Singles – Page 43 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Who – Pictures of Lily

Starting with The Who’s Tommy album…everything after that gets noticed. Their brilliant early singles sometimes get criminally overlooked. Personally, and I know I am in the minority, I think many of their early singles trump both the Beatles’ and Stones’s early singles. The Who and Kinks didn’t have the quality of the sound of those bigger bands…but that was the point. Those singles were exciting and raw…a few experimental. Paul McCartney was influenced heavily by The Who when he wrote Paperback Writer and Helter Skelter.

On July 8, 1989, I traveled to Atlanta Georgia to see The Who for the first time. Nashville at that time had no place really big enough for them to play. Vanderbilt wasn’t allowing rock concerts at their stadium at that time. I’ll never forget when The Who played this song that night. Roger forgot the words to it and said “I don’t know the bloody words to this song.” I found the clip and I’ll have it below.

The only part of that concert that bothered me was the volume or the lack of really. Entwistle had to turn down his volume and they carried a brass section with them because of Pete’s tinnitus. It sounded great of course but not as in your face as when I saw them in Nashville in 2016. My only guess is now the PA equipment is better because The Who were much louder in 2016 than when I heard them in 1989.

Describing The Who’s next new single (Pictures of Lily)…Pete Townshend coined the term “Power Pop” to describe this song before it was released. It made it to #4 in the UK Charts, #60 on the Billboard 100, and #36 in Canada in 1967. The song tells the story of a father giving his son risque pictures of a woman taken in the 1920s…and after a while, the son finds out that she had died many years ago.

It is a song about the lust of a teenage boy…we will keep it at that. John Entwistle played the French Horn on this that he later didn’t like.

Pete Townshend: On Karen’s (his future wife) bedroom wall were three Victorian black-and-white postcard photographs of scantily dressed actresses. One was the infamous Lily Langtry, mistress of Prince Edward, later King Edward VII, and one sunny afternoon while Karen was at work I scribbled out a lyric inspired by the images and made a demo of ‘Pictures of Lily’. My song was intended to be an ironic comment on the sexual shallows of show business, especially pop, a world of postcard images for boys and girls to fantasise over. ‘Pictures of Lily’ ended up, famously, being about a boy saved from burgeoning adolescent sexual frustration when his father presented him with dirty postcards over which he could masturbate.

John Entwistle: “The thing I hate about ‘Pictures Of Lily’ is that bloody elephant call on the French horn. I also hated the backing vocals, the mermaid voices, where we’d sing all the ‘oooooohs.’ I hated ‘oooooohs.'”

Below is the concert I was at when Roger forgot the words. It’s around the 1:36 mark.

Pictures Of Lily

I used to wake up in the morningI always feel so gladI got so sick of having sleepless nightsI went and told my dad

He said, “Son, now here’s some little somethings”And stuck them on my wallAnd now my nights ain’t quite so lonelyIn fact I don’t feel bad at all (I don’t feel bad at all)

Pictures of Lily that make my life so wonderfulPictures of Lily that let me sleep at nightPictures of Lily that solved my childhood problemPictures of Lily, they make me feel alright

Pictures of Lily (pictures of Lily)Pictures of Lily (Lily, oh Lily)Pictures of Lily (Lily, oh Lily)Pictures of Lily (pictures of Lily)Pictures of Lily, pictures of LilyPictures of Lily, pictures of Lily

And then one day things weren’t so fineI fell in love with LilyI asked my dad where Lily I could findHe said, “Don’t be silly”

“She’s been dead since 1929”Oh, how I cried that nightIf only I’d been born in Lily’s timeIt would have been alrightThere were always pictures of Lily to help me sleep at nightPictures of Lily to help me feel alright

‘Cause me and Lily are together in my dreams (my mind)And I was wonderin’, mister, have you ever seen?

Pictures of Lily to help you sleep at nightPictures of Lily to help you feel alright

‘Cause me and Lily are together in my dreamsAnd I was wonderin’, mister, have you ever seenPictures of Lily?

Max Picks …songs from 1990

1990

The La’s – There She Goes

This song played a key part in making me love the power pop genre. It’s one of my favorite power pop songs of all time. It was originally released in 1988 but wasn’t played over in America until 1990. So I’m cheating on this but I had no way of hearing it before then.

A song by a British band called The La’s. A very good pop song that has no verses…it just repeats the chorus four different ways four different times. It was written by the singer Lee Mavers and recorded in 1988 and remixed and released again in 1990. It only peaked at #49 in 1990 in the US.

Many people think the song was about heroin. Paul Hemmings an ex-guitarist for the band denies that rumor. Either way, it is a perfectly constructed pop song. It’s been covered by a lot of artists but probably most successfully by Sixpence None the Richer. I’ve always liked The La’s version the best.

The Black Crowes – Hard To Handle

When I heard this song in 1990 I was thrilled because it sounded like the Faces of the 70s. It was plain rock and roll and had a timeless quality about it. I waited the entire 1980s for rock and roll like this to be back on the mainstream charts. The Replacements were the other rock band but not in the charts. It happened occasionally (Georgia Satellites and Guns and Roses) but not much. This song was originally recorded by Otis Redding, who wrote it with Allen Jones and Al Bell. It was the only cover song on The Black Crowes debut album which sold over five million copies.

The album also had songs like Jealous Again and She Talks To Angels. I knew things were changing when I saw the success of their album.

The two other versions that I like are Otis Redding and Grateful Dead version with Pigpen taking the lead.

The Replacements – Merry Go Round

This one is off of their last studio album All Shook Down. I was going to conclude with this one having one off of their studio albums but there is one more coming next week.

This is not my favorite off the album but it did have a commercial sound for that time and it’s something that I thought would have charted in the Billboard 100. Merry Go Round did peak at #1 on the alternative charts. The album peaked at #69 in the Billboard Album Chart in 1990.

“Merry Go Round” was written about the lives of Westerberg and his sister Mary (“They ignored me with a smile, you as a child”).

The band went to Los Angeles to make a video for Merry Go Round. With Westerberg’s okay, Warner Bros. hired Bob Dylan’s twenty-three-year-old son Jesse Dylan, who was just starting to direct.

AC/DC – Thunderstruck

As much as I love Angus Young’s intro to this…it’s his brother’s rhythm guitar that makes this song go. Brothers Angus and Malcolm Young wrote this song.

A side note to this song. In 2012 a couple of Iranian uranium-enrichment plants were hacked and their computers shut down but not before blasting Thunderstruck at maximum volume like you are probably doing right now or will be soon.

The album was recorded with producer Bruce Fairbairn at his Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, where he also produced Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and the Aerosmith albums Permanent Vacation and Pump. It was the group’s first time working with Fairbairn.

Sinéad O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U

This song was everywhere in 1990. Prince wrote this song in 1984 but didn’t release it. He gave it to a group called The Family that was signed to his label. The Family included it on a 1985 album but it never went anywhere. Five years later it became the biggest hit of 1990. Prince recorded his own version as well, but it wasn’t released until 2018, two years after his death.

It was O’Connor’s manager, Fachtna O’Kelly, who suggested she record a version of the track. O’Kelly knew it would be perfect for her.

…

James Morrison – Nothing Ever Hurt Like You

This one is only 16 years old…for this site that is practically brand new!

When I first heard this I thought this song had a Stevie Wonder feel to it…none of my friends shared the same opinion… Nonetheless, it’s a good song. It’s a straight-ahead pop song without much production.

James Morrison is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist from Rugby, Warwickshire. James attributes his gravelly voice to a near-fatal childhood bout of whooping cough. The song peaked at #3 on the Billboard Triple-A Charts in 2009. The song was written by James Morrison, and Barry and Mark Taylor.

The song was on his second studio album Songs for You, Truths for Me, which peaked at #49 in the Billboard 100 in 2008.

“Nothing Ever Hurt Like You” received critical acclaim and was well-received by audiences. While it did not win any major awards, it helped James Morrison’s career as a respected singer-songwriter.

Nothing Ever Hurt Like You

1, 2, 3, 4
Oh, oh, oh,
Yeah yeah yeah
HeyIf loving you is easy,
Playing by the rules,
But you said love taste so much better when its cruel
To you everything was just a game,
Yeah you played me good,
But I want you, I want you, I want you,
So much more than I should,
Yes I do.I’ve got my hands up so take your aim,
Yeah I’m ready,
There’s nothing that we can’t go through,
Oh it hit me like a steal freight train,
When you left me,
And nothing ever hurt like you,
Nothing ever hurt like you.I was naive and wide eyed,
But you made me see,
That you don’t get to taste the honey,
Without the sting of a bee,
No you don’t.Yes you stung me good,
Oh yeah you dug in deep,
But ill take, ill take it, ill take it
Till I’m down on my knees.

I’ve got my hands up so take your aim,
Yeah I’m ready,
There’s nothing that we can’t go through,
Walk a thousand miles on broken glass,
It wont stop me,
From making my way back to you,
Its not real till you feel the pain,
And nothing ever hurt like you,
Nothing ever hurt like you.Oh everything was just a game,
Yeah you played me good,
But I want you, I want you, I want you,
I want you, I want you.I’ve got my hands up so take your aim,
Yeah I’m ready,
There’s nothing that we can’t go through,
Walk a thousand miles on broken glass,
It wont stop me,
From making my way back to you,
Its not real till you feel the pain,
And nothing ever hurt like you,
Nothing ever hurt like you.

Freddy Fender – Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

I remember Freddy Fender as a kid and this song. I remember it being played everywhere. It was a huge crossover hit and I saw him on television at the time singing it on different shows.

Freddy Fender wrote and recorded it in 1959 for a small label. It wasn’t until 1975 that he was able to release it again under his name. He and some band members were charged with pot possession in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1960.

Fender served 3 1/.2 years in prison until he was pardoned by Governor Jimmie Davis. There was a condition though…he had to stay away from anywhere that served alcohol. In the late sixties, he started to work in a garage and play music on the weekends.

He started to record again in 1974 and struck gold with his first two releases. Before the Next Teardrop Falls peaked at #1 in the Billboard Country Charts, #1 on the Billboard 100, and #1 on the Canadian Country Charts. Wasted Days and Wasted Nights peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts, #8 on the Billboard 100, #2 on the Canadian Country Charts, and #6 in Canada in 1975.

He would have more number 1s in the Country Charts for Billboard and Canada. Later on, Fender would later join the Texas Tornados and Los Super 7.

Here is Freddie with the Texas Tornados doing the song.

Wasted Days Wasted Nights

Wasted days and wasted nightsI have left for you behindFor you don’t belong to meYour heart belongs to someone else

Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?

Don’t you remember the dayThat you went away and left me?I was so lonelyPrayed for you onlyMy love

Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?

Don’t you remember the dayThat you went away and left me?I was so lonelyPrayed for you onlyMy love

Wasted days and wasted nightsI have left for you behindFor you don’t belong to meYour heart belongs to someone else

Why should I keep loving youWhen I know that you’re not true?And why should I call your nameWhen you’re to blameFor making me blue?

Bob Seger – Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man

Something about Bob Seger…the man paid his dues. Bob started in 1961 in the Detroit music scene in the Decibels. He kicked around in different bands through the years. His break-out song is this one. His friend, 19-year-old Glen Frey, plays acoustic guitar and sings backup on this song.

The song was a big hit in Michigan and eventually started to climb the charts. The song peaked at #17 on the Billboard 100 in 1969. It would be 1975 before Seger broke nationally. After hearing Gimme Some Loving by the Spencer Davis Group, Seger wanted that organ in a song. Bob Schultz, a Seger’s band member, played it on this track. From then on it became a part of the live sound.

Seger has had an interesting career. Before Against The Wind, before Night Moves, before the Silver Bullet Band even existed, Bob Seger made gritty, experimental garage rock. It was far from the radio hits that made him famous, and much closer to the punk of fellow Michigan musicians like Iggy Pop. At this time he would hang out with The Stooges and The MC5. They would eventually fade away but Seger matured as a songwriter and became a hit machine.

I’ve always liked Bob Seger. He gets heavy play here in the south and many of his songs have been played to death…but not this one. I like the rawness of this single.

Bob Seger: “We’d had a few records that were popular around town and you’d hear on the radio a lot, but, yeah, that was a little different. That was a hit.”

“I wasn’t necessarily a great songwriter at that time, I think I focused more on playing the guitar and singing… even though Dylan and Van Morrison were important to me and influences on me. That craft was something that developed slowly.”

A live version

Here is a very early look at Bob Seger

Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man

Yeah, I’m gonna
Tell my tale, come on
Come on, ha, give a listen

Cause I was born lonely
Down by the riverside
Learned to spin fortune wheels
And throw dice

I was just thirteen
When I had to leave home
Knew I couldn’t stick around
I had to roam

Ain’t good looking
But you know I ain’t shy
Ain’t afraid to look
A girl in the eye

So if you need some loving
And you need it right away
Take a little time out
And maybe I’ll stay

[CHORUS]
But I got to ramble (rambling man)
I got to gamble (gambling man)
Got to, got to ramble (rambling man)
I was born a rambling, gambling man

Yeah, yeah, yeah….
Ha ha, bring it on
Come on down, yeah
All right, here we go
Now, now

I’m out of money
Cause you know I need some
Ain’t gone run out of loving
And I must run

Gotta keep moving
Never gonna slow down
You can have your funky world
See you round

Cause I got to ramble (rambling man)
I got to gamble (gambling man)
I got to ramble (rambling man)
Lord, I’m a rambling, gambling man

Oh, I’m just a rambler
Yeah, I’m just a gambler
Come on and sing along

Cause I’m just a rambler (rambling man)

Lord, I’m a gambler (gambling man)
I’m a rambler (rambling man)
Yeah, I’m a rambler…

X – Burning House Of Love

This song was released in 1985 from their album Ain’t Love Grand. They had made a change in the producer spot. They replaced former Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek with Michael Wagner. Manzarek had produced all of their albums up to this point. The band wanted a more accessible sound.

X was formed in Los Angeles in 1977 and comprised of founding members singer John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, drummer D.J. Bonebrake, and singer Exene Cervenka. With their first album in 1981, their album Los Angeles was critically praised and considered a great one of that period.

The band was founded by Doe (real name John Nommensen Duchac) and Zoom. Soon Doe would bring his girlfriend Exene Cervenka to band practice, she was a poet and the band liked her work so she joined permanently. When trying to think of a name…Doe looked around the band members and focused on Exene Cervenka. Her unusual first name was shortened to X…Exene to X…

After Manzarek saw them live…he really connected to the lyrics. He was instantly struck by the lyrics to X’s song Johny Hit And Run Paulene: ‘He got a sterilized hypo, to shoot a sex machine drug/He got 24 hours, to shoot Paulene between the legs.’ Manzarek thought to himself…those are not lyrics…those are poetry.

The song peaked at #27 on the Billboard Mainstream Charts and the album Ain’t Love Grand peaked at #89 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1985.

Tensions were rising in the band and Zoom left and would be replaced for a bit by Dave Alvin of The Blasters. X announced they were breaking up in 1998 but would do a last tour. They did a farewell tour with Zoom back on guitar.

They reunited and from 2004 onward, X has continued to perform frequently around North America.

Billy Zoom: “I think it’s the best songs we’ve ever done, and the best-produced record, and the best-engineered, and the best-sounding record we’ve made. It’s the first one I’m really happy with. The others were always kind of hit-and-miss.” Doe said, “Sonically, it’s designed to fit into radio airplay. We’re waving a typical… somewhat typical sounding carrot under radio listeners’ noses. Then they’ve got the opportunity to see that there’s more going on.

Burning House Of Love

Drive by my house late at night
You can see from the freeway above
No silhouette, but a light left on
Burning there for love
Burning there for love

Smoke is rising from the fire
Coming out my back door
I’m inside, sound asleep
Cigarette on the floor
Burning there for love
Burning there for love

Well, I can still remember
A couple of years ago
When the smoke and flame called my name
It was a burning house of love
Yeah, a burning house of love
A burning house of love

Burning house of love
Burning house of love

Oh, I can still remember
A couple of years ago
When the smoke and flame called my name
Was a burning house of love
Yeah, a burning house of love
A burning house of love

The rusty nail over our front door
Is where I hung our tears in the rain
I threw that horseshoe into the weeds
I’ll see what luck can bring
I’ll see what luck can bring

Now, you’re in your bed and I’m in mine
On either side of town
I think I might take a ride
And burn your love house down
Like a burning house of love
Burning house of love

I can still remember
A couple of years ago
When the smoke and flame called my name
Was a burning house of love
Yeah, a burning house of love
A burning house of love

Burning house of love
Burning house of love
Burning house of love
Burning house of love

…

John Hiatt – Memphis In The Meantime

Underneath a pork pie hatUntil hell freezes overMaybe you can wait that longBut I don’t think Ronnie Milsap’s gonna everRecord this song

I somehow missed this Hiatt song. I absolutely love the guitar on this track. Come to find out there is a reason I like it. Ry Cooder is on guitar, Nick Lowe on bass, Jim Keltner on drums, and Paul Carrack on keyboards and backing vocals. Later on, B.B. King and Eric Clapton covered this song.

Hiatt had only four days to make an album and this song kicked off his 1987 album Bring The Family. The song has a cool groove and shuffle to it. Hiatt was in Nashville at the time when he took a trip with his family to Memphis which of course inspired this song.

He mentions Ronnie Milsap in this song. At the time Nashville was known to make slick country songs. They would produce the soul out of a song. Milsap was listening though. On his next album, he recorded a John Hiatt song called Old Habits Are Hard To Break and yes… he inserted some Memphis funk in the song. Probably more than Hiatt could have thought at the time. Another thing that was happening at this time was Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle were shaking Nashville out of its rut.

Hiatt found himself drawn to the city’s renowned musical history and culture. I’m not sure how it was in the 1980s as much but now on Beale Street, there is always something interesting going on.

John Hiatt: “It sounds like a car with four bald tires, it’s like a four-man groove sputtering down the road, and I really like the record for that.”

John Hiatt: “It’s a day trip, only three hours, and it’s a terrific city, I’d been there before and there is truly something in the air, although there’s nothing going on musically speaking, they say. It’s just a great town and one of the only truly integrated cities in America, it seemed to me, where black people and white people actually live together in the neighborhoods and not only that, seem to get along I was real impressed by that.”

John Hiatt and The Goners…featuring Sonny Landreth…I really like this live cut. They add another dimension to the song.

Memphis in the Meantime

I got some’n’ to say little girlYou might not like my styleBut we been hangin’ around this townJust a little too long a whileYou say you’re gonna get your act togetherGonna take it out on the roadBut if I don’t get out o’ here pretty soonMy head’s going to explodeSure I like country musicAnd I like mandolinsBut right now I need a TelecasterThrough a Vibrolux turned up to 10

Let’s go to Memphis in the meantime babyAhw, Memphis in the meantime girlLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime babyMemphis in the meantime girl

I need a little shot of that rhythm babyMixed up with these country bluesI wanna trade in these ol’ cowboy bootsFor some fine Italian shoesForget the mousse and the hairspray sugarWe don’t need none of thatJust a little dab’ll do ya girlUnderneath a pork pie hatUntil hell freezes overMaybe you can wait that longBut I don’t think Ronnie Milsap’s gonna everRecord this song

Lets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girlLets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girl

Maybe there’s nothin’ happenin’ thereBut maybe there’s somethin’ in the airBefore our upper lips get stiffMaybe we need us a big ol’ whiff

If we could just get off-a that beat little girlMaybe we could find the grooveAt least we can get ourselves a decent mealDown at the Rendezvous‘Cause one more heartfelt steel guitar chordGirl, it’s gonna do me inI need to hear some trumpet and saxophoneYou know sound as sweet as sinAnd after we get good and greasyBaby we can come on homePut the cow horns back on the CadillacAnd change the message on the CordaphoneBut

Lets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girlLets go to Memphis in the meantime babyLet’s go to Memphis in the meantime girl

I’m a talking about MemphisI’m talkin’ ’bout MemphisMemphis

…

Garland Jeffreys – New York Skyline

This is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard. I’ve never lived in New York but you get a sense of what it’s like in this song. I don’t post ballads much but this one I just had to.

Jeffreys is a Brooklyn, N.Y.-born singer/songwriter who has released 15 studio albums in his 53-year career. His mixed heritage Puerto Rican and African-American is mirrored in his music, which embraces rock, soul, R&B, and reggae. He began his career performing solo in Manhattan clubs in 1966 after attending college at Syracuse University as an art major, where he became friends with Lou Reed. He then spent some time in Italy studying art before returning to further his education at New York’s Institute of Fine Arts.

He seemed on the cusp of making it so many times but never crossed that bridge. Jeffreys was named the most promising new artist of 1977 by Rolling Stone magazine, and positive pieces about Jeffreys appeared in the Village Voice and the New Yorker. He was friends with peers like Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Bob Marley, John Lennon, and Joe Strummer.

This song was included on the 1977 album Ghost Writer. The album also included my favorite song by him so far…Wild In The Streets. I have posted a couple of posts on him before and he hits me the same way that Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, and Graham Parker do.

Fellow blogger MusicCityMike made a video/post about Ghost Writer back in 2020. Take a look at it if you can.

Wild In The Streets was released as a single in 1973 but it was included on Ghost Writer.

New York Skyline

Baby JeanVaudeville queenShe love to ragtime in the nightI know I?m gonna miss my baby JeanCause she treats me oh so right

But the New York SkylineIt?s calling me home tonightFemale, feline, feminine,She?s been making my world so bright

Hindsight, foresightSometimes we?ve got no sight at allNew love, true loveSometimes we?ve got no love at all

But the New York Skyline it?sCalling me home tonightFemale, feline, feminine,She?s been making my world so bright

New York Skyline, New York SkylineI can see those city lightsAnd I can feel those neon signsBright lights, big cityWell it must be modern timesYes it must be modern timesWell it must be modern times

Buick MacKane – End

A few weeks ago I covered an artist named Alejandro Escovedo, a Texas singer-songwriter who has been around since the early seventies. I’ve recently listened to the album The Pawn Shop Years and it’s fantastic. The band was named after the T. Rex song Buick MacKane and I see the similarities.

They formed in 1989 and began recording songs for the album that would be released in 1997. They mostly played around Austin and they were a mix between garage and glam rock…and it sounds great. Escovedo had just broken up with his band The True Believers when all of this happened. They were popular in Austin and they had some trouble with people accepting Buick MacKane because they thought it would be The True Believers part two.

If you want to hear a 1990s rock album that sounds like the early seventies…this is the one. Instead of checking out a few songs…check out the album. I’ve posted two songs by them to give you a hint. These guys are not going to give you lush ballads…every song is turned up to 11. They use feedback in many of the songs and it’s so refreshing to hear that. I missed these guys in the 90s but…better late than never.

My only disappointment with this band is that they didn’t make any more albums. I’ve never messed with Spotify much but I thought I would post a link to their album at the bottom.

Rick Reger, Chicago Tribune: “A part-time project recorded over three years by musicians who passionately care about the fact that they’re having a great time in the process, ‘The Pawn Shop Years’ comes, conquers and destroys with far more devastating effect than many a self-important hard rock band purporting to do this for a living.”

Sorry…I could not find the lyrics.

Power Pop Friday – Nils Lofgren – Across The Tracks

This one is an excellent power pop song. This is what power pop is all about. It’s a radio-friendly catchy song with some power behind it. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at listening to his solo works and his 70’s band Grin.

Across The Tracks was on the 1983 album Wonderland. The album is very accessible with catchy songs and his vocals are strong.

Most people know Nils Lofgren from The E-Street Band. He joined them in 1984 to replace Steven Van Zandt. When Van Zandt came back, Bruce made the correct decision to keep both guitar players. Nils also played for Neil Young in the seventies. Lofgren joined Neil Young’s band in 1968 at age 17, playing piano on the album After the Gold Rush. Lofgren would maintain a close relationship with Young, appearing on his Tonight’s the Night album and tour among others. He was also briefly a member of Crazy Horse, appearing on their 1971 LP and contributing songs to their catalog.

He was born in Chicago and he moved to the Washington, D.C., area as a teenager. His first instrument was the accordion. He was also a competitive gymnast in high school, a skill that popped up later in his career. I remember seeing him with the E Street Band and he would do a flip from a trampoline. You can also see it in this video.

From 1971 to 1974 Lofgren was in a band he founded in 1969, a band named Grin. After landing a record deal in ’71 the band released 4 critically-acclaimed albums but met with little commercial success. He followed that band up with some solo albums that weren’t huge commercial successes but he earned the respect of his peers as an excellent guitarist and singer-songwriter.

Across The Tracks

Across the tracks there’s a girl who loves meJust as much as I love herWe are unified still crucifiedJust because we live across the tracks, yeah

White or black, day or nightWhat’s the difference when you’ve hurt someone?You can walk tall, you can act smallAny fool can fire a gun

Across the tracks there’s a girl who loves meJust as much as I love herWe are unified still crucifiedJust because we live across the tracks, yeah alright yeah

So we slip away and pretend to playAnd it said how families make you runIf my daddy ever caught me kissing herI believe he would shoot his son

But we’re growin’ up and there’ll come a dayWhen the real world makes us run awayNow we live in shame and play their silly gameSoon we’ll be gone and I don’t have to say, yeah

Across the tracks there’s a girl who loves meJust as much as I love herWe are unified still we’re crucifiedJust because we live across the tracks, yeah

Across the tracks, across the tracksWe won’t stand forever across the tracksAcross the tracks, across the tracks, oh

…

Beatles – The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill

“If looks could kill, it would have been us instead of him”.

I got the White Album and Abbey Road in the winter of 1981 and immediately fell in love with both, mainly the White Album. The sheer volume of variety knocked me out. I had heard a lot of the songs already but this album changed me musically. When our band started to play I always wanted a variety in our sets. I wanted to play the loudest raunchiest song and then the next one be the quietest song ever. One example would be AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long and then…Wonderful Tonight. I try my best for the blog to be like that also. John Denver one day and then The Stones…it’s warped…but so am I.

This song stuck in my head for months but I didn’t mind. John wrote this one while all of the Beatles were in India visiting the Maraharshi. It’s based on a true story. When they were there they did meet a hunter who shot tigers. The hunter’s name was Richard A. Cooke, and his wife Bronwyn explained that Richard, “had asked the Maharishi if it was a sin to kill a tiger. John and George were in the room. Maharishi’s response was, ‘Life destruction is Life destruction.’ Rik has not shot anything since. He became a freelance photographer for National Geographic.”

Richard Cooke in the blue shirt

This event ended the hunting career of Richard Cooke III. He decided instead to take up professional photography, working as a freelancer for The National Geographic Society for the next 40 years. His mother Nancy remained friends with fellow meditator George Harrison until his death in 2001.

Sometime in 1969, Capitol released “Bungalow Bill” on a short lived format called “Playtape,” which was a tape cartridge made for portable players. Since there wasn’t much tape allotted to a cartridge, it took five volumes to contain most of the songs on the “White Album,” “Bungalow Bill” being featured on “The Beatles Vol. III.” These tapes are highly sought after today and are quite valuable.

It was widely known that John Lennon didn’t write fictional story songs. He was amazed that Paul wrote so many about fictional people like Rita the Meter Maid or Desmond and Molly. The only fictional departure from this song’s actual story is the throwback reference to comic books that John enjoyed during his childhood in the late ’50s and early ’60s. “Captain Marvel – The World’s Mightiest Mortal.”

It’s John’s voice through the verses that I like…he could make any song sound interesting.

John’s lyrics contain “zapped him right between the eyes.” This American comic book reference to someone ‘zapping’ someone was something that John thought to be humorous, so he added it into the story as an inside joke, emphatically repeated afterward as “ZZZZAP!”

The White Album was released in 1968 and peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Chart, #1 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and #1 about everywhere else. The sessions were not the happiest time for the band but they came up with the most eclectic batch of songs they ever produced.

John Lennon: “At the Maharishi’s meditation camp, there was a guy who took a short break to go away and shoot a few poor tigers and then came back to commune with God. There used to be a character called Jungle Jim and I combined him with Buffalo Bill. It’s a sort of teenage social-comment song. It’s a bit of a joke.”

Paul McCartney: “This is another of his great songs and it’s one of my favorites to this day because it stands for a lot of what I stand for now. ‘Did you really have to shoot that tiger’ is its message. ‘Aren’t you a big guy? Aren’t you a brave man?’ I think John put it very well.”

John Lennon: “I had a sort of professional songwriter’s attitude to writing pop songs, I’d have a separate ‘songwriting’ John Lennon who wrote songs for the sort of meat market, and I didn’t consider them, the lyrics or anything, to have any depth at all. Then I started being me about the songs…not writing them objectively, but subjectively…I think it was Dylan that helped me realize that.”

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

He went out hunting with his elephant and gun
In case of accidents, he always took his mom
He’s the all-American bullet-headed Saxon mother’s son

All the children sing
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

Deep in the jungle where the mighty tiger lies
Bill and his elephants were taken by surprise
So Captain Marvel zapped him right between the eyes

All the children sing
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

The children asked him if to kill was not a sin
“Not when he looked so fierce”, his mommy butted in
“If looks could kill, it would have been us instead of him”.

All the children sing
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

Max Picks …songs from 1989

1989

Tom Petty – Free Fallin’

Free Fallin’ may be the song he is most remembered by. Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne wrote and recorded “Free Fallin’” in just two days, the first song completed for Full Moon Fever. “We had a multitude of acoustic guitars,” Petty told Rolling Stone of the song’s Byrds-y feel. “So it made this incredibly dreamy sound.”

Tom Petty: “There’s not a day that goes by that someone doesn’t hum ‘Free Fallin” to me or I don’t hear it somewhere,” “But it was really only 30 minutes of my life.”

Replacements – I’ll Be You

My favorite band of the 1980s. I was so amazed to hear The Replacements on mainstream radio at this time. This was the closest the Replacements came to having a “hit.” It peaked at #51 on the Billboard 100 and #1 on the Modern Rock Charts in 1989. The song did expand its audience with younger kids coming to see them without knowing their back catalog. This was an annoyance to some of the band members who some nights didn’t play I’ll Be You.

The line, “Left a Rebel without a clue” was later borrowed by Tom Petty into his hit, “Into the Great Wide Open,” in 1991. The Replacements opened up for Petty in his 1989 tour with the Heartbreakers.

Roy Orbison – You Got It

Roy was making a great comeback in the late eighties. He was a member of the Traveling Wilburys and he finished a new album called Mystery Girl in November of 1988. He confided in Johnny Cash that he was having chest pains and he would have to have it looked at…he never did.

The Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 was rising in the charts and he flew to Europe to do a show and came back and did a few more in America. On December 6, 1988, he flew model planes with his kids and after dinner passed away at the age of 52.

I remember watching the Traveling Wilburys video “End of the Line”. They made the video after Roy passed away… when his part came up they showed an empty rocking chair with Roy’s picture beside it.

You Got It featured Jeff Lynn, Tom Petty, and Phil Jones.

Bonnie Raitt – A Thing Called Love

Thing Called Love was written by John Hiatt for his 1987 album Bring the Family. Bonnie covered this song for her 1989 Nick of Time album.

Nick of Time was Bonnie Raitt’s breakthrough album. After years of endless touring and making albums it all paid off with this album.

This is the song that really got me into the newer version Bonnie Raitt. I did like her earlier hit Runaway and I’d heard of her music and read about her. She paid her dues and I was happy to see her hit big. She is an extremely gifted slide guitar player and singer.

Neil Young – Rockin’ In The Free World

This is from our favorite Canadian Neil Young. It surprised me that this was released in 1989. I remember it the most in the 90s.
This was inspired by the political changes going on at the time, and was highly critical of George Bush Sr. Some of the lyrics mock Bush’s campaign speeches: “We got 1,000 points of light, for the homeless man,” “We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand.”

Rocking In A Free World was written in February 1989, as Neil Young toured the Pacific Northwest. Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini had just issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie because of his controversial novel The Satanic Verses and Russia had recently withdrawn its forces from Afghanistan.

Pearl Jam has performed this song from time to time with Young, who said that Neil is their musical mentor. The first time they performed it together was at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, where the “Jeremy” video won four awards. Young came on as a surprise guest.

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Lynyrd Skynyrd – On The Hunt

Sometimes as a guitar player, you come up with a riff that you know is good…this riff must have made Allen Collins happy when he thought of it.

It was released on their third album Nothin’ Fancy in 1975. The album was produced by Al Kooper who signed the band and produced their first three albums. Near the end of the sessions, it was decided that Kooper would leave and not produce them anymore. The sessions were tense so he told them he would rather be their friend than their producer so they parted on good terms.

They premiered the song live in Paris in 1974. Nothin’ Fancy was not one of their best albums but did contain some staples for them. Saturday Night Special, Whiskey Rock-a-Roller, and this song On The Hunt. Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zant wrote this song in 1974.

Bob Burns and Artimus Pyle

Right before this album it was decided that the drummer Bob Burns needed to part from the band. He was getting more erratic personally. He had some mental issues that the large amount of drugs and drinking certainly didn’t help. The worst occasion was when he went to see the Exorcist. After he saw that he started to see demons everywhere. While in England he was in the 3rd or 4th floor and threw the hotel’s cat out of the window. He thought the cat was the devil himself. The other band members, even the tough Ronnie Van Zant, were not comfortable around him.

They called up Charlie Daniels and asked him if he knew any drummers, so Daniels told them about Artimus Pyle so he joined. No doubt about it, Pyle was a better drummer but he also fit the band perfectly at that time. Pyle had been marking time and making friends as a session drummer for the likes of both Marshall Tucker and The Charlie Daniels Band. Pyle was a former Marine, a health enthusiast, and a Vegan for the most part. He wasn’t all natural though. He would normally take LSD while they were flying and staying at hotels.

The biggest problem with making the album was that they did not have the time to write the songs and arrange them before they recorded them. On their previous two albums, they had that luxury….even the solos were planned out in every song. The record company wanted something now so they had to write in the studio.

Now that many reviewers have looked back on the album…it has got favorable reviews now. As I have said before…they only released 5 studio albums (not counting one after the crash that had their pre-fame material on it) and three of them would be classic albums. Two of them would be very good…other rock bands at the time would have taken this album and loved it. Their live album released in 1976 is one of the best in rock. It shows the band in great form…the one who opened up for the Stones and made a statement at the 1976 Knebworth event.

Al Kooper: Each record got harder to make, and on the third record [Nuthin’ Fancy]we really battled it out and it was getting dangerous in terms of our friendship. At the last day of the third record, I told them that I didn’t want to produce them anymore — that I would rather be their friend than their producer. I think they had suffered as much as I had and were glad to hear that.

The third album was a very tough album to make because they didn’t have the preparatory time that they had on the first two albums. For instance, the guitar solos were not composed. They were made up in the studio.

On The Hunt

I said baby mama, I don’t know your name
But I said baby, sugar I can play your game
Every night when we leave the hall
I see you hanging around
You wanna ride in my big black car baby
Wanna go uptown

[Chorus]
I know who you are baby
I know what they call you girl
Never put you down baby
I’m just like you baby, I’m on the hunt

I know lady
People gonna talk about you and me
Let me say one thing mama, sugar I do as I please
And if you wanna love me baby, I’m your man
And all those high-falutin’ society people
I don’t care if they don’t undertand

[Chorus]

My daddy told me a long time ago
Said there’s two things son
Two things you should know
And in these two things you must take pride
That’s a horse and woman, yeah
Well both of them you ride

Ray Charles – What I’d Say

Do you want to see a club come alive? Start playing What I’d Say by Ray Charles. An absolutely fantastic song by the man. You can stretch this song out to 20 minutes and it doesn’t lose steam. From the opening riff, it never slows down.

It was written by Charles and the call-and-response style was inspired by church music Charles grew up with. When the preacher said something, the congregation shouted it back. “What’d I Say” stands as the epitome of call-and-response in music.

The intro will hook you right off the bat. The Beatles would cover this in Hamburg and The Cavern and make it last 15 or more minutes. Many artists covered this song. The song peaked at #6 on the Billboard 100 and #1 on the R&B Charts in 1959.

He played this song in a club in Brownsville, Pennsylvania in 1958. When he was finishing the song he realised he had 12 more minutes to fill in the set. He told him to follow him and they did. He later said: “I had sung everything I could think of. So I said to the guys, ‘Look, I’m going to start this thing off, I don’t know where I’m going, so y’all just follow me.’ And I said to the girls, ‘Whatever I say, just repeat after me.'” After that night he knew he had something great. He recorded it really fast and got it out.

He called Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records about his hot new tune and on February 18, 1959, he cut “What’d I Say” in a handful of live takes. The engineer on this song was the great future producer Tom Dowd. The take was very long but Dowd edited down to six and a half minutes. This was his first top ten hit in the Billboard 100 although he had many R&B hits.

Ray Charles continued to include “What’d I Say” in his shows…usually as his encore. In 2002, the Library of Congress added the single to the U.S. National Recording Registry.

What I’d Say

Hey mama, don’t you treat me wrong
Come and love your daddy all night long
All right now, hey hey, all right
See the girl with the diamond ring
She knows how to shake that thing
All right now now now, hey hey, hey hey
Tell your mama, tell your pa
I’m gonna send you back to Arkansas
Oh yes, ma’m, you don’t do right, don’t do right
Aw, play it boy
When you see me in misery
Come on baby, see about me
Now yeah, all right, all right, aw play it, boy
When you see me in misery
Come on baby, see about me
Now yeah, hey hey, all right
See the girl with the red dress on
She can do the Birdland all night long

Yeah yeah, what’d I say, all right
Well, tell me what’d I say, yeah
Tell me what’d I say right now
Tell me what’d I say
Tell me what’d I say right now
Tell me what’d I say
Tell me what’d I say yeah

And I wanna know
Baby I wanna know right now
And-a I wanna know
And I wanna know right now yeah
And-a I wanna know
Said I wanna know yeah

Hey, don’t quit now! (c’mon honey)
Naw, I got, I uh-uh-uh, I’m changing (stop! stop! we’ll do it again)
Wait a minute, wait a minute, oh hold it! Hold it! Hold it!
Hey (hey) ho (ho) hey (hey) ho (ho) hey (hey) ho (ho) hey
Oh one more time (just one more time)
Say it one more time right now (just one more time)
Say it one more time now (just one more time)
Say it one more time yeah (just one more time)
Say it one more time (just one more time)
Say it one more time yeah (just one more time)

Hey (hey) ho (ho) hey (hey) ho (ho) hey (hey) ho (ho) hey
Ah! Make me feel so good (make me feel so good)
Make me feel so good now yeah (make me feel so good)
Whoa! Baby (make me feel so good)
Make me feel so good yeah (make me feel so good)
Make me feel so good (make me feel so good)
Make me feel so good yeah (make me feel so good)
Huh (huh) ho (ho) huh (huh) ho (ho) huh (huh) ho (ho) huh
Aw, it’s all right (baby it’s all right)
Said that it’s all right right now (baby it’s all right)
Said that it’s all right (baby it’s all right)
Said that it’s all right yeah (baby it’s all right)
Said that it’s all right (baby it’s all right)
Said that it’s all right (baby it’s all right)

Whoa! Shake that thing now (baby shake that thing)
Baby shake that thing now now (baby shake that thing)
Baby shake that thing (baby shake that thing)
Baby shake that thing right now (baby shake that thing)
Baby shake that thing (baby shake that thing)
Baby shake that thing (baby shake that thing)
Whoa! I feel all right now yeah (make me feel all right)
Said I feel all right now (make me feel all right)
Whoa! (make me feel all right)
Tell you I feel all right (make me feel all right)
Said I feel all right (make me feel all right)
Baby I feel all right (make me feel all right)

Bill Haley – Rock Around The Clock

Put your glad rags on and join me, hon
We’ll have some fun when the clock strikes one

Bill Haley looked more like your dad than a rock star but his music helped kick rock and roll off. His music was different than Elvis, Chuck, Jerry Lee, Fats, and Buddy Holly. It had a country western swing and jive to it that the others didn’t have. I wanted to cover Mr. Haley today since we had a song yesterday about him. Rock Around The Clock is another B side that was remembered more than the flip side.

Haley started out as a country and western swing singer. He played with a lot of artists such as Hank Williams. Listening to the older pre-rock recordings…he was quite good. He then ran across early versions of rock and roll and combined it with western swing and it worked. He also incorporated some jazz elements in his act.

He toured from the mid-40s to the early 50s playing clubs all over America. He eventually released a song he wrote called Crazy, Man Crazy and it peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1953. He later switched to Decca and the producer wanted him to release a song called Thirteen Women. The song was about the atom bomb going off and he had 13 women around him. It was the B-Side that will be remembered. As usual…the producer didn’t see a hit on the B-Side…and that would be Rock Around The Clock. What helped the song was that it was included in the film The Blackboard Jungle. That also hurt Haley in the long run because it was connected to teenage delinquency.

The song was written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers. It peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100 and #1 in the UK in 1955-56. It recharted in Canada in 1966 and 1968 at #41 both years. It recharted again in 1974 and peaked at #39 on the Billboard 100, #26 in Canada, and #12 in the UK because of Happy Days.

Haley was blinded in his left eye as a child due to a failed operation. Haley later adopted his distinctive spit-curl hairstyle to distract attention from his blind eye. The hairstyle caught on as a 50s-style haircut. His popularity started to decline in America with the emergence of Elvis but he was huge in Europe when he toured there in 1957. They had many more top twenty hits in the UK than in America.

He enjoyed a career resurgence in the late 1960s with the rock and roll revival movement. “Rock Around the Clock” recharted again in 1974 at #34 on the Billboard 100 thanks to Happy Days. That is where I discovered the song and Haley.

He battled alcohol throughout the 60s and 70s. He passed away on February 9, 1981. Haley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

The A Side…13 Women

Rock Around The Clock

One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock, rock
Five, six, seven o’clock, eight o’clock, rock
Nine, ten, eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock, rock
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
Put your glad rags on and join me, hon
We’ll have some fun when the clock strikes one
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight
We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When the clock strikes two, three and four
If the band slows down we’ll yell for more
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight
We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When the chimes ring five, six and seven
We’ll be right in seventh heaven
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight
We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When it’s eight, nine, ten, eleven too
I’ll be goin’ strong and so will you
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight
We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When the clock strikes twelve, we’ll cool off then
Start a rockin’ round the clock again
We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight
We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight

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