This song was on the first album I ever bought by the Beatles. It was a greatest hits package called Hey Jude Again when I was eight. This song I liked right away as I was learning about the band. Ask a Beatle fan what their opinion of Yoko is…and you will get different answers but I would safely say more negative. Don’t count me as a fan. She gets blamed for breaking the Beatles up. I think Allen Klein deserves more of the blame but not all…
It’s John, George, and Ringo who followed Klein and later paid millions for it but not as dearly as The Stones. Klein ended up with rights to all of their 1960s catalog. Paul’s lawsuit against the Beatles and Klein stopped Klein from doing more damage. I do think the Beatles broke up at a perfect time. Closing a career with Abbey Road…is about as good as it gets.
This song…was written obviously by Lennon but it wasn’t a true Beatles recording. Only John and Paul played on the recording. Despite the business BS going on…the music still worked between the two. John played all of the guitars and lead vocals and Paul played drums, bass, and backing vocals. George was out of town and Ringo was filming a movie. The song is a true story about John and Yoko getting married.
It was banned by many stations in America and the UK because of the line “Christ, you know it ain’t easy.” The song was supposedly written, recorded, and mixed on the same day…April 14, 1969. John didn’t like spending a long time in a studio and would do this later on with Instant Karma. He liked minimum production in those days.
John and Yoko were married on March 20, 1969, in Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory on Spain’s south coast.
The song peaked at #1 in the UK, #8 on the Billboard 100, #7 in Canada, and #2 in New Zealand in 1969. At the time, it was a non-album single with the George Harrison song Old Brown Shoe as the B side. It would later be on Hey Jude Again.
A small side note…as an eight-year-old, I did learn about Holland, France, Paris, Gibraltar, and Spain. I told my mom that I would like her to drive me to France please…hey give me a break…I was 8.
The Ballad of John and Yoko
Standing in the dock at Southampton
Trying to get to Holland or France.
The man in the mac said you’ve got to go back,
You know they didn’t even give us a chance.
Christ! You know it ain’t easy,
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going,
They’re going to crucify me.
Finally made the plane into Paris,
Honeymooning down by the Seine.
Peter Brown called to say,
You can make it OK,
You can get married in Gibraltar near Spain.
Christ! You know it ain’t easy,
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going,
They’re going to crucify me.
Drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton,
Talking in our beds for a week.
The newspapers said, say what’re you doing in bed,
I said we’re only trying to get us some peace.
Christ! You know it ain’t easy,
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going,
They’re going to crucify me.
Saving up your money for a rainy day,
Giving all your clothes to charity.
Last night the wife said,
Oh boy, when you’re dead you
Don’t take nothing with you but your soul think!
Made a lightning trip to Vienna,
Eating chocolate cake in a bag.
The newspapers said,
She’s gone to his head,
They look just like two Gurus in a drag.
Christ! You know it ain’t easy,
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going,
They’re going to crucify me.
Caught the early plane back to London,
Fifty acorns tied in a sack.
The men from the press said we wish you success,
It’s good to have the both of you back.
Christ! You know it ain’t easy,
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going,
They’re going to crucify me
This year was very interesting. I had a hard time with the 5th pick. You have The Who and Led Zeppelin releasing albums and with me…normally I would go with the Who but in this year…Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti won out. I think it would be hard to say that none of these belong. I like all of them of course or they would not be on here.
Born To Run broke Bruce Springsteen through to the masses after two very good to great albums but commercial failures. Columbia Records got behind this album, too much so for Bruce’s tastes, and they hit gold with it. With his face on Newsweek and Time magazine…everyone was introduced to Mr. Springsteen. In simple terms… 1975 was Springsteen’s year.
This was on the great album Blood on the Tracks. In my opinion Bob Dylan‘s best album of the seventies. When I first got this album I couldn’t quit listening to it and I really wore this song out. I could sing this song in my sleep…I know every word because it’s ingrained in my head.
This would make my top 5 Bob Dylan songs. I’ve seen Bob 8 times and the first 6 times I saw him I kept waiting for this song because with Bob you don’t know what you will get. He finally played it on the 7th time and I was surprised the next time because it was the only older song he played.
Talking to Ron Rosenbaum, Bob Dylan once told him that he’d written “Tangled Up in Blue”, after spending a weekend immersed in Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue.
Queen used so many overdubs that the tape was virtually transparent on Bohemian Rhapsody. All the oxide had been rubbed off. They hurriedly made a copy so they could preserve what they had already. They were working with a 24-track machine but they still had to bounce tracks. They used `180 overdubs… The song took 3 weeks to record. The song was on A Night At The Opera album.
This made a huge comeback courtesy of Waynes World in 1991. The song was written by Freddie Mercury.
Elton John owned the early to mid-seventies Billboard Charts. Even Elton said he was tired of hearing himself in America on AM radio. Philadelphia Freedom was just another #1 for Elton.
Elton had an interesting B-side on this single. The B-side was a live duet of The Beatles hit “I Saw Her Standing There” that Elton recorded with his friend John Lennon. Elton had previously sung on Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Through The Night” and also released a version of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” which was written by Lennon. This song was written by Elton John and his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin.
Led Zeppelin‘s Kasmir is one of their best if not their best song. It was on the Physical Graffiti Album released in 1975. The song did not chart but is hugely popular on the radio.
The song is hypnotic to listen to. The drums are the key to this song… Jimmy Page has said this about John Bonham on Kashmir… It was what he didn’t do that made it work.
The song was written by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Bonham.
My friend Ron told me about this Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith from St. Catharines, Ontario. I listened to this song and it’s a beautifully written song. His name seemed familiar and there is a good reason for that. My friend Randy from MostlyMusicCovers covered him this past June. I’m not sure why I didn’t look at him more then.
This song was released on his Other Songs album released in 1997. The album won a Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year in 1998.
This song came about when he was at a playground with his young son and he observed a little girl being looked after by her grandmother because her mom was in rehab. The mix of innocence of the little girl and the problem of drug addiction of her mom played into this song.
From everything I’ve heard from him and also read about…he draws his inspiration from real life about something real…not made-up stories but true to life. In this song, we see Amanda as a child and have to wonder how living in this situation will shape the rest of her life. There is not a real Amanda but this story has happened so many times.
His songs have been covered by Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, and Emmylou Harris to name a few. He has released 18 albums since 1986 and released his last one in 2023 called The Vivian Line.
Ron Sexsmith: I remember one time a man came up to me in France and asked me where Amanda was today and that he wanted to meet her and help her somehow. I had to break it to him that she was just a fictional character and I think he was a little heart broken about it… kinda how I felt when I found out Sherlock Holmes was a work of fiction too.
Ron Sexsmith: “I think that singer / songwriter is the best job description for what I do. I am in that tradition of singer / songwriter. This is the first album on which I have had a co-write (“Alexander Brandy”). I have always prided myself on the fact that on the back of the other albums, it said all songs by Ronald Sexsmith. I think that the people who are into my stuff expect that. There have been a few exceptions, like I did a Leonard Cohen song on my first record.In general, I try to stick to that (writing all of the songs), because I am old fashioned. I like to buy a (Bob) Dylan record and find out that he wrote all of the songs, or Joni Mitchell or whoever it is. It’s romantic for me to think that at some time, they sat at a piano, or in a room and that, they wrote this thing, and they didn’t have any help. I would say that being a singer / songwriter is what I do and that’s pretty well who I am.”
Strawberry Blondes
She was not the girl next door but the girl from around the corner It was at the tail end of grade four when she came to school one morning And all eyes were upon her as she took her seat Her name was Amanda, with pretty eyes of green And hair of blonde, strawberry blonde
Springtime and dandelions and summer around the corner Was at the tail end of age nine with a million dreams before her She lived with her mother in an old decrepit house If there was trouble at home, she kept it to herself All summer long, the strawberry blonde
And by her face, there was no way to tell Seemed like all was well in the world But the neighbours said her mother had lost her will To gin and sleeping pills, it was no life for a little girl
Still, I see her face framed in blue sky At the top of a slide coming down And when the sirens wailed, her mother had failed to rise All the neighbours stood outside as Amanda just stared at the ground
Time flies and years are piled, I’d forgotten all about her When I saw her down the aisle of a streetcar with her daughter Then I heard Amanda say as she got up “Come on, Samantha, girl, this is our stop” And they were gone, two strawberry blondes
John’s voice is on display in this song. This was on Creedence Clearwater Revival’s debut album. It was a cover written by Screaming Jay Hawkins. John Fogerty forgot the swamp rock and just plugged into the psychedelic sound with this cut. It’s a slightly creepy song to listen to on a long car ride in the dark. Fogerty draws on every bit of soul he has in this vocal.
This was the second single they ever released as CCR…the singles they released before this was from The Goliwogs. They rightly decided that a name change would be in order. A question for the readers…if they would have remained The Golliwogs…would they have made it? What’s in a name right? Well, it can probably be argued.
This song did rather well! I didn’t know it did this much in the charts. It peaked at #11 on the Billboard 100 and #10 in Canada in 1968 and went Platinum.
The original version by Screaming Jay Hawkins was released in 1956. The song was banned from most radio stations because of groans and moans. He played it up to the hilt on appearances that he made.
Be Safe tonight and I hope all of you have a great time!
I Put A Spell On You
I put a spell on you
Because you’re mine
You better stop
The things that you’re doin’
I said “Watch out!”
I ain’t lyin’, yeah!
I ain’t gonna take none of your
Foolin’ around
I ain’t gonna take none of your
Puttin’ me down
I put a spell on you
Because you’re mine
All right!
I put a spell on you
Because you’re mine
You better stop
The things that you’re doin’
I said “Watch out!”
I ain’t lyin’, yeah!
I ain’t gonna take none of your
Foolin’ around
I ain’t gonna take none of your
Puttin’ me down
I put a spell on you
Because you’re mine
I’ve covered a lot of Springsteen’s songs and I was going to look at my post of this one. I never covered it so I’m correcting that mistake today. This is one of those epic songs like A Day In The Life, Stairway To Heaven, Layla, and Free Bird.
1975 was the year of Bruce Springsteen. He was featured in Newsweek and Time magazine to his horror. The magazines were each granted interviews with Springsteen. Although they both featured similar details about his background and newfound stardom after his first two albums failed, the two articles were strikingly different in tone.
Time magazine wrote an article called “Rock’s New Sensation” in which he heaped praise on the new star. The writer knew music and realized how great Bruce was at the time. Newsweek was a different story. They wrote a story called “The Making of a Rock Star,” and looked at Columbia Records’ marketing campaign for ‘Born to Run’ and concluded it was pretty much hype. The ironic thing was that Bruce hated hype. Before he played the Hammersmith Odeon in London he ripped down a Springsteen promotional poster inside the Theatre before going upstairs and joining his party, after talking to a couple of the Record Company Executives he told his manager to instruct CBS to stop the hype and let the music sell itself.
Springsteen did try to use the Time and Newsweek covers to his advantage the next year. While touring Memphis he went to Graceland and jumped the fence but Elvis’s people were not amused. They escorted him out and told him that Elvis was in Lake Tahoe…which he was at the time. Bruce wanted to give him a song that he later gave the Pointer Sisters…Fire.
Now the song Born to Run. I think it’s fair to say that Born to Run is the song and album that broke him into stardom. On this album he had rock critic Jon Landau help him with the recording. That set off problems between Bruce and his manager Mike Appel…Appel wanted to stop Landau from working with Bruce after the album was made. That started a long saga of Bruce suing Appel which he didn’t want to do but he had to.
We all know Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” Well Bruce did his own Wall of Sound in this one. Springsteen has said that he counted 24 guitar overdubs in this track…that is why it sounds so huge. This was the only song on the album that Ernest “Boom” Carter played on. The original drummer Vini “Maddog” Lopez was fired in 1974 and Carter came in and helped out. He played this one song and then Max Weinberg took over the drums and still holds that spot. Carter left for a career in jazz. The keyboard player David Sancious only played on this song also and left for a very successful career in jazz. He would work on Springsteen’s solo albums later on.
Springsteen had other names for the album until deciding on this song as the title song. Other names he had were War And Roses, The Hungry, The Hunted, American Summer, and Sometimes At Night.
The song peaked at #23 on the Billboard 100 and #53 in Canada in 1975. It didn’t chart in the UK until 1987 when a live version peaked at #16. There was talk of making this the official state song of New Jersey.
Bruce Springsteen: “One day I was playing my guitar on the edge of the bed, working on some song ideas, and the words ‘born to run’ came to me,” he recalled. “At first I thought it was the name of a movie or something I’d seen on a car spinning around the circuit. I liked the phrase because it suggested a cinematic drama that I thought would work with the music that I’d been hearing in my head.”
Bruce Springsteen: “This is a song that has changed a lot over the years. As I’ve sung it, it seems to have been able to open up and let the time in. When I wrote it, I was 24 years old, sitting in my bedroom in Long Branch, New Jersey. When I think back, it surprises me how much I knew about what I wanted, because the questions I ask myself in this song, it seems I’ve been trying to find the answers to them ever since. When I wrote this song, I was writing about a guy and a girl that wanted to run and keep on running, never come back. That was a nice, romantic idea, but I realized after I put all those people in all those cars, I was going to have to figure out someplace for them to go, and I realized in the end that individual freedom, when it’s not connected to some sort of community, can be pretty meaningless. So, I guess that guy and that girl out there were looking for connection, and I guess that’s what I’m doing here. So, this is a song about two people trying to find their way home. It’s kept me good company on my search, and I hope it keeps you good company on yours.”
Before playing this song on December 9, 1980, Springsteen said before starting this song: “If it wasn’t for John Lennon, a lot of us would be someplace much different tonight. It’s a hard world that asks you to live with a lot of things that are unlivable. And it’s hard to come out here and play tonight, but there’s nothing else to do.”
Steven Van Zandt: “Bruce and I were just friends at this point. He said I wanna play you my new record. And he played ‘Born to Run’ for me, with me lying on the floor of the studio. He’d been working on it for months – I mean, literally months on one song, which is incredible now. But he played it from me, and I said, Oh, that’s great. I particularly love that minor riff, very Roy Orbison, something The Beatles would do. And he said, ‘What minor riff? What do you mean?’
What was happening was he was doing a Duane Eddy style riff, with a bunch of echo on it, and he was bending up to the last note. But you never heard him bending up to the notes, it didn’t register in your ear. He said, ‘Oh my f—ing God,’ and then played it how I heard it for the other guys, and I guess they all started to hear it the way I was, which was the way the whole world was gonna hear it! So they had to redo the guitar part and then the whole f–‘ing mix. The mix alone took them a couple of weeks, because in those days there was no automation and there was a lot going on in the song.”
Born To Run
In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through the mansions of glory in suicide machines
Sprung from cages out on highway nine,
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected, and steppin’ out over the line
Oh, baby this town rips the bones from your back
It’s a death trap, it’s a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we’re young
‘Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run
Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend
I want to guard your dreams and visions
Just wrap your legs ’round these velvet rims
And strap your hands ‘cross my engines
Together we could break this trap
We’ll run till we drop, baby we’ll never go back
Oh, will you walk with me out on the wire
Girl I’m just a scared and lonely rider
I gotta find out how it feels
I want to know if love is wild
I want to know if love is real
Oh can you show me?
Beyond the palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard
Girls comb their hair in rear view mirrors
Boys try to look so hard
The amusement park rises bold and stark
Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist
I wanna die with you Wendy on the street tonight
In an everlasting kiss
One, two, three
Highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody’s out on the run tonight
But there’s no place left to hide
Together wendy we can live with the sadness
I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul
Oh, someday girl I don’t know when
We’re gonna get to that place
Where we really wanna go
We’ll walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us
Baby we were born to run
Tramps like us baby we were born to run
Tramps like us baby we were born to run
I remember hearing this on an oldies channel I listened to in the 80s. I always liked the song but for the longest I never knew who played it. When I was a kid I had the original single of Eleanor and I loved it. I’ll never forget the cover art with a White Whale.
The band was formed by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan in the early sixties. They were saxophone players who did whatever was trendy in order to make a living as musicians. They were also in the choir together in high school. They started off as an instrumental band but with the Beatles and the British invasion, they soon switched to a rock and roll band with Howard Kaylan as lead singer. They hit with a Bob Dylan song called It Ain’t Me Babe released in 1965.
The Turtles had a large vocal sound. Kayblan was a good singer and when combined with Volman…it made a unique sound for the Turtles. After the Turtles broke up Volman and Kaylan would join Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention for a while and they would be known after that as Flo (Phlorescent Leech) and Eddie. The reason for the new names was because of their old Turtle contract…they were not allowed to use their real names. They adapted the nicknames of two of their roadies.
Some radio stations objected to themes expressed in the song and banned the song from their playlists and refused to play it…lead singer Howard Kaylan thought this was because of the song’s references to Morning Glories, a flower with hallucinogenic properties. The last of the song had the phrase “Gettin’ so high” so that probably didn’t go over well either.
This song was written by Alan Gordon and Garry Bonner. The song peaked at #5 in Canada and #14 on the Billboard 100 in 1967
This song was released as a stand-alone single in 1967. It would eventually make it onto multiple Turtles compilations and greatest hits LPs and CDs.
Every time I do a post on The Turtles…I recommend watching their documentary… one of the most entertaining docs I’ve ever seen. If you have watched it…what do you think?
She’s My Girl
Mornin’, mornin’ glory
If you’d like to know where was I last night
Well, I saw a girl with a boy in her eye
And she’s so outta sight
She’s my girl
And that’s where I was last night
Off in a dream
She’s my girl
I took her away last night
Went for a ride
Off in the sky, that’s where I was last night
I just come back to tell ya
There’s a little bit of heaven underneath the apple tree
And every time I see you with that smile upon your face
There’s a little bit there for me
And she’s my girl
And that’s where I was last night
Went for a ride
She’s my girl
I took her away last night
We went for a ride
My girl
And that’s where I was last night
Off in the sky
She’s my girl
I took her away last night
Off in the sky
My girl
And that’s where I was last night
Gettin’ so high
Off in the sky, that’s where I was last night
My girl
I took her away last night
We went for a ride
My girl
And that’s where I was last night
Gettin’ so high
My girl
I took her away last night
Off in the sky
My girl
And that’s where I was last night
Gettin’ so high
Tony Sheridan was an excellent guitarist and had a good rock voice. The Beat Brothers were The Beatles and they punch this old standard up of My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean. This record is probably the most important record they made …even as just a backing group.
They were thrilled to be on a record. “I didn’t stop playing it for days,” George told the NME two years later. Teenager Jimmy Campbell would remember Paul running up the stairs at Aintree Institute shouting “This is our record!” He made the DJ Bob Wooler put it on and he was bouncing all over the place just listening to himself coming out of the speakers. He was really made up. “Listen to that!”
Brian Epstein ran NEMS record store and one of his policies was to get any song that he might not have in stock. Around mid-afternoon on Saturday, October 28, 1962, a young man from Knotty Ash, Raymond Jones, walked into the NEMS shop on Whitechapel and tried to buy the record.
What happened next is the subject of conflicting accounts, though they end the same way. Jones remembers that Brian Epstein, unable to find “My Bonnie” in any release lists, asked him questions about it, which concluded with Jones saying the Beatles were locals and “the most fantastic group you will ever hear.” Brian himself, in his autobiography, suggested this additional information only came to him over the following days, and in the raw interview transcript for that book, he said one of his shop-girls noted Jones’ order.
That led Brian Epstein to the Cavern Club where the Beatles played. That is somewhere that he would probably have never gone. Raymond Jones’s simple request would go down in history. Soon after, Brian was managing the Beatles and within a year they got George Martin’s attention and the rest is history.
While the Beatles were in Hamburg they were signed to a record contract by Bert Kaempfert. He recorded many cuts with The Beatles backing Sheridan and also a few by themselves. One original was the Lennon-Harrison instrumental Cry For A Shadow. The rest were standards like Ain’t She Sweet and When the Saints Come Marching In. The Beatles were fortunate with Bert Kaempfert. He wasn’t a shark…he signed them and when they had a chance to sign with EMI…he only asked that they record a couple of more songs and he let them go.
My Bonnie was released in October of 1961 in Germany and peaked at #32 in the German charts. It didn’t do much in the UK but fans knew about it and wanted it. The Beatles were very popular in Liverpool at the time and it sold well there after Brian got it in his store. Later on when they released Love Me Do it sold over 10,000 copies in Liverpool alone.
Record executives thought Epstein bought that many to put it in the charts but no….they really sold. Most people outside of Liverpool couldn’t understand how a “new” band would sell that many but they had been popular there since coming back from Hamburg in 1961. The Beatles started their own fan club in 1962 before Brian met them.
Their old bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe was there, but Paul played bass during the sessions.
My Bonnie
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
Well my Bonnie lies over the ocean
Yeah bring back my Bonnie to me
Yeah bring back, ah bring back
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me to me
Oh bring back, oh bring back
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me
Well my Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
Yeah my Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh I said bring back my Bonnie to me
Yeah bring back, ah bring back
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me to me
Oh bring back, ah bring back
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me
The first time I saw and heard Van Morrison was on November 4, 1978, on Saturday Night Live. I was 11 and didn’t know anything about him. I hadn’t even heard of Brown Eyed Girl. He was playing the song Wavelength and it sounded great. I would not become a fan until 1985 when I got a compilation album with Brown Eyed Girl on it.
When I heard Brown Eyed Girl I read everything I could about Van Morrison. The first album I purchased was Tupelo Honey so I went from there and bought most of his ’70s albums… plus a Them compilation.
Kingdom Hall kicks the album off as the opening track. It’s very radio-friendly and commercial-sounding. The album was one of his best sellers up to that time. Jehovah’s Witnesses use Kingdom Halls for worship and Bible lessons. During the 1950s, his mother Violet was a steady member of the Witnesses for a few years and Van occasionally accompanied her. Evidently, he had a good time at those at least during the singing.
The album Wavelength peaked at #28 in the Billboard Album Charts, #31 in Canada, #27 in the UK, and #9 in New Zealand in 1978.
I was lucky to see him in concert on March 7, 2006, at the Ryman. If you ever get the chance to see him…don’t pass it up. His voice is even better in concert than on record and that is saying something.
Van has a complicated history. Some have said he was the nicest person in the world to them and some not so much. I guess that describes a lot of us.
Harvey Goldsmith (Morrison’s manager): “Every single person that had been involved with him, be it record company, publishing, promoting, agency or whatever, had a tremendous respect for him. But everyone also said that he was the most difficult person in the world to deal with.”
Kingdom Hall
So glad to see you
So glad you’re here
Come here beside me now
We can clear inhibition away
All inhibitions
Throw them away
And when we dance like this
Like we’ve never been dancin’ before
[Chorus:]
Oh, they were swingin’
Down at Kingdom Hall
Oh, bells were ringin’
Down at the Kingdom Hall
A choir was singin’
Down at the Kingdom Hall
Hey, liley, liley, liley
Hey, liley, liley, low
Do do do do do do, do
Do do do do do do
Do do do do do do, do
Do do do do do do
Good body music
Brings you right here
Free flowin’ motion now
When we’re shakin’ it out on the floor
Good rockin’ music
Down in your shoes
And when we dance like this
Like we’ve never been dancin’ before
[Chorus]
Down at the Kingdom Hall
They were havin’ a party
They were havin’ a ball
Bells were ringing out
And the choir was singin’
Hey, liley, liley, liley
Hey, liley, liley, low
Do do, do do, do do, do do
Sugar was there
Did you see Sugar
Down at the Kingdom Hall
Sugar was tough
CB introduced this band to me a couple of weeks ago. I started to listen to them and ran across this album and as soon as I heard this…I liked it.
This song is beautiful… the band was making an album and put a call out to many female singers to do duets. Some of the women they got were Lucinda Williams, Amy Helm (daughter of Levon Helm), Patti Scialfa (wife of Bruce Springsteen), Pam Tillis, Rosanne Cash, and more. One of the “more” is Emmylou Harris. She is the one who is singing in Step Away.
Last Sunday I posted a song named When The Spirit Comes by Colin Linden. Colin is part of this band that includes Tom Wilson and Stephen Fearing. They started the band in 1996 as a tribute to Canadian folk artist Willie P. Bennett. One of Bennett’s albums was called Blackie and the Rodeo King. They wanted to get one of Bennett’s songs down on an album and this is the one. Colin Linden said, “I wanted a Willie P. Bennett song on the record, and I couldn’t imagine a better honor to bestow on someone we love as much as Willie than to have Emmylou Harris sing on one of his songs. I don’t think there’s ever been a better singer on the planet; I’m so glad she said yes.”
This album is called Kings and Queens and it was released in 2011. I’m also including a song they did with Rosanne Cash that was released as a single off the album called Got It Covered. Linden said, “Rosanne’s a real supporter of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, and I knew she was a fan of Ron Sexsmith. Ron came in with an idea for Got You Covered and we wrote it in a hotel room in Austin, Texas in a matter of a couple of hours. He’s brilliant a pretty easy guy to write with. It’s like riding in a Cadillac, writing with that guy.”
Got You Covered has an older soul feel and Cash sounds fantastic in this one. In my next post with these guys, I’ll get to more of the edgier ones.
Tom Wilson on Willie Bennett: “Willie articulated the sensitivity of a fifty-year-old guy and he represented the rebellious ‘fuck you’ attitude of a sixteen-year-old. Willie managed to be more punk rock than any punk rocker I have ever met and, at the same time, could probably break your heart in two. He was a true poet. His wings were a little dirty. He wasn’t afraid of living life and taking chances. When you’re a young guy and you’re looking for an influence, there’s your man right there.”
Step Away
I’m just a step away
Turn around, see where I’m standin’
I’m a step away
From your heart
I’m just a step away
I might stand here forever
I’m a step away
From your heart
Some people act kind; some people act cruel
Some people act blind when they see the Golden Rule
If you ask me, I’d say you’re a nervous wreck
I’ve got me to share if that’s what it takes to get
Just a step away
Turn around, see where I’m standin’
I’m a step away
From your heart
I’m just a step away
I might stand here forever
I’m a step away
From your heart
Reelin’ from a brand new lost love affair
You weren’t so lucky this time; somebody got scared
Maybe you’re like me and you can’t be nobody’s pet
I’ve got love to share if that’s what it takes to get
Just a step away
Turn around, see where I’m standin’
I’m a step away
From your heart
I’m just a step away
I might stand here forever
I’m a step away
From your heart
I’m just a step away
Turn around, see where I’m standin’
I’m a step away
From your heart
I’m just a step away
I might stand here forever I’m a step away
From your heart
A step away (step away)
A step away
Just a step away
I had just graduated high school in 1985 and I was on CoCo Beach with some of my friends and this song takes me back there. Four guys in a Toyota Celica driving 15 hours to a place called Coco Beach. We picked it because of the name…not for the easy driving. We could have picked Pensacola and it would have been a 6 1/2 hour drive plus a better beach with the gulf…but live and learn.
This is one upbeat and positive song! I was about to graduate when I heard this song and I felt like the world was open and anything could happen. I wasn’t jaded yet but it felt good while it lasted.
The song peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #8 on the UK Charts, and #3 in Canada in 1985… hard to believe this song is 38 years old. This song has been a staple on pop stations and any supermarket near you.
The members were Katrina Leskanich, Kimberley Rew, Vince de la Cruz, and Alex Cooper. This song has been in almost 70 movies and television series.
Guitarist Kimberley Rew wrote the song and he also wrote “Going Down To Liverpool” which was covered by the Bangles. When that song was covered in 1984 it brought attention to Katrina and the Waves because Going Down To Liverpool was on their debut album Walking On Sunshine in 1983. One of the songs on there was of course...Walking on Sunshine but it was reworked with horns for their 1985 album Katrina And The Waves. That is the version we all know.
The band went on to release eight more albums, concluding with 1997’s Walk on Water. The album featured the lead single “Love Shine a Light,” which hit No. 3 in the UK and won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest. The band later disbanded in 1999 after struggling to replace Leskanich, who left the year prior. But they will always be remembered because of this song that will never go away.
Katrina and the Waves were dropped by Capitol Records one year later. Katrina Leskanich: “They thought we were the new Monkees, The Beach Boys,” but we weren’t even that kind of band. We were cooler. I thought I was Nico from The Velvet Underground. Black turtlenecks, eyeliner, no smiling in photographs …”
Original Version
Walking On Sunshine
Ow
Mm, yeah
I used to think maybe you loved me, now, baby, I’m sure
And I just can’t wait till the day when you knock on my door
Now every time I go for the mailbox, gotta hold myself down
‘Cause I just can’t wait till you write me you’re coming around
I’m walking on sunshine, whoa
I’m walking on sunshine, whoa
I’m walking on sunshine, whoa
And don’t it feel good
Hey, all right now
And don’t it feel good
Hey, yeah
I used to think maybe you loved me, now I know that it’s true
And I don’t want to spend my whole life just a-waiting for you
Now, I don’t want you back for the weekend, not back for a day, no, no, no
I said, baby, I just want you back, and I want you to stay
Oh, yeah, now I’m walking on sunshine, whoa
I’m walking on sunshine, whoa
I’m walking on sunshine, whoa
And don’t it feel good
Hey, all right now
And don’t it feel good
Yeah, oh, yeah, now
And don’t it feel good
Walking on sunshine
Walking on sunshine
I feel alive, I feel the love, I feel the love that’s really real
I feel alive, I feel the love, I feel the love that’s really real
I’m on sunshine, baby, oh
Oh, yeah, I’m on sunshine, baby
Oh, I’m walking on sunshine, whoa
I’m walking on sunshine, whoa
I’m walking on sunshine, whoa
And don’t it feel good
Hey, all right now
And don’t it feel good
I’ll say it, I’ll say it, I’ll say it again now
And don’t it feel good
Hey, yeah now
And don’t it feel good
Now don’t it, don’t it, don’t it, don’t it, don’t it, don’t it
And don’t it feel good
I’ll say it, I’ll say it, I’ll say it again now
And don’t it feel good
Now don’t it, don’t it, don’t it, don’t it, don’t it, don’t it
And don’t it feel good
Now tell me, tell me, tell me again now
And don’t it feel good
Oh, yeah, now
And don’t it feel good
Oh, don’t it feel good, don’t it feel good
Now don’t it feel good
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah
And don’t it feel good
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah
And don’t it feel good
This song takes me back to when I was a kid. On my country post a few weeks ago, I did 5 songs that I liked…Obbverse mentioned this one and I didn’t remember it by the title. Once I played it I knew it right away. I probably haven’t heard it since I was around 7-8 years old.
Ned’s mom taught him how to play guitar, and he wrote his first song at 16 while still in High School in Salt Lake City. After a three-year stint in the Marine Corps – he served in the Pacific theater during World War II – he went to college with the help of the G.I. Bill and became a pipe-fitter and later air-conditioning man by trade.
He wrote a song called Dark Moon that was made into two top 5 hits for other artists. He wrote and recorded this song in 1957 but it did absolutely nothing on the charts. He convinced his record company to re-release this song in 1962 and it was a massive international hit.
Ned recorded between 1957 and 1970. He did have another huge country hit with Do What You Do Do Well. After that, he had some top-50 hits in country but nothing in the top 10. It didn’t help that Ned rarely toured owing to stage fright. He gave up recording in the 1970s and moved to Prescott, Arizona, and later to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ned came back into the limelight in 1989, when Ricky Van Shelton resurrected ‘From A Jack To A King’ and took it to #1 on the Country charts and #1 in the Canadian Country Charts.
The song peaked at #2 on the Country Charts, #6 on the Billboard 100, and #2 in the UK in 1962.
Ned Miller passed away at the age of 90 in 2016.
From A Jack To A Queen
From a jack to a king
From loneliness to a wedding ring
I played an ace and I won a queen
And walked away with your heart
From a jack to a king
With no regrets I stacked the cards last night
And lady luck played her hand just right
And made me king of your heart
For just a little while
I thought that I might lose the game
Then just in time
I saw the twinkle in your eye
From a jack to a king
From loneliness to a wedding ring
I played an ace and I won a queen
You made me king of your heart
For just a little while
I thought that I might lose the game
Then just in time
I saw the twinkle in your eye
From a jack to a king
From loneliness to a wedding ring
I played an ace and I won a queen
You made me king of your heart…
So the Beatles and Stones released something new…this is pretty cool. I wasn’t around when the Beatles were together…I was 3 when they broke up. Like 1995 and 96 I am looking forward to hearing it.
The song will be paired with Love Me Do…appropriately the first single they released and now the last.
This is another song I remember from Good Morning Vietnam. It has so many good songs on it plus is a great movie to me. The soundtrack to that movie is the soundtrack to the sixties. Martha and the Vandellas had a tough edgy sound.
A frightening story was going on at the time. Lamont Dozier said that one of the inspirations was a teenager who was frightened because he was about to go to Vietnam. Lamont threw a party for him but the boy was quiet because he said he would never make it back from Vietnam.
Dozier tried to cheer him up but it didn’t work. The nineteen-year-old didn’t make it back alive, he was killed after only two months. He said he felt trapped with nowhere to run. That really puts an awful spin on that song.
The song peaked at #8 on the Billboard 100 in 1965. The song was written by the songwriting team of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland.
The backing band on this one was “The Funk Brothers” who were the studio band for Motown at the time. During this session, they used snow chains that went on tires as part of the percussion. They would get inventive at Motown.
This song was a favorite of High School marching bands everywhere because of its sound and chorus.
Lamont Dozier: “His friends asked if I would throw a party for him at my house before he was shipped out. We had the party, but he was very solemn, just sitting with his girlfriend. He had a premonition that he wouldn’t be coming back. I told him to be positive, but he was adamant. I found myself thinking about how he was feeling trapped – nowhere to run. Sure enough, two months later they shipped his body back. I think he stepped on a land mine. Nineteen years old.”
Nowhere to Run
Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide
Got nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide.
It’s not love, I’m a running from,
It’s the heartbreak I know will come.
‘Cause I know you’re no good for me, but you’ve become a part of me.
Ev’rywhere I go, your face I see, ev’ry step I take, you take with me yeah
Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide
Got nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide.
I know you’re not good for me, but free of you I’ll never be, no.
Each night as I sleep, into my heart you creep.
I wake up feelin’ sorry I met you, hoping soon that I’ll forget you.
When I look in the mirror to comb my hair
I see your face just a smiling there.
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from you baby,
Got nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide.
I know you’re no good for me, but you’ve become a part of me,
How can I fight a lover, that shouldn’t be, when it’s so deep,
So deep, deep inside of me
My love reaches so high I can’t get over it
It’s so wide I can’t get around it, no
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from you baby
Just can’t get away from you baby, no matter how I try to
I know you’re no good for me, but free of you I’ll never be,
Nowhere to run to baby, nowhere to hide, got nowhere to run to baby.
After appearing on the covers of Time and Newsweek in October 1975, Springsteen sometimes changed the words to “Tell your papa I ain’t no freak, ’cause I got my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek” when he performed it live. This wasn’t a “hit” at the time but it still lives on in classic radio and is a key song in Bruce’s catalog.
I’ve seen Bruce do this song live and it is special. It’s one of the best live songs I’ve ever heard along with The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again. The song is exciting as he pleads with Rosie and calls out the nicknames of their friends.
I was around 7 years old when this was released. I remember being in a tire swing in my Aunt’s front yard when I heard this Hollies on a radio that was playing from a car that someone was working on. I still remember smelling the grass and the green surroundings of that day.
This song would be way up in my favorite songs ever. Graham Nash had left by this time and the band turned a corner when he had gone. They went from a pop sixties band to more of a rock/pop band with hits like Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress, He Ain’t Heavy (He’s My Brother), and finally this song which was their last top ten hit in the US and Canada. It was written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood.
Great song great music great voice. This song was performed by Rufus with Chaka Khan and written by Stevie Wonder. The Talk-Box which Frampton later used sounds great in this song.
Rufus evolved from a group called The American Breed, who had a hit with “Bend Me, Shape Me.” They took their name from a column in Popular Mechanics magazine called “Ask Rufus,” later shortened to Rufus when Chaka Khan joined the band in 1972.
Paul McCartney‘s Band on the Run was one of his best songs since the Beatles. This song fell in a grey area. The album was released in December of 1973 but the single was released in April of 1974 so it could have gone in either year.
The song was recorded in two parts, in different sessions. The first two were taped in Lagos while the third section was recorded in October 1973 at AIR Studios in London. Paul was robbed at knifepoint in Lagos, Nigeria and they took the tapes that he had at the time. They were never recovered and Paul figured they recorded over them.
The song was off the album Band On The Run which was I think Paul’s best solo album. It was written by Paul and Linda McCartney.
Trying to figure out Elton’s lyrics has always been interesting…not what they mean…I won’t even try that. No, it’s… what is he singing? “He’s got electric boots a mohair suit You know I read it in a magazine, oh” I wasn’t even close. I thought “masseuse” was in there. I don’t think I can even spell what I’ve been singing along with for years. Mick Jagger does this well also.
Regardless of the hard-to-decipher words…I love the song.
Elton wrote the music to this song as an homage to glam rock, a style that was popular in the early ’70s, especially in the UK…and of course, Bernie Taupin co-wrote it with Elton.
Not Boris Karloff but the Edgar Winter’s 1973 #1 model.
The song has a killer riff that as a kid I could not get out of my head. It pounded you over the head. It was a big instrumental hit in the seventies. The song was seventies indulgence but that was ok. Keyboard solo, guitar, drum solo, saxophone and it drove the song on.
The videos have Edgar Winter running around with a keyboard slung over his shoulders like a guitar and playing anything he can get his hands on. It’s been used in a lot of movie soundtracks when they cover the seventies.
The song is called Frankenstein because of the heavy editing that had to be done in the studio to put it together. Back then they would have to cut the tape and then tape it back together in the correct place… Now it would just be cut and paste digitally.
Frankenstein was a B side to a song called “Hanging Around” but disc jockeys flipped it because they saw its potential. If you have a lot of patience and time…this is the Old Grey Whistle Test 9-minute version.
The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Charts, #1 in Canada, and #18 in the UK in 1973.
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 