Culture – Page 10 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Max Picks …songs from 1992

1992

Ride – Twisterella

This is a fantastic-sounding song by a band named Ride. It’s high up on my top powerpop songs. The band was part of the shoegaze genre. Along with the previous year’s There She Goes by the La’s…I was in power pop heaven.

Ride was formed in 1988 in Oxford by school friends Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, before recruiting drummer Loz Colbert at the Oxfordshire School of Art & Design and local bassist Steve Queralt.

They broke up in 1996 because of differences between Andy Bell and Mark Gardener. Gardener wanted to go forward in a more dance style of music…Bell didn’t but both wanted to go more contemporary style. Bassist Steve Queralt said: The band had two future directions open to them, and they chose the wrong option.

They reunited in 2014 and released their first album in 21 years in 2017.

Melon – No Rain

This 1993 song has a sixties feel to it. The lead singer Shannon Hoon did a great job on this track. I think when movies are made about the 1990s…this has to be on the soundtrack. It screams 90s more than about any other song.

Blind Melon bass player Brad Smith wrote this song before he formed the band. He had moved from Mississippi to Los Angeles, where he fell into a down period. He said that the song is about not being able to get out of bed and find excuses to face the day when you have nothing. At the time he was dating a girl who was going through depression and for a while, he told himself that he was writing the song from her perspective. He later realized that he was also writing about it himself.

The video was very popular. It has a very intriguing video featuring a girl dressed in a bee costume. The bee girl, Heather DeLoach, was 10 years old when she starred in it, creating one of the most enduring images on MTV.

The concept for the video was inspired by the Blind Melon album cover, which features a 1975 photo of Georgia Graham, the younger sister of Blind Melon drummer Glenn Graham. DeLoach was the first to audition for the role, and because she resembled Graham’s sister so much, director Samuel Bayer (who also directed Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”) chose her.

R.E.M. – Man On The Moon

I’ve noticed that I have never written about this song which is a shame since it’s in my top 5 of REM. This song is about one of my comedic heroes…the very different Andy Kaufman.

It was the title of a new movie starring Jim Carey as Kaufman. I went to see the movie at the theater and this song fits brilliantly. I think it’s one of the best-written songs they did. Bill Berry came up with the melody and Peter Buck helped finish it off. Stipe came up with the lyrics as their back was against the wall to finish the album.

Bruce Springsteen – Better Days

On March 31, 1992, I purchased two albums by Bruce. Lucky Town and Human Touch…both albums released on the same day. I’ve always liked Lucky Town more than Human Touch. Better Days kicked off the album.

Bruce Springsteen: “With a young son and about to get married (for the last time) I was feelin’ like a happy guy who has his rough days rather than vice versa.”

Jayhawks – Waiting For The Sun

Ever since I heard this band on our alternative radio station in Nashville…Lightning 100 I’ve liked them. The Jayhawk’s writing and voices won me over with songs like Blue and I’m Gonna Make You Love Me. The Replacements had broken up by this time and The Jayhawks took their place beside REM.

Benmont Tench, Charley Drayton, and Nicky Hopkins play on the album with the Jayhawks.

The Jayhawks are an American alternative country and country rock band that emerged from the Minneapolis–Saint Paul music scene in the mid-80s. Minneapolis had a strong scene for bands in the 80s. The Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum, and of course the big one…Prince.

The song, like most of The Jawhawk’s early cuts, is credited to the band’s guitarist Gary Louris and frontman Mark Olson.

Gary Louris: I didn’t know there was a song called “Waiting for the Sun,” I was not a Doors fan. I like them now, but I didn’t know there was a song called that. Maybe in my subconscious I did.

…

Roy Orbison – You Got It

Roy was making a great comeback in the late eighties. He was a member of the hottest band at the time…The Traveling Wilburys. He had just finished a new album called Mystery Girl in November of 1988. He confided in Johnny Cash that he was having chest pains and he would have to have it looked at…he never did. It was so nice hearing Roy on the radio again with You Got It.

The Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 was rising in the charts and he flew to Europe to do a show and came back and did a few more in America. On December 6, 1988, he flew model planes with his kids and after dinner passed away at the age of 52.

It was written during the Christmas season of 1987 and recorded in April of 1988 with Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and Phil Jones providing the backing track. The song is credited to Orbison, Lynne, and Petty. It’s pretty obvious it was produced by Jeff Lynne. Jeff was a busy man during this time. He would produce George Harrison’s Cloud Nine, Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever, and Orbison’s Mystery Girl.

The track is quite significant to the career of Jeff Lynne as it was his first entry into the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and his only Top 10 Country hit, peaking at #7 in 1989. Jeff’s only other Billboard Hot Country chart entry was the following Roy Orbison single, California Blue, which peaked at #51 later that year.

I remember watching the Traveling Wilburys video “End of the Line”. They made the video after Roy passed away… when his part came up they showed an empty rocking chair with Roy’s picture beside it.

You Got It featured Jeff Lynn, Tom Petty, and Phil Jones.

You Got It was released in 1989 and it peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, #3 in the UK, #7 on the Billboard Country Charts in 1989.

You Got It

Every time I look into your loving eyesI see a love that money just can’t buy

One look from you, I drift awayI pray that you are here to stay

Anything you want, you got itAnything you need, you got itAnything at all, you got it, baby

Every time I hold you I begin to understandEverything about you tells me I’m your man

I live (I live)My life (my life)To be (To be)With you (with you)No one (no one)Can do (can do)The things (the things)You do (you do)

Anything you want, you got itAnything you need, you got itAnything at all, you got it, baby

Anything you want (you got it)Anything you need (you got it)Anything at all

Do-do-do-do-doo (oh)Do-do-do-do-doo (oh, yeah)Do-do-do-do-doo (yeah, yeah, yeah)(You got it)

I’m glad to give my love to youI know you feel the way I do

Anything you want, you got itAnything you need, you got itAnything at all, you got it, baby

Anything at all (you got it)BabyYou got it

Ricky Nelson – It’s Late

Ricky Nelson was a rockabilly guy and a very good one. He gets lost in the shuffle because he was a huge teenage actor at the time on his family’s show…The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Actors that switch to music are sometimes looked over but Nelson was very successful. All in all, he released 94 singles and 24 studio albums in his career. When talking about the fifties though….Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, and Elvis get brought up a lot but Nelson not as much.

t’s Late was written by Dorsey Burnette and his cousin Johnny Burnette and Dorsey released it in 1958. The following year Nelson recorded and released the song. It peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100 and #3 in the UK in 1959.

I went through a Ricky Nelson phase when I graduated high school in 1985. I purchased a greatest hits package and was learning more songs from him. I wanted to go see him perform that year and I kept waiting for him to appear somewhere because I heard he was touring. This was before the internet and you had to look at the newspapers for any announcements and listen to the radio. Musicians would play at places and you would never know sometimes.

I never got a chance to see him because on December 31, 1985, his chartered jet crashed killing him and six other passengers.

I have to admit…I like the Dorsey Burnette version of this also.

It’s Late

It’s late, it’s lateWe gotta get on homeIt’s late, it’s lateWe’ve been gone too long

Too bad, too badWe shoulda checked our timeCan’t phone, can’t phoneWe done spent every dime

It’s late, it’s lateWe’re ’bout to run outta gasIt’s late, it’s lateWe gotta get home fast

Can’t speed, can’t speedWe’re in a slow-down zoneBaby, look at that clockWhy can’t it be wrong

If we coulda left home at a quarter to nineWoulda had fun and plenty of timeWe got started just a little bit lateHope this won’t be our last date

Look up, look upIs that the moon we see?Can’t be, can’t beLooks like the sun to me

It’s late, it’s lateI hate to face your dadToo bad, too badI know he’s gonna be mad

It’s late, it’s lateWe gotta get on homeIt’s late, it’s lateWe’ve been gone too long

It’s late, it’s lateWe’re ’bout to run outta gasIt’s late, it’s lateWe gotta get home fast

Can’t speed, can’t speedWe’re in a slow-down zoneBaby, look at that clockWhy can’t it be wrong

If we coulda left home at a quarter to nineWoulda had fun and plenty of timeWe got started just a little bit lateHope this won’t be our last date

Look up, look upIs that the moon we see?Can’t be, can’t beLooks like the sun to me

It’s late, it’s lateI hate to face your dadToo bad, too badI know he’s gonna be mad

It’s late, it’s lateWe gotta get on homeIt’s late, it’s lateWe’ve been gone too long

It’s late

…

Max Picks …songs from 1991

1991 was a huge improvement over the prior year.

1991

U2 – One

This is one of my top U2 songs… it was on the album Achtung Baby released in 1991. the song peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100 in 1992. Johnny Cash covered it on 2000’s American III: Solitary Man,..the video is at the bottom of the post.

The Edge talks about when they came up with it: Suddenly something very powerful happening in the room. Everyone recognized it was a special piece. It was like we’d caught a glimpse of what the song could be. It was a pivotal song in the recording of the album, the first breakthrough in what was an extremely difficult set of sessions.

The band wrote this song in Berlin after being there for months trying to record Achtung Baby. The Berlin Wall had just fallen, so the band was hoping to find inspiration from the struggle and change. Instead, they found themselves at odds with each other and unable to do much productive work.

Most of the song was written in about 30 minutes and it rejuvenated the band creatively. When they left Berlin, they had little to show for it except for this song, but they were able to complete the album back home in Ireland with this song as the centerpiece of the album.

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

A friend of mine moved to Seattle in the early 90s for a job. He called me at some point and told me about the music scene there and something big was happening. He said he had just seen a band in a dingy club with a left-handed blonde guitar player who had a strong voice named Nirvana.

I was the same age as Kurt Cobain. When this song came out it was more than popular. It was instantly embedded into the culture. I did like the rawness of it but I would have never guessed it would have been so popular. I just didn’t click with grunge music.

When I first heard it…what did I think of? More Than a Feeling by Boston.

Kathleen Hanna, the lead singer of the group Bikini Kill, gave Cobain the idea for the title when she spray painted “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit” on his bedroom wall after a night of drinking and spraying graffiti around the Seattle area. In his pre-Courtney Love days, Cobain went out with Bikini Kill lead singer Tobi Vail, but she dumped him. Vail wore Teen Spirit deodorant, and Hanna was implying that Cobain was marked with her scent.

Kurt Cobain said that he was trying to write the ultimate pop song. He said he was basically trying to rip off The Pixies.

Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend

Great power pop song by Matthew Sweet. The song reached #4 on the Alternative Billboard Chart in 1991. The song was off of his 3rd album of the same name. The album was Sweet’s breakthrough album.

The song has a little of everything in it…noisy guitar, loud drums but with a pop melody.

Tom Petty – 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 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.

REM – Losing My Religion

I hope everyone is having a happy Monday…at least as happy as it can be.

I heard early REM albums from friends. They really made an impact with college kids and built a following. Then they released The One I Love and the dam burst. This song took it a step higher.

Peter Buck has commented that after this song’s success that the bands popularity soared. He mentioned that R.E.M. went from a respected band with a cult following to one of the biggest bands in the world.

The title is based on the Southern expression “lost my religion,” meaning something has challenged your faith to such a degree you might lose your religion or cool.

REM was surprised when their record label chose this song as the first single from Out Of Time. Running 4:28 with no chorus and a mandolin for a lead instrument, it didn’t seem like hit material, but it ended up being the biggest hit of their career.

Michael Stipe revealed the lyrics about obsessional love were heavily influenced by The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” which he called “the most beautiful, kind of creepy song.”

….

Bill Haley and His Saddlemen – Rock This Joint

We’re gonna tear down the mailbox, rip up the floor
Smash out the windows and knock down the door

Bill Haley heard this song played on an R&B station and wanted to try it. It was different from the country he played. He started this off in a nightclub and people went crazy. He described it as “Cowboy Jive” and everyone rose to their feet…he knew he was on to something here. The song is credited to Doc Bagby, Don Keene, and Harry Crafton.

Bill had a radio show also during this point. The man that followed him on air was a disc jockey named Jim Reeves (not the singer Jim Reeves) and he played R&B. Haley had heard Jimmy Preston’s version of Rock This Joint on Reeves’s show. Haley had been wanting to incorporate countryfied rocking boogies in the repertoire of his band, The Saddlemen, this song seemed to him to be the perfect way to take that concept further.

The one thing I noticed about Haley’s version is guitar player Danny Cedrone’s solo… it was recycled for Rock Around The Clock…note for note. Later on…Bill Haley and his Comets would re-record this song as well.

It was released by Essex Records in 1952 but didn’t get into the national charts. Preston’s version was released in 1949 and is known as one of the first rock and roll records. In 1957 this version was rereleased in the UK and peaked at #20. That same year the Comets would rerecord it and release it but it didn’t chart.

It’s a cool early rock and roll song. There have been 16 different versions of it. Billy Swan and Reverend Horton Heat another to play it.

Rock This Joint

We’re gonna tear down the mailbox, rip up the floor
Smash out the windows and knock down the door

We’re gonna rock, rock this joint
We’re gonna rock, rock this joint
We’re gonna rock, rock this joint
We’re gonna rock this joint tonight
Well, six times six is thirty six
I ain’t gonna hit for six more licks

We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock this joint tonight

Do the sugar foor rag, side by side
Flying low and flying wide

We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock this joint tonight

Do an ol’ Paul Jones and a Virginia Reel
Just let your feet know how you feel

We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock this joint tonight

Well six times six is thirty six
I ain’t gonna hit but six more licks

We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock
Rock this joint
We’re gonna rock this joint tonight

…

REM – Man on the Moon

I noticed doing my Max Picks that I have never covered this song before by REM (I guess I’m giving this one away)…which really shocks me because it’s one of my favorites by them. This one is in my top three or four of REM songs. Its subject matter is no other than Mr. Andy Kaufman and that is probably the reason I like it so much. I’ve read a couple of books about Andy…what an interesting fellow. First a little about Andy.

Andy Kaufman covered the bases…Mighty Mouse, Foreign Man, wrestling women, Elvis Impersonator (I think the best), Tony Clifton, bongo player, Great Gatsby reader and generally pissing people off, boring them or making them laugh. He was a performance artist – a comedian who sometimes was uncomfortable to watch but great. He was not a joke comedian…not remotely close. He loved making the audience uncomfortable to the point of booing him at times. He ate all of that up. More than once he started to read The Great Gatsby…and he continued to read it until everyone left. Not one of his best routines but people noticed. After a show at Carnegie Hall, he took his entire audience out for milk and cookies with buses taking all the audience out.

I remember seeing him on a clip from the Tonight Show… as the very innocent childlike “foreign man” talking for a while and doing terrible celebrity impersonations and then suddenly shedding that character like a used coat and doing an Elvis impersonation…no, he WAS Elvis… I’ve read that Elvis said that Andy was his favorite impersonator but whether that is true or not I don’t know. He did do that show before Elvis died so it’s quite possible.

The song was originally titled ‘C to D Slide’ because that is the chord pattern that drummer Bill Berry had for it. Bill Berry came up with the melody and Peter Buck helped finish it off. Stipe came up with the lyrics as their back was against the wall to finish the album. It’s one of their most beloved songs. It was on the album Automatic for the People.

One line that I like is “Mr. Fred Blassie and the breakfast mess” which refers to Kaufman’s movie My Breakfast With Blassie…which is a good but different…as is everything to do with him. It was Andy talking and yes…having breakfast with wrestler Fred Blassie.

There are always rumors about celebrities being alive. You know…Lennon and Cobain hang out on an island having Mai Tai cocktails while jamming with Elvis. The only one that I thought if any more could pull it off…it would have been Andy.

The song was released in 1992 and peaked at #30 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, #18 in the UK, and #8 in New Zealand. I double-checked it and #30 on Billboard is much lower than I thought it would be…I was thinking top 10.

Andy died in 1984…or did he? Bob Zmuda has said that Andy did say he was going to fake his death and said that he actually helped Andy plan it. More people have come forward saying the same thing. Every few years we get an Andy sighting in Albuquerque or somewhere else. No, I don’t believe he did fake it…but hey I would love it if he popped up well and alive anytime in the future. The world needs original people. You know he would be loving the rumors about him being alive…if he is alive or not…yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mike Mills: “Bill Berry is still a very good songwriter, he had a lot of musical ideas, then he and Petr Buck fleshed the rest of it out musically. It was a song that me, Pete, and Bill really loved and had musically finished right up to the last day of recording and mixing in Seattle, and we’d been leaning on Michael very heavily for some time trying to finish it.”

Man On The Moon

Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Monopoly, twenty-one, checkers, and chess, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Let’s play Twister, let’s play Risk, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I’ll see you in heaven if you make the list yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey baby, are we losing touch?

If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there’s nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool

Moses went walking with the staff of wood, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Newton got beaned by the apple good, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Egypt was troubled by the horrible asp, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Charles Darwin had the gall to ask, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey baby, are you having fun?

If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there’s nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool

Here’s a little agit for the never-believer, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Here’s a little ghost for the offering, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Here’s a truck stop instead of Saint Peter’s, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mister Andy Kaufman’s gone wrestling, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey baby, are we losing touch?

If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there’s nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool

If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believed there’s nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool

…

Eddie Cochran – C’mon Everybody

Don’t be a square man… listen to Eddie Cochran and play backseat bingo. Well, I thought I would try some of the fifties phrases.

Eddie Cochran was one of the first rock star guitar players…he was ahead of his time. He didn’t use his guitar as a prop like some did (cough cough Elvis)…he played it and played it well. He also worked as a session musician. He helped bring rock guitar along in more ways than just his playing. He was one of the first to modify his pickups and he did away with the wound G string on the guitar. He replaced it with an unwound string which made it easier to bend. Many future musicians were paying attention, sitting on the front row of his British tour.

His influence can be heard throughout rock and roll…It was because Paul McCartney knew the chords and words to “Twenty Flight Rock” that impressed John Lennon enough to ask Paul to become a member of the Quarrymen.

Eddie was popular, especially in the UK where they never forgot the 50s stars that started it all. C’mon Everybody peaked at #6 in the UK and #35 on the Billboard 100 in 1958.

During a British tour in 1960, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Sharon Sheeley (Eddie’s fiancé), and tour manager Pat Thompkins were in a taxi. They were leaving a show in Bristol, England to go to the London Airport…the taxi hit a lamp post and Eddie was thrown from the car and suffered a head injury and died in a hospital. He was only 21 years old. Gene Vincent received injuries to his already bad leg and walked with a limp after the crash. Eddie was the only one to die.

Sharon Sheeley was a songwriter. She wrote Ricky Nelson’s first hit “Poor Little Fool” and a couple of songs (Love Again and Cherished Memories) for Cochran.

I love the set of this video!

C’mon Everybody

Oh, well, c’mon everybody and let’s get together tonightI got some money in my jeans, and I’m really gonna spend it rightWell, I’ve been a doin’ my homework all the week longAnd now, the house is empty and the folks are goneOoh, c’mon everybody

Oh well, my baby’s number one, but I’m gonna dance with three or fourAnd then the house’ll be shakin’ from the bare feet a-slappin’ the floorWell, when you hear that music, you can’t sit stillIf your brother won’t rock, then your sister willOoh, c’mon everybody

Oh well, we’ll really have a party, but we gotta put a guard outsideIf the folks come home, I’m afraid they’re gonna have my hideThere’ll be no more movies for a week or twoNo more runnin’ ’round with the usual crewWho cares, c’mon everybody

…

Max Picks …songs from 1990

1990

The La’s – There She Goes

This song played a key part in making me love the power pop genre. It’s one of my favorite power pop songs of all time. It was originally released in 1988 but wasn’t played over in America until 1990. So I’m cheating on this but I had no way of hearing it before then.

A song by a British band called The La’s. A very good pop song that has no verses…it just repeats the chorus four different ways four different times. It was written by the singer Lee Mavers and recorded in 1988 and remixed and released again in 1990. It only peaked at #49 in 1990 in the US.

Many people think the song was about heroin. Paul Hemmings an ex-guitarist for the band denies that rumor. Either way, it is a perfectly constructed pop song. It’s been covered by a lot of artists but probably most successfully by Sixpence None the Richer. I’ve always liked The La’s version the best.

The Black Crowes – Hard To Handle

When I heard this song in 1990 I was thrilled because it sounded like the Faces of the 70s. It was plain rock and roll and had a timeless quality about it. I waited the entire 1980s for rock and roll like this to be back on the mainstream charts. The Replacements were the other rock band but not in the charts. It happened occasionally (Georgia Satellites and Guns and Roses) but not much. This song was originally recorded by Otis Redding, who wrote it with Allen Jones and Al Bell. It was the only cover song on The Black Crowes debut album which sold over five million copies.

The album also had songs like Jealous Again and She Talks To Angels. I knew things were changing when I saw the success of their album.

The two other versions that I like are Otis Redding and Grateful Dead version with Pigpen taking the lead.

The Replacements – Merry Go Round

This one is off of their last studio album All Shook Down. I was going to conclude with this one having one off of their studio albums but there is one more coming next week.

This is not my favorite off the album but it did have a commercial sound for that time and it’s something that I thought would have charted in the Billboard 100. Merry Go Round did peak at #1 on the alternative charts. The album peaked at #69 in the Billboard Album Chart in 1990.

“Merry Go Round” was written about the lives of Westerberg and his sister Mary (“They ignored me with a smile, you as a child”).

The band went to Los Angeles to make a video for Merry Go Round. With Westerberg’s okay, Warner Bros. hired Bob Dylan’s twenty-three-year-old son Jesse Dylan, who was just starting to direct.

AC/DC – Thunderstruck

As much as I love Angus Young’s intro to this…it’s his brother’s rhythm guitar that makes this song go. Brothers Angus and Malcolm Young wrote this song.

A side note to this song. In 2012 a couple of Iranian uranium-enrichment plants were hacked and their computers shut down but not before blasting Thunderstruck at maximum volume like you are probably doing right now or will be soon.

The album was recorded with producer Bruce Fairbairn at his Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, where he also produced Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and the Aerosmith albums Permanent Vacation and Pump. It was the group’s first time working with Fairbairn.

Sinéad O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U

This song was everywhere in 1990. Prince wrote this song in 1984 but didn’t release it. He gave it to a group called The Family that was signed to his label. The Family included it on a 1985 album but it never went anywhere. Five years later it became the biggest hit of 1990. Prince recorded his own version as well, but it wasn’t released until 2018, two years after his death.

It was O’Connor’s manager, Fachtna O’Kelly, who suggested she record a version of the track. O’Kelly knew it would be perfect for her.

…

Freddy Fender – Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

I remember Freddy Fender as a kid and this song. I remember it being played everywhere. It was a huge crossover hit and I saw him on television at the time singing it on different shows.

Freddy Fender wrote and recorded it in 1959 for a small label. It wasn’t until 1975 that he was able to release it again under his name. He and some band members were charged with pot possession in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1960.

Fender served 3 1/.2 years in prison until he was pardoned by Governor Jimmie Davis. There was a condition though…he had to stay away from anywhere that served alcohol. In the late sixties, he started to work in a garage and play music on the weekends.

He started to record again in 1974 and struck gold with his first two releases. Before the Next Teardrop Falls peaked at #1 in the Billboard Country Charts, #1 on the Billboard 100, and #1 on the Canadian Country Charts. Wasted Days and Wasted Nights peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts, #8 on the Billboard 100, #2 on the Canadian Country Charts, and #6 in Canada in 1975.

He would have more number 1s in the Country Charts for Billboard and Canada. Later on, Fender would later join the Texas Tornados and Los Super 7.

Here is Freddie with the Texas Tornados doing the song.

Wasted Days Wasted Nights

Wasted days and wasted nightsI have left for you behindFor you don’t belong to meYour heart belongs to someone else

Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?

Don’t you remember the dayThat you went away and left me?I was so lonelyPrayed for you onlyMy love

Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?

Don’t you remember the dayThat you went away and left me?I was so lonelyPrayed for you onlyMy love

Wasted days and wasted nightsI have left for you behindFor you don’t belong to meYour heart belongs to someone else

Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?

Garland Jeffreys – New York Skyline

This is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard. I’ve never lived in New York but you get a sense of what it’s like in this song. I don’t post ballads much but this one I just had to.

Jeffreys is a Brooklyn, N.Y.-born singer/songwriter who has released 15 studio albums in his 53-year career. His mixed heritage Puerto Rican and African-American is mirrored in his music, which embraces rock, soul, R&B, and reggae. He began his career performing solo in Manhattan clubs in 1966 after attending college at Syracuse University as an art major, where he became friends with Lou Reed. He then spent some time in Italy studying art before returning to further his education at New York’s Institute of Fine Arts.

He seemed on the cusp of making it so many times but never crossed that bridge. Jeffreys was named the most promising new artist of 1977 by Rolling Stone magazine, and positive pieces about Jeffreys appeared in the Village Voice and the New Yorker. He was friends with peers like Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Bob Marley, John Lennon, and Joe Strummer.

This song was included on the 1977 album Ghost Writer. The album also included my favorite song by him so far…Wild In The Streets. I have posted a couple of posts on him before and he hits me the same way that Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, and Graham Parker do.

Fellow blogger MusicCityMike made a video/post about Ghost Writer back in 2020. Take a look at it if you can.

Wild In The Streets was released as a single in 1973 but it was included on Ghost Writer.

New York Skyline

Baby JeanVaudeville queenShe love to ragtime in the nightI know I?m gonna miss my baby JeanCause she treats me oh so right

But the New York SkylineIt?s calling me home tonightFemale, feline, feminine,She?s been making my world so bright

Hindsight, foresightSometimes we?ve got no sight at allNew love, true loveSometimes we?ve got no love at all

But the New York Skyline it?sCalling me home tonightFemale, feline, feminine,She?s been making my world so bright

New York Skyline, New York SkylineI can see those city lightsAnd I can feel those neon signsBright lights, big cityWell it must be modern timesYes it must be modern timesWell it must be modern times

Max Picks …songs from 1989

1989

Tom Petty – Free Fallin’

Free Fallin’ may be the song he is most remembered by. Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne wrote and recorded “Free Fallin’” in just two days, the first song completed for Full Moon Fever. “We had a multitude of acoustic guitars,” Petty told Rolling Stone of the song’s Byrds-y feel. “So it made this incredibly dreamy sound.”

Tom Petty: “There’s not a day that goes by that someone doesn’t hum ‘Free Fallin” to me or I don’t hear it somewhere,” “But it was really only 30 minutes of my life.”

Replacements – I’ll Be You

My favorite band of the 1980s. I was so amazed to hear The Replacements on mainstream radio at this time. This was the closest the Replacements came to having a “hit.” It peaked at #51 on the Billboard 100 and #1 on the Modern Rock Charts in 1989. The song did expand its audience with younger kids coming to see them without knowing their back catalog. This was an annoyance to some of the band members who some nights didn’t play I’ll Be You.

The line, “Left a Rebel without a clue” was later borrowed by Tom Petty into his hit, “Into the Great Wide Open,” in 1991. The Replacements opened up for Petty in his 1989 tour with the Heartbreakers.

Roy Orbison – You Got It

Roy was making a great comeback in the late eighties. He was a member of the Traveling Wilburys and he finished a new album called Mystery Girl in November of 1988. He confided in Johnny Cash that he was having chest pains and he would have to have it looked at…he never did.

The Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 was rising in the charts and he flew to Europe to do a show and came back and did a few more in America. On December 6, 1988, he flew model planes with his kids and after dinner passed away at the age of 52.

You Got It featured Jeff Lynn, Tom Petty, and Phil Jones.

Bonnie Raitt – A Thing Called Love

Thing Called Love was written by John Hiatt for his 1987 album Bring the Family. Bonnie covered this song for her 1989 Nick of Time album.

Nick of Time was Bonnie Raitt’s breakthrough album. After years of endless touring and making albums it all paid off with this album.

This is the song that really got me into the newer version Bonnie Raitt. I did like her earlier hit Runaway and I’d heard of her music and read about her. She paid her dues and I was happy to see her hit big. She is an extremely gifted slide guitar player and singer.

Neil Young – Rockin’ In The Free World

This is from our favorite Canadian Neil Young. It surprised me that this was released in 1989. I remember it the most in the 90s.
This was inspired by the political changes going on at the time, and was highly critical of George Bush Sr. Some of the lyrics mock Bush’s campaign speeches: “We got 1,000 points of light, for the homeless man,” “We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand.”

Rocking In A Free World was written in February 1989, as Neil Young toured the Pacific Northwest. Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini had just issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie because of his controversial novel The Satanic Verses and Russia had recently withdrawn its forces from Afghanistan.

Pearl Jam has performed this song from time to time with Young, who said that Neil is their musical mentor. The first time they performed it together was at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, where the “Jeremy” video won four awards. Young came on as a surprise guest.

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Director Sam Mendes – 4 Movies on The Beatles

Sam Mendes has directed some huge films like 1917, American Beauty, Road To Perdition, and Skyfall to name just a few.

This looks interesting and new…and potentially groundbreaking. In recent years Queen and Elton John got a biopic treatment but I never thought someone would try The Beatles because it was a lot to put into one movie. Well this will be four different movies that will intersect through the perspective of each Beatle.

From this article:

Each film will be told from the point of view of a different band member, and will eventually “intersect to tell the astonishing story of the greatest band in history.” Sony will distribute the films worldwide in 2027 and with this intriguing promise: “The dating cadence of the films, the details of which will be shared closer to release, will be innovative and groundbreaking.”

Here are some more links

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68350477

https://pitchfork.com/news/four-beatles-biopics-in-the-works-from-sam-mendes/

https://www.vulture.com/article/beatles-movies.html

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Ray Charles – What I’d Say

Do you want to see a club come alive? Start playing What I’d Say by Ray Charles. An absolutely fantastic song by the man. You can stretch this song out to 20 minutes and it doesn’t lose steam. From the opening riff, it never slows down.

It was written by Charles and the call-and-response style was inspired by church music Charles grew up with. When the preacher said something, the congregation shouted it back. “What’d I Say” stands as the epitome of call-and-response in music.

The intro will hook you right off the bat. The Beatles would cover this in Hamburg and The Cavern and make it last 15 or more minutes. Many artists covered this song. The song peaked at #6 on the Billboard 100 and #1 on the R&B Charts in 1959.

He played this song in a club in Brownsville, Pennsylvania in 1958. When he was finishing the song he realised he had 12 more minutes to fill in the set. He told him to follow him and they did. He later said: “I had sung everything I could think of. So I said to the guys, ‘Look, I’m going to start this thing off, I don’t know where I’m going, so y’all just follow me.’ And I said to the girls, ‘Whatever I say, just repeat after me.'” After that night he knew he had something great. He recorded it really fast and got it out.

He called Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records about his hot new tune and on February 18, 1959, he cut “What’d I Say” in a handful of live takes. The engineer on this song was the great future producer Tom Dowd. The take was very long but Dowd edited down to six and a half minutes. This was his first top ten hit in the Billboard 100 although he had many R&B hits.

Ray Charles continued to include “What’d I Say” in his shows…usually as his encore. In 2002, the Library of Congress added the single to the U.S. National Recording Registry.

What I’d Say

Hey mama, don’t you treat me wrong
Come and love your daddy all night long
All right now, hey hey, all right
See the girl with the diamond ring
She knows how to shake that thing
All right now now now, hey hey, hey hey
Tell your mama, tell your pa
I’m gonna send you back to Arkansas
Oh yes, ma’m, you don’t do right, don’t do right
Aw, play it boy
When you see me in misery
Come on baby, see about me
Now yeah, all right, all right, aw play it, boy
When you see me in misery
Come on baby, see about me
Now yeah, hey hey, all right
See the girl with the red dress on
She can do the Birdland all night long

Yeah yeah, what’d I say, all right
Well, tell me what’d I say, yeah
Tell me what’d I say right now
Tell me what’d I say
Tell me what’d I say right now
Tell me what’d I say
Tell me what’d I say yeah

And I wanna know
Baby I wanna know right now
And-a I wanna know
And I wanna know right now yeah
And-a I wanna know
Said I wanna know yeah

Hey, don’t quit now! (c’mon honey)
Naw, I got, I uh-uh-uh, I’m changing (stop! stop! we’ll do it again)
Wait a minute, wait a minute, oh hold it! Hold it! Hold it!
Hey (hey) ho (ho) hey (hey) ho (ho) hey (hey) ho (ho) hey
Oh one more time (just one more time)
Say it one more time right now (just one more time)
Say it one more time now (just one more time)
Say it one more time yeah (just one more time)
Say it one more time (just one more time)
Say it one more time yeah (just one more time)

Hey (hey) ho (ho) hey (hey) ho (ho) hey (hey) ho (ho) hey
Ah! Make me feel so good (make me feel so good)
Make me feel so good now yeah (make me feel so good)
Whoa! Baby (make me feel so good)
Make me feel so good yeah (make me feel so good)
Make me feel so good (make me feel so good)
Make me feel so good yeah (make me feel so good)
Huh (huh) ho (ho) huh (huh) ho (ho) huh (huh) ho (ho) huh
Aw, it’s all right (baby it’s all right)
Said that it’s all right right now (baby it’s all right)
Said that it’s all right (baby it’s all right)
Said that it’s all right yeah (baby it’s all right)
Said that it’s all right (baby it’s all right)
Said that it’s all right (baby it’s all right)

Whoa! Shake that thing now (baby shake that thing)
Baby shake that thing now now (baby shake that thing)
Baby shake that thing (baby shake that thing)
Baby shake that thing right now (baby shake that thing)
Baby shake that thing (baby shake that thing)
Baby shake that thing (baby shake that thing)
Whoa! I feel all right now yeah (make me feel all right)
Said I feel all right now (make me feel all right)
Whoa! (make me feel all right)
Tell you I feel all right (make me feel all right)
Said I feel all right (make me feel all right)
Baby I feel all right (make me feel all right)

Bill Haley – Rock Around The Clock

Put your glad rags on and join me, hon
We’ll have some fun when the clock strikes one

Bill Haley looked more like your dad than a rock star but his music helped kick rock and roll off. His music was different than Elvis, Chuck, Jerry Lee, Fats, and Buddy Holly. It had a country western swing and jive to it that the others didn’t have. I wanted to cover Mr. Haley today since we had a song yesterday about him. Rock Around The Clock is another B side that was remembered more than the flip side.

Haley started out as a country and western swing singer. He played with a lot of artists such as Hank Williams. Listening to the older pre-rock recordings…he was quite good. He then ran across early versions of rock and roll and combined it with western swing and it worked. He also incorporated some jazz elements in his act.

He toured from the mid-40s to the early 50s playing clubs all over America. He eventually released a song he wrote called Crazy, Man Crazy and it peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1953. He later switched to Decca and the producer wanted him to release a song called Thirteen Women. The song was about the atom bomb going off and he had 13 women around him. It was the B-Side that will be remembered. As usual…the producer didn’t see a hit on the B-Side…and that would be Rock Around The Clock. What helped the song was that it was included in the film The Blackboard Jungle. That also hurt Haley in the long run because it was connected to teenage delinquency.

The song was written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers. It peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100 and #1 in the UK in 1955-56. It recharted in Canada in 1966 and 1968 at #41 both years. It recharted again in 1974 and peaked at #39 on the Billboard 100, #26 in Canada, and #12 in the UK because of Happy Days.

Haley was blinded in his left eye as a child due to a failed operation. Haley later adopted his distinctive spit-curl hairstyle to distract attention from his blind eye. The hairstyle caught on as a 50s-style haircut. His popularity started to decline in America with the emergence of Elvis but he was huge in Europe when he toured there in 1957. They had many more top twenty hits in the UK than in America.

He enjoyed a career resurgence in the late 1960s with the rock and roll revival movement. “Rock Around the Clock” recharted again in 1974 at #34 on the Billboard 100 thanks to Happy Days. That is where I discovered the song and Haley.

He battled alcohol throughout the 60s and 70s. He passed away on February 9, 1981. Haley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

The A Side…13 Women

Rock Around The Clock

One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock, rock
Five, six, seven o’clock, eight o’clock, rock
Nine, ten, eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock, rock
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
Put your glad rags on and join me, hon
We’ll have some fun when the clock strikes one
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight
We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When the clock strikes two, three and four
If the band slows down we’ll yell for more
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight
We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When the chimes ring five, six and seven
We’ll be right in seventh heaven
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight
We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When it’s eight, nine, ten, eleven too
I’ll be goin’ strong and so will you
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight
We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When the clock strikes twelve, we’ll cool off then
Start a rockin’ round the clock again
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight
We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight

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Dave Alvin – Haley’s Comet

And he tells the waitress, “Hey, I just found the body
Of some guy who was famous long ago”

CB sent me this and it’s a song about the last sad years of Bill Haley. Haley’s Comet is a hell of a rocker but tells a poignant story. It’s sad to think that a pioneer American Rock and Roll hero could be forgotten to the point he’s not even recognizable. I like how Alvin focuses on Haley’s loneliness and makes you feel it.

It was written by Dave Alvin and Tom Russell. I wore this song out this week. While researching this post I got a book about Bill Haley and I’m almost halfway through it now. He was an interesting artist that I never knew much about. It’s a shame he is not remembered like his peers such as Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others. He helped kickstart rock and roll.

He was known to everyone in the 1950s for his band The Comets and songs such as Rock Around The Clock, Crazy Man Crazy, Shake Rattle and Roll, and more. He had the world’s attention in 1955 and 1956. He looked more like a fatherly figure than a rock star but he was very popular at that time. He also appeared in two movies, Don’t Knock The Rock and Rock Around The Clock in 1956.

After the fifties, his popularity on the charts vanished. He was still a popular touring act in the UK. Many American 50s rockers toured there in the 60s and 70s like Gene Vincent. There were no more hits but Haley kept touring. He also developed a bad drinking problem.

There was a rumor, that was denied by his wife, that he had a brain tumor. Haley didn’t want to tour anymore. That rumor helped him stay hidden. He started to call and write his friends pages of rambling, bitter notes about his career. He also took to painting his bedroom windows black as the song tells. He was said to be a modest gentle courteous man, who throughout his career encouraged every change and newcomer in music, never criticizing anyone. He passed away in February of 1981.

Dave Alvin was the guitar player for the Blasters. This song was on his solo album Blue Blvd released in 1991. Tom Russell is a singer-songwriter who resides in El Paso, Texas. Russell’s songs have been recorded by artists such as Johnny Cash, Ian Tyson, Nanci Griffith, Dave Alvin, and others. In addition to his music, he is also an artist and published author. There will be more posts about him coming up.

Dave Alvin: Haley’s Comet was sadly based on the last years of Bill Haley’s life as you know it. It’s one of those “Don’t let this happen to you” songs.

Haley’s Comet

Do you know who I am?” said Bill Haley
In a pancake house near the Rio Grande
The waitress said, “I don’t know you from diddley”
“To me you’re just another tired old man”

He walked alone down on Main street
A hot wind was blowing up from the south
There were two eyes staring in a pawn shop window
And a whiskey bottle was lifted up to his mouth

There was no moon shining on the Rio Grande
As a truck of migrants pulled through town
And the jukebox was busted at the bus depot
When Haley’s Comet hit the ground

He blacked out all the windows in his bedroom
He was talking to the ceiling and the walls
He closed his eyes and hit the stage in 1955
As the screams of the children filled the hall

This cop walked into a pancake house in Texas
And ordered up a couple of cups to go
And he tells the waitress, “Hey, I just found the body
Of some guy who was famous long ago”

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