Category: Music

The Primitives – Crash

I remember this song from the late 80s. The best I can remember it was on an alternative radio station.  It’s a nice piece of jangly power pop that stuck with me for a while.

They are best known for this song…Crash and it was released in 1988. The song peaked at #5 in the Uk charts and #3 in the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks. They were not a one-hit-wonder though. They charted 5 top twenty songs in the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks…and charted 7 songs in the UK in their career but none as big as this one.

I f you like jangly power-pop like me…go check some of their vintage and new music out.

The Primitives formed during 1984 and created catchy and jangly songs that seemed to be influenced by 1960s pop and psychedelia. They were initially called an indie group and released their songs on their own label which was called Lazy.

The band then went on to sign with RCA records. While at RCA they released more original material but also re-recorded some of their earlier Lazy label songs.

They broke up in 1992 but reformed in 2009 and have been releasing albums and singles since then.

In 1994, the song was featured on the Dumb & Dumber movie soundtrack as “Crash (The ’95 Mix)”. This remix included additional guitars, percussion, organ, and backing vocals – none of which were performed by any of The Primitives.

Crash

Here you go, way too fast
Don’t slow down, you’re gonna crash
You should watch, watch your step
Don’t look out, gonna break your neck

So shut, shut your mouth
Cause I’m not listening anyhow
I’ve had enough, enough of you
Enough to last a lifetime through

So what do you want of me
Got no words of sympathy
And if I go around with you
You know that I get messed up, too
With you

Na na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na na

Here you go, way too fast
Don’t slow down, you’re gonna crash
You don’t know what’s been going down
You’ve been running all over town

So shut, shut your mouth
Cause I’m not listening anyhow
I’ve had enough, enough of you
Enough to last a lifetime through
[Lyrics from: https:/lyrics.az/the-primitives/lovely/crash.html]

So what do you want of me
Got no cure for misery
And if I go around with you
You know that I get messed up, too
With you
With you
With you

Na na na na na na na na na
(Slow down, you’re gonna crash)
Na na na na na na na na na
(Slow down, you’re gonna crash)
Na na na na na na na na na
(Slow down, you’re gonna crash)
Na na na na na na na na na
(Slow down, you’re gonna crash)

Na na na na na na na na na
(Slow down, you’re gonna crash)
Na na na na na na na na na
(Slow down, you’re gonna crash)
Na na na na na na na na na
(Slow down, you’re gonna crash)
Na na na na na na na na na
(Slow down, you’re gonna crash)
Na na na na na na na na na
(Slow down, you’re gonna crash)

Dave Edmunds – Crawling From the Wreckage

This song was on the Edmunds solo album Repeat When Necessary. It was released in 1979 on Led Zeppelin’s record label Swan Song. The album peaked at #54 in the Billboard 100 in 1979.

Crawling From The Wreckage peaked at #59 in the UK when released.

The musicians on the album are Edmunds, Lowe, Billy Bremner, and Terry Williams…known as Rockpile.

This song was written by Graham Parker…below are both versions.

Crawling From The Wreckage

Got out really early from the factory
Drivin’ like a nut in the rain
Don’t think I was actin’ so hysterically
But I didn’t see a thing until it came
Met the dumb suburbos in the takeaway
Beating up the Chinee at the counter
I put a few inside me at the end of the day
I took out my revenge on the revolution counter

Crawlin’ from the wreckage, Crawlin’ from the wreckage
You’d think by now at least that half my brain would get the message
Crawlin’ from the wreckage, Crawlin’ from the wreckage
Into a brand new car

In walks Bud with his exploding nose
He’s been giving it maximum today
Shouted, How the devil, you in trouble, I suppose
All you ever do is run away
Gunned up the motor inta hyperdrive
I wasn’t gonna take any of that
Don’t get bright ideas about a suicide
‘Cause all I ever hear is, Zoom, bam, fantastic

Crawlin’ from the wreckage
Crawlin’ from the wreckage
You’d think by now at least that half a brain would get the message
Crawlin’ from the wreckage
Crawlin’ from the wreckage
Into a brand new car

Crawlin’, crawlin’, crawlin’ from the wreckage
Crawlin’, crawlin’, crawlin’ from the wreckage
Crawlin’, crawlin’, crawlin’ from the wreckage

Crawlin’ from the wreckage, Crawlin’ from the wreckage
Bits of me are scattered in the trees and in the hedges
Crawlin’ from the wreckage, Crawlin’ from the wreckage
Into a brand new car

Nothin’ seems to happen that ain’t happened before
I see it all through flashes of depression
I drop my drink and hit some people runnin’ for the door
Gotta make some kind of impression
‘Cause when I’m disconnected from the drivin’ wheel
I’m only half the man I should be
Metal hitting metal is-a all I feel
Everything is good as it poss-i-bul-ly could be

Crawlin’ from the wreckage, Crawlin’ from the wreckage
You’d think by now at least that half a brain would get the message
Crawlin’ from the wreckage, Crawlin’ from the wreckage
Into a brand new car

Crawlin’ from the wreckage, Crawlin’ from the wreckage
Bits of me are scattered in the trees and in the hedges
Crawlin’ from the wreckage, Crawlin’ from the wreckage
Into a brand new car

Crawlin’ from the wreckage, Crawlin’ from the wreckage

Kinks – Better Things

This song is really positive and positive is a good thing right now.

Ray Davies wrote this song in 1979 during the Low Budget sessions. It was written about Ray’s failing marriage to Yvonne Gunner…his second marriage. The band tried to record it for their album Low Budget that year, but couldn’t make it work.

It ended up on the Album “Give The People What They Want.” That was the first new Kinks album I ever bought. It’s a good album…some punk influence along with what the Kinks do best.

This song peaked at #92 in 1982 in the Billboard 100. The album peaked at #15 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1981.

From Songfacts

“Better Things,” written by Kinks’ frontman Ray Davies, was a single released in August of 1981 in the US, but not until January of 1982 in the UK. It is a cheerful, uplifting song, and so it fulfills what seemed to be a rule with The Kinks’ later albums, to end each album on a positive note: See also “Get Up” from Misfits, and “Life Goes On” from Sleepwalker.

The single’s initial copies came with a lagniappe 7-inch vinyl containing live versions of “Lola” and “David Watts,” which had been recorded on American tours in 1979 and 1980.

Artists who have covered this song include Bouncing Souls, Dar Williams, and Fountains of Wayne, the last of which was for a tribute album The Modern Genius of Ray Davies, arranged by the British music magazine Mojo.

The last track on Give The People What They Want, this song changes the tone of the album, which to this point is very unsettling and cynical (the penultimate song is “A Little Bit of Abuse”). “It’s just a change, a musical trick,” Ray Davies told Creem. “But I really like the song, ‘Better Things.’ It gives me hope. And after a song like ‘A Little Bit Of Abuse,’ you need some hope.”

Better Things

Here’s wishing you the bluest sky
And hoping something better comes tomorrow
Hoping all the verses rhyme
And the very best of choruses, too
Follow all the doubt and sadness
I know that better things are on the way

Here’s hoping all the days ahead
Won’t be as bitter as the ones behind you
Be an optimist instead
And somehow happiness will find you
Forget what happened yesterday
I know that better things are on the way

It’s really good to see you rocking out
And having fun
Living like you’ve just begun
Accept your life and what it brings
I hope tomorrow you’ll find better things
I know tomorrow you’ll find better things

Here’s wishing you the bluest sky
And hoping something better comes tomorrow
Hoping all the verses rhyme
And the very best of choruses, too
Follow all the doubt and sadness
I know that better things are on the way

I know you’ve got a lot of good things happening up ahead
The past is gone, it’s all been said
So here’s to what the future brings
I know tomorrow you’ll find better things
I know tomorrow you’ll find better things
I hope tomorrow you’ll find better things
I know tomorrow you’ll find better things
I hope tomorrow you’ll find better things

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young – Our House

Our House…that is where most of us are today and for days to come. Here is a ballad that Graham Nash wrote for the Déjà Vu album. The first album to include Crosby, Stills, Nash, AND Young.

Graham Nash wrote this sentimental tune about his relationship living with Joni Mitchell in a cottage in LA’s Laurel Canyon around 1969. Mitchell and Nash were a romantic couple during the period in which Joni wrote the songs for Ladies Of The Canyon which, like Deja Vu, was released in 1970.

Our house peaked at #30 in the Billboard 100, #13 in Canada, and #19 in New Zealand in 1970.

Graham Nash: It was one of those gray cloudy days in Los Angeles that foreshadows the spring. When we got back and put our stuff down, I said, “I’ll light a fire”—she had an open fireplace with a stash of wood in the back—“why don’t you put some flowers in that vase you just bought. It’ll look beautiful. It’s kind of a bleak day. It’ll bring some more color into the room.” Then I stopped. I thought: Whoa! That’s a delicious moment. How many couples have been there: You light a fire, I’ll cook dinner. I thought that in the ordinariness of the moment there might be a profoundly simple statement. So Joni went out into the garden to gather ferns and leaves and a couple flowers to put in the vase. That meant she wasn’t at the piano—but I was! And within the hour, the song “Our House” was finished.

 

From Songfacts

Biographer Dave Zimmer shared what Graham Nash told him about the song in the 2007 CSNY Historian’s interview: “He once told me: ‘The time that Joni and I were living together was really interesting because I had left my band [The Hollies] successfully, I had left my country [England] successfully, I had been accepted here [Los Angeles, California], and I was feeling great. And Joni was feeling great, too; she had started to realize who she was and the fantastic work she was doing. She was painting and designing her second album cover, doing that self-portrait. And I remember being totally in awe of her. She’d go and make some supper and come down and we’d be eating, then she’d all of a sudden space out, go to the piano … to see her sit down and write ‘Rainy Night House’ and all those other things was just mind blowing.'” 

According to Graham Nash’s biography Wild Tales, a famous line in this song had a very specific inspiration. He and Joni Mitchell went to an antiques store and she picked out a vase. When they got home, Nash said, “I’ll light the fire while you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today.” He stopped dead in his tracks and went immediately to the piano.

In the earliest live performances of the song, Nash would introduce it as being “about my woman.” He never used Mitchell’s name, though.

This was used in ’80s TV spots for Eckrich sausage and the Pacific Bell telephone company.

Our House

I’ll light the fire, you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today
Staring at the fire for hours and hours while I listen to you
Play your love songs all night long for me, only for me

Come to me now and rest your head for just five minutes, everything is good
Such a cozy room, the windows are illuminated by the evening
Sunshine through them, fiery gems for you, only for you

Our house is a very, very fine house with two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard,
Now everything is easy ’cause of you and our la, la, la…

Our house is a very, very fine house with two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard,
Now everything is easy ’cause of you and our

I’ll light the fire, while you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today

Rolling Stones – Factory Girl

Love the Beggars Banquet album (1968) and this song in particular. Mick remembers the working class in this song. It was written by Mick and Keith.

It’s a mostly acoustic number, with Charlie Watts playing tabla and Ric Grech sitting in on fiddle. Grech was a violinist and bass player who was a member of the band Family in the ’60s and went on to play in Blind Faith with Eric Clapton. He also played on Gram Parsons’ solo albums in the ’70s, and he appears on Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane’s 1976 Mahoney’s Last Stand project.

Dave Mason, who did some session work for Jimi Hendrix and was a member of the band Traffic, played the mandolin on this song.

The song wasn’t released as a single but it’s a great song like most of what’s on Beggars Banquet.

Drummer Charlie Watts: “On Factory Girl, I was doing something you shouldn’t do, which is playing the tabla with sticks instead of trying to get that sound using your hand, which Indian tabla players do, though it’s an extremely difficult technique and painful if you’re not trained.”

From Songfacts

This song is a great example of Mick Jagger taking on a persona, which he often did in his lyrics. Here, he sings from the perspective of a guy who is waiting for his girlfriend – a destitute, disheveled sort – to get out of work at the factory. It’s quite a contrast to Jagger’s reality: a glamorous rock star who often dated models.

Guitarist Keith Richards: “To me ‘Factory Girl’ felt something like Molly Malone, an Irish jig; one of those ancient Celtic things that emerge from time to time, or an Appalachian song. In those days I would just come up and play something, sitting around the room. I still do that today.”

 

Factory Girl

Waiting for a girl who’s got curlers in her hair
Waiting for a girl she has no money anywhere
We get buses everywhere
Waiting for a factory girl

Waiting for a girl and her knees are much too fat
Waiting for a girl who wears scarves instead of hats
Her zipper’s broken down the back
Waiting for a factory girl

Waiting for a girl and she gets me into fights
Waiting for a girl, we get drunk on Friday night
She’s a sight for sore eyes
Waiting for a factory girl

Waiting for a girl and she’s got stains all down her dress
Waiting for a girl and my feet are getting wet
She ain’t come out yet
Waiting for a factory girl

 

Bruce Springsteen – I’m Going Down

Bruce makes it abundantly clear that he is not going to town, nor dinner, or in any way… up…nope he is going down, down, down etc… He repeats “down” over eighty times in this song…My word count counts 90 in the song. I don’t care…its a good song and as Bruce always does he sings it with conviction.

The reason I like this song is the overall sound that Bruce got on the guitar and the echo in his voice… it’s just perfect. I can hear the Sun Records influence in this one.

Born In The USA was the album I listened to endlessly in 1984-1985. You heard it everywhere you turned. A friend of mine (big Bruce fan from the old days) saw Bruce in 85 and he was depressed that Bruce was no longer a cult performer anymore. The horse was out of the barn so to speak…The public knew and knew him well. Bruce and that bandana were all over the news and any magazine you read.

Born in the USA had 7 top ten singles… I’m Going Down peaked at #9 in the Billboard 100 and #23 in Canada in 1985. The album was released on June 4, 1984… this song was at #9 over a year later on October 25, 1985. This was the 6th of the 7 singles to go to the top 10. My Hometown being the last in January of 1986…and it peaked at #6… within 5 months of two years after the release.

Lets fire up the Delorean and go back to 1985…please…

I’m Going Down

We sit in the car outside your house
I can feel the heat coming ’round
I go to put my arm around you
And you give me a look like I’m way out of bounds
Well you let out one of your bored sighs
Well lately when I look into your eyes

Down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, down, down, down

We get dressed up and we go out, baby, for the night
We come home early burning, burning, burning in some fire fight
I’m sick and tired of you setting me up yeah
Setting me up just to knock-a knock-a knock-a me down

Down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, down, down, down, hey now

I pull you close now baby but when we kiss I can feel a doubt
I remember back when we started
My kisses used to turn you inside out
I used to drive you to work in the morning
Friday night I’d drive you all around
You used to love to drive me wild yeah
But lately girl you get your kicks from just driving me down

I’m goin down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, down, down, down

I’m goin down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, hey bopa d-d-down

I’m goin down, down, down, down
I’m goin down, hey bopa d-d-down
I’m goin down, down, down, yeah
I’m goin down, down, hey bopa hey bopa

Hey hey mmm bopa bopa well down
Hey babe mmm bopa bopa said down
Hey hey mmm bopa bopa well down
Hey hey mmm bopa bopa say
Hey unh say down, down, down, down, down
Hey down now, say down, down, down, down, down

Monkees – Monkees Theme

Hey Hey…Let’s all wake up to the Monkees on this quarantined morning. It’s hard to resist this song…it’s fun and reminds me of the intro to their television show…which is a good thing.

This was the first song written and recorded for The Monkees TV series, which ran on NBC 1966-1968. Written to introduce the Monkees and used as the theme song for the show.

It was written by the songwriter/producers Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who were hired to write three songs for the show’s pilot, including the theme. When they wrote it, the cast had not been chosen and they had very little direction…the show was pitched as “An American version of The Beatles” and loosely based on the Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night.

Peter Tork: “I always thought the song worked fine as the theme song for the TV show. But I never allowed us to sing it in public,” “The whole idea of standing up there and singing, ‘We’re wonderful/We’re the wonderful ones/And our names are The Wonderful Ones,’ was too self-congratulatory. What we do now is, the backing band plays [the music] and Micky and I come out onstage to it. I can’t ever see us singing ‘Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees!’ I couldn’t bear it.”

 

From Songfacts

The finger snaps and “here we come” line were influenced by the Dave Clark Five song “Catch Us If You Can,” where they sing, “Here we come again, catch us if you can.”

The Monkees didn’t play on their early albums, so very often the only band member to appear on a song would be its lead vocalist, which in this case was Micky Dolenz. This song was produced by the song’s writers, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who had members of their band, the Candy Store Prophets, play the instruments. The backing credits are as follows:

Micky Dolenz: vocal
Tommy Boyce: backing vocals
Wayne Erwin, Gerry Mcgee & Louie Shelton: guitar
Larry Taylor: bass
Billy Lewis: drums
Gene Estes: percussion

Turns out this song works very well in a documentary about actual monkeys: It was used to open the 2015 Disney film Monkey Kingdom.

The Monkees Theme

Here we come
Walkin’ down the street
We get the funniest looks from
Everyone we meet

Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees
And people say we monkey around
But we’re too busy singing
To put anybody down

We go wherever we want to
Do what we like to do
We don’t have time to get restless
There’s always something new

Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees
And people say we monkey around
But we’re too busy singing
To put anybody down

We’re just tryin’ to be friendly
Come and watch us sing and play
We’re the young generation
And we’ve got something to say, oh

Any time
Or anywhere
Just look over your shoulder
Guess who’ll be standing there?

Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees
And people say we monkey around
But we’re too busy singing
To put anybody down

Whaaa, one time!

Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees
And people say we monkey around
But we’re too busy singing
To put anybody down

We’re just tryin’ to be friendly
Come and watch us sing and play
We’re the young generation
And we’ve got something to say

Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees
Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees

The Who – Squeeze Box

You go and see Pete Townshend to watch him windmill his guitar and jump about. Not on this song…you hear Pete happily playing on a banjo…and that is a great thing. He also slips in the accordion for good measure. This is not The Who’s best song but it’s happy and catchy. It’s also the first Who song I remember hearing without knowing much about them. My sister surprisingly had this single…a bright spot among the many bad ones she owned.

This song was on the album The Who By Numbers released in 1975 and peaked at #8. Squeeze Box made it to #16 in the Billboard 100 in 1976.

Townshend wrote all of the songs and they were deeply personal. He had just turned 30 and he was beginning to question his place in Rock and Roll. A question he would wrestle with a few more years.

Squeeze Box was originally intended for a Who television special planned in 1974. In the planned performance of the song, the members of the band were to be surrounded by 100 topless women playing accordions

Pete Townsend: “It’s not about a woman’s breasts, vaginal walls, or anything else of the ilk.”

Roger Daltrey: “What’s great about ‘Squeeze Box’ is that it’s so refreshingly simple, an incredible catchy song. A good jolly. I’ve never had a problem with that song because it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is and I love it for that. Live audiences love it. Nothing wrong with a bit of ‘in-and-out’, mate!”  

From Songfacts

“Squeeze Box” is a slang term for an accordion, but it is also slang for the vagina. The band just wanted to see if they could get away with singing about the joys of explicit sex. 

In the liner notes to Pete Townshend’s compilation album Scoop, he wrote that he recorded the song for fun one day when he had bought himself an accordion. The accordion gave the song a polka-esque rhythm and the lyrics were “intended as a poorly aimed dirty joke.” Townshend had no thought of it ever becoming a hit.

The song is about an accordion (sort of), but there is hardly any of the instrument in the song. You can hear some in the section about 90 seconds in that goes, “squeeze me, come on and squeeze me,” but the subsequent instrumental section is mostly banjo. Pete Townshend played both instruments.

 

Squeeze Box

Mama’s got a squeeze box
She wears on her chest
And when daddy comes home
He never gets no rest
‘Cause she’s playing all night
And the music’s all right
Mama’s got a squeeze box
Daddy never sleeps at night

Well the kids don’t eat
And the dog can’t sleep
There’s no escape from the music
In the whole damn street
‘Cause she’s playing all night
And the music’s all right
Mama’s got a squeeze box
Daddy never sleeps at night

She goes in and out and in
And out and in and out and in and out
She’s playing all night
And the music’s all right
Mama’s got a squeeze box
Daddy never sleeps at night

She goes, squeeze me, come on and squeeze me
Come on and tease me like you do
I’m so in love with you
Mama’s got a squeeze box
Daddy never sleeps at night

She goes in and out and in and out
And in and out and in and out
‘Cause she’s playing all night
And the music’s all right
Mama’s got a squeeze box
Daddy never sleeps at night

Moody Blues – Your Wildest Dreams

It’s easy to relate to this song… most have someone who they felt got away and you still think about them and wonder if they think about you.

It has a great hook and it gets you right away. The Moody Blues have been described as a progressive rock band but I have never thought of them that way. Maybe because I don’t particularly like progressive rock bands. I’ve always thought the Moodies were a great pop/rock band who plays for the song like Story In Your Eyes, Question, and others. This song is more of a pop song than some of their early ones but a catchy one.

It was written by Justin Hayward and peaked at #9 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the Adult Contemporary Charts, and #2 in the Mainstream Rock Charts in1986.

Justin Hayward: “I found with ‘Wildest Dreams’ that it was a common experience for a lot of people,” he said. “I thought I was writing a frivolous sort of song. I thought ‘Wildest Dreams’ would be a throwaway thing that people wouldn’t really take much notice of lyrically. But I found out that it was a common experience and desire by a lot of people. So that was very revealing.”

From Songfacts

The Moody Blues were one of the first bands to use a Mellotron, which was a keyboard instrument that played sounds by triggering tape loops. Mike Pinder, a founding member of the band, was their Mellotron virtuoso. After Pinder’s departure in 1979, Justin Hayward began experimenting with synthesizers and became particularly fond of the Yamaha DX7, which is apparent on this track.

Tony Visconti, famous for his work with David Bowie, produced The Other Side Of Life album and encouraged the band to use some unusual instruments. “Most of ‘Wildest Dreams’ – 90% of it – is Tony Visconti, my DX7, and a guitar synth,” Justin Hayward tells us. “The piece at the beginning that sounds like a sort of Theremin, a (humming) ‘oooo ooo,’ that’s a guitar synth. All of that is. So it was just another way of exploring musical avenues. Tony Visconti was very much into that and the first person who really turned the band on to programming in a serious way. And he was very, very good at it, so I enjoyed every moment of that.”

Justin Hayward wrote the song “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere,” which appeared on the next Moody Blues album, Sur la Mer, as a sequel to this song, with the singer longing to find the girl.

For “Somewhere,” he went back to his Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and used the same keyboard and bass sounds, keeping the same tempo. This gave the songs a similar musical feel to connect them musically, and then he wrote the lyrics to continue the story.

Your Wildest Dreams

Once upon a time
Once when you were mine
I remember skies
Reflected in your eyes
I wonder where you are
I wonder if you think about me
Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams

Once the world was new
Our bodies felt the morning dew
That greets the brand new day
We couldn’t tear ourselves away
I wonder if you care
I wonder if you still remember
Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams

And when the music plays
And when the words are touched with sorrow
When the music plays
I hear the sound I had to follow
Once upon a time

Once beneath the stars
The universe was ours
Love was all we knew
And all I knew was you
I wonder if you know
I wonder if you think about it
Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

And when the music plays
And when the words are touched with sorrow
When the music plays
And when the music plays
I hear the sound I had to follow
Once upon a time

Once upon a time
Once when you were mine
I remember skies
Mirrored in your eyes
I wonder where you are
I wonder if you think about me
Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams (ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah)
In your wildest dreams (ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah)
In your wildest dreams (ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah)
In your wildest dreams (ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah)

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

Beatles – Within You Without You

As Van Morrison would say…Into The Mystic… this song off of Sgt Pepper was a George Harrison song…and he was the only Beatle on it… This is about as sixties as you can get with the sitar and philosophical lyrics.

This was a brilliant addition to Sgt Pepper to show yet another side to the Beatles.

It’s hard to overestimate how profound of an effect that the introduction to Eastern religion had on George Harrison. Under the name of Sam Wells, George, along with his wife Pattie, vacationed in Bombay, India for six weeks, beginning on September 20th, 1966. At the suggestion of Ravi Shankar, from whom he was going to take sitar lessons while there, he grew a mustache as a subtle disguise so as to ward off any Indian “Beatlemaniacs” that may have been around in the area.

The book Autobiography Of A Yogi really changed his life and mind. It influenced his writing of songs like Within You Without You’ and many others. George started to write this song on a pedal harmonium at friend Klaus Voormann’s home.

During the recording, George was there with Indian musicians and they had a carpet on the floor and there was incense burning.

At George Harrison’s request, they added a small bit of laughter at the end of the song as it faded out to lighten the mood a bit.

John Lennon: “I think that is one of George’s best songs, one of my favorites of his. I like the arrangement, the sound and the words. He is clear on that song. You can hear his mind is clear and his music is clear. It’s his innate talent that comes through on that song, that brought that song together. George is responsible for Indian music getting over here. That song is a good example.”

 

From Songfacts

Although this song is billed as being recorded by the Beatles, George Harrison was the only Beatle to play on the track. There is no guitar or bass, but there are some hand-drums.

Harrison spent weeks looking for musicians to play the Indian instruments used on this. It was especially difficult because Indian musicians could not read Western music.

This is based on a piece by Indian musician Ravi Shankar, who helped teach Harrison the sitar. Harrison wrote his own lyrics and shortened it considerably.

Harrison wrote this as a 30-minute piece. He trimmed it down into a mini-version for the album.

This was the only song Harrison wrote that made it onto the album. He also contributed “Only A Northern Song” (recorded in February of 1967 as verified by the Anthology 2 album), but it was left off the album at the last minute. It was initially intended to go on the first side of Sgt. Pepper between “She’s Leaving Home” and “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.” >>

This was one of Harrison’s first songs to explore Eastern religion, which would become a lifelong quest. He believed in reincarnation, which helped him accept death in 2001, when he lost his life to cancer.

Oasis covered this for the BBC to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

This is the second Indian classical-influenced song that George Harrison wrote for the Beatles, the first being “Love You To.”

“Now “Within You/Without You” was not a commercial song by any means. But it was very interesting. [George Harrison] had a way of communicating music by the Indian system of kind of a separate language… the rhythms decided by the tabla player.” –Sir George Martin, from the documentary The Material World.

Within You Without You

We were talking
About the space between us all
And the people
Who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth
Then it’s far too late when they pass away

We were talking
About the love we all could share
When we find it
To try our best to hold it there, with our love, with our love
We could save the world, if they only knew

Try to realize it’s all within yourself, no-one else can make you change
And to see you’re really only very small
And life flows on within you and without you

We were talking
About the love that’s gone so cold
And the people
Who gain the world and lose their soul
They don’t know, they can’t see
Are you one of them?

When you’ve seen beyond yourself then you may find peace of mind is waiting there
And the time will come when you see we’re all one
And life flows on within you and without you

 

 

The Band – Life Is A Carnival

One quick story before the song. When I was 6 years old my dad, mom, sister. and I piled into the car and we all traveled to the carnival. I was so excited…too excited. I was in the backseat and stuck my head out the driver’s side window. My dad was not paying attention…can you see this coming? My dad started to roll the window up and could not understand why it was stuck. My neck was in it and Dad was trying to roll up harder. By this time I could not breathe, my face was turning red, and I was flopping around like a mouse in a trap…my mom yelled at my dad…MAX IS IN THE WINDOW… what? my dad asked…then my mom and sister screamed…MAX IS IN THE WINDOW…in unison no less. I can still hear him….Son…why the hell did you have your head handing out the window? Uh Dad…I wanted out to go to the carnival.

I loved carnivals growing up. At night they were magical with the lights, sounds, and smells.

This song was on The Band’s fourth studio album Cahoots. The song was written by  Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Robbie Robertson. The song peaked at #72 in the Billboard 100 in 1972. The album Cahoots peaked at #21 in the Billboard Album Charts in the same year.

The Band had a new studio in Bearsville NY to experiment in during the early ’70s. It was opened by their manager Albert Grossman but Robbie Robertson commented that it left them a bit cold. They are also going through drug problems with three members at the time of recording.

Rick Danko in 1993: “I think we shipped a million copies of that second album,”
“And that changed a lot of people’s lives — in particular, the Band’s. After that, we were only getting together once a year, for a couple of months, to record. It was like we were too decadent to play.”

Life Is A Carnival

You can walk on the water
Drown in the sand
You can fly off a mountaintop
If anybody can

Run away, run away (run away, run away)
It’s the restless age
Look away, look away (look away, look away)
You can turn the page

Hey, buddy, would you like to buy a watch real cheap?
Here on the street
I got six on each arm
And two more ’round my feet

Life is a carnival
Believe it or not
Life is a carnival
Two bits a shot

Saw a man with a jinx
In the third degree
From trying to deal with people
People, you can’t see

Take away, take away (take away, take away)
This house of mirrors
Give away, give away (give away, give away)
All the souvenirs

We’re all in the same boat ready to float
Off the edge of the world
The flat old world
The street is a sideshow
From the peddler to the corner girl

Life is a carnival
It’s in the book
Life is a carnival
Take another look

Hey, buddy, would you like to buy a watch real cheap?
Here on the street
I got six on each arm
And two more ’round my feet

Life is a carnival
Believe it or not
Life is a carnival
Two bits a shot

 

Simon and Garfunkel – The Only Living Boy In New York

This was the B side to Cecilia. I’ve had two different bloggers mention this song to me in the past few days. I started to get into this song a little later than the others but it’s a beautiful song.

Paul Simon wrote this song about his partner Art Garfunkel going to Mexico to act in a movie called Catch-22, which was directed by Mike Nichols, who gave Simon & Garfunkel a big boost when he featured their songs in his 1967 film The Graduate. Simon was also going to be in the film, but Nichols cut his part, which separated the duo. Garfunkel spent months working on the film while Simon returned to New York, where he toiled away on the Bridge Over Troubled Water album.

Paul Simon sent letters to keep in touch with Garfunkel and update him on the album’s progress. Up to that point, the pair had always partnered musically and shared a bond, which was now breaking… Simon and Garfunkel split up after the album was released…Paul recorded as a solo artist, and Art pursued his acting career.

 

From Songfacts

Regarding the lyrics, “Tom get your plane right on time. I know that your eager to fly now,” before the folk duo became famous, they were known as Tom and Jerry. Tom was Art’s stage name, so this line symbolizes their increasing need for musical and personal freedom.

In a 1990 interview with SongTalk magazine, Simon said: “I liked the ‘aaahhhs,’ the voices singing ‘aaah.’ That was the best I think that we ever did it. It was quite a lot of voices we put on, maybe twelve or fifteen voices. We sang it in the echo-chamber.”

This song was addressed during a screening of the Simon & Garfunkel documentary Songs of America. At the screening, Garfunkel said, “I had Paul sort of waiting: ‘All right, I can take this for three months. I’ll write the songs, but what’s the fourth month? And why is Artie in Rome a fifth month? What’s Mike [Nichols] doing to Simon & Garfunkel?’ And so there’s Paul in the third month, still with a lot of heart, writing about, ‘I’m the only living boy in [New York]. You used to be the other one.”

This was used in the 2004 movie Garden State. Zach Braff, who wrote and directed the movie, thought the song worked perfectly to convey the loneliness of a character. Simon & Garfunkel rarely license the song, but they let Braff use it for a greatly reduced fee after seeing the scene. 

The session musician Joe Osborn played an 8-string bass on this track, which the album’s producer Roy Halee said was the featured musical element of the song. Years later, when Osborn tried to relearn his part to demonstrate it, he realized it was very difficult to reproduce live, as Halee spliced together various takes for the recording.

 

The Only Living Boy In New York

Tom, get your plane right on time
I know your part’ll go fine
Fly down to Mexico
Do-n-do-d-do-n-do and here I am,
The only living boy in New York

I get the news I need on the weather report
I can gather all the news I need on the weather report
Hey, I’ve got nothing to do today but smile
Do-n-doh-d-doh-n-doh and here I am
The only living boy in New York

Half of the time we’re gone
But we don’t know where,
And we don’t know where

Half of the time we’re gone
But we don’t know where,
And we don’t know where

Tom, get your plane right on time
I know you’ve been eager to fly now
Hey let your honesty shine, shine, shine now
Do-n-do-d-do-n-do
Like it shines on me
The only living boy in New York,
The only living boy in New York

Beatles – Don’t Bother Me

In 1975 my friends and cousin had a clubhouse that was an old horse barn. We had a record player, a lantern, and a one-armed bandit. My cousin played the Meet The Beatles album and me… being a Monkee fan soaked it up and it started a lifelong love for The Beatles.

My first favorite Beatle song was It Won’t Be Long…then this one came in second at the time. George wrote this when he was down with the flu in a hotel room in the Northeast of England. It was the first song he wrote……technically he did have partial credit on the instrumental Cry For A Shadow.

Is it George’s best song? Of course not but it fits in well with the early Beatles and it gets overlooked. If you think about it…”Don’t Bother me” is so George and his attitude at times. I always really liked it…the overall feel of it is cool. It was a very good attempt at his first song.

George Harrison: “I don’t think it’s a particularly good song… It mightn’t even be a song at all, but at least it showed me that all I needed to do was keep on writing, and then maybe eventually I would write something good.”

Tom Petty: “I thought it was just the coolest song, like nothing I’d heard in rock,” Petty said in 2014 “I’d say, ‘Well, I like it. A lot. If you did that today, I’d say it was really good.’ And he’d go, ‘Well, you’d be wrong.'”

The Smithereens did a great job covering this song.

From Songfacts

This was George Harrison’s first recorded song. It was his response to critics who claimed he was not an important member of the group because he did not write songs.

A Harrison-penned song would not appear again until the 1965 album Help!. That would be “You Know What To Do.”

This song has a darker, more pessimistic mood that was uncommon of The Beatles main sound, but would come to be Harrison’s trademark stamp. This is actually part of what made the Beatles’ formula work: McCartney was the chirpy, positive one, and Harrison was the melancholic counterpart.

Years later these were sold off at one of the London auction houses. This song in it’s very earliest stages is available on bootleg and features George working the music and lyrics out as he goes along. George stated, “I wrote the song as an exercise to see if I could write a song. I was sick in bed. Maybe that’s why it turned out to be ‘Don’t Bother Me.'” 

For your information, the photography technique for the cover of With The Beatles, in which the Fab Four’s headshots hover in a half-moon, light-and-shadow effect, is called “chiaroscuro.” It’s an Italian word to describe the Renaissance technique of dramatically contrasted lighting effects in oil paintings.

This was the first song on Side 2 of Meet The Beatles, their first album released in the US. With The Beatles was their second UK release.

Don’t Bother Me

Since she’s been gone I want no one to talk to me
It’s not the same but I’m to blame, it’s plain to see

So go away, leave me alone, don’t bother me
I can’t believe that she would leave me on my own
It’s just not right when every night I’m all alone

I’ve got no time for you right now, don’t bother me
I know I’ll never be the same if I don’t get her back again
Because I know she’ll always be the only girl for me

But ’til she’s here please don’t come near, just stay away
I’ll let you know when she’s come home
Until that day
Don’t come around, leave me alone, don’t bother me

I’ve got no time for you right now, don’t bother me
I know I’ll never be the same if I don’t get her back again
Because I know she’ll always be the only girl for me

But ’til she’s here please don’t come near, just stay away
I’ll let you know when she’s come home
Until that day

Don’t come around, leave me alone, don’t bother me
Don’t bother me
Don’t bother me
Don’t bother me
Don’t bother me

Beach Boys – In My Room

As a teenager, I could relate to this song. Now in this world, we live in now… I can relate to this song even more. I love the harmonies in this song.

Brian Wilson suffered from severe agoraphobia and refused to leave his bedroom for a significant amount of time. He wrote this song to give people an idea of how he felt. The song, like many Beach Boys songs, has beautiful harmonizing. The song was written by Brian Wilson and Gary Usher.

This song was the B side to Be True To Your School released in 1963. The song peaked at #23 in the Billboard 100 in 1963.

Brian Wilson: “When Dennis, Carl and I lived in Hawthorne as kids, we all slept in the same room. One night I sang the song ‘Ivory Tower’ to them and they liked it. Then a couple of weeks later, I proceeded to teach them both how to sing the harmony parts to it. It took them a little while, but they finally learned it. We then sang this song night after night. It brought peace to us. When we recorded ‘In My Room,’ there was just Dennis, Carl and me on the first verse… and we sounded just like we did in our bedroom all those nights. This story has more meaning than ever since Dennis’ death.”

From Songfacts

In the 1998 documentary Endless Harmony, Brian Wilson described this song as about being “somewhere where you could lock out the world, go to a secret little place, think, be, do whatever you have to do.”

Charles Manson, who was convicted of orchestrating the murders of six people in 1969, made repeated claims that The Beach Boys stole this song from him. In Manson’s view, he wrote a song called “In My Cell” which was about how he feels peace with himself in his jail cell. Manson did have a connection to The Beach Boys – he knew their drummer Dennis Wilson – and did write and record some songs. His claims have little basis in fact – something that is true of most of his proclamations.

Bill Medley from The Righteous Brothers recorded this with Phil Everly and Brian Wilson for his album Damn Near Righteous, his first new album since the untimely 2003 death of his partner Bobby Hatfield. 

Interesting food for thought: Brian Wilson just might have inadvertently inspired one of the greatest jazz fusion bands, Blood Sweat & Tears, albeit indirectly. Al Kooper relates in Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards that he was sitting in Brian Wilson’s living room while he showed off the Pet Sounds album. He was just leaving The Blues Project and wandering around California in an existential haze wondering what to do next, when while visiting with Brian Wilson, “Deep in the back of my mind was a band that could put dents in your shirt if you got within fifteen rows of the stage…” He explains his idea of having a band with a horn section in it, more than R&B bands but less than Count Basie’s or Buddy Rich’s. “Somewhere in the middle was a mixture of soul, jazz, and rock that was my little fantasy.”

This was released as the B-side of “Be True To Your School.”

Linda Ronstadt and Tammy Wynette both covered this song.

One of the many who found solace in this song is Steve Perry of Journey fame, who told Rolling Stone: “This was an anthem to my teenage isolation. I just wanted to be left alone in my room, where I could find peace of mind and play music.”

In My Room

There’s a world where I can go and tell my secrets to
In my room, in my room
In this world I lock out all my worries and my fears
In my room, in my room

Do my dreaming and my scheming
Lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing
Laugh at yesterday

Now it’s dark and I’m alone
I won’t be afraid
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room

J.D. Souther – You’re Only Lonely

This song has always stuck with me. I have a special place for it. J.D. Souther was influenced by the Roy Orbinson song Only The Lonely. This title fits some today in what all of us are going through. You know sometimes when you say “all of us” you mean maybe your state, district, or country…but now it truly means all of us.

J.D. Souther collaborated on many of The Eagles’ hits, including New Kid in Town. J.D. Souther had some talented friends. In the early days of his career, Souther shared an apartment with future Eagles member Glenn Frey in Los Angeles. Downstairs was Jackson Browne. Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt and many others from that scene hung around, too.

“You’re Only Lonely” was originally released in 1979, and was No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. It peaked at #7 in the Billboard 100.

J.D. Souther talks about how Linda Ronstadt gave him good advice: “Very pointedly, she said, ‘Don’t try to rewrite the songs.’ I mean, she encouraged me to do the record because I defer to her advice quite often,” Souther says. “She really has just practically infallible taste in songs. She’s got what jazz players call ‘big ears.’ So I just kind of sat back and approached it as though the songs had been chosen for me by someone else.

From Songfacts

A #1 Adult Contemporary hit for 5 weeks, Souther told us that Roy Orbison, who had a hit with “Only The Lonely,” was a big influence on this song. Said Souther: “I was a little kid when I first heard Roy Orbison, but he was magic. He’s the guy that you turned out the lights and listened to his records by yourself – or with a girl – because he was just completely other-worldly. He had sarcastic and adventurous songs and great arrangements, and then that beautiful, almost operatic voice. Beautiful, natural deep echo on it. He is one of half a dozen or so rockabilly musicians that I really loved. When I was in junior high school was the first time I really started listening to that.

But then I started playing drums all the time, and I got so fascinated with jazz, I didn’t really think much about singing or making rock and roll records for quite a few years. The first song I ever heard called ‘Only the Lonely’ was this song that Frank Sinatra sang. It’s a Johnny Mercer song; it’s on a Sinatra album called Songs for Only the Lonely. There are a lot of songs with that name. But the beat that I used for ‘You’re Only Lonely’ is that rockabilly beat. That sort of break in it was taken from another Roy Orbison record called ‘I’m Hurtin” that I really love.”

When You’re Only Lonely

When the world is ready to fall on your little shoulders
And, when you’re feeling lonely and small,
You need somebody there to hold you;
You can call out my name

When you’re only lonely;
Now, don’t you ever be ashamed;
You’re only lonely.

When you need somebody around on the nights that try you
I was there when you were a queen
And I’ll be the last one there beside you;
So you can call out my name

When you’re only lonely;
Now, don’t you ever be ashamed;
You’re only lonely. (You’re only lonely)
(You’re only lonely) (You’re only lonely)

Ooh, When the world is ready to fall on your little shoulders
And, when you’re feeling lonely and small,
You need somebody there to hold you;
So don’t you ever be ashamed
When you’re only lonely;
You can call out my name

When you’re only lonely; (You’re only lonely)
When you’re only lonely; (You’re only lonely)
Ooh, it’s no crime,
Darlin’, we got lots of time,
Woh, woh, (You’re only lonely)
Woh, woh, woh, (You’re only lonely)
No there’s nothing wrong with you,
Darlin, I get lonely too.
(You’re only lonely)(You’re only lonely)
So, if you need me, (You’re only lonely)
All you’ve gotta do is call me
Well, you’re only lonely
(You’re only lonely)(You’re only lonely)
Ooh, ooh, (You’re only lonely)