This song is about as sleazy as you can get but I like it.
AC/DC lead guitarist Angus Young got the song title from the 1962 animated cartoon series Beany and Cecil. The Show first aired on ABC Television and only ran for one season until the 26 episodes shown were cast as repeats for the next five years until it was recreated in 1968.
The specific inspiration for the song name was the cartoon’s main villain, “Dishonest John,” who would carry around a business card that said, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Holidays, Sundays, and Special Rates.”
Norman and Marilyn White, a couple from Libertyville, Illinois, sued the band for invasion of privacy after they were inundated with calls due to this song. Apparently, many AC/DC fans in the area dialed 3-6-2-4-3-6-8 (thinking the “hey!” as “eight”), which was their phone number. The couple claimed they received hundreds of “lewd, suggestive and threatening” phone calls, asking for various dirty deeds at low, low prices. The Whites asked for $250,000 in damages and demanded that the band re-record the song, but a judge ruled against them. The people with the bad luck to have 867-5309 had the same problem but they only had inquiries about Jenny.
The song was written by Bon Scott, Angus, and Malcolm Young. The album was released in Australia and in Europe in 1976. The album was released in America in 1981 after Scott’s death and after the popular Back in Black. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Hits and #47 in the UK.
Lesley Gore, known for ’60s hits like “It’s My Party,” recorded this for the 2002 compilation album When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You’d Hear. Her version was produced by Mauro DeSantis, who worked with Cevin Soling on the track… I couldn’t find it on Youtube but click on that link. Lesley Gore channels her inner Bon Scott on this one…I didn’t like the music part as much but her singing was spot on.
From Songfacts
This song epitomizes AC/DC’s dangerous and mean sound, with Angus Young’s heavy guitar and Bon Scott’s leering, vocals that would have scared the living daylights out of any unsuspecting teenage Pop fans when this song first hit the airwaves (they did it on a national TV show in Australia called Countdown, which was usually frequented by acts like ABBA and Bucks Fizz).
This was recorded at Alberts Studios in Sydney, Australia in 1976 soon after the sessions that produced the Australian version of their TNT album.
Regarding the lyrics, “Just ring: 3-6-2-4-3-6,” this was an actual phone number in Australia at the time, and it also could describe the measurements of a very shapely woman: 36-24-36. A year later, the Commodores used the same measurements to describe a woman in their song “Brick House.” Sir Mix-a-Lot, however, scoffed at these measurements in his 1992 hit “Baby Got Back,” where he says: “36-24-36? Only if she’s 5’3.”
The ending is one of the most famous screams in rock history. For those wondering, it’s spelled: “Yaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggghhhhhh!”
This was used in the Norm MacDonald movie Dirty Work. It is played while Norm’s character Mitch and his friend Sam are wrecking a building in an attempt to get it condemned.
On a 2008 episode of The Simpsons where they team up on a stakeout, we learn that Homer Simpson and the pious Ned Flanders have some common ground in their musical tastes. Homer likes AC/DC, and Ned likes their Christian tribute band: AD/BC, and their version of this song, “Kindly Deeds Done For Free.”
The song about murder for hire enjoyed a sales spike following drummer Phil Rudd being charged with trying to procure a murder in November 2014. The charge was soon dropped.
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
If you’re havin’ trouble with the high school head He’s givin’ you the blues You want to graduate but not in ‘is bed Here’s what you gotta do Pick up the phone I’m always home Call me any time Just ring 36 24 36 hey I lead a life of crime
You got problems in your life of love You got a broken heart He’s double dealin’ with your best friend That’s when the teardrops start, fella Pick up the phone I’m here alone Or make a social call Come right in Forget about him We’ll have ourselves a ball
If you got a lady and you want her gone But you ain’t got the guts She keeps naggin’ at you night and day Enough to drive ya nuts Pick up the phone Leave her alone It’s time you made a stand For a fee I’m happy to be Your back door man
Little Feat guitarist/singer Lowell George wrote “Willin'” before the group was even formed. They never had mass commercial appeal but their music was so down to earth and the musicians in that band were great.
The song is about a truck driver in the American southwest who makes some extra cash smuggling cigarettes and transporting illegals across the border from Mexico. If you give him “weed, whites and wine,” he’s willin’ to do the job.
Lowell had cut his hand on a model airplane and he was heavily bandaged up while playing the solo. The keyboard player Bill Payne said George was bleeding all over his guitar when playing this. Lowell George and Ry Cooder are playing slide guitar on this song. They found Ry Cooder recording his debut album at the same studio that Little Feat were recording this song.
Little Feat’s producer Russ Titelman asked Cooder to come and play on some tracks. There was a lot of tension between Cooder and George, but that competitive streak was channeled into the song.
Little Feat were never very successful on the charts but many music fans love them. Along with music fans…many musicians from Led Zeppelin to Bonnie Raitt.
This originally appeared on Little Feat’s debut album (with Ry Cooder), but the version that has become famous was recorded for the follow-up, Sailin’ Shoes, in 1972. The original version has a faster tempo.
From Songfacts
The opening line, in which the narrator describes himself as being “warped by the rain,” originated in a conversation between George and drummer Richie Hayward. Hayward had used it to describe a rocking chair.
It’s likely that when George brought “Willin song was a reason for his departure, due to its drug references in the chorus. It is known that his leaving had something to do with his drug use, which Zappa heavily frowned upon. “I think Frank was both impressed and put off by the song because of the drug reference,” Bill Payne told Bud Scoppa. “He was somewhat conservative on certain levels. He was afraid of the very thing that bit the hippie movement in the ass, which was the craziness of what would happen to people when they got fried on drugs – like Charles Manson.”
More likely, it was George’s drug use that led to the parting.
Although the band never had a charting single, “Willin'” is arguably their best-known song. Their first two albums, which both included the track, flopped, but they found their stride with their third, Dixie Chicken, their first as a six-piece jazz-funk outfit (they were previously a country-rock quartet). They developed a reputation as a great live band, and “Willin'” was a concert favorite. As more people discovered the band, the song grew in popularity and even earned some airplay.
Little Feat split up in 1979 just months before Lowell George passed away. When they re-formed in 1987, guitarist Paul Barrere took the lead vocals on “Willin’.” He died in 2019.
Linda Ronstadt recorded this on her 1975 album Heart Like A Wheel. While Ronstadt is certainly versatile, it’s hard to imagine her at the wheel of a rig hauling freight (or contraband) across state lines.
Original version with Ry Cooder
Willin’
I been warped by the rain, driven by the snow I’m drunk and dirty don’t ya know, and I’m still, willin’ And I was out on the road late at night I’d seen my pretty Alice in every head light Alice, Dallas Alice
I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari Tehachapi to Tonapah Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed And if you give me weed, whites and wine And you show me a sign I’ll be willin’, to be movin’
Well I’ve been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet Had my head stoved in, but I’m still on my feet and I’m still, willin’ Now I smuggled some smokes and folks from Mexico Baked by the sun, every time I go to Mexico, and I’m still
And I been from Tucson to Tucumcari Tehachapi to Tonapah Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed And if you give me weed, whites and wine And you show me a sign I’ll be willin’, to be movin’
Yes it’s wore out but I still love it. One of my favorite lyrics comes from this song. I blew out my flip flop, Stepped on a pop top, Cut my heel had to cruise on back home. I don’t know why but I just love that line. When Buffett wrote this he wrote his career. He had hits before but this one changed everything.
I’ve seen Jimmy Buffett twice and it’s like going to a giant beach party. If you ever get a chance it’s a fun concert to go to. I’ve only owned one album by Buffett. “Songs You Know By Heart” a greatest hits collection released in 1985. It has everything I like except one song…Door Number 3.
Buffett wrote this song in Key West, Florida, after he finished a tour with his group, the Coral Reefer Band. They had just toured Texas, and Buffett spent some time drinking margaritas in a Mexican restaurant with a friend before going back to Key West. When he got there, he sat at the Old Anchor Inn watching a traffic jam on the roads and used it as inspiration as he composed the song.
Buffett recorded this song at Criteria Studios in Miami with producer Norbert Putnam.
The song peaked at #8 in the Billboard 100 and #4 in Canada in 1977.
Producer Norbert Putnam: “One day in the studio, he comes in and starts telling me about a day he had in Key West. He was coming home from a bar and he lost one of his flip-flops and he stepped on a beer can top and he couldn’t find the salt for his Margarita. He says he’s writing lyrics to it and I say ‘That’s a terrible idea for a song.’ He comes back in a few days later with ‘Wasted Away Again In Margaritaville’ and plays it and right then everyone knows it’s a hit song. Hell, it wasn’t a song – it was a movie.”
From Songfacts
Regarding the success of this song, Buffett said: “I was lucky enough to get my thumb on the pulse beat of what people perceived the tropics to be.”
“Margaritaville” has come to symbolize a carefree Caribbean lifestyle – what some in Key West call “Keys disease.” For many, the only time they experience this way of living is on vacations or at Jimmy Buffett concerts. Buffett has a lot of fans who work very hard, make a lot of money, and use his music as an escape.
Buffett was born in Mississippi and raised in Alabama. He didn’t come to Key West, Florida, until 1971, when he was 24 years old. As a transplant, he had a perspective on the area that natives don’t, which helped him capture the ethos in this song.
Buffett has always loved sailing, and when this song became a hit, he was thrilled because he could buy his own boat. He has said that even if he was a one-hit wonder, he would have been happy with his boat sailing around the islands.
When Buffett sings about how he “Stepped on a pop-top” and cut his heel, requiring a cruise back home to enjoy a margarita, he’s referring to pull-off tops from soda and beer cans that caused a litany of minor injuries as they were often thrown on the ground and then stepped on by poor souls who blew out their flip-flops. In the late ’70s, the pop-tops were replaced with much safer non-removable round “pop-down/pop-in” tabs.
Buffett owns Margaritaville stores in Key West, New Orleans, Jamaica, Charleston, and Orlando. They sell clothing and other items inspired by the song.
Former Van Halen vocalist Sammy Hagar covered this for his 2013 Sammy Hagar & Friends album. His version is a duet with Toby Keith. He told Rolling Stone that it took him a long time to figure out that the country star would be a good fit for his version. “He’s like my closest friend,” said Hagar, “in country, for sure, and one of the most typical Cabo Wabo heads. We’ve sat in Cabo Wabo and played ‘Margaritaville’ there 35 times, if not more. And to not realize until after I cut ‘Margaritaville’ that I should get Toby to do the duet on it?”
This cover is also included as a bonus track on the Deluxe version of Toby Keith’s Drinks After Work album.
Prior to this Top 10 hit, Buffett’s highest-charting single on the Hot 100 was “Come Monday,” which peaked at #30 in 1974. “Margaritaville” also landed at #13 on the Country tally.
In 2016, this was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
This is referenced in Blake Shelton’s 2004 hit “Some Beach,” which finds Shelton “Singing ‘Margaritaville’ and minding my own.”
In 1999, Buffett joined Alan Jackson in a recording of this for Jackson’s album Under The Influence. In Buffett’s original version, he knows wasting away in Margaritaville is his own fault, but in Jackson’s version the singers blame each other before they finally admit “it’s our own damn fault.”
In The Simpsons episode “Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious” (1997), this is sung by the nanny Shary Bobbins and Barney Gumble.
It was also used in these TV shows:
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (“Zoey’s Extraordinary Neighbor” – 2020) 9-1-1 (“Triggers” – 2019) Hawaii Five-0 (“Make Me Kai” – 2017)
And in these movies:
The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019) The Beach Bum (2019) Anger Management (2003)
Margaritaville
Nibblin’ on sponge cake Watchin’ the sun bake All of those tourists covered with oil Strummin’ my six string on my front porch swing Smell those shrimp they’re beginnin’ to boil
Wastin’ away again in Margaritaville Searchin’ for my long lost shaker of salt Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame But I know it’s nobody’s fault
Don’t know the reason Stayed here all season Nothing to show but this brand new tattoo But it’s a real beauty A Mexican cutie How it got here I haven’t a clue
Wastin’ away again in Margaritaville Searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame Now I think hell it could be my fault
I blew out my flip flop Stepped on a pop top Cut my heel had to cruise on back home But there’s booze in the blender And soon it will render That frozen concoction that helps me hang on
Wastin’ away again in Margaritaville Searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame But I know it’s my own damn fault Yes and some people claim that there’s a woman to blame And I know it’s my own damn fault
This song help kick off the sixties. The melody, music, the great harmonies and just the excitement of the song. She Loves You help define them and broke huge. Ozzy Osbourne made a statement about the song… “Imagine you go to bed today and the world is black and white and then you wake up, and everything’s in color.”
These great melodies that John, Paul, and later George would come up with lasted through their career. Even when their music got a little more sophisticated the melodies remained…they were underneath the early, middle, and late era Beatle music.
It’s best known for the yeah, yeah, yeah… Yeah, the Everly Brothers did it first, using a hook of “yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah” on their 1961 cover of the song “Temptation,” which was a #1 hit in the UK.
Paul McCartney’s dad wanted the Beatles to sing yes, yes, yes instead because he thought it sounded more dignified.…doesn’t have the same ring does it?
She Loves You peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand in 1964.
In the UK, this is the biggest selling Beatles single. It held the record for top-selling UK single of all time until 1977, when Wings topped it with Mull Of Kintyre.
George Martin didn’t like the ending chord. He thought it sounded too much like the The Andrew Sisters but the Beatles liked it and over rode the producer on this one…and it works great.
in April 1964 The Beatles had the Top 5 Songs on the Billboard Top 100 Singles of the week. The closest any other artist ever got was 3 songs in the Top 10. But there they were- Can’t Buy Me Love, Twist and Shout, She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Please Please Me, sitting at the top, along with 7 other Beatles songs in the Top 100 the same week.
Cynthia Lennon: “He was also romantic, a side of him I saw more often as our relationship deepened. He wrote love poems on scraps of paper and passed them to me at college. For our first Christmas he drew a card with a picture of me in my new shaggy coat, standing opposite him, our heads together, his hand on my arm. It was covered with kisses and hearts and he wrote, ‘Our first Christmas, I love you, yes, yes, yes.’ A few years later he used the same idea in one of the Beatles’ first hits, ‘She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.'”
John Lennon:“I remember it was Paul’s idea,” Lennon recalled, “Instead of singing ‘I love you’ again, we’d have a third party.”
Paul McCartney:“We were in a van up in Newcastle somewhere,” “and we’d just gone over to our hotel. I originally got an idea of doing one of those answering songs, where a couple of us sing about ‘she loves you’ and the other one sort of says the ‘yes, yes’ bit. You know, ‘yeah, yeah’ answering whoever who is saying it. But we decided that was a crummy idea anyway. But we had the idea of writing a song called ‘She Loves You’ then. And we just sat up in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it.”
From Songfacts
The Beatles tell quite a tale in this tidy pop song. Some poor guy thinks he has lost his girl for good, but he’s redeemed when he finds out from a friend that she still loves him. There’s even a moral at the end of the story: “Pride can hurt you too.” Good advice when arguing with a loved one.
This was an instant hit in the UK, but not in America, where it was released on Swan records, the only US label that would take it. Swan put it out in September 1963, but while The Beatles were huge in their homeland, they were still no big deal in America until February 1964. That’s when Beatlemania took hold and “She Loves You” became a US hit.
This was one of four Beatles songs that was never released in stereo. The others are “Love Me Do,” “I’ll Get You” and “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number).”
The Beatles released a German version translated as “Sie Liebt Dich” in the US in 1964. They learned some German when they became the house band at the Star-Club in Hamburg in 1962, but needed a German speaker to help them with the lyrics. They recorded the German version in Paris – it was the only time they recorded outside of England.
Apart from “My Bonnie,” which was recorded with Tony Sheridan in their early days in Hamburg, the only other song the Beatles recorded in another language, again German, was “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” “Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand” was recorded the same time as “Sie Liebt Dich.”
“Sie Liebt Dich” peaked at #97, the lowest position of the Beatles’ 71 Hot 100 charted songs.
Jack Paar played a video clip of The Beatles performing the song on his show January 3, 1964. The Beatles had appeared on news clips as part of stories about their success in England, but this was the first time they appeared on a US TV talk show. They also played it on both of their live Ed Sullivan Show appearances. When The Beatles agreed to do the show, they were not a big deal in America and took less money than most acts received for their fee. When The Beatles played The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, it got the largest audience ever for a TV show. Sullivan began having regular musical guests from the world of popular music, and it became a showcase for groups like The Rolling Stones, The Supremes, Santana and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon were inspired to write this after a concert at the Majestic Ballroom in Newcastle when they were part of a tour with Roy Orbison and Gerry & the Pacemakers. Says McCartney, “There was a Bobby Rydell song out at the time ‘Forget Him’ and, as often happens, you think of one song when you write another. We were in a van up in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. I’d planned an answering song where a couple of us would sing ‘She loves you’ and the other ones would answer ‘Yeah Yeah.’ We decided that was a crummy idea but at least we then had the idea of a song called She Loves You. So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it; John and I, sitting on twin beds with guitars.”
In the UK, this hit #1 twice in 1963, first on September 4 and again on November 20.
Regarding the falsetto exaltation that occurs at the song’s manic peak, McCartney once explained: “The ‘wooooo’ was taken from the Isley Brothers’ ‘Twist and Shout.’ We stuck it in everything.”
These wordless vocalizations of joy were a Beatles hallmark; they most obvious example is the extended fadeout in “Hey Jude.”
The Beatles played part of this at the end of “All You Need Is Love,” which they recorded four years later.
This song was played at the conclusion of the concert sequence at the end of the film A Hard Day’s Night, although it wasn’t included on the soundtrack album.
Norman Smith, who was The Beatles engineer, told the story in his autobiography John Called me Normal about feeling his heart sink when he spotted the lyrics on the music stand. As he later relayed to Mark Lewinsohn: “She loves you, yeah yeah yeah, She loves you, yeah yeah yeah, she loves you yeah yeah yeah yeah… I thought, My God, what a lyric! This is going to be the one I do not like.”
Smith had a hit in 1972 with “Oh Babe What Would You Say” as Hurricane Smith. He also produced the first three Pink Floyd albums.
There is a very clear edit in this song between the lines “I think it’s only fair/Pride can hurt you too.” It appears that two version had been edited together.
In August 2009 the Official Chart Company compiled a list of the Beatles biggest selling hits in the UK, including re-issues. They revealed that this song was the Fab Four’s best seller in their native country, followed by “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.”
The Melissa Manchester hit You Should Hear How She Talks About You was written as a contemporary take on this song, with the singer telling a friend that a guy is really into her.
She Loves You
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You think you’ve lost your love Well, I saw her yesterday-ay It’s you she’s thinking of And she told me what to say-ay
She says she loves you And you know that can’t be bad Yes, she loves you And you know you should be glad
She said you hurt her so She almost lost her mind But now she says she knows You’re not the hurtin’ kind
She says she loves you And you know that can’t be bad Yes, she loves you And you know you should be glad, ooh
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah With a love like that You know you should be glad
You know it’s up to you I think it’s only fair Pride can hurt you, too Apologize to her
Because she loves you And you know that can’t be bad Yes, she loves you And you know you should be glad, ooh
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah With a love like that You know you should be glad With a love like that You know you should be glad With a love like that You know you should be glad Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
My journey continues into early Pink Floyd. This is a Syd Barrett contribution to the group, and the only song on the album that he wrote and sang on the album. The album was A Saucerful of Secrets that peaked at #9 in the UK and #158 in the Billboard Album Charts.
The middle part of the song was a contribution from a Salvation Army band that Barrett asked to guest on the song…he told them to play what they wanted.
The song itself has said to be Barrett’s self-diagnosis of schizophrenia, explained by the lines “I’m most obliged to you for making it clear that I’m not here” and “I wonder who could be writing this song?” This would Barrett’s last contribution to Pink Floyd. Shortly before it was released, he was kicked out of the band.
From Songfacts
Pink Floyd made a promo film for this song, which shows a seemingly depressed Barrett wandering around aimlessly, singing the song.
40 seconds to the end of the track is another “secret” song that Barrett plays guitar on, while asking “What exactly is a dream?” and “What exactly is a joke?”
The instrumental passage towards the end features a brass section which would be later explored more in Atom Heart Mother.
Jugband Blues
It’s awfully considerate of you to think of me here And I’m much obliged to you for making it clear That I’m not here And I never knew we could be so thick And I never knew the moon could be so blue And I’m grateful that you threw away my old shoes And brought me here instead dressed in red And I’m wondering who could be writing this song
I don’t care if the sun don’t shine And I don’t care if nothing is mine And I don’t care if I’m nervous with you I’ll do my loving in the winter
And the sea isn’t green And I love the queen And what exactly is a dream And what exactly is a joke
This song sounds like it’s being performed by a drunk fraternity. I love this song. It’s hard to be in a bad mood when you listen to this. The song was banned on many radio stations because of references to drinking and sex… This song peaked at #17 in 1966 on the Billboard 100.
I did post this 3 years ago but I didn’t have many readers…so I thought today would be a good day to drunkenly sing anything to welcome 2021 and kiss or kick 2020 goodbye.
As you can probably guess…it was their only charting song…but they sure sounded like they had a good time doing it though. The song was written by Don Smith and Cyril Vetter.
If you want to know more about the Medallions go to their home page…from what I see they are still playing.
I found where Bruce Springsteen invited The Swingin’ Medallions up on stage to sing “Double Shot” in 2009 here is the video.
Double Shot of My Baby’s Love
Woke up this morning, my head was so bad The worst hangover that I ever had What happened to me last night That girl of mine, she loved me so right (yeah) (oh, oh) She loved me so long and she loved me so hard I finally passed out in her front yard (whoo) It wasn’t wine that I had too much of It was a double shot of my baby’s love
Double shot of my baby’s love, yeah yeah, yeah Double shot of my baby’s love, yeah yeah, yeah A potion that I had too much of It was a double shot of my baby’s love
It was such a thrill it was hurtin’ me (ooh) I was sufferin’ in ecstasy She had me turnin’ flips and-a shoutin’ out loud (yah-hah) A sip of her love and I was walkin’ one a cloud One night a week is-a plenty enough It’s a good thing for me they don’t bottle that stuff (pop) Well, my heart begins to fly like a dove When I take a double shot of my baby’s love
Double shot of my baby’s love, yeah yeah, yeah Double shot of my baby’s love, yeah yeah, yeah A potion that I had too much of It was a double shot of my baby’s love
Double shot of my baby’s love, yeah yeah, yeah Double shot of my baby’s love, yeah yeah, yeah Double shot of my baby’s love, yeah yeah, yeah Double shot of my baby’s love, yeah yeah, yeah
This year was tough to say the least! I’ve gotten to know many more bloggers this year and have enjoyed all of you. When Covid started I met so many because I think blogging was an escape for a while when everyone was in lockdown. Many of them stuck around and we have built relationships.
I’ve met some with similar tastes as mine and a few with different tastes but with enough of common ground to learn and appreciate. Newer music, harder music, and I even read some poetry that I never have before. That is what our community is about to me…learning new things and sharing things that will be new to some people. The one word I would use for us…is “Passion”…lets face it. We are not making money at this but we do it for the love of it…and I’m better for it.
I thanked everyone in my Merry Christmas post…I want to thank you all again. Thanks for all of the comments that you have left…good or bad. I think I’ve learned more than I have shared but I’ll keep trying I promise.
Well…lets make 2021 MUCH better than 2020…the bar is set pretty damn low so we should be able to make that goal. Everyone be safe in the New Year…
The Zombies…THIS WILL BE OUR YEAR…probably my favorite New Years Song…it’s a song by the Zombies but I included a Foo Fighters cover also at the bottom..again…HAPPY NEW YEAR! yea I’m shouting.
This Will Be Our Year
The warmth of your love’s Like the warmth from the sun And this will be our year Took a long time to come
Don’t let go of my hand Now darkness has gone This will be our year Took a long time to come
And I won’t forget The way you helped me Up when I was down And I won’t forget The way you said Darling I love you You gave me faith to go on Now we’re there And we’ve only just begun This will be our year Took a long time to come
The warmth of your smile Smile for me little one And this will be our year Took a long time to come
You don’t have to worry All your worried days are gone And this will be our year Took a long time to come
And I won’t forget The way you helped me Up when I was down And I won’t forget The way you said Darling I love you You gave me faith to go on Now we’re there And we’ve only just begun This will be our year Took a long time to come
And this will be our year Took a long time to come
I love this song by Creedence but it’s probably the song I seek out the least…only because I’ve probably heard it the most. If I hear it on the radio I like it though all over again. This song was the game changer for CCR.
Fogerty refused to play his Creedence songs that he wrote for years because of bitter memories and bad contracts he signed with Creedence. He didn’t think about relenting until a stage appearance on February 19. 1987 with Dylan and George Harrison at a Taj Mahal concert at the Palomino, a Los Angeles club.
Dylan told him ‘Hey, John, if you don’t do these tunes, the world’s going to remember “Proud Mary” as Tina Turner’s song.” That got John thinking that ignoring his back catalog probably harmed his career and started to play those songs again.
When CCR recorded this song, John Fogerty wasn’t happy with the harmony vocals so when the band was at dinner…he recorded them himself and overdubbed them onto the track. This caused further tension in his already tension filled relationship with his bandmates.
The song was on Bayou Country released in 1969 and it peaked at #7 in the Billboard Album Charts, #14 in Canada, and #62 in the UK.
The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #8 in the UK, and #3 in New Zealand.
The song came together on the day that John Fogerty got his discharge papers from the US Army. Fogerty had been drafted in 1966 and was part of a Reserve unit, serving at Fort Bragg, Fort Knox, and Fort Lee. His discharge papers came in 1967.
John Fogerty:“The Army and Creedence overlapped, so I was ‘that hippie with a record on the radio.’ I’d been trying to get out of the Army, and on the steps of my apartment house sat a diploma-sized letter from the government. It sat there for a couple of days, right next to my door. One day, I saw the envelope and bent down to look at it, noticing it said ‘John Fogerty.’ I went into the house, opened the thing up, and saw that it was my honorable discharge from the Army. I was finally out! This was 1968 and people were still dying. I was so happy, I ran out into my little patch of lawn and turned cartwheels. Then I went into my house, picked up my guitar and started strumming. ‘Left a good job in the city’ and then several good lines came out of me immediately. I had the chord changes, the minor chord where it says, ‘Big wheel keep on turnin’/Proud Mary keep on burnin” (or ‘boinin’,’ using my funky pronunciation I got from Howling’ Wolf). By the time I hit ‘Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river,’ I knew I had written my best song. It vibrated inside me. When we rehearsed it, I felt like Cole Porter.”
John Fogerty liked Ike and Tina’s version:“When it ended, if they had a camera and came back to me it’d be like, when Shrek and the donkey go to Far, Far Away and they push the button for that little arcade machine and it tells the whole story of their town! And the Donkey’s like [Eddie Murphy impression] ‘Let’s do that again!’ That’s how I felt when that ended. I loved it, and I was so honored. I was like, ‘Wow, Ike and Tina!’ I had actually been following their career for quite some time. Way back in the day, when Janis and Grace Slick started to get known by the kids who were my age, I’d be like, ‘Man, Tina Turner, c’mon!’ She finally got her due, but for a while there, she wasn’t noticed. It was a really good version, and it was different. I mean, that’s the key. Instead of the same thing, it was really exciting.”
From Songfacts
In the beginning, “Proud Mary” had nothing to do with a riverboat. Instead, John Fogerty envisioned it as the story of a woman who works as a maid for rich people. “She gets off the bus every morning and goes to work and holds their lives together,” he explained. “Then she has to go home.”
It was Stu Cook who first introduced the riverboat aspect of the song. The idea came to him as the group watched the television show Maverick and Stu made the statement, “Hey riverboat, blow your bell.” John agreed that the boat seemed to have something to do with the song that had been brewing in his mind for quite some time, waiting to take conscious shape. When he wrote the music, he made the first few chords evoke a riverboat paddlewheel going around. Thus, “Proud Mary” went from being a cleanup lady to a boat.
Fogerty wrote the lyrics based on three song title ideas: “Proud Mary,” “Riverboat,” and “Rolling On A River.” He carried around a notebook with titles that he thought would make good songs, and “Proud Mary” was at the top of the list. So it was that an all-American classic was born from the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the late 1960s. Fogerty suspected right away that his “Tin Pan Alley” song was a radio-friendly hit, and he was right. The song hit #2 in the US, reached #8 in the UK, and #1 in Austria.
This was the first of five singles by Creedence that went to #2 on the US chart; they have the most #2 songs without ever having a #1.
Despite popular belief, John Fogerty was not writing from experience when he wrote this. Thanks to his military commitment, he hadn’t ventured further east than Montana. After the song was recorded, he took a trip to Memphis so he could finally see the Mississippi River.
The original CCR version peaked at #2 in March 1969. In June, Solomon Burke’s rendition hit #45. His was the first to include a spoken into:
I know a lot of you folks would like to know what the old Proud Mary is all about
Well, I’d like to tell you about her
She’s nothing but a big old boat
You see, my forefathers used to ride the bottoms of her as stokers, cooks, and waiters
And I made a vow that when I grew up, I’d take a ride on the old Proud Mary
And if you’d let me, I’d like to sing about it
Burke then sings, “looking for a job in the city,” as opposed to “left a good job in the city.”
This was a #4 hit in the US for Ike & Tina Turner in 1971, and a highlight of their live shows. Tina Turner recalled in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 1971 how they came to record this on their Workin’ Together album: “When we cut the album, we were lacking a few tunes, so we said ‘Well, let’s just put in a few things that we’re doing on stage. And that’s how ‘Proud Mary’ came about. I had loved it when it first came out. We auditioned a girl and she had sung ‘Proud Mary.’ This is like eight months later, and Ike said, ‘You know, I forgot all about that tune.’ And I said let’s do it, but let’s change it. So in the car Ike plays the guitar, we just sort of jam. And we just sort of broke into the black version of it. It was never planned to say, ‘Well, let’s go to the record shop, and I’d like to record this tune by Aretha Franklin’… it’s just that we get it for stage, because we give the people a little bit of us and a little bit of what they hear on the radio every day.”
“Proud Mary” attracted 35 covers in the year 1969 alone. Over 100 have been made since.
These are the US charting versions:
Creedence Clearwater Revival (#2, 1969) Solomon Burke (#45, 1969) Checkmates, Ltd. feat. Sonny Charles (#69, 1969) Ike & Tina Turner (#4, 1971) Glee Cast (#115, 2009)
The line, “Pumped a lot of pain down in New Orleans” is actually “Pumped a lot of ‘Pane,” as in propane. He was pumping gas.
The Checkmates, Ltd. did a horn-powered, gospel inflected version of this song that was produced by Phil Spector and featured Sonny Charles on lead vocals. Running 4:30, it’s substantially longer than the 3:07 original, and went to #69 in November 1969.
This arrangement was clearly an influence on the Ike & Tina Turner version, which they started performing soon after. There was speculation that Spector, who produced Ike & Tina on their 1966 single “River Deep – Mountain High,” brought this version to Ike Turner’s attention.
Fogerty came up with the famous chord riff on guitar when he was playing around with Beethoven’s “5th Symphony.” That one goes “dun dun dun duuunnnnn…,” but Fogerty thought it would sound better with the emphasis on the first note, which is how he arrived at “do do do do.”
This part reminded him of the paddle wheel that impels a riverboat. “‘Proud Mary’ is not a side-wheeler, it’s a stern-wheeler,” he explained.
Even though Creedence Clearwater Revival was from El Cerrito, California, many people thought they were from New Orleans or some other part of the South because of their swamp rock sound. They helped feed the rumor by naming their second album Bayou Country.
Tina Turner recorded a solo version for her 1993 album What’s Love Got To Do With It, which was the soundtrack to her biopic of the same name. In the film, it was lip-synced by Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne (who played Ike and Tina), but on the recording, Tina’s sax player Tim Cappello did Ike’s bass vocals. By recording her own version with no trace of Ike, it made sure he could not profit from its use in the film or soundtrack – an important distinction considering Tina’s accusations of spousal abuse.
When Tina performed the song live, she would usually do a variation on the spoken part, but without the male vocal.
Ike & Tina Turner’s version charted for the first time in the UK on the chart dated October 2, 2010 after it was performed on X-Factor by auditioneees Diva Fever. This version was credited to Tina Turner only.
Ike and Tina performed their version on the Season 2 premiere of Soul Train in 1972, becoming the first big act to appear on the program. The show became very popular its first season because of the dancers, but they were able to book many famous guests in subsequent seasons.
The occasion didn’t inspire Fogerty to start regularly performing CCR songs again, but it did break it for that one evening as four legends of rock jammed together.
According to the book Bad Moon Rising, Bob Dylan called “Proud Mary” his favorite song of 1969.
A film about a hitwoman titled Proud Mary was released in January 2018. Not only does the action movie take its name from the song, but altered lyrics from the tune appear on the poster promoting it, with the tagline, “Killing for the Man every Night and Day.”
John Fogerty took to Twitter to complain:
“I wrote the song ‘Proud Mary’ 50 years ago, and I was very excited to have written such a good song. In fact, it was my very first good song.
My songs are special to me. Precious. So it irks me when people seek to capitalize on the popularity of my music and the good will it has earned with the public for their own financial gain. Over the years, I have often found myself directly opposed to these uses.
This movie has nothing to do with me, or my song. They simply picked the title and wrote a completely fictitious story around it.”
He added: “No one ever asked me about using my song this way, or even about the meaning of Proud Mary.”
The film, as well as the trailer, features the Tina Turner version of the song. Fogerty lost the rights to his CCR songs in 1973, so there was nothing he could do about having a cover version of the song used in the film.
Leonard Nimoy, who played “Mr. Spock” on Star Trek, recorded an infamous cover of this song. Near the end, he sings the chorus Elmer Fudd style – “Big wheel keep on toynin’, Pwoud Mawy keep on boinin’…” It is included on a CD called Golden Throats.
This song was used to disastrous effect to open the 1989 Academy Awards ceremony in a bit where host Rob Lowe sang it with an actress playing Snow White, with the lyrics changed to be about Hollywood:
Klieg lights keep on burnin’
Cameras keep on turnin’
Rollin’ Rollin’
Keep the cameras rollin’
Proud Mary
Left a good job in the city Workin’ for the man ev’ry night and day And I never lost one minute of sleepin’ Worryin’ ’bout the way things might have been
Big wheel keep on turnin’ Proud Mary keep on burnin’ Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis Pumped a lot of pane down in New Orleans But I never saw the good side of the city ‘Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen
Big wheel keep on turnin’ Proud Mary keep on burnin’ Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river
If you come down to the river Bet you gonna find some people who live You don’t have to worry ’cause you have [if you got] no money People on the river are happy to give
Big wheel keep on turnin’ Proud Mary keep on burnin’ Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river
I heard this song quite a bit when covid started. I heard it yesterday and didn’t want to scream…it’s a song I like again. it was the lead single from their third album Zenyatta released in 1980.
The music and lyrics of the song were written by the lead singer of The Police, Sting, who had previously worked as an English teacher. He has said though that it was not autobiographic…
The Police recorded this in Holland over a period of months. The song started as a Hammond organ-based soul track then evolved through various complex arrangements, until it was eventually reduced to it’s simplest elements.
The band made a video for this song in 1980 that MTV put in rotation when they launched the following year. This is another video I remember being played heavily on MTV.
The song peaked at #1 in the UK, #2 in Canada, and #10 in the Billboard 100 in 1980. The band re-recorded the song in 1986 as Don’t Stand So Close to Me ’86’ and it peaked at #46 in the Billboard 100, #24 in the UK, and #27 in Canada.
This won the 1981 Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Group.
From Songfacts
This song is about a teacher who lusts after one of his students. Sting was a teacher before joining The Police, and was no doubt the subject of young girl fantasy, but he insists the lyric is not based on personal experience. Putting the speculation to rest, he explained on the DVD for his 2001 All This Time album that he made up the story.
The line, “Just like the old man in the book by Nabokov,” refers to the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, which is about an older man who pursues underage girls. Sting based this song on the book. Sting mispronounces the author’s name – the “bo” should be stressed. Also, in the novel Lolita, Humbert is not quite an old man.
In the UK, this sold 900,000 copies and was the best-selling single of 1980.
The Police reunited in 1986 to record updated versions of some of their old songs. The reunion brought out old hostilities, and this was the only song they completed. The new version was released as a single titled “Don’t Stand So Close To Me ’86,” and included on their greatest hits album Every Breath You Take – The Singles.
In 1985, Sting worked with Dire Straits on “Money For Nothing,” which has a chorus that sounds very similar to this (compare the lines “Don’t stand so close to me” with “I want my MTV”). Sting did not want a songwriting credit, but his record company thought he should get one so they could receive royalties.
In the video, the guys are larking about a school in graduation gowns, with Sting going through a few costume changes and taking his shirt off at one point. They’re clearly having fun and messing around with each other – it’s a good snapshot of how they could get on in their early years.
They also made a video for the 1986 version of the song, this one directed by Godley & Creme. No shenanigans in that one, just the band looking somber amid many dated special effects.
The race horse Zenyatta is named after the album Zenyatta Mondatta. The horse is owned by Jerry Moss, who signed The Police to his label A&M Records.
This is an example of Sting’s “work backward” method. “I pluck a title from the air, just free-associating, and then try to figure out a story that it could apply to,” he wrote in Lyrics By Sting. Fascinated by the dangerous obsession at the center of Nabokov’s novel, he “transposed this idea to a relationship between a teacher and his pupil. Wanting by this time to identify whatever my sources were, I conspired to get the author’s name into the song with one of the loosest rhymes in the history of pop. Well, I thought it was hilarious, but I caught some flak.”
This was used in The Simpsons episode “On a Clear Day I Can’t See My Sister” and in the Glee episode “Ballad” (2009).
On The Office, Kevin is the singer and drummer in a Police tribute band called Scrantonicity (a play on the album title Synchronicity). In the season 2 finale, “Casino Night,” Jim and Pam watch a video of Scrantonicity performing “Don’t Stand So Close To Me.”
This was featured in the first-season Friends episode “The One Where Underdog Gets Away,” where the character Joey appears on a poster for venereal disease treatment. The song plays when they show the posters all over New York City.
When Stewart Copeland put together the 2006 documentary Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, he created new versions of some of the songs using the original masters and outtakes. “The version of ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ comes from both studio recordings because we re-recorded it – strangely, no one can remember why – but we re-recorded it in a different key and I jammed both of those versions together, which was a hell of a puzzle to figure out the transition keys,” he told Songfacts. “I used Sting’s overdubs because he did some amazing overdub work with the new version of ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me,’ which I used on the original backing track.”
In the video, Sting is wearing a T-shirt for the band The Beat (known in America as The English Beat) in some scenes. The Beat was an opening act for some shows on the Ghost in the Machine tour.
Don’t Stand So Close To Me
Young teacher, the subject Of schoolgirl fantasy She wants him so badly Knows what she wants to be
Inside her there’s longing This girl’s an open page Book marking, she’s so close now This girl is half his age
Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me
Her friends are so jealous You know how bad girls get Sometimes it’s not so easy To be the teacher’s pet
Temptation, frustration So bad it makes him cry Wet bus stop, she’s waiting His car is warm and dry
Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me
Loose talk in the classroom To hurt they try and try Strong words in the staffroom The accusations fly
It’s no use, he sees her He starts to shake and cough Just like the old man in That book by Nabakov
Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me
Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me Don’t stand, don’t stand so Don’t stand so close to me
I listen to some songs in awe. There is always a song that I think…oh I wish I could have written that. There are many more than one that I wish I could have written… but for this question I’ll just ask for that one song and one runner up.
A song you wish you could have written the music and lyrics to…or at least the lyrics.
There are songs that come to mind like Silent Night, Amazing Grace, and those classic songs. No style or era is out of bounds. With my songs I’m going to stick with Rock/Pop.
My runner up song is by my favorite band…The Beatles… Strawberry Fields Forever
Now for my number 1 pick…an unknown song by the masses but a great one nonetheless.
For people who follow me you might not be surprised. My song would be “The Ballad Of El Goodo” by Big Star. The song is inspirational to me and the melody is great. Now if you don’t mind…what song do you wish you could have written???
The Ballad of El Goodo
Years ago, my heart was set to live, oh And I’ve been trying hard against unbelievable odds It gets so hard in times like now to hold on But guns they wait to be stuck by, at my side is God
And there ain’t no one going to turn me ’round Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round
There’s people around who tell you that they know And places where they send you, and it’s easy to go They’ll zip you up and dress you down and stand you in a row But you know you don’t have to, you could just say no
And there ain’t no one going to turn me ’round Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round
I’ve been built up and trusted Broke down and busted But they’ll get theirs and we’ll get ours if you can Just-a hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
Years ago, my heart was set to live, oh Though I’ve been trying hard against strong odds It gets so hard in times like now to hold on Well, I’ll fall if I don’t fight, and at my side is God
And there ain’t no one going to turn me ’round Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round Ain’t no one going to turn me ’round
This is my 2000th post. I am amazed I made it to 25…much less 2000. So let the bells ring and the chorus sing! So…lets see if I can make it to 2001!
The song was on Their Satanic Majesties Request a psychedelic album released in the Summer of Love in 1967. It’s an album…one of many that was inspired by the Beatles Sgt Peppers album. The album was not critically praised when it was released. It still gets mixed reviews now. I do think it is much better than it got credit for back in 1967. They did the right thing though by continuing on with blues/rock. They would never experiment this much again in the studio.
The cover art was something new. After The Beatles raised the bar with the cover of Sgt Pepper…the Stones used Michael Cooper (who worked on the Sgt Pepper cover)to make a 3d cover. If you look closely you can see The Beatles faces on the album. The Stones were returning the favor…the Beatles had a doll wearing a shirt that said “Welcome the Rolling Stones Good Guys” on the Sgt Peppers album.
The doll on the Sgt Pepper Cover
The song has some different melodies melded together. The album had two 2000 songs…2000 Man and 2000 Light Years From Home. It fit in with the futuristic psychedelic vision.
2000 Man’ was covered by Kiss on their 1979 record Dynasty. Kiss did a good job on the cover. Personally I like both versions. Kiss did a straight ahead rock version but I also like the nuances that the Stones included on the original.
Mick Jagger:There’s a lot of rubbish on Satanic Majesties. Just too much time on our hands, too many drugs, no producer to tell us, “Enough already, thank you very much, now can we just get on with this song?” Anyone let loose in the studio will produce stuff like that. There was simply too much hanging around. It’s like believing everything you do is great and not having any editing.
It’s really like sort of got-together chaos. Because we all panicked a little, even as soon as a month before the release date that we had planned, we really hadn’t got anything put together. We had all these great things that we’d done, but we couldn’t possibly put it out as an album. And so we just got them together, and did a little bit of editing here and there.
2000 Man
Well, my name is a number A piece of plastic film And I’m growin’ funny flowers In my little window sill Dont you know I’m a 2,000 man And my kids, they just don’t understand me at all Well my wife still respects me I really misused her I am having an affair With the Random computer Don’t you know I’m a 2,000 man And my kids, they just don’t understand me at all Oh daddy, proud of your planet Oh mummy, proud of your sun Oh daddy, proud of your planet Oh mummy. proud of your sun Oh daddy, your brain’s still flashin Like it did when you were young Or do you come down crashin’ Seeing all the things you’d done All was a big put on Oh daddy, proud of your planet Oh mummy. proud of your sun Oh daddy, proud of your planet Oh mummy. proud of your sun Oh daddy, proud of your planet Oh mummy. proud of your sun Oh daddy, proud of your planet Oh mummy. proud of your sun And you know who’s the 2000 man And your kids they just won’t understand you at all
Merry Christmas everyone…this is a repost from last year but I have updated it another year older…and a new one just begun.
My favorite Christmas song hands down. Yea I’m biased because I am a Beatles fan but this one is great.
I think of High School when I hear this song. Our school had a Christmas poster contest and a buddy and I made a poster as a joke and wrote “So this is Christmas and what have you done another year over, and a new one just begun” and won first prize…with an assist from John.
John’s voice goes so well with this song. The song peaked at #2 in the UK charts in 1971….the song did peak at #42 in the Billboard 100 in 2019.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote this in their New York City hotel room and recorded it during the evening of October 28 and into the morning of the 29th, 1971 at the Record Plant in New York. It was released in the US for Christmas but didn’t chart. The next year, it was released in the UK, where it did much better, charting at #2. Eventually, the song became a Christmas classic in America, but it took a while.
Lennon originally wrote this as a protest song about the Vietnam War, and the idea “that we’re just as responsible as the man who pushes the button. As long as people imagine that somebody’s doing it to them and that they have no control, then they have no control.”
The children’s voices are the Harlem Community Choir, who were brought in to sing on this track. They are credited on the single along with Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band.
From Songfacts.
John and Yoko spent a lot of time in the late ’60s and early ’70s working to promote peace. In 1969, they put up billboards in major cities around the world that said, “War is over! (If you want it).” Two years later this slogan became the basis for this song when Lennon decided to make a Christmas record with an anti-war message. John also claimed another inspiration for writing the song: he said he was “sick of ‘White Christmas.'”
Lennon and Ono produced this with the help of Phil Spector. Spector had worked on some of the later Beatles songs and also produced Lennon’s “Instant Karma.” It was not Spector’s first foray into Christmas music: he and his famous session stars (including a 17-year-old Cher) spent six weeks in the summer of 1963 putting together A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, featuring artists like The Ronettes and Darlene Love. Unfortunately, the album was released on November 22, 1963, which was the same day US president John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The album sold poorly as America was focused on news of the killing.
This was originally released on clear green vinyl with Yoko Ono’s “Listen, The Snow Is Falling” as the B-side.
At the beginning of the song, two whispers can be heard. Yoko whispers: “Happy Christmas, Kyoko” (Kyoko Chan Cox is Yoko’s daughter with Anthony Cox) and John whispers: “Happy Christmas, Julian” (John’s son with Cynthia). >>
This being a Phil Spector production, four guitarists were brought in to play acoustic guitars: Hugh McCracken (who had recently played on the Paul McCartney album Ram), Chris Osbourne, Stu Scharf and Teddy Irwin. According to Richard Williams, who was reporting on the session for Uncut, when Lennon taught them the song, he asked them to “pretend it’s Christmas.” When one of the guitarists said he was Jewish, John told him, “Well, pretend it’s your birthday then.”
As for the other personnel, Jim Keltner played drums and sleigh bells, Nicky Hopkins played chimes and glockenspiel. Keltner and Hopkins were part of Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, and a third member, Klaus Voorman, was supposed to play bass on this track, but got stuck on a flight from Germany. One of the guitarists brought in for the session covered the bass – which one nobody seems to remember.
John Lennon was shot and killed less than three weeks before Christmas in 1980. The song was re-released in the UK on December 20 of that year, reaching #2 (held off the top spot by “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma” by St. Winifred’s School Choir). It made the UK Top 40 again in 1981 (#28), 2003 (#32) and 2007 (#40). Also in 2003, a version sung by the finalists of the singing competition Pop Idol reached #5.
The Fray were the first to chart with this song in America, reaching #50 in 2006; Sarah McLachlan’s version went to #107 that same year. Other artists to cover it include The Alarm, The Cranes, The December People, and Melissa Etheridge (in a medley with “Give Peace a Chance”).
The Australian artist Delta Goodrem also covered it in 2003, taking it to #1 in her native country as a double-A-side single with “Predictable.”
This didn’t appear on an album until 1975, when it was included on Lennon’s Shaved Fish singles compilation. Most Christmas songs are compiled with other songs of the season, but Shaved Fish listeners got to hear it year round.
Happy Xmas (War is Over)
(Happy Christmas Kyoko) (Happy Christmas Julian)
So this is Christmas And what have you done Another year over And a new one just begun And so this is Christmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
And so this is Christmas For weak and for strong For rich and the poor ones The world is so wrong And so happy Christmas For black and for white For yellow and red ones Let’s stop all the fight
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
And so this is Christmas And what have we done Another year over A new one just begun And so happy Christmas We hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear War is over, if you want it War is over now
Robbie Robertson’s Christmas gift to his new son Sebastian during the sessions for Northern Lights-Southern Cross album… it never became a seasonal favorite but it should have been. It wasn’t released until the bands Islands album in 1977.
Rick Danko sings this song from a Shepherds point of view. It’s pure and down to earth like only the Band can be. No sleigh bells or other Christmas trappings…just pure music. Maybe that is the reason it never got picked up.
Robbie Robertson re-recorded this song after he left the group. And he did for the soundtrack of Bill Murray’s Scrooged. That version is very good but I still like The Bands version much more…it’s hard to beat Rick Danko.
Christmas Must Be Tonight
Come down to the manger, see the little stranger Wrapped in swaddling clothes, the prince of peace Wheels start turning, torches start burning And the old wise men journey from the East
How a little baby boy bring the people so much joy Son of a carpenter, Mary carried the light This must be Christmas, must be tonight
A shepherd on a hillside, where over my flock I bide Oh a cold winter night a band of angels sing In a dream I heard a voice saying “fear not, come rejoice It’s the end of the beginning, praise the new born king”
I saw it with my own eyes, written up in the skies But why a simple herdsmen such as I And then it came to pass, he was born at last Right below the star that shines on high
This is a very commercial sounding rock song by Lynyrd Skynyrd. The record company picked this one as the lead off single from their album Second Helping. Personally I like this song but it was the second single they should have picked first…that one was Sweet Home Alabama which ended up being their biggest hit.
This song was a message to the people who wanted a piece of the band when they became famous. They were largely ignored for about 6 years while they were struggling, but when their first album was a hit in 1973, they faced huge demands on their time.
The album did well…it peaked at #9 in the Billboard Album Chart and #12 in Canada in 1974. Pete Townshend heard the band through Al Kooper a few months before this album was released and was impressed enough to have Lynyrd Skynyrd open up for them on their Quadrophenia tour.
The one thing the band was…was extremely tight. They were always well rehearsed and built a huge reputation as a live band.
From Songfacts
The world of agents, managers, and record companies was a strange one for Lynyrd Skynyrd. They were just working-class guys who liked making music.
Lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Gary Rossington wrote this one day while they were fishing. Gary played his guitar while Ronnie came up with the lyrics about how they wanted to be left alone.
This was released as a single before the album came out. It didn’t chart, but their next one, “Sweet Home Alabama,” was a huge hit.
Don’t Ask Me No Questions
Well, every time that I come home Nobody wants to let me be It seems that all the friends I’ve got Just got to come interrogate me I appreciate your feelings And I don’t want to pass you by But I don’t ask you ’bout your business Don’t ask me about mine
Well it’s true I love the money And I love my brand new car I like drinkin’ the best of whiskey And playin’ in a honk-tonk bar But when I come off the road I just gotta have my time ‘Cause I got to find a break in this action Or else I’m gonna lose my mind
So don’t ask me no questions And I won’t tell you no lies So don’t ask me ’bout my business And I won’t tell you goodbye
Well, what’s your favorite color And do you dig the brothers, is drivin’ me up a wall And every time I think I can sleep Some fool has got to call Well, don’t you think that when I come home I just want a little piece of mind? If you want to talk about the business Buddy you’re just wasting time
So don’t ask me no questions And I won’t tell you no lies So don’t ask me ’bout my business And I won’t tell you goodbye
I said don’t ask no stupid questions And I won’t send you away If you want to talk fishin’ Well, I guess that’ll be OK
This song is for Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt is Circle/Polygon/Square/Triangle…
The Who are my second favorite band…right behind the Beatles. This song is early Who at the time of My Generation. The song was known as “Circles (Instant Party)”, “Instant Party (Circles)” and “Instant Party”…the song has a complicated history. It was recorded during a time they were trying to leave their producer. The song was written by Pete Townshend and released in 1966.
Circles is an early example of what would become Power Pop. Pete Townshend was trying to write a song with a different sound. Pete found out that bassist John Entwistle could play trumpet, the band’s manager, Kit Lambert, decided to allow the band to try creating a song featuring Entwistle’s horns.
John Entwistle:When we recorded our first LP and wanted a bit of a different sound, Pete told our manager, Kit Lambert, that I could play trumpet. He thought Pete was joking at first but then said he’d give it a try. I showed him I could play the trumpet and in the end we used French horn.
The song was to be the follow up to the anthem My Generation…but the band was not happy with their producer Shel Talmy and secretly broke their contract with him and re-recorded Circles as the B-side to their new UK single “Substitute”.
Talmy sued the Who and a legal battle began.
Pete Townshend:We did two versions of “Circles”, which were both identical because they were both copies of my demo. Shel [Talmy] put in a High Court injunction, saying there was copyright in the recording. In other words, if you’re a record producer and you produce a song with a group, and you make a creative contribution, then you own that sound….He took it to the high-court judge and he said things like ‘And then on bar thirty-six I suggested to the lead guitarist that he play a diminuendo, forget the adagio, and play thirty-six bars modulating to the key of E flat,’ which was all total bullshit — he used to fall asleep at the desk…
They did get away from Talmy but it cost them dearly. It was agreed that Talmy would receive a percentage of each album going forward until the early seventies. So Talmy made a huge amount of money off of their best known albums that he had nothing at all to do with…like Tommy, Live At Leeds, and Who’s Next.
Circles (Instant Party)
Circles, my head is going round in circles My mind is caught up in a whirlpool Dragging me down
Time will tell if I’ll take the homeward track Dizziness will make my feet walk back Walk right back to you
[chorus:] Everything I do, I think of you No matter how I try, I can’t get by These circles, leading me back to you
Round and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around
And round and round like a fool I go Down and down in the pool I go Dragging me down
[chorus]
There one thing could kill the pain of losing you But it gets me so dizzy then I’m walking right back again Back to you
Time will tell if these dreams are nearly fact Don’t know why I left, I’m coming back Coming on back to you
