Singles – Page 2 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Guy Clark – The Randall Knife

Finding Guy Clark in the past few years has been amazing. Song after song that I can relate to with words that always fit. I lost my dad in 2005, so I can totally relate to this song. I have some of his tools for making guitars and an old wooden case he made for them. This song brought back a lot of memories. This song is a true story song in every sense of the word. I’m usually a little more hesitant on partial talking songs…but this one is a winner.

The song was on the album Dublin Blues, which was released in 1995. The musicians on this album were staggering. Rodney Crowell, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Nanci Griffith, Emmylou Harris, Kathy Mattea, and more. This song closed the album, and that’s where it belongs because it would have been hard to follow this song.

The song centers on a knife passed down from his father, a Randall Made Knives blade with history behind it. Clark doesn’t treat it like an object; it’s more like a stand-in for memory and loss. He talks about using it, holding it, and what it meant to his dad. By the end, the knife becomes a way of holding on to someone who’s gone.

The arrangement stays simple, and nothing pulls attention from the lyric. You can hear the same mindset in writers like Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle, where detail matters more than volume. Every line feels and is important.

It’s about one knife, one father, one set of memories. But it doesn’t stay there. Anyone who’s held on to something after losing someone will recognize it. Clark never says more than he needs to, and that’s the reason it holds up.

The Randall Knife

My father had a Randall knifeMy mother gave it to himWhen he went off to World War IITo save us all from ruinNow if you’ve ever held a Randall knifeYou’ll know my father wellAnd if a better blade was ever madeIt was probably forged in hell

My father was a good manHe was a lawyer by his tradeAnd only once did I ever seeHim misuse the bladeWell, it almost cut his thumb offWhen he took it for a toolThe knife was made for darker thingsYou could not bend the rules

Well, he let me take it camping onceOn a Boy Scout jamboreeAnd I broke a half an inch offTrying to stick it in a treeWell, I hid it from him for a whileBut the knife and he were oneHe put it in his bottom drawerWithout a hard word one

There it slept and there it stayedFor 20 some odd yearsSort of like ExcaliburExcept waiting for a tear

My father died when I was 40And I couldn’t find a way to cryNot because I didn’t love himNot because he didn’t tryWell, I’d cried for every lesser thingWhiskey, pain and beautyBut he deserved a better tearAnd I was not quite ready

So we took his ashes out to seaAnd poured ’em off the sternAnd then threw the roses in the wakeOf everything we’d learnedAnd when we got back to the houseThey asked me what I wantedNot the law books, not the watchI need the things he’s haunted

My hand burned for the Randall knifeThere in the bottom drawerAnd I found a tear for my father’s lifeAnd all that it stood for

My Favorite Soul Songs… Part II

I love this genre…I made Part 1 a couple of years ago, but never followed up. Sometimes soul blends with pop and is closely related to R&B. Below are a few that I have always liked.

Freda Payne – Band Of Gold

I’ve always liked this song. It’s a bit of a soap opera but it’s a really good soul song. The song peaked at #3 on the Billboard 100 in 1970. The guitar had a rubberband-type effect that was used in this song.

Because of the subject matter, Freda Payne did not want to record this at first. She thought the song was about a woman who was a virgin or sexually naïve and felt it was more suitable for a teenager. When Payne objected to this song, Ron Dunbar (co-writer of the song) said to her, “Don’t worry. You don’t have to like them! Just sing it,” and she did. Little did she know that this song would become her biggest hit and would give her her first record of gold.

Aretha Franklin – Baby I Love You

This is my personal favorite song of Aretha Franklin…and she has a boatload of great songs to pick from. She could bring soul to You Light Up My Life and THAT is saying something. I’ve said this a lot but Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin are my top female singers.

This Aretha Franklin song was released in 1967 and it was on the Aretha Arrives album. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, and #39 in the UK in 1967. Her sisters Carolyn and Erma provided backing vocals along with the Sweet Inspirations, an R&B girl group founded by Cissy Houston. Musicians who were featured on the track included engineer Tom Dowd and Muscle Shoals players Jimmy Johnson and Joe South on guitars, Tommy Cogbill on bass, Spooner Oldham on electric piano, and Roger Hawkins on drums. Truman Thomas also played the organ.

Franklin recorded this with Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler in New York City during the same session as Chain Of Fools. The song was written by Ronnie Shannon, who was also responsible for another hit for Aretha with I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You).

Temptations – I Wish It Would Rain

It sure got A LOT of play when I went through my first real hard breakup. You break up with someone…the Temptations have your back. Their greatest hits were more like advice than songs, which I loved.

David Ruffin sings this song, and you can feel the sadness and pain in his voice. The man had a tremendous voice. Naming my favorite Temptations song would be hard, but this one would be near the top.

The song has been covered by Gladys Knight and the Pips, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin and The Faces. This song was released right before the psychedelic soul hit Cloud Nine, and the band’s style began to change.

Stevie Wonder – I Was Made To Love Her

Of all Stevie Wonder songs…this one is at the top of the list for me.

Anything Stevie does, I like. Sometimes when I hear a song, it takes a few times for me to like it, but this one…hooked me the first time. This song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, and #5 in the UK Charts in 1967. The song was written by Wonder, Lula Mae Hardaway, Henry Cosby, and Sylvia Moy. Lula Mae Haraway was Stevie Wonder’s mother.

Jimmy Ruffin – What Becomes of the Broken Hearted

Jimmy Ruffin was the brother of then Temptation David Ruffin. This was written by Motown writers Jimmy Dean, Paul Riser, and William Witherspoon. They wrote it for The Detroit Spinners, but Ruffin convinced the Motown writers to let him try it, and they liked what they heard.

I think Motown has been the soundtrack to more breakups than anyone else. This song peaked at #7 in the Billboard 100 in 1966. The great Smokey Robinson produced this track. He worked on many Motown classics as an artist, writer, and producer. This would be Jimmy’s biggest hit of his career.

Godfathers – She Gives Me Love

There’s no easing into She Gives Me Love. It hits fast and stays there. Released in 1986 on Hit by Hit, the track shows what The Godfathers were about in their early run: tight playing, sharp edges, and no interest in slowing down.

I listened to their first real album Birth, School, Work, Death, and it was fantastic. I then skipped around and listened to some songs throughout their career. Super band… they have a tough, rough Katie bar the door… no-holds-barred sound. I hear some Who, Kinks, Small Faces, Sloan, and other bands in them.

The main reason I like them…the hooks. They know how to develop and use great hooks in the right places. While you have the hooks and melodies, you also have the super-aggressive anger riding on top of everything. They mix it perfectly. In short… abrasive in-your-face rock.

The band, led by Peter Coyne and Chris Coyne, came out of the UK scene with a sound that pulled from R&B and stripped-down rock. You can hear that here. The guitars are direct, and the whole thing feels built for a small room turned up too loud. It doesn’t try to expand beyond that.

This is one I came across later, digging past the usual tracks people mention. It felt like finding something still wired tight after all these years. No buildup, no release, just straight through. Sometimes that’s all you need.

She Gives Me Love

Don’t claim to understand herI wonder what she’s doing with meDon’t know what she does with the rest of her timeBut she gives it to me for free

She gives me loveShe gives me love

She never takes my moneyBut she always steals my timeShe’s the kind of a girl that if you gave her the worldShe’d say it wasn’t worth a dime

She gives me loveShe gives me love

It’s not easy to explain itThe effect she has on meMake a dumb man talk and a blind man seeThat sweet little mystery

She gives me loveShe gives me love

Band – Twilight

I have to thank obbverse for introducing this song. This song was on the 1976 album The Best Of The Band. It was also released as a non-album single in 1975, along with “The Weight” in the UK.

This is one I didn’t pay much attention to at first. It sat on that best of record surrounded by their giant songs. But over time, I would give it a listen or two. When obbverse mentioned it…I kept it on my playlist and realized how great a song it is. I also found an alternative version with Levon singing it. Something about Danko’s version, though, that makes it sound so personal.

The song was written by Robbie Robertson; like most Band material, it was shaped by everyone in the room. The sound is rooted in the group’s style, but the direction feels more centered.

Some bands have great voices and tight harmonies. The Beatles and The Beach Boys, to name a few, but The Band’s harmonies were loose, yet at the same time just as tight in their own way. They had that back porch and bluegrass sound. Their music sounded spontaneous, but it was well-crafted. They always left enough raw edge to keep it interesting.

Robbie Robertson’s words and melodies were Americana flowing through a Canadian who had part-Jewish and Native-Canadian roots. He would read one movie screenplay after another. It helped him with his songwriting to express the images he had in his head. Robbie also took stories Levon told him of the South and shaped them into songs.

Twilight

Over by the wildwoodHot summer nightWe lay in the tall grassTill the mornin’ lightIf I had my way I’d neverGet the urge to roamBut a young man serves his countryAn old man guards the homeDon’t send me no silly salutationsOr silly souvenirs from far awayDon’t leave me alone in the twilight‘Cause twilight is the loneliest time of dayI never gave it a second thoughtIt never crossed my mindWhat’s right and what’s notI’m not the judgin’ kindI can take the darkness, ohStorms in the skiesBut we all got certain trialsBurnin’ up insideDon’t put me in a frame upon the mantel‘Fore memories grow dusty old and grayYou don’t leave me alone in the twilight‘Cause twilight is the loneliest time of dayAnd don’t leave me alone in the twilight‘Cause twilight is the loneliest time of day

Tragically Hip – Fiddler’s Green

I heard this song while listening to Road Apples last year or so, and I knew I wanted to come back to it. A shout-out to deKe, who recommended this album to me. This one is such a beautiful and sad song. When I looked up the inspiration, I sadly understood.

There’s a quiet weight (best way I can describe it) to Fiddler’s Green that sets it apart in the catalog from what I heard of The Tragically Hip. It was released on Road Apples in 1991; it comes in soft and stays there. No huge dynamic, just a steady song that feels epic at times.

The song was written by Gord Downie after the loss of his 3 year old young nephew. That context explains the tone and meaning without needing to be spelled out in the lyrics. The band keeps the arrangement simple, light acoustic guitar, space between the notes, and a vocal that sounds like it’s being carried more than delivered. Producer Don Smith, who had worked with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, helped guide the sessions toward a more direct sound, and this track benefits from that restraint.

The album was recorded in New Orleans, and the environment shaped parts of the album, but this song feels separate from the rest. While other tracks were more into groove and band interplay, this song is kept simpler. It’s closer to a live recording in spirit, one voice, one guitar, and the room around it. The band understood it didn’t need more.

I didn’t hear this one right away when I first got into Road Apples. It was one of those tracks you come back to later, and it hits you differently. The first thing I thought was how different it was. The album peaked at #1 in Canada in 1991. The album had 6 singles released from it, but this one wasn’t one of them, and that is a shame.

I’m not an expert on this band, but after listening to the debut album and then this one. It sounded like a band settling into who they were. It’s an excellent album.

Fiddler’s Green

One, two, three, four, one, two

September seventeenFor a girl I know it’s Mother’s DayHer son has gone aleeAnd that’s where he will stayWind on the weathervaneTearing blue eyes sailor-meanAs Falstaff sings a sorrowful refrainFor a boy in Fiddler’s Green

His tiny knotted heartWell, I guess it never worked too goodThe timber tore apartAnd the water gorged the woodYou can hear her whispered prayerFor men at masts that always leanThe same wind that moves her hairMoves a boy through Fiddler’s Green

Oh, nothing’s changed anywayOh, nothing’s changed anywayOh, any time today

He doesn’t know a soulThere’s nowhere that he’s really beenBut he won’t travel long aloneNo, not in Fiddler’s GreenBalloons all filled with rainAs children’s eyes turn sleepy-meanAnd Falstaff sings a sorrowful refrainFor a boy in Fiddler’s Green

Formerly Brothers – The Return of the Formerly Brothers …album review

A while back, I really started to get into Doug Sahm because the guy was quality, period. Everything I’ve heard from him I’ve liked. Thanks to halffastcyclingclub for more information about Doug. He was born in 1941 and had singles out when he was 14 in 1955. He was a child prodigy and a proud Texan.

The Formerly Brothers brought together three players who already had long histories: Amos Garrett, Doug Sahm, and Gene Taylor. I’m grateful they did, and the reason I first listened was because of Doug Sahm, but he is far from the only one on this album. When three artists of this caliber get together, sometimes it can feel forced, but this one doesn’t. The album was released in 1987.

They got their name from the press always introducing them individually as “formerly of” different bands. They started this album after appearing at the 1986 Edmonton Folk Festival. The project came together as a collaboration between these artists who had crossed paths for years.

Doug Sahm founded, with Augie Meyers, The Sir Douglas Quintet. He would go on to have a solo career and also play with The Texas Tornados, among many others. The American-Canadian Amos Garrett became known for session work, including his time with Paul Butterfield and his guitar on Maria Muldaur’s Midnight at the Oasis. Gene Taylor worked with many artists, including Canned Heat and, later, The Blasters, but he was always in demand for his piano playing.

By all accounts, they got along well, and the music shows this. It sounds like very talented musicians having fun at a party, but the music stays precise, yet not rigid. What makes the record work is that it doesn’t try to give us any new style of music. It sticks with styles like blues structures, R&B grooves, barroom riffs, and pure country. Sometimes bundled all together for our listening pleasure.

The music slips easily into different styles like changing socks. The first song that got my attention on this album is the song Teardrops On Your Letter for its soulful sound and that tremelo guitar to open it. Sahm knocks that vocal out of the park. They cover Dylan with Just Like A Woman and it is a version I will go back to.

Louis Riel is another song that caught me right away. Again, it was the soulful voice of Sahm. The opener Smack Dab In The Middle is somewhere in the middle of R&B and Country. Big Mamou is pure old school country. Probably my favorite on the album is Queen of the Okanagan.

The record blends blues, R&B, country, and Texas roots music while blurring the lines between them. Sahm’s voice carries a lot of it while Garrett’s guitar fills the spaces with that clean tone and bending style. Gene Taylor’s piano is a big part of this album as well.

There’s a loose feel across the album, but it’s not sloppy. It’s the kind of looseness that comes from experience. If you’ve spent time with Sahm’s solo records or the Texas Tornados, this sits right alongside that world, just scaled down a bit.

The album won the Juno Award for Best Roots & Traditional Album at the Juno Awards of 1989. Also, here is a 15-minute interview with Doug Sahm. He tells a lot about his history in this one.

Connie Converse

I wrote this for Lisa’s WMM (Women Music March) as I have proudly done for the past few years in March. Lisa was one of the first followers I had when starting out, and she is one of the readers who helped build my site in a lot of ways. Please go see the original post and visit her site. Thanks, Lisa!

It’s a shame she is more remembered for what may or may not have happened to her than for her music. She has been hailed for being ahead of her time, and she was. I plead with everyone reading this, please look her up and read some things about her. I have barely scratched the surface with this post.

Connie Converse is one of the most unusual stories in folk music or music in general. She wrote quiet, thoughtful songs in the early 1950s. That was years before the folk revival made that style popular. At the time, almost no one outside a small circle of friends heard her music. Decades later, people realized she had been doing something new long before it became fashionable.

She was born Elizabeth Eaton Converse in 1924 in New Hampshire. She grew up in a strict Baptist family and showed an early interest in writing and music. After leaving college, she moved to New York City in the late 1940s. She went there hoping to find a place in the arts. Instead of the louder folk style that would come later, Converse wrote reflective songs that sounded closer to personal thoughts or even letters.

During the early 1950s, she performed occasionally in New York apartments and small gatherings. Her friend Gene Deitch, who later worked in animation, recorded many of her songs at home on a tape machine. In 1954, she appeared on The Morning Show on CBS, singing several of her compositions. The appearance did not lead to a recording contract, and by the end of the decade, she stepped away from performing.

In the early 1960s, Converse moved to Michigan and worked in publishing and writing. Music slowly faded from her life, and she became a huge activist on racism. On August 10, 1974, she wrote letters to friends and family and packed her belongings into a Volkswagen Beetle and drove away from her Ann Arbor, Michigan home. She was never heard from again, and her disappearance remains unexplained. She left letters indicating a desire to start a new life and instructed friends/family not to look for her. No traces of her or her car were ever found. There have been theories about her. While she may have started a new life, the most widely discussed theories include suicide (possibly by driving into a body of water) or death by misadventure.

Several years after she left, someone told her brother Philip that they had seen a phone book listing for “Elizabeth Converse” in either Kansas or Oklahoma, but he never pursued the lead. About ten years after she disappeared, the family hired a private investigator in hopes of finding her. The investigator told the family, however, that even if he did find her, it was her right to disappear, and he could not simply bring her back. After that, her family respected her decision to leave and ceased looking for her.

Her music might have stayed unknown if Gene Deitch had not preserved those early tapes. In 2009, the label Squirrel Thing Recordings released a collection of her recordings. For the first time, people heard the songs she had written more than fifty years earlier. Listeners were struck by how modern they sounded, both in their lyrics and their quiet delivery.

Today, Connie Converse is often mentioned as a lost pioneer of singer-songwriter music. She worked alone with a guitar, writing direct songs about daily life, loneliness, and independence, years before artists in the 1960s folk revival made that approach common.

What makes Connie Converse interesting is timing. She was writing personal, singer-songwriter-style material in the early 1950s, almost a decade before that approach became common. If these songs had been recorded during the 1960s folk revival, her story might look very different.

Connie Converse: “Human society fascinates me and awes me and fills me with grief and joy; I just can’t find my place to plug into it”

“I believe all true art is, in this sense, impersonal:
its value does not depend on knowing or thinking anything
about its maker. Art is not an extension of the artist’s personality,
but has its own life”

“The problem, or at least a problem, I’ve been told —
is that I am not very concerned about being missed
upon any of my exits, not the ones that are voluntary
nor the ones that swoop down without warning
to cover me in a quilt of dark feathers”.

Junkhouse – Praying for the Rain

Just found this Canadian band recently. A great mid – 90s Canadian roots rock band. This song comes from their 1993 debut, Strays, and it sounds like a band already past the starting line. Just straight ahead rock that stings.

The core of the band was singer and songwriter Tom Wilson, along with Ray Farrugia and Russ Wilson. Before Junkhouse, Wilson had been part of the band Florida Razors, but Junkhouse was a shift toward something more rooted in rock, blues, and country. Junkhouse didn’t come out of nowhere with Strays. By the time they got into the studio, they had already been playing around Hamilton, Ontario, for a while. That tightness shows up in the album. These songs were shaped on stage first. Tom Wilson’s vocal carries most of the weight. You hear it once, it sticks with you.

They never became a global name, but they didn’t disappear either. Their songs stuck around, especially in Canada, and over time they’ve picked up a kind of quiet reputation. If you go back to Strays now, it still sounds tight and right. It doesn’t sound made for radio, even though it got there. It sounds like guys in a room who knew when not to add more and do too much. This is one of those tracks I came across late, not when it was new, but it didn’t matter. It plays the same either way.

After Junkhouse wound down, Tom Wilson kept going. He formed Blackie and the Rodeo Kings with Colin Linden and Stephen Fearing, digging deeper into roots and folk. Later, he worked under the name Lee Harvey Osmond, exploring more atmospheric music.

This song peaked at #41 in Canada in 1993.

Praying For Rain

A big sun setting on the fields, I can’t sleep on this tractor wheelPut my seed into the earth, they never tell me just what it’s worthI’m praying for the rain, the open sky will seal my veinsWhen every farmer has made his grain, I’m praying for the rain, I’m stillPrayingThe road was clear the night was too, and that’s how I remember youI hop a fence, I make my bed, but I can’t make you leave my headI’m praying for the rain, just to wash away this painAnother headlight through my brain, I’m praying for the rain, I’m stillPrayingNow all my words have headed north, they rode a taxi or took a horseThe way I loved you was all in vain, I’m still praying for the rainI’m praying for the rain, beat the drum till I’m insaneGive the next dance craze a name, I’m praying for the rain, I’m stillPrayingYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Cocker – When The Night Comes

In 1989, I remember riding around in my Celica and hearing this song a lot on our then-local radio station, 103 WKDF. Later on in 2000, I got to see Joe Cocker open up for Tina Turner. Great concert with two huge talents. He hadn’t lost a step at all in 2000. The last time I posted a Cocker song, Christian reminded me about a later hit for him. It was either this one or Keep Your Hat On… but either way it’s excellent.

When this song opened the album One Night of Sin in 1989 and marked a strong return for Cocker. The track was written by Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance, and Diane Warren, and you can hear that late 80s style in the structure, built for radio but still rooted in R&B and rock.

The guitar entrance is what caught my ear. Over that, Cocker’s voice carries the song. He doesn’t overplay it; he lets the quality of his voice do the work. It is controlled, but still has that edge he was known for, and what I love about him. The track became one of his bigger late-career hits and helped reintroduce him to a wider audience at the end of the decade. I’ve heard the album, and it’s good, and they avoided overproduction.

It felt current for the time, but still like Joe Cocker. The groove pulls you in, but it is the vocal that keeps you there. It is a comeback song that doesn’t try to go overboard; it just works. The song peaked at #11 on the Billboard 100, #23 in Canada, and #65 in the UK in 1989. The album peaked at #52 on the Billboard Album Charts, #60 in Canada, and #20 in New Zealand.

When The Night Comes

Hold onI’ll be back for youIt won’t be longBut for now there’s something elseThat’s calling meSo take me down a lonesome roadPoint me east and let me goThat suitcase weighs me downWith memories

I just want to be the one you run toI just want to be the one you come toI just want to be there for someoneWhen the night comesLet’s put all the cares behind usAnd go where they’ll never find usI just want to be there beside youWhen the night comesWhen the night comes

Two spirits in the nightThat can leave before the morning lightWhen there’s nothing left to loseAnd nothing left to fearSo meet me on the edge of townWon’t keep you waiting I’ll be ’roundThen you and IWe’ll just roll right out of here

I know there’ll be a time for you and IJust take my hand and run awayThink of all the pieces of the shattered dreamWe’re gonna make it out some dayWe’ll be coming backComing back to stayWhen the night comes

I want to be the one you run toWhen the night comesTo be the one you’d come toI want to be the one you run toOohI just want to be the one you run towant to be the one you come toI just want to be there for someoneWhen the night comesLet’s put all the cares behind usAnd go where they’ll never find usI just want to be there beside youWhen the night comesWhen the night comesAh ah when the night comesWhen the night rolls downAh ah when the night comesI want to be with youAh ah when the night comesOh ah when the night comes inAh ah ohAh ah when the night comesWhen the night comesAh ah when the night comesI want to be right by your sideAh ah when the night comesYes babyAh ah ohDon’t do that to me womanAh ah ohEver stayed when the night time gets in hereAh ah when the night comesI want to rise and up in theWhen the night comesAh ah when the night comesAh ah ohLove me

Mink DeVille – Love and Emotion

I love this sound they had. It reminds me of old Springsteen and a Southside Johnny New Jersey sound. They changed through the years, but Willy DeVille kept his own personal sound. The intro is what hooked me on this. It sounds huge starting off, and that sax is just wonderful. I feel like I’m in a smoky bar listening to a great band around midnight. Been there, done that, and it’s awesome.

Mink DeVille was formed in 1974 in San Francisco, but they are known for their association with punk bands at the New York club CBGB. They would go on to record six albums, and Willy DeVille made 10 albums solo. The band lasted until 1986.

His songs seem to sound like the songs that came from street corners instead of studios. I mean that as a huge compliment. They feel grounded and tangible. This song is from the 1981 album Coup de Grâce, which keeps that feeling going. By this point, Willy DeVille had a mixture of soul, Latin rhythm, and rock and roll that set the band apart.

By the time Mink DeVille got to Coup de Grâce in 1981, things had shifted. The early CBGB-era lineup was mostly gone, and Willy DeVille was steering the band on his own terms. The sound moved a little further away from the rawer New York street feel of the first records. It was something more controlled, but it was still rooted in soul and R&B.

The album was produced by Jack Nitzsche (Jack Nitzsche said that DeVille was the best singer he had ever worked with), which matters here. Nitzsche had worked with everyone from Phil Spector to the Rolling Stones, and he understood how to build atmosphere. On this song, that approach shows. It’s a smoother album, but it never loses that club feel that Willy DeVille was good at.

The title suggests something soft, but the delivery has an edge. That contrast was always part of Mink DeVille’s sound. The music sounds older but without sounding like a revival act. The album peaked at #161 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1981.

Love And Emotion

We walk the street, and I hold your hand
And as we stroll along, I can’t understand
How a love can live
In this desolate land

Broken windows and broken hearts
And you are cheated before you start
Was there ever a chance?
No, there was never a chance

But then your love, love and emotion
Oh, your love, love and emotion
Oh, how your love, love and emotion
Oh, your love sets me free

So everyday at five o’clock
I run down your street to your block
And up five flights of
Up five flights of stairs

And in your laughter, there’s mission bells
Colored lanterns and carousels
And in this hallway is home
No, I’m not so alone

Because your love, love and emotion
Oh, your love, love and emotion
Oh, how your love, love and emotion
Oh, your love sets me free

Oh, how your love, love and emotion
Oh, your love, love and emotion
Oh, how your love, love and emotion
Oh, your love sets me free

Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Davy’s On The Road Again

This is one of those tracks I didn’t hear on the radio much growing up, but when I finally caught it, it stuck. It feels like a road song, not romantic, just moving forward. The keyboard hook is what pulls me back every time.

This showed up on the album Watch in 1978, but the song had already lived a life before Manfred Mann’s Earth Band got to it. It was written by producer John Simon and Robbie Robertson, and first recorded by John Simon in 1970. Like a lot of Mann’s best work, the band took an overlooked track and rebuilt it into something that felt bigger and more direct.

The album was a studio album, but with two live songs. This is one of them, and the other was Dylan’s Mighty Quinn. This version runs on momentum. and the groove is steady. Chris Thompson handles the vocals with control, letting the melody carry the weight. Then Mann’s keyboards come in, especially the Minimoog lines, which give the track its identity.

It fits the late 70s; I’m worn out by the road, theme, without spelling everything out. The band keeps their performance grounded. No over-the-top excess, just steady music. The song became one of their biggest live and chart successes, especially in Europe, and helped define this period of the band. Like their version of Blinded by the Light, it shows how Manfred Mann had a knack for finding songs and reshaping them without losing their core.

The song peaked at #6 in the UK in 1978. The album Watch peaked at #33 in the UK, #83 on the Billboard Album Charts, #29 in New Zealand, and #85 in Canada.

Davy’s On The Road Again

Davey’s on the road againWearing different clothes againDavey’s turning handouts downTo keep his pockets cleanAll his goods are sold againHis word is good as gold againSays if you see JeanNow ask her please to pity me

Jean and I we’ve moved alongSince that day down in the hollowWhen the mind went drifting onAnd the feet were soon to follow

Davey’s on the road againWearing different clothes againDavey’s turning handouts downTo keep his pockets cleanSaid his goodbyes againWheels are in his eyes againSays if you see JeanNow ask her please to pity me

Downtown is a big townGonna set you back on your heelsWith a mouth full of memoriesAnd a load of stickers for the windshield

Shut the door, cut the lightDavey won’t be home tonightYou can wait till the dawn rolls inYou won’t see our Davey again

Davey’s on the road againDavey’s on the road againDavey’s on the road again

Wearing different clothes againDavey’s turning handouts downTo keep his pockets cleanAll his goods are sold againHis word is good as gold againSays if you see JeanNow ask her please to pity me

Jean and I we’ve moved alongSince that day down in the hollowWhen the mind went drifting onAnd the feet were soon to follow

Squeeze – Piccadilly

I owned the album East Side Story, the fourth album by Squeeze, and this song caught my attention right off. It drew comparisons to the Beatles, especially in Rolling Stone Magazine at the time. That’s usually the kiss of death, and so unfair to any artist to start comparing to Dylan or anyone else. This album was hyped, but it paid off. This song wasn’t a hit, but it was a hit in my car and at home because I wore it out. So, #1 on Max’s chart.

One of the strengths of Squeeze was always their ability to shift gears within an album. On East Side Story, you get upbeat pop, soul influences, and a few slower pieces. In my opinion, they were one of the best pop bands of the 1980s, but didn’t get played here as much, except for a few big hit singles. Their songs were quality and good, and they didn’t sound thrown together to get a hit.

It was written by Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, and the song shows their usual approach with sharp observations about what is around them. Like Tempted, they use adjectives SO well in this, and it puts you in the song. You can see what they are talking about. As in a purple hairdryer, begging folk singer, the neon club lights of adult films and Trini Lopez, and just visuals, you can see. Tilbrook’s vocal keeps things straightforward, which fits the tone of the lyrics.

By 1981, Squeeze had become one of the most reliable songwriting bands of the British new wave era. After the success of Argybargy, the group wanted to try something broader for their next record. Instead of using one producer, the band worked with a couple, Elvis Costello and Roger Bechirian, which helped give the album its varied sound.

When the album was released in 1981, it became one of Squeeze’s most respected records. Songs like Tempted, Labelled With Love, Messed Around, Is That Love, and In Quintessence were the singles, but deeper cuts like this song show another side of the band, just as well-crafted.

The album peaked at #44 on the Billboard 100 and #19 in the UK in 1981.

Piccadilly

She’s not a picture above somebody’s fireShe sits in a towel with a purple hair dryer,She waits to get even with me.She hooks up her cupcakes and puts on her jumperExplains that she’ll be late to a worrying mother,She meets me in Piccadilly.A begging folk singer stands tall by the entranceHis song relays worlds of most good intentions,A fiver a ten p in his hat for collection.She talks about office she talks about dressesShe’s seen one she fancies her smile is impressing,So maybe I’ll treat her someday.We queue among strangers and strange conversationLove’s on the lips of all forms of engagements,All queuing to see tonight’s play.A man behind me talks to his young ladyHe’s happy that she is expecting his baby,His wife won’t be pleased but she’s not been round lately.The girl was so dreadful we left in a hurryWe escaped in the rain for an Indian curry,At the candle lit Taj Mahal.My lips to a napkin I called for a taxiThe invite of eyes made it tense but relaxed me,My mind took a devious role.The cab took us home through a night I’d not noticedThe neon club lights of adult films and Trini Lopez,My arm around love but my acting was hopeless.

We crept like two thieves from the kettle to the fireWe kissed to the sound of the silence that we’d hired,Now captured, your love in my arms.A door opened slightly a voice spoke in worryMum went to bed without wind of the curry,Our secret love made its advance.Like Adam and Eve we took bite on the appleLoose change in my pocket it started to rattle,Heart like a gun was just half of the battle.

Madness – One Step Beyond

In the 1980s, I was watching MTV, and I came across this band playing a song called Our House and I loved it. Not only did I like the song, but the bands irrevelant humor wore off on me. They didn’t take themselves seriously at all, and I respect that.

When this song came out in 1979, it sounded like a party breaking out in the middle of the British charts. Madness was part of the late-1970s ska revival that grew out of London clubs. Their version of this was actually a remake of a 1964 instrumental by Jamaican artist Prince Buster. Madness kept the structure but turned it into something louder and more chaotic. The song begins with Chas Smash shouting “Don’t watch that, watch this!” before the band launches into the riff. From that moment, it feels like a call to the dance.

It’s a fast ska rhythm, brass sounds, and a repeating organ line. Unlike many pop songs of the time, there is very little singing. Instead, the horns carry the melody while the band pushes the tempo forward. It captures the mix of Jamaican ska and British pub-rock attitude that defined the early Madness sound. The record was produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, who helped give the band a tight but lively sound.

The video, with the group dancing and marching through London streets, helped define their image. Madness were not trying to be serious rock stars. They looked like a gang of friends who started a band and brought the party with them. This was the title cut off of their debut album, released in 1979. The album peaked at #2 on the UK Album Charts and #27 in New Zealand that year. The song peaked at #7 in the UK.

Here is a later live version. The crowd was ready!

One Step Beyond

(Hey you, don’t watch that,
Watch this!
This is the heavy heavy monster sound
The nutsiest sound around
So if you’ve come in off the street
And you’re beginning to feel the heat
Well listen buster
You’d better to start to move your feet
To the rockin’est, rock-steady beat
Of Madness
One step beyond!)

(One step beyond!…)

Wilson Pickett – In The Midnight Hour

This song has been in my head all week. A great classic soul song and a great song in general. The guitar riff is simple but perfect… it drives the song along with Pickett’s explosive voice. It has to be one of my all-time favorite songs to play on bass or guitar. It’s a sliding riff that stays in a perfect rhythm.

The song was recorded in 1965 at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals. Pickett worked with producer and songwriter Jerry Wexler and Steve Cropper. Cropper came up with the guitar riff while the band worked out the rhythm in the studio. Wexler encouraged the musicians to play slightly behind the beat, which gave the song its loose but powerful feel. That rhythm became one of the signatures of the Muscle Shoals sound.

The backing musicians included members of the studio band that would later be known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Their playing is tight, but they left room for the song to breathe. Pickett’s voice sits right in the center, rough and urgent, especially when he shouts the title line. Al Jackson Jr. and Donald “Duck” Dunn from Booker T. & the MG’s played on this track with bandmate Cropper.

In the Midnight Hour” was recorded on May 12, 1965, with all musicians performing at once, in the repurposed movie theater that was the Stax recording studio, with absolutely no overdubs. The song peaked at #21 on the Billboard 100 and #1 on the R&B Chart in 1965.

In 2017, the song was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant. It was written by Pickett and Steve Cropper.

In The Midnight Hour

I’m gonna wait ’till the midnight hour
That’s when my love come tumbling down
I’m gonna wait ’till the midnight hour
When there’ no one else around
I’m gonna take you, girl, and hold you
And do all things I told you, in the midnight hour

Yes I am, oh yes I am
One thing I just wanna say, right here

I’m gonna wait till the stars come out
And see that twinkle in your eyes
I’m gonna wait ’till the midnight hour
That’s when my love begins to shine

You’re the only girl I know
Can really love me so, in the midnight hour

Oh yeah, in the midnight hour
Yeah, all right, play it for me one time, now

I’m gonna wait ’till the midnight hour
That’s when my love come tumbling down
I’m gonna wait, way in the midnight hour
That’s when my love begin to shine, just you and I
Oh, baby, just you and I
Nobody around, baby, just you and I
Oh, right, you know what?
I’m gonna hold you in my arms, just you and I
Oh yeah, in the midnight hour
Oh, baby, in the midnight hour

Stooges – Fun House

I like the Stooges because I like raw and uncooked…and that is them. This song was the title track of their second studio album. This one is not just loud guitar and vocals. If you are a saxophone fan, you will like this. Steve Mackay plays the tenor saxophone in this and tears it up.

When they entered the recording studio in 1970, the band wanted to capture what their shows sounded like. Producer Don Gallucci helped them set up the room so the group could play together, loud and loose as normal for them. Out of those sessions came this song, a track that shows how far the band had moved from the more structured songs on their first album.

The lineup at the time was Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave Alexander. The song runs on a repeating riff from Ron Asheton while the rhythm section locks into a groove that sticks. Instead of building toward a traditional chorus, the song stretches out. When saxophonist Steve Mackay joins in, adding a free-form part that pushes the music further into chaos.

I love Iggy’s voice in this one. His vocals often move between spoken lines and shouted phrases. The recording keeps the rough edges…which was the goal of the sessions. The band wanted something closer to the stage than to a polished studio track. I tend to write that a lot in my reviews… because well…raw and uncooked remember? That’s what I like.

When the saxophone really kicks in, and the rhythm keeps rolling, it feels like the walls of the room are closing in…and I like that.

Fun House

Blow right on it, now!
Blow, Steve!
I feel alright
Yeah, I feel alright
Let me in
Hey, let me in
‘Ey, bring it down

Callin’ from the fun house with my song
We been separated, baby, far too long
A-callin’ all you whoop-dee pretty things
Shinin’ in your freedom, come and be my rings

Hold me tight, callin’ from the fun house
Hold me tight, callin’ from the fun house

Yeah, I came to play and I mean to play around
Yeah, I came to play and I mean to play real good
Yeah, I came to play

Alright
Hey, let me in
Take it down
I feel alright
A-take it down

Little baby girlie, little baby boy
Cover me with lovin’ in a bundle o’ joy
Do I care to show you what I’m dreamin’ of
Do I dare to whoop y’all with my love

Every little baby knows just what I mean
Livin’ in division in a shiftin’ scene

Hold me tight, callin’ from the fun house
Hold me tight, callin’ from the fun house

Blow
Yeah, I came to play
I came to play
Blow, Steve!

Hey
Hey now
Let me in
One more time
Take it down
Take it down
A-take it down

We been separated
We been separated
A little too long

Blow
Yeah, I came to play
Yeah, fun house, boy, will steal your heart away
Yeah, fun house, boy, will steal your heart away
Steal
Yeah
I came to play
I came to play
I came to play
This is it
Baby
Yeah, I came to play
I came to play