Culture – Page 13 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Loretta Lynn – Coal Miner’s Daughter

She was the greatest female singer-songwriter of the 20th century…Jack White

This is one country song that even rockers know and of course, the movie with the same title doesn’t hurt either. I remember the movie when I was younger and hearing this song constantly. She wrote it and she wears it like a badge of honor singing it.

In 1976 Loretta wrote an autobiography and named it Coal Miner’s Daughter. That book is what they made the movie on. I always looked at Loretta as the Punk of country music. What I mean by that is she wrote about subjects that weren’t talked about…much less in country music. Songs like The Pill and Rated X just to name a couple. While talking…she had no filter at times and told you exactly how she felt.

In life and in this song Lynn’s main point is that she is proud of where she comes from and the morals her family values. She is not ashamed of her poverty or rural upbringing, but appreciative of her family’s hard work ethic, love for each other, and the bond that happens in hardships.

The song was on the album of the same name released in 1970. What made this one different is that it crossed over to the pop charts. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts and Canada’s Country Charts. I also peaked at #83 on the Billboard 100 in 1970.

The song was released in 1980 with Sissy Spacek singing her version of the movie…it peaked at #7 in Canada (Country Charts) and #24 in the Billboard Country Charts.

The movie Coal Miner’s Daughter was released in 1980. It starred Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn as well as co-stars Levon Helm, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D’Angelo, and more.

The producer Owen Bradley told Lynn to drop off four additional verses that she had. Loretta Lynn: “He said, There’s already been one ‘El Paso,’ and there’s never going to be another one, so I fiddled around and fiddled around, and finally I got four verses that I took off of ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter.’ I wished I hadn’t, but I did.”

Sadly those verses were lost to time because she left them in the studio.

Loretta Lynn: “I remember that, in one of the verses, I talked about Mommy papering the wall with movie magazines, and she named me after Loretta Young, because she had Bette Davis and Claudette Colbert and Loretta Young up on the wall. And the day before I was born, she said, ‘If this baby is a little girl, I’m going to name her after one of them girls.’ And she said, ‘I kept looking at the pictures, and I thought Loretta Young was the prettiest, so I named you Loretta.’ And I’m glad she did.”

“I didn’t think anybody be interested in my life, I know everybody’s got a life, and they all have something to say. Everybody has a story about their life. It wasn’t just me. I guess I was just the one that told it.”

Coal Miner’s Daughter

Well, I was borned a coal miner’s daughter
In a cabin, on a hill in Butcher Holler
We were poor, but we had love
That’s the one thing that daddy made sure of
He shoveled coal to make a poor man’s dollar

My daddy worked all night in the Van Lear coal mines
All day long in the field a hoin’ corn
Mommy rocked the babies at night
And read the Bible by the coal oil light
And ever’ thing would start all over come break of morn’

Daddy loved and raised eight kids on a miner’s pay
Mommy scrubbed our clothes on a washboard every day
Why, I’ve seen her fingers bleed
To complain, there was no need
She’d smile in mommy’s understanding way

In the summertime we didn’t have shoes to wear
But in the wintertime we’d all get a brand new pair
From a mail order catalog
Money made from selling a hog
Daddy always managed to get the money somewhere

Yeah, I’m proud to be a coal miner’s daughter
I remember well, the well where I drew water
The work we done was hard
At night we’d sleep ’cause we were tired
I never thought of ever leaving Butcher Holler

Well, a lot of things have changed since a way back then
And it’s so good to be back home again
Not much left but the floor, nothing lives here anymore
Except the memories of a coal miner’s daughter

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Manfred Mann – Do Wah Diddy Diddy

I’ve been blogging since 2017 and someone asked me about this song not long ago. I told them yea…I posted that one. Well, no I didn’t post this one so now is the time. I first heard this over a friend’s house in the 80s…his dad had this song among his singles collection of the early to mid-sixties.

This song was from one of the biggest years in popular music. It was released in 1964 by Manfred Mann. It was written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, who were looking to recreate the gibberish gold they struck on The Crystal’s hit “Da Doo Ron Ron.” In the UK they had already had success with 5-4-3-2-1 and Hubble Bubble (Toil and Trouble) but had yet to break through in America. This song did the trick…and well! The original name of the song was Do Wah Diddy…but the band added the extra Diddy to the end.

This was not the original version. That version was The Exciters but it tanked. Actually, it’s a pretty good version…I’ll post it at the bottom as well. Manfred Mann’s version fits well into the British Invasion and this made them known really quick. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #1 in New Zealand, and #1 in the UK. They followed this one up with another hit called Sha La La.

Paul Jones was the lead singer at the time of Manfred Mann. He heard this song by the Exciters and knew it had potential. Most of the group was not very happy with recording this song but finally did it. The band found that touring the US a thoroughly miserable experience, and decided that they weren’t going back again. So, while they would continue to have big hits in Britain for the rest of the decade, they only had a few minor successes in the States.

They would have more success in the 70s with a revamped band named Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.

The original version.

Doo Wah Diddy Diddy

There she was just a-walkin’ down the street, singin’ “Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do”
Snappin’ her fingers and shufflin’ her feet, singin’ “Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do”
She looked good (looked good), she looked fine (looked fine)
She looked good, she looked fine and I nearly lost my mind

Before I knew it she was walkin’ next to me, singin’ “Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do”
Holdin’ my hand just as natural as can be, singin’ “Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do”
We walked on (walked on) to my door (my door)
We walked on to my door, then we kissed a little more

Whoa-oh, I knew we was falling in love
Yes I did, and so I told her all the things I’d been dreamin’ of

Now we’re together nearly every single day, singin’ “Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do”
A-we’re so happy and that’s how we’re gonna stay, singin’ “Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do”
Well, I’m hers (I’m hers), she’s mine (she’s mine)
I’m hers, she’s mine, wedding bells are gonna chime

Whoa-oh, I knew we was falling in love
Yes I did, and so I told her all the things I’d been dreamin’ of

Whoa-oh-oh-oh, oh yeah
Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do, we’ll sing it
Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do, oh yeah, oh, oh yeah
Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do

Max Picks …songs from 1979

1979

I hate that it’s the last year of the seventies. A great decade for music and a lot of cool things. Now the eighties are coming…

A masterpiece. I was 12 when this was released and it sounded timeless even then. It was a great song in 1979 and will be great in 2079. Not only are the words inventive but this was most people’s introduction to Mark Knopfler. I wasn’t a guitar player when I was 12 but I knew he was something special.

I’ve heard this one at what seems like a thousand times but I’ll always turn it up when it comes on the radio.

Blondie members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein wrote the first version of this song in early 1974, shortly after they first met. They didn’t have a proper title for the song, and would refer to it as “The Disco Song.”

Evidently finding words to rhyme to “glass” that fit in a song were… a pain in the ass. American radio at that time frowned on that rhyme. To ensure airplay stations were sent an edited version with the offending line replaced with “soon turned out I had a heart of glass.”

This was the first song I ever knew by the Clash when I heard it on the radio in 1980. The song is credited to Mick Jones and Joe Strummer like most Clash songs. Mick Jones takes the lead vocals in this one.

They started off as a punk band but The Clash, unlike some other Punk bands, could really play and sing well…, especially Mick Jones. He is was probably the best pure musician in the band.

This song was released in 1979 was one of many signs a change was coming in music. Gary Numan on the inspiration of the song. “A couple of blokes started peering in the window and for whatever reason took a dislike to me, so I had to take evasive action. I swerved up the pavement, scattering pedestrians everywhere. After that, I began to see the car as the tank of modern society.”

Numan has stated that he has Asperger syndrome, which is a mild form of autism, but until he was diagnosed, he had a lot of trouble relating to other people.

I was never a huge disco fan but this song always meant a lot to me. I’m a huge baseball fan and my Dodgers really sucked in 1979. The Pirates on the other hand had a 39-year-old Willie Stargell leading them to a World Series championship and this is the song that will be forever linked to that year, team, and World Series. Here’s to Pops…Willie Stargell.

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Vince Guaraldi Trio – Linus and Lucy

It’s hard to resist this song. It automatically makes me happy when I hear it. I see the Peanuts gang doing their thing.

This song I can hear anytime of the year and be happy. It’s associated with Christmas also…whichever… I never get tired of it.

Here is another post of the song in Hanspostcard’s song draft a few years ago when run-sew-read’s pick was this song.

Ironically, just about everyone would call this “the Charlie Brown song” even though it’s actually titled after Linus and Lucy Van Pelt, brother and sister in Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip universe.

The song is most famous for its use in the yearly favorite A Charlie Brown Christmas, which first aired in 1965, but it was written two years earlier for a documentary about Schulz and the Peanuts gang called A Boy Named Charlie Brown, which never aired.

Producer Lee Mendelson was in charge of the documentary and asked Vince Guaraldi to compose music for it

Guaraldi was huge in the jazz world and won the 1962 Grammy for Best Original Jazz Composition for “Cast Your Fate To The Wind” for his group, the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Mendelson was searching for what kind of music to play for the documentary when he took a taxi cab and “Cast Your Fate To The Wind” was playing as he crossed the Golden Gate bridge. He loved it and his decision was made.

Guaraldi wrote a series of songs for the project, including “Linus and Lucy,” which he recorded with his group, the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Even though A Boy Named Charlie Brown was shelved, the soundtrack was released in 1964, which is where “Linus and Lucy” first appeared.

In 1965, Mendelson put together the first Peanuts TV special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, using many of the same people who worked on the documentary. “Linus and Lucy” formed the score, and a song he wrote with Guaraldi called “Christmas Time Is Here” was included in a key scene.

When A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted in 1965, it quickly turned the Peanuts franchise into a television institution. That first special also shot Guaraldi to greater fame, and he became connected to all subsequent Peanuts shows.

Guaraldi would continue to work on Peanuts films until his death in 1976.

No words…just enjoy

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Outlaws – Ghost Riders in the Sky

I could have picked many artists who have covered this song but this is the one I heard first. The song is a standard and it was originally written and recorded in 1948 by Stan Jones. Jones based the melody on Johnny Comes Marching Home.

Jones said the song came from a story he heard when he was young. The story was told to him by an old Indian man from Arizona. When someone dies, their spirit leaves the body and goes to the sky. They stay up in the sky and become ghost riders. Jones was a kid when he first heard the story, he never forgot it.

This was written and originally recorded by Stan Jones in 1948. Jones was a forest ranger who wrote songs on the side. After recording his version of the song, artists like Burl Ives, Bing Crosby, Lorne Greene, Gene Autry, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and too many more to list covered it. all recorded it.

The Outlaws released this song in 1980. It was on the album Ghost Riders. The album peaked at #25 on the Billboard Album Charts and the song peaked at #31 on the Billboard 100.

The band was formed in Tampa Florida in 1967. In 1974 The Outlaws were the first act signed to Arista Records under Clive Davis. They were helped out by Ronnie Van Zant. In Columbus Georgia, The Outlaws were opening up for Lynyrd Skynyrd with Clive Davis in the audience which wasn’t a secret to the bands. Van Zant said from the stage to Clive Davis…“If you don’t sign Outlaws, you’re the dumbest music person I’ve ever met—and I know you’re not.” They were signed.

Ghost Riders in the Sky

An old cowboy went ridin’ out one dark and windy day
Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
When all at once a mighty herd of red eyed steers he saw
A ploughin’ through the ragged skies and up a cloudy draw

Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel
Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
He saw the riders coming hard… and he heard their mournful cry

Yippie i ay Yippie i oh
Ghost riders in
Ghost riders in the sky

Yippie i ay (Yippie i ay) Yippie i oh (Yippie i oh)
Ghost riders in the sky

Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, their shirts all soaked with sweat
They’re ridin’ hard to catch that herd but they ain’t caught ’em yet
‘Cause they’ve got to ride forever in the range up in the sky
On horses snorting fire as they ride hard, hear them cry

Yippie i ay Yippie i oh
Ghost riders in
Ghost riders in the sky

Ghost riders in the sky

Kris Kristofferson – Why Me

Good morning to everyone on this fine Sunday morning! This was a song that I heard on my mom’s country stations along with the AM pop stations that my sister listened to. It crossed genres and was a massive hit.

It peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts and Canada’s Country Charts, #16 on the Billboard 100, and #19 on Canada’s RPM Charts in 1973.

Kristofferson is an incredible songwriter but he gave up a lot to be one. He is very intelligent and he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University.

Kristofferson came from a military family. Both of his grandfathers were military men, his dad was a general in the Air Force, and his brother was in the Navy. Kris himself had made a name for himself in the armed forces, achieving the rank of captain and being offered a teaching position at West Point.

Instead, he moved to Nashville and ended up working odd jobs to support his disabled son while trying to break into the music business. When his mother found out about the music business she wrote a letter to him that he was an embarrassment to the family and he was disowned. Someone showed the letter to Johnny Cash, who believed in Kristofferson, and Cash told him ‘Always nice to get a letter from home, isn’t it, Kris?’

I feel lazy doing this but Kristofferson tells the story of the song better than I can. He went to church with country music artist Connie Smith and this happened.

Kris Kristofferson: “The night before we’d been down in Cookeville with a bunch of people, doing a benefit for Dottie West’s High School band or something and then Connie took me over to church the next day to Jimmie Snow’s church. And I had a profound religious experience during the session, something that never had happened to me before. And ‘Why Me’ came out of it.

Everybody was kneeling down and Jimmie said something like if anybody’s lost, please raise their hand. And I was kneeling there. I don’t go to church a lot and the notion of raising my hand was out of the question and I thought, ‘I can’t imagine who’s doing this.’ And all of a sudden I felt my hand going up and I was hoping nobody else was looking because everybody had their head bent over praying.

And then he said, ‘If anybody is ready to accept Jesus, come down to the front of the church.’ I thought that would never happen and I found myself getting up and walking down with all these people and going down there. And I don’t really know what he said to me. He said something to me like, ‘Are you ready to accept Jesus Christ in your life?’ And I said: ‘I don’t know.’ I didn’t know what I was doing there. And he put me down, said, ‘Kneel down here.’ I can’t even remember what he was saying but, whatever it was, was such a release for me that I found myself weeping in public and I felt this forgiveness that I didn’t know I even needed.”

Why Me

Why me Lord, what have I ever done
To deserve even one
Of the pleasures I’ve known
Tell me Lord, what did I ever do
That was worth loving You
Or the kindness You’ve shown

Lord help me Jesus, I’ve wasted it
So help me Jesus, I know what I am
Now that I know that I’ve needed you
So Help me Jesus, my soul’s in Your hand

Tell me Lord, if you think there’s a way
I can try to repay
All I’ve taken from You
Maybe Lord, I can show someone else
What I’ve been through myself
On my way back to You

Lord, help me Jesus, I’ve wasted it
So Help me Jesus, I know what I am
Now that I know that I’ve needed you
So help me Jesus, my soul’s in Your hand

Jesus, my soul’s in Your hand

John Lennon – Instant Karma

This track is so alive. Lennon’s voice as always cuts through as always and Lennon’s sense of rhythm is different as always. He wrote and recorded this song in one day. John enlisted George Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, and Billy Preston to help him record the song. He also got Mal Evans, a Beatles road manager, to do the chimes, handclaps, and backing vocals. He is playing tambourine in the video below. The song was recorded on January 27, 1970, and released to the public on February 6, 1970.

I always tell people that I prefer John’s early albums to his later ones and to Pauls early ones. John had an edge to him that Paul didn’t have until Band on the Run… to me anyway.

The chorus was made up of Mal Evans, Yoko, and a small group of strangers Lennon rounded up from a West End pub called Hatchetts.

The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #4 in New Zealand, and #5 in the UK in 1970. Phil Spector produced this track with great results. John kept it simple and Spector produced an exciting record and didn’t overproduce it because John reigned him in. The drums are really in your face in this recording.

Stephen King has said the novel The Shining got its inspiration from this song with the chorus of “We all shine on.”. Before Lennon would let Spector touch the Let It Be tapes…he tried him out on this song to see if he could not overproduce something this sparse and have a hit.

Yoko caught a lot of heat in 1993 when she let Nike use this song in a commercial. I will give her credit on this one… she took the $800,000 that Nike gave her, and gave it to the United Negro College Fund. Nowadays no one says anything about it as much because it’s much more commonplace now.

John Lennon: “I wrote it in the morning on the piano. I went to the office and sang it many times. So I said ‘Hell, let’s do it,’ and we booked the studio, and Phil came in, and said, ‘How do you want it?’ I said, ‘You know, 1950’s.’ He said, ‘right,’ and boom, I did it in about three goes or something like that. I went in and he played it back and there it was. The only argument was that I said a bit more bass, that’s all, and off we went.”

Yoko Ono: “It’s like, ‘Let’s all be together and anybody who’s out there who’s not in this game, why don’t you join us?,'” she told Uncut in 1998. “And to say that ‘We all shine on,’ it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing, instead of saying some people are shining and some people are not. It’s a really uplifting song.”

Instant Karma

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head
You better get yourself together
Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead
What in the world you thinking of
Laughing in the face of love
What on earth you tryin’ to do
It’s up to you, yeah you

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna look you right in the face
Better get yourself together darlin’
Join the human race
How in the world you gonna see
Laughin’ at fools like me
Who in the hell d’you think you are
A super star
Well, right you are

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev’ryone come on

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
Ev’ryone you meet
Why in the world are we here
Surely not to live in pain and fear
Why on earth are you there
When you’re ev’rywhere
Come and get your share

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
Come on and on and on on on
Yeah yeah, alright, uh huh, ah

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
On and on and on on and on

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun

December 8, 1980…John Lennon

As I’ve told people before…I rarely do anniversaries. Skylab, Duane Allman, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and a few others but this one I will post as long as I blog.

I grew up in the seventies and became a teen in the 1980s. The Beatles were not popular where I lived to say the least. One concerned mother of a friend actually called my mom warning her that I was headed toward destruction because I was listening to the Beatles at around 11 years old. No, I’m not kidding. My mom, bless her heart, told the lady that “Max knows right from wrong. You worry about your child and I’ll worry about about mine.” Ok back to December of 1980.

Damn this date. Every Dec 8th I can’t help but think of where I was when I heard. This year’s release of Now and Then only heightened the anger, sadness, and confusion over what happened. I post this post every year on this date and will continue. I have updated it each year and I’ve almost rewritten it since I posted it first back in 2018…and if it’s too long now I apologize. I still feel what I felt on that date. Although to be accurate it was on December 9th that I found out…the next morning getting ready for school.

When I watched the news clips at the time I felt like an interloper because all of these fans who were sobbing grew up with Lennon in real time…I was this 13-year-old kid who was late to the party…a decade late.

It’s odd to think the Beatles had only been broken up for 10 years when this happened…to a 13-year-old at the time…that was a lifetime but in reality, it’s nothing. To put it in perspective… it’s now 2023 and 10 years ago was 2013…that doesn’t seem that long ago does it? I was only 3 years old when the Beatles broke up so I had no clue.

Since second grade (1975), I’ve been listening to the Beatles. While a lot of kids I knew listened and talked about modern music …I just couldn’t relate as much. By the time I was ten, I had read every book about The Beatles I could get my hands on. In a small middle TN town…it wasn’t too many. I was after their generation but I knew the importance of what they did…plus just great music. The more I got into them the more I learned about the Who, Stones, and the Kinks. I wanted to get my hands on every book about the music of the 1960s. Just listening to the music wasn’t enough…I wanted to know the history.

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

Curious, I turned the volume up and found out that John Lennon had been shot and killed. I was very angry and shocked. The bus ride to school was quiet… at school, it was quiet as well. Some teachers were affected because John was their generation. Some of my friends were shocked but some didn’t get the significance at the time and some didn’t care.

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

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

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

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

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

I called my dad a few days after it happened and he said that people were more concerned that The Beatles would never play again than the fact a man, father, and husband was shot and killed. He was right and I was among those people until he said that. Dad was never a fan…he was more Elvis, Little Richard, and country music… but he made his point. When my father passed in 2005 I thought about this conversation and knew he was teaching me again.

It was odd being into the Beatles at such a young age and after their time so to speak. While my peers were talking about all the contemporary artists at the time…all I talked about was John, Paul, George, and Ringo. I would end up comparing all the new music I heard to theirs…and that wasn’t fair at all to new music. I would think to myself…well this song (any new song at the time) wasn’t as good as Strawberry Fields and so on. I, fortunately, grew out of that but it took a while.

Below is a video of James Taylor telling how he met the killer a day before Lennon was murdered. Also, Howard Sterns broadcast the day after.

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Bob Dylan – Neighborhood Bully

He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in

He’s the neighborhood bully.

Welcome to Bob the Punk in this song. He does away with traditional choruses…and just gets down to business. I’ve been wanting to post this for years and it’s been languishing in my draft folder. My friend Matt posted it a little while back.

I bought Infidels back in the 80s and it remains my favorite Dylan album of that decade. It had quite a few songs that made it to our radio stations in Nashville. Jokerman, Sweetheart Like You, and Union Sundown. This is the one is the one that I focused on. Ex Rolling Stone member Mick Taylor played guitar on this and the song is a rocker.

It also was the most controversial song on the album. It drew criticism from some people and others loved it. The song is clearly a pro Israel song and he sings the song with passion. It was banned from YouTube and other platforms in 2020 for “hate speech.” After articles came out in defense of the song…youtube reversed its decision. It was also recalled from the record company for a while. Hard to believe a 37-year-old song could cause so much trouble when it’s been out there since 1983.

People say Bob’s voice is this or that…but it’s made for songs like this. It fits this song perfectly. I’ve seen where some Dylan fans hate it but it’s been a favorite of mine. It’s not Masters of War or Like A Rolling Stone and it’s repetitive but I like it. The lyrics flow great in this one.

The album peaked at #20 in the Billboard Album Charts, #14 in Canada, #4 in New Zealand, and #9 in the UK in 1983.

Bob Dylan: “I’m not a political songwriter. “‘Neighborhood Bully,’ to me, is not a political song, because if it were, it would fall into a certain political party. If you’re talkin’ about it as an Israeli political song—in Israel alone, there’s maybe 20 political parties. I don’t know where that would fall, what party.”

Neighborhood Bully

Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man
His enemies say he’s on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He’s the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He’s the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He’s wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He’s always on trial for just being born
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he could apologize
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim
That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him
‘Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a licence to kill him is given out to every maniac
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, he got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He’s the neighborhood bully.
Every empire that’s enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He’s made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one’s command
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He’s the neighborhood bully.

What’s anybody indebted to him for?
Nothing, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
He’s the neighborhood bully.

What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully

Max Picks …songs from 1978

1978

I remember this year well. The Dodgers repeated a World Series trip but also repeated losing to the Yankees.

Great song by The Who on their last album with Keith Moon. Keith was not in the best shape by this time but his drumming on this is still fantastic. The song is about real events that happened to Pete Townshend down to being passed out drunk at night and asking a policeman that knew Pete’s name, Who the F**k are you? You can still hear Daltrey sing the expletive on classic radio stations.

This one was always a favorite of mine of the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards wrote this, but a lot of the lyrics were improvised in the studio. While the band played, Jagger came in with different lines to fit the music.

This song is a good example of the Rolling Stones tapestry of guitars. Keith and Ron Wood weave their guitars in and out until the two guitars are almost indistinguishable from each other.

Warren Zevon was a very clever songwriter. He went were other songwriters don’t often go. This track was produced by Jackson Browne. The songwriters were LeRoy Marinell, Waddy Wachtel, and Warren Zevon. John McVie and Mick Fleetwood played on this song.

This song is one of the best pop singles of the 1970s. It was on the album City To City. This was Rafferty’s first release after the breakup of his former band Steeler’s Wheel. Gerry Rafferty had been unable to release any material due to disputes about the band’s remaining contractual recording obligations, and his friend’s Baker Street flat was a convenient place to stay as he tried to remove himself from his Stealers Wheel contracts. It was his second solo album, the first being Can I Have My Money Back? released in 1971.

The album and song were about life on the road in all its glory and squalor. To emphasize this notion even further, Jackson Browne literally recorded the album on the road, in hotel rooms, on buses, and, in the case of “Running On Empty,” on stage.

Rolling Stones Question

Dave posted this on November 16 in his Turntable Talk series. Dave wanted to know… So, talk about the Stones. Do they matter? Or what was their best song, or album? Or should they just disappear like 1960s cigarette ads featuring doctors?

I’ll answer Dave’s questions near the end.

If I ever meet an alien and he/she/it wanted to know what rock and roll looked and sounded like…I would give them a picture of Keith Richards in 1972 and a copy of “Brown Sugar”.

I found out about The Rolling Stones by reading about The Beatles. That is the same way I found out about The Who, Bob Dylan, The Kinks, and other British bands.

While growing up and playing in bands, I played with a drummer who was a huge Stones fan. He turned me onto their album cuts which I love. We had playful banter about the Beatles vs Stones, but it was all very good-natured. He liked The Beatles as well and I turned him on to their album cuts.

Are the Stones relevant today? Sure, they are… you can’t stay together since the early sixties selling out stadiums without being relevant. In today’s time though, no bands are relevant anymore in the way they were at one time, including the Stones. Musicians once influenced what was going on in the world. Now they are more of a disposable product – which I truly hate.

The Stones’ peak probably was 1968 – 1973 from Beggars Banquet to Goats Head Soup but there is another period I would like to talk about briefly.

To me, their most underrated period was 1965-1967. They had a string of singles starting with “Satisfaction”, “Get Off My Cloud”, “As Tears Go By”, “19^th Nervous Breakdown”, “Paint It Black”, “Ruby Tuesday”, etc.

Keith Richards and Mick Jagger would write these wonderful songs and Brian Jones would color the songs with sitar, harpsichord, flute, marimba, and even saxophone. He was the best musician of the band along with being its founder. When they lost Brian, they lost a key piece. Yes, they found the rock/blues groove which they still have but I liked that underappreciated era and what Brian gave them.

They started as a blues cover band and didn’t worry about writing their own songs. They realized they had to because other bands such as The Beatles, Kinks, and The Who were writing their own songs, and you couldn’t keep on covering blues artists or Chuck Berry and sustain that.

They contributed some great pop songs in the mid-sixties. These songs are sometimes overlooked (except “Satisfaction”) in favor of their late-sixties and early-seventies material. I like these songs because they give a variety of sounds. As much as I love the Mick Taylor period, they lost this part of them and never really went back and it’s a shame.

I wasn’t sure they would continue when I read that Charlie Watts died. Keith always says how important Watts was to the Rolling Stones. If they wouldn’t have had a tour planned who knows if they would have. Watts was indeed important to their sound, but they did continue and I’m glad they did, especially for the fans.

Now I want to answer Dave’s questions. Should they retire? No, why should they do that? Many people say that, but hell no (I also hear this about other artists). If they are happy doing what they are doing, then go ahead. I seriously doubt if they are doing it because of the money at this point. Just like everything else if people don’t want to see them…don’t go to the concerts. I don’t believe people should decide what is good for other people. If I don’t want to hear the Stones, I will turn them off, but I have no plans to do that. To answer Dave’s question… my favorite (to me the best) album is Beggars Banquet. My favorite song is “Memory Motel”.

If I had to describe the Stones, I would describe them as The World’s Greatest Bar Band. That is not a put down…that is a compliment. I think Mr. Richards would approve of that title because I’ve heard him use it. Both times I’ve seen them I heard bum notes and that made them more human to me and made me like them more. If you want your music perfect, they are not for you…but rock and roll wasn’t made to be perfect.

…

Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street

This song is one of the best pop singles of the 1970s. It was on the album City To City. This was Rafferty’s first release after the breakup of his former band Stealer’s Wheel. Rafferty had been unable to release any material due to disputes about the band’s remaining contractual recording obligations, and his friend’s Baker Street flat was a convenient place to stay as he tried to remove himself from his Stealers Wheel contracts. It was his second solo album, the first being Can I Have My Money Back? released in 1971.

Rafferty’s daughter Martha later said that the book The Outsider by Colin Wilson also heavily inspired the song. Rafferty was reading the book, which explores ideas of alienation and creativity while traveling between the two cities.

The first thing you notice about the song is the sax solo. Raphael Ravenscroft played the solo. Rafferty wrote the song with an instrumental break but didn’t have a specific instrument in mind. The producer, Hugh Murphy, suggested a saxophone, so they brought in Ravenscroft to play it. He was only paid £27 for his sax contribution. One urban legend about this is that the check bounced. Ravenscroft has confirmed that it didn’t bounce.

The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #3 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand in 1978. It won the 1979 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. The album City to City peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #6 in New Zealand, and #6 in the UK.

In 2011, Ravenscroft said that he thought the solo was out of tune. He admitted he was “gutted” when he heard it played back. Apparently, he had not been able to re-record the take, as he was not involved when the song was mixed.

Raphael Ravenscroft: I’m irritated because it’s out of tune; yeah it’s flat; by enough of a degree that it irritates me at best.

Gerry Rafferty: Everybody was suing each other, so I spent a lot of time on the overnight train from Glasgow to London for meetings with lawyers. I knew a guy who lived in a little flat off Baker Street. We’d sit and chat or play guitar there through the night.

Studio Guitarist Jake Burns: I went to the studio after I played the gig and I think one of the first songs we played was Baker Street, and I said, ‘This is fantastic. This is a great song, quite frankly, I loved his songs. I regard it as a great good fortune that I was able to meet and contribute something to Gerry’s music.

Baker Street

Winding your way down on Baker Street
Light in your head and dead on your feet
Well, another crazy day
You’ll drink the night away
And forget about everything

This city desert makes you feel so cold
It’s got so many people, but it’s got no soul
And it’s taken you so long
To find out you were wrong
When you thought it held everything

You used to think that it was so easy
You used to say that it was so easy
But you’re trying, you’re trying now

Another year and then you’d be happy
Just one more year and then you’d be happy
But you’re crying, you’re crying now

Way down the street there’s a light in his place
He opens the door, he’s got that look on his face
And he asks you where you’ve been
You tell him who you’ve seen
And you talk about anything

He’s got this dream about buying some land
He’s gonna give up the booze and the one-night stands
And then he’ll settle down
In some quiet little town
And forget about everything

But you know he’ll always keep moving
You know he’s never gonna stop moving
‘Cause he’s rolling, he’s the rolling stone
And when you wake up, it’s a new morning
The sun is shining, it’s a new morning
And you’re going, you’re going home

Doors – The Crystal Ship

I was more of an album guy while younger but I did collect singles too. Do you know one thing I miss about vinyl singles? The B-sides that I always liked discovering. My cousin Janene was a teenager when I was 7 years old. She let me have some of her singles from the sixties and the Monkees’ debut album.

She gave me Light My Fire and I loved it. I then turned it over one day and found this song. It was one of the oddest things I’d ever heard as a 7-year-old. I was in a trance listening to it and kept thinking of a glass ship in a blue sea. It wasn’t as good as Light My Fire but I liked this strange piece of music.

The song was on their debut self-titled album released in 1967. It peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100 and #15 in Canada. Morrison dipped into his notebook of words to get this one. He wrote it after splitting up with his girlfriend, Mary Werbelow.

Werbelow followed him from Florida to Los Angeles. Doors drummer John Densmore confirmed that Crystal Ship is about Mary. The song was a goodbye to her. Werbelow and Morrison broke up in 1965 but saw each other off and on until she moved to India in 1969. He reportedly told her that the first four Doors albums were about her…Manzarek has said that parts of them were.

Mary Werbelow is a mystery to many. People still want to know if she is still alive. She gave a short interview in 2005 but has not been heard from since. She said in that interview that she never wants to talk about Jim again. Mary says she is tired. She has trouble sleeping. She says she’s not sure if she has done right by talking so much. She’s worried that others will seek interviews that she does not want to give. She wants that made clear: She does not want to talk about Jim anymore.

The Crystal Ship

Before you slip into unconsciousness
I’d like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss
Another kiss, another kiss

The days are bright and filled with pain
Enclose me in your gentle rain
The time you ran was too insane
We’ll meet again, we’ll meet again

Oh tell me where your freedom lies
The streets are fields that never die
Deliver me from reasons why
You’d rather cry, I’d rather fly

The crystal ship is being filled
A thousand girls, a thousand thrills
A million ways to spend your time
When we get back, I’ll drop a line

Max Picks …songs from 1977

1977

This is the year I became aware of sports, news, and politics. This year is an eclectic bunch of songs. You have punk, reggae, pub rock, rock, and pop/rock.

I didn’t get into the Sex Pistols at the time they came out. They were not as big over here as they were in the UK. I did find them later on. I can’t say I’m a huge fan but I do recognize the importance of the Punk rock movement… and they stirred up the rock music industry when it needed stirring up.

This was originally called “No Future.” The band played it live and recorded a demo version with that title, but changed it when lead singer Johnny Rotten got the idea to mock the British monarchy.

I got into Bob Marley and the Wailers a little later but better late than never. Jammin’ is on their ninth studio album Exodus. In Jamaica, the word “jamming” refers to getting together for a celebration. Although it can also mean an impromptu musical session.

Marley wrote the song in exile in Nassau after the 1976 attempt on his life.

The song was written by David Bowie and Brian Eno and was on the Heroes album released in 1977. After burnout because of touring Bowie moved to Berlin and rented a cheap apartment above an auto-repair shop, which is where he wrote the album.

I was walking through a drug store in the late seventies as a kid and I saw this album cover…I thought what??? another person named Elvis? Who is this skinny guy? While at the drug store, the guy was playing this album and I heard Alison… That was the first thing I ever heard from Elvis. The album peaked at #32 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1978. His songs were different than a lot of the radio hits of the day…with different, I mean better.

Fleetwood Mac released Rumours and it was the album of the year. An incredible four singles were pulled off of this album plus the other songs that would become FM classics. Personally, my favorite two are Second Hand News and Never Going Back Again but I do like Go Your On Way.

Lindsey Buckingham showed that less was more in this solo…he used very few notes and used sustain.

Muddy Waters – Mannish Boy

One of the best riffs in blues or rock. It’s been recycled in so many songs but never loses its bite. This song was a reworking of the Bo Diddley song “I’m A Man.” Great song by the great Muddy Waters.

Muddy recorded several versions of this song through the years. He recorded the original at Chess Records in Chicago in 1955. One of the reasons I love this song so much is because the guitar line is easy to play but very memorable. Waters used the same basic riff on his song “Hoochie Coochie Man.” George Thorogood also used it for his song “Bad To The Bone.”

The song peaked at #51 in the UK in 1988 and #5 in the R&B Charts in 1955.

Muddy Waters originally recorded this in 1955, then re-recorded it in 1977 for his Hard Again album in a version produced by Johnny Winter. The song was written by Muddy Waters, Mel London, and Bo Diddley.

He was born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, around 1913. Nicknamed “Muddy” as a child, he worked on the huge Stovall cotton plantation before following the northward migration of African Americans to Chicago, where he drove a truck and signed to Chess Records, a tiny blues label run by two émigré Polish brothers, Leonard and Phil Chess. As Muddy Waters, he established himself as a pioneering electric blues musician in the early 1950s.

Mannish Boys

Oh, yeah
Oh, yeah

Everything gonna be alright this mornin’
Now, when I was a young boy
At the age of five
My mother said I was gonna be
The greatest man alive
But now I’m a man
I’m age twenty-one
I want you to believe me, honey
We having lots of fun

I’m a man (yeah)
I spell M
A, child
N
That represent man
No B
O, child
Y
That spell mannish boy
I’m a man
I’m a full-grown man
I’m a man
I’m a rollin’ stone
I’m a man
I’m a hoochie-coochie man

Sittin’ on the outside
Just me and my mate
I’m made to move
Come up two hours late
Wasn’t that a man?
I spell M
A, child
N
That represesnt man
No B
O, child
Y
That spell mannish boy
I’m a man
I’m a full-grown man
I’m a man
I’m a rolllin’ stone
I’m a man
Full-grown man
Oh, well
Oh, well