Sometimes a pop song is more important than just a regular pop song…this is one of them.
Great song by Dion. This song is a tribute to those involved in the battle for civil rights. The title refers to Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy. The last verse in the song refers to Bobby …JFK’s brother, Robert Kennedy. Everyone mentioned in the song has died and this is symbolized by their progression over a hill.
This was written by the rockabilly singer Richard Louis Holler…better known as Dick Holler who also wrote the novelty hit Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron. Abraham, Martin and John has been covered by artists including Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Kenny Rogers, Emmylou Harris, Andy Williams, Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston, and Moms Mabley, among others.
Dion was in bad shape when this song presented itself. He had just recovered from heroin addiction and was offered this as a possible comeback song. It peaked at #4 on Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #12 in New Zealand in 1968 and reestablished Dion in the music business.
Initially, Dion detested the song, but he has since come to understand its legacy. Later on, Dion claimed to have received over 4,000 letters thanking him for recording this song.
Dion:“I realized that what these four guys had in common was a dream… It was like they had the courage to believe that a state of love really can exist.”
Abraham, Martin and John
Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he’s gone
Has anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he’s gone
Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he’s gone
Didn’t you love the things that they stood for?
Didn’t they try to find some good for you and me?
And we’ll be free
Someday soon, it’s gonna be
One day
Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
I thought I saw him walkin’
Up over the hill
With Abraham, Martin and John
The song I know most by them is Hold Tight but after finding that one I found this odd song by them. It was their only #1 song in the UK. It also did well in New Zealand peaking at #1, #10 in Canada, and #123 in the Billboard 100 in 1968. The song was written by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley.
You know…before we continue. Sometimes a band’s name can help and maybe hurt them a little. In this case, the word HINDER comes into play… although I do get a laugh out of it…I had to serach my own site to find their correct name again.
David John Harman (Dave Dee), Trevor Leonard Ward-Davies (Dozy), John Dymond (Beaky), Michael Wilson (Mick) and Ian Frederick Stephen Amey (Tich), who were childhood friends from Wiltshire (same area as the Troggs) formed a group in 1961. They were originally called Dave Dee and the Bostons. A few years later they changed their names to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.
Songwriter Ken Howard who recorded them: “We changed their name to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, because they were their actual nicknames and because we wanted to stress their very distinct personalities in a climate which regarded bands as collectives”.
They never made it big in America but they were huge in the UK. They had thirteen UK Top forty hits, eight UK Top 10’s, and one Number 1 with this song. In New Zealand, the band had three number-one hits, and seven other songs reached the top ten.
I heard them a bit through the 80s and 90s but not much. Quentin Tarantino must have liked them because he featured Hold Tight in his movie Death Proof during the infamous crash scene.
The group re-formed in the 1990s with Dee as lead vocalist once again. Dave Dee performed his last gig in Eisenburg, Germany on September 20, 2008, and died at Kingston Hospital, southwest London, in January 2009 at the age of 65, following a three-year battle with cancer.
The Legend Of Xanadu
Esta es la leyenda de Xanadu
You’ll hear my voice, on the wind, ‘cross the sand If you should return To that black barren land that bears the name of Xanadu
Cursed without hope, was the love that I sought Lost from the start Was the duel that was s’pposed to win her heart in Xanadu
And the foot prints leave no traces Only shadows move in places where we used to go And the buildings open to the sky All echo when the vultures cry as if to show Our love was for a day Then doomed to pass away In Xanadu, in Xanadu, in Xanadu
In Xanadu, in Xanadu, in Xanadu
What was it to you that a man laid down his life for your love Were those clear eyes of yours ever Filled with the pain and the tears and the grief Did you ever give your self to any one man in this whole wide world Or did you love me and will you find your way back one day to Xanadu
You’ll hear my voice, on the wind, ‘cross the sand If you should return To that black barren land that bears the name of Xanadu
This coming weekend I’m going to attempt a Beatles album ranking post which I’ve never done… so I’ve been listening to the White Album. Rocky Raccoon is a great way to start out the week
I bought the White Album in the winter of 1981 right after John Lennon was murdered. It has remained my favorite album ever by far. You have such a variety on this album and it gives you different glances at the Beatles without many studio tricks and sounds.
This song starts with a strumming guitar and then comes Paul talking/singing in his best western voice. Now somewhere in the Black Mountain Hills of Dakota There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon.
The main character was originally called Rocky Sassoon but McCartney changed it to Raccoon, as he thought the name was more cowboyish.
The original title of the album was going to be “A Doll’s House“… but the band Family used the title Music from a Doll’s House for its debut album, so The Beatles scrapped the idea. The album’s real name ended up being “The Beatles” but the plain white cover nickname soon took over. From some accounts here is the original cover.
In 1968, McCartney got the idea for it when he was playing guitar with John Lennon and Donovan Leitch at the Maharishi’s camp in India. Rocky in the song is a cowboy in the old west and challenges Dan when Dan ran off with Rocky’s girl. In the gunfight, Dan is too quick and shoots Rocky wounding him. When the song was recorded… Beatles producer George Martin played the piano in an old-west saloon style.
Rocky in this song is not a raccoon but a boy whose girl runs off with his rival, Dan. The song is set in the Old West, so Rocky does what any self-respecting cowboy would do: he challenges Dan to a gunfight. Unfortunately for Rocky, he Dan is quick on the draw and shoots him first, wounding Rocky and proving himself worthy of the girl.
The album peaked at #1 in the US, Canada, UK, and just about everywhere in 1968.
Paul McCartney:“Rocky was me writing (speaks-sings in a baccy-chewing old prospector voice), ‘It was way back in the hills of Dakota-or Arkansas-in the mining days. And it was tough, picking shovels, and we were underground 24 hours a day…’ I could have taken this serious route, researched it – ‘Take This Hammer’ (a prison work song recorded by British skiffle star Lonnie Donegan in 1959), stuff I’d been brought up on. But at that point I was a little tongue-in cheek. So I crossed it with a (British singer and banjo player popular in the 1940s) George Formby sensibility, where John and I would go (sings a bit of doggerel in a choppy rhythm) – Stanley Holloway, Albert in The Lion’s Den (the comic poem The Lion and Albert, written by Holloway’s creative partner Marriott Edgar in 1932). We were very versed in all that stuff (sings opening lines of Rocky Raccoon in the same choppy way). The scanning of the poetical stanza always interested me. Somehow this little story unfolded itself.
I was basically spoofing ‘the folk-singer.’ And it included Gideon’s Bible, which I’ve seen in every hotel I’ve ever been in. You open the drawer and there it is! Who’s this guy Gideon! I still don’t know to this day who the heck he is. I’m sure he’s a very well-meaning guy. Rocky Raccoon was a freewheeling thing, the fun of mixing a folky ramble with Albert In The Lion’s Den with its ”orse’s ‘ead ‘andle,’ ha ha.”
Many cover versions have been recorded. Some of the artists are Richie Havens, Ramsey Lewis, Jack Johnson, Andrew Gold, James Blunt, Phish, Jimmy Buffett, Maureen McGovern, Kingston Wall, Charlie Parr, and Andy Fairweather Low.
Rocky Raccoon
Now somewhere in the Black Mountain Hills of Dakota
There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon
And one day his woman ran off with another guy
Hit young Rocky in the eye
Rocky didn’t like that
He said, “I’m gonna get that boy”
So one day he walked into town
Booked himself a room in the local saloon
Rocky Raccoon checked into his room
Only to find Gideon’s Bible
Rocky had come, equipped with a gun
To shoot off the legs of his rival
His rival it seems, had broken his dreams
By stealing the girl of his fancy
Her name was Magill, and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy
Now she and her man, who called himself Dan
Were in the next room at the hoe down
Rocky burst in, and grinning a grin
He said, “Danny boy, this is a showdown”
But Daniel was hot, he drew first and shot
And Rocky collapsed in the corner
Now the doctor came in, stinking of gin
And proceeded to lie on the table
He said, “Rocky, you met your match”
And Rocky said, “Doc, it’s only a scratch
And I’ll be better, I’ll be better, Doc, as soon as I am able”
Now Rocky Raccoon, he fell back in his room
Only to find Gideon’s Bible
Gideon checked out, and he left it, no doubt
To help with good Rocky’s revival
Like Neil Young, The Beatles, and a few others…Bowie could and would change his music direction on a dime and still be commercially successful. Personally, I liked his glam period the best but I liked all of them. He would venture into soul music, experimental music, dance music, pop music, stripped-down rock with Tin Machine, and the list goes on.
Not only was he a great singer and musician but he was also a very good actor. He appeared in such movies as The Man Who Fell To Earth, Labyrinth, The Last Temptation of Christ, and more.
I love this song and Bowie’s glam rock period. It hit high in the charts in the UK but was not released as a single in America or Canada. It peaked at #3 in the UK in 1973. The song was on the album Aladdin Sane which peaked at #1 in the UK, #17 on the Billboard Album Charts and #20 in Canada. Here is a review of the album from The Press Music Reviews.
Bowie had written Mott The Hoople’s greatest hit All The Young Dudes and he wrote this for them as a follow-up. They rejected it so he took it for himself. He said it was influenced by the landscape between Seattle and Phoenix, Arizona on his 1972 tour. Just a few hours after he wrote it he performed it on that 72 tour.
In the song, he referenced some famous people like Mick Jagger, Carl Jung, and Twiggy. Twiggy would later appear on the cover of his album Pin-Ups. The song has an unusual storyline… In the future, nuclear war has caused humanity to forget how to have sex and they have to relearn seduction techniques from old films.
Before he played the new song he told the audience this:This is the bit where all the people with the tape recorders have to leave, because I’m gonna do a new number and you mustn’t record it…. I’ll tell you where we wrote this. We wrote this from Phoenix down to Seattle—no, see, it’s the other way around, isn’t it—from Seattle down to Phoenix, and it was about the future, and it’s about a future where people have forgotten how to make love, so they go back onto video-films that they have kept from this century. This is after a catastrophe of some kind, and some people are living on the streets and some people are living in domes, and they borrow from one another and try to learn how to pick up the pieces. And it’s called “Drive-In Saturday.”
Drive-In Saturday
(Uh uh ah) Let me put my arms around your head
(Dom do ah) Gee, it’s hot, let’s go to bed
Don’t forget to turn on the light
Don’t laugh babe, it’ll be alright
(Dom do ah) Pour me out another phone
(Dom do ah) I’ll ring and see if your friends are home
Perhaps the strange ones in the dome
Can lend us a book we can read up alone
And try to get it on like once before
When people stared in Jagger’s eyes and scored
Like the video films we saw
His name was always buddy (got got do ah aah aah)
And he’d shrug and ask to stay
She’d sigh like twig the wonder kid (got got do ah)
And turn her face away
She’s uncertain if she likes him (got got do ah aah aah)
But she knows she really loves him
It’s a crash course for the ravers (got got do ah)
It’s a drive-in Saturday
Jung the foreman prayed at work (dom do ah)
Neither hands nor limbs would burst
It’s hard enough to keep formation with this fall out saturation
(Bah dom bah) cursing at the astronette
(Dom do ah) who stands in steel by his cabinet
He’s crashing out with Sylvian
The bureau supply for aging men
With snorting head he gazes to the shore
Once had raised a sea that raged no more
Like the video films we saw
His name was always buddy (got got do ah aah aah)
And he’d shrug and ask to stay
She’d sigh like twig the wonder kid (got got do ah)
And turn her face away
She’s uncertain if she likes him (got got do ah aah aah)
But she knows she really loves him
It’s a crash course for the ravers (got got do ah)
It’s a drive-in Saturday
His name was always buddy (got got do ah aah aah)
And he’d shrug and ask to stay
She’d sigh like twig the wonder kid (got got do ah)
And turn her face away
She’s uncertain if she likes him (got got do ah aah aah)
But she knows she really loves him
It’s a crash course for the ravers (got got do ah)
It’s a drive-in Saturday, yeah, yeah
(Drive-in Saturday)
(It’s a drive-in Saturday)
(It’s a drive-in Saturday)
(It’s a drive-in Saturday)
It’s a, it’s a, it’s a drive in Saturday (It’s a drive-in Saturday)
It’s a, it’s a, it’s a, yes sir, yes sir, yes sir, yes sir, yes sir,
Yes sir
(It’s a drive-in Saturday) dom do do do, dom do do do
(It’s a drive-in Saturday) dom do do da, dom do do da
(It’s a drive-in Saturday) yes sir
(It’s a drive-in Saturday)
I again took all of your suggestions and now we have a post that we made together. Thank you for all of the suggestions. I usually don’t repeat artists on one post but we had 3 Neil Young requests…I used two and the other one will be on the next.
Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose, And nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’ but it’s free… Janis Joplin/Kris Kristofferson
Met myself a coming county welfare line,I was feeling strung out, Hung out on the line…Creedence Clearwater Revival
He’d end up blowing all his wages for the week / All for a cuddle and a peck on the cheek…Kinks
Living is easy with eyes closed,misunderstanding all you see…The Beatles
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes. And say, Do you want to make a deal?…Bob Dylan
Set my compass north, I got winter in my blood… The Band
And the sign said, The words of the prophets, are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls… Simon and Garfunkel
They say that Cain caught Abel rolling loaded dice, ace of spades behind his ear and him not thinking twice…Grateful Dead
When I said that I was lying, I might have been lying…Elvis Costello
Though nothing will keep us together/We can be heroes/Just for one day…David Bowie
It’s a town full of losers, I’m pulling out of here to win…Bruce Springsteen
The motor cooled down, the heat went down, and that’s when I heard that highway sound…Chuck Berry
We were the first band to vomit at the bar, and find the distance to the stage too far…The Who
Shule, shule, shule-a-roo, Shule-a-rak-shak, shule-a-ba-ba-coo When I saw my Sally Babby Beal, Come bibble in the boo shy Lorey… Peter, Paul, and Mary
But then one night at the lobby of the Commodore Hotel,I chanced to meet a bartender who said he knew her well, And as he handed me a drink he began to hum a song, And all the boys there, at the bar, began to sing along…Little Feat
But me I’m not stopping there got my own row left to hoe; just another line in the field of time… Neil Young
You are like a hurricane there’s calm in your eye and I’m getting’ blown away…Neil Young
When I was young the radio played just for me, it saved me… Roddy Frame
This song and The KKK Took My Baby Away are my two top favorite Ramones saongs.
This song was released in 1978 on The Ramone’s album Road to Ruin. It has no chart history on Billboard but is one of their best-known songs. The Ramones were to the point, with no solos, no frills… just about the song.
I’ve heard them described as punk, bubblegum, rock, heavy rock and everything in between. I always thought they combined the elements of all of them.
When Joey Ramone wrote the lyrics for “I Wanna Be Sedated,” he was not joking. They were on tour in New Jersey in 1977 when the singer badly burned his face and chest with scalding water from a vaporizer he was using to soothe his throat.
He finished the show, then went to the hospital with second and third-degree burns. They pulled a bunch of shows while he recovered, and when they returned to the road in Europe he was still in constant pain. The song was scribbled down in London around Christmas, and the band cut it in 1978. Needless to say, it didn’t impact the charts, but today it’s one of their most-played songs on the radio. Joey Ramone said at one time it was his favorite Ramone track.
Joey Ramone: It’s a road song. I wrote it in 1977, through the 78. Well, Danny Fields was our first manager and he would work us to death. We would be on the road 360 days a year, and we went over to England, and we were there at Christmas time, and in Christmas time, London shuts down. There’s nothing to do, nowhere to go. Here we were in London for the first time in our lives, and me and Dee Dee Ramone were sharing a room in the hotel, and we were watching The Guns of Navarone. So there was nothing to do, I mean, here we are in London finally, and this is what we are doing, watching American movies in the hotel room.
I Wanna Be Sedated
Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated Nothing to do, nowhere to go o, I wanna be sedated
Just get me to the airport, put me on a plane Hurry hurry hurry, before I go insane I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my brain Oh no oh oh oh oh
Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated Nothing to do, no where to go o, I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair, get me on a plane Hurry hurry hurry, before I go insane I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my brain Oh no oh oh oh oh
Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated Nothing to do, no where to go o, I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair, get me to the show Hurry hurry hurry, before I go loco I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my toes Oh no oh oh oh oh
Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated Nothing to do, no where to go o, I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair, get me to the show Hurry hurry hurry, before I go loco I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my toes Oh no oh oh oh oh
Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated
I love unions like this…I will start to have some holiday posts mixed in on the way to Christmas as a second post like this one. In 1977 Bowie released his album Low at the beginning of the year and he toured as Iggy Pop’s keyboardist that year.
I know what I was doing on November 30, 1977. I was watching Merrie Olde Christmas special as a kid. I didn’t appreciate the weirdness of the combination of Bing Crosby and David Bowie at the time. Something that the seventies did well…was to intersect generations on variety shows. This one was a great combination.
This special had guest stars Twiggy, David Bowie, Ron Moody, Stanley Baxter, and The Trinity Boys Choir. It was the duet with Bing Crosby and David Bowie that has been remembered. I remember watching this knowing that Bing Crosby had died the month earlier. The duet was taped on September 11, 1977, and Crosby died on October 14, 1977.
David Bowie’s mother was a huge Bing Crosby fan and Bing Crosby’s children were big David Bowie fans…so the two agreed to sing together. It was questionable at first if it would work out.
Mary Crosby: “The doors opened and David walked in with his wife, They were both wearing full-length mink coats, they have matching full makeup and their hair was bright red. We were thinking, ‘Oh my god.'” Nathaniel Crosby, Bing’s son, added: “It almost didn’t happen. I think the producers told him to take the lipstick off and take the earring out. It was just incredible to see the contrast.”
Another possible hitch happened with Bowie. He didn’t like The Little Drummer Boy and refused to sing it. The writers then wrote a revised version of the song that he liked. They wrote a counterpart section for Bowie to sing. Crosby liked the challenge of his part. The rest is history and one of the most unusual pairings you will ever see…
One funny part is Bowie’s idea of “older fellas” at the time is John Lennon and Harry Nilsson.
Here is the complete show if you want to give it a try
The Little Drummer Boy (Peace On Earth)
Come they told me pa-rum-pum-pum-pum A newborn king to see pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Our finest gifts we bring pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum
[Verse 2: Bowie and Crosby] Peace on Earth can it be? Come they told me pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Years from now, perhaps we’ll see? A newborn king to see pa-rum-pum-pum-pum See the day of glory Our finest gift we bring pa-rum-pum-pum-pum See the day, when men of good will To lay before the king pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Live in peace, live in peace again Rum-pum-pum-pum, Rum-pum-pum-pum Peace on Earth So to honour him pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Can it be When we come
[Bridge: Bowie and Crosby in unison] Every child must be made aware Every child must be made to care Care enough for his fellow man To give all the love that he can
[Verse 4: Bowie and Crosby] I pray my wish will come true Little baby pa-rum-pum-pum-pum For my child and your child too I stood beside him there pa-rum-pum-pum-pum He’ll see the day of glory I played my drum for him pa-rum-pum-pum-pum See the day when men of good will I played my best for him pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Live in peace, live in peace again Rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum Peace on Earth Me and my drum Can it be
My friend Deke got me into this power pop band from Canada. Deke and Dave have introduced me to many Canadian artists that I hadn’t heard of before like Blue Rodeo, The Moist, Justin Bieber(Just Kidding Guys!), Tragically Hip, and more. It still puzzles me why some very successful Canadian bands in the 80s-90s didn’t translate in the US.
Sloan got its start in Halifax during the early ‘90s. The band played around the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before moving to Toronto. They got their name from a pot-smoking musician they knew in Halifax. He worked in a restaurant as a busboy and used to be known as “the slow one.”
The band made their recording debut on the Halifax, Canada CD compilation “Hear & Now” with the song “Underwhelmed” before releasing their debut EP “Peppermint” in 1991 on their own label Murderecords. In 1992 Sloan signed with Geffen Records and released their full-length debut “Smeared”. The album had somewhat of a grunge style. They soon switched to power pop and they have some fantastic songs.
Hearing this band is encouraging for Power Pop. A few weeks ago I posted a song about The Beths and now Sloan who have new albums out. Their influences have been listed as The Beatles, Sonic Youth, Fleetwood Mac, and more. In this song, I hear a little Beatles and Who.
This song is on their new album called Steady released on October 21, 2022. It’s their 13th album to date. Guitarist Patrick Pentland wrote this song. There is a great review of this album here. I would recommend giving this power pop band a try.
Spend The Day
It’s not like living in your real world Is better than my life on The Other Side I’m sick of wired and I’m tethering And weathering somewhere out of my mind
Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while
It’s not like every time your wide eyes Look at something that it’s full of lies You’re gonna try and find The who what why where I refuse to recognize
Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while
It’s not that living in your real world Is better than my life on The Other Side I’m sick of wired and I’m tethering And weathering somewhere out of my mind
Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Spend the day in here with me a while Hide away Hide away Spend the day Hide away Hide away With me a while
This is an overlooked McCartney song on his album Ram. It’s close to pop perfection. He wrote it when he was still with the Beatles. You can hear some of it on Get Back. It sounds like Paul and Brian Wilson merged together.
This song charted in the UK in 1971 at #39. Paul wasn’t the most popular Beatle out of the gate. Much of the public still blamed him for the Beatle’s split because he was the one that officially announced it to the world. The other Beatles weren’t really happy with him either because he was suing them. The critics were after him for being too pop. His first album McCartney and this one, Ram were not well received when released.
After time these albums are favorably reviewed. Ram has been called the first alternative album by some modern critics. The Back Seat Of My Car was McCartney’s second single release in the UK but it wasn’t released as a single the US. Uncle Albert – Admiral Halsey was the first single released from the album and it peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, in Canada, and New Zealand.
There were some lines in this song that John Lennon thought were directed at him and Yoko. Specifically, “We believe that we can’t be wrong.”Paul did get the help of the New York Philharmonic to provide the orchestral accompaniment on this song.
Paul McCartney:“Back Seat of My Car” is the ultimate teenage song, and even though it was a long time since I was a teenager and had to go to a girl’s dad and explain myself, it’s that kind of meet-the-parents song. It’s a good old driving song. [Sings] “We can make it to Mexico City.” I’ve never driven to Mexico City, but it’s imagination. And obviously “back seat” is snogging, making love.
The Back Seat Of My Car
Speed along the highway, honey I want it my way
But listen to her daddy’s song, don’t stay out to long
Were just busy hidin’, sitting in the back seat of my car
The lazy lights are pretty, we end up in Mexico City
But listen to her daddy’s song, makin’ love is wrong
Were just busy ridin’, sitting in the back seat of my car
Oh we was only hidin’, sitting in the back seat of my car
And when we’ve finished drivin’ we can say we were late in arriving
And listen to her daddy’s song, we believe that we can’t be wrong
Ohhh we believe that we can’t be wrong
Ohhh we believe that we can’t be wrong
We can make it to Mexico City, sittin’ in the backseat of my car
Ohhh we believe that we can’t be wrong
Ohhh we believe that we can’t be wrong
Ohhh we believe that we can’t be wrong
Ohhh we believe that we can’t be wrong
Ohhh we believe that we can’t be wrong
Ohhh we believe that we can’t be wrong
No no no no
Ohhh we believe that we can’t be wrong
I probably won’t be commenting today…yesterday I felt terrible and it seems I have the flu…just wanted to let you know.
This song has grown on me through the years. It was my least favorite on Born In The USA when it was released but I started to like it.
Springsteen has always been prolific…he picked 12 songs out of the 70 demos for the album and of course, this one made the cut.
This song is about the only song not released as a single off of Born In The USA. I’m being sarcastic but not really. There were 7 top ten hits off of this album. Springsteen hit the mass’s jackpot with this album. It’s not my favorite album by him by any stretch but it has a friendly radio sound.
Born In The USA was the album I listened to endlessly from 1984-1985. You heard it everywhere you turned. A friend of mine (a big Bruce fan from the old days) saw Bruce in 85 and he was depressed that Bruce was no longer a cult performer. 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.
In 1985 I went on my graduation trip to Florida. The Born In The USA cassette tape was playing in my car where some buddies were riding with me on our senior trip. There are certain songs that take you back to a time. Walking On Sunshine, Glory Days, Working On The Highway, and Darlington County all connect me with that trip.
The album peaked at #1 in America, Canada, New Zealand, and The UK.
Working On The Highway
Friday night’s pay night, guys fresh out of work
Talking about the weekend, scrubbing off the dirt
Some heading home to their families, some looking to get hurt
Some going down to Stovell wearing trouble on their shirts
I work for the county out on ninety five
All day I hold a red flag and watch the traffic pass me by
In my head I keep a picture of a pretty little miss
Someday, mister, I’m gonna lead a better life than this
Working on the highway, laying down the blacktop
Working on the highway, all day long I don’t stop
Working on the highway, blasting through the bedrock
Working on the highway, working on the highway
I met her at a dance down at the union hall
She was standing with her brothers, back up against the wall
Sometimes we’d go walking down the Union tracks
One day I looked straight at her and she looked straight back
So I’m
Working on the highway, laying down the blacktop
Working on the highway, all day long I don’t stop
Working on the highway, blasting through the bedrock
Working on the highway, working on the highway, woo
I saved up my money and I put it all away
I went to see her daddy but we didn’t have much to say
“Son, can’t you see that she’s just a little girl
She don’t know nothing about this cruel, cruel world”
We lit out down to Florida, we got along all right
One day her brothers came and got her and they took me in a black-and-white
The prosecutor kept the promise that he made on that day
And the judge got mad and he put me straight away
I wake up every morning to the work bell clang
Me and the warden go swinging on the Charlotte County road gang
I’m
Working on the highway, laying down the blacktop
Working on the highway, all day long I don’t stop
Working on the highway, blasting through the bedrock
Working on the highway, working on the highway
Working on the highway, laying down the blacktop
Working on the highway, all day long I don’t stop
Working on the highway, blasting through the bedrock
Working on the highway, working on the highway, ooo ooo ooo
I first heard this song in the 80s on an oldie channel. The song has a drive to it that I love. After I heard it I went straight away and learned it on guitar. We played this at every gig because it’s so much fun…and yes easy. As I pasted the words…I thought…hell…we sang our own words and just sounded them out.
It was originally released in 1969 and it peaked at #12 on the Billboard 100, #9 in Canada, and #12 in the UK. It was written by Joey Levine and Ritchie Cordell. The band wasn’t really a band that toured…just a studio band. It was one of the many formed by the Kasenetz-Katz production duo.
The duo took advantage of the bubblegum phase in the late sixties. They also formed The Ohio Express, The Music Explosion, and the 1910 Fruitgum Company. This song though…if it’s played at the right volume and intensity loses that bubblegum feel quickly.
The band needed attention so they made a rather elaborate story which said that they were a group of coal miners who came all the way from Wales. Vocalist Robert “Bobby” Spencer did the lead vocals on this song. Future 10cc member Kevin Godley later sang lead vocals on one of Crazy Elephant’s songs, There Ain’t No Umbopo.
Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’
From Atlanta, Georgia, to the Gulf Stream water
up to California end I’m gonna spend my life both night and day
I say, gimme, gimme good lovin’ every night
(Hey you know it’s alright, child)
Gimme, gimme good lovin’ make it alright
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
To the girls in Frisco, to the girls in New York
To the girls in Texican, you gotta understand
That baby I’m your man
I say, gimme, gimme good lovin’ every night
(Yeah you know it’s alright now)
Gimme, gimme good lovin’ make it alright
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
In my teens, I got into the Doors. It happened at just the right time because their popularity rose in the 1980s. When I heard this song after listening to their other music…I thought wow this is very radio-friendly for The Doors. Some fans called them a sell-out…saying it was too top 40 which I don’t think is right…not their best song but a good one. Every song cannot have lyrics like “Don’tchase the clouds pagodas” in them.
I liked it and still do and I heard The Kinks All Day and All of the Night in the song. I wasn’t the only one that heard it. Morrison admitted it and would pay Ray Davies royalties after it hit. Morrison wrote this after seeing a beautiful woman in 1965 walking down a California beach. I also read that he helped popularize the pickup line…” Hello, I love you. Won’t you tell me your name?” that probably hasn’t worked for anyone…ok maybe Jim.
This song was on their demo to shop for a record deal…I have it at the bottom of the post. They didn’t put it on an album until 1968 when they needed material for their third album Waiting for the Sun. They needed more material for that album and pulled up this one from their original demo to re-record it. Although you can hear the Kinks in there… Krieger and Densmore borrowed the finished version’s rhythm from Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love. Robby Krieger also ran his guitar through a fuzz box to get a distorted effect like Cream’s “Sunshine Of Your Love.”
The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #12 in New Zealand, and #15 in the UK in 1968. Waiting For The Sun peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in Canada, and #16 in the UK.
I always liked Ray Davies’s response to the song’s similarities to his All Day and All of the Night.
Ray Davies:“The funniest thing was when my publisher came to me on tour and said The Doors had used the riff for ‘All Day And All Of The Night’ for ‘Hello, I Love You.’ I said rather than sue them, can’t we just get them to own up? My publisher said, ‘They have, that’s why we should sue them!’ (laughs) Jim Morrison admitted it, which to me was the most important thing. The most important thing, actually, is to take (the idea) somewhere else.”
This would be the Door’s last #1 song…Light My Fire is the first one. The R.E.M. song “Pop Song ’89” is a play on this. Instead of talking about sex, they talk to the girl about politics and the weather. This song was also used in the movies Platoon, Casualties of War, and Forrest Gump.
The demo of Hello, I Love You.
Hello, I Love You
Hello, I love you, won’t you tell me your name? Hello, I love you, let me jump in your game Hello, I love you, won’t you tell me your name? Hello, I love you, let me jump in your game
She’s walking down the street Blind to every eye she meets Do you think you’ll be the guy To make the queen of the angels sigh?
Hello, I love you, won’t you tell me your name? Hello, I love you, let me jump in your game Hello, I love you, won’t you tell me your name? Hello, I love you, let me jump in your game
She holds her head so high, like a statue in the sky Her arms are wicked, and her legs are long When she moves my brain screams out this song
Sidewalk crouches at her feet Like a dog that begs for something sweet Do you hope to make her see, you fool? Do you hope to pluck this dusky jewel?
Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello I want you, hello, I need my baby Hello, hello, hello, hello
But I shot a man in Reno, Just to watch him die… Johnny Cash
It doesn’t get much better than that.
The man in black was The Man. Not many performers can cross genres like Johnny Cash did and still does. He first recorded this song in 1955 at Sun Records as the B side to “S3o Doggone Lonesome” but it was the live 1969 version that hit.
The At Folsom Prison album helped revitalize Cash’s career. Up to this point, his last Country top 40 entry was in 1964. This was recorded live at Folsom Prison in California on January 13, 1968, and that album came to define his outlaw image. The record company told him it wouldn’t work but Johnny recorded at the prison anyway.
Folsom Prison Blues peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts, #1 on the Canadian Country Charts, #32 on the Billboard 100, and #17 on the Canadian Pop Charts. The song and album generated a lot of interest in the rebellious Johnny Cash, who made prison reform his political cause of choice. He started regularly performing in jails, doing about 12 shows a year for free mostly in Folsom and San Quentin.
The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Country Charts, #13 in the Billboard Album Charts, and #27 in Canada.
This iconic picture came from Folsom Prison. According to photographer Jim Marshall…he asked Cash to express what he thought of the prison authorities when he played the show. Marshall told Cash “let’s do a shot for the warden” and the picture was born.
Cash saw Crane Wilbur’s 90-minute film Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison while stationed in Germany. It left an impression on Cash, who emphasized the tale of the imprisoned men, and inspired him to write a song. Johnny Cash:“It was a violent movie, I just wanted to write a song that would tell what I thought it would be like in prison.”
Cash’s first prison performance occurred in 1957 when he performed for inmates at Huntsville State Prison. The favorable response inspired Cash to perform at more prisons through the years. His next hit, recorded in San Quentin Prison, was the humorous “A Boy Named Sue,” which proved that he could be clever and funny.
Cash came off as a champion for the oppressed. He got his own national TV show in 1969 and became one of the most popular entertainers of his era. His guests included Derek and the Dominos, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Merle Haggard, James Taylor, Tammy Wynette, and Roy Orbison.
Isn’t that list incredible? Cash was considered a Country-Folk artist but look at the range of performers. The late sixties and seventies were like this ….and it’s the reason I like them so much…all the generations intersected at that point in time. I mean you have Eric Clapton and then you have Tammy Wynette on the guest list.
The lyrics to this song were based on a 1953 recording called Crescent City Blues by a bandleader named Gordon Jenkins with Beverly Maher on vocals. After filing a lawsuit, Gordon Jenkins received an out-of-court settlement from Cash in 1969. I have to say it does sound really close.
Johnny Cash:“I don’t see anything good come out of prison. You put them in like animals and tear out the souls and guts of them, and let them out worse than they went in.”
Rosanne Cash:“He was a real man with great faults, and great genius and beauty in him, but he wasn’t this guy who could save you or anyone else.”
Folsom Prison Blues
(Hello, I’m Johnny Cash)
I hear the train a-comin’
It’s rollin’ ’round the bend
And I ain’t seen the sunshine
Since I don’t know when
I’m stuck in Folsom Prison
And time keeps draggin’ on
But that train keeps a-rollin’
On down to San Antone
When I was just a baby
My Mama told me, “son
Always be a good boy
Don’t ever play with guns”
But I shot a man in Reno
Just to watch him die
When I hear that whistle blowin’
I hang my head and cry (play it to the verse, yeah)
(Sue it)
I bet there’s rich folks eatin’
From a fancy dining car
They’re probably drinkin’ coffee
And smokin’ big cigars
Well, I know I had it comin’
I know I can’t be free
But those people keep a-movin’
And that’s what tortures me (hit it)
(Howdy-ho)
Well, if they freed me from this prison
If that railroad train was mine
I bet I’d move it on, a little
Farther down the line
Far from Folsom Prison
That’s where I want to stay
And I’d let that lonesome whistle
Blow my blues away
This is an old Robert Johnson song that I’ve always liked. I learned about this song from a bootleg of Leon Russell, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton many years ago. Eric wasn’t in the best of shape when this was recorded during the Bangladesh rehearsals. George takes the solo in this blues song and makes it fit really well. I added this version along with Johnson at the bottom of the post.
Robert Johnson recorded it on November 23, 1936, at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas and it was produced by Don Law. Johnson only recorded 29 songs in total with 13 surviving outtakes. In one hotel room, Johnson performed and in a second adjoining room, the recording equipment was housed.
In 1990 the compilation album The Complete Recordings was released and peaked at #80 in the Billboard Album Charts. It also won a Grammy Award in 1991 for “Best Historical Album. This song has had over 100 known cover versions by other artists.
Robert Johnson was a huge influence on guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Page, Peter Green, Brian Jones, and many more. He sounded different than his peers at the time which could have contributed to him not being better known in the 1930s. His style was ahead of his time and it took til the 1960s for him to catch on. In 1961, King of the Delta Blues Singers was released with 16 of his songs on the album…a generation of musicians was influenced.
Johnson died in 1938 at the age of 27. Some say Johnson had been flirting with a married woman at a dance, and she gave him a bottle of whiskey poisoned by her husband…he died two days after drinking it. That is not known for sure but we will probably never know.
Eric Clapton – His music is like my oldest friend, always in the back of my head and on the horizon. It’s the finest music I’ve ever heard. I’ve always trusted its purity. And I always will.’ I don’t know what more you could say….”
Bob Dylan: If I hadn’t heard the Robert Johnson record when I did, there probably would have been hundreds of lines of mine that would have been shut down—that I wouldn’t have felt free enough or upraised enough to write.
Come On In My Kitchen
You better come on in my kitchen Well, it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors Ah, the woman I love, took from my best friend Some joker got lucky, stole her back again You better come on in my kitchen It’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors
Oh, she’s gone, I know she won’t come back I’ve taken the last nickel out of her nation sack You better come on in my kitchen It’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors Oh, can’t you hear that wind howl? Oh, can’t you hear that wind would howl? You better come on in my kitchen Well, it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors
When a woman gets in trouble, everybody throws her down
Lookin’ for her good friend, none can be found You better come on in my kitchen
Babe, it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors Wintertime’s comin’, it’s gon’ be slow You can’t make the winter, babe, that’s dry, long, so You better come on in my kitchen, ’cause it’s goin’ to be rainin’ outdoors
A few years ago I posted nothing but Shocking Blue songs the entire weekend…when I was doing 2-3 posts a day. I received great feedback on their material. Most people have only heard Venus and some Nirvana fans have heard Love Buzz that they covered.
This is a band that I found when I first started to blog. I always liked their hit Venus but their other songs are just as good or better to me. The stringy guitar song Mighty Joe and the melodic Never Marry a Railroad Man are great songs.
They were a band out of the Netherlands with a sensational singer named Mariska Veres who hit internationally in 1970. She sounded like Grace Slick to me…maybe a little stronger. Robbie van Leeuwen was the guitar player who wrote the songs.
Shocking Blue successfully combined Beat music and R&B with psychedelic elements of the time like sitar and odd production techniques. Robbie didn’t mind if the band included a few covers, as it took the pressure off him to constantly come up with new material. “We wrote a lot of our own stuff and the radio DJs preferred us to do original songs, but we had so many albums to do the band had to fill in with a few covers. It was quite exhausting writing all the lyrics and song myself”.
They were together from 1968-1974. Shocking Blue was known as a one-hit-wonder with Venus but their other songs were big hits in the Netherlands.
They were not smooth…they were raw… hence why I like them. Venus is probably my least favorite…maybe because I’ve heard it too much and it’s been covered a few times by different artists.
I like finding artists that have been largely forgotten. I never knew about Shocking Blue…with the exception of Venus until 3 or 4 years ago. I do listen to some new music on Youtube but I like digging and finding good bands that deserve attention. To me they are new…
Mariska sadly died in 2006. With her voice, I’m shocked she didn’t have a more successful solo career.
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