I want to start something called “Max Picks” and go through every year from 1955 to around 1990 or so. Right now I’ll try to get these in on Wednesday after Star Trek. When Star Trek ends on August 26th I might move it to the weekends. I will try to make each of these short and sweet. This post will hopefully be the longest one I write only because of telling you about it. I will pick 5 songs out of each year…now of course I’m breaking my rule in the first one! You will see why.
I won’t just pick hits as we go along. In the 80s there will be some “alternative” music and I will try to mix it up. The reason I am starting in 1955? The first song below is the reason. It helped jumpstart Rock and Roll.
1955
Ok, let’s get this rolling. The huge hit this year? The one you will know later on in Happy Days. Bill Haley and His Comets Rock Around The Clock. It was one of the most important rock songs of all time. This one was huge in America and it popped into the UK charts in 1955. Whether you are a rock fan, pop fan, heavy metal fan, or anything in between…1955 helped kick it all off.
Here…a middle age looking man takes the world by storm. The following year it would be in the movie of the same name featuring Bill and his Comets. Take it away big fellow.
Mr. Chuck Berry also debuted with his first single…the classic Maybelline. The song was written by Chuck Berry and the song just flat out rocks. This song and its beat influenced young kids like Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and many more.
Now one of my favorites from the year and decade. The one and only Fats Domino Ain’t That A Shame. I love Cheap Tricks version but Fats is Fats…he was one of the most understated rockers of this decade. This song was written by Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew.
I could not have this without the Big E! Elvis Presley…I’m stuck between two songs to pick. Heartbreak Hotel and Mystery Train. So…on my first post in this…I’m going to pick both! This is the Elvis that I love… before the Army and Tom Parker took his soul away. Junior Parker wrote this song and the great Sam Phillips produced it. Heartbreak Hotel was written by Mae Boren Axton (Hoyts Mom!) and Tommy Durden. Tom Parker got Elvis’s name writing credits but he didn’t have anything to do with it but singing.
Since we have thrown in rockers…I thought I would try a ballad that’s been in a lot of movies and was huge at the time. The Penguins doing Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine) written by Curtis Williams, Gaynel Hodge, and Jesse Belvin.
CB sent me a link to this song. Never did I think in a million years this was the Jackson 5 song that he covered when I saw the title. This cover knocked me out…it’s a mature cover version of the song…and that is no disrespect to the others but I like the way Parker takes this cover.
Parker released this non-album song in 1979. It managed to peak at #103 on the Billboard 100. This one to me must have come out of left field for Graham Parker fans in 1979.
The more I get into Parker’s songs…I don’t understand why he wasn’t played more. He compares to Elvis Costello pretty well. Apparently, radio only had room for one quirky, bespectacled, British pub rocker (Costello).
His record label Mercury Records has been blamed by many for not getting behind Parker and pushing his records. Parker thought the same as he said: “their promotion’s so lame, they could never take it to the real ball game.” He did eventually sign with Arista and Squeezing Out Sparks was the first album on that label for him.
He released this song and on the flip side of the single was a song called Mercury Poisoning. A clear jab at his former label. He didn’t include Mercury Poisoning on the album because he didn’t think it fit. “Sometimes some of the little throwaway things that take a few minutes to write, you just don’t think that they really have the integrity. I mean, ‘Mercury Poisoning’ is a bit of fun and all that, but I didn’t think it had the integrity to be on Squeezing Out Sparks.”
Arista saw that the single was popular so they began to include a free “Mercury Poisoning” single with every purchase of the Squeezing Out Sparks album in the UK. It was also the flip side to Local Girls in America.
The original version is of course by a young Jackson 5. It was written by a team of Motown writers called The Corporation. The head of the label, Berry Gordy, was one of the writers. They were based in California, unlike most Motown writers who were in the Detroit offices.
Michael Jackson reminded Berry Gordy of Frankie Lymon, another teenage star. Gordy helped write this as if he was writing for Lymon. The song was originally envisioned as a vehicle for Gladys Knight but Berry saw it as a way to break the Jacksons into the charts. They released it in 1969.
I Want You Back
Ohh-oh-oh-oh, let me tell you now, uh-huh, uh-uh-uh
When I had you to myself I didn’t want you around
Those pretty faces always make me stand up in a crowd
Someone picked you from the bunch, and that was all it took
And now it’s much too late for me to take a second look
Oh baby, give me one more chance
Won’t you please let me back in your heart
Oh darling, I was blind to let you go
Now that I see you in his arms
Oh I do now
Oh-oh baby
Oh I do now
Oh-oh baby
Tried to live without your love, one of those sleepless nights
But that just shows you, girl, that I know wrong from right
And every street you walk down, I leave tear stains on the ground
Following you girl, I can feel you all around, let me tell you now
Oh baby, give me one more chance
Won’t you please let me back in your heart
Oh darling, I was blind to let you go
But now that I see you in his arms
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
You’re all I want
You’re all I want
You’re all I need
Ah yeah, one more chance
Won’t you please let me back in your heart
Oh darling, I must have been blind to let you go
Now that I see you in his arms
Webb Wilder:It’s sorta like we’re a roots band for rock ‘n’ roll fans and a rock band for roots fans” He also uses these phrases…“Swampadelic”, “Service-station attendant music”, “Uneasy listening”, “Psychobilly.”
Good morning everyone…since posting about the Scorchers yesterday…I thought Wilder would be good to go over today. Webb deserved more attention than he got. Good songwriting and his voice fits the roots music he plays.
In 1991 I was walking through a street fair in Nashville and there he was, playing with his band. He had just put out an album called Doo Dad that got some local and national airplay. His music is a mixture of rock/country/rockabilly/punk and anything else he can throw in. The man has the gift of gab also. His music is just different. He looks like he dropped out of a 50’s black-and-white detective show. I also saw him shortly later at the Exit Inn.
Webb Wilder’s quote when asked what kind of music he plays.
“I came to Nashville as kind of a hunch, an educated guess that it would be a good place for me. Rock ‘n’ roll and country have more in common than not. We don’t have the typical Nashville country sound, but we thought we could use that to our advantage. It’s sorta like we’re a roots band for rock ‘n’ roll fans and a rock band for roots fans” he also adds these phrases…“Swampadelic”, “Service-station attendant music”, “Uneasy listening”, “Psychobilly.”
His real name is John “Webb” McMurry and according to wiki “The Webb Wilder character was created in 1984 for a short comedy film created by friend called “Webb Wilder Private Eye.” The character was a backwoods private detective who fell out of the 1950s and happened to also be a musician. The short appeared on the television variety show “Night Flight.”[Whatever it is… it works.
This song I first heard on our local then rock radio station WKDF in Nashville. Poolside is what first drew me in. After I saw him in Nashville at a street fair I was a fan for life. I like unique…and Webb is unique…God bless him…
It also has elements of the 80s cowpunk music and just good rock and roll. I saw him twice through the nineties and he was excellent each time I saw him. This song was released in 1986 and it was on the album It Came From Nashville. Again…the local play in Nashville turned it into a regional hit.
My favorite song by Wilder is this one called Meet Your New Landlord. I purchased the Doodad album and this song is what I zeroed in on. The hit off the album was Tough It Out which peaked at #16 on the Mainstream Charts. It included guest appearances by Al Kooper and Sonny Landreth.
The guitar riff is instantly catchy and the first verse was about losing your house/land in a poker game. A great storytelling song.
He slapped his cards down on the table Said, “Boys, I got me a winning hand.” But the sight that made old T. Jim tremble Was the king that took his land
This was probably his closest thing to a hit in America. In Nashville, it was played a lot on local rock stations. The song peaked at #16 in the Mainstream Rock Songs in 1992. This song came off of Doo Dad and is about the time I saw him for the first time. This song was being played on MTV at the time.
In 1990 this song charted on the Australian charts and it got a lot of airplay here.
Human Cannonball
Saw the ad in the paper Said the hell with it all Took a gig with the circus As the human cannonball
It didn’t take long To learn my trade Very first show, man I blew the folks away Now the job’s a little risky But I’m my own boss I gotta tell ya, Jack It really gets me off
I live in a tent with The world’s strongest man When I met the mother Like to broke my hand My baby she’s a lady In the high wire act When I’m feeling tense She walks on my back
Now the pay’s OK The benefits are great I get to shoot the bull With the world’s smartest ape
Ahh hahhh I’m the human cannonball I’m the human cannonball y’all
Well, I’m a hot shot I’m a cool breeze Underneath the big top I’m the big cheese I lay it on the line Let it all hang When I go least I know I’ll go with a bang
I reckon I’m living Every kid’s dream It’s a buzz, its a gas It’s a real scream
Ahh hahhh I’m the human cannonball I’m the human cannonball y’all
Yeah…
Alright folks, just make yourself at home Have a snow cone and enjoy the show
They put me on the cover Of the USA Today Tell the world what the Human cannonball got to say On the Carson show They said “HC. What you do you got to be Right out of your tree”
Well, it’s a little risky But I’m my own boss I got to tell you, John, It really gets me off
Ahh hahhh I’m the human cannonball I’m the human cannonball y’all
I’m the human cannonball I’m the human cannonball y’all
I truly love this band. They filled a space in the 80s for me. Loud unprocessed guitars with sparse production. They were close to the Georgia Satellites but more of a Rockabilly band on steroids. I was talking to fellow blogger Obbverse and he brought them up and I was very surprised he knew them. Not many outside the Southeast of America know much about them.
In the mid-eighties, I had a friend who was big into Jason and the Scorchers so I gave them a listen. They were big on college radio and they had many ties with Nashville and played here quite often. I saw them and Webb Wilder live downtown once. That is when I heard them do “The Race Is On”…the old George Jones song and it won me over. Their music seemed to have a kinship to the Georgia Satellites but they were a little more robust. They did have some MTV play with the song Golden Ball and Chain.
The band was formed in 1981. They were together through the 80s till the drummer Perry Baggs was diagnosed with diabetes and could not finish a 1990 tour. They have regrouped since then off and on and altogether have released 15 albums with the last one being in 2010. In 2012 Perry Baggs passed away because of diabetes.
They played a mixture between country and rock but fell into the cracks. They seemed too rock for country and too country for rock. Their concerts were simply unbeatable. They were led by frontman Jason Ringenberg and they released a couple of EPs before releasing their debut album Lost & Found in 1985. They were classified at one time as alt-country but I would add rock/punk/rockabilly in there also.
One of the things that made the band different is Jason wanted to sound country but guitar player Warner Hodges wanted to sound like AC/DC…that interplay made them unique. This song was on their 1985 album Lost and Found. The album peaked at #86 on the Australian album chart in 1987.
Most people will know the song Lost Highway…a hit by Hank Williams. It’s surprising but Hank didn’t write this song. Leon Payne wrote and released this song in 1948. Blind since he was a child, Payne wrote hundreds of songs, some of which were recorded by Hank Williams, John Prine, Elvis Presley, George Jones, Johnny Cash, and many more.
I also added another live cover they did as a bonus…the old George Jones hit The Race Is On.
Jason Ringenberg: “I kinda wanted to make a supercharged roots-rock band, some people were caught by surprise, but by and large people fell in love immediately. There was nobody else like us.”
Lost Highway
I’m a rollin’ stone, all alone and lost
For a life of sin I have paid the cost
When I pass by all the people say
Just another guy on the lost highway
Just a deck of cards, and a jug of wine
And a woman’s lies makes a life like mine
Oh, the day we met, I went astray
I started rollin’ down that lost highway
I was just a lad, nearly twenty-two
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you
And now I’m lost, too late to pray
Lord, I’ve paid the cost on the lost highway
Now, boys, don’t start your ramblin’ around
On this road of sin, or you’re sorrow bound
Take my advice, or you’ll curse the day
You started rollin’ down that lost highway
I’ve almost written this song up on numerous occasions so I thought I would finish it because it’s been in my drafts for a while. Great power pop from this band.
The Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band combining elements of power pop, Beatleesque harmonies, psychedelia, and grungy garage rock. Guitarists Dave Faulkner, Rod Radalj, and Kimble Rendall were joined by drummer James Baker when the band formed in Sydney in 1981.
I Want You Back” was the final single to be released for the band’s debut album, Stoneage Romeos. The band’s debut Stoneage Romeos, full of garage punk songs and pop references, was named Australian Debut Album of the Year and was released in America where it stayed at number 1 in the Alternative / College charts for 7 weeks, becoming one of the most played albums for the year on the college network. Their next two albums also reached #1 on the Alternative College charts.
This song was played alongside The Replacements, R.E.M., and other alternative bands at the time throughout America. They were not well known to the masses here but in Australia they were huge. In 2007 were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame.
They have released 10 studio albums and the last one, Chariot of the Gods, was released last year in 2022.
I Want You Back
I can still recall the time
She said she was always mine
Then she left as people do
And forget what we’ve been through
It’s not that she’s gone away, yeah
It’s the things I hear that she has got to say
About me and about my friends
When we, we’ve got no defense
That’s her, I’ll never believe her again
She might have deceived all my friends
I know they will see in the end
What it all means when she says, yeah
(Ah, ah) I want you back
(Ah, ah) I want you back
I, I, I want you
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says, yeah, yeah
But what’s worse, she thinks it’s true
But that’s just her, she always was a little bit confused, and
She’s not worth the time I had to lose
That’s her, I’ll never believe her again
She might have deceived my friends
I know they’ll see what it means when she says, yeah
(Ah, ah) I want you back
(Ah, ah) I want you back
I, I, I want you
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says
She says (ah, ah)
She says (ah, ah)
I want you back
She says (ah, ah)
She says (ah, ah)
I want you and only you (ah, ah)
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says (she says)
She says
I can’t get enough of the early Animals. At the time I would say they were the grittiest-sounding band of the British Invasion. The Animals were one of the many British bands I learned about through reading about the Beatles. The Animals influenced the future of rock from the garage rock of the 60s to 70s punk.
I’m Crying was written by the group’s lead vocalist Eric Burdon and organist Alan Price. The song was released as a single in September 1964 and became their second transatlantic hit after “The House of the Rising Sun”, which was released earlier in the year.
The Animals first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on October 18th, 1964. With young girls screaming, The Animals rocked the audience as they played “I’m Crying” followed by their massive hit “House of the Rising Sun.” The audience got so out of control that Sullivan shushed them several times.
They formed in 1963, from the fusion between two rival groups, one headed by bassist Chas Chandler, the other headed by organist Alan Price, stage veteran, former jazz pianist, and disciple of Ray Charles. Eric Burdon, who had played with Price until 1962, was hired as the singer. The Kontours changed their name first to The Alan Price Combo, after adding drummer John Steel, and then to The Animals, after adding guitarist Hilton Valentine.
The original lineup only recorded three albums, yet nevertheless managed to break out eight Top 40 hits between 1964 and 1966. Alan Price left in 1965, and John Steel the following year. Also in 1966, Chandler left to start managing artists, and he discovered Jimi Hendrix in Greenwich Village. Now a very different group, they were known as Eric Burdon & The Animals and had six additional Top 40 hits before finally disbanding in 1968.
Bruce Springsteen:For some, the Animals were just another one the really good beat groups that came of the Sixties, but to me, the Animals were a revelation. The first records with full-blown class consciousness that I had ever heard.
John Steel:We were hot enough to get on several times on The Ed Sullivan Show, and at that time in 1964, we were rated in the Top 5 bands of the British Invasion along with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks, so we were pretty highly regarded.
I’m Crying
I don’t hear your knock upon my door
I don’t have your lovin’ anymore
Since you been gone I’m a-hurtin’ inside
Well I want you baby by my side, Yeah
I’m cryin’, I’m cryin’
Hear me cryin’ baby
Hear me cryin’
Im lonely and blue baby every night
Yeah, you know you didn’t treat me right
And now my tears begin to fall
Well I want you baby and that’s all
I’m cryin’, I’m cryin’
Hear me cryin’ baby
Hear me cryin’
I don’t hear your knock upon my door
I don’t have your lovin’ anymore
Since you been gone I’m hurtin’ inside, yeah
Well I want you baby by my side
But I’m cryin’, you know I’m cryin’
Hear me cryin’ baby
Hear me crying
Hear me crying
I first heard this song by Springsteen before I ever heard it by Patti Smith. I’m not sure how I kept missing her version.
Patti Smith has more of a cult following and this is by far the biggest hit she ever had.
Bruce Springsteen started to write this song in 1976. That was a troubled year for the singer. He sued his manager Mike Appel and Bruce wanted to work with Jon Landau. This went on for around 10 months. This was coming after 1975 which was huge in Springsteen’s life. He would be on the cover of Newsweek and Time at the same time. His Born To Run album blanketed rock at the time and he was hailed as the future of Rock and Roll. But instead of capitalizing on his success and hitting the studio to record another album he put on a suit and went to court.
Springsteen did what a lot of artists at that time did…he signed a management contract on the hood of a car in a New Jersey parking lot, Springsteen’s contract allotted him 18¢ per album sold. Appel made a minimum royalty of 40¢ per record. On top of that, the contract called for Springsteen to record 10 albums for CBS but it only called for Springsteen to record five for Appel’s Laurel Canyon management and production company. It was a terrible contract and although Springsteen didn’t care about the money then…he was always broke because he was keeping less than 10 percent of his income.
Appel wanted to stop Landau from working with Bruce also…who had just helped Springsteen with Born To Run. When Appel started to tell Bruce what he could and could not do…that was it. Bruce sued Appel and they went to court. Two days after Springsteen filed suit against Appel for fraud, undue influence, and breach of trust, Appel responded by seeking a permanent injunction in New York State Supreme Court barring Springsteen and Landau from entering the recording studio together. He stated that only he and Springsteen would make a “winning combination.”
So long story short…he was barred from recording until this was settled. All he could do was tour…and tour he did. They ended up settling the suit. Appel gave up publishing rights on most of Springsteen’s music in exchange for $800,000, and he took a cut in production points from six to two. Bruce was free to record.
So this song was born in this chaos. It wasn’t completely finished but he could not record the song. The song lay dormant until Springsteen’s producer, Jimmy Iovine, convinced him to give a copy to Patti Smith, who eventually got around to filing in the verses and recording the song. Iovine was also producing Smith’s Easter album and convinced her to record it for the set.
Smith’s boyfriend at the time was Fred “Sonic” Smith and while waiting for him to call…she finished the verses in 1977. It makes sense because she used the longing for Smith for some of the verses like… Have I doubt when I’m alone Love is a ring, the telephone.
The song appeared on Smith’s album called Easter. At first,. she didn’t want to use the song because she didn’t write all of it. Jimmy Iovine, her producer, along with bandmates convince Smith to record the song.
Fred Smith died of a heart attack in 1994. A year before 10,000 Maniacs recorded the song and it was a hit. The royalties from that song helped keep Smith above water and care for her two young children.
The Patti Smith version peaked at #13 on the Billboard 100, #13 in Canada, and #5 in the UK in 1978. The album Easter peaked at #20 on the Billboard Album Charts.
Bruce Springsteen: “It was a love song and I really wasn’t writing them at the time. I wrote these very hidden love songs like For You, or Sandy, maybe even Thunder Road, but they were always coming from a different angle. My love songs were never straight out, they weren’t direct. That song needed directness and at the time I was uncomfortable with it. I was hunkered down in my samurai position. Darkness… was about stripping away everything – relationships, everything – and getting down to the core of who you were. So that song is the great missing song from Darkness On The Edge. I could not have finished it as good as she did. She was in the midst of her love affair with Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith and she had it all right there on her sleeve. She put it down in a way that was just quite wonderful.”
Patti Smith: “I could have never written a song like that. I’d never write a chorus like that.”
Because The Night
Take me now, baby, here as I am
Pull me close, try and understand
Desire is hunger, is the fire I breathe
Love is a banquet on which we feed
Come on now, try and understand
The way I feel when I’m in your hands
Take my hand, come undercover
They can’t hurt you now
Can’t hurt you now, can’t hurt you now
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to love
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us
Have I doubt when I’m alone
Love is a ring, the telephone
Love is an angel disguised as lust
Here in our bed until the morning comes
Come on now, try and understand
The way I feel under your command
Take my hand as the sun descends
They can’t touch you now
Can’t touch you now, can’t touch you now
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to love
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us
With love we sleep
With doubt the vicious circle
Turns and burns
Without you, oh, I cannot live
Forgive, the yearning burning
I believe it’s time, too real to feel
So touch me now, touch me now, touch me now
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to love
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to us
Because tonight there are two lovers
If we believe, in the night we trust
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to love
Because the night belongs to lovers
Because the night belongs to love
‘Cause we believe tonight we’re lovers
‘Cause we believe, in the night we trust
Because the night belongs to lovers
Around 1990 I was playing a club and we usually got off around 2am in the morning. Early on a Sunday morning around 2:30…the guitar player and I packed the car and headed out to Pensacola Florida. One of those spontaneous trips. On the way, we listened to a Dennis Leary comedy tape and The Rolling Stone’s Tattoo You. This is the song that stuck with me on that trip for some reason.
Tattoo You was made up of outtakes and songs that were almost a decade old going back to Emotional Rescue, Black and Blue, and the Goats Head Soup album. Tattoo You to me…was their last great album. They originally recorded this song around 1972 (that version at the bottom). They worked on this song at least 4 different times. : Dynamic Sounds Studios, Kingston, Jamaica, Nov. 25-Dec. 21 1972; Village Recorders, Los Angeles, USA, Jan.13-15 1973; EMI Pathé Marconi Studios, Paris, France, Jan. 5-March 2 1978; June 10-Oct. 19 1979. In 1981 Mick redid all of his vocals to the song.
Even though he had left the band seven years earlier, Mick Taylor’s guitar solo was left on this track and it is fantastic. Pianist Nicky Hopkins also appears on the track, as does the band’s old producer Jimmy Miller, who plays percussion.
Associate producer Chris Kimsey remembers there was a need to put an album out very quickly. A tour was already planned and Mick and Keith were not talking that much at the time. Kimsey told the band that he could probably make an album just out of the unused songs they had going back to 1972. Despite coming from different eras the songs fit together quite nicely. Personally, I think the album was much better than it’s predecessor Emotional Rescue.
The song was written by Jagger/Richards and was pulled from 10 years prior…it was one of the few not pulled as a single.
A version they recorded in 1972
The Tattoo You version from 1981
Tops
Every man is the same, come on
I’ll make you a star
I’ll take you a million miles from all this
Put you on a pedestal
Come on (come on, come on)
Have you ever heard those opening lines?
You should leave this small town way behind
I’ll be your partner, show you the steps
With me behind, you’re tasting of the sweet wine of success
‘Cause I’ll, I’ll take you to the top, baby (hey, baby)
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top, baby
I’ll take you to the top
Step on the ladder, toe in the pool
You’re such a natural, you don’t need no acting school
Don’t need no casting couch or be a star in bed
And never, never let success go to you pretty head
‘Cause I’ll, I’ll take you to the top, baby
I swear I would never gonna stop, baby
I’ll take you to the top
Don’t let the world pass you by
Don’t let the world pass you by
Don’t let the world pass you by
You take your chance now, baby
I’m sorry for the rest of your sweet loving life, baby
Oh, sugar
Hey sugar, I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top, sugar
I’ll take you to the top
Oh, baby
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
I’ll take you to the top
The first time I heard this song, I loved it. John Hiatt always releases songs of quality, and they are all solid. Saying that, he is most remembered for his songs that other people cover. I don’t understand that because he has a fine, distinctive voice with a consistently excellent band behind him. The keyword here is distinctive, I guess, which I look for.
I first noticed Hiatt with the song Slow Turning. When Bonnie Raitt released Thing Called Love in 1989, I knew the song from Hiatt…I was just getting into him. I’m glad Raitt covered that song because it helped him. He has released 25 albums in total, ranging from 1974 through 2021, and it’s about time for another. My friend Christian does a good review of the album here...check it out if you can.
This song was the title track on his 1993 eleventh studio album. The album peaked at #47 on the Billboard 100, #34 in Canada, #67 in the UK, and #19 in New Zealand. It was his last album on A&M Records and his highest-charting album on Billboard. This album was probably the most rock & roll-oriented album of Hiatt’s career. I do like the guitar tone that Matt Wallace, the producer, got on this album. He had previously produced The Replacements.
The song peaked at #16 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts and #76 in Canada. The record company pulled 5 singles off of this album, and 2 were in the top 40 in the Mainstream Charts.
Perfectly Good Guitar
Well he threw one down form the top of the stairs Beautiful women were standing everywhere They all got wet when he smashed that thing But off in the dark you could hear somebody sing
Oh it breaks my heart to see those stars Smashing a perfectly good guitar I don’t know who they think they are Smashing a perfectly good guitar
It started back in 1963 His momma wouldn’t buy him That new red harmony He settled for a sunburst with a crack But he’s still trying to break his momma’s back
He loved that guitar just like a girlfriend But ever good thing comes to an end Now he just sits in his room all day Whistling every note he used to play
There out to be a law with no bail Smash a guitar and you go to jail With no chance for early parole You don’t get out till you get some soul
Late at night the end of the road He wished he still had the old guitar to hold He’d rock it like a baby in his arms Never let it come to any harm
I can’t comment on the title…or I’d be in trouble. I will say this…this is a different song than the song written by Cat Stevens on Tea For The Tillerman.
This song was first recorded and released by Elvis Presley with The Jordanaires in 1958. A great straight-up no-frills rock and roll song. Elvis’s version was part of the soundtrack for his 1958 motion picture King Creole and was included on the record album of the same name. The song was also released as a single and in 1958 peaked at #1 on the Billboard charts and went to number two for two weeks on the R&B chart.
The song was written by Claude Demetrius, who also composed songs like “Mean Woman Blues” and “Ain’t That Just Like A Woman,” and the Christmas classic “Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me.).” When “Hard Headed Woman” first came out in 1958, the BBC restricted when it could be played on the air because of the biblical references in the lyrics.
Wanda Jackson did date Elvis in 1955. He gave her a ring to hold on to and Wanda still has it. They toured together building up their fanbase. Wanda released this song that was on the Live at Town Hall Party 1958.
Wanda Jackson:“I had never heard of him when we met, but we had a lot in common. We were two happy-go-lucky kids.”
This is Wanda’s appearance on California’s Town Hall Party TV show, calling the tune “one of the most beautiful love songs that’s ever been written.” Accompanied in the clip by guitarist Joe Maphis, Jackson recorded her sizzling version in Nashville in the fall of 1960. Among the musicians on those sessions was young guitar whiz Roy Clark.
Hard Headed Woman
Well, a hard headed woman a soft hearted man
Been the cause of trouble ever since the world began
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man
Now Adam said to Eve listen here to me
Don’t you let me catch you messin’ round that apple tree
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man
Now Samson told Delilah loud and clear
Keep your cotton pickin’ fingers out of my curly hair
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man
Well, I heard about a king who’s doing swell
Till he started playin’ with that evil Jezabel
Oh yeah, ever since the world began, ah oh oh oh oh
A hard headed woman is a thorn in the side of man
I really like this band. Their career was split into two different sounds. In the early seventies, they were more like the Stones with blues/rock. After their singer (Roy Loney) left…they got another (Chris Wilson) and switched to power pop. They have songs that are power pop, grungy blues rock, and some great rock and roll.
The band was started in 1965 by Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan. By the end of the sixties, they clashed over where to go. Loney was more Stones and Jordon leaned toward the Beatles.
Loney left in 1971 and they got an 18-year-old lead singer named Chris Wilson. They moved to London and started to work with Dave Edmunds. With Chris, they did more power pop and that is when Shake Some Action came about with Wilson and Jordon writing it.
They would go on to be a great power pop band and also be known as an early proto-punk band…they pretty much covered the gamut. Yes It’s True was written by Cyril Jordan and Chris Wilson. It has a Beatle vibe to it and was on their 1976 album, Shake Some Action. The album peaked at #142 in the Billboard Album Charts.
The band broke up in the 80s but some of them continued with the name touring off and on. They did release an album in 2017 called Fantastic Plastic.
Yes It’s True
Every time you see me smile
I’m really blue
Because I’m wondering all the while
If you’re really true
Cause girl you know I’ve tried and tried
Everything to see your side
But I can’t forget the tears I’ve cried
Yes, it’s true
When you got a girl who thinks she’s smart
That’s not so fine
Cause they’re the kind who’ll break your heart
And leave you crying
And lovin’ them is not so nice
You better think about it twice
Or I else she’ll make you pay the price
Yes, it’s true
Well, she’s the kind of girl
Who knows what she wants to be
She knows what she wants
And she knows how to get it from me and you
I saw the smile upon your face
I felt so sure
Although there never was a place
For me and you
Every few years I will watch Maximum Overdrive for a laugh and this is the best thing about it. That movie was directed by a very high Stephen King and it showed.
Stephen King was a huge fan of AC/DC, and when he got to meet them he asked them if they would provide music for this movie. He also offered the band a role in the film, but AC/DC declined, stating they were not actors. The band agreed to do the soundtrack after Stephen King sang “Ain’t No Fun (Waiting Round to Be a Millionaire)” from their 1976 album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. King sang the entire song from start to finish and the band laughingly agreed that if he was such a fan they would do it for him.
AC/DC performs all but two songs featured in the film, including two unreleased mixes of previously recorded songs, and the entire 1987 album Who Made Who is the soundtrack to this movie. AC/DC wrote this song and various instrumentals, only two of which appear on the album.
The rest of the songs are from previous AC/DC albums. At the time of the release many music stores had no idea the album Who Made Who was a compilation soundtrack for this movie, and many mislabeled the album as an AC/DC greatest hits. Limited pressings of the album did feature the movie’s logo, stating it was the soundtrack to Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive, but this was later removed from future pressings.
The song peaked at #23 on the Billboard 100 and #16 in the UK and #35 in New Zealand in 1986. The album peaked at #33 on the Billboard Album Charts, #12 in Canada, #11 in the UK, and #24 in New Zealand.
Who Made Who
The video games say, “Play me”
Face it on a level, but it take you every time on a one-on-one
Feelin’ running down your spine
Nothin’ gonna save your one last dime ’cause it own you
Through and through
The databank know my number
Says I got to pay ’cause I made the grade last year
Feel it when I turn the screw
Kick you ’round the world
There ain’t a thing that it can’t do
Do to you, yeah
Who made who, who made you?
Who made who, ain’t nobody told you?
Who made who, who made you?
If you made them and they made you
Who picked up the bill and who made who?
Who made who, who turned the screw?
Satellites send me picture
Get it in the aisle
Take it to the wall
Spinnin’ like a dynamo
Feel it goin’ round and round
Running outta chips, you got no line in an 8-bit town
So don’t look down, no
Who made who, who made you?
Who made who, ain’t nobody told you?
Who made who, who made you?
If you made them and they made you
Who picked up the bill and who made who?
Ain’t nobody told you?
Who made who?
Who made you?
Who made who?
And who made who?
Yeah
Nobody told you?
More than any other song to that time…this one seemed so different and I knew music was changing in the 80s. I still liked it and I bought the single. Just like with Bonnie Tyler and It’s A Heartache…my first thought when hearing this was Rod Stewart. I really like Carne’s raspy voice more than the pop singers at the time…and now. Now I’d love to hear a duet with Kim Carnes and Bonnie Tyler.
“Bette Davis Eyes” was originally recorded by Jackie DeShannon on her 1975 album New Arrangement. DeShannon wrote the song with the songwriter Donna Weiss. According to DeShannon, she got the idea after watching the 1942 Bette Davis movie Now Voyager. It was Donna Weiss who submitted the demo to Carnes, who along with her band and producer Val Garay, came up with the hit arrangement for the song.
With Bette Davis Eyes a major hit in 1981, the then 73-year-old Bette Davis wrote to Carnes, DeShannon, and Weiss to thank them for making her cool in the eyes of her granddaughter. She also thanked them for making her part of modern history. Carnes later performed the song for Davis live as part of a tribute to the actress. The two remained friends until Davis’ death in 1989. Joan Crawford was long gone by this time…I have to wonder what she would have thought or said?
The producer told the drummer to go out and buy the cheapest drum set he could buy (and you can tell). They ran the drums through a synthesizer called a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and it gave a thin-sounding drum sound. At the time it was different but it would soon become commonplace to replace drum sets altogether with electronic drums…which to me… went way too far. That is why some recordings from that period sound so dated…but that is just me. Keyboardist Bill Cuomo made significant contributions to the chord changes and arrangement, as well as coming up with that synth riff.
Kim Carnes’ version of Bette Davis Eyes came out in 1981. It was the lead single from her sixth studio album, Mistaken Identity. And despite being released at the start of the decade, it was a song that would be played throughout the 80s on radios everywhere.
DeShannon is a Kentucky-born singer-songwriter who’s been on the music scene for most of her life. She started singing regularly on the radio at the age of six and some of her biggest hits include What the World Needs Now is Love and Put a Little Love in Your Heart.
The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #2 in New Zealand, and #10 in the UK in 1981.
Jackie DeShannon:Donna Weiss and I were writing quite a bit at the time, and we both liked black-and-white movies. Donna had written many pages, and I was fooling around with the melody, and we pieced together ‘Bette Davis Eyes.
We made a demo with a much more rock-and-roll feel. That’s what I thought we were going to do, but the producer had another concept. It turned out OK. I don’t dislike it, but it was not my concept. It had been out a long time, and Donna gave it to Kim Carnes with something else on the tape. Kim liked it and that was that. Her version was much closer to the demo version.
Bette Davis Eyes
Her hair is Harlow gold
Her lips are sweet surprise
Her hands are never cold
She got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll turn the music on you
You won’t have to think twice
She’s pure as New York snow
She got Bette Davis eyes
And she’ll tease you, she’ll unease you
All the better just to please you
She’s precocious, and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
She got Greta Garbo’s standoff sighs, she’s got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll let you take her home
It whets her appetite
She’ll lay you on the throne
She got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll take a tumble on you
Roll you like you were dice
Until you come out blue
She’s got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll expose you, when she snows you
Off your feet with the crumbs she throws you
She’s ferocious and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she’s a spy, she’s got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll tease you, she’ll unease you
All the better just to please you
She’s precocious, and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she’s a spy, she’s got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll tease you
She’ll unease you
Just to please you
She’s got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll expose you
When she snows you
‘Cause she knows you, she’s got Bette Davis Eyes
I remember this song on some Yardbirds album I had back in the day. The guitar riff is outstanding. This band had no shortage of guitarists. Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and then Jimmy Page.
This is the first Yardbirds song that Beck and Page played together. The bass player on this song, Led Zeppelin fans will know right away. John Paul Jones played bass on this song. Jones also played bass on the Yardbird’s tracks “No Excess Baggage” and “Goodnight Sweet Josephine.” The reason Jones, who was a studio musician at that point, played on these songs was that the regular bass player Paul Samwell-Smith was pursuing record production full-time.
Paul Samwell-Smith went on to be a successful producer with credits such Cat Stevens’ albums Tea for the Tillerman, Teaser and the Firecat, and Catch Bull at Four. He also produced Jethro Tull, Carly Simon, and others. A couple of years later…John Paul Jones would be part of the New Yardbirds before they morphed into Led Zeppelin. Page wisely kept the rights to the name and the band played their first shows under that name.
This song was released in 1966 as a single with the B-side Psycho Daisies. The song peaked at #43 in the UK. As the title of the B side suggests…music was going into a psychedelic period that would peak the following year with The Beatles Sgt Peppers album.
The song was credited to the band… Keith Relf, Jim McCarty, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page except for rhythm guitar player Chris Dreja and bass player Paul Samwell-Smith.
Jim McCarty: “On ‘Happenings Ten Years Time Ago,’ Keith (Relf) and I were trying to write a song about reincarnation. We’d seen everything before, and it was all happening again. That was quite an interesting viewpoint, really. Meeting people along our way that we’d seen from another day. Sort of bringing in that situation that we’d been there before.”
Jimmy Page: We rehearsed hard on all sorts of riffs to things like “Over Under Sideways Down” which we were doing in harmonies and we worked out where we’d play rehearsed phrases together. It was the sort of thing that people like Wishbone Ash and Quiver [later] perfected, that dual-lead-guitar idea.
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
Meeting people along my way
Seemingly I’ve known one day
Familiarity of things
That my dreaming always brings
Happenings ten years time ago
Situations we really know
But the knowing is in the mind
Sinking deep into the well of time
Sinking deep into the well of time
Walking in the room, I see
Things that mean a lot to me
Why they do I never know
Memories don’t strike me so
Memories don’t strike me so
It seems to me I’ve been here before
The sounds I heard and the sights I saw
Was it real? Was it in my dreams?
I need to know what it all means
Happenings ten years time ago
Situations we really know
But the knowing is in the mind
Sinking deep into the well of time
Sinking deep into the well of time
This extended from my last chat with CB… we had Graham Parker last week and Paul Kelly was brought up. I ran out of time last week to write this one up. I really like great storytellers…and Paul Kelly is one of them. His music touches on many styles. Country, rock, folk, reggae, bluegrass, and touches of many more styles. He has been described as the poet laureate of Australian music. He writes about everyday life that many people can relate to. I’ve seen this stated about him… Paul Kelly’s songs dig deep into Australia: how it feels, looks, tastes, sounds.
Today I’m going to give you a small sample platter of this great artist.
Here is a very short bio of Paul Kelly.
Paul Kelly was born in 1955 is from Adelaide, Australia. Debuted in Hobart, Australia, 1974; moved to Melbourne and performed in pubs, 1976; formed band the Dots, released albums Talk, 1981, and Manila, 1982; moved to Sydney, 1984; released Post with Steve Connolly and Ian Rilen, 1985; formed as Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, released Gossip, 1986; regrouped as Paul Kelly and the Messengers, released Gossip in the U.S., followed by Under the Sun, 1987; published collected writings volume Lyrics, 1993; formed new lineup with Shane O’Mara, Bruce Haymes, Peter Luscombe, Stephen Hadley, and Spencer Jones. Kelly is still releasing albums. His last album was Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train released in 2021. Altogether he had 28 studio albums, 6 live albums, 8 compilation albums, and an incredible 64 singles.
He also comments on important social and historical events and their significance to Australian identity and life. Several of his songs highlight the plight of Australia’s Indigenous people including ‘Maralinga (Rainy Land)’, a song about atomic testing by the British in Australia’s outback and its effects on the Indigenous people of that area. He and Midnight Oil were some of the artists who contributed to the album Building Bridges – Australia Has A Black History. All sales proceeds were donated to the National Coalition of Aboriginal Organisations.
The first song I listened to by Paul Kelly was “To Her Door.” It reminded me of Steve Earle or Springsteen. Not because of his voice but because of the songwriting. The story…the way lyrics flow and ebb and fit together like a puzzle. All the while this is going on the music has great dynamics that rise up to meet the lyrics head-on and punctuates it. The song was released in 1987 and was on the album Under The Sun that peaked at #14 in Australia.
That album also produced the single Dumb Things. This song has a shuffle that jumps. It starts off with a cool harmonica blasting and invites you in. This character-driven song stuck with me for days. This one peaked at #36 in Australia and #17 on the Billboard Alternative Charts in 1987.
Now it’s time for a pure rock song by Kelly called Darling It Hurts. This song was off of the album Gossip released in 1986. The song peaked at #25 in Australia and #19 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts.
This one is called Bradman and it’s off of Gossip as well. It has a sports connection. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know much about Cricket but the song is great. It’s about Sir Donald Bradman, arguably…. the greatest ever cricketer (and definitely the greatest ever Australian cricketer). This one peaked at #51 in Australia and was part of a double A-sided single along with the song Leaps and Bounds.
I’m going to close this on this song or I could go on for pages. This song is called Careless. It was released in 1989 on the album So Much Water So Close to Home. It’s an incredibly catchy song but a song that means something. Like a mixture in a bottle, like a frozen over lake, Like a long-time, painted smile I got so hard I had to crack, You were there, you held the line, you’re the one that brought me back
If you liked what you have heard…do some homework and look this artist up…you won’t be sorry. He will now remain on my playlist. I’ve given you a few samples but it’s so much more to explore.
Rock Critic David Fricke: “I have had the pleasure and privilege of seeing Paul Kelly in performance more times than I can count – although it’s still not enough. I’ve seen him in performance in the Northeast and Southwest Hemispheres, unplug and plugged in, solo, with his band and, on one memorable evening in New York, on stage exchanging songs, quips and composing tips with Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Michelle Shocked and Allen Toussaint. If memory serves me right, Paul actually sang a few bars of Fats Domino’s‘Blueberry Hill’ one thanksgivings back in the mid 80s at my apartment in Manhattan as he pored over a road atlas- his forefinger on the city of New Orleans – and excitedly pointed out the route he was taking on a car trip through the southern United States”
Now here is one for the road…this song’s title appealed me right away… “How to Make Gravy.”
How To Make Gravy
Hello Dan, it’s Joe here I hope you’re keeping well It’s the 21st of December And now they’re ringing the last bells If I get good behaviour I’ll be out of here by July Won’t you kiss my kids on Christmas Day? Please don’t let ’em cry for me
I guess the brothers are driving down from Queensland And Stella’s flying in from the coast They say it’s gonna be a hundred degrees, even more maybe But that won’t stop the roast Who’s gonna make the gravy now? I bet it won’t taste the same Just add flour, salt, a little red wine And don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce For sweetness and that extra tang
And give my love to Angus, and to Frank and Dolly Tell ’em all I’m sorry, I screwed up this time And look after Rita, I’ll be thinking of her Early Christmas morning when I’m standing in line
I hear Mary’s got a new boyfriend I hope he can hold his own Do you remember the last one? What was his name again? Ahh, just a little too much cologne And Roger, you know I’m even gonna miss Roger ‘Cause there’s sure as hell no one in here I want to fight
Oh, praise the Baby Jesus, have a Merry Christmas I’m really gonna miss it, all the treasure and the trash And later in the evening, I can just imagine You’ll put on Junior Murvin and push the tables back
And you’ll dance with Rita, I know you really like her Just don’t hold her too close Oh, brother, please don’t stab me in the back I didn’t mean to say that, it’s just my mind it plays up Multiplies each matter, turns imagination into fact
You know I love her badly, she’s the one to save me I’m gonna make some gravy, I’m gonna taste the fat Ahh, tell her that I’m sorry, yeah, I love her badly Tell ’em all I’m sorry, and kiss the sleepy children for me You know one of these days, I’ll be making gravy I’ll be making plenty, I’m gonna pay ’em all back
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