Category: Singles

Dr. Hook – The Cover of the Rolling Stone

At one time this novelty song was true…you wanted to be on the cover of Rolling Stone when it was a good magazine…but that is a different discussion. This song was released in 1972 and peaked at #6 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in Canada. Dr. Hook was very successful with 6 top ten hits in their career. They were also known as Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.

From Songfacts.

This is a parody of the rock and roll lifestyle. It pokes fun at all the things that rock stars indulge in when they’re successful: groupies, shady characters hanging around, limo rides, etc.

The group had a funny side and a serious side, but it was the funny side that came out on stage and framed their image. The pirate theme added to the novelty of the group: originally known as the Chocolate Papers, they took the name Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show after the character in Peter Pan, which also played up the eye patch worn by their singer Ray Sawyer, who many people assumed was “Dr. Hook.” Sawyer wore the eye patch as a result of a car accident.

Cover of the Rolling Stone

Well, we’re big rock singers
We got golden fingers
And we’re loved everywhere we go (that sounds like us)
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth
At ten-thousand dollars a show (right)
We take all kinds of pills that give us all kind of thrills
But the thrill we’ve never known
Is the thrill that’ll gitcha when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone

(Rollin stone) want to see my picture on the cover
(Stone)Wanna buy five copies for my mother (yes)
(Stone)Wanna see my smilin’ face
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone (that’s a very very good idea)

I got a freaky ole lady name a cocaine Katy
Who embroideries on my jeans
I got my poor ole grey haired daddy
Drivin’ my limousine
Now it’s all designed to blow our minds
But our minds won’t really be blown
Like the blow that’ll gitcha when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone

(Rollin Stone) want to see our pictures on the cover
(Stone) want to buy five copies for our mothers (yeah)
(Stone) want to see my smilin’ face
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone
(talking) Hey, I know how
Rock and roll

Ah, that’s beautiful
We got a lot of little teenage blue eyed groupies
Who do anything we say
We got a genuine Indian Guru
Who’s teaching us a better way
We got all the friends that money can buy
So we never have to be alone
And we keep getting richer but we can’t get our picture
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone

(Rollin stone)Gonna see my picture on the cover
(Stone) Gonna buy five copies for my mother (wa wa)
(Stone) Gonna see my smilin’ face
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone
On the cover of the Rollin’ 
Stone) Gonna see my picture on the cover
(talking) I don’t know why we ain’t on the cover, baby
(Stone) Gonna buy five copies for my mother
(talking) We’re beautiful subjects
(Stone) Want to see my smilin’ face
(talking) I ain’t kiddin’, we would make a beautiful cover
On the cover of the Rollin’ Stone
(talking) Fresh shot, right up front, man
I can see it now, we’ll be up in the front
Smilin, man
Ah, beautiful.

Etch a Sketch

Oh, how this toy teased me as a kid. I would start drawing something halfway decent and then I would hit a wall because I would get so close to what I wanted and then make a wrong move…then came the shake part and start all over again. The definition of insanity would be this toy in my hands…but yet I still tried. Some people can do interesting things with it…I’m not one of those people.

In the late 50s French electrical technician André Cassagnes applied his experience with the clinging properties of an electrostatic charge to invent a drawing toy with no spare parts.

The Ohio Art Company took a look at the toy and invested $25,000.  It has sold more than 175 million units worldwide since it hit stores on July 12, 1960.

They have new versions of it now with more options. Related image

 

 

 

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

April Wine – Just Between You and Me

I’m not a big power ballad lover but this one I liked. I owned this single back in 1981. I also had the album “Nature of the Beast” which it came off of. The song peaked at #21 in the Billboard 100 and #22 in Canada. April Wine was the first Candian band played on MTV.

From Songfacts.

Through nine lineup changes, April Wine has been going continuously since 1969 up until the present day. The Nature of the Beast represents their commercial peak, selling over one million copies in the US. “Just Between You and Me” was also their greatest-selling single in the US, becoming the band’s defining power ballad. However, their career has spawned 32 hits on the Canadian charts, 21 of those in the top 40.
Although they’ve been nominated eleven times for a Juno award, April Wine hasn’t won one yet. They have, however, been inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, the East Coast Music Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, along with being presented with a CMW Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

Just Between You and Me

Time and time again I see
A love that seemed strong
Was not meant to be
Broken hearts don’t always mend
Left too unsure to try love again

But just between you and me
Baby I know our love will be
Just between you and me
Always I know our love will be
Just between you and me

Lovers often seem to say
Hearts can be blind to love gone astray
Always it’s the same old song
Someone’s been hurt by love that’s gone wrong

Just between you and me
Baby I know our love will be
Just between you and me
Always I know our love will be
Just between you
Just between you and me

Words are sometimes hard to find
The silence can be so unkind
You always help me find my way
The love that we share
Grows stronger each day

Just between you and me
Baby I know our love will be
Just between you and me
Always I know our love will be
Seulement entre toi et moi
Means that our love will always be
Just between you and me
Baby I know our love will be
Just between you
Just between you and me

Climax Blues Band – Couldn’t Get It Right

I remember this song from when I was growing up. The Climax Blues Band had been playing since the late 60s, more of a blues-rock outfit at first (the name sort of gives that away). But by 1976, when they cut Gold Plated, the band shifted gears. Paul Carrack-style keyboards, funky guitars, and a dance-floor beat crept in. The result was this song, and it was a perfect slice of transatlantic pop.

This wasn’t supposed to be the single. The label wanted a hit, the band knocked this one together, and boom: lightning in a bottle. Climax Blues Band never really matched the success of Couldn’t Get It Right again, but that hardly matters. One song like this that still plays on classic rock radio and quietly fills dance floors decades later.

They scored with this song in 1976, which peaked at #3 on the Billboard 100, #8 in Canada, and #10 in the UK. Their other big hit was “I Love You,” released in 1979. A version of this band is still playing today.

From Songfacts.

This song is a great example of the dual vocal technique The Climax Blues Band was known for. Holt explains: “Colin Cooper used to sing the lead – the low vocal, and I used to sing an octave higher. And then, because 4 of us sang in the band, we used to harmonize. The fact that we had the dual singing the same line but with an octave split made the sound very unique, and it’s still very unique today. Whenever people use it I think it’s great. That was one of our trademarks, we just used to sing together in unison.”

Couldn’t Get It Right

Time was drifting
This rocker got to roll
So I hit the road and made my getaway
Restless feeling, really got a hold
I started searching for a better way

But I kept on looking for a sign
In the middle of the night
But I couldn’t see the light
No, I couldn’t see the light
I kept on looking for a way
To take me through the night
I couldn’t get it right
I couldn’t get it right

LA fever made me feel alright
But I must admit it got the best of me
Getting down, so deep I could have drowned
Now, I can’t get back the way I used to be

But I kept on looking for a sign
In the middle of the night
But I couldn’t see the light
No, I couldn’t see the light
I kept on looking for a way
To take me through the night
I couldn’t get it right
I couldn’t get it right

New York City took me with the tide
And I nearly died from hospitality
Left me stranded, took away my pride
Just another no account fatality

I kept on looking for a sign
In the middle of the night
But I couldn’t see the light
No, I couldn’t see the light
I kept on looking for a way
To take me through the night
I couldn’t get it right
I couldn’t get it right

I kept on looking for a sign
In the middle of the night
But I couldn’t see the light
No, I couldn’t see the light
I kept on looking for a way
To take me through the night
I couldn’t get it right
I couldn’t get it right

I kept on looking for a sign
In the middle of the night
But I couldn’t see the light
No, I couldn’t see the light
I kept on looking for a way
To take me through the night
I couldn’t get it right
I couldn’t get it right

Billy Preston – Will It Go Round In Circles

Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher wrote this song as well as “Nothing from Nothing” and You Are So Beautiful. Will It Go Around In Circles peaked at #1 in the Billboard and #1 in Canada. Billy Preston played with the biggest names including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. When he was a teenager he played keyboards in Little Richard’s band and met The Beatles while they were still playing in Hamburg.

During the difficult recording of Let It Be George Harrison invited Billy to play with The Beatles and it eased the tensions with the group somewhat and Billy contributed to the album and movie.

He toured with the Stones in the seventies also.

 

From Songfacts.

This was borne out of a joke Preston made to his songwriting partner, Bruce Fisher, about having a song but no melody. The comment inspired the opening refrain, “I got a song that ain’t got no melody, I’m gonna sing it to my friends,” and set up similar proclamations, such as having a story with no moral and having a dance with no steps.

The song’s success allowed Fisher to finally quit his job in the mailroom at NBC in Burbank, California. He went on to collaborate with Preston on his next #1, “Nothing From Nothing,” and the Joe Cocker hit “You Are So Beautiful.”

Will It Go Round In Circles

I’ve got a song, I ain’t got no melody
I’ma gonna sing it to my friends
I’ve got a song, I ain’t got no melody
I’ma gonna sing it to my friends

Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?
Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?

I’ve got a story, ain’t got no moral
Let the bad guy win every once in a while
I’ve got a story, ain’t got no moral
Let the bad guy win every once in a while

Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?
Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?

I’ve got a dance, I ain’t got no steps, no
I’m gonna let the music move me around
I’ve got a dance, I ain’t got no steps
I’m gonna let the music move me around

Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?
Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?

Well
Well
Well
Well

Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?
Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?

I’ve got a song, I ain’t got no melody
I’ma gonna sing it to my friends
I’ve got a song, I ain’t got no melody
I’ma gonna sing it to my friends

Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?
Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?

Go round in circles
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?
Will it go round in circles?
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?

America – Lonely People

Maybe my favorite America song along with Sister Golden Hair. It peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100 and #16 in Canada in 1975. The song was a positive response to the Beatles Eleanor Rigby’s “All the lonely people: where do they all come from…where do they all belong”(according to wiki). Both songs were produced by George Martin.

From Songfacts.

Famed Beatles producer George Martin helmed this song along with the rest of the album in London. Peek recalled to Circus: “Gerry (Beckley) had been in England, and we’d talked about using George Martin as our producer. He’s such a hot arranger, thinking about all the stuff he’s done. There were several other people we wanted to use, but that idea sort of flashed and George was available. Gerry had a house outside of London where we knew we could rehearse.”

The trio met with George Martin in Los Angeles, at the offices of America’s managers, Geffen-Roberts. Peek remembered with a laugh: “The first thing he did was take his shirt, sweater and shoes off. He said it was too hot in L.A. He put everyone at ease, and we just got along well from the first second. He has a very musical mind, and as we began working we bounced ideas off of him quite a bit, with things like vocal arrangements and guitar parts. It was an amazing experience working for a mind-producer.”

 

Lonely People
This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup
And ride that highway in the sky

This is for all the single people
Thinking that love has left them dry
Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup
You never know until you try

Well, I’m on my way
Yes, I’m back to stay
Well, I’m on my way back home (Hit it)

This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup
And never take you down or never give you up
You never know until you try

Jim Croce – Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)

This is one of the first songs I remember hearing. I’ve always liked the song and it remains my favorite of Jim Croce. It peaked at #17 in the Billboard 100 and #11 in Canada. Jim’s songs were about everyday people. Jim and Maury Muehleisen guitars blended perfectly with each other.

Jim Croce quote about Operator

“I got the idea for writing “Operator” by standing outside of the PX waiting to use one of the outdoor phones. There wasn’t a phone booth; it was just stuck up on the side of the building and there were about 200 guys in each line waiting to make a phone call back home to see if theirÔDear John’ letter was true, and with their raincoat over their heads covering the telephone and everything, and it really seemed that so many people were going through the same experience, going through the same kind of change, and to see this happen especially on something like the telephone and talking to a long-distance operator-this kinda registered. And when I got out of theArmy I was working in a bar where there was a telephone directly behind where I was playing and I couldn’t help but be disturbed by it all the time, and I noticed that the same kind of thing was going’ on. People checkin’ up on somebody or finding out who was Ð what was goin’ on, but always talking to the operator. And I decided that I would write a song about it. But I didn’t really start getting the idea for the song itself, the real outline of it until I was doing the construction work after I got out of the music business the first time, and I started carrying a cassette machine in the truck. I started ÔOperator’ on the way back, one afternoon, just singin’ into a cassette machine. But it’s-it’s one of those songs that kinda comes out of experiences that you watch for a long time, just to see if they’re really valid. I kinda like to write songs about things that a lot of people have experience with because it really makes the songs communicate.”

 

Operator

Operator, well could you help me place this call?
See, the number on the matchbook is old and faded
She’s living in L.A. with my best old ex-friend Ray
A guy she said she knew well and sometimes hated

Isn’t that the way they say it goes? Well, let’s forget all that
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell ’em I’m fine and to show
I’ve overcome the blow, I’ve learned to take it well
I only wish my words could just convince myself
That it just wasn’t real, but that’s not the way it feels

Operator, well could you help me place this call?
Well, I can’t read the number that you just gave me
There’s something in my eyes, you know it happens every time
I think about a love that I thought would save me

Isn’t that the way they say it goes? Well, let’s forget all that
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell ’em I’m fine and to show
I’ve overcome the blow, I’ve learned to take it well
I only wish my words could just convince myself
That it just wasn’t real, but that’s not the way it feels
No, no, no, no that’s not the way it feels

Operator, well let’s forget about this call
There’s no one there I really wanted to talk to
Thank you for your time, ah, you’ve been so much more than kind
And you can keep the dime

Isn’t that the way they say it goes? Well, let’s forget all that
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell ’em I’m fine and to show
I’ve overcome the blow, I’ve learned to take it well
I only wish my words could just convince myself
That it just wasn’t real, but that’s not the way it feels

Maria Muldaur – Midnight at the Oasis

It took years for me to appreciate this song but I do now. Her voice is incredible on it. Critics and other rock stars loved this song at the time. It peaked at #6 in the Billboard 100, #21 in the UK, and #2 in Canada in 1974.

AllMusic reviewer Matthew Greenwald describes the song as “so sensual and evocative that it was probably one of the most replayed records of the era and also may be responsible for the most pregnancies from a record during the mid-’70s”

 

From Songfacts.

A hit song can become a burden to a singer if she is sick of the song yet still expected to perform it night after night. So how does Muldaur feel about constantly performing this song? She told us: “I still do enjoy singing it. And you know why? Because number one, it was a very hip-ly written song. A lot of the jazz artists have covered it because it’s very well constructed. Imagine my plight if my big hit had been ‘Wild Thing‘ by the Troggs, a really dumb three-chord song. But it’s a song that’s so well constructed that an artist can improvise on it night after night. So that’s reason number one, it’s a cool song.

Reason number two is I love the look of the faces of the audience when the band strikes that number up, when the band goes into the intro of that number. Because apparently, from all the stories that have been told to me when I meet my fans after the show to sign my CD, that song was the soundtrack to many a love-and-lust affair, and if I had been

 writing down all the stories of what people tell me they were doing or were inspired to do because of that song, or as that song was playing, I could have written quite the little x-rated book. So when I start that song, people’s faces light up and I see very happy, maybe slightly x-rated memories flitting across their faces. And so that’s worth more than any Grammy nomination or award – to hear first hand from your fans, from hundreds and hundreds of fans, how a piece of music I didn’t even write, but that I selected and recorded and just put out there in the airwaves, just had such a happy impact on people’s lives. What a gift is that?”

Midnight at the Oasis

Midnight at the oasis
Send your camel to bed
Shadows painting our faces
Traces of romance in our heads
Heaven’s holding a half-moon
Shining just for us
Let’s slip off to a sand dune, real soon
And kick up a little dust
Come on, Cactus is our friend
He’ll point out the way
Come on, till the evening ends
Till the evening ends
You don’t have to answer
There’s no need to speak
I’ll be your belly dancer, prancer
And you can be my sheik

I know your Daddy’s a sultan
A nomad known to all
With fifty girls to attend him, they all send him
Jump at his beck and call
But you won’t need no harem, honey
When I’m by your side
And you won’t need no camel, no no
When I take you for a ride
Come on, Cactus is our friend
He’ll point out the way
Come on, till the evening ends
Till the evening ends
Midnight at the oasis
Send your camel to bed
Got shadows painting our faces
And traces of romance in our heads

 

Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose

Jack White of the White Stripes is a huge fan of Loretta Lynn. The White Stripes dedicated their 2001 album, ”White Blood Cells,” to her and invited her to share a bill with them at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan.

Jack White produced her album “Van Lear Rose” and he asked Loretta to write all 13 songs for the album. The title refers to the Van Lear Coalmines from her youth. White said he would have been happy just to play tambourine on the album as long as he got to work with her.

Country radio ignored it but the album reached #2 on the country charts and #24 in the Billboard 200. The album is great and this is the song that I liked best.

From Wiki 

The album was released to glowing reviews and near universal acclaim. It received a rating of 97 at Metacritic.com, the joint-second highest score and the highest for a female to date

Personal Story about Loretta Lynn

I barely remember it but I actually had breakfast with Loretta Lynn. I was only 8 years old. My mom knew someone who knew her… we were at her Ranch that was just open to the public. She saw us and pointed and said “come in here” and we sat at the table and ate with her. She was very nice. She kept asking if I needed anything and if I was having a good time. Honestly its a blur to me now but I do remember that part…very classy and nice lady.

Van Lear Rose

One of my fondest memories
Was sittin’ on my daddy’s knee
Listenin’ to the stories that he told 
He’d pull out that old photograph
Like a treasured memory from the past 
And say child
This here’s the Van Lear RoseOh how it would bring a smile 
When he talked about her big blue eyes
And how her beauty ran down to her soul
She’d walk across the coal miner’s yard 
Them miner’s would yell loud and hard 
and they’d dream of who would hold
The Van Lear Rose[Chorus:]
She was the belle of Johnson County
Ohio river to Big Sandy
A beauty to behold like a diamond in the coal
All the miner’s they would gather ’round 
Talk about the man that came to town
Right under their nose 
Stole the heart of the Van Lear Rose

Now the Van Lear Rose could’ve had her pick
And all the fellers figured rich
Until this poor boy caught her eye
His buddies would all laugh and say
Your dreamin’ boy she’ll never look your way
You’ll never ever hold the Van Lear Rose

[Chorus]

Then one night in mid July
Underneath that ol’ blue Kentucky sky
Well, that poor boy won that beauty’s heart
Then my daddy would look at my mommy and smile
As he brushed the hair back from my eyes and he’d say
Your mama
She’s the Van Lear Rose

[Chorus]

Right under their nose
Stole the heart of the Van Lear Rose

Nena – 99 Luftballons

This song was all over the place in 1984. Both the English and German versions were played and I liked the German version better…I thought it just flowed better than the English version. When I heard “Captain Kirk” I knew I liked it.

The German version went to #2 in the Billboard 100. The English version went to #1 in the UK and #1 in Canada.

From Songfacts.

This was released in Germany, where Nena was from. Their record company had no intention of releasing it in America until a disc jockey at radio station KROQ in Los Angeles found a copy and started playing it. They recorded an English version (the original words are in German, and yes, “Captain Kirk” in German is still “Captain Kirk”) with the title translated as “99 Red Balloons” and released it in the US, where it was a big hit.

Nena’s guitarist, Carlo Karges, got the idea for the song after watching balloons being released at a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin. He wrote the lyrics and Nena’s keyboard player Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen wrote the music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Luftballons

Below are both versions

99 Luftballoons

Do you have some time to myself
then I sing a song for you
99 balloons
on their way to the horizon

you might think g’rad me
Then I sing a song for you
99 balloons
And this does not come from something like

99 balloons
on their way to the horizon was
thought to be for space-based UFOs So
a General

‘Ne squadron sent an
alert after that if that were the case.
There were
only 99 air balloons

99 jet aviators
Everyone was a great warrior considered
themselves Captain Kirk
Es gave a big fireworks

The neighbors have not gathered
And you felt the same turned on
It shot on the horizon
On 99 Balloons

99 Minister of War
Match and jerry Can
for the clever people
Witterten already fat loot

Riefen, war and power
man, who would have thought
That it comes once
Because of 99 Balloons

Because 99 Balloons
99 balloons

99 years of war left
no room for victors
war minister’s no more
And no jet planes

Today I pull my laps
See the world in ruins
Have found a balloon
think of you and let him fly

Ninety-Nine Red Balloons

You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we’ve got
Set them free at the break of dawn
‘Til one by one they were gone
Back at base bugs in the software
Flash the message: “something’s out there!”
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it’s red alert
There’s something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Where ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine Decision Street
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we’ve waited for
This is it, boys, this is war
The president is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine knights of the air
Ride super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone’s a Super Hero
Everyone’s a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by

As ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It’s all over and I’m standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go

Dolly Parton – Jolene

This great artist has crossed genres and is loved by many for her singing, songwriting, acting, honesty, and just being Dolly. The song peaked at #60 on Billboard’s 100, #1 on the Hot Country Song Chart and #84 in Canada in 1974.

I’ve talked to people who have met her and know her. I hear the same stories on how nice and generous she is with her time. In the Country Charts Dolly has had 25 NO. 1 HITS 54 TOP 10 HITS 107 SONGS IN THE CHARTS

From Songfacts.

Dolly Parton has disclosed in several interviews that the song was also inspired by a red-headed bank clerk who flirted with her husband Carl Dean around the time they were newly married. Recalling the origins of her hit tune during her performance at Glastonbury 2014, she said: 

“Now, some of you may or may not know that that song was loosely based on a little bit of truth. I wrote that years ago when my husband was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be.

I put a stop to that. I got rid of that redhead woman in a hurry.

I want you folks to know, though, that something good can come from anything. Had it not been for that woman I would never have written ‘Jolene’ and I wouldn’t have made all that money, so thank you, Jolene.”

Some of the many artists who have covered this: The White Stripes, Reba McEntire, Olivia Newton-John and 10,000 Maniacs

Jolene
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
I’m begging of you: please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
Please don’t take him just because you can

Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green

Your smile is like a breath of spring
Your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you, Jolene

He talks about you in his sleep
There’s nothing I can do to keep
From crying when he calls your name, Jolene

And I can easily understand
How you could easily take my man
But you don’t know what he means to me, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
I’m begging of you: please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
Please don’t take him just because you can

You could have your choice of men
But I could never love again
He’s the only one for me, Jolene

I had to have this talk with you
My happiness depends on you
And whatever you decide to do, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
I’m begging of you: please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,
Please don’t take him even though you can

Jolene, Jolene

 

Brewer & Shipley – One Toke Over the Line…and another version

This is a catchy counterculture song by Brewer and Shipley. It was released in 1970 and it peaked at #10 in the Billboard 100 and was their only top 40 hit.

This song was performed on the Lawrence Welk Show sung by Welk Musical Family singers on his weekly television show. In 1971, singers Gail Farrell and Dick Dale performed “One Toke Over the Line” on the show. And after the song, Welk is seen on camera saying, “There you heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale.”

Lawrence liked to have popular songs performed on is show…I don’t think he got the full meaning of this one.

From Songfacts.

The incident that sparked this song happened at the Vanguard in Kansas City, Missouri. The band was playing the show because, in seeking to escape the LA music scene, they started a tour of their Midwest homelands. Shipley reports that he was given a block of hash and told to take two hits. He ignored the advice and instead took three. Shipley recounts in The Vinyl Dialogues, “I go out of the dressing room – I’m also a banjo player, but I didn’t have one, so I was playing my guitar – and Michael (Brewer) came in and I said, ‘Jesus, Michael, I’m one toke over the line.’ And to be perfect honest, I don’t remember if Michael was with me when I took that hit or not. I remember it as ‘not’; I think Michael remembers it as ‘yes.’ And he started to sing to what I was playing, and I chimed in and boom, we had the line.”

Brewer also remembers the occasion. “I just cracked up,” he said. “I thought it was hysterical. And right on the spot, we just started singing, ‘One toke over the line, sweet Jesus,’ and that was about it; then we went onstage.”

Brewer and Shipley…below is the Lawrence Welk version

 

The Lawrence Welk Show

One toke over the line sweet Jesus
One toke over the line
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line
Awaitin’ for the train that goes home, sweet Mary
Hopin’ that the train is on time
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line
Whoooo do you love, I hope it’s me
I’ve bin a changin’, as you can plainly see
I felt the joy and I learned about the pain that my momma said
If I should choose to make a part of me, surely strike me dead
Now I’m one toke over the line sweet Jesus
One toke over the line
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line
I’m waitin’ for the train that goes home sweet Mary
Hopin’ that the train is on time
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line
I bin away a country mile
Now I’m returnin’ showin’ off a smile
I met all the girls and loved myself a few
Ended by surprise like everything else I’ve been through
It opened up my eyes and now I’m
One toke over the line sweet Jesus
One toke over the line
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
Don’t you just know I waitin’ for the train that goes home sweet Mary
Hopin’ that the train is on time
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line
Don’t you just know I waitin’ for the train that goes home sweet Mary
Hopin’ that the train is on time
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line
I want to be
One toke over the line sweet Jesus
One toke over the line
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line
Don’t you just know I waitin’ for the train that goes home sweet Mary
Hopin’ that the train is on time
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line
Sittin’ downtown in a railway station
One toke over line
One toke, one toke over the line

Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)

This song came out in 1970 and was performed by Edison Lighthouse who was not a working band but an English studio group with Tony Burrows singing. This is bubblegum music but I do like it. In 1970 this song peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada and #1 in the UK.

Freedy Johnston also covered this song in 2001 and I like his version just as much or more as the original. The song didn’t chart but did get some airplay.. I have it under the original.

Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
She ain’t got no money
Her clothes are kinda funny
Her hair is kinda wild and free
Oh, but Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me
She talks kinda lazy
And people say she she’s crazy
And her life’s a mystery
Oh, but Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me
There’s something about her hand holding mine
It’s a feeling that’s fine
And I just gotta say
She’s really got a magical spell
And it’s working so well
That I can’t get away
I’m a lucky fella
And I’ve just got to tell her
That I love her endlessly
Because Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me
There’s something about her hand holding mine
It’s a feeling that’s fine
And I just gotta say
She’s really got a magical spell
And it’s working so well
That I can’t get away
I’m a lucky fella
And I’ve just got to tell her
That I love her endlessly
Because Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me
Fadeout:
It keeps growing every place she’s been
And nobody knows like me
If you’ve met her, you’ll never forget her
And nobody knows like me
La la la- believe it when you’ve seen it
Nobody knows like me

Arlo Guthrie – City of New Orleans

If I could meet any performer I wanted to…Arlo would be one of them. He seems like the most laid back guy in the world. His father was the great singer-songwriter, Woody Guthrie. Arlo wrote some very good songs but he didn’t write this one. City of New Orleans was written by Steve Goodman. Steve did a great job writing this song. Its structure and imagery are fantastic.

Arlo released this in 1972 and it peaked at #18 in the Billboard 100 and #11 in Canada.

Arlo said he ignored his mother’s advice.  She said if he wanted to play music that was fine…but learn something else as a fallback. He said if he would have learned something else, in the hard times he would have done something else instead of music.

“I’ve quoted my dad a lot of over the years. One of my favorite things he said is: ‘It’s better to fail at being yourself than to succeed at being somebody else’.”

From Songfacts about the writer Steve Goodman

Goodman wrote the lyrics on a sketch pad after his wife fell asleep on the Illinois Central train, where they were going to visit his wife’s grandmother. Goodman wrote about what he saw looking out the windows of the train and playing cards in the club car. Everything in the song actually happened on the ride.

After he returned home, Goodman heard that the train was scheduled to be decommissioned due to lack of passengers. He was encouraged to use this song to save the train, so he retouched the lyrics and released it on his first album in 1971.

The City of New Orleans

Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields
Passin’ trains that have no names
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles

Good morning America how are you?
Don’t you know me I’m your native son
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Dealin’ cards with the old men in the club car
Penny a point ain’t no one keepin’ score
Won’t you pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumblin’ ‘neath the floor
And the sons of Pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father’s magic carpets made of steam
Mothers with their babes asleep
Are rockin’ to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they dream

Good morning America how are you?
Don’t you know me I’m your native son
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Nighttime on The City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
Half way home, we’ll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness
Rolling down to the sea
And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain’t heard the news
The conductor sings his song again
The passengers will please refrain
This train’s got the disappearing railroad blues

Good night, America, how are you?
Don’t you know me I’m your native son
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen

This was a very enjoyable song by Dexy’s Midnight Runners. It was very different than what was on the radio at the time. It was released in 1982 and peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the UK Charts, and #2 in Canada. The song was written by lead singer Kevin Rowland.

I really thought this band would score another hit but they ended up a one hit wonder…one thing that didn’t help was when they were opening up for David Bowie in France, Kevin Rowland called Bowie a bad copy of Bryan Ferry and later he told the British press: “We only agreed to the show because France is an important market for us – not because I have any respect for Bowie”… Not a smart thing to do.

From Songfacts.

This song is based on a true story. Eileen was a girl that Kevin Rowland grew up with. Their relationship became romantic when the pair were 13, and according to Rowland, it turned sexual a year or two later.

Rowland was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy in church. Sex was a taboo subject, and considered “dirty” – something that fascinated him. When he wrote this song, Rowland was expressing the feelings of that adolescent enjoying his first sexual relationship and dreaming of being free from the strictures of a buttoned-down society:

You in that dress
My thoughts I confess
Verge on dirty

The song describes the thin line between love and lust.

 

“Come On Eileen”

Come on Eileen

Come on Eileen

Poor old Johnnie Ray
Sounded sad upon the radio
But he moved a million hearts in mono
Our mothers cried
Sang along
Who’d blame them?

You’ve grown (you’re grown up)
So grown (so grown up).
Now I must say more than ever

Come on Eileen

Too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye, aye
And we can sing just like our fathers

Come on Eileen
Oh, I swear (what he means)
At this moment you mean everything
You in that dress
My thoughts I confess
Verge on dirty
Oh, come on Eileen

Come on Eileen

These people ’round here
Wear beaten-down eyes sunk in smoke-dried faces
They’re so resigned to what their fate is

But not us (no, never)
No, not us (no, never)
We are far too young and clever
Remember

Too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye, aye
Eileen I’ll hum this tune forever

Come on Eileen
Oh, I swear what (what he means)
Ah, come on let’s take off everything
Pretty red dress
Eileen (tell him yes)
Ah, come on let’s
Ah, come on Eileen

Pretty red dress
Eileen (tell him yes)
Ah, come on let’s
Ah, come on Eileen, please

Come on Eileen, too-loo-rye-aye
Come on Eileen, too-loo-rye-aye
Now you’re all grown
Now you have shown
Oh, Eileen

Say, come on Eileen
These things they are real
And I know how you feel
Now I must say more than ever
Things ’round here have changed

I say, too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye-aye

Come on Eileen
Oh, I swear (what he means)
At this moment you mean everything
You in that dress,
My thoughts I confess
Verge on dirty
Ah, come on Eileen

Ah, come on Eileen
Oh, I swear (what he means)
At this moment you mean everything
You in that dress,
My thoughts I confess
Well, they’re dirty
Come on Eileen

Come on Eileen