Culture – Page 11 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

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.

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.

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

…

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

…

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”

….

Allman Brothers – Wasted Words

There is nothing better than sitting back on a cool Fall day and listening to the Allman Brothers.

The album Brothers and Sisters was released in August 1973. This was almost two years after Duane Allman had died. Around a year later on November 11, 1972…their bassist Berry Oakley died on a motorcycle within a few blocks of where Duane crashed. Some of the band members have said…Berry died on the day that Duane died but his body just kept moving until a little over a year later. He never got over Duane dying and his drug and alcohol use escalated. He was on his motorcycle and hit a bus. He went back to his house and they took him to a hospital where he died a short time later.

Let me say this about Berry Oakley. He is sadly overlooked today. Not only was he a superb blues bass player but he had something that not all blues bassists have. He had a great sense of melody…I would compare him to Paul McCartney in that department. In the middle of those jams, you would hear the bass playing these wonderful countermelodies…he was unique in that way.

The Allmans recorded Brother and Sisters between October and December of 1972. It was a monster hit for the Brothers. It contains the last songs that Oakley ever played on. Berry Oakley played on this song and the huge hit Ramblin’ Man that he recorded shortly before his death. They had try-outs for another bass player but Jaimo’s friend Lamar Williams won out easily. He played with the band until they broke up briefly in 1976. He developed lung cancer at the age of 32 from exposure to Agent Orange during his Vietnam service and died in 1983.

Gregg Allman wrote this and Dickey Betts played a slide on the song. He didn’t like playing slide because of Duane. When Duane died instead of replacing him with another guitar player…they recruited the great piano player Chuck Leavell. That was a smart thing to do because of the comparisons to Duane on whoever would have taken that spot. Dickey had to play slide when they played their older songs but it’s something he stayed away from on newer songs when he could.

The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #42 in the UK. What helped the album was Ramblin’ Man and Jessica, two of their most classic songs. They toured with this album and played sold-out stadiums and arenas. A little later they would lease The Starship… the same one that Led Zeppelin used in the seventies. They were up there with The Who, Led Zeppelin, and the monster bands of the seventies.

The first time I heard of the Allman Brothers was on SNL where Dan Ackroyd played Jimmy Carter talking down a caller on acid. I was around 9 when I heard it and it stuck. I have it below.

Wasted Words

Can you tell me, tell me, friend, just exactly where I’ve been?
Is that so much to ask I’ll pay you back no matter what the task
You seem really sure ’bout something I don’t know,
Take that load off, looks like chest’s about to go
Your wasted words already been heard, are you really god, yes or no?

Well, all day and half the night you’re walkin’ round lookin’ such a fright
Good is it me or is it you?
I’d make a wager and I’d hope you lose
Time’s gone, looks like Rome is ’bout to fall,
Next time take the elevator, please don’t crawl
Your wasted words so absurd, are you really Satan, yes or no?
Tell me now baby?
Ooh hoo
Oh

Well, I ain’t no saint and you sure as hell ain’t no savior
Every other Christmas I would practice good behavior
That was then, this is now, don’t ask me to be mister clean
Baby, I don’t know how
Ring my phone ’bout ten more times, we will see,
Find that broke down line and let it be
Your wasted words will never be heard, go on home baby and watch it on TV

Weekday soap-box specialty, you know what I’m talkin’ ’bout now
By the way, this song’s for you, sincerely, me

Max Picks …songs from 1988

1988

Three albums shaped this year for me. One was by The Traveling Wilburys, U2, and the other was by Keith Richards..

Traveling Wilburys – Handle With Care

This was the hit that kicked the Wilburys project off the ground. George Harrison and Jeff Lynne started the ball rolling… Initially an informal grouping with Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, they got together at Bob Dylan’s Santa Monica, California studio to quickly record an additional track as a B-side for the single release of Harrison’s song This Is Love. This was the song they came up with, which the record company immediately realized was too good to be released as a single B side. They also recorded “You Got It” at the session, which helped convince them to record an album together.

The title Handle With Care came when George Harrison saw the phrase on the side of a cardboard box in the studio.

Tom Petty on Bob Dylan: “There’s nobody I’ve ever met who knows more about the craft of how to put a song together than he does. I learned so much from just watching him work. He has an artist’s mind and can find in a line the keyword and think how to embellish it to bring the line out. I had never written more words than I needed, but he tended to write lots and lots of verses, then he’ll say, this verse is better than that, or this line. Slowly this great picture emerges. He was very good in The Traveling Wilbury’s: when somebody had a line, he could make it a lot better in big ways.”

Steve Earl – Copperhead Road

Brilliant song by Steve Earle. I became a fan of Steve Earle when I heard “I Ain’t Never Satisfied” off of the Exit 0 album. Copperhead Road was an actual road near Mountain City, Tennessee. It has since been renamed Copperhead Hollow Road, owing to the theft of road signs bearing the song’s name.

What is interesting is Earle tells a story of three generations, of three different eras, and shows how they intersect all in one song. Earle himself called the album the world’s first blend of heavy metal and bluegrass.

U2 – Angel Of Harlem

This song has an old feel and a lot of power. It was on the Rattle and Hum album. I’ve talked to many U2 fans who don’t like the album a lot but it is my favorite album the band did. It broke a little from their previous albums. The Edge backed off the reverb and delay some on this album. They traded their “new wave” sound for Americana and I loved it. Rattle and Hum is very rootsy and raw. For me and I’m sure I’m in the minority…this song was one of the best singles of the 80s. I could hear Van Morrison doing this. This song is what made me go back and listen to the rest of their catalog. This album is not The Joshua Tree Part II…they go down a different path like great bands do.

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

Angel of Harlem was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis.

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car

When I heard this song it sounded so different than other songs at the time. It’s a well-written song lyrically and musically that has a folk feel to it. It could have been a hit in any era… the lyrics got my attention. While they’re standing in the welfare lines / crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation / wasting time in the unemployment lines / sitting around waiting for a promotion.

The song remains one of my favorites from that era. I always thought this song was an instant classic. It could have been released in 1973.

A still unknown Tracy Chapman was booked to appear down the bill at the Nelson Mandela birthday concert at Wembley Stadium on June 11, 1987. She had no reason to think her appearance would be the catalyst for a career breakthrough. After performing several songs from her self-titled debut during the afternoon, Chapman thought she’d done her bit and could relax and enjoy the rest of the concert.

That would not be the case… later in the evening, Stevie Wonder was delayed when the computer discs for his performance went missing, and Chapman was ushered back onto the stage again. In front of a huge prime-time audience, she performed “Fast Car” alone with her acoustic guitar. Afterward, the song raced up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

Keith Richards – Take It So Hard

When I heard this song with the opening riff coming from that 5-string G turning that he is known for I loved it. I bought the album Talk is Cheap which some reviews half-jokingly called the best Rolling Stones album in years (It WAS!). The song got plenty of play on rock stations at the time. It peaked at #3 in the Mainstream Rock Tracks. The album was recorded in a period when Mick and Keith were feuding with each other about the direction of the Stones. They were not recording or playing live. “You Don’t Move Me Anymore” off of the album points right at Mick.

Personally, I’ve always liked Keith’s voice. Happy, Salt of the Earth, You Got the Silver, and Before They Make Me Run rank among my favorite Stones songs. This song would fit on any Stones album.

Velvet Underground – I’m Waiting For The Man

When I think of The Velvet Underground… the bands Big Star and The Replacements come up. Those three bands influenced a huge range of other bands but didn’t come along at the right time to make it themselves. They never had mainstream success but their music lives on with every 15-year-old guitar player that picks up one of their albums.

Ask Peter Buck, Paul Westerberg, Paul Stanley, and Rick Nielsen, about some of their influences. The Underground would come up and Big Star… In the 90s performers such as Kurt Cobain and Green Day were heavily influenced by The Replacements. Ok, I’ll step off of my soapbox now.

While the West Coast bands at the time had songs about free love and romanticized the psychedelic experience… The Velvet Underground was more about New York’s dirty streets and drug addictions.

It’s no big secret what this song is about. Waiting for his drug dealer to come. The song is about scoring $26 worth of heroin in Harlem. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Reed said: “Everything about that song holds true, except the price.” The place where the deal took place is a Harlem brownstone near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 125th Street to buy drugs from a dealer.

The song was released in 1967 on The Velvet Underground & Nico album. Songs like “I’m Waiting For The Man,” “Heroin,” and “Venus In Furs” were what kept The Velvet Underground out of a record contract with Atlantic Records. Atlantic executive Ahmet Ertegun told them he would take them if they would drop those songs about drugs…they refused. They would eventually (1970) sign with Cotillion Records (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records that specialized in blues and Southern soul). Until then they were signed to Verve Records…subsidiary of MGM.

Lou Reed wrote this song. John Cale who played piano and bass guitar started to push Reed into more avant grade directions. You can hear Cale’s influence on Reed by listening to the demo version. It sounds like a traditional blues song. I have it at the bottom also above the studio version. The versions are night and day.

The album peaked at #129 on the Billboard Album Charts, and #43 in the UK in 1967.

David Bowie: “I actually played ‘Waiting for the Man’ in Britain with my band before the album was even released in America. Talk about oneupsmanship. A friend of mine came over to the states to do some work with Andy Warhol at The Factory, and as he was leaving, Andy said, ‘Oh, I just made this album with some people. Maybe you can take it back to England and see if you can get any interest over there.’ And it was still the vinyl test pressing. It hadn’t got a company or anything at the time. I still have it. There’s a white label on it, and it says ‘Warhol.’ He signed it. My friend gave it to me and he said, ‘This is crap. You like weird stuff, so maybe you’ll enjoy it.’ I played it and it was like ‘Ah, this is the future of music!’ I was in awe. It was serious and dangerous and I loved it. And I literally went into a band rehearsal the next day, put the album down and said, ‘We’re going to learn this song. It is unlike anything I’ve ever heard.’ We learned ‘Waiting for the Man’ right then and there, and we were playing it on stage within a week. I told Lou that, and he loved it. I must have been the first person in the world to cover a Velvet Underground song.”

The DEMO version

I’m Waiting For the Man

I’m waiting for my man
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
Up to Lexington, 125
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive
I’m waiting for my man

Hey, white boy, what you doin’ uptown?
Hey, white boy, you chasin’ our women around?
Oh pardon me sir, it’s the furthest from my mind
I’m just lookin’ for a dear, dear friend of mine
I’m waiting for my man

Here he comes, he’s all dressed in black
PR shoes and a big straw hat
He’s never early, he’s always late
First thing you learn is you always gotta wait
I’m waiting for my man

Up to a Brownstone, up three flights of stairs
Everybody’s pinned you, but nobody cares
He’s got the works, gives you sweet taste
Ah then you gotta split because you got no time to waste
I’m waiting for my man

Baby don’t you holler, darlin’ don’t you bawl and shout
I’m feeling good, you know I’m gonna work it on out
I’m feeling good, I’m feeling oh so fine
Until tomorrow, but that’s just some other time
I’m waiting for my man

Ritchie Valens – Come On, Let’s Go

Ritchie Valens is known now because of the plane crash, the 1987 movie La Bamba, and the music he made. His rise was short and he was only 17 years old when he died. I remember the movie in the 80s, I went in not knowing much about him except the song La Bamba. I came out with a new appreciation for Ritchie Valens and he carries more influence than his small catalog. Now before you think that I took the movie as gospel…I didn’t but it did get him noticed.

Valens recorded more songs than I ever knew. He recorded 29 songs and he wrote 21 of them. Come On, Let’s Go still sounds fresh and the quality is great. The song peaked at #42 on the Billboard 100 in 1958. It has been covered by Tommy Steel which peaked at #10 in the UK in 1958, The McCoys #22 on the Billboard 100, and Los Lobos for 1987 the movie which peaked at #21 on the Billboard 100 in 1987. After he died, a live album was released as well.

Bob Keane produced most of Ritchie Valens’ recordings. In the summer of 1958, the two hit the road to promote the young new rock singer’s first release which was this song. While in the car, Valens played him another song that he would like to try that he didn’t write. It was a Mexican folk song that Keane didn’t think that audiences would like because of the Spanish lyrics. On top of that…Valens didn’t know much Spanish at all. But…that’s a song for another post.

Valen’s contributions are huge. He is considered a pioneer of and Latin rock, inspiring many musicians of Mexican heritage. Artists like Santana and Los Lobos are among the artists he influenced. Who knows how far Valens could have gone had the airplane crash hadn’t happened. Not only was he a great performer but he could write as well.

The B side…Framed

Come On, Let’s Go

Well, come on, let’s go, let’s go, little darlin’
Tell me that you’ll never leave me
Come on, come on, let’s go again
Go again and again

Well, now, swing me, swing me, swing me, little darlin’
Come on, let’s go, little darlin’
Let’s go, let’s go again once more

Well, I love you, babe
And I’ll never let you go
Come on, baby, so, oh, pretty baby, I love you so

Well, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, little sweetheart
Forever we can always be together
Come on, come on, let’s go again

Oh, well, I love you, babe
And I’ll never let you go
Come on, baby, so, oh, pretty baby, I love you so

Well, come on, let’s go, let’s go, little darlin’
Tell me that you’ll never leave me
Come on, come on, let’s go again
Again, again, and again
Again, again, and again
Again, again, and again

Max Picks …songs from 1987

1987

I listened to the radio in 1987 a little more than in the previous 3 years or so. The albums that really got my attention were George Harrison’s Cloud Nine and the Replacements album that’s one of my favorites of the 1980s…Please To Meet Me… it was recorded in the Memphis studio where Big Star recorded. It was also the year of the Grateful Dead…a huge top-ten album and single.

Grateful Dead – Touch Of Grey

I knew of the Grateful Dead from an older brother of a friend I had. I had heard of them as a kid in the seventies before I actually heard them. I knew some of their songs and the Garcia song Sugaree. I always pictured this heavy tough metal band with a name like that. Whenever they toured they would draw a massive amount of fans despite having no top ten hits…until this song. After this song, they drew a larger amount of attention and fans.

When this came out in the 80s, it was like Deadmania. With MTV suddenly everyone was talking about them. While big success is great it did cause some trouble at some of their concerts. Chilled-out Deadheads followed them around the country for decades. Some financed their travels by hawking food, T-shirts, and handicrafts…not to mention pot and LSD usually peacefully. Through the years more would add to the fold…some described it as a giant community more than a regular concert. In 1987 they suddenly had an influx of new young fans (Touchheads) and some didn’t know what the band was about. Along with them came some gate crashers and riots.

With the backing of the band, older Deadheads handed out flyers on how to act, trying to mellow out the newer crowd.

Robert Hunter started writing the lyrics to this song in 1980, and the Grateful Dead first performed it in 1982. They played it sporadically over the next few years and finally recorded it for their 1987 album In The Dark.

George Harrison – We We Was Fab

I loved this song when I heard it. To hear George sing about his time with The Beatles surprised me. Of all the Beatles George seemed to have the most resentment and some of it was understandable. A few years after this he would join the remaining Beatles and start on The Beatles Anthology. George wanted Paul to be in this video but Paul was tied up at the time. He asked George to put a left-handed bass player in the video with a walrus mask and tell everyone it was him.

George co-wrote the song with Jeff Lynne, who also co-produced the album that shortly pre-dates the two of them forming The Traveling Wilburys. ‘When We Was Fab’ is a musical nod to the psychedelic sound that the Beatles had made their own. George used a sitar, string quartet, and backward tape effects.

He also got some help from Ringo. Starr played drums on this track and a few others on the album. Harrison says that when he started writing the song, he had Ringo’s drumming in mind for the intro and the overall tempo

Replacements – Alex Chilton

The Replacement’s tribute song about Big Star and Box Tops lead singer, Alex Chilton. The song was off the album Please To Meet Me. One of my favorite bands of all time singing about a singer in one of my favorite bands. This would be my number 1 song of 1987.

The Replacements recorded Pleased To Meet Me in Memphis at Ardent Studios, the same studio as Big Star. The man behind the board was Jim Dickinson, who produced the storied third Big Star album. Alex came into the studio a few times while the Replacements were working on the record (and laid down a guitar fill for “Can’t Hardly Wait”), but the band avoided the awkwardness of playing “Alex Chilton” whenever Chilton was around.

R.E.M. – It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

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

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

Los Lobos – La Bamba

This band had been around a long time before this song came out. They formed in 1973 and released their first album in 1978. They opened for bands such as The Clash and The Blasters so they got exposed to a lot of different audiences.

They recorded some Ritchie Valens covers for the movie La Bamba and their cover of the title track made them known internationally. The song was number 1 almost everywhere including the US, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.

Soul Asylum – Runaway Train

Heard this in the nineties when I still listened to the radio between changing tapes. I remember the video being used to find missing children. The music video for “Runaway Train” featured photographs and names of missing children in the style of a public service announcement. That was a great idea.

At the end of the original video, lead singer Dave Pirner appeared and said, “If you’ve seen one of these kids, or you are one of them, please call this number” before a missing children telephone helpline number appeared. The video was edited for use outside the US to include photos and names of missing children from wherever the video was to be shown. It drew awareness to the problem and was instrumental in reuniting several children with their families. The director said out of the 36 kids featured in the U.S. versions, they eventually found 21. I have a video at the bottom about a girl that was found through the video.

There is a special player in this song. This was a Hammond B3 organ was played by Booker T. Jones, who was a member of the group Booker T. & the M.G.’s. Jones played on many Soul classics of the ’60s and ’70s, mostly the Stax Records recordings, as his group served as their house band.

Lead singer Dave Pirner wrote this song and he said it was about depression. It took him a few years to write. Soul Asylum were label mates of The Replacements and were on Twin Tone Records at one time. They formed in 1981 in Minneapolis.

Runaway Train peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #7 in the UK, and #2 in New Zealand in 1993.

Here is a story of one that was found because of the video.

Runaway Train

Call you up in the middle of the night
Like a firefly without a light
You were there like a slow torch burning
I was a key that could use a little turning

So tired that I couldn’t even sleep
So many secrets I couldn’t keep
Promised myself I wouldn’t weep
One more promise I couldn’t keep

It seems no one can help me now
I’m in too deep
There’s no way out
This time I have really led myself astray

Runaway train never going back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I’m neither here nor there

Can you help me remember how to smile
Make it somehow all seem worthwhile
How on earth did I get so jaded
Life’s mystery seems so faded

I can go where no one else can go
I know what no one else knows
Here I am just drownin’ in the rain
With a ticket for a runaway train

Everything is cut and dry
Day and night, earth and sky
Somehow I just don’t believe it

Runaway train never going back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I’m neither here nor there

Bought a ticket for a runaway train
Like a madman laughin’ at the rain
Little out of touch, little insane
Just easier than dealing with the pain

Runaway train never comin’ back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I’m neither here nor there

Runaway train never comin’ back
Runaway train tearin’ up the track
Runaway train burnin’ in my veins
Runaway but it always seems the same

…

Max Picks …songs from 1986

1986

Crowded House – Something So Strong

It was love at first listen to this song. They had another hit that was larger in Don’t Dream It’s Over but this song is a perfect pop song. The lyric “bring life to frozen ground” still stands out to me and I cannot hear this song enough. As far as pop songs go it’s hard to beat this New Zealand band.

The song dates back to 1984 when Neil Finn did a demo of the song. He was still in Split Enz at that time. They split in 1985 so Finn and drummer Paul Hester formed Crowded House.

The song was written by Neil Finn and Mitchell Froom.

R.E.M. – Fall On Me

A musician friend of mine invited me over to listen to this album. We must have played it 5 times through by nighttime.

Bill Berry (drummer) said the song was specifically about Acid Rain, which occurs when the burning of fossil fuels releases sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, causing rain to be acidic and threatening the environment.

Michael Stipe said about the song: “I was reading an article in Boston when I was on tour with the Golden Palominos, and Chris Stamey showed me this article about this guy that did an experiment from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, whereby he dropped a pound of feathers and a pound of iron to prove that there was… a difference in the… density? What did he prove? I don’t even know. They fall just as fast.”

Steve Earle – Someday

Ever since I heard him in the mid to late 80s I liked Steve Earle. He opened up for Bob Dylan in 1988 and he was fantastic. His music was between country, folk, and rock. You can’t really put Earle in a box…and you shouldn’t. I’ve read reviewers compare him to Randy Newman, Bruce Springsteen, and Waylon Jennings in the same review. That is a great span of artists.

The song is about escaping the town you are living in. I knew a lot of people who wanted to escape the small town I grew up in. The song reminds me a little of The River by Bruce Springsteen in content. It’s a song that many people will be able to relate to.

The song was from his debut album Guitar Town. I remember he was being played on country radio and WKDF…Nashville’s number-one rock station back in the 80s. The album is ranked 489 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 albums. They called it a rocker’s version of country.

Georgia Satellites – Keep Your Hands To Yourself

A friend of mine who played guitar in high school got a bootleg of this song a year before it was officially released. His band was playing in the gym before we went on and they played this song. I thought they wrote it until I asked him. It’s a great-sounding song live.

It was an instant bar band song classic. It was a song you didn’t really have to rehearse…just one listen would do it. We learned it in one take… and again it was one of only a handful of times that we played a song in the top ten at the time. This is the kind of music I missed in the mainstream during the mid to late eighties.

This was the only big hit for the Georgia Satellites, although lead singer Dan Baird had a hit as a solo artist in 1992 with “I Love You Period.” They didn’t have another big hit but they did have some songs that got airplay on radio and MTV like Battleship Chains and a cover of Hippy Shake. This was one of the few straight-out rock and roll songs to hit the charts at this time.

Dwight Yoakam – Guitars, Cadillacs

Buck Owens made the Bakersville sound popular and it’s one of my favorite types of country. Yoakam and Steve Earle came out at around the same time and they were not like everyone else (George Jones has a funny quote about that at the bottom). They were a breath of fresh air in country music and they crossed over genres as well. They essentially brought the country back to being country and not southern rock pop with a twang.

It was released in 1986 and was the second single off of his debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. This song was written by Dwight Yoakam. Pete Anderson (producer) was a huge help in the making of the album. He provided some ideas music-wise, played the guitar, and even sang background vocals.

George Jones: ‘We spent all these years trying not to be called hillbillies, and Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle fucked it up in one day.’”

…

Robert Earl Keen – The Road Goes On Forever

The road goes on forever and the party never ends

This is the kind of song that a songwriter dreams of writing and very few ever do. The Road Never Ends was released in 1989 on his second album West Textures. It has become Keen’s signature song. It’s a Bonnie and Clyde type of song framed by that chorus. I heard this song way back in the early nineties but was reminded of it in a comedy song of all things. Todd Snider with Beer Run .

Keen was born in Houston, Texas, and performed some concerts with the likes of Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. The song has been covered by Joe Ely, The Highwaymen, and Jack Ingram.

Keen grew up listening to Bob Wills’ Western swing, so he asked his parents for a fiddle. His frustration at trying to master it found him giving that up and trying an acoustic guitar…which worked out much better. He moved to Austin in 1978 and launched his professional career playing folk and bluegrass at night spots around town and other venues such as Gruene Hall in nearby New Braunfels.

Keen won the 1983 New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival which encouraged him to record his first album, No Kinda Dancer. In 1986 he headed for Nashville but less than two years he was back in Texas landscaping and trying to make a living. He kept playing and released a live album in 1988 and then this one in 1989. His popularity and influence grew after that.

He had a top 10 country album in 2001 called Gravitational Forces and his five next albums were in the top 21 in Country music and his last one called Happy Prisoner number 10 in 2015. Keen decided to retire and spend time with his family now.

This song has spawned a lot of tattoos.

The Road Goes On Forever

Sherry was a waitress at the only joint in townShe had a reputation as a girl who’d been aroundDown Main Street after midnight with a brand new pack of cigsA fresh one hangin’ from her lips and a beer between her legsShe’d ride down to the river and meet with all her friendsThe road goes on forever and the party never ends

Sonny was a loner he was older than the restHe was going into the Navy but he couldn’t pass the testSo he hung around town he sold a little potThe law caught wind of Sonny and one day he got caughtBut he was back in business when they set him free againThe road goes on forever and the party never ends

Sonny’s playin’ 8-ball at the joint where Sherry worksWhen some drunken outta towner put his hand up Sherry’s skirtSonny took his pool cue laid the drunk out on the floorStuffed a dollar in her tip jar and walked on out the doorShe’s runnin’ right behind him reachin’ for his handThe road goes on forever and the party never ends

They jumped into his pickup Sonny jammed her down in gearSonny looked at Sherry and said lets get on outta hereThe stars were high above them and the moon was in the eastThe sun was settin’ on them when they reached Miami BeachThey got a hotel by the water and a quart of Bombay ginThe road goes on forever and the party never ends

They soon ran out of money but Sonny knew a manWho knew some Cuban refugees that delt in contrabandSonny met the Cubans in a house just off the routeWith a briefcase full of money and a pistol in his bootThe cards were on the table when the law came bustin’ inThe road goes on forever and the party never ends

The Cubans grabbed the goodies and Sonny grabbed the JackHe broke a bathroom window and climbed on out the backSherry drove the pickup through the alley on the sideWhere a lawman tackled Sonny and was reading him his rightsShe stepped into the alley with a single shot .410The road goes on forever and the party never ends

They left the lawman lyin’ and they made their getawayThey got back to the motel just before the break of daySonny gave her all the money and he blew her a little kissIf they ask you how this happened say I forced you into thisShe watched him as his taillights disappeared around the bendThe road goes on forever and the party never ends

Its Main Street after midnight just like it was before21 months later at the local grocery storeSherry buys a paper and a cold 6-pack of beerThe headlines read that Sonny is goin’ to the chairShe pulls back onto Main Street in her new Mercedes BenzThe road goes on forever and the party never ends

Max Picks …songs from 1985

1985

This was an important year for me. It was the year I graduated from high school and I got into surf and alternative music. The pop charts were dismal to me so I turned to my records, tapes, and alternative radio stations. If I listed what I listened to in 1985…it would be Beatles, Jan and Dean, Beach Boys, Van Morrison, and The Who. There still were some things I listened to on the charts as you see down below.

Replacements – Bastards Of Young

This is a lost anthem of the eighties that should have been taken up by my generation. Just because a song isn’t heard by the masses doesn’t mean it isn’t great. Westerberg’s songwriting in the 1980s rivaled any artist in that decade…including Springsteen.

This song starts with a raw cool riff and a scream…how much more rock and roll can you get? The lyrics are what got me into this song in the 80s. The song was on the album Tim released in 1985. It was produced by Tommy Ramone. Alex Chilton also helped out with the album.

It has no giant 80’s production…it’s raw and honest about youthful uncertainty and alienation.

Dire Straits – Money For Nothing

This was the first video played on MTV Europe. The network went on the air on August 1, 1987, six years after MTV in the US… This was back when MTV (Music Television) actually played music but now has questionable shows.

The clipped guitar sound won me over the first time I heard this.

In the US, this stayed at #1 for three weeks. It also won a Grammy in 1986 for best Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

Dire Straits recorded this in Montserrat. Sting was on vacation there and came by to help. Sting sings on this and helped write it…Sting and Knophler were credited as songwriters. Sting did not want a songwriting credit, but his record company did because they would have earned royalties from it. It’s been said that the line “I Want My MTV” sounded very similar to a song Sting wrote for The Police: “Don’t Stand So Close To Me.”…well the same amount of syllables anyway.

Tom Petty – Don’t Come Around Here No More

When I first heard this song in the 1980s…the instrument that stood out was the sitar. I’ve been in love with that instrument since I heard Norwegian Wood. I want one and if I find a cheap one I will get it. One strum and you are back in the sixties and it fit this song well…or this song fits the sitar.

After Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers toured in 1983, they took some time off, and Petty started working with Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics. This was the first song they wrote together, and the psychedelic sound was a big departure from Petty’s work with The Heartbreakers.

It was at the time, my favorite video hands down.

The Smiths – How Soon Is Now? –

This intro is just plain epic. The Smiths had difficulty playing this song live. Johnny Marr had trouble recreating the guitar effect in concert. The tremolo is perfect in this song.

Bassist, Andy Rourke, called the song “the bane of The Smiths’ live career.”

This incredible song was the B side to William, It Was Really Nothing. It was on the album Hatful of Hollow. The album was a compilation album released in 1984 and Q magazine placed the album at No. 44 on its list of the “100 Greatest British Albums Ever.”

John Fogerty – Centerfield

Near spring training every year I listen to John Fogerty’s Centerfield. This was John Fogerty’s comeback after being away from the charts since 1975.

Along with “Talkin’ Baseball” and “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” this quickly became one of the most popular baseball songs ever. It’s a fixture at ballparks between innings of games and plays at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

John Fogerty: “I’d hear about Ruth and DiMaggio, and as my dad and older brothers talked about the Babe’s exploits, their eyes would get so big. When I was a little kid, there were no teams on the West Coast, so the idea of a Major League team was really mythical to me. The players were heroes to me as long as I can remember.”

“It is about baseball, but it is also a metaphor about getting yourself motivated, about facing the challenge of one thing or another at least at the beginning of an endeavor. About getting yourself all ready, whatever is necessary for the job.”

…