Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer started to write songs together while in High School in Bellingham, Washington in 1986. They were influenced by The Hollies, Hüsker Dü, XTC, Elvis Costello, Squeeze, and Big Star.
They released an album Failure on cassette and vinyl near the end of 1988 on local indie label PopLlama. Several major labels noticed the band early on and in late 1989 they signed to new Geffen Records imprint DGC Records. The released an album Dear 23 in 1990 and this was their first single. The song peaked at #17 in the US Modern Rock Tracks in 1990.
Ringo Starr would cover Golden Blunders on his 1992 solo album Time Takes Time.
There is no surprise after listening to the Posies that guitarists Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer would join Big Star’s Alex Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens to record and tour as Big Star in the 90s and up until Alex’s death in 2010.
Ken and Jon’s harmonies, writing, and playing are top notch. The 80’s and 90’s popular radio left a lot to be desired, at least to me, they could have really used these guys…I may have liked that era much better hearing more of this.
Jon Auer on Golden Blunders: “It’s about two kids in high school who mess up the rest of their lives,” “There’s the implication of a teenage pregnancy but there’s not any amazing message here.”
Golden Blunders
Golden blunders come in pairs, they’re very unaware What they know is what they’ve seen Education wasn’t fun, but now that school is done Higher learning’s just begun (Chorus) You’re gonna watch what you say for a long time You’re gonna suffer the guilt forever You’re gonna get in the way at the wrong time You’re gonna mess up things you thought you would never Disappointment breeds contempt, it make you feel inept Never thought you’d feel alone (at home) His and hers forever more, throw your freedom out of the door Before you find out what it’s for (Chorus) Four weeks seemed like a long time then – but nine months is longer now But even if you never speak again – you’ve already made the wedding vow (Chorus) Honeymoons will never start, bonds will blow apart Just as fast as they were made Men and women please beware : don’t pretend you care Nothing lasts when nothing’s there (Repeat Chorus)
Back in the 80s I bought some compilation Byrds tape with this song on it. I had never heard it before but I liked it right away. It does borrow from 50’s rock and roll just a little bit just enough to give it flavor.
Tiffany Queen was written and recorded live in the studio and it is a fun song. The song was on the album Farther Along and was released in 1971. The album peaked at #152 in the Billboard Al bum Charts and #41 in Canada.
Farther Along was not their best album…their next album would be the reunion of the original members in 1973. That album was called Byrds and it peaked at #20 in the Billboard Album Charts, #19 in Canada, and #31 in the UK.
Roger McGuinn:“We wouldn’t really write at a session, because studio time was so expensive. Usually the writing would take place at someone’s house, either my house or the other guy’s house. We’d sit down at a table and chairs with a legal pad and start working on it. And you know, it definitely is work, it’s a lot more perspiration than inspiration! Once in a while you get a tune that’s pretty fully formed, like you wake up having heard it in a dream or something, but that’s only happened once in a while to me. An example of that would be the song Tiffany Queen: I dreamed that song and went in and recorded it the next day. I can’t think of any others.”
Tiffany Queen
Happiness hit me on the first day that we met She was sitting in my kitchen with a face I can’t forget She was looking in my direction and calling with her eyes I was trying to do and interview and telling them all lies Last year in the summer with a tiffany lamp over her head
They asked me what I thought about the 50’s rock n roll Then they got into a limousine and fell into a hole I moved into the kitchen and I quickly fell in love The warden came along and asked me what I was thinking of Last year in the summer with a tiffany lamp over her head
Well I grabbed her by the hand and with a few things I could The warden said your leaving you better leave for good I made it to Tasmania to buy a devil dog We met a handsome prince who turned into a frog Last year in the summer with a tiffany lamp over her head
Now we’re living out in Malibu the ocean by our side Laying in the sunshine drifting with the tide Happiness hit me on the first day that we met She was sitting in my kitchen with a face I can’t forget Last year in the summer with a tiffany lamp over her head Over her head
There are episodes that are hard for me to rate but some…like this one…is really easy…it’s a 5 star classic without a second thought.
A beautiful young lady is traveling across the country and has a blow out. After she gets the tire fixed she is back on the road but keeps seeing this hitch hiker everywhere she goes. The lady (Nan Adams) is perfectly played by Inger Stevens. This has everything you would want out of a Twilight Zone. Great suspense, a little horror, and a Twilight Zone twist.
Lucille Fletcher got the idea for this story in 1940 when she and her husband Bernard Herrmann were driving cross-country from New York to California. On the first day of the trip they saw the same odd-looking man on the side of the road it two different locations. She found the occurrence rather eerie and thought it might be a good concept for a story.
In the original story, the character of Nan was a male, Ronald. Rod Serling believed that a female in the situation would be reacted to with more feeling by audiences. She was named after one of his daughters.
This show was written by Rod Serling and Lucille Fletcher
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
Her name is Nan Adams. She’s twenty-seven years old. Her occupation: buyer at a New York department store. At present on vacation, driving cross-country to Los Angeles, California from Manhattan…Minor incident on Highway 11 in Pennsylvania. Perhaps, to be filed away under “accidents you walk away from.” But from this moment on, Nan Adams’ companion on a trip to California will be terror. Her route: fear. Her destination: quite unknown.
Summary
Nan Adams is driving across country from Manhattan to Los Angeles. Apart from a blown tire, the trip has been more or less uneventful. That is until she begins to see the same man, over and over again, hitchhiking along the highway. No matter how far she goes or how far she drives, the hitchhiker always seems to be ahead of her. She also seems to be the only person who can see him. When Nan decides to call home, all is revealed.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
Nan Adams, age twenty-seven. She was driving to California; to Los Angeles. She didn’t make it. There was a detour… through the Twilight Zone.
CAST
Inger Stevens … Nan Adams
Adam Williams … Sailor
Lew Gallo … Mechanic
Leonard Strong … The Hitch-Hiker
Russ Bender … Counterman
George Mitchell … Gas Station Man
Their Satanic Majesties Request…the more I listen to this album the more I like it. It wasn’t up to their normal standards but it is nice to know the St0nes stretched themselves and tried something different. They would later dip into reggae and disco but this was an album worth of change that never happened again.
This psychedelic period was coming off of one of their best stretches which I think they produced some of their best music with songs like Ruby Tuesday.
Mick Jagger got the idea for this while in jail on drug charges from the famous Redland’s bust.
On this track, their lead guitarist, Brian Jones, played a Mellotron, an early synthesizer. Jones played a number of unusual instruments in his time with the band, which lasted from their founding in 1962 until 1969, when he was fired after a number of clashes with the rest of the Stones.
Brian Jones has been over rated and underrated but his subtle touch on songs was missed.
Just weeks after leaving the band… Jones drowned in his swimming pool.
After Brian was gone it was noticeable in the Stones. He was a great utility guy who could play about any instrument. Mick Taylor replaced him and that lead to the Stones golden period. In my opinion, Taylor was the best guitar player the Stones ever had in the band. He was a huge part of their sound. When he left there was a hole in the sound that never came back.
From Songfacts
Space exploration was big at the time, and was probably an influence on this song. Pink Floyd was making music with a similar sound.
The psychedelic sound reflected the times. It was the summer of love (1967).
The Stones played this on their Steel Wheels tour in 1989. A show in Atlantic City was broadcast with this song shot in 3D, which viewers could see using those goofy glasses.
Various echo effects and drum sounds were added in overdubbing.
The ’90s psychedelic group The Brian Jonestown Massacre recorded a tribute to the Stones’ psychedelic period (and this song) called Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request.
2000 Light Years From Home
Sun turnin’ ’round with graceful motion We’re setting off with soft explosion Bound for a star with fiery oceans It’s so very lonely You’re a hundred light years from home
Freezing red deserts turn to dark Energy here in every part It’s so very lonely You’re six hundred light years from home
It’s so very lonely You’re a thousand light years from home It’s so very lonely You’re a thousand light years from home
Bell flight fourteen you now can land See you on Aldebaran Safe on the green desert sand It’s so very lonely You’re 2000 light years from home It’s so very lonely You’re 2000 light years from home
I have always liked Time Travel movies and this one is one of the best I’ve watched. The movie was based on the H.G. Wells book The Time Machine published in 1895. The way they present it is believable.
I somehow missed this movie until 2005. It stars Rod Taylor as George Wells, Alan Young as David Filby/James Filby , and the beautiful Yvette Mimieux as Weena and Alan Young. It also has Sebastian Cabot as Dr. Philip Hillyer.
Rod Taylor portrays George Wells, and he builds a Time Machine. Other than the Tardis (Doctor Who) it’s the coolest time machine I’ve seen. He builds a miniature one and while his friends watch, he turns the small machine on and it disappears into the future. His friends don’t really believe it. They question what good it will do if it really works? Who would buy it? George gets aggravated and takes off. I can’t say I blame him.
This time machine doesn’t physically move but just occupies the same space in the time.
He takes the machine for a test ride into the future. They had no CGI but they get across time travel fine. To show time passing they set up a mannequin across the street to show different clothing styles passing by with the time which is brilliant. Sometimes subtle ways are better than obvious ones.
George’s journey began on December 31, 1899 and he goes to October 12, 802,701 with some stops on the way. He witnesses some of the first and second World War and nuclear destruction. When he gets to 802,701 the adventure begins.
He ends up in a future society where all the people are young. They do nothing all day but play and eat…hmmm millennials? Just kidding…George shows this society there is a price they pay for playing all day. The young people there have no clue on what is going on. No laws, curiosity, and no anxiety for the future. They are sheep and they don’t even know or seem to care.
My favorite part of the movie is the creatures called the Morlocks with glowing eyes that live underground because they could not stand light. They provide the clueless land dwellers with food for obvious reasons. This is a truly classic movie. Don’t’ bother with the remake in 2002…get this version.
Alan Young does a great job as David Filby…George’s best friend and later David’s son…
My son watched this when he was 8 and feared the Morlocks but kept watching. He still watches it now. It was filmed in 1960 and the film won an Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects. Does it measure up to today’s special effects? No, but it gets the story across so if you like classic sci-fi you might like this one. I’ve seen it many times and never got tired of it.
Since I finished the Replacements as far as taking one song off each of their albums… I’m going to put aside Mondays for some 1980s alternative college radio music for the next few weeks.
I really like the riff underneath this song being framed by the sixties sounding organ.
I’ve read where someone said about this band…it’s alt.country meets the Replacements. In some songs that is true. Some of their songs sound epic and they were reaching for something big…and many times pulled it off.
Green On Red have been described as Desert Rock, Paisley Underground, Alternative Country-Rock, ‘Garage-Country, and ‘Country-Punk. They made their mark in the 80s touring college towns on the circuit with REM, Replacements, and other alternative bands.
Earlier records have the wide-screen psychedelic sound of first-wave desert rock, while later releases tended more towards traditional country rock. They did not pigeon hole themselves into one style.
This song was on the album “Gas Food Lodging” which becomes their biggest seller and will eventually be credited as a forerunner to alt-country/americana. They would be produced by some great producers such as Jim Dickenson, Glyn Johns, and Al Kooper but could not connect with the masses.
They were active between 1979 to 1992 and they reunited in 2005 to 2006. They shared a bill with a lot of different musicians.
Sixteen Ways
16 kids 16 ways They shot my babies by mistake I’m all alone on a midnight ride My 16 kids all have died
Chorus They ain’t coming back It’s too late They shot my babies but They killed my faith
I haven’t slept in 14 days Now it’s time to barricade Myself in these four walls My 16 kids all are gone
Chorus
I worked so hard for 40 years I told myself I had nothing to fear Then one by one they got shot down The youngest one held a gun to his ear
Serling like to show the best and worse of people and this episode has both. Edward Binns plays the honorable Col. Bob Donlin and Dewey Martin plays the selfish Corey who folds under pressure in the worse way. A space ship is launched and crashes on what seems an unknown asteroid…survival will be difficult for the 4 survivors of the crash. It’s hot, rocky, and no water in sight. Cory is determined to survive no matter what. It’s a very good episode…I went back between 3 1/2 and 4 but the twist pushes it over the top.
Rod Serling was at a party when he was approached by a woman named Madelon Champion who told Serling a what if story and this was it. Serling gave her $500 dollars on the spot and gave her a co-writing credit.
Rarely did this happen… here is a quote from Rod Serling: I got 15,000 manuscripts in the first five days. Of those 15,000, I and members of my staff read about 140. And 137 of those 140 were wasted paper; hand-scrawled, laboriously written, therapeutic unholy grotesqueries from sick, troubled, deeply disturbed people. Of the three remaining scripts, all of clearly poetic, professional quality, none of them fitted the show.
This is one of only four episodes that Rod Serling did a mid-episode narration
This show was written by Rod Serling and Madelon Champion
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
Her name is the Arrow 1. She represents four and a half years of planning, preparation, and training, and a thousand years of science, mathematics, and the projected dreams and hopes of not only a nation, but a world. She is the first manned aircraft into space and this is the countdown. The last five seconds before man shot an arrow into the air.
Summary
This is the story of a group of spacemen who crash on what they think is an asteroid. Since they are doomed, the Captain tries to keep military protocol. Nevertheless, Cory, one of the men, becomes a survivalist. He becomes selfish and begins to take over. He kills. He steals water. He whines. The story works toward an ironic twist, bringing out the best and the worst in everyone. Patience goes out the window over water. Remember the two men fighting at the conclusion of Von Stroheim’s Greed. There is a bit of this because when our lives are on the line, we often try to hold on to every second we can. Cory can’t see honor or morality or order. It’s just to grasp for that one more drop of precious water.
Rod Serling mid-episode narration
Now you make tracks, Mr. Corey. You move out and up like some kind of ghostly billyclub was tapping at your ankles and telling you that it was later than you’d think. You scrabble up rock hills and feel hot sand underneath your feet and every now and then, take a look over your shoulder at a giant sun suspended in a dead and motionless sky…like an unblinking eye that probes at the back of your head in a prolonged accusation.
Mr. Corey, last remaining member of a doomed crew, keep moving. Make tracks, Mr. Corey. Push up and push out because if you stop…if you stop, maybe sanity will get you by the throat. Maybe realization will pry open your mind and the horror you left down in the sand will seep in. Yeah, Mr. Corey, yeah, you better keep moving. That’s the order of the moment: keep moving.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
Practical joke perpetrated by Mother Nature and a combination of improbable events. Practical joke wearing the trappings of nightmare, of terror, and desperation. Small, human drama played out in a desert 97 miles from Reno, Nevada, U.S.A., continent of North America, the Earth and, of course, the Twilight Zone.
CAST
Dewey Martin … Corey
Edward Binns … Col. Bob Donlin
Ted Otis … Pierson
Harry Bartell … Langford
Leslie Barrett … Brandt
Boyd Cabeen … Technician (uncredited)
Rod Serling … Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
It sounds like it could have been recorded in 1966 by a garage band in Ohio. This song is a bit unknown but like most songs today you may have heard it on commercials. This song just hits you right away with it’s distorted organ.
What a cool mid-sixties garage sound The Caesars had on this song…I like good riffs…and this one has a great organ hook. I first heard it in the mid-2000s and I’ve loved it ever since. It peaked at #70 in the Billboard 100 in 2005 and #8 in the UK in 2003. I first noticed it on an Ipod commercial and have recommended it to friends.
This was the first hit for The Caesars, who are known as The Caesar’s Palace in their native country of Sweden, and Twelve Caesars throughout the rest of Scandinavia…However due to copyrights from Caesars Palace Casino, they are known as The Caesars throughout the rest of the world.
The band went on hiatus in 2012 but since has reunited. I posted this song when I first started but only had one maybe two readers…I heard it again yesterday and had to repost it.
From Songfacts.
No hidden meaning in this song – it’s just about dancing and getting loose. It received a lot of attention in the United States after it was featured in an iPod ad. The popular iPod ads also helped boost the popularity for songs like “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by Aussie rock band JET, and “Flathead” by the Scottish band The Fratellis.
According to the band, the title “Jerk It Out” means “to just let out some steam, freak out, let yourself go, get crazy, etc.” The title has a double meaning, as it can easily be taken as being about masturbation. Keeping with the sexual double meanings, the remix of this song was called “Jerk It Harder.”
Jerk It Out
Wind me up Put me down Start me off and watch me go I’ll be runnin’ circles around you sooner than you know A little off center And I’m out of tune Just kickin’ this can along the avenue But I’m alright
‘Cause it’s easy once you know how it’s done You can’t stop now It’s already begun You feel it runnin’ through your bones And you jerk it out And you jerk it out
Shut up Hush your mouth Can’t you hear you talk too loud No can’t hear nothin’ ’cause I got my head up in the clouds I bite off anything that I can chew I’m chasing cars up and down the avenue But that’s okay
‘Cause it’s easy once you know how it’s done You can’t stop now It’s already begun You feel it runnin’ through your bones And you jerk it out
‘Cause it’s easy once you know how it’s done You can’t stop now It’s already begun You feel it runnin’ through your bones And you jerk it out And you jerk it out
And you jerk it out And you jerk it out Oh baby don’t you know You really gotta jerk it out When you jerk it out Oh baby don’t you know You really gotta jerk it out When you jerk it out Oh baby don’t you know you You really gotta jerk it out
The first thing about this episode that catches my eye is the camera work. The angles they used were really interesting and keeps this episode fresh.
I run across people who have never seen the Twilight Zone…there are a few episodes I point them to…this is one of them. This has everything a great episode has… the great casting, story, and the surprise at the end.
This one has one of my very favorite twists at the end. At the time of this episode it had to hit home for many people…The Cold War and fear of nuclear annihilation were ever-present. Fritz Weaver did an amazing job of relating the fear and paranoia of an oncoming disaster.
Edward Andrews played Carling a security officer who is unlikable at first sight. He toys with the two families determined to block their secret plans for an escape. The more I see this episode the more I really dislike this guy…he played the part very well.
Some trivia: The background noises heard aboard the ship in the final scene were later reused in Star Trek. During the closing scene, the main characters are depicted aboard a spaceship, a reuse of the ship created for Forbidden Planet
This show was written by Rod Serling and Richard Matheson
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
Quitting time at the plant. Time for supper now. Time for families. Time for a cool drink on a porch. Time for the quiet rustle of leaf-laden trees that screen out the moon, and underneath it all, behind the eyes of the men, hanging invisible over the summer night, is a horror without words. For this is the stillness before storm. This is the eve of the end.
Summary
William Sturka works as a hydrogen specialist in a highly secure plant. Conditions are tense and there are constant rumors of war. The latest is that it’s going to happen in the next 48 hours. Unbeknownst to his wife Eve and daughter Jody, he and his friend Jerry Riden have been planning an escape of sorts for themselves and their families. Jerry is a test pilot and they plan to steal the government’s latest spacecraft heading off to a planet they believe may sustain life. Their biggest challenge is Carling, a security officer who seems to be onto their plan.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
Behind a tiny ship heading into space is a doomed planet on the verge of suicide. Ahead lies a place called Earth, the third planet from the Sun. And for William Sturka and the men and women with him, it’s the eve of the beginning—in the Twilight Zone.
CAST
Fritz Weaver … William Sturka
Edward Andrews … Carling
Joe Maross … Jerry Riden
Denise Alexander … Jody Sturka
Lori March … Eve Sturka
Jeanne Evans … Ann Riden
I read about this song long before I actually heard it. It’s loud hard rock right in your face. It’s famous for lead singer Rob Tyner’s uncensored “Kick out the jams motherf***ers” rather than the tamer version that is “Kick out the jams brothers and sisters. ”
They were using the expression for a long time, because they would be critical of other bands that came to Detroit that the MC5 would open for. They’d come into town with a big reputation, and then they’d get up on stage and if they were weak the MC5 would harass them. They would yell at them, ‘Kick out the jams or get off the stage, motherf–ker!’ Finally, one day they used the expression for a title of a song.
Many bands benefit from controversy, but the controversy over this song did not go well for them, and when they pushed it too far, it got them dropped from their label.
Many retailers refused to stock the album, including a local chain called Hudson’s. The band took this as an affront and placed an ad in an underground newspaper called the Fifth Estate that read, “F–k Hudson’s.” Hudson’s responded by threatening to pull all Elektra albums, so in 1969, the label dropped the MC5, recalled the Kick Out The Jams albums still in stores, and replaced them with clean versions.
Atlantic quickly signed the band and teamed them with producer Jon Landau, but their two albums on the label flopped, and by 1973 what was just a few years earlier the most promising band in Detroit was out of action.
“MC5” stands for Motor City Five. The name was derived from The Dave Clark Five, otherwise known as the DC5. The group went through a few managers, including Bruce Burnish, before John Sinclair took them on.
Jeff Buckley who was not known as a loud artist was a huge fan of this song and often performed it at his live shows, injecting a burst of rock into his setlists.
The song peaked at #82 in the Billboard 100 in 1969.
From Songfacts
The signature song of the MC5, “Kick Out The Jams” was also their rallying cry and credo. The phrase was often taken to mean “overcome obstacles,” but it wasn’t written as a song of perseverance.
Along with the rest of the album, this was recorded live at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit on October 30 and 31 (Mischief Night and Halloween), 1968. By this time, the MC5 had gained a fervent live following in the Detroit area, but had not released any material. By the time the album was issued a few months later in early 1969, they had stirred up lots of controversy for their revolutionary stunts and associations: they sometimes brought unloaded rifles on stage, and their manager, John Sinclair, founded the White Panther party, devoted to upending political and cultural norms. The song peaked on the Hot 100 on April 5, 1969; In July, Sinclair was given a 10-year prison sentence for possession of two marijuana cigarettes. He became a cause célèbre, as many rockers voiced support for him. In 1971, John Lennon lionized him in the song “John Sinclair.”
Elektra Records president Jac Holzman is listed as the co-producer on this track along with Bruce Botnick, as they handled the live recording. Botnick was the engineer for The Doors.
This was likely the first rock song on a major label to use the word f–k in the lyrics (it was also printed in the liner notes, written by John Sinclair). It proved very provocative, but also drew attention away from other storylines, like their furious live shows and role in defining the Detroit rock sound.
The entire band was credited as writers on this song, per custom on their first album. Lead singer Rob Tyner, who died of a heart attack in 1991 at age 46, did most of the work on this one. Wayne Kramer told Songfacts:
“We were going through a very creative period. The band had just moved in together for the very first time. There used to be a building in downtown Detroit that was a dentist’s office on the second floor, and we all moved into different rooms in the dentist’s office as our bedrooms. And then downstairs was a storefront. I covered the walls with egg crates and made it a rehearsal studio, so for the first time we could rehearse whenever we wanted to – all day, all night if we wanted to – and we all lived there.
So, it became possible to really develop some songs and some music. And Tyner and I developed a little habit of sitting down at the kitchen table with a couple of joints of reefer, a little amp, my electric guitar. He’d have a notepad, I would just play guitar riffs, and he would listen and say, ‘Wait, wait… play that one again. No, change that a little bit. OK, play that again. Play that four times.’ And then we would start to cobble the songs together. That was where ‘Kick Out The Jams’ was born.”
Rage Against The Machine covered this on their 2000 album Renegades. On August 27, 2008, Rage performed the song with MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer at the Denver Coliseum during the Democratic National Convention, which was being held nearby.
This was the first song played on XFM’s launch as a Londonwide commercial station on September 1, 1997. 23 years later, it was the also the final track broadcast by XFM before its re-branding as Radio X on September 21, 2015.
The censored version
The uncensored version
Kick Out The Jams
Kick out the jams motherfuckers ! Yeah! I, I, I, I, I’m gonna I’m gonna kick ’em out ! Yeah !
Well I feel pretty good And I guess that I could get crazy now baby Cause we all got in tune And when the dressing room got hazy now baby
I know how you want it child Hot, quick and tight The girls can’t stand it When you’re doin’ it right Let me up on the stand And let me kick out the jam Yes, kick out the jams I want to kick ’em out!
Yes I’m starting to sweat You know my shirt’s all wet What a feeling In the sound that abounds And resounds and rebounds off the ceiling
You gotta have it baby You can’t do without When you get that feeling You gotta sock ’em out Put that mike in my hand And let me kick out the jam Yes ! Kick out the jams I want to kick ’em out
So you got to give it up You know you can’t get enough Miss Mackenzie Cause it gets in your brain It drives you insane Leaping frenzy
The wailin’ guitars girl The crash of the drums Make you want to keep-a-rockin’ Till the morning comes
Let me be who I am And let me kick out the jams Yes, kick out the jams I done kicked em out!!!
Chris Bell was the founding member and guitarist/singer/songwriter for Big Star. Chris left after the first album never sold.. He played afterwards a little but then went into a huge depression.
This song has a hard trippy edge to it. I love his voice in this one…he sounds like he is on a mission and he was at the time.
He was doing drugs, drinking, and basically shutting himself off to people. He was this way for months and his brother David took him over to Italy to try to help him. His brother snapped this picture of Chris that was used on his debut album that was released after his death.
Little by little Chris started to get better and more religious…that helped him cut out the hard drugs. He would battle depression for the rest of his short life but he never got as bad as when he quit Big Star. You can hear the hurt in his voice in this song.
This song is about him finding God.. The lyrics are brutally honest. He did attempt suicide twice and states that in the song. Although this was recorded in the mid-seventies…it wasn’t released until the 90s long after Chris had died in an auto accident.
Better Save Yourself
I walk the streets I’m all alone I just can’t think What I’ve been doing wrong
I know you’re mine He treats you nice It’s suicide I know, I tried it twice
You should’ve given your love to Jesus It couldn’t do you no harm Should’ve given your love to Jesus It wouldn’t do you no harm You’ve been sitting on your ass Trying to find some grace But you better save yourself If you wanna see his face
I guess there are things You’d like to know It’s getting late And I know you want to go
I love watching old Slade videos on youtube. They were a lot of fun to listen to and watch. They were a hard rocking glam band that somehow never made it in America. Some of their songs did a decade later covered by Quiet Riot. Slade did have a couple of hits in the 80s in America but their golden period was in the early to mid seventies.
They weren’t the only UK band not to hit big in America. They are joined by T. Rex, The Small Faces, Oasis, and The Jam just to name a few.
This song peaked at #1 in the UK and #97 in the Billboard 100 in 1972. The song was written by band members Noddy Holder and Jim Lea.
Jim Lea said he had been working on the song for a few years… he stole a phrase or two from The Beatles Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey and nobody ever noticed.
Came up to you one night noticed the look in your eye, I saw you was on your own, and it was alright, yeh it was alright. They said I could call you Sidney, oh I couldn’t make out why, standing here on your own an’ it was alright, yeh it was alright.
[Chorus] So won’t you take me back home, a take me back home, and if we can find plenty to do and that will be alright yeh it will be alright
O you and your bottle of brandy, both of you smell the same, you’re still on your feet, still standing so it was alright, yeh it was alright. The superman comes to meet you, looks twice the size of me, I didn’t stay round to say goodnight so it was alright, yeh it was alright.
[Chorus]
So won’t you take me back home my baby, ah won’t you take me back home yeh I said take me, take me take, take me back home, take me take me take, take me back home oh won’t you..
The first episode of a brand new decade that would see the world change immeasurably.
This episode has a great what if story. What if… you could change your face just by looking at a picture or from memory? Many times in the Twilight Zone these talents are given to people who want more out of life than they have earned. Instead of using this for the good…we have a small time crook trying to take advantage people.
He had his own face and he ended up changing into 3 different faces. He would scanned the paper and changed into people who he could take advantage of their situation. They were going to cast the same actor and use makeup but they decided to cast 4 different actors with same eye color and build.
This show was written by Rod Serling and George Clayton Johnson
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
His name is Arch Hammer, he’s 36 years old. He’s been a salesman, a dispatcher, a truck driver, a con man, a bookie, and a part-time bartender. This is a cheap man, a nickel-and-dime man, with a cheapness that goes past the suit and the shirt; a cheapness of mind, a cheapness of taste, a tawdry little shine on the seat of his conscience, and a dark-room squint at a world whose sunlight has never gotten through to him. But Mr. Hammer has a talent, discovered at a very early age. This much he does have. He can make his face change. He can twitch a muscle, move a jaw, concentrate on the cast of his eyes, and he can change his face. He can change it into anything he wants. Mr. Archie Hammer, jack-of-all-trades, has just checked in at three-eighty a night, with two bags, some newspaper clippings, a most odd talent, and a master plan to destroy some lives.
Summary
Arch Hammer arrives in the city and checks into a seedy hotel. He looks like any other man but looks can be deceiving. Hammer has the ability to change his appearance at whim, a trick he definitely uses to his own advantage. He takes on the appearance of the recently deceased musician Johnny Foster. who died in a car accident. He goes to meet Maggie, a lounge singer who is mourning Foster’s death, and convinces her to run off with him. He then takes on the appearance of Virge Sterig, a gangster whose bullet-riddled body was recently found in the river. He then visits mob boss Penell who double-crossed him to get his share of the money their most recent job. An unplanned change of face doesn’t go over well, however.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
He was Arch Hammer, a cheap little man who just checked in. He was Johnny Foster, who played a trumpet and was loved beyond words. He was Virgil Sterig, with money in his pocket. He was Andy Marshak, who got some of his agony back on a sidewalk in front of a cheap hotel. Hammer, Foster, Sterig, Marshak—and all four of them were dying.
CAST
Harry Townes … Arch Hammer Phillip Pine … Virge Sterig Ross Martin … Johnny Foster Don Gordon … Andy Marshak Harry Jackson … Trumpeter Bernard Fein … Penell Peter Brocco … Mr. Marshak Milton Frome … Detective Beverly Garland … Maggie
I didn’t first hear this song when it was originally released in 1981. I had a friend who played it to me a few years later after it was re-recorded. It was an important song in REM’s career…it broke them on the charts…not super high but on the charts just the same.
This song was R.E.M.’s first single, released in 1981 on the short-lived independent record label Hib-Tone. The single received critical acclaim, and its success earned the band a record deal with I.R.S. Records. R.E.M. re-recorded the song for their 1983 debut album Murmur.
The re-recording was released by a larger I.R.S. and peaked at #78 in the Billboard 100 and #25 on the Mainstream Rock Chart.
Radio Free Europe is a radio network run by the United States government that broadcasts to Europe and the Middle East. The mission of the broadcasts is to promote democracy and freedom, but R.E.M. makes the point that this can easily cross the line into propaganda.
Drummer Bill Berry: “This song was pivotal to the continuation of our career,” “Most fans may not realize that for two years before Murmur was released, we barely made financial ends meet by playing tiny clubs around the southeast. Our gasoline budget prevented us from venturing further. Put simply, our existence was impoverished. College radio and major city club scenes embraced this song and expanded our audience to the extent that we moved from small clubs to medium-sized venues and the additional revenue made it possible to logically pursue this wild musical endeavor. I dare not contemplate what our fate would have been had this song not appeared when it did.”
From Songfacts
There was a good reason for Michael Stipe’s infamously indecipherable lyrics on this song: he hadn’t finished them by the time they recorded it. In a 1988 NME interview, Stipe described the lyrical content as “complete babbling.”
R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe said in a 1983 interview with Alternative America: “We were all so scared of what the other one would say, that everyone nodded their head in agreement to anything to come up. The earlier songs were incredibly fundamental, real simple, songs that you could write in five minutes. Most of them didn’t have any words. I just got up and howled and hollered a lot.
That’s true. I’ve got to write words for ‘Radio Free Europe,’ because we’re going to re-record that for the album. It still doesn’t have a second or third verse. I think there are actually lyrics to every song on the EP.”
Stipe noted being apparently unaware of his own genius: “The guys always said I do something harmonically here that made them all go ‘whoa,’ because it was so advanced … or something, in the ‘straight off the boat’ part. I wonder if I tricked them by accident? I still have no idea what it is they’re talking about.”
The video for this song, directed by Arthur Pierson, was shot in the famed Paradise Gardens, a folk art sculpture garden crafted by artist Howard Finster in Pennville, Georgia. Finster, a Baptist minister, also painted the album art for R.E.M.’s second album, Reckoning.
This version is the original Hib-Tone version.
Radio Free Europe
Beside yourself if radio’s gonna stay Reason: it could polish up the gray Put that, put that, put that up your wall That this isn’t country at all
Raving station, beside yourself
Keep me out of country and the word Deal the porch is leading us absurd Push that, push that, push that to the hull That this isn’t nothing at all
Straight off the boat Where to go?
Calling on in transit Calling on in transit Radio Free Europe Radio
Beside defying’ media too fast Instead of pushin’ palaces to fall Put that, put that, put that before all That this isn’t fortunate at all
Raving station, beside yourself
Calling on in transit Calling on in transit Radio Free Europe Radio
Decide yourself Calling on a boat Media’s too fast
Keep me out of country and the word Disappointers into us absurd
Straight off the boat Where to go?
Calling on in transit Calling on in transit Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe
Calling on in transit Calling on in transit Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe
Thanks to Aphoristical for pointing me to this song and album. At the end of 2005, years after the band had broken up…Warner Music Group ended up with rights to the Replacements’ Twin/Tone albums, and their entire catalog was finally placed under one roof. They offered Westerberg and Stinson a deal for the band to reunite and record. They wanted to package a “Best Of” album with a few new songs.
They had been feuding with each other off and on since the break up. Westerberg and Stinson ended their feud and agreed to do it. They did not invite Slim Dunlap to participate for some reason. They did however invite drummer Chris Mars to join them. They patched things up with Mars but he was an artist and doing it for a living and didn’t want to play. He did come to the sessions anyway. Drummer Josh Freese had flown out to play drums. To show you how they operated…here is Westerberg’s thought on that.
“And Chris, he was still a Replacement…The first thing out of his mouth to Josh was something like, ‘Man, you almost played that really good.’ That’s what we missed. You don’t have to play the drums. You can just bring the attitude.”
The band recorded two songs Message to the Boys and Pool and Dive. They appeared on the album Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was? They didn’t end up touring at that time but offers came in year after year and the money offers got bigger.
Westerberg:“The fact that we came up short is the thing that’s kept us interesting. That is part of the attraction. We’ve retained this mystique.”
Paul and Tommy would later reunite again in 2012. Former guitar player Slim Dunlap had a major stroke and they contributed to a benefit album of Slim’s songs along with many artists. In 2013 they started to play live again and eventually toured until 2015 when it ended abruptly.
Paul Westerberg about the reunion in 2006 and missing former member Bob Stinson: “The answer to the million-dollar question is yes, when Bob died, something died in me and Tommy, and we’ve never been the same since,” said Westerberg. “And it’s always been awkward, and it’s always been unsaid and unsayable and strange and weird between us.”
This concludes taking a song off of each album from the Replacements… thanks for following here every Monday. I’ll still post some Replacements here and there.
Message To The Boys
Well I met her in a bar Like I always say She was digging Tommy’s cute Way down in FLA
Wearing that vest with nothing underneath Looking her best in the Florida heat Sent a message to the boys She was wearing that vest with nothing underneath She be looking her best in the Florida heat, yeah Sent a message to the boys
Well, she couldn’t cut loose With her mommy around So she packed her pretty bags Went to the run-away town
Used to call me late at night Said she missed her little maid I never asked twice how the bills got paid She sent a message to the boys Used to call me every night Said she missed her little maid Never ever asked twice how the bills got paid Sent the message to the boys
She sent a message to the boys She’s gonna be there, if you need her I can’t forget her and her voice And her voice
Was a lady to the end Now to this I can attest She knew how to move Yeah, when she rock’n’rolled this
She sent a message to the boys She’s gonna be there, if you need her I can’t forget her and her voice
She sent a message to the boys She sent a message to the boys God, I miss her and her voice She sent a message to the boys She sent a message to the boys Oh god, I miss her and her voice
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