Singles – Page 79 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Fleetwood Mac – Say You Love Me

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 ofSympathy,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.

Baby, baby hope,You’re gonna stay away,‘Cause I’m getting weaker,Weaker every day.

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.

Say that you love me,Say that you love me,Say that you love me.

Fallin’ fallin’ fallin’,Fallin’ fallin’ fallin’,Fallin’ fallin’ fallin’,Fallin’ fallin’ fallin’.

Leon Russell – Pisces Apple Lady

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 bottleGo down and see a friendHe’ll know what to do, lordyWhen you tell him how bad it’s beenHe said you oughta get awayTo the English countrysideThis cryin’ won’t help you now boyWhy don’t you look how many tears you’ve cried

When I got down to ChelseaI had no expectationsOh, But to get away from the delta girlAnd the painful situationBut I hardly had the timeOh, to laugh and look aroundAnd I found my heart was a-goin’ againLike a-English leaps and bounds (yeah)

And she’s a Pisces apple ladyWhen she speaks softlyShe screams,(She really got herself together) whoa-whoa (oh-oh)And she’s a Pisces apple ladyTook me by surpriseAnd I fell into a hundred piecesI said a-right before her eyes

Now were togetherAll the way to L.A.I know she that loves me‘Cause she can brighten up a smoggy dayIf I believed in marriageOh, I’d take her for my wifeAnd move on down into high gear babyFor the rest of my natural life

And she’s a Pisces apple ladyWhen she speaks softlyShe screams,(She really got herself together) yes she does (oh-oh)And she’s a Pisces apple ladyTook me by surpriseAnd I fell into a hundred piecesI said a-right before her eyes

Chuck Berry – Nadine

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

Doors – Moonlight Drive ….Sunday Album Cut

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 1974–1982 which 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

Beatles – I’m Only Sleeping

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

Smithereens – Behind The Wall Of Sleep …. Power Pop Friday

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

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

J Geils Band – One Last Kiss

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 kissBefore I walk out the doorI’m gonna hold you tighterThan I ever did before

And I, I never promised youThe things you promised meAnd I, I can’t justifyThe way it’s gotta be

And the good times are the best timesThe bad times fade awayThe good times are foreverBut now, baby, the last time is today

Just one more nightThere’s no time for anymoreI’m gonna tell you somethingThat you’ve never heard before

But I, I can’t find the wordsTo ease your lovers painAnd I, I know the feeling’s goneI can feel it in my veins

And the good times are the best timesThe bad times fade awayThe good times are foreverBut now, baby, the last time is today

One last kiss

And the good times are the best timesThe bad times fade awayThe good times are foreverBut now, baby, the last time is today

One last kiss

Alice Cooper – Teenage Frankenstein

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 blockWith my head made of rockAnd I ain’t got nobodyI’m the state of the artGot a brain a la carteI make the babies cry

I ain’t one of the crowdI ain’t one of the guysThey just avoid meThey run and they hideAre my colors too brightAre my eyes set too wide?I spent my whole lifeBurning, turning

I’m a teenage FrankensteinThe local freak with the twisted mindI’m a teenage FrankensteinThese ain’t my handsAnd these legs ain’t mine

Got a synthetic faceGot some scars and a braceMy hands are rough and bloodyI walk into the nightWomen faint at the sightI ain’t no cutie-pie

I can’t walk in the dayI must walk in the nightStay in the shadowsStay out of the lightAre my shoulders too wideIs my head screwed on tight?I spent my whole life burningBurning, turning

I’m a teenage FrankensteinThe local freak with the twisted mindI’m a teenage FrankensteinThese ain’t my handsAnd these legs ain’t mine

Raspberries – Go All The Way

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

Animals – Inside Looking Out

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

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby baby baby c’mon c’mon c’mon, 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!!!

Blue Ash – Pleasant Dreams

Blue Ash is one of those bands that should have made it to the masses. That has always interested me why great bands like Blue Ash, Big Star, and so many others couldn’t find their way to mass popularity. I’ve been listening to their debut album and it stacks up against their peers at the time and definitely now!

This song reminds me of a great FM album track. Blue Ash toured and opened for such acts as The Stooges, Bob Seger, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and more but for lack of sales they were dropped by Mercury Records in May 1974. You would think with those bands they would have picked up a lot of fans.

Blue Ash was formed in the summer of 1969 in Ohio by bassist Frank Secich & vocalist Jim Kendzor. Guitarist Bill “Cupid” Bartolin and drummer David Evans were recruited later that summer. They got their name from a road sign outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, pointing towards a small town called Blue Ash. During a three-year stretch of 1970-1973 the band recorded numerous songs along with hitting the road playing western New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia along with Ohio, performing over 250 shows a year. Think about that for a second… 250 – 300 shows a year!

Their first album No More, No Less was released in May 1973 and received rave reviews in the rock press. This album is usually always in people’s top twenty power pop albums. It is considered a power pop classic and is regarded as highly collectible among fans of that genre.

This one transports me to the seventies. The intro is around a minute but I love the sustained guitar that kicks in after the intro ends.

Pleasant Dreams

When day is done and night has begun
A smile comes on my face
I know that I’ll be taking me
To a very pleasant place
It’s half-way across my mind
It’s not so hard to find

I’ve been there many times before
And everytime ti’s seems
I know that I’ll be back for more
I’m hooked on pleasant dreams
Without reality there’s
Nothing i can’t see

Can’t wait to go to sleep
It’s gonna be alright, It’s going to be alright
Can’t wait to climb in bed
Lay me down so I will have
Pleasant dreams tonight
Pleasant dreams tonight
I know that tonight
It’s gonna be alright

A copper king, a movie star
I’m anything I please
I slip into my private world
Which sets my mind at ease
I do the things I feel you know
I feel the the things I do

Can’t wait to go to sleep
It’s gonna be alright, It’s going to be alright
Can’t wait to climb in bed
To lay me down so I will have
Pleasant dreams tonight
Pleasant dreams tonight
I know that tonight
It’s gonna be alright

I wake up in the morning and
It seems I’ve come undone
I make believe I’m not asleep and
I’m pretending that it’s fun
I’m half the man I am
I’m twice the man I’m not

Can’t wait to go to sleep
It’s gonna be alright, It’s going to be alright
Can’t wait to close my eyes to
Lay me down so I will have
Pleasant dreams tonight
Pleasant dreams tonight
I know that tonight
It’s gonna be alright

Rolling Stones – Midnight Rambler

Sorry if you have seen this already today but it vanished in the reader so I’m republishing it. it…thank you.

Today we look at a song that is best known by the live version. Midnight Rambler is up there with Sympathy For The Devil for setting an eerie atmosphere. I’ve always liked this one…partly because it’s not worn out like many other Stones songs of this era.

The Boston Strangler was the likely inspiration for this song. As for the song, while the lyrics do not directly relate to the case, Jagger implies it when he sings, “Well you heard about the Boston…” before an instrumental stab cuts him off.

n 1965, Albert DeSalvo (the Boston Strangler), who was serving time in a mental institution on rape charges, confessed to the murders and was later sentenced to life in prison. There was no clear physical evidence that DeSalvo committed the crimes, however, and his confession has been questioned, with some forensic experts stating that there may have been multiple killers. DeSalvo died in prison in 1973; new evidence has come up in the case from time to time.

This song was on their great Let It Bleed album released in 1969. But the version that is more known is the version on what I think is their best live album… Get Your Ya Ya’s Out…it was released in 1970. They recorded the version in Madison Square Gardens on their 1969 tour. The sound they had with Mick Taylor was fantastic. His guitar tone was raw and fat and it is instantly recognizable. When he joined the Stones onstage recently…the Stones had that great sound again. Since Mick Taylor left they sound really thin live…to me.

Brian Jones is credited with percussion on the studio version. Even though he died before this album was released, a few of the songs were recorded during the Beggar’s Banquet sessions in 1968.

Keith Richards: “When we did Midnight Rambler, nobody went in there with the idea of doing a blues opera, basically. Or a blues in four parts. That’s just the way it turned out. I think that’s the strength of the Stones or any good band. You can give them a song half raw and they’ll cook it.”

Mick Jagger: “That’s a song Keith and I really wrote together. We were on a holiday in Italy. In this very beautiful hill town, Positano, for a few nights. Why we should write such a dark song in this beautiful, sunny place, I really don’t know. We wrote everything there – the tempo changes, everything. And I’m playing the harmonica in these little cafés, and there’s Keith with the guitar.”

Studio Album Version

Midnight Rambler

Did you hear about the midnight rambler
Everybody got to go
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
The one that shut the kitchen door
He don’t give a hoot of warning
Wrapped up in a black cat cloak
He don’t go in the light of the morning
He split the time the cock’rel crows

Talkin’ about the midnight gambler
The one you never seen before
Talkin’ about the midnight gambler
Did you see him jump the garden wall
Sighin’ down the wind so sadly
Listen and you’ll hear him moan
Talkin’ about the midnight gambler
Everybody got to go

Did you hear about the midnight rambler
Well, honey, it’s no rock ‘n’ roll show
Well, I’m talkin’ about the midnight gambler
Yeah, everybody got to go

Well did ya hear about the midnight gambler?
Well honey its no rock-in’ roll show
Well I’m talking about the midnight gambler
The one you never seen before

Oh don’t do that, oh don’t do that, oh don’t do that
Don’t you do that, don’t you do that (repeat)
Oh don’t do that, oh don’t do that

Well you heard about the Boston…
It’s not one of those
Well, talkin’ ’bout the midnight… sh…
The one that closed the bedroom door
I’m called the hit-and-run raper in anger
The knife-sharpened tippie-toe…
Or just the shoot ’em dead, brainbell jangler
You know, the one you never seen before

So if you ever meet the midnight rambler
Coming down your marble hall
Well he’s pouncing like proud black panther
Well, you can say I, I told you so
Well, don’t you listen for the midnight rambler
Play it easy, as you go
I’m gonna smash down all your plate glass windows
Put a fist, put a fist through your steel-plated door

Did you hear about the midnight rambler
He’ll leave his footprints up and down your hall
And did you hear about the midnight gambler
And did you see me make my midnight call

And if you ever catch the midnight rambler
I’ll steal your mistress from under your nose
I’ll go easy with your cold fanged anger
I’ll stick my knife right down your throat, baby
And it hurts!

Little Richard – Ready Teddy

Ready, set, go man go, I got a girl that I love so.

What else do we need to have a great rock and roll song? Not exactly Shakespeare but Shakespeare couldn’t write Gonna kick off my shoes, roll up my faded jeans, Grab my rock ‘n’ roll baby, pour on the steam. The song was written by John Marascalco and Robert Blackwell with probable help from Little Richard. Most Little Richard songs are like a shot of adrenaline…this one is no different.

This was originally a B-side to Rip It Up. Little Richard claimed to have helped write this song but he said he didn’t have the business sense at that time to demand credit. He said: “They brought me the words and I made up the melody, and at the time I didn’t have sense enough to claim so much money, because I really made them hits. I didn’t get the money, but I still have the freedom.”

The song peaked at #44 on the Billboard 100 and #8 on the R&B charts.

The song is about a girl who wants sex… a ready teddy. Like most of Little Richard’s songs, this contains a lot of innuendoes but most people were too busy listening to the music to notice or didn’t get the reference. If sex had a voice…it would be Little Richard.

This song was covered by a lot of artists including Buddy Holly, The Tornados, Elvis Presley, Tony Sheridan, and others. Elvis did this song on one of his Ed Sullivan appearances.

My dad told me about Little Richard before I ever heard him. He said he had the biggest voice he ever heard. He talked about a song called Long Tall Sally. I first heard it…it blew me away. Such a raw emotional power in that voice. He would take us to the edge of the cliff and then at the last minute pull us back.

His voice was one of a kind…