Singles – Page 46 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

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.

…

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

…

Ray Wylie Hubbard – Bad Trick

You can’t fix a broken heart with a bobby pin
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

CB and I get into some interesting musical conversations…he sent me a track from Ray Wylie Hubbard. I knew I remembered him somewhere and of course, when I searched I found what I remembered. It was this song called Bad Trick. The song he sent me was Snake Farm…and I have it in here also.

It was made I’m sure during the lockdown. It features Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Chris Robinson and was produced by Don Was.

Let’s look at Ray Wylie Hubbard. In the early seventies, Hubbard joined Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson as part of the progressive country vanguard on the Texas music scene…known as the Outlaws. These weren’t your crew-cut guys from Nashville with a sweet sound. They were earthy and down-to-earth music for the common people to be honest. Rough about the edges and a little too close to rock for some of the established country fans.

He started to get known when Jerry Jeff Walker cover his song “Up against the Wall, Redneck Mother.” in 1973. He has released 19 albums since 1975. Lately, he wrote a song that Eric Church covered called Desperate Man.

Bad Trick was released on the album Co-Starring. The artists that wanted to play with him were incredible. They included Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, Ronnie Dunn, Don Was, Larkin Poe, Pam Tillis, and The Cadillac Three. You are well respected when these players are backing you.

I want to cover one more song on this post. The song is called Snake Farm and it’s on the album of the same name…Snake Farm was released in 2006. It sounds so nasty with the licks from the guitar he plays.

Ray Wylie Hubbard: I had burned a lot of bridges and didn’t have a career. But I wanted to be a real songwriter. Someone gave me Letters to a Young Poet, and there was this line about our fears being like dragons guarding our most precious treasures. I decided to overcome my fear of embarrassment and take guitar lessons at age 41 to learn how to fingerpick, and that opened all sorts of doors.

On Snake Farm Hubbard said: “There’s an old snake farm in New Braunfels, Texas between Austin and San Antonio. It’s been there about 40 years. And there’s a rumor that it was something more than a snake farm but I don’t know about that. Doesn’t make any difference. I’ve driven by it probably 10,000 times. So one day I’m driving by and all of a sudden I see the snake farm… I see the snake farm there and I’m driving along and all of a sudden I go, ‘Ooh, just sounds nasty.’ I said, ‘Well, it is. It’s not a church or a hospital, it’s a reptile house.’

I’m like, ‘God, snake farm, just sounds nasty. Snake farm, well it pretty much is. Snake farm, it’s a reptile house. Snake farm, eww.’ I kept singing that in my head for some strange reason, and then I said, ‘Well, what am I gonna do with this?’Well, I’ll make it a love song. I’ll make it about a man who doesn’t like snakes, but he’s in love with a woman that works at the snake farm.”

Snake Farm

Bad Trick

Don’t get any on you if you go to Nashville
Don’t operate machinery if you on Benadryl
Got to have some faith when you in the lion’s den
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

Club soda don’t always remove ketchup stains
Ain’t nothing you can take gonna cure a migraine
Broken dreams is a premise in “of mice and men”
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

You got to have some scars if you wanna be a poet
To get weeds out of a garden, you got to hoe it
Possession with intent will get you 5 to 10
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

Most gamblers know they’ll never break even
There’s 5 stages to go through when you’re grieving
The sword is always bloodier than the pen
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

Dancing is promiscuous after midnight
It’s better to be content than have to always be right
You can’t fix a broken heart with a bobby pin
And everybody turns a bad trick now and then

Pogues – Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

This song is a little different from their prior music before this one. I love the soul/rock feel of this song. MacGowan’s vocals are spot on also. The video is really cool as you see them progressing from a beat group to a psychedelic one.

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah” was the title track to the band’s 1988 EP, which featured rock and R&B rather than Irish folk. This track adds a touch of blue-eyed soul with its Memphis-style horn section. It became the Pogues’ first single to chart in the U.S. The song peaked at #17 on the Billboard Alternative Charts, #43 in the UK, #19 in New Zealand, and #1 in Ireland. Sorry, my Canadian friends…I could not find that chart position.

Despite seemingly being a hit material single, “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah” stalled in the U.K. In America, it was the first Pogues song to make any charts at all, making it all the way to #17 on the rock charts and #36 on the club charts. Since it wasn’t on any of their studio albums and has only intermittently shown up on their best-ofs… I’m curious how many Pogues fans forgot this song even existed.

The Pogues were formed in Ireland in 1982 by Shane MacGowan. They reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. MacGowan left because of drinking problems and was replaced for a time with Joe Strummer and then with Spider Stacy on vocals before breaking up in 1996.

They reformed with MacGowan in 2001 and were still together and playing. The band was awarded the lifetime achievement award at the annual Meteor Ireland Music Awards in February 2006. On November 30, 2023, Shane MacGowan passed away.

The video is a lot of fun. It was based on the Top of the Pops and Ready, Steady, Go pop shows of the 1960s.

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

I loved you baby since we were at schoolI didn’t show it, I was a foolWhen you were burning I was cold as iceAnd baby now I realiseOh, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

Woo-ooh-ooh-oohWoo-ooh-ooh-ooh

I gave you misery, I gave you liesAnd if I hurt you, I apologizeAs long as I look into those deep green eyesSwear I’d put my finger to the eyesOh, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

Woo-ooh-ooh-oohWoo-ooh-ooh-ooh

Now all that I can do is hope and prayThat you’ll forgive me before it’s too lateThere’s only one thing I can say to youYou know I’ll fuck you, you know it’s trueOh, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

Woo-ooh-ooh-oohWoo-ooh-ooh-ooh

When I talk to GodHe know I understandHe says, “Stick by me and I’ll be your body now”Gonna tell you what I think of youI might not give the antidote you want me toOh well, oh well, oh well, oh well

I’ve got a big machine with plenty magazinesI’ve got a new machine now with plenty magazinesI’ve got a big machine now with plenty magazinesI’ve got a new machine with plenty magazines

So, stick it up, stick it up, stick it up, stick it upStick it up, stick it up, stick it up, stick it up, stick it up, stick it up, stick it up

And she saidYeah, yeah, yeah, yeahAnd we saidYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

And we saidYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)And we saidYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

When I talk to GodHe know I understandHe says, “Stick by me and I’ll be your body now”Gonna tell you what I think of youI might not give the antidote you want me to

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

…

Dave Alvin – Haley’s Comet

And he tells the waitress, “Hey, I just found the body
Of some guy who was famous long ago”

CB sent me this and it’s a song about the last sad years of Bill Haley. Haley’s Comet is a hell of a rocker but tells a poignant story. It’s sad to think that a pioneer American Rock and Roll hero could be forgotten to the point he’s not even recognizable. I like how Alvin focuses on Haley’s loneliness and makes you feel it.

It was written by Dave Alvin and Tom Russell. I wore this song out this week. While researching this post I got a book about Bill Haley and I’m almost halfway through it now. He was an interesting artist that I never knew much about. It’s a shame he is not remembered like his peers such as Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others. He helped kickstart rock and roll.

He was known to everyone in the 1950s for his band The Comets and songs such as Rock Around The Clock, Crazy Man Crazy, Shake Rattle and Roll, and more. He had the world’s attention in 1955 and 1956. He looked more like a fatherly figure than a rock star but he was very popular at that time. He also appeared in two movies, Don’t Knock The Rock and Rock Around The Clock in 1956.

After the fifties, his popularity on the charts vanished. He was still a popular touring act in the UK. Many American 50s rockers toured there in the 60s and 70s like Gene Vincent. There were no more hits but Haley kept touring. He also developed a bad drinking problem.

There was a rumor, that was denied by his wife, that he had a brain tumor. Haley didn’t want to tour anymore. That rumor helped him stay hidden. He started to call and write his friends pages of rambling, bitter notes about his career. He also took to painting his bedroom windows black as the song tells. He was said to be a modest gentle courteous man, who throughout his career encouraged every change and newcomer in music, never criticizing anyone. He passed away in February of 1981.

Dave Alvin was the guitar player for the Blasters. This song was on his solo album Blue Blvd released in 1991. Tom Russell is a singer-songwriter who resides in El Paso, Texas. Russell’s songs have been recorded by artists such as Johnny Cash, Ian Tyson, Nanci Griffith, Dave Alvin, and others. In addition to his music, he is also an artist and published author. There will be more posts about him coming up.

Dave Alvin: Haley’s Comet was sadly based on the last years of Bill Haley’s life as you know it. It’s one of those “Don’t let this happen to you” songs.

Haley’s Comet

Do you know who I am?” said Bill Haley
In a pancake house near the Rio Grande
The waitress said, “I don’t know you from diddley”
“To me you’re just another tired old man”

He walked alone down on Main street
A hot wind was blowing up from the south
There were two eyes staring in a pawn shop window
And a whiskey bottle was lifted up to his mouth

There was no moon shining on the Rio Grande
As a truck of migrants pulled through town
And the jukebox was busted at the bus depot
When Haley’s Comet hit the ground

He blacked out all the windows in his bedroom
He was talking to the ceiling and the walls
He closed his eyes and hit the stage in 1955
As the screams of the children filled the hall

This cop walked into a pancake house in Texas
And ordered up a couple of cups to go
And he tells the waitress, “Hey, I just found the body
Of some guy who was famous long ago”

….

Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper – I Ain’t Gonna Piss in No Jar

For those of you who offend easily…this post is probably not for you…because a lot of things by Mojo Nixon offend…and I love him for it. Well, this is a record…my second “piss” post in a week!

I’ve heard about this collaboration called “The American Psycolbilly Duo” and it fits! Mojo Nixon made some peculiar songs and some were a little deeper once you followed the lyrics. Mojo Nixon was born Neill Kirby McMillan Jr. in 1957 and he recently passed away on February 7, 2024.

This one was about threatening to personally deliver his marijuana-contaminated urine straight to First Lady Nancy Reagan. This was an answer to a bill that Reagan had to have mandatory drug tests for federal workers in the 80s. Of course, Nancy was big on “The War On Drugs.”

I’ve had a few posts about Mojo before…over his songs “Elvis Is Everywhere,” “Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child,” and “Don Henley Must Die.”

It’s probably been since the 1980s that I heard this song. A popular Nashville rock station WKDF in the 80s would play “Elvis Is Everywhere” and a few more by Mojo. I don’t think they would have played this one but a friend had the album and it was funny.

Mojo Nixon started in the early eighties and he teamed up with Skid Roper (Richard Banke). Mojo and Skip Roper wrote this song. It was released in 1987 and it was on his album Bo-Day-Shus!!!. Mojo has some fun music. I forgot about his songs until a blogger named Paul pointed me toward him again a few years ago.

I Ain’t Going To Piss In No Jar

Well I ain’t gonna pee pee in no cupMiss Nancy Reagan’s gonna drink it upSaid yo Nancy, we just say, no, no, no no no no noWell go ahead and fire me from my jobThere’s one little thing you ain’t gonna robThat’s my freedom, and my liberty

Well I ain’t gonna piss in no jarThem evil peckerheads they done gone too farI wouldn’t pee in their mouths if they were dying of thirstYeah we got to get rid of this evil curseI’m alive and I’m fighting this jive

Everybody should go to WashingtonWe can have ourselves a little funYou know, they want our piss, I think we ought to give it to themSurround the White House with a urinary moatSo Ronnie and Nancy will have to float on a boatGet across the stinky, steaming yellow pee pee sea, oh

You know Thomas Jefferson is gonna be mighty pissedWhen he finds out about this, I saidCome back from the dead, Tom, sock ’em in the head

Why is everybody so afraid of drugsMan they afraid of what the drugs gonna do to us

Well I ain’t gonna pee pee in no cupMiss Nancy Reagan’s gonna drink it upSaid yo Nancy, we just say, no, no, no no no no noWell go ahead and throw me in jailRam hot spikes up my tailBut you’re not gonna get a drop of no peepee out of me

I ain’t gonna piss in no jar

You know Foghorn Leghorn wouldn’t pee in no jar. You know Patrick Henrydidn’t “Giveme liberty or give me a urine sample” now did he? Aw we sure enoughrockin’ out, Skid.Huey Long wouldn’t piss in no jar! What’s gonna be next, the doo doopolice? (Fade out)

…

Osmonds – Crazy Horses

Please don’t disown me after this…but a Led Zeppelin and Osmond’s story is too hard to pass up. I have played this song to people without telling them who did it…none of them guessed it.

My sister would aggravate me when I was 4 or 5 by playing their records repeatedly. All I could remember was looking at that album and being blinded by that bright glaring smile they all had. So this post is for my sister who probably would not have liked this particular song…but that is probably why it stuck with me.

This is a comment on YouTube about this song “This is what happens when Mormons finally have caffeine.“

I hate to admit it…but this song is not that bad. The Osmonds had this song banned in South Africa, not because of their wild image but because the word Horse meant heroin there. The keyboard at the intro with the slide sound was a YP-30 Yamaha organ with a portmento slide.

A few years after this song…The Osmonds were invited to see Led Zeppelin at Earls Court by the band. They went backstage and met Zeppelin’s family. The Osmonds even used their sound system when they played Earls Court ourselves the following night.

I have to admit…it’s a pretty damn hard song. It peaked at #14 on the Billboard 100, #2 in the UK, and #6 in Canada in 1972. Hmmm wonder how close we came to a Black Sabbath – Osmonds tour in the early seventies?

There was a positive message with the song…it was an environmental song about pollution… an allegory for mankind’s destructive tendencies. As much as I hate to…I’ll give them their due. They stepped out of the teenybopper box they were in and tried something different.

Jay Osmond: I remember we went in a day early because we were using Led Zepplin’s sound equipment. And so we went in to watch them and those guys were so fun and cool. We went backstage and played frisbee with their kids and then they invited us to come up and play with them on ‘Stair Way To Heaven’. And I’ll never forget, The Osmonds and Led Zepplin on the same stage.

Merrill Osmond: “Before that, my brothers and I had been what’s now called a boy band… all our songs were chosen for us by the record company. But now, having been successful, we wanted to freak out and make our own music. We were rehearsing in a basement one day when Wayne started playing this heavy rock riff. I came up with a melody and Alan got the chords. Within an hour, we had the song. I had always been the lead singer, but I sang Crazy Horses with Jay. The line “What a show, there they go, smoking up the sky” had to be sung higher, so I did that and Jay did the verses because his voice was growlier, and this track was heavier than anything we’d ever done.”

Donny Osmond: “Ozzy Osbourne actually told me that ‘Crazy Horses’ is one of his favorite rock and roll songs. “The problem is my teenybopper career was selling like crazy and it overshadowed anything we did as a rock and roll band.”

Donny Osmond: We had a wall of Marshalls in the studio. It was so loud that you couldn’t even walk in the studio, so we had to play the organ from the control room. My brother Alan actually played it on the record. I played it live. But the secret to it was a wah-wah pedal. We opened the wah-wah just enough to get that really harsh kind of a piercing sound, but it was the loudness of the Marshalls that got us that sound. And then we doubled it. That was the secret to that sound.”

This is a song off of that album…they borrowed a Zeppelin riff for this one.

Crazy Horses

There’s a message floatin’ in the air.
Crazy horses ridin’ everywhere.
It’s a warning, it’s in every tongue.
Gotta stop them crazy horses on the run.

What a show, there they go smokin’ up the sky, yeah.
Crazy horses all got riders, and they’re you and I.
Crazy horses (repeat 3 times)

Never stop and they never die.
They just keep on puffin’ how they multiply.
Crazy horses, will they never halt?
If they keep on movin’ then it’s all our fault.

What a show, there they go smokin’ up the sky, yeah.
Crazy horses all got riders, and they’re you and I.
Crazy horses (repeat 3 times)

So take a good look around,
See what they’ve done, what they’ve done —
They’ve done–
They’ve done–
They’ve done–
They’ve done.

Crazy horses.

Allman Brothers – Wasted Words

There is nothing better than sitting back on a cool Fall day and listening to the Allman Brothers.

The album Brothers and Sisters was released in August 1973. This was almost two years after Duane Allman had died. Around a year later on November 11, 1972…their bassist Berry Oakley died on a motorcycle within a few blocks of where Duane crashed. Some of the band members have said…Berry died on the day that Duane died but his body just kept moving until a little over a year later. He never got over Duane dying and his drug and alcohol use escalated. He was on his motorcycle and hit a bus. He went back to his house and they took him to a hospital where he died a short time later.

Let me say this about Berry Oakley. He is sadly overlooked today. Not only was he a superb blues bass player but he had something that not all blues bassists have. He had a great sense of melody…I would compare him to Paul McCartney in that department. In the middle of those jams, you would hear the bass playing these wonderful countermelodies…he was unique in that way.

The Allmans recorded Brother and Sisters between October and December of 1972. It was a monster hit for the Brothers. It contains the last songs that Oakley ever played on. Berry Oakley played on this song and the huge hit Ramblin’ Man that he recorded shortly before his death. They had try-outs for another bass player but Jaimo’s friend Lamar Williams won out easily. He played with the band until they broke up briefly in 1976. He developed lung cancer at the age of 32 from exposure to Agent Orange during his Vietnam service and died in 1983.

Gregg Allman wrote this and Dickey Betts played a slide on the song. He didn’t like playing slide because of Duane. When Duane died instead of replacing him with another guitar player…they recruited the great piano player Chuck Leavell. That was a smart thing to do because of the comparisons to Duane on whoever would have taken that spot. Dickey had to play slide when they played their older songs but it’s something he stayed away from on newer songs when he could.

The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #42 in the UK. What helped the album was Ramblin’ Man and Jessica, two of their most classic songs. They toured with this album and played sold-out stadiums and arenas. A little later they would lease The Starship… the same one that Led Zeppelin used in the seventies. They were up there with The Who, Led Zeppelin, and the monster bands of the seventies.

The first time I heard of the Allman Brothers was on SNL where Dan Ackroyd played Jimmy Carter talking down a caller on acid. I was around 9 when I heard it and it stuck. I have it below.

Wasted Words

Can you tell me, tell me, friend, just exactly where I’ve been?
Is that so much to ask I’ll pay you back no matter what the task
You seem really sure ’bout something I don’t know,
Take that load off, looks like chest’s about to go
Your wasted words already been heard, are you really god, yes or no?

Well, all day and half the night you’re walkin’ round lookin’ such a fright
Good is it me or is it you?
I’d make a wager and I’d hope you lose
Time’s gone, looks like Rome is ’bout to fall,
Next time take the elevator, please don’t crawl
Your wasted words so absurd, are you really Satan, yes or no?
Tell me now baby?
Ooh hoo
Oh

Well, I ain’t no saint and you sure as hell ain’t no savior
Every other Christmas I would practice good behavior
That was then, this is now, don’t ask me to be mister clean
Baby, I don’t know how
Ring my phone ’bout ten more times, we will see,
Find that broke down line and let it be
Your wasted words will never be heard, go on home baby and watch it on TV

Weekday soap-box specialty, you know what I’m talkin’ ’bout now
By the way, this song’s for you, sincerely, me

Max Picks …songs from 1988

1988

Three albums shaped this year for me. One was by The Traveling Wilburys, U2, and the other was by Keith Richards..

Traveling Wilburys – Handle With Care

This was the hit that kicked the Wilburys project off the ground. George Harrison and Jeff Lynne started the ball rolling… Initially an informal grouping with Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, they got together at Bob Dylan’s Santa Monica, California studio to quickly record an additional track as a B-side for the single release of Harrison’s song This Is Love. This was the song they came up with, which the record company immediately realized was too good to be released as a single B side. They also recorded “You Got It” at the session, which helped convince them to record an album together.

The title Handle With Care came when George Harrison saw the phrase on the side of a cardboard box in the studio.

Tom Petty on Bob Dylan: “There’s nobody I’ve ever met who knows more about the craft of how to put a song together than he does. I learned so much from just watching him work. He has an artist’s mind and can find in a line the keyword and think how to embellish it to bring the line out. I had never written more words than I needed, but he tended to write lots and lots of verses, then he’ll say, this verse is better than that, or this line. Slowly this great picture emerges. He was very good in The Traveling Wilbury’s: when somebody had a line, he could make it a lot better in big ways.”

Steve Earl – Copperhead Road

Brilliant song by Steve Earle. I became a fan of Steve Earle when I heard “I Ain’t Never Satisfied” off of the Exit 0 album. Copperhead Road was an actual road near Mountain City, Tennessee. It has since been renamed Copperhead Hollow Road, owing to the theft of road signs bearing the song’s name.

What is interesting is Earle tells a story of three generations, of three different eras, and shows how they intersect all in one song. Earle himself called the album the world’s first blend of heavy metal and bluegrass.

U2 – Angel Of Harlem

This song has an old feel and a lot of power. It was on the Rattle and Hum album. I’ve talked to many U2 fans who don’t like the album a lot but it is my favorite album the band did. It broke a little from their previous albums. The Edge backed off the reverb and delay some on this album. They traded their “new wave” sound for Americana and I loved it. Rattle and Hum is very rootsy and raw. For me and I’m sure I’m in the minority…this song was one of the best singles of the 80s. I could hear Van Morrison doing this. This song is what made me go back and listen to the rest of their catalog. This album is not The Joshua Tree Part II…they go down a different path like great bands do.

The “Angel of Harlem” is Billie Holiday, a Jazz singer who moved to Harlem as a teenager in 1928. She played a variety of nightclubs and became famous for her spectacular voice and ability to move her audience to tears. She dealt with racism, drug problems, and bad relationships for most of her life, and her sadness was often revealed in her songs. She died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1959 at age 44.

Angel of Harlem was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis.

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car

When I heard this song it sounded so different than other songs at the time. It’s a well-written song lyrically and musically that has a folk feel to it. It could have been a hit in any era… the lyrics got my attention. While they’re standing in the welfare lines / crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation / wasting time in the unemployment lines / sitting around waiting for a promotion.

The song remains one of my favorites from that era. I always thought this song was an instant classic. It could have been released in 1973.

A still unknown Tracy Chapman was booked to appear down the bill at the Nelson Mandela birthday concert at Wembley Stadium on June 11, 1987. She had no reason to think her appearance would be the catalyst for a career breakthrough. After performing several songs from her self-titled debut during the afternoon, Chapman thought she’d done her bit and could relax and enjoy the rest of the concert.

That would not be the case… later in the evening, Stevie Wonder was delayed when the computer discs for his performance went missing, and Chapman was ushered back onto the stage again. In front of a huge prime-time audience, she performed “Fast Car” alone with her acoustic guitar. Afterward, the song raced up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

Keith Richards – Take It So Hard

When I heard this song with the opening riff coming from that 5-string G turning that he is known for I loved it. I bought the album Talk is Cheap which some reviews half-jokingly called the best Rolling Stones album in years (It WAS!). The song got plenty of play on rock stations at the time. It peaked at #3 in the Mainstream Rock Tracks. The album was recorded in a period when Mick and Keith were feuding with each other about the direction of the Stones. They were not recording or playing live. “You Don’t Move Me Anymore” off of the album points right at Mick.

Personally, I’ve always liked Keith’s voice. Happy, Salt of the Earth, You Got the Silver, and Before They Make Me Run rank among my favorite Stones songs. This song would fit on any Stones album.