Category: Singles

Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers – My Bonnie

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.

Tony Sheridan and Beatles

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

Van Morrison – Kingdom Hall

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

Blackie and The Rodeo Kings – Step Away

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

Katrina and the Waves – Walking on Sunshine

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

Ned Miller – From A Jack To A King

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…

The Beatles Website ***Updated***

thumbnail_cover5

This morning they updated it with an announcement with the link below…The new song will be out on November 2, 2023.

Now and Then will be released on 11-2-23…Here is the Announcement

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.

https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/the-beatles-final-song-now-and-then-release-date-details-1235454695/

Martha and the Vandellas – Nowhere to Run

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.

Max Picks …songs from 1974

1974

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.

…

Edgar Winter – Frankenstein

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.

Townes Van Zandt – Waiting Around To Die

Once in a while, I’ll listen to a song that is so good that it’s beyond a normal song. It happens when lyrics can tell a story just right..in a real down-to-earth way. Few fit in this category…this song does. Townes said it was the first song he ever wrote. If so…that would be like painting the Mona Lisa on your first try.

He lived in an apartment with his first wife Fran and he converted a walk-in closet into a studio. Fran said that he wrote the song in there and she was disappointed that he didn’t write a happy or a love song.

“Waitin’ Around to Die” was first recorded for Van Zandt’s 1968 studio debut called For the Sake of the Song. It’s a dark song that encapsulates the pain, despair, and struggle that can engulf a person’s life. It also foretold Van Zandt’s life and ending in a lot of ways.

Townes was diagnosed with depression in his sophomore year of college. His father, Harris Williams Van Zandt, was a corporate lawyer. Townes tried to follow in his footsteps but dropped out of school to become a musician. Earlier in grade school, his friend Guy Clark said that Van Zandt found out that the sun was slowly burning out. Clark thinks that after that he didn’t take much seriously in life.

He was born John Townes Van Zandt in Fort Worth, Texas, into a wealthy oil family whose prestige was known throughout the state. His great-great-grandfather Khleber Miller Van Zandt became president of both a construction company and a bank, the Fort Worth National Bank. Khleber’s own dad, Isaac Van Zandt, was a leader of the Republic of Texas. Van Zandt County, located in the northeastern part of the state, was named for Isaac in 1848.

Townes Van Zandt died on New Year’s Day in 1997 at age 52, exactly 44 years after the death of his idol, Hank Williams.

Townes Van Zandt: “I talked to this old man for a while, and he kinda put out these vibrations.  I was sitting at the bar of the Jester Lounge one afternoon drinking beer, thinking about him, and just wrote it down …..Sometimes I don’t know where this dirty road is taking me/Sometimes I can’t see the reason why/But I guess I’ll keep rambling/Lots of booze and lots of gambling/Well, it’s easier than waitin’ round to die.”

Townes Van Zandt:  “I have a few others like that that I don’t play all the time. I have to watch that when I do shows. I have to stay away from that side because nobody wants to hear blues on blues on blues.”

Waiting Around To Die

Sometimes I don’t know where
This dirty road is taking me
Sometimes I don’t even know the reason why
But I guess I keep a-gamblin’
Lots of booze and lots of ramblin’
Well it’s easier than just a-waitin’ around to die

One time, friends, I had a ma
I even had a pa
Well he beat her with a belt once ’cause she cried
She told him to take care of me
Headed down to Tennessee
Well it’s easier than just a-waitin’ around to die

Well I came of age and I found a girl in a Tuscaloosa bar
She cleaned me out and hit in on the sly
I tried to hide the pain, I bought some wine and hopped a train
Well it’s easier than just waitin’ around to die

A friend said he knew
Where some easy money was
We robbed a man, and brother did we fly
The posse caught up with me
And drug me back to Muskogee
Two long years waitin’ around to die

Well, now I’m out of prison
I got me a friend at last
Well he don’t drink or steal or cheat or lie
His name’s codeine
He’s the nicest thing I’ve seen
Yah, together we’re gonna wait around and die
Yah together we’re gonna wait around and die

Ray Charles – I Can’t Stop Loving You

I was introduced to Ray Charles’ music by my mom. She would play Georgia on My Mind nonstop. This was a country song that Ray Charles kicked some soul into and it worked more than anyone would have thought.

Willie Nelson said that Ray Charles did more for country music than anyone did at that time. This song was a massive hit worldwide in 1962.

The song was written by Don Gibson and this was the B side to his Oh Lonesome Me. Ray Charles finally got artistic control over his albums so he decided to shock everyone…an album full of Country and Western music with his own unique touch on it. The album was called Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music and it peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts.

Ray Charles’ record company (ABC Records) didn’t release this as a single when the album came out. It was only when Tab Hunter heard this version and released a single…that ABC Records finally edited the song down to just over 4 minutes and released it after radio stations were playing it off the album. Charles was not happy when he heard Hunter’s version.

The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1962. I Can’t Stop Loving You won the Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording.

I Can’t Stop Loving You

(I can’t stop loving you)
I’ve made up my mind
To live in memories of the lonesome times
(I can’t stop wanting you)
It’s useless to say
So I’ll just live my life in dreams of yesterday
(Dreams of yesterday)

Those happy hours that we once knew
Though long ago, they still make me blue
They say that time heals a broken heart
But time has stood still since we’ve been apart, yeah

(I can’t stop loving you)
I’ve made up my mind
To live in memories of the lonesome times
(I can’t stop wanting you)
It’s useless to say
So I’ll just live my life in dreams of yesterday

(Those happy hours)
Those happy hours
(That we once knew)
That we once knew
(Though long ago)
Though long ago
(Still make me blue)
Still make me blue
(They say that time)
They say that time
(Heals a broken heart)
Heals a broken heart
(But time has stood still)
Time has stood still
(Since we’ve been apart)
Since we’ve been apart

(I can’t stop loving you)
I said I made up my mind
To live in memories of the lonesome times (sing the song, children)

(I can’t stop wanting you)
It’s useless to say
So I’ll just live my life of dreams of yesterday
(Of yesterday)

Colin Linden – When The Spirit Comes

CB sent me a link to this song and I liked it on the first listen. It didn’t need to grow on me or take time to gel…first off I liked it. I started to listen to more of the album and again…first time I heard it was great.

Colin Linden is a great Canadian guitarist who has played with many artists. To name a few Bruce Cockburn, Lucinda Williams, T-Bone Burnett, Kevin Gordon, Colin James, Emmylou Harris, Leon Redbone, Rita Chiarelli, Chris Thomas King, The Band, Keb’ Mo’, Charles Esten, and last but not least Bob Dylan. He now makes his home near me…in Nashville.

Colin fulfilled a dream with this recording. He was always a huge fan of The Band. Garth Hudson and Rick Danko are on this song with him. If you listen to near the last verse you can hear Danko’s unmistakable harmony voice that he was so great at. Danko sings the last verse right before the solo. Along with that, you can hear Garth Hudson playing like only Hudson can…not many keyboard players have a certain sound…but Garth sure does. Danko and Linden met each other in 1985 in Toronto at the Diamond Club. Linden was opening up for The Band at the time. They got along well musically and personally.

As soon as you hear Rick Danko sing near the end he turns the song into Americana by just opening his mouth. The end of the song has a cool music breakdown of Linden’s guitar and Hudson’s organ taking the song in a really cool direction. Every song should have an ending like this one.

This song was the title cut to the album released in 1988. Danko, Hudson, and Levon Helm contributed to it. Along with his solo career he played with many artists on the way. He has released 14 albums in all beginning in 1980 and the last one called bLOW in 2021. He has also won multiple Juno awards for his contributions.

Colin joined Tom Wilson and Stephen Fearing in Hamilton, Ontario to form Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. I’ll be covering something by them soon.

The lyrics were nowhere to be found. After transcribing them I got an assist from CB on them…a thanks to him on that.

Colin Linden: “Rick’s way of looking at things is very much in keeping with what I feel about priorities, he’s a very Zen guy and he has a very positive aura about him. He looks at the world in a truly unjaded way–and he sees a lot of shit. The prospect of playing with him was so appealing to me because he treats life with a lot of respect, and that’s a perfect vibe for playing music and playing it well.”

When The Spirit Comes

When the spirit comes, electrons will charge through your veins
It won’t take any money, it won’t give you a name
When the spirit comes, you’re going to ride the fastest rail
And whatever you may try, no way you can fail
You will feel like superwoman, like you just discovered electricity
Here ye I’ll wait and I’m ready when the spirit comes

When the spirit comes, it will catch you mostly off guard
It will make things seem so easy, the same things that once seemed so hard
But you can’t force the spirit inside you, like you can’t force the dead to rise
And you can’t be on 10, and be ready when the spirit comes

When the spirit comes, sit down by your plough and be ready
When the spirit comes, throw away your crutches and be ready
When the spirit comes, put away your sheep suit and be ready
Be ready
Be ready
Be ready
When the spirit comes

When the spirit comes, you are gonna jump straight up in the air
And you will see the world from great heights, and you won’t have to travel anywhere
And there will be no tears or no funerals, and no preachers on TV
Just an intermittent spark that will let you know when the spirit’s come

Here ye I wait and I’m ready when the spirit comes

Chuck Berry – Let It Rock

Pick up you belongings boys and scatter about
We’ve got an off-schedule train comin’ two miles out

Great title for Mr. Chuck Berry. My only complaint about this song is it’s way too short. He borrowed liberally from Johnny B. Good but that is alright…hell it’s his song to borrow from. Just think how many artists have taken this riff, especially the rhythm track, and used it over and over again. The Rolling Stones, Animals, and Beatles owe a large part of their success to this man.

Speaking of the Rolling Stones…they recorded this song live as a B-side in the UK for the single Brown Sugar. It was recorded live in March 1971 at the University of Leeds in England. Right around the time when The Who recorded possibly the best rock live album ever…Live At Leeds. The Stones do a good job on this song…it’s in their wheelhouse completely.

This song is not about teenagers. Chuck wrote this from the perspective of a railroad worker in Alabama. The phrase “Let It Rock” won’t be found in the lyrics. Supposedly the train that is coming is Rock and Roll.

The musicians on this album are Johnnie Johnson on piano, Willie Dixon on double bass, and Fred Below on drums. Johnnie Johnson was one of the best boogie-woogie piano players around at the time.

Johnnie Johnson never got his due for these wonderful riffs that he helped Chuck create. When Keith Richards wanted him to play in Hail Hail Rock and Roll in the mid-80s…he was driving a bus in Saint Louis. Chuck gave his OK and Johnnie was in the band. After he appeared in the movie he worked for the rest of his life as a musician.

This song has been covered by The Connection, The Grateful Dead, Rockpile, The Rolling Stones, Motörhead, Jerry Garcia, Hasil Adkins, Skyhooks, The Yardbirds, Widespread Panic, The MC5, Bob Seger, the Stray Cats, George Thorogood, The Head Cat, Shadows of Knight, John Oates, The Georgia Satellites, and Jeff Lynne to name a few.

The song peaked at #18 on the Billboard R&B Charts and #64 on the Billboard 100 Charts in 1959.

Have a great day and Let It Rock!

Let It Rock

In the heat of the day down in Mobile Alabama
Working on the railroad with the steel driving hammer
I gotta get some money to buy some brand new shoes
Tryin’ to find somebody to take away these blues
“She don’t love me” hear them singing in the sun
Payday’s coming and my work is all done

Well, in the evening when the sun is sinking low
All day I been waiting for the whistle to blow
Sitting in a tee pee built right on the tracks
Rolling them bones until the foreman comes back
Pick up you belongings boys and scatter about
We’ve got an off-schedule train comin’ two miles out

Everybody’s scrambling, running around
Picking up their money, tearing the tee pee down
Foreman wants to panic, ’bout to go insane
Trying to get the workers out the way of the train
Engineer blows the whistle loud and long
Can’t stop the train, have to let it roll on

Joe Ely – Musta Notta Gotta Lotta 

Randy had a post a few days ago about Rock and Roll Revivalists and I started to search a little bit and ran across a live version of this song. I love roots music and this Texan delivers every single time. When I saw the live clip of this one I heard so much of Jerry Lee Lewis in it. The title alone gets my attention really quick.

This song was released in 1981 on an album with the same name…OK, I want to type it again… Musta Notta Gotta Lotta. Now I feel better. You could see something happening in the eighties out of the top 40. You have Joe Ely opening the door along with The Blasters and then Steve Earle came on through along with the alt-country bands like Uncle Tupelo.

Ely has 16 studio albums and 20 singles in his career so far. This album charted at #135 in the Billboard Album Charts. He has charted quite a few in the Country Charts.

Ely’s first album was released in 1977. He met The Clash the year after in London and both liked each other. They both toured together a bit after that. Ely sang backups on the Clash hit Should I Stay or Should I Go.

He also co-wrote a play called Chippy about a Texas prostitute who counted around 6,000 customers. She died in the 1960s and had a quote that I will never forget. “Texas had the bread and I had the butter.” 

The man is known through the music industry. In 1990 he was part of a band for the house party for the premiere of Buddy that played some songs. That band included The E Street band members Max Weinberg and Gary Tallent along with The Crickets, Dave Edmunds, Steve Forbert, and Paul McCartney. Joe and Paul traded vocals on three Holly songs.

Musta Notta Gotta Lotta

Please understand me everything’s all rightI just musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night

I was high flyin’ down the riverside driveRockin’ to the radio man aliveStopped into a joint bought a round of boozeHot dog I got a buzz in my shoe

Please understand me everything’s all rightI just musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night

Writin’ you a letter it’s late in the nightSittin’ in a caffe honey eatin’ a biteI’m telln’ you about where all I’ve beenHot dog I’m gone again

Please understand me everything’s all rightI just musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night

Now there’s two kind of people in this big ‘ol townThere’s the early to rise and the late to go downI guess I better find a better way to stop the clockHot dog I like it a lot

Hot dog I like it a lot

Please understand me everything’s all rightI just musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night, yeah, hot dog

Please understand me everything’s all rightI just musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night

Dusty Springfield – Son of a Preacher Man

This song never gets old to me. It’s full of soul and pure Dusty. I will say, I always thought Dusty Springfield was from Memphis or somewhere like that. Never did I think that she was born in London.

Mary O’Brien was the daughter of a tax consultant who grew up in Hampstead in North London. In 1958 she became the third member of a short-lived girl group known as the Lana Sisters. She started to go by Dusty Springfield, she then joined her brother Dion (stage name Tom Springfield) in the British country-music trio the Springfields, who achieved moderate success in the early 1960s.

She signed with Atlantic Records in 1968 and recorded her Dusty in Memphis album in the famed American Sound Studios with producers Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin. The album brought her critical acclaim and this international hit Son of a Preacher Man.

The song was originally offered to Aretha Franklin (who is a preacher’s daughter), but she turned it down because she thought it was disrespectful. She then changed her mind and did a cover version of it.

The song was released in 1968 and peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100, #11 in Canada, and #9 in the UK. The song was written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins. The backup vocals were by a female group called the Sweet Inspirations, who were made up of Cissy Houston, Sylvia Shemwell, Myrna Smith, and Estelle Brown. Later on, they would tour with Elvis Presley.

Elton John: “I’m biased, but I just think she was the greatest white singer there ever has been … every song she sang, she claimed as her own.”

Son of a Preacher Man

Billy-Ray was a preacher’s son
And when his daddy would visit he’d come along
When they gathered round and started talkin’
That’s when Billy would take me walkin’
A-through the backyard we’d go walkin’
Then he’d look into my eyes
Lord knows to my surprise

The only one who could ever reach me
Was the son of a preacher man
The only boy who could ever teach me
Was the son of a preacher man
Yes he was, he was
Ooh, yes he was

Being good isn’t always easy
No matter how hard I try
When he started sweet-talkin’ to me
He’d come and tell me everything is all right
He’d kiss and tell me everything is all right
Can I get away again tonight?

The only one who could ever reach me
Was the son of a preacher man
The only boy who could ever teach me
Was the son of a preacher man
Yes he was, he was
(Ooh…) Lord knows he was
Yes he was

How well I remember
The look that was in his eyes
Stealin’ kisses from me on the sly
Takin’ time to make time
Tellin’ me that he’s all mine
Learnin’ from each other’s knowing
Lookin’ to see how much we’ve grown

And the only one who could ever reach me
Was the son of a preacher man
The only boy who could ever teach me
Was the son of a preacher man
Yes he was, he was
Ooh, yes he was

The only one who could ever reach me
He was the sweet-talking son of a preacher man
The only boy who could ever teach me
I kissed the son of a preacher man
The only one who could ever move me
The sweet-lovin’ son of a preacher man
The only one who could ever groove me
Ahh, ooh, ahh….