This was the first Petty song that I learned on guitar. This song is not his best, but it hasn’t got the “Free Falling” treatment by being played every day. This song was on the album Long After Dark.
Long After Dark was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ fifth studio album released in 1982. The band used MTV to push the band further into stardom, but Petty wasn’t exactly happy with the album. It was the third album produced by Jimmy Iovine, who made executive decisions pushing the album more into upbeat rock, but Petty wanted to include a couple more acoustic, ballad-type songs.
I could hear the band change a little with the song You Got Lucky… A Change of Heart peaked at #21 on the Billboard 100 and #36 in Canada…it was the second single released from the album.
The bass player Ron Blair quit after the last album Hard Promises was released. This is the first album that featured Howie Epstein on bass. In the last couple of years of his first stint with the band, Blair was considering leaving and was not always available, thus being occasionally replaced with other bassists, including Donald “Duck” Dunn, on his last two albums. In spite of his departure in 1982, he would continue to make occasional guest appearances on studio albums all the way up to Southern Accents.
Epstein was fired in 2002 and then died in 2003 of a drug overdose. Ron Blair came back to his old position in 2002 and remained with the band until Petty passed away in 2017.
Ron Blair about quitting: “Some days I’ll think, ‘Couldn’t I have put up with it? At the time, it was really a gut decision. That’s kind of what I regret, that it wasn’t a real thought-out decision. I physically and verbally tuned out on an emotional level, rather than really thinking it out. Purely and simply it just ceased to be fun.
Change Of Heart
Well I fought for you I fought too hard To do it all again babe, It’s gone too far
You never needed me You only wanted me around It gets me down
There’s been a change, Yeah there’s been a change of heart Said there’s been a change You push just a little too far You make it just a little to hard There’s been a change of heart
I’ll get over you It won’t take long I’ve stood in yer gallery Seen what’s hangin’ from the wall
You were the moon and sun, Yer just a loaded gun now It gets me down
There’s been a change, Yeah there’s been a change of heart Said there’s been a change You push just a little too far You make it just a little to hard There’s been a change of heart
Whoa yeah, oh boy Looks like we finally found the turning point Oh me, oh my Looks like it’s time for me to kiss it goodbye, yeah kiss it goodbye
There’s been a change, Yeah there’s been a change of heart Said there’s been a change You push just a little too far You make it just a little to hard There’s been a change of heart
The first “shredding” guitar instance? Johnny Watson plays guitar in bursts in this recording from way back in 1954. When you keep that in mind while listening to it…it’s remarkable.
It’s not that this instrumental sounds so impressive…it’s the techniques used here by Watson that inspired a generation of guitarists, including Frank Zappa and Eric Clapton. You can also hear where Jimmy Page would have been inspired by this. Watson’s guitar work laid the groundwork for such guitar players such as Joe Satriani.
He pioneered the use of feedback and reverberation. Unfortunately for him and his recording label Federal Records, the public of the early 1950s, before rock-and-roll, was not prepared for his kind of music, and the record did not sell very well. He had greater success in 1955 with his song “Those Lonely, Lonely Nights,” recorded on the Modern label.
Space Guitar seemed ahead of it’s time. He has been cited as a pioneer of reverb and feedback and in the early fifties… fans had to be a little confused with the strange sound.
Johnny Watson:“Reverb had just come out. Everybody really didn’t understand what it was all about, man, and I was experimenting with it.”
Otis Redding (the writer of the song): “This girl has taken that song from me. Ain’t no longer my song. From now on, it belongs to her.”
Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin are my two top female singers of all time. When they are singing a song…there is no question about who it is.
Otis Redding wrote this and originally recorded it in 1965, with his version peaking at #35 on the Billboard 100 and #5 on the R&B Charts.
It was Aretha’s idea to cover this song. She came up with the arrangement, added the “sock it to me” lines, and played piano on the track. Her sister Carolyn, who sang backup on the album, also helped work up the song. It was different than Redding’s version. His version consisted of only verses. Aretha borrowed King Curtis’s sax solo from Sam and Dave’s When Something is Wrong With My Baby and used that for the bridge.
Franklin’s version is certainly the best-known version but the song was important in Otis’s career also. It helped establish Redding on mainstream radio. Otis also performed the song at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967…this was a defining performance for the singer, who died in a plane crash six months later.
Aretha recorded this in New York City with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. This was one of their first and most famous recordings. They went on to work with Wilson Pickett, Paul Simon, Bob Seger, and The Staple Singers. It was produced by the legendary producer Jerry Wexler and engineered by Tom Dowd.
Another fun fact…the “ree, ree, ree, ree…” refrain is a nod to Franklin’s nickname, Ree (as in A-Ree-tha). The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, and #10 in the UK in 1967.
Respect earned Franklin two Grammy Awards in 1968 for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording and Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Female. Franklin’s “Respect” was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2002, the Library of Congress added Franklin’s version of the song to the National Recording Registry.
Tom Dowd:“I walked out into the studio and said, ‘What’s the next song?’ Aretha starts singing it to me, I said, ‘I know that song, I made it with Otis Redding like three years ago.’ The first time I recorded ‘Respect,’ was on the Otis Blue album, and she picked up on it. She and Carolyn were the ones who conceived of it coming from the woman’s point of view instead of the man’s point of view, and when it came to the middle, Carolyn said, ‘Take care, TCB.’ Aretha jumped on it and that was how we did ‘Respect.'”
Otis Redding:“That’s one of my favorite songs because it has a better groove than any of my records. It says something, too: ‘What you want, baby, you got it; what you need, baby, you got it; all I’m asking for is a little respect when I come home.’ The song lines are great. The band track is beautiful. It took me a whole day to write it and about twenty minutes to arrange it. We cut it once and that was it. Everybody wants respect, you know.”
Aretha Franklin:“Everyone wants to be respected.”
Respect
What you want (ho) baby I got it What you need (ho) you know I got it (Ho) all I’m asking (ho) is for a little respect When you come home (just a little bit) Hey baby (just little bit) When you get home (just a little Bit) mister (just a little bit)
I ain’t gonna do you wrong while you’re gone I ain’t gonna do you wrong ’cause I don’t wanna All I’m asking is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit) Baby (just a little bit) When you get home (just a little bit) yeah (just a little bit)
I’m about to give you all my money And all I’m asking in return honey Is to give me my propers when you get home (just a, just a, just a, just a) Yeah, baby when you get home (just a little bit) Yeah (just a little bit)
Ho your kisses (ho) sweeter than honey (ho) and guess what (ho) so is my money (ho) All I want you to do for me is give it to me when you get home (re, re, re, re, re, respect) Yeah baby whip it to me (just a little bit) When you get home now (just a little bit)
R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me R-E-S-P-E-C-T, take care, T-C-B oh (Sock it to me)
A little respect oh yeah (just a little bit) A little respect (just a little bit) I get tired (just a little bit) Keep on tryin’ (just a little bit) You’re runnin’ out of fools (just a little bit) And I ain’t lyin’ (just a little bit) (Re, re, re, re) ‘spect When you come home (re, re, re ,re) Or you might walk in (respect, just a little bit) And find out I’m gone (just a little bit) I got to have (just a little bit)
I’ve always liked this song. I will admit I never heard the song until 1988 on a great tv series called “Almost Grown” that starred Tim Daly… that of course was canceled midway through the first season. It’s a psychedelic rock/soul song. There are four versions…one in 1966 and two trippier versions in 1968..different in length only…and the album version…I prefer the album version (11:06). Any song that uses the word…I guess it’s a word…”psychedelicized” has got my support.
This song has worked extremely well in films and on television as a soundtrack of the sixties. It’s powerful and punchy and doesn’t let up.
It was released in 1968 and peaked at #11 on the Billboard 100 and #9 in Canada. After listening to it I want to wear tie-dye and protest something…anything. The Chambers Brothers were from Mississippi and started out as a gospel act. They wrote this song after relocating to Los Angeles, where they rented a two-story house.
It was written by two of the four Chambers brothers, Joe and Willie. Joe wrote most of the lyrics after sitting in on a class at UCLA with Timothy Leary and taking LSD. Willie put the music together and contributed the line, “My soul has been psychedelicized.”
Below is the “brilliance” of record executives…in this case Clive Davis. Davis tried to forbid them to record the song. The following is Willie Chambers telling the story (its a bit long but important):
“After we signed with Columbia Records, there was a big party with all the food and booze and all this stuff. All the important people were there and we got to meet all of the head hogs and Clive was there. He was there for a couple of hours and he says, ‘Well, I must be going, I have other appointments.’ He immediately leans back in the door, ‘Oh, by the way, that song ‘Time Has Come Today’ that you guys do, we won’t be doing that. We won’t do that kind of s–t on this label.’
That was it, and he walks away. I looked at my brothers, and we were looking at each other like, ‘What the heck?’ And our producer [David Rubinson], he was in tears now – he was crying. He says, ‘I’ve waited my whole life to record this song, now he’s going to tell us we can’t record it. Why?’
A couple of days went by and our producer came by and said, ‘I don’t give a s–t what he says, we’re going to record that song. When we get our recording date, you guys show up an hour early, we’re going to go in the studio, we’re going to turn on the tape, we’re going to play it live, we’re going to do it like a live performance. We’re going to record it and whatever we get we’re going to have to live with it. We can’t play back, we can’t overdub, we can’t splice, we can’t fix something if there’s a mistake, we’re just going to have to live with it.’ He says, ‘I’m probably going to lose my job, but that’s how important it is to me to record this song.’
Later on, Joe and I went to Columbia Records to have a pow-wow with Mr. Davis to have him explain to us just why he thought we shouldn’t record this song. We didn’t have an appointment with him, we just showed up. We were six-feet-four tall, angry black guys. So, we walk in to the receptionist and we say, ‘We need to speak to Mr. Davis.’
So, we kind of forced our way into his office and we said to him, ‘Why can’t we record this song?’ He says, ‘It’s not the kind of music that black guys produce or play.’
Clive says, ‘You’re four black guys, you’re going to be sending up that stream into the world, ‘Time Has Come Today.’ It’s too profound of a statement for four black guys to be saying to the world.’
That was his reason. He says, ‘We’ll get a white artist to record the song, it’s not your kind of music.’ My brother Joe says, ‘What do you mean it’s not our kind of music? We wrote this.’
So, after having that conversation with him, we were ready to do whatever the producer said. We were going to record it anyway.
When we got our moment, we went in the studio and did it in one take. ‘Time Has Come Today’ was done in one take. There was no listening back – we couldn’t listen back. When we came to the end of it, we had no idea where it was going to go. Once we ended it, we shut down the machines and then we left the studio and came back at the time we were supposed to.
Clive Davis didn’t find out about it until it had been mixed, prepped and released. When he found out, he fired everybody he could. He fired our producer, I think he fired the guy that opened the door for us. He fired everybody that got involved with recording that song.”
The Ramones did a great cover of this song.
Time Has Come Today
Time has come today
Young hearts can go their way
Can’t put it off another day
I don’t care what others say
They say we don’t listen anyway
Time has come today
(Hey)
Oh
The rules have changed today (Hey)
I have no place to stay (Hey)
I’m thinking about the subway (Hey)
My love has flown away (Hey)
My tears have come and gone (Hey)
Oh my Lord, I have to roam (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)
Now the time has come (Time)
There’s no place to run (Time)
I might get burned up by the sun (Time)
But I had my fun (Time)
I’ve been loved and put aside (Time)
I’ve been crushed by the tumbling tide (Time)
And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time)
(Time)
Now the time has come (Time)
There are things to realize (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time [x11]
Oh
Now the time has come (Time)
There’s no place to run (Time)
I might get burned up by the sun (Time)
But I had my fun (Time)
I’ve been loved and put aside (Time)
I’ve been crushed by tumbling tide (Time)
And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time)
(Time)
Now the time has come (Time)
There are things to realize (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
Time has come today (Time)
I learned about this band from Graham at Aphoristic Album Reviews. I think the subject of this song is brilliant. It’s the title song on the album Expert In A Dying Field. The album was released in September of 2022 and is their 3rd studio album to date. It peaked at #1 in New Zealand and #80 in Australia in 2022.
Through the years in power pop…the lyrics take a back seat to the music many times. The Beths music excites me because they don’t produce empty songs…they have substantial lyrics to go along with their irresistible hooks.
The Beths are a band out of New Zealand, that was formed by Elizabeth Stokes in 2014. The songs are full of guitar hooks along with Stokes’s clever writing and voice… make them fun to listen to. They have some 90s indie sound with a little of the 60s thrown in at times.
The members include Elizabeth Stokes ( lead vocals, rhythm guitar ), Jonathan Pearce (lead guitar, backing vocals), Benjamin Sinclair (bass, backing vocals)
and Tristan Deck (Drums, backing vocals).
After quickly building a fan base in New Zealand and Australia with their live shows, Auckland’s the Beths burst onto the broader indie scene with an infectious, hook-crammed debut, 2018’s Future Me Hates Me. As suggested by the album’s title, Elizabeth Stokes’ self-depreciating lyrics were part of its charm, and the follow-up, 2020’s Jump Rope Gazers, reflected an even more hapless outlook as it explored strained relationships caused by the band’s new life on the road. Without skipping a hook, third album Expert in a Dying Field delves still deeper into melancholy, with lyrics navigating a breakup as well as pandemic life. Churning fuzz and ringing lead guitar begin a downcast but nonetheless driving opening title track that asks, “How does it feel/To be an expert in a dying field?/How do you know/It’s over when you can’t let go?” The song’s chorus picks up multi-tracking, vocal countermelodies, group harmonies, and crashing cymbals by its final incarnation.
It could be said that much of the album continues in kind, with memorable melody after memorable guitar hook after air-drum-compelling fill on a series of songs that border on midtempo, but the way it plays out is something much more off-balance. The Beths lean on the accelerator three tracks in, on the polyrhythmic “Silence Is Golden,” for instance, a song whose punky, racing rhythms and guitar histrionics are matched by a rambling, lilting vocal that only stops to breathe before the chorus’s repeated “Silence is golden.” Nearing the halfway point of the track list, the two-minute “I Want to Listen” is a gentler, McCartney-esque ditty with more complex chords and shifting harmonic progressions than are typical for the onetime jazz majors. Later, the chanting “Best Left” (“Some things are best left to rot”), while still wistful in tone, plays to the arena crowds. The group have said that Expert in a Dying Field was made with live performance in mind, and on that point, it delivers, right up until the plaintive closing ballad, “2 a.m.,” which finds Stokes left alone in a flash of headlights (“There’s a song that never fails to make you cry”). The album also delivers on vulnerable, rock-solid songs, a juxtaposition the Beths continue to master.
Elizabeth Stokes: “I really do believe that love is learned over time. In the course of knowing a person you accumulate so much information: their favorite movies, how they take their tea, how to make them laugh, how that makes you feel. And when relationships between people change, or end, all that knowledge doesn’t just disappear. The phrase ‘Expert in a Dying Field’ had been floating around my head for a few years, I was glad to finally capture it when writing this tune.”
Elizabeth Stokes: “When I first started this band … I was looking back towards [what] I liked when I was younger, sweetly sung melodies and super depressing lyrics”
Expert In A Dying Field
Can we erase our history? Is it as easy as this? Plausible deniability I swear I’ve never heard of it And I can close the door on us But the room still exists And I know you’re in it
Hours of phrases I’ve memorized Thousands of lines on the page All of my notes in a desolate pile I haven’t touched in an age And I can burn the evidence But I can’t burn the pain And I can’t forget it
How does it feel (how does it feel) To be an expert in a dying field? And how do you know (how do you know) It’s over when you can’t let go? You can’t let go, you can’t stop, you can’t rewind Love is learned over time ‘Til you’re an expert in a dying field (How does it, how does it feel?)
The city is painted with memory The water will never run clear The birds and the bees and the flowers and trees They know that we’ve both been here And I can flee the country For the worst of the year But I’ll come back to it
How does it feel (how does it feel) To be an expert in a dying field? And how do you know (how do you know) It’s over when you can’t let go? You can’t let go, you can’t stop, you can’t rewind Love is learned over time ‘Till you’re an expert in a dying field
Can we erase our history? Is it as easy as this? Maybe in other realities The road never took this twist And I can close the door on us But the room still exists
How does it feel (how does it feel) How do you know (how do you know) Can’t stop, can’t rewind Love is learned over time ‘Til you’re an expert in a dying field
This song was on Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled album, the first one with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
I know that Rumours is the big album of Fleetwood Mac but I have a special place for the Buckingham and Nicks debut album with the band. For me, it was up there with Rumours. The songs include Monday Morning, Rhiannon, Landslide, Over My Head, World Turning, and this song. It was the tenth album by the band and was released in 1975. I have to admit that I favor it now over Rumours because of the extensive play of that album.
After Bob Welch left the band in 1974 the band was talking to producer Keith Olsen and he played Mick Fleetwood the Buckingham and Nicks album. Mick liked the guitar player and wanted to hire him to take Welch’s place. Buckingham would not join unless they took Stevie Nicks…which they did.
This album had 3 top twenty hits (Say That You Love Me, Rhiannon, and Over My Head) and songs like Landslide and Monday Morning that remained favorites by fans. Say That You Love me peaked at #11 on The Billboard 100, #29 in Canada, and #40 in the UK.
The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, #23 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand. Christine McVie wrote this song and personally, besides Buckingham…she is my favorite singer/songwriter in the band.
From Wiki: Shirley Eikhard covered “Say You Love Me” and released it as single several weeks in advance of Fleetwood Mac in early June 1976. Eikhard’s version became a Canadian top 40, peaking at No. 34; Fleetwood Mac’s version, released only a few weeks later, peaked at No. 29 in September. That version is below.
Say That You Love Me
Have mercy baby, On a poor girl like me, You know I’m falling falling, Falling at your feet.
I’m tingling right, From my head to my toes, So help me help me, Help me make the feeling grow.
‘Cause when the loving starts and the lights go down, And there’s not another living soul around, You woo me until the sun comes up, And you say that you love me.
Pity, baby, just, When I thought it was over, And now you got me runnin’, runnin’, Runnin’ for cover.
I’m begging you for, a bit of Sympathy, If you use me again, It’ll be the end of me.
‘Cause when the lovin’ starts and the lights go down, And there’s not another living soul around, You woo me until the sun comes up, And you say that you love me.
I guess I’m not as strong, As I used to be, If you use me again, It’ll be the end of me.
‘Cause when the lovin’ starts and the lights go down, And there’s not another living soul around, You woo me until the sun comes up, And you say that you love me.
‘Cause when the lovin’ starts and the lights go down, And there’s not another living soul around, You woo me until the sun comes up, And you say that you love me.
Say that you love me, Say that you love me, Say that you love me.
I love Leon’s soulful playing and that voice. I’m reading a book now about a lady named Chris O’Dell who worked for the Beatles at Apple records. She dated Leon Russell for around 4 months before she went back to London to finish working for Apple. I’ll be reviewing the book in a few weeks…after the Beatles, she worked for Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and The Rolling Stones.
O’Dell was Peter Asher’s personal Assistant and she booked studio time for the Beatles and other artists. George Harrison was working on a Jackie Lomax session and needed a piano player. George wanted Nicky Hopkins but he was in America so O’Dell mentioned Leon Russell who visited Apple earlier that day. George was ecstatic and later on, Ringo and George played on Leon’s sessions at Trident studio. After work, she walked into the studio and they were recording this song. She began to figure out it was about her (she is a Pisces) and that was Leon’s way of saying he fell in love with her.
This is not the only song inspired by Miss O’Dell. George Harrison wrote a song called Miss O’Dell and Leon wrote another song about her called Hummingbird. Both Pisces Apple Lady and Hummingbird were on his debut album released in 1970 along with his song about Rita Coolidge that Joe Cocker covered… Delta Lady.
Leon was able to get Ringo, George, Charlie Watts, Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman, Bonnie and Delaney, Steve Winwood, Jim Gordon, B.J. Wilson, Mick Jagger, Joe Cocker, and more…on this album.
The album Leon Russell peaked at #60 on the Billboard Album Charts in 1970.
Leon Russell:“I met her when she was working at Apple Records. We had a little thing for a minute. She wrote an autobiography, and she sent me an advance copy. I’m sorry to say, as a young man, I was capable of some actions I’m not proud of. So I was afraid to read the advance copy, I gave it to Jackie [his bass player Jackie Wessel] and I said, ‘Will you read this and see if there’s any untoward activity in it?’ He read it and said, ‘It’s a beautiful little show-business autobiography. There’s no untowardness in it.’ So I was happy.”
Pisces Apple Lady
Get off your bottle Go down and see a friend He’ll know what to do, lordy When you tell him how bad it’s been He said you oughta get away To the English countryside This cryin’ won’t help you now boy Why don’t you look how many tears you’ve cried
When I got down to Chelsea I had no expectations Oh, But to get away from the delta girl And the painful situation But I hardly had the time Oh, to laugh and look around And I found my heart was a-goin’ again Like a-English leaps and bounds (yeah)
And she’s a Pisces apple lady When she speaks softly She screams, (She really got herself together) whoa-whoa (oh-oh) And she’s a Pisces apple lady Took me by surprise And I fell into a hundred pieces I said a-right before her eyes
Now were together All the way to L.A. I know she that loves me ‘Cause she can brighten up a smoggy day If I believed in marriage Oh, I’d take her for my wife And move on down into high gear baby For the rest of my natural life
And she’s a Pisces apple lady When she speaks softly She screams, (She really got herself together) yes she does (oh-oh) And she’s a Pisces apple lady Took me by surprise And I fell into a hundred pieces I said a-right before her eyes
Any Chuck Berry song is a good song. This one is from the sixties and you can tell with the smoother production.
Berry was in jail between October 1961 and October 1963 for bringing a 14-year-old Apache waitress across a state line. During his time in jail he wrote some future hits. You Never Can Tell, Promised Land, No Particular Place To Go, and this song. Nadine was released in February of 1964, the month the Beatles hit America. The Rolling Stones would follow soon after. Both bands would cover Berry’s songs and boost his catalog.
In the UK, his popularity was helped by two compilation albums released in 1962 and 1963 that peaked in the top 10 there to keep his music alive when Berry couldn’t record or tour.
Marshall Chess, who was the son of Chess founder Leonard Chess was Chuck’s road manager when he got out of jail. Marshall said that Berry looked rough when he got out and Leonard gave Marshall $100 and told him to buy Chuck some clothes. When they got back from that, Berry recorded Nadine.
The lyrics to this song and most of Chuck’s songs flow so easily. If you want to know what American teenage culture was like in the 50s and early sixties…listen to Chuck Berry.
I remember Bruce Springsteen commenting about Chuck Berry. He said Chuck influenced him because Bruce started to write songs like he was really talking to people and the words flowed naturally like Chuck’s did. He mentioned the lyric:
I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back And started walkin’ toward a coffee-colored Cadillac
Springsteen had said he never had seen a coffee-colored Cadillac but he knows what one looks like now because of Chuck’s description. The song peaked at #23 on the Billboard 100, #23 in the R&B Charts, and #23 in Canada in 1964.
Nadine
I got on a city bus and found a vacant seat,
I thought I saw my future bride walking up the street,
I shouted to the driver hey conductor, you must slow down
I think I see her please let me off this bus
Nadine, honey is that you?
Oh, Nadine
Honey, is that you?
Seems like every time I see you
Darling you got something else to do
I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back
And started walkin’ toward a coffee colored Cadillac
I was pushin’ through the crowd to get to where she’s at
And I was campaign shouting like a southern diplomat
Downtown searching for her, looking all around
Saw her getting in a yellow cab heading up town
I caught a loaded taxi, paid up everybody’s tab
With a twenty dollar bill, told him ‘catch that yellow cab
She move around like a wave of summer breeze,
Go, driver, go, go, catch her balmy breeze
Moving through the traffic like a mounted cavalier
Leaning out the taxi window trying to make her hear
As a teen, when I first heard these lyrics I liked it right away. Let’s swim to the moon, Let’s climb through the tide…pretty heavy stuff for a 13-year-old. This was released as the B-side of “Love Me Two Times.” The lyrics got to me and also the slide guitar that Robby Krieger played…it is hypnotic.
Jim Morrison wrote the lyrics while he was living on a rooftop in Venice Beach, California. At night everything was clear, so he would look into people’s windows, study what they were doing, and watch their TV sets.
When Jim Morrison first met Ray Manzarek this was the poem that Morrison recited for him that he wrote. Manzarek remembered Morrison from the UCLA film school. He liked the poem so much that he convinced Morrison to form a band.
They first tried to record this song as a straight blues song but it didn’t work as well so Manzarek suggested a “rock tango. This was the first song recorded by The Doors. It was left off their first album because they felt their performance wasn’t good enough. It appeared on their second Strange Days album released in 1967.
The Doors would continue to play this song for years live. It was a song that Morrison could improvise on and he did. Some of the live versions reveal a link to a sort of death by drowning – whether murder, suicide or simply going too far. Morrison sings in live performances, referring to “fishes for your friends” and “pearls for your eyes.”
There were bootlegs of Blondie covering this song circulating in the 70s…a live version but not a studio version. The studio version was released on the box set Against the Odds 1974–1982which was just released in August of this year.
Robby Krieger:I played with the Doors, the first song we rehearsed was Moonlight Drive. I played the slide, and they all loved it; that’s probably why I ended up being in the band. John had brought Jim over to my house one day and I played some slide for them. Then we all got together the next day at this guy named Hank’s house. I had this old Magnatone amp which was really cool. It was like a Twin, but really funky, and it had a great growl to it. I think one of the speakers was blown. It was kind of like having built-in distortion.
There are two versions of Moonlight Drive on The Doors Box Set. One is the original demo, which I didn’t even play on, and the other version is the very first recording we ever did as the Doors. That version was supposed to be on our debut album, but we ended up not using it, and a different arrangement was recorded for the second album. I always liked that first version! The funny thing is, we lost track of it for years. We finally found it when we were compiling material for the box set.
Ray Manzarek: “I knew instantly we had found ‘it,’ that indefinable, transcendent something that Kerouac refers to, I remember showing Robby the chord changes for a simple ‘G’ progression. He pulled out his bottleneck and said, ‘I’ve got an idea for this, something sort of liquid-like.’ A lot of The Doors music came to be like that – water-y. That came from living on the beach. We were actually there, whereas even The Beach Boys, for instance, didn’t really live on the beach.”
Moonlight Drive
Let’s swim to the moon, uh-huh
Let’s climb through the tide
Penetrate the evenin’ that the
City sleeps to hide
Let’s swim out tonight, love
It’s our turn to try
Parked beside the ocean on our
Moonlight drive
Let’s swim to the moon, uh-huh
Let’s climb through the tide
Surrender to the waiting worlds
That lap against our side
Nothin’ left open and no
Time to decide
We’ve stepped into a river on our
Moonlight drive
Let’s swim to the moon
Let’s climb through the tide
You reach your hand to hold me
But I can’t be your guide
Easy, I love you as I
Watch you glide
Falling through wet forests on our
Moonlight drive, baby
Moonlight drive
Come on, baby, gonna take a little ride, down
Down by the ocean side, gonna get real close
Get real tight
Baby gonna drown tonight
Goin’ down, down, down
I’ve always loved this song and I just read in the news that The Beatles released a new video to this song. This song was on what many consider their best album…Revolver.
If you lived in America at the time…you didn’t have this song if you bought Revolver. Capital Records left it off the American version. You would have to buy the album Yesterday and Today to get it
There were a lot of rumors about this song’s origin. Some rumors said it was John’s attack on straight society. It was much more simple than that. Lennon wrote this as a tribute to staying in bed, which he liked to do even when he wasn’t sleeping. He would later write a song titled “I’m So Tired” which resided on the White Album.
Maureen Cleave, the journalist, wrote of John Lennon: “He can sleep almost indefinitely, is probably the laziest person in England.” She went on to clarify that she meant physically lazy, not intellectually lazy.”
The Beatles were experimenting with this album with sound effects and backward guitar and other effects. The yawning effect is a guitar recorded backward. A few seconds before the yawn comes in, you can hear John Lennon say, “Yawn Paul.”
It was conceived by George Harrison in a late-night session, inspired when a studio engineer accidentally flipped a tape…Harrison was amazed at the effect and decided to do it for real. So he wrote down a solo and then played it twice, once forwards and once backward, with fuzz effects on one track.
George Harrison: “We turned the tape over and put it on backwards, and then played some guitar notes to it, just playing little bits, guessing, hoping it fitted in…We were excited to hear what it sounded like, and it was magic.”
Revolver broke recording boundaries and developed processes that are still used today. The bass was one thing to be boosted as in the singles around this time. Paperback Writer and Rain the bass came through like never before.
They toured on this album and it would be their last tour. It was full of tension because of Lennon’s Jesus remarks and they were tired of not being heard. The touring equipment still wasn’t up to where people could hear over the screaming. Our band would play in 200-capacity clubs and we had more powerful equipment than the Beatles did playing in big arenas and sports facilities.
They were well into the beginnings of the studio experimental phase of their career. Therefore, I’m Only Sleeping, along with all of the other material from Revolver, was never performed live, nor could it have been because the technology just wasn’t there at that time to play these songs accurately.
Revolver peaked at #1 in the US, Canada, and the UK in 1966.
Ringo Starr:“I believe we taught George Martin how to keep the tape rolling,” he lost that old attitude that you only press the button when you are going to do the take. We began to have the tape rolling all of the time.”
I’m Only Sleeping
When I wake up early in the morning
Lift my head, I’m still yawning
When I’m in the middle of a dream
Stay in bed, float up stream (float up stream)
Please, don’t wake me
No, don’t shake me
Leave me where I am
I’m only sleeping
Everybody seems to think I’m lazy
I don’t mind, I think they’re crazy
Runnin’ everywhere at such a speed
‘Til they find there’s no need (there’s no need)
Please, don’t spoil my day
I’m miles away
And after all
I’m only sleeping
Keepin’ an eye on the world going by my window
Takin’ my time
Lyin’ there and staring at the ceiling
Waiting for a sleepy feeling
Please, don’t spoil my day
I’m miles away
And after all
I’m only sleeping
Keepin’ an eye on the world going by my window
Takin’ my time
When I wake up early in the morning
Lift my head, I’m still yawning
When I’m in the middle of a dream
Stay in bed, float up stream (float up stream)
Please, don’t wake me
No, don’t shake me
Leave me where I am
I’m only sleeping
This song has a Rolling Stones connection in the lyrics. I love the first line “She had hair like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965.” Shrimpton dated Mick Jagger before he was with Marianne Faithful. The second reference is an odd one to Bill Wyman, the Stones’ bass player.
The song was on their debut album Especially for You released in 1986. They had released a couple of EP’s before this album. Pat DiNizo wrote the song and was influenced by the title of the H.P. Lovecraft short story, “Beyond the Wall of Sleep.” The song was about Kim Ernst. She was the bass player of The Bristols.
Pat DiNizo:“We’d done a gig with The Bristols, four fabulous women who looked, sounded and dressed like Roger McGuinn’s The Byrds, Kim had black hair, really long: ‘She [had hair like] like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965, she had legs that never ended, I was halfway paralyzed. She was tall and cool and pretty, and she dressed as black as coal. If she asked me to I’d murder, I would gladly lose my soul.’ Our first two hits were ‘Blood And Roses,’ about suicide, and this one, ‘If you’d ask me to I’d murder’—very dark material [laughs].”
In 1985 they recorded the album at The Record Plant, the famous recording studio that hosted John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen among others. They had to save up gig money to record.
Drummer Dennis Diken:“Those sessions actually almost didn’t happen, we had recorded Beauty and Sadness in Studio B. That was the room where Springsteen recorded The River, and a lot of other big stuff was done there. Studio A was also famous for historic sessions; John Lennon worked there. But we were the low guys on the totem pole, so we got a call on the afternoon of Good Friday 1985—when we were supposed to go in that night—saying, ‘Sorry, but we have a more important session booked in B now. We’re going to have to kick you upstairs to C,’ which was a much smaller room.
“We got on the phone with each other and said, ‘Hey, this ain’t too cool. Maybe we should wait until larger rooms become available again,’ but in the end, reluctantly, we went for it.”
The album peaked at #51 in the Billboard Album Charts. The song peaked at #23 in the Mainstream Rock Play charts.
Behind The Wall Of Sleep
She had hair like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965
She had legs that never ended
I was halfway paralyzed
She was tall and cool and pretty and she dressed as black as coal
If she asked me to I’d murder, I would gladly lose my soul
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Well she held a bass guitar and she was playing in a band
And she stood just like Bill Wyman
Now I am her biggest fan
Now I know I’m one of many who would like to be your friend
And I’ve got to find a way to let you know I’m not like them
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Got your number from a friend of mine who lives in your hometown
Called you up to have a drink
Your roommate said you weren’t around
Now I know I’m one of many who would like to be your friend
And I’ve just got to find a way to let you know I’m not like them
Now I lie in bed and think of her
Sometimes I even weep
Then I dream of her behind the wall of sleep
Behind the wall of sleep
Behind the wall of sleep
Behind the wall of sleep
What a rocking band they were in the 70s. They had one of the best frontmen in the era of Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, Rod Stewart, and Mick Jagger. Peter Wolf could keep up with the best.
This song is different from their previous releases to this point in 1978. Their earlier music was more frantic and upbeat. I was listening to some of their seventies music and I had forgotten about this one. I love the guitar work in this song as subtle as it is. It doesn’t have a magical hook that gets you but it’s the feel of the song that I like. The song was written by Peter Wolf and Seth Justman.
The song peaked at #35 on the Billboard 100, 58 in Canada, and #74 in the UK in 1978. The song was off the album Sanctuary and it peaked at #49 in the Billboard 100 and #53 in Canada.
The band came out of the Boston club scene in the late sixties. I always thought they should have been bigger than they were in the 1970s. They didn’t hit their commercial peak until the early 80s with Love Stinks, Come Back, and then the hugely popular Freeze-Frame album in 1983.
After the huge success of Freeze-Frame, Peter Wolf left. The band wanted to go in a techno/pop direction and Peter Wolf disagreed. They continued without their lead singer but weren’t too commercially successful.
One Last Kiss
Just one last kiss Before I walk out the door I’m gonna hold you tighter Than I ever did before
And I, I never promised you The things you promised me And I, I can’t justify The way it’s gotta be
And the good times are the best times The bad times fade away The good times are forever But now, baby, the last time is today
Just one more night There’s no time for anymore I’m gonna tell you something That you’ve never heard before
But I, I can’t find the words To ease your lovers pain And I, I know the feeling’s gone I can feel it in my veins
And the good times are the best times The bad times fade away The good times are forever But now, baby, the last time is today
One last kiss
And the good times are the best times The bad times fade away The good times are forever But now, baby, the last time is today
Happy Halloween everyone! This song was released in 1986 but the song would have fit well with his seventies output. I heard the song a lot in my area at the time.
The song was on the album Constrictor released in 1986. The song peaked at #80 in the UK. The song was written by Alice Cooper and Kane Roberts.
Alice Cooper’s real name is Vincent Furnier. Alice Cooper was the name of the band, but the name became so associated with the lead singer that he took it.
The band did a good job spreading the rumor that “Alice Cooper” was the name of a girl who was accused of being a witch in the 1600s, saying she contacted them through an Ouija board. Furnier later explained that he made it up when he was thinking of a sweet, innocent-sounding name that would contrast against their shocking stage show.
Cooper ran for President in 2016 with the slogan “A Troubled Man For Troubled Times” which I loved.
His “platform” were these talking points
Getting Brian Johnson back in AC/DC
A snake in every pot
No more pencils, no more books
Adding Lemmy to Mt Rushmore
Rename Big Ben “Big Lemmy”
Groucho Marx on the $50 bill
Peter Sellers on the £20 note
Cupholders required for every airplane seat
Ban on talking during movies in movie theatres
Ban on taking selfies, except on a designated National Selfie Day
Cooper is a big family man which contradicts his reputation. Cooper is a born-again Christian and believes in the devil enough to have genuine supernatural fear. He’s never taken a satanist stance and warns other bands against it. When he was a kid, his family was poor and there were very few presents. Now, Cooper goes crazy on Christmas, buying lots of gifts for his family.
Alice Cooper:“When I moved to L.A. with this little wimpy garage band, the first people we met were the Doors. Then we met Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin. All of the people who died of excess were our big brothers and sisters. So I said to myself: How do you become a legend and enjoy it? The answer is to create a character as legendary as those guys and leave that character on the stage.”
Teenaged Frankenstein
I’m the kid on the block With my head made of rock And I ain’t got nobody I’m the state of the art Got a brain a la carte I make the babies cry
I ain’t one of the crowd I ain’t one of the guys They just avoid me They run and they hide Are my colors too bright Are my eyes set too wide? I spent my whole life Burning, turning
I’m a teenage Frankenstein The local freak with the twisted mind I’m a teenage Frankenstein These ain’t my hands And these legs ain’t mine
Got a synthetic face Got some scars and a brace My hands are rough and bloody I walk into the night Women faint at the sight I ain’t no cutie-pie
I can’t walk in the day I must walk in the night Stay in the shadows Stay out of the light Are my shoulders too wide Is my head screwed on tight? I spent my whole life burning Burning, turning
I’m a teenage Frankenstein The local freak with the twisted mind I’m a teenage Frankenstein These ain’t my hands And these legs ain’t mine
I wrote this for Dave’s Turntable Talk at A Sound Day. Be on the lookout for that series at A Sound Day. He has some interesting topics. This one was on One Hit Wonders.
This song has a mixture of The Who, Beach Boys, and The Beatles… a pretty good mixture! I’m cheating a bit…The Raspberries had 4 top 40 hits but this was the only top ten hit and the song they are most known for. The song starts off with a strong Who-like loud riff then continues on with hooks galore.
When people think of The Raspberries this is the song most think of. Personally, I always thought Overnight Sensation was their best song but this one is great and the masses agreed.
The song peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100 and #5 in Canada in 1972. This song was on their self-titled debut album released in 1972. The American and Australian versions of this LP carried a scratch-and-sniff sticker with a strong raspberry scent.
They were one of the 3 great power pop bands of the early 70s. Badfinger, Big Star, and The Raspberries. Out of those three, Badfinger was the most successful but all were good. Many alternative bands that followed would list all three or at least one of them as an influence. The Raspberries released 4 albums in total between 1972 and 1975. They broke up after their last album Starting Over (#143) and the great single Overnight Sensation only charted at #18. After you listen to Go All The Way…check out Overnight Sensation…it’s an epic song.
I moved to a different town when I was 8 and in a new school (we would move back later that year) we went on a field trip to some college. Thinking back, it was a small college and the students there put on a small show for us kids. After the show, they showed us the grounds and I remember Go All The Way booming out of a room. It’s funny how music can send you back to a place and I can remember the smell also.
Eric Carmen said he was inspired by The Rolling Stone’s performance of “Let’s Spend The Night Together” on the Ed Sullivan Show when Mick Jagger had to sing it as “Let’s spend some time together.”
This was before Eric Carmen went solo and started doing ballads and songs on soundtracks such as Dirty Dancing. Carmen hit it big solo but personally, I think his music with the Raspberries was the best he did.
This song appears in the 2000 film Almost Famous but was not included on the soundtrack. It did make the soundtrack to the 2014 film Guardians Of The Galaxy, which went to #1 in America and revived many ’70s hits. My son got the soundtrack mostly for this song.
Fans of the band included John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen. They did reunite in November of 2004 and toured shortly until 2006.
Eric Carmen:“I knew then that I wanted to write a song with an explicitly sexual lyric that the kids would instantly get but the powers that be couldn’t pin me down for.”
Eric Carmen: “I remember ‘Go All The Way’ vividly. The year was 1971. I was 21. I had been studying for years. I had spent my youth with my head between two stereo speakers listening to The Byrds and The Beatles and later on The Beach Boys – just trying to figure out what combinations of things – whether it was the fourths harmonies that The Byrds were singing on ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ – I must have worn out 10 copies of that first Byrds album listening to it over and over, and turning off the left side and turning on the right side trying to figure out why these certain combinations of instruments and echo and harmonies made that hair on your arms stand up. I did the same thing with Beatles records, and I tried to learn construction.
Go All The Way
I never knew how complete love could be ‘Til she kissed me and said
Baby, please, go all the way It feels so right (feels so right) Being with you here tonight Please, go all the way Just hold me close (hold me close) Don’t ever let me go
I couldn’t say what I wanted to say ‘Til she whispered, I love you
So please, go all the way It feels so right (feels so right) Being with you here tonight Please, go all the way Just hold me close (hold me close) Don’t ever let me go
Before her love I was cruel and mean I had a hole in the place Where my heart should have been
But now I’ve changed And it feels so strange I come alive when she does All those things to me
And she says (Come on) Come on (Come on) Come on (Come on) Come on (Come on) I need ya (come on) I love ya (come on) I need ya (come on) Oh, oh, baby
Please, go all the way It feels so right (feels so right) Being with you here tonight Please, go all the way Just hold me close (hold me close) Don’t ever let me go no
The Animals were so raw sounding and that had a lot to do with Eric Burdon singing. his voice conveyed emotion with the best of them. They excelled in grit and this song is no different. I like the interplay between the guitar and organ a minute or so into the studio version.
The song wasn’t a giant hit but it did have a great sound. It showed that the Stones and The Who had nothing on the Animals as far as a dark gritty sound. After 1966 the band would break up except for Eric Burdon. He would recruit more musicians and continue on as the Animals (sometimes Eric Burdon and The Animals) with a harder edge until 1968. He would then go and join WAR who would go on to produce Spill The Wine together.
In 1966 The Animals changed labels to Decca and started writing their own material. This song was one of their most adventurous, with every bar in the same minor chord. The song peaked at #34 on the Billboard 100, #21 in Canada, and #12 in the UK in 1966. The songwriting is credited to John Lomax, Alan Lomax, Eric Burdon, and bass player Chas Chandler.
The song itself is loosely based on a song called Rosie which was an American Prison Work Song. In the 1920s and 30s prison camps had inmates who used to work for 12-15 hours a day chopping trees, cutting cane, and shoveling gravel. To help them pass the time and get through the day, they would make up songs.
Eric Burdon:“It’s the first number we’ve recorded without a tune. It originates from a Mississippi prison song, the kind of blues we’ve always wanted to do.”
Inside-Looking Out
Sittin’ here lonely like a broken man
Sell my time and do the best I can
I wasn’t boss this around in me
But I don’t want your sympathy, yeah
Oh baby, oh baby, I just need your tender lovin’
To keep me sane in this burnin’ oven
When my time is up, be my reaper
Like Adam’s work on God’s green earth
My reaper, my reaper baby, yeah me is my reaper, yeah
Ice cold waters runnin’ in my brain
And they drag me back to work again
Pains and blisters on my minds and my hands
From living daily with those canvas bags
Thoughts of freedom their drivin’ me wild
And I’ll by happy like a new born child
We’ll be together, girl, you wait and see
No more walls to keep your love from me
Yeah, can’t you feel my love
Baby, baby, need you, squeeze you,
Nobody but, nobody but, you girl, I love you, need you
All right
I said everything’s gonna be all right
And if you don’t believe what I say
Just listen baby and I’ll tell you
Can’t you feel my love
Can’t you see my skill
Can’t you yell my love
It’s getting louder
It’s getting louder
A little closer, yeah
I said baby, I need you, c’mon, squeeze, please
Lord, I love you, I need you, yeah
Yeah, right by my side
I need you here by my side
But I can’t help it baby
But I’ll be home soon
I’ll be home soon, yeah
All right
Whoa!!!
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 