Cars – Bye Bye Love —Powerpop Friday

One of the many great songs on the Cars debut album. The song to my surprise was not released as a single but it received plenty of airplay through the years.  I was written by Ric Ocasek and sung by bassist Benjamin Orr.

One of my favorite songs by the Cars that is not played as much as some of the others.

The Cars debut album Peaked at #18 on the Billboard 100 in 1979 and stayed on the Charts for 139 weeks. The Cars album was huge despite being released through the height of disco.

From Songfacts

“Bye Bye Love,” written by Rick Ocasek, is the seventh track from their debut album The Cars. Benjamin Orr does the lead vocals here – he and Ocasek shared lead vocal duties in the group.

“Bye Bye Love” is not at all to be confused with the song of the same title by The Everly Brothers (and covered by Ray Charles, Simon & Garfunkel, and others). The Everly Brothers song implies a comma: “Bye Bye, Love” where The Cars is: “Bye, Bye Love.” Of course, the lyrics and arrangement are completely different as well.

This song has been used in the HBO TV series Big Love, where it was chosen for having an ’80s sound. Since the song was written and released in 1978, that tells you how far The Cars were looking ahead.

In Frank Moriarty’s Seventies Rock – The Decade of Creative Chaos, it is noted that “The clever melding of disparate elements that characterized 1978’s The Cars led to an astonishing success for the band, chiefly because the stodgy album-oriented radio stations – which had in large part attempted to ignore punk and New Wave – finally were confronted with new music that they couldn’t help but play.”

Note also that in April of 1978, four of the top five singles currently parked on the charts were by the Bee Gees. America had Saturday Night Fever and there seemed to be no cure, so getting something not-disco on the charts at all was a spectacular achievement.

Bye Bye Love

I can’t feel this way much longer
Expecting to survive
With all these hidden innuendoes
Just waiting to arrive

It’s such a wavy midnight
And you slip into insane
Electric angel rock and roller
I hear what you’re playin’

It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love

Substitution mass confusion
Clouds inside your head
Involving all my energies
Until you visited

With your eyes of porcelain and of blue
They shock me into sense
You think you’re so illustrious
You call yourself intense

It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love
Bye goo’ bye love
bye bye love
Bye bye love

Substitution mass confusion
Clouds inside your head
Well foggin’ all my energies
Until you visited

With your eyes of porcelain and of blue
They shock me into sense
You think you’re so illustrious
You call yourself intense

It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love

Kinks – A Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy

When I was 12, I was in a Dime Store in my small town (long since gone…another WalMart casualty) walking by the Mynah Bird all of us kids talked to in 1979…looked down at the record rack and I saw this record by the Kinks. When I first saw it I thought it was the Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy I’d been hearing on the radio…by Bad Company.

I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the record and liked it more. I had a Kinks greatest hits album and knew some about them but this record got me into them heavily.

This song peaked at #30 in the Billboard 100 in 1978. Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy was on the Misfits album and it peaked at #40 on the Billboard Album charts in 1978.

Inspired by the death of Elvis Presley and the departures of bassist Andy Pyle and pianist John Gosling from The Kinks, Ray writes about whether rock and roll is something mature adults should do.

From Songfacts

Kinks leader Ray Davies wrote this song, calling it a “Method acting songwriting job.”

While he was writing the song in 1977, he learned that Elvis Presley had died, which influenced the lyric. He was staying in New York at the time, and when he looked out his window late at night, he saw a single light on in one of the buildings. Davies imagined that light being the apartment of an ardent Elvis fan, which became the character Dan the Fan in the song.

The Kinks were falling apart around this time; guitarist Dave Davies wanted to stop touring, and keyboard player John Gosling and bass player Andy Pyle had decided that Misfits would be their last album with the group. Ray Davies explained in Rolling Stone: “The song was almost a homage to them; if you listen to the lyrics, it’s about someone leaving the band because they’ve given up the cause, and the two brothers will find a way through this.”

The line, “The King is dead, rock is done,” is a reference to Elvis.
The lyrics go on to describe a man named Dan living in Davies’ block who is a huge fan of The Kinks. Whenever he feels unhappy, Dan loses himself in their music, “living in a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy.”

By 1978 The Kinks may have been selling out Madison Square Garden, but they weren’t altogether happy. “A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy” details Ray Davies and his brother Dave considering breaking up the band. “The song is about two guys,” Ray told Q Magazine. “Shall we call it a day?”

Released as the first single from Misfits, the track was The Kinks’ most successful single in the US since their 1970 top ten hit “Lola.”

A Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy

Hello you, hello me
Hello people we used to be
Isn’t it strange, we never changed
We’ve been through it all, yet we’re still the same

And I know, it’s a miracle we still go
For all we know, we might still have a way to go

Hello me, hello you
You say you want out, want to start anew
Throw in your hand, break up the band
Start a new life, be a new man

But for all we know, we might still have a way to go
Before you go, there’s something you ought to know

There’s a guy in my block, he lives for rock
He plays records day and night

And when he feels down he puts some rock ‘n’ roll on 
And it makes him feel alright

And when he feels the world is closing in
He turns his stereo way up high

He just spends his life living in a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy
He just spends his life living on the edge of reality
He just spends his life in a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy

He just spends his life living in a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy
He just spends his life living on the edge of reality
He just spends his life in a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy

He just spends his life living in a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy
Look at me, look at you
You say we’ve got nothing left to prove
The King is dead, rock is done
You might be through, but I’ve just begun

I don’t know, I feel free and I won’t let go
Before you go, there’s something you ought to know

Dan is a fan and he lives for our music 
It’s the only thing that gets him by
He’s watched us grow and he’s seen all our shows
He’s seen us low and he’s seen us high

Oh, but you and me keep thinking
That the world’s just passing us by

Don’t want to spend my life living in a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy
Don’t want to spend my life living on the edge of reality
Don’t want to waste my life hiding away any more

Don’t want to spend my life living in a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy

Guns N’ Roses – Patience

With Guns N’ Roses, I liked some of the stuff they did…I wasn’t a huge fan of Rose but I liked the rawness they brought and Slash’s guitar playing.

This song peaked at #4 on the Billboard 100 and #10 in the UK,  in 1989.

The song was on their second studio album G N’ R Lies released in 1988. The title for the album was Lies! The Sex, The Drugs, The Violence, The Shocking Truth. Geffen Records decided it was too long, so they changed it to just Lies.

From Songfacts

This song was a trendsetter in its use of all-acoustic instrumentation. This song made it safe for hard rockers to display their sensitive, vulnerable sides in a more understated way rather than utilizing the power ballad format.

The video for this song can be seen playing in the background of the Robert DeNiro film Cape Fear. 

This is a very popular Karaoke song, but one that you might want to avoid. Kimberly Starling of The Karaoke Informersays it’s one of the top 5 songs that tends to bomb: “It just eludes the average ear and when you get off key on this one it sounds to the ear like a turd in a punch bowl looks to the eye.”

On January 30th, 1989, Guns N’ Roses played this at the American Music Awards with Don Henley on drums.

Axl Rose can be heard whistling on this track. He’s also the one who blows the whistle on “Paradise City.”

Patience

One, two, one, two, three, four

Shed a tear ’cause I’m missin’ you
I’m still alright to smile
Girl, I think about you every day now
Was a time when I wasn’t sure
But you set my mind at ease
There is no doubt you’re in my heart now

Said woman take it slow, and it’ll work itself out fine
All we need is just a little patience
Said sugar make it slow and we’ll come together fine
All we need is just a little patience (Patience)
Mm, yeah

I sit here on the stairs
‘Cause I’d rather be alone
If I can’t have you right now, I’ll wait dear
Sometimes I get so tense but I can’t speed up the time
But you know love there’s one more thing to consider

Said woman take it slow and things will be just fine
You and I’ll just use a little patience
Said sugar take the time ’cause the lights are shining bright
You and I’ve got what it takes to make it
We won’t fake it, I’ll never break it
‘Cause I can’t take it

Little patience, mm yeah, mm yeah
Need a little patience, yeah
Just a little patience, yeah
Some more patience, yeah (I’ve been walking the streets at night, just trying to get it right)
A little patience, yeah (Its hard to see with so many around
You know I don’t like being stuck in the crowd)
Could use some patience, yeah (And the streets don’t change but maybe the names)
(I ain’t got time for the game ’cause I need you)
Gotta have more patience, yeah (Yeah, yeah but I need you)
All need some patience (Ooh I need you, whoa I need you)
Just a little patience is all you need (Ooh, this time, ah)

Beatles – Nowhere Man

This song’s harmonies are great and so is the incredibly treble solo in the middle. John wrote this song. John wrote this song after he spent all night trying to write a song. He eventually gave up and laid down and then the song came to him. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 in 1966.

John: “I’d spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down.  Then ‘Nowhere Man’ came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down…So letting it go is what the whole game is.  You put your finger on it, it slips away, right?  You know you turn the lights on and the cockroaches run away.  You can never grasp them.”

The guitar solo was performed by both John and George in unison on their identical Sonic Blue Fender Stratocasters. George: “I decided I’d get a Strat, and John decided he’d get one too.  So we sent out our roadie, Mal Evans, said go and get us two Strats.  And he came back with two of them, pale blue ones.  Straight away we used them on the album we were making at the time, which was ‘Rubber Soul.’  I played it a lot on that album, (most noticeably) the solo on ‘Nowhere Man’ which John and I both played in unison.”

The Beatles pushed the engineers to add treble to the solo that John and George were playing. Run it through and put the treble on it again and again. The Engineers said, “We can’t do that”…Paul told them that it was ok…if it is terrible we simply won’t use it…they kept on pushing and it worked perfectly. The engineers were also afraid of getting fined by EMI for doing things against regulations…with the Beatles though it soon became commonplace.

This shows how the Beatles were changing the rules as they were going along. Not only in writing superb songs but pushing the limits of the studio as well as doing things that pop stars just didn’t do before them…

From Songfacts

John Lennon came up with this after struggling to write a song for the album. Said Lennon: “I thought of myself sitting there, doing nothing and getting nowhere.”

This was used in the animated Beatles movie Yellow Submarine. They sing it to Jeremy Hillary Boob, Ph.D., who describes himself as an “eminent physicist, polyglot classicist, prize-winning botanist, hard-biting satirist, talented pianist, good dentist too.” The Beatles decide to take him Somewhere, and he eventually helps them to defeat the Blue Meanies. >>

This starts with a three-part harmony sung by Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney.

This is probably the first Beatles song that has nothing to do with love.

Typical of many John Lennon compositions are the “falling” melodies, which can be heard in “Nowhere Man.” Folk music often has falling melodies, indicating melancholy. In Baroque music, a falling melody means sadness. 

There is a very audible feedback 38 seconds into the song after the word “missin’.”

Natalie Merchant performed this at the 2001 special, Come Together: A Night For John Lennon’s Words And Music. She did a mellow version, as the show was also a tribute to victims of the terrorist attacks on America.

In a 1971 interview with Rolling Stone, Lennon recalled the background to this song: “I remember I was just going through this paranoia trying to write something and nothing would come out so I just lay down and tried to not write and then this came out, the whole thing came out in one gulp.”

In 2003, John Lennon’s original handwritten lyrics to this song were auctioned at Christie’s of New York for $455,500. 

One of the many songwriters influenced by The Beatles is Graham Gouldman of 10cc, who toured with Ringo’s All-Starr Band in 2018. According to Gouldman, this song is an example of how they would create a two-part harmony, but leave out third part, which is implied. “That’s screaming out for the third harmony, but they never did it,” he told Songfacts. “And in your head, you sing along, if you’re musical, the third harmony.”

Nowhere Man

He’s a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody

Doesn’t have a point of view
Knows not where he’s going to
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere man please listen
You don’t know what you’re missing
Nowhere man, The world is at your command

He’s as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see
Nowhere man, can you see me at all
Nowhere man don’t worry
Take your time, don’t hurry
Leave it all till somebody else
Lends you a hand
Ah, la, la, la, la

Doesn’t have a point of view
Knows not where he’s going to
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere man please listen
You don’t know what you’re missing
Nowhere man, The world is at your command
Ah, la, la, la, la

He’s a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody

Jonny Quest

Jonny Quest was different than many cartoons I watched…the artwork and stories were above the normal ones at the time.

Jonny Quest the series was about the globe-trotting adventures of an eleven-year-old boy (Jonny), his scientist father (Dr. Benton Quest), his adopted brother Hadji (from Calcutta, India), his government bodyguard (Race Bannon) and his bulldog (Bandit). A young future Animal House actor Tim Matheson voiced Jonny Quest.

When I was a kid I loved Jonny’s father Dr. Benton Quest’s hands-off approach in raising Jonny and Hadji. They would be scuba diving with sharks and off in the jungle with their dog Bandit without any parent around…The character Race would help them out and protect them when needed. It was exciting to see kids have the freedom to explore new places.

The series that premiered on September 18th, 1964 that is one of the most celebrated and influential animated series to come from Hanna-Barbera. The series premiered on September 18th, 1964 and is one of the best and most influential animated series to come from Hanna-Barbera. Jonny Quest only ran for one season with 26 episodes but the influence of that series is still being felt and it spawned a comic book, a remake in the 1980s, 1990s, and a couple of tv movies.

Doug Wildey was the artist and the show was going to be based on an old radio show called Jack Armstrong but Hanna-Barbera thought the rights were too expensive so they just made their own show. Wildey drew some influence from the James Bond movie Doctor No.

The artwork and the stories made Jonny Quest special.

 

 

 

Dixie Chicks – Wide Open Spaces

I’m not a big fan of newer country music…but this song sounded fresh when it was released. The song crossed over and peaked at #41 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the US Country Songs, and #1 Canda Country Tracks in 1998. The song was on the album Wide Open Spaces and it peaked at #4 on the Billboard Album Charts, #1 on the Country Album Charts, and #1 in the Canadian Country Album Charts in 1999.

Susan Gibson wrote the song years earlier. Gibson was the lead singer of the alt-country band The Groobees. They decided to include “Wide Open Spaces” on their album and their producer was Lloyd Maines… the father of Dixie Chicks lead singer, Natalie Maines. He thought the song would be perfect for the Dixie Chicks and they agreed. After testing it on a couple of audiences, they made it the title track for their major-label debut.

This album was the first album which Natalie Maines was the lead singer.

Their career was going great until all hell broke loose in 2003 after lead singer Natalie Maines criticized George Bush and the invasion of Iraq during a London concert. Country radio led the backlash against the Dixie Chicks. Stations banned their music and even told listeners to trash their CDs.

This defiant, nude cover on ‘Entertainment Weekly’ added fuel to the fire.

Image result for Natalie Maines nude

If this would have been a rock act that did the same thing…would this have happened? I would say no…

On June 26, 2019, The Dixie Chicks has confirmed that they are returning to music with a new studio album after a 13-year hiatus. They are expecting to record their first new studio album since 2006’s Taking the Long Way.

 

From Songfacts

This song was written by Susan Gibson, who was lead singer of a Texas-based band called The Groobees. She wrote the tune back in 1993 in a spirit of rebellion during her first return home from the University of Montana for Christmas break. “My mom probably said something like, ‘What time did you get home last night, honey?’ Whatever it was rubbed me the wrong way,” Gibson told The Montanan. “I sat down at the kitchen table and wrote furiously for twelve minutes, and then I went and did something else. I forgot all about it.” 

The lyrics were so specific to Gibson’s own experience, including lines about her dad warning her to check the oil in her car, she was hesitant about giving away such a personal song. Then she heard the Dixie Chicks’ version: “It made me bawl my eyes out. It was so beautiful—it had this stunning musicianship and very professional production. I could still see my handwriting on the page, and here was this gorgeous recording of it.”

Lloyd Maines, father of Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines, worked with The Groobees, and brought the song to the Chicks. The Groobees recorded their version in 1999. 

Thom Oliphant helmed the music video, which intercuts touring footage with the girls singing in open fields of wildflowers as well as performing at Winter Park, Colorado’s annual West Fest. In a Songfacts interview, Oliphant recalled: “That song probably moved them from big clubs to arenas over the course of that year, so we were just out documenting.

A lot of that stuff was shot without a clock ticking. You’re on a bus and we would shoot some stuff, and then it all was woven together with a couple of big days of shooting out around Denver. It made it look like it was all about the same time, but it wasn’t.”

The video was named the Country Music Association’s Video of the Year in 1999.

The Groobees broke up a couple of years after this became a hit, partly because they couldn’t agree on how to handle the success. Susan Gibson, who collected the bulk of the royalties as the tune’s sole writer, explained in Lone Star Music Magazine: “We were once a unified band with nothing to lose and all struggling in the same direction. Some band members thought that the success of that song meant that we could afford to take those crappy-paying, but good-exposure gigs. Others thought it meant we didn’t have to. That discrepancy resulted in each of us taking our own piece of the pie and going forward in our different directions.”

Gibson has since carved a career for herself as a solo artist, but still delights in hearing fans talk about the song: “Because the Dixie Chicks made that song so huge, I have enjoyed the look on people’s faces when they hear that I wrote that song. About 80 percent of the time, somebody has a cool story attached to it about leaving home, getting married, getting divorced, and breaking down in Moab, Utah. 19 percent of the time it’s like, ‘Oh! My mom loooooves that song!’ And there’s 1 percent out there that are like, ‘I don’t really listen to music.’ That’s OK. It’s the stories that I hear back from people that put a face to the huge numbers associated with that song.”

This spent four weeks at #1 on the country chart.

Wide Open Spaces

Who doesn’t know what I’m talking about
Who’s never left home, who’s never struck out
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone

Many precede and many will follow
A young girl’s dreams no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her, she hasn’t yet guessed

She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes

She traveled this road as a child
Wide eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won’t be coming back with the rest
If these are life’s lessons, she’ll take this test

She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes

She knows the high stakes

As her folks drive away, her dad yells, “Check the oil!”
Mom stares out the window and says, “I’m leaving my girl”
She said, “It didn’t seem like that long ago”
When she stood there and let her own folks know

She needed wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes

She knows the high stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes

Higgins (Benji)

Probably the most famous dog actor in the 60’s and 70’s. The two roles he is best known for were Benji and “The Dog” on Petticoat Junction.

In 1960, animal trainer Frank Inn found Higgins at the Burbank Animal Shelter as a puppy. A fluffy black-and-tan mixed-breed dog, he was marked like a Border Terrier, and Inn believed him to be a mix of Miniature Poodle, Cocker Spaniel, and Schnauzer. He took an immediate liking to Higgins and saw a real potential for acting in him. Higgins ended up being his biggest star.

Frank Inn, also trained Arnold Ziffel (the pig) and all of the other animals used on The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and The Waltons TV series.

Higgins won a Patsy Award in 1967, and he was cover-featured on an issue of TV Guide magazine. He was really close to Edgar Buchanan who played Uncle Joe on Petticoat Junction. They were both in the movie Benji and it would be the last role for each actor.

From 1964-1970 he was in 174 episodes of Petticoat Junction. He also appeared in The Beverly Hillbillies, Village of the Giants, Green Acres, and in the early 1970s appeared in Lassie. In 1971, at the age of 14, Higgins starred in a TV movie with Vincent Price  called “Mooch Goes to Hollywood.” Frank Inn retired Higgins, but in 1974, he brought him out of retirement to star in his greatest role, the loveable dog “Benji.”

Higgins was born December 12, 1957 (per wiki), and sadly passed away November 11, 1975…he was 4 weeks shy of his 18th birthday. Frank Inn had Higgins cremated and wanted his ashes buried with him when he died. Frank died in 2002 but because of changes in the law…Higgins could not be buried with him.

After Higgins passed away his daughter played “Benji” in the next Benji movie in 1977.

 

History of the “The One Take Dog”

 

 

Byrds – You Ain’t Going Nowhere

A great song by The Byrds that was written by Bob Dylan. The Byrds released this song in 1968 and it was on their classic album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Their version was released 3 years before Dylan commercially released a version of the song on his Greatest Hits Vol 2 album in 1971.

You Ain’t Going Nowhere peaked at #74 on the Billboard 100 in 1968. This country-rock song has been covered many times by different artists.

Dylan’s original Basement Tapes demo of this song contained the lyric “Pick up your money, pack up your tent”, which was mistakenly altered by McGuinn in the Byrds’ version to “Pack up your money, pick up your tent.” Dylan took note of this lyric change in his 1971 recording of the song, singing “Pack up your money, put up your tent McGuinn. You ain’t goin’ nowhere.” McGuinn said: “It was an honor to be in a Bob Dylan song! I got the words wrong and he changed all the words for his version of it. He and I have always been kind of like that. He likes to poke fun at me.”

From Songfacts

The likely influence on this song was Dylan’s 1967 motorcycle accident, which severely limited his mobility. The song was recorded in the basement of a house where members of The Band lived, and played with Dylan while he experimented with new sounds. The Basement Tapes album was not officially released until 1975, but the songs were circulated and this one drew the attention of The Byrds, who released it on their 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. 

The Byrds released “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” as the first single off the album peaking at #45 in the US and #74 in the UK. Guitarist and singer Roger McGuinn recalled to Uncut that their record label, Columbia Records (which was also Dylan’s record label), sent their producer Gary Usher some demos from Dylan’s Woodstock sessions. Among them were “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” and “Nothing Was Delivered” (which the Byrds also recorded), 

Roger McGuinn said “I thought they sounded really good,” he said. “You didn’t know what Bob was up to; and far as I knew, he was just laid up from a motorcycle accident. But I think it was probably a reaction to the psychedelic thing. It just got to be too much and everybody wanted to back off.”

You Ain’t Going Nowhere

Clouds so swift
Rain won’t lift
Gate won’t close
Railings froze
Get your mind off wintertime
You ain’t goin nowhere
Whoo-ee ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, Oh are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chairI don’t care
How many letters they send
Morning came and morning went
Pack up your money
Pick up your tent
You ain’t goin nowhere
Whoo-ee ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, Oh are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chairBuy me a flute
And a gun that shoots
Tailgates and substitutes
Strap yourself
To a tree with roots
You ain’t goin nowhere
Whoo-ee ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, Oh are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair

Now Genghis Kahn
He could not keep
All his kings
Supplied with sleep
We’ll climb that hill no matter how steep
When we get up to it
Whoo-ee ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, Oh are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair

 

The Beths – Happy Unhappy —Powerpop Friday

On my quest to find more powerpop music…this band was recommended to me and I’ve been listening to them for a week or so. The Beths are a band out of New Zealand and they formed in 2015. The songs are full of good guitar hooks and with Elizabeth Stokes clever writing and voice… make them fun to listen to. They have some 90s indie sound with a little of the 60s thrown in.

Happy Unhappy is off of their debut album…Future Me Hates Me released in 2018. The members are Elizabeth Stokes(vocals, guitar)  Jonathan Pearce(guitar), Benjamin Sinclair (bass) and Ivan Luketina-Johnston (drums).

A good write up on their debut album in Rolling Stone. 

From Allmusic by Marcy Donelson

Their main songwriter, Elizabeth Stokes, also fronts the Beths, a New Zealand group that combines energized guitar riffs, melodic hooks, and harmonized backing vocals in their impulsive indie rock. Having already won fans as a live act, the band released its first album, Future Me Hates Me, in 2018.

 

Happy Unhappy

I was higher than a biplane
Then you hit me like a hurricane
I bailed out, hit the ground
Washed up in a storm drainStumbled up the driveway
With a handshake and a slow wave
Now I’m crashed out on the couch
Wondering if you feel the same‘Cause you’re in my brain taking up space
I need for remembering pins and to take out the bins
And that one particular film that that actor was in
I see your face superimposed over everything
It ain’t right
(It ain’t right, it ain’t right)‘Cause I was fine on my own
Tolling steady like a dial tone
Couldn’t you leave me I was happy unhappy
But now I’m overthrown
Wish my heart were really made of stone
And I could forget you
Like I really want to

I was living with your spare change
In the pocket of your cutaways
And I get so spent waiting on your lunch break
Broke every window pane
So I can feel the cold rain
When I lie in bed catching death trying to wash it all away‘Cause you’re in my brain taking up space
I need for delivering lies and suppressing the sighs
And for navigating the escape when I get lost in your eyes
It’s taking up all of my time just to keep it in line
It ain’t right
(It ain’t right, it ain’t right)‘Cause I was fine on my own
Tolling steady like a dial tone
Couldn’t you leave me, I was happy unhappy
But now I’m overthrown
Wish my heart were really made of stone
And I could forget you
Like I really want toI was fine on my own
Tolling steady like a dial tone
Couldn’t you leave me, I was happy unhappy
But now I’m overthrown
Wish my heart were really made of stone
And I could forget you
Like I really want toI could forget you
I could forget you
I could forget you

Cheap Trick – Surrender —Powerpop Friday

Cheap Trick is such a fun band and was/is one of the hardest working bands in rock. This song was originally on their album Heaven Tonight that peaked at #48 in the Billboard Album Charts and Surrender peaked only at #62 in the Billboard 100. The version of the song that is probably best known is the live version on their breakthrough live album Cheap Trick At Budokan in 1979.

Guitar player and writer Rick Nielsen said: “I used to hear my friends saying they thought their parents were strange. The first thing I got was the opening of the chorus: ‘Mommy’s all right, daddy’s all right.’ It just rolled off at one sitting. Those opening lines, ‘Mother told me, yes, she told me I ‘d meet girls like you.’ that ‘s advice to the lovelorn, and obviously inspired by the old Shirelles hit ‘Mama said that there’d be days like this.’ It ‘s a good way to start a song if you can make it go with a chord progression.”

Surrender was ranked  #471 on its list of “the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”

From Songfacts

Though it was not a big chart hit, this teen anthem is one of Cheap Trick’s best-known songs. The singer thinks of his parents as a bit overprotective and kind of weird, but he gains a new respect for them at the end of the song when he wakes up and they are rolling around on the couch listening to his KISS records. Cheap Trick guitarist-songwriter Rick Nielsen recalls in Rolling Stone’s Top 500 songs magazine that when he wrote it, he had to “go back and put me in the head of a 14-year-old.”

This song is featured in a number of films. In Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1983) the ticket hustler Mike Damone sings “Surrender” to help try to persuade a girl to buy tickets to a Cheap Trick concert. Band members Rick Nielsen and Robin Zander appear in the film Daddy Day Care (2003), which also features this song.

In 2017, it was used in the closing credits of the film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and included on the soundtrack; director James Gunn used the Cheap Trick song “If You Want My Love” in his 2011 independent film Super.

This appears on Cheap Trick’s live album At Budokan. Robin Zander’s speech, which opens the live version is sampled on the Beastie Boy’s 1992 single “Jimmy James.”

In a Blender magazine interview, Cheap Trick ‘s drummer Bun E. Carlos recalls, “We had that track back in 1975. We used to rehearse in the basement of Rick [Nielsen]’s dad’s music shop on Seventh Avenue in Rockford, Illinois. As soon as I heard it, I thought it was a really interesting lyric.”

This song contains one of the more famous key changes in rock. According to Rick Nielsen, the song begins in B flat, goes to B for two verses, then changes key to C around 2:15 as Robin Zander sings, “Whatever happened to all this season’s losers of the year…”

The live version of this song from the Budokan concert was used on the Detroit Rock City soundtrack. The movie was about some kids going to a KISS concert. 

The lyrics about the mother being in the WAC’s is a reference to the Women’s Army Corps, which was active during World War II. And if you’re wondering why those lyrics, “Now I had heard the WACs recruited old maids for the war,” don’t make much sense, it’s because they weren’t written that way. The original lyrics were deemed too racy: “Now I had heard the WACs were either old maids or whores.”

The high-pitched sound in the mix was made using an arpeggiator on the keyboard. When the band recorded their next album, Dream Police, they used a real string section since they had a bigger budget. This is best heard on the title track.

Cheap Trick’s version of “In The Street,” originally recorded by Big Star, was used as the theme song of That ’70s Show. In this version, they incorporate the “We’re all alright” chant from “Surrender.”

In concert, this is the song where Rick Nielsen would break out his famous 5-necked guitar. Nielsen owns hundreds of guitars, many with outrageous designs built by the Hamer Guitar company.

The studio version on Heaven Tonight

The live version

Surrender

Mother told me, yes, she told me I’d meet girls like you
She also told me, “Stay away, you’ll never know what you’ll catch”
Just the other day I heard a soldier falling off
Some Indonesian junk that’s going round

Mommy’s alright, daddy’s alright, they just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away

Father says, “Your mother’s right, she’s really up on things
Before we married, mommy served in the Wacs in the Philippines”
Now, I had heard the Wacs recruited old maids for the war
But mommy isn’t one of those, I’ve known her all these years

Mommy’s alright, daddy’s alright, they just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away

Whatever happened to all this season’s losers of the year?
Every time I got to thinking, where’d they disappear?
When I woke up, mom and dad were rolling on the couch
Rolling numbers, rock and rolling, got my kiss records out

Mommy’s alright, daddy’s alright, they just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away

Away
Away

Surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away
Surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away
Surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away

Marshall Crenshaw – Someday, Someway —Powerpop Friday

I’ve said this before about other artists but I thought Marshall would have had more hits when I first heard his music in the early 80s. This is his only top forty hit…incredibly it was the only song Crenshaw had in the top 100. The song peaked at #32 in the Billboard 100 in 1982. Someday, Someway was on his self-titled debut album Marshall Crenshaw that peaked at #50 on the Billboard album charts in 1982.

This is a review of the Crenshaw’s debut album at Aphoristic Album Reviews…he has a very good album review and music site.

Marshall Crenshaw on the song: “I was taking basic rhythmic grooves from some of my favorite old rock ‘n’ roll records,” “There was a record that I really loved by Gene Vincent called ‘Lotta Lovin” that had a particular kind of beat to it. It just really did a thing to my nervous system.”

From Songfacts

Marshall Crenshaw is an American singer-songwriter who got his first break playing John Lennon in the off-Broadway touring company of the musical Beatlemania. While in New York, he recorded this song for Alan Betrock’s Shake Records, after which he was signed to Warner Bros. Records. “While I was there, I wrote ‘Someday, Someway’ and five or six of the other tunes on my first album,” he recalled to Spinner UK. “I wrote those in my hotel room. That was my next move in life, to be a recording artist. I actually had a sense of artistic direction and off I went.”

Retro rocker Robert Gordon was the first to record this tune, taking the song to #76 in 1981, then Crenshaw’s own version made #36 the next year. Though his self-titled debut album was acclaimed as a pop masterpiece upon release, this song was to be his only Billboard Top 40 hit. However he has continued to record over the next few decades and has also had some success in Hollywood, appearing in the film Peggy Sue Got Married as well as portraying Buddy Holly in La Bamba.

Speaking to American Songwriter magazine, Crenshaw described the writing of this song as an ‘Eureka’ moment. He said: “By this time I’d already written ‘(You’re My) Favorite Waste of Time’ and some other good ones, but I really thought that “Someday” was a breakthrough. I liked that it had this hypnotic riff-type basis; I’d used the basic groove to ‘Lotta Lovin’ by Gene Vincent as a starting point, thought that that was cool. And I liked the lyrics, they were nice and spare but had some depth, lots of possible meanings and implications, etc. There was something kind of mysterious about it and I liked that. It was one of those ones that came out in a rush.”

Some Day, Some Way

I can’t stand to see you sad
I can’t bear to hear you cry
If you can’t tell me what you need
All I can do is wonder why

Someday, someway aw
Someday, someway, yeah now
Someday, someway
Maybe I’ll understand you

After all you’ve done for me
All I really want to do
Is take the love you brought my way
And give it all right back to you

Someday, someway
Someday, someway yeah yeah
Someday, someway
Maybe you’ll understand me
You’ve taken everything from me
I’ve taken everything from you

I’ll love you for my whole life through
Now after all you’ve done for me
All I really want to do
Is take the love you brought my way
And give it all right back to you

Someday, someway aw
Someday, someway, yeah now
Someday, someway maybe you’ll understand me
You’ve taken everything from me
I’ve taken everything from you

I’ll love you for my whole life through
I can’t stand to see you sad
I can’t bear to hear you cry
If you can’t tell me what you need
All I can do is wonder why

Someday, someway aw
Someday, someway, yeah yeah
Someday, someway
Maybe I’ll understand you

Someday, someway aw
Someday, someway, yeah yeah
Someday, someway
Maybe you’ll understand me

Someday, someway oh!
Someday, someway, yeah now
Someday, someway
Maybe I’ll understand you

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bootleg

This was a song on their second album Bayou Country which peaked at #7 in 1969. Cool song and cool guitar lick by John Fogerty. The song is about things that are forbidden…only makes you want them more. Fogerty said: “Why is it that those things that are really bad for you – candy, ice cream, alcohol – taste so good? Why is it that the things that we can’t have we want even more?”

This song was not one of their big hits but a great song all the same. The band made a video for the song with them playing on a yacht and fans coming aboard.

From Songfacts

A bootleg is an example of an item made more appealing because it is illicit. In the ’60s, a bootleg was an illegal recording of a concert. These were often very low quality but still coveted, as they were rare and unauthorized.

Tom Fogerty played the acoustic guitar on this track.

Bootleg

Bootleg, bootleg,
Bootleg, howl.
Bootleg, bootleg,
Bootleg, howl.

Take you a glass of water
Make it against the law.
See how good the water tastes
When you can’t have any at all.

Bootleg, bootleg,
Bootleg, howl.
Bootleg, bootleg,
Bootleg, howl.

Findin’ a natural woman,
Like honey to a bee.

But you don’t buzz the flower.
When you know the honey’s free.

Bootleg, bootleg,
Bootleg, howl.
Bootleg, bootleg,
Bootleg, howl.

Suzy maybe give you some cherry pie,
But lord, that ain’t no fun.
Better you grab it when she ain’t lookin’
‘Cause you know you’d rather have it on the run.

Bootleg, bootleg,
Bootleg, howl.
Bootleg, bootleg,
Bootleg, howl.

The Babys – Isn’t It Time

The Babys were a British rock band that was active from 1975-1981. The band had 8 songs in the Billboard top 100. This song peaked at #13 in the Billboard 100, #8 in Canada, #1 in Australia, and #45 in the UK in 1977.

What I liked about The Baby’s was the voice of John Waite. He would later turn solo after the Babys broke up to have a few hits of his own. I never got to see them live but friends told me they were better live than on their records.

From Songfacts

This was the breakout hit for The Babys, a British rock group fronted by John Waite, which also includes Wally Stocker, Tony Brock, and Mike Corby. The song is about a man torn between the possibility of experiencing his great love and the fear of the consequences of its failure. It is known for its strong backup vocals performed by The Babettes, who are Lisa Freeman Roberts, Pat Henderson, Myrna Matthews, and Marti McCall

Isn’t It Time

Falling in love was the last thing I had on my mind
Holding you is a warmth that I thought I could never find
(Sitting here all alone)
Just trying to decide
(Whether to go all alone)
Or stay by your side
(Then I stop myself because)
I know I could cry
I just can’t find the answers
To the questions that keep going through my mind
Hey babe
Isn’t it time
(Isn’t it time it took time to wait)
(Falling in love could be your mistake)
Isn’t it time
(Isn’t it time you took time to wait)
(Falling in love could be your mistake)
I’ve seen visions of someone like you in my life
A love that’s strong reaching out
Holding me through the darkest night
(Sitting here all alone)
Just trying to decide
(Whether to go all alone)
Or stay by your side
(Then I stop myself because)
I don’t want to cry
I just can’t find the answers
To the questions that keep going through my mind
Hey babe
Isn’t it time
(Isn’t it time it took time to wait)
(Falling in love could be your mistake)
Isn’t it time
(Isn’t it time you took time to wait)
(Falling in love could be your mistake)
I feel a warmth in my heart
And my soul that I never knew
This love affair gives me strength
That I need just to get me through
(Sitting here all alone)
Just wondering why
(Then I stop myself because)
I know I could cry
(Then I think of you)
And everything seems alright
I’ve finally found the answers
To the questions that keep going through my mind
Hey babe
Isn’t it time
(Isn’t it time you don’t have to wait)
(Don’t have to wait)
I know it’s time
(Losing this love could be your mistake)
Ooh yeah
(Isn’t it time)
I know it’s time
(Isn’t it time you don’t have to wait)
It must be time
(Don’t have to wait)
(Losing this love could be your mistake)
(Isn’t it time)
It must be time
(Isn’t time you don’t have to wait)
(Don’t have to wait)
It oughta be time
(Losing this love could be your mistake)
(Isn’t it time)
(Isn’t it time you don’t have to wait)
(Don’t have to wait)
It must be time
(Losing this love could be your mistake)
(Isn’t it time)
(Repeat and fade)

Joe Cocker – Delta Lady

Leon Russell wrote this song. The “Delta Lady” is Rita Coolidge, who was born in Tennessee and moved to Memphis in 1967, where she met Russell. They started dating, and in 1969 Russell wrote this song about her. He was working on Joe Cocker’s second album at the time, so he contributed this song, which Cocker released as the first single from the set. Russell included the song on his first solo album the following year.

The song peaked at #69 in the Billboard 100 in 1969. The song was off the album Joe Cocker!  that peaked at #11 in 1970. Leon and Rita Coolidge would tour with Cocker and appear on the live Mad Dogs and Englishmen album…Cocker’s highest-charting LP.

It’s always been one of my favorites from Joe…I still can’t help but think of John Belushi when Joe Cocker’s name comes up.

 

From Songfacts

This song’s muse Rita Coolidge is one of the backing vocalists on the track. In her autobiography, she recalls Cocker recording the song at Russell’s studio on Skyhill Drive in Los Angeles, where she served tea to the musicians and crew. She didn’t know at the time that the song would become her calling card: she named that autobiography Delta Lady.

The song is very sensual, with Cocker singing about finding the Delta Lady “wet and naked in the garden,” and how he thinks about those times when he’s away from her and longs for her touch. No matter where he goes, he thinks of her.

Leon Russell and Rita Coolidge joined Joe Cocker on his Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, where she would sing “Superstar,” a song written by Russell and Bonnie Bramlett. “Here she is, our own Delta Lady,” Cocker would announce when introducing her, imprinting that appellation.

Russell wrote another song about Rita Coolidge, “A Song For You,” which also appeared on his debut album. The couple split soon after, just as their careers started taking off. Coolidge issued her first album in 1971 and had her first big hit in 1977 with a cover of Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher.”

Delta Lady

Woman of the country now I’ve found you
Longing in your soft and fertile delta
And I whisper sighs to satisfy your longing
For the warmth and tender shelter of my body
Oh you’re my, yes you’re my Delta Lady
Yes, you’re my, me oh my, Delta Lady

Please don’t ask how many times I found you
Standing wet and naked in the garden
And I think of days and different ways I held you
Held you closely to me, yes our heart was beating
Oh you’re my

Oh, and I’m over here in England
But I think of you, think about you
Because I love you

There are concrete mountains in the city
And pretty city women live inside them
And yet it seems the city scene is lacking
I’m so glad you’re waiting for me in the country
Oh you’re my

Everly Brothers – All I Have To Do Is Dream

This is a gorgeous song. The harmonies that the brothers had were close to perfect.

The song was written by Boudleaux Bryant and released by the Brothers in 1958. This song predates the Hot 100 launch but it was #1 in the Country and R&B Charts.

I checked the Billboard Charts and found this note… Note that because their career predates the Hot 100’s 1958 launch, some of their best-known earlier hits aren’t on the list, including 1957’s “Bye Bye Love” and “Wake Up Little Susie” and 1958’s “All I Have to Do Is Dream.”)

Phil Everly: “I remember hearing ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’ on acetate with Boudleaux’s version on it, and I said, at the time, they could have put Boudleaux’s out and it would have been a hit. It’s just a great, great song. It’s beautiful. Boudleaux was the main man who wrote all the great songs for us, and we love him.”

Boudleaux wrote sometimes by himself but other times he wrote with his wife Felice Bryant…they formed a very successful songwriting team. They wrote successful songs for the Everly Brothers and other artists, including “Bye, Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bird Dog,” “Devoted to You,” and many more…

 

 

From Songfacts

This song, which sold over a million copies, was written by Boudleaux Bryant, who was half of the world famous husband-and-wife songwriting team, Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. Together, this talented couple penned many huge hits for the Everly Brothers and other artists, including “Bye, Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bird Dog,” “Devoted to You,” “Hey Joe,” “Love Hurts,” “Raining In My Heart,” and “Rocky Top.”

Chet Atkins played tremolo-style guitar chords on the song, providing an interesting musical backing to the Everly Brothers’ unique vocal harmonies.

Boudleaux Bryant said regarding the phrase “Only trouble is, gee whiz”: “I can’t explain why I put that in there. It was just a lucky rhyme fall.”

The song reached the US charts in four straight decades: 
The Everly Brothers took it to #1 in 1958.
Richard Chamberlain’s version went to #4 in 1963.
Glen Campbell and Bobby Gentry reached #27 with it in 1970 and The Nitty Gritty Band landed at #66 in 1975.
Andy Gibb and Victoria Principal peaked at #51 in 1981.

According to Billboard magazine, the song took just 15 minutes to write.

Boudleaux was literally the man of Felice’s dreams. When she first met him, Boudleaux was playing a gig with his jazz band at the Sherwood Hotel in Milwaukee, where Felice was working as an elevator operator. But she saw him years earlier – in a dream when she was 8 years old. She told Country Music People in 1981: “When I was eight years old, I dreamt of this man. He and I were dancing to ‘our song,’ and I remembered this man’s face. So when I saw Boudleaux I recognized him! I don’t know if you can call it love at first sight or ‘My god, you friend, I was wondering when you’d come along.’ But I just clung on to him. He didn’t know who the hell I was, but somehow I knew who he was.”

All I Have To Do Is Dream

Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream
When I want you in my arms
When I want you and all your charms
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream

When I feel blue in the night
And I need you to hold me tight
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam

I can make you mine, taste your lips of wine
Anytime night or day
Only trouble is, gee whiz
I’m dreamin’ my life away

I need you so that I could die
I love you so and that is why
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam

I can make you mine, taste your lips of wine
Anytime night or day
Only trouble is, gee whiz
I’m dreamin’ my life away

I need you so that I could die
I love you so and that is why
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream

Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream