1980s – Page 43 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

My Favorite Drummers

This is my top ten favorite drummers…I’m sure I’m going to leave some great ones out. Like guitarists, I like drummers with feel more than technique. Anyone who has read this blog knows who my number 1 is without question…

1…Keith Moon, The Who – It’s hard if not impossible to copy this man’s drumming style. He changed the Who completely and was their engine. I’m not a drummer so I really never cared like some drummers do if he played by the rules in drumming…Was he disciplined? No, but it worked well for him and for the songs. Songs like Bargain and Goin’ Mobile are great examples of Keith.

2…John Bonham, Led Zeppelin – Without Bonham, there is no Led Zeppelin as we know them. He was the ultimate groove drummer. He was a bricklayer and had hard hands and hit the drums incredibly hard but with a light touch also.

3…Levon Helm, The Band – Not only was he a great drummer but also a soulful singer. He brought something many drummers didn’t… a bit of the old south.

4…Charlie Watts, Rolling Stones – Charlie and Ringo made their respective groups swing. Charlie can play blues, rock, big band, and jazz. Charlie and his rhythm section partner Bill Wyman were overlooked being in the same band with Mick and Keith. On top of his drumming skills…Charlie grounds the band much like Ringo did for the Beatles.

5…Ringo Starr, The Beatles – He was not Moon or Bonham in flash but he played exactly what was needed…He could have gone overboard and the songs would have suffered. He played for the song. Some have called him the human metronome. I cannot imagine any other drummer for The Beatles. His tom tom work on Sgt Pepper alone is excellent.

6…Mitch Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix Experience – Any holes left in Jimi’s music would be quickly filled in by Mitch. He was a jazz drummer who fused it into rock.

7…Ginger Baker, Cream – If this was a list of “likable people” Ginger would not be in the top 1000 but his drumming was some of the best of the sixties and I’m sure he would say “ever”… He was as big of part of Cream’s sound as Clapton or Bruce.

8…Bobby Elliot, Hollies – Drummer from the Hollies that other drummers have admired. He hit the drums hard and his fills were great… He is often overlooked but he is always spot on.

9…Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters, Nirvana – He can play anything… He fuels those Nirvana songs…and is really great at whatever instrument he plays.

10…Clem Burke, Blondie – An exciting drummer that was heavily influenced by number 1 on this list. He has played with Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie.

Honorable Mention

Gene Krupa, Buddy Miles, Mick Fleetwood, Max Weinberg, “D.J.” Fontana, Benny Benjamin, Stewart Copeland, and Hal Blaine.

Yes, I know… No Neil Peart…yes he is a great drummer…just not my style of music.

Paul McCartney – Coming Up

Merry Christmas to everyone…

I was 12 when this came out in 1979 and loved it…especially the video that went with it. The live version is the one that hit really big and the single had the live and studio version. The song (Live Version) peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #2 in the UK and #1 in Canada in 1980.

McCartney played all the instruments and shared vocal harmonies with wife Linda McCartney on the studio version.

Paul McCartney on recording Coming Up

I originally cut it on my farm in Scotland. I went into the studio each day and just started with a drum track. Then I built it up bit by bit without any idea of how the song was going to turn out. After laying down the drum track, I added guitars and bass, building up the backing track. I did a little version with just me as the nutty professor, doing everything and getting into my own world like a laboratory. The absent-minded professor is what I go like when I’m doing those; you get so into yourself it’s weird, crazy. But I liked it.

Then I thought, ‘Well, OK, what am I going to do for the voice?’ I was working with a vari-speed machine with which you can speed up your voice, or take it down a little bit. That’s how the voice sound came about. It’s been speeded up slightly and put through an echo machine I was playing around with. I got into all sorts of tricks, and I can’t remember how I did half of them, because I was just throwing them all in and anything that sounded good, I kept. And anything I didn’t like I just wiped.

On John Lennon

I heard a story from a guy who recorded with John in New York, and he said that John would sometimes get lazy. But then he’d hear a song of mine where he thought, ‘Oh, shit, Paul’s putting it in, Paul’s working!’ Apparently ‘Coming Up’ was the one song that got John recording again. I think John just thought, ‘Uh oh, I had better get working, too.’ I thought that was a nice story.

Coming Up

You want a love to last forever
One that will never fade away
I want to help you with your problem
Stick around, I say

Coming up, coming up, yeah
Coming up like a flower
Coming up, I say

You want a friend you- can rely on
One who will never fade away
And if you’re searching for an answer
Stick around. I say

It’s coming up, it’s coming up
It’s coming up like a flower
It’s coming up. yeah

You want some peace and understanding
So everybody can be free
I know that we can get together
We can make it, stick with me

It’s coming up, it’s coming up
It’s coming up like a flower
It’s coming up for you and me

Coming up, coming up
It’s coming up, it’s coming up, I say
It’s coming up like a flower
It’s coming up
I feel it in my bones

You want a better kind of future
One that everyone can share
You’re not alone, we all could use it
Stick around we’re nearly there

It’s coming up, it’s coming up everywhere
It’s coming up like a flower
It’s coming up for all to share
It’s coming up, yeah
It’s coming up, anyway
It’s coming up like a flower
Coming up

Lenny Kravitz – Let Love Rule

This sounded older when it was released in 1989 because it has a 60s psychedelic sound which some critics complained about…it’s the reason that I liked it. Lenny plays a lot of the instruments his self. The song peaked at #89 in the Billboard 100 and #39 in the UK in 1989.

A little trivia for you about Lenny…his mom was Roxie Roker from the tv show The Jeffersons.

From Songfacts.

Lenny Kravitz in a 1998 interview with Tracey Pepper: “When I did ‘Let Love Rule,’ everyone said what a naive piece of s–t it was. Journalists would ask, ‘Don’t you feel funny singing about that?’ and I was like, If I were sitting here singing about the devil and raping children, then it’d be okay? God forbid you sing about love. It’s a lost concept.”

This song is Kravitz’ credo. “Love has to be the final outcome of every situation,” he said.

This was the title track from Lenny Kravitz’ debut album on which he provided almost all of the instrumental and vocal material himself. However when it was released many critics condemned him for being an out of date throwback to late ’60s psychedelic rock.

Lenny Kravitz’s then-wife Lisa Bonet directed and appeared in the music video for this song.

The singer was persuaded by his style-star daughter Zoe Kravitz to develop a new line of shoes for Tom’s. Amongst his designs, which debuted in 2012 were footware printed with lyrics from this song.

Let Love Rule

Love is gentle as a rose
And love can conquer any war
It’s time to take a stand
Brothers and sisters join hands

We got to let love rule
(Let love rule)
We got to let love rule
(Let love rule)

Love transcends all space and time
And love can make a little child smile
Oh can’t you see
This won’t go wrong
But we got to be strong
We can’t do it alone

We got to let love rule
(Let love rule)
We got to let love rule
(Let love rule)

(Let love rule)
You got to got to got to
(Let love rule)

You got to got to got to, yeah
(Let love rule) let let let let love rule
(Let love rule)

You got to, got to, got to
Just say yeah
You got to yeah
You got to
You got to, got to, got to yeah
Let love rule

The Cult – She Sells Sanctuary

I remember this song in the 80s and I didn’t hear it again until playing…Grand Theft Auto Vice City. It’s the only game I ever got hooked on as an adult. After playing the game for hours and stealing cars…this would be on the radio of the car you were driving constantly. After I beat it…I really never played another game again. I guess I just had to get it out of my adult system.

The song kicks in nicely.

The lead singer Ian Astbury puts it bluntly on what the song is about…he says “What’s the song about? Sex. Plain and simple, it’s about sex. I’ve had sex and I’m very proud of that fact.”

The song peaked at #15 in the UK charts but didn’t chart in the Billboard 100.

From Songfacts.

Billy Duffy of The Cult talks about how his quasi-psychedelic guitar intro came about: “I found a violin bow, and I started to play the guitar with the bow like Jimmy Page. I did it to amuse Astbury, who was in the control room, and in order to make it sound weirder, I just hit every pedal I had on the pedal board. Then once I stopped banging the strings and doing all that, I played the middle section of the song, which was kind of a pick thing with all the BOSS pedals on, and that sound just leaped out. The producer went, ‘Hold it, hold it, that’s great!’ And we decided to start the song with that mystical sound. If I hadn’t found that violin bow laying around, we wouldn’t have gone there.”

“She Sells Sanctuary” was the last song to feature Nigel Preston on drums. Preston was fired from the band shortly after its release and was replaced by Big Country’s drummer, Mark Brzezicki.

In 1993, a collection of remixes of this song by Youth, Butch Vig and JG Thilwell reached #15 in the UK.

This song featured in the 1992 film, With Honors and in the 2004 film, Layer Cake.

This formed part of a mashup with Flo Rida’s “Good Feeling” in a Budweiser commercial broadcast during the 2012 Super Bowl. The one-minute ad celebrates several decades of great times in the US, beginning at the end of Prohibition in 1933.

She Sells Sanctuary

Oh, the heads that turn
Make my back burn
And that heads that turn
Make my back, make my back burn

The sparkle in your eyes
Keeps me alive
And the sparkle in your eyes
Keeps me alive, keeps me alive

The world
And the world turns around
The world and the world yeah
The world drags me down

Oh, the heads that turn
Make my back burn
And that’s heads that turn
Make my back, make my back burn, yeah
Hey yeah hey, yeah hey

The fire in your eyes keeps me alive
And the fire in your eyes keeps me alive
Inside her you’ll find sanctuary
Inside her you’ll find sanctuary

And the world the world turns around
And the world and the world the world drags me down
And the world and the world the world turns around
And the world and the world and the world and the world
And the world drags me down

Ah, hey yeah, hey yeah
And the world and the world turns around
And the world and the world
Yeah, the world drags me down
And the world
Yeah, the world turns around
And the world and the world the world drags me down

Hey yeah, hey yeah
Sanctuary, hey
Sanctuary, hey

1970s Russ Berrie Sillisculpts

Whenever I go to a yard sale or flea market and I see one…I have to get it. Worlds Greatest Dad, Worlds Greatest Mom, Worlds Greatest Grandpa, “Being Sick is bad for your health” and many more. They have a look that I like and are usually cheap…for two bucks you can have part of the seventies.

He did more than the statues…he had stuffed animals and bears which in the 80s and 90s really took off…along with trolls.

Russell Berrie started his business with only $500 and ran it out of a rented garage in Palisades Park, NJ. His first product to reach the shelf was his Fuzzy Wuzzie in 1964.

By 1968 Americans were ready for something a little bolder. Russ Berrie and Co. introduced Sillisculpts, plastic message figurines with a little more attitude. Two of the most memorable are the “I love you this much!” statuette and another of an old lawyer crying “Sue the bastards!” (I must find this one).

These come in every form and shape.

In 1971, as sales passed the $7 million mark, Russ Berrie and Company moved to a new corporate headquarters facility in Oakland, New Jersey. This location would become the center of the company’s worldwide marketing and distribution businesses. In the following year, Russ Berrie and Company opened a second new facility, when a distribution center, in Santa Rosa, California, came online.

By 1985, Russ Berrie and Company sales had reached $204.6 million, and revenues more than doubled in just two years.

In 1992, Russ Berrie and Company’s fortunes got a lift, when the popularity of one of its oldest products, Trolls, first introduced in the 1960s, escalated dramatically. Although they had not been a big seller for many years, suddenly the company’s trolls—squishy dolls with rubbery faces and hair that stood on end—were experiencing wild demand. To meet this clamor, Russ Berrie and Company’s designers began to churn out hundreds of different troll products, and the company’s Far Eastern suppliers raced to keep output high. By the end of the year, pushed by the troll fad, the company’s earnings had soared to $300 million.

In 2001, Russ Berrie had sales of $294.3 million and net income of $40.2 million, selling items like a stuffed dog named Muffin and a stuffed bear known as Honeyfritz.

In December 2002, Russ Berrie died unexpectedly after having a heart attack in his home. Often named by Fortune magazine as one of America’s most generous philanthropists, Berrie was just 69 years old when he died.

Blondie – The Tide is High

I remember hearing this a lot in 1981. The Tide Is High,” a remake of an obscure 1967 song by the Jamaican group the Paragons (Very good version by the way). It was released in 1980 but peaked in 1981 at #1 in the Billboard 100, the UK and Canada. It was written by Jamaican DJ Duke Reid in the 1930s

This is interesting. Sean Lennon said: “My father had an old Wurlitzer in the game room of our house on Long Island. It was filled with 45s, mostly Elvis and The Everly Brothers. The one modern song I remember him listening to was ‘The Tide Is High’ by Blondie, which he played constantly. When I hear that song, I see my father, unshaven, his hair pulled back into a ponytail, dancing to and fro in a worn-out pair of denim shorts, with me at his feet, trying my best to coordinate tiny limbs.”

From Songfacts.

Blondie experimented with many different sounds. They were a punk/new wave band in their early years, making a name playing clubs like CBGB’s in New York. This song was their foray into reggae, but they played around with rap on “Rapture” and with disco on “Heart Of Glass.”

Debbie Harry in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh: “I first heard ‘The Tide Is High’ on a compilation tape that someone had given me while we were in London. Chris (Stein) and I both fell in love with the song and decided it was too good to resist.”

Blondie wanted to give the song a Jamaican feel, so they hired three percussion players and created a new string and horn arrangement to give it an authentic sound. According to Chris Stein, the percussion includes “eight tracks of drum sticks tapping on a piano bench.”

The Tide is High

The tide is high but I’m holdin’ on
I’m gonna be your number one
I’m not the kind-a girl who gives up just like that, oh no

It’s not the things you do that tease and hurt me bad
But it’s the way you do the things you do to me
I’m not the kind-a girl who gives up just like that, oh no

The tide is high but I’m holdin’ on
I’m gonna be your number one, number one.

Ev’ry girl wants you to be her man
But I’ll wait my dear till it’s my turn
I’m not the kind-a girl who gives up just like that, oh no

The tide is high but I’m holdin’ on
I’m gonna be your number one, number one, number one

Ev’ry girl wants you to be her man
But I’ll wait my dear till it’s my turn
I’m not the kind-a girl who gives up just like that, oh no

The tide is high but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one, number one, number one

The tide is high but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one
The tide is high but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one
The tide is high but I’m holding on
I’m gonna be your number one

Juice Newton – Queen of Hearts

This song was played and played when it was released but I haven’t heard it a lot since. The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100, #14 in the Country Charts, and #8 in Canada in 1981. This song was written by Hank DeVito, who was the pedal steel guitarist for Emmylou Harris’ backing group, The Hot Band.

In 1981 I remember 3 songs that you would hear on the radio at any time after they were released. Bette Davis Eyes, The Tide Is High, and Queen of Hearts. You didn’t have to wait for it…turn on the radio and one of them would be there.

From Songfacts.

Juice Newton had the biggest success with “Queen of Hearts” after it appeared on her 1981 album, Juice. In September 1981, Newton’s version peaked at #2 on the US charts, having shifted over one million copies. In 1982, the song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Dave Edmunds, who first recorded “Queen of Hearts” in 1979, told Creem Newton stole his composition: “She did pinch my arrangement, note for note, but I’m not angry with that.”

The Welsh musician Dave Edmunds was the first artist to record “Queen of Hearts.” The song appears on his 1979 album, Repeat When Necessary. The track peaked at #11 in the UK, but Edmunds’ label – Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song – refused to release it in the US. Edmunds, who reached #4 US with his 1970 cover of “I Hear You Knocking,” was hoping for another American hit and was not pleased when Swan Song held back both “Queen of Hearts” and “Girls Talk” (a song written by Elvis Costello that made #4 UK for Edmunds in 1979).

Queen of Hearts

Midnight, and I’m a-waiting on the twelve-oh-five
Hoping it’ll take me just a little farther down the line

Moonlight, you’re just a heartache in disguise
Won’t you keep my heart from breaking
If it’s only for a very short time

Playing with the queen of hearts
Knowing it ain’t really smart
The joker ain’t the only fool
Who’ll do anything for you
Laying out another lie
Thinking ’bout a life of crime
‘Cause that’s what I’ll have to do
To keep me away from you

Honey, you know it makes you mad
Why is everybody telling everybody what you have done

Baby, I know it makes you sad
But when they’re handing out the heartaches
You know you got to have you some

Playing with the queen of hearts
Knowing it ain’t really smart
The joker ain’t the only fool
Who’ll do anything for you
Laying out another lie,
Thinking ’bout a life of crime
‘Cause that’s what I’ll have to do
To keep me away from you

Lovers, I know you’ve had a few
But hide your heart beneath the covers
And tell ’em they’re the only one

And others, they know just what I’m going through
And it’s a-hard to be a lover
When you say you’re only in it for fun

Playing with the queen of hearts
Knowing it ain’t really smart
The joker ain’t the only fool
Who’ll do anything for you

Playing with the queen of hearts
Playing with the queen of hearts
Playing with the queen of hearts
Playing with the queen of hearts

Prince – Raspberry Beret

I liked Purple Rain but something about this song and the Around the World in a Day album…it showed more of a 60s psychedelic influence and I really liked it. The album wasn’t the success that Purple Rain was but still contained two top ten hits… Raspberry Beret and Pop Life.

This song peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100 and #25 in the UK in 1985. The Hindu Love Gods did an interesting cover of this song.

From Songfacts.

Prince discussed the meaning of Around the World in a Day with Rolling Stone in 1985: “I was trying to say something about looking inside oneself to find perfection. Perfection is in everyone. Nobody’s perfect, but they can be. We may never reach that, but it’s better to strive than not.”

Prince originally recorded “Raspberry Beret” in 1982, but re-worked it with his newly re-formed Revolution backing band, which had just crystalized into what would become the fan favorite lineup: Brown Mark on bass, Bobby Z on drums, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman and Doctor Fink on keyboard, backing guitar, and backing vocals. If you blinked in the mid-’80s, you missed it, because this incarnation of the Revolution broke up by 1986, with Prince firing everybody but Doctor Fink.

This stands as one of the finest examples of the “Minneapolis sound,” blending in finger-cymbals, a string section, and a harmonica as a strategy to create a well-rounded groove. This style is sometimes called “The Prince Sound,” but there were a lot of other guys making it as well, many of them working with Prince at some point. For a great explanation of that sound and how it led to Paula Abdul’s music career, check out our interview with Oliver Leiber.

This song was used in the soundtrack to Girl 6, a 1996 film about a troubled actress turned phone sex worker. It was directed by Spike Lee and has Quentin Tarantino (!) in a supporting role.

At the time this was released, Prince was under fire from Tipper Gore during the notorious PMRC witch hunt, which placed two of his songs on the list of the “filthy 15” – “Darling Nikki” was the original song that got Tipper’s goat. So this is one of the songs where Prince started making his lyrics more family friendly. Nevertheless, you can’t miss “Old Man Johnson” as a reference to his you-know-what. Normally we’d stay clear of looking for euphemisms in lyrics, but come on, this is Prince we’re talking about.

The video is an odd mashup of performance footage and animation. Simon Fields, who was one of the top music video producers at the time, said in the book I Want My MTV: “We filmed a whole video, then Prince got a Japanese animator to do a completely different video and we mashed the two up. He would mess with directors. He would give them the impression that they’d be in charge of the video, then halfway through he’d go ‘Thank you,’ take what he liked, and edit it himself.”

“Raspberry Beret” was the first single from Prince’s Around the World in a Day album, his follow-up to Purple Rain. The album sold over three million copies in the US and spent three weeks at #1 in the summer of 1985.

Raspberry Beret

I was working part time in a five-and-dime
My boss was Mr. McGee
He told me several times that he didn’t like my kind
‘Cause I was a bit too leisurely

Seems that I was busy doing something close to nothing
But different than the day before
That’s when I saw her, ooh, I saw her
She walked in through the out door, out door

She wore a
Raspberry beret
The kind you find in a second hand store
Raspberry beret
And if it was warm she wouldn’t wear much more
Raspberry beret
I think I love her

Built like she was
She had the nerve to ask me
If I planned to do her any harm
So, look here
I put her on the back of my bike
And we went riding
Down by old man Johnson’s farm

I said now, overcast days never turned me on
But something about the clouds and her mixed
She wasn’t to bright
But I could tell when she kissed me
She knew how to get her kicks

She wore a
Raspberry beret
The kind you find in a second hand store
Raspberry beret
And if it was warm she wouldn’t wear much more
Raspberry beret
I think I love her

The rain sounds so cool when it hits the barn roof
And the horses wonder who you are
Thunder drowns out what the lightning sees
You feel like a movie star

Listen
They say the first time ain’t the greatest
But I tell ya
If I had the chance to do it all again
I wouldn’t change a stroke
‘Cause baby I’m the most
With a girl as fine as she was then

(Raspberry beret)
The kind you find (The kind you find)
The kind you find (In a second hand store)
Oh no no
(Raspberry beret)
(And if it was warm)
Where have all the raspberry women gone?
Yeah (Raspberry beret)

I think I, I think I, I think I love her

(Raspberry beret)
No no no
No no no (The kind you find)
(In a second hand store)
(Raspberry beret)
Tell me
Where have all the raspberry women gone? (And if it was warm she)
(Wouldn’t wear much more)
(Raspberry beret)

December 8, 1980

I wrote this back in May but since it’s December 8th I thought I would repost it…I can’t believe it’s been 38 years ago… Seeing that date depresses me…this was not the way to start the decade that was my teens.

Since second grade, I’d been listening to the Beatles. While a lot of kids I knew listened and talked about modern music …I just couldn’t relate as much. By the time I was ten I had read every book about The Beatles I could get my hands on. In a small middle TN town…it wasn’t too many. I was after their generation but I knew the importance of what they did…plus just great music. The more I got into them the more I learned about the Who, Stones, and the Kinks. I wanted to get my hands on every book about the music of the 1960s. Just listening to the music wasn’t enough…I wanted to know the history.

I spent that Monday night playing albums in my room. Monday night I didn’t turn the radio on…I’m glad I didn’t…The next morning I got up to go to school and the CBS morning news was on. The sound was turned down but the news was showing Beatle video clips. I was wondering why they were showing them but didn’t think much of it.

Curious, I walked over to the television and turned it up and found out that John Lennon had been shot and killed. I was very angry and shocked. The bus ride to school was quiet, at school, it was quiet as well. Some teachers were affected because John was their generation. Some of my friends were shocked but some really didn’t get the significance at the time and some didn’t care. A few but not many kids acted almost gleeful which pissed me off…It was obvious their parents were talking through them.

I went out and bought the White Album, Abbey Road and Double Fantasy in late December of 1980…I can’t believe I didn’t have the two Beatle albums already…now whenever I hear any song from those albums they remind me of the winter of 80-81. I remember the call-in shows on the radio then…pre-internet… people calling to share their feelings for John or hatred for the killer.

The next few weeks I saw footage of the Beatles on specials that I had never seen before. Famous and non-famous people pouring their heart out over the grief. Planned tributes from bands and everyone asking the same question…why?

My young mind could not process why a person would want to do this to a musician. A politician yea…I could see that…not that it’s right but this? A musician? Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and JFK were before my time. By the mid-1970s John had pretty much dropped out of sight…John and Yoko released Double Fantasy on November 17, 1980, and suddenly they were everywhere…Less than a month later John was murdered. The catchwords were Catcher in the Rye, Hawaii, handgun and insane. The next day we were duly informed on who killed John in the First, Middle, and Last name format they assign to murderers.

I didn’t want to know his name, his career, his wife’s name, his childhood…I just wanted to know why… he says now…”attention”

I noticed a change happened after that Monday night. John Lennon was instantly turned into a saint, something he would have said was preposterous. Paul suddenly became the square and the uncool one and George and Ringo turned into just mere sidemen. Death has a way of elevating you in life. After the Anthology came out in the 90s that started to change back a little.

I called my dad a few days after it happened and he said that people were more concerned that The Beatles would never play again than the fact a man, father, and husband was shot and killed. He was right and I was among those people until he said that. Dad was never a fan but he made his point.

Defunct Restaurant Chains

Some of these restaurant chains, people will remember some won’t because it depends on where you live and if any were in your market. A few may have a handful open with Franchisees but for the most part, they are closed.

Steak and Ale -1966 – 2008 I liked the Mock Tudor building and the atmosphere inside…the food was good. They are trying to make a comeback…I hope they make it. Last time I ate at one was in the 90s in Huntsville Alabama.

Burger Chef – 1954 – 1996 They had over 1200 locations at one time. Many were bought out and turned into Hardees.

Rax Roast Beef 1967 – (handful open now) I liked the Roast Beef but the best thing was the chocolate chip milkshake. There are a few lone Franchisees left. I remember going to them in the 80s.

Minnie Pearl’s Fried Chicken 1968 to mid-1970s – How-dee-licious…indeed. It was actually really good. When I was in 2nd grade we would go to one in a nearby town once in a while…really good chicken… it went down because of faulty accounting… Great article here.

Bennigan’s 1976 – (Bennigan’s and Steak and Ale making a comeback together) An Irish Pub theme restaurant. I went there a few times. There are a few locations left…

Red Barn – 1961-1988 They were known for the “Big Barney” and Barnbuster burger. I see an old Red Barn where I work and now it’s a Mexican restaurant.

Howard Johnson’s Restaurant – 1953-2017 I do remember eating at a few of these traveling. In 2017 there was one left in New York but the owner was arrested and now it’s closed.

LUMS – 1956-1982 I did go to one but I was really young and traveling at the time.

Bonanza Steak House – 1963 – 2008 (bankruptcy) There are a few of these left… these and Ponderosa… Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright) was an original investor. In the late seventies before we would go to a movie we would stop at a Bonanza. I did go to a Ponderosa a few years back.

REM – It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

This song came off of the great Document album. With some REM songs it takes a few listens for me but this one… the first time was enough to know I really liked it. It was recorded in the Sound Emporium in Nashville, Tennessee. The song peaked at #69 in 1988. The song was inspired by Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan and you can tell.

Michael Stipe said: “The words come from everywhere. I’m extremely aware of everything around me, whether I am in a sleeping state, awake, dream-state or just in day to day life. There’s a part in ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It’ that came from a dream where I was at Lester Bangs’ birthday party and I was the only person there whose initials weren’t L.B. So there was Lenny Bruce, Leonid Brezhnev, Leonard Bernstein… So that ended up in the song along with a lot of stuff I’d seen when I was flipping TV channels. It’s a collection of streams of consciousness.”

From Songfacts.

Stipe claims to have a lot of dreams about the end of the world, destroyed buildings and the like. His stream-of-consciousness writing style in this is very similar to the way a dream moves.

This started off as a song called “Bad Day,” and had lyrics decrying the politics of the Reagan administration. R.E.M. finally released “Bad Day” on their 2003 hits compilation album, In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003.

When R.E.M. played this live, the audience reacted with a party vibe that threw off the band. They thought the apocalyptic lyrics would create a more subdued response.

Michael Stipe said that the lyrics were written to make people smile. The words he used tend to make your mouth smile when you speak them. >>

In the last verse, the line, “The other night I tripped at Knox” refers to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where the band had a night of fun.

This appears in the movies Dream A Little Dream, Independence Day, Tommy Boy and Chicken Little. >>

The government of the Soviet Union allowed this to appear on a 1990 Greenpeace album that was distributed there.

Billy Joel had a huge hit two years later when he used the rapid-vocal, stream of consciousness lyric style on “We Didn’t Start The Fire.”

This appeared in an episode of The Simpsons when Homer and Moe are fighting about Moe’s new bar. Homer opens his own bar in his garage and then lies to REM about why they are playing there. >>

Brett Anderson, lead singer of the all-girl band The Donnas, told Rolling Stone magazine that she is an “R.E.M. geek” and can recite all of the lyrics to the song.

It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

That’s great, it starts with an earthquake
Birds and snakes, and aeroplanes
And Lenny Bruce is not afraid

Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn
World serves its own needs,
Don’t mis-serve your own needs
Speed it up a notch, speed, grunt, no, strength,
The ladder starts to clatter
With a fear of height, down, height
Wire in a fire, represent the seven games
And a government for hire and a combat site
Left her, wasn’t coming in a hurry
With the Furies breathing down your neck

Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped
Look at that low plane, fine, then
Uh oh, overflow, population, common group
But it’ll do, save yourself, serve yourself
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed
Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched

It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine

Six o’clock, T.V. hour, don’t get caught in foreign tower
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn
Lock him in uniform, book burning, bloodletting
Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate
Light a candle, light a motive, step down, step down
Watch your heel crush, crush, uh oh
This means no fear, cavalier, renegade and steering clear
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline

It’s the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)
I feel fine (I feel fine)

It’s the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)

The other night I drifted nice continental drift divide
Mountains sit in a line, Leonard Bernstein
Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs
Birthday party, cheesecake, jellybean, boom
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam but neck, right, right

It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)

Steve Marriott

Robert Plant, Paul Rodgers, Freddie Mercury, and Mick Jagger gets brought up when talking about great lead singers. I’ve had this conversation with friends and musicians. Who was the best rock bass player, guitar player, drummer, and lead singer?

Steve Marriott rarely gets brought up by anyone because he is sadly not remembered as well as he should be. I’ve listened to Marriott for years and the guy still amazes me. He could sing blues, R & B, Rock, and Pop. He could do anything because not only was he a great singer a good songwriter and he was a very good guitar player.

He influenced many singers from the 60s and beyond. Below is the Small Faces doing “You Need Lovin'” and I think Robert Plant was listening. This was before Zeppelin.

The Small Faces played Rock, R & B, and Blues music but what they are famous for are the two pop singles Itchycoo Park and Lazy Sunday. Marriott was upset about Lazy Sunday being released as a single because he’d recorded the song as a joke and it was released despite his objections. They are also known for one of the best albums of the sixties Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake. Q magazine placed Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake at number 59 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane wrote most of the album.

Because of bad management, a pop image, and a lack of a follow up to Ogedens’ Nut Gone Flake the Small Faces broke up. Marriott wanted to play harder music so he and Peter Frampton started a band called Humble Pie.

Humble Pie had some great songs but nothing really caught on with the masses. That’s not always a bad thing but they never had a big song identifiable to them as some other bands do. They did have four top twenty albums but were more known as a live band…check out Performance Rockin’ the Fillmore

Their manager was Dee Anthony who had connections with the Mob. Everything was ok until Steve wanted to know where the money was at. Marriott began openly questioning Anthony’s business practices, the singer was summoned to a meeting at a social club in New York’s Little Italy. According to Marriott’s ex-wife, among those in attendance were John Gotti and several other members of the Gambino crime family. Marriott was quietly persuaded to forget about any money he thought he had coming to him.

The Small Faces reunited, without Lane, between 1976-1978 but punk was taking over and they were not successful. In 1980 Humble Pie reunited but didn’t have much luck either.

In 1981 Steve and Ronnie Lane made an album together that wasn’t released until 2000 after both were passed away. It was called The Legendary Majik Mijits and I really like the recording. You can tell they recorded it in 1981 but it contains some hidden gems.

Steve played many club gigs in the 80s, some you can still see on youtube. In 1991 while working on an album with Peter Frampton he flew back home and went to sleep with a lit cigarette and died of smoke inhalation…he was 44 years old.

A sad ending to a performer who could have been huge. Perhaps if he would have lived longer he would have revived his career and been more remembered today.

Steve had a huge voice that came out of his 5 foot 5 frame. When Jimmy Page was looking for a singer for his new band Page had thought about Marriott but he was managed by the notorious Don Arden, who had reportedly responded by asking how well Page thought he would play guitar with 10 broken fingers.

What other artists say about Steve Marriott

Keith Richards has said that Mariott is in his top 5 favorite artists and considered having Steve in the Stones to replace Mick Taylor when he left…an idea that Mick Jagger rejected.

“Probably, really, my favorite other bands ever, Steve Marriott’s, very much from the English point of view, the Small Faces, then he had Humble Pie.

Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes To me it’s so obvious I’m a Steve Marriott rip-off that I never think about Rod. I admit it. Steve Marriott is the guy, him and Paul Rodgers and Gregg Allman.

Robert Plant (about the Song Remains the Same) I wanted to be like, “Come on!” I wanted to be Steve Marriott, for fuck’s sake.

Paul Rodgers I was rooting around in my cupboard the other day, actually, just yesterday, and I found a bunch of Steve Marriott live stuff and I put it on and MY GOD, that guy was unbelievable!

Documentary about Steve Marriott

Humble Pie with Marriott and Frampton.

Steve and Ronnie Lane in 1981. Some very good songs

http://www.fivefamiliesnyc.com/2010/10/mobsters-make-steve-marriott-eat-humble.html

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/steve-marriott-mn0000040312/biography

Digital Wristwatch

In the mid-seventies, I remember digital watches started to appear around our school. I thought they were really cool. I got one when the price came down. I had a friend named Paul who shunned me a little after I got it. He said he thought they were for only people would couldn’t tell time…no Paul.

After Roger Moore was seen with one in Live and Let Die it was the thing to have. It’s hard to believe a watch could make me so excited back then with its red numbers that only lit up when you clicked it because it would drain the battery if it stayed lit.

Later on, in the early eighties, I went to the now-defunct Service Merchandise and my mom bought me a digital display wristwatch for my birthday that played the Beatles Hey Jude…midi style. I would give anything for that watch now.

In 1972, Hamilton introduced the world’s first commercial electronic digital wristwatch. It retailed for the pricey sum of $2,100. The Hamilton Pulsar P1 was encased in 18-carat gold.

Roger Moore as the one and only James Bond…his arm anyway. The Pulsar II

The very first liquid crystal display (LCD) watch was introduced in late 1972. These Dynamic Scattering LCDs were power-hungry and unstable, and the market soon moved on to TN Field Effect displays. The Seiko 06LC was one of the first to use the new effect display and it stuck for decades.

Hamilton Pulsar Calculator Watch came in 1976. The buttons were extra small but every model had an improvement.

By 1977 the watches really started to fall in price. Star Wars watches were everywhere and they were a more affordable 16.95. A long way from the 18-carat gold watches.

In 1982 the Seiko TV Watch was released. It allowed owners to view live broadcast TV on a tiny blue/gray LCD screen embedded into the watch face. But…and there is a but…an external tuning device had to be connected to the watch. I don’t remember these but it is incredible they had these in 1982… If you had one of these please comment…were they clear at all?

Now with Apple watches that can tell you your heart rate and bank account…they have come a long way.

https://www.pcmag.com/feature/296609/the-digital-watch-a-brief-history/5

Let The Good Times Roll: Kenney Jones The Autobiography

The audio version is 12 hours and it went by fast… I will get the hard copy of this book.

Kenney Jones was the drummer of three of England’s most influential bands – The Small Faces, The Faces and for a few years The Who. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Kenney keeps the book interesting from his childhood, teen years, swinging London, the Swinging Seventies, up til now.

I never knew much about the Small Faces and Faces and this book answered some questions I had about both bands. He gave much more information than Roger Daltrey did in his book about Jone’s tenure as the drummer of the Who and their difficulties. Personally, I don’t think Kenney was the right drummer for the Who but then again…I don’t think anyone could have taken Moon’s place. He does give an interesting perspective on it though.

I didn’t’ realize that Keith Moon and Kenney were as close as they were. Kenney had played with the Who before in sound checks when the Small Faces and Who were touring with each other and Moon couldn’t be found. After Moon died a few strange things happened to Kenney right before Bill Curbishley (The Who’s Manager) called to see if he would join. The strange events helped him make the decision.

He goes over his career thoroughly and he doesn’t leave any gaps. He also talks about being in the band “The Law” with Paul Rodgers and now he is with The Jones Gang that had a #21 hit with Angel in 2005. He also owns a Polo club, is working on an animation of Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, and fighting for the control of the Small Faces music which was lost a long time ago. He doesn’t need the money he just wants it put right.

Near the end, he sums up the three big bands he was involved in… The Small Faces were the most creative, The Faces were the most fun, and The Who were the most exciting and professional. You can tell though that his love is with the Small Faces and he does wonder how far they could have gone if they would have had decent management. He said they never realized how good of a band they were.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

Devo – Whip It

Am I a big Devo fan? No, I’m not but I do like some of their songs. I do respect them…I can’t help but respect them. They had no peers…they did what they did better than anyone else…because they were the only ones that did it. Whatever it is. They are just so bizarre but I can’t help but admire them.

I showed my son the SNL clip of Devo when he was around 10-12 years old and I looked around at his confused look… his mouth was hung open. He asked me slowly…Dad, what was that? Son, that was Devo…it still works.

Whip It peaked at #14 in the Billboard 100, #11 in Canada and #51 in the UK. This song was by far their most successful though they barely missed the top 40 in 1981 with Working In a Coal Mine.

The song was written about whipping your problems but when the band heard that many people took the lyrics the wrong way…they made a video to play up to that thought.

From Songfacts.

Jerry Casale: “We made a video to it for like $15,000 that was shot in our rehearsal studio. We kind of magnified that myth that this was a song about whipping and sadomasochism. We decided to make the video feed that popular misconception and had a lot of fun doing it. It was one of the few times Devo worked like that, usually, we would start with a visual idea or story and write music to fit it. In this case, we didn’t originally have a video idea for ‘Whip It,’ and when people started thinking it was a song about whacking off or sadomasochism, we had these quack books that we would collect from junk stores or vintage magazine stores that served as inspiration or jokes. There was this one magazine that I found in a store in Santa Monica. It was a 1962 men’s girlie mag called Dude, I think.

There was a feature article on a guy who had been an actor and fell on hard times, he wasn’t getting parts anymore. He moved with his wife to Arizona, opened a dude ranch and charged people money to come hang out at the ranch. Every day at noon in the corral, for entertainment, he’d whip his wife’s clothes off with a 12-foot bullwhip. She sewed the costumes and put them together with Velcro. The story was in the magazine about how good he was and how he never hurt her. We had such a big laugh about it, we said, ‘OK, that’s the basis for the video. We’ll have these cowboys drinking beer and cheering Mark on as he’s in the barnyard whipping this pioneer women’s clothes off while the band plays in the corral.’

Back then, nobody cared. MTV had just started up in three cities, we had already shot five videos before Whip It, and nobody cared. There was no industry around it, there were no gatekeepers, there was no pecking order, there were no video commissioners, there were no representatives going, ‘No, you can’t do that, we won’t show that.’ There wasn’t enough money or power involved for anybody to care, so we were just considered crazy artists that went out and did whacko things. So we made the video and one day we started showing it in concerts and then MTV started playing it.”

Whip It

Crack that whip
Give the past the slip
Step on a crack
Break your momma’s back

When a problem comes along you must whip it
Before the cream sits out too long you must whip it
When something’s going wrong you must whip it

Now whip it into shape
Shape it up
Get straight
Go forward
Move ahead
Try to detect it
It’s not too late to whip it
Whip it good

When a good time turns around you must whip it
You will never live it down unless you whip it
No one gets their way until they whip it
I say whip it whip it good
I say whip it whip it good

Crack that whip
Give the past the slip
Step on a crack
Break your momma’s back

When a problem comes along you must whip it
Before the cream sits out too long you must whip it
When something’s going wrong you must whip it

Now whip it into shape
Shape it up
Get straight
Go forward
Move ahead
Try to detect it
It’s not too late to whip it into shape
Shape it up
Get straight
Go forward
Move ahead
Try to detect it
It’s not too late to whip it
Whip it good

and for the bonus Devo track of the day… Peek a Boo