What strong song by Chrissie Hynde after two of her band members die and leaving Ray Davies.
She wrote this song, which finds her coping with transition and approaching middle age. Following the 1981 Pretenders album Pretenders II, two of the four band members – Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott – died of drug overdoses, leaving just Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers, who remained the mainstays in the band amongst a rotating cast of guitarists and bass players.
This song peaked at #19 in the Billboard 100 in 1984.
From Songfacts
“Middle of the Road” is Chrissie Hynde’s credo. She told the Austin American-Statesman: “My personal discipline has been to try to stay in the middle, always, no matter what I’m doing. If I buy a jacket and it comes in three sizes, I want a medium. You have to learn how to temper yourself and hold back till you get to the end.”
Toward the end of the song, Hynde sings about the media hounding her. She has always tried to keep her private life to herself.
On this track, Hynde sings, “I got a kid, I’m 33.”
She was actually 32 when the song was released as a single in late 1983. In January that year, she had a daughter, Natalie, who she was raising as a single mother after leaving the father, Ray Davies from the Kinks.
A little after the 3-minute mark, Hynde lets loose one of the most famous yowls in rock. The feline inflection plays to the line, “I’m not the cat I used to be.”
Middle of the Road
The middle of the road is trying to find me I’m standing in the middle of life with my plans behind me Well I got a smile for everyone I meet As long as you don’t try dragging my bay Or dropping the bomb on my street
Now come on baby Get in the road Oh come on now In the middle of the road, yeah
In the middle of the road you see the darnedest things Like fat guys driving ’round in jeeps through the city Wearing big diamond rings and silk suits Past corrugated tin shacks full up with kids Oh man I don’t mean a Hampstead nursery When you own a big chunk of the bloody third world The babies just come with the scenery
Oh come on baby Get in the road Oh come on now In the middle of the road, yeah
The middle of the road is no private cul-de-sac I can’t get from the cab to the curb Without some little jerk on my back Don’t harass me, can’t you tell I’m going home, I’m tired as hell I’m not the cat I used to be I got a kid, I’m thirty-three
Baby, get in the road Come on now In the middle of the road Yeah
If death could be translated into a tone…Neil had it with his guitar when he played the Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) intro. It’s one of the darkest, nastiest, ominous and distorted tones ever.
This is an alternate version of Young’s song “My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue).” The lyrics are slightly different, and “Hey Hey, My My” is electric, while “My My, Hey Hey,” is acoustic. (At the bottom)
The two songs we are covering today are on Rust Never Sleeps. The album peaked at #8 on the Billboard album chart in 1979.
Ok… Now My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)… This song has the line (It’s better to burn out than to fade away) which I see is still being talked about to this day.
John Lennon expressed his disagreement with the “burn out or fade away” sentiment in this song: “I hate it. It’s better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. If he was talking about burning out like Sid Vicious, forget it. I don’t appreciate the worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or dead John Wayne. It’s the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison – it’s garbage to me. I worship the people who survive.”
Neil Young responded to the quote, saying that he was describing the paradoxical nature of the rock-and-roll lifestyle, not advocating it.
The line got responses from many rock stars and was included in Kurt Cobain’s suicide note.
From Songfacts
Young recorded this with the band Crazy Horse. It was the first time Young recorded with them since Zuma in 1975.
In the biography of Neil Young, Shakey by Jimmy McDonough, Neil points out that this song came about when he was jamming with the band Devo. The phrase, “Rust never sleeps” was uttered by Mark Mothersbaugh, and Neil, loving the impromptu line, acquired it.
The lyrics refer to “The King” and Johnny Rotten as rockers whose legacies live on. The king is Elvis Presley and Johnny Rotten was the lead singer of The Sex Pistols.
In The Complete Guide to the Music of Neil Young, Young explains why the line “rust never sleeps” appealed to him. “It relates to my career; the longer I keep on going the more I have to fight this corrosion. And now that’s gotten to be like the World Series for me. The competition’s there, whether I will corrode and eventually not be able to move anymore and just repeat myself until further notice or whether I will be able to expand and keep the corrosion down a little.”
This is the last song on the electric side of Rust Never Sleeps. The first side (first five songs on the CD) are acoustic.
The song has become a standby of Young’s live performances, being played at nearly every live show throughout his career, often as a closing song.
This was included on Live Rust, a concert album and video featuring Young playing against a backdrop of comically enormous amps and microphones.
Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
Hey hey, my my Rock and roll can never die There’s more to the picture Than meets the eye. Hey hey, my my.
Out of the blue and into the black You pay for this, but they give you that And once you’re gone, you can’t come back When you’re out of the blue and into the black.
The king is gone but he’s not forgotten This is the story of Johnny Rotten It’s better to burn out ’cause rust never sleeps The king is gone but he’s not forgotten.
Hey hey, my my Rock and roll can never die There’s more to the picture Than meets the eye.
My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
My my, hey hey Rock and roll is here to stay It’s better to burn out Than to fade away My my, hey hey.
Out of the blue and into the black They give you this, but you pay for that And once you’re gone, you can never come back When you’re out of the blue and into the black.
The king is gone but he’s not forgotten This is the story of a johnny rotten It’s better to burn out than it is to rust The king is gone but he’s not forgotten.
Hey hey, my my Rock and roll can never die There’s more to the picture Than meets the eye. Hey hey, my my.
Great Who track that builds up through the song. The song peaked at #17 in the Billboard 100 in 1972.
Pete Townshend wrote the song in 1970 for his Lifehouse project, a Rock Opera that never came to be. Many of the songs Townshend wrote for Lifehouse ended up on the 1971 Who’s Next album. “Join Together” was recorded for the album, but didn’t make the cut. Instead, it was released as a single in the summer of 1972. Townshend has cited the song as one of his favorites, telling Melody Maker he thought it was “incredible” and was surprised the public didn’t like it as much as he did.
Roger Daltrey on Join Together: “I remember when Pete came up with ‘Join Together,’ he literally wrote it the night before we recorded it. I quite like it as a single, it’s got a good energy to it. But at that time I was still very doubtful about bringing in the synthesizer. I just felt that with a lot of songs we’d end up spending so much time creating these piddly one-note noises that it would’ve been better just doing it on a guitar. I mean, I’m a guitar man. I love the guitar; to me it’s the perfect rock instrument. I don’t think Pete did much with those sequencing things that he couldn’t have done on the guitar anyway.”
From Songfacts
A call to “join together with the band” seemed a little out of character for The Who, and especially Pete Townshend, who famously threatened to kill anyone who came on stage during their Woodstock performance. Taken less literally, it makes more sense as a plea to young people, urging them to unite and take action.
This was a live favorite for The Who. On their 1975-’76 tour, which included the largest indoor concert ever played to that point (70,000 at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan on December 6, 1975), they would play a slower version of the song as part of a jam that often included “Naked Eye,” “Roadrunner” and “My Generation.”
Pete Townshend created the intro using an ARP synthesizer, which he also used on “Who Are You?” Townshend, who was very good with keyboards, also used an organ on the track, a Lowrey Berkshire TBO-1. This instrument also shows up in “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” When The Who performed the song live, the intro was played on a Jew’s harp by both lead singer Roger Daltrey and drummer Keith Moon.
Townshend also used two different harmonicas on the track: a chord harmonica and a bass harmonica (played live by bassist John Entwhistle).
In 2008, Nissan used this in commercials for their Maxima model. The concept was the practicality and sportiness joining together in the vehicle. In the ’00s, The Who made many licensing deals, opening the floodgates for their music to be used in movies, commercials and TV shows.
Join Together
When you hear this sound a-comin’ Hear the drummer drumming Won’t you join together with the band We don’t move in any ‘ticular direction And we don’t make no collections Won’t you join together with the band
Do you really think I care What you eat or what you wear Won’t you join together with the band There’s a million ways to laugh Ev’ry one’s a path Come on and join together with the band
Everybody join together Won’t you join together Come on and join together with the band We need to join together Come on join together Come on and join together with the band
You don’t have to play You can follow or lead the way Oh won’t you join together with the band We don’t know where we’re going But the season’s right for knowing Oh won’t you join together with the band
It’s the singer not the song That makes the music move along Oh won’t you join together with the band This is the biggest band you’ll find It’s as deep as it is wide Come on and join together with the band
Join together (Ev’rybody come on) join together Join together with the band Join together (Ev’rybody come on) join together Join together with the band
Playing For Change, a global nonprofit which helps provide music education to young people around the world has just released a collaborative version of Robbie Robertson‘s “The Weight,” the classic song recorded by The Band in 1968 for their debut album, Music From Big Pink
This song is what got me into the Allmans. Duane’s slide in the intro is all I needed to hear. The song was written by Blind Willie McTell who recorded it in 1928.
The Allman’s released it in 1971 on the Fillmore East Album.
From Gregg’s book…In around1967-68 Gregg Allman had upset his brother Duane and then Duane caught a cold or flu.
Gregg brought Duane a Taj Mahal album that included this song…this was before the Allman Brothters was formed. He bought Duane some Coricidin medicine for his cold and Duane had never played slide before…he took the medicine out of the bottle and used it for a slide…the rest is history.
Gregg Allman: So he kissed me on the cheek, and he said, “Man, that record you brought me is out of sight. There’s a guy called Jesse Ed Davis on there, this Indian dude, and he plays guitar with a damn wine bottle. Dig this.” And then I looked on the table and all these little red pills, the Coricidin pills, were on the table. He had washed the label off that pill bottle, poured all the pills out. He put on that Taj Mahal record, with Jesse Ed Davis playing slide on “Statesboro Blues,” and starting playing along with it. When I’d left those pills by his door, he hadn’t known how to play slide. From the moment that Duane put that Coricidin bottle on his ring finger, he was just a natural. Looking back on it, I think that learning to play slide was a changing moment in his life, because it was like he was back in his childhood—or maybe not his childhood, because it never seemed to me like Duane was a child, so it was more like going back to his first days of playing the guitar. He took to the slide instantly, and mastered it very quickly. He practiced for hours and hours at a time, playing that thing with a passion—just like he did when he first learned to play the guitar.
From Songfacts
This was played in sets by Hour Glass, one of the first bands Duane and Gregg Allman formed.
The band performed this at Duane Allman’s funeral, with Dickey Betts playing Duane’s guitar.
After Duane’s death, Betts played the slide guitar on this at concerts. He was reluctant to do so because he did not want to compete with Allman’s legend.
A previously unreleased studio version appears on their 1989 5-disk box set Dreams.
At the end of Duane Allman’s guitar solo, he hit an off-key note that his brother Gregg called the “note from hell.” The song made the album warts and all, as these things happen during live performances.
Statesboro Blues
Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low You got no nerve baby, to turn Uncle John from your door
I woke up this morning, I had them Statesboro Blues I woke up this morning, had them Statesboro Blues Well, I looked over in the corner, and Grandpa seemed to have them too
Well my momma died and left me My poppa died and left me I ain’t good looking baby Want someone sweet and kind
I’m goin’ to the country, baby do you want to go? But if you can’t make it baby, your sister Lucille said she wanna go
I love that woman, better than any woman I’ve ever seen Well, I love that woman, better than any woman I’ve ever seen Well, now, she treat me like a king, yeah, yeah, yeah I treat her like a doggone queen
Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low You got no nerve baby, to turn Uncle John from your door
I remember this series in the ’70s but I didn’t know much about Star Trek at that time. I started to watch the series a couple of years ago and it is really good. They were able to have more creatures and effects than the original series because of being limited in the effects they could use in the sixties with live-action.
Star Trek: The Animated Series by Filmation premiered in 1973 as a Saturday morning cartoon – four years after The Original Series’ final season. The series only produced 22 episodes and featured characters voiced by their original actors. It was the first Star Trek series to win an Emmy Award. It would run from 1973-1974
Gene Roddenberry did have full creative control over the series. Not only were the original members involved but the show introduced new crew members with a few alien ones.
The cartoon featured the first appearance of the Holodeck, which would later be used in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
One episode gave fans a deeper look into Spock’s troubled childhood, where he’s bullied for not being a full-blooded Vulcan. This episode’s story was so compelling that decades later filmmaker J.J. Abrams used the same details about Spock for his 2009 movie reboot.
As if I needed another reason to admire Leonard Nimoy…from wiki: Filmation was only going to use the voices of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Doohan and Barrett. Doohan and Barrett would also perform the voices of Sulu and Uhura. Nimoy refused to voice Spock in the series unless Nichelle Nichols and George Takei were added to the cast, claiming that Sulu and Uhura were proof of the ethnic diversity of the 23rd century and should not be recast. Nimoy also took this stand as a matter of principle, as he knew of the financial troubles many of his Star Trek co-stars were facing after the cancellation of the series.
Walter Koenig was the only original member not included because of money but because of Nimoy…the show did buy a script from Koenig so he would be paid also.
If you are a Star Trek fan you will enjoy this. Youtube has some complete episodes if you want to search. Amazon also has the series on DVD.
This song peaked at #34 in the Billboard 100 in 1981. The album There Goes the Neighborhood peaked at #20 in 1981.
This song began as an instrumental track written by Kenny Passarelli when he was the bass player in Joe’s band Barnstorm, which was active from 1972-1974. Barnstorm never released it, but Walsh and Passarelli worked it up for Walsh’s first solo album, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, in 1973, with Walsh adding the lyrics…but it didn’t make it on the album.
Passarelli shopped it around, pitching it to Elton John and Hall and Oates. When Walsh was working on this album, he and Passarelli worked with the song again and it was released.
From Songfacts
Life’s been good to Joe Walsh, but what’s it all about? Sometimes it seems like life is just an illusion, and just when you start to comprehend it, it hits you right between the eyes.
Many musicians of his era looked to gurus or other zen masters to figure it all out, but Walsh seems to have sorted it out in this song, where he concludes that letting it all get to you is a waste of your day.
The Mariachi trumpets, played by the song’s co-writer Kenny Passarelli in what Walsh described as “a drunken stupor,” are nonsensical in a way that suits the song perfectly. Why are they there? Well, why are any of us here?
The phrase “a life of illusion” was used three years earlier in the title track to the film Grease, where Frankie Valli sings:
This is the life of illusion
Wrapped up in trouble
Laced with confusion
That song was written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees.
This was featured in the opening credits of the 2005 movie The 40 Year Old Virgin. It also appears in the 2010 movie Grown Ups and in the 2010 CSI: Miami episode “L.A.”
Life Of Illusion
Sometimes, I can’t help but feeling that I’m Living a life of illusion And oh, why can’t we let it be And see through the hole in this wall of confusion I just can’t help but feeling I’m living a life of Illusion
Pow, right between the eyes Oh how nature loves her little surprises Wow, it all seems so logical now It’s just one of her better disguises And it comes with no warning, nature loves her little surprises Continual crisis
Hey, don’t you know it’s a waste of your day Caught up in endless solutions That have no meaning Just another hunch, based upon jumping conclusions Backed up against a wall of confusion Caught up in endless solutions Living a life of illusion
Yeah when you call my name, I salivate like a Pavlov dog…One of the raunchiest riffs around. Combine that with the lyrics and you have a great little rock song. This is the Stones at the top of their game.
This song was the B side to Brown Sugar. Not a bad deal for your money. It’s another great song off of the Sticky Fingers LP. Here is a review of Sticky Fingers at Aphoristic’s site.
Below Andy Johns talks about the importance of Keith Richards…no matter if he was tardy a few times.
Andy Johns engineer: When we were doing “Bitch,” Keith was very late. Jagger and Mick Taylor had been playing the song without him and it didn’t sound very good. I walked out of the kitchen and he was sitting on the floor with no shoes, eating a bowl of cereal. Suddenly he said, Oi, Andy! Give me that guitar. I handed him his clear Dan Armstrong Plexiglass guitar, he put it on, kicked the song up in tempo, and just put the vibe right on it. Instantly, it went from being this laconic mess into a real groove. And I thought, Wow. THAT’S what he does
Bitch was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, “Bitch” was recorded during October 1970 at London’s Olympic Studios, and at Stargroves utilizing the Rolling Stones Mobile studio.
From Songfacts
Love is the “bitch,” not any specific woman. Mick Jagger had many relationships he could base this on, including his breakup with Marianne Faithfull. He broke up with her after she tried to commit suicide while they were in Australia in late 1969 (Mick was filming Ned Kelly). As soon as Marianne recovered, Mick dumped her.
The Stones recorded this song, and many others on the album, at the Stargroves estate in Hampshire, England, using their mobile recording unit manned by engineer Andy Johns.
Despite (or maybe because of) the rather provocative title, this became one of the more popular Rolling Stones songs, often appearing in their setlists. It wasn’t released as a single but got plenty of play on rock radio.
In 1974, Elton John broke the “bitch” barrier on pop radio with “The Bitch Is Back,” which went to #4 in the US.
Along with “Under My Thumb,” this didn’t help the Stones’ image with women’s groups.
The album cover was designed by Andy Warhol. It was a close-up photo of a man in a pair of jeans complete with an actual zipper. The zipper caused problems in shipment because it scratched the record. They figured out that if they opened the zipper before shipment, it did minimal damage.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Keith Richards said: “It comes off pretty smooth, but it’s quite tricky. There’s an interesting bridge you have to watch out for. Otherwise, it’s a straightforward rock and soul that we love. It’s Charlie Watts’ meat and potatoes.”
This features Bobby Keys on sax and Jim Price on trumpet. They provided horns on albums and tours for The Stones in the early ’70s.
The Goo Goo Dolls covered this in 1997 on the compilation album No Alternative.
The album title Sticky Fingers refers to the aptitude of a person who is likely to steal. It went well with the lawless image The Stones put forward.
Bitch
Feeling so tired, can’t understand it Just had a fortnight’s sleep I’m feeling so tired, I’m so distracted Ain’t touched a thing all week
I’m feeling drunk, juiced up and sloppy Ain’t touched a drink all night I’m feeling hungry, can’t see the reason Just ate a horse meat pie
Yeah when you call my name I salivate like a Pavlov dog Yeah when you lay me out My heart is beating louder than a big bass drum, alright
Yeah, you got to mix it child You got to fix it must be love It’s a bitch, yeah You got to mix it child You got to fix it but love It’s a bitch, alright
Sometimes I’m sexy, move like a stud Like kicking the stall all night Sometimes I’m so shy, got to be worked on Don’t have no bark or bite, alright
Yeah when you call my name I salivate like a Pavlov dog Yeah when you lay me out My heart is bumpin’ louder than a big bass drum, alright
I said hey, yeah I feel alright now Got to be a Hey, I feel alright now Hey hey hey Hey hey yeah Hey hey hey Hey hey yeah Hey hey hey Hey hey yeah Hey hey hey Hey hey yeah Hey hey hey
John Waite was inspired by Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman while writing this song. The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #9 in the UK and #18 in New Zealand in 1984.
The songwriters Mark Leonard and Charles Sandford wrote the music for this song. Sandford also wrote the Stevie Nicks hit “Talk To Me” and co-wrote “What Kind Of Man Would I Be?” for Chicago. Leonard wrote the music for the 1986 movie Back To School and also co-wrote “Let Me Be The One,” which was recorded by Terri Nunn. John Waite wrote the lyrics. He was going through troubles with his wife and they soon would get divorced.
John Waite: I was getting divorced. I was trying to get home because my marriage was in genuine trouble – everything was wrong and it had been wrong for a while. I’d met someone in New York City when I was making my first solo album. I was alone and I was friends with another girl I met. So Missing You was essentially about three different women, I think, looking back on it. I was singing about New York, and distance, the caving in of my marriage, and the options that I had. It was bittersweet – it was about the end of my marriage and the beginning of something new. Although, when I was singing ‘I ain’t missing you’, it was denial too.
From Songfacts
This song came at a very emotional time for Waite, who lays down his burdens in his sentimental lyrics and passionate vocal performance. In our interview with John Waite, he explained that the song was about a phone call.
Waite got married in his native England before moving to New York, where he recorded his first solo album, Ignition, which was released in 1984. The album was a disappointment, and after some squabbles with his record company (Chrysalis), he returned to England and settled into married life. After extricating from his contract, he signed a new deal with EMI and returned to New York, leaving his wife behind while he made his second album, No Brakes.
“My wife was a long way away,” Waite said in a Songfacts interview. “There were quite a few women in my life at the time, and it all came sort of floating to the top.”
Waite’s feelings poured out of him in the song – on one level, he missed his wife dearly, but on a more superficial plane he didn’t miss her at all, which is what he sang on the refrain: “I ain’t missing you at all.”
The song encapsulates the disconsolation that comes with long distance love. Waite and his wife would later divorce.
One of the more memorable parts of this song happened spontaneously. Said Waite: “I had no idea I was going to sing, ‘Missing you, since you’ve been gone away, I ain’t missing you no matter what my friends say.’ I had no idea I was going to sing that, and when it came out, it floored me. I stood back from the mic, and I thought, ‘F–k it. Number 1.’ I just knew. I just knew in my heart that it was that good.”
Tina Turner took this song to #12 in the UK when she recorded it on her 1996 album Wildest Dreams. Around the same time, the soul singer Millie Jackson also recorded the song, but Turner released her version first. Jackson told us: “I recorded ‘Missing You’ And I was all excited about it, it was gonna be my next single, and the guys at Muscle Shoals said, ‘Boy you got the song out quick! I heard it at a truck stop.’ And I’m trying to figure out how in the world did they hear my song at a truck stop when it won’t be out for two weeks. And of course it was Tina Turner and we had to pull the single and come back with a different one.”
John Waite was the lead singer of a group called the Babys, whose 1978 song “Every Time I Think Of You” reached #13 in the US. Waite cribbed a lyric from that song (which was written by the songwriters Jack Conrad and Ray Kennedy) to get him started on “Missing You.” Compare the opening lyrics to these songs:
“Every Time I Think Of You” – “Every time I think of you, it always turns out good.” “Missing You” – “Every time I think of you, I always catch my breath.”
Once he had the first line, the rest of the lyrics flowed downhill, and the rest of it was written in about 10 minutes. Waite told Songfacts: “I sang the whole first verse, bridge, and chorus without stopping. Then I had to stop, I was so overwhelmed. I stood back from the mic and I couldn’t speak. Then I just rolled the tape again and got on with it.”
Some of the symbolism in this song was inspired by Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman” and Free’s “Catch A Train.” Both songs depict lonely scenarios far from a loved one.
The song was a last-minute addition to the album, but Waite had no trouble convincing his crew that it needed to be on the tracklist. “I took the tape down to the guys in the studio who were mixing, thinking the record was finished, and I knew it wasn’t, since we didn’t have ‘Missing You,'” he told us. “I played it in the control room and everybody stopped talking. It had that effect on people from the word go. It was one of those songs that defined a decade, really. It was one of the biggest. I think it’s been played about 9, 10 million times on American radio – it’s a huge thing.”
The video was in hot rotation on MTV, which helped the song climb to #1 in the US. In the clip, Waite gives a tortured performance, but what he was feeling at the time was more anxiety than heartbreak. “You can tell how shy I was at the time,” he told us. “I’m trying to sing this song and sort of look at the camera and then not look at the camera. I’m embarrassed, you know. I mean, it’s okay being on stage, because you’re in some sort of persona. But being filmed was a new experience for me on that level. I suppose it was kind of charming. But there was a million places I would rather be than being filmed at that point in my life.”
Kort Falkenberg III, who also did Waite’s video for “Change,” directed the clip. It was shot in downtown Los Angeles near Pershing Square. “The biggest thing I remember about ‘Missing You’ is that the night before I went down to Let It Rock, which was a clothes store on Melrose Avenue,” said Waite. “I bought a Johnson suit, this black two-piece suit from London that was a beautiful suit. Tiny. I was very thin at the time. And then I went and had all my hair shaved off. I thought, ‘If I’m going to do this, I’m going to go in whole hog, you know. I’m just going to do it flat out European.’
I showed up with a black suit and a crew cut, and it worked. I do everything on instinct, basically, and half of the time it’s a bullseye.”
Waite performed this on the short-lived ABC TV series Paper Dolls in 1984.
This was used in second episode of Miami Vice, “Heart of Darkness,” which aired September 28, 1984. At the time, it was the #1 song in America, landing at the top on September 22. Miami Vice spent big bucks on music and used many contemporary songs throughout the series’ five-year run. Exposure on the show also helped the artists because the show was undeniably cool. Phil Collins got the biggest boost when “In The Air Tonight” featured in the first episode.
Missing You
Everytime I think of you I always catch my breath And I’m still standing here And you’re miles away And I’m wonderin’ why you left
And there’s a storm that’s raging Through my frozen heart tonight
I hear your name in certain circles And it always makes me smile I spend my time thinkin’ about you And it’s almost driving me wild
And there’s a heart that’s breaking Down this long distance line tonight I ain’t missing you at all (Missing you) Since you’ve been gone away (Missing you) I ain’t missing you (Missing you) No matter what I might say (Missing you)
There’s a message in the wire And I’m sending you this signal tonight You don’t know how desperate I’ve become And it looks like I’m losing this fight In your world I have no meaning Though I’m trying hard to understand
And it’s my heart that’s breaking Down this long distance line tonight I ain’t missing you at all (Missing you) Since you’ve been gone away (Missing you) Oh hey, I ain’t missing you (Missing you) No matter what my friends say (Missing you)
And there’s a message that I’m sending out Like a telegraph to your soul And if I can’t bridge this distance Stop this heartbreak overload I ain’t missing you at all (Missing you) Since you’ve been gone away (Missing you) I ain’t missing you (Missing you) No matter what my friends say (Missing you)
I ain’t missing you (Missing you) I ain’t missing you, I can’t lie to myself (Missing you)
And there’s a storm that’s raging Through my frozen heart tonight I ain’t missing you at all (Missing you) Since you’ve been gone away (Missing you) I ain’t missing you (Missing you) No matter what my friends say (Missing you)
Ain’t missing you I ain’t missing you I ain’t missing you, I can’t lie to myself Ain’t missing you I ain’t missing you I ain’t missing you I ain’t missing you I ain’t missing you I ain’t missing you Ain’t missing you, oh no
No matter what my friends might say I ain’t missing you
This song is a great little rocker off of The River. This is one of many early Springsteen songs featuring cars. Some others were “Thunder Road,” “Backstreets,” and “Racing In The Street.” Bruce used the Cadillac image again in 1984 on “Pink Cadillac.”
The album The River peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100 in 1980.
Springsteen used Cadillac Ranch as a metaphor for the coming of death.
There is a real Cadillac Ranch.
In 1974 along Route 66 west of Amarillo, Texas, Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh 3. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh 3’s fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt
From Songfacts
The Cadillac Ranch is a collection of 10 Cadillacs buried hood-first in a wheat field near Amarillo, Texas. Visitors are allowed to add graffiti to the cars, which are considered works of art.
Springsteen wrote this to energize his live shows and balance off the ballads on The River.
A live favorite, it is included on the box set Live 1975-1985.
Junior Johnson is mentioned in the second verse. He was a NASCAR racer in the ’50s and early ’60s before becoming a championship car owner. He won the second Daytona 500 in 1960 and was one of the first people to discover the drafting method of racing at the super speedways.
Cars were very important growing up in New Jersey. Springsteen’s first car was a ’57 Chevy with orange flames painted on the hood.
A photo in the program for the Born In The U.S.A. tour shows Springsteen at the Cadillac Ranch.
Cadillac Ranch
Well there she sits buddy just a-gleaming in the sun There to greet a working man when his day is done I’m gonna pack my pa and I’m gonna pack my aunt I’m gonna take them down to the Cadillac ranch
Eldorado fins, whitewalls and skirts Rides just like a little bit of heaven here on earth Well buddy when I die throw my body in the back And drive me to the junkyard in my Cadillac
Cadillac, Cadillac Long and dark shiny and black Open up your engines let ’em roar Tearing up the highway like a big old dinosaur
James Dean in that mercury forty-nine Junior Johnson runnin’ through the woods of Carolina Even Burt Reynolds in that black Trans Am All gonna meet down at the Cadillac ranch
Cadillac, Cadillac Long and dark shiny and black Open up your engines let ’em roar Tearing up the highway like a big old dinosaur
Hey little girlie in the blue jeans so tight Drivin’ alone through the Wisconsin night You’re my last love, baby you’re my last chance Don’t let ’em take me to the Cadillac ranch
Cadillac, Cadillac Long and dark shiny and black Pulled up to my house today Came and took my little girl away
The show is just plain bizarre…for me, it is the strangest show Sid and Marty Krofft produced….and besides Land of the Lost, it’s my favorite Sid and Marty Krofft show. The show premiered on September 11, 1971.
It has been rumored that the Sid and Marty Krofft were inspired by hallucination drugs such as LSD. The brothers have always denied this claim. The title “Lid” is an old slang term for a hat, but by the 1970s the word “Lid” had taken on an entirely new meaning, namely as slang for an eighth of an ounce of pot. Whether they were or not…the shows they produced were NOT boring…they were very colorful and entertaining.
The show was conceived by Sid Krofft, who had a huge hat collection. He thought one day…what if all of the hats had different personalities? Sid was also influenced by Lewis Carroll and it is obvious.
The plot is: A boy (Mark), the original Eddie Munster, Butch Patrick falls down a large top hat at an amusement park and ends up in a land of Hats…there was also a genie named Weenie (Billy Hayes)…who played Witchiepoo in HR Pufnstuf. The bad guy was Charles Nelson Reilly the magician and he would go around zapping people. The seventeen episodes they made revolved around Mark’s attempts to return to the real world as Hoo Doo made life miserable for him and the good hat people.
It has a similar plotline as the more famous HR Pufnstuf…I remember the reruns through the seventies and I always hoped Mark would get out of Lidsville and back home…of course not knowing they made only 17 episodes…kinda like wanting Gilligan to get off that island.
This was the second single from their self-titled Weezer album in 2001, but it almost didn’t make the album producer Ric Ocasek fought for it and the song ended up being a radio hit in the UK. I remember listening to it on an alternative station here in Nashville.
The song peaked at #8 on the Billboard Alternative chart and #31 in the UK.
This is the most-licensed track in the Weezer catalog. Frontman Rivers Cuomo said: “The funny thing is, the song wasn’t a real radio hit. I can only speculate that it’s because the song has a cleaner guitar sound, which makes it easier for a more mainstream audience.”
From Songfacts
Weezer started recording this on January 1, 2001 at Cello Studios in Los Angeles, which used to be a part of Western Studios, where Frank Sinatra, The Mamas And The Papas and The Beach Boys all recorded. Sometime in April 2001, someone stole a copy of the master tapes and leaked the album on the Internet in unfinished form. >>
Two different videos were made for this song. One shows the band playing at a Mexican wedding, and the other, more popular version shows the band cavorting with different wild animals. This version was directed by Spike Jonze.
In 2006, Emma Roberts covered this for the soundtrack of Aquamarine.
In late 2001, the band began playing this in concert with a reworked version of the solo. In 2005, Rivers Cuomo would play this by himself on an acoustic guitar to open their encores.
Island In The Sun
hip hip hip hip hip hip hip hip
When you’re on a holiday You can’t find the words to say All the things that come to you And I wanna feel it too
On an island in the sun We’ll be playing and having fun And it makes me feel so fine I can’t control my brain
hip hip hip hip
When you’re on a golden sea You don’t need no memory Just a place to call your own As we drift into the zone
On an island in the sun We’ll be playing and having fun And it makes me feel so fine I can’t control my brain
We’ll run away together We’ll spend some time forever We’ll never feel bad anymore
hip hip hip hip hip hip
On an island in the sun We’ll be playing and having fun And it makes me feel so fine I can’t control my brain
We’ll run away together We’ll spend some time forever We’ll never feel bad any more
Hip hip
We’ll never feel bad anymore (hip hip) (hip hip) No no (hip hip) (hip hip) We’ll never feel bad anymore (hip hip) In a island in the sun
I thought this song charted higher than it did in America…because I heard it constantly back in the 80s. The song peaked at #36 in the Billboard 100 in 1980. It did peak at #3 in the UK, #6 in Canada, #9 in New Zealand and #1 in Australia.
When asked about this song the Vapors explained that it is a love song about someone who lost their girlfriend and was going slowly crazy. Lead singer Dave Fenton said: “Turning Japanese is all the clichés about angst and youth and turning into something you didn’t expect to.”
The Vapors would be a true one-hit-wonder…this was their only song in the Billboard 100.
From Songfacts
One of the more misinterpreted songs of all time, one rumor was that “Turning Japanese” refers to the Asian facial features people get at the moment of climax during masturbation.
That recognizable opening riff repeated a few places in the song is actually called “the oriental riff” (example here). It is often used when a Western song wants to invoke the Far East; other popular examples are Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting” and Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Hong Kong Garden.”
The Vapors were a British pub-rock group formed by David Fenton (vocals), Edward Bazalgette (guitar), Steve Smith (bass) and Howard Smith (drums). They were discovered and managed by Bruce Foxton of the Jam. Ironically The Vapors enjoyed a bigger hit in America with this song than The Jam would ever have. The Vapors’ did not chart again in the US, however they had a couple of other minor hits in the UK. After releasing another album in 1981 they called it quits. After the band disbanded Fenton retired from creating music and went to work in the music industry as a lawyer. Bazalgette became a television producer at the BBC.
This song turns up in the weirdest places, like in an episode of Bill Nye: The Science Guy where it was Weird-Al’d into a song about electricity. A Dr. Pepper commercial uses the tune, as does a commercial for KFC restaurants where it’s sung on karaoke. The song also featured in the films Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion (1997) and Charlie’s Angels (2000).
This song topped the Australian charts for two weeks. It was also a minor hit in Japan.
A commonly misheard lyric is at the end of the bridge, “Everyone avoids me like a psyched lone ranger.” It is not “Everyone avoids me like a psycho ranger.”
Kirsten Dunst recorded this song for a video that was shown at a 2009 exhibition in London called Pop Life: Art In A Material World. The video was directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels, Terminator Salvation) and shot in Tokyo, where Dunst performs as a Japanese schoolgirl.
Turning Japanese
I’ve got your picture Of me and you You wrote “I love you” I wrote “me too” I sit there staring and there’s nothing else to do
Oh it’s in color Your hair is brown Your eyes are hazel And soft as clouds I often kiss you when there’s no one else around
I’ve got your picture, I’ve got your picture I’d like a million of you all ’round my cell I want the doctor to take your picture So I can look at you from inside as well You’ve got me turning up and turning down, I’m turning in, I’m turning ’round
I’m turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so I’m turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so
I’ve got your picture, I’ve got your picture I’d like a million of them all ’round my cell I want a doctor to take your picture So I can look at you from inside as well You’ve got me turning up and turning down, I’m turning in, I’m turning ’round
I’m turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so I’m turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so
No sex, no drugs, no wine, no women No fun, no sin, no you, no wonder it’s dark Everyone around me is a total stranger Everyone avoids me like a cyclone ranger Everyone
That’s why I’m turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so I’m turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so (Think so think, so think so, think so) Turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so
This song launched the Knack into temporary stardom and the song would last much longer than their stardom would. When they first came out I read some articles stating the kiss of death phrase “the next Beatles.” Their second album made it to #15 and after that their popularity declined.
Lead singer Doug Fieger wrote this song about a girl named Sharona Alperin (more of the full story is below in song facts) and they were together for around 4 years. Alperin was with Fieger the last week of his life; he died of cancer on February 14, 2010.
The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #6 in the UK, #1 in Canada and #3 in New Zealand… in 1979…. The album Get The Knack also peaked at #1 in 1979.
From Songfacts
The Knack lead singer Doug Fieger wrote the lyrics to this song, which is about a girl he fancied. Doug was in a long-term relationship when he walked into the clothing store where a high school student named Sharona Alperin (who had a boyfriend), was working. The age difference (he was about eight years older) and relationship status didn’t deter Fieger, who was immediately lovestruck. With his girlfriend looking on, he invited Sharona to a show. Not long after, he broke up with the girlfriend and professed his love for Sharona, creating a weird dynamic where he would come on to her even though she had a boyfriend who often attended Knack concerts with her. It got pretty heavy when Fieger started writing songs about her – they weren’t together when he composed “My Sharona.”
About a year after they first met, Sharona gave in and they started dating. She joined the band on tour and watched as the song Fieger wrote about her elevated them to stardom. The couple were together for about four years (and engaged at one point) before the rock and roll lifestyle and Fieger’s alcoholism became too much for Sharona, and they called it off. In the aftermath, Sharona answered questions about the breakup by saying that she needed to become her own Sharona, not someone else’s.
After a cooling-off period, Alperin and Fieger became friends.
In the US, this was the best-selling single of 1979.
Sharona Alperin became a high-end real estate agent in California, specializing in celebrity clientele. After the passing of Fieger, Alperin wrote on her website: “From the time Doug and I first met, both of our lives changed forever. It’s very rare for two people to have such an impact on each other. The bond we shared is something that I will treasure as long as I live, he will always have a special place in my heart.”
Doug Fieger wrote this song with Knack guitarist Berton Averre, who co-wrote many songs for the band with Fieger.
That’s Sharona Alperin on the cover of the single holding the Get The Knack album. She posed for the art even though she and Doug Fieger weren’t yet dating.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Doug Fieger said: “I was 25 when I wrote the song. But the song was written from the perspective of a 14-year-old boy. It’s just an honest song about a 14-year-old boy.”
The Chicago DJ Steve Dahl (of disco demolition fame) did a parody of this during the Iran hostage crisis, changing Sharona to “Ayatollah.” The single was a hit in Chicago, and The Knack sang it with Dahl at the International Amphitheater in 1980.
This song returned to the UK singles chart in 2009, peaking at #59 thanks to its use in a TV advert for Oatibix.
This wasn’t the only song on the album that was about Sharona and Fieger’s feelings for her. The songs “That’s What the Little Girls Do” and “(She’s So) Selfish” were also inspired by her.
Sharona is a Hebrew name, which is how Sharona Alperin ended up with it – her parents sent her to Hebrew school. It’s also the name of a small area in Israel.
In America, it’s very uncommon; in the years leading up to the song only about 10 Sharonas were born each year. In 1980 though, about 70 American Sharonas entered the world, a spike attributed to this song.
The album version runs 4:52, but the single version was edited down to 3:58. The victim of this cut was Knack guitarist Berton Averre, whose much-admired solo was chopped.
Doug Fieger of The Knack was the younger brother of famed attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who defended Dr. Jack Kervorkian.
Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of this called “My Bologna.” It was the song that kickstarted his career in song parody and his first single.
Al (before he was “weird”) recorded a few song parodies as a high school student, including a takeoff on “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” called “You Don’t Take Your Showers.” He sent some to the popular syndicated radio host Dr. Demento, who wrote back, informing Al that he had potential.
This potential was realized when Yankovic was a 19-year-old student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he was studying architecture. He was a DJ on the school radio station, where “My Sharona” was the most-requested song. Many of Al’s parodies had to do with food, so he wrote one called “My Bologna” and recorded it in the bathroom across the hall from the station. He sent it to Dr. Demento, who played it on his show to wide acclaim, making #1 on his “Funny Five” countdown for two weeks.
When The Knack played a show at the college, Al went backstage and introduced himself as the man behind “My Bologna.” As Al tells it, Doug Fieger said he loved the song and introduced him to the vice president of The Knack’s label, Capitol Records, who was standing nearby. The Capitol exec signed Al to a deal to release the single, which they did, but with minimal effort: instead of re-recording the song they just issued Al’s bathroom version (in mono) and gave it little promotion. That was the end of Al’s association with Capitol, but he had success on other labels with “I Love Rocky Road” and “Ricky,” and hit paydirt with his Michael Jackson parody, “Eat It.”
“My Bologna” wasn’t the only parody of this Knack song. Others include “Ayatollah” by the radio personality Steve Dahl, and “Babylona” by the parody band ApologetiX.
Quentin Tarantino wanted to use this in Pulp Fiction during the scene where Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames are being set upon by Zed and his brother (and the chained submissive). Fieger ended up nixing the request and the song appeared in the 1994 movie Reality Bites instead. Stacey Sher, a producer who was working on both films, recalled why Fieger chose the gas-station singalong over the basement dungeon with The Gimp. “He loved the notion of this sweet moment commemorating the person that he always loved very much,” she said. >>
The song was produced by Mike Chapman and recorded at MCA Whitney Recording Studios in Glendale, California. Chapman, who had produced Blondie and Suzi Quatro, says he told the band it would be a #1 hit the first time they played it for him.
Run-D.M.C. used the guitar riff for their 1986 song “It’s Tricky.” The Rogue Traders UK #33 hit “Watching You” in 2006 was based around this song’s melody.
My Sharona
Ooh, my little pretty one, my pretty one When you gonna give me some time, Sharona Ooh, you make my motor run, my motor run Got it coming off o’ the line, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind I always get it up, for the touch of the younger kind My, my, my, aye-aye, whoa! M-m-m-my Sharona
Come a little closer, huh, a-will ya, huh? Close enough to look in my eyes, Sharona Keeping it a mystery, it gets to me Running down the length of my thigh, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind I always get it up, for the touch of the younger kind My, my, my, aye-aye, whoa! M-m-m-my Sharona M-m-m-my Sharona
When you gonna give to me, a gift to me Is it just a matter of time, Sharona? Is it d-d-destiny, d-destiny Or is it just a game in my mind, Sharona?
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind I always get it up, for the touch of the younger kind My, my, my, aye-aye, whoa! M-m-m-m-m-m-m-my, my, my, aye-aye, whoa! M-m-m-my Sharona M-m-m-my Sharona M-m-m-my Sharona M-m-m-my Sharona
Ooooooo-ohhh, my Sharona Ooooooo-ohhh, my Sharona Ooooooo-ohhh, my Sharona
I could post a Ramone song every day and be happy. This song was on the Ramone’s first album, the self-titled Ramones album in 1976. Tommy Ramone the drummer wrote this song.
Tommy Ramone: “I wrote ‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend’ because we had all these other songs with ‘I Don’t Wanna’ – ‘I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You,’ ‘I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement.’ The only other positive song we had was ‘Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue.’
One thing we all had in common was we were frustrated. We escaped from our anger with humor. A lot of that came from Dee Dee’s sensibility, this Dada sensibility that got squeezed into ‘I Don’t Wanna.'”
The song was released as a single but didn’t chart.
From Songfacts
There were some unusual instruments used on this song, including 12-string guitars, tubular bells and a glockenspiel. Studio musicians were brought in to play them.
A track from the first Ramones album, this was their second single, following “Blitzkrieg Bop.” Like “I Remember You,” it’s a love song, just a very straightforward one.
Per Gessle of Roxette recorded this for the 2001 Ramones tribute album The Song Ramones the Same. Released as a single in his native Sweden, the song made #44.
I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
Hey, little girl I want to be your boyfriend
Sweet little girl I want to be your boyfriend
Do you love me babe?
What do you say?
Do you love me babe?
What can I say?
Because I want to be your boyfriend
Hey, little girl I want to be your boyfriend
Sweet little girl I want to be your boyfriend
Uuu uuu uuu uuu-au
Because I want to be your boyfriend
Hey, little girl I want to be your boyfriend
Sweet little girl I want to be your boyfriend
Do you love me babe?
What do you say?
Do you love me babe?
What can I say?
Because I want to be your boyfriend
Hey, little girl I want to be your boyfriend
Sweet little girl I want to be your boyfriend
Hey, little girl I want to be your boyfriend
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