This is a powerful song by Neil. This song was the B side of Old Man. It’s gotten a lot of airplay through the years and serves as a cautionary tale for drug use. The lyric “every junkie’s like a settin’ sun” says it all.
Neil Young wrote this one about Danny Whitten, one of the original members of his band Crazy Horse. In 1971, Young went on tour and hired Crazy Horse and Nils Lofgren as backup. During rehearsals, Whitten was so high on heroin that he couldn’t even hold up his guitar. Young fired him, gave Whitten 50 bucks (for rehab) and a plane ticket back to Los Angeles. Upon reaching LA, Whitten overdosed on alcohol and Valium, which killed him.
This wouldn’t be Young’s only loss from heroin. Longtime friend and roadie Bruce Berry would also overdose on heroin just months after Whitten. Berry’s song is “Tonight’s The Night,” on the album of the same name.
The song was on Harvest which peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts.
Neil Young on Danny Whitten:“I felt responsible. But really there was nothing I could do. I mean, he was responsible. But I thought I was for a long time. Danny just wasn’t happy. It just all came down on him. He was engulfed by this drug. That was too bad. Because Danny had a lot to give. boy. He was really good.”
From Songfacts Danny Whitten was one of the founding members of Crazy Horse and was very influential on much of Young’s work preceding his heroin addiction. His influence is particularly noticeable on Young’s second album, 1969’s Everybody Knows This is Nowhere. Leading up to Whitten’s dismissal from the band and overdose, Young even attempted daily one-on-one lessons to try and rehabilitate his old friend.
As quoted in Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, Neil Young says of the tragic death of Whitten:
The song’s first line mentions a “cellar door.” Young and Crazy Horse, with Whitten, had played Washington DC’s Cellar Door club in 1969.
Young’s famous version was recorded live at the University Of California in January 1971, a year before it appeared on his Harvest album.
A solo, acoustic performance of this song by Young from Massey Hall in Toronto on January 19, 1971 features on his 2007 Live at Massey Hall 1971 album. He introduces it with a short explanation: “Ever since I left Canada, about five years ago or so and moved down south… found out a lot of things that I didn’t know when I left. Some of ’em are good, and some of ’em are bad. Got to see a lot of great musicians before they happened, before they became famous – y’know, when they were just gigging. Five and six sets a night, things like that. And I got to see a lot of great musicians who nobody ever got to see, for one reason or another. But, strangely enough, the real good ones that you never got to see was… ’cause of, ahhm, heroin. An’ that started happening over an’ over. Then it happened to someone that everyone knew about. So I just wrote a little song.”
This was one of the songs that Young performed at Live Aid in 1985.
Young made this succinct statement about the song in the liner notes to his album Decade: “I am not a preacher, but drugs killed a lot of great men.”
Flea, famed bassist of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, played the song frequently on a 1993 tour following the singer John Frusciante’s temporary departure due to heroin addiction.
The song has struck a long-lived chord with broad range of musicians. Over the years, it’s also been covered by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, Dave Matthews, and Jewel.
At Young’s 1995 Bridge School benefit concert, the Pretenders sang this in honor of Blind Melon frontman Shannon Hoon, who died a week earlier from a drug overdose. Blind Melon was scheduled to play the event but canceled after Hoon’s death.
The Needle and the Damage Done
I caught you knockin’ at my cellar door, I love you baby can I have some more? Oh, the damage done.
I hit the city and I lost my band, I watched the needle take another man. Gone, gone, the damage done.
I sing the song because I love the man, I know that some of you don’t understand. Milk blood to keep from runnin’ out.
I’ve seen the needle and the damage done, a little part of it in everyone, but every junkie’s like a settin’ sun.
This was the follow-up to The Ronettes hugely successful debut single “Be My Baby.” Like “Be My Baby,” this was written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, and produced by Phil Spector using his famous “Wall Of Sound” technique. Be My Baby is hard to beat but Ronnie is fantastic in this one also.
The song was released not long after the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, which put a damper on sales of upbeat singles. The Ronettes were never able to match the success of “Be My Baby.”
The song peaked at #24 in the Billboard 100 in 1964.
From Songfacts
Cher sang backup on The Ronettes version, and later recorded it on her own in a much slower, more dramatic style. Her version was produced by Phil Spector, and was released as the B-side of “A Woman’s Story,” which was Spector’s first production for Warner-Spector Records, his collaboration with Warner Brothers.
Twice, covers of this song peaked at #8 in the UK chart, bettering The Ronettes’ version. The first came in 1973 when the Welsh singer/guitarist Dave Edmunds recorded it as a homage to Phil Spector. Then in 1980, the American rock group the Ramones had their only UK Top 20 hit when their cover, which was produced by Spector, also reached #8. Edmunds’ version was the first single released on the Rockfield label, available through RCA.
Jeff Barry’s protégé Andy Kim took this song to #9 in the US with this 1969 version. Kim, who co-wrote the massive Archies hit “Sugar, Sugar” with Barry, grew up in Montreal and had never heard the song when he stumbled across it in Barry’s office and started playing it. “I see this sheet music and the chords,” Kim said in a Songfacts interview. “I pick up the guitar and I’m playing this song, and I’m singing this song that I had never heard of. Jeff walks in, and he says, ‘Hey man, I heard you through the door. I love what you’re playing, but that’s not how the song goes.'”
“We went in the studio and the idea was for us to make this record together, because it really sounded great in the office,” he continued. “To work with Jeff that way was the magic of it all. We went to A&R Studios – Studio A or 1, whatever they called it at the time. A huge room. Sat in the middle of this huge recording space with a microphone next to the guitar. Jeff went into the booth, and was kind of the metronome. He just clapped and hummed along the way – what he needed from me was to get one guitar down from beginning to end. I was able to do that five more times on separate tracks, and it would bounce back and forth. And if you do that, there are overtones and there is a sound without drums or anything. So that’s how the song was built – one instrument at a time. Drums were played by hand, percussion. Then Chuck Rainey came in to put bass on the song, and everything just glued together.”
Kim’s version was #1 for two weeks in his native Canada and earned him a Juno Award as his country’s Top Male Vocalist.
Baby, I Love You
Woa-oh, woa-oh oh oh Have I ever told you How good it feels to hold you? It isn’t easy to explian And though I’m really trying I think I may start crying My heart can’t wait another day When you kiss me I’ve just got to say
(Baby, I love you) come on, baby (Baby, I love you) ooh-ee baby (Baby, I love only you)
Woa-oh, woa-oh oh oh
I can’t live without you I love everything about you I can’t help it if I feel this way Oh, I’m so glad I found you I want my arms around you I love to hear you call my name Oh, tell me that you feel the same
(Baby, I love you) come on, baby (Baby, I love you) ooh-ee baby (Baby, I love only you)
Woa-oh, woa-oh oh oh
Come on, baby (baby, I love you) come on, baby (Baby, I love you) ooh-ee baby (Baby, I love you) come on, baby (Baby, I love you) ooh-ee baby (Baby, I love you) oh, oh (Baby, I love you) oh, oh (Baby, I love you) oh, oh
This is the first ELO song I remember being really popular on radio. The piano intro hooks me every time.
This song was recorded at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany in 1975. Jeff Lynne wrote the song on a piano in the studio on the last days of recording, writing it very quickly.
The band’s recording for all of the other songs for the Face The Music album had been completed when Jeff needed another song. One morning, while the rest of the band was out, he sat at the piano and played the opening piano riff, which became the basis of the song. Later that same day, the rest of the band came in and recorded the backing track. The lyrics were written and recorded the next day at Musicland.
The line “There’s a hole in my head where the rain comes in,” was inspired by the Beatles song, “Fixing a Hole.”
The song peaked at #10 in the Billboard 100, #6 in Canada, #10 in the UK, and #8 in New Zealand in 1976.
Evil Woman
You made a fool of me But them broken dreams have got to end
Hey, woman, you got the blues ‘Cause you ain’t got no one else to use There’s an open road that leads nowhere So just make some miles between here and there There’s a hole in my head where the rain comes in You took my body and played to win Ha, ha, woman, it’s a cryin’ shame But you ain’t got nobody else to blame
Evil woman Evil woman Evil woman Evil woman
Rolled in from another town Hit some gold, too hard to settle down But a fool and his money soon go separate ways And you found a fool lyin’ in a daze Ha, ha, woman, what you gonna do You destroyed all the virtues that the Lord gave you It’s so good that you’re feelin’ pain But you better get your face on board the very next train
Evil woman, how you done me wrong But now you’re tryin’ to wail a diff’rent song Ha, ha, funny, how you broke me up You made the wine, now you drink a cup I came runnin’ ev’ry time you cried Thought I saw love smilin’ in your eyes Ha, ha, very nice to know That you ain’t got no place left to go
I’ve heard many versions of this song but when I heard Rick Danko sing it with the Band…that was it.
Long Black Veil was written in 1959 by Danny Dill with Marijohn Wilkin. Dill called it an “instant folk song.” One of Dill’s inspirations was a newspaper story about a mysterious woman who, wearing a black veil, repeatedly visited the grave of film star Rudolph Valentino.
Long Black Veil tells a compelling story from an unusual perspective. It is told from the grave by a man who was hanged for a murder he did not commit. He could have saved himself but chose not to because his alibi carried a terrible price: “I’d been in the arms of my best friend’s wife.”
It was originally recorded in Nashville by Lefty Frizzell, produced by Don Law. The peaked #6 on the Country Music Charts.
The Band’s version was on Music from Big Pink. The album peaked at #30 in the Billboard Album Charts and #18 in Canada in 1968.
Now considered a standard, it has been covered by many artists including Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Hornsby, and many other artists.
Long Black Veil
Ten years ago on a cool dark night There was someone killed ‘neath the town hall light There were few at the scene and they all did agree That the man who ran looked a lot like me
The judge said “Son, what is your alibi? If you were somewhere else then you won’t have to die” I spoke not a word although it meant my life I had been in the arms of my best friend’s wife
She walks these hills in a long black veil She visits my grave where the night winds wail Nobody knows, no, and nobody sees Nobody knows but me
The scaffold was high and eternity neared She stood in the crowd and shed not a tear But sometimes at night when the cold wind moans In a long black veil she cries over my bones
If this doesn’t get you going on a Sunday morning nothing will. Dance Little Sister was the B side to “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” released in 1974. Thank goodness for B sides like this.
This is a great album track by the Stones. Keith Richard’s rhythm guitar just drives you in the ground…it is relentless. Dance Little Sister was on the It’s Only Rock and Roll Album and it’s an album that to me…wasn’t up to the previous five albums standards. One reason could be that Jimmy Miller was not the producer. I do like the album though…it has the great title track and some other good songs…including this one.
The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Chart, #5 in Canada, and #2 in the UK in 1974,
Tracks like this make the Stones the Stones. Turn it up to 11 and have a great Sunday.
Dance Little Sister
On Thursday night she looked a fright Her pricky hair all curled, oh what a sight Dance, dance, little sister, dance
On Friday night, she all decked out Her high heel shoes, her dress so tight Dance, dance little sister, dance
On Saturday night she bass-a-dee She stepping high on Frederick’s Street Dance, dance, little sister, dance
I said, “Dance, dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance” I said, “Dance, dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance”
It make me hot, I wet with sweat It burn like hell, I’ve four hours left Dance, dance little sister, dance
Get next to me, drive me close Don’t mammaguay, I lose control Dance, dance with fire, dance
I said, “Dance, dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance” I said, “Dance, dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance”
Ah, jump out of Africa With a step that looks so bold Ah, when you’re kickin’ high It make my blood run cold
I said, “Dance, dance little sister, dance Dance little sisters, dance Dance little sister, dance” I said, “Dance, dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance”
I said, “Dance, dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance Dance little sister, dance”
On Saturday night we don’t go home We bacchanal, ain’t no dawn Dance, little sister, dance
I said, “Dance, dance little sister Dance little sister Dance little sister, dance” I said, “Dance, dance little sister Dance little sister Dance little sister, dance”
It should be illegal to hear one of these songs without the other. The songs were off ZZ Top’s album Tres Hombres released in 1973. The album peaked at #8 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1974.
Billy Gibbons got the idea for this song when he was a teenager. He was talking on the phone to a friend who was known as “R&B Jr,” who had lots of strange sayings in his lexicon. One day Billy was talking to him on the phone when he blurted out, “Jesus Just Left Chicago!”
Billy Gibbons: “The two songs [“Waitin’ For The Bus” and “Jesus Just Left Chicago”] were written separately during sessions that were not too far apart. We were in the process of compiling the tracks for the album Tres Hombres, and that segue was a fortunate miscalculation by the engineer. He had been attempting to splice out some blank tape, and the result is that the two come off as a single work. It just seemed to work.”
Billy Gibbons on Tres Hombres:We could tell that we had something special. The record became quite the turning point for us. The success was handwriting on the wall, because from that point we became honorary citizens of Memphis.
From Songfacts
Also alluded to as “Jesus Done Left Chicago,” this track follows on from “Waitin’ for the Bus” on the Tres Hombres album – radio stations often play the songs together.
The Deep South is noted for its Christian roots, and in spite of the hostile reception rock ‘n’ roll received from the Bible Belt when it first reared its head, many contemporary musicians began their musical careers in or around the church. The most famous white rock ‘n’ roller from the Deep South to combine the two was of course Elvis Presley, who recorded the odd religious song.
Although “Jesus Just Left Chicago” isn’t exactly a hymn, it does have a spiritual dimension and is written more in the style of Black Christian music, adhering to a strict blues format. And Gibbons is actually known as Reverend Billy Gibbons!
Talking about this song with Rolling Stone, Gibbons explained: “We took what could have been an easy 12-bar blues and made it more interesting by adding those odd extra measures. It’s the same chords as “La Grange” with the Robert Johnson lick, but weirder. Robert Johnson was country blues – not that shiny hot-rod electric stuff. But there was a magnetic appeal: ‘What can we take and interpret in some way?'”
An early ZZ Top track, this kicks off the album Tres Hombres. For years, radio stations played it along with the following track, “Jesus Just Left Chicago,” keeping the natural segue on the album. This was an early casualty of automated corporate radio, as stations now rarely let one song flow into another like they do on the album.
In a 1985 interview with Spin magazine, ZZ Top bass player Dusty Hill said: “I’ve always liked that song. It’s a working man’s song. It’s been a couple of years, but I went to Austin from Houston and I decided, hell, I’ll ride the bus. I hadn’t done it in a long time. And you can meet some very unique people on a bus and in a bus station. I like to people watch. I love bus stations and train stations. The thing about a bus is who you have to sit beside. If the guy’s got good wine, it’s OK.”
Waitin’ On The Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago
Have mercy, been waitin’ for the bus all day Have mercy, been waitin’ for the bus all day I got my brown paper bag and my take-home pay
Have mercy, old bus be packed up tight Have mercy, old bus be packed up tight Well, I’m glad just to get on and home tonight
Right on, that bus done got me back Right on, that bus done got me back Well, I’ll be ridin’ on the bus till I Cadillac
__________________________________________
Jesus just left Chicago And he’s bound for New Orleans Well now, Jesus just left Chicago And he’s bound for New Orleans Yeah, yeah Workin’ from one end to the other and all points in between
Took a jump through Mississippi Well, muddy water turned to wine Took a jump through Mississippi Muddy water turned to wine Yeah, yeah Then out to California through the forests and the pines Ah, take me with you, Jesus
You might not see him in person But he’ll see you just the same You might not see him in person But he’ll see you just the same Yeah, yeah You don’t have to worry ’cause takin’ care of business is his name
Gonna buy a tank and an aeroplane When she catches up with me won’t be no time to explain She thinks I’ve been with another woman and that’s enough To send her half insane
I was just going to post the lyrics for everyone to read…it explains it all…it’s funny and a great song. A favorite of mine from the Who. It’s a John Entwistle song with his brand of humor on display. He was married to his wife Alison at this time. It’s on the great Who’s Next album and was the B side to Baba O’Riley. It was released in 1971.
John wrote some good songs like Boris The Spider, Success Story, and Trick of the Light but he was in a band with Pete Townshend, and that makes it tough to be heard.
John (The Ox, The Quiet One, Thunderfingers) and Keith Moon made… to me, the best rhythm section in rock and roll.
On the studio version from Who’s Next, Entwistle sings and plays bass, in addition to performing the piano part and all of the brass parts…he’d also played the French horn on earlier Who records…
Run John Run!
My Wife
My life’s In jeopardy Murdered in cold blood is what I’m gonna be I haven’t been home since Friday night and now my wife Is comin’ after me
Give me police protection Gonna buy a gun so I can look after number one Give me a bodyguard — A black belt judo expert With a machine gun!
Gonna buy a tank and an aeroplane! When she catches up with me, Won’t be no time to explain She thinks I’ve been with another woman And that’s enough To send her half-insane!
Gonna buy a fast car, put on my lead boots, and take a long, long drive I may end up spendin’ all my money, But I’ll still be alive!
All I did was have a bit too much to drink And picked the wrong precinct Got picked up by the law and now I ain’t got time to think
Gonna buy a tank and an aeroplane! When she catches up with me, Won’t be no time to explain She thinks I’ve been with another woman And that’s enough To send her half-insane!
Gonna buy a fast car, put on my lead boots, and take a long, long drive I may end up spendin’ all my money, But I’ll still be alive!
And I’m oh, so tired of running Gonna lay down on the floor I gotta rest some time So I can get to run some more Yeah!
When Phil Lynott was a kid his mother Philomena ran an illegal drinking den in Manchester, England. Phil was often with his mother in this den. Some of her most frequent returning customers were members of the Quality Street Gang (a group of criminals operating in Manchester, England, in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s).
He would spend his time observing the gang, their mannerisms, the way they talk, and the way they fight. All of this observation eventually inspired him to write a song about them called “The Boys Are Back In Town”.
The song was on the Jailbreak album. The album peaked at #18 in the Billboard Album Charts, #10 in the UK, and #5 in Canada.
The Boys Are Back In Town peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100, #8 in Canada, #8 in the UK, and of course, #1 in Ireland where the band originated in 1976.
A big part of Thin Lizzy’s sound came from Phil Lynott’s vocals and the dual-lead guitar interplay of guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson.
From Songfacts
This gave Thin Lizzy worldwide exposure. They were popular in their native Ireland, but unknown elsewhere until this came out.
This was Thin Lizzy’s only Top 40 hit in the US, but they had several other hits in the UK.
Everclear covered this for the 1999 film Detroit Rock City. Their version was later used in the movie A Knight’s Tale.
This was used in commercials for Wrangler.
Thin Lizzy were surprised when this became their breakthrough hit – because they hadn’t wanted it on their Jailbreak album. Guitarist Scott Gorham recalled to Classic Rock: “We were playing in some club in the US when our manager came in and said, ‘Well, looks like we’ve got a hit.’ We were like, ‘Which song?’ Seriously, we didn’t have any idea at all which song it was that had taken off for us.”
“To tell you the truth, we weren’t initially going to put ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ on the Jailbreak album at all,” he continued. “Back then you picked 10 songs and went with those because of the time restrictions of vinyl.”
“We recorded 15 songs, and of the 10 we picked, that wasn’t one of them,” Gorham added. “But then the management heard it and said, ‘No, there’s something really good about this song.’ Although back then, it didn’t yet have the twin guitar parts on it.”
The Boys Are Back In Town
Guess who just got back today Them wild-eyed boys that had been away Haven’t changed that much to say But man, I still think them cats are crazy
They were askin’ if you were around How you was, where you could be found Told ’em you were livin’ downtown Drivin’ all the old men crazy
The boys are back in town (The boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town (The boys are back in town again)
You know that chick that used to dance a lot Every night she’d be on the floor, shakin’ what she got When I say she was cool she was red hot I mean, she was steamin’
And that time over at Johnny’s place, Well, this chick got up and she slapped Johnny’s face Man, we just fell about the place If that chick don’t want to know, forget her
The boys are back in town (The boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town (The boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town (The boys are back in town) The boys are back in town (The boys are back in town again)
Spread the word around Guess who’s back in town
Just spread the word around
Friday night they’ll be dressed to kill Down at Dino’s Bar ‘n’ Grill The drink will flow and the blood will spill And if the boys want to fight, you better let ’em
That jukebox in the corner blastin’ out my favorite song The nights are getting warmer, it won’t be long Won’t be long till the summer comes Now that the boys are here again
The boys are back in town (The boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town (The boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town (The boys are back in town) Spread the word around The boys are back in town (The boys are back in town again)
The boys are back in town again Been hangin’ down at Dino’s The boys are back in town again
The acoustic guitar part that Paul wrote to this song is iconic now. The first few bars and you know what it is without hearing anything else. This song added to the texture of The White Album. On the same album you had the bone-crunching Helter Skelter, the rock and roll of Back in the USSR, the great pop of Sexy Sadie, the hard blues of Yer Blues, and then you have this song. It was credited to Lennon and McCartney but Paul wrote this one alone. The White Album was released in 1968 and it peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the UK, and #1 in Canada.
Paul McCartney wrote this about the civil rights struggle for African Americans after reading about race riots in the US. He penned it in his kitchen in Scotland after he heard about an incident in Little Rock when the federal courts forced the racial desegregation of the Arkansas capital’s school system.
Paul McCartney met two of the women who inspired the song in 2016.
Paul McCartney: “I was sitting around with my acoustic guitar and I’d heard about the civil rights troubles that were happening in the ’60s in Alabama, Mississippi, Little Rock in particular,” “I just thought it would be really good if I could write something that if it ever reached any of the people going through those problems, it might give them a little bit of hope. So, I wrote ‘Blackbird.'”
Dave Grohl: “It’s such a beautiful piece of music, perfect in composition and performance, and in its lyrics and in the range of his voice. Just learning that song made me a better guitar player and gave me a better appreciation of songwriting. To me it’s just musical bliss.”
From Songfacts
Only three sounds were recorded: Paul’s voice, his Martin D-28 acoustic guitar, and a tapping that keeps time on the left channel.
This tapping sound is a bit of a mystery, although in the Beatles Anthology video McCartney appears to be making the sound with his foot. Some sources have claimed it is a metronome.
The birds were dubbed in later using sound effects from the collection at Abbey Road, where the song was recorded.
McCartney did not have ornithological intentions when he wrote this song. In England, “bird” is a term meaning “girl,” so the song is a message to a black girl, telling her it’s her time to fly:
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
The guitar accompaniment for this song was inspired by Bach’s Bourrée in E minor for lute. This is often played on classical guitar, an instrument Paul McCartney and George Harrison had tried to learn when they were kids. McCartney told Mojo magazine October 2008: “We had the first four bars (of the Bourrée in E minor) and that was as far as my imagination went. I think George had it down for a few more bars and then he crapped out. So I made up the next few bars, and (sings his four-note variation Bach’s theme) it became the basis of ‘Blackbird.'”
This is one of the songs novice guitar players often try to learn, as it’s one of the most famous finger-style tunes. The singer Donovan claims some credit for teaching The Beatles a technique similar to the one McCartney used here when they were on a retreat to India in early 1968.
The word “bird” had been floating around Paul McCartney’s musical lexicon since 1958 when the Everly Brothers had a hit with “Bird Dog,” a song about a guy trying to steal another dude’s girl. McCartney was a huge fan of the Everly Brothers.
There have been hundreds of covers of this song. Perhaps the most enduring is Brad Mehldau’s instrumental jazz version, released in 1997. The only charting version of the song was by the Cast of Glee, which took it to #37 in 2011. Other notable covers include renditions by José Feliciano, Billy Preston, Sarah Vaughan, Jaco Pastorius, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bobby McFerrin and Dwight Twilley. The Doves did a cover in 2002 for the soundtrack to the TV series Roswell.
The singer-guitarist Kenny Rankin recorded it for his 1974 album Silver Morning. McCartney was a big fan of Rankin’s rendition: when the Songwriters Hall of Fame induced Lennon and McCartney in 1987, McCartney skipped the ceremony but had Rankin accept the award on his behalf and perform “Blackbird.”
The “broken wings” concept had been fluttering about for a while, notably in Kahlil Gibran’s 1912 story The Broken Wings. (The Beatles song “Julia” uses lines from one of Gibran’s poems, but McCartney has never cited him as an influence on “Blackbird.”) In 1985, the American group Mr. Mister released their #1 hit “Broken Wings,” which was directly inspired by The Broken Wings and like “Blackbird,” used the line, “Take these broken wings and learn to fly.”
At the Academy Awards ceremony in 2016, Dave Grohl performed this song to accompany the “in memoriam” segment, recognizing those in the movie industry who died the previous year.
Blackbird Singing is the title of a book of poems McCartney wrote.
This is one of about 12 Beatles songs that McCartney often played in his live shows throughout his career. It lends itself to live performance because it is rather compact (it runs just 2:18) and can be played with just a guitar.
Blackbird
Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these sunken eyes and learn to see All your life You were only waiting for this moment to be free
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly Into the light of a dark black night
Blackbird fly, blackbird fly Into the light of a dark black night
Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise You were only waiting for this moment to arise You were only waiting for this moment to arise
CCR is one band that crosses genres. I haven’t met many people that don’t like them. I can’t say the same for my band The Beatles, or The Stones, The Who, and others. Country fans, Metal fans, Rock fans, and bluegrass fans. It’s something about John Fogerty’s deceptively simple songs that says something to everyone.
John Fogerty did almost all the overdubs for the band until the Pendulum album when other members contributed. Pendulum is the album this song is on. Time was running out on this great band. John said this song was about the impending breakup of the band…Tom Fogerty had told the band he was quitting after the album was finished.
John’s brother Tom Fogerty quit the band after this album and CCR was then a trio. Tom’s voice was close to John’s and he felt restricted in CCR. If you want to hear what Tom sounded like…check out this post by Christian on the forgotten Forgerty brother. Creedence did release one more album after this called Mardi Gras without Tom and it has a few good songs but it’s not up to their standard.
I could tell you my feelings on this song but just listen to it today and it will make your Friday even better.
The song peaked at #8 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #3 in New Zealand and #36 in the UK in 1971.
John Fogerty: “That song is really about the impending breakup of Creedence. The imagery is, you can have a bright, beautiful, sunny day and it can be raining at the same time. The band was breaking up. I was reacting: ‘Geez, this is all getting serious right at the time when we should be having a sunny day.’”
From Songfacts
This song is John Fogerty’s take on the imminent departure of his brother Tom from the band, and the overall tension in the group at a time when they should have been enjoying their success. The line, “I want to know – have you ever seen the rain comin’ down on a sunny day?” refers to Tom leaving while CCR was at its commercial zenith. The flip side of this single, “Hey Tonight,” is John reassuring the band that all would go well despite the adversity.
Tom Fogerty left the group in early 1971, after this album was released. He released three solo albums before dying of tuberculosis in 1990. A fourth album, completed in 1988, was released posthumously.
According to John Fogerty, this song’s meaning changed for him over time. Introducing the song at a 2012 show in Arizona, he said: “This song was originally written about a very sad thing that was going on in my life. But I refuse to be sad now. Because now this song reminds me of my little girl, Kelsy, and every time I sing it, I think about Kelsy and rainbows.”
Fogerty added that this is his all-time favorite song, even though it’s one he wrote himself.
Musically, this song was inspired by the group Booker T. & the MG’s, whose most famous song is “Green Onions.” They opened for Creedence Clearwater Revival before CCR recorded the Pendulum album. John Fogerty loved the sound of Booker T. Jones’ Hammond organ, so he used it on some tracks for the album, including this one.
According to Stu Cook, this song and another track on the album, “Pagan Baby,” were written and rehearsed from scratch during one recording session. “Pagan Baby” was done in one take.”
This was used in the TV show Tour Of Duty, which was set in Vietnam during the war. >>
Bonnie Tyler covered this song for her 1983 blockbuster album Faster Than the Speed of Night. Her version reached #47 in the UK. >>
In 2006, Rod Stewart covered this song on his album Still the Same… Great Rock Classics of Our Time. >>
Allison Moorer covered this for her 2015 Down To Believing album. She explained why to Billboard magazine: “The record label wanted me to do a cover. I said ‘I don’t really think the record needs a cover on it,’ and we certainly have enough songs, but in the spirit of being cooperative, I said ‘OK, if you really want one, I’ll come up with something.'”
“If I was going to do a cover, it was going to be something that I had always wanted to do,” she continued. “I’m a huge Creedence fan, and that song might be my very favorite song of theirs. I’ve always thought it was the perfect country / rock song, and this record to me is a country / rock record, so I thought ‘If I’m ever going to this, this is the perfect time. I think what you hear on the record is actually the second take.”
As part of the CCR50 campaign to honor the 50th anniversary of Creedence Clearwater Revival, a video was commissioned for this song starring Jack Quaid, Sasha Frolova and Erin Moriarty as childhood friends in Montana. Directed by Laurence Jacobs, it takes a nostalgic turn when one of the friends moves away.
Willie Nelson recorded this with his daughter Paula Nelson for his duets album To All the Girls… The veteran country singer’s cover was included in the closing moments of the HBO miniseries Big Little Lies’ season 2 finale on July 21, 2019. The interest generated drove Nelson’s cover to a #36 debut on the Country chart dated August 3, 2019.
Have You Ever Seen The Rain
Someone told me long ago There’s a calm before the storm I know it’s been comin’ for some time When it’s over so they say It’ll rain a sunny day I know shinin’ down like water
I want to know Have you ever seen the rain? I want to know Have you ever seen the rain Comin’ down on a sunny day?
Yesterday and days before Sun is cold and rain is hard I know been that way for all my time ‘Til forever, on it goes Through the circle, fast and slow, I know it can’t stop, I wonder
I want to know Have you ever seen the rain? I want to know Have you ever seen the rain Comin’ down on a sunny day?
Yeah
I want to know Have you ever seen the rain? I want to know Have you ever seen the rain Comin’ down on a sunny day?
Todd is a wizard in the studio producing other acts and he is also a great artist himself. Hello It’s Me is a great pop song. It may be Todd’s best-known song.
This was originally recorded by Todd Rundgren’s 1960s band The Nazz, and included on their 1968 debut album. The Nazz version with lead vocals by Stewkey Antoni received little attention and peaked at just #66 in the US. The Nazz broke up in 1969 and was fondly remembered after the fact.
“It turns out now that The Nazz was everybody’s favorite undiscovered group,” Rundgren said in 1972, the year he released his third solo album Something/Anything? which contained a new version of this song that eventually caught on and established Rundgren as a solo artist.
This song, and many others Rundgren wrote at the time, was inspired by a high school relationship that didn’t work out. He graduated in 1966, wrote the song about a year later, and recorded the original Nazz version in 1968, so that relationship was still fresh in his mind.
In real life, Rundgren was the one getting dumped, but he flipped the story so he was breaking up with the girl. Speaking with Marc Myers in 2018, Rundgren explained that the girl was named Linda, and she was his high school girlfriend. He had long hair, and one day when he walked her home, Linda’s dad saw him for the first time and turned the hose on him – no hippie kid was going to date his daughter. A few days later, Linda acceded to her father’s wishes and broke up with him. She did it rather casually, which Todd didn’t appreciate.
Rundgren wrote the lyric thinking about how he would have liked Linda to break up with him: in a sensitive phone call where she tells him it’s important that he’s free.
Interestingly years later at a concert in Tulsa, Linda called him and Todd put her on the guestlist but didn’t tell her she inspired the song.
Hello It’s Me peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100 and #17 in Canada in 1973.
From Songfacts
Rundgren wrote this song, which takes us through a phone call where the singer breaks up with a girl. It’s a remarkably realistic account, devoid of sweeping metaphors typically found in breakup songs. We hear the one side of the phone call, which starts with the familiar greeting, indicating they’ve been together a while. Then they have “the talk,” where he hashes out why they can’t be together and lets her know that she should have her freedom. All he can ask in the end is that she think of him every now and then.
Remarkably, it was the first song Rundgren ever wrote. In his teens, Todd was an avid listener to music but it was only when he put The Nazz together at the age of 19 that the young musician realized he’d better start penning some material. He attributes the sophistication and success of this song to the vast amount of listening he’d done by the time he wrote it.
A specific musical inspiration was the Dionne Warwick song “Walk On By,” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. ” I hadn’t thought much about the songwriter’s role previous to listening to that record and realizing how different it was, how it had all the qualities of music that I admired, and yet it also was a song,” Rundgren said in his 2018 Songfacts interview. “That was the first time I really started to, in my own head, deconstruct what a songwriter was doing. That song had a lot of influence in ‘Hello It’s Me.'”
According to Rundgren, the chord progression for “Hello It’s Me” were lifted directly from the intro of jazz organist Jimmy Smith’s rendition of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”
Rundgren expected the album opener “I Saw The Light,” which was the first single from Something/Anything?, to be his big hit, even going as far as to say so in the liner notes rather tongue-in-cheek. However, his re-recording of “Hello It’s Me” eclipsed it on the charts – “I Saw The Light” stalled at #16. Both songs displayed his newfound admiration (and subsequent imitation) of Carole King following her Tapestry album.
“Hello It’s Me” was a very slow-moving hit; the Something/Anything? album was released in February 1972, and it only became a hit when radio stations started playing it over a year later and the song was subsequently released as a single. It didn’t hit the Top 40 until November 1973, and by then, Rundgren’s psychedelic album A Wizard, a True Star had been out for eight months. That album was a completely different sound, and Rundgren was in a completely different mindset. The record company didn’t put any singles out from Wizard for fear of alienating Rundgren’s fans, and Todd had a hard time performing the sudden hit that was now five years old. One of his more bizarre moments came when he performed the song on The Midnight Special wearing what looked like something from David Bowie’s closet. Rundgren’s girlfriend Bebe Buell called it his “Man-Eating Peacock outfit.”
This song was used as the ending clip in the first ever episode of That ’70s Show. The gang sings this in the car on the way to a Todd Rundgren concert. This clip also appears on the last episode of the show. >>
The 1968 version of this song by The Nazz was originally relegated to the B-side of another single, “Open My Eyes.” Ron Robin told us how the single got flipped. Says Ron: “How ‘Hello It’s Me’ by Nazz became a ‘sort of’ hit nationally was quite an accident. I was the music director/DJ at WMEX in Boston when a record promoter came by to tell me about this new group… Nazz. He was promoting ‘Open My Eyes,’ a terrific hard driving rocker. I loved it. At home I accidentally played the flip side of the record and heard ‘Hello It’s Me.’ It blew me away. I just had to add it to our playlist at the station. After a few weeks it made it to our top 5. We were the only station in the country playing it! Several months later other stations across the country started playing it. Several years later Todd records it in his new style without Nazz and of course without Nazz lead singer Stewkey.”
What is it about this song that has such lasting appeal? Kasim Sulton, who played bass in Rundgren’s band Utopia, told us that there is something special about Todd’s songwriting. “It’s so difficult to write a good lyric, a lyric that people turn their heads and say, ‘I know what you’re talking about, I know how you feel, I know what you mean. I know what he’s saying there,'” Kasim told us. “And then to put it in the context of a melody in a song is equally as hard. But Todd does that better than anybody I’d ever worked with, and I’ve worked with some great people over the years.”
Structurally, this isn’t typical of hit songs: the title appears just once (the opening line), and there’s no real chorus, just two repetitions of the bridge (“It’s important to me…”). It is, however, typical of Rundgren’s atypical songwriting – he rarely follows conventional form.
In our 2015 interview with Todd Rundgren, he called this “a selfish song.” Said Rundgren, “It’s me, me, me – it’s all about me. I’m in charge, and all this other stuff.”
For this reason, Rundgren didn’t play it when he toured with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band, as it didn’t fit in with the other songs in the show. Instead, Rundgren played a song he recorded with his band Utopia that was a hit for England Dan & John Ford Coley: “Love Is The Answer.”
Rundgren recorded a dark, Bossa Nova version of this song on his 1997 compilation album With A Twist. Speaking about the song in Mojo, he explained: “‘Hello It’s Me’ has become the albatross to me: everyone has attached to me the idea of the amateur singer, the amateur piano player, the funk-free boy doing his little song. But I just can’t go there anymore, I can’t even think there anymore.”
The Isley Brothers released a sultry R&B version running 5:32 on their 1974 album Live It Up. In their version Ron Isley repeats “Hello” several times in the intro.
When Erykah Badu was putting together But You Caint Use My Phone, her 2015 concept mixtape with songs dealing with phone calls, her old flame Andre 3000 (from Outkast), he was looking for song that she could use and came across the Isley Brothers recording. When he suggested it to Badu, she asked him to rap on it, which he did. Using the basic structure from the Isley’s version, but was used as the closing track on her mixtape.
Paul Giamatti performed this song in the movie Duets.
One of the backing singers was Vicki Sue Robinson, who had a disco hit a few years later with “Turn The Beat Around.” Her work on Something/Anything? (she also sang on the track “Dust In The Wind”), marked her first appearance on an album. She was one of the singers who had performed in the Broadway musical Hair that was invited to sing on the album.
When he first started working on Something/Anything?, Rundgren initially wanted to play all of the instruments himself, but once the project became too big, he enlisted a group of musicians for the album: Mark “Moogy” Klingman on organ, John Siomos on drums, Robbie Kogale on guitar, Stu Woods on bass, Randy Brecker on trumpet, Barry Rogers on trombone, and Michael Breckner on tenor sax.
The 1972 single opens with three distinct notes on the bass, a part Stu Woods came up with in the studio. The album version features a few false starts due to the confusion over which musicians were supposed to play first. “When we were in the studio, a lot of people had a hard time hearing where they were supposed to come in,” Rundgren recalled to Mix magazine in 2019. “The only person who was supposed to come in on four was the bass, and everyone else was supposed to come in on one, but everyone kept coming in on four. So if you listen to the album version, you can hear all these false starts.”
Rundgren didn’t have any concrete ideas for the new arrangement and came up with it on the fly in the studio. “I hadn’t written out the arrangements,” he explained. “I had something stewing in my head and said, ‘Here are the changes to the song,’ then taught them the changes, found the feel I liked. If somebody played something I didn’t like, I’d say, ‘No, don’t play that, change it to something else.’ I wanted it to be less dirge-y than the original and have a little more energy to it. Music had evolved a little, so I wanted something that sounded a bit more contemporary, as opposed to the original stripped-down band.”
The Nazz Version
Todd’s Studio Version
Hello It’s Me
Hello, it’s me I’ve thought about us for a long, long time Maybe I think too much but something’s wrong There’s something here that doesn’t last too long Maybe I shouldn’t think of you as mine
Seeing you, or seeing anything as much as I do you I take for granted that you’re always there I take for granted that you just don’t care Sometimes I can’t help seeing all the way through
It’s important to me That you know you are free ‘Cause I never want to make you change for me
Think of me You know that I’d be with you if I could I’ll come around to see you once in a while Or if I ever need a reason to smile And spend the night if you think I should
It’s important to me That you know you are free ‘Cause I never want to make you change for me
Think of me You know that I’d be with you if I could I’ll come around to see you once in a while Or if I ever need a reason to smile And spend the night if you think I should
Guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne formed Little Feat in 1969. Lowell George was a member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. Bass player of the Mothers Roy Estrada joined along with drummer Richie Hayward.
This is one of their songs that got some airplay and I heard on a regular basis. It obviously is a southern sounding song…a great southern sounding song.
The band never broke out in huge commercial success but other musicians loved this band. One of them was Jimmy Page who named Little Feat his favorite American band in 1975. In the studio for this album, Lowell George stepped up as a producer and a leadership role. On the chorus, Bonnie Bramlett added a soulful voice to George’s.
The lineup had many changes through the years and unfortunately, Lowell died in 1979 of a heart attack. The band broke up after George’s death but reunited in 1987. The band continues today with Bill Payne still as a member.
This song was released in 1973 on the album of the same name. Dixie Chicken was written by Lowell George and Kibbee Martin.
Dixie Chicken
I’ve seen the bright lights of Memphis And the Commodore Hotel And underneath a street lamp I met a Southern belle Well she took me to the river, where she cast her spell And in that Southern moonlight, she sang a song so well If you’ll be my dixie chicken, I’ll be your Tenessee lamb And we can walk together down in dixieland Down in dixieland
Well we made all the hot spots, my money flowed like wine Then that low down Southern whiskey began to fog my mind And I don’t remember church bells or the money I put down On the white picket fence and boardwalk of the house at the edge of town But boy do I remember the strain of her refrain The nights we spent together, and the way she called my name
If you’ll be my dixie chicken, I’ll be your Tenessee lamb And we can walk together down in dixieland Down in dixieland
Well it’s been a year since she ran away Yes that guitar player sure could play She always liked to sing along She’s always handy with a song Then one night in the lobby of the Commodore Hotel I chanced to meet a bartender who said he knew her well And as he handed me a drink he began to hum a song And all the boys there, at the bar, began to sign along
If you’ll be my dixie chicken, I’ll be your Tenessee lamb And we can walk together down in dixieland Down in dixieland
This is the first Bowie song I remember hearing when I was really young. I associated it more with “Ziggy Stardust” as I remember cousins talking about him. This song was not a massive hit but is still continually played on the radio.
It was on my personal favorite album by Bowie…Hunky Dory.
The song features the work of musicians like Rick Wakeman, Mick Ronson, and Bowie playing the saxophone himself. According to Bowie, the song started out as a parody of night club life but evolved into a criticism of an artist looking for new ways to reinvent himself. Bowie continually reinvented his image, and the song eventually became a close relation of Bowie himself.
Bowie wrote this when he was going through a lot of personal change. Bowie’s wife, Angela, was pregnant with the couple’s first child, Duncan. Bowie got along very well with his father and was very excited to have a child of his own.
The song peaked at #66 in the Billboard 100 in 1972 but recharted at #41 in 1975.
It charted for the first time on the UK Singles Chart in 2016 at number 49 following Bowie’s death.
From Songfacts
This is a reflective song about defying your critics and stepping out on your own. It also touches on Bowie’s penchant for artistic reinvention.
According to Bowie, this song was a “kind of throwaway” – but people kept chanting for it at concerts and thus it became one of his most popular and enduring songs. Bowie had no idea it was going to become so successful, but the song connected with his young audience who could relate to lyrics like “These children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds, are immune to your consultations, they’re quite aware of what they’re going through.”
Bowie had just started using a keyboard to write songs, which opened up new possibilities for him in terms of melody and structure. This fresh approach resulted in “Changes.”
Bowie played the sax on this track, and his guitarist, Mick Ronson, arranged the strings. Rick Wakeman, who would later became a member of the prog rock band, Yes, played the piano parts at the beginning and end. Bowie gave Wakeman a lot of freedom, telling him to play the song like it was a piano piece. The piano Wakeman played was the famous 100-year old Bechstein at Trident Studios in London, where the album was recorded; the same piano used by Elton John, The Beatles and Genesis.
Bowie’s stuttered vocals in this song (“Ch-Ch-Changes”) are some of the most famous stutters in rock. It came well after “My G-G-Generation” but predated “B-B-B-Bennie And The Jets.
According to Mike Garson, who became Bowie’s keyboard player in 1972, when he auditioned for the gig, he played the first eight seconds of “Changes” when Bowie stopped him and gave him the gig.
Changes
Oh, yeah Mmm
Still don’t know what I was waitin’ for And my time was runnin’ wild A million dead end streets and Every time I thought I’d got it made It seemed the taste was not so sweet So I turned myself to face me But I’ve never caught a glimpse How the others must see the faker I’m much too fast to take that test
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Turn and face the strange Ch-ch-changes Don’t want to be a richer man Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Turn and face the strange Ch-ch-changes There’s gonna have to be a different man Time may change me But I can’t trace time
Mmm, yeah
I watch the ripples change their size But never leave the stream Of warm impermanence And so the days float through my eyes But still the days seem the same And these children that you spit on As they try to change their worlds Are immune to your consultations They’re quite aware of what they’re goin’ through
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Turn and face the strange Ch-ch-changes Don’t tell them to grow up and out of it Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Turn and face the strange Ch-ch-changes Where’s your shame? You’ve left us up to our necks in it Time may change me But you can’t trace time
Strange fascinations fascinate me Ah, changes are takin’ The pace I’m goin’ through
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Turn and face the strange Ch-ch-changes Ooh, look out you rock ‘n’ rollers Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes Turn and face the strange Ch-ch-changes Pretty soon now you’re gonna get older Time may change me But I can’t trace time I said that time may change me But I can’t trace time
I heard this song when I was younger. It wasn’t on the radio but a friend of mine who had some old Fleetwood Mac albums. Peter Green was/is a great guitar player and his voice fit the band perfectly.
This is among the last songs Peter Green wrote before quitting the band. A consistent riff carries the rhythm, while Green wails the lyrics. At the time, he was taking a lot of acid, but has always maintained this was about the evils of money.
The song didn’t chart in America but did peak at #10 in the UK in 1969.
Judas Priest covered this on their Hell Bent for Leather album in 1979.
Peter Green:“When I woke up I found I was writing this song. Next day I went out to the park and the words started coming. The Green Manalishi is the wad of notes, the devil is green and he was after me. Fear, inspiration is what it was, but it was that tribal ancient Hebrew thing I was going for. Ancient music.” More recently he admitted, “It took me two years to recover from that song. When I listened to it afterward there was so much power there… it exhausted me.”
From Songfacts
As Green explained in a 1996 interview with Mojo, the song is about the evils of money: the Green Manalishi was the devil manifested as a wad of cash. Green explained: “I had a dream where I woke up and I couldn’t move, literally immobile on the bed. I had to fight to get back into my body. I had this message that came to me while I was like this, saying that I was separate from people like shop assistants, and I saw a picture of a female shop assistant and a wad of pound notes, and there was this other message saying, ‘You’re not what you used to be. You think you’re better than them. You used to be an everyday person like a shop assistant, just a regular working person.’ I had been separated from it because I had too much money. So I thought, How can I change that?”
Peter Green built quite a legend by giving away most of his money. He gave most of his savings to a London-based charity called War On Want, which provided aid to developing nations, mostly in Africa. Green explained: “Last thing at night they used to put pictures on telly of starving people and I used to sit there eating a doughnut and thinking, Why have I got this big stash that I don’t need when probably I’m going to die with it and all this is going on?”
Rumors had it that “Green Manalishi” was a kind of LSD, but Peter Green insists that is was about money. It was based upon a recurrent dream he had in which he woke up unable to move while messages about money formed in his brain. Green recalls: (from an article by Neil Slaven on Union Square Music)
In retrospect, the song seems like an obvious cry for help from Peter Green, but this wasn’t so clear to his bandmates, who say that his descent was a gradual process, and that they didn’t read so much into this song. “Peter going off the rails was not an immediate thing,” Mick Fleetwood explained. “He left Fleetwood Mac under the most controlled circumstances.”
Fleetwood Mac – Green Manalishi (With The Two-Prong Crown)
Now, when the day goes to sleep And the full moon looks The night is so black that the darkness cooks
Don’t you come creepin’ around Makin’ me do things I don’t wanna do
Can’t believe that you need my love so bad Come sneakin’ around tryin’ to drive me mad Bustin’ in on my dreams Makin’ me see things I don’t wanna see
‘Cause you’re da Green Manalishi with the two prong crown All my tryin’ is up, all your bringin’ is down
Just takin’ my love then slippin’ away Leavin’ me here just tryin’ to keep from followin’ you
This song is probably my earliest memory of a Van Morrison song as a kid. I didn’t find out about him though until my senior year in high school. Somehow I never heard Brown Eyed Girl until I was eighteen.
Blue Money was a top 40 hit but you don’t hear it as much now. It’s a song that is off of his album His Band and the Street Choir released in 1971. The song became Morrison’s third best selling single of the 1970s, remaining on the charts for three months.
The album peaked at #32 in the Billboard Album Charts.
What Blue Money refers to in the song, and in most uses of the term, is money earned from racy photographs and images.
Blue Money
The photographer smiles Take a break for a while Take a rest, do your very best Take five, honey Five, honey
You search in your bag Light up a fag Think it’s a drag, but you’re so glad To be alive honey Alive honey
Said when this is all over You’ll be in clover We’ll go out and spend All of your blue money Blue money Blue money
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