This song was a B side of “Don’t Stop” with both songs coming on the great album Rumors. This is a nice short acoustic Lindsey Buckingham written song. It’s a very understated but powerful song compared with the other ones on the album and one of my favorites.
Lindsey is a great guitar player. He is not flashy but he plays just what is needed like the sustained solo in “Go Your Own Way.” This song is what made me start listening to his playing.
from Rolling Stone Magazine: In the studio, co-producer Ken Caillat asked Buckingham to restring his guitar every 20 minutes. “I wanted to get the best sound on every one of his picking parts,” Caillat said. “I’m sure the roadies wanted to kill me. Restringing the guitar three times every hour was a bitch. But Lindsey had lots of parts on the song, and each one sounded magnificent.”
According to Q magazine, June 2009 the inspiration for this Lindsey Buckingham penned song was a brief relationship with a woman whom he’d met on the road. Buckingham had only recently broken up with his Fleetwood Mac co-singer Stevie Nicks.
Most of the Rumours album was recorded at The Record Plant in Sausalito, California, but this song was recorded at Studio City Sound Recording Studios in Los Angeles. According to recording assistant Cris Morris, this song took a while to record. Said Morris: “It was Lindsey’s pet project, just two guitar tracks but he did it over and over again. In the end his vocal didn’t quite match the guitar tracks so we had to slow them down a little.”
Never Going Back Again
She broke down and let me in Made me see where I’ve been
Been down one time Been down two times I’m never going back again
You don’t know what it means to win Come down and see me again
Been down one time Been down two times I’m never going back again
More soul from the seventies. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 and #6 in Canada. The Main Ingredient had two top ten hits and 11 songs in the top 100. The band was formed in Harlem, New York City in 1964 as a trio called the Poets, composed of lead singer Donald McPherson, Luther Simmons, Jr., and Tony Silvester. Don McPherson died of leukemia in 1971 and was replaced by Cuba Gooding, Sr…the father of Cuba Gooding Jr.
I love Seventies soul music. There were so many great artists like The Delfonics, The Chi-Lites, Smokey Robinson, and the list goes on.
Everybody Plays the Fool
Okay, so your heart is broken You sit around mopin’ Cryin’ and cryin’ You say you’re even thinkin’ about dyin’ Well, before you do anything rash, dig this
Everybody plays the fool sometime There’s no exception to the rule Listen, baby, it may be factual, may be cruel I ain’t lyin’, everybody plays the fool Falling in love is such an easy thing to do And there’s no guarantee that the one you love Is gonna love you
Oh-oh-oh, lovin’ eyes they cannot see A certain person could never be Love runs deeper than any ocean You can cloud your mind with emotion
Everybody plays the fool, sometime There’s no exception to the rule Listen, baby, it may be factual, may be cruel I want to tell ya Everybody plays the fool
How can you help it when the music starts to play And your ability to reason is swept away Oh-oh-oh, heaven on earth is all you see You’re out of touch with reality And now you cry but when you do Next time around someone cries for you
Everybody plays the fool, sometime They use your heart like a tool Listen, baby, they never tell you so in school I want to say it again Everybody plays the fool Listen to me, baby Everybody plays the fool, sometime (No exception) no exception to the rule It may be factual, may be cruel, sometime But everybody plays the fool Listen, listen, baby Everybody plays the fool
One of my favorite Paul Simon songs. The lyrics, melody, and the reggae feel make this song a classic. Paul’s songwriting is world class…the structure to his songs are great as well as is his guitar playing. The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100 and #5 in the UK in 1972.
Simon wrote this in response to the Jimmy Cliff song “Vietnam,” where a mother receives a letter about her son’s death on the battlefield. Simon recorded “Mother and Child Reunion” in Jamaica using Cliff’s musicians, hence the very authentic sound. Simon said of the song that it “became the first reggae hit by a non-Jamaican white guy outside Jamaica.”
Simon came up with the title after seeing a chicken and egg dish called “Mother and Child Reunion” on the menu at 456 Restaurant in Chinatown, New York.
This was Simon’s first single as a solo artist.
Paul Simon was ahead of the trend when he released this reggae-infused song: Johnny Nash went to #1 US later in 1972 with “I Can See Clearly Now,” and Eric Clapton topped the chart with “I Shot The Sheriff” (a Bob Marley cover) in 1974.
Mother and Child Reunion
No I would not give you false hope On this strange and mournful day But the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away, oh, little darling of mine
I can’t for the life of me Remember a sadder day I know they say let it be But it just don’t work out that way And the course of a lifetime runs Over and over again
No I would not give you false hope On this strange and mournful day But the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away, oh, little darling of mine
I just can’t believe it’s so Though it seems strange to say I never been laid so low In such a mysterious way And the course of a lifetime runs Over and over again
But I would not give you false hope On this strange and mournful day When the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away
Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a moment away
Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a moment away
Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a moment away
I remember hearing this song on Fast Times at Ridgemont High. A good pop song by Jackson in 1982 and it peaked at #7 in the Billboard 100 and #16 in Canada in 1982. It was written by Jackson Browne and Danny Kortchmar.
This was his highest ever charting song.
Jackson Browne recorded the song for the film because he was friends with its writer, Cameron Crowe. The song’s co-writer Danny Kortchmar was also friends with Crowe, and was working on the song “Love Rules” for the film with Don Henley when he came up with the framework for “Somebody’s Baby.” Kortchmar convinced Browne to finish writing the song and record it for the movie.
Browne has called this an “unabashed pop song.” Most musicians would want their most popular songs on their albums, but Browne was OK having it on the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, despite the advice of his former label boss David Geffen, who told him he was nuts for giving it up.
This song is about a guy who is infatuated with a girl, and convinces himself that she must have a boyfriend. As he tries to work up the courage to talk to her, he keeps losing confidence by reminding himself that she’s too fine not to be taken.
This was part of a memorable scene in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, where it was used to express the feelings of a frustrated teenager. The movie was a huge hit and helped drive the chart success of the song. “Somebody’s Baby” was the only hit from the soundtrack, although “Moving In Stereo” by The Cars was used in a famous scene and also became associated with the film.
Jackson Browne wrote this song with Danny Kortchmar, who played guitar on his Running On Empty and Lives In The Balance albums. Kortchmar had the music and the “must be somebody’s baby” hook. He knew Browne could do something special with the song, so he brought what he had to Jackson, who helped Kortchmar complete it. That’s what I brought to him: all the guitar parts and everything else. In our 2013 interview, Kortchmar explained:
“It was not typical of what Jackson writes at all, that song. But because it was for this movie he changed his general approach and came up with this fantastic song. It’s a brilliant lyric. I think it’s absolutely wonderful. But it’s atypical of him – he wasn’t sure what to make of it himself. He didn’t want to put it on his album that he was making because it was atypical of what he did, but it ended up being something that got requested a lot and he ended up playing it live and taking it to his heart, as it were. And now he plays it all the time.”
Somebody’s Baby
Well, just, a look at that girl with the lights comin’ up in her eyes. She’s got to be somebody’s baby. She must be somebody’s baby. All the guys on the corner stand back and let her walk on by.
She’s got to be somebody’s baby. She must be somebody’s baby. She’s got to be somebody’s baby. She’s so fine.
She’s probably somebody’s only light. Gonna shine tonight. Yeah, she’s probably somebody’s baby, all right.
I heard her talkin’ with her friend when she thought nobody else was around. She said she’s got to be somebody’s baby; she must be somebody’s baby. Cause when the cars and the signs and the street lights light up the town,
She’s got to be somebody’s baby; She must be somebody’s baby; She’s got to be somebody’s baby. She’s so
She’s gonna be somebody’s only light. Gonna shine tonight. Yeah, she’s gonna be somebody’s baby tonight.
I try to shut my eyes, but I can’t get her outta my sight. I know I’m gonna know her, but I gotta get over my fright. We’ll, I’m just gonna walk up to her. I’m gonna talk to her tonight.
Yeah, she’s gonna be somebody’s only light. Gonna shine tonight. Yeah, she’s gonna be somebody’s baby tonight. Gonna shine tonight, make her mine tonight.
Atomic Rooster… Now that is a name. I’ve been in short term bands with different names such as… “The Flying Junebugs”, “The Cryin ‘Shame” and “Green Swingset” but Atomic Rooster is unique. Atomic Rooster was an English rock band, originally composed of former members of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Throughout their history keyboardist, Vincent Crane was the only constant member and wrote the majority of their material.
This is another song I noticed on the Life On Mars series in the mid-2000s.
Their history is defined by two periods: the early-mid-1970s and the early 1980s. Their genre in music is difficult to define since they went through radical changes in very short times during the life of the band. However, their best-known era represented a more hard rock/progressive rock sound, exemplified by their only hit singles, Tomorrow Night (UK No. 11) and The Devil’s Answer (UK No. 4), both in 1971.
The Devil’s Answer
People are looking but they don’t know what to do It’s the time of the season for the people like you Come back tomorrow, show the scars on your face It’s a clue to the answer we all chaseThree, five and seven lift the heaviest load reach the top of the heaven that’s fallen below Devil may care but you wish for the best can’t you see there’s an answer that lies there Come all you sinners and keep with the time can we see all the faces that have fallen behind Don’t make the reason it’s a secret for you
There’s a clue to the answer we all know There’s no clue to the answer we all know People are looking but they don’t know what to do It’s the time of the season for the people like you Come back tomorrow, show the scars on your faceIt’s a clue to the answer we all chase It’s a clue to the answer we all chase
This is a rocking song from 1971 made it to the top 10 at #10 in the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, and #5 in the UK. This song got blacklisted and of course, gave it a boost. After singles such as “Mary Had A Little Lamb” this song gave Paul some “cool” teenager credibility about apparently getting high.
In an interview with the October 2010 edition of Mojo magazine, McCartney claimed to be surprised when the BBC blacklisted this song. Said the former Beatle: “Look at Bob Dylan, ‘everybody must get stoned.’ It was like, ‘Ooh, does he mean you get high? Or does he mean getting drunk? So there was that ambiguity and I assumed the same would apply to me.”
This song was banned by the BBC for what they described as “inappropriate sex and drugs references.” Fair enough – McCartney is singing about getting high, using his “sweet banana” and “doing it” to her!
McCartney talked about this song in a 2018 interview with GQ. “A lot of people were getting high, so to me it was just like a fantasy song, sort of saying, ‘Hey girl, come on let’s get high,'” he said. “It was just about the times. It’s very much a period piece, but it goes down well.”
McCartney dropped this from his setlists after 1976, but brought it back in 2013 and has played it recurrently ever since. As a grandfather, the song can be a bit embarrassing, so he tweaks it a bit, singing, “Let’s get hi… on life!”
Hi Hi Hi
Well, when I met you at the station You were standing with a bootleg in your hand. I took you back to my little place For a taste of a multicolored band. We’re gonna get hi hi hi, The night is young. She’ll be my funky little mama, Gonna rock it and we’ve only just begun.
We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi With the music on. Won’t say bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye Til the night is gone. I’m gonna do it to you, gonna do it, Sweet banana, you’ll never give up. We’re gettin’ hi, hi, hi, in the midday sun.
Well well, take off your face, Recover from the trip you’ve been on. I want to lie on the bed, Get you ready for my polygon. I’m gonna do it to you, gonna do it, Sweet banana, you’ve never been done. Yes, I go like a rabbit, gonna grab it, Gonna do it ’til the night is done.
We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi with the music on. Won’t say bye,bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye Til the night is gone. I’m gonna do it to you, gonna do it, Sweet banana, you’ll never give up. We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi, we’re gonna get hi hi hi, We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi, in the midday sun.
Good riff and rock song by the Kinks. It starts off with a chord that is reminiscent of the “A Hard Days Night” intro. I was in high school when it was released and it was great to hear a guitar driven song.
Ray Davies wrote this about the stressful working schedules the Kinks were going through. The song peaked at #41 in the Billboard 100 in 1983.
Do It Again
Standing in the middle of nowhere Wondering how to begin Lost between tomorrow and yesterday Between now and then
And now we’re back where we started Here we go round again Day after day I get up and I say I better do it again
Where are all the people going Round and round till we reach the end One day leading to another Get up go out do it again
Then it’s back where you started Here we go round again Back where you started Come on do it again
And you think today is going to be better Change the world and do it again Give it all up and start all over You say you will but you don’t know when
Then it’s back where you started Here we go round again Day after day I get up and I say Come on better do it again
The days go by and you wish you were a different guy Different friends and a new set of clothes You make alterations and [a fact in you knows] A new house a new car a new job a new nose But it’s superficial and it’s only skin deep Cause the voices in your head keep shouting in your sleep Get back, get back
Back where you started, here we go round again Back where you started, come on do it again
Back where you started, here we go round again Day after day I get up and I say, do it agaiiinnn Do it again Day after day I get up and I say, do it again
The song started out as a mistake, but one that Charles Wright liked. The record company didn’t want him to record it. “No one wanted to record it. I had to sneak a bass player, drummer, and engineer into the studio one Sunday and cut it in secret,” Wright recalls. “The president of Warner Bros. told me I made a mistake. So did every DJ that I played it for. But I had a feeling that it was a hit.”
Charles was right…it peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100 in 1970. It has become one of the most licensed songs of the last 40 years.
Express Yourself
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
You don’t ever need help from nobody else. All you got to do now:
Express Yourself!
What ever you do, do it good. What ever you do, do it good. All right…
It’s not what you look like, when you’re doin´ what you’re doin´. It’s what you’re doin´ when you’re doin´ what you look like you’re doin´!
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
They’re doin´it on the moon, yeah… In the jungle too. Everybody on the floor, now. Jumpin´ like a kangaroo. So let the horns do the thing they do, yo…
Some people have everything, and other people don’t. But everything don’t mean a thing if it ain´t the thing you want.
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
O, do it! O, do it. Do it to it. Go on and do it. Yo, do it. Give.
The first time I heard this song was the Dave Clark Five’s version. It was written by Motown president Berry Gordy Jr, who wrote it for The Temptations, but they failed to arrive for the recording session. At the same time but in a different Motown studio, The Contours arrived to record “It Must Be Love,” but Gordy had other ideas – he asked them to cut “Do You Love Me” instead. The song became one of Motown’s first hits.
The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 in 1962. This would be The Contours last top 40 hits although they would place 8 songs in the top 100.
From Songfacts
Joe Billingslea of The Contours told Mojo magazine February 2009 the story of this song: “We had just left the record hop and we turned at the studio. The doors were always open in those days. Berry was down there at the piano and he said ‘I want you to try this song I’m writing.’ He told us how he wanted the backgrounds to go and we sang it. ‘Try it again, I didn’t quite like it,’ he said. After about the third time he said, ‘That’s not right. I think I’ll give it to The Temptations instead.’ I told him not to. We did it again and he said, ‘That’s exactly how I want it. Come in tomorrow morning, we’re going to record it.’ So we did.
I didn’t like the song. It reminded me of ‘Twist And Shout.’ I said: ‘This song ain’t gonna do nothin’, man.’ That same week it was released and the following week it made the charts. I turned around and said: I love that song! Did I change my opinion? Of course! We realized later that The Temptations could never have sung that song because it wasn’t suited to them but Berry had motivated us to sing it the way he wanted it.”
This song peaked in popularity just as Motown launched their first “Motortown Revue” tour to showcase their acts. The Countours were stars of the show, igniting crowds with “Do You Love Me.” Lower on the bill were some other Motown acts that had yet to hit, including Marvin Gaye, Little Stevie Wonder, and The Supremes.
After being featured in the 1988 movie Dirty Dancing, this was re-released 26 years after it was originally recorded. This time, it charted at #11. The song was a good fit for Dirty Dancing, which despite featuring some modern, original songs, was set in 1963. This was a great song of that era for a dance scene.
The Dave Clark Five recorded this in 1964 as the British Invasion was underway. Their rendition hit #11 in the US. On March 8, 1964, The DC5 played it on the first of their 12 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.
In his autobiography To Be Loved, recalls a confrontation with Motown’s primary bass player, James Jamerson, over this song. Jamerson, who is lauded as a creator of the Motown sound, was playing a jazz beat during the session despite Berry’s instructions. “You’ve got to stay on the f–kin’ downbeat,” Berry told him, hoping he wouldn’t have to kick his star bassist out of the session. When they rolled for the next take, Jamerson did as instructed, playing the Pop groove Gordy requested… until Berry took his eyes off him. “In that split second, Jamerson hit four or five Jazz upbeats in rapid succession,” Gordy recalled. “I turned to let him have it, but before I could say anything he had jumped back on the downbeat so brilliantly I could only smile.”
In 1963, London group Brian Poole And The Tremeloes recorded a version that topped the charts in 16 countries including the UK.
This song featured in a 2016 Pepsi commercial starring Janelle Monáe. In the spot, which debuted during the Super Bowl, Monáe dances to the song before entering another room where she goes through a time warp and joins in the celebration to Madonna’s “Express Yourself.”
Do You Love Me
You broke my heart ’cause I couldn’t dance, You didn’t even want me around And now I’m back to let you know I can really shake ’em down
Do you love me? (I can really move) Do you love me? (I’m in the groove) Now do you love me? (Do you love me now that I can dance?) Watch me, now (Work, work) ah, work it out baby (Work, work) well, I’m gonna drive you crazy (Work, work) ah, just a little bit of soul, now? (Work) Now I can mash potatoes (I can mash potatoes) I can do the twist (I can do the twist) Tell me, baby, do you like it like this? Tell me (tell me) tell me
Do you love me? Do you love me, baby? Now do you love me? (Do you love me now that I can dance?) Watch me, now (Work, work) ah, work it out baby (Work, work) well, I’m gonna drive you crazy (Work, work) you are getting kind of cold, now (Work) (Work, work) with just a little bit of soul, now ? (Work, work) come on, come on now (Work, work) I’m gonna drive you crazy (Work) I can mash potatoes I can do the twist Well now, tell me, baby, do you like it like this? Tell me (tell me) tell me
Do you love me? Do you love me, baby? Do you love me? Do you love me? Now that I can dance (Work, work) ah, work it out baby (Work, work) well, I’m gonna drive you crazy (Work, work) oh you are getting kind of cold, now (Work) (Work, work) with just a little bit of soul, now (Work, work) now don’t you get kinda bold, now? (Work, work) oh, work it out, baby
It’s a song by Charlie Rich who is more known as a country artist and his 1970s hits “Behind Closed Doors” and “The Most Beautiful Girl” off of his album Behind Closed Doors. This is not like Rich’s other hits but it’s a good song.
I first heard about this song when I read The Beatles were listening to this song when they met Elvis and Elvis had it on his jukebox when they all met. The song peaked at #21 in the Billboard 100 in 1966. The song became a hit, ending up in the top 30 on the pop charts.
Charlie played piano on Sun Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and then signed with Grove records…after that, he signed with Smash records and this was his first release on that label.
The song was written by Dallas Frazier who also wrote “Elvira”…the song that the Oak Ridge Boys made famous.
Mohair Sam
Well – who is the hippie that’s happenin’ all over our town? Tearin’ up chicks with the message that he lays down Who is the coolest guy, what is, what am? That’s fast-talkin’ – slow walkin’ – good-lookin’ Mohair Sam
Chicks are making reservations for his lovin’ so fine (so fine) Screamin’ and shoutin’ he’s got ’em all waitin’ in line Who is the coolest guy, what is, what am? That’s fast-talkin’ – slow walkin’ – good-lookin’ Mohair Sam
Who is the hippie that’s happenin’ all over our town? Tearin’ up chicks with the message that he lays down Who is the coolest guy, what is, what am? That’s fast-talkin’ – slow walkin’ – good-lookin’ Mohair Sam
This song is all about the riff…it is a memorable riff… The song has drive and suspense. Woman from Tokyo peaked at #60 in 1973. This is one of the group’s most popular songs, but they never liked it very much. They didn’t start playing it live until they re-formed in 1984 after their 1976 split.
Because of endless touring and fatigue, Ian Gillan gave a six-month notice and stated that he was leaving the band after fulfilling all of his commitments in 1973. The album Who “Do We Think We Are” was released in January of 1973. The release generated the hit single “Woman from Tokyo.” “Smoke on the Water” was also busy that year becoming Deep Purple’s biggest hit of all-time.
After lead singer Ian Gillian left Deep Purple in 1973 they had two other lead singers before reforming in 1984…and they were David Coverdale and Joe Lynn Turner.
Deep Purple started recording their Who Do We Think We Are in Rome in July 1972. At this point, the band had yet to tour Japan, but they had three shows scheduled there for August: two in Osaka followed by one at the Budokan arena in Tokyo. Drawing on Japanese imagery (“the rising sun,” “an Eastern dream”), they concocted a story of a lovely lady from that country who drives them wild.
Rome was sunny and relaxing, so the band spent a lot of time in the swimming pool in lieu of working. There was also a sound problem in the studio, and the only track they got out of those sessions was “Woman From Tokyo.” The rest of the album was done in Germany.
In 1973, this was issued as a single, achieving a modest chart position of #60 in America. It aged well and got a lot of airplay on AOR and Classic Rock radio stations, keeping it alive. The stretched out “Toe-Key-Oh” became a bit of an earworm and helped embed the song into many an auditory cortex.
On some compilations from the ’70s, this song is listed as “live,” which Roger Glover insists is a lie, since they never did the song live in that decade.
Woman from Tokyo
Fly into the rising sun Faces, smiling everyone Yeah, she is a whole new tradition I feel it in my heart
My woman from Tokyo She makes me see My woman from Tokyo She’s so good to me
Talk about her like a Queen Dancing in a Eastern Dream Yeah, she makes me feel like a river That carries me away
My woman from Tokyo She makes me see My woman from Tokyo She’s so good to me
But I’m at home and I just don’t belong
So far away from the garden we love She is what moves in the soul of a dove Soon I shall see just how black was my night When we’re alone in Her City of light
Rising from the neon gloom Shining like a crazy moon Yeah, she turns me on like a fire I get high
My woman from Tokyo She makes me see My woman from Tokyo She’s so good to me
It took me a few listens to warm up to this song…after that, I’ve been hooked. Roger Daltrey on Happy Jack. “I remember when I first heard ‘Happy Jack’, I thought, ‘What the f–k do I do with this? It’s like a German oompah song!’ I had a picture in my head that this was the kind of song that Burl Ives would sing, so ‘Happy Jack’ was my imitation of Burl Ives!”
The song peaked at #24 in the Billboard 100 and #3 in the UK in 1967.
Pete Townshend based the “Happy Jack” character on the strange and not-too-intelligent guys who used to hang around English beaches and play with the kids. Townshend would play on the Isle Of Man beach as a kid.
This was featured on The Who’s second album, A Quick One. In the US, the album title was changed to “Happy Jack” due to record company fears that the original title was a reference to sex.
In 1966 The Who were slotted to film a television series in much the same vein as the Monkees series. For the pilot episode, the band filmed a clip to go along with this song. It featured the 4 of them as robbers attempting to rob a safe. They get distracted, however, by a cake sitting close by and wackiness ensues as The Who smear themselves from head to foot with frosting. Finally a cop busts in and foils their plan, chasing them out of the room. The show never aired, but the clip can now be found in the Kids Are Alright DVD. The clip is light years ahead of its time for what other bands of the ’60s were doing.
A live version can be found on the expanded Live at Leeds album.
At the tail end of the song, you can hear Townshend yelling the phrase “I saw yer!” to Who drummer Keith Moon. Apparently, Moon had been banished from the studio and was trying to sneak back in.
This song was used in an ad campaign for the Hummer H2 in 2004. The commercial featured a boy in a wooden car rolling straight down a hill to win a soap box derby instead of taking the winding road down like everyone else.
Happy Jack
Happy Jack wasn’t old, but he was a man He lived in the sand at the Isle of Man The kids would all sing, he would take the wrong key So they rode on his head on their furry donkey
The kids couldn’t hurt Jack They tried and tried and tried They dropped things on his back And lied and lied and lied and lied and lied
But they couldn’t stop Jack, or the waters lapping And they couldn’t prevent Jack from feeling happy
But they couldn’t stop Jack, or the waters lapping And they couldn’t prevent Jack from feeling happy
The kids couldn’t hurt Jack They tried and tried and tried They dropped things on his back And lied and lied and lied and lied and lied
But they couldn’t stop Jack, or the waters lapping And they couldn’t prevent Jack from feeling happy
I’ve always liked this song and Tanya’s voice. This song was first recorded by Alexander Harvey in 1972. Tracy Nelson (who sang backup on the original) and Bette Midler put the song in their live repertoire before it became a country hit for a 13-year-old Tanya.
The song peaked at #6 in the Country Charts, #3 in Canada and #72 in the Billboard 100 in 1972.
Helen Reddy would take the song to #1 in the Billboard 100 in 1973.
Barbra Streisand passed on the song after the backing track had been recorded by her producer without her prior knowledge.
Delta Dawn
Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today To take you to his mansion in the sky?
She’s forty-one and her daddy still calls her “baby” All the folks around Brownsville say she’s crazy ‘Cause she walks dowtown with a suitcase in her hand Looking for a mysterious dark-haired man
In her younger days they called her Delta Dawn Prettiest woman you ever laid eyes on Then a man of low degree stood by her side And promised her he’d take her for his bride
Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today To take you to his mansion in the sky?
Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today To take you to his mansion in the sky?
Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today To take you to his mansion in the sky?
Delta Dawn, what’s that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? And did I hear you say he was a-meeting you here today To take you to his mansion in the sky?
A great bluesy song off of Pearl, Janis’s last album. The song peaked at #78 in the Billboard 100 in 1971. “Get It While You Can” was written by the songwriting team of Jerry Ragovoy and Mort Shuman, and originally recorded by the soul singer Howard Tate. The song was the title track to Tate’s debut album, which was produced by Ragovoy. His version made just #134 in the US, and Tate struggled in the business before giving up music in the mid-’70s.
Pearl was Janis’s most polished album. Janis died on October 4, 1970, and the album was released on January 11, 1971. The album would peak at #1.
John Lennon’s birthday was on October 9 and Janis recorded a birthday message for him while completing Pearl. She sang “Happy Trails”…but by the time John received the tape, Joplin had died.
In 2002, Tate once again teamed up with Ragovoy to record a new album called Rediscovered, on which they included a new version of this song. Speaking with Record Collector about the new version, Tate said, “The words mean much more to me now than they did back then, then they were just the words of a song someone had wrote for me. Now they have all the meaning in the world, I can relate to them. You have to Get It While You Can because you may not get it tomorrow, you may not get another chance.”
The most popular version of this song was recorded by Janis Joplin and the Full Tilt Boogie Band and included as the last track on her 1971 posthumous album Pearl. So if you listen to her primary studio albums in order of release, this is the last song you hear from her.
This song is about not passing up the opportunity for love and comfort, because life’s too mean and short. Isn’t that just about the cornerstone of Joplin’s philosophy? In the book Love, Janis by Janis’ sister Laura Joplin, Full Tilt Boogie Band guitarist John Till shares this moment of Janis’ free-wheeling spirit: “She’d come boogeying up to me and our faces would come right together like that, and then she’d give me a great big kiss. And I wouldn’t remember nothing except big asterisks and f***ing exclamation points over my head… It was an experience, taking a guitar solo in front of forty thousand people and getting this kiss from Janis.”
Also from Love, Janis, a glimpse into her application of the counter-culture philosophy right towards her last year: “In private, she was changing in small but important ways. When someone who latched onto her group was grumbling angrily about the ‘pigs’ abusing their power, Janis cut him short. ‘They’re cops, just people doing their job, honey. Don’t call them pigs, it just makes it worse.’ When she first started touring with Big Brother, if a waitress was rude to them because of their attire and style, they often left without tipping. On the Full Tilt tour, a rude waitress might be left a $100 bill, as a way to change her attitude about hippies.”
From the same book, a quote from Janis offering a take on her life’s work: “My whole purpose is to communicate. What I sing is my own reality. But just the fact that people come up to me and say, ‘Hey, that’s my reality too,’ proves to me that it’s not just mine.”
This song reached its peak position of #78 US in September 1971, nearly a year after Joplin died.
Get It While You Can
In this world, if you read the papers, darling You know everybody’s fighting ah with each other You got no one you can count on babe Not even your own brother So if someone comes along He gonna give you some love and affection
I’d say get it while you can, yeah Honey, get it while you can, yeah Hey hey, get it while you can Don’t you turn your back on love, no, no
Don’t you know when you’re loving anybody, baby You’re taking a gamble on a little sorrow But then who cares, baby ‘Cause we may not be here tomorrow, no
And if anybody should come along He gonna give you any love and affection I’d say get it while you can, yeah Hey, hey, get it while you can Hey, hey, get it while you can Don’t you turn your back on love No no no, no no no no no
Oh, get it while you can, yeh Honey get it when you’re gonna wanna need it dear, yeah yeah Hey hey, get it while you can Don’t you turn your back on love No no no, no no no no, get it while you can
I said hold on to somebody when you get a little lonely, dear Hey hey, hold on to that man’s heart Hey hey, get it, want it, hold it, need it Get it, want it, need it, hold it Get it while you can, yeah Honey get it while you can, baby, yeah Hey hey, get it while you can
One of the reasons that Roger McGuinn is one of my favorite guitarists is because of this song. Roger has said he was influenced by John Coltrane when arranging the song.
The song peaked at #14 in the Billboard 100 and #24 in the UK in 1966
Many people…including me believe this song is about drugs, but the band claimed it was inspired by a flight where singer Gene Clark asked guitarist Roger McGuinn how high they were in the sky. McGuinn told him six miles, but for the song, they changed it to eight.
Roger McGuinn on Eight Miles High
Eight Miles High has been called the first psychedelic record. It’s true we’d been experimenting with LSD, and the title does contain the word “high”, so if people want to say that, that’s great. But Eight Miles High actually came about as a tribute to John Coltrane. It was our attempt to play jazz.
This story was likely a smokescreen to keep the song in the good graces of sensitive listeners. The band had been doing a lot of drugs at the time, including LSD, which is the likely inspiration. If the band owned up to the drug references, they knew it would get banned by some radio stations, and that’s exactly what happened when a radio industry publication reported that the song was about drugs and that stations should be careful about playing it. As soon as one station dropped it, others followed and it quickly sank off the charts.
When we asked McGuinn in 2016 if the song was really about drugs, he replied: “Well, it was done on an airplane ride to England and back. I’m not denying that the Byrds did drugs at that point – we smoked marijuana – but it wasn’t really about that.”
In his book Echoes, Gene Clark said that he wrote the song on his own with David Crosby coming up with one key line (“Rain gray town, known for its sound”), and Roger McGuinn arranging the song with help from Crosby.
In the Forgotten Hits newsletter, McGuinn replied: “Not true! The whole theme was my idea… Gene would never have written a song about flying. I came up with the line, ‘Six miles high and when you touch down.’ We later changed that to Eight because of the Beatles song ‘Eight Days a Week.’ I came up with several other lines as well. And what would the song be without the Rickenbacker 12-string breaks?”
This song is often cited in discussions of “Acid Rock,” a term that got bandied about in 1966 with the release of Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde album. The genre covers a kind of psychedelic music that became popular at the time, and also the look and lifestyle that went with it. “Acid Rock” was hailed as a pathway to higher consciousness and derided as senseless drug music. At the end of the ’60s, the term petered out, as rock critics moved on to other topics for their think pieces.
The band recorded this on their own, but Columbia Records made them re-record it before they would put it on the album, partly because they had contracts with unions. The Byrds liked the first version better.
Don McLean referred to this in his song “American Pie,” which chronicles the change in musical style from the ’50s to the ’60s. The line is “Eight miles high and falling fast- landed foul out on the grass.” McLean could be sardonically implying that the song is about drugs, since “foul grass” was slang for marijuana.
Husker Du recorded a noise-pop version in 1985.
For decades, the story went that “Eight Miles High” was a commercial failure because it had been banned from radio due to its perceived pro-drug messages. Research presented by Mark Teehan on Popular Music Online challenges this theory. Teehan instead blames the song’s failure to chart on three factors:
First, its sound was too far ahead of its time, and radio stations didn’t know what to do with it.
Second, the departure of Gene Clark led to Columbia Records significantly shrinking the scope of the band’s advertising campaign.
Third, the success of Paul Revere and the Raiders’ “Kicks” further diminished Columbia’s support for the Byrds and “Eight Miles High.”
Eight Miles High
Eight miles high and when you touch down You’ll find that it’s stranger than known Signs in the street that say where you’re going Are somewhere just being their own
Nowhere is there warmth to be found Among those afraid of losing their ground Rain gray town known for its sound In places small faces unbound
Round the squares huddled in storms Some laughing some just shapeless forms Sidewalk scenes and black limousines Some living some standing alone
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