wrote the music and produced this track. As a member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mike writes tracks for many of Petty’s songs. He first collaborated with Henley in 1984 when he wrote and produced “The Boys of Summer,” which he came up with on a 4-track tape recorder in his house.

The song peaked at #21 in the Billboard 100 in 1990. Don Henley wrote the lyrics with J.D. Souther, who frequently collaborated with the Eagles. The song was included on the album The End of the Innocence which was a very good album. I was going through a breakup at the time and of course, this song I could relate to…this and about every Temptations song ever made.

Building The Perfect Beast and The End of the Innocence are two great solo albums by Henley…

From Songfacts

Campbell told us how this came together: “That was a couple of years later, by then I had upscaled my home studio to a 24-track. I cut the track at home and played it for him (Henley). He wrote some words, I think he got some help from J.D. Souther on some of the lyrics. He changed the key to fit his voice, then we went in and basically recreated the demo. I know he was especially proud of that one. He told me that lyric was something he had been trying to write for a long time and it finally came out the way he liked it, something he really wanted to sing. A lot of people like that song.”

Campbell played guitar on this and another track on the album, “The Last Worthless Evening.” Here’s our full Mike Campbell interview.

The song is about a man who finds out his former lover has found someone else, which is exactly what they were both going through at the time. In our interview with J.D. Souther, he explained: “At that particular moment it was an easy song for both of us to work on, because we had both, within the last year or so, broken up with our fiancées. We’d both been in love and engaged at the same time and both his relationship with his girl and me with mine ended in the same few months. And it’s pretty much what the song says, they had both taken up with somebody else. And that’s not easy to hear, but at the time it made a good source material for that song, because it seemed to be really universal and it seemed the only way to really survive your first reaction to hearing news like that or having those kind of feelings is to remember that the first person to benefit from forgiveness is the one who does the forgiving. And, actually, that was Don’s idea. I have to give him full credit for that forgiveness theme. The first time he sang that forgiveness chorus over and over to me, I didn’t get it. Kind of went, ‘Yeah, I guess.’ And then it sort of sunk it that it was exactly the point of the song.”

The line “The flesh will get weak and the ashes will scatter” is a biblical reference, coming from Matthew 26:41: “The spirit is willing enough, but the flesh is weak.”

India.Arie recorded this in 2006 on her album Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship; her version hit #79 in the UK and #33 in Canada.

What are those voices outside love’s open door
Make us throw off our contentment
And beg for something more?

Lorde, who went through a big Don Henley phase before recording her second album, called this, “the most incredible f–king question of the universe.”

The Heart Of The Matter

I got the call today, I didn’t want to hear
But I knew that it would come
An old, true friend of ours was talkin’ on the phone
She said you found someone
And I thought of all the bad luck
And the struggles we went through
And how I lost me and you lost you
What are those voices outside love’s open door
Make us throw off our contentment
And beg for something more?

I’m learning to live without you now
But I miss you sometimes
The more I know, the less I understand,
All the things I thought I knew, I’m learning again
I’ve been tryin’ to get down
To the heart of the matter
But my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think it’s about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if, even if you don’t love me anymore

These times are so uncertain
There’s a yearning undefined
People filled with rage
We all need a little tenderness
How can love survive in such a graceless age?
Ah, the trust and self-assurance that lead to happiness
They’re the very things we kill, I guess
Oh, pride and competition
Cannot fill these empty arms
And the work I put between us, you know it doesn’t keep me warm

I’m learning to live with out you now
But I miss you, baby
And the more I know, the less I understand
All the things I thought I’d figured out
I have to learn again
I’ve been trying to get down
To the heart of the matter
But everything changes
And my friends seem to scatter
But I think it’s about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if, even if you don’t love me anymore

There are people in your life
Who’ve come and gone
They let you down
You know they’ve hurt your pride
You better put it all behind you baby
‘Cause life goes on
You keep carryin’ that anger
It’ll eat you up inside baby

I’ve been trying to get down
To the heart of the matter
But my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think it’s about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if, even if you don’t love me

I’ve been tryin’ to get down
To the heart of the matter
Because the flesh will get weak
And the ashes will scatter
So, I’m thinkin’ about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if , even if you don’t love me

Forgiveness, forgiveness, baby
Forgiveness, forgiveness
Forgiveness, forgiveness
Even if, even if you don’t love me
Forgiveness, forgiveness
Forgiveness, forgiveness
Forgiveness, forgiveness

John Kilzer – Memory in the Making

I was never into 80’s rock ballads but this one I liked. Maybe it was because of when I heard it, I don’t know. Kilzer released an album in 1988 “Memory in the Making” and the album contained some minor hits such as Green, Yellow, and Red, Red Blue Jeans, and Memory in the Making.

The album charted at #110 in the Billboard album charts in 1988. This song didn’t chart but got a lot of local airplay where I live. This is the only album that made it to the Billboard 200.

John Kilzer grew up in Jackson, Tennessee as a 6-foot-6-inches tall high school all American basketball standout, played for the Memphis to play for the Tigers from 1975-1978. He traded the complimentary tickets players receive with Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, author of the hit “Take Me to the River” in exchange for guitar lessons.

He passed away last month.

Memory in the Making

Throwing roses at the moon
Overdosing on perfume
That arises from your picture
An inviolate fixture
This is more than I expected
It’s as though I have erected
A mausoleum for my heart babe
I’ve reserved the best part babe
It’s a memory in the making
It’s a power that’s taking
Control of my soul girl
Now there’s nowhere left to go girl

Guess it only stands to reason
There’s a time and a season
A place and purpose
I guess that verse don’t include us
And it only goes to show you
You’re just a ghost in a castle
That’s my destiny to wrestle
It’s a memory in the making
It’s a power that’s taking
Control of my soul girl
Now I’m in danger of the dark girl
Like my mama always said boy
You can sleep when you’re dead boy
But all I really want to do girl
Is close my eyes and dream of you girl

Throwing roses at the moon
Overdosing on perfume
That arises from your pillow
How much further down love go

George Harrison – Devil’s Radio

This song was not a big hit but it was one of my favorites off of his “comeback” album Cloud Nine in the 1980s. The song is pure George. He always valued his privacy and in this song, he made it clear he detested gossip in any way.

“Devil’s Radio” was inspired by a church billboard Harrison had seen that stated “Gossip: The Devil’s Radio…Don’t Be a Broadcaster.” The song did peak at #4 in Billboard Mainstream Chart Rock charts. The Cloud Nine album peaked at #8 in the Billboard Album Charts.

Even when George was young he didn’t like people knowing his business. As his mom would recall, “George was always against nosy mothers, and he used to hate all the neighbors who stood around gossiping.”

Devil’s Radio

Gossip, gossip
Gossip, gossip

I heard it in the night
Words that thoughtless speak
Like vultures swooping down below
On the devil’s radio

I hear it through the day
Airwaves gettin’ filled
With gossip broadcast to and fro
On the devil’s radio

Oh yeah, gossip
Gossip, oh yeah

He’s in the clubs and bars
And never turns it down
Talking about what he don’t know
On the devil’s radio

He’s in your TV set
Won’t give it a rest
That soul betraying so and so
The devil’s radio

Gossip, gossip
Gossip, gossip
(Oh yeah) gossip, (gossip) oh yeah
(Gossip) oh yeah, (oh yeah) gossip

It’s white and black like industrial waste
Pollution of the highest degree
You wonder why I don’t hang out much
I wonder how you can’t see

He’s in the films and songs
And on all your magazines
It’s everywhere that you may go
The devil’s radio

Oh yeah, gossip
Gossip, oh yeah

Runs thick and fast, no one really sees
Quite what bad it can do
As it shapes you into something cold
Like an Eskimo igloo

It’s all across our lives
Like a weed it’s spread
’till nothing else has space to grow
The devil’s radio

Can creep up in the dark
Make us hide behind shades
And buzzing like a dynamo
The devil’s radio

oh yeah
(Gossip) gossip, (gossip) gossip
Oh yeah, gossip I heard you on the secret wireless
Gossip, oh yeah You know the devil’s radio, child
Gossip, gossip
Gossip, gossip

Two Prostitutes, a Pimp, and a VCR

This is when I learned… if it sounds too good to be true…it is.

This story is so embarrassing I cringe when I think about it. I told a friend I was going to make a post about it and he asked me…are you really going to tell people you were that stupid for a day? It’s not what you think by the title. I’m not a naive person…in fact, I can be cynical at times but… this incident was undoubtedly the most naive moment in my life. Things started to happen and before I knew it…it was out of control. This, unfortunately, is not a made up story. I was raised right and if I would have practiced what I was taught…none of this would have happened…but it was a valuable lesson…

When I was 18 I was working in Nashville on Murfreesboro Road at a company that sold printers and copiers. I was making a grand total of 3.25 an hour. I would go to lunch and stop at a gas station somedays to get a paper. I met this guy there and he said he had a VCR he wanted to sell for 60 dollars. I’d seen him there before there…He seemed a bit shady…back in 1985 a VCR for 60 bucks was a great price. I wasn’t thinking morals at that time, like if it was stolen or whatever.

Stupid me… I said sure I would love to buy it…he said to follow him to a house so I did and we went in and I gave him the money…I know I know…but I did. There were a few people there but he went into another room and came out. He then said the VCR was somewhere else…after that, he asked if I could take him to a place a few miles away because his car was acting up. Bells were going off in my head at this point but… I was thinking of that VCR…so I said sure let’s go. Out comes a young woman in spandex and she went with us. I dropped the two of them off at some kind of business. A few minutes later, out they come and now there was an extra woman in spandex plus this guy. He wanted me to drop them off somewhere else to get the VCR since it had been “moved”…

By this time I was angry, embarrassed and I knew I had been not only had…but had good…and was thinking of a way out…I was scared of the cops stopping me with this crew in my car. I told him I wanted the money back and he admitted he had to give it to someone from the first house but the “girls” were going to make the money back so I would have it. I then took the trio to a destination and I said the hell with this when thoughts of shootings and cops flashed in my head…I dropped them off and they told me to wait and I took off.

A month or so later I went back to the gas station and there he was… I saw him there and I yelled at him “Hey want to buy a VCR for 60 bucks?” as I was walking toward him…he jumped in a car and took off and I never saw him again.

60 dollars for a life lesson is not bad.

I later saved up (what a concept!)…and bought a VCR for around $150…well add the 60 I lost and that would be $210.

My friends have never let me live this down…which if it would have happened to them I would not have either.

Again if it sounds too good to be true…it is.

Blue Öyster Cult – Burnin For You

It is not the more cowbell song but I like it. I never owned a Blue Oyster Cult album in my life and probably never will but I liked a couple of their popular songs. The song peaked at #40 in the Billboard 100 in 1981. This would be their last Top 40 hit but it was a #1 hit on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart.

Lead guitarist Don “Buck Dharma” Roeser wrote this with Richard Meltzer, a rock writer who often contributed lyrics to the band. Dharma initially planned to release this song on his solo album, Flat Out, but was later convinced to include it on Blue Öyster Cult’s Fire Of Unknown Origin.” Dharma sang lead, as he did on many of BÖC’s songs.

Band manager Sandy Pearlman, claimed that the name came to him when he saw Blue Point oysters on a menu.

From Songfacts

When Richard Meltzer wrote the lyrics, he titled the song “Burn Out The Night,” a reference to an evening of rock and roll. Blue Öyster Cult had a “band house” where their band members and associates (including their manager, Sandy Pearlman would bring in song ideas and lyrics.

Joe Bouchard, who was their bass player at the time, told the metal magazine Chips & Beer that he and Buck Dharma came across Meltzer’s lyrics at the same time, and each wrote their own song around it. Dharma’s version, with the title changed to “Burnin’ For You,” was the one that got recorded.

Along with Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult was one of the first heavy metal bands. They issued their first album in 1972 and grew a modest following before scoring a hit with “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” (also written by Buck Dharma) from their 1976 album Agents of Fortune, which hit #12 and became embedded on rock playlists.

In the book MTV Ruled the World – The Early Years of Music Video, frontman Eric Bloom tells the story of the “Burnin’ For You” video: “We went out to California, and our management found a video company, and we did two videos in 24 hours – ‘Burnin’ For You’ and ‘Joan Crawford.’ MTV wouldn’t show the ‘Joan Crawford’ video, because there was something about it that was too racy for them. But ‘Burnin’ For You’ got a ton of airplay on MTV in 1981 and 1982.”

Bloom continues: “We made it in the storm drains of LA. If anyone has seen the movie about giant ants, called Them!, with James Whitmore, it was filmed in the same place.” Later he adds: “We thought the car on fire was very Hollywood, very cool. They had to have a Hollywood film/pyro guy there, who was licensed to burn s–t up. He had propane tanks, and he had to have a hunk of car to burn.”

These videos were directed by Richard Casey, who directed the 1985 movie Horror House on Highway Five.

Burnin For You

Home in the valley
Home in the city
Home isn’t pretty
Ain’t no home for me

Home in the darkness
Home on the highway
Home isn’t my way
Home will never be

Burn out the day
Burn out the night
I can’t see no reason to put up a fight
I’m living for giving the devil his due

And I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you
I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you

Time is the essence
Time is the season
Time ain’t no reason
Got no time to slow

Time everlasting
Time to play b-sides
Time ain’t on my side
Time I’ll never know

Burn out the day
Burn out the night
I’m not the one to tell you what’s wrong or what’s right
I’ve seen signs of what (freezing their eyes) went through

Well I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you
I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you

Burn out the day
Burn out the night
I can’t see no reason to put up a fight
I’m living for giving the devil his due

And I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you
I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you

Ruth Gordon

Probably the most well-known role she played was the character of Maude in Harold and Maude. She is also remembered as Minnie Castevet in Rosemary’s Baby. Ruth Gordon was also a member of the Algonquin Round Table. She was a brilliant writer and actress. She was a stage actress mostly until the 1940s when she started to appear in films. She went back to the stage until the 60s where she started to be in films up to her death.

Ruth was born in 1896 in Wollaston, Massachusetts. She was a very successful writer and actress.

In 1915 she made her Broadway debut in Peter Pan in the role of Nibs. Her performance endeared her to the New York critic Alexander Woollcott, who introduced her to the famous Algonquin Round Table, a group that included George S. Kaufman, Robert Benchley, Edna Ferber, Alice Duer Miller, Heywood Broun, Dorothy Parker, and Harpo Marx.

Throughout the next three decades, Ruth appeared in several plays by playwrights such as Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, and Booth Tarkington. She enjoyed her greatest stage triumph in a 1936 production of The Country-Wife at London’s Old Vic.

She married screenwriter and director Garson Kanin in 1942. Ruth and Garson collaborated on many plays and screenplays together.

She appeared in a handful of films during the early 1940s, including Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet (1940), Two-Faced Woman (1941; Greta Garbo’s final film), Edge of Darkness (1942), and Action in the North Atlantic (1943). She then returned to the stage and did not appear in another film for 22 years.

She came back to film in1965 with Inside Daisy Clover ( best-supporting-actress Oscar nomination). She won an Oscar for her supporting role in Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and she developed a strong cult following with her offbeat characters in Where’s Poppa (1970) and Harold and Maude (1971). She appeared in many television programs and made-for-TV movies during the 1960s and ’70s and won an Emmy in 1979 for her role on an episode of the popular sitcom Taxi. Gordon and Kanin also collaborated on one more writing project, the TV movie Hardhat and Legs (1980).

Ruth Gordon died on August 28, 1985, and Garson Kanin died on March 13, 1999.

Awards from IMDB

Academy Awards

1969 Winner
OscarBest Actress in a Supporting Role
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

1966 Nominee
OscarBest Actress in a Supporting Role
Inside Daisy Clover (1965)

1953 Nominee
OscarBest Writing, Story and Screenplay
Pat and Mike (1952)
Shared with: Garson Kanin

1951 Nominee
OscarBest Writing, Story and Screenplay
Adam’s Rib (1949)

Shared with: Garson Kanin

1948 Nominee

OscarBest Writing, Original Screenplay
A Double Life (1947)

Shared with: Garson Kanin

https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gordon-ruth-1896-1985

Talking Heads – And She Was

This song is about an acid trip. According to David Byrne, it was written about a girl he knew who used to take LSD in a field next to the Yoo-Hoo drink factory. it took me a while to warm up to The Talking Heads but I ended up really liking them. They always made interesting videos.

The song peaked at #54 in the Billboard 100 and #17 in the UK in 1985. The song was off of the “Little Creatures” album that peaked at #20 in the Billboard Album Charts. Byrne is listed as the sole author of Little Creatures’ nine songs, with the band credited only with arrangements.

It is a very good… catchy pop song.

From Songfacts.

The video was the first created by Jim Blashfield, who pioneered a collage-animation style with his short film, Suspicious Circumstances. That got the attention of Talking Heads, which wanted a similar motif for their “And She Was” video. The resulting clip earned MTV Video Music Award nominations for Best Group Video and Best Concept Video. Blashfield was commissioned for more videos in this style; his work can be seen in “The Boy in the Bubble” (Paul Simon), “Sowing the Seeds of Love” (Tears For Fears) and “Leave Me Alone” (Michael Jackson).

And She Was

Hey!

And she was lying in the grass
And she could hear the highway breathing
And she could see a nearby factory
She’s making sure she is not dreaming

See the lights of a neighbor’s house
Now she’s starting to rise
Take a minute to concentrate
And she opens up her eyes

The world was moving she was right there with it and she was
The world was moving she was floating above it and she was
And she was

And she was drifting through the backyard
And she was taking off her dress
And she was moving very slowly
Rising up above the earth

Moving into the universe and she’s
Drifting this way and that
Not touching the ground at all and she’s
Up above the yard

The world was moving, she was right there with it and she was
(Hey, hey)
The world was moving, she was floating above it and she was
(Hey, hey, hey)

She was proud about it, no doubt about it
She isn’t sure about what she’s done
No time to think about what to tell him
No time to think about what she’s done and she was
(Hey hey, hey hey, hey)

And she was looking at herself
And things were looking like a movie
She had a pleasant elevation
She’s moving out in all directions oh, oh oh

Hey, hey, hey
Hey-hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey-hey hey!

The world was moving, she was right there with it and she was
(Hey, woo hoo)
The world was moving, she was floating above it and she was
(Hey, hey)

Joining the world of missing persons and she was
Missing enough to feel all right and she was

And she was
And she was
And she was
And she was
And she was
Hey!
And she was!
And she was
And she was!

Full Moon

I bought this book in the 1980s and in America was called “Full Moon” and in the UK it was called “Moon the Loon”. It was written by Chris Trengove and Dougal Butler, Dougal was Keith’s personal assistant. Dougal doesn’t try to justify Moon’s actions, he just tells the stories that are now legendary.

The book will have you physically burst out laughing at different parts of it. Keith left a trail of wrecked cars, wrecked drums, wrecked hotel rooms, wrecked nerves, wrecked bars, and many smiles.

Dougal doesn’t try to tell Moon’s life history. If you want Keith’s life get Dear Boy, a terrific and thorough bio on Keith by Tony Fletcher. Full Moon highlights the tales of Mr. Keith John Moon…Patent British Exploding Drummer. It is a very quick read at around 250 pages. The audio version is approximately 9 hours long.

Butler worked for Moon for ten years and was right there during much of the craziness. He was behind the wheel of Moon’s AC Frua 428 as it flipped end-over-end through a field off Chertsey Lane after Moon decided to grab the shifter and downshift at around 120 mph.

The book also touches on Moon’s long-suffering wife Kim who endured all the craziness she could and finally leaves Keith. He had the ability or curse of not being able to be embarrassed…this a fun book to read. It was originally published in 1981. It was a collector’s item for a long time but it was republished in 2012.

The audiobook format is read by British actor Karl Howman, a friend of both Moon and Butler, who features in some of the book’s stories and is thus well familiar with the subject matter. Karl reads it in a cockney voice and it fits perfectly.

This book will not give you a history of The Who…just some great stories of my favorite drummer.

U2 – Angel of Harlem

This song has an old feel and a lot of power. It was on the Rattle and Hum album. I’ve talked to many U2 fans who don’t like the album a lot but it was a favorite of mine at the time. It broke a little from their previous albums. The Edge backed off the reverb some on this album.

The “Angel of Harlem” is Billie Holiday, a Jazz singer who moved to Harlem as a teenager in 1928. She played a variety of nightclubs and became famous for her spectacular voice and ability to move her audience to tears. She dealt with racism, drug problems, and bad relationships for most of her life, and her sadness was often revealed in her songs. She died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1959 at age 44.

The song peaked at #14 in the Billboard 100 and #9 in the UK in 1989. Rattle and Hum peaked at #1 in the Billboard 200 in 1988. The album had live and studio cuts included and a film.

Angel of Harlem was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis.

From Songfacts

Billy Holiday’s nickname was “Lady Day.” That’s where they got the line, “Lady Day got diamond eyes, she sees the truth behind the lies.”

This is a tribute to the blues, jazz and gospel music U2 heard while touring America.

U2 recorded this at Sun Studios in Memphis while the band was touring the US in 1987. It features the Memphis Horns, who recorded on many of the blues and soul classics recorded there.

This was produced by “Cowboy” Jack Clement, who worked with Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in the ’50s before moving to Nashville and working with a variety of Country singers. When U2 asked him to work on this album, he had never even heard of them, but fortunately some of his friends were familiar with U2 and made it clear to Clement that working with them would be a good career move. By using Clement, U2 was able to recreate the famous Sun Studios’ sound they were looking for.

The line “On BLS I heard the sound…” refers to New York radio station WBLS, where U2 heard the blues and soul music that influenced this track.

This was used in the U2 documentary Rattle And Hum, which followed the band on their 1987-1988 tour of North America.

U2 played this live for the first time at the Smile Jamaica concert on October 16, 1988 in London, a benefit for the victims of Hurricane Gilbert. >>

The band was inspired by their first trip to New York City. “I wrote about it in a song. ‘Angel of Harlem,'” Bono explains in the book U2 by U2. “We landed in JFK and we were picked up in a limousine. We had never been in a limousine before, and with the din of punk rock not yet faded from our ears, there was a sort of guilty pleasure as we stepped into the limousine. Followed by a sly grin, as you admit to yourself this is fun. We crossed Triborough Bridge and saw the Manhattan skyline. The limo driver was black and he had the radio tuned to WBLS, a black music station. Billie Holiday was singing. And there it was, city of blinding lights, neon hearts. They were advertising in the skies for people like us, as London had the year before.”

During the recording session, Bono learned the important lesson that alcohol and horn players do not mix. “I thought I would lighten the session up, so I sent out for a case of Absolut Vodka. I was giving it to the horn players and we were all having a little laugh and Cowboy came up to me. Cowboy was a guy who knew how to get into trouble but he also knew when not to get into trouble. He said, ‘Bono, how long you been doing this?’ I said, ‘Ten years, nearly.’ He said, ‘Ten years and you don’t know not to give the horn section Absolut Vodka? You can give it to anybody else but you can’t give a horn section Absolut.’ I asked, ‘Why, particularly, the horn section?’ Cowboy said, ‘Listen, stupid, you try playing a horn when your lips won’t work.’

Angel of Harlem

It was a cold and wet December day
When we touched the ground at JFK
Snow was melting on the ground
On BLS I heard the sound
Of an angel

New York, like a Christmas tree
Tonight this city belongs to me
Angel

Soul love, this love won’t let me go
So long, angel of Harlem

Birdland on fifty three
The street sounds like a symphony
We got John Coltrane and a love supreme
Miles, and she’s got to be an angel

Lady Day got diamond eyes
She sees the truth behind the lies
Angel

Soul love this love won’t let me go
So long angel of Harlem
Angel of Harlem

She says it’s heart, heart and soul
Yeah yeah (yeah)
Yeah yeah (right now)

Blue light on the avenue
God knows they got to you
An empty glass, the lady sings
Eyes swollen like a bee sting
Blinded you lost your way
Through the side streets and the alleyway
Like a star exploding in the night
Falling to the city in broad daylight
An angel in Devil’s shoes
Salvation in the blues
You never looked like an angel
Yeah yeah angel of Harlem

Angel angel of Harlem
Angel angel of Harlem
Angel angel of Harlem
Angel angel of Harlem

Squeeze – Tempted

Paul Carrack sang lead on this. He also sang with the bands Ace (“How Long”) and Mike And The Mechanics (“The Living Years”). In 1987, he had a solo hit with “Don’t Shed a Tear.”

This was the first Squeeze song to crack the charts in America. Squeeze was already a big deal in their native England, where they had 7 Top-40 hits to this point. They managed just 2 more US hits: “Hourglass” and “853-5937,” but “Tempted” remains their only top ten hit. It peaked at #8 in the Billboard 100.

From Songfacts

Squeeze singer and guitarist Chris Difford wrote the lyrics to this song. He explains: “Tempted was written in a cab on the way to Heathrow, I just wrote down what I saw and how I felt as we wormed our way through the traffic. I also must have anticipated a good time on tour as the chorus suggests.”
Carrack was with Squeeze for their East Side Story album, replacing Jools Holland on keyboards and also contributing vocals. He rejoined Squeeze in 1993 for their album Some Fantastic Place, and sang on a new version of “Tempted” that the band recorded for the soundtrack of the 1994 movie Reality Bites.

Elvis Costello produced this track. You can hear him singing on the second verse.

Glenn Tilbrook, who writes the music for Squeeze, considers this one of his favorites. Says Tilbrook: “It was a sort of breakthrough song for us, in spite of the fact that it wasn’t a hit, it was our first song. It was when we grew up, really, as a band. When we finished it I couldn’t quite believe it was us.” (Read more in our interview with Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford of Squeeze.)

In the US, this was used in a commercial for Burger King, and another for Heineken. It’s a good fit for advertisements where someone is “tempted” by their product.

At many Squeeze shows, fans would throw toothbrushes (Rocky Horror-style) on stage at the opening line: “I bought a toothbrush…”

Tempted

I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste
A flannel for my face
Pajamas, a hairbrush
New shoes and a case
I said to my reflection
Let’s get out of this place

Passed the church and the steeple
The laundry on the hill
Billboards and the buildings
Memories of it still
Keep calling and calling
But forget it all, I know I will

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on
Now that you have gone

There’s no other
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

I’m at the car park, the airport
The baggage carousel
The people keep on [Incomprehensible]
Ain’t wishing I was well
I said it’s no occasion
It’s no story I could tell

At my bedside empty pocket
A foot without a sock
Your body gets much closer
I fumble for the clock
Alarmed by the seduction
I wish that it would stop

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on
Now that you have gone

There’s no other
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

I bought a novel, some perfume
A fortune all for you
But it’s not my conscience
That hates to be untrue
I asked of my reflection
Tell me what is there to do?

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on
Now that you have gone

There’s no other
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

Violent Femmes – Blister In The Sun

In the mid-eighties, a girl I knew kept playing this song over and over. It got on my nerves but after a while I found myself liking it. I ended up liking the song more than I did the girl. A Blister In The Sun was released in 1983.

The song had a cult following and was favorite on American college radio in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, an alternative and modern rock radio stations went on the air, it got a lot of airplay because it was considered a classic of the genre. The album gradually sold over one million copies and earned the Violent Femmes a large fan base.

From Songfacts

Written by Violent Femmes lead singer Gordan Gano, this song sure sounds like an ode to masturbation:

Body and beats
I stain my sheets
I don’t even know why
My girlfriend, she’s at the end
She is starting to cry

Gano says it isn’t, and that he didn’t hear that interpretation until years later. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot to understand with the lyrics,” he told the Village Voice. “But I can see where people could get that idea.”

Gano is coy in discussing the song, but he has explained that it’s about the strung-out feeling that comes from drug abuse. The girlfriend is at her wit’s end because he keeps staining the sheets, as he lacks sexual control.

This is the first song on the first Violent Femmes album, introducing the band with the famous guitar riff and snare hits. The band made inroads with songs like this one about adolescent insecurities delivered in a deprecating tone. Gordon Gano was just 19 when the album was released.

The line, “Big hands I know you’re the one” is in the song because Gano has small hands. In the song, he’s in a self-loathing state where he knows the girl is just going to take up with some big-handed guy.

In 2007, this was used in commercials for the fast food purveyor Wendy’s. Gordon Gano authorized its use, which triggered a lawsuit by the group’s bass player Brian Ritchie, who stated: “I don’t like having my sound misappropriated to sell harmful products, such as fast food… that’s not why we made the music. It should not be hijacked.” Ritchie cited misappropriation of jointly owned intellectual property as the basis for his suit.

Ritchie also blasted Gano in the publication OnMilwaukee, where he wrote, “When you see dubious or in this case disgusting uses of our music you can thank the greed, insensitivity and poor taste of Gordon Gano, it is his karma that he lost his songwriting ability many years ago, probably due to his own lack of self-respect as his willingness to prostitute our songs demonstrates. Neither Gordon (vegetarian) nor me (gourmet) eat garbage like Wendy’s burgers.”

The band was still touring when this went down, but they broke up soon after. They didn’t return to action until 2013, when they played the Coachella festival.

This was featured in the 1997 John Cusack film Grosse Pointe Blank. The soundtrack includes two versions of the song, the original 1982 release and a remake entitled “Blister 2000.” The remake is slower and has kind of a funky instrumental sax solo in the middle. >>

A multi-instrumental cover of the song was used in a 2012 television commercial for the Hewlett-Packard DV6T notebook. In the ad, the song in played in various styles, including gospel, Mariachi and metal.

The barefoot child peeking into an old building on the album cover is three-year-old Billie Jo Campbell, who photographer Ron Hugo spotted walking with her mother in Los Angeles. Speaking to MTV News in 2007, Campbell recalled: “I remember looking into that building, and they kept telling me there are animals in there. I had no idea there were photographers there. I was pissed off that I couldn’t see the animals.”

Blister in the Sun

When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might stop to check you out

Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one

Body and beats,
I stain my sheets
I don’t even know why
My girlfriend, she’s at the end,
She is starting to cry

Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one

When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might stop to check you out

Body and beats,
I stain my sheets
I don’t even know why
My girlfriend, she’s at the end,
She is starting to cry

When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might stop to check you out

Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one