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Nirvana – About A Girl

I never was a big fan of Nirvana but I was happy they were one of the bands that help push out Hair Metal and Spandex. Cobain was a great songwriter and I would have liked to see where he would have done next. This is my favorite song by them. The song was off their debut album Bleach recorded in 1988 and released in 1989.

Kurt Cobain wrote this after spending the previous night listening to The Beatles first US album, Meet The Beatles, over and over and you can hear it in the bridge. The most popular version of the song is on the MTV Unplugged episode. It peaked at #1 in the Billboard Alternative Charts in 1994 after Cobain died.

From Songfacts

Kurt Cobain wrote this for his girlfriend at the time, Tracy Marander. They lived together for a while, and she took the photo that’s on the album cover. Marander didn’t know the song was about her until she read about it years later in the book Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana.

According to Chad Channing, who was Nirvana’s drummer at the time, Cobain didn’t have a title for this song when he brought it to the studio. Chad told us: “I remember we were rehearsing the song not long before we went in and recorded the record, Bleach. Kurt was just playing the song and we were working it out. I asked Kurt what the song was, and Kurt was like, ‘Well, I don’t really know.’ And then I said, ‘Well, what’s it about?’ And he says, ‘It’s about a girl.’ And I said, ‘Well, why don’t you just call it ‘About A Girl’?’ And he just kind of looked at me and smiled and said, ‘Okay.’ We went with that.”

Channing adds that this is one of the songs that really impressed him about Cobain’s songwriting. “It’s kind of heavy, but it’s got a total pop sensibility,” he said. “I always thought he was a great songwriter.”

This was one of Nirvana’s first songs. It was released on Sub Pop, an independent record label they recorded on before being signed by David Geffen’s DGC Records.

This is the first track on Nirvana’s acoustic album MTV Unplugged In New York, which was released after the death of Cobain. Thanks to airplay, the song hit #22 in the US in October 1994, which was about six months after Cobain died.

The album Bleach initially sold about 35,000 copies, which was pretty good for an Indie band and got them signed to a major label. The album eventually sold over 1 million copies, as many Nirvana fans bought it after Cobain died.

This was popular on college radio long before Nirvana hit it big.

The album cost about $600 to produce. They got the title from a public service campaign in San Francisco that urged intravenous drug users to “Bleach Your Works,” meaning to clean their needles with bleach so they would not spread the AIDS virus. At one point, Cobain wanted to call the album “Too Many Humans.”

The cover of Bleach shows four band members. For a while, Nirvana had a second guitarist named Jason Everman.

On Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged special, Cobain said, “This is off our first record, most people don’t own it” before playing the song.

About A Girl

I need an easy friend
I do, with an ear to lend
I don’t think you fit this shoe
I do, won’t you have a clue

I’ll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can’t see you every night
Free

I’m standing in your line
I do hope you have the time
I do pick a number too
I do keep a date with you

I’ll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can’t see you every night
Free

I need an easy friend
I do whip her in to land
I do think you fit this shoe
I do won’t you have a clue

I’ll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can’t see you every night
No I can’t see you every night
Free
I do
I do
I do
I do

The Butterfly Effect

I’m not a big Ashton Kutcher fan but I do like this movie. It got panned by many critics when it was released in 2004. I am a sucker for Time Travel movies and for me, this is a decent one. It does get very grim at times and shows that a slight change in one event can change many others that come after.

Kutcher plays Evan Treborn who is basically a good guy who keeps having blackouts as a kid. The doctors cannot figure out why, but he has a gift or curse that was passed down from his dad. If he reads and concentrates on the journals he made as a youth he can go back in time to what he wrote about. He spends the movie trying to right wrongs that shape all of his friend’s future. Every change he makes has a consequence and leads to sometimes disastrous results.

He had been in love with Kayleigh Miller since he was a kid and Kayleigh lives with her sexually abusive father and her brother is a psychopath because of his home life. They both had a choice to live with their mom or dad but they picked their dad.

I can’t go any further without ruining it. The film has plenty of flaws but if you like Time Travel you might like this. It’s not Gone With The Wind but an enjoyable movie but with adult situations…not for kids.

One thing about it…I would suggest NOT to watch the Directors Cut first because four alternative endings were filmed and personally I liked the theatrical version the best. Whichever one you see you can watch the other endings on Youtube or the DVD.

Cast

Ashton Kutcher as Evan Treborn
Amy Smart as Kayleigh Miller
Melora Walters as Andrea Treborn
Logan Lerman as Evan, age 7
Elden Henson as Lenny Kagan
William Lee Scott as Tommy “Tom” Miller
John Patrick Amedori as Evan, age 13
Eric Stoltz as George Miller
Ethan Suplee as Thumper
Cameron Bright as Tommy, age 8
Irene Gorovaia as Kayleigh, age 13
Nathaniel DeVeaux as Dr. Redfield
Tara Wilson as Heidi
Jesse Hutch as Spencer
Sarah Widdows as Kayleigh, age 7
Jake Kaese as Lenny, age 7
Kevin G. Schmidt as Lenny, age 13
Kevin Durand as Carlos
Callum Keith Rennie as Jason Treborn
Lorena Gale as Mrs. Boswell
Jacqueline Stewart as Gwen
Jesse James as Tommy, age 14

Weezer – Buddy Holly

This was released to radio on September 7, 1994, which would have been Buddy Holly’s 58th birthday.

The video for this song hooked me for not only the mention of Buddy Holly, Mary Tyler Moore but also the Happy Days set… Plus its a fun song. This song peaked at #17 on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 Charts in 1995.

Spike Jonze directed the video. Vintage Happy Days footage was intercut with shots of Weezer performing on the original Arnold’s Drive-In set. Al Molinaro, who played the diner’s owner on the series, made a cameo appearance in the video. One of the most popular clips of 1995, it scored four MTV Video Music Awards, including Breakthrough Video and Best Alternative Music Video, and two Billboard Music Video Awards, among them Alternative/Modern Rock Clip of the Year.

From Songfacts

With the “I’m yours – you’re mine” lyrics, this song sounds like a romantic missive, but lead singer Rivers Cuomo explained that it’s largely misinterpreted: the song is about defending a platonic female friend.

This was Weezer’s second single, following “Undone – The Sweater Song.” It got a lot of play on Top 40 radio and reached #2 on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart, but in a bid to boost album sales, the song wasn’t sold as a single in America, which made it ineligible for the Hot 100 (it reached #18 on the Airplay chart).

When downloading became legal and practical, this song proved very popular, and in 2006 it became Weezer’s second Gold single (following “Beverly Hills”), thanks to downloads of over 500,000.

According to the book Rivers’ Edge: The Weezer Story, Cuomo didn’t think this song fit on the album and was tempted to leave it off. It was the album’s producer, Ric Ocasek, who convinced him to include it. Cuomo is glad they left it on, as it became one of his favorite songs to perform.

The popularity of the song skyrocketed after The Microsoft Windows 95 release included its video amongst a number of “Fun Stuff” items on the CD. Watching a music video on your computer was a pretty big deal at the time.

The early demo of this song had a slower tempo and some different lyrics. The chorus originally referenced famous dancing duo Fred & Ginger: “Oo-wee-oo you look just like Ginger Rogers, Oh, oh, I move just like Fred Astaire,” before it was changed to “Oh wee-ooh, I look just like Buddy Holly, Oh, oh, and you’re Mary Tyler Moore.”

Actress Mary Tyler Moore became a household name just a couple years after Holly’s death when she landed a starring role on The Dick Van Dyke Show in 1961 (and later her own Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970).

This runs a very compact 2:39.

This song was the centerpiece of a 2015 commercial for the Honda Pilot Elite minivan. In the spot, a large family sings the song while riding in the vehicle.

On their 2018 summer tour, Weezer re-created the video when they performed this song, complete with costumes and set design.

Buddy Holly

What’s with these homies dissin’ my girl?
Why do they gotta front?
What did we ever do to these guys
That made them so violent?

Woo-hoo, but you know I’m yours.
Woo-hoo, and I know you’re mine.
Woo-hoo, and that’s for all the time.

[chorus]
Woo-ee-oo, I look just like Buddy Holly.
Oh-oh, and you’re Mary Tyler Moore.
I don’t care what they say about us anyway.
I don’t care ’bout that.

Don’t you ever fear, I’m always there. I know that you need help.
Your tongue is twisted, your eyes are slit.
You need a guardian.

Woo-hoo, and you know I’m yours.
Woo-hoo, and I know you’re mine.
Woo-hoo, and that’s for all the time.

[chorus]

I don’t care ’bout that.

Bang bang knock on the door, another big bang, you’re down on the floor.
Oh no! What do we do?
Don’t look now but I lost my shoe.
I can’t run and I can’t kick.
What’s a matter babe, are you feelin’ sick?
What’s a matter, what’s a matter, what’s a matter you?
What’s a matter babe, are you feelin’ blue?
Oh-oh-oh

And that’s for all the time. (x2)

[chorus]

I don’t care ’bout that. (x3)

John Kilzer – Memory in the Making

I was never into 80’s rock ballads but this one I liked. Maybe it was because of when I heard it, I don’t know. Kilzer released an album in 1988 “Memory in the Making” and the album contained some minor hits such as Green, Yellow, and Red, Red Blue Jeans, and Memory in the Making.

The album charted at #110 in the Billboard album charts in 1988. This song didn’t chart but got a lot of local airplay where I live. This is the only album that made it to the Billboard 200.

John Kilzer grew up in Jackson, Tennessee as a 6-foot-6-inches tall high school all American basketball standout, played for the Memphis to play for the Tigers from 1975-1978. He traded the complimentary tickets players receive with Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, author of the hit “Take Me to the River” in exchange for guitar lessons.

He passed away last month.

Memory in the Making

Throwing roses at the moon
Overdosing on perfume
That arises from your picture
An inviolate fixture
This is more than I expected
It’s as though I have erected
A mausoleum for my heart babe
I’ve reserved the best part babe
It’s a memory in the making
It’s a power that’s taking
Control of my soul girl
Now there’s nowhere left to go girl

Guess it only stands to reason
There’s a time and a season
A place and purpose
I guess that verse don’t include us
And it only goes to show you
You’re just a ghost in a castle
That’s my destiny to wrestle
It’s a memory in the making
It’s a power that’s taking
Control of my soul girl
Now I’m in danger of the dark girl
Like my mama always said boy
You can sleep when you’re dead boy
But all I really want to do girl
Is close my eyes and dream of you girl

Throwing roses at the moon
Overdosing on perfume
That arises from your pillow
How much further down love go

Black Crowes – She Talks To Angels

The song peaked at #30 at 1991 in the Billboard 100. The song was on their debut album Shake Your Money Maker that peaked at #4 in 1991. I really liked this band when they came out. They had a sound like the Stones and Faces of the early 70s.

I heard so many different origins of this song

Chris Robinson, wrote this song with his bandmate/brother Rich, said: “‘She Talks to Angels’ is a funny song in that so many people resonate with it. The dark details like drugs and things like that would be a part of growing up and being in this world, but when I wrote that song I had no idea – I hadn’t done any of those things. I hadn’t lived that – everything was in my imagination.”

From Songfacts

During VH1’s The Black Crowes Storytellers, filmed at The Bottom Line in New York City on August 27, 1996, lead singer Chris Robinson explained that this song is not about “one” person, but rather a “hot dog” (as he put it) of people that they knew from the Atlanta club scene in their early days. “Not all the best parts” explained Chris, “or the best parts for you.” Chris says that there was always a girl in the club scene back then with really dark makeup (like Siouxsie And The Banshees), and after thinking about her one day, he scribbled the lyric “she paints her eyes as black as night.” He then went on to write an entire biography (completely made up, by the way) about her in the form of the song that then became “She Talks to Angels.” >>

The Christian band Third Day has a song about the Black Crowes that references this song and others. It’s called “Black Bird” and imitates their style. The song says that Third Day really likes The Black Crowes music but that they essentially need Jesus in their lives. There is a lyric in “Black Bird” that says “You say to talk to angels, well I say it’s such a lie.”

She Talks To Angels

She never mentions the word addiction
In certain company.
Yes, she’ll tell you she’s an orphan
After you meet her family.

She paints her eyes as black as night now.
Pulls those shades down tight.
Yeah, she gives me a smile when the pain comes.
The pain gonna make everything alright.

Says she talks to angels.
They call her out by her name.
Oh yeah, she talks to angels.
Says they call her out by her name.

She keeps a lock of hair in her pocket.
She wears a cross around her neck.
Yes the hair is from a little boy,
And the cross from someone she has not met, well, not yet

Says she talks to angels.
Says they all know her name.
Oh yeah, she talks to angels.
Says they call her out by her name.

She don’t know no lover,
None that I ever seen.
Yeah, to her that ain’t nothing
But to me it means, means everything.

She paints her eyes as black as night now.
Pulls those shades down tight.
Oh yeah there’s a smile when the pain comes.
Pain’s gonna make everything alright, alright yeah

Says she talks to angels.
Says they call her out by her name.
Oh yeah, angels
Call her out by her name
Oh angel,
They call her out by her name
Oh she talks to angels,
They call her out, yeah yeah
Call her out,
Don’t you know that they call her out by her name

Janis Joplin – Mercedes Benz

This is based on a song called C’mon, God, and buy me a Mercedes Benz by the Los Angeles beat poet Michael McClure. Joplin saw McClure perform it, and on August 8, 1970, she reworked it into her own song, which she performed about an hour later.

This was a fun song off of Janis’s last album Pearl. The song did not chart as a single but the album peaked at #1 in 1971 after Janis died.

Janis Joplin never got a Mercedes Benz, but she did have a 1965 Porsche that was painted to become a piece of hippie art.

A lot of song facts for such a short song.

From Songfacts

As recounted in the Patti Smith memoir Just Kids, before her show at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, she went to a nearby bar (likely Vahsen’s, later renamed Little Dick’s) with her good friend, the songwriter Bob Neuwirth, and two more recent acquaintances, the actors Rip Torn and Geraldine Page. Joplin started reciting the line, “Oh, Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz” – the first line of McClure’s song. The four started banging beer mugs on the table to form a rhythm, and Neuwirth wrote down lyrics he and Joplin came up with on a napkin. They finished the song, and Janis performed it at the show, introducing it by saying, “I just wrote this at the bar on the corner. I’m going to do it Acapulco.”

That show was recorded and widely bootlegged, as it was her penultimate performance and the debut of “Mercedes Benz.” Joplin played her last concert on August 12 at Harvard Stadium and died on October 4.

The song is a social commentary on how many people relate happiness and self-worth with money and material possessions. Sung a capella in a blues style, Joplin was poking fun at the mindset that luxury goods will make everything better.

Janis Joplin is from Port Arthur, Texas, a small city close to the Gulf of Mexico near the Louisiana border. In the second verse, the line “Dialing for Dollars is trying to find me” refers to a segment the local NBC station ran called “Dialing for Dollars.” The station would announce a password on the air, then call a local phone number at random later on. If whoever answered knew the password, that person would win a cash prize. Variations of “Dialing for Dollars” ran in many cities throughout the United States and Canada in the ’60s and early ’70s.

This song spoke to the shift in the counterculture, as some of the impoverished musicians speaking out against the system were now very rich. As Barney Hoskyns, who wrote about Joplin and the song in his book Small Town Talk: Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock told us, “Rock was now big business, and a lot of money was flooding into the pockets of people who never expected to make it. This set up a mixture of expectation and guilt – they were acquiring a taste for the finer things but knew that a good hippie shouldn’t be materialistic. By the early ’70s it had all changed, and rock stars were the new Yuppies.”

Joplin recorded this song at Sunset Sound studios in Los Angeles on October 1, 1970 with producer Paul Rothchild, famous for his work with The Doors. It ended up being her last recording session, as she died three days later (she also recorded a version of “Happy Trails” as a 30th birthday present for John Lennon” in this session).

The Pearl album was just about finished when Joplin died. Rothchild included her raw take of “Mercedes Benz” on the album, leaving it a capella. A quip Joplin made before her vocal take – “I’d like to do a song of great social and political import” – was included as an introduction. In its unadorned state, the song showcased Joplin’s humor and raw vocal talent.

In the mid-’90s, Mercedes used this in commercials for their cars. It was one of the great misappropriations of a song in a commercial, as Joplin’s song was meant to convey the message that owning a luxury automobile does not make you a better person. Joplin’s estate – sister Laura and brother Michael – allowed Mercedes to use it.

There are three credited songwriters on this track: Joplin, Michael McClure, and Bob Neuwirth. McClure says he never earned a cent from his poetry, but “Mercedes Benz” paid for his house in the Butters Canyon section of Oakland, California.

In an interview published in hE@D Magazine, Michael McClure said that Joplin called him before recording the song to get his permission. She sang him the song, then he sang her his original version, and they both liked their own renditions better. “Then she asked me if she could sing it, and I agreed,” McClure said. “I had no idea that her songs were worth so much money.”

The soul singer Bobby Womack claimed credit for inspiring this song. According to Womack, Joplin got the idea for the song after riding in his new Mercedes 600. Womack was having success as a songwriter, and Joplin commissioned him to write a song for her Pearl album, which turned out to be “Trust Me.” She recorded that one (which also appears on the Pearl album), and asked for another.

As recounted in his Womack’s book Midnight Mover, he took her for a ride, and she was impressed with the new car. After a few blocks, she started singing: “Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedez Benz…”

When they returned to the studio, the band had gone home, but Joplin put down the vocal track.

This took place on October 1, 1970. As Womack told it, Joplin got a phone call, which he presumed was her drug dealer. She asked him to leave, they hugged goodbye, and Joplin was found dead three days later.

Mercedes Benz

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?
Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me.
I wait for delivery each day until three,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?
I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down.
Prove that you love me and buy the next round,
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?

Everybody!
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

Billy Joel – Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

I always liked this song. Billy Joel was inspired by the suite of songs on Abbey Road. It was never released as a single but has remained one of Joel’s best known songs. The song was on the album The Stranger which peaked at #2 in 1978.

The restaurant which inspired this song, since closed, was the Fontana di Trevi at 151 West 57th Street in New York City, right across from Carnegie Hall. Joel talked about the restaurant: “It was for the opera crowd, but the Italian food was really good. They didn’t really know who I was, which was fine with me, but sometimes you would have a hard time getting a table. Well, I went there when the tickets had gone on sale for my dates at Carnegie Hall, and the owner looks at me and he goes (in an Italian accent), ‘Heyyy, you’re that guy!’ And from then on, I was always able to get a good spot.”

From Songfacts

This song is about people who peaked too early: the popular jocks in class who went nowhere in life. Like most of Joel’s songs, he composed the music first, which in this case was inspired by The Beatles, specifically the suite of songs on their Abbey Road album where a few unfinished tunes were put together to create one coherent piece.

On an A&E special, Joel said he came up with the “Bottle of white bottle of red” line while he was dining at a restaurant and a waiter actually came up to him and said, “Bottle of white… bottle of red… perhaps a bottle of rosé instead?”

The “Things are okay with me these days…” part was an old piece of music he had written a long time before The Stranger album – he just changed the words around to update them. The third part of the song is an old song he had written called “The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie.”

Many towns on Joel’s stomping grounds of Long Island have a spot or field surrounded by trees called “The village green,” similar to the one he sings about here. Joel was in a gang (not a very rough one) in Levittown, Long Island called “The Parkway Green Gang.”

Joel outlined to USA Today how the Beatles inspired this song: “I had always admired the B-side of Abbey Road, which was essentially a bunch of songs strung together by (producer) George Martin. What happened was The Beatles didn’t have completely finished songs or wholly fleshed-out ideas, and George said, ‘What have you got?’ John said, ‘Well I got this,’ and Paul said, ‘I got that.’ They all sat around and went, ‘Hmm, we can put this together and that’ll fit in there.’ And that’s pretty much what I did.”

In a 2017 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Joel ranked this #1 on his list of the top Billy Joel songs. He has also cited “New York State Of Mind” as his favorite.

After adding Mike DelGuidice to his touring band in 2013, Joel began leading into this song in concerts with DelGuidice singing Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.” DelGuidice formed a popular Billy Joel tribute band called Big Shot, which get the attention of the real deal, who offered him a gig.

Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

A bottle of white, a bottle of red
Perhaps a bottle of rose instead
We’ll get a table near the street
In our old familiar place
You and I,face to face

A bottle of red, a bottle of white
It all depends upon your appetite
I’ll meet you any time you want
In our Italian Restaurant.

Things are okay with me these days
Got a good job, got a good office
Got a new wife, got a new life
And the family’s fine
We lost touch long ago
You lost weight I did not know
You could ever look so good after
So much time.

I remember those days hanging out
At the village green
Engineer boots, leather jackets
And tight blue jeans
Drop a dime in the box play the
Song about New Orleans
Cold beer, hot lights
My sweet romantic teenage nights

Brenda and Eddie were the
Popular steadys
And the king and the queen
Of the prom
Riding around with the car top
Down and the radio on.
Nobody looked any finer
Or was more of a hit at the
Parkway Diner
We never knew we could want more
Than that out of life
Surely Brenda and Eddie would
Always know how to survive.

Brenda and Eddy were still going
Steady in the summer of ’75
When they decided the marriage would
Be at the end of July
Everyone said they were crazy
“Brenda you know you’re much too lazy
Eddie could never afford to live that
Kind of life.”
But there we were wavin’ Brenda and
Eddie goodbye.

They got an apartment with deep
Pile carpet
And a couple of paintings from Sears
A big waterbed that they bought
With the bread
They had saved for a couple
Of years
They started to fight when the
Money got tight
And they just didn’t count on
The tears.

They lived for a while in a
Very nice style
But it’s always the same in the end
They got a divorce as a matter
Of course
And they parted the closest
Of friends
Then the king and the queen went
Back to the green
But you can never go back
There again.

Brenda and Eddie had had it
Already by the summer of ’75
From the high to the low to
The end of the show
For the rest of their lives
They couldn’t go back to
The greasers
The best they could do was
Pick up the pieces
We always knew they would both
Find a way to get by
That’s all I heard about
Brenda and Eddie
Can’t tell you more than I
Told you already
And here we are wavin’ Brenda
And Eddie goodbye.

A bottle of red, a bottle of white
Whatever kind of mood you’re in tonight
I’ll meet you anytime you want
In our Italian Restaurant.

George Harrison – Devil’s Radio

This song was not a big hit but it was one of my favorites off of his “comeback” album Cloud Nine in the 1980s. The song is pure George. He always valued his privacy and in this song, he made it clear he detested gossip in any way.

“Devil’s Radio” was inspired by a church billboard Harrison had seen that stated “Gossip: The Devil’s Radio…Don’t Be a Broadcaster.” The song did peak at #4 in Billboard Mainstream Chart Rock charts. The Cloud Nine album peaked at #8 in the Billboard Album Charts.

Even when George was young he didn’t like people knowing his business. As his mom would recall, “George was always against nosy mothers, and he used to hate all the neighbors who stood around gossiping.”

Devil’s Radio

Gossip, gossip
Gossip, gossip

I heard it in the night
Words that thoughtless speak
Like vultures swooping down below
On the devil’s radio

I hear it through the day
Airwaves gettin’ filled
With gossip broadcast to and fro
On the devil’s radio

Oh yeah, gossip
Gossip, oh yeah

He’s in the clubs and bars
And never turns it down
Talking about what he don’t know
On the devil’s radio

He’s in your TV set
Won’t give it a rest
That soul betraying so and so
The devil’s radio

Gossip, gossip
Gossip, gossip
(Oh yeah) gossip, (gossip) oh yeah
(Gossip) oh yeah, (oh yeah) gossip

It’s white and black like industrial waste
Pollution of the highest degree
You wonder why I don’t hang out much
I wonder how you can’t see

He’s in the films and songs
And on all your magazines
It’s everywhere that you may go
The devil’s radio

Oh yeah, gossip
Gossip, oh yeah

Runs thick and fast, no one really sees
Quite what bad it can do
As it shapes you into something cold
Like an Eskimo igloo

It’s all across our lives
Like a weed it’s spread
’till nothing else has space to grow
The devil’s radio

Can creep up in the dark
Make us hide behind shades
And buzzing like a dynamo
The devil’s radio

oh yeah
(Gossip) gossip, (gossip) gossip
Oh yeah, gossip I heard you on the secret wireless
Gossip, oh yeah You know the devil’s radio, child
Gossip, gossip
Gossip, gossip

Two Prostitutes, a Pimp, and a VCR

This is when I learned… if it sounds too good to be true…it is.

This story is so embarrassing I cringe when I think about it. I told a friend I was going to make a post about it and he asked me…are you really going to tell people you were that stupid for a day? It’s not what you think by the title. I’m not a naive person…in fact, I can be cynical at times but… this incident was undoubtedly the most naive moment in my life. Things started to happen and before I knew it…it was out of control. This, unfortunately, is not a made up story. I was raised right and if I would have practiced what I was taught…none of this would have happened…but it was a valuable lesson…

When I was 18 I was working in Nashville on Murfreesboro Road at a company that sold printers and copiers. I was making a grand total of 3.25 an hour. I would go to lunch and stop at a gas station somedays to get a paper. I met this guy there and he said he had a VCR he wanted to sell for 60 dollars. I’d seen him there before there…He seemed a bit shady…back in 1985 a VCR for 60 bucks was a great price. I wasn’t thinking morals at that time, like if it was stolen or whatever.

Stupid me… I said sure I would love to buy it…he said to follow him to a house so I did and we went in and I gave him the money…I know I know…but I did. There were a few people there but he went into another room and came out. He then said the VCR was somewhere else…after that, he asked if I could take him to a place a few miles away because his car was acting up. Bells were going off in my head at this point but… I was thinking of that VCR…so I said sure let’s go. Out comes a young woman in spandex and she went with us. I dropped the two of them off at some kind of business. A few minutes later, out they come and now there was an extra woman in spandex plus this guy. He wanted me to drop them off somewhere else to get the VCR since it had been “moved”…

By this time I was angry, embarrassed and I knew I had been not only had…but had good…and was thinking of a way out…I was scared of the cops stopping me with this crew in my car. I told him I wanted the money back and he admitted he had to give it to someone from the first house but the “girls” were going to make the money back so I would have it. I then took the trio to a destination and I said the hell with this when thoughts of shootings and cops flashed in my head…I dropped them off and they told me to wait and I took off.

A month or so later I went back to the gas station and there he was… I saw him there and I yelled at him “Hey want to buy a VCR for 60 bucks?” as I was walking toward him…he jumped in a car and took off and I never saw him again.

60 dollars for a life lesson is not bad.

I later saved up (what a concept!)…and bought a VCR for around $150…well add the 60 I lost and that would be $210.

My friends have never let me live this down…which if it would have happened to them I would not have either.

Again if it sounds too good to be true…it is.

James Carr – Pouring Water On A Drowning Man

Pouring Water on a Drowning Man charted at #85 in the Billboard 100 and #23 in the R&B Chart in 1966. This song is so easy to listen to. Great guitar sound and Carr’s voice is wonderful. The small intro is worth it. He lived in Memphis and was called “the world’s greatest Soul Singer” but he had a bipolar disorder and that made it hard for him to tour because of the depression.

At one time he was mentioned along with Otis Redding and they had the same manager for a while. The guy had a great voice.

He toured Japan in1979 and stood motionless at the microphone as though in a hypnotic trance on many dates. He returned to Memphis, where he lived with his sister (in between institutionalizations), and spent much of the ’80s barely conscious of the world around him.

He did improve with medicine and in the 90s he did make an album, Take Me to the Limit and in 94 he released another album Soul Survivor. Soon after he died of lung cancer in 2001.

Pouring Water On A Drowning Man

You push me when I’m falling and you kick me when I’m down
I guess I missed my calling ’cause I should have been a clown
How much more, how much more could I stand
When you’re pouring water on a drowning man, I like that

Put me on the right track
And then you let me down
You stab me in the back, yes you do baby
Every time I turn around, oh

Criticize my loving
Won’t you try, just try to understand
You’re pouring water, I got to tell you about it, on a drowning man

You’re pouring water on a drowning man
You treat me like the fool that I am
You brag that I like everything you do
You put salt in my wounds it’s sad but it’s true

You warm me with your kissin’ then you leave me in the cold
How can I know your wishes, when you tell me, when I’ve never been told, alright
I cry in mercy baby, just try to understand
You’re pouring water, I got to tell you about it, on a drowning man, yeah

You’re pouring water, ha ha, you see I’m a drowning man
Oh I got tears in my eyes, I’m a drowning man
Don’t me drown, oh baby, I’m a drowning man
Don’t let me drown

Blue Öyster Cult – Burnin For You

It is not the more cowbell song but I like it. I never owned a Blue Oyster Cult album in my life and probably never will but I liked a couple of their popular songs. The song peaked at #40 in the Billboard 100 in 1981. This would be their last Top 40 hit but it was a #1 hit on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart.

Lead guitarist Don “Buck Dharma” Roeser wrote this with Richard Meltzer, a rock writer who often contributed lyrics to the band. Dharma initially planned to release this song on his solo album, Flat Out, but was later convinced to include it on Blue Öyster Cult’s Fire Of Unknown Origin.” Dharma sang lead, as he did on many of BÖC’s songs.

Band manager Sandy Pearlman, claimed that the name came to him when he saw Blue Point oysters on a menu.

From Songfacts

When Richard Meltzer wrote the lyrics, he titled the song “Burn Out The Night,” a reference to an evening of rock and roll. Blue Öyster Cult had a “band house” where their band members and associates (including their manager, Sandy Pearlman would bring in song ideas and lyrics.

Joe Bouchard, who was their bass player at the time, told the metal magazine Chips & Beer that he and Buck Dharma came across Meltzer’s lyrics at the same time, and each wrote their own song around it. Dharma’s version, with the title changed to “Burnin’ For You,” was the one that got recorded.

Along with Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult was one of the first heavy metal bands. They issued their first album in 1972 and grew a modest following before scoring a hit with “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” (also written by Buck Dharma) from their 1976 album Agents of Fortune, which hit #12 and became embedded on rock playlists.

In the book MTV Ruled the World – The Early Years of Music Video, frontman Eric Bloom tells the story of the “Burnin’ For You” video: “We went out to California, and our management found a video company, and we did two videos in 24 hours – ‘Burnin’ For You’ and ‘Joan Crawford.’ MTV wouldn’t show the ‘Joan Crawford’ video, because there was something about it that was too racy for them. But ‘Burnin’ For You’ got a ton of airplay on MTV in 1981 and 1982.”

Bloom continues: “We made it in the storm drains of LA. If anyone has seen the movie about giant ants, called Them!, with James Whitmore, it was filmed in the same place.” Later he adds: “We thought the car on fire was very Hollywood, very cool. They had to have a Hollywood film/pyro guy there, who was licensed to burn s–t up. He had propane tanks, and he had to have a hunk of car to burn.”

These videos were directed by Richard Casey, who directed the 1985 movie Horror House on Highway Five.

Burnin For You

Home in the valley
Home in the city
Home isn’t pretty
Ain’t no home for me

Home in the darkness
Home on the highway
Home isn’t my way
Home will never be

Burn out the day
Burn out the night
I can’t see no reason to put up a fight
I’m living for giving the devil his due

And I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you
I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you

Time is the essence
Time is the season
Time ain’t no reason
Got no time to slow

Time everlasting
Time to play b-sides
Time ain’t on my side
Time I’ll never know

Burn out the day
Burn out the night
I’m not the one to tell you what’s wrong or what’s right
I’ve seen signs of what (freezing their eyes) went through

Well I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you
I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you

Burn out the day
Burn out the night
I can’t see no reason to put up a fight
I’m living for giving the devil his due

And I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you
I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you

Hollies – King Midas In Reverse

Graham Nash wanted to change the direction of the Hollies and write songs that were more in vogue around this time instead of the simple pop songs they were writing. The song only made it to #18 in the UK charts and it was considered a failure compared to their earlier releases although it was praised by the critics. I think it is inventive and fits in really well with the times.

Nash wrote it after he got back from America on a tour. This was not the rest of the band’s favorite song by any means and they wrote a simple…very simple pop song to follow this song called Jennifer Eccles that of course went to #7 in the UK charts which a disheartened Nash hated and he left for greener pastures with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. I can’t blame him for not liking Jennifer Eccles…it was a weak song.

The song only made it to #51 in the Billboard 100 in 1967. Maybe the change of direction didn’t sit too well with the public. It’s one of my favorites by the Hollies.

Graham said: “My world was turning to sh*t at that point. I was on top of the world, we had 16 or 17 top ten hits, but I was feeling shitty. We made a great record of that song but it only got into the top 30, and the Hollies were always expecting their songs to go into the top 10. So they started to not trust me and not record my songs, ‘’Marrakesh Express’’ being one of them. So I wasn’t feeling that great about my life. It was all turning to sh*t, it wasn’t turning to gold, it was turning to rust.”

Personally, I like the song better than Marrakesh Express.

King Midas In Reverse

If you could only see me.
And know exactly were I am.
You wouldn’t want to be me,
Oh I can assure you of that.

I’m not the guy to run with,
Cause I’ll pull you off the line.
I’ll break you and destroy you
Give time.

He’s King Midas with a curse.
He’s king Midas in Reverse.
He’s King Midas with a curse.
He’s King Midas in Reverse.

It’s plain to see it’s hopeless,
Goin’ on the way we are.
So even though I loose you,
You’ll be better off by far.

He’s not the man to hold your trust,
Everything he touches turns to dust in his hands.
Nothing he can do is right, he’d even like to sleep at night, but he can’t.

All he touches turns to dust
All he touches turns to dust
All he touches turns to dust
All he touches turns to dust

I wish someone would find me,
And help me gain control.
Before I loose my reason,
And my soul

He’s King Midas with a curse.
He’s King Midas in reverse.
He’s King Midas with a curse.
He’s king Midas in Reverse.

He’s King Midas with a curse
(all he touches turns to dust)
He’s Kind Midas in Reverse.
(all he touches turns to dust)
He’s King Midas with a curse,
(all he touches turns to dust)
He’s King Midas in Reverse

Led Zeppelin – Trampled Under Foot

A bit different of a song for Led Zeppelin. This was on their great Physical Graffiti album…which was to me their last great album. This song peaked at #38 in the Billboard 100 in 1975. Led Zeppelin really was not a singles band but they did have 10 songs in the top 100 and 1 top ten song.

Led Zeppelin wasn’t a funk band but on this track they had something going. John Paul Jones played clavinet on this song that is just outstanding. Jones was the utility player for the band and probably the most underrated member.

The guitar had a great sound…Jimmy Page: It’s sort of backward echo and wah-wah. I don’t know how responsible I was for new sounds because there were so many good things happening around that point, around the release of the first Zeppelin album, like Hendrix and Clapton.

From Songfacts

The lyrics were based on Robert Johnson’s 1936 “Terraplane Blues.” A Terraplane is a classic car, and the song uses car parts as metaphors for sex: “pump your gas,” “rev all night,” etc.

This evolved out of a jam session. It became a concert favorite and a popular song on rock radio. When Led Zeppelin played it live, they would often jam on it, extending it with guitar and keyboard solos.

This is one of Robert Plant’s favorite Zeppelin songs. He sang it on his 1988 Now and Zen tour.

Led Zeppelin performed this at Carmen Plant’s 21st birthday party in 1989 with Jason Bonham on drums. Carmen is Robert’s daughter.

The “Talkin ’bout love” part was most likely nicked from the song “Love” by Curtis Knight and Jimi Hendrix.

Led Zeppelin did not release any singles in the UK until 1997 when “Whole Lotta Love” was released 18 years after it was written. In 1975, Zeppelin’s Swan Song label sent 5000 pressings of “Trampled Underfoot” to UK record stores as incentive to stock the Physical Graffiti album. These were labeled “Special Limited Edition” and became collectors’ items.

At Earls Court in 1975, Robert Plant introduced the song like this: “If you like the motor cars and the parts of the human body, then sometimes… you can get trrrrrampled under foot!”

“Trampled Underfoot” was probably named after the bassline being a repetitive boom, played with a Moog pedal.

Trampled Under Foot

Greasy slicked-down body, Groovy leather trim
I like the way you hug the road, Mama it ain’t no sin
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
Ooh, trouble-free transmission, helps your oil’s flow
Mama, let me pump your gas, mama, let me do it all
Talkin’ ’bout love, huh, Talkin’ ’bout love, ooh, Talkin’ ’bout
Take that heavy metal underneath your hood
Baby, I could work all night, leave a big pile of tubes
Talkin’ ’bout lo-ove, Talkin’ ’bout lo-ove, Talkin’ ’bout
Automobile club-covered, really built in style
Special is tradition, mama, let me feast my eyes
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
Factory air-conditioned, wind begins to rise
Guaranteed to run for hours, mama, and brand-new tires
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
Groovin’ on the freeway, blazes on the road
From now on my gasoline is even gonna conk your hair
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
I can’t stop talkin’ about, I can’t stop talkin’ about
Ooh, yeah-yeah, yes, ah, drive on
Ooh, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yes, I’m comin’ through
Come to me for service every hundred miles
Baby, let me check your valves, fix your overdrive
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
Ooh, yes, fully automatic, comes in any size
Makes me wonder what I did, before I got synchronized
Talkin’ ’bout lo-ove, Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout
Ooh, feather-light suspension, coils just couldn’t hold
I’m so glad I took a look inside your showroom doors
Talkin’ ’bout love, Talkin’ ’bout lo-oo-oh-ove, Talkin’ ’bout
Oh yeah, oh yeah, Oh, I can’t stop talkin’ about love
I can’t stop talkin’ about love
Ooh, let me go in down, go in down, go in down, go in down, go in down, yes, I
can’t stop talkin’ about
I can’t stop talkin’ about lo-oh’, baby
I can’t stop talkin’ about love, or my baby
I can’t stop talkin’ about love, my baby, uh, my baby,
my baby, yeah, Unnh, push, push, push it, push, push
Ounheahhonhouh

Careless Love…The Unmaking of Elvis Book

Hanspostcard recommended Last Train to Memphis and this sequel Careless Love The Unmaking of Elvis Presley… and both are excellent recommendations for anyone who wants to learn about Elvis. This one begins where the other left off with Elvis going to Germany in the Army and ends…at the end.

Guralnick covers everything here. Elvis’s gradual distaste of the movies he was making, the great comeback special, Las Vegas, the Richard Milhous Nixon meeting, two concert documentaries, recording good music again, Aloha from Hawaii, the freefall, and then death. In between these events, we see the girls, his buddies the Memphis Mafia, the drugs, the paranoia, his search for something more, and his huge generosity.

I always wondered why he didn’t try to blend in a little more and not be so noticeable…but he loved so much being Elvis Presley. Once he was in a restaurant and no one was noticing him…he walked by a couple of women near the bathroom and gave them a smile just so they knew. He also loved making people happy by being over-generous. If you were in the right place at the right time you could end up with a car or a diamond ring.

He was raised well by his parents and seemed like a good person. He could show flashes of anger at people around, have jealousy, even a Christ complex at times, unpredictable and living in denial about his drug problem. In other words…he was human and that is what I like about the book. It’s not elevating him too high nor turning him into a parody of himself.

The book also goes into his manager “Colonel” Tom Parker who at one point was getting 50 percent of what Elvis was earning. He could have done much better than Parker but Elvis was loyal and in some ways insecure. If you want to know about Elvis…get Last Train to Memphis and this one…Careless Love.

Here is a fan-made “trailer” of the book.

The first Cell Phone Call

It was 46 years ago today that the first cell phone call was made…so when you see people walking down the street like zombies with their eyes on their phone…you know the beginning.

On April 3, 1973, the first cell phone call was made by Motorola engineer Martin Cooper from Sixth Avenue in New York while walking between 53rd and 54th streets.

Martin used a 2 1/2-pound prototype to his ear and called a rival, Joel Engel of Bell Laboratories at AT&T, to declare that his Motorola team had devised a functional portable phone. “There was silence at the other end of the line,” Cooper recalled to Bloomberg in 2015. “To this day, Joel doesn’t remember that call, and I’m not sure I blame him.”

Martin Cooper…wonder if he is about to text after the call?

https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-2018/first-cell-phone-call.html