Category: 1990s

Movie Quotes Part 4

Jaws – You’re are going to need a bigger boat.

Easy Rider – We Blew It

The Godfather – Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

The Big Lebowski – Smokey This is not ‘Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.

At 1:10…but it’s only 2:16 long…it’s worth a complete listen

Animal House – What? Over? Did you say ‘over’? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

Caddyshack – You buy a hat like this, I bet you get a free bowl of soup.

What About Bob? – Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m schizophrenic, and so am I

Scarface – I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.

Duck Soup – I got a good mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it.

It’s A Wonderful Life – Well, you look about the kind of angel I’d get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren’t you? What happened to your wings?

At 3:13 – 3:20

 

 

 

Nicky Hopkins

I’ve never been a keyboard player…but when I think of keyboardists this man comes to mind. He was one of the busiest session men in the business.

Nicky Hopkins started with Screaming Lord Sutch’s Savages, which also included Jimmy Page… He played with the Cyril Davies All-Stars, one of the first British rhythm & blues bands. Because of illnesses, he started to play on studio sessions. In the studio, he played with the Beatles, Who, Kinks, Rolling Stones and just about everyone else of that era.

He later joined the Jeff Beck Group and was a full member of the Quicksilver Messenger Service.

I’ve read about Nicky from other artists books when I was younger but didn’t know until the internet how many great recordings he played on…Also that he sometimes toured with bands like the Stones on perhaps their greatest tour…the 1972 tour. The first I heard of him was reading he played piano on Revolution by the Beatles.

Here are some other artists talking about Nicky.

Ray Davies: Nicky, unlike lesser musicians, didn’t try to show off; he would only play when necessary. But he had the ability to turn an ordinary track into a gem – slotting in the right chord at the right time or dropping a set of triplets around the back beat, just enough to make you want to dance. On a ballad, he could sense which notes to wrap around the song without being obtrusive. He managed to give “Days,” for instance, a mysterious religious quality without being sentimental or pious.

Pete Townshend: “Nicky was a great talent…He is gone but his wonderful playing will live on and I’m proud that so much of his work will be heard as part of my own. Nicky is a big part of my work and I think of him often.”

Joe Walsh: “We just said, “Hey, we’re not going to tell you what to play! You can play anything you want, dude and it’ll be just fine with us.” Nicky was at his absolute best. He was just playing fantastic and coming up with these parts that just were so special.”

Keith Richards: “What I liked about Nicky is you’d give him a song and he’d develop it, with a couple of passes, into something, almost immediately. He was so easy to work with and he could hang; we’d do sessions for fifteen hours, sometimes two days
and he’d still be there, you know.”

Nicky died in Nashville Tn in 1994 from complications of surgery from Crohn’s Disease.

Below I copied a highlight of his discography.

It’s from the Nicky Hopkins website…It reads like a who’s who in music. These are just some of the albums and singles Nicky played on.

http://www.nickyhopkins.com/?page_id=6

NICKY HOPKINS DISCOGRAPHY HIGHLIGHTS

THE SIXTIES

THE WHO, My Generation, Brunswick/Decca USA
THE KINKS, The Kinks Kontroversy, Pye/Reprise
NICKY HOPKINS, The Revolutionary Piano Of…, CBS
THE KINKS, Face To Face, Pye / Reprise
ROLLING STONES, Between The Buttons, Decca/London
ROLLING STONES, Their Satanic Majesties Request, Decca/London
ROLLING STONES, Beggar’s Banquet, Decca/London
KINKS, Village Green Preservation Society, Pye/Reprise
JEFF BECK GROUP, Truth, Columbia/Epic
THE KINKS, Something Else By The Kinks, Pye/Reprise
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD, Dusty…Definitely, Philips
ROLLING STONES, Let It Bleed, Decca/London
JEFF BECK GROUP, Beck-Ola, Columbia / Epic
STEVE MILLER BAND, Brave New World, Capitol
STEVE MILLER BAND, Your Saving Grace, Capitol
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, Volunteers, RCA
FAMILY, Entertainment, Reprise
ROY HARPER, Folkjokeopus, Liberty
ELLA FITZGERALD, Ella, Warner Brothers
THE MOVE, The Move, Cube
BILLY NICHOLLS, Would You Believe, Immediate

THE SEVENTIES

STEVE MILLER BAND, Number 5, Capitol
QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE, Shady Grove, Capitol
VARIOUS, Woodstock, Atlantic
ROLLING STONES, Sticky Fingers, Rolling Stones Records
THE WHO, Who’s Next, Track
NICKY HOPKINS, Jamming With Edward, Rolling Stones Records
JOHN LENNON, Imagine, Apple
ROLLING STONES, Exile On Main Street, Rolling Stones Records
HARRY NILSSON, Son Of Schmilsson, RCA Victor
CARLY SIMON, No Secrets, Elektra
NICKY HOPKINS, The Tin Man Was A Dreamer, CBS
GEORGE HARRISON, Living In The Material World, Apple
RINGO STARR, Ringo, Apple
ROLLING STONES, Goat’s Head Soup, Rolling Stones Records
ANDY WILLIAMS, Solitaire, CBS
JOHN LENNON, Walls & Bridges, Apple
ROLLING STONES, It’s Only Rock’n’Roll, Rolling Stones Records
JOE COCKER, I Can Stand A Little Rain, Fly
PETER FRAMPTON, Something’s Happening, A & M
RINGO STARR, Goodnight Vienna, Apple
MARTHA REEVES, Martha Reeves, MCA
NICKY HOPKINS, No More Changes, Mercury (US)
ART GARFUNKEL, Breakaway, CBS
ROLLING STONES, Black & Blue, Rolling Stones Records
JERRY GARCIA, Reflections, United Artists
ROD STEWART, Footloose And Fancy Free, Warner Brothers
JENNIFER WARNES, Jennifer Warnes, Arista
ROD STEWART, Blondes Have More Fun, Riva
LOWELL GEORGE, Thanks I’ll Eat It Here, Warner Brothers
POINTER SISTERS, Priority, Planet

THE EIGHTIES

ROLLING STONES, Emotional Rescue, Rolling Stones Records
TIM HARDIN, Unforgiven, Arc International
GRAHAM PARKER & THE RUMOUR, The Up Escalator, Stiff
ROLLING STONES, Tattoo You, Rolling Stones Records
NILS LOFGREN, Night Fades Away, MCA/Backstreets
MEATLOAF, Dead Ringer, Cleveland/Epic
GRAHAM PARKER & THE RUMOUR, Another Grey Area, RCA
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD, White Heat, Mercury/Casablanca
KING OF COMEDY, Soundtrack, Warner Brothers
CARL WILSON, Youngblood, Caribou
JULIO IGLESIAS, 1100 Bel Air Place, CBS
BELINDA CARLISLE, Belinda, IRS
ROD STEWART, Rod Stewart/Every Beat Of My Heart, Warner Brothers
PAUL MCCARTNEY, Flowers In The Dirt,Capitol
JACK BRUCE, A Question Of Time, Epic

THE NINETIES

ROGER CHAPMAN, Hybrid & Lowdown, Polydor
GARY MOORE, Still Got The Blues, Virgin
NICKY HOPKINS, The Fugitive (Soundtrack), Toshiba-EMI
NICKY HOPKINS, Patio (Soundtrack), Toshiba-EMI
JAYHAWKS, Hollywood Town Hall, Columbia
JOE SATRIANI, Extremist, Legacy Recordings
SPINAL TAP, Break Like The Wind, MCA
MATTHEW SWEET, Altered Beast, Zoo/BMG
JOE WALSH, Robocop Soundtrack, Rhino/Pyramid
GENE CLARK, Under The Silvery Moon, Delta De Luxe
FRANKIE MILLER, Long Way Home, Jerkin’ Crocus

THE SINGLES

SCREAMING LORD SUTCH, Jack The Ripper/Don’t You Just Know It, Decca
THE WHO, Anyway Anyhow Anywhere , Brunswick
THE KINKS, Till The End Of The Day, Pye/Reprise
CYRIL DAVIES R & B ALL STARS, Country Line Special/Chicago Calling, Pye International/Dot
CLIFF BENNETT & REBEL ROUSERS, My Old Standby (B-Side), Parlophone
RITCHIE BLACKMORE ORCHESTRA, Little Brown Jug/Getaway, Oriole
VASHTI, Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind ,Decca
DAVY JONES & THE LOWER THIRD, You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving, Parlophone
PRETTY THINGS, Midnight To Six Man, Fontana
THE KINKS, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Pye/Reprise
THE KINKS, Sunny Afternoon, Pye/Reprise
DAVID BOWIE, Can’t Help Thinking About Myself, Pye
TWICE AS MUCH, Sittin’ On A Fence/Baby I Want You, Immediate
CAT STEVENS, Matthew And Son/Granny, Deram
ROLLING STONES, We Love You, Decca/London
ROLLING STONES, 2000 Light Years/She’s A Rainbow, Decca/London
NICKY HOPKINS, Mr. Pleasant, Polydor/Decca
THE KINKS, Autumn Almanac, Pye (UK)
DAVE DAVIES, Death Of A Clown, Pye/Reprise
JEFF BECK, Beck’s Bolero, Columbia/Epic
YARDBIRDS, Little Games, Columbia
MARC BOLAN, Jasper C. Debussy, Track
PP ARNOLD, The First Cut Is The Deepest, Immediate
BEATLES, Hey Jude/Revolution (B-side), Apple
ROLLING STONES, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Decca/London
THE KINKS, Days, Pye/Reprise
DONOVAN, Goo Goo Barabajagal, Epic
SCAFFOLD, Lily The Pink, Parlophone
FATS DOMINO, Have You Seen My Baby, Reprise
JOHN LENNON/PLASTIC ONO BAND, Happy Christmas/War Is Over, Apple
THE WHO, Let’s See Action, Track
ROLLING STONES, Tumbling Dice, Rolling Stones
HARRY NILSSON, Remember Christmas, RCA
ROLLING STONES, Angie, Rolling Stones
GEORGE HARRISON, Give Me Love, Apple
RINGO STARR, Photograph, Apple
RINGO STARR, You’re Sixteen, Apple
JOE COCKER, You Are So Beautiful, A & M
ART GARFUNKEL, I Only Have Eyes For You, Columbia
JULIO IGLESIAS / WILLIE NELSON, To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before, CBS
JOE WALSH / STEVE EARLE, Honey Don’t (Beverley Hillbillies), Fox Records
JOE WALSH / FRANKIE MILLER, Guilty Of The Crime, Pyramid
PAUL MCCARTNEY, Beautiful Night/Same Love, Oobu-Joobu 6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dixie Chicks – Wide Open Spaces

I’m not a big fan of newer country music…but this song sounded fresh when it was released. The song crossed over and peaked at #41 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the US Country Songs, and #1 Canda Country Tracks in 1998. The song was on the album Wide Open Spaces and it peaked at #4 on the Billboard Album Charts, #1 on the Country Album Charts, and #1 in the Canadian Country Album Charts in 1999.

Susan Gibson wrote the song years earlier. Gibson was the lead singer of the alt-country band The Groobees. They decided to include “Wide Open Spaces” on their album and their producer was Lloyd Maines… the father of Dixie Chicks lead singer, Natalie Maines. He thought the song would be perfect for the Dixie Chicks and they agreed. After testing it on a couple of audiences, they made it the title track for their major-label debut.

This album was the first album which Natalie Maines was the lead singer.

Their career was going great until all hell broke loose in 2003 after lead singer Natalie Maines criticized George Bush and the invasion of Iraq during a London concert. Country radio led the backlash against the Dixie Chicks. Stations banned their music and even told listeners to trash their CDs.

This defiant, nude cover on ‘Entertainment Weekly’ added fuel to the fire.

Image result for Natalie Maines nude

If this would have been a rock act that did the same thing…would this have happened? I would say no…

On June 26, 2019, The Dixie Chicks has confirmed that they are returning to music with a new studio album after a 13-year hiatus. They are expecting to record their first new studio album since 2006’s Taking the Long Way.

 

From Songfacts

This song was written by Susan Gibson, who was lead singer of a Texas-based band called The Groobees. She wrote the tune back in 1993 in a spirit of rebellion during her first return home from the University of Montana for Christmas break. “My mom probably said something like, ‘What time did you get home last night, honey?’ Whatever it was rubbed me the wrong way,” Gibson told The Montanan. “I sat down at the kitchen table and wrote furiously for twelve minutes, and then I went and did something else. I forgot all about it.” 

The lyrics were so specific to Gibson’s own experience, including lines about her dad warning her to check the oil in her car, she was hesitant about giving away such a personal song. Then she heard the Dixie Chicks’ version: “It made me bawl my eyes out. It was so beautiful—it had this stunning musicianship and very professional production. I could still see my handwriting on the page, and here was this gorgeous recording of it.”

Lloyd Maines, father of Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines, worked with The Groobees, and brought the song to the Chicks. The Groobees recorded their version in 1999. 

Thom Oliphant helmed the music video, which intercuts touring footage with the girls singing in open fields of wildflowers as well as performing at Winter Park, Colorado’s annual West Fest. In a Songfacts interview, Oliphant recalled: “That song probably moved them from big clubs to arenas over the course of that year, so we were just out documenting.

A lot of that stuff was shot without a clock ticking. You’re on a bus and we would shoot some stuff, and then it all was woven together with a couple of big days of shooting out around Denver. It made it look like it was all about the same time, but it wasn’t.”

The video was named the Country Music Association’s Video of the Year in 1999.

The Groobees broke up a couple of years after this became a hit, partly because they couldn’t agree on how to handle the success. Susan Gibson, who collected the bulk of the royalties as the tune’s sole writer, explained in Lone Star Music Magazine: “We were once a unified band with nothing to lose and all struggling in the same direction. Some band members thought that the success of that song meant that we could afford to take those crappy-paying, but good-exposure gigs. Others thought it meant we didn’t have to. That discrepancy resulted in each of us taking our own piece of the pie and going forward in our different directions.”

Gibson has since carved a career for herself as a solo artist, but still delights in hearing fans talk about the song: “Because the Dixie Chicks made that song so huge, I have enjoyed the look on people’s faces when they hear that I wrote that song. About 80 percent of the time, somebody has a cool story attached to it about leaving home, getting married, getting divorced, and breaking down in Moab, Utah. 19 percent of the time it’s like, ‘Oh! My mom loooooves that song!’ And there’s 1 percent out there that are like, ‘I don’t really listen to music.’ That’s OK. It’s the stories that I hear back from people that put a face to the huge numbers associated with that song.”

This spent four weeks at #1 on the country chart.

Wide Open Spaces

Who doesn’t know what I’m talking about
Who’s never left home, who’s never struck out
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone

Many precede and many will follow
A young girl’s dreams no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her, she hasn’t yet guessed

She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes

She traveled this road as a child
Wide eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won’t be coming back with the rest
If these are life’s lessons, she’ll take this test

She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes

She knows the high stakes

As her folks drive away, her dad yells, “Check the oil!”
Mom stares out the window and says, “I’m leaving my girl”
She said, “It didn’t seem like that long ago”
When she stood there and let her own folks know

She needed wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes

She knows the high stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes

Adam Schmitt – Garden of Love —Powerpop Friday

Thanks for the suggestions on new artists to cover…I’ve started to listen to more powerpop artists that I knew existed. In the next few weeks, I’ll feature more.

This one is by Adam Schmitt released in 1991. He is a singer/songwriter from Urbana, Illinois. There is not much on this guy except that his debut album was hailed as brilliant by the critics. There are no lyrics anywhere for his songs.

I started to listen to his debut album World So Bright and the songs are indeed very good powerpop. I’m also posting the album’s title track World So Bright.

This bio is by Heather Phares from Allmusic

Singer/songwriter Adam Schmitt first won acclaim in the early ’90s when his 1991 debut album, World So Bright, and 1993 follow-up, Illiterature, had critics hailing him as a young pop genius. However, when his label Reprise didn’t want to release a third album from him, Schmitt decided to record other artists instead, engineering, producing and mastering music for Tommy Keene, Hum, Beezus, Robynn Ragland, and others in his home studio. By 1998, Schmitt was ready to concentrate on his own music again, but his perfectionism and production work delayed the release of his third effort until the middle of 2001. That album, Demolition, was issued by Parasol; Schmitt started out as a producer by working with many of the label’s artists.

 

 

Jellyfish – Baby’s Coming Back —Powerpop Friday

This song was released in 1990 off of their debut album Bellybutton. It peaked at #62 in the Billboard 100 and #51 in the UK in 1991. I remember seeing this band open up for someone in the early 90s…I want to say it was Bob Dylan but I could be wrong.

Jellyfish only released two full albums Bellybutton and Spilt Milk. Both albums have tracks that evoke many artists such as The Beatles, Badfinger, Cheap Trick, The Beach Boys, with their vocal harmonies.

Jellyfish was formed in 1989 in San Francisco, California. The band had several members over the years but the foundation of the band was Andy Sturmer and Roger Joseph Manning, Jr.  Andy was primarily the drummer and Roger played keyboards.

In 1994, Jellyfish contributed a cover of Harry Nilsson’s “Think About Your Troubles” to the tribute album For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson. Jellyfish’s contribution was a personal request from Nilsson, who was a fan of the group. He died a year prior to the album’s release. The band broke up soon afterward.

 

Baby’s Coming  Back

I knew that when I saw her 
That my life would soon move over from the fast lane
Gone would be the days of all by drinkin and my carrying on
But when I settled down
The party king uncrowned
This stubborn memory hadn’t faded
Too many dumb mistakes
And all the grief it makes
Left nothing else to be debated
And if you say that you understand then you’re lyin’
But if you figure that I’m alright now I can’t deny it
Baby’s coming back
Baby’s coming back 
And I’m on my best behavior
I can’t take it anymore 
I just woke up on the floor today
I’ve long run out of my last chances but she’s on her way
If I had a dollar for every single time I fought her 
I’d buy a handgun
But that couldn’t shoot away 
The bull’s eye that she made on my heart
And if I sound like a beaten man well I guess so
But on her way is the sweetest prize and I can’t let go
Baby’s coming back
Baby’s coming back 
And I’m on my best behavior
I can’t take it anymore 
I just woke up on the floor today
I’ve long run out of my last chances but she’s on her way
What I told her on the telephone was that I’d been so bad
I wouldn’t blame her if she mowed down these wild oats I’d sown
But when she said she’d give me one more chance
I said knock three times when you arrive
Baby’s coming back…

Gin Blossoms – Til I Hear It From You —Powerpop Friday

This song was released in 1996 and was part of a double A-side with Follow You Down. The song peaked at #9 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #30 in the UK in 1996. Billboard lists the song as Follow You Down/Til I Hear It From You. 

One of my favorite pop songs of the 90s.

Gin Blossoms lead singer Robin Wilson wrote the lyrics to this song. The music was composed by the band’s guitarist Jesse Valenzuela with help from Marshall Crenshaw. Crenshaw said that he and Valenzuela didn’t know each other, but Jesse tracked him down to help finish the song. Crenshaw wrote the verse melody and worked on the ending.

From Songfacts (Til I Hear It From You)

The music industry trade magazine Billboard called this “The closest thing to a perfect pop song to hit radio in recent memory,” a sentiment appreciated by the band’s guitarist. 

“This song reminds me why I work. I can count on hearing it in grocery stores, and I like playing it. It’s really nice pop perfection, and just saccharin enough,” says Gin Blossom Jesse Valenzuela with a chuckle. “As an artist, you have to start realizing what you do carries some value, even monetarily. And this song is a pretty big one for me to help me realize that this is what I’ll do for a living from now on. And how lucky I am – because it’s all I really love doing, and I get to do it all the time.”

The first time Jesse heard this song over the public announcement system at a grocery store, he says he almost wanted to tell somebody, “Hey! That’s my song!” he laughs. But he resisted. He remembers being proud, but being very anonymous at the time. Then there was the trip to Lowe’s (home improvement department store). “One time my wife and I went there for lighting fixtures, and she wanted one. I said, ‘Let’s go for the cheaper one.’ And she wanted one that was just a little more expensive. And I was like hemming and hawing, and all of a sudden one of my songs came on the radio, and she said, ‘It’s not as if you can’t afford to get me the more expensive one.’ I was like, ‘All right.’ She did have a case.” (read the full interview with Jesse Valenzuela)

In early 1997, right as the band was splitting up, the Gin Blossoms accepted an award from ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Publishers) for this song (along with “Follow You Down”) in recognition of having the two most-played songs the previous year.

Til I Hear It From You

I didn’t ask, they shouldn’t have told me
At first I laughed but now
It’s sinking in fast, whatever they sold me
But baby

I don’t want to take advice from fools
I’ll just figure everything is cool
Til I hear it from you

It gets hard, when memory’s faded
And who gets what the say
It’s likely they’re, just jealous and jaded
Or maybe

I don’t want to take advice from fools
I’ll just figure everything is cool
Til I hear it from you

Til I hear it from you

I can’t let it get me off
Break up my train of thought
As far as I know nothing’s wrong
Until I hear it from you

Still thinking about not living without it
Outside looking in, till we’re talking about
Not stepping around it
Maybe

I don’t want to take advice from fools
I’ll just figure everything is cool
Til I hear it from you

Til I hear it from you

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Learning To Fly

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)

Oasis – Wonderwall

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

The Wedding Singer

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

99 Luftballons
Nena

The Langoliers

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

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John Mellencamp – Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First) ———Songs that reference The Beatles

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

Movie Quotes Part 2

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’

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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.

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Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Into The Great Wide Open

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

My 5 Favorite Baseball Announcers of All Time

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.

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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.

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4: Mel Allen – I remember Mel when I was a kid on “This Week in Baseball.” That voice was a part of my childhood.

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3: Bob Uecker – “Just a bit outside” the more I listen to him the more I appreciate him.

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2: Jack Buck – NOT Joe… You could hear his excitement for the game in his voice. For me, the best is between Jack and…

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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.

Vin

Jack