This song wasn’t as popular with the masses as it was with me. From the 90s on this is in my top Tom Petty songs. Something about it resonated with me and I also saw Tom on this tour. The song was written by Tom Petty and his Traveling Wilburys bandmate Jeff Lynne.
The song peaked at #28 in the Billboard 100, #46 in Canada and #28 in New Zealand in 1991. The song was on the album “Into the Great Wide Open” that peaked at #13 in the Billboard album charts.
Petty got the idea for it when he saw a pilot being interviewed on TV during the Gulf War. The pilot said how it wasn’t hard learning to fly… the hardest part was coming down.
On October 21, 2017, Bob Dylan played “Learning to Fly” at First Bank Center in tribute to Tom who had just passed away a few weeks before. Bob told Rolling Stone Magazine: “It’s shocking, crushing news. I thought the world of Tom. He was a great performer, full of the light, a friend, and I ll never forget him.”
From Songfacts
The song was informed by the political events of the time, specifically the Gulf War, as well as the band dynamics – Into The Great Wide Open was a Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album, whereas Petty’s previous album, Full Moon Fever, was a solo album (although guitarist Mike Campbell played on every song and helped produce it). “I wanted that song to be a kind of redemptive song, only in the vaguest way, certainly not literally,” he told Billboard.
It is based on only four simple chords: F, C, A minor, and G.
Julien Temple, who also did Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” directed the video, which shows a young boy in various key moments of adolescence, as he gets his wings.
Pink Floyd beat Petty to the title, releasing their “Learning To Fly” in 1987. Their song was also sparked by aviation argot – lead singer Dave Gilmour was taking flying lessons. Pink Floyd was moving forward after shedding their founding member, Roger Waters, so the song is a metaphor for finding their wings without him.
The country trio Lady Antebellum covered this on their seven-song acoustic EP iTunes Session.
Learning To Fly
Well I started out down a dirty road Started out all alone And the sun went down as I crossed the hill And the town lit up, the world got still
I’m learning to fly, but I ain’t got wings Coming down is the hardest thing
Well, the good ol’ days may not return And the rocks might melt and the sea may burn
I’m learning to fly (learning to fly) but I ain’t got wings (learning to fly) Coming down (learning to fly) is the hardest thing (learning to fly)
Well, some say life will beat you down Break your heart, steal your crown So I’ve started out for God-knows-where I guess I’ll know when I get there
I’m learning to fly, around the clouds But what goes up (learning to fly) must come down
I’m learning to fly (learning to fly), but I ain’t got wings Coming down is the hardest thing
I’m learning to fly (learning to fly), around the clouds But what goes up (learning to fly) must come down
I’m learning to fly (learning to fly) (Learning to fly) learning to fly (learning to fly) (learning to fly) (learning to fly) (learning to fly)
This song is awash in sixties influence…which isn’t surprising by Oasis. It caught my attention in the 90s seeing that it had a mod mid-sixties influence. The song peaked at #8 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in the UK in 1996.
This song was supposedly about Noel Gallagher’s then-girlfriend Meg Mathews, who is compared with a schoolboy’s wall to which posters of footballers and Popstars are attached. He said: “It’s about my girlfriend. She was out of work, and that, a bit down on her luck, so it’s just saying, ‘Cheer up and f—in get on with it.'” Noel later married then divorced Meg Mathews.
Noel also said… “The meaning of that song was taken away from me by the media who jumped on it. And how do you tell your Mrs. it’s not about her once she’s read it is? It’s about an imaginary friend who’s going to come and save you from yourself.”
From Songfacts
The music is based on Wonderwall Music, an instrumental album George Harrison wrote for the movie Wonderwall in 1968. This was the first solo album released by any of The Beatles.
The concept of the “Wonderwall” is based on a ’60s film called Wonderwall – from Psychedelia to Surrealism, starring Jane Birkin. She lives next door to a man who becomes fascinated with her,so he slowly makes holes in his wall so he can watch her through it. This is the “Wonderwall.” Warning: this movie is supposedly terrible.
In 2002, the British army produced a recruitment video that used this under footage of soldiers conducting exercises. The producers of the video didn’t realize they needed permission to use the song, and when Oasis denied, they had to recall all the videos.
The album is the second-best-selling in British history. The best selling album in UK history is Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles.
This was the first single Oasis released in the US, and is their biggest hit in that country. >>
Initially, Noel wanted to sing this song, but he gave his brother Liam Gallagher the choice, and Noel ended up singing “Don’t Look Back In Anger.”
What sounds like a cello was played on a Mellotron tape-playback keyboard, although the video features shows someone playing the cello.
At live shows Noel plays his acoustic guitar on a Fender Telecaster. It’s one of the few songs where he uses a Fender guitar rather than a Gibson.
The opening track of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory is the track “Hello,” which starts off with the opening riff of “Wonderwall” playing extremely quietly; this stops once the guitar noise comes in.
The original title was “Wishing Stone.”
In an interview conducted in Australia around the time of the release of Be Here Now, when asked which 3 songs he would like to be remembered for, Noel immediately responded with “Live Forever” and “Wonderwall” and then proceeded to list several others, including “Champagne Supernova,” “Magic Pie” and “Cigarettes & Alcohol.”
At the very end of the song, the intro to “Supersonic” can be faintly heard being played on acoustic guitar.
Radiohead recorded a bootleg cover of the song in which Thom Yorke sings many incorrect lyrics and cuts out mid-chorus when a background voice says, “Is this abysmal or what? It’s always good to make fun of Oasis.”
This was prevented from reaching #1 in the UK by Robson & Jerome’s Double A-side, “I Believe”and “Up On The Roof.”
The song’s music promo won the Best Video at the 1996 Brit Awards.
Jay-Z opened his set at the Glastonbury Festival in 2008 by singing a few minutes of this song – quite poorly. The famous UK festival was known for rock acts, so having Jay-Z perform stirred things up. After Noel Gallagher made public remarks taking issue with a rapper’s invitation to the festival, Jay responded with the on-stage mockery of “Wonderwall.”
The It’s a Shame About Ray episode of the HBO series Girls closed with Lena Dunham’s character Hannah singing this song in her bathtub, followed by a segue into Oasis’ original version. The day after its original broadcast on February 2, 2013, the tune re-entered Billboard’s Rock Digital Songs at #50.
This was voted #1 on the state-funded Triple J youth network’s “Hottest 100” countdown of the best songs released between Jan. 1, 1993, and Dec. 31, 2012. The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” was runner-up. More than 940,000 votes were cast for the poll, which was held to celebrate two decades of Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown. “Wonderwall” previously topped the annual “Hottest 100” in 1995, a time when Oasis were at the peak of their powers.
Noel on the song’s drum placement (The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters by Daniel Rachel): “I write songs purely for feel. Like the drums coming in on ‘Wonderwall’: people were going, ‘Why have they come in there, it’s an eighth of a bar too early?’ ‘What’s an eighth of a bar?’ I struggle to understand people’s perceptions. It comes in there because to me that’s where it sounds right to. ‘That’s wrong.’ I’m like, ‘Wrong to who? How can it be wrong?'”
This topped a 2016 survey commissioned by the website Sunfly Karaoke ahead of Father’s Day to find the favorite karaoke songs of dads around the UK. The song narrowly beat Blur’s “Parklife,” which came second in the poll.
Ryan Adams covered the song for his 2004 Love is Hell album. His version was supposed to be an inside joke with his then girlfriend, with whom he would debate the merits of Oasis vs Blur, but Adams managed to put a much darker spin on the song. He told Uncut:
“It occurred to me that I was singing it from the perspective of someone in danger of committing suicide. That’s not what I was thinking about when I first did it, but it did have a different meaning. It’s someone saying, you’re my last hope.
But in the second verse, that hope it’s not happening, and I’m singing like that person would sing if that’s the last thing they’re ever going to sing. That’s how I feel in that moment. It’s not a perversion to tap into these those things. I can let my body sing this way and let my mind go there, and I can feel all those things because they’ve been real things in my life at some point.”
Wonderwall
Today is gonna be the day That they’re gonna throw it back to you By now you should’ve somehow Realized what you gotta do I don’t believe that anybody Feels the way I do, about you now
Back beat, the word was on the street That the fire in your heart is out I’m sure you’ve heard it all before But you never really had a doubt I don’t believe that anybody Feels the way I do about you now
And all the roads we have to walk are winding And all the lights that lead us there are blinding There are many things that I Would like to say to you but I don’t know how
Because maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me And after all, you’re my wonderwall
Today was gonna be the day But they’ll never throw it back to you By now you should’ve somehow Realized what you’re not to do I don’t believe that anybody Feels the way I do, about you now
And all the roads that lead you there are winding And all the lights that light the way are blinding There are many things that I Would like to say to you but I don’t know how
I said maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me And after all, you’re my wonderwall
I said maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me And after all, you’re my wonderwall
I said maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me You’re gonna be the one that saves me You’re gonna be the one that saves me
I was a teenager through the eighties and this movie brought it all back, good and bad. I liked this movie. Adam Sandler is not overboard crazy in this film and Drew Barrymore is perfect in her part. The movie was released in 1998.
The first time I watched this movie I started to get nostalgic over the 80s…something I don’t do a lot.
Adam Sandler can go overboard in a lot of his movies…more than I personally like but like I said, in the beginning, he acts more like a regular person in this. Drew Barrymore…is just Drew Barrymore and a higher compliment cannot be given by me. Adam and Drew work well together in this movie and they do have chemistry.
Adam plays Robbie Hart, a down and out Wedding singer who only wanted to be married. His fiance just left him and Drew plays Julia Sullivan who is herself engaged and wants the depressed Robbie to help her plan her wedding.
This movie is not great…it’s no classic film but if you want a fun romp through the 80s this will bring a lot back for you…if you remember that decade. It’s a great movie to watch on a rainy afternoon.
The Soundtrack to this film has the 80s covered quite well.
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me
Culture Club
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
The Police
How Soon Is Now?
The Smiths
Love My Way
The Psychedelic Furs
Hold Me Now
The Thompson Twins
Everyday I Write The Book
Elvis Costello
White Wedding
Billy Idol
China Girl
David Bowie
Blue Monday
New Order
Pass The Dutchie
Musical Youth
Somebody Kill Me [Explicit]
Adam Sandler
Rappers Delight
Sugarhill Gang With Ellen Dow
Video Killed The Radio Star
The Presidents of the United States of America
Have you ever liked something a lot but you know deep down…that it is mediocre or even worse? That is the way I feel toward this 1995 two-part Stephen King TV movie. This is an odd post. Me recommending a TV movie that is not great but…I do love the story.
I always complain when movies don’t go by the book. I can’t say that about this one. It’s so close to the book it hurts which is great. It wasn’t the story that was bad…I love the plot. The acting is ok…well average at best…no it has to do with something that I usually don’t care about at all. Special effects… Star Trek had primitive special effects but I loved the red beams from the phasers…as long as it gets the story across is all I care about. But this…this has to be some of the worst CGI effects ever in a movie even a TV movie. It actually ruins the end for me.
The plot is much like a Twilight Zone episode. A plane full of people takes off from Los Angeles to Boston. 10 people wake up after sleeping for the first 40 minutes into the flight and see everyone else including the crew has vanished. They find the missing people’s watches, wigs, and even implants (surgical pins, pacemakers) sitting in the seats where their owners were at one time.
They look out the window as they were going over Denver and see no lights at all. No one is on the radio. It’s like the world is empty except them. It just so happens a pilot with the airlines was on the plane asleep traveling and he woke up and flew the plane to a smaller airport in Bangor Maine (it is a Stephen King story so where else but Maine). They land but no one is at the airport and everything is drab looking. All the food and drinks are flat. They hear this far off munching sound coming toward them.
That is a great beginning and I liked the story it’s just the “monsters” are pretty bad. If you want a Twilight Zone type story…it’s a fun watch but it could have been so much better. If Hollywood wants to redo a movie…which seems to be the case these days…this one would be a great one to do.
So yes I would recommend this sometimes so so TV movie because of the story. The Stephen Kings book it came from was called Four Past Midnight and is a collection of novellas. I have watched this movie at least 4 times. I just can’t help it.
In this trailer, they wisely avoid showing too much of the Langoliers
In a hand painted night, me and Gypsy Scotty are partners, At the Hotel Flamingo, wearin black market shoes, This loud Cuban band is crucifying John Lennon
This song was released in 1996 and it came off the album Mr. Happy Go Lucky. The song peaked at #14 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada and #83 in the UK in 1996. It’s a very good pop song and Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First), which was Mellencamp’s last US top 40 hit.
John Mellencamp and Cougar had 29 songs in the Billboard 100, 10 top ten hits and one number 1 (Jack and Diane). He released this two years after his minor heart attack in 1994. I’ve always liked this song…catchy riff and a good pop hook.
Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)
In a hand painted night, me and Gypsy Scotty are partners At the Hotel Flamingo, wearin black market shoes This loud Cuban band is crucifying John Lennon No one wants to be lonely, no one wants to sing the blues
She’s perched like a parrot on his tuxedo shoulder Christ, what’s she doing with him she could be dancing with me She stirs the ice in her glass with her elegant finger I want to be what she’s drinking, yeah I just want to be
I saw you first I’m the first one tonight I saw you first Don’t that give me the right To move around in your heart Everyone was lookin But I saw you first
On a moon spattered road in her parrot rebozo Gypsy Scotty is driving his big long yellow car She flies like a bird over his shoulder Se whispers in his ear, boy, you are my star
But I saw you first I’m the first one tonight Yes I saw you first Don’t that give me the right To move around in your heart Everyone was lookin’
In the bone colored dawn, me and Gypsy Scotty are singin’ The radio is playin, she left her shoes out in the back He tells me a story about some girl he knows in Kentucky He just made that story up, there ain’t no girl like that
But I saw you first I’m the first one tonight Yes I saw you first Don’t that give me the right To move around in your heart Everyone was lookin But I saw you first I saw you first
A few days ago I had a Movie Quotes post and received suggestions from people and have included some. Thanks to you all including msjadeli, hanspostcard, and The Hinoeuma.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail – Just a flesh wound.
at 1:10
Cool Hand Luke – “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”
Tombstone – I’m your Huckleberry, why Johnny Ringo looks like somebody just walked over your grave.
Pulp Fiction (deleted scene) “There are only two kinds of people in the world, Beatles people and Elvis people. Now Beatles people can like Elvis and Elvis people can like the Beatles, but nobody likes them both equally. Somewhere you have to make a choice. And that choice, tells you who you are.”
at 1:21
Dirty Harry – You’ve got to ask yourself a question: ‘do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?
at :49
Spinal Tap – “But these go to 11”
A League of Their Own – “There’s no crying in baseball!”
at :35
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – ‘Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it’
Planet of the Apes – “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”
at 1:58
Good Morning Vietnam – No, Phil, he’s not all right. A man does not refer to Pat Boone as a beautiful genius if things are all right.
I’ve always liked this song and album. I saw them on this tour and it would be the only time I got to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The song is a cautionary tale about stardom and the record business. The album of the same name peaked at #13 in 1991. This was the first Heartbreakers album since Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) in 1987. Tom Petty released his solo album Full Moon Fever two years before this.
The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard Album Rock Tracks.
The video to the song was well made. Petty later commented that he was approached about making a movie out of the song. The video not only featured Johnny Depp but also Faye Dunaway.
From Songfacts
“‘Into The Great Wide Open’ had a lot of dark humor,” Tom Petty told Mojo in 2009.
The song tells the story of a guy named Eddie who moves to Los Angeles, meets a girl and becomes a rock star. On their journey, there is a struggle, but always a possibility, as the future is wide open. Eddie plays from the heart, and it pays off with a record deal and a hit. But once he’s achieved his dream, the sky is no longer the limit, as his A&R man spouts that industry cliché, “I don’t hear a single.”
Petty, who knows a thing or two about record company machinations, leaves it to the listener to decide what happens next. There’s a good chance it doesn’t go so well for Eddie.
In the music video, Johnny Depp stars as Eddie. It was directed by Julien Temple and also features Faye Dunaway as Eddie’s manager, Gabrielle Anwar as his girlfriend, and appearances by Matt LeBlanc, Terence Trent D’Arby and Chynna Phillips. As in many of his videos, Tom Petty opens the book to reveal the story. In this one, Petty also plays the roadie Bart, the tattoo artist, and the reporter.
In the video, Eddie becomes a boorish narcissist and his career tanks. Dropped by his label, he goes into the same tattoo parlor where he started and sees himself inking up a newcomer (LeBlanc).
This was the first music video in which Johnny Depp starred. He was a big deal at the time (it was after Edward Scissorhands but before What’s Eating Gilbert Grape), and Petty remarked, “I never met so many women in my life as when we had Johnny Depp in this video.”
Depp later featured in videos for Lemonheads (“It’s A Shame About Ray”), Johnny Cash (“God’s Gonna Cut You Down”) and Alice Cooper (“I’ll Bite Your Face Off”). He also played guitar on songs by a number of high-profile artists, including Oasis (“Fade In-Out”), Patti Smith (“Banga”) and Paul McCartney (“My Valentine”).
This was used in the 2013 Family Guy episode “12 and a Half Angry Men.”
Into The Great Wide Open
Eddie waited till he finished high school He went to Hollywood, got a tattoo He met a girl out there with a tattoo too The future was wide open
They moved into a place they both could afford He found a nightclub he could work at the door She had a guitar and she taught him some chords The sky was the limit
Into the great wide open Under them skies of blue Out in the great wide open A rebel without a clue
The papers said Ed always played from the heart He got an agent and a roadie named Bart They made a record and it went in the charts The sky was the limit
His leather jacket had chains that would jingle They both met movie stars, partied and mingled Their A&R man said “I don’t hear a single” The future was wide open
Into the great wide open Under them skies of blue Out in the great wide open A rebel without a clue
Into the great wide open Under them skies of blue Into the great wide open A rebel without a clue
This list will be different for every baseball fan. Many times it’s your team’s announcer and other times it’s a network announcer you grew up with. I tend to like announcers who are not complete homers although some I like… like Harry Caray. He made it fun even though he openly rooted for the Cubs…and Budweiser.
There are many more that could be on this list.
5:Harry Caray – He injected fun into the game. It was like a fan announcing the game. He wasn’t technically the best baseball announcer but he was enjoyable.
4:Mel Allen – I remember Mel when I was a kid on “This Week in Baseball.” That voice was a part of my childhood.
3:Bob Uecker – “Just a bit outside” the more I listen to him the more I appreciate him.
2:Jack Buck – NOT Joe… You could hear his excitement for the game in his voice. For me, the best is between Jack and…
1: Vin Scully – Being a Dodgers fan I was spoiled by Vin Scully… my number 1 favorite. If you tuned into a Dodger game you would not know who employed Mr. Scully. He would not root for the Dodgers and he knew when not to say anything and let the action speak for itself.
I’ve always liked Time Travel movies. I have made a list below but I’m not including the Back To The Future franchise because everyone knows about those movies. These are my top ten I’ve watched so far. Please make some more recommendations if you have any.
1, Frequency (2000) – This movie combines two loves of mine. Baseball and Time Travel… A son in modern times talks to his dad over a Ham Radio in 1969 and it revolves around details from the 1969 World Series.
2. The Time Machine (1960) – From the HG Wells book, this movie has aged well through the years. It’s a period piece at the turn of the 20th century…and also a trip into the far future.
3. I’ll Follow You Down (2013) – It’s odd to see Haley Joel Osment grown up and acting but this low budget film is a good film. Haley plays a guy named Errol who saw his father leave for the airport when he was 9 and he never came back home. A grown-up Errol looks to see what happened to his dad and finds him in the 1940s.
4. 41 (2012) – An Australian film made in 2012. Aidan accidentally kills his girlfriend in an auto accident. He hears about room 41 in a local motel and if you go to a hidden place in the room and back out…you go back 12 hours in time. He tries to go back and avoid the accident. I happen to catch this movie by accident and it was worth the watch.
5. Project Almanac (2014) – A teenager is trying to go to MIT but his family doesn’t have the money. He starts looking at his deceased father’s old inventions and gadgets to raise money. He finds a VHS tape of his 7th birthday party and in the mirror on the tape, he sees himself at the age of 18 at the party.
He finds his dad’s attempt at a time machine and finishes it. He ends up fulfilling what he saw on the tape and messes with the lives of his friends.
6. Peggy Sue Got Married (1989) – Classic 80s movie about Peggy Sue who is separated from her husband and goes to her high school reunion and passes out. She wakes up as a teenager in the early 60s.
7. Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) – A fun romp through the 80s.
8. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) – This movie launched a lot of quotes. Bill and Ted learned history by going back in time. George Carlin is most excellent in this movie.
9. Time Bandits (1981) – I saw this with a friends family back in 1981 at a theater. I was excited because George Harrison was one of the Executive Producers. Kevin, a young kid gets visited in the middle of the night by six dwarves and with a special map visit places in time.
10. Time After Time (1979) – Malcolm McDowell stars in this movie as he plays Herbert George Wells and he chases Jack The Ripper through time to 1979 with his time machine.
This 1996 movie is about a mentally challenged man from the South named Karl Childers who is in a mental hospital after he kills the town bully and his mom when he is 12 years old. He thought the man was taking advantage of his mom but she was encouraging it so he killed her also.
Karl is very southern, slow, absurd, sympathetic, and frightening. The movie was written, directed, and starred Billy Bob Thornton. Karl spends most of his life in the “nervous” hospital and is released with nowhere to go to. He goes back to the small town he was from and with the help of one sympathetic staff member he got a job at a small engine shop. He is great at repairing engines. He then makes friends with a young boy named Frank who has a single mom with a rather nasty boyfriend named Doyle Hargraves (Dwight Yoakam).
At first, you first meet Charles Bushman at the mental hospital in mostly a one-way conversation with Karl. Charles is beyond creepy and it’s an interesting character contrast between the two. They both killed other people and are institutionalized …Charles because he feels like he is entitled to kill and Karl because he thought he was protecting his mother and then she becomes a victim because he thought she was wrong in taking part in the affair.
Karl is likable and you do feel sympathetic to his situation. He grew up alone in an old shed outside of his parent’s house. He is basically dumped on society after 25 years in a mental hospital and you pull for him to make it through.
Karl sees things in very simplistic terms…in fact, he sees things better than some others. There is one scene that shows this best. Karl is called over to look at a tiller to see what is wrong with it…no one could figure out why the thing would not start after it was taken apart and put back together…Karl takes one look at it and said: “It ain’t got no gas in it”…
Billy Bob Thorton on who Karl was based on: “I was raised in a place where a guy who was kinda deformed, and couldn’t talk plain, was made to live out in back of his parents’ house. They fed him like a dog. The story was that the mother thought he came out the way he did — and he struggled, just to walk — his mother said she was scared by a snake when she was pregnant, and it caused him to come out like that — he was the devil’s child. It turned out he had polio. That’s all it was. That’s where I got the setup for where Karl comes from.
Here is the cast.
Billy Bob Thornton as Karl Childers
Dwight Yoakam as Doyle Hargraves
J. T. Walsh as Charles Bushman
John Ritter as Vaughan Cunningham
Lucas Black as Frank Wheatley
Natalie Canerday as Linda Wheatley
James Hampton as Jerry Woolridge
Robert Duvall as Karl’s father
Jim Jarmusch as Deke, the Frostee Cream employee
Vic Chesnutt as Terence
Brent Briscoe as Scooter Hodges
Mickey Jones as Johnson
From Wiki…Awards and Nominations
Academy Awards
Won for Best Adapted Screenplay (Thornton)
Nominated for Best Actor (Thornton)
Chicago Film Critics Awards
Won for Best Actor (Thornton)
Edgar Awards
Won for Best Motion Picture Screenplay (Thornton)
Independent Spirit Awards
Won for Best First Feature
Kansas City Film Critics Awards
Won for Best Actor (Thornton)
National Board of Review Awards
Won for Special Achievement in Filmmaking (Thornton)
Satellite Awards
Nominated for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (Thornton)
Nominated for Best Original Screenplay (Thornton)
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Cast
Nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Thornton)
Writers Guild of America Awards
Won for Best Adapted Screenplay (Thornton)
Young Artist Award
Won for Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film (Black)
I remember seeing the video and MTV would play the version with the word “joint” in reversed…like people would wonder what Tom was rolling. Another version I heard on the radio was… instead of “roll another joint” it was “hit another joint”… which is…worse?
“The strangest thing happened. I wrote this song not thinking that it was controversial in any way and I nearly left this song off the album ’til the very end, and we put it on. Imagine my surprise when this song comes on television and they say, ‘Let’s roll another noojh,’ which sounded worse to me than joint. Because, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a noojh, but it sounds really wicked.”
I do miss Tom…
This song peaked at #13 in 1995 in the Billboard 100.
Tom Petty on this song: “Every blue moon or so, I might have a toke on somebody’s… cigarette. It’s an OK way to live your life, but it’s not to be advised. I’m not going to say it’s good or bad.
But I wrote this song a while back and I was trying to do this character in the song who was kind of down and looking for some company. And instead of having him say, ‘Let’s have another beer’ – they always have to have that in the song – I thought this guy should roll another joint.”
From Songfacts
“You don’t know how it feels to be me” is something many of us have said to seek empathy for our burdens. Typical of Petty’s songwriting, the lyric is couched in ambiguity, which could be the point: We don’t know how it feels to be him, so how can we possibly know what the song is about? It’s certainly not entirely autobiographical, at least literally, as Petty’s father was not born to rock – he was leery of his son’s career in music.
We’ll get to the point: marijuana had a little something to do with this song. Here’s what Petty said about it on his VH1 Storytellers special:
The video was directed by Phil Joanou. It’s one continuous shot, with the camera revolving around a microphone as all kinds of crazy stuff happens in the background, including a circus act and a bank robbery.
Tom Petty was one of MTV’s biggest stars, but they wouldn’t play the video as delivered because of the drug reference (sex and violence were generally OK on the network, but they were very sensitive about drugs). When the video aired, the word “joint” was reversed so it came out sounding like “noojh.”
Perhaps to atone, MTV awarded it Best Male Video at the VMAs.
This won a Grammy in 1995 for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. >>
The band performed this on Saturday Night Live when they were the musical guests November 19, 1994. Their drummer, Stan Lynch, had left the band, so Dave Grohl, who had not yet formed Foo Fighters, sat in for the performance. Steve Ferrone got the gig as Heartbreakers drummer a short time later.
You Don’t Know How It Feels
Let me run with you tonight I’ll take you on a moonlight ride There’s someone I used to see But she don’t give a damn for me
But let me get to the point, let’s roll another joint And turn the radio loud, I’m too alone to be proud You don’t know how it feels You don’t know how it feels to be me
People come, people go Some grow young, some grow cold I woke up in between A memory and a dream
So let’s get to the point, let’s roll another joint Let’s head on down the road There’s somewhere I gotta go And you don’t know how it feels You don’t know how it feels to be me
My old man was born to rock He’s still tryin’ to beat the clock Think of me what you will I got a little space to fill
So let’s get to the point, let’s roll another joint Let’s head on down the road There’s somewhere I gotta go And you don’t know how it feels No, you don’t know how it feels to be me
I was forced to listen to country music at work around this time…but this one and other songs off of the album Time I really liked. It crossed over to pop/rock stations also. I always liked bitter breakup songs like this one.
It peaked at #2 in the Hot Country Songs Chart in 1993… It also peaked at #2 on the “US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles” Charts (way too many charts) and #3 on the Canada Country Tracks.
The song was written by James House and Kostas Lazarides.
From Songfacts
This tale of a girl trying in vain to win back her ex was written by Greek-born songwriter, Kostas (Patti Loveless’ “I Can Love You Better”) and country artist James House (Martina McBride’s “A Broken Wing”).
House told American Songwriter the story of the song.
“We had already been working on another song idea for a couple of hours but it had gotten stale so we decided to take a break,” he said. “We started talking and Kostas asked me if I was going to get back together with my estranged girlfriend and I said, ‘I ain’t that lonely yet,’ and we looked at each other and said, ‘let’s write that’.”
“I grabbed my guitar and started singing the verse melody and Kostas was furiously writing lyrics,” House continued. “After 10 or 15 minutes he sang the first verse to the melody I was playing. The chorus fell out of him as we were jamming it out. I knew it was a special song when Kostas looked up with a smile and sang the lyric about the spider in my bed. You know you’re onto something when the lyrics are coming as fast as you can write them, I think there were four or five more verses that we didn’t use.”
The song was recorded by Dwight Yoakam and released as the lead-off single to his This Time album.
“Kostas was writing with Dwight a couple of weeks later and played him the cassette work demo we did,” House recalled. “If I remember right it was recorded fairly soon and released within a couple of months.”
The song earned Yoakam his first Grammy award, which he won for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
Ain’t That Lonely Yet
You keep calling me on the telephone You say you’re all alone Well that’s real sad
And you keep leavin’ Notes stuck on my door Guess you’re hungry for some more Girl that’s too bad
‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet After what you put me through I ain’t that lonely yet
Once there was this spider in my bed I got caught up in her web Of love and lies
She spun her chains around my heart and soul Never to let go Oh but I survived
‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet After what you put me through I ain’t that lonely yet
There’s nothing left that you can do To try and bring me ’round ‘Cause everything you do Just brings me down
‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet After what you put me through I ain’t that lonely yet
‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet After what you put me through No I ain’t that lonely yet
‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet After what you put me through No I ain’t that lonely yet ‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet
Natalie has a unique voice and a style of her own. I saw her in the 80s with 10,000 Maniacs and they were great.
When she was a teenager, Natalie Merchant worked at a day camp for special needs children, many of whom had been institutionalized since infancy and abandoned by their parents. This song was inspired by that experience.
The song peaked at #20 in the Billboard 100 and #10 in Canada in1996. Wonder was on the album Tigerlily that peaked at #13 in Billboard album charts in1995.
From Songfacts
She explained on a VH1 Storytellers appearance: “When I was 13 years old, we’re talking 1976, I spent my summer working as a volunteer for a bunch of hippies, basically, that got a seed grant from the Carter administration, which had a lot of really wonderful programs for the arts. These people started a day camp for handicapped children, and I worked for them the whole summer. A lot of these children were institutionalized – their parents had left the scene a long time ago. They didn’t function so well in a conventional sense, but it seems that a lot of the children had developed like a private language or new senses so they could navigate through the world, especially the blind and the deaf children that we worked with.
From an early age, I had that contact with children who had special needs. I had lost my fear of intimacy with them – especially with Down syndrome kids, they could be really unpredictable and up to that point I had been a little frightened of them. I maintained some of the friendships with those kids and I was always open to meeting children with special needs. So when I wrote the song ‘Wonder,’ I wrote the song about a woman who was born with handicaps that seemed insurmountable, but she did overcome them, greatly because she had a loving family, especially her adoptive mother – she had been given up to an institution at birth.”
This is a very meaningful song to many people who grew up with special needs and their caretakers. The song views these people as “wonders,” with doctors having no explanation for their condition, but seeing the work of God in the creation.
“I’ve met a lot of people through this song, and they’ve told me that they’ve taken it on as their song, that it describes them,” Merchant said. “It describes their strengths in spite of what others would see as deficiencies.”
Natalie Merchant performed this song, along with “Carnival,” on an episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by David Schwimmer in 1995.
Wonder
Doctors have come from distant cities, just to see me Stand over my bed, disbelieving what they’re seeing
They say I must be one of the wonders Of God’s own creation And as far as they see, they can offer No explanation
Newspapers ask intimate questions, want confessions They reach into my head to steal, the glory of my story
They say I must be one of the wonders Of God’s own creation And as far as they see, they can offer No explanation
Ooo, I believe, fate, fate smiled And destiny laughed as she came to my cradle Know this child will be able Laughed as my body she lifted Know this child will be gifted With love, with patience, and with faith She’ll make her way, she’ll make her way
People see me I’m a challenge to your balance I’m over your heads how I confound you And astound you To know I must be one of the wonders
They say I must be one of the wonders Of God’s own creation And as far as they see, they can offer No explanation
Ooo, I believe, fate, fate smiled And destiny laughed as she came to my cradle Know this child will be able Laughed as she came to my mother Know this child will not suffer Laughed as my body she lifted Know this child will be gifted With love, with patience and with faith She’ll make her way, she’ll make her way
I liked this group the first time I heard them. This song was released right after “The Way” and I’ve always been partial to songs played in variations of the D chord like this one, Here Comes The Sun, and If I Needed Someone by the Beatles.
This song peaked at #10 on the Alternative Billboard Chart in 1998. The song has a jangling feel to it with good lyrics.
From Songfacts
In this song, a guy is trying to explain his true self, probably to a girl. He knows he doesn’t want to be Superman, and he’s not sure where he’s headed, so he settles on an abstract answer: he’ll be the rain falling on her fire escape. He’s more comprehensible at the end of the song: “I can be myself, how ’bout you?”
This was written and sung by Fastball guitarist Miles Zuniga, who along with Tony Scalzo did most of the songwriting in the band. It was released as the second single from the band’s breakthrough album All the Pain Money Can Buy, following their hit, “The Way.”
The video was directed by Francis Lawrence, whose credits include the films Constantine and I Am Legend, as well as videos for Audioslave (“Be Yourself”) and Lady Gaga (“Bad Romance”).
It’s one of the more unusual videos ever made: the band appear in it, but they’re all dead. It takes place in an home of an obsessed female fan who is getting ready for work, casually ignoring their corpses. At one point, a TV news program comes on and Access Hollywood host Pat O’Brien announces that the band has disappeared. “If anybody sees them, they might want to show them the way,” he says, referencing their hit song.
The video is all one shot (well, not really – there’s an edit when they go from a Steadicam to what is likely a crane), and breaks the fourth wall at the end when the woman breaks character and says, “Francis, I can’t work like this.”
The video was shot in Newhall, California on a sweltering hot day. According to Tony Scalzo, it took them about 10 takes to get it right. “The second-to-last one was almost perfect, and then the girl closed the door too fast and closed it on the camera, which upset everybody not just because the shot was ruined, but because it was a very expensive camera,” he told Songfacts. “It’s deathly hot. I’m in this bathtub so that’s okay. But I gotta lie upside down in the water with my face under water. Well, it took all day, but we finally got it and it came out a pretty creepy, weird video. The only other shots we had to do were us walking out of the house, looking stupid, and the live stuff where you see a performance video that’s on a TV in the house.”
Fire Escape
Well, I don’t wanna be President, Superman, or Clark Kent I don’t wanna walk around in their shoes
‘Cause I don’t know whose side I’m on I don’t know my right from wrong I don’t know where I’m goin’ to I don’t know about you I’ll be the rain falling on your fire escape
And I may not be the man you want me to I can be myself, how ’bout you?
I don’t wanna make you mad I don’t wanna meet your dad I don’t wanna be your dream come true ‘Cause I don’t know just what I’ve found
I don’t know my sky from ground I don’t know where I’m goin’ to I don’t know about you I’ll be the rain falling on your fire escape
And I may not be the man you want me to I can be myself, how ’bout you?
I’ll be the rain falling on your fire escape And I may not be the man you want me to I can be myself, how ’bout you? I can be myself, how ’bout you? I can be myself, how ’bout you?
This song is based on the true story of Lela and Raymond Howard, an elderly couple from Salado, Texas who drove to the annual Pioneer Day festival 10 miles away in Temple and didn’t return. She had Alzheimer’s disease and he was recovering from brain surgery.
When they disappeared, a reporter wrote a series of articles about the missing couple. Fastball bassist Tony Scalzo came up with the idea for the song after reading the articles. “It’s a romanticized take on what happened,” he said. Scalzo pictured them “taking off to have fun like they did when they first met.”
Thirteen days after the Howards went missing, they were found in Hot Springs, Arkansas, about 400 miles from their destination; they were still in the vehicle, which had veered off the side of the road and was hidden in the brush. Scalzo had finished writing the song when he learned that the couple had died.
The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Alternative Charts in 1998. When I heard this band I thought they would be around for a while but I never heard much more from them. They did follow this song up with “Fire Escape” which I liked even better than this one.
From Songfacts
The song was released in February 1998 as the first single from Fastball’s second album, All The Pain Money Can Buy. The band was little known at the time, so it took a few months for the song to catch on, but by the summer of 1998 it was getting lots of airplay.
The keyboard figure that plays throughout this song was made with a Casio keyboard Tony Scalzo had. It was processed to loop around itself, creating a distinctive, but lo-fi sound.
The song opens with the sounds of an analog radio going up and down the dial, briefly tuning in stations amongst the static. When “The Way” starts, it’s as if the listener has found a song he likes and is going to give it a listen. For the first 40 seconds, the dynamics are restricted to simulate the limited frequency of a radio signal. At the line, “they drank up the wine,” the full range comes in.
The band didn’t put much thought into the radio collage: they simply put a microphone in front of a radio and turned the dial. The result is a sampling of Los Angeles radio in the summer of 1997. Most of it is indistinguishable chatter, but you can pretty clearly hear a split second of “Foolish Games” by Jewel in the mix – part of her line “in case you failed to notice.”
In a Songfacts interview with Tony Scalzo, he talked about writing this song while the Howard saga was unfolding. “I didn’t think it would be anything but an abstraction of their story, so I wasn’t really thinking about that,” he said. “Also, I wasn’t expecting it to be this massive song that everybody liked, so I was unfettered by any of those concepts.”
Guitarist Miles Zuniga is a big fan of ’50s music and drew inspiration from the hit “Secret Agent Man” for his solo.
This is a rather unusual song with a retro feel and lot of little sound effects incorporated into the mix. “There was this brief moment in time when people were having hits with really weird stuff,” Miles Zuniga said. “We got lucky that we came around at that time. Even two years later was too late.”
This was Fastball’s breakout hit, but it came on their second album. The group was signed to a major label, Hollywood Records (owned by Disney) and in 1996 released their debut, Make Your Mama Proud. It tanked, in part because the label was in disarray and gave it little promotional support. This story usually ends with the band getting dropped, but there was so much turnover at Hollywood Records that there was nobody to drop them, and they got to record a second album in the summer of 1997.
Once the album was recorded, there was no guarantee it would be released. One of the reps at the record company felt very strongly about “The Way” and took it to radio stations, which got lots of positive feedback from listeners when they played it. The song was clearly a hit, and about six weeks later the album was released.
In America, “The Way” wasn’t sold as a single, which was a ploy to force listeners to buy the album. It worked: All the Pain Money Can Buy sold over a million copies in the US.
This was a big song in the summer of 1998. It peaked on the Billboard Airplay chart at #5 on June 20 that year.
This song proved quite enduring, selling over 500,000 copies by 2014 after it was released digitally in 2003.
The music video was suitably abstract, with no allusion to the tragic story that inspired the song. It shows the band driving into the desert, arriving at a camper where dancers emerge, performing as the band plays the song.
It was directed by McG, who before directing films like Charlie’s Angels and Terminator Salvation did music videos, mostly for bands around his stomping grounds of Orange County, California. He also did most of the videos for Sugar Ray and Smash Mouth
The Way
They made up their minds and they started packing They left before the sun came up that day An exit to eternal summer slacking But where were they going without ever knowing the way? They drank up the wine and they got to talking They now had more important things to say And when the car broke down they started walking Where were they going without ever knowing the way? Anyone can see the road that they walk on is paved with gold It’s always summer they’ll never get cold They’ll never get hungry, they’ll never get old and gray You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere They won’t make it home but they really don’t care They wanted the highway, they’re happier there today, today The children woke up and they couldn’t find ’em They left before the sun came up that day They just drove off and left it all behind ’em Where were they going without ever knowing the way? Anyone can see the road that they walk on is paved with gold It’s always summer they’ll never get cold They’ll never get hungry, they’ll never get old and gray You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere They won’t make it home but they really don’t care They wanted the highway, they’re happier there today, today Anyone can see the road that they walk on is paved with gold It’s always summer they’ll never get cold They’ll never get hungry, they’ll never get old and gray You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere They won’t make it home but they really don’t care They wanted the highway, they’re happier there today, today
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 