Category: Singles

Dr. John – Such A Night

I remember this well from my childhood on WMAK, an AM station in Nashville that played the hits. Dr. John (Malcolm John Rebennack) had a voice that was hard to forget along with his delivery. This one was written by Dr. John not to be confused with The Drifters song Such A Night. 

This song was from the album In the Right Place released in 1973. It’s is a delight…you have John’s New Orleans-style funk and his unique voice. When I first heard it I would have sworn he was saying “Saturday Night” instead of Such a Night when I heard him on the Last Waltz doing this song. He put a little New Orleans in everything he did.

This was his breakthrough album. It peaked at #24 on the Billboard Album Charts. Before this album he was a musician’s musician but after he became a pop star as well. This song peaked at #42 on the Billboard 100 but Nashville must have liked it more than that…they played it a lot. 

Dr. John collaborated with legendary producer Allen Toussaint and The Meters, a huge New Orleans funk band and the results were gold. I knew I heard of Allen Toussaint before…he worked with The Band. Robbie Robertson wanted horns on Life Is A Carnival and Toussaint did it. After that, Robbie asked him to write horn parts for an entire live show. He did that over Christmas of 1971 and The Band’s live album Rock Of Ages came out of that collaboration. 

Such A Night

Such a night, it’s such a nightSweet confusion under the moonlightSuch a night, such a nightTo steal away, the time is right

Your eyes caught mine, and at a glanceYou let me know that this was my chanceBut you came here with my best friend JimAnd here I am, tryin’ to steal you away from him

Oh, but if I don’t do it, you know somebody else willIf I don’t do it, you know somebody else willIf I don’t do it, you know somebody else willIf I don’t do it, you know somebody else will

And it’s such a night, it’s such a nightSweet confusion under the moonlightIt’s such a night, such a nightTo steal away, the time is right

Yeah, I couldn’t believe my ear and my heart just skipped a beatWhen you told me to take you walkin’ down the streetOh yeah, you came here with my best friend JimHere I am, I’m stealin’ you away from him

Oh, but if I don’t do it, you know somebody else willIf I don’t do it, you know somebody else willIf I don’t do it, you know somebody else willIf I don’t do it, you know somebody else will‘Cause it’s such a night

…

Guy Clark – L.A. Freeway

In the past couple of years, I’ve been listening to more and more of the Texas style singer/songwriters and I can’t get enough. I keep looking for more but there are a few I always come back to…Guy Clark, Townes Van Zant, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Steve Earle.  In 1975 Guy Clark released this song on his first album Old No. 1 and eventually released 13 studio albums. 

In the 1960s, Guy Clark tried his luck in the California music scene. He also built and repaired guitars and had a shop in San Francisco in 1969. In 1971 he was signed as a songwriter by Sunbury Music in Los Angeles, he decided to relocate to the company’s Nashville office in 1971. His arrival helped usher in a migration of new songwriting talent to the city.

Clark wrote this song while living in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. He and his wife, Susanna Clark, lived in a small, rundown apartment, and they felt out of place in the city. They wanted to leave Los Angeles and return to Texas, where he felt more at home.

The idea for the song reportedly came to Clark while he was driving on the freeway, scribbling lyrics on a paper bag. The line “pack up all your dishes, make note of all good wishes” showed his desire to escape the chaotic nature of L.A. at the time.

Jerry Jeff Walker was the first to record the song on his self-titled album in 1972. Walker’s version of this song peaked at #98 on the Billboard 100 so Walker popularized it. 

L.A. Freeway

Pack up all your dishesMake note of all good wishesAnd say goodbye to the landlord for meThat son of a bitch has always bored me

Throw out them LA papersAnd that mouldy box of vanilla wafersAdios to all this concreteGonna get me some dirt road back streets

If I can just get off ofI’ll be down the road in a cloud of smokeTo some land I ain’t bought, bought, bought

And it’s, here’s to you old skinny DennisThe only one I think I will missI can hear that old bass singingSweet and low, like a gift you’re bringing

Play it for me one more time, nowGot to give it all you we can nowI believe every thing you’re sayingAnd just to keep on, keep on playing

If I can just get off of this L.A. freewayWithout gettin’ killed or caughtI’ll be down the road in a cloud of smokeTo some land I ain’t bought, bought, bought

And you put the pink card in the mailboxLeave the key in the front door lockThey’ll find it likely as notI’m sure there’s somethin’ we have forgot

Oh Susanna, don’t you cry, babyLove’s a gift that’s surely handmadeWe got somethin’ to believe inDon’t you think it’s time we’re leavin’?

If I can just get off of this LA freewayWithout gettin’ killed or caughtI’ll be down the road in a cloud of smokeTo some land I ain’t bought, bought, bought

If I can just get off of this LA freewayWithout gettin’ killed or caughtDown the road in a cloud of smokeTo some land I ain’t bought

So pack up all your dishesMake note of all good wishesAnd say goodbye to the landlord for meThat son of a bitch has always bored me

Bob Dylan – Girl From The North Country

If you go when the snowflakes storm
When the rivers freeze and summer ends
Please see if she’s wearing a coat so warm
To keep her from the howlin’ winds

This is one of the most beautiful songs that Bob Dylan ever wrote. I learned this song on guitar and harmonica when I was in my twenties. When we were playing out the equipment would break down like the guitar player’s amp or my amp…I would grab an acoustic and a harmonica with my harmonica rack and play this one. It always went over well. The song hits me deeply for some reason…you can tell this song was genuine. 

I read Robert Shelton’s book about Bob Dylan, and the song appears to be about Echo Helstrom (If I would have had a daughter…I wanted to name her Echo), a girl he knew in Hibbing, Minnesota before he made it. As with every Dylan song, there is another rumor that it’s about a folk singer and actress named Bonnie Beecher. I tend to believe the Shelton book on this one and go with Echo but who knows which one it is? He knew both in Minnesota so it could have been either one. Some say Suzy Rotolo was it but he didn’t meet her until he was in New York.

It was originally released on his 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and later re-recorded as a duet with Johnny Cash for Dylan’s 1969 album Nashville Skyline. Unlike some Dylan songs…this one is not a musical novel. It’s a little over 3 minutes and gets right to the point in the most elegant way. Bob did take the melody of Scarborough Fair for this one. 

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan peaked at #22 on the Billboard Album Charts and #1 in the UK in 1963. It was his second album and here is where he started to get real traction with people and build an audience, especially in the UK. The folk purists would get two more albums until the electric instruments of 1965’s Bringing It All Back Home would shatter their Dylan folk singer dream. 

Johnny Cash: “I had a portable record player that I’d take along on the road, and I’d put on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan backstage, then go out and do my show, then listen again as soon as I came off. After a while at that, I wrote Bob a letter telling him how much of a fan I was. He wrote back almost immediately, saying he’d been following my music since ‘I Walk the Line,’ and so we began a correspondence”.

This live clip is from Hard To Handle when Dylan used Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as his backing band. I learned it from this live version. 

Girl From The North Country

If you’re travelin’ in the north country fair
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

If you go when the snowflakes storm
When the rivers freeze and summer ends
Please see if she’s wearing a coat so warm
To keep her from the howlin’ winds

Please see for me if her hair hangs long
If it rolls and flows all down her breast
Please see for me if her hair hangs long
That’s the way I remember her best

I’m a-wonderin’ if she remembers me at all
Many times I’ve often prayed
In the darkness of my night
In the brightness of my day

So if you’re travelin’ in the north country fair
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

Zombies – This Will Be Our Year

I love tradition so here we are again! Happy New Year 2025. 

For the past few years, this has been my first post in the New Year. If you have followed me for a while you should know this one. Again for 2025 my first post!

Next to Auld Lang Syne, this is my favorite New Year’s Song. A favorite of mine from one of my favorite bands. Everyone… I wish you a Happy New Year in 2024.

You didn’t have to read my blog but you did and I really appreciate it…I want to thank all of you for reading and commenting in 2023.

This song sounds like it should have been a hit but it was never pushed as a single at the time. It was the B side to Butcher’s Tale  (Western Front 1914) which is an experimental song and was a big surprise to the band that it was picked as the first single. Both are from the great album Odessey and Oracle in 1968. Several songs on this album could have been in the charts but Time of the Season was the only one that made it and it was a year after the album was released.

Bruce Eder of AllMusic gave the album five stars out of five, calling it “one of the flukiest (and best) albums of the 1960s, and one of the most enduring long-players to come out of the entire British psychedelic boom”.

On recording Odessey and Oracle…Rod Argent:

“We had the chance of going in and putting things down in the way we wanted people to hear them and we had a new studio, we walked in just after The Beatles had walked out [after recording Sgt. Pepper]. We were the next band in. They’d left some of their instruments behind … I used John Lennon’s Mellotron, that’s why it’s all over Odessey and Oracle. We used some of their technological advances … we were using seven tracks, and that meant we could overdub for the first time. And it meant that when I played the piano part I could then overdub a Mellotron part, and it meant we could have a fuller sound on some of the songs and it means that at the moment the tour we’re doing with Odessey and Oracle it means we’re actually reproducing every note on the original record by having extra player with us as well.”

This Will Be A Year

The warmth of your love
Is like the warmth of the sun
And this will be our year
Took a long time to come

Don’t let go of my hand 
Now darkness has gone
And this will be our year 
Took a long time to come

And I won’t forget 
The way you held me up when I was down
And I won’t forget the way you said, 
“Darling I love you”
You gave me faith to go on

Now we’re there and we’ve only just begun
This will be our year
Took a long time to come

The warmth of your smile
Smile for me, little one
And this will be our year
Took a long time to come

You don’t have to worry
All your worried days are gone
This will be our year
Took a long time to come

And I won’t forget 
The way you held me up when I was down
And I won’t forget the way you said, 
“Darling I love you”
You gave me faith to go on

Now we’re there and we’ve only just begun
And this will be our year
Took a long time to come

Yeah we only just begun
Yeah this will be our year
Took a long time to come

Orioles – What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

This song is such a pleasure to listen to. The great voice and the sparse accompaniment are great. This was released back in 1950. It was written by Frank Loesser in 1947 and was originally intended as a standalone song, not tied to Christmas or New Year’s traditions. I have heard this song a few times around this time of year. It was released back in 1949 and peaked at 

They have since been known as “The Original Kings of Harmony.” They were a successful R&B vocal group that pioneered the evolution of doo-wop music. Their first major hit, “It’s Too Soon to Know,” in 1948, is considered one of the first R&B chart-topping singles and is often regarded as a doo-wop song. The term doo-wop didn’t appear until 1961 when the Marcels covered Blue Moon. Their biggest hit was Crying In The Chapel released in 1953. To see more of the history of doo-wop…check out my friend Randy’s post on doo-wop.  

The Orioles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. I’ve listened to several of their songs and heard gospel, pop, R&B, and what would be called doo-wop years later. There have been 343 different versions of this song according to secondhandsongs.com. The first recording was by Kay Kyser and His Orchestra – Vocal Chorus by Harry Babbitt and The Campus Kids in 1947. 

It peaked at #9 on the Billboard R&B Charts in 1949. 

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve

Maybe it’s much too early in the gameOh, but I thought I’d ask you just the sameWhat are you doing New Year’sNew Year’s Eve?

Wonder whose arms are holding you so tightWhen it’s exactly twelve o’clock at nightWelcoming in the New YearNew Year’s Eve

Maybe I’m crazy to supposeI’d ever be the one you choseOut of a thousand invitationsYou received

Well, but just in case I stand one little chanceHere comes the jackpot question in advanceWhat are you doing New Year’sNew Year’s Eve?

Maybe I’m crazy to supposeI’d ever be the one that you choseOut of a thousand invitationsYou received

Well, but just in case I stand one little chanceHere comes the jackpot question in advanceWhat are you doing New Year’sNew Year’s Eve?

…

Otis Redding and Carla Thomas – New Year’s Resolution

This song is a great way to start a year! Anytime you can hear Otis…you are on the right path! Have a Happy New Year! Get ready for 2025. Their voices sound amazing. They complimented each other very well. I just wished they would have had time to do more.

Stax’s house band, Booker T & the MGs, provides the backing.  Note Booker T’s subtle but effective organ lending the song a spiritual element, while Donald “Duck” Dunn’s bass and Steve Cropper’s tasteful guitar licks ground the track’s rhythm

Stax was hoping to replicate the success of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Stax paired two of their greatest stars for the 1967 album King & Queen, which produced the hit “Tramp.” The album featured their takes on classics such as “Knock on Wood,” “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby,” “Bring It on Home to Me,” and “It Takes Two”

This song was on the King and Queen album released in 1967. This is the only album they got to make because Otis died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967. Carla Thomas would go on to a successful career with 2 top 20 hits plus many top 20 R&B hits.

I’m adding the song Tramp off of the album. This song peaked at #26 on the Billboard 100, #2 on the R&B Charts, and #1 on the UK R&B Charts in 1967.

New Year’s Resolution

I hope it’s not too late
Just to say that I’m sorry, honey
All I want to do
Is just finish what we started, baby

Let’s turn over a new leave
And baby let’s make promises
That we can keep
And call it a New Year’s resolution, hmmm

Oh, I’m a woman
And woman makes mistakes too
But will you, will you forget the changes
That I put you through

let’s try it again
Just you and me
And, baby, let’s see how happy honey, yeah
That we can be
And call it a New Year’s resolution, yeah, yeah, yeah

Many times we had our ups and downs
And times you needed me I couldn’t be found
I’m sorry
And I’m sorry too
I’ll never, never do it again, no, no, no
So baby before we fall out
Let’s fall on in, yeah, yeah
Oh, and we’re gonna try harder
Not to hurt each other again, oh
Love me baby, huh
Week after week
And baby let’s make promises
That we can keep
And call it a New Year’s resolution, yeah, oh
I know we can do it Carla
I’m gonna keep my promises
I’m gonna hold on that we can do it, baby
Oh, it’s not too late
You’re gonna love me
Nobody else
Oh Otis let’s finish what we started
Talk no mean

Georgia Satellites – Battleship Chains

I found out about The Georgia Satellites in the spring of 1985. A friend of mine who played guitar in high school with a band got a bootleg of Keep Your Hands To Yourself a year before it was officially released. His band was playing it in the gym (a spring show) before we went on. I thought they wrote it until I asked him. It’s a great-sounding song live.

Battleship Chains was the followup song in 1986 that MTV played a lot of during that time. The Georgia Satellites were like a fish out of water during the mid 80s. There were bands like the Replacements who played rock but they were not in the mainstream like the Satellites were when this album was released. Two years later Guns and Roses came out and then The Black Crowes. By that time though lead singer Dan Baird was leaving the Satellites. 

 This song was sung by their lead guitarist Rich Richards. The song was written by musician Terry Anderson. Later on, Dan Baird covered one of Anderson’s songs called I Love You Period on his solo album Love Songs for the Hearing Impaired. The song peaked at #26 on the Billboard 100 in 1992. 

The Georgia Satellites came out of nowhere with a number 2 hit in 1986 called Keep Your Hands To Yourself. In the era of synth-driven songs, it was great to hear this guitar band out of Georgia that played raw roots rock and roll without the big production.

This song was sung by lead guitarist Rick Richards. It peaked at #86 in the Billboard 100 and #44 in the UK in 1987. Battleship Chains was also covered by a band called the Hindu Love Gods, which contained REM and Warren Zevon members.

This song was on their self titled album released in 1986. On the strength of Keep Your Hands To YOurself and Battleship Chains, the album peaked at #5 on the Billboard Album Charts, #42 in New Zealand, and #52 in the UK.

Battleship Chains
You got me tied down with battleship chains 
fifty foot long and a two ton anchor
tied down with battleship chains
fifty foot long with a two ton anchor

I can’t move my arms 
to hold nobody
hold nobody but you 
I can’t move my legs s
to chase nobody
to kick nobody but you

You got me tied down with battleship chains
fifty foot long and a two ton anchor
tied down with battleship chains
fifty foot long and a two ton anchor

I can’t move eyes
to see nobody
see nobody but you
I can’t move my tongue
to taste nobody
to lick nobody but you

You got me tied down with battleship chains
fifty foot long and a two ton anchor
tied down with battleship chains
fifty foot long and a two ton anchor

I can’t move my lips
to kiss nobody
kiss nobody but you
I can’t move my heart 
to love nobody
to love nobody but you

You got me tied down with battleship chains
fifty foot long and a two ton anchor
tied down with battleship chains 
fifty foot long and a two ton anchor 
You got me tied, tied, 
whoo hoo, tied tied
don’t you know you got me 
tied tied, whoo hoo 
baby don’t you know you got me 
tied tied, whoo hoo

Vince Taylor – Brand New Cadillac

How you find new music can sometimes be surprising. I was looking for a guy with the nickname of Prince Stash, his name is Stanislaus Klossowski de Rola. He hung out with a lot of sixties rock stars and I found out he played in Vince Taylor’s band. I started to listen to Vince Taylor and his rockabilly is really good. I knew I heard his name before and it was when I covered the Clash’s version of this song. 

Vince was born in England but his family emigrated to the United States in the early 1950s, settling in New Jersey, where Taylor was exposed to the new rock and roll scene. While living here he became exposed to the greats like Presley, Little Richard, and Gene Vincent. In the late 1950s, Taylor returned to the UK, where he adopted the stage name Vince Taylor inspired by American culture. It was probably the smart thing to do at the time. The UK treated the 50s rock stars much better than America did. 

Brand New Cadillac was released in 1959. It was the B side to a song called Pledging My Love. Taylor wrote the song but Tony Sheridan is credited with the cool guitar riff running through the song. The song’s riff reminds me of the original Batman riff…or really the other way around.

In the mid-sixties, he and his band The Playboys co-headlined a tour with the Rolling Stones with “Prince Stash” Stanislaus Klossowski de Rola playing percussion. Jimmy Page and others were also at one time part of the Playboys. I’ve been reading about his live performances and watching some concert footage…and he was a hell of a performer. I can see why he built a following for his live performances. 

Bowie has said that Vince Taylor was a huge influence on Ziggy Stardust. He said in the early seventies his name was coming up again as in Golden Earring’s song “Just Like Vince Taylor.”

 Taylor had some problems with drugs in the sixties and his career started to go downhill as he became unstable. In the 1970s, he briefly attempted comebacks in Europe, but he could not recapture his earlier success. He lived a nomadic life, working odd jobs, including as a mechanic in Switzerland.

He passed away in 1991 from cancer. 

David Bowie: “I met him in Gioconda one day and the guy was right out of his tree. I mean, this guy was bonkers, absolutely the genuine article. I can’t remember if he said he was an alien or the Son of God but he might have been a bit of both. And then one time we were on Tottenham Court Road… He dragged out this world map and we were crouching on all fours outside Tottenham Court Road Tube Station and he was showing me where all the aliens had their bases throughout: under the Arctic and in this mountain… And business people stepping over our map. I think: what the hell am I doing in the middle of Russia with this bonkers American looking at the map of the world and I thought there’s something in this, I’m gonna remember this. This is just too good.”

Clips of Taylor live

Brand New Cadillac

Well my baby drove off in a brand new Cadillac
Ooh, my baby drove off in a brand new Cadillac
Well she looked at me, daddy, I ain’t never comin’ back

I said baby-baby-baby won’t you listen to me
Come on sugar, come on hear my plea
Well she looked at my Ford, we’ll never agree
Cadillac car! Oh yeah!

Well the Caddy’s rollin’ and going ’bout ninety-five
Well the Caddy’s rollin’ and going ’bout ninety-five
Well me and my Ford, we’re right by here side

I said baby-baby-baby won’t you listen to me
Come on baby, come on hear my plea
Turn that big car around, come on back to me
Hangin’ on Scotty, here we go!

Well my baby took off in a brand new Cadillac
Ooh, my baby took off in a brand new Cadillac
Well she looked at me, daddy, I ain’t never comin’ back

I ain’t never comin’ back
I ain’t never comin’ back
I ain’t never comin’ back

 

 

…

 

 

 

Graham Parker – Saturday Nite Is Dead

I’ve been listening to this era a lot recently and you will see something about it in a couple of weeks. This album was made by Graham Parker & The Rumour. His first album Howling Wind remains my favorite so far but this one (Squeezing Out Sparks) is catching up…the more I hear it the more I like it. 

When he met the manager of Brinsley Schwarz. With ex-members of Brinsley Schwarz and ex-member Nick Lowe producing them…they made his debut album Howlin’ Wind in 1976. His band had a name at this point…The Rumour. The Rumour would be Graham’s backing band for years. They also recorded their own albums separately and did three in all. They broke up in 1980 and then reformed and started to back Parker up again in 2011 and remain his backup band to this day.

When I hear Parker, I can hear some Springsteen, Van Morrison, and Elvis Costello in his music. This song is straightforward, no-frills, traditional rock ‘n’ roll delivered at full steam ahead. You have The Rumour pumping this music out while Graham spits out the lyrics. 

The song is on his fourth album Squeezing Out Sparks which was released in 1979. The album did well as it peaked at #40 on the Billboard Album Charts, #79 in Canada, and #18 in the UK. The album was helped out by the single Local Girls that got a lot of play on MTV but failed to chart. 

Graham Parker: “In Squeezing Out Sparks I was kind of attempting a concept album about the suburbs of England, or at least trying to capture a vague approximation of suburban life. This idea succeeds in “Saturday Nite Is Dead” and “Local Girls” particularly well. I guess I drifted off the mark there for the rest of the record because the concept turned out to be a little confining for a whole album. I’m too restless to stick with such a narrow program”

Saturday Nite Is Dead

Everybody just looks ugly now information don’t compute
I draw a blank every time I think
The football crowd is going to give me a boot

And Saturday night is dead Saturday night is dead
It don’t matter what they say
You’ve got to use your own head some day
Saturday night is dead Saturday night is dead
Yeah it’s dead

The ultraviolet light hurts me so
It used to be my friend
I used to know a good place to go
But now it’s nothing like it was then

And Saturday night is dead
Saturday night is dead
It don’t matter what they say
I’m going to the funeral Sunday
Saturday night is dead
Saturday night is dead
Yeah it’s dead

It must have been murder it ain’t no accident
Oh no it means nothing to me
The clock goes tick tick tick in my head
Saturday is dead
Saturday is dead
See upcoming rock shows
Get tickets for your favorite artists

I look inside to find a place to hide
But there ain’t no place I know
It’s just as well that I’m stupefied
It makes it easy
It makes it easy to deliver the fatal blow

Deliver deliver deliver

CHORUS (FIRST VERSION)

Saturday night is dead REPEAT AND END

…

Flamingos – I Only Have Eyes For You

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/Holiday. Now, we are back to our regularly scheduled programming. 

I don’t feature enough ballads and this is one of the best The song is the ultimate date song.  I’ve heard this in countless movies and I still listen all the way through. I would have loved hearing this coming out of an AM speaker in the 1950s and 60s. I sometimes use the word beautiful but only when I mean it and with this song I do. 

This is the only top-20 hit they had in America. My dad had their greatest hits so I know more than just this one. I do get in moods where I like good doo-wop. It peaked at #11 on the Billboard 100 and #3 on the Billboard R&B Chart in 1959. 

They formed in 1953 and went through a series of names like The Swallows, El Flamingos, The Five Flamingos to simply The Flamingos. They were successful in the 1950s and on the pop and R&B charts. 

As music changed in the 1960s, the Flamingos struggled to maintain their commercial success, though they continued to record and perform. Members of the group went through several changes, with different lineups carrying on the Flamingos’ name over the decades.

The Flamingos were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Doo-Wop Hall of Fame in 2004

I Only Have Eyes For You

My love must be a kind of blind loveI can’t see anyone but you(Sha bop sha bop)(Sha bop sha bop)(Sha bop sha bop)(Sha bop sha bop)(Sha bop sha bop)

Are the stars out tonight (sha bop sha bop)I don’t know if it’s cloudy or bright (sha bop sha bop)I only have eyes for you dear(Sha bop sha bop)

The moon may be high(Sha bop sha bop)But I can’t see (sha bop sha bop) a thing in the skyI only have eyes for you

I don’t know if we’re in a gardenOr on a crowded avenue(Sha bop sha bop)

You are here(Sha bop sha bop)And so am I(Sha bop sha bop)

Maybe millions of people (sha bop sha bop) go byBut they all disappear from viewAnd I only have eyes for you

…

Clash – Death Or Glory

I first heard London Calling with my friend who had an import copy of it in the early 1980s. He and his older brother had some great music that wasn’t mainstream at the time. Bands like Big Star, Grateful Dead, Replacements, and The Clash. I learned to appreciate the so-called “nonpopular” bands at that time. It’s a trait I’ve kept ever since. Search music out and you will find good music.

They started off as a punk band but The Clash, unlike some other Punk bands, could play and sing well…, especially Mick Jones. He was probably the best pure musician in the band. The Clash wanted to break out of Punk’s limitations.

When they released London Calling, they moved beyond pure punk rock and began exploring a variety of styles, including rock, reggae, ska, and more. This song has very accessible music but the words are biting. You can get many things out of it but I pretty much get the hypocrisy directed to us all. They were directing much of it at the rock scene of the time. It’s also about the difficulties of not selling out. It’s not easy to do when navigating the trials of adulthood.

The album was produced by Guy Stevens, an unpredictable producer known for his eccentric methods. He encouraged spontaneity while creating an unorthodox atmosphere in the studio. He would throw chairs or ladders to “inspire” the band while recording. After thinking about this…he sounds perfect for The Clash. He would die of an overdose in 1981 of a medication that was helping him to reduce his alcohol intake. The Clash wrote a song in tribute to him called “Midnight to Stevens“. Stevens also produced Free and they wrote a song about him called Guy Steven Blues. 

The lyric “Love and hate tattooed across the knuckles of his hands” got me thinking about a film called The Night of the Hunter. I did some research and yes Joe Strummer was a huge fan of the movie when he was a teenager and that line is said to be a reference to Robert Mitchum’s sinister character Reverend Harry Powell who has that on his knuckles.

London Calling peaked at #9 in the UK, #3 in Canada, #12 in New Zealand, and #27 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1979-1980. 

Death or Glory

Hey

Now every cheap hood strikes a bargain with the worldEnds up making payments on a sofa or a girlLove and hate tattooed across the knuckles of his handsHands that slap his kids around ’cause they don’t understand how

Death or gloryBecomes just another storyDeath or gloryBecomes just another story

And every gimmick hungry yob digging gold from rock and rollGrabs the mic to tell us he’ll die before he’s soldBut I believe in this, and it’s been tested by researchHe who fucks nuns will later join the church

Death or gloryBecomes just another storyDeath or gloryBecomes just another story

Ooh, ah-ah-ah, oohOoh, ah-ah-ah, oohOoh, ah-ah-ah, ooh

Fear in the gun-sights, they say lie lowYou say ok, don’t wanna play the showNow all you’re thinking, was it death or glory now?Playing the blues for pennies sure looks better now

Death or gloryJust another storyDeath or gloryJust another story

And every dingy basement, on every dingy streetEvery dragging hand clap over every dragging beatIt’s just the beat of time, the beat that must go onIf you’ve been trying for years, we already heard your song

Death or gloryBecomes just another storyDeath or gloryJust another story

Gonna march a long wayFight a long timeGot to travel over mountainsGot to travel overseas

We’re gonna fight you, brotherWe’re gonna fight ’til you loseWe’re gonna raise troubleWe’re gonna raise hellWe’re gonna fight you, brotherRaise hell

Death or gloryBecomes just another storyDeath or gloryBecomes just another story

Death or gloryJust another storyDeath or gloryBecomes just another story

…

Bing Crosby – Silent Night

This song is not only my favorite Christmas Carol… I think it’s up there with the best songs ever written. I hope everyone has a great Christmas/Holiday. This will close out my Christmas Marathon. I wish you all the very best. 

Randy wrote a great article yesterday on the top 10 most-covered Christmas songs. Silent Night did very well!

There are over 26,000 different versions of “Silent Night” on Spotify, meaning you could listen to a different rendition of the carol every night for 72 years.

Halfway through December 1818, the church organ in St. Nicholas in Oberndorf, 11 miles north of Salzburg in what is now Austria, broke (a popular version of the story claims that mice had eaten out the bellows).

The curate, 26-year-old Josef Mohr, realized it couldn’t be repaired in time to provide music on Christmas Eve. He told his troubles to his friend, a headmaster and amateur composer named Franz Gruber, while giving him as a present a poem he had written two years earlier. Gruber was so taken by the rhythm of the poem that he set it to music, and on Christmas Eve there was music after all. Mohr played his guitar while the pair sang the song. It was the first public performance of “Stille Nacht” or as we know it “Silent Night.”

It is believed that Silent Night has been translated into over 300 languages around the world, and it is one of the most popular carols of all time.

From Songfacts

Bing Crosby’s version became his best-seller of the 1930s.

Music licensing company PPL announced in December 2010 that this carol tops the list of Britain’s “most recorded Christmas song of all time.” Said Mike Dalby, Lead Reporting Analyst at PPL: “Silent Night is a beautiful carol which encapsulates the feeling of Christmas entirely. Everyone from punk band The Dickies right through to Sinead O’Connor has recorded it, which exemplifies just how much it resonates with all different types of artists.”

According to PPL, Sinead O’Connor’s 1991 recording was the most popular version of the carol in Britain.

When the organ builder finally did show up to repair the St. Nicholas organ, he was given a copy of the “Silent Night” composition and brought it home. From there, traveling folk singers got a hold of it and began incorporating the carol into their repertoire. It didn’t make its way to America until 1839.

As the song gained traction throughout Europe, Franz Gruber composed several different orchestral arrangements. He donated all profits from the carol to local charities for children and the elderly, and eventually died penniless.

According to Steve Sullivan’s Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Crosby, a devout Catholic, refused to record the religious song, arguing it would be “like cashing in on the church or the Bible.” Crosby met with Father Richard Ranaghan, a priest trying to raise money for overseas missions, and decided to donate the royalties to the cause. But Ranaghan died in a car accident later that year, so the money went to several charities throughout the US and abroad.

This song lends itself to interpretation because the first four bars are all on the same chord. Jim Brickman explains: “There’s room to treat it dynamically in a different way: in the tempo, in the sounds and silences, in the time signature.”

The first English Version…Thanks Randy!

Silent Night

Silent night, holy night.
All is calm, all is bright.
‘Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night.
All is calm, all is bright.
‘Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Billy Squier – Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You

This Christmas song doesn’t get played a bunch here. I’ve always liked it since it was released. It was written by Billy Squier and was the B side to the single “My Kinda Lover.” I post it every year and most people don’t remember it but I was 14 when it was released and it stuck with me. 

In 1981 MTV made its debut and Billy Squier’s career was going strong with the 1981 release of the Don’t Say No album. MTV at the beginning had a more family atmosphere. The crowd in this sing-a-long included technicians, secretaries, executives, the production assistants.

MTV helped countless careers. It made some careers larger than they would have been and some had careers because of MTV. It changed everything for a while.

Billy had a great career going on until the Rock Me Tonite video with the pink tank top…then it all fell apart in 1984. Google Billy Squier + Pink Tanktop. 

The video was filmed at the Teletronics MTV studio.

 VJ Nina Blackwood: “It was taped at our original Teletronics Studio on West 33rd Street and featured our original studio crew, who we all loved and were very close to, along with all the people from the MTV offices,” “Everybody traipsed down to the studio from 44th Street & 6th Ave for the taping. Billy Squier’s career was on fire at this time, and since he lived in NYC, he was a frequent guest at the studio, so it was appropriate that he was chosen for the video.”

“Pretty much what you see on camera is an accurate representation of the celebratory and fun feeling that was happening,” Blackwood said. “It was like one big happy family, which sums up the entire vibe of the early days of MTV. One of a kind experience. When I watch all of these early MTV Christmas videos, the overwhelming sensation I come away with is that of joyous love.”

Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You

Christmas is the time to say “I love you”
Share the joys of laughter and good cheer
Christmas is the time to say “I love you”
And a feeling that will last all through the year

On the corner carolers are singing
There’s a touch of magic in the air
From grownup to minor no one could be finer
Times are hard but no one seems to care
Christmas Eve and all the world is watching
Santa guides his reindeer through the dark
From rooftop to chimney, from Harlem to Bimini
They will find a way into your heart

Christmas is the time to say “I love you”
Share the joys of laughter and good cheer
Christmas is the time to say “I love you”
And a feeling that will last all through the year

Just outside the window snow is falling
But here beside the fire we share the glow
Of moonlight and brandy, sweet talk and candy
Sentiments that everyone should know
Memories of the year that lays behind us
Wishes for the year that’s yet to come
And it stands to reason that good friends in season
Make you feel that life has just begun

Christmas is the time to say “I love you”
Share the joys of laughter and good cheer
Christmas is the time to say “I love you”
And a feeling that will last all through the year

So when spirits grow lighter
And hopes are shinin’ brighter
Then you know that Christmas time is here

Band – Christmas Must Be Tonight

Robbie Robertson’s Christmas gift to his new son Sebastian during the sessions for Northern Lights-Southern Cross album… it never became a seasonal favorite but it should have been. It wasn’t released until the Islands album in 1977.

Rick Danko sings this song from a Shepherds point of view. It’s pure and down to earth like only the Band can be. No sleigh bells or other Christmas trappings…just pure music. Maybe that is the reason it never got picked up.

Robbie Robertson re-recorded this song after he left the group. And he did for the soundtrack of Bill Murray’s Scrooged. That version is very good but I still like The Bands version much more…it’s hard to beat Rick Danko.

Christmas Must Be Tonight

Come down to the manger, see the little stranger
Wrapped in swaddling clothes, the prince of peace
Wheels start turning, torches start burning
And the old wise men journey from the East

How a little baby boy bring the people so much joy
Son of a carpenter, Mary carried the light
This must be Christmas, must be tonight

A shepherd on a hillside, where over my flock I bide
Oh a cold winter night a band of angels sing
In a dream I heard a voice saying “fear not, come rejoice
It’s the end of the beginning, praise the new born king”

I saw it with my own eyes, written up in the skies
But why a simple herdsmen such as I
And then it came to pass, he was born at last
Right below the star that shines on high

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

I promise after tomorrow…no more Christmas posts! 

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, whichever you prefer. Since I started this blog, I have tried to post an interesting song or some pop culture fact. Most of you drop by for a view every day, and I appreciate it so much. 

I look forward to finishing this year and discovering the new year together. I can’t believe this is my seventh year doing this, and if not for the feedback I get daily, I would have stopped a long time ago. I don’t know how much I discovered about music you didn’t already know, but I have learned so much from you all. 

When I started in 2017, it took me around six months to get one follower, one like, and a comment. I don’t take anyone for granted, and I want you to know that. Also, a huge THANK YOU. You don’t have to stop by, but you do—you must be a glutton for punishment! I hope you and your families have a happy holiday and safe travels.

Signed

Max…the owner of this crummy joint.