Whenever I watch the Three Stooges it feels like I’m getting ready for school again. My sister would get me up in the morning and I would dress while watching the Three Stooges and get ready to run to catch the bus just at the end of our driveway.
I do like them at times. My dad never liked them…he said “they make me nervous as hell son.” I must admit when I got older and found the Marx Brothers, Chaplin, and Buster Keaton more in line with my comedic tastes BUT sometimes I just have to watch the Stooges!
I just watched one episode at random today. A Ducking They Did Go…they were all in a boat and Curly accidently shoots a hole in the boat…water starts coming up and the boat is sinking….so Larry gets the gun and shoots another hole in the boat. Moe asked him why…Larry says “I made another hole so the water will run out.”…ahhhh….the Stooges logic! I found a clip of that scene
The 1934 short, ‘The Woman Haters’ marks the first of 190 theatrical short films made by Columbia Pictures, which starred, ‘The Three Stooges’ between 1934 and 1959.
The culture impact of the Stooges was huge through the decades. They have been parodied by everyone from SNL, That Seventies Show, Simpsons, and so many more references.
Parents were concerned about kids copying the Stooges…they probably had a right to be. When I was in school I would hear the nyuk, nyuk but we didn’t hit each over the head with lead pipes.
Their 1940 short, You Nazty Spy!, was the first American production to openly make a mockery of Adolf Hitler’s regime. (Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator opened nine months later.) The short was perceived as a great insult by Hitler, who listed the Stooges on his own personal death list…Here is the episode colorized.
As popular as they were they never got paid what they deserved. They were in “shorts” which played before and between feature movies. They worked for Columbia who was ran by the notorious cheap Harry Cohn. Columbia’s shorts department thrived throughout the late ’30s and ’40s. Keeping its biggest stars in the dark as to their true value was a deliberate ploy to ensure they worked cheap.
Cohn kept the Stooges on one year contracts and claimed that the department lost money.
Deke and Dave my Canadian friends both have mentioned them in their blogs. I like what I’ve heard from the band…I remember this band by the name Teenage Heads in the 1980s in America… but never heard much of their music then. They had some rock, punk, and power pop thrown in…what’s not to like about that?
They are from Hamilton, Ontario in Hamilton Weston High school… friends Frankie (Venom) Kerr and Gordon Lewis formed the group in 1975 with bassist Steve Mahon and Nick Stipinitz on drums.
They took their name from a Flaming Groovies song title and album. They quickly gained a loyal following on the Ontario club circuit for their shows, highlighted by Lewis’ guitar work and front man Venom’s on stage presence.
Their self-titled debut album was released in 1979, and it was distributed by Epic Records Canada. A year later, the group signed to Attic Records and released this album Frantic City, the album that put them on the international radar. The hit singles, “Something On My Mind” and “Let’s Shake” helped propel the album to platinum sales (100,000) in Canada.
Somethin On My Mind peaked at #20 in Canada in 1980.
After a couple of years Teenage Head was finally recognized by M.C.A. Records for their international potential and signed to a U.S. deal… but the deal came with conditions. The band was forced to change their name to “Teenage Heads” and that is the name I remember them by in the 80s.
***Updating this…the band has a new documentary out…Picture My Face***
Somethin’ On My Mind
If you go, ah well, you know I just won’t mind ‘Cause they say, a love like ours takes time Have to say, uh, that there’s something on my mind She’s a friend and I knew you wouldn’t mind
But if you, well, have to go That’s OK But if you decide to stay Please don’t go Please don’t go
If you stay, ah well, I won’t care anyway If you’re bad, well it’s the last chance that you have Can I say, uh, that a love is sometimes blind Now I see, all the things that went behind
But if you decide to go That’s OK But if you, well, plan to stay Please don’t go No no no
But if you, well, plan to go Please don’t go But if you decide to stay No no no Please don’t go
You don’t have to please me ‘Cause baby, you know I’m easy The last time that you went You burned all the cards I sent
But if this time it’s for good Uh, so it’s understood So, if you leave once more You’ll find out what’s in store
Have to say, uh, that there’s something on my mind She’s a friend and I knew you wouldn’t mind Have to say, uh, that there’s something on my mind She’s a friend and I knew you wouldn’t mind Have to say, uh, that there’s something on my mind
This song is for Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt…Bird/Cat/Dog/Fish/Pet…I hope everyone has a good Sunday and turns up Hot Dog!
I know some Zeppelin fans that don’t like this song. I guess it’s a guilty pleasure of mine. I love playing that intro on guitar. The intro sounds like a square dance riff from hell. Robert Plant does a great rockabilly vocal and they have the echo set perfectly.
This one is a fun song that Zeppelin sounds like they had a good time recording. Led Zeppelin played this live at the 1979 appearance at Knebworth and 1980 tour in Europe.
The song was on the album In Through The Out Door and it peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, Canada, The UK, and New Zealand. The song was the B side to Fool In The Rain. The song was written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.
A promotional video was shot. This was the closest Led Zeppelin came to a music video.
From Songfacts
This was influenced by American rockabilly music, which Robert Plant enjoyed. A hot dog is distinctly American cuisine.
Led Zeppelin had some heavy songs, but this was a fun, rollicking tune at a tough time for the band. Plant’s 5-year-old son, Karac, died in 1977 and they were all worn out from constant touring and recording.
The lyrics about a girl in Texas who “Took my heart” may have been based on a real woman in Plant’s life, but he called this a tribute to Texas and the state of mind of the people in Texas.
On a particularly cold day at a turn of the 20th century New York baseball game, no one was buying concessionaire Harry Stevens’ ice cream, so he begun selling sausages and rolls. He started calling out, “Red hot dachshund sausages!” and found they were very popular. Thomas “Tad” Dorgan, a sports cartoonist for The New York Journal, was in the press box and seeing this he attempted to draw a cartoon of a barking sausage steaming in its stretched out roll. He didn’t know how to spell “Dachshund,” so he wrote “hot dog” instead, a name which immediately caught on. (from the book Food for Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World by Ed Pearce)
Hot Dog
(Oh, hot dog) Well, I just got into town today To find my girl who’s gone away She took the Greyhound at the general store I searched myself I searched the town When I finally did sit down I find myself no wiser than before
She said we couldn’t do no wrong No other love could be so strong She locked up my heart in her bottom drawer Now she took my heart she took my keys From in my old blue dungarees And I’ll never go to Texas anymore
Now my baby’s gone I don’t know what to do She took my love and walked right out the door And if I ever find that girl I know one thing for sure I’m gonna give her something like she never had before
I took her love at seventeen A little late these days it seems But they said heaven is well worth waiting for I took her word I took it all Beneath the sign that said “you-haul” She left angels hangin’ round for more
Now my baby’s gone I don’t know what to do She took my love and walked right out the door And if I ever find that girl I know one thing for sure I’m gonna give her something like she never had before
I thought I had it all sewn up Our love, a plot, a pick-up truck But folks said she was after something more I never did quite understand All that talk about rockin’ bands But they just rolled my doll right out the door Oh yeah, they just rolled my doll right out the door But they just rolled my doll right out the door
I love guitars…I own 12 of them. It’s something about them that draws me in. Each one has its own sound and vibe. My family made guitars in the 60’s and 70’s so I do remember as a small kid walking into the guitar shop smelling the wood and glue. Some guitars are just as famous as their former or current owners.
I will include 2 guitars per post…this week we have two famous guitars from two completely different artists.
Brian May’s “Red Special”
Brian May’s sound was as a big part of Queen as Mercury’s voice. Brian May designed and built the Red Special with his father, in 1963, using any parts they could find. The neck of the guitar was fashioned from an 18th-century fireplace mantel, the inlays on the neck from a mother-of-pearl button. For the body, they used wood from an old oak table. Then the bricoleurs combined a bike saddlebag holder, a plastic knitting needle tip, and motorbike valve springs to create a tremolo arm.
Brian May:I remembered that at the time we finished the topcoat of varnish, my Dad had wanted to christen her as the Brian May Special, and I had poo-pooed the idea; now I realized that it wasn’t so uncool to give her a proper name. So one day in a radio interview, when someone asked me what I called the guitar, the words Red Special just tumbled out before I’d had time to think.
The Red Special is not in a museum it’s with Brian and it’s still his number 1 guitar.
Willie Nelson’s ‘Trigger’
I have a couple of guitars that has some cracking in the finish but nothing I’ve had or seen compares with this one.
For more than 40 years Willie Nelson has been playing a Martin N-20 nylon-string acoustic guitar he named “Trigger,” after Roy Rogers’ horse. A classical guitar designed with no pick-guard, the famous relic has developed a gaping hole in the body.
Willie got this guitar in 1969 after a drunk stepped on his Baldwin guitar. The same year he bought Trigger his house caught fire and Willie braved the blaze to pull it out.
Willie Nelson has said….“When Trigger goes, I’ll quit.”
Trigger sees a guitar technician at least twice a year, and despite everything the instrument has been through it has no major cracks, the back is whole, and the headstock has never been broken.
Willie still plays this guitar…and yes it has a distinctive sound all its own.
I mentioned this song a few days ago about how the intro sounds a lot like The Kinks Picture Book. It’s a good song that was on their album of the same name.
That song peaked at #31 in the Billboard 100 and #27 in the UK in 2000. Green Day recorded Warning at Studio 880 in Oakland. The facility was directly beneath a freeway, and, according to Billie Joe, each time a truck passed overhead “you could feel the console vibrating.”
The album peaked at #4 in the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, and #4 in the UK in 2000. The lead single Minority spent over a month at the top of the Billboard Modern Rock chart. The album was a turning point for Green Day as they introduced a sax, harmonica, and mandolin and limited Billy Joe’s distorted solos. Punk fans didn’t like the change but it setup their huge next album American Idiot that was released in 2004.
From Songfacts
This song is about how rules are made to be broken and warnings can be ignored. You live your own life, you make your own choices. Says bass player Mike Dirnt: “You gotta make your own decisions and choices. It’s not so much about what to think, it’s just to think. Question everything.”
Warning
This is a public service announcement This is only a test Emergency evacuation protest May impair your ability to operate machinery Can’t quite tell just what it means to me Keep out of reach of children Don’t you talk to strangers Get your philosophy from a bumper sticker
Warning, live without warning I say a warning, live without warning Without, Alright
Better homes and safety-sealed communities Did you remember to pay the utilities? Caution: police line: you better not cross Is the cop or am I the one that’s Really dangerous? Sanitation, Expiration date, Question everything Or shut up and be a victim of authority
Warning, live without warning I say a warning, live without warning I say a warning, live without warning I say a warning, live without warning Without Alright!
Better homes and safety-sealed communities Did you remember to pay the utilities?
Caution: police line: you better not cross Is the cop or am I the one that’s Really dangerous? Sanitation, Expiration date, Question everything Or shut up and be a victim of authority
Warning, live without warning I say a warning, live without warning I say a warning, live without warning I say a warning, live without warning
This is a public service announcement This is only a test
This was the second “new” song by the Beatles to be released in the 1990’s and it was on the Anthology 2 album. I liked the song but it didn’t resonate with me like Free As A Bird did. Real Love sounded more like a Lennon solo song with the Beatles backing him…but I love Lennon’s solo output so I did like it but it wasn’t as “Beatle-ly” to me than Free As a Bird.
The song was more fully realized than Free As a Bird and didn’t take as much input by the other three shaping it. This is the only Beatles song where the songwriting credit is John Lennon alone instead of Lennon-McCartney or all four Beatles.
Paul McCartney did his best John Lennon imitation to help the lead vocal because the recording of John’s voice was low and spotty in some places. The lead vocal is actually a John and Paul duet.
The song with Lennon’s early takes on “Real Love,” recorded with just guitar and vocals, had also appeared on the soundtrack of the Imagine: John Lennon documentary before the Beatles got to finish it.
The song peaked at #11 in the Billboard 100, #12 in Canada, and #4 in the UK in 1996.
From Songfacts
This was an unfinished song written by John Lennon that was completed by the remaining Beatles. It was the second “new” release for the Anthology 2 album (“Free As A Bird” was the first). Yoko Ono supplied Lennon’s demos and gave the remaining Beatles permission to use them.
Jeff Lynne from The Electric Light Orchestra put this together. He has produced albums for George Harrison and played with him in The Traveling Wilburys.
Lennon recorded his demo on a small tape recorder, which posed a challenge when Lynne tried to mix it with updated tracks. He was able to use a noise reduction system to improve the sound.
According to notes in the John Lennon album Acoustic, when Lennon wrote this song, the original title was “Girls and Boys.”
Real Love
All my little plans and schemes Lost like some forgotten dreams Seems that all I really was doing Was waiting for you
Just like little girls and boys Playing with their little toys Seems like all they really were doing Was waiting for love
Don’t need to be alone No need to be alone It’s real love, it’s real Yes, it’s real love, it’s real
From this moment on I know Exactly where my life will go Seems that all I really was doing Was waiting for love
Don’t need to be afraid No need to be afraid It’s real love, it’s real Yes, it’s real love, it’s real
Thought I’d been in love before But in my heart, I wanted more Seems like all I really was doing Was waiting for you
Don’t need to be alone Don’t need to be alone It’s real love, it’s real It’s real love, it’s real Yes, it’s real love, it’s real It’s real love, it’s real Yes, it’s real love, it’s real It’s real love, it’s real Yes, it’s real love, it’s real It’s real love, it’s real
Listen to the slap back echo on this song. I could just listen to the intro guitar on a tape loop for eons and eons. Sun records had the best echo of anyone. Everyone since has tried to capture that sound.
“Mystery Train” was written and originally recorded by Junior Parker in 1953 for Sam Phillips’ Sun Records…Phillips got a co-writing credit. Phillips would later claim that he made three major changes to the song, and that these were why he got the co-writing credit. The first was to give the song the title “Mystery Train”, which has been a big part of the song’s appeal ever since. The second was to insist that the number of coaches for the train should be sixteen . Parker had been singing “fifty coaches long”. And the final one was to suggest that the band start the song slowly and build up the tempo like a train gathering steam.
Elvis covered the song. There is a good chance he heard Jr. Parker perform it live.
The song was released as the B side to “I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone.” One of the best B sides ever. The song peaked at #11 in the Country Charts and #25 in the UK in 1955. RCA bought Elvis’s contract and reissued this single.
Scotty Moore who played guitar on the rack: ‘Mystery Train’ became like a signature thing for me” “That was the first one I played through my custom-made amplifier. It had the same slapback effect that Sam had been using on the overall record.”
Sam Phillips: When Elvis came in I found out that Mystery Train was so embedded in Elvis’ mind that when he started to sing it, it was a natural as breathing. If it’s natural it’s awfully hard to beat, like you’re just rolling off of a log. That’s the feeling you get with Mystery Train.”
His version was ranked #77 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
From Songfacts
Parker was a renowned Blues musician from Memphis who is best known for this song. He was known more for his singing than for his guitar playing, and never achieved the popularity of players like Buddy Guy and B.B. King. Parker was just 39 when he died in 1971 of a brain tumor.
Elvis Presley recorded the most famous version of this song, also on Sun Records, in 1955. and is his best-known song that was never a hit – it was released as the B-side of “I Forgot To Remember To Forget.” Other artists to cover the song include Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Ricky Nelson, Tom Fogerty, and The Doors.
Neil Young’s 1983 version on his album Everybody’s Rockin’ has an interesting story behind it. After all, there’s never a short story behind a Neil Young song! Young came to cover “Mystery Train” by way of performing one of the most sarcastic take-that’s in rock history. As told in Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, Young had tried to make up for the PR nightmare that was the Trans album with an album even more countrified than Hawks & Doves, which would become Old Ways. However, Geffen’s record executives rejected Young’s new excursion, demanding that he make an album of “rock ‘n’ roll” songs instead.
Can you imagine someone with the audacity to think that they can tell Neil Young what to do? So, Young gave them exactly what they asked for, with the same kind of acidulous derision with which Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground delivered Loaded when Atlantic executives demanded an album “loaded with hits.” Young put together an album of ’50s-style rockabilly songs with a band he assembled and called “the Shocking Pinks.” And what jukebox classics they all are!
Geffen’s reaction was to slap Young with a $3.3 million dollar lawsuit alleging that his music had become “unrepresentative of his previous output.” This is also why Everybody’s Rockin’ is so short – Geffen literally pulled the plug on Young and the Shocking Pinks in mid-recording-session. Young responded in an interview with Musician magazine: “To get sued for being noncommercial after 20 years of making records, I thought was better than a Grammy.” He even told Q magazine that he told Geffen to back off, or his threat was that he was going to play country music forever. Is there a single Neil Young fan out there who doubts – for a fraction of a second – that just to go ‘nyah!’, he would have stuck to his guns and played nothing but country music to this day, had Geffen not backed down? Anyway, it’s a nice little cover of “Mystery Train,” isn’t it?
Mystery Train
Train I ride, sixteen coaches long Train I ride, sixteen coaches long Well, that long black train got my baby and gone
Train, train, comin’ ’round the bend Train, train, comin’ ’round the bend Well, it took my baby, but it never will again No, not again
Train, train, comin’ down, down the line Train, train, comin’ down, down the line Well, it’s bringin’ my baby ’cause she’s mine, all mine She’s mine, all mine
Train, train, comin’ ’round, ’round the bend ‘Round, ’round the bend Train, train, comin’ ’round, ’round the bend ‘Round, ’round the bend Well, it took my baby, but it never will again Never will again
Every Thanksgiving I listen to Alice’s Restaurant and this is the third year in a row that I’ve posted it on the 4th Thursday of November. Sorry if you are tired of it but it’s not Thanksgiving until Alice’s Restaurant is played…and the Last Waltz is watched but that is a different story.
The movie that Arlo movie made called Alice’s Restaurant is a fun watch.
It’s not Thanksgiving without listening to this 1967 song. This song did not chart but he did have another version that did chart…it was called Alice’s Rock and Roll Restaurant that peaked at #97 in the Billboard 100.
Many radio stations play this on Thanksgiving. This is usually the only time they play it, since the song is over 18-minutes long.
There have been mixed reviews about the movie that was made…I’ve always found it enjoyable. It’s not going to be confused with Gone With The Wind but it’s a fun period movie.
In 1991, Arlo bought the church where this took place and set up “The Guthrie Center,” where he runs programs for kids who have been abused.
From Songfacts
Running 18 minutes and 34 seconds, this song is based on a true story that happened on Thanksgiving Day, 1965. Arlo was 18, and along with his friend Rick Robbins, drove to Stockbridge, Massachusetts to have Thanksgiving dinner with Alice and Ray Brock. Alice and Ray lived in a church – the former Trinity Church on Division Street in Stockbridge – and were used to inviting people into their home. Arlo and Rick had been traveling together, Arlo working his way up in folk singing and Rick tagging along. A number of people, Arlo and Rick included, were considered members of the family, so they were not guests in the usual sense.
When Ray woke up the next morning, he said to them, “Let’s clean up the church and get all this crap out of here, for God’s sake. This place is a mess,” and Rick said, “Sure.” Arlo and Rick swept up and loaded all the crap into a VW microbus and went out to the dump, which was closed. They started driving around until Arlo remembered a side road in Stockbridge up on Prospect Hill by the Indian Hill Music Camp which he attended one summer, so they drove up there and dumped the garbage.A little later, the phone rang, and it was Stockbridge police chief William J. Obanhein. “I found an envelope with the name Brock on it,” Chief Obanhein said. The truth came out, and soon the boys found themselves in Obanhein’s police car. They went up to Prospect Hill, and Obie took some pictures. On the back, he marked them, “PROSPECT HILL RUBBISH DUMPING FILE UNDER GUTHRIE AND ROBBINS 11/26/65.” He took the kids to jail.The kids went in, pleaded, “Guilty, Your Honor,” was fined $25 each and ordered to retrieve the rubbish. Then they all went back to the church and started to write “Alice’s Restaurant” together. “We were sitting around after dinner and wrote half the song,” Alice recalls, “and the other half, the draft part, Arlo wrote.”
Guthrie, the son of legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie, greatly exaggerated the part about getting arrested for comic effect. In the song, he is taken away in handcuffs and put in a cell with hardened criminals.
In the song, Guthrie avoids the draft and did not have to serve in Vietnam because of his littering arrest. In reality, he was eligible but wasn’t drafted because his number didn’t come up.
Guthrie performed this song for the first time on July 16, 1967, at the Newport Folk Festival.
This reflected the attitude of many young people in America at the time. It was considered an antiwar song, but unlike most protest songs, it used humor to speak out against authority.
After a while, Guthrie stopped playing this at concerts, claiming he forgot the words. As the song approached its 30th anniversary, he started playing it again.
Guthrie made a movie of the same name in 1969 which was based on the song.
Over the years, Guthrie added different words to the song. He recorded a new, longer version in 1995 at The Guthrie Center
Alice’s Restuarant
This song is called Alice’s Restaurant, and it’s about Alice, and the
Restaurant, but Alice’s Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant,
That’s just the name of the song, and that’s why I called the song Alice’s
Restaurant.
You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant
You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant
Walk right in it’s around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant
Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on – two years ago on
Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the
Restaurant, but Alice doesn’t live in the restaurant, she lives in the
Church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and
Fasha the dog. And livin’ in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of
Room downstairs where the pews used to be in. Havin’ all that room,
Seein’ as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn’t
Have to take out their garbage for a long time.
We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it’d be
A friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So
We took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red vw
Microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed
On toward the city dump.
Well we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the
Dump saying, “Closed on Thanksgiving.” And we had never heard of a dump
Closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off
Into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage.
We didn’t find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the
Side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the
Cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile
Is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we
Decided to throw our’s down.
That’s what we did, and drove back to the church, had a thanksgiving
Dinner that couldn’t be beat, went to sleep and didn’t get up until the
Next morning, when we got a phone call from officer Obie. He said, “Kid,
We found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of
Garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it. ” And
I said, “Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope
Under that garbage. ”
After speaking to Obie for about forty-five minutes on the telephone we
Finally arrived at the truth of the matter and said that we had to go down
And pick up the garbage, and also had to go down and speak to him at the
Police officer’s station. So we got in the red vw microbus with the
Shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the
Police officer’s station.
Now friends, there was only one or two things that Obie coulda done at
The police station, and the first was he could have given us a medal for
Being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn’t very likely, and
We didn’t expect it, and the other thing was he could have bawled us out
And told us never to be seen driving garbage around the vicinity again,
Which is what we expected, but when we got to the police officer’s station
There was a third possibility that we hadn’t even counted upon, and we was
Both immediately arrested. Handcuffed. And I said “Obie, I don’t think I
Can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on. ” He said, “Shut up, kid.
Get in the back of the patrol car. ”
And that’s what we did, sat in the back of the patrol car and drove to the
Quote Scene of the Crime unquote. I want tell you about the town of
Stockbridge, Massachusets, where this happened here, they got three stop
Signs, two police officers, and one police car, but when we got to the
Scene of the Crime there was five police officers and three police cars,
Being the biggest crime of the last fifty years, and everybody wanted to
Get in the newspaper story about it. And they was using up all kinds of
Cop equipment that they had hanging around the police officer’s station.
They was taking plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints, and
They took twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles
And arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each
One was to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach,
The getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that’s not to
Mention the aerial photography.
After the ordeal, we went back to the jail. Obie said he was going to put
Us in the cell. Said, “Kid, I’m going to put you in the cell, I want your
Wallet and your belt. ” And I said, “Obie, I can understand you wanting my
Wallet so I don’t have any money to spend in the cell, but what do you
Want my belt for? ” And he said, “Kid, we don’t want any hangings. ” I
Said, “Obie, did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?”
Obie said he was making sure, and friends Obie was, cause he took out the
Toilet seat so I couldn’t hit myself over the head and drown, and he took
Out the toilet paper so I couldn’t bend the bars roll out the – roll the
Toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll and have an escape. Obie
Was making sure, and it was about four or five hours later that Alice
(remember Alice? It’s a song about Alice), Alice came by and with a few
Nasty words to Obie on the side, bailed us out of jail, and we went back
To the church, had a another thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat,
And didn’t get up until the next morning, when we all had to go to court.
We walked in, sat down, Obie came in with the twenty seven eight-by-ten
Colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back
Of each one, sat down. Man came in said, “All rise.” We all stood up,
And Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy
Pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he
Sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the
Twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows
And a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog.
And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles
And arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry,
’cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American
Blind justice, and there wasn’t nothing he could do about it, and the
Judge wasn’t going to look at the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy
Pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each
One explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. And
We was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but that’s not
What I came to tell you about.
Came to talk about the draft.
They got a building down New York City, it’s called Whitehall Street,
Where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected,
Neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one
Day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so
I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning. ‘Cause I wanted to
Look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted
To feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York,
And I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all
Kinds o’ mean nasty ugly things. And I waked in and sat down and they gave
Me a piece of paper, said, “Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604.”
And I went up there, I said, “Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I
Wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and
Guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill,
Kill, kill. ” And I started jumping up and down yelling, “kill, kill, ” and
He started jumping up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down
Yelling, “KILL, KILL.” And the Sargent came over, pinned a medal on me,
Sent me down the hall, said, “You’re our boy.”
Didn’t feel too good about it.
Proceeded on down the hall gettin more injections, inspections,
Detections, neglections and all kinds of stuff that they was doin’ to me
At the thing there, and I was there for two hours, three hours, four
Hours, I was there for a long time going through all kinds of mean nasty
Ugly things and I was just having a tough time there, and they was
Inspecting, injecting every single part of me, and they was leaving no
Part untouched. Proceeded through, and when I finally came to the see the
Last man, I walked in, walked in sat down after a whole big thing there,
And I walked up and said, “What do you want?” He said, “Kid, we only got
One question. Have you ever been arrested? ”
And I proceeded to tell him the story of the Alice’s Restaurant Massacre,
With full orchestration and five part harmony and stuff like that and all
The phenome… – and he stopped me right there and said, “Kid, did you ever
Go to court? ”
And I proceeded to tell him the story of the twenty seven eight-by-ten
Colour glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and the paragraph on
The back of each one, and he stopped me right there and said, “Kid, I want
You to go and sit down on that bench that says Group W…. Now kid!! ”
And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W’s
Where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after
Committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly
Looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father
Rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And
They was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the
Bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest
Father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean ‘n’ ugly
‘n’ nasty ‘n’ horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me
And said, “Kid, whad’ya get?” I said, “I didn’t get nothing, I had to pay
$50 and pick up the garbage. ” He said, “What were you arrested for, kid? ”
And I said, “Littering.” And they all moved away from me on the bench
There, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I
Said, “And creating a nuisance.” And they all came back, shook my hand,
And we had a great time on the bench, talkin about crime, mother stabbing,
Father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the
Bench. And everything was fine, we was smoking cigarettes and all kinds of
Things, until the Sargeant came over, had some paper in his hand, held it
Up and said.
“Kids, this-piece-of-paper’s-got-47-words-37-sentences-58-words-we-wanna-
Know-details-of-the-crime-time-of-the-crime-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-
You-gotta-say-pertaining-to-and-about-the-crime-I-want-to-know-arresting-
Officer’s-name-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say”, and talked for
Forty-five minutes and nobody understood a word that he said, but we had
Fun filling out the forms and playing with the pencils on the bench there,
And I filled out the massacre with the four part harmony and wrote it
Down there, just like it was, and everything was fine and I put down the
Pencil and I turned over the piece of paper, and there, there on the
Other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on
The other side, in parentheses, capital letters, quotated, read the
Following words:
(“KID, HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF?”)
I went over to the Sargent, said, “Sargeant, you got a lot a damn gall to
Ask me if I’ve rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I’m
Sittin’ here on the bench, I mean I’m sitting here on the Group W bench
’cause you want to know if I’m moral enough join the army, burn women,
Kids, houses and villages after bein’ a litterbug. ” He looked at me and
Said, “Kid, we don’t like your kind, and we’re gonna send you fingerprints
Off to Washington. ”
And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a
study in black and white of my fingerprints. And the only reason I’m
singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar
situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if your in a
situation like that there’s only one thing you can do and that’s walk into
The shrink wherever you are, just walk in say “Shrink, You can get
Anything you want, at Alice’s restaurant. “. And walk out. You know, if
One person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and
They won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
They may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them.
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in
Singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an
Organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said
Fifty people a day walking in singing a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and
Walking out. And friends they may think it’s a movement.
And that’s what it is, the Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and
All you got to do to join is sing it the next time it comes around on the
Guitar.
With feeling. So we’ll wait for it to come around on the guitar, here and
Sing it when it does. Here it comes.
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
Walk right in it’s around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
That was horrible. If you want to end war and stuff you got to sing loud.
I’ve been singing this song now for twenty-five minutes. I could sing it
For another twenty-five minutes. I’m not proud… Or tired.
So we’ll wait till it comes around again, and this time with four part
Harmony and feeling.
We’re just waitin’ for it to come around is what we’re doing.
All right now.
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
Excepting Alice
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
Walk right in it’s around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
Art Alexakis is the lead singer and songwriter of Everclear. This song is a scathing attack on his dad who left his family.
This song is about Art’s childhood when his parents split and it started a difficult life for Alexakis. After spending the first six years of his life living a in a comfortable suburb in Los Angeles area community of Redondo Beach, his parents divorced, leaving Alexakis to be raised by his mother. Left with far less income, his mother moved the family into projects near Culver City.
Alexakis, no longer had a father in his life, he struggled through childhood. At age 12, his brother, George, died of a heroin overdose. Then Alexakis’ 15-year-old girlfriend committed suicide. He also got into drugs, starting with marijuana and moving on to heroin, cocaine and alcohol before he got clean in 1989.
Everclear formed in 1991 in Portland Oregon. They released their first album World of Noise in 1993. Father of Mine was on the 1997 album So Much for the Afterglow.
The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard Alternative Charts, and #1 in the Canadian Alternative Charts in 1998.
Art Alexakis: “My feelings for my father haven’t necessarily changed, but my feelings about myself after writing that song have been much better. It was kind of a catharsis to put those feelings into words, it’s a way for me to get things out of my system. The song ‘Wonderful’ is very much like that too.”
Alexakis testified before congress on March 16, 2000 to endorse a child support bill.
From Songfacts
Art doesn’t speak with his father and can’t be sure if he’s heard this or not, but he knows that his stepsisters, who were raised by his dad, weren’t happy about this song.
As it states in the song, Alexakis really did get Christmas cards from his father containing $5.
This was remixed and included on Hope In Hockeytown, an album celebrating the Detroit Red Wings back-to-back Stanley Cup Victories.
Art talks about the song.
Father of Mine
Father of mine Tell me where have you been You know I just closed my eyes My whole world disappeared Father of mine Take me back to the day When I was still your golden boy Back before you went away
I remember the blue skies Walking the block I loved it when you held me high I loved to hear you talk You would take me to the movie You would take me to the beach You would take me to a place inside That is so hard to reach
Father of mine Tell me where did you go You had the world inside your hand But you did not seem to know Father of mine Tell me what do you see When you look back at your wasted life And you don’t see me
I was ten years old Doing all that I could It wasn’t easy for me To be a scared white boy In a black neighborhood Sometimes you would send me a birthday card With a five dollar bill I never understood you then And I guess I never will
Daddy gave me a name My dad he gave me a name Then he walked away Daddy gave me a name Then he walked away My dad gave me a name
Father of mine Tell me where have you been I just closed my eyes And the world disappeared Father of mine Tell me how do you sleep With the children you abandoned And the wife I saw you beat
I will never be safe I will never be sane I will always be weird inside I will always be lame Now I’m a grown man With a child of my own And I swear I’m not going to let her know All the pain I have known
Then he walked away Daddy gave me a name Then he walked away My dad gave me a name Then he walked away Daddy gave me a name Then he walked away My dad gave me a name Then he walked away
I like this song a lot and I was drawn to it right away when I listened to it on my copy of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits…but I cannot connect to it like the listeners did in 64-65. It was more than a pop song.
Dylan wrote this in 1963 when the civil rights movement was underway and demonstrations against the Vietnam War were gearing up. It would become the anthem of his generation.
Sometime songs can sum up the generation and time they are released in and this one is one of the very few that does it.
The song was on Bob Dylan’s 3rd album The Times They Are a-Changin’ released in 1964. The song wasn’t released as a single until 1965 and it peaked at #9 in the UK.
On December 10, 2010 Sotheby’s in New York sold a single rather worn sheet of binder paper on which Bob Dylan wrote the original lyrics of his most famous song, The Times They Are A-Changin, probably in October 1963. This battered piece of paper with messy writing sold for $422,500.
The song was ranked number 59 on Rolling Stone‘s 2004 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”
Bob Dylan:“I wanted to write a big song, some kind of theme song, with short, concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. This is definitely a song with a purpose. I knew exactly what I wanted to say and who I wanted to say it to.”
From Songfacts
A call to action, “The Times They Are A-Changin'” became an anthem for frustrated youth. It summed up the anti-establishment feelings of people who would later be known as hippies. Many of the lyrics are based on the Civil Rights movement in the US.
Dylan recorded this song in October 1963. He first performed the song at a Carnegie Hall concert on October 26 that year, using it as his opening number.
On November 22, 1963, United States president John F. Kennedy was assassinated, which made this song even more poignant. This also presented a quandary for Dylan, who had to decide if he would keep playing the song; he found it odd when audiences would erupt in applause after hearing it, and wondered exactly what they were clapping for.
Dylan kept the song in his sets. It was issued on the album of the same name on January 13, 1964.
Dylan covered the Carter Family Song “Wayworn Traveler,” writing his own words to the melody and named it “Paths Of Victory”. This recording is featured on “Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3”. After writing that song, he re-wrote the words again, changed the time signature to 3/4, and created this, one of his most famous songs ever.
This was released as a single in the UK in 1965 before Dylan went there to tour. It became his first hit in that territory, climbing to #9 on April 21. British listeners liked what they heard from Dylan and made a run on his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (released in 1963), sending it to #1 on April 11. This marked the first time in two years that an album by a group other that The Beatles or Rolling Stones was #1 in the UK.
Dylan allowed this to be used in commercials for accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand in the ’90s. In 1996, he also licensed it for commercial use by the Bank of Montreal.
This song appears on the official soundtrack of the 2009 movie Watchmen. A cover of Dylan’s “Desolation Row” by My Chemical Romance also appears on the soundtrack. >>
Simon & Garfunkel covered this on their first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., in 1964. They were produced at the time by Tom Wilson, who also produced Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ album.
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Come gather ’round, people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin’ And you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’
Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance won’t come again And don’t speak too soon For the wheel’s still in spin And there’s no tellin’ who That it’s namin’ For the loser now Will be later to win For the times they are a-changin’
Come senators, congressmen Please heed the call Don’t stand in the doorway Don’t block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled The battle outside ragin’ Will soon shake your windows And rattle your walls For the times they are a-changin’
Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don’t criticize What you can’t understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin’ Please get out of the new one If you can’t lend your hand For the times they are a-changin’
The line it is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is rapidly fadin’ And the first one now Will later be last For the times they are a-changin’
Good morning everyone… hope you have a great Monday.
I bought the Emotional Rescue single when it was released. I also bought the album and it was a let down to me after the great Some Girls album. The title track is heavily leaning toward disco and I do like it. What attracted me to the song is the superb bass line in the intro.
Ronnie Wood played bass on the song and Bill Wyman played synthesizer. Ronnie is a great bass player. He played bass on Rod Stewart’s Maggie May. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100, #9 in the UK, and #1 in Canada.
The Stones played this for the very first time in concert on May 3, 2013, 33 years after they recorded the song. Keith Richards was not a fan of the song and it never made a Stones setlist until the first show of their 50 and Counting tour at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Mick Jagger: ‘We were just doing dance music, you know. It was just a dance music lick I was just playing on the keyboard. Charlie has a really nice groove for that.”
From Songfacts
This alienated many Stones fans who thought it was a sell out to disco, but it was still a Top 10 hit in the US and UK.
Mick Jagger sang much of this in a falsetto, which was the thing to do with disco songs. The Bee Gees did the same thing, but unlike The Stones, were never able to get back the fans they lost to disco.
Bobby Keys’ sax solo and Mick Jagger’s vocals were added almost a year after the rhythm track was recorded.
Jagger wrote this on an electric piano.
The video for this used the same thermal imagery effect as the album cover. It was cutting-edge visual stuff in 1980.
Emotional Rescue
Is there nothing I can say, nothing I can do to change your mind? I’m so in love with you, you’re too deep in, you can’t get out You’re just a poor girl in a rich man’s house Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh Yeah, baby, I’m crying over you
Don’t you know promises were never meant to keep? Just like the night, they dissolve off in sleep I’ll be your savior, steadfast and true I’ll come to your emotional rescue I’ll come to your emotional rescue Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh Yeah, the other night, cryin’, cryin’ baby yeah I’m cryin Yeah I’m cryin, I’m your child baby, child, Yeah I’m a child, I’m a child, I’m a child
You think you’re one of a special breed You think that you’re his pet Pekinese I’ll be your savior, steadfast and true I’ll come to your emotional rescue I’ll come to your emotional rescue Ooh ah ah ah ah ah ah ah Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah Yeah, I was dreamin’ last night baby Last night I was dreamin’ that you’d be mine But I was cryin’ like a child Yeah I was cryin’, cryin’ like a child Could be mine, mine, mine, mine, mine all mine You could be mine, could be mine, could be mine all mine
I come to you, so silent in the night So stealthy, so animal quiet I’ll be your savior, steadfast and true I’ll come to your emotional rescue I’ll come to your emotional rescue Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah Yeah, you should be mine, mine, ooh!
Mmm yes, you could be mine, tonight and every night I will be your knight in shining armor Coming to your emotional rescue You will be mine, you will be mine, all mine You will be mine, you will be mine, all mine
I will be your knight in shining armor Riding across the desert on a fine Arab charger
We are wrapping up Hanspostcard’s album draft…100 albums in 100 days. We went into extra innings extending four more picks from these categories… favorite Soundtracks, Greatest Hits, music related movie and now ending with Box Sets. This is my pick for the final round…the Box Set I would take to the island: Beatles Anthology 1
Now for my last pick in our draft. I’ve come full circle with the Beatles…back in July (hard to believe it was that long ago) it was the White Album and now the 1996 release of Anthology 1 that focuses on a happier but hectic time in the Beatles history.
I can’t explain how excited I was for this release. I was working at a wood shop…just a few months away from my first corporate IT job and I was about to buy this new Beatle CD with a new song. For the first time in my life I could buy a Beatle song that wasn’t recorded in the sixties called Free As A Bird. I had a friend I worked with that doubled as a distribution center driver during holiday season. My plan was to head to lunch the day it was released and buy it in a record shop…remember those? My friend came in with a thick CD case and said here you go…it was Anthology 1 and he said Merry early Christmas.
Anthology 1 covered everything in the time span of 1958-1964. You got a rare McCartney/Harrison song and a Lennon/Harrison song included. Also home studio taped songs and early Decca demos that were shopped and that I only read about until then. Many of the songs were listed in books but had been locked away in EMI’s vault. Also on this were live performances and alternate takes of the songs.
The Anthology series introduced the Beatles to a new generation. I had a couple of cousins who were all into New Kids On The Block…when Anthology came out they called me and said now they understood why I liked the Beatles and to this day they still do.
The other thing it did was to help Paul McCartney’s standing. After John Lennon was murdered he was put on a pedestal and Paul was a square. It was unfair. After the Anthology Paul’s reputation as a great songwriter and singer started to move up again in it’s rightful place…
Now to the song that really excited me. The first official new Beatle song in decades. Free As A Bird still stands up to me. George’s slide just cuts through you and it sounds modern yet older at the same time.
The video is hands down my favorite music video. It was still the mid 90s and CGI wasn’t what it would become just a just a few years later but this works well.
In Spite of All the Danger… a McCartney/Harrison song…the only one to be credited as such was recorded in 1958! One of the first recordings they ever did. You can hear those raw harmonies forming and this was part of the birth of the Beatles. They never properly recorded this song later on which is a shame. I like George’s solo on this one also. Paul will perform it in concert on occasion.
The home/demos were great to hear. Before the Cavern, Hamburg, and worldwide stardom…the start of it all. Hallelujah I Love Her So.
This Anthology covers so much and to see them grow just between 1958-1964 is something special…not to mention how much they grew with the two other Anthologies. Every band grows but usually not to this extent. So to my fellow castaways we have enough to keep us entertained. Thanks to everyone and thanks to Hans for hosting this. Hope to see you all back when the next draft starts.
Remember Build-A-Bear? Well this is the rock edition. I think this post may go under…” looked great on paper but…” but lets give it a try. Have you ever thought about if you could have a pick of any musicians living or dead and bring them together in their prime…what combinations would you come up with?
Who would you pick if you could pick anyone? We have a time machine so don’t worry…Jimi Hendrix is just a trip away. This is a discussion my friends and I have once in a while. I always wondered what a band with Keith Richards and John Lennon together would have sounded like…probably as raw as you could have sounded…a band with Big Star’s Alex Chilton and the Beatles Paul McCartney? It would be interesting.
There are many musicians I have left out…most likely they were here in previous editions that I’ve gone through in the past few weeks.
Now… I would want to make at least two or three different bands…a rock, hard rock, and a pop/rock band. Now I could go on and on…Soul, Blues, Funk, Country/Rock, and even Heavy Metal. Who would you pick? What would your “dream” band be? If I had time I would have listed around 10 different kind of bands…but these 3 will do for now.
Rock band.
John Lennon – Rhythm Guitar/vocals
Keith Richards – Rhythm guitar/vocals
Duane Allman – Lead guitar
John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) – Bass
Charlie Watts – Drums
Leon Russell – Keyboards
Rod Stewart (early seventies version) – Lead Vocals
Hard Rock Band
Jimi Hendrix – Lead guitar and vocals
Eric Clapton – Lead guitar and vocals
John Entwistle – Bass
Keith Moon – Drums
Steve Marriott (Small Faces and Humble Pie) – Lead Vocals
This is a song that I had forgotten about until Aphoristical brought it up on his blog a few months ago. The song that I remember the most by Spirit is the popular I Got a Line on You. I remember hearing this when I was a kid on the radio.
It wasn’t a big hit…it peaked at #111 in the Billboard 100 in 1971. The song was on the album Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. It peaked at #63 in the Billboard Album Charts, #49 in Canada, and #29 in the UK. The album is named after a 1963 horror movie called Dr. Sardonicus. Five years after its release, and with the original lineup split up, the album went gold.
Spirit guitarist and songwriter Randy California wrote “Nature’s Way” in San Francisco one afternoon while the band waited to perform at the Fillmore Auditorium. That environmental anthem coincided with the inaugural Earth Day celebration, becoming the first pop song to seriously address concerns about pollution and ecological problems.
At 15, Randy California (Randy Craig Wolfe) played guitar for Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, the New York band led by Jimi Hendrix…Hendrix dubbed him Randy California to avoid confusing him with another band member named Randy Palmer.
From Songfacts
This song is a reflection on mortality, and also a lament for the fate of the Earth, as nature is telling us that something is wrong.
It was a very personal song, and in some ways, his maxim. The song deals with how nature guides you, and that’s just what he did throughout his career. Spirit reached #25 US in 1969 with “I Got A Line On You,” a track from their second album, but the group remained on the fringes of breakout success, in part because they turned down an invitation to play Woodstock.
California got heavy into LSD and became even more mercurial. In 1970, he was riding a horse on the streets of Topanga Canyon when he fell off and fractured his skull. The same year, he wrote “Nature’s Way,” which was included on Spirit’s fourth album, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. California left the group in 1972 and the band splintered soon after. Sardonicus found a following and eventually sold over a million copies, prompting an iff-fated band reunion in 1976. California died in 1997 when he drowned while swimming in Hawaii.
David Briggs, who was one of Neil Young’s producers, produced this track. The back was dealing with a lot of internecine conflict at the time, and Briggs helped keep them focused and productive enough to complete the album.
Randy California recorded various versions of this song as a solo artist. In interviews, he sometimes talked about never being able to get it right.
This song is unusual in that every line begins with the phrase “It’s nature’s way.”
Nature’s Way
It’s nature’s way of telling you something’s wrong It’s nature’s way of telling you in a song
It’s nature’s way of receiving you It’s nature’s way of retrieving you It’s nature’s way of telling you Something’s wrong
It’s nature’s way of telling you, soon we’ll freeze It’s nature’s way of telling you, dying trees
It’s nature’s way of receiving you It’s nature’s way of retrieving you It’s nature’s way of telling you Something’s wrong It’s nature’s way, it’s nature’s way It’s nature’s way, it’s nature’s way
It’s nature’s way of telling you It’s nature’s way of telling you Something’s wrong It’s nature’s way of telling you It’s nature’s way of telling you In a song, oh-h
It’s nature’s way of receiving you It’s nature’s way It’s nature’s way of retrieving you It’s nature’s way It’s nature’s way of telling you Something’s wrong, something’s wrong, something’s wrong
The guitar riff to this song is one to remember. When I heard Green Day’s song “Warning”I knew where they got the inspiration for their song.
Ray Davies wrote this about the nostalgic feel that comes from looking through photo albums. The song was originally written for a planned Davies solo project, but he relented and let The Kinks take a shot at it. It was recorded in May 1968 and released that November The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.
Davies, who also acted as producer, wanted the sound of the album to reflect its old-fashioned themes. He wanted it more low-fi.
The song was an album track but The song gained a new popularity when it was used on a Hewlett-Packard 2004 commercial promoting their digital cameras and printers that featured numerous “Pictures Of You” superimposed with each other.
Dave Davies: “Halfway through ‘Picture Book,’ I was trying to do a bit of jazz improvisation like Jo Stafford,” “You can almost hear Ray mimicking or singing across it, ‘scooby-dooby-doo,’ poking fun at what I was saying. That was quite a spontaneous album.”
From Songfacts
Along with Village Green‘s closing track “People Take Pictures of Each Other,” this song uses photography to drive home the album’s concept about holding onto and appreciating the past. “There’s more value in an old picture than there is now on iPhones,” Ray Davies told Rolling Stone in 2018. “I know a guy. He’s homeless and I chat with him sometimes in the street. He’s got a picture of his family in his pocket, and he’s always got a picture with him, he says, ‘For when things get really low'” (pause) “It’s all gotten cheaper because of iPhones.”
The vocal harmonies for the Village Green Preservation Society album were worked out by Ray Davies, Dave Davies and Pete Quaife round the piano. Dave Davies has fond memories of creating the sweet choirboy vocal harmonies to “Picture Book.”
Picture Book
Picture yourself when you’re getting old, Sat by the fireside a-pondering on Picture book, pictures of your mama, taken by your papa a long time ago. Picture book, of people with each other, to prove they love each other a long ago. Na, na, na, na, na na. Na, na, na, na, na na. Picture book. Picture book.
A picture of you in your birthday suit, You sat in the sun on a hot afternoon. Picture book, your mama and your papa, and fat old Uncle Charlie out cruising with their friends. Picture book, a holiday in August, outside a bed and breakfast in sunny Southend. Picture book, when you were just a baby, those days when you were happy, a long time ago. Na, na, na, na, na na. Na, na, na, na, na na. Picture book. Picture book. Picture book. Picture book.
Picture book, Na, na, na, na na, Na, na, na, na na, A-scooby-dooby-doo. Picture book, Na, na, na, na na, Na, na, na, na na, A-scooby-dooby-doo.
Picture book, pictures of your mama, taken by your papa a long time ago. Long time ago, Long time ago, Long time ago, Long time ago, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
wrote the original lyrics of his most famous song, The Times They Are A-Changin
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