Singles – Page 144 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Bob Dylan – Froggie Went A-Courtin’

I am amazed at how many covers there are to this song. I remember Kermit the Frog singing it long ago. I didn’t know whether to use Bob Dylan’s or others for today. Jimmie Rodgers did a great version of Froggie Went A-Courtin’.

It is on the Dylan album Good as I Been to You that was released in 1992.

Who covered it? Here is a partial list: Jimmie Rodgers, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Woody Guthrie, Elvis Presley, Tex Ritter, and Blind Willie McTell.

There is a reference in the Stationer’s Register of 1580 to “A Moste Strange Weddinge of the Frogge and the Mouse.” The oldest known musical version is in Thomas Ravenscroft’s Melismata in 1611.

This great old story song has quite a history. Some people claim that it goes back 400 years to England and that the frog is actually a French Duke while the mouse is Queen Elizabeth I. It has been popular in America since colonial times, and it seems to change a little with each person who performs it.

Alternative names for the song per Wiki

“A Frog He Would a-Wooing Go”
“Crambone”
“Die Padda wou gaan opsit” (Afrikaans version in South Africa)
“Frog in the Well”
“Froggie Went a-Courtin'”
“Froggy Would a-Wooing Go”
“The Frog’s Wooing”
“A Frog Went a-Walkin'”
“King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O”
“There Lived a Puddie in the Well”
“There Was a Puggie in a Well”
“Y Broga Bach” (Welsh)
“Yo para ser feliz quiero un camión”

Thanks to Observationblogger for helping me to think of this song again.

Froggie Went A-Courtin’

1. Frog went a-courtin’, and he did ride, Uh-huh,
Frog went a-courtin’, and he did ride, Uh-huh,
Frog went a-courtin’, and he did ride.
With a sword and a pistol by his side, Uh-huh.

2. Well he rode up to Miss Mousey’s door, Uh-huh,
Well he rode up to Miss Mousey’s door, Uh-huh,
Well he rode up to Miss Mousey’s door.
Gave three loud raps and a very big roar, Uh-huh.

3. Said, “Miss Mouse, are you within?” Uh-huh,
Said he, “Miss Mouse, are you within?” Uh-huh,
Said, “Miss Mouse, are you within?”
“Yes, kind sir, I sit and spin,” Uh-huh.

4. He took Miss Mousey on his knee, Uh-huh,
Took Miss Mousey on his knee, Uh-huh,
Took Miss Mousey on his knee.
Said, “Miss Mousey, will you marry me?” Uh-huh.

5. “Without my uncle Rat’s consent, Uh-huh
“Without my uncle Rat’s consent, Uh-huh
“Without my uncle Rat’s consent.
I wouldn’t marry the president, Uh-huh

6. Uncle Rat laughed and he shook his fat sides, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat laughed and he shook his fat sides, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat laughed and he shook his fat sides,.
To think his niece would be a bride, Uh-huh.

7. Uncle Rat went runnin’ downtown, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat went runnin’ downtown, Uh-huh,
Uncle Rat went runnin’ downtown.
To buy his niece a wedding gown, Uh-huh

8. Where shall the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
Where shall the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
Where shall the wedding supper be?
Way down yonder in a hollow tree, Uh-huh

9. What should the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
What should the wedding supper be? Uh-huh,
What should the wedding supper be?
Fried mosquito in a black-eye pea, Uh-huh.

10. Well, first to come in was a flyin’ moth, Uh-huh,
First to come in was a flyin’ moth, Uh-huh,
First to come in was a flyin’ moth.
She laid out the table cloth, Uh-huh.

11. Next to come in was a juney bug, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a juney bug, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a juney bug.
She brought the water jug, Uh-huh.

12. Next to come in was a bumbley bee, Uh-huh
Next to come in was a bumbley bee, Uh-huh
Next to come in was a bumbley bee.
Sat mosquito on his knee, Uh-huh.

13. Next to come in was a broken black flea, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a broken black flea, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a broken black flea.
Danced a jig with the bumbley bee, Uh-huh.

14. Next to come in was Mrs. Cow, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was Mrs. Cow, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was Mrs. Cow.
She tried to dance but she didn’t know how, Uh-huh.

15. Next to come in was a little black tick, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a little black tick, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a little black tick.
She ate so much she made us sick, Uh-huh.

16. Next to come in was a big black snake, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a big black snake, Uh-huh,
Next to come in was a big black snake.
Ate up all of the wedding cake, Uh-huh.

17. Next to come was the old gray cat, Uh-huh,
Next to come was the old gray cat, Uh-huh,
Next to come was the old gray cat.
Swallowed the mouse and ate up the rat, Uh-huh.

18. Mr. Frog went a-hoppin’ up over the brook, Uh-huh,
Mr. Frog went a-hoppin’ up over the brook, Uh-huh,
Mr. Frog went a-hoppin’ up over the brook.
A lily-white duck come and swallowed him up, Uh-huh.

19. A little piece of cornbread layin’ on a shelf, Uh-huh,
A little piece of cornbread layin’ on a shelf, Uh-huh,
A little piece of cornbread layin’ on a shelf.
If you want anymore, you can sing it yourself, Uh-huh.

Gerry Rafferty – Right Down the Line

Right Down The Line is a beautiful song that gets lost in the large shadow cast by the preceding single “Baker Street.” It’s a rare love song that works without coming off as overly sentimental. I’m not saying it’s better than Baker Street… but it is an underappreciated gem.

This was the follow-up single to the great song Baker Street in 1978. The song peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100, #1 US Billboard Adult Contemporary and #5 in Canada. The song came off his great City to City album which peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Chart.

Right Down The Line

You know I need your love
You’ve got that hold over me
Long as I’ve got your love
You know that I’ll never leave
When I wanted you to share my life
I had no doubt in my mind
And it’s been you woman
Right down the line

I know how much I lean on you
Only you can see
The changes that I’ve been through
Have left a mark on me
You’ve been as constant as a Northern Star
The brightest light that shines
It’s been you, woman, right down the line

I just want to say this is my way
Of tellin’ you everything
I could never say before
Yeah this is my way of tellin’ you
That every day I’m lovin’ you so much more
‘Cause you believed in me through my darkest night
Put somethin’ better inside of me
You brought me into the light
Threw away all those crazy dreams
I put them all behind
And it was you woman
Right down the line

I just want to say this is my way of tellin’ you everything
I could never say before
Yeah this is my way of tellin’ you
Everything I could never say before
Yeah this is my way of tellin’ you
That every day I’m lovin’ you so much more

If I should doubt myself, if I’m losing ground
I won’t turn to someone else
They’d only let me down
When I wanted you to share my life
I had no doubt in my mind
And it’s been you woman
Right down the line

Sheryl Crow – My Favorite Mistake

This song has a dirty sounding guitar intro and Sheryl’s voice drives it along.

This is rumored to be about Eric Clapton, who Crow dated for a while. She has said it is not about one person in particular, but a composite of guys she went out with who wasn’t good for her. Clapton appears on her 1999 album Sheryl Crow and Friends.

Crow has said that it is definitely not about Clapton…she has said: “I can’t look at that relationship as a mistake.”

The song peaked at #20 in the Billboard 100 in 1998. It was on her album The Globe Sessions which peaked at #5 in 1998 in the Billboard Album Charts.

From Songfacts

Like Carly Simon, Crow dated many high-profile guys, making the song rife for speculation. Among her paramours: Kid Rock, Lance Armstrong, Jakob Dylan, and Owen Wilson.

In a 2015 interview, we asked Jeff Trott, Crow’s frequent songwriting collaborator and guitarist, to weigh in on the mystery. He said:

“I’ve never ever talked to Sheryl about it – never, ever. One of these days, I’m just going to like throw it out there. Everyone just assumed it was Eric Clapton, but I thought it could be Jakob Dylan from The Wallflowers. The Wallflowers supported Sheryl Crow when I was in her touring band.

But she dated Eric Clapton for a little while, for about six months … But he was really into Sheryl, big time. I thought for sure they were going to get married. I think the real deal is that he really wanted to have a very traditional marriage, meaning that Sheryl would take care of things, in a traditional housewife role. At the time, this was like when she was pretty much peaking and playing everywhere, and she would’ve had to give that up.” (Here’s the complete interview with Jeff Trott.)

The video is pretty straightforward, with Crow miming and vamping to the song in an unadorned room. It was directed by Samuel Bayer, who used the sepia look and film transitions that show up in a lot of his work.

My Favorite Mistake

I woke up and called this morning
The tone of your voice was a warning
That you don’t care for me anymore

I made up the bed we sleep in
I looked at the clock when you creep in
It’s six AM and I’m alone

Did you know when you go it’s the perfect ending
To the bad day I was just beginning
When you go all I know is you’re my favorite mistake

Your friends act sorry for me
They watch you pretend to adore me
But I’m no fool to this game

Now here comes your secret lover
She’ll be unlike any other
Until your guilt goes up in flames.

Did you know when you go it’s the perfect ending
To the bad day I’d gotten used to spending
When you go all I know is you’re my favorite mistake
You’re my favorite mistake

Well maybe nothing lasts forever
Even when you stay together
I don’t need forever after, but it’s your laughter won’t let me go
So I’m holding on this way

Did you know could you tell you were the only one
That I ever loved?
Now everything’s so wrong
Did you see me walking by, did it ever make you cry?

Now you’re my favorite mistake
Yeah you’re my favorite mistake
You’re my favorite mistake

Loaded Dice – Come Take Me Tonight —-Powerpop Friday

Loaded Dice were a hard-working power pop band that was touted as being the next big thing from Perth Australia.

Formed in 1974, they started out as covers band primarily playing 60’s beat music. They went through a few line-up changes. They started to build a fan base but when they moved to Sydney it was hard to get the local crowds interested and it wasn’t long until they disbanded in the mid-eighties and returned home…

They did make an album called “No Sweat” and released a few singles. I like the simple guitar riff in this song…simple but effective. They had a cool sound and it’s too bad they couldn’t go further. They released this song and and album in 1979.

Sorry…couldn’t find any lyrics

20/20 – Yellow Pills —-Powerpop Friday

20/20 was a band based out of Hollywood California. They were active from 1977 to 1983 and reunited during the mid-1990s to the late 1990s. This song was released as a single in 1979 as the B side to Tell Me Why (Can’t Understand You). The song was on their self titled album.

Everybody’s feeling groovy
Everybody’s got tight pants on
Everybody’s feels like they were
Just made by the Creator

I have to say that it is original.

From AllMusic

One of the key bands in the Los Angeles power pop explosion of the late 1970s and early ‘80s, 20/20 never quite scored a hit single, but they were a powerful draw on the West Coast in their heyday, and their signature song, “Yellow Pills,” became a cult favorite, covered by a number of later power pop acts and providing a noted pop fanzine with its name. 20/20 was founded by Steve Allen and Ron Flynt, two friends from Tulsa, Oklahoma who met when they were in grade school and discovered they both loved rock & roll, particularly British Invasion sounds (the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in particular) and classic pop.

Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots also did a version of this song.

Yellow Pills

One, two…
One, two, three, four…

Everybody’s feeling groovy
Everybody’s got tight pants on
Everybody’s feels like they were
Just made by the Creator

So come take a walk down my street
With your head up by the phone lines
You can see the world if you want to
Give it a try
Open your eyes
When you bring oh oh oh
My yellow pills
My yellow pills

Take a look around my street
Everybody’s got their new wheels
But they’re stuck in a jam on the freeway
And they glad they got their yellow pills

Just look at the happy faces
Plugged into the tape machine
Acting like they’re drivin’ to heaven
Turn left at Vine, I’ll meet you at 9:00
When you bring oh oh oh
My yellow pills
My yellow pills

I always believe in your lies
They make me feel so alive
But I don’t have to be real

‘Cause everybody’s feeling groovy
Everybody’s cut their hair short
Everybody’s feels like they were
Just made by the Creator

Cheap Trick – She’s Tight —-Powerpop Friday

We had fun with this song in high school. I’m surprised it only peaked at #65 in 1982 because it got a lot of airplay and MTV exposure. The song was on the album One On One and it peaked at #39 in the Billboard Album chart in 1982. I liked the album and it had my favorite Cheap Trick song…If You Want My Love.

Cheap Trick does what Cheap Trick does best in this song. They give us a great edge with the guitar with Beatles type harmonies. The song was written by Rick Nielson as were most of their songs. I only got to see them in concert once but it was worth it. They didn’t take themselves seriously and had a good time as did everyone else.

She’s Tight

When I’m down I make a call.
Got the number written on the wall.
First it’s busy then I try again.
Oh, who’s she talking to, could it be him?

I got the number and it starts to ring.
I get excited and I start to dream.
I start to fantasize of memory lane.
Then she answers and she says right way.
She says I’m home on my own, home all alone.
So I got off the phone.

(She’s tight.) She’s ahead of her time.
(She’s tight.) She’s one of a kind.
(She’s tight.) She’s a talented girl.
(She’s tight.) She’s got her head down tight.

I have something got to say to you.
Amnesia and my train of thought.
On the tip, tip of my tongue.
I had a vision when I was young.

You floated in, we floated up.
Through the window and down the hall.
I had a smoke and went upstairs.
Turned the door and opened the key. She spoke…
I’m on my own, home all alone.
So I got off the phone.

(She’s tight.) She’s ahead of her time.
(She’s tight.) She’s one of a kind.
(She’s tight.) She’s a talented girl.
(She’s tight.) She’s got her head down tight.

(She’s tight.) She’s giving me the go.
(She’s tight.) She’s giving me the high sign.
(She’s tight.) We’ll turn off the lights.
(She’s tight.) Pull down the shades.
(She’s nice, she’s tight.) Turn on the cam’ra.
(She’s nice, she’s tight.) And getting ready for action.

Turn off the radio.
Turn on the video.

Sheryl Crow – If It Makes You Happy

I was an instant fan when I first heard Sheryl Crow. During the nineties, there were many pop-oriented females that I listened to (Sarah Mclaughlin is one)…and ones that I didn’t at all (her last name rhymes with “tears” “beers” “fears”) but Sheryl was different. She was more in the rock and roll genre. I saw her open up for the Rolling Stones at Vanderbilt’s Stadium and she sounded great.

I have always liked her lyrics…she has fun with them and always kept them interesting. I’ll be posting more Sheryl songs this weekend.

This song peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100, #9 in the UK, #1 in Canada, and #12 in New Zealand in 1997.

It was on her self titled second studio album.

From Songfacts

This song describes a person who seems depressed or upset no matter what happens. According to Crow, the inspiration for the song was her feelings after the massive success of her first album, as her record label and the media put pressure on her to follow it up.

This won the Grammy award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

On her VH1 Storytellers appearance in 1998, Sheryl Crow said this was initially a country song, but she turned it into a rock song so she could get more exposure.

The Australian lensman Keir McFarlane directed the video, which portrays Crow as an angry museum exhibit (10 years before the movie Night at the Museum). McFarlane also did the video for Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”

In 2011 Crow teamed up with chef Chuck White to write a cookbook called If It Makes You Healthy.

Crow was a huge fan of Tom Petty and said that this song was in some ways inspired by the way he played.

If It Makes You Happy

I belong, a long way from here
I put on a poncho and played for mosquitoes
And drank ’till I was thirsty again
We went searching, through thrift store jungles

Found Geronimo’s rifle, Marilyn’s shampoo
And Benny Goodman’s cursive pen
Well, okay, I made this up
I promise you I’d never give up

If it makes you happy
It can’t be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?

Get down, real low down
You listen to Coltrane, derail your own train
Well, who hasn’t been there before?

I come ’round, around the hard way
Bring you comics in bed
Scrape the mold off the bread
And serve you french toast again
Okay, I still get stoned
I’m not the kind of girl you’d take home

If it makes you happy
It can’t be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?

We’ve been far, far away from here
I put on a poncho and played for mosquitoes
And everywhere in between
Well, okay, we get along
So what if right now, everything’s wrong?

If it makes you happy
It can’t be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad?

Lovin’ Spoonful – Nashville Cats

In 1966, Bob Dylan did something extraordinary when he went to Nashville to record an album. He left his band behind, in order to record with session players known as the Nashville Cats. That album he made was a masterpiece, ‘Blonde on Blonde”.

John Sebastian apparently held Nashville musicians in high esteem. According to one account, the song developed after the Lovin’ Spoonful was in Nashville for a concert, and while sitting at a bar, were blown away by the guitar playing of Danny Gatton. Sebastian wrote the song and it peaked at #8 in the Billboard 100 in 1967.

John Sebastian on writing the song…it is a bit long but interesting:

It happened to me quite by accident. First of all I was a tremendous fan of the music coming out of Nashville and the south at that time. Sometimes it was Memphis or Muscle Shoals but I didn’t know that, I was just responding to the music. I knew that when you cut records here, you could finish an album in a day in a half! But the ‘Spoonful played in Nashville in ’65 or so. We finished our show at the Fairgrounds Auditorium–the biggest thing in town. We felt pretty good about it and went back to the Holiday Inn and to the beer bar in the basement and get some beers and this guy comes in–goes and sits in the corner. There wasn’t even a stage. He pulls out a guitar and he is absolutely stunning. He starts off with something Chet Aktins-y and then he starts to get these bends and pedal steel tones and then multiple bends and then more jazz chords. Now we’re in “hillbilly jazz.” By the time this guy finished, me and (Lovin’ Spoonfuls) Zal Yanovsky we went up to our room. In those days, the ‘Spoonful were still sharing rooms, and we sit on the edge of our beds and go ‘How could this be?’ We are playing the big joint in town and this guy is in a beer bar. He can play rings around us. How does this work? Are we just four guys with long hair? It was years before we figured out that the kid had been a young Danny Gatton making spare change. But it traumatized us for a while.

The song actually was written a couple of weeks after our Nashville encounter. I was in Long Island somewhere. I saw an album cover –years later–Zal and I were in a record store–and I go “Oh my God, this is the guy from the beer bar.” Danny Gatton fans have sent me a stack of his cds and I can’t understand how he did the first damn thing (laughs).

From Songfacts

This song is a celebration of the remarkable musicianship of Nashville, Tennessee guitar pickers who have been “Playin’ since they’s babies.” John Sebastian held for the Nashville musicians in very high esteem.

The lyrics refer to the Sun Records company. While Sun was best known for first recording Elvis Presley, it also released songs by Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison

Nashville Cats

[Chorus]
Nashville cats, play clean as country water
Nashville cats, play wild as mountain dew
Nashville cats, been playin’ since they’s babies
Nashville cats, get work before they’re two

Well, there’s thirteen hundred and fifty two
Guitar pickers in Nashville
And they can pick more notes than the number of ants
On a Tennessee ant hill
Yeah, there’s thirteen hundred and fifty two
Guitar cases in Nashville
And any one that unpacks ‘is guitar could play
Twice as better than I will

Yeah, I was just thirteen, you might say I was a
Musical proverbial knee-high
When I heard a couple new-sounding tunes on the tubes
And they blasted me sky-high
And the record man said every one is a yellow sun
Record from Nashville
And up north there ain’t nobody buys them
And I said, “But I Will”

And it was

[Chorus]

Well, there’s sixteen thousand eight hundred ‘n’ twenty one
Mothers from Nashville
All their friends play music, and they ain’t uptight
If one of the kids will
Because it’s custom made for any mothers son
To be a guitar picker in Nashville
And I sure am glad I got a chance to say a word about
The music and the mothers from Nashville

[Chorus]

Kick it

Beatles – I Want You (She’s So Heavy)

This song fits in well with the harder blues that was going on at this time. It’s really heavy for a Beatles song or any song. Many guitars were layered at the end when it abruptly stops. It took me a few listens to warm up to it but when I did…I really liked it. John’s guitar echoing the vocal and Paul’s adventurous bass playing on this recording is great.

The song is a simple love song from John to Yoko. Totally opposite of his wordplay songs of the past, in this one he is straight forward. He got right to the point…his quote on this song was “When you’re drowning, you don’t say ‘I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,’ you just scream”

This was the first song worked on for their last recorded album Abbey Road…and the last one mixed. They started it at Trident Studios…not Abbey Road. This song shows just how good of musicians they were in 1969. This song is not an easy song and certainly took a lot of work to meld together. Different time signatures and John’s singing and playing… it syncs up well on the verses.

Billy Preston played organ on this song.

George Harrison: “This is very heavy,” “This is good because it’s really basically a bit like a blues. The riff that he sings and plays is really a very basic blues-type thing. But again, it’s very original to a John-type song. And the middle bit is great. John has an amazing thing with his timing. He always comes across with sort of different timing things.

From Songfacts

John Lennon wrote this about Yoko Ono – the couple were married in March 1969, about six months before the Abbey Road album was released. Lennon was experimenting with a heavy blues sound, so the song has few lyrics and long stretches of repeated chords. “Every time I pick up the guitar I sing about Yoko and that’s how I’m influenced,” Lennon said at the time.

Taken on its own, the lyric is very basic, repeating just a few simple lines like:

I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad

Soon after Abbey Road was released, a news magazine show called 24 Hours read the lyrics out loud, taking a derisive tone. Lennon replied: “To me that’s a damn sight better lyric than ‘Walrus’ or ‘Eleanor Rigby’ because its progression to me. And if I want to write songs with no words or one word… maybe that’s Yoko’s influence.”

The rhythm was based on Mel Torme’s song “Coming Home Baby.”

With the exception of “Revolution 9,” this was The Beatles longest song.

John Lennon sang this monofonic, as some of the troubadours sang in the Middle Ages: There is no chord behind the melody, but an instrument follows the singer’s melody. The song ends with an orchestra arrangement, which was Lennon’s idea, and is very much similar to the end of “Entry of the Gods into Valhalla” in “Das Rheingold” by Richard Wagner.

George Harrison played a Moog synthesizer on this track. It is one of the first uses of the instrument, which was custom-made for Harrison.

The guitars were overdubbed many times to get a layered sound.

This song contains an accidental background lyric. On stereo, play the song at 4:30 and listen very closely to the left speaker. In the bass break after John’s scream, you can faintly hear someone say, “What was that about!?” presumably in response to the scream.

I Want You (She’s So Heavy)

I want you
I want you so bad
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad

I want you
I want you so bad, babe
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad

I want you
I want you so bad
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad

I want you
I want you so bad, babe
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad

She’s so heavy
Heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy

I want you
I want you so bad
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad

I want you
I want you so bad, babe
I want you
You know I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad

Yeah, she’s so

Jimi Hendrix – Hey Joe

“Hey Joe” was written by a singer named Billy Roberts, who was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early ’60s. This was Billy’s most well-known song.

This is the song that started it all for Hendrix. After being discharged from the US Army in 1962, he worked as a backing musician for The Isley Brothers and Little Richard, and in 1966 performed under the name Jimmy James in the group Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. Hendrix introduced “Hey Joe” to the band and added it to their setlist. During a show at the Greenwich Village club Cafe Wha?, Chas Chandler of The Animals was in the audience, and he knew instantly that Hendrix was the man to record the song.

This is one of the few Hendrix tracks with female backing vocals. They were performed by a popular trio called the Breakaways (Jean Hawker, Margot Newman, and Vicki Brown), who were brought in by producer Chas Chandler.

The song peaked at #6 in the UK Charts in 1966.

From Songfacts

The song is structured as a conversation between two men, with “Joe” explaining to the other that he caught his woman cheating and plans to kill her. They talk again, and Joe explains that he did indeed shoot her, and is headed to Mexico.

Billy Roberts copyrighted this song in 1962, but never released it (he issued just one album, Thoughts Of California in 1975). In 1966, several artists covered the song, including a Los Angeles band called The Leaves (their lead singer was bassist Jim Pons, who joined The Turtles just before they recorded their Happy Together album), whose version was a minor hit, reaching #31 in the US. Arthur Lee’s group Love also recorded it that year, as did The Byrds, whose singer David Crosby had been performing the song since 1965. These were all uptempo renditions.

The slow version that inspired Hendrix to record this came from a folk singer named Tim Rose, who played it in a slow arrangement on his 1967 debut album and issued it as a single late in 1966. Rose was a popular singer/songwriter for a short time in the Greenwich Village scene, but quickly faded into obscurity before a small comeback in the ’90s. He died in 2002 at age 62.

Chandler convinced Hendrix to join him in London, and he became Jimi’s producer and manager. Teaming Hendrix with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, Chandler had the group – known as The Jimi Hendrix Experience – record “Hey Joe,” and released it as a single in the UK in December 1966. It climbed to #6 in February 1967, as Hendrix developed a reputation as an electrifying performer and wildly innovative guitarist.

America was a tougher nut to crack – when the song was released there in April, it went nowhere.

The song incorporates many elements of blues music, including a F-C-G-D-A chord progression and a story about infidelity and murder. This led many to believe it was a much older (possibly traditional) song, but it was an original composition.

Hendrix played this live for the first time at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. It was the first time the group performed in America.

This was released in Britain with the flip side “Stone Free,” which was the first song Hendrix wrote for The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

The song was released in the UK on the Polydor label in a one-single deal. Hendrix then signed to the Track label, which was set up by Kit Lambert, producer for The Who.

Dick Rowe of Decca Records turned down Hendrix for a deal, unimpressed with both “Hey Joe” and “Stone Free.” Rowe also turned away the Beatles four years earlier.

The Hendrix version omits the first verse, where Joe buys the gun:

Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that money in your hand?
Chasin’ my woman, she run off with another man
Goin downtown, buy me a .44

In the original (and most versions pre-Hendrix), Joe also kills his wife’s lover when he catches them in bed together.

This was the last song performed at Woodstock in 1969. The festival was scheduled to end at midnight on Sunday, August 17 (the third day), but it ran long and Hendrix didn’t go on until Monday around 9 a.m. There weren’t many attendees left, but Hendrix delivered a legendary performance.

While Jimi’s version is by far the most famous, “Hey Joe” has been recorded by over 1000 artists. In America, three versions charted:

The Leaves (#31, 1966)
Cher (#94, 1967)
Wilson Pickett (#59, 1969)

Hendrix is the only artist to chart with the song in the UK, although a completely different song called “Hey Joe” was a #1 hit there for Frankie Laine in 1963.

Some of the notable covers include:
Shadows of Knight (1966)
Music Machine (1966)
The Mothers Of Invention (1967)
Deep Purple (1967)
King Curtis (1968)
Roy Buchanan (1973)
Patti Smith (1974)
Soft Cell (1983)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (1986)
The Offspring (1991)
Eddie Murphy (1993 – yes, the comedian)
Walter Trout (2000)
Popa Chubby (2001)
Robert Plant (2002)
Brad Mehldau Trio (2012)

The liner notes for Are You Experienced? say this song is “A blues arrangement of an old cowboy song that’s about 100 years old.” >>

The phrase “Hey Joe” is something men in the Philippines often shout when they see an American. Ted Lerner wrote a book about his experiences there called Hey, Joe: A Slice Of The City-An American In Manilla.

In an early demo version, Hendrix is caught off guard by the sound of his voice in the headphones, and can be heard on the recording saying, “Oh, Goddamn!” Then telling Chas Chandler in the booth, “Hey, make the voice a little lower and the band a little louder.” Hendrix was always insecure about his vocal talents, but thought if Dylan could swing it, so could he.

6,346 guitarists played “Hey Joe” simultaneously in the town of Wroclaw, Poland on May 1, 2009, breaking a world record for most guitarists playing a single song.

The BBC apologized after “Hey Joe” was played following a report on the Oscar Pistorius trial, following the disabled athlete’s shooting of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. (The song includes the lines: “Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand? I’m going out to shoot my old lady, you know I caught her messing around with another man.”)

This was one of five bonus tracks added to the album Are You Experienced? when it was re-released in 1997. The only song on the album not written by Hendrix, it is credited to Billy Roberts.

Not much is known about the song’s writer Billy Roberts, who apparently got in a car accident in the ’90s that left him impaired. Royalties from this song go to him through the publisher Third Palm Music.

This was used in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump when Forrest starts a fight at a Black Panthers gathering, but the song wasn’t included on the official soundtrack.

Hey Joe

Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that gun in your hand?
Hey Joe, I said where you goin’ with that gun in your hand?
Alright.
I’m goin down to shoot my old lady

You know I caught her messin’ ’round with another man.
I’m goin’ down to shoot my old lady
You know I caught her messin’ ’round with another man.

And that ain’t too cool.
(Ah-backing vocal on each line)
Uh, hey Joe, I heard you shot your woman down
You shot her down now.

Uh, hey Joe, I heard you shot you old lady down
You shot her down to the ground. Yeah!
Yes, I did, I shot her

You know I caught her messin’ ’round
Messin’ ’round town.
Uh, yes I did, I shot her
You know I caught my old lady messin’ ’round town.

And I gave her the gun and I shot her!
Alright
(Ah! Hey Joe)
Shoot her one more time again, baby!

Yeah.
(Hey Joe!)
Ah, dig it!

Ah! Ah!
(Joe where you gonna go?)
Oh, alright.
Hey Joe, said now
(Hey)
uh, where you gonna run to now, where you gonna run to?
Yeah.
(where you gonna go?)
Hey Joe, I said
(Hey)
where you goin’ to run
to now, where you, where you gonna go?
(Joe!)
Well, dig it!
I’m goin’ way down south, way down south
(Hey)
way down south to Mexico way! Alright!
(Joe)
I’m goin’ way down south
(Hey, Joe)
way down where I can be free!
(where you gonna…)
Ain’t no one gonna find me babe!
(…go?)
Ain’t no hangman gonna
(Hey, Joe)
he ain’t gonna put a rope around me!
(Joe where you gonna.)
You better belive it right now!
(…go?)
I gotta go now!
Hey, hey, hey Joe
(Hey Joe)
you better run on down!
(where you gonna…)
Goodbye everybody. Ow!
(…go?)
Hey, hey Joe, what’d I say
(Hey… Joe)
run on down.
(where you gonna go?

Aretha Franklin – Think

Aretha equals greatness. I always think of the Blues Brothers movie this was featured in years after it was released. Franklin wrote this with Teddy White, who was her husband and manager. In the song, Aretha sings about freedom and respect for women.

The song peaked at #7 in the Billboard 100 and #26 in the UK in 1968.

When I’m asked who my favorite female singers are…Aretha always comes up. Her soul had soul. She could take a mediocre song and make it great. I’ve heard her do songs such as “You Light Up My Life” and put life and soul in them.

From Songfacts

Jerry Wexler, who worked with Franklin on many of her hit songs, produced this track at the Atlantic Records recording studios in New York. Members of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section played at the session.

This song was released on May 2, 1968, less than a month after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4. Franklin’s family was close to King, and Aretha attended his funeral. The song’s insistant refrain of “freedom” evoked one of King’s famous quotes: “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last.”

Franklin performed this in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. The Blues Brothers themselves also recorded the song, which was released as the B-side of their 1989 UK single “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love.”

This was Franklin’s sixth #1 single on the R&B chart.

Leading up to the 2018 midterm elections in America, Levi’s used this in a commercial encouraging people to vote. The spot mostly used the “freedom” part of the song.

Think

You better think (think)
Think about what you’re trying to do to me
Think (think, think)
Let your mind go, let yourself be free

Let’s go back, let’s go back
Let’s go way on, way back when
I didn’t even know you
You couldn’t have been too much more than ten (just a child)
I ain’t no psychiatrist, I ain’t no doctor with degrees
But, it don’t take too much high IQ’s
To see what you’re doing to me

You better think (think)
Think about what you’re trying to do to me
Yeah, think (think, think)
Let your mind go, let yourself be free

Oh, freedom (freedom), freedom (freedom)
Oh, freedom, yeah, freedom
Freedom (freedom), oh oh freedom (freedom)
Freedom, oh freedom

Hey, think about it, think about it

There ain’t nothing you could ask
I could answer you but I won’t (I won’t)
But I was gonna change, but I’m not
If you keep doing things I don’t

You better think (think)
Think about what you’re trying to do to me
Think (think)
Let your mind go, let yourself be free

People walking around everyday
Playing games, taking scores
Trying to make other people lose their minds
Ah, be careful you don’t lose yours, oh

Think (think)
Think about what you’re trying to do to me, ooh
Think (think)
Let your mind go, let yourself be free

You need me (need me)
And I need you (don’t you know)
Without eachother there ain’t nothing people can do, oh

Think about it, baby (What are you trying to do me)
Yeah, oh baby, think about it now, yeah
(Think about, forgiveness, dream about forgiveness)
To the ball, forgiveness
Think about it baby
To the ball, forgiveness
To the ball, forgiveness

Temptations – Cloud Nine

This was written by Motown writers Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, who had written earlier Temptations hits “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” and “Just My Imagination.” Love the bass in this song.

This was a new sound for The Temptations. It was psychedelic soul-funk similar to Sly & the Family Stone, rather than the earlier smooth Soul they were known for. The song peaked at #6 in the Billboard 100 in 1969.

The Temptations all together had 4 number 1 hits, 15 Top Ten hits, and 53 songs in the Billboard 100.

This was the first Motown song to win a Grammy. It won for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance By A Duo Or Group, Vocal Or Instrumental in 1968.

From Songfacts

This was the first Temptations song recorded with new lead singer Dennis Edwards. David Ruffin, their original leader, was fired after he missed a gig. Ruffin became very difficult to work with when Motown refused to bill the group as “David Ruffin and The Temptations,” as they had done with “Diana Ross and The Supremes.”

The lyrics could be interpreted to be about drugs, which would go against The Temptations clean-cut image. They knew Whitfield and Strong didn’t do drugs, however, so they didn’t have a problem with the lyrics.

This was the first Motown song to use a wah-wah pedal. A white guitarist named Dennis Coffey brought it to a Motown workshop and played it for Whitfield while he was arranging this song. Whitfield loved the way it worked and had Coffey join the Motown house band when they recorded the track.

Whitfield used Coffey on many more sessions, including the seminal track “War.” Coffey, who had a hit on his own with “Scorpio,” considers his work on “Cloud Nine” some of his best. “It’s kicking major ass,” he told Songfacts. “That groove was so funky it’s amazing.”

Whitfield and Strong wrote this shortly after the songwriting team of Holland/Dozier/Holland left Motown. Holland/Dozier/Holland wrote many of the hits for the label, so it was a big boost for Motown when Whitfield and Strong stepped up and wrote another hit.

The week after this was released, Motown head Berry Gordy released Marvin Gaye’s version of “Heard It Through The Grapevine,” which until then he refused to release because he did not think it was a hit.

Cloud Nine

Oh ho, ho ho ho, ooh, hoo
Childhood part of my life, it wasn’t very pretty
You see, I was born and raised in the slums of the city
It was a one room shack that slept ten other children besides me
We hardly had enough food or room to sleep
It was hard times
Needed something to ease my troubled mind
Listen, my father didn’t know the meaning of work
He disrespected mama, and treated us like dirt
I left home, seekin’ a job that I never did find
Depressed and downhearted I took to cloud nine
I’m doin’ fine, up here on cloud nine
Listen one more time I’m doin’ fine, up here on cloud nine
Folks down there tell me
They say, give yourself a chance son, don’t let life pass you by
But the world of reality is a rat race where only the strongest survive
It’s a dog eat dog world, and that ain’t no lie
Listen, it ain’t even safe no more to walk the streets at night
I’m doin’ fine, on cloud nine
Let me tell you about cloud nine

Cloud nine, you can be what you wanna be
(Cloud nine) you ain’t got no responsibility
And ev’ry man, ev’ry man is free
(Cloud nine) and you’re a million miles from reality
I wanna say I love the life I live
And I’m gonna live the life I love up here on cloud nine
I, I, I, I, I, I I’m riding high
On cloud nine, you’re as free as a bird in flight
(Cloud nine) there’s no diff’rence between day and night
(Cloud nine) it’s a world of love and harmony
(Cloud nine) you’re a million miles from reality

Cloud nine, you can be what you wanna be
Cloud nine you ain’t got no responsibility
Cloud nine, and ev’ry man in this world is free
(Cloud nine) and you’re a million miles from reality
(Cloud nine) you can be what you wanna be

Velvet Crush – Hold Me Up —-Powerpop Friday

This song released in 1994 was on the album Teenage Symphonies to God. It has everything you would want out of a power pop song. They got the name of the album from something Brian Wilson said… “I’m writing a teenage symphony to God,”

The Velvet Crush formed in Rhode Island in 1989, although vocalist/bassist Paul Chastain and drummer Ric Menck first met and began performing together in Champaign, Illinois. There Menck founded his own small label, Picture Book, on which he and Chastain recorded solo material as well as singles under various group names like the Springfields, Choo Choo Train, the Paint Set, and Bag-O-Shells.

The band broke up in 1996 but re-formed in 1998 and has continued to record, releasing their most recent album in 2004. Vocalist/bassist Paul Chastain and drummer Ric Menck are the band’s core members and they share singing and songwriting duties. Their debut album In the Presence of Greatness was produced by Matthew Sweet,

Hold Me Up

Dead on the phone
One is too alone
Suffer as the days
Linger on and on
Miles and miles away
Hold me up when I’m gone
Hold me up when I’m gone

Time down the road
Nothing much to show
Suffer as the days
Linger on and on
Miles and miles away
You hold me up when I’m gone
Hold me up when I’m gone

Touching down and out of sight
And being found to be alright

Life on the phone
Wasted space at home
Suffer as the days
Linger on and on
Miles and miles away
You hold me up when I’m gone
Hold me up when I’m gone
You hold me up when I’m gone

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

The Byrds – So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star —-Powerpop Friday

This song peaked at #29 in 1967 in the Billboard 100. This is the first hit song to use a variation of the term “rock star” in the title. Rock had been around since about 1955, but the term “rock star” didn’t get talked about until the ’70s, when it became a way to describe the most glamorous and intriguing artists.

The song was written by Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. It was written asa tongue-in-cheek look on fame and the pop music industry.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers often covered this song. Petty was a huge fan of The Byrds, and also loved a good cautionary rock star tale.

From Songfacts

Many interpreted it as a swipe at the success of manufactured rock bands like The Monkees, but Roger McGuinn has confirmed that he and Chris Hillman were not writing about The Monkees, but instead the whole music business.

Even after the term became ubiquitous, it was rarely used in song titles; the Dutch pop group Champagne hit #83 with “Rock And Roll Star” in 1977, but it wasn’t until 2007, when the rock era had long since ended, that songs with that title in the term began to proliferate. That year brought us:

“Party Like A Rock Star” – Shop Boyz (#2)
“Rockstar” – Nickelback (#6)
“Do It Just Like A Rockstar” – Freak Nasty (#45)
“Rock Star” – Hannah Montana (#81)

It was mostly hip-hop acts that used the term from then on, notably Rihanna with “Rockstar 101” and Post Malone with “Rockstar.”

The recording was dubbed with the sound of screaming girls, taped at a Byrds show in Bournemouth, England during the band’s 1965 UK tour.

South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela contributed the clarion trumpet solo.

So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star

So you want to be a rock and roll star?
Then listen now to what I say
Just get an electric guitar
Then take some time

And learn how to play
And with your hair swung right
And your pants too tight
It’s gonna be all right

Then it’s time to go downtown
Where the agent man won’t let you down
Sell your soul to the company
Who are waiting there to sell plastic ware

And in a week or two
If you make the charts
The girls’ll tear you apart
The price you paid for your riches and fame

Was it all a strange game?
You’re a little insane
The money, the fame, and the public acclaim
Don’t forget who you are

You’re a rock and roll star
La, la, la, la, la, la, la

Led Zeppelin – Tangerine

This song and Hey Hey What Can I Do are my top two favorite Zeppelin songs.

Jimmy Page wrote this and first recorded it when he was still with The Yardbirds. I’ve read where Yardbirds singer Keith Relf wrote some of the lyrics originally and was given some of the credit but the record company turned it down for release. Later on, Jimmy would use it on the 3rd Zeppelin album with his lyrics.

This was the last Zeppelin song Page wrote without any input from Robert Plant. It’s also the only track on Led Zeppelin III for which Plant didn’t write the lyrics.

At the time the album got mixed reviews from critics and fans alike. Many fans wanted the same heavy albums as the first two. This album had a mix and they perfected it on their next album.

This was used at the end of the 2000 movie Almost Famous in a scene where a bus drives away…I thought the song was brilliant in that scene in the movie.

From Songfacts

Robert Plant would sometimes introduce this at concerts by saying: “This song is for our families and friends and people we’ve been close to. It’s a song of love at its most innocent stages.”

Jimmy Page played a pedal steel guitar on this track. He told Guitar Player magazine in 1977: “On the first LP there’s a pedal steel. I had never played steel before, but I just picked it up. There’s a lot of things I do first time around that I haven’t done before. In fact, I hadn’t touched a pedal steel from the first album to the third. It’s a bit of a pinch really from the things that Chuck Berry did. Nevertheless, it fits. I use pedal steel in ‘Your Time Is Gonna Come.’ It sounds like a slide or something. It’s more out of tune on the first album because I hadn’t got a kit to put it together.”

Why does this song fade to silence a few seconds in? Jimmy Page explained when previewing the song for Melody Maker in 1970: “That’s commonly known as a false start. It was a tempo guide, and it seemed like a good idea to leave it in – at the time. I was trying to keep the tempo down a bit. I’m not so sure now it was a good idea. Everybody asks what the hell is going on.”

Led Zeppelin played this during acoustic sets on their early tours.

This was the second Zeppelin song named after a fruit. “The Lemon Song” was the first.

According to Jimmy Page, this song was dedicated to Jackie DeShannon, who was his girlfriend when he wrote the song. DeShannon, a member of the Songwriting Hall of Fame, had hits as a singer with “What the World Needs Now Is Love” and “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.”

This was recorded on April 4, 1968 at one of the last studio sessions for The Yardbirds, under the title “Knowing That I’m Losing You.” This first version performed by The Yardbirds, featured music almost identical to “Tangerine” by Led Zeppelin, but with different lyrics (vocals by Keith Relf), and was never officially released. It was supposed to be included on the Cumular Limit compilation (which was released in 2000), together with other materials from the same sessions, but interestingly enough, Page vetoed the release of the song. Since then, the version from The Yardbirds has leaked onto the internet, and Page has been accused of ripping off a Yardbirds composition, simply changing the majority of the lyrics (probably initially written by Keith Relf) in order to avoid any problem with the other members of his previous group. This would explain his veto against the release of the original song. It is not easy to ascertain the above, as the remaining members of The Yardbirds haven’t spoken about the subject so far.

Tangerine

Measuring a summer’s day, I only finds it slips away to grey
The hours, they bring me pain

Tangerine, Tangerine, living reflection from a dream
I was her love, she was my queen, and now a thousand years between

Thinking how it used to be
Does she still remember times like these?
To think of us again?
And I do

Tangerine, Tangerine, living reflection from a dream
I was her love, she was my queen, and now a thousand years between