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

Eric Clapton – Promises

I had this single when I was a kid that was passed down to me from someone. This was before I knew about Cream, Yardbirds, or anything else. It was probably my first impression of Eric Clapton. When I did hear Cream it was a bit of a shock.

A country rock song by Eric Clapton that’s always been a favorite of mine. It was released in 1978 and peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #82 on the Country Charts, #37 in the UK, and #7 in Canada. This song was from his Backless album. At the time when Clapton was influenced by Don Williams the country artist.

His album Slowhand was released the year before this album. He kept the same producer, Glyn Johns, and recorded in the same studio (Olympic in London). This album was laid-back like Slowhand. It also has a country feel with Tulsa time and this song Promises. The album is not as critically acclaimed as Slowhand…this single was the only hit song on the album.

The album peaked at #8 on the Billboard Album Charts, #22 on the Canadian charts, #18 in the UK, and #22 in New Zealand in 1978. The female singer in this song is Marcy Levy. She wrote Lay Down Sally with Clapton and George Terry.

It was written by Richard Feldman and Roger Linn

Promises

I don’t care if you never come home
I don’t mind if you just keep on
Rowing away on a distant sea
‘Cause I don’t love you and you don’t love me

You cause a commotion when you come to town
You give ’em a smile and they melt
Having lovers and friends is all good and fine
But I don’t like yours and you don’t like mine

La la, la la la la la
La la, la la la la la

I don’t care what you do at night
Oh, and I don’t care how you get your delights
I’m gonna leave you alone, I’ll just let it be
I don’t love you and you don’t love me

I got a problem. Can you relate?
I got a woman calling love hate
We made a vow we’d always be friends
How could we know that promises end?

I tried to love you for years upon years
You refuse to take me for real
It’s time you saw what I want you to see
And I’d still love you if you’d just love me

I got a problem. Can you relate?
I got a woman calling love hate
We made a vow we’d always be friends
How could we know that promises end?

Velvet Underground – I’m Waiting For The Man

When I think of The Velvet Underground… the bands Big Star and The Replacements come up. Those three bands influenced a huge range of other bands but didn’t come along at the right time to make it themselves. They never had mainstream success but their music lives on with every 15-year-old guitar player that picks up one of their albums.

Ask Peter Buck, Paul Westerberg, Paul Stanley, and Rick Nielsen, about some of their influences. The Underground would come up and Big Star… In the 90s performers such as Kurt Cobain and Green Day were heavily influenced by The Replacements. Ok, I’ll step off of my soapbox now.

While the West Coast bands at the time had songs about free love and romanticized the psychedelic experience… The Velvet Underground was more about New York’s dirty streets and drug addictions.

It’s no big secret what this song is about. Waiting for his drug dealer to come. The song is about scoring $26 worth of heroin in Harlem. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Reed said: “Everything about that song holds true, except the price.” The place where the deal took place is a Harlem brownstone near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 125th Street to buy drugs from a dealer.

The song was released in 1967 on The Velvet Underground & Nico album. Songs like “I’m Waiting For The Man,” “Heroin,” and “Venus In Furs” were what kept The Velvet Underground out of a record contract with Atlantic Records. Atlantic executive Ahmet Ertegun told them he would take them if they would drop those songs about drugs…they refused. They would eventually (1970) sign with Cotillion Records (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records that specialized in blues and Southern soul). Until then they were signed to Verve Records…subsidiary of MGM.

Lou Reed wrote this song. John Cale who played piano and bass guitar started to push Reed into more avant grade directions. You can hear Cale’s influence on Reed by listening to the demo version. It sounds like a traditional blues song. I have it at the bottom also above the studio version. The versions are night and day.

The album peaked at #129 on the Billboard Album Charts, and #43 in the UK in 1967.

David Bowie: “I actually played ‘Waiting for the Man’ in Britain with my band before the album was even released in America. Talk about oneupsmanship. A friend of mine came over to the states to do some work with Andy Warhol at The Factory, and as he was leaving, Andy said, ‘Oh, I just made this album with some people. Maybe you can take it back to England and see if you can get any interest over there.’ And it was still the vinyl test pressing. It hadn’t got a company or anything at the time. I still have it. There’s a white label on it, and it says ‘Warhol.’ He signed it. My friend gave it to me and he said, ‘This is crap. You like weird stuff, so maybe you’ll enjoy it.’ I played it and it was like ‘Ah, this is the future of music!’ I was in awe. It was serious and dangerous and I loved it. And I literally went into a band rehearsal the next day, put the album down and said, ‘We’re going to learn this song. It is unlike anything I’ve ever heard.’ We learned ‘Waiting for the Man’ right then and there, and we were playing it on stage within a week. I told Lou that, and he loved it. I must have been the first person in the world to cover a Velvet Underground song.”

The DEMO version

I’m Waiting For the Man

I’m waiting for my man
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
Up to Lexington, 125
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive
I’m waiting for my man

Hey, white boy, what you doin’ uptown?
Hey, white boy, you chasin’ our women around?
Oh pardon me sir, it’s the furthest from my mind
I’m just lookin’ for a dear, dear friend of mine
I’m waiting for my man

Here he comes, he’s all dressed in black
PR shoes and a big straw hat
He’s never early, he’s always late
First thing you learn is you always gotta wait
I’m waiting for my man

Up to a Brownstone, up three flights of stairs
Everybody’s pinned you, but nobody cares
He’s got the works, gives you sweet taste
Ah then you gotta split because you got no time to waste
I’m waiting for my man

Baby don’t you holler, darlin’ don’t you bawl and shout
I’m feeling good, you know I’m gonna work it on out
I’m feeling good, I’m feeling oh so fine
Until tomorrow, but that’s just some other time
I’m waiting for my man

Rodney Crowell – It Ain’t Over Yet

You can’t take for granted none of this shitThe higher up you fly boys, the harder you get hit

This song is haunting and gorgeous. On this album, Crowell has a conversation with his late friends Guy and Susanna Clark and his history. His ex-wife Rosanne Cash and John Paul White also appear with Crowell on this song.

What I like about this song is its simplicity but underneath…there are a lot of things going on. His writing makes it easy to follow but there is more underneath the surface.

This song is on his 15th solo studio album, Close Ties released in 2017. He calls it a bit of a “concept album,” with a clear stroll through his personal history. You almost feel like you are prying into his personal diaries while listening to it.

Crowell was born in Houston, Texas in 1950. He had a rough childhood with an alcoholic father and a very strict Pentecostal mother. At age 15 (1965) he left and joined a rock and roll band 30 miles from home. He said his parents didn’t really acknowledge him when he left.

In 1972 he left for Nashville and found a group of songwriters headed by fellow Texan Guy Clark. He gave Crowell a Dylan Thomas poetry book to look over and study. Clark told him they were not making products but making art. Clark has said: “I’ll bet that when you’re dying, you’re not going to think about the money you made. You’re going to think about your art.”

Crowell charted albums to make enough money to pay the bills through the 80s and 90s but his album Diamonds and Dirt was a huge success. 5 of the singles off that album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts in 1998-1999.

Close Ties peaked at #28 on the Billboard Country Charts and #138 on the Billboard Album Charts in 2017.

It Ain’t Over Yet

It’s like I’m sitting at a bus stop waiting for a trainExactly how I got here is hard to explainMy heart’s in the right place, what’s left of it I guessMy heart ain’t the problem, it’s my mind that’s a total messWith these rickety old legs and watery eyesIt’s hard to believe that I could pass for anybody’s prizeHere’s what I know about the gifts that God gaveYou can’t take ’em with you when you go to the grave

It ain’t over yet, ask someone who ought to knowNot so very long ago we were both hung out to dryIt ain’t over yet, you can mark my wordI don’t care what you think you heard, we’re still learning how to flyIt ain’t over yet

For fools like me who were built for the chaseTakes the right kind of woman to help you put it all in placeIt only happened once in my life, but man you should have seenHer hair two shades of foxtail red, her eyes some far out sea blue greenI got caught up making a name for myself, you know what that’s aboutOne day your ship comes rolling in and the next day it rolls right back outYou can’t take for granted none of this shitThe higher up you fly boys, the harder you get hit

It ain’t over yet, I’ll say this about thatYou can get up off the mat or you can lay there till you dieIt ain’t over yet, here’s the truth my friendYou can’t pack it in and we both know whyIt ain’t over yet

Silly boys blind to get there firstThink of second chances as some kind of curseI’ve known you forever and ever it’s trueIf you came by it easy, you wouldn’t be youMake me laugh, you make me cry, you make me forget myself

Back when down on my luck kept me up for daysYou were there with the right word to help me crawl out of the mazeAnd when I almost convinced myself I was hipper than thouYou stepped up with a warning shot fired sweet and low across the bowNo you don’t walk on water and your sarcasm stingsBut the way you move through this old world sure makes a case for angel wingsI was halfway to the bottom when you threw me that lineI quote you now verbatim, “Get your head out of your own behind”

It ain’t over yet, what you wanna betOne more cigarette ain’t gonna send you to the graveIt ain’t over yet, I’ve seen your new girlfriendThinks you’re the living end, great big old sparkle in her eyeIt ain’t over yet

…

Ritchie Valens – Come On, Let’s Go

Ritchie Valens is known now because of the plane crash, the 1987 movie La Bamba, and the music he made. His rise was short and he was only 17 years old when he died. I remember the movie in the 80s, I went in not knowing much about him except the song La Bamba. I came out with a new appreciation for Ritchie Valens and he carries more influence than his small catalog. Now before you think that I took the movie as gospel…I didn’t but it did get him noticed.

Valens recorded more songs than I ever knew. He recorded 29 songs and he wrote 21 of them. Come On, Let’s Go still sounds fresh and the quality is great. The song peaked at #42 on the Billboard 100 in 1958. It has been covered by Tommy Steel which peaked at #10 in the UK in 1958, The McCoys #22 on the Billboard 100, and Los Lobos for 1987 the movie which peaked at #21 on the Billboard 100 in 1987. After he died, a live album was released as well.

Bob Keane produced most of Ritchie Valens’ recordings. In the summer of 1958, the two hit the road to promote the young new rock singer’s first release which was this song. While in the car, Valens played him another song that he would like to try that he didn’t write. It was a Mexican folk song that Keane didn’t think that audiences would like because of the Spanish lyrics. On top of that…Valens didn’t know much Spanish at all. But…that’s a song for another post.

Valen’s contributions are huge. He is considered a pioneer of and Latin rock, inspiring many musicians of Mexican heritage. Artists like Santana and Los Lobos are among the artists he influenced. Who knows how far Valens could have gone had the airplane crash hadn’t happened. Not only was he a great performer but he could write as well.

The B side…Framed

Come On, Let’s Go

Well, come on, let’s go, let’s go, little darlin’
Tell me that you’ll never leave me
Come on, come on, let’s go again
Go again and again

Well, now, swing me, swing me, swing me, little darlin’
Come on, let’s go, little darlin’
Let’s go, let’s go again once more

Well, I love you, babe
And I’ll never let you go
Come on, baby, so, oh, pretty baby, I love you so

Well, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, little sweetheart
Forever we can always be together
Come on, come on, let’s go again

Oh, well, I love you, babe
And I’ll never let you go
Come on, baby, so, oh, pretty baby, I love you so

Well, come on, let’s go, let’s go, little darlin’
Tell me that you’ll never leave me
Come on, come on, let’s go again
Again, again, and again
Again, again, and again
Again, again, and again

Beatles – You Really Got A Hold On Me

I had this scheduled for later in March but since it’s February 9…I thought I would move it up. It was exactly 60 years ago today on February 9, 1964, that The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.

This Smokey Robinson song is a great one…I really like both versions of this song. You can’t go wrong with either one. You will not beat Smokey’s voice but I like how The Beatles adapted their sound to it. Lennon did a great job on this one. This is close to what the Beatles would have sounded like in the Cavern or Hamburg.

The Beatles liked covering B sides and songs that were not hits but this one was a hit just the year before. Smokey was a huge influence on them in this time frame of 1962-63. Seven live takes of the song were first recorded, featuring all four Beatles playing their usual instruments and singing without overdubs, accompanied by producer George Martin on piano. Only four of these performances were complete (three of them being false starts), “take seven” being the keeper. The song was featured on With The Beatles released in the UK on November 22, 1963.

Smokey Robinson said he was thrilled that The Beatles would cover one of his songs. He also said that The Beatles were the first white band that came out and said they were influenced by him and other black artists. He also said they helped other black artists when they made that statement to be heard.

Later on when the Beatles toured America…it was written in their contract that they would absolutely not play in front of a segregated audience.

Robinson was influenced by Sam Cooke’s Bring It All Home To Me…which I can hear. Cooke would sometimes perform at Robinson’s church with his group the Soul Stirrers and Robinson was a huge fan.

While recording the vocal track for the song “Woman” on the Double Fantasy album… Yoko commented that John sounded like a Beatle. Lennon corrected her by saying, “Actually I’m supposed to be Smokey Robinson at the moment, my dear, because The Beatles were always supposing that they were Smokey Robinson.”

You Really Got A Hold On Me

I don’t like you
But I love you
See that I’m always
Thinking of you

Oh, oh, oh,
You treat me badly
I love you madly
You’ve really got a hold on me
You’ve really got a hold on me, baby

I don’t want you
But I need you
Don’t want to kiss you
But I need you
Oh, oh, oh

You do me wring now
My love is strong now
You’ve really got a hold on me
You’ve really got a hold on me, baby
I love you and all I want you to do
Is just hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me

I want to leave you
Don’t want to stay here
Don’t want to spend
Another day here

Oh, oh, oh, I want to split now
I just can quit now
You’ve really got a hold on me
You’ve really got a hold on me, baby
I love you and all I want you to do
Is just hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me
You’ve really got a hold on me
You’ve really got a hold on me

Squeeze – Black Coffee In Bed

A cousin of mine sent me a link to this song and I haven’t heard it in a long time. Black Coffee in Bed was released in 1982 and it surprises me that this did not chart in the Billboard 100 but it did peak at #26 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts. It also peaked at #51 on the UK Charts.

Black Coffee In Bed was released in 1982 as the first single from Squeeze’s fifth album, Sweets from a Stranger. Glenn Tilbrook sang lead and wrote the music to accompany Chris Difford’s lyrics. Elvis Costello and Paul Young sang backup.

The first article I read about Squeeze in Rolling Stone gave them a “New Beatles” label. That is not a good label to have and usually is the kiss of death. The band did have a hit the year before with Tempted. This song was played a lot on MTV. When MTV launched in 1981 they were on the hunt for videos and many of the British bands of that time had been making videos so this was in the rotation.

Sweets from a Stranger peaked at #20 on the UK Charts, #26 in Canada, and #32 on the Billboard Album Charts. This album was their follow-up to East Side Story. Like Crowded House a little later, they made some great pop albums that still sound good today.

John, a fellow blogger from 2 Loud 2 Old Music reviewed this song.

Chris Difford: “The lyric was inspired by my picking up my notebook one day and seeing a coffee stain on it, which inspired the first line. It was a very vivid image for me and inspired this song of loss and regret. Lyrically it was attractive to a country kind of meter. The fact that Glenn put a soul melody to it shows the unique quality of our writing.”

Black Coffee In Bead

There’s a stain on my notebook
Where your coffee cup was
And there’s ash in the pages
Now I’ve got myself lost
I was writing to tell you
That my feelings tonight
Are a stain on my notebook
That rings your goodbye
With the way that you left me
I can hardly contain
The hurt and the anger
And the joy of the pain
Now knowing I am single
They’ll be fire in my eyes
And a stain on my notebook
For a new love tonight
From the lips without passion
To the lips with a kiss
There’s nothing of your love
That I’ll ever miss
The stain on my notebook
Remain all that’s left
Of the memory of late nights
And coffee in bed
Now she’s gone
And I’m back on the beat
A stain on my notebook
Says nothing to me
Now she’s gone
And I’m out with a friend
With lips full of passion
And coffee in bed

Danny O’Keefe – Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues

I ran across this song a few weeks ago. It was the first time I heard this song in many years. I would hear it on local radio stations growing up.

Danny O’Keefe was from Spokane, Washington and he wrote the song during a period when he was struggling with his own demons. He had just gotten out of a bad relationship and was dealing with alcohol and drug addiction.

It was also recorded by Elvis using the same musicians as O’Keefe did on this recording. He also wrote the song “The Road” on Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty Album. It peaked at #9 in the Billboard 100 and #19 in Canada in 1972. It was recorded at American Studios in Memphis with Arif Marden producing. Danny O’Keefe was a one-hit wonder with Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues his only Billboard hit.

The song has been featured in numerous films and television shows, including The Sopranos and Forrest Gump. It has also been recognized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which included it in its list of “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.”

Danny O’Keefe: “The success of one’s dreams is always exhilarating. Elvis cut the song with the same group of musicians I had, so there was a pride in continuity, but I didn’t think he brought anything new to it. Over the years I’ve come to appreciate it more as part of the song’s great legacy.”

Danny O’Keefe: “Maybe it was about hipsters drawn to the high life. I lived in interesting times and there was a lot of experimentation with every kind of drug. There were a lot of damages and strange intersections of lives that provided much grist for a young songwriter’s mill.”

Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues

Everybody’s goin’ away
Said they’re movin’ to LA
There’s not a soul I know around
Everybody’s leavin’ town
Some caught a freight, some caught a plane
Find the sunshine, leave the rain
They said this town’s a waste of time
I guess they’re right, it’s wastin’ mine
Some gotta win, some gotta lose
Good time Charlie’s got the blues
Good time Charlie’s got the blues
Ya know my heart keeps tellin’ me
“You’re not a kid at thirty-three”
“Ya play around, ya lose your wife”
“Ya play too long, you lose your life”
I got my pills to ease the pain
Can’t find a thing to ease the rain
I’d love to try and settle down
But everybody’s leavin’ town
Some gotta win, some gotta lose
Good time Charlie’s got the blues
Good time Charlie’s got the blues
Good time Charlie’s got the blues
(whistling to end)

Max Picks …songs from 1987

1987

I listened to the radio in 1987 a little more than in the previous 3 years or so. The albums that really got my attention were George Harrison’s Cloud Nine and the Replacements album that’s one of my favorites of the 1980s…Please To Meet Me… it was recorded in the Memphis studio where Big Star recorded. It was also the year of the Grateful Dead…a huge top-ten album and single.

Grateful Dead – Touch Of Grey

I knew of the Grateful Dead from an older brother of a friend I had. I had heard of them as a kid in the seventies before I actually heard them. I knew some of their songs and the Garcia song Sugaree. I always pictured this heavy tough metal band with a name like that. Whenever they toured they would draw a massive amount of fans despite having no top ten hits…until this song. After this song, they drew a larger amount of attention and fans.

When this came out in the 80s, it was like Deadmania. With MTV suddenly everyone was talking about them. While big success is great it did cause some trouble at some of their concerts. Chilled-out Deadheads followed them around the country for decades. Some financed their travels by hawking food, T-shirts, and handicrafts…not to mention pot and LSD usually peacefully. Through the years more would add to the fold…some described it as a giant community more than a regular concert. In 1987 they suddenly had an influx of new young fans (Touchheads) and some didn’t know what the band was about. Along with them came some gate crashers and riots.

With the backing of the band, older Deadheads handed out flyers on how to act, trying to mellow out the newer crowd.

Robert Hunter started writing the lyrics to this song in 1980, and the Grateful Dead first performed it in 1982. They played it sporadically over the next few years and finally recorded it for their 1987 album In The Dark.

George Harrison – We We Was Fab

I loved this song when I heard it. To hear George sing about his time with The Beatles surprised me. Of all the Beatles George seemed to have the most resentment and some of it was understandable. A few years after this he would join the remaining Beatles and start on The Beatles Anthology. George wanted Paul to be in this video but Paul was tied up at the time. He asked George to put a left-handed bass player in the video with a walrus mask and tell everyone it was him.

George co-wrote the song with Jeff Lynne, who also co-produced the album that shortly pre-dates the two of them forming The Traveling Wilburys. ‘When We Was Fab’ is a musical nod to the psychedelic sound that the Beatles had made their own. George used a sitar, string quartet, and backward tape effects.

He also got some help from Ringo. Starr played drums on this track and a few others on the album. Harrison says that when he started writing the song, he had Ringo’s drumming in mind for the intro and the overall tempo

Replacements – Alex Chilton

The Replacement’s tribute song about Big Star and Box Tops lead singer, Alex Chilton. The song was off the album Please To Meet Me. One of my favorite bands of all time singing about a singer in one of my favorite bands. This would be my number 1 song of 1987.

The Replacements recorded Pleased To Meet Me in Memphis at Ardent Studios, the same studio as Big Star. The man behind the board was Jim Dickinson, who produced the storied third Big Star album. Alex came into the studio a few times while the Replacements were working on the record (and laid down a guitar fill for “Can’t Hardly Wait”), but the band avoided the awkwardness of playing “Alex Chilton” whenever Chilton was around.

R.E.M. – It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

This song came off of the great Document album. With some REM songs, it takes a few listens for me but this one… the first time was enough to know I really liked it. It was recorded in the Sound Emporium in Nashville, Tennessee. The song peaked at #69 in 1988. The song was inspired by Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan and you can tell.

Michael Stipe said: “The words come from everywhere. I’m extremely aware of everything around me, whether I am in a sleeping state, awake, dream-state or just in day to day life. There’s a part in ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It’ that came from a dream where I was at Lester Bangs’ birthday party and I was the only person there whose initials weren’t L.B. So there was Lenny Bruce, Leonid Brezhnev, Leonard Bernstein… So that ended up in the song along with a lot of stuff I’d seen when I was flipping TV channels. It’s a collection of streams of consciousness.”

Los Lobos – La Bamba

This band had been around a long time before this song came out. They formed in 1973 and released their first album in 1978. They opened for bands such as The Clash and The Blasters so they got exposed to a lot of different audiences.

They recorded some Ritchie Valens covers for the movie La Bamba and their cover of the title track made them known internationally. The song was number 1 almost everywhere including the US, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.

Looking Glass – Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)

It’s good to be back…I was under the weather yesterday and not a bunch better today but better all the same.

This is a song that automatically takes me back to being a kid. When it was included on the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 soundtrack…it was exposed to many kids and teens which now lives on for another generation. I rarely cover AM Gold songs because early on I covered so many of them…and this one is worth it.

No one other than Clive Davis signed this band to a contract. He knew they had hit on their hands! Well…yes he did but he didn’t think this song was it though. This song was originally the B-side to a song called “Don’t It Make You Feel Good.”It’s a good song but not Brandy. Harv Moore, a disc jockey in Washington DC, flipped the record and played “Brandy” instead. It became popular in the DC area, and quickly spread nationwide.

This song was released in 1972 and it was a big hit. It still is being played today on classic radio and in any supermarket near you. It peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #51 in the UK.

It was written by the lead singer Elliot Lurie. Looking Glass didn’t hang around too much longer… after a minor hit the next year with “Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne,” Lurie left the band to pursue a solo career.

There is another reason why Looking Glass didn’t do more. They were originally a hard rock band from New Jersey until the success of “Brandy,” which pushed them (reluctantly) into a softer direction. Apparently, the band was never entirely pleased with the song’s success or their new direction, and they never really altered their heavier stage act to accommodate what their new listeners were used to hearing from them on the radio.

I’m sure that Lurie doesn’t mind the softness now when the song is included in movies and soundtracks.

Elliot Lurie: Brandy is a made-up individual,” he said. “The name was derived from a high school girlfriend I had whose name was Randy with an ‘R.’ Usually when I write — I still do it the same way I did back then — I strum some guitar and kind of sing along with the first things that come to mind. Her name came up. Then I started writing the rest of the song, and it was about a barmaid. I I thought Randy was an unusual name for a girl, it could go either way, and (the song was about) a barmaid, so I changed it to Brandy.”

Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)

There’s a port on a western bay
And it serves a hundred ships a day
Lonely sailors pass the time away
And talk about their homes

And there’s a girl in this harbor town
And she works layin’ whiskey down
They say, Brandy, fetch another round
She serves them whiskey and wine

The sailors say, “Brandy, you’re a fine girl” (you’re a fine girl)
“What a good wife you would be” (such a fine girl)
“Yeah, your eyes could steal a sailor from the sea”

Brandy wears a braided chain
Made of finest silver from the North of Spain
A locket that bears the name
Of the man that Brandy loved

He came on a summer’s day
Bringin’ gifts from far away
But he made it clear he couldn’t stay
No harbor was his home

The sailor said, “Brandy, you’re a fine girl” (you’re a fine girl)
“What a good wife you would be” (such a fine girl)
“But my life, my love and my lady is the sea”

Yeah, Brandy used to watch his eyes
When he told his sailor story
She could feel the ocean fall and rise
She saw its ragin’ glory
But he had always told the truth, Lord, he was an honest man
And Brandy does her best to understand

At night when the bars close down
Brandy walks through a silent town
And loves a man who’s not around
She still can hear him say

She hears him say, “Brandy, you’re a fine girl” (you’re a fine girl)
“What a good wife you would be” (such a fine girl)
“But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea”

It is, it is
Yes, it is, yes it is

He said, “Brandy, you’re a fine girl” (you’re a fine girl)
“What a good wife you would be” (such a fine girl)
“But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea”

Derek and The Dominos – Bell Bottom Blues

I like this song just as much as Layla. It was written by Eric Clapton and Bobby Whitlock. This song and “I Looked Away” are two of my favorites on the album. Bell Bottom Blues peaked at only #91 on the Billboard 100 in 1971. Recently, Eric did a great thing for someone with this album.

Derek and The Dominos formed after working on George Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass. After that, they played a lot of different small clubs all over Europe. They made the album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs in Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida. It’s there where Clapton met Duane Allman and a little later invited him to join them. Duane ended up turning Eric down because he believed in the Allman Brothers and he built them from the ground up. Eric was one of his guitar guys so it had to be a hard choice for him.

Clapton first heard about Allman when listening to Wilson Pickett’s version of Hey Jude for the first time and heard his guitar playing at the end of the song. He called up either Ahmet Ertegun or Tom Dowd and asked who was that guitar player? Eric has said that he has never heard better rock guitar playing on an R&B record.

In 1970, Eric Clapton was experiencing emotional anguish over George Harrison’s wife Pattie Boyd. He recounts writing the song for Boyd after she asked him to get her a pair of bell-bottom jeans while he visited the US.

Clapton repackaged this album and the first thing he did was to ask his attorneys…what is Bobby Whitlock going to get out of this? Bobby played keyboards and wrote a lot of the songs with Eric. The attorneys told Eric he would get nothing because he sold all of his rights. He was down at one time and had to sell everything. Eric and his attorneys went to the publishing company and bought back all of Bobby’s rights and handed it over to him without Whitlock even knowing.

Bobby Whitlock: Well, unbeknownst to me, Eric and Michael took their attorneys in to the respective Warner/Chappel and Universal and all the other companies and bought back my rights to my income and restored them and gave them back to me. Out of the blue.

So all of my royalties have come back. And now it’s even more so, because it hasn’t been a month-and-a-half ago that I wrote him to explain how ‘Bell Bottom Blues’ came about, and I sent it to Eric and to Michael. Someone had come online and says something about, ‘Is this true that ‘Bell Bottom Blues’ was written about a pair of trousers?’

And I said, Yeah, well, it was that and this girl in France that Eric was seeing for a little while while we were there. I’d forgotten about Pattie [Boyd – subject of ‘Layla’] asking him about those pants. But anyway, before I would answer this and put it out publicly online, I decided, Well, I probably ought to write Eric.

Bobby Whitlock: “Eric met this girl, she was like a Persian princess or something, and she wore bell bottoms. She was all hung up on him – he gave her a slide that Duane (Allman) had given him and he wrapped it in leather and she wore it around her neck. She didn’t speak a word of English and they had to date through an interpreter. That relationship did not last but a week. He started the song over there, then when we got back to England, we finished it up in his TV room in Hurtwood Edge.”

Bell Bottom Blues Indeed!

Bell Bottom Blues

Bell bottom blues, you made me cry
I don’t want to lose this feeling
And if I could choose a place to die
It would be in your arms

Do you want to see me crawl across the floor to you?
Do you want to hear me beg you to take me back?
I’d gladly do it because
I don’t want to fade away
Give me one more day, please
I don’t want to fade away
In your heart I want to stay

It’s all wrong, but it’s all right
The way that you treat me baby
Once I was strong but I lost the fight
You won’t find a better loser

Do you want to see me crawl across the floor to you?
Do you want to hear me beg you to take me back?
I’d gladly do it ’cause
I don’t want to fade away
Give me one more day, please
I don’t want to fade away
In your heart I want to stay

Bell bottom blues, don’t say goodbye
I’m sure we’re gonna meet again
And if we do, don’t you be surprised
If you find me with another lover

I don’t want to fade away
Give me one more day please
I don’t want to fade away
In your heart I want to stay

Doors – Peace Frog

I hope everyone is having a great Sunday. I grabbed the album Morrison Hotel yesterday and was caught off guard by this song. I don’t remember it from when I originally played the album. The music is cool as hell with the guitar in a groove with the drums. I thought this could have been an instrumental and have been good…but the lyrics make it great.

Come to find out…the song started out as an instrumental as Robbie Krieger said: “I had written the music, we rehearsed it up, and it was really happening, but we didn’t have any lyrics and Jim wasn’t around. We just said, ‘Fuck it, let’s record it. He’ll come up with something.’ And he did. He took out his poetry book and found a poem that fit.”

I always liked album cuts…sometimes a little more than hits. This a great song on a Sunday to kick back to. I never thought of the Doors as the ultimate groove band but this one fits. Morrison Hotel peaked at #4 on the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in Canada, and #12 in the UK in 1970.

The lyrics about the Indians supposedly refer to a car accident that happened when he was a child. The accident involved some Indians and Morrisons thought the Indians joined his soul. The Blood in the streets in the town of New Haven lyric refers to when the singer was arrested in New Haven in 1967. Morrison was backstage with a girl. He explains it in the quote below.

Jim Morrison: “We started talking and we wanted some privacy and so went into this little show room. We weren’t doing anything. You know, just standing there talking, and then this little man in a little blue suit and a little blue cap came in there. He said ‘Whatcha doin’ there?’ ‘Nothin’.’ But he didn’t go away, he stood there and then he reached round behind him and brought out this little black can of something. It looked like shaving cream. And then he sprayed it in my eyes. I was blinded for about 30 minutes.”

Peace Frog

There’s blood in the streets
It’s up to my ankles
There’s blood in the streets
It’s up to my knees

Blood in the street
The town of Chicago
Blood on the rise
It’s followin’ me

Just about the break of day
She came in
And she drove away
Sunlight in her hair

Blood on the streets
Runs a river of sadness
Blood in the streets
It’s up to my thighs

The river runs down
The leg of the city
The women are crying
Red rivers of weeping

She came in town
And then she drove away
Sunlight in her hair

Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding
Ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile
Egg-shell mind

Blood in the streets
In the town of New Haven
Blood stains the roofs
And the palm tress of Venice

Blood in my love
In the terrible summer
Bloody red sun of
Fantastic L.A.

Blood screams her brain
As they chop off her fingers
Blood will be born
In the birth of a nation

Blood is the rose of
Mysterious union

There’s blood in the streets
It’s up to my ankles
Blood in the streets
It’s up to my knees

Blood in the street
The town of Chicago
Blood on the rise
It’s followin’ me

Joe Ely – All Just To Get To You

What a beautiful song this is. I’ve really been diving into Texas songwriters. CB sent me this one and it’s fantastic. It’s a great one that I’ve been listening to for a few weeks.

The acoustic rhythm guitar in this is catchy and intricate at the same time. We have heard the phrase of a musician’s musician…well this is the same to other songwriters. I like good songwriting and this is a great example of it. The words flow out perfectly.

The song was written by Joe Ely and Will Sexton. The song was released in 1996 and was on the album Letter To Laredo. This is songwriting at its finest. Springsteen contributed to two songs on the album including this one. Bruce traveled to Austin around the spring of 1995 and joined Ely in the studio to record his parts.

Ely has 16 studio albums and 20 singles in his career so far. This album charted at #68 on the Billboard Country Charts. He has charted quite a few in the Charts.

Joe Ely: “I like to tell in a song where the location is, paint the background, and then bring it into a rhythmic world and try to find something that doesn’t take away from it, but adds to it.”

Joe Ely and Bruce Springsteen in 2001.

All Just To Get To You

I have stumbled on the plains
Staggered in the wind
Stood at a crossroad or two
Cried to a river
Swept to the sea
All just to get to you

I have flagged a yellow cab
Hopped a rusty freight
Sang till my lips turned blue
Flown a silver bird
On the tops of the clouds
All just to get to you

I ran too hard
I played too Rough
I gave my Love
Not near Enough
I bled too red
I cried too blue
I beat my fist
Against the moon
All just to get to you

I have run from St. Paul
To Wichita Falls
Call’d you from sunny Baton Rouge
Hocked everything
From my watch to my ring
All just to get to you

I ran too hard
I played too Rough
I gave you Love
Not near Enough
I bled too red
I cried too blue
I beat my fist
Against the moon
All just to get to you

From the California Shore
Where the mighty ocean roars
To the lands of the Hopi and the Sioux
I walked the desert sands
Crossed the Rio Grande
All just to get to you

I have stumbled on the plains
Staggered in the wind
Stood at a crossroad or two
Cried to a river
Swept to the sea
All just to get to you

Van Morrison – Cleaning Windows

I went home and listened to Jimmie Rodgers in my lunch-break
Bought five Woodbines at the shop on the corner
And went straight back to work.

On my Max Picks I always notice when it’s too late that I missed a song that I wanted to include. I was telling halffastcyclingclub that I forgot this one in 1982. I didn’t find the song until around 1985 or 86 when I bought Tower Records out of any album with Van Morrison.

This song was on the Beautiful Vision album. Some Van songs grew on me but this one I liked the first time I heard it. This one has an autobiographic feel to it for a good reason. Van did have a job cleaning windows for a while in east Belfast. He captures a specific moment in his life and invites us to join him in reflecting on our own memories.

This was the early sixties when he was still a part-time musician. Not only does he touch on his job but tells us his early influences like Brownie McGhee and Jimmie Rodgers.

Leslie Holmes played with a band with Van called The Monarchs. Holmes helped Van finish the windows so they would make the gig that particular night. As I’ve said before…if you get a chance to see this man live…don’t miss it. He is the only performer where I can say his voice sounds better live than on record.

The album peaked at #44 on the Billboard 100, #22 in Canada, #31 in the UK, and #13 in New Zealand in 1982.

Leslie Holmes: “I played with The Monarchs for two years when the showband scene was at its peak, I enjoyed my time with Van who was a very talented musician and a lot of fun. In addition to the band, Van had a window-cleaning business in east Belfast, and one day I helped him to clean windows so that we could make our gig that night. So I have a special sense of identity with his song about cleaning windows.

“We travelled much of the country and the memorable places included the Orpheus Ballroom, the old Co-Op in York Street, the Flamingo in Ballymena, Moira Town Hall, the Floral Hall, and many others. After I left The Monarchs I did some fill-ins with the Witness Showband.”

Cleaning Windows

Oh, the smell of the bakery from across the street
Got in my nose
As we carried our ladders down the street
With the wrought-iron gate rows
I went home and listened to Jimmie Rodgers in my lunch-break
Bought five Woodbines at the shop on the corner
And went straight back to work.

Oh, Sam was up on top
And I was on the bottom with the v
We went for lemonade and Paris buns
At the shop and broke for tea
I collected from the lady
And I cleaned the fanlight inside-out
I was blowing saxophone on the weekend
In that down joint.

What’s my line?
I’m happy cleaning windows
Take my time
I’ll see you when my love grows
Baby don’t let it slide
I’m a working man in my prime
Cleaning windows (number a hundred and thirty-six)

I heard Leadbelly and Blind Lemon
On the street where I was born
Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee,
Muddy Waters singin’ “I’m A Rolling Stone”
I went home and read my Christmas Humphreys’ book on Zen
Curiosity killed the cat
Kerouac’s “Dharma Bums” and “On The Road”

What’s my line?
I’m happy cleaning windows
Take my time
I’ll see you when my love grows
Baby don’t let it slide
I’m a working man in my prime
Cleaning windows…

…

Lone Justice – Ways to Be Wicked

First time I heard this song I loved it. It was by a group called Lone Justice with lead singer Maria McKee. The song was Ways to Be Wicked, written by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell. When I am asked my favorite female singer of the 1980s…Maria Mckee is my answer by a wide margin.

In 1985 the song peaked at #29 in the Mainstream Rock Charts and #77 in the UK. This surprised me because I heard the song quite a bit and thought it charted higher. They had two more songs that come to mind. “I Found Love” and “Shelter“. They should have made it further than they did. Maria did have a number 1 in the UK with “Show Me Heaven” in 1990.

Lone Justice was formed in 1982 and played rockabilly and country music as part of the cowpunk scene. After signing with Geffen, the band recorded their debut album, and hit the road, opening for U2. The hype was in overdrive and the pressure was on.

The critics loved the album but it didn’t sell well. I first noticed them when they were on SNL and played this song. I personally thought this would hit the top ten…I was wrong yet again. The album could not meet the expectations of all of the hype and failed to connect with a rock audience.

In 2022 Lisa let me ramble and go on about my undying love for Maria McKee at her site.

Ways To Be Wicked

Honey, why you always smile
When you see me hurt so bad?
Tell me what I did to you, babe
That would make you act like that?

Well, I’ve been your fool before, honey
Yeah, and I probably will again
‘Cuz you ain’t afraid to let me have it
No, you ain’t afraid to stick it in

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Ooh, but you don’t know one little thing
About love

Well, I can take a little pain
Yeah, I can hold it pretty well
I can watch your little eyes light up
While you’re walkin’ me through Hell

Well, I’ve been your fool before, honey
Yeah, and I probably will again
‘Cuz you ain’t afraid to let me have it
No, you ain’t afraid to stick it in

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don’t know one little thing
About love

Those cobra eyes
Lie with a smile
Baby you take pride
In the devil down inside, yeah

Well, I can take a little pain
Yeah, I can hold it pretty well
I can watch your little eyes light up
While you’re walkin’ me through Hell

Well, I’ve been your fool before
Yeah, and I probably will again
You ain’t afraid to let me have it
No, you ain’t afraid to stick it in

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Ooh, but you don’t know one little thing
About love

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Yeah, but you don’t know one little, one little thing
About love

Yeah you know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don’t know one little, one little

Soul Asylum – Runaway Train

Heard this in the nineties when I still listened to the radio between changing tapes. I remember the video being used to find missing children. The music video for “Runaway Train” featured photographs and names of missing children in the style of a public service announcement. That was a great idea.

At the end of the original video, lead singer Dave Pirner appeared and said, “If you’ve seen one of these kids, or you are one of them, please call this number” before a missing children telephone helpline number appeared. The video was edited for use outside the US to include photos and names of missing children from wherever the video was to be shown. It drew awareness to the problem and was instrumental in reuniting several children with their families. The director said out of the 36 kids featured in the U.S. versions, they eventually found 21. I have a video at the bottom about a girl that was found through the video.

There is a special player in this song. This was a Hammond B3 organ was played by Booker T. Jones, who was a member of the group Booker T. & the M.G.’s. Jones played on many Soul classics of the ’60s and ’70s, mostly the Stax Records recordings, as his group served as their house band.

Lead singer Dave Pirner wrote this song and he said it was about depression. It took him a few years to write. Soul Asylum were label mates of The Replacements and were on Twin Tone Records at one time. They formed in 1981 in Minneapolis.

Runaway Train peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #7 in the UK, and #2 in New Zealand in 1993.

Here is a story of one that was found because of the video.

Runaway Train

Call you up in the middle of the night
Like a firefly without a light
You were there like a slow torch burning
I was a key that could use a little turning

So tired that I couldn’t even sleep
So many secrets I couldn’t keep
Promised myself I wouldn’t weep
One more promise I couldn’t keep

It seems no one can help me now
I’m in too deep
There’s no way out
This time I have really led myself astray

Runaway train never going back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I’m neither here nor there

Can you help me remember how to smile
Make it somehow all seem worthwhile
How on earth did I get so jaded
Life’s mystery seems so faded

I can go where no one else can go
I know what no one else knows
Here I am just drownin’ in the rain
With a ticket for a runaway train

Everything is cut and dry
Day and night, earth and sky
Somehow I just don’t believe it

Runaway train never going back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I’m neither here nor there

Bought a ticket for a runaway train
Like a madman laughin’ at the rain
Little out of touch, little insane
Just easier than dealing with the pain

Runaway train never comin’ back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I’m neither here nor there

Runaway train never comin’ back
Runaway train tearin’ up the track
Runaway train burnin’ in my veins
Runaway but it always seems the same

…