Music – Page 134 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Primus – Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver

Being a bass player and a love for the bizarre this song has stuck with me. Les Claypool is a terrific bass player and this 1995 song added great bass playing with the odd song and I was onboard. It’s not a song I would pop in at any time…the video for me makes this song…and I hardly ever say that…but I do like the song.

I saw the video before I ever heard the song on radio…it just kept my attention all the way through over and over again. It was a Devo kind of attention getter…video wise that is.

At the time there were rumors that this song was about the actress Winona Ryder. Les Claypool denied this in interviews, pointing out that his Wynona is spelled differently and insisting the song has nothing to do with her. Ryder’s then-boyfriend, Soul Asylum singer Dave Pirner, didn’t buy it. He took offense and renamed one of his songs “Les Claypool’s A Big F–king Asshole” in concert. The song must have hit a nerve!

The song was written by Les Claypool, Larry LaLonde, and Tim Alexander. Primus has never had a Hot 100 hit, but this is one of their most popular songs, peaking at #12 Billboard Alternative Charts and #23 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

Now the video! You just have to watch it. I will say whoever made those suits did a great job.

Les Claypool: “I was fly fishing with a friend of mine up in Lassen County (California), and the sun was going down and we were heading back to the car,” he said. “He was off in one direction, and I went off in another direction. I come around this corner and I step into the creek. And just as I spied this thing, it spied me. It was this big, furry mass coming my way. It flipped and popped its tail and scared the s–t out of me, and I scared the s–t out of it. It was this giant beaver. I mean, it was huge.”

“It just happened that I had this bass part with all these triplets in it and it kind of fit real well with those lyrics,” “So when we did Punchbowl, we put the two together and that became the ‘Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver’ that everybody came to know.”

From Songfacts

Nice beaver.
Thank you. I just had it stuffed.

This exchange is from the 1988 movie The Naked Gun, where Leslie Nielsen is admiring Priscilla Presley’s taxidermied beaver.

So it kind of got in my head. This big brown beaver, big brown beaver. Okay. Well, how can I make a song out of that? And then it became, ‘Wynona’s got herself a big brown beaver.’ And from there it just built into this little mythological character that obviously had a little double entendre to it.”

The band had much more modest ambitions for the song when they conceived it, at first considering it one of the filler pieces the band sometimes puts between their proper songs for comic relief.

The video was quite a production. Shot at a time when record companies were willing to shell out big bucks for videos (which MTV still played), this one featured the band in foam rubber suits dressed like cartoon cowboys. The film was shot 25% slower than normal (18 frames-per-second instead of 24) to create a sped-up, jerky look to match the cartoon theme when it was played back. This meant that the band had to mime to the song at a slower speed, so the song was played 25% slower so they could match their movements.

The band had some trouble convincing MTV to play it – Claypool says he met with a woman at the network who asked him some questions about the song. MTV ended up nightparting it.

Claypool says this song was “the bane of my existence for a while” because it made those who weren’t au fait with Primus assume they were a joke band. He eventually realized that those who didn’t get it never will, and decided to pay them no mind.

Les Claypool’s sideband Duo de Twang recorded this song on their 2014 debut album Four Foot Shack. This version was similar to the original vision of the song, which was more stripped-down.

Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver

Wynona’s got herself a big brown beaver and she shows it off to all her friends.
One day, you know, that beaver tried to leave her, so she caged him up with cyclone fence.
Along came Lou with the old baboon and said “I recognize that smell,Smells like seven layers,That beaver eatin’ Taco Bell!”.

“Now Rex he was a Texan out of New Orleans and he travelled with the carnival shows.
He ran bumper cars, sucked cheap cigars and he candied up his nose.
He got wind of the big brown beaver So he thought he’d take himself a peek,but the beaver was quick and he grabbed him by the kiwis,
and he ain’t pissed for a week.(And a half!)

Wynona took her big brown beaver and she stuck him up in the air, said “I sure do love this big brown beaver and I wish I did have a pair.
Now the beaver once slept for seven days And it gave us all an awful fright,
So I tickled his chin and I gave him a pinch and the bastard tried to bite me. Wynona loved her big brown beaverAnd she stroked him all the time.
She pricked her finger one day and it occurred to her she might have a porcupine.

Bill Haley – See You Later Alligator

This song is for Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt is (drum roll please…) Alligator/Crocodile/Lizard/Snake/Turtle…

Sometimes I like going back to the era where Rock and Roll began as we know it. Bill Haley was an unlikely looking rock star but he did have some hits in the 50s. Rock Around the Clock was his best known song but he did have some other hits like Shake, Rattle, and Roll, and Crazy Man Crazy. His popularity and legacy didn’t last as long as some of his peers. I was introduced to him by the television show Happy Days.

See You Later Alligator was written by songwriter Robert Charles Guidry, who recorded it himself in 1955 under his stage name of Bobby Charles. However it was the Bill Haley version that took off. Guidry also wrote hits for other performers, most notably “Walking To New Orleans” for Fats Domino.

After while crocodile was/is a popular way of saying goodbye and this song made it more popular. The use of the phrase “See you later alligator” when taking one’s leave stemmed from this song. However… according to Brewer’s Dictionary of Modern Phrase & Fable, ‘alligator’ was already a term in the 1950s for a jazz or a swing fan, as someone who ‘swallowed up’ everything on offer.

The song peaked at #6 in the Top 100, #7 in the R&B Charts, and #7 in the UK in 1955.

So….to stay in the spirit of the song…Don’t Be Square…We’d better stop before we drop. Thanks for dropping by, McFly…and see you later…alligator!

Have a wonderful Sunday and thanks for reading.

From Songfacts

They don’t make ’em like they used to! This classic hails from a time when rock-n-roll bands had flashy names like “Bill Haley & His Comets” and played 12-bar blues songs like they knew where they were coming from. Bill Haley & His Comets is regarded today as one of the first true rock-n-roll bands, innovators who were white musicians bringing rock to a white audience.

Haley and his producer Milt Gabler had some experience turning catchy R&B songs into mainstream hits – they had done it with “Shake, Rattle And Roll.” They heard the Bobby Charles version of “See You Later Alligator,” which was climbing the charts, and knew that they had to get a version recorded and released quickly before someone else did. In mid-December, knowing that operations would shut down when hey got near Christmas, the band recorded the song on a weekend, and Gabler had to break into his own office to retrieve the Charles version of the song and the lyrics he had written down. Said Gabler: “My office had a frosted glass panel so I got a hammer, smashed the pane and robbed my own office. When the staff came in on Monday morning, they thought there had been a robbery. My secretary had a long face. She said, ‘Mr. Gabler, someone’s broken into your office.’ I said, ‘Yes, I know. It was me.'”

The Rosemarie Ostler book Dewdroppers, Waldos, and Slackers – A Decade-by-Decade Guide to the Vanishing Vocabulary of the Twentieth Century calls this style “Voutian” and credits the jazz musician Slim Gaillard with its invention.

If you’re thinking “Get on the bus, gus!”, then you have a good clue, Blue! Another song to use this rhyming-jive style is “Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover.” Also see TV series such as I Love Lucy and other shows from the ’50s or set in the ’50s. Oh, yes, and in the film Grease, the master of ceremonies at Rydell High’s National Bandstand Dance-Off Contest explains the rules in rhyming jive. You can probably think of more examples, but do not confuse this with Cockney rhyming slang, which is a completely different speech pattern altogether.

See You Later Alligator

(See you later, alligator)

Well, I saw my baby walkin’ with another man today
Well, I saw my baby walkin’ with another man today
When I asked her what’s the matter
This is what I heard her say

See you later alligator, after ‘while crocodile
See you later alligator, after ‘while crocodile
Can’t you see you’re in my way now
Don’t you know you cramp my style

When I though of what she told me, nearly made me lose my head
When I though of what she told me, nearly made me lose my head
But the next time that I saw her
Reminded her of what she said

See you later alligator, after ‘while crocodile
See you later alligator, after ‘while crocodile
Can’t you see you’re in my way now
Don’t you know you cramp my style

She said I’m sorry pretty daddy, you know my love is just for you
She said I’m sorry pretty daddy, you know my love is just for you
Won’t you say that you’ll forgive me
And say your love for me is true

I said wait a minute ‘gator, I know you mean it just for play
I said wait a minute ‘gator, I know you mean it just for play
Don’t you know you really hurt me
And this is what I have to say

See you later alligator, after ‘while crocodile
See you later alligator, after ‘while crocodile
Can’t you see you’re in my way now
Don’t you know you cramp my style

See you later alligator, after ‘while crocodile
See you later alligator, so long, that’s all, goodbye

Famous Rock Guitars Part 2

Lets continue browsing through famous guitars. In Part 1 we had a guitars owned by Brian May and Willie Nelson.

George Harrison and Eddie Van Halen’s guitars

Today we will visit two more….George Harrison‘s Strat “Rocky” and Eddie Van Halen‘s “Frankenstrat”

Today we will start off with one of my favorite guitars for obvious reasons…and then Frankenstrat below Rocky.

“Rocky”

When The Beatles were in the studio recording “Help!“, John Lennon and George Harrison sent roadie Mal Evans out to go get a couple of Fender Stratocasters. Evans came back with matching 1962 Sonic Blue Strats. You can hear both of these guitars on Rubber Soul…especially both playing the solo on Nowhere Man in unison.

George Harrison: “During ’67, everybody started painting everything,” “and I decided to paint it. I got some Day-Glo paint, which was quite a new invention in them days, and just sat up late one night and did it.”

Harrison used some of his ex-wife Patti Boyd’s nail polish to paint the headstock. George played the guitar that year in the Beatles’ live performance of “All You Need Is Love” on the around the world satellite feed called Our World, the first global satellite TV program, and in the film Magical Mystery Tour, in the segment where the Beatles mime to “I Am the Walrus”

In 1969-1970 on the advice of the great slide guitar player Ry Cooder George set Rocky up for slide only.

The Harrison Estate still owns this guitar.

Following its announcement at NAMM 2020, Fender has now officially released its faithful recreation of George Harrison’s ‘Rocky’ Stratocaster…hmm I know exactly what I want for Christmas!

“Frankenstrat”

Eddie wanted to make a guitar that was a cross of a Gibson and Fender. To have the clean tone of a Fender and the ability to have the crunch of a Gibson.

In 1974 he visited Boogie Bodies guitars, whose parts were used on early Charvels, and bought himself a factory second unfinished body and neck, paying total of $130. The body he bought was the first one he saw laying around in the store, but he paid close attention to choosing the right neck – he looked for a wide neck with a really thin profile and big Gibson-style frets.

He painted the body black and wrapped masking tape around it and repainted the body white. He installed a Fender tremolo from a 1958 Stratocaster, Schaller tuners, and a Gibson PAF pickup from an old ES-335 which he dipped into paraffin wax in order to get rid of the feedback.

He played the guitar on Van Halen’s first album, and during the band’s first tour. Towards the end of the tour, the guitar was changed to feature a white pickguard and a rosewood neck.

He later changed out necks and hardware and painted it red with bicycle paint.

Frankenstrat was donated to the Hard Rock Cafe in 2004. In 2017 Frankenstrat had been stolen from the walls of the city’s Hard Rock Cafe but returned later.

NAMM 2020 Video: First look at the Fender George Harrison Rocky Stratocaster

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/frankenstrat-stolen-returned-to-hard-rock-cafe

…

Fleetwood Mac – Hold Me

Stevie Nicks always got more attention in Fleetwood Mac but I’ve always favored Christine’s songs. McVie has written some superb pop songs. This video I saw many times on the still new MTV.

Fleetwood Mac singer/keyboard player Christine McVie wrote this song with Robbie Patton, a singer who had a US hit in 1981 with “Don’t Give It Up,” which features guitar by Lindsey Buckingham.

This song was inspired by Christine McVie’s relationship with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson. After she split with Fleetwood Mac bass player John McVie, Christine dated Wilson for several years before they broke up in 1981. Wilson died in 1983 in a drunk-drowning accident.

Hold Me was on the Mirage album released in 1982. The band recorded the album at the Château d’Hérouville outside of Paris… they filmed the video for this song in the Mojave Desert outside of Palm Springs. The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, #5 in the UK, and #4 in Canada in 1982.

The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100, #7 in Canada, and #94 in the UK.

Christine McVie on Mirage getting overlooked: “It does, and I don’t know why,” she says. But, she adds, “As it stands today, a lot of people know every track on it. Which is quite unbelievable. So I just take it for what it is.”

I suppose we all felt in a way that what we were doing was kind of an homage to Rumours, in the sense that, obviously, after Rumours we went completely the opposite way and made a double album of an entirely different nature with Tusk. And for Tusk we had done this hugely long tour. Two world tours, I believe. Then we all disappeared for a few years. But we have a habit of doing that, Fleetwood Mac. Just kind of taking quite long hiatuses. And as we got together again, I think it was Mick who had this idea that perhaps we should enter another bubble-like situation, which was similar to what we had done for the Rumours album, when we recorded in Sausalito. Just taking us away from familiar things, like our families. There was the idea that maybe something would emerge from there that was completely different. Maybe it would make us more creative. And I think it worked, to an extent. It was definitely an unusual experience.

From Songfacts

Robbie Patton toured as an opening act with Fleetwood Mac in 1979 and McVie produced his albums Distant Shores (1981) and Orders From Headquarters (1982).

The video for this song was inspired in large part by the works of the Belgian painter Magritte, whose paintings appear in the clip. It was directed by Steve Barron and shot in the Mojave Desert. The combination of extreme heat and band tension made for a very difficult shoot. Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had all started solo projects, and getting the band to collaborate was a lesson in futility. The video’s producer Simon Fields said in I Want My MTV by Craig Marks, “John McVie was drunk and tried to punch me. Stevie Nicks didn’t want to walk on the sand with her platforms. Christine McVie was fed up with all of them. They were a fractious bunch.”

The video was subpar, but it was a fresh Fleetwood Mac video, which was good enough for MTV, which in 1982 was desperate for new clips by rock artists, especially established ones. Fleetwood Mac’s video for “Tusk” was one of the few they had available when they launched on August 1, 1981.

Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham share the lead vocals on this track.

Hold Me

Can you understand me
Baby don’t you hand me a line
Although it doesn’t matter
You and me got plenty of time

There’s nobody in the future
So baby let me hand you my love
Oh, there’s no step for you to dance to
So slip your hand inside of my glove

Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me

I don’t want no damage
But how am I gonna manage with you
You hold the percentage
But I’m the fool payin’ the dues

I’m just around the corner
If you got a minute to spare
I’ll be waitin’ for ya’
If you ever want to be there

Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me

Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me
Hold me, hold me, hold me

Nick Lowe – I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass ….. Power Pop Friday

I love how Lowe mixed the different sounds in this song.

This was the first ever single to be released by Radar Records, a UK label formed by the entrepreneurs, Martin Davis and Andrew Lauder. The single was on Lowe’s debut solo album, Jesus of Cool, which was also the first album to be released by Radar Records.

So to not offend Christians, Jesus of Cool was renamed Pure Pop for Now People in the US.

The song peaked at #7 in the UK in 1978. The album peaked at #127 in the Billboard Album Charts, #22 in the UK.

The song was more of a studio song according to Nick Lowe: “There’s one song of mine called ‘I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass,’ which was a fairly big hit in Europe, and people ask me for that sometimes, and I just don’t do it. It’s a really good record, but there’s not actually any song there. It was a half-baked idea I had when I went to the studio, and the bass player and drummer sort of put a little sauce in it. But if I played it with just an acoustic guitar, the audience would probably give me a little clap in recognition, but by verse two, they’d be looking at their fingernails, waiting for the next one. There really isn’t anything to it.”

His former wife Carlene Carter: “I went to see him at Top of the Pops. He was doing ‘I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass’ in his Riddler suit, covered with question marks. We had chemistry.

From Songfacts

This is a parody of David Bowie’s song, “Breaking Glass.” Lowe had previously poked fun at Bowie in 1977, when he released an EP titled Bowi, in humorous response to Bowie releasing an album titled Low, which lacked the final ‘e’ of Lowe’s surname.

Steve Goulding, Andy Bodnar and Bob Andrews – Lowe’s session musicians – helped to compose this song. Lowe told The A.V. Club: “That was a song which was sort of made up in the studio. I had the vague idea of the tune, and that’s why in the writing credits, I cut the bass player and the drummer in on the song, because they made it, really. The drums and bass are really great on that song. Steve Goulding and Andy Bodnar used to play with Graham Parker And The Rumour, whose records I produced, and they played bass and drums on ‘(I Love the Sound of) Breaking Glass.’ Their contribution was so great, I gave them a third each. In fact, I should have actually given Bob Andrews, who played piano on it, a taste of the record. The piano is so great.”

Lowe told KLRU that he no longer feels comfortable performing this song live: “If I played it with just an acoustic guitar, I think the audience would give it a clap, but after about a minute, they would start looking around and waiting for the next tune.”

This was Lowe’s highest charting hit in the UK, where it peaked at #7.

I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass

I love the sound of breaking glass
Especially when I’m lonely
I need the noises of destruction
When there’s nothing new

Oh nothing new, sound of breaking glass

I love the sound of breaking glass
Deep into the night
I love the sound of its condition
Flying all around

Oh all around, sound of breaking glass
Nothing new, sound of breaking glass

Oh all around, sound of breaking glass
Nothin’ new, sound of breakin’ glass

Safe at last sound of breaking glass

I love the sound of breaking glass
Deep into the night
I love the work on it can do

Oh change of mind
Oh a change of mind
Sound of breaking glass

All around, sound of breaking glass
Nothing new, sound of breaking glass
Breaking glass, sound of breaking glass

Sound of breaking glass
Sound of breaking glass
Sound of breaking glass
Sound of breaking glass
Sound of breaking glass
Sound of breaking glass

Pink Floyd – Bike

My journey through early Pink Floyd continues with this song called Bike written by Syd Barrett. It’s very British and like some of the other early songs you can hear the later Pink Floyd taking shape. This song was on the album The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn released in 1967.

The album title came from a chapter in the book Wind In The Willows, where The piper was Pan, the Greek god of music.

Barrett was 18 when he met 15-year-old Jenny Spires in 1964. They started dating the following year, which is when he wrote “Bike.” Barrett would often create artwork and poetry for Spires, and “Bike” was his version of a love song to Spires.

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason considers this one of Syd Barrett’s best songs.

From Songfacts

Pink Floyd guitarist Syd Barrett wrote this for his girlfriend, Jenny Spires. In the song, Syd shows her his bike, which he borrowed. He also shows her his mouse named Gerald, a clan of gingerbread men and a cloak. At the end of the song, Syd takes her to his music room.

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn was the first Pink Floyd album and the only one dominated by Syd Barrett, who was booted from the band in 1972 when he became mentally impaired.

You’re the kind of girl that fits in with my world
I’ll give you anything, everything if you want things

Spires recalled him being “very loving.”

“The lyrics to this are so very Syd, astonishingly clever,” he told Rolling Stone. “It’s fun, but there’s a depth of sadness to them.”

Bike

I’ve got a bike, you can ride it if you like
It’s got a basket, a bell that rings and
Things to make it look good
I’d give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it

You’re the kind of girl that fits in with my world
I’ll give you anything, ev’rything if you want things

I’ve got a cloak, it’s a bit of a joke
There’s a tear up the front, it’s red and black
I’ve had it for months
If you think it could look good, then I guess it should

You’re the kind of girl that fits in with my world
I’ll give you anything, ev’rything if you want things

I know a mouse, and he hasn’t got a house
I don’t know why I call him Gerald
He’s getting rather old, but he’s a good mouse

You’re the kind of girl that fits in with my world
I’ll give you anything, ev’rything if you want things

I’ve got a clan of gingerbread men
Here a man, there a man, lots of gingerbread men
Take a couple if you wish, they’re on the dish

You’re the kind of girl that fits in with my world
I’ll give you anything, ev’rything if you want things

I know a room full of musical tunes
Some rhyme, some ching, most of them are clockwork
Let’s go into the other room and make them work

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Sweet Hitch-Hiker

I was headed over to see my then girlfriend in 1985 and I was exiting off of the interstate. That is when I saw a beautiful girl hitch-hiking. She was stunning and conservatively dressed. So being a caring guy… I wanted to do a good deed! I stopped and asked her if I could help. She got in the car and was very nice and well spoken. She asked me where I was going and I told her to my girlfriend’s house.

Then came the question…did I want a “date” for that night…I told her my girlfriend would probably frown on that idea so I took her back where I found her and let her out…she was totally nice but yea I was a naïve 18 year old and ever since then this song reminds me of her…So this song is for her where ever she is now.

This is a great song that was on what was regarded as Creedence’s worse album.

The Mardi Gras album. By this time John’s brother had quit and the other two (Stu Cook and Doug Clifford) members had wanted more to do with the band’s direction. John told them for this album they would have more to do like writing and singing 3 songs each…they were not ready for that and the result was Mardi Gras…it was universally panned but there are some good songs on it…mostly the Fogerty contributions. It was their last studio album.

The song peaked at #6 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #36 in the UK in 1971. The album peaked at #12 in the Billboard Album Charts and #11 in Canada.

From Songfacts

This was the first CCR album that John Fogerty did not dominate. Other members of the band had accused him of being a control freak, so Fogerty let them do more of the songwriting and have a more prominent role on this album. It was the beginning of the end for CCR, as the album was a flop and this song the last of their hits.

In the line, “We could make music at the Greasy King,” The Greasy King was the nickname for the local burger stand in Berkeley, California near their rehearsal space, which they called “Cosmo’s Factory.”

This was the first single CCR released as a trio – Tom Fogerty left before the album was recorded.

The band started a four-continent tour as this was released.

Since they did not have other new songs to go along with this track, it was released as a single a year before the Mardi Gras album was issued.

The follow-up single, “Molina”/”Sailor’s Lament,” was never released in North America. It was released in Germany and became a major hit there in late 1971.

Sweet Hitchhiker

Was ridin’ alongside the highway
Rollin’ up the country side
Thinkin’ I’m the devil’s heatwave
What you burn in your crazy mind?
Saw a slight distraction
Standin’ by the road
She was smilin’ there
Yellow in her hair
Do you wanna, I was thinkin’
Would you care?

Sweet Hitchhiker
We could make music at the Greasy King
Sweet Hitchhiker,
Won’t you ride on my fast machine?

Cruisin’ on through the junction
I’m flyin’ ’bout the speed of sound
Noticin’ peculiar function
I ain’t no roller coaster
Show me down
I turned away to see her
Whoa, she caught my eye
But I was rollin’ down
Movin’ too fast
Do you wanna, she was thinkin’
Can it last?

Sweet Hitchhiker
We could make music at the Greasy King
Sweet Hitchhiker
Won’t you ride on my fast machine?

Was busted up along the highway
I’m the saddest ridin’ fool alive
Wond’ring if you’re goin’ in my way
Won’t you give a poor boy a ride?
Here she comes a ridin’
Lord, she’s flyin’ high
But she was rollin’ down
Movin’ too fast
Do you wanna, she was thinkin’
Can I last?

Sweet Hitchhiker
We could make music at the Greasy King
Sweet Hitchhiker
Won’t you ride on my fast machine?

…

Animals – When I Was Young

The Animals were nasty sounding…more than the Stones on some of their records at this time.

This is one of the songs that have been said as having pioneered grunge music. The song was written by Eric Burdon, Vic Briggs, John Weider, Barry Jenkins, and Danny McCulloch.

This was in the middle of the psychedelic period…In 1966 the original Animals disbanded because of business mismanagement and were in debt. Eric carried on with the newly named Eric Burdon & The Animals. He left behind his Newcastle, hard-drinking ways behind, and became a spokesman for the counterculture in this period.

This song was released in 1967 and it peaked at #15 in the Billboard 100, #10 in Canada, and #45 in the UK.

Eric Burdon: “When I first wrote it I played it to George Harrison and his comment was ‘Great! You got to do more of this. You’ll know you’ll be able to sing this song when you are in your forties.’ Now I am in my 70s and I am still singing it.”

From Songfacts

“When I Was Young” was written by Eric Burdon and included on various Animals albums as well as being a single release.

Burdon’s composition marks an important turning point for the Animals: many of The Animals’ hits had been Brill Building productions, most notably the husband-and-wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, which was an effort by their producer Mickie Most to make this British Invasion band sound more American. Burdon found this too restricting, and the group moved to Decca Records by 1966. This was amongst their first hits after this move.

Cover versions of this song include versions by Golden Earring, Eddie Fisher, Tina Turner, and The Ramones. It’s also been featured in film soundtracks such as Doris Dorrie’s Manner….

When I Was Young

‘The rooms were so much colder then
My father was a soldier then
And times were very hard
When I was young

I smoked my first cigarette at ten
And for girls, I had a bad yen
And I had quite a ball
When I was young

When I was young, it was more important
Pain more painful
Laughter much louder
Yeah, when I was young
When I was young

I met my first love at thirteen
She was brown and I was pretty green
And I learned quite a lot when I was young
When I was young
When I was young

Pain more painful
Laughter much louder
Yeah, when I was young
When I was young

My faith was so much stronger then
I believed in fellow man
And I was so much older then
When I was young
When I was young
When I was young

Madness – Our House

At the start of MTV my small town I lived in had yet to get cable…but it wouldn’t take too long. At that time I had to travel to relatives in Nashville before I got a chance to see it. I would spend the weekend and we would watch MTV for hours at a time. Binge watching before binge watching was a saying. We would wake up the next day bleary eyed and turn on more MTV.

I did find some music I never heard before. This band and song caught my attention. The song was released in 1982. It peaked at #7 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #5 in the UK.

The song was on the The Rise & Fall album. They were different…they have been described as a British ska and pop band.

This was Madness only top 10 hit in the US. Much of the song’s success in America was helped out by the clever music video that was in heavy rotation early days of MTV.

The producers were Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley

Alan Winstanley: “At the time of doing Madness we were kind of flying along together,” adds Langer. “Alan’s very precise and very particular, and I’m more slapdash and in a hurry and probably tend to like rougher-sounding records. That’s a generalization, because in the end we do like the same records, but sometimes the whole process with Alan can be laborious for me. He normally does the vocal comps whereas I’ll do a lot more work in the rehearsal room on the arrangements, deciding what instruments should play what where, how long the chorus should be and things like that. Still, we’ve got on fine considering how long we’ve worked together.”

Graham “Suggs” McPherson lead singer : “This was the first time we worked with the string arranger David Bedford. It was clear to him what our records needed and he did great things for us. It’s strange now to think we were so philosophical about such everyday things.”

From Songfacts

This won the Best Song award at the 1983 Ivor Novello Awards.

This was played in a 2007 TV commercial shown in the UK for Bird’s Eye Fish Fingers, which featured Suggs. In the advert the Madness frontman is sitting with a family at tea time. The daughter is studying for her school exams and asks Suggs where Omega 3 can be found. He offers the answer of Birds Eye Fish Fingers.

The song’s video featured the band as a cloth-cap wearing family squashed into a terraced house. Drummer Dan “Woody” Woodgate recalled to Q Magazine August 2008: “The knocking-on-the-door bit where somebody comes out, goes, ‘Where are they?’ and the others sneak in and close the door… That’s The Flintstones. We stole lots of ideas from the Keystone Kops and Benny Hill.”

Our House

Father wears his Sunday best
Mother’s tired, she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister’s sighing in her sleep (ah)
Brother’s got a date to keep, he can’t hang around

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

Our house, it has a crowd
There’s always something happening
And it’s usually quite loud
Our mum she’s so house-proud
Nothing ever slows her down and a mess is not allowed

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our (something tells you that you’ve got to move away from it)

Father gets up late for work
Mother has to iron his shirt
Then she sends the kids to school
Sees them off with a small kiss (ah)
She’s the one they’re going to miss in lots of ways

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

I remember way back then when everything was true and when
We would have such a very good time, such a fine time
Such a happy time
And I remember how we’d play, simply waste the day away
Then we’d say nothing would come between us
Two dreamers

Father wears his Sunday best
Mother’s tired, she needs a rest
The kids are playing up downstairs
Sister’s sighing in her sleep
Brother’s got a date to keep, he can’t hang around

Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our

Our house, was our castle and our keep
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, that was where we used to sleep
Our house, in the middle of our street
Our house, in the middle of our street, our house

Replacements – Bastards Of Young

The ones, love us best are the ones we’ll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones, love us least are the ones we’ll die to please
If it’s any consolation, I don’t begin to understand them

This song starts with a raw cool riff and a scream…how much more rock and roll can you get? The lyrics above is what got me into this song in the 80s.

The song was on the album Tim released in 1985. The album was produced by Tommy Ramone. Alex Chilton also helped out with the album.

Why was the album called Tim? There was no reference to the name on the album. The bands manager said that he asked Paul Westerberg what the name of the album would be. Paul told him “Tim” and the manager asked why? Paul said “because it’s such a nice name. “

It was placed 136th on Rolling Stone’s 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and 137 in a 2012 revised list. The album peaked at #186 in the Billboard Album Chart in 1986.

“Bastards of Young” was used in the 2020 film The New Mutants during the “party” scene where they are relaxing even though they are still confined.

Paul Westerberg working on the album: “”Writing songs like ‘Androgynous’ and ‘Answering Machine’ wasn’t difficult – presenting them to the group was. I’d been tinkering with stuff like that early on… It was hard getting across the idea we should just put the best songs on the record, even if there wasn’t always a place for Bob to have a hot lead. Bob was the hard one to get to acquiesce. So [Tim] ended up putting the chink in the armor of the idea of us as a four-piece rock band.”

From Songfacts

Fitting with the rebellious nature of The Replacements, this song is about a lost generation. The references to “Elvis” and the “Baby Boom” imply their parents, who see them as nothing more than tax deductions. “Bastard” is a derogatory term for a child born out of wedlock.

Some have speculated that the chorus is actually, “We are the sons of Norway” (somewhat fitting, given the Minnesota birthplace of all members) but, (famously) as no lyric sheet was ever provided by the band, it remains speculation.

The video is a black-and-white, single shot of a stereo system playing the song. He see a guy enter the frame, lie on the couch and smoke a cigarette, but we never see his face. At the end of the clip, he kicks over a speaker and leaves.

Bastards of Young

God, what a mess, on the ladder of success
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled
It beats pickin’ cotton and waitin’ to be forgotten

We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons

Clean your baby womb, trash that baby boom
Elvis in the ground, there’ll ain’t no beer tonight
Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function
It beats pickin’ cotton or waitin’ to be forgotten

We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
Now the daughters and the sons

Unwillingness to claim us, ya got no war to name us

The ones, love us best are the ones we’ll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones, love us least are the ones we’ll die to please
If it’s any consolation, I don’t begin to understand them

We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
Daughters and the sons

Young, young, young, young

Take it, it’s yours
Take it, it’s yours
Take it, it’s yours
Take it, it’s yours
Take it, it’s yours
Take it, it’s yours
Take it, it’s yours
Take it, it’s yours
Take it, it’s yours

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_(The_Replacements_album)#:~:text=Tim%20is%20the%20fourth%20studio,towards%20the%20end%20of%201986.

The Three Stooges

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.

Here in a link to a short history of the Stooges.

https://www.liveabout.com/three-stooges-4587473

Here is a bio of the Three Stooges introduced by Curly’s grandson.

Teenage Head – Somethin’ On My Mind

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

Led Zeppelin – Hot Dog

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

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

Famous Rock Guitars Part 1

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.

Green Day – Warning

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