Singles – Page 102 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

REM – Radio Free Europe

I didn’t first hear this song when it was originally released in 1981. I had a friend who played it to me a few years later after it was re-recorded. It was an important song in REM’s career…it broke them on the charts…not super high but on the charts just the same.

This song was R.E.M.’s first single, released in 1981 on the short-lived independent record label Hib-Tone. The single received critical acclaim, and its success earned the band a record deal with I.R.S. Records. R.E.M. re-recorded the song for their 1983 debut album Murmur.

The re-recording was released by a larger I.R.S. and peaked at #78 in the Billboard 100 and #25 on the Mainstream Rock Chart.

Radio Free Europe is a radio network run by the United States government that broadcasts to Europe and the Middle East. The mission of the broadcasts is to promote democracy and freedom, but R.E.M. makes the point that this can easily cross the line into propaganda.

Drummer Bill Berry: “This song was pivotal to the continuation of our career,” “Most fans may not realize that for two years before Murmur was released, we barely made financial ends meet by playing tiny clubs around the southeast. Our gasoline budget prevented us from venturing further. Put simply, our existence was impoverished. College radio and major city club scenes embraced this song and expanded our audience to the extent that we moved from small clubs to medium-sized venues and the additional revenue made it possible to logically pursue this wild musical endeavor. I dare not contemplate what our fate would have been had this song not appeared when it did.”

From Songfacts

There was a good reason for Michael Stipe’s infamously indecipherable lyrics on this song: he hadn’t finished them by the time they recorded it. In a 1988 NME interview, Stipe described the lyrical content as “complete babbling.”

R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe said in a 1983 interview with Alternative America: “We were all so scared of what the other one would say, that everyone nodded their head in agreement to anything to come up. The earlier songs were incredibly fundamental, real simple, songs that you could write in five minutes. Most of them didn’t have any words. I just got up and howled and hollered a lot.

That’s true. I’ve got to write words for ‘Radio Free Europe,’ because we’re going to re-record that for the album. It still doesn’t have a second or third verse. I think there are actually lyrics to every song on the EP.”

Stipe noted being apparently unaware of his own genius: “The guys always said I do something harmonically here that made them all go ‘whoa,’ because it was so advanced … or something, in the ‘straight off the boat’ part. I wonder if I tricked them by accident? I still have no idea what it is they’re talking about.”

The video for this song, directed by Arthur Pierson, was shot in the famed Paradise Gardens, a folk art sculpture garden crafted by artist Howard Finster in Pennville, Georgia. Finster, a Baptist minister, also painted the album art for R.E.M.’s second album, Reckoning.

This version is the original Hib-Tone version.

Radio Free Europe

Beside yourself if radio’s gonna stay
Reason: it could polish up the gray
Put that, put that, put that up your wall
That this isn’t country at all

Raving station, beside yourself

Keep me out of country and the word
Deal the porch is leading us absurd
Push that, push that, push that to the hull
That this isn’t nothing at all

Straight off the boat
Where to go?

Calling on in transit
Calling on in transit
Radio Free Europe
Radio

Beside defying’ media too fast
Instead of pushin’ palaces to fall
Put that, put that, put that before all
That this isn’t fortunate at all

Raving station, beside yourself

Calling on in transit
Calling on in transit
Radio Free Europe
Radio

Decide yourself
Calling on a boat
Media’s too fast

Keep me out of country and the word
Disappointers into us absurd

Straight off the boat
Where to go?

Calling on in transit
Calling on in transit
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe

…

Replacements – Message to the Boys

Thanks to Aphoristical for pointing me to this song and album. At the end of 2005, years after the band had broken up…Warner Music Group ended up with rights to the Replacements’ Twin/Tone albums, and their entire catalog was finally placed under one roof. They offered Westerberg and Stinson a deal for the band to reunite and record. They wanted to package a “Best Of” album with a few new songs.

They had been feuding with each other off and on since the break up. Westerberg and Stinson ended their feud and agreed to do it. They did not invite Slim Dunlap to participate for some reason. They did however invite drummer Chris Mars to join them. They patched things up with Mars but he was an artist and doing it for a living and didn’t want to play. He did come to the sessions anyway. Drummer Josh Freese had flown out to play drums. To show you how they operated…here is Westerberg’s thought on that.

“And Chris, he was still a Replacement…The first thing out of his mouth to Josh was something like, ‘Man, you almost played that really good.’ That’s what we missed. You don’t have to play the drums. You can just bring the attitude.”

The band recorded two songs Message to the Boys and Pool and Dive. They appeared on the album Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was? They didn’t end up touring at that time but offers came in year after year and the money offers got bigger.

Westerberg: “The fact that we came up short is the thing that’s kept us interesting. That is part of the attraction. We’ve retained this mystique.”

Paul and Tommy would later reunite again in 2012. Former guitar player Slim Dunlap had a major stroke and they contributed to a benefit album of Slim’s songs along with many artists. In 2013 they started to play live again and eventually toured until 2015 when it ended abruptly.

Paul Westerberg about the reunion in 2006 and missing former member Bob Stinson: “The answer to the million-dollar question is yes, when Bob died, something died in me and Tommy, and we’ve never been the same since,” said Westerberg. “And it’s always been awkward, and it’s always been unsaid and unsayable and strange and weird between us.”

This concludes taking a song off of each album from the Replacements… thanks for following here every Monday. I’ll still post some Replacements here and there.

Message To The Boys

Well I met her in a bar
Like I always say
She was digging Tommy’s cute
Way down in FLA

Wearing that vest with nothing underneath
Looking her best in the Florida heat
Sent a message to the boys
She was wearing that vest with nothing underneath
She be looking her best in the Florida heat, yeah
Sent a message to the boys

Well, she couldn’t cut loose
With her mommy around
So she packed her pretty bags
Went to the run-away town

Used to call me late at night
Said she missed her little maid
I never asked twice how the bills got paid
She sent a message to the boys
Used to call me every night
Said she missed her little maid
Never ever asked twice how the bills got paid
Sent the message to the boys

She sent a message to the boys
She’s gonna be there, if you need her
I can’t forget her and her voice
And her voice

Was a lady to the end
Now to this I can attest
She knew how to move
Yeah, when she rock’n’rolled this

She sent a message to the boys
She’s gonna be there, if you need her
I can’t forget her and her voice

She sent a message to the boys
She sent a message to the boys
God, I miss her and her voice
She sent a message to the boys
She sent a message to the boys
Oh god, I miss her and her voice

Monkees – Sweet Young Thing

I was 7 and I had just borrowed the Monkees debut album from a cousin. I thought the band was still together and playing in the mid seventies. I had no clue they broke up years before. This is one of the songs I would wear out on the album.

The song stands out from the other songs on the album. This isn’t pop…it’s more like a country driven garage rock band song. I truly think Nesmith would have made it in the music business with or without the Monkees. He would soon write the Stone Poneys hit “Different Drum” that peaked at #13 in the Billboard 100 in 1967. This song was released on the debut album in 1966.

Mike Nesmith made it clear from the beginning he wanted to write songs. Nesmith was a talented songwriter. The shows creator Don Kirshner set him up to write with Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Michael wasn’t ungrateful and he commented that he liked both of them but he didn’t like being forced to write with someone else. Kirshner resented the rejection, feeling that a nobody like Nesmith should have flipped over the opportunity to work with two songwriting legends. In the end, though we did get this song.

Kirshner didn’t like having the band do anything but sing and act in the show. That didn’t last long with Nesmith leading them…by the third album the Monkees were playing their own instruments and writing some songs.

I just listened to it again for the first time in years and every nuance and word came back to me instantly. This was my first “favorite” Monkee song.

This was an album track not released as a single.

Sweet Young Thing

I know that something very strange
Has happened to my brain
I’m either feeling very good
Or else I am insane
The seeds of doubt you’ve planted
Have started to grow wild
And I feel that I must yield before
The wisdom of a child

And it’s love you bring
No that I can’t deny
With your wings
I can learn to fly
Sweet young thing

People try to talk to me
Their words are ugly sounds
But I resist all their attempts
To try and bring me down..
Turned on to the sunset
Like I’ve never been before
How I listen for your footsteps
As you knock upon the door

And it’s love you bring
No that I can’t deny
With your wings
I can learn to fly
Sweet young thing

And it’s love you bring
With dreams of bluer skies
And all these things
When I see it in your eyes
Sweet young thing

Sweet young thing

Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve?)

This song is really catchy and has a punk pop sound. Some times a title is so good that you listen to the song regardless of who it is. This title fits that description and unlike some…it lives up to it.

The song title came from a line Marlon Brando spoke in the 1955 movie, ‘Guys And Dolls’ which Pete Shelley watched in a hotel room while on tour.

The Buzzcocks formed in Bolton, England in 1976 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter Howard Devoto. They chose the name Buzzcocks after reading the headline, “It’s the Buzz, Cock!”, in a review of the TV series Rock Follies in Time Out magazine. The “buzz” is the excitement of playing on stage; “cock” is northern English slang meaning friend.

They released 3 albums and broke up in 1981 after a dispute with their record company. They reunited in 1989 and released 6 more albums. Pete Shelley continued to play with the band until his death of a heart attack in 2018. The band still continues to tour.

The song peaked at #12 in the UK in 1978.

Songwriter Pete Shelley: “The song dates back to November 1977. We were on a roll. It was only six months since we’d finished the first album. Up in Manchester this was what we used to dream of… a whirlwind of tours, interviews, TV. We were living the life. One night in Edinburgh we were in a guest house TV lounge watching the musical Guys and Dolls. This line leaped out – ‘Have you ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have?’ The next day the van stopped outside a post office and I wrote the lyrics there. I did have a certain person in mind, but I’ll save that for my kiss’n’tell. The music just seemed to follow, fully formed.”

“The opening line was originally ‘You piss on my natural emotions,’ but because ‘Orgasm Addict’ hadn’t been getting radio play because of it’s title, I needed something a bit subtler. So I came up with ‘spurn.’ It had the same sort of disregard, but wasn’t so likely to offend!”

The Fine Young Cannibals had a no. 9 UK hit with their cover version, recorded for the soundtrack of the 1986 film Something Wild.

From Songfacts

.In 1987 when Fine Young Cannibals covered this, their more laid back, soulful version peaked at #9 in the UK. They recorded the song after being asked by the director Jonathan Demme to provide him with a song for his upcoming film Something Wild. It is featured on the film’s soundtrack released as “Ever Fallen in Love.”

In the same Uncut interview the song’s producer Martin Rushent recalled: “Pete played me ‘Ever Fallen In Love…’ for the first time and my jaw hit the floor. I felt it was the strongest song that they had written-clever, witty lyrics, great hooklines. I suggested backing vocals-to highlight the chorus and make it even more powerful. No one could hit the high part-so I did it. I’d sung in bands in my youth and I also worked as a backing singer.”

The story of how The Buzzcocks came up with their name: In February 1976 Shelley and guitarist Howard Devoto read an article about a band called the Sex Pistols who had just played in London. “It was a realization of someone else doing what we already wanted to do,” Shelley told Reuters. The pair borrowed a car and drove from Manchester down to London to seek out the Sex Pistols. “We bought a copy of Time Out, which had no mention of them at all,” recalled Shelley. “But in the magazine was a preview for a TV series called Rock Follies. The headline was, ‘It’s the buzz, cock.” And that’s how we got the name.”

Thea Gilmore, Pete Yorn, Will Young, Billy Talent and Anti-Flag are among the acts to cover this song. The New York City band SUSU released their version in 2020 in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. They explained: “A good cover is hard to find. Turns out this one was a telling tale, a perfect sonic and energetic fit. We were a brand new band, consummated on Valentine’s Day, in the pink of our five-week European honeymoon. We found ourselves leaving behind the tour we had just fallen in love with due to circumstances beyond our control – a pandemic. Proper heartbreak. But we all know the first breakup never sticks.”

Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)

You spurn my natural emotions
You make me feel I’m dirt and I’m hurt
And if I start a commotion
I run the risk of losing you and that’s worse

Ever fallen in love with someone
Ever fallen in love, in love with someone
Ever fallen in love, in love with someone
You shouldn’t have fallen in love with?

I can’t see much of a future
Unless we find out what’s to blame, what a shame
And we won’t be together much longer
Unless we realize that we are the same

Ever fallen in love with someone
Ever fallen in love, in love with someone
Ever fallen in love, in love with someone
You shouldn’t have fallen in love with

You disturb my natural emotions
You make me feel I’m dirt and I’m hurt
And if I start a commotion
I’ll only end up losing you and that’s worse

Ever fallen in love with someone
Ever fallen in love, in love with someone
Ever fallen in love, in love with someone
You shouldn’t have fallen in love with?

Fallen in love with
Ever fallen in love with someone
You shouldn’t have fallen in love with?

Robyn Hitchcock – So You Think You’re In Love —- Power Pop Friday

Jangly Byrd like guitars attracted me to this and the sixties vibe. Peter Buck helps Robyn out on this song.

Robyn started his career in a 1972 London Art School with a band called The Beetles. In 1976 he started The Soft Boys and they went on to release A Can of Bees (1979) and Underwater Moonlight (1980). Robyn influence bands such as R.E.M. and The Replacements.

In 1981 released his first solo album Black Snake Diamond Röle. Robyn never had much chart success but continues to influence other artists.

So You Think You’re In Love was on the Perspex Island album that was released in 1991. Robyn describes his songs as ‘paintings you can listen to’. That is a great description.

Robyn released his 21st album in 2017.

So You Think You’re In Love

So you think you’re in love
Yes, you probably are
But you wanna be straight about it
Oh, you wanna be straight about it now

Can you imagine what the people say?Can you?
But the silent majority is the crime of the century
You know it

Are you sure that it’s wise?
No, you probably ain’t
You don’t wanna be faint about it
Oh, you shouldn’t be faint about it now

By the look in your eyes
No, you probably ain’t
But you shouldn’t be faint about it
Oh, you gotta be faint about it now

What is love made of?
Nobody knows
What are you afraid of?
Everyone knows
It’s love
It’s love

So you think you’re in love
Yes, you probably are
But you wanna be straight about it
Oh, you gotta be straight about it now

So you think you’re in love
Yeah

…

New York Dolls – Personality Crisis

Glam Rock straight from the seventies. The Dolls were full of attitude, raw music, drugs, and mascara. They would offend as many as possible and often sabotage their own career…but they made their mark in rock history.

This song was written by Dolls lead singer David Johansen and guitarist Johnny Thunders. It was on their self titled debut album. The song was released as a single in 1973 with the B side called Trash. The song sounds loose and rocking. They had a punk hard rock sound and they influence many bands such as KISS, Guns n’ Roses, The Replacements, Sex Pistols, and The Smiths. Morrissey from the Smiths helped organize a reunion concert in 2004.

Todd Rundgren (Todd was everywhere in the 70s) produced this album and Jack Douglas engineered it…he would later produce and work with artists Cheap Trick and John and Yoko on Double Fantasy.

The album peaked at #116 in the Billboard album charts but never hit the top 100.

Jack Douglas on guitarist Johnny Thunders: “Johnny never played the same thing twice. Sometimes, playing with the rhythm section, he just got the feel and he nailed it. At other times, he would stop playing because he knew he wasn’t going to get into it and he’d want to redo it later. Suddenly, he’d be in the control room with me. Then, when he overdubbed his leads, I would do four or five tracks and just comp them like a vocal. He was totally, totally unpredictable, and that’s how he was in life.”

Personality Crisis

Well we can’t take it this week
And her friends don’t want another speech
Hoping for a better day to hear what she’s got to say

All about that
Personality Crisis you got it while it was hot
But now frustration and heartache is what you got
(That’s why they talk about Personality)

But now your trying to be some no you got to do some
Wanna be someone who cow wow wows
But you think about the times you did they took every ounce
When it sure got to be a shame when you start to scream and shout
You got to contradict all those times you were butterflying about

(You were butterflying)
All about that Personality Crisis you got it while it was hot
But now frustration and heartache is what you got
break

And your a prima ballerina on a spring afternoon
Change on into the wolfman howling at the moon hooowww

All about that Personality Crisis you got it while it was hot
But now frustration and heartache is what you got

Now with all the crossing fingers that mother nature says
Your mirrors get jammed up with all your friends

That personality everything starts to blend
Personality when your mind starts to blend
Personality impression of a friend,
Of a friend, of a friend, of a friend, of a friend
Personality wondering how celebrities ever met
(Look and find out on television)

Personality Crisis you got it while it was hot
Frustration and heartache is all you got, don’t you worry
Personality Crisis please don’t cry
It’s just a Personality Crisis, please don’t stop

Because you walk a Personality
Talk a Personality

Beatles – I’m Down

I have always liked this B side to Help! Not a bad B side at all.

It was credited to Lennon/McCartney but Paul McCartney wrote this track… in the style of Little Richard. American R&B singers like Richard were a big influence on The Beatles.

The Beatles used this as their closing number on 1965 North American and UK tours, and the 1966 World tour.

When the Beatles were recording this…Paul took a break after shredding his vocal cords and recorded the classic…Yesterday. John Lennon played the Hammond organ on this track. It was the first time Lennon played any kind of keyboard on a record. When The Beatles played this live, he often played an electric piano.

This was the first song ever recorded by Aerosmith. They used it as a demo which eventually got them a record deal. They used also recorded it in 1987 on their album Permanent Vacation.

Paul McCartney: “I’m not sure if John had any input on it, in fact I don’t think he did. But not wishing to be churlish, with most of these I’ll always credit him with 10 per cent just in case he fixed a word or offered a suggestion. But at least 90 per cent of that would be mine.”

From Songfacts

In this song, Paul McCartney plays the role of a poor sap wallowing in his misery. But the joke is on him, which the arrangement and backing vocals make clear. When he sings, “I’m down,” John Lennon and George Harrison retort in mocking fashion, with lines like “down on the ground.” It’s as if they’ve heard too much of his bellyaching and they’re sick of it.

A telling line is, “How can you laugh when you know I’m down?” You can only have so much sympathy for someone who won’t help himself. After that, you have to laugh.

The Beatles performed this on their third live Ed Sullivan Show appearance – September 12, 1965. Before The Beatles broke through in America, Sullivan was in the London airport when The Beatles returned from a tour of Sweden. When he saw the massive crowd there to greet them, he thought The Queen was arriving. When he found out the throngs were there for The Beatles, he made sure to book them on his show. He became a big fan and had them on whenever he could.

This was recorded at the same session with “Yesterday” and “I’ve Just Seen a Face.”

The Beastie Boys recorded a version of this in 1986. Michael Jackson, who owned the publishing rights to this and many other Beatles songs, would not allow them to release it.

Paul McCartney played this at the “Concert For New York,” a benefit show he helped organize in 2001 to help victims of the World Trade Center disaster. It was the first song of his set.

I’m Down

You tell lies thinking I can’t see
You can’t cry ’cause you’re laughing at me
I’m down (I’m really down)
I’m down (Down on the ground)
I’m down (I’m really down)
How can you laugh when you know I’m down
(How can you laugh) When you know I’m down

Man buys ring woman throws it away
Same old thing happens everyday
I’m down (I’m really down)
I’m down (Down on the ground)
I’m down (I’m really down)
How can you laugh when you know I’m down
(How can you laugh) When you know I’m down

We’re all alone and there’s nobody else
You still moan, “Keep your hands to yourself!”
I’m down (I’m really down)
Oh baby, I’m down (Down on the ground)
I’m down (I’m really down)
How can you laugh when you know I’m down
(How can you laugh) When you know I’m down, wow
Baby I’m down

Oh baby, you know I’m down (I’m really down)
Oh yes, I’m down (I’m really down)
I’m down on the ground (I’m really down)
Ah, Down (I’m really down)
Oh baby, I’m upside down, a yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I’m down (I’m really down)
Oh baby, I’m down (I’m really down)
I’m feeling upside down (I’m really down)
Oh, I’m down (I’m really down)
Baby, I’m down, yeah
Oh baby, I’m down, yeah
Baby I’m down (I’m really down)
Well, baby I’m down (I’m really down)
Well, baby, baby, baby (I’m really down)
Oh baby, I’m down
I’m down, down, down

…

Replacements – Merry Go Around

This one is off of their last studio album All Shook Down. I was going to conclude with this one having one off of their studio albums but there is one more coming next week.

This is not my favorite off the album but it did have a commercial sound for that time and it’s something that I thought would have charted in the Billboard 100. Merry Go Round did peak at #1 on the alternative charts. The album peaked at #69 in the Billboard Album Chart in 1990.

“Merry Go Round” was written about the lives of Westerberg and his sister Mary (“They ignored me with a smile, you as a child”).

The band went to Los Angeles to make a video for Merry Go Round. With Westerberg’s okay, Warner Bros. hired Bob Dylan’s twenty-three-year-old son Jesse Dylan, who was just starting to direct.

It was shot in black and white and later edited to include some colorful inserts. From the opening moments, with a stone-faced Westerberg staring blankly into the camera, the video lacked the fun that had marked some of their other clips. Paul and Tommy managed a few smiles, and Slim played along gamely. The drummer Chris Mars, miming to Charley Drayton’s drum track, was understandably less than enthused.

Merry Go Round

Hush was the first word you were taught
And they watched you wear
The clothes they claimed that they bought
They brought you down
To watch the merry-go around

In fall, you knew how much it cost
A trouble doll
Around your neck when you lost
You wouldn’t make a sound
But I could hear your little heart pound
And I watched your feet slip off the ground

Merry go round in dreams
Writes ’em down, it seems
When she sleeps, she’s free
Merry go round in dreams

You wake to another day and find
The wind’s blowing out of key with your sky
Only you can see
And the rain dancing in the night
Everybody stands around in delight

Merry go round in dreams
Writes ’em down, it seems
When she sleeps, she’s free
Merry go round in dreams

And everybody thinks she’s sick
She’s got two worlds she can pick
And she’s sad

Hush is the only word you know
And I stopped listening long ago
They ignored me with a smile
You as a child
But the trouble doll hears your heart pound
And your feet they say goodbye to the ground

Merry go round in dreams
Writes ’em down, it seems
When she sleeps, she’s free
Merry go round in dreams

Merry go round in dreams
Merry go round in me
Merry go round
Round and round in me
Merry go round
Round and round in me

Ben Vaughn – Too Sensitive For This World

I’m a bona fide sucker for a guitar tremolo effect…throw in a voice that melts into the song and yea…I’m hooked. During the last part of the first verse backup singers come in and give it a short gospel quality. That makes me warm inside.

John Hiatt did the solo whistling and backing vocals.

The song was written by singer-songwriter Ben Vaughn, off his 1990 album Dressed In Black. Vaughn grew up in the Philadelphia area. He has said that At age 6, his uncle gave him a Duane Eddy record and forever changed his life.

In 1983, he formed the Ben Vaughn Combo. The band was together five years, releasing two albums and touring the U.S. several times. They received rave reviews in Rolling Stone and People magazine and video airplay on MTV.

Vaughn started a solo career in 1988 and has released over 17 albums. He is very versatile… he plays Rock, blues, jazz, folk, soul, R & B, country, Bossa Nova, movie soundtracks, easy listening and more, all with Vaughn’s musical slant.

Too Sensitive For This World

Ev’ry day starts with a broken heart
I must be too sensitive for this world
Well I know it ain’t right to cry ev’ry night
I must be too sensitive for this world

And the world is such a careless place
It’s a wonder, hummm it’s a wonder
It’s a wonder
Anyone survives

The clouds in the sky just make me cry
I must be too sensitive for this world
I don’t think I can last until these bad times pass
I must be too sensitive for this world

Solo

And the world is such a careless place
The world is such a selfish place
And life is such an awful fate
It’s a wonder, hummm it’s a wonder
It’s a wonder
Anyone survives
I must be

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Vaughn

Link Wray & His Ray Men – Rumble

When I hear this song I automatically think of Jack Rabbit Slim’s restaurant in the movie Pulp Fiction. It was played when Mia and Vincent were talking about the five dollar milk shake.

Wray came up with this when he was asked to play a stroll at one of his shows. The song was different from other popular instrumentals, as it helped introduce gritty guitar distortion and power chords to the world of rock.

The song is credited to Link Wray and Milt Grant.

This instrumental was somewhat controversial because it implied gang violence – some radio stations refused to play it. It might be the only instrumental song ever banned on the radio. It was feared that the piece’s harsh sound glorified juvenile delinquency. Did the song cause juvenile delinquency? We can only hope.

The song peaked at #16 in the Billboard 100 in 1958.

Pete Townshend on Link Wray: “He is the King; if it hadn’t been for ‘Rumble,’ I would have never picked up a guitar.”

From Songfacts

Wray was with Archie Bleyer’s Cadence label and he wanted to record this as a single. Bleyer was ready to pass on it until his step daughter said she liked it and that it reminded her of the rumble scenes in West Side Story. Bleyer named the song “Rumble” and decided to release it.

Wray was drafted in 1951 and fought in the Korean War where he caught Tuberculosis. As a result, he had a lung removed in 1957 and couldn’t sing. After returning from Korea, he joined his family band the Palomino Ranch Gang, and went on to record as “Lucky” Wray in 1956.

Wray used a 1953 Gibson Les Paul guitar run through a Premier amp to produce this song.

This was used in a 2017 commercial for the Ford Focus where a cat rides in the backseat and closes the window to drown out the sound of a barking dog.

The song was honored at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 when they announced a category for “singles.” Five other songs were selected along with it:

“The Twist” – Chubby Checker
“Rocket 88” – Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats
“Louie Louie” – The Kingsmen
“A Whiter Shade Of Pale” – Procol Harum
“Born To Be Wild” – Steppenwolf

…

Ray Davies and Alex Chilton – Till The End of the Day

I didn’t know they ever did anything together and to find this was special. Two of my favorite performers coming together. Ray of course from one of my favorite bands of all time and Alex Chilton from another band I admire, Big Star.

Ray had an album in 2010 called See My Friends, a 2010 album featuring versions of classic Kinks’ songs recorded with Alex Chilton, Black Francis, Lucinda Williams, Bruce Springsteen, Metallica and many others.

This song was recorded a year before Alex died. They were neighbors in New Orleans and Alex would bring beer over to Ray’s house although Alex didn’t drink. Alex and Big Star were huge fans of The Kinks.

Ray Davies:

“Way back in 2004 I was in New Orleans, recovering from an injury, and I was befriended by a neighbor called Alex Chilton. Alex had been in a band called Big Star, and had sung on a record called ‘The Letter’ by The Box Tops. We didn’t talk about music much, but he did say to me before I came back to England, ‘You know, I’ve recorded one of your songs, ‘Till the End of the Day’, with Big Star, and I’d love to do another song with you. And he asked me to write some songs for him – I felt really flattered, because by then I had found out about his history. A very unassuming guy.”

“In 2009, on July 4th, Independence Day, he came up to Konk Studios. He was a real character – he was wearing a New Orleans beret, he had a cigarette holder – he was a chain smoker, and I think a recovering drinker – and he said, ‘Let’s do it!’ I said, ‘What would you like to do?’ He said, ‘‘Til The End Of The Day’ and ‘Set Me Free’. So I just had an acoustic guitar and a rhythm box, because I hadn’t organized anything. I played guitar and Alex sang. We did five or six takes and comped it together. “

I cannot find Set Me Free but here is a short clip of Ray talking about Alex.

…

Rolling Stones – Shattered

I remember this one very well. I bought the single and then the album a little while later. It’s a great rock song with some punk in it. It’s on the album Some Girls that was released in 1978.

This was the last song on Some Girls. While they were recording this album, Keith Richards had drug charges hanging over his head from a bust in Toronto. Facing a maximum sentence of life in prison, Keith let Mick take control of the album, which is shown on songs like this. Richards ended up getting off easy… he was sentenced to probation and ordered to play a concert for the blind.

Richards came up with the guitar riff on this and the line “Sha-doobie.” Jagger wrote the rest.

They performed this on Saturday Night Live and to this viewer they were not as tight as normal. Turns out they drank a lot of alcohol, did some seventies substances and rehearsed a lot before show time… after watching the rehearsals it seems like they made the mistake of peaking too early during the rehearsals. By showtime they didn’t sound as strong as usual…but it still was a good show.

The song peaked at #31 in the Billboard 100 and #32 in Canada in 1978.

From Songfacts

The lyrics are a bleak picture of life in New York City. The Stones always had a love/hate relationship with the US, and Mick Jagger’s lyrics were often influenced by his thoughts on the country (see “Satisfaction”). New York in particular is a place where you could be wildly successful, but is also a city filled crime, drugs, and poverty. It should be noted that The Stones have taken shots at their home country of England as well, notably on “Hang Fire.”

Just after this was released, The Stones performed it on Saturday Night Live. It was memorable for Mick Jagger licking Ron Wood on the lips for about 5 seconds. This stuff just didn’t happen on TV back them.

When Jagger sings, “Shmatta, shmatta, shmatta, I can’t give it away on 7th Avenue, this town’s been wearing tatters,” he’s making reference to the fashion district of New York City, which is on 7th Avenue. The word “Shmatta” is slang for old, worn clothing.

Shattered

Uh huh shattered, uh huh shattered
Love and hope and sex and dreams
Are still surviving on the street
Look at me, I’m in tatters!
I’m a shattered
Shattered

Friends are so alarming
My lover’s never charming
Life’s just a cocktail party on the street
Big Apple
People dressed in plastic bags
Directing traffic
Some kind of fashion
Shattered

Laughter, joy, and loneliness and sex and sex and sex and sex
Look at me, I’m in tatters
I’m a shattered
Shattered

All this chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter ’bout
Shmatta, shmatta, shmatta, I can’t give it away on 7th Avenue
This town’s been wearing tatters (shattered, sha ooobie shattered)

Work and work for love and sex
Ain’t you hungry for success, success, success, success
Does it matter? (shattered)
Does it matter?

Ah look at me
I’m shattered
I’m shattered 0
Look at me, I’m a shattered, yeah (shattered)

Pride and joy and greed and sex
That’s what makes our town the best
Pride and joy and dirty dreams and still surviving on the street
And look at me, I’m in tatters, yeah
I’ve been battered, what does it matter
Does it matter, uh-huh
Does it matter, uh-huh, I’m a shattered

Mmm, I’m shattered, unh
Sha oobie, shattered, unh
Sha oobie, shattered
Sha oobie, shattered, shattered

Don’t you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!
You got rats on the West Side
Bed bugs uptown
What a mess this town’s in tatters, I’ve been shattered
My brain’s been battered, splattered all over Manhattan

Sha oobie, shattered, shattered, what say
Sha oobie, shattered
Sha oobie, shattered
Sha oobie, shattered

Uh-huh, this town’s full of money grabbers
Go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don’t mind the maggots, huh
Sha oobie, my brain’s been battered
My friends they come around they
Flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter, flatter
Pile it up, pile it up, pile high on the platter

Del Fuegos – I Still Want You

This song has a very garage band sound. It was a minor hit in 1986. The Del Fuegos were an alternative band that was eventually signed to RCA later in their career. They were touring the same circuit as REM and The Replacements.

The Zanes brothers Dan and Warren formed the band in Boston in the early eighties. The brothers had a hard time getting a long and supposedly still do. Tom Petty became a fan of them and appeared on one of their songs. They also opened up for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on a tour.

Warren quit the band after the 3rd album. He went to college and received a Ph.D in Visual and Cultural Studies. Zanes is the former vice president of education and public programs for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. He ended up writing Tom Petty’s biography shortly before Petty’s death.

This song was written by lead singer Dan Zanes and bass player Tom Lloyd, it was one of the first hits for the band. The Del Fuegos got some attention when Miller beer featured them in a national beer commercial as part of their “Made the American Way” campaign, which got them a lot of exposure and also some critical scorn, as commercials were seen as selling out at the time.

After that commercial their creditability suffered. In the current time having your song in a commercial helps you tremendously and no one things anything about it…but in the 20th century it didn’t go over well. The band would hear “sell out” on tour.

After the commercial though… they did get better tours and more money. This song peaked at #87 in the Billboard 100 in 1986.

I Still Want You

Seasons change and lessons get learned
It’s been awhile, but my heart burns
It said, I still want you

And that’s all I’ll do
Spend my time just thinking about you
Said, I still want you

The car we bought together just started to rust
The world we made came between the two of us
I still want you

When the day was through
We drive through town my arm around you
Said, I still want you

I tried so hard just to fill your cup
I tried so hard just to fill it up
But you only drift away, you drift away
Now you only drift away, you drift away

I hear the rain coming down
The leaves start to fall
I hear your voice I remember it all
Said, I still want you

And that’s all I’ll do
Spend my life just thinking about you
Said, I still want you

I tried so hard, tried to fill your cup
I tried so hard just to fill it up
But you only drift away, you drift away

And baby, I still want you
I still want you
I said, I still want you

Scruffs – Break The Ice —-Power Pop Friday

Memphis in the early 1970s was more than Big Star. Many power pop bands and artists were coming out of there at that time. Not many made it huge but many were recognized later. They formed in 1974 and released their first album Wanna Meet The Scruffs? in 1977. Like the others around this period. Many of the power pop musicians worked with each other. The Scruffs worked with Alex Chilton, Tommy Hoehn, and Jim Dickinson. Break the Ice was the first single off of the album. It reminds me of the Raspberries.

To show what some rock critics thought of the band…here is Robert Christgau (rock critic):

Only a sucker for rock and roll could love this record, and I am that sucker. A middle-period Beatles extrapolation in the manner of Big Star (another out-of-step Memphis power-pop group on a small, out-of-step Memphis label), it bursts with off harmonies, left hooks, and jolts of random energy. The trouble is, these serve a shamelessly and perhaps permanently post-adolescent vision of life’s pain, most of which would appear to involve gurls. To which objection the rockin’ formalist in me responds, “I wanna hear ‘Revenge’ again.”

Pretty good endorsement right? That is just one of many but again they just couldn’t break through. They did not have the influence like Big Star did but they were a great power pop band. I listened to all of this album and that jangle of the guitar is infectious. The song was a regional hit but was not played outside of Memphis too much. They did move to New York in 1978 had some high profile gigs at CBGB and Max’s Kansas City.

The Band broke up in 1981 but Stephen Burns the singer, guitar player, and songwriter would continue recording albums under the Scruffs name into the 2010’s…with Peter Buck from REM guesting on the 2011 Kill! Kill! album .

Sorry I could not find the lyrics.

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Workin’ For MCA

This is a great opening song and the band used it as an opener for many of their concerts. The song is autobiographical in many ways. It was an open letter to their new record company at the time…”But I’ll sign my contract baby, and I want you people to know
That every penny that I make, I’m gonna see where my money goes”

I wrote this post a while back…A Sound Day just told me that today is the 47th anniversary of this album…Second Helping was released on April 15th 1974.

MCA was Lynyrd Skynyrd’s record company. This song is based on how they were signed. The “Yankee Slicker” that is mentioned in the song is no other than Al Kooper. They actually were signed for $9,000.

The “seven years of hard luck” in the opening line is the time from 1966 to 1973. 1966 was when the group changed their name to Lynyrd Skynyrd, and 1973 was when their first album was released.

This song was on their second album called Second Helping. While Skynyrd were in Los Angeles in The Record Plant in a studio, the Eagles were recording in another. One day they were shocked when John Lennon came to see Kooper to talk music and see what he was working on. Lennon’s presence overwhelmed the band so much that they began to fumble over notes they had played thousands of times, Rossington admitted. Lennon introduced himself and shared small talk with the musicians.

After recording “Sweet Home Alabama,” Lynyrd Skynyrd performed at the “Sounds of the South” press party. According to the booklet included with their box set, “When Skynyrd hit the stage with a roaring version of ‘Workin’ For MCA,’ written especially for the event, the party stopped while 500 hardened industry vets stood on chairs to get a glimpse of the unknown band.” A few months later, Lynyrd Skynyrd opened for The Who on their “Fallout Shelter” tour.

The song was written by Ed King and Ronnie Van Zant.

From Songfacts

In spite of the suspicious tone to this song, “Workin’ For MCA” had its perks. Al Kooper, in his memoir Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards, goes to great lengths to describe the studio where Second Helping, Skynyrd’s second album, was recorded. The Record Plant in Los Angeles was a Hollywood crib of decadence and hedonism, with all the hallmarks of 1970s sleaze. Jacuzzis and bedrooms in the building, squealing groupies bounding naked down the halls, and a staff which had standing orders to cater to every whim of the guests. And as for the decor, if it wasn’t wood paneled, it was tie-died.

Workin’ For MCA

Seven years of hard luck, comin’ down on me
From the Florida border, yeah up to Nashville, Tennessee
I worked in every joint you can name, mister every honky tonk
Along come Mr. Yankee Slicker, sayin’ maybe you’re what I want

[Chorus:]
Want you to sign your contract
Want you to sign today
Gonna give you lots of money
Workin’ For MCA

Nine thousand dollars, that’s all we could win
But we smiled at the Yankee Slicker with a big ol’ Southern grin
They’re gonna take me out to California, gonna make me a superstar
Just pay me all of my money and mister maybe you won’t get a scar

[Chorus:]

Suckers took my money since I was seventeen
If it ain’t no pencil pusher, it got to be a honky tonk queen
But I’ll sign my contract baby, and I want you people to know
That every penny that I make, I’m gonna see where my money goes

[Chorus:]