Culture – Page 8 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Max’s Drive-In Movie – Walking Tall

The movie is about what happened in McNairy County Tennessee with the big stick-carrying Sherriff named Buford Pusser. Don’t get this one mixed up with the modern version… you will not get the “Rock” in this one. It has more of a realistic feel than the latest remake. This movie is not slick or smooth…it was made on a small budget but it works well. I grew up hearing stories about Buford Pusser. A policeman friend of the family knew him well.

Before I get into the film. The movie stuck with me through the years and I have a personal story about ending up at his house.

My wife and I traveled to Memphis to visit Graceland in the late 90s. On the way back home we got lost (pre-GPS and I have no sense of direction) and ended up in McNairy County. I remembered the name and we looked saw Pusser’s old home which was turned into a museum. We walked in and the lady working there was super nice. We sat on his couch and looked at his car, badges, guns, and uniforms. Before I left I could not resist…I just had to buy one of those big sticks…which was just an ax handle with his name and also a VHS tape of the Sheriff’s story. I checked today…now they have his furniture behind glass.

It was pretty cool being able to touch and walk around freely after the “stay behind the rope!” mentality at Graceland…which I understand completely…Hey, it’s the home of the big E. If you ever go to Graceland and if you have a couple of hours to spare, drive to this museum it is interesting… it’s like going back in time to the mid-seventies…it was just a fluke that we found it but it was fun.

Ok back to the movie. It’s a vigilante drama and a revenge story that paces itself pretty well. Joe Don Baker is very believable in this movie. If you hate violence this is not for you because it’s loaded with it. The Sheriff almost single-handedly cleans up the town with the aid of a big stick and his loyal deputies. The film quality is cleaned up and not as grainy as I remembered. You will see the future 70s pinup singer Leif Garret as the Sheriff’s son…also future Rockford Files dad Noah Beery Jr. I watched the movie recently and it holds up very well.

A little about the history of Pusser. He was the son of Carl and Helen Pusser. His father was the police chief of Adamsville, Tennessee, which likely influenced Pusser’s future career in law enforcement. Before becoming a lawman, Pusser served in the United States Marine Corps and was also a professional wrestler.

He became the sheriff of McNairy County in 1964. The 26-year-old sheriff was fearless and wasted no time cracking down on mafia activity, concentrating on the state border between Tennessee and Mississippi, which was controlled by two separate gangs… the Dixie Mafia and the State Line Mob. The mob gangs made a lot of money off of moonshine, so Pusser’s crackdown was obviously not appreciated. His battle against all of this was intense and personal. His wife, Pauline, was killed in an ambush meant for him, which fueled his determination to clean up the county.

Did he bend the rules? Yes, sometimes into a pretzel but he was playing against a stacked deck. Despite his wife being killed, his family being terrorized, and numerous attempts on his life, he kept going. He was stabbed 7 times and shot 8 during his time as sheriff. I’m sure Hollywood massaged some truth, but it wasn’t cartoonish.

The movie grossed over $40 million at the box office and led to two sequels: Walking Tall Part 2 (1975) and Final Chapter: Walking Tall (1977), as well as a television series and a 2004 remake I told you about earlier starring The Rock (Dwayne Johnson).

Buford Pusser agreed to portray himself in Walking Tall Part II but, hours after signing the contract, he was killed when his car ran off the road near his home. Some believe his car was sabotaged in retribution for his stamping out the illegal activities of the Stateline mob on the Tennessee-Mississippi border.

Buford Pusser

Quotes:

Buford: There’s only two rules, and thats all… But don’t ever forget them. Number one we enforce the law equally. Number two, any man caught taking a bribe gets his head knocked off by me.

Plot from IMDB:

“Walking Tall” depicts Buford Pusser’s real-life crusade against the corruption that plagued his hometown. After being severely beaten by criminals, Pusser decides to run for sheriff and wins. He then begins a relentless campaign to rid the county of illegal activities, facing numerous threats and attempts on his life. His story is one of resilience, justice, and personal loss.

The cast included Joe Don Baker, Elizabeth Hartley, Leif Garrett, Dawn Lyn, and Noah Beery Jr.

I have a Jimmy Buffett and Buford Pusser story after the video. It’s well worth the read!

Off topic of the movie but Jimmy Buffet had a Buford Pusser story. I’ve heard this from different sources but this is from http://www.buffettworld.com… The movie was good but this would have been GREAT to see. Jimmy was on the wrong side of Pusser.

In 1974, Jimmy Buffett had a run-in with famed “Walking Tall” sheriff Buford Pusser. The story is referred to in “Presents To Send You” from the 1974 album A1A and also in “Semi-True Stories” from the 1999 album Beach House On The Moon.
In both songs, few details are mentioned. But at a show in 1974 at the Exit Inn in Nashville, just a few months after the incident, Buffett took some time to tell the crowd about the altercation:

“There were a lot of rumors circling around that I had an encounter with this young man. Which are true. We finished doing our recording over at Woodland Studio, real happy that the album had come out so well. All the lightweights had went out to get a few bottles of champagne and celebrate. Sammy Creason and Chuck Nease and I decided to go out and get a bottle of Cuervo Gold Tequilla and 3 straws. We went at it and in 15 minutes we were just knee-crawlin’ drunk. So we proceeded to the flashiest night spot in town, the roof of the King of the Road Hotel.

We’re there dining and dancing. Ronnie Milsap was on vacation. Sammy Creason was with me, so we provided just a gala of entertainment. Me on acoustic guitar so drunk I couldn’t hit the chords and him just pounding the drums out in 3-quarter time. Ran everybody out. We got the screaming munchies and we were going to Charlie Nickens to eat. And I couldn’t find my rent-a-car, which was parked somewhere amidst thousands of cars in the parking lot of the fabulous, plush King of the Road hotel. It was a little bitty car. It was hiding among many big ones there. And there was a Tennessee Prosecutors convention going on there. If they had made it to room 819 they would’ve had a closed door case.

So I stood on the hood of this car with a pair of… actually, they were old Ra Ra’s that I bought in Miami for 2 bucks. They were white and brown old Ra Ra’s but they were golf shoes so I had to take the cleats out but they still had the posts in them so they clicked a lot. I was standing on the hood of this particular car and as fate would have it it belonged to a rather large man who came up behind me and threatened my life real quickly. And I hadn’t been in a fight since junior high school on the city bus in Mobile. He came up and said “Son you stay right there, you’re under arrest”. So I politely turned around and said “You kiss my ass”. He didn’t. Instead he followed me over to the car which Sammy had found. I got in the driver’s side and Sammy got in the passenger’s side. My window was up, his was down and this fellow poked his head in and said “Would you like for me to turn this car over?”.

I was not scared of this individual. I just thought he was some ex-football player turned counselor. And Sammy said “look whatever damage we did ABC will pay for everything” which was awfully generous of Sammy since he didn’t have the authority to say so. Being a good company man I took up for my company and said “No they won’t. I’m still gonna beat your ass if you don’t leave us alone”. With that he pulled up then stuck his big head and his hand in and grabbed me by my hair until it separated from my head. I had a big bald spot on the back of it and I looked like a monk for about 3 months. Then he punched Sammy right in the nose. We knew he wasn’t kidding. So Sammy defended himself bravely with a big pen. He starts stabbing at this man’s arm trying to get it out of the window because we couldn’t start the car because with the new modern features of ‘74 automobiles you can not start your car unless your seat belt’s buckled and we were too drunk to get ours hooked up.

So we sit there while this man pounded the hell out of both of us. I looked over at Creason and I said “Sammy I don’t wanna die in a Gremlin.” Eaten by a shark, killed in a plane crash, but what’s my mother gonna say? Smashed to death in a Gremlin in the parking lot of the plush King of the Road hotel. Nope. So I mustered all the courage and energy I had and all the coordination I had left in my poor body and got the seat belt buckled and went to Charlie Nickens. We ordered our barbecue and on the way back we hit the Jefferson St. Bridge. Luckily there was no one around so we just backed up and headed for the hotel.

Got back, and we decided that this man may be lurking in the bushes or else may have been snorkeling around in the pool trying to scoop up coins that people threw in. So we decided to defend ourselves with a classic southern weapon: a tire tool. So we destroyed the back end of the Gremlin looking for the tire tool, found it. Walked through the lobby of these prosecutors, and we had caused a turmoil by this time. And got up to the 8th floor where we were staying and figured we were all safe. But I had forgotten my key.

So I had to go back downstairs and Sammy said well you take this I’m not going back down there. And he gave me the weapon, which I stuck in my back pocket. Walked down into the plush lobby of the plush King of the Road hotel, walked up to the desk and asked for the key to my room. This man snuck up behind me and took the tire tool out of my back pocket. I whipped around and I said “look you, that was for my protection and you started this whole thing. I didn’t mean to get on your car and I’m still gonna beat your ass if you don’t quit bothering me.” At this point, two detectives seized me, drug me into the elevator and said “son, we would call the police and have you arrested. You’ve caused quite a disturbance here tonight. But we figure your just lucky to be alive because that was Buford Pusser.” And I went “Oh. 8th floor please.”

Max’s Drive-In Movie – Mean Streets

I like movies that are directed and written by the same person. That is the reason I like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin movies. You won’t find this much anymore unless it’s an indie movie. Movies that are written by a committee are sometimes slick and predictable. We need more movies and music like this. I talked about this last Friday in the comments with different people about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and remembered I wrote it about this one as well.

You will hear one word in many of these reviews…and that word is gritty. The 1970s movies set in New York have grit, filth, and realism. The way these were made looks like they were made on the fly. I mean that in the best way. The characters look as if they were lifted off the streets and filmed. There is a good reason for that. It had a small budget so they couldn’t afford a union-shot movie. Many scenes were shot with natural lighting, and guerrilla filmmaking techniques were employed to save costs. They shot it in 26 days and made excellent use of a handheld camera.

This 1973 film opens with a famous monologue by Charlie, played by Keitel, which sets the tone for the character’s internal conflict. This introspective voice-over became a signature element of Scorsese’s storytelling style. Mean Streets is set in New York City’s Little Italy and follows Charlie (Harvey Keitel), a small-time hood trying to make his way in the local Mafia, and his reckless friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro), who owes money all over town. The film explores the struggling street life and the demands of mob life…along with a lot of guilt.

It’s directed by Martin Scorsese and I think this is one of the best movies of its kind. He would later make other mob movies that are more well-known such as Goodfellas, Casino, and The Irishman but none of them are as, here is that word again, gritty as this. Scorsese knew the vibe well, growing up in his New York City neighborhood and dealing with a formative period in his life during the early 60’s. He shot this movie with Roger Corman’s crew with 6 days of location in New York and with most of the interiors done in Los Angeles. Scorsese edited much of the movie in his bedroom. It was written by Scorsese and his childhood friend Mardik Martin. What lends to the atmosphere is many of the film’s scenes were improvised. Scorsese encouraged his actors to ad-lib their lines to create a more authentic and natural feel.

The actors were fantastic. Harvey Keitel, De Niro, Amy Robinson, Victor Argo, and many more. Keitel stands out to me in this like he does in most of the films he made. Here he balances out toughness with vulnerability. He got this part because Jon Voight had dropped out.

Let’s talk about the music a little bit here. Not many directors are as good as Scorsese at placing music in movies. In the first few minutes of this movie, you hear two Stones songs and Derek and the Dominos as he fits the scenes beautifully.

The movie is not action-packed…it’s almost like a day in the life of these characters. You can see parts of Scorsese’s later movies in this one as well. Much like you can see Pulp Fiction in Reservoir Dogs for Quentin Tarantino.

Quotes:

Voice in Charlie’s Mind: You don’t make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit, and you know it.

Charlie: You know what the Queen said? If I had balls, I’d be King.

Charlie: It’s all bullshit except the pain. The pain of hell. The burn from a lighted match increased a million times. Infinite. Now, ya don’t fuck around with the infinite. There’s no way you do that. The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart… your soul, the spiritual side. And ya know… the worst of the two is the spiritual.

I saw this review about a book on mobster films that talks about this movie.

Over time, Scorsese would make “slicker, better-crafted movies,” according to authors George Anastasia and Glen Macnow in The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies, “but the nuts and bolts of who he is and what he’s about are here.” The authors rank Mean Streets No. 14 of the Top 100 gangster movies, just behind Léon: The Professional and ahead of Reservoir Dogs. “On one level, watching Mean Streets is like finding some old film of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays during their first seasons in the big leagues,” the authors wrote. “The raw talent is there. There are sparks and smoldering potential.”

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Summer Jam at Watkins Glen… 51 Years Ago Today

I would have loved to have gone to this concert. The Grateful Dead, The Band, and The Allman Brothers! How much more Americana could you get? Many people felt the same…I mean MANY. 51 years ago today this mammoth concert happened.

I would love to hear from you if you were at this concert. I have one person who did give me a comment.

I first read about this festival in a Grateful Dead biography… There is not much video footage from the concert. No professional film because The Dead didn’t want it to be a movie or soundtrack. I could never understand why this concert wasn’t as well known as The Atlanta Pop Festival and others. It drew more than any other festival including Woodstock with some others combined.

Fans who arrived early were treated to an impromptu soundcheck by the Grateful Dead on July 27, which essentially turned into an extra set…it lasted for hours. Despite the enormous crowd, the atmosphere was surprisingly peaceful and communal. Whether they knew it or not…they were part of something truly historic.

Some cars were abandoned and a few of them are still there! I have a video below that shows some of the rusted cars now that were left.

An estimated 600,000 people attended this concert on July 28, 1973, in Watkins Glen N.Y. 51 years ago. Below is a blogger who was there and a member from each band talking about the concert. I’ll let all of them do the talking.

Jim from Unique Title For Me wrote this about going to this concert. He was one of the lucky ones that got to see Summer Jam.

Jim: That was my favorite concert that I attended, and I have some great memories of being there. We drove into the concert with an ounce of pot on the dashboard and since it was sold out, they were no longer collecting tickets, so they just waved us through the gate. There was this spaced-out naked guy standing nearby Danny, Patty, Irene and I and Danny said that we had to move because he was ruining the show for us. He had a snake around his neck, and he kept drooling, but I liked the spot we had so I grabbed him by his arm and flung him into the mud pit in front of the stage where all the other naked weirdos were.

From the bands themselves, almost all agree the sound check on Friday was better than the concerts.

Perspective about the concert by a member from each band.

Robbie Robertson from his book Testimony

Then we got a request from Bill Graham, who was putting together a show “just up the highway from us” at the Watkins Glen Raceway. We’d be performing with the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead. Playing some gigs could help us get “back on the stick,” as they say.
We went up to Watkins Glen the day before the show for the sound check. Bill Graham said that the Dead would go on first and play for three or four hours—that was part of their thing, giving the audience their money’s worth. “Until the drugs wear off,” said Bill, laughing. We’d go on in the late afternoon, and the Allmans would take over at sundown. As we were leaving the sound check, it looked like cars were heading toward the racetrack from every direction. Bill said he expected maybe a hundred thousand or more.
When we came back the next day, we couldn’t believe our eyes. Hundreds of thousands of people had showed up, and more just kept coming and coming. The crowds mowed down the high chain-link fences around the racetrack and filled the area as far as the eye could see. Bill was running around trying to make people pay admission, but the mobs were out of control.
When it came time for the Band to take the stage, it started pouring. As we waited, hoping it was going to let up, Bill came over. “They’ve determined there are 650,000 people here. It’s the biggest concert in history.” The news was somewhere between an incredible accomplishment and a huge disaster.
The rain started letting up, and Garth played some churchy, rainy-day keyboard sounds out over the crowd. When it was safe to go on, we decided to start our set with Chuck Berry’s “Back to Memphis.” And wouldn’t you know, as Levon sang that baby, the sun came out.

Gregg Allman from My Cross to Bear

Right before Brothers and Sisters came out, we played the festival at Watkins Glen with the Band and the Grateful Dead, in front of six hundred thousand people—the biggest show in history to that point. People always talk about Woodstock. Watkins Glen was like three Woodstocks. I think actually it might’ve been a little too big. They should have had people all the way around the raceway, and maybe had the stage in the center revolving real slowly, do a revolution in a minute. That’s not that complicated.
A show like Watkins Glen was uncomfortable, because you know that you’re getting the show across to this many people, but you still got two times that many behind them. You could finish a song, take your guitar off, put it in the case, and latch it up before the last guy heard the last note. Sound ain’t all that fast, not compared to light.

When you’re playing in that situation, you’re kind of thinking about the end. Not that you’re wishing it to be over, but you can’t even hear yourself—that was back before we had the in-ear monitors. Everything was so loud. You just walk out there and start to wince before you even start playing. It’s hard to get any kind of coziness, any kind of feel with the audience.
I guess there’s something about that many people seeing you all at once that’s real nice, but it’s just too much. You’re just like a little squeak in the middle of a bomb going off. But it was interesting, and it was a pretty fun day. People were OD’ing all over the place. And of course, Uncle Bill was there, which cured everything. It was exciting to be there and see it—and to be able to make ’em stand up, now that was something else.

Bill Kreutzmann from Deal

We made some questionable business decisions and we couldn’t sell records, but we sure could sell tickets. We sold around 150,000 tickets for a single show at a racetrack in Watkins Glen, New York, on July, 28, 1973. Yes, and more than 600,000 people ended up coming out for it. The lineup was just us, the Allman Brothers, and the Band. That show, called the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for what, at the time, was the largest audience ever assembled at a rock concert. In fact, that record may still hold today, at least in the U.S., and some have even proposed that it was the largest gathering in American history. Originally, the bill was supposed to just be the Dead and the Allmans, but our respective camps fought with the promoter over which band would get headliner status. The solution was that both bands would co-headline and they’d add a third, “support” act.
The friendly (“-ish”) competition between us and the Allman Brothers carried through to the event itself. And yet, the memory that I’m most fond of and hold most dear from that whole weekend was jamming backstage with Jaimoe, one of the Allman’s drummers. We were just sitting in the dressing room, banging out rhythms, and that was a lot of fun for me. Jaimoe backed Otis Redding and Sam & Dave before becoming a founding member of the Allman Brothers, where he remains to this day. He’s a soulful drummer and just an incredible guy who is impossible not to like.
As for the show itself, it is a well-known fact that the Grateful Dead always blew the big ones. Watkins Glen was no exception. However, we still got a great night of music out of it—the night before. The show took place on a Saturday, but by Friday afternoon there were already about 90,000 people in front of the stage. I’ve heard others place that number closer to 200,000. Either way, the audience was already many times the size of any of our regular shows, and the show was still a full day away. The only duty we had on Friday was to do a soundcheck, and even that was somewhat optional. The Band soundchecked a couple of songs. The Allman Brothers soundchecked for a bit. Then, perhaps spurred on by our friendly rivalry, we decided to one-up both bands by turning our soundcheck into a full-on, two-set show. Naturally, without any of the pressure of the “official show” the next day, we really let loose and played a good one. There was an eighteen-minute free-form jam that eventually made it onto So Many Roads, one of our archival box sets. It’s good music, all right, and it still holds its own.
On the day of the actual show, we had to fly into the venue via helicopter because the roads were all backed up, like what happened at Woodstock. People left their cars on the side of the road and walked for miles to the gig. I remember looking down from the helicopter and seeing the most incredible impressionist painting, a Monet of heads, shoulders, tie-dyes, baseball caps, and backpacks, packed front to back. You couldn’t see the ground for the crowd. To this day, I’ve never seen anything else like that.
Nowadays at large music events and festivals, they have golf carts for artists and crews to get around, but back then they used little motor scooters. Early, during the day of our supposed “soundcheck,” I commandeered one of these scooters and, because the venue was an actual racetrack, I decided to do a lap. This was before the gates were opened. The scooter went maybe fifteen or eighteen miles an hour, something stupid like that, and it took forever just to do one lap. But I did it. And that’s when I first started to get a feel for the scale of the event and just how large it was.
During the Summer Jam itself, I watched the other bands play and I honestly thought the Allman Brothers played better on the big day than we did. As for the Band, well, they always sounded great.

Billy Bragg and Wilco – At My Window Sad and Lonely

Since I did the Car Songs post and obbverse recommended Black Nova, I’ve been listening to Wilco much more. I first heard of Wilco when I heard the song “Secret of The Sea” which was on the album Mermaid Avenue Volume II. This song was on the first volume.

Mermaid Avenue was a collaborative album by the band Wilco and the British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg. It features previously unpublished lyrics by the legendary folk musician Woody Guthrie. The album was released in 1998 and is named after the street in Coney Island, New York, where Guthrie lived. There were 3 albums in all.

I can’t imagine the pressure Bragg and Wilco felt doing this. Having the legendary Woody Guthrie lyrics in front of you and writing melodies around them. They brought in a new generation of fans to Woody Guthrie. In this song, Jeff Tweedy wrote the music around Guthrie’s lyrics. Many of these lyrics were written in the 1930s – 1940s and finished in 1997.

The project was started by Woody Guthrie’s daughter, Nora Guthrie, who wanted to breathe new life into her father’s huge collection of unpublished lyrics. She invited Billy Bragg to set the lyrics to music, and Bragg, in turn, invited Wilco to join the project. They did a fantastic job on these albums.

The album was well-received by critics, who praised Bragg and Wilco for their ability to honor Guthrie’s legacy while bringing his lyrics into a modern musical context. Mermaid Avenue was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

The album peaked at #34 in the UK and #90 on the Billboard 100 in 1998.

Billy Bragg: I hate to draw comparisons, but it’s what Dylan and the Band were doing in the Basement Tapes. They took those old folk songs, that had deep roots, and they messed around with them and made a great record. We were able to apply that same idea to these songs, although we were perhaps more radical, because we had the whole history of rock music between when Woody wrote the songs, and us, whereas Dylan was quite early on in that tradition. That’s the trick with these Woody Guthrie compilations, is not to be too reverent to the material. Don’t worry about Woody’s words – they’re going to work. Bring yourself in – do what you think he would do. Do what you think you should do. Meet him half way.

There’s a hundred different ways to write a song. And every way is the right way, as long as you end up with a song. Some of those songs that Woody wrote, who knows what tunes he had for them? Maybe we were miles off, maybe we were close, I don’t know. But ultimately it’s what the guy was saying that matters – not the way he was saying it. And what he was saying is preserved. We were fortunate enough to put a frame around his artistic endeavors.

At My Window Sad and Lonely

At my window sad and lonelyOft times do I think of theeSad and lonely and I wonderDo you ever think of me?

Every day is sad and lonelyAnd every night is sad and blueDo you ever think of me, my darlingAs you sail that ocean blue?

At my window, sad and lonelyI stand and look across the seaAnd I, sad and lonely wonderDo you ever think of me?

Will you find another sweetheartIn some far and distant land?Sad and lonely now I wonderIf our boat will ever land

Ships may ply the stormy oceansAnd planes may fly the stormy skyI’m sad and lonely but rememberOh, I will love you ’til I die

…

T-Rex – Hot Love

***I feel like this is an every other week announcement but lately, it has been crazy at work. I’m traveling on Sunday and won’t be back until Friday so I won’t be posting until I return. I’ll be too busy to comment back so I’ll hold off.***

Since I took a week and dedicated it to the UK a few months ago I’ve been listening to T-Rex quite a bit. The songs were commercial but very good commercial.

America missed the boat on T-Rex. The only substantial hit they had here was Bang a Gong. This song was their second release as T. Rex…it peaked at #1 in the UK, #7 in New Zealand, #47 in Canada, and #72 on the Billboard 100 in 1071. The song was a non-album single. It was written by Marc Bolan and produced by Tony Visconti who would go on to produce Bowie, Badfinger, Gentle Giant, The Moody Blues, and The Boomtown Rats among others. He also scored the orchestral arrangements for Band on the Run by McCartney.

This was the band’s second big hit single and it gave Marc Bolan what he had always dreamed of… his first No.1 hit. Bolan was influenced by Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel and the coda repeating structure from The Beatles Hey Jude. Bolan was smart with this song, he kept the rhythm simple and didn’t deviate from that.

T. Rex was huge in the UK starting around 1970 but then declining in 1974. They did have a documentary made about them produced and directed by Ringo Starr called Born to Boogie. Bolan has been credited with starting Glam Rock.

Bolan went on to host a musical TV show called Marc in which he hosted a mix of new and established bands and performed his own songs. Marc’s final show was recorded on September 7, 1977, with special guest David Bowie…who was a friend of Bolan. I have a video of this appearance at the bottom of the post.

Bolan would die in a car wreck 9 days later on September 16, 1977.

Marc Bolan: “I know it’s like a million other songs, but I hope it’s got a little touch of me in it too.”

Hot Love

Well, she’s my woman of goldAnd she’s not very old, a-ha-haWell, she’s my woman of goldAnd she’s not very old, a-ha-haI don’t mean to be bold, a-but a-may I hold your hand?

Well, she ain’t no witchAnd I love the way she twitch, a-ha-haWell, she ain’t no witchAnd I love the way she twitch, a-ha-haI’m a laborer of love in my Persian gloves, a-ha-ha

Well, she’s faster than mostAnd she lives on the coast, a-ha-haWell, she’s faster than mostAnd she lives on the coast, a-ha-haI’m her two penny prince and I give her hot love, a-ha-haTake it out on me, mama

Aw!Aw!Oh!

Well, she ain’t no witchAnd I love the way she twitch, a-ha-haWell, she ain’t no witchAnd I love the way she twitch, a-ha-haI’m her two penny prince and I give her hot love, a-ha-ha

La la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laOoh, oh, do what you do

La la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laOoh, lay it all down

La la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laOoh

La la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laOoh, lay it all down

La la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laOoh, jetzt kommt sie doch

La la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laOoh, ba-ba-ba

La la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la laLa la la, la-la-la la (yeah)La la la, la-la-la laOoh, yeah

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Max’s Drive-In Movie – The French Connection

This movie was based on a true story. A book was written by Robin Moore called The French Connection about two real detectives named Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. Their screen counterparts were Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle and Buddy ‘Cloudy’ Russo. It wasn’t an exact retelling of the true events but much of it aligned with the truth.

One thing I love about this movie is no one looks like a movie star in it. The style of this movie was like someone filming real life. That will probably be a theme here in these drive-in movies. I won’t cover just classics like this one though but I love gritty movies.

The plot is around two New York City cops who are trying to intercept a 32-million-dollar heroin shipment. They concentrate on ‘Popeye’ Doyle (Gene Hackman) who some would say is uncouth and doesn’t have a love for people. He is like a bulldog on a bone. There is nothing that will stop him. The main person they are chasing is Alain Charnier, a suave and urbane gentleman but is a supplier of pure heroin to America.

The Car Chase. Oh yes, this one is different and very intense. Popeye is chasing a train that is above the street. He stops a pedestrian and uses his car and it is unrelenting. A little trivia… it was shot with no permits and featured actual crashes with real New Yorkers. They did have a few policemen that controlled traffic for the shot but the chase then went into unpatrolled places. Gene Hackman did a lot of the driving but the dangerous stunts in the chase were performed by stuntman Bill Hickman.

The stars Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider patrolled with the real subjects… Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso for a month. Hackman even helped restrain a subject at one stop.

Let’s go to the director now. Before this film, William Friedkin was best known as a documentary maker. That probably helped the realism in this movie. He had directed a few TV movies and movies before though. He would later direct The Exorcist.

Quotes

Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle: All right! You put a shiv in my partner. You know what that means? Goddammit! All winter long I got to listen to him gripe about his bowling scores. Now I’m gonna bust your ass for those three bags and I’m gonna nail you for picking your feet in Poughkeepsie.
[a few scenes later:]
Walt Simonson: Popeye. You still picking your feet in Poughkeepsie?

The line “picking your feet in Poughkeepsie” was used in real life by real cop Eddie Egan while interrogating suspects. Grosso and Egan would play good cop and bad cop. It’s a phrase that Egan would sometimes use during interrogations to disorient and confuse suspects during interrogations, with the aim of Grosso getting them to open up by asking more direct queries actually related to the case.

…

Love Valley Rock Festival…1970

Today is the 44th anniversary of this Rock Festival at Love Valley.

What a festival this was and what a town it still is. It happened in Love Valley North Carolina. The headliners were The Allman Brothers who at that time only had one album out and were largely unknown to the masses. This huge festival was soon known as Woodstock South. Between 100,000-200,000 showed up.

A man named Andy Barker always wanted to live in a western town. When he was 29 years old he bought some land in 1954 and moved his family there. The land was in Iredell County and he he built the town and it was chartered in 1963. It has a saloon, hitching posts, a small church, and more. No cars are allowed in town…you can walk or ride a horse through.

It’s the place for riding horses, rodeos, and hiking trails with 2000 acres to cover. The population of Love Valley is right now at 96. Through the years it seems to stay around 100.

In 1969 Andy’s daughter Tonda wanted to go to Woodstock but he thought she was too young. So he asked her and her 16-year-old brother Jet Barker to organize a festive concert in Love Valley. While in college she had worked with an entertainment coordinator at college and knew the ropes. She managed to secure the Allman Brothers Band who at the time were known in the south but that is about it. They also got some more local bands to fill it out…it was a large bill. It took place Thursday, July 16-18, 1970.

One interesting thing that happened was that the Hell’s Angels and Outlaws showed up to battle each other. According to witnesses, Andy Barker stopped them, confiscated a chain and ax from each, and told them there would be no trouble there. They seemed to respect this man because after that the gangs dispersed and some camped out with no reported trouble. The festival went off without any major hitch.

Tonda: “It was perfect, it was like a dream. We had worked so hard and we could finally just sit down and enjoy it.”

Andy planned to make a documentary of it but it didn’t happen. All we have to look at is some grainy footage but that grainy footage shows Duane Allman a year before At Fillmore East was released. They were finishing up their second album Idlewild South at this time. Some very nice bootlegs are out there from their multiple sets.

Along with the Allman Brothers, the lineup consisted of these bands: Big Brother and the Holding Company (without Janis), Radar, Peace Core, Wet Willie, Johnny Jenkins, Tony Joe White, Hampton Grease Band, Donnydale, Catfish Freedom, Sundown, Chakra, Hot Rain, Kallabash, Warm Stone Blind, Captain John’s Fishmarket. There were over 40 bands over that weekend.

Some like Wet Willie would go on to have a few hits. Tony Joe White had a top ten hit with Polk Salad Annie the year before.

Ed Buzzell was a UPI stringer and took these photographs...they are amazing. They don’t show many bands…just the people…you feel like you are there.

WHO – The Real Me

Jim Adams invited me to participate in Song Lyric Sunday for his blog. This week’s prompt is…”a song that features a great bass line.” I knew it was going to be a Who song…and I changed it at the last minute from My Generation to this. This song has some incredible bass.

I have played music since I was around 14-15 and bass since I was around 15. I started out with an acoustic guitar with 2 strings. I could play Smoke on the Water, Down on the Corner, and other songs with those two strings. Soon I graduated to 6 strings and learned chords. A buddy of mine played guitar and he was more advanced than I was at the time.

We decided I would play bass and he would play guitar. I got a job cleaning up a vacant lot that had a massive mess for two days and earned around 50 bucks…and in the early 1980s…that could get you a decent bass guitar in a pawn shop. I learned by ear. We would listen to a record…slow it down to the slowest speed on the turntable and start figuring it out. I’m glad I learned that way because I can pick things out by listening.

Hearing this song around 8 years after it was released for the first time was exciting for me. It was a huge influence on how I played. I always made sure in any band I was in…the bass was heard. You could feel it in your chest… I made sure of that. I would hear some say…”Max is on 11 again.”

Where do I start with this song?

One of the most exciting songs of The Who. It was on the Mod concept album Quadrophenia. Roger and Pete are excellent in this song but John and Keith really stand out. The bass and drums do the heavy lifting in this song. It peaked at #92 in 1974.

I have sat for hours with a bass in my hand trying to get the runs right to this song. One of John’s best bass parts. I usually tie my fingers into knots trying to get this right. It wasn’t one of their huge hits but it was absolutely perfect for me.

I’ve never heard a hard rock band this tight yet carry a great melody underneath it all. John’s bass playing in this song is so good and he makes it sound almost normal. That is why I’ll always be in awe of The Who. Give me their rhythm section of Entwistle and Moon and I could rule the world. The word “revolutionized” is overused at times…but yes Entwistle did revolutionize the bass guitar as Moon did the drums.

The album told the story of a young mod named Jimmy. This song is about Jimmy’s inner turmoil and his quest to understand who he really is. He seeks answers and validation from his mother, a psychiatrist, and God, but finds no clear resolution. The album explores themes of identity, rebellion, and disillusionment. Pete Townshend wrote this and put a little of each band member’s personality in the character.

John Entwistle: “The Real Me” was the first take. I was joking when I did that bass part. The band said, “Wow, that’s great, that’s great!” And I was just messing around. They just loved the song. I was sitting on top of my speaker cabinet playing a silly bass part and that’s the one they liked.

John Entwistle: I think if you listen to my bass parts on their own, they sound unbelievably disjointed, but when you play them with the other instruments on the track, they fit. That’s what comes from playing with Keith.

Speaking of my favorite rhythm section…here is an isolated recording of JUST the bass and drums.

The Real Me

I went back to the doctor
To get another shrink
I sit and tell him ’bout my weekend
But he never betrays what he thinks

Woo
Can you see the real me, doctor?
Doctor?
Can you see the real me, doctor?
Woah, doctor

I went back to my mother
I said I’m crazy ma, help me
She said I know how it feels son
‘Cause it runs in the family

Can you see the real me, mama?
Mama?
Can you see the real me, mama?
Woah, mama

Can you see
Can you see the real me?
Can you see
Can you see the real me
The real me
The real me

The cracks between the paving stones
Look like rivers of flowing veins
Strange people who know me
Peeping from behind every window pane
The girl I used to love
Lives in this yellow house
Yesterday she passed me by
She doesn’t want to know me now

Can you see the real me?
Can ya?
Can ya?
Can you see the real me?
Can ya?
Woah, yeah

I ended up with a preacher
Full of lies and hate
I seemed to scare him a little
So he showed me to the golden gate

Can you see the real me, preacher?
Preacher?
Can you see the real me, preacher?

Can you see
Can you see
Can you see
Woah

Can you see the real me, doctor?

Can you see the real me, ma?

Can you see the real me (me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me)?

…

Band – Acadian Driftwood

Everlasting summer filled with ill-content
This government had us walkin’ in chains
This isn’t my turf
This ain’t my season
Can’t think of one good reason to remain

I will say that my favorite Canadian export is The Band. Combine the 4 Canadians with one southern American and you have ~~gold~~…no scratch that… you have diamonds. Something I will confess about this band… after I’ve heard songs like The Weight, all of my life, sometimes I don’t realize or forget…wow that is great songwriting! I guess because those songs are so ingrained in my head and I don’t give them as much notice but I want to say something about that now. After posting Daniel and the Sacred Harp and now Acadian Driftwood…my respect for Robbie Robertson’s songwriting knows no bounds. This is songwriting at its best. Don’t get me wrong…I always knew those popular songs were great but I took The Band for granted for a while.

Robertson was inspired by the history of the Acadians, a group of French settlers in Canada who were forcibly removed from their land during the Great Expulsion (Le Grand Dérangement) between 1755 and 1764. This event scattered the Acadians across various regions, including Louisiana, where they became known as Cajuns. He was also influenced by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1847 poem Evangeline, which describes the deportation of Acadians

Just like with Daniel And The Sacred Harp this song showcases the vocals of Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Richard Manuel. Each takes a turn singing different parts of the song, contributing to the narrative’s depth and meaning. There were some other Americana bands but none sounded like The Band.

Who would even think about writing a song about this subject? The song was on the Northern Lights – Southern Cross album released in 1975. The album peaked at #27 in Canada and #26 on the Billboard Album Charts.

Anyway…now when I listen to The Weight, Cripple Creek, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and the other well-known Band songs…I will stop and listen a little more carefully.

Acadian Driftwood

The war was over and the spirit was broken
The hills were smokin’ as the men withdrew
We stood on the cliffs
Oh, and watched the ships
Slowly sinking to their rendezvous
They signed a treaty and our homes were taken
Loved ones forsaken
They didn’t give a damn
Try’n’ to raise a family
End up the enemy
Over what went down on the plains of Abraham

Acadian driftwood
Gypsy tail wind
They call my home the land of snow
Canadian cold front movin’ in
What a way to ride
Oh, what a way to go

Then some returned to the motherland
The high command had them cast away
And some stayed on to finish what they started
They never parted
They’re just built that way
We had kin livin’ south of the border
They’re a little older and they’ve been around
They wrote a letter life is a whole lot better
So pull up your stakes, children and come on down

Fifteen under zero when the day became a threat
My clothes were wet and I was drenched to the bone
Been out ice fishing, too much repetition
Make a man wanna leave the only home he’s known
Sailed out of the gulf headin’ for Saint Pierre
Nothin’ to declare
All we had was gone
Broke down along the coast
But what hurt the most
When the people there said
“You better keep movin’ on”

Everlasting summer filled with ill-content
This government had us walkin’ in chains
This isn’t my turf
This ain’t my season
Can’t think of one good reason to remain
We worked in the sugar fields up from New Orleans
It was ever green up until the floods
You could call it an omen
Points ya where you’re goin’
Set my compass north
I got winter in my blood

Acadian driftwood
Gypsy tail wind
They call my home the land of snow
Canadian cold front movin’ in
What a way to ride
Ah, what a way to go

…

Skylab was Falling! 45 Years Ago Today

On July 12, 1979, Skylab fell back to the earth. Today is the anniversary. I would have never dreamed I would remember it years on.

In 1979 I was twelve and heard the news that a space workstation named Skylab was falling to Earth. It was exciting for me…I was hoping that a piece of it would fall near so I could touch something that had been flying through space. When you are a kid that is a big deal. Well, it still would be to me.

That didn’t happen because unless I was Australian I wasn’t going to see any debris. In school, our science teacher went over the event and I do remember people wearing Skylab t-shirts, hats, and buttons. Everyone was looking up hoping to see something…anything. Some kids were scared they were going to get crushed…that is when I learned that what goes up must go down.

Watching the news… some people were panicking and…some partying. This is from Newsweek in 1979

In various parts of the country, wags painted X’s on their neighbors’ roofs or sported T-shirts with targets on the back. Entrepreneurs sold plastic helmets and Skylab survival kits compete with bags for collecting stray parts of the spacecraft and letters suing NASA for damages. “I don’t know how much we’re making, but we’re having fun,” said Steven Danzig, 25, of Bloomington, Ind., who sold more than 20,000 such kits. In Washington, a bar called Mr. Smith’s sold a concoction dubbed the Chicken Little Special.

Around the U.S., there were Skylab parties to coincide with the crash, and betting pools on precisely when or where the debris would come streaking back to earth.

Skylab was designed to go up but not come back down. It was launched in 1973 and was occupied for almost 24 weeks. There was a lot of time and money spent on how to get it up there but not much time on how to get it down. It only had a 9-year life span, to begin with. In 1979 it was clear that Skylab was rapidly descending orbit.

On July 12, 1979, Skylab came back to earth in the Indian Ocean and in Western Australia. No one was injured by the falling debris.

The San Francisco Examiner offered a $10,000 ($45,309.60 today) reward for anyone bringing a part of Skylab to their office. They knew it wasn’t going to hit America so it was a safe bet they would not have to pay…but Stan Thornton…an Australian truck driver heard about the reward, grabbed a piece of debris, and jumped on a plane to San Francisco and got the reward.

Stan Thornton collecting his $10.000

David Bowie – Moonage Daydream

I like all the eras of the ever-changing David Bowie but his early to mid-seventies is my favorite. Love this song with its loud intro with Bowie as Ziggy Stardust. I knew a lot of his music as a kid because my sister liked Ziggy Stardust.

It was on the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars released in 1972. Read that review if you have time…the album was one of his best to me. He wrote the song after meeting Fred Burrett a fashion designer in the early 70s. The album peaked at #5 in the UK, #21 on the Billboard Album Charts, #20 in New Zealand, and #59 on the Canadian Charts.

The original version of Moonage Daydream was released in 1971 under the name Arnold Corns, a side project Bowie used to test new material. Bowie formed Arnold Corns in early 1971. The name was inspired by the Pink Floyd song Arnold Layne. He combined Fred Burrett and Arnold Corns and wrote songs for the test band.

From Wiki…Arnold Corns included: David Bowie, Freddie Burretti (he changed his name), Mick Ronson, Mark Carr-Pritchard, Trevor Bolder, and Mick Woodmansey.

This song helped inspire Jack and Meg White to form The White Stripes. Jack was playing it on guitar and Meg started to play along and they formed their band.

Moonage Daydream

I’m an alligator, I’m a mama-papa coming for you
I’m the space invader, I’ll be a rock ‘n’ rollin’ bitch for you
Keep your mouth shut, you’re squawking like a pink monkey bird
And I’m busting up my brains for the words

Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah

Don’t fake it, baby, lay the real thing on me
The church of man, love, is such a holy place to be
Make me baby, make me know you really care
Make me jump into the air

Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah

Freak out, far out, in out

…

Max’s Drive-In Movie – Dirty Harry

Drive your car up to my place and find your spot….and we won’t even check the trunks for free stowaways (which I was a lot). Sit back while we watch some movies. I will keep each of these as short as possible.

CB sparked this idea…I wanted to review more movies and what better movies than 1960s – 1970s drive-in flicks? I love these movies because they are mostly gritty and realistic looking…you never know what you will see or hear. I will try not to give away the ending of these films because many might not have seen them.

The quotes from this movie alone could fill up a book. This movie and The French Connection helped start the antihero movies of the seventies. I like many Eastwood films especially the Trilogy made in the sixties. In this movie, Dirty Harry has a tough, no-nonsense approach to law enforcement. He is willing to bend or break the rules to get the job done, which often puts him at odds with his superiors and the legal system. His most famous line, “Do you feel lucky, punk?” has become iconic.

The movie is based out of San Francisco and the characters are really tangible. You have the mayor and police chief fighting with Harry over regulations and Harry is single-minded going after the killer. The film was well-received by critics for the most part. It highlights both vigilante justice and the large bureaucracy that holds everything back. It gives you a view of both.

As good as Eastwood is in this movie, it’s Andrew Robinson who really got my attention. Some bad guys are like cartoon caricatures but not this one. He played The Scorpio Killer in this movie. He based some of it off the real Zodiac Killer of the 60s and 70s. Robinson played that part so well that he was stereotyped after the movie’s release. When you saw him on the screen he personified a killer. This is not Jason or slasher films bad guys…this one hit home because he was so real.

Director Don Siegel did a hell of a job directing this movie. “I enjoy the controversy because if you make a film that’s safe, you’re in trouble. I’m a liberal; I lean to the left. Clint is a conservative; he leans to the right. At no point in making the film did we ever talk politics. I don’t make political movies. I was telling the story of a hard‐nosed cop and a dangerous killer. What my liberal friends did not grasp was that the cop is just as evil, in his way, as the sniper.”

My favorite scene… Harry is eating a hotdog and notices a bank getting robbed. He takes action and single-handedly stops the robbers. He teases one robber that he shot.

I’m lifting the short storyline out of IMDB

“Dirty Harry” follows San Francisco Police Inspector Harry Callahan, a tough, rule-bending officer known for his unorthodox methods and willingness to confront criminals head-on. The film’s central antagonist is the Scorpio Killer, a sadistic serial murderer who taunts the police with cryptic messages and demands ransom money in exchange for stopping his killing spree.

Callahan’s pursuit of Scorpio takes him through the streets of San Francisco, leading to intense confrontations and moral dilemmas. As the body count rises, Callahan’s relentless quest for justice puts him at odds with his superiors, who are more concerned with following protocol than stopping the killer by any means necessary.

Favorite Quotes:

The Mayor: Callahan… I don’t want any more trouble like you had last year in the Fillmore district. You understand? That’s my policy.
Harry Callahan: Yeah, well, when an adult male is chasing a female with intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard – that’s my policy.
The Mayor: Intent? How’d you establish that?
Harry Callahan: When a naked man is chasing a woman through a dark alley with a butcher knife and a hard on, I figure he isn’t out collecting for the Red Cross.
The Mayor: I think he’s got a point.
Harry Callahan: Uh uh. I know what you’re thinking. “Did he fire six shots or only five?” Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you’ve gotta ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?

The success of Dirty Harry led to four sequels: “Magnum Force” (1973), “The Enforcer” (1976), “Sudden Impact” (1983), and “The Dead Pool” (1988).

Quentin Tarantino talks about Dirty Harry

…

Kinks – Dead End Street

There’s a crack up in the ceilingAnd the kitchen sink is leakingOut of work and got no moneyA Sunday joint of bread and honey

I’ve posted a lot by The Kinks but there are always more great songs I never covered and this is one of them. I like this one more than some of their huge hits…it’s a great song…catchy and meaningful.

Another Ray Davies song on the struggles of working-class life in Britain during the 1960s, focusing on themes of poverty, social inequality, and hopelessness. Not only in Britain in the 60s but extends to now as well all over. The title of the song says it all of being in a vicious cycle. This is just another example of Ray Davies’s brilliant songwriting. When you read the Ray Davies quotes at the bottom you will see where he was coming from.

Dead End Street was released in 1966 as a non-album single. It was quite successful peaking at #5 in the UK, #4 in New Zealand, #28 in Canada, and #73 on the Billboard 100. At that time, Ray, Dave, Pete Quaife, and Mick Avory were the Kinks. Also joining them was again…super session piano player Nicky Hopkins. It would be easier to list the songs Hopkins didn’t play on during the sixties. Quaife did not play bass on this song because of a scooter accident but John Daulton subbed for him.

Ray Davies said that Shel Talmy produced the song but he wanted more of a pop beat so they tricked Talmy. Ray Davies said: “He finished the track and said, ‘That’s great,’ and went home. Then we pretended to leave but came back to the studio and re-recorded the song. We played it to him the next day and he said, ‘See what I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it.’ He thought we were playing him his version.”

The video of this song shows the boys dressed as undertakers and it was directed by Ray himself.

Ray Davies: I wrote it around the time I had to buy a house and I was terrified. I never wanted to own anything because my dad had never owned property. He’d inherited from his dad that he had to rent all his life. So I still have inbuilt shame of owning anything. It’s guilt.”

Ray Davies: “My whole feeling about the ’60s was that it’s not as great as everyone thinks it is. Carnaby Street, everybody looking happy, that was all a camouflage. That’s what Dead End Street was about.

Dave Davies: “A song full of character, pathos, yet containing an underlying sense of hope. Reflecting a fondness for the past but at the same time expressing a determination and yearning for change.

“Anguished voices calling to a heartless world. A world where the plight of the ordinary person mattered little. “

Dead End Street

There’s a crack up in the ceilingAnd the kitchen sink is leakingOut of work and got no moneyA Sunday joint of bread and honey

What are we living for?Two-roomed apartment on the second floorNo money coming inThe rent collector’s knocking, tryna get in

We are strictly second classWe don’t understand

Why we should be on dead end street(Dead end!) People are living on dead end street(Dead end!) I’m gonna die on dead end streetDead end street (yeah!)Dead end street (yeah!)

On a cold and frosty morningWipe my eyes and stop me yawningAnd my feet are nearly frozenBoil the tea and put some toast on

What are we living for?Two-roomed apartment on the second floorNo chance to emigrateI’m deep in debt and now it’s much too late

We both want to work so hardWe can’t get the chance

People live on dead end street(Dead end!) People are dying on dead end street(Dead end!) I’m gonna die on dead end streetDead end street (yeah!)Dead end street (yeah!)

People live on dead end street(Dead end!) People are dying on dead end street(Dead end!) I’m gonna die on dead end streetDead end street (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)

Dead end street (yeah)Head to my feet (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)

How’s it feel? (Yeah)How’s it feel? (Yeah)Dead end street (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)Dead end street (yeah)

Yeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeahYeah, yeah

…

Jimi Hendrix – The Star Spangled Banner… Happy 4th of July

Happy Independence Day!

This is the second year I’ve posted this on the 4th. I hope you liked the previous post on The Blasters. Hendrix did a great version of The Star Spangled Banner in my opinion. He had served as a paratrooper in the Airborne Division at Fort Campbell in Clarksville Tennessee in the early 60s.

Yes, this is my favorite version of the song. The poem that formed the basis of the lyrics was penned in 1814 during the War of 1812 by Francis Scott Key, a 35-year-old lawyer who was sent to negotiate with the British in an attempt to gain the release of an American prisoner they were holding.

Later, Key watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry from a ship he was on. The next morning he saw the Americans take down the battle-torn US flag at the fort and replace it with a larger one.

Key’s poem was published on September 17, 1814, the day after he returned to Baltimore. The poem was sung to the music of a popular British drinking song called “To Anacreon in Heaven, ” attributed to John Stafford Smith.

Any time someone does an unusual approach to this song…there is always a lot of complaining from people. Once when Jose Feliciano did the song in Game 5 of the MLB World Series in 1968 on guitar and singing…all hell broke loose. Some listeners thought he had “desecrated” and disrespected the national anthem but when asked about it, Feliciano explained that the reason he offered a non-traditional rendition of the anthem was to get people to pay attention to it. It was a great version of the song.

Hendrix took the stage at Woodstock at 8am…only around 30,000 were left out of the huge crowd there. He had been warned not to do the anthem when he toured but did it anyway. He even recorded a studio version and after his death, the takes were put together and released but the Woodstock performance is the one that is best known. What amazes me is when he is imitating bombs dropping…he suddenly goes right back in on time and doesn’t miss a lick.

He didn’t get as much flack as Feliciano did…I think because it wasn’t on prime time during a World Series.

Blasters – American Music

The Blasters play what I would call rockabilly with some Americana thrown in. Some of the descriptions I found were rockabilly, blues, early rock and roll, punk rock, mountain music, rhythm and blues, and country…but in short…they rock.

American Music was first released on the band’s 1980 debut album, the self-titled American Music. The album was independently produced and helped establish The Blasters as a force in the roots rock movement. They recorded 22 songs, and many covers, whittling it down to 13 for the final product. Released in February 1980, it sold out but only 2000 were pressed then.

The Blasters never had mainstream success…but mainstream radio back in the 80s would have been greatly improved by these guys. They were a rock and roll band formed in 1979 in Downey, California, by brothers Phil Alvin (vocals and guitar) and Dave Alvin (guitar), with bass guitarist John Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman.

This sounds like a homage to the American musical heritage, it reflects the band’s influences from blues, rockabilly, and early rock ‘n’ roll. Its lyrics and upbeat tempo celebrate the rich tapestry of American music genres.

Below I have a long quote from Dave Alvin on recording an album that an unknown truck driver complimented the album and meant the world to them.

Dave Alvin: Phil, Bill, John, and I were working day jobs, rehearsing at night in a factory in Garden Grove and trying desperately to find any steady gig that paid more than free beer. Our friends, James Harman and Mike Foresta, had recorded a demo tape of us and we’d taken copies to every “cool” nightclub in the Hollywood/West LA area, but no one was interested in a roots band, especially one from Downey, California, with no hip credentials.

I read somewhere about “Rockin” Ronny Weiser and his small rockabilly label (Rollin’ Rock), so Phil called him about the possibility of recording us. Ronny was skeptical until Phil sang and played guitar over the phone and within an hour Phil and I were sitting in Ronny’s living room playing him our tape. Ronny dug the tape, but still wouldn’t make a commitment to record us because we’d only played in biker and country bars on the decidedly untrendy southeast side of LA County. We knew none of the Hollywood scenesters and tastemakers and they definitely didn’t know us. That is until this truck driver came by Ronny’s to pick up boxes of records to be shipped.

“Who’s this playing?” he asked Ronny.

“It’s us,” Phil said.

“Is this what these records are? If it is, I’ll buy a copy. My wife and I dig this kind of music. You can’t find music like this anymore.”

We couldn’t have asked for more even if we’d paid him a million bucks. Once he left, Ronny quickly discussed when we’d record our first album and within a few weeks we were in Ronny’s garage/studio. James and Mike were with us for moral support. We drank a lot of beer. Phil, the most experienced, led us patiently and sang his heart out. James let me record with a white Fender Stratocaster that he swore once belonged to Magic Sam. I made mistakes I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to forget, but Ronny kept pushing us to quit thinking too much and just keep it rockin’ (and with a rhythm section like John and Bill, that was no problem). After that first day of recording, we drove back to our side of town punching each other in excitement and jumping up and down in the car seats like little boys. we yelled at strangers in passing cars that we’d made a record and we were gonna be famous. I remember at one point all four of us had our heads out the car windows, laughing cursing, screaming, and howling at the moon.

American Music

Well, a U.S. soldier boy on leave in West-Berlin
No music there that rocks, just a thousand violins
They wanna hear some American music
American music
They wanna hear that sound right from the U.S.A

Well, it can be sweet and lovely, it can be hard and mean
One thing’s for sure, it’s always on the beam
They wanna hear some American music
American music
They wanna hear that sound right from the U.S.A

Well, it’s a howl from the deserts, a scream from the slums
The Mississippi rollin’ to the beat of the drums
They wanna hear some American music
American music
They wanna hear that sound right from the U.S.A

We got the Louisiana boogie and the delta blues
We got country, swing and rockabilly, too
We got jazz, country-western and Chicago blues
It’s the greatest music that you ever knew
It’s American music
It’s American music
It’s American music
It’s that crazy sound right from the U.S.A
See pop shows near Nashville
Get tickets as low as $5

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