This song had the perfect producer…Tom Petty. In 2017 this album (Bidn’ My Time) by Chris Hillman was released. CB sent me a link to this song and I liked the jangle and the song. The next day I listened to it some more and it suddenly dawned on me…I’ve heard this song before.
After I looked at the title again I knew I’d heard it. It was a Byrd song written by Gene Clark. It was a B-side on the single with Turn, Turn, Turn. Clark was an excellent songwriter and his songs included Eight Miles High and I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better.
Chris Hillman joined the Byrds as the bass guitarist without ever having played the instrument. With his background in country and folk music, he picked up playing the bass with no problem. He brought country music to the Byrds. After David Crosby quit…Gram Parsons was recruited and Hillman found another member to share his love of country music with. They made the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album in 1968 which still serves as inspiration for musicians.
Parsons quit the Bryds after that album and Hillman brought in the great guitarist Clarence White to replace Gram. Soon after that Hillman quit and formed The Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram Parsons.
In the 1980s, Hillman formed The Desert Rose Band which had some success in the Country charts.
Hillman thought he was done making albums but Tom Petty and Desert Rose Band remember Herb Pedersen had other ideas. Pedersen convinced Hillman to make one more album and Tom Petty wanted to produce it. The album is very rootsy and also contains the Byrds sound. A couple of Byrds help with out with the album…David Crosby and Roger McGuinn. Petty brought Heartbreakers Benmont Tench, Steve Ferrone, and Mike Campbell.
I listened to this album and it’s a combination of jangle, bluegrass, country rock, and folk. It’s a nice melding of all of these styles.
I’m going to add this video which is a very short story about the album.
She Don’t Care About Time
Hallways and staircases everyday to climb
To go up to my white walled room out on the end of time
Where I can be with my love for she is all that is mine
And she’ll always be there, my love don’t care about time
I laugh with her, cry with her, hold her close she is mine
The way she tells me of her love and never is she trying
She don’t have to be assured of many good things to find
And she’ll always be there, my love don’t care about time
Her eyes are dark and deep with love, her hair hangs long and fine
She walks with ease and all she sees is never wrong or right
And with her arms around me tight I see her all in my mind
And she’ll always be there my love don’t care about time
In the year 1967, all kinds of experimentation was going on in music. Sitars, spacey lyrics, and phased guitars were the order of the day. Personally, I like the abstract lyrics and sound…artists were branching out as far as they could.
This song was written by guitarist Dave Mason and it was his first song. It was their follow-up to their first hit single Paper Sun. Despite the lyrics, Mason has said that this song was written before he tried LSD. He said that his bandmates didn’t think this represented their sound.
The brief monologue in the middle was spoken by a girl named Francine Heimann who was Chris Blackwell’s stepdaughter. Chris Blackwell was the founder of Island Records and a prominent producer. Jimmy Miller produced this song and their album Mr Fantasy.
Hole In My Shoe and Paper Sun were singles only and not included on an album. Back in that time, singles and albums were treated differently by artists than they would be in the 70s and 80s. Those two singles would be included on the 2000 CD re-release of Mr Fantasy.
Dave Mason left the band after their debut album but rejoined during the sessions of their second album in 1968 and then left again in 1969.
The song peaked at #2 in the UK and #4 in Canada in 1967.
Dave Mason: “That’s the first song I ever wrote. It was my first attempt at songwriting. I mean, that stuff I did back then, when I listen to it, I cringe and realize I need to work on writing. But writing comes out of living. You have to have something.”
Steve Winwood: “We never wanted to be a pop band but we had a hit with ‘Shoe,’ which was Dave’s song. Dave had his own idea about the band, the rest of us had another one – a not-quite-as-sensible one, really, because it wasn’t half as commercial.”
Hole In My Shoe
I looked to the sky
With an elephant’s eye
Was looking at me
From a bubblegum tree
And all that I knew was
The hole in my shoe which
Was letting in water (letting in water)
I walked through a field
That just wasn’t real
With a hundred tin soldiers
Would shoot at my shoulder
And all that I knew
The hole in my shoe which
Was letting in water (letting in water)
(I climbed on the back of a giant albatross
Which flew through a crack in the cloud
To a place where happiness reigned all year round
And music played ever so loudly)
I started to fall
And suddenly woke
And the dew on the grass
Had soaked through my coat
And all that I knew
The hole in my shoe which
Was letting in water (letting in water)
T for Texas T for Tennessee T for Tennessee T for Thelma That gal that made a wreck out of me
Jimmie Rodgers was the first country star and is called the Father of Country Music. He is also called The Singing Brakeman and The Blue Yodeler. He was massively popular and others got their start imitating him like Roy Rodgers and Gene Autry. Rodgers had a deep love for Texas and all it represented. He drew inspiration from his travels and experiences across the country.
I never heard Rodgers version until the internet. I had read where a young George Harrison mention that he was a big influence on him. I do know this song well by Lynyrd Skynyrd who Ronnie Van Zant was influenced by him. They took this 1928 song and turned it on its ear.
Rodgers recorded this at what used to be Trinity Baptist Church in New Jersey. The record company Victor (later RCA Victor) was launched in Camden, New Jersey in 1901 and, in 1918, purchased Trinity Baptist Church, at 114 N. Fifth St., in order to have a space large enough to record a symphony orchestra, with good acoustics. Many artists recorded there including Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and the Carter Family. At the time of his death in 1933, his sales represented 10% of the total for the label. Even during the Depression his records sold well.
The song was released on February 3, 1928. Why the yodels? Rodgers said he saw a troupe of Swiss yodelers doing a demonstration at a church. They were touring America, and he just happened to catch it, liked it, and incorporated it into his songs. Altogether he wrote 13 Blue Yodels.
It’s been covered in every decade since. According to secondhandsongs.com it’s had 71 versions. Jimmie Rodgers died at 35 from a pulmonary embolism that was a direct result of tuberculosis he was diagnosed in 1924. He passed on May 26, 1933.
Journalist John Lilly wrote about the original song in 1992: It generated an excitement and record-buying frenzy that no one could have predicted. … The lyrics made an obvious connection to the southern states, talked about hard times with women and work, and had a macho, slightly dangerous undertone. Not only were these to be recurring themes in subsequent Jimmie Rodgers songs, (he re-worked these ideas for a total of 13 ‘Blue Yodels’ but they continue as themes in country songwriting to this day.”
Blue Yodel No 1 (T For Texas)
T for Texas
T for Tennessee
T for Tennessee
T for Thelma
That gal that made a wreck out of me
If you don’t want me mama
You sure don’t have to stall
You sure don’t have to stall
‘Cause I can get more women
Than a passenger train can haul
I’m gonna buy me a pistol
Just as long as I’m tall
Just as long as I’m tall
I’m gonna shoot poor Thelma
Just to see her jump and fall
I’m goin’ where the water
Drinks like cherry wine
Drinks like cherry wine
‘Cause this Georgia water
Tastes like turpentine
I’m gonna buy me a shotgun
With a great long shiny barrel
With a great long shiny barrel
I’m gonna shoot that rounder
That stole away my gal
‘Druther drink muddy water
Sleep in a holler log
Sleep in a holler log
Than to be in Atlanta
Treated like a dirty dog
His father said son you’ve given in, you know you won your harp But you lost in sin.
Do you ever play an album and skip a certain song to get to the next? When I first got the album Stage Fright I remember the order was The Shape I’m In, The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show, Daniel and the Scared Harp, and then the title song which I loved (I can’t remember yesterday but I can remember the order of songs from the 1980s when I got the album). I would skip this one like an idiot…which yes I was. Later on, I played it through…and fell head over heels in love with this song. It has become my favorite on the album.
What a beautiful song from The Band on their Stage Fright album. It’s one of the most fascinating songs they ever did. It’s fast becoming a favorite of mine by them. Robbie Robertson’s songwriting in this is incredible.
This story song is close to Robert Johnson‘s story of selling his soul to the devil to be able to play like he did. It’s a song based on the Faust story. I always enjoyed stories about selling your soul for an item or an ability. In movies also…like The Devil and Daniel Webster. If you are wondering what the Faust story is…here is a brief definition I found: a German necromancer or astrologer who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power.
Also, I must add…Sacred harp music is a religious folk music named for Benjamin Franklin White’s The Sacred Harp (1844) using four-shape shape note notation… Its old-time spirituals are sung a cappella… the “sacred harp” is the human voice singing hymns to God.
Robbie seemed to be going for an Appalachian sound in this song and succeeded. He also made it sound biblical against the backdrop of the American South long ago.
Robbie used the words ‘sacred harp’ but this harp is a physical one. What kind of harp is it? To blues players, it’s a mouth harp or harmonica. Could it be a harp as the kind angels play? The song’s vocals are shared between Levon Helm and Richard Manuel. Manuel sings the part of “Daniel” in this song and Levon is the narrator of the story.
The end of the song is chilling. He played out his heart just the time to pass But as he looked to the ground, he noticed no shadow did he cast. The Band never played Daniel and the Sacred Harp live.
Stage Fright peaked at #5 on the Billboard Album Charts, #6 in Canada, and #15 in the UK in 1970. The album has some of my favorite songs by the Band on it. The Shape I’m In, Stage Fright, The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show, and this one.
Robbie Robertson: I was so obsessed that I was stealing everything in sight. From Fred Carter, Roy Buchanan, the Howlin’ Wolf records. I came a long way in a short time, and people used to kid me, saying, “What is it with this guy? Did he sell his soul?”
Robbie Robertson: Roy Buchanan was only three or four years older than me, but he’d been around quite a bit for his age. He told me a lot of stories, crazy stories about how he was half-wolf, half man. They were like the stories you heard about Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil. We know these are just silly stories, but at the same time they’re fascinating American mythology. Like we’d be sitting in a room playing together and I’d ask Buchanan how he’d figured out some lick and he’d say, “Well, I can’t really tell you,” clearly implying that he, too, had made some sort of pact. Years later, it became obvious he was playing a game with me.
An alternate take…
Daniel And The Sacred Harp
Daniel, Daniel and the sacred harp
Dancing through the clover
Daniel, Daniel would you mind
If I look it over
I heard of this famous harp years ago back in my hometown
But I sure never thought old Daniel be the one to come and bring it around
Tell me Daniel how the harp came into your possession
Are you one of the chosen few who will march in the procession?
And Daniel said
The sacred harp was handed down, from father unto son
And me not being related, I could never be the one
So I saved up all my silver and took it to a man
Who said he could deliver the harp, straight into my hand
Three years I waited patiently
‘Till he returned with the harp from the sea of Galilee
He said there is one more thing I must ask
But not of personal greed
But I wouldn’t listen I just grabbed the harp
And said take what you may need
Now Daniel looked quite satisfied, and the harp it seemed to glow
But the price that Daniel had really paid, he did not even know
Back to his brother he took his troubled mind
And he said dear brother I’m in a bind
But the brother would not hear his tale
He said Old Daniel’s gonna land in jail
So to his father Daniel did run
And he said oh father what have I done
His father said son you’ve given in, you know you won your harp
But you lost in sin.
Then Daniel took the harp and went high on the hill
And he blew across the meadow like a whippoorwill
He played out his heart just the time to pass
But as he looked to the ground, he noticed no shadow did he cast
When I hear Robert Johnson…I think of all the myths built around him. Not all are myths though…to hear his guitar on those songs is incredible. He was a man ahead of his time. He is so mysterious…we still only know so much about him. If one song captures the mystery of this legendary bluesman, it is this song… a haunting tale of a man pursued by the devil. Only three confirmed photos of the man are known to exist.
Was Robert Johnson the most influential guitarist in the history of blues and rock? That very possibly could be true. It wasn’t until the 80s that I started to read and hear more about him. Reading interviews with Clapton, Jimmy Page, and others…they all owed a huge debt to Johnson.
My introduction to Robert Johnson came from Eric Clapton while playing with Cream. Johnson was a great blues guitarist who supposedly sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads to be able to play the blues. Some of the songs he wrote played into this myth. He only cut 29 songs that he recorded in a two-year period between 1936 and 1937.
Movies such as the 1980s film Crossroads brought Johnson more fans. Many people have searched for Johnson after listening to artists that were influenced by him. His voice will haunt you after you listen to his recordings. They are pure and timeless.
Son House and Willie Brown
The great bluesman Son House talked about when he and Willie Brown played in different juke joints that Johnson would want to play with them. He said Johnson made a racket with the guitar and everyone wanted him to stop playing. Then one day Johnson left town and came back between 6-8 months later and he had mastered the guitar. That boosted the “selling of his soul to the devil” rumors.
Hellhound On My Trail
I got to keep movin’, I’ve got to keep movin’
Blues fallin’ down like hail, blues fallin’ down like hail
Mm mm mm, blues fallin’ down like hail, blues fallin’ down like hail
And the days keeps on worryin’ me of a hellhound on my trail
Hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail
If today was Christmas eve, if today was Christmas eve
And tomorrow was Christmas day
If today was Christmas eve and tomorrow was Christmas day
(Aow, wouldn’t we have a time, baby?)
All I would need, my little sweet rider, just
To pass the time away, huh huh, to pass the time away
You sprinkled hot foot powder, mmm
Mmm, around my door, all around my door
You sprinkled hot foot powder, mmm
All around your daddy’s door, hmm hmm hmm
It keep me with ramblin’ mind, rider
Every old place I go, every old place I go
I can tell, the wind is risin’, the leaves tremblin’ on the tree
Tremblin’ on the tree
I can tell, the wind is risin’, leaves tremblin’ on the tree
All I need’s my little sweet woman
And to keep my company, hmm hmm, hey hey
My company
I’ve never heard a song by Buddy Holly that I didn’t like. Well…All Right was released just a couple of months before Buddy Holly died in that lonely Iowa cornfield. A while back I posted Blind Faith‘s cover of this song. The song is in my top 10 of Buddy Holly’s songs easily.
This song was somehow a B side. In the 50s and 60s many times a B side was a throwaway track. People started to flip the hit singles over and sometimes…sometimes find gold! He had a song called Heartbeat that he thought would be a big hit. I like Heartbeat a lot but I lean more toward Well…All Right. I think Heartbeat sounds like the 50s…but this song sounds fresher.
It’s a quiet song but Holly builds in dynamics for the chorus showing his strength and tenderness on this recording. The construction of the melody and lyrics are outstanding. Its simple instrumentation yet powerful push is what won me over.
Heartbeat only peaked at #82 on the Billboard 100 and #30 on the UK Charts. It’s the flipside that has been remembered. It was written by Buddy Holly, Norman Petty, Jerry Allison, and Joe Mauldin.
What really hurts about Holly’s career is that he was just getting started. He had matured and was experimenting more than his rocking peers. Fortunately for all of us, he left behind a significant musical catalog that still influences new and old artists today.
Well…All Right
Well all right, so I’m being foolish Well all right let people know About the dreams and wishes you wish In the night when lights are low
Well all right, well all right We’ll live and love with all our might Well all right, well all right Our lifetime of love will be all right
Well, all right, so I’m going steady It’s all right when people say That those foolish kids can’t be ready For the love that comes their way
Well all right, well all right We will live and love with all our might Well all right, well all right Our lifetime of love will be all right
Well all right, well all right We’ll live and love with all our might Well all right, well all right Our lifetime love will be all right
Neath a delta moon and a worn brass ring in the house of a thousand guitars.
I’ve really been into this artist lately and especially this song. This song should have been played on the radio. I have a weakness for songs that name-drop other people. For instance Tom Petty’s Jammin’ Me, R.E.M.’s The End of the World (As We Know It), The Replacements Alex Chilton, Neil Young’s “Hey Hey My My (Into the Black), and well…you get the picture. I posted an earlier article about Nile and the readers really liked it.
Nile made two critically acclaimed albums in 1980 and 81 and then walked away from the music business. He didn’t like the business end but came back with an album in 1991. Since then he has made up for lost time with 11 albums. This was the title track to his 2009 album. It was his 6th studio album and since this album he has released 8 more. One of those albums is Positively Bob: Willie Nile Sings Bob Dylan which is fantastic.
In this song, Nile lists John Lennon, John Lee Hooker, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan, The Stones, Bob Dylan, and more. It also has a hell of a catchy chorus that will stick with you. It’s very commercial-sounding and accessible.
Willie Nile is still out there touring and playing concerts.
House of the Thousand Guitars
Jimmy Hendrix plays all night long in the house of a thousand guitars.
Through a purple haze you can hear the song in the house of a thousand guitars.
When the clock strikes 12 Robert Johnson sings in the house of a thousand guitars.
Neath a delta moon and a worn brass ring in the house of a thousand guitars.
There’s not a dry eye when old Hank sings in the house of a thousand guitars.
With the pain and the hurt love sometime brings in the house of a thousand guitars.
Well you can hear Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones in the house of a thousand guitars.
There will be no vultures picking on their bones in the house of a thousand guitars.
House of a thousand, house of a thousand, house meet the moon and stars.
House of a thousand, house of a thousand, house of a thousand guitars.
You can spread your finger across the universe in the house of a thousand guitars.
John Lennon, Muddy Waters, man you can do worse in the house of a thousand guitars.
Well you can walk bare foot on broken glass in the house of a thousand guitars.
Cause Mr. John Lee Hooker’s gonna kick your ass in the house of a thousand guitars.
House of a thousand, house of a thousand, house meet the moon and stars.
House of a thousand, house of a thousand, house of a thousand guitars.
You can hear electric fingers playin’, dripping down life’s crooked alleways.
They say there are no broken strings in the house of a thousand guitars.
Just some busted hearts and bee that stings.
There are stained glass windows on the bedroom walls.
You can hear the cry when salvation calls.
Well you can move your body, you can shake your heads in the house of a thousand guitars.
You can play with blood on your fingtips in the house of a thousand guitars.
House of a thousand, house of a thousand, house meet the moon and stars. House of a thousand, house of a thousand, house of a thousand guitars.
This was one of John Lennon’s favorite songs throughout his life. Rosie and the Originals were also mentioned by Led Zeppelin on liner notes after the song Dy’er Mak’er…“Whatever happened to Rosie and the Originals?”
Rosie Hamlin wrote “Angel Baby,” her and the Originals’ lone hit, when she was just 14, with her first boyfriend and the Penguins’ “Earth Angel” serving as her primary inspiration. After penning the song over a couple hours in the afternoon, Hamlin and some instrument-playing San Diego friends laid down the first version of the track.
They had trouble landing a record deal. No appointments with any of the labels. They eventually found a private studio and recorded the song themselves…all teenagers. After that, they took one of their 45’s to Kresge’s Department Store in San Diego. They had listening booths in their music section where you could preview records before you bought them. Rosie asked the manager to play their record and see if he could sell it in his store.
A distributor from Highland Records heard “Angel Baby” and, without officially signing the group to a record contract, took control of the single’s master take and gave songwriting credit to the Originals’ eldest member. The single eventually found its way to famed DJ Alan Freed, who played “Angel Baby” numerous times a day in November 1960; two months later, the single peaked at Number Five on the Hot 100.
However, Hamlin parted ways with Highland after a legal battle over the song’s authorship and ownership. After disbanding the Originals, Hamlin recorded an album with her guitarist husband Noah Tafolla before leaving the music industry by 1963.
After her divorce, a little over 3 years later, she did venture into music again but never had any other hits and played live some. She made a Spanish version of this song in 2002.
It’s been covered many times but Rosie’s favorite cover version was…John Lennon’s that he recorded for his Rock and Roll album released in 1975 but the song didn’t end up being released until 1986. John’s voice can be heard saying: “This is one of my all-time favorite songs… My love to Rosie wherever she may be.”
Rosie and the Originals never received a penny from “Angel Baby,” nor any of the other Highland recordings until September 1994, when a financial settlement was reached and the masters of their recordings were returned to them. Rosie said: “It looks like that song will be around longer than I will.”
And it is …Rosie passed away in 2017 at the age of 71.
Angel Baby
It’s just like heaven being here with you
You’re like an angel, too good to be true
But after all, I love you, I do
Angel baby, my angel baby
When you are near me, my heart skips a beat
I can hardly stand on my own two feet
Because I love you, I love you, I do
Angel baby, my angel baby
Oh, I love you, oh I do
No one could love you like I do
Ooh, ooh
Please, never leave me blue and alone
If you ever go, I’m sure you’ll come back home
Because I love you, I love you, I do
Angel baby, my angel baby
It’s just like heaven being here with you dear
I could never stay the way without you near
Because I love you, I love you, I do
Angel baby, my angel baby
Oh, I love you, oh, I do
No one could love you like I do
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
I have been hyped about this because I’m not old enough to remember The Beatles when they were together. In the 90s when Free As A Bird came out I was so excited because it was the first time I ever heard a “new” Beatles song. I’ve been waiting for Paul to finish this song for 27 years. I thought it would end up just being him finishing it or not at all. My son Bailey is excited also. He was born in 2000 so he didn’t even get to hear Free As A Bird much less The Beatles as an active band. I think he is more excited than I am.
The thing that I’m happy about the most after listening to it is the great sound. They didn’t try to make it fit with everyone else now. The mix sounds lively and not flat and compressed to death like a lot of recordings. I’m listening through headphones and they did a hell of a job on it.
This song is not one of John’s best but it sounds great hearing John Lennon again. This will be the last single from them and for me, this is my musical event of the year.
This came about because of Peter Jackson’s advancements in audio technology while working on Get Back. He took John’s voice off of the 1978 cassette tape and it’s clean. They ran into a buzz on the tape before and could not finish it in the 90s.
Is this the best song ever by them? No, it’s not but it’s a nice send-off. On the single version, the B-Side is appropriately their first single Love Me Do. The video (out tomorrow) was directed by Peter Jackson.
What a long road this song took to get here.
12-Minute Bio on the song.
Now and Then
I know it’s true, it’s all because of you
And if I make it through, it’s all because of you
And now and then, if we must start again
Well we will know for sure, that I love you
I don’t want to lose you – oh no, no, no
Lose you or abuse you – oh no, no, no, sweet doll
But if you have to go, away
If you have to go
Nda-da-doo, doo-doo-doo
Now and then, I miss you
Oh now and then, I want you to return on me
And now return to me…
I know it’s true, it’s all because of you
And if you go away, I know you you’ll nev’… stay
I don’t want to lose you – oh no, no, no
Abuse you or confuse you – oh no, no, no, sweet darl’
But if you had to go,
Well I won’t stop you babe
And if you had to go, well you believe in that love
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
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