Singles – Page 49 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

John Lennon – Instant Karma

This track is so alive. Lennon’s voice as always cuts through as always and Lennon’s sense of rhythm is different as always. He wrote and recorded this song in one day. John enlisted George Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, and Billy Preston to help him record the song. He also got Mal Evans, a Beatles road manager, to do the chimes, handclaps, and backing vocals. He is playing tambourine in the video below. The song was recorded on January 27, 1970, and released to the public on February 6, 1970.

I always tell people that I prefer John’s early albums to his later ones and to Pauls early ones. John had an edge to him that Paul didn’t have until Band on the Run… to me anyway.

The chorus was made up of Mal Evans, Yoko, and a small group of strangers Lennon rounded up from a West End pub called Hatchetts.

The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #4 in New Zealand, and #5 in the UK in 1970. Phil Spector produced this track with great results. John kept it simple and Spector produced an exciting record and didn’t overproduce it because John reigned him in. The drums are really in your face in this recording.

Stephen King has said the novel The Shining got its inspiration from this song with the chorus of “We all shine on.”. Before Lennon would let Spector touch the Let It Be tapes…he tried him out on this song to see if he could not overproduce something this sparse and have a hit.

Yoko caught a lot of heat in 1993 when she let Nike use this song in a commercial. I will give her credit on this one… she took the $800,000 that Nike gave her, and gave it to the United Negro College Fund. Nowadays no one says anything about it as much because it’s much more commonplace now.

John Lennon: “I wrote it in the morning on the piano. I went to the office and sang it many times. So I said ‘Hell, let’s do it,’ and we booked the studio, and Phil came in, and said, ‘How do you want it?’ I said, ‘You know, 1950’s.’ He said, ‘right,’ and boom, I did it in about three goes or something like that. I went in and he played it back and there it was. The only argument was that I said a bit more bass, that’s all, and off we went.”

Yoko Ono: “It’s like, ‘Let’s all be together and anybody who’s out there who’s not in this game, why don’t you join us?,'” she told Uncut in 1998. “And to say that ‘We all shine on,’ it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing, instead of saying some people are shining and some people are not. It’s a really uplifting song.”

Instant Karma

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head
You better get yourself together
Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead
What in the world you thinking of
Laughing in the face of love
What on earth you tryin’ to do
It’s up to you, yeah you

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna look you right in the face
Better get yourself together darlin’
Join the human race
How in the world you gonna see
Laughin’ at fools like me
Who in the hell d’you think you are
A super star
Well, right you are

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev’ryone come on

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
Ev’ryone you meet
Why in the world are we here
Surely not to live in pain and fear
Why on earth are you there
When you’re ev’rywhere
Come and get your share

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
Come on and on and on on on
Yeah yeah, alright, uh huh, ah

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
On and on and on on and on

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun

Bob Dylan – Neighborhood Bully

He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in

He’s the neighborhood bully.

Welcome to Bob the Punk in this song. He does away with traditional choruses…and just gets down to business. I’ve been wanting to post this for years and it’s been languishing in my draft folder. My friend Matt posted it a little while back.

I bought Infidels back in the 80s and it remains my favorite Dylan album of that decade. It had quite a few songs that made it to our radio stations in Nashville. Jokerman, Sweetheart Like You, and Union Sundown. This is the one is the one that I focused on. Ex Rolling Stone member Mick Taylor played guitar on this and the song is a rocker.

It also was the most controversial song on the album. It drew criticism from some people and others loved it. The song is clearly a pro Israel song and he sings the song with passion. It was banned from YouTube and other platforms in 2020 for “hate speech.” After articles came out in defense of the song…youtube reversed its decision. It was also recalled from the record company for a while. Hard to believe a 37-year-old song could cause so much trouble when it’s been out there since 1983.

People say Bob’s voice is this or that…but it’s made for songs like this. It fits this song perfectly. I’ve seen where some Dylan fans hate it but it’s been a favorite of mine. It’s not Masters of War or Like A Rolling Stone and it’s repetitive but I like it. The lyrics flow great in this one.

The album peaked at #20 in the Billboard Album Charts, #14 in Canada, #4 in New Zealand, and #9 in the UK in 1983.

Bob Dylan: “I’m not a political songwriter. “‘Neighborhood Bully,’ to me, is not a political song, because if it were, it would fall into a certain political party. If you’re talkin’ about it as an Israeli political song—in Israel alone, there’s maybe 20 political parties. I don’t know where that would fall, what party.”

Neighborhood Bully

Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man
His enemies say he’s on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He’s the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He’s the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He’s wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He’s always on trial for just being born
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he could apologize
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim
That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him
‘Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a licence to kill him is given out to every maniac
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, he got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He’s the neighborhood bully.
Every empire that’s enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He’s made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one’s command
He’s the neighborhood bully.

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He’s the neighborhood bully.

What’s anybody indebted to him for?
Nothing, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
He’s the neighborhood bully.

What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully

Max Picks …songs from 1978

1978

I remember this year well. The Dodgers repeated a World Series trip but also repeated losing to the Yankees.

Great song by The Who on their last album with Keith Moon. Keith was not in the best shape by this time but his drumming on this is still fantastic. The song is about real events that happened to Pete Townshend down to being passed out drunk at night and asking a policeman that knew Pete’s name, Who the F**k are you? You can still hear Daltrey sing the expletive on classic radio stations.

This one was always a favorite of mine of the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards wrote this, but a lot of the lyrics were improvised in the studio. While the band played, Jagger came in with different lines to fit the music.

This song is a good example of the Rolling Stones tapestry of guitars. Keith and Ron Wood weave their guitars in and out until the two guitars are almost indistinguishable from each other.

Warren Zevon was a very clever songwriter. He went were other songwriters don’t often go. This track was produced by Jackson Browne. The songwriters were LeRoy Marinell, Waddy Wachtel, and Warren Zevon. John McVie and Mick Fleetwood played on this song.

This song is one of the best pop singles of the 1970s. It was on the album City To City. This was Rafferty’s first release after the breakup of his former band Steeler’s Wheel. Gerry Rafferty had been unable to release any material due to disputes about the band’s remaining contractual recording obligations, and his friend’s Baker Street flat was a convenient place to stay as he tried to remove himself from his Stealers Wheel contracts. It was his second solo album, the first being Can I Have My Money Back? released in 1971.

The album and song were about life on the road in all its glory and squalor. To emphasize this notion even further, Jackson Browne literally recorded the album on the road, in hotel rooms, on buses, and, in the case of “Running On Empty,” on stage.

Blue Öyster Cult – Godzilla

I thought it was time to include some arena rock since I haven’t posted any for a long time. The band will always be connected to the Cowbell because of Saturday Night Live…but this is a fun song. It helps that I’m a huge fan of Godzilla.

This song was obviously inspired by a series of Japanese films from the 1950s featuring the one and only Godzilla. The song lyrics depict famous scenes from Godzilla films. The band didn’t understand why the 2014 movie didn’t use the song but…in Godzilla The King of The Monsters…it was used but it was a remake…not the original version…they should have used the BOC version.

The song appeared on the album Spectres. The album peaked at #43 on the Billboard Album Charts, #58 in Canada, and #60 in the UK in 1977. The song didn’t chart and wasn’t a hit but lives on and on….on classic radio.

The band’s guitarist, Buck Dharma, wrote this song and shared lead vocals on the track with Eric Bloom. Dharma loved monster movies, and when he came up with the guitar riff, it made him think of Godzilla, which gave him the concept of the song.

In concert at one time, a smoke-spewing animatronic Godzilla with flashing eyes would appear on stage when the band performed this song. Buck Dharma would give it a convincing introduction, often referring to recent newsworthy catastrophes. In later years, the stage Godzilla was retired, but the band still used a barrage of sound effects to start the song

According to the book Contents Under Pressure: 30 Years Of Rush, while opening on tour with Blue Öyster Cult, Rush members replaced a sound recording that queued up with a video of Godzilla at the opening of the set with a recording of “Hello, My name is Mister Ed.” The two bands often played pranks on one another during the tour.

The tune has been used in the soundtracks of numerous other movies, such as “Detroit Rock City,” “Dogtown” and “Z-Boys,” as well as in television shows, commercials, video games, and compilation recordings. It has been covered by bands like Racer X and the Smashing Pumpkins. It also has been parodied by several artists, most notably Blue Oyster Cult members Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser, who released “NoZilla” in response to their song not appearing in the 1998 “Godzilla” film soundtrack.

Buck Dharma: “The story of the tune was, I just came up with the parallel fifths guitar riff in a hotel room in Dallas, Texas back in the day, probably about 1975. And it immediately made me think of Godzilla, like the plodding, you know, guy-in-a-suit monster. And I started writing the lyrics from what happened in the movie. Like, the high-tension wires are a big part of that movie.”

The NEW version

Godzilla

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high-tension wires down

Helpless people on subway trains
Scream, bug-eyed, as he looks in on them

He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

Oh, no, they say he’s got to go
Go, go, Godzilla (yeah)
Oh, no, there goes Tokyo
Go, go, Godzilla (yeah)

Godzilla!

臨時ニュースを申し上げます
臨時ニュースを申し上げます
ゴジラが銀座方面に向かっています
大至急避難してください
大至急避難してください

Oh, no, they say he’s got to go
Go, go, Godzilla (yeah)
Oh, no, there goes Tokyo
Go, go, Godzilla (yeah)

History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of man
Godzilla!

Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street

This song is one of the best pop singles of the 1970s. It was on the album City To City. This was Rafferty’s first release after the breakup of his former band Stealer’s Wheel. Rafferty had been unable to release any material due to disputes about the band’s remaining contractual recording obligations, and his friend’s Baker Street flat was a convenient place to stay as he tried to remove himself from his Stealers Wheel contracts. It was his second solo album, the first being Can I Have My Money Back? released in 1971.

Rafferty’s daughter Martha later said that the book The Outsider by Colin Wilson also heavily inspired the song. Rafferty was reading the book, which explores ideas of alienation and creativity while traveling between the two cities.

The first thing you notice about the song is the sax solo. Raphael Ravenscroft played the solo. Rafferty wrote the song with an instrumental break but didn’t have a specific instrument in mind. The producer, Hugh Murphy, suggested a saxophone, so they brought in Ravenscroft to play it. He was only paid £27 for his sax contribution. One urban legend about this is that the check bounced. Ravenscroft has confirmed that it didn’t bounce.

The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #3 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand in 1978. It won the 1979 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. The album City to City peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #6 in New Zealand, and #6 in the UK.

In 2011, Ravenscroft said that he thought the solo was out of tune. He admitted he was “gutted” when he heard it played back. Apparently, he had not been able to re-record the take, as he was not involved when the song was mixed.

Raphael Ravenscroft: I’m irritated because it’s out of tune; yeah it’s flat; by enough of a degree that it irritates me at best.

Gerry Rafferty: Everybody was suing each other, so I spent a lot of time on the overnight train from Glasgow to London for meetings with lawyers. I knew a guy who lived in a little flat off Baker Street. We’d sit and chat or play guitar there through the night.

Studio Guitarist Jake Burns: I went to the studio after I played the gig and I think one of the first songs we played was Baker Street, and I said, ‘This is fantastic. This is a great song, quite frankly, I loved his songs. I regard it as a great good fortune that I was able to meet and contribute something to Gerry’s music.

Baker Street

Winding your way down on Baker Street
Light in your head and dead on your feet
Well, another crazy day
You’ll drink the night away
And forget about everything

This city desert makes you feel so cold
It’s got so many people, but it’s got no soul
And it’s taken you so long
To find out you were wrong
When you thought it held everything

You used to think that it was so easy
You used to say that it was so easy
But you’re trying, you’re trying now

Another year and then you’d be happy
Just one more year and then you’d be happy
But you’re crying, you’re crying now

Way down the street there’s a light in his place
He opens the door, he’s got that look on his face
And he asks you where you’ve been
You tell him who you’ve seen
And you talk about anything

He’s got this dream about buying some land
He’s gonna give up the booze and the one-night stands
And then he’ll settle down
In some quiet little town
And forget about everything

But you know he’ll always keep moving
You know he’s never gonna stop moving
‘Cause he’s rolling, he’s the rolling stone
And when you wake up, it’s a new morning
The sun is shining, it’s a new morning
And you’re going, you’re going home

Who – Christmas

This song is on the album Tommy about the deaf, dumb, and blind kid. This is not a Christmas song you will hear on the radio at this time of year…it’s just part of the story of Tommy. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album along with Sally Simpson.

Tommy’s father has concerns about his son on Christmas morning. Tommy is deaf, dumb, and blind, and doesn’t appear to have much of a future, but that Christmas, he gets a game of pinball and his life changes when he becomes the Pinball Wizard. This was written by Pete Townshend and it fits perfectly on that album.

It’s the backup vocals that always catch my attention. Also the drums by Mr. Moon plus Townshend’s slashing guitar. They also go into the refrain of “Tommy Can You Hear Me” and “See Me Feel Me.” The song is powerful and also very catchy. I always listen to it around Christmas.

I don’t think any band in rock could have touched them during this time live. On the tour of Tommy is where Live At Leeds came from and it is the tightest I’ve heard a rock band.

Tommy peaked at #2 in the UK, #4 on the Billboard 100, and #6 in Canada in 1969.

Christmas

Did you ever see the faces of children
They get so excited.
Waking up on Christmas morning
Hours before the winter sun’s ignited.
They believe in dreams and all they mean
Including heavens generosity.
Peeping round the door
to see what parcels are for free
In curiosity.

And Tommy doesn’t know what day it is.
Doesn’t know who Jesus was or what praying is.
How can he be saved?
From the eternal grave.

Surrounded by his friends he sits so silently,
And unaware of everything.
Playing poxy pin ball
picks his nose and smiles and
Pokes his tongue at everything.
I believe in love
but how can men who’ve never seen
Light be enlightened.
Only if he’s cured
will his spirits future level ever heighten.

And Tommy doesn’t know what day it is.
Doesn’t know who Jesus was or what praying is.
How can he be saved?
>From the eternal grave.
Tommy can you hear me?
Tommy can you hear me?
Tommy can you hear me?
How can he be saved?

[Tommy:]

See me, feel me
Touch me, heal me.
See me, feel me
Touch me, heal me!

Tommy can you hear me?
Tommy can you hear me?
Tommy can you hear me?
How can he be saved?

Johnny Conqueroo – Rock and Roll

Last weekend I posted Muddy Waters and found this band looking for High John de Conqueror… an African-American folk hero who is name-checked in some blues songs. I played this song and when he started to sing…I knew I liked them. “Johnny Conqueroo” is this band’s name.

Their first EP was released in 2015, with a full-length album right after titled “Washed Up” in 2016. The album consists of 10 songs that travel through a variety of sounds that are both catchy and organic. The lead singer’s name is Grant Curless and what a rock voice he has. Shawn Reynolds plays bass and Wils Quinn plays the drums.

At first, Johnny Conqueroo played at private parties and house concerts. But by their second year as a band, they began to play in clubs and other venues. In recent years, they have branched out to perform in places like Chicago, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Ohio, Alabama, and the Tri-State. “Rock and Roll” is the second single from Johnny Conqueroo’s EP, “Taking it Easy.” I like this one a lot…it has a Kink’s like guitar riff and a terrific rock and roll voice.

Johnny Conqueroo is based out of Lexington Kentucky. He has a garage band type of sound. They were influenced by The Stooges, The Vines, and The Detroit Cobras. He is signed to Soul Step Records. According to Soul Step Records…this song was released in 2019. I’ve listened to his other songs…if you are a rock fan…you will like them. I’m excited to hear about this new band…or newer band who plays gritty rock and roll.

Grant Curless: “Some kid played a guitar recital at my school and that was when I decided that was where I needed to be, I started taking lessons at a guitar shop here in Lexington for a little bit and I was hooked. As we progressed, it was just Wils and me for a while, trying to feel out what we wanted to do musically and where we wanted to go. Later on we brought in Shawn, who didn’t play a lick of bass at the time. But we slowly showed him what to do and where to put his fingers and eventually it all worked out and we grew with each other. We have stayed together for these five years because of good friendships and it works because of dedication. We decided that we would meet every Saturday to practice and to not let it get away from us. Plus, it is fun, so it is hard for us not to do it.”

I couldn’t find the lyrics…but just enjoy it.

…

Doors – The Crystal Ship

I was more of an album guy while younger but I did collect singles too. Do you know one thing I miss about vinyl singles? The B-sides that I always liked discovering. My cousin Janene was a teenager when I was 7 years old. She let me have some of her singles from the sixties and the Monkees’ debut album.

She gave me Light My Fire and I loved it. I then turned it over one day and found this song. It was one of the oddest things I’d ever heard as a 7-year-old. I was in a trance listening to it and kept thinking of a glass ship in a blue sea. It wasn’t as good as Light My Fire but I liked this strange piece of music.

The song was on their debut self-titled album released in 1967. It peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100 and #15 in Canada. Morrison dipped into his notebook of words to get this one. He wrote it after splitting up with his girlfriend, Mary Werbelow.

Werbelow followed him from Florida to Los Angeles. Doors drummer John Densmore confirmed that Crystal Ship is about Mary. The song was a goodbye to her. Werbelow and Morrison broke up in 1965 but saw each other off and on until she moved to India in 1969. He reportedly told her that the first four Doors albums were about her…Manzarek has said that parts of them were.

Mary Werbelow is a mystery to many. People still want to know if she is still alive. She gave a short interview in 2005 but has not been heard from since. She said in that interview that she never wants to talk about Jim again. Mary says she is tired. She has trouble sleeping. She says she’s not sure if she has done right by talking so much. She’s worried that others will seek interviews that she does not want to give. She wants that made clear: She does not want to talk about Jim anymore.

The Crystal Ship

Before you slip into unconsciousness
I’d like to have another kiss
Another flashing chance at bliss
Another kiss, another kiss

The days are bright and filled with pain
Enclose me in your gentle rain
The time you ran was too insane
We’ll meet again, we’ll meet again

Oh tell me where your freedom lies
The streets are fields that never die
Deliver me from reasons why
You’d rather cry, I’d rather fly

The crystal ship is being filled
A thousand girls, a thousand thrills
A million ways to spend your time
When we get back, I’ll drop a line

Matthew Good – Hello Time Bomb

The devil’s on sugar smacks
Down at the Radio Shack
Turning shit into solid gold
Solid gold

CB sent me this link…Good sounds different and I really liked his songs. Some of the lyrics won me over to this one.

Matthew Good is an alternative musician from Burnaby…a city in British Columbia, Canada. He started with music in high school. He wrote lyrics for a folk band. He taught himself how to play guitar at 20 years old and started to play and sing with the Rodchester Kings.

In 1995 he formed The Matthew Good Band which lasted from 1995 to 2001. They released 3 EPs and 7 albums including Beautiful Midnight which peaked at #1 in Canada. This song was on that album and Hello Time Bomb peaked at #26 in Canada, #3 on the Canadian alternative charts, and #34 on Billboard’s Alternative Charts in 1999.

After the band broke up he went on to become a solo act. He has released 9 studio albums and 6 of them were in the top 10, 2 were in the top 20, and the last one during 2020 was at #49 in Canada.

Good had troubles throughout his life with medical things. One doctor said he had an ulcer and others said other things. In the mid-2000’s he was diagnosed with Bipolar and things got better for him after that. “I was so relieved to finally know what was wrong with me, and have the chance to deal with the impact a diagnosis would have on my life, before being on medications, my life went from a negative 10 to a plus 10. On medication, it’s a negative three to a plus three. I had to learn to accept that.” He gives tips for people with BiPolar disorder to manage it.

Good has been nominated for 21 Juno Awards and has won four: 2011 Rock Album of the Year for Vancouver, 2002 Video of the Year for Weapon, 2000 Best Rock Album of the Year for Beautiful Midnight, and Best Group of the Year.

Matthew Good has maintained a lukewarm relationship with the music industry and the media, often avoiding the spotlight and avoiding interviews and awards shows (he has not accepted any of his Juno awards in person). In addition to his music projects, he has become a well-known writer and blogger on politics and culture; his book, At Last There is Nothing Left to Say, was published in 2001.

Hello Time Bomb

I found me a reason
So check me tomorrow
We’ll see if I’m leaking
Push and push and push ’till it hurts

The Devil’s on roller-skates
The Devil’s on roller-skates
Down at the roller rink
Picking up chicks for me
Ones that push and push and push ’till it hurts
Push and push ’till it hurts

Dirty enough, I got me a love
And it’s so bad, it’s so bad
Dirty enough, I got me a love
And it’s so bad, it’s so bad

Life’s for the living
So check me tomorrow
We’ll see if I’m kidding
Push and push and push ’till it hurts

Did it on Ritalin
I got me some good grades
Now I work me the night shift, where I
Pull and pull and pull ’till it hurts
Pull and pull ’till it hurts

Dirty enough, I got me a love
And it’s so bad, it’s so bad
Dirty enough, I got me a love
And it’s so bad, it’s so bad
Hello, time bomb, I’m ready to go off
Hello, time bomb, I’m ready to go off

Hahahaha

If life’s for the livid
Check me tomorrow
We’ll see if I’m emperor

The devil’s on sugar smacks
Down at the Radio Shack
Turning shit into solid gold
Solid gold

Dirty enough, I got me a love
And it’s so bad, it’s so bad
Dirty enough, I got me a love
And it’s so bad, it’s so bad
Hello, time bomb, I’m ready to go off
Hello, time bomb, I’m ready to go
Ready to go off

…

Jan and Dean – Dead Man’s Curve

December 1st so let’s get some surf music in.

When I was a senior in High School…1985… for some unknown reason I really got into surf music at the beginning of the year. I listened to Jan and Dean, the Beach Boys, Dick Dale, Link Wray, and The Ventures. I loved those songs then and now. Plus the bass and drums in these songs are crazy good.

Surf music is about fun… The Beach Boys expanded surf music and then left it for a while with Pet Sounds. By that time Surf purists didn’t like it. They wanted the old formula songs… I wasn’t a purist…I like them all.

This song peaked at #8 on the Billboard 100 and #39 in Canada. The song was written by Brian Wilson, Jan Berry, Artie Kornfeld, and Roger Christian. The song is about a real stretch of road in Los Angeles. It is on Sunset Boulevard near the UCLA campus.

Jan and Dean were William Jan Berry, and Dean Ormsby Torrence, who formed in Los Angeles and 1958. They helped to shape the California Sound and vocal surf music. Jan and Dean had over 20 charting songs and going strong until Jan Berry was in a horrendous car crash that left him permanently brain-damaged and severely handicapped for the rest of his life in 1966.

After numerous brain operations, Jan spent six weeks in a coma and awoke severely brain damaged, unable to speak, and completely paralyzed on his right side. He fought back and was able…although tremendously handicapped to return to the recording studio the next year (1967) to work on material for an unreleased Jan & Dean project that was not to be released until 2010 called Carnival of Sound. He still could not sing well enough to perform.

Jan kept working at it and finally, he was able to sing again in the early seventies again. He didn’t do any live performances until the late 70s with Dean. At first, Jan lipsynced but he was able to sing after a while.

Dean would go on to be a graphic artist and make album covers for Harry Nilsson, Steve Martin, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Dennis Wilson, Bruce Johnston, the Beach Boys, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Linda Ronstadt, Canned Heat and more.

Jan and Dean performed again in 1976…10 years after the accident. Jan and Dean continued to tour through the 80’s to the 2000’s. Jan passed away in 2004.

Here is a long quote from one of the songwriters…Artie Kornfeld: One day, Brian and I were chilling and trying out this tiny Honda that the company had sent him as a thank you for writing the Hondells “Little Honda.” (the song was not yet released, but Wilson had already written it for a Honda commercial) We were cruisin’ about three miles from his ex-wife, Marilyn’s mom’s house. Brian, as he was known to do, was pushing two hundred pounds way over what a 60 cc Honda could handle. I said Bry you should slow down, as in Santa Monica there is a lot of sand on the streets. We went over and the bike and were torn apart. We carried half a Honda each three miles, bleeding like crazy, to an open door in an empty house. We noticed a piece of blank paper on the piano and Bry sat down and I pulled up a chair and, I guess because of recent events I wrote down the words, “Dead Mans Curve.”

Brian started a two four piano rhythm but I don’t have any idea for the lyric… except I always envied Jan’s Corvette, sang to Brian’s chords” I was crusin’ in my Sting Ray late one night and an XKE pulled upon the right…” Bran repeated what I wrote down with the melody and I almost finished the lyric in about 30 minutes with me writing the words, some with Brian, as being a New Yorker after I put us on Sunset Blvd.
I had no idea what landmarks we would pass to that curve after Doheny where it turns right and heads into Beverly Hills.

We were laughing and Brian said, lets hear what we have, laughing at the whole trip and tripping on our wipeout still. I jumped up and said Brian stop, “I think we need an accident here.” He responded, “You are nuts Artie,” but stopped and hit a chord, for some reason at that moment I thought of Robert Frost Poem about two roads in the woods and went metaphoric putting in an accident.

In my mind symbolic with the point we make those decisions that may change or end our lives. I wrote something like it says on the record and Brian Started a Kick Ass chorus. In walks the ever great loving talented Jan Berry who with Bry and a little me worked out the complete song. As Jan tightened up the song for a Jan and Dean Record, he was already hearing a finished product. Jan sat down at a table, hardly touched the piano, except to find the changes and as only Jan with Brian there could do…wrote out the entire arrangement, that as I remember, and was not a note off when we went in with it to play for Lou Adler. It just seems like moments but it was really days later when we went in and recorded it. The reason we had to put DJ Roger Christians name on the song, Lou Adler would know more than I.

The musicians on the date included Glen Campbell, then a tough T-shirted ass kicker on guitar, and Leon Russell (wearing a suit). Then there was Earl Palmer and Hal Blaine, the only drummers you could put together, and it came out great. Of course being about 19 or 20 I could not help but notice Lou’s Fiancée Shelly Faberes, in a very tight sweater. Dean did not show. I did stand behind Bry to get a falsetto sound that was a little different.

When the record came out it was the B-side to “New Girl in School.” I guess I did my first promotion as for reasons so few know I reversed the Charts and “New Girl in School” stopped shooting up the charts and “DEAD MANS CURVE” RULED! Brian, Jan and I all lived “Dead Mans Curve” in our separate lives.

Dead Man’s Curve

I was cruisin’ in my Stingray late one night
When an XKE pulled up on the right
He rolled down the window of his shiny new Jag
And challenged me then and there to a drag

I said “You’re on buddy, my mill’s running fine
Let’s come off the line now at Sunset and Vine
But I’ll go you one better, if you’ve got the nerve
Let’s race all the way to Dead Man’s Curve”

(Dead Man’s Curve) is no place to play
(Dead Man’s Curve) you’d best keep away
(Dead Man’s Curve) I can hear ’em say
Won’t come back from Dead Man’s Curve

The street was deserted late Friday night
We were buggin’ each other while we sat out the light
We both popped the clutch when the light turned green
You should’ve heard the whine from my screamin’ machine

I flew past La Brea, Schwab’s and Crescent Heights
And all the Jag could see were my six tail lights
He passed me at Doheny then I started to swerve
But I pulled her out and there we were at Dead Man’s Curve

(Dead Man’s Curve) is no place to play
Dead Man’s Curve

“Well, the last thing I remember, Doc
I started to swerve
And then I saw the Jag slide into the curve
I know I’ll never forget that horrible sight
I guess I found out for myself that everyone was right”

Won’t come back from Dead Man’s Curve

(Dead Man’s Curve) is no place to play
(Dead Man’s Curve) you’d best keep away
(Dead Man’s Curve) I can hear ’em say
Won’t come back from Dead Man’s Curve

Roy Orbison – Only The Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)

Over at my friend’s house in the early 80s, we would look at his dad’s singles from the early to mid-sixties. I couldn’t believe this man’s voice. It was like an alien…his voice was like no other.

Roy Orbison spent a couple of years at Sun as a good rockabilly artist. He was soon signed by Fred Foster who owned Monument Records in 1959. He had some good releases but no hits… but with this song, he found his strength. These slower operatic songs that he was so great at. This was the start of his commercial success.

Roy Orbison and Joe Melson wrote this song…one of the first they wrote together. The lyrics were inspired by a failed romance by Joe Melson. He said she took off in a Cadillac and the words just flowed after thinking of that.

The songwriting duo was going to try to give this song to Elvis or The Everly Brothers who already recorded a song by Orbison called Claudette. They talked Oribison into recording it himself thankfully. It ended up being one of his biggest hits. Orbison recorded this at RCA’s Studio B in Nashville with some of the best Nashville musicians. It featured Hank Garland and Harold Bradley on guitars, Bob Moore on Base, and Floyd Cramer on piano.

Fred Foster produced this song. He remembered listening to the playback with goosebumps on his arms. He turned to Roy and said, “There’s your big hit.” The producer was absolutely right. This song was Orbison’s first top-ten hit. It peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1960.

Roy Orbison: “I’ve always been very content when I wrote all those songs. By this I’m saying that a lot of people think you have to live through something before you can write it, and that’s true in some cases, but I remember the times that I was unhappy or discontent, and I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t communicate, and I certainly couldn’t write a song, no way. All the songs I wrote that were successful were written when I was in a contented state of mind.”

Only The Lonely (Know How I Feel)

Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)
Know the way I feel tonight (ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah)
Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)
Know this feeling ain’t right (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)

There goes my baby
There goes my heart
They’re gone forever
So far apart

But only the lonely
Know why I cry
Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah, ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah)
(Oh, oh oh oh oh ooh-ah-ah, only the lonely)
(Only the lonely)

Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)
Know the heartaches I’ve been through (ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah)
Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)
Know I cry and cry for you (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)

Maybe tomorrow
A new romance
No-o-o more sorrow
But that’s the chance
You’ve got to take
If your lonely heart breaks
Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)

…

Max Picks …songs from 1977

1977

This is the year I became aware of sports, news, and politics. This year is an eclectic bunch of songs. You have punk, reggae, pub rock, rock, and pop/rock.

I didn’t get into the Sex Pistols at the time they came out. They were not as big over here as they were in the UK. I did find them later on. I can’t say I’m a huge fan but I do recognize the importance of the Punk rock movement… and they stirred up the rock music industry when it needed stirring up.

This was originally called “No Future.” The band played it live and recorded a demo version with that title, but changed it when lead singer Johnny Rotten got the idea to mock the British monarchy.

I got into Bob Marley and the Wailers a little later but better late than never. Jammin’ is on their ninth studio album Exodus. In Jamaica, the word “jamming” refers to getting together for a celebration. Although it can also mean an impromptu musical session.

Marley wrote the song in exile in Nassau after the 1976 attempt on his life.

The song was written by David Bowie and Brian Eno and was on the Heroes album released in 1977. After burnout because of touring Bowie moved to Berlin and rented a cheap apartment above an auto-repair shop, which is where he wrote the album.

I was walking through a drug store in the late seventies as a kid and I saw this album cover…I thought what??? another person named Elvis? Who is this skinny guy? While at the drug store, the guy was playing this album and I heard Alison… That was the first thing I ever heard from Elvis. The album peaked at #32 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1978. His songs were different than a lot of the radio hits of the day…with different, I mean better.

Fleetwood Mac released Rumours and it was the album of the year. An incredible four singles were pulled off of this album plus the other songs that would become FM classics. Personally, my favorite two are Second Hand News and Never Going Back Again but I do like Go Your On Way.

Lindsey Buckingham showed that less was more in this solo…he used very few notes and used sustain.

Rolling Stones – Shine A Light

This song was on the Exile On Main Street album. The original lyrics were started in 1968 about Brian Jones while he was still a member. It was about his drug habits and decline as a musician and human. After Brian died, Mick rewrote some of the lyrics and we got this gospel-sounding song with the help of Billy Preston and Leon Russell. Leon and Mick Jagger recorded an early version of this song called “(Can’t Seem To) Get a Line on You.”

Keith Richards and Charlie Watts are not on this song. Mick Taylor has claimed to play guitar and bass. Bill Wyman later said that he played bass on the song, not Taylor but Taylor did play guitar. The producer Jimmy Miller played drums on this track with Billy Preston on piano and organ. Clydie King, Joe Greene, Venetta Fields, and Jesse Kirkland sang back up.

Allen Klein owned all of the rights to Stones’ songs written before 1970. Somehow he fooled Mick and Keith into signing all of their rights away to their sixties catalog. Klein got wind of five songs on this album that were written in the 60s and yes…he sued them and got a share of the profits on this album. The songs were Sweet Virginia, Loving Cup, All Down the Line, Shine a Light, and Stop Breaking Down. Although this song is credited to Jagger-Richards…Leon Russell is said to have co-written it with Mick.

The song gave its name to a 2008 Martin Scorsese film chronicling the Stones’ Beacon Theatre performances on the latter tour, and the 2006 performance is included on the soundtrack album. Mick Jagger has named this his favorite song on Exile on Main Street.

Mick Jagger: “When I was very friendly with Billy
Preston in the ’70s I sometimes used to go to church with him in Los
Angeles, it was an interesting experience because we
don’t have a lot of churches like that in England. I hadn’t had a lot of firsthand experience of it.”

Mick Jagger: “It was quite an early one from Olympic Studios London, with Billy Preston. Once it was finished, we never played it on stage for years and years. Then it became this favorite after we recorded it for the Stripped album. So ‘Shine A Light’ was this funny thing that started off as something you did once at that time and never went back to.”

(Can’t Seem To) Get a Line on You with Jagger and Russell in 1969.

Shine A Light

Saw you stretched out in Room ten oh nine
With a smile on your face and a tear right in your eye
Whoa, come see to get a line on you, my sweet honey love
Berber jewelry jangling down the street
Making bloodshot eyes at every woman that you meet
Could not seem to get high on you, my sweet honey love

May the good Lord shine a light on you
Make every song (you sing) your favorite tune
May the good Lord shine a light on you
Warm like the evening sun

When you’re drunk in the elevator, with your clothes all torn
When your late night friends leave you in the cold gray dawn
Just seen too many flies on you, I just can’t brush them off

Angels beating all their wings in time
With smiles on their faces and a gleam right in their eyes
Whoa, thought I heard one sigh for you
Come on up, come on up, now, come on up now

May the good Lord shine a light on you, yeah
Make every song you sing your favorite tune
May the good Lord shine a light on you, yeah
Warm like the evening sun

Come on up now, come on up now, come on up now, come on up, come on

May the good Lord shine a light on you
Make every song you sing your favorite tune
May the good Lord shine a light on you
Warm like the evening sun, yeah, yeah

George Harrison – Art Of Dying

I’ve been listening to All Things Must Pass recently and the songs are really consistent on that album.

Harrison wrote these lyrics while he was still a Beatle. He found it hard to get many of them on Beatles albums because there was only so much room. The good side is when The Beatles broke up, he had a backlog full of songs.

Phil Collins was brought in to play the congos on this song. He played for 90 minutes and got blisters on his fingers from playing them for so long. Unfortunately for Collins…his version didn’t make the cut. George Harrison had a great sense of humor and pranked Collins in later years.

Collins met Harrison several more times over the years, and the pair became friendly… friendly enough for Harrison to prank Collins. In 2001, shortly before Harrison’s death, he put out a remastered version of All Things Must Pass and around the same time sent Collins what he claimed was a version of the track on which he had played featuring the drummer’s missing Congas handiwork.

George had the percussionist Ray Cooper play out of time on the tape and that is what he sent to Collins. Phil later said: “I got a tape from George of the song that I played with the congas quite loud, I thought, Oh my god, this sounds terrible. In fact, it was a Harrison joke. He’d recorded [percussionist] Ray Cooper. [He said] said, ‘Play bad, I’m going to record it and send it to Phil.’ I couldn’t believe that a Beatle had actually spent that much time on a practical joke for me.” He did have a connection to the Beatles… As a kid, he was an extra in the Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night but was edited out. Harrison did credit Collins on the 2001 remastered version of All Things Must Pass.

All the members of Derek and the Dominos played on this track and it was produced by Phil Spector.

George Harrison credits his first experience with LSD as being the doorway to his spiritual awakening and introduction to Hinduism. Harrison said that during the LSD trip, he thought of Yogis of the Himalayas running through his mind. He began to think about death and that is how this song came about.

George Harrison passed away on November 29, 2001 after a long battle with cancer. He was not afraid of death, as he believed it would take him to a better place. Before he passed, Paul and Ringo visited him and spent the day telling jokes and talking about times in Liverpool. He did tell Paul McCartney one to stop fighting with Yoko…that life was too short. Paul honored that wish and started to communicate with Yoko.

George Harrison: In the scriptures and in the Bhagavad Gita it says there’s never a time when you didn’t exist and will never be a time you cease to exist. The only thing that changes is our bodily conditioned soul comes in the body and we go from birth to death and it’s death how I look at it. It is like taking your suit off, you know the soul is in these three bodies and one body falls off.

Acoustic Demo

Art Of Dying

There’ll come a time when all of us must leave here
Then nothing sister Mary can do
Will keep me here with you
As nothing in this life that I’ve been trying
Could equal or surpass the art of dying
Do you believe me?

There’ll come a time when all your hopes are fading
When things that seemed so very plain
Become an awful pain
Searching for the truth among the lying
And answered when you’ve learned the art of dying

But you’re still with me
But if you want it
Then you must find it
But when you have it
There’ll be no need for it

There’ll come a time when most of us return here
Brought back by our desire to be
A perfect entity
Living through a million years of crying
Until you’ve realized the Art of Dying
Do you believe me?

Muddy Waters – Mannish Boy

One of the best riffs in blues or rock. It’s been recycled in so many songs but never loses its bite. This song was a reworking of the Bo Diddley song “I’m A Man.” Great song by the great Muddy Waters.

Muddy recorded several versions of this song through the years. He recorded the original at Chess Records in Chicago in 1955. One of the reasons I love this song so much is because the guitar line is easy to play but very memorable. Waters used the same basic riff on his song “Hoochie Coochie Man.” George Thorogood also used it for his song “Bad To The Bone.”

The song peaked at #51 in the UK in 1988 and #5 in the R&B Charts in 1955.

Muddy Waters originally recorded this in 1955, then re-recorded it in 1977 for his Hard Again album in a version produced by Johnny Winter. The song was written by Muddy Waters, Mel London, and Bo Diddley.

He was born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, around 1913. Nicknamed “Muddy” as a child, he worked on the huge Stovall cotton plantation before following the northward migration of African Americans to Chicago, where he drove a truck and signed to Chess Records, a tiny blues label run by two émigré Polish brothers, Leonard and Phil Chess. As Muddy Waters, he established himself as a pioneering electric blues musician in the early 1950s.

Mannish Boys

Oh, yeah
Oh, yeah

Everything gonna be alright this mornin’
Now, when I was a young boy
At the age of five
My mother said I was gonna be
The greatest man alive
But now I’m a man
I’m age twenty-one
I want you to believe me, honey
We having lots of fun

I’m a man (yeah)
I spell M
A, child
N
That represent man
No B
O, child
Y
That spell mannish boy
I’m a man
I’m a full-grown man
I’m a man
I’m a rollin’ stone
I’m a man
I’m a hoochie-coochie man

Sittin’ on the outside
Just me and my mate
I’m made to move
Come up two hours late
Wasn’t that a man?
I spell M
A, child
N
That represesnt man
No B
O, child
Y
That spell mannish boy
I’m a man
I’m a full-grown man
I’m a man
I’m a rolllin’ stone
I’m a man
Full-grown man
Oh, well
Oh, well