PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

The Who – A Quick One, While He’s Away

I first saw them perform this on The Kids Are Alright. The performance was electric. I like the studio version but the live versions they push a little harder. The song didn’t chart being so long. The album “A Quick One” peaked at #4 in the UK charts. The hit song of the album was Happy Jack.

The Who had 10 minutes left to fill on the album. Kit Lambert, The Who’s manager, suggested to Pete Townshend that he write “something linear… perhaps a 10-minute song.” Townshend responded by saying that rock songs are “2:50 by tradition!” Lambert then told Townshend that he should write a 10-minute story comprised of 2:50 songs.

The song was a “mini-opera,” paving the way for the other mini-opera “Rael” and eventually full-length rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia.

From Songfacts

The plot of the story is simple. A girl is sad that her boyfriend is away. Her friends suggest that she take a substitute lover, Ivor The Engine Driver. When the boyfriend returns, she confesses her infidelity and is forgiven.

The Who performed this on the Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus, which was going to be a TV special. It never aired on television but it was released on VHS in 1996 and DVD in 2004. The Who’s performance of this was included in The Kids Are Alright, a 1979 film about The Who.

According to legend, Rock And Roll Circus didn’t air because the Rolling Stones felt that they were showed up by The Who. Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithful, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and Mitch Mitchell all appeared on Rock And Roll Circus.

A live version of this song appears on Live At Leeds and the soundtrack for The Kids Are Alright.

The Who wanted to put Cellos on the track but Kit Lambert said they couldn’t afford it. So they sang “cello, cello, cello, cello,” where the Who thought they should go. >>

This was used in the Wes Anderson film Rushmore starring Jason Shwartzman and Bill Murray

A Quick One, While He’s Away

Her man’s been gone
For nearly a year
He was due home yesterday
But he ain’t here

Her man’s been gone
For nigh on a year
He was due home yesterday
But he ain’t here

Down your street your crying is a well-known sound
Your street is very well known, right here in town
Your town is very famous for the little girl
Whose cries can be heard all around the world

Fa la la la la la
Fa la la la la
Fa la la la la la
Fa la la la la

We have a remedy
You’ll appreciate
No need to be so sad
He’s only late

We’ll bring you flowers and things
Help pass your time
We’ll give him eagle’s wings
Then he can fly to you

Fa la la la la la
Fa la la la la
Fa la la la la la
Fa la la la la
Fa la la la la la
Fa la la la la la

We have a remedy
Fa la la la la la la
We have a remedy
Fa la la la la la la
We have a remedy
Fa la la la la la la
We have a remedy
Fa la la la la la la

We have a remedy.
We have!

Little girl, why don’t you stop your crying?
I’m gonna make you feel all right

My name is Ivor
I’m an engine driver

I know him well
I know why you feel blue
Just ’cause he’s late
Don’t mean he’ll never get through

He told me he loves you
He ain’t no liar, I ain’t either
So let’s have a smile for an old engine driver
So let’s have a smile for an old engine driver

Please take a sweet
Come take a walk with me
We’ll sort it out
Back at my place, maybe

It’ll come right
You ain’t no fool, I ain’t either
So why not be nice to an old engine driver?
Better be nice to an old engine driver
Better be nice to an old engine driver

We’ll soon be home
We’ll soon be home
We’ll soon
We’ll soon, soon, soon be home

Come on, old horse

Soon be home
Soon be home
Soon
We’ll soon, soon, soon be home

We’ll soon
We’ll soon, soon, soon be home

We’ll soon be home
Soon be home

Dang, dang, dang, dang, dang, dang, dang, dang, dang

Cello, cello, cello, cello, cello, cello
Cello, cello, cello, cello, cello, cello
Cello, cello, cello, cello, cello, cello
Cello, cello, cello, cello, cello, cello

I can’t believe it
Do my eyes deceive me?
Am I back in your arms?
Away from all harm?

It’s like a dream to be with you again
Can’t believe that I’m with you again

I missed you and I must admit
I kissed a few and once did sit
On Ivor the Engine Driver’s lap
And later with him, had a nap

You are forgiven, you are forgiven, you are forgiven

You are forgiven

Jimi Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower

Bob Dylan wrote this song and it was on his John Wesley Harding album. It was the longest time that I finally started to like Jimi’s version. The song peaked at #20 in the Billboard 100 in 1968. This was Jimi’s only top 40 hit in the Billboard 100.

I do like the simplicity of Bob’s original version also.

Bob said this about Jimi Hendrix in a 2015 speech: “We can’t forget Jimi Hendrix. I actually saw Jimi perform when he was with a band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. Something like that. And Jimi didn’t even sing. He was just the guitar player,” Dylan said. “He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and brought them up into the outer limits of the stratosphere, turned them all into classics. I have to thank Jimi, too. I wish he was here.”

From Songfacts

This was written and originally recorded by Bob Dylan in 1967, but it was the Jimi Hendrix cover that made the song famous. Many other artists have covered it, including Eric Clapton, Neil Young, U2, Dave Matthews Band and The Grateful Dead. Dylan was so impressed with Jimi’s version that Dylan for years played it the way that Jimi had recorded it.

This was Hendrix’ only Top 40 hit in the US, where his influence far outpaced his popularity. He charted a few times in the UK, where he rose to fame before making a name for himself in America.

This was recorded while Hendrix played with the Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hendrix on guitar, Noel Redding on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums. For this song, however, Redding was not on bass; Hendrix did it. Redding was also the guitar player for his band Fat Mattress, which Hendrix referred to as Thin Pillow. Hendrix often felt that Redding did not put his heart into the bass and was concerned that Redding concentrated more on Fat Mattress than he did on the Experience. Things like these led to him being replaced by Billy Cox. >>

The original version of this song is very slow. Jimi Hendrix’ version had a large impact on Dylan which made him make his own version “heavier.”

Hendrix: “All those people who don’t like Bob Dylan’s songs should read his lyrics. They are filled with the joys and sadness of life. I am as Dylan, none of us can sing normally. Sometimes, I play Dylan’s songs and they are so much like me that it seems to me that I wrote them. I have the feeling that Watchtower is a song I could have come up with, but I’m sure I would never have finished it. Thinking about Dylan, I often consider that I’d never be able to write the words he manages to come up with, but I’d like him to help me, because I have loads of songs I can’t finish. I just lay a few words on the paper, and I just can’t go forward. But now things are getting better, I’m a bit more self-confident.” >>

Hendrix had been working on and off with the members of the band Traffic as he recorded Electric Ladyland. Traffic guitarist Dave Mason caught Hendrix at a party and the two discussed Bob Dylan’s newest album, John Wesley Harding, containing “All Along The Watchtower.” Hendrix, long fascinated with Dylan, decided to cover the song on the album. On the resulting track, Mason plays rhythm on a 12-string acoustic guitar.

In our interview with Mason, he explained: “Hendrix just happened to be sitting in one of those semi-private clubs in London. He was there one night just sitting alone, and it was like, “F–k, I’m just going to go over and say hi and talk to him.”

Mason recorded the song himself in the Hendrix arrangement for his 1974 self-titled album. He also made the song a mainstay of his concerts. Mason says it’s a deceptively simple song: “It’s just the same three chords, and they never change.”

This was used in an episode of The Simpsons when Homer’s mother was telling him a story that took place in the ’60s about why she had to leave him.

In a 2008 poll conducted by a panel of experts in the Total Guitar magazine, this was voted the best cover song of all time. The Beatles’ rendition of “Twist and Shout,” first recorded by the Top Notes, came second, followed by the Guns N’ Roses version of the Wings song “Live and Let Die” in third place.

This was used in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump shortly after the title character arrives in Vietnam.

Yes this is Bob’s version…the only one I could find.

All Along The Watchtower

There must be some kind of way outta here
Said the joker to the thief
There’s too much confusion
I can’t get no relief

Business men, they drink my wine
Plowman dig my earth
None were level on the mind
Nobody up at his word
Hey, hey

No reason to get excited
The thief he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But, uh, but you and I, we’ve been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us stop talkin’ falsely now
The hour’s getting late, hey

All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants, too
Outside in the cold distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
And the wind began to howl

Rod Stewart – The First Cut Is The Deepest

Rod Stewart has covered many songs in his career. I’ve always liked this version of the song. It was written by Cat Stevens in 1967. The song peaked at #21 in the Billboard 100, #11 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1977. Stewart recorded the song at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, United States, and it appeared on his 1976 album A Night on the Town. It was released as a double A-side single with “I Don’t Want to Talk About It”.

Rod Stewart had a total of 52 songs in the Billboard 100, 16 top 10 hits, and 4 number 1’s.

From Songfacts

This was written by Cat Stevens. It was a hit for P.P. Arnold in Britain in 1967, reaching #18 in the charts. Stevens, who included it on his debut album New Masters later in 1967, never released his version as a single, as he felt Arnold’s rendition was definitive.

P.P. Arnold is a female singer from America who got her start as one of Ike & Tina Turner’s backup performers (an Ikette). After two years with Ike & Tina, she moved to London and got a record deal with Immediate Records. Cat Stevens was also part of the London music scene at the time, and his song found it’s way to Arnold, who recorded it for her first album.

Arnold, who was in an abusive marriage as a teenager, felt it was a perfect song for her. “It encapsulated everything that I was at the time,” she said. “Having the courage to get out of that [abusive relationship] and create a life for me and my kids. What a blessing.”

In 1968, Arnold scored another UK hit when her cover of “Angel of the Morning” went to #29.

This is about a guy who has met a girl he wants to start a relationship with. In the song, he is explaining the hurt he feels because of his first love, and how it is keeping him from diving into this potential new relationship.

In America, the first version to chart was by Keith Hampshire, who took it to #70 in 1973. Rod Stewart covered it in 1976, taking it to #21 US and #1 UK; Sheryl Crow released her version in 2003, which made #14 in the US and #37 in the UK.

The First Cut is the Deepest

I would have given you all of my heart
But there’s someone who’s torn it apart
And she’s taken just all that I had
But if you want I’ll try to love again
Baby I’ll try to love again but I know

The first cut is the deepest
Baby I know the first cut is the deepest
But when it come to being lucky she’s cursed
When it come to loving me she’s the worst
I still want you by my side
Just to help me dry the tears that I’ve cried
And I’m sure going to give you a try
And if you want I’ll try to love again
Baby I’ll try to love again but I know

The first cut is the deepest
Baby I know the first cut is the deepest
But when it come to being lucky she’s cursed
When it come to loving me she’s the worst

I still want you by my side
Just to help me dry the tears that I’ve cried
But I’m sure gonna give you a try
‘Cause if you want I’ll try to love again
Baby I’ll try to love again but I know

Wooh
The first cut is the deepest
Baby I know the first cut is the deepest
When it come to being lucky she’s cursed
When it come to loving me she’s the worst

Elvis Presley – That’s All Right

This is the song that started it all for Elvis. After trying many songs on the same night and not coming up with much, Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and Elvis Presley started to play this song and Sam Phillips knew he had recorded something different. Sam didn’t know what to think of the song…or how to classify it. That ni

On June 7, 1954, WHBQ Radio in Memphis became the first station to play this song when their disc jockey Dewey Phillips aired it on his Red, Hot and Blue show the day after Elvis recorded it.

Phillips was a pioneering DJ who played a mix of black and white music that attracted a large and diverse following. Elvis recorded “Blue Moon of Kentucky” the next night and it was the B side to this single.

The song didn’t chart nationally in 1954 but it was re-released in 2004 and peaked at #3 in the UK Charts. Scotty Moore’s solo in this record is fantastic. It’s simple but very effective.

From Songfacts

This was Elvis’ first single, and it came out of his first recording session. Elvis was a 19-year-old truck driver when he came to Sun Records in Memphis to record a song as a gift for his mother. Sun was owned by Sam Phillips, who his assistant, Marion Keiser, knew was looking for a “white man who sounds like a black man.” She alerted her boss to Elvis, and Phillips arranged some sessions with some local session players: bassist Bill Black and guitarist Scotty Moore.

The trio tried a few different songs in various styles, finally hitting the mark when they informally started playing Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s obscure 1946 blues song “That’s All Right,” in a fast, innovative style. Phillips liked what he heard and had them record the song this way. This uptempo Blues variation led some music historians to consider it the first rock song.

Presley told Rolling Stone magazine, “I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I’d be a music man like nobody ever saw.”

This song was only the second time Elvis and lead guitarist Scotty Moore played together. It was also the first song Elvis played in concert: On July 30, 1954, Elvis opened for Slim Whitman in Memphis’ and performed “That’s All Right, Mama,” “Blue Moon Of Kentucky,” and “I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’).” >>

According to Scotty Moore, this session wasn’t so smooth. He says Elvis started jumping around, “acting the fool,” which drew the ire of Sam Phillips, who owned the label and recording studio. Phillips made them start over, and it was this second take that was the keeper.

I slipped in the Beatles version in…

That’s Alright Mama

Well, that’s all right, mama
That’s all right for you
That’s all right mama, just anyway you do
Well, that’s all right, that’s all right
That’s all right now mama, anyway you do

Mama she done told me
Papa done told me too
‘Son, that gal your foolin’ with
She ain’t no good for you
But, that’s all right, that’s all right
That’s all right now mama, anyway you do

I’m leaving town, baby
I’m leaving town for sure
Well, then you won’t be bothered with
Me hanging ’round your door
Well, that’s all right, that’s all right
That’s all right now mama, anyway you do

Squeeze – Tempted

Paul Carrack sang lead on this. He also sang with the bands Ace (“How Long”) and Mike And The Mechanics (“The Living Years”). In 1987, he had a solo hit with “Don’t Shed a Tear.”

This was the first Squeeze song to crack the charts in America. Squeeze was already a big deal in their native England, where they had 7 Top-40 hits to this point. They managed just 2 more US hits: “Hourglass” and “853-5937,” but “Tempted” remains their only top ten hit. It peaked at #8 in the Billboard 100.

From Songfacts

Squeeze singer and guitarist Chris Difford wrote the lyrics to this song. He explains: “Tempted was written in a cab on the way to Heathrow, I just wrote down what I saw and how I felt as we wormed our way through the traffic. I also must have anticipated a good time on tour as the chorus suggests.”
Carrack was with Squeeze for their East Side Story album, replacing Jools Holland on keyboards and also contributing vocals. He rejoined Squeeze in 1993 for their album Some Fantastic Place, and sang on a new version of “Tempted” that the band recorded for the soundtrack of the 1994 movie Reality Bites.

Elvis Costello produced this track. You can hear him singing on the second verse.

Glenn Tilbrook, who writes the music for Squeeze, considers this one of his favorites. Says Tilbrook: “It was a sort of breakthrough song for us, in spite of the fact that it wasn’t a hit, it was our first song. It was when we grew up, really, as a band. When we finished it I couldn’t quite believe it was us.” (Read more in our interview with Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford of Squeeze.)

In the US, this was used in a commercial for Burger King, and another for Heineken. It’s a good fit for advertisements where someone is “tempted” by their product.

At many Squeeze shows, fans would throw toothbrushes (Rocky Horror-style) on stage at the opening line: “I bought a toothbrush…”

Tempted

I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste
A flannel for my face
Pajamas, a hairbrush
New shoes and a case
I said to my reflection
Let’s get out of this place

Passed the church and the steeple
The laundry on the hill
Billboards and the buildings
Memories of it still
Keep calling and calling
But forget it all, I know I will

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on
Now that you have gone

There’s no other
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

I’m at the car park, the airport
The baggage carousel
The people keep on [Incomprehensible]
Ain’t wishing I was well
I said it’s no occasion
It’s no story I could tell

At my bedside empty pocket
A foot without a sock
Your body gets much closer
I fumble for the clock
Alarmed by the seduction
I wish that it would stop

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on
Now that you have gone

There’s no other
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

I bought a novel, some perfume
A fortune all for you
But it’s not my conscience
That hates to be untrue
I asked of my reflection
Tell me what is there to do?

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on
Now that you have gone

There’s no other
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop

The Ramones were no frills and to the point. No long solos or instrumental breaks. Just 2-minute rock songs full of energy. This was the song that helped launch the Ramones.

The song never charted but is probably their best-known song because of the many movies, tv shows, and commercials it’s been in. The song was mainly written by drummer Tommy Ramone, while bassist Dee Dee Ramone came up with the title (the song was originally called “Animal Hop”). Dee Dee also changed one line: the original third verse had the line “shouting in the back now”, but Dee Dee changed it to “shoot ’em in the back now”.

From Songfacts

The Ramones had a very sparse budget at the time: The entire album cost just $6,400 to make.

This song has been used in a number of movies and TV series, including The Simpsons (the 2007 “Treehouse of Horror” episode), and the 2006 Entourage episode “I Wanna Be Sedated,” revolving around a Ramones documentary.

In the 2001 movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, it was used in a scene where Jimmy and his friends go on a rampage of fun. Some other uses:

Fear No Evil (1981)
National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)
Sugar & Spice (2001)
Shattered Glass (2003)
The King of Queens (2004)
Date Night (2010)
The Crazy Ones (2013)
Parenthood (2014)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

The New York Yankees baseball team often plays this when one of their big hitters is coming to the plate. Johnny Ramone was a huge fan of the Yankees.

Green Day performed this at the 2002 ceremonies when The Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 1991, this song piqued the interest of Budweiser, which used it in a commercial for their beer (without the “Shoot ’em in the back” line). There was no debate in the Ramones camp over whether to authorize it: they were all happy to get the money and exposure. In 2003, the song found its way into another commercial, this time for AT&T Wireless. It was later used in commercials for Diet Pepsi, Coppertone and Taco Bell.

Rob Zombie covered this song on the album A Tribute To Ramones (We’re A Happy Family).

Fellow first-wave punk band The Clash covered this song live on tour in 1978, often as a medley with their own song “Police and Thieves.”

Blitzkrieg Bop

Hey ho, let’s go! Hey ho, let’s go!
Hey ho, let’s go! Hey ho, let’s go!

They’re forming in straight line
They’re going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
The Blitzkrieg Bop

They’re piling in the back seat
They’re generating steam heat
Pulsating to the back beat
The Blitzkrieg Bop

Hey ho, let’s go
Shoot ’em in the back now
What they want, I don’t know
They’re all revved up and ready to go

They’re forming in straight line
They’re going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
The Blitzkrieg Bop

They’re piling in the back seat
They’re generating steam heat
Pulsating to the back beat
The Blitzkrieg Bop

Hey ho, let’s go
Shoot’em in the back now
What they want, I don’t know
They’re all revved up and ready to go

They’re forming in straight line
They’re going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
The Blitzkrieg Bop

They’re piling in the back seat
They’re generating steam heat
Pulsating to the back beat
The Blitzkrieg Bop

Hey ho, let’s go! Hey ho, let’s go!
Hey ho, let’s go! Hey ho, let’s go!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzkrieg_Bop

Child’s Play

I’ve posted in the past about toys I grew up with but nostaligicitalian has many of them in this one post. From the Jaws game to the Sound Gizmo to Colorforms.

Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian

I follow a lot of nostalgia pages on Facebook. On one of the “Kids of the 1970’s” pages, they posted a picture of a toy that took me back to when I was 6! I can still remember the Christmas morning I received it. “Santa” had taken it out of the box and it was there on the floor in front of the tree. It was the Fisher Price Adventure People Daredevil Sport Van. I remember seeing it in the “wish book” and wanting it because it had a guy with a motorcycle.

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I didn’t know that was what it was called, and it was only after searching for it on Google did I find out. What I found when I searched for it was numerous other Fisher Price Adventure People sets that I had as a kid, as well as many other toys from my childhood I had long…

View original post 1,883 more words

Violent Femmes – Blister In The Sun

In the mid-eighties, a girl I knew kept playing this song over and over. It got on my nerves but after a while I found myself liking it. I ended up liking the song more than I did the girl. A Blister In The Sun was released in 1983.

The song had a cult following and was favorite on American college radio in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, an alternative and modern rock radio stations went on the air, it got a lot of airplay because it was considered a classic of the genre. The album gradually sold over one million copies and earned the Violent Femmes a large fan base.

From Songfacts

Written by Violent Femmes lead singer Gordan Gano, this song sure sounds like an ode to masturbation:

Body and beats
I stain my sheets
I don’t even know why
My girlfriend, she’s at the end
She is starting to cry

Gano says it isn’t, and that he didn’t hear that interpretation until years later. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot to understand with the lyrics,” he told the Village Voice. “But I can see where people could get that idea.”

Gano is coy in discussing the song, but he has explained that it’s about the strung-out feeling that comes from drug abuse. The girlfriend is at her wit’s end because he keeps staining the sheets, as he lacks sexual control.

This is the first song on the first Violent Femmes album, introducing the band with the famous guitar riff and snare hits. The band made inroads with songs like this one about adolescent insecurities delivered in a deprecating tone. Gordon Gano was just 19 when the album was released.

The line, “Big hands I know you’re the one” is in the song because Gano has small hands. In the song, he’s in a self-loathing state where he knows the girl is just going to take up with some big-handed guy.

In 2007, this was used in commercials for the fast food purveyor Wendy’s. Gordon Gano authorized its use, which triggered a lawsuit by the group’s bass player Brian Ritchie, who stated: “I don’t like having my sound misappropriated to sell harmful products, such as fast food… that’s not why we made the music. It should not be hijacked.” Ritchie cited misappropriation of jointly owned intellectual property as the basis for his suit.

Ritchie also blasted Gano in the publication OnMilwaukee, where he wrote, “When you see dubious or in this case disgusting uses of our music you can thank the greed, insensitivity and poor taste of Gordon Gano, it is his karma that he lost his songwriting ability many years ago, probably due to his own lack of self-respect as his willingness to prostitute our songs demonstrates. Neither Gordon (vegetarian) nor me (gourmet) eat garbage like Wendy’s burgers.”

The band was still touring when this went down, but they broke up soon after. They didn’t return to action until 2013, when they played the Coachella festival.

This was featured in the 1997 John Cusack film Grosse Pointe Blank. The soundtrack includes two versions of the song, the original 1982 release and a remake entitled “Blister 2000.” The remake is slower and has kind of a funky instrumental sax solo in the middle. >>

A multi-instrumental cover of the song was used in a 2012 television commercial for the Hewlett-Packard DV6T notebook. In the ad, the song in played in various styles, including gospel, Mariachi and metal.

The barefoot child peeking into an old building on the album cover is three-year-old Billie Jo Campbell, who photographer Ron Hugo spotted walking with her mother in Los Angeles. Speaking to MTV News in 2007, Campbell recalled: “I remember looking into that building, and they kept telling me there are animals in there. I had no idea there were photographers there. I was pissed off that I couldn’t see the animals.”

Blister in the Sun

When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might stop to check you out

Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one

Body and beats,
I stain my sheets
I don’t even know why
My girlfriend, she’s at the end,
She is starting to cry

Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one

When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might stop to check you out

Body and beats,
I stain my sheets
I don’t even know why
My girlfriend, she’s at the end,
She is starting to cry

When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might stop to check you out

Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one

Joe Walsh – All Night Long

Joe has to be one of the most likable guys in Rock and Roll. Along with having a good time he is one of the best rock guitarists. All Night Long peaked at #19 in the Billboard 100 and #13 in Canada in 1980.

“All Night Long” was released as a single, in addition to being included in the legendary soundtrack to Urban Cowboy. It became one of Joe Walsh’s four Top 40 charting songs in his solo career. The song also found its way onto a live Eagles album.

From Songfacts

Independent of the single’s chart record, the soundtrack album made #1 on the Country Albums Chart, #3 on the Billboard 200, #2 on the Canadian RPM Country Albums Chart, and #21 on Canadian RPM Top Albums. Quite a bit of success for songs from a movie that cast John Travolta as a cowboy (inverting the concept of a “spaghetti western”), which makes about as much sense as casting John Wayne as Genghis Khan, and yet here we are still talking about it.

Joe Walsh fun fact: he played a prisoner in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers; during the “Jailhouse Rock” scene he was the first jumpsuit up on the table.

This was Walsh’s very next single after “Life’s Been Good.” Uh oh… Here comes a flock of WAH-WAHS!

All Night Long

We get up early and we work all day.
We put our time in ’cause we like to stay up
All night long. All night long.

We keep on grinnin’ ’til the weekend comes.
Just a pinch between your cheek and gums.
All night long. All night long.

Start in the morning and get the job done.
Take care of business and we have some fun.
All night long. All night long.

We like a long neck and a good old song.
Turn it up and then we’ll sing along. Sing along.
Oh, we’re stayin’ up all night long.

All night long.
All night long.
All night long.
All night long.

The Jam – Town Called Malice

The Jam was a mod band in the late seventies who were hugely popular in the UK but their only charting song in America was Town Called Malice that peaked at #31 in the Mainstream rock charts in 1982. This song went to #1 in the UK and #19 in Canada.

In the UK they had 4 number 1s, 9 top ten hits, and 24 top forty hits. They had company with bands like The Small Faces and Slade who were much more popular in the UK than America. Paul Weller left the Jam in 1982 and found The Style Council with Mick Talbot in 1983.

From Songfacts

The title of Nevil Shute’s A Town Like Alice inspired the title, but the inspiration for the song came from Paul Weller’s friend Dave Waller by means of describing urban life. The song is about unemployment in a working town and Paul Weller confessed, “It could have been written about any suburban town, but it was in fact written about my hometown of Woking.” (quote from 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh)

This was a double A-sided UK #1 along with “Precious.” The Jam became the first act since The Beatles, who performed “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out” to perform both tracks of double A side on the BBC pop music show Top Of The Pops.

The song lasted a mere eight weeks on the chart, four of which were in the Top 10 and of that four, three were spent at #1.

This caused an industry furor after EMI objected to this being available in a studio-recorded 7-inch version and a live 12-inch version. The feeling was that the Jam’s fans were buying both versions of the single and so stopping “Golden Brown” by the Stranglers on the EMI label from reaching #1.

Many of Weller’s songs reflected his anger with right of center politics and the video for this number featured a cue-card with the slogan “If we ain’t getting through to you, you obviously ain’t listening.” Prompted by Conservative Party leader David Cameron’s comment that the music of the Jam “meant a lot,” the Guardian newspaper asked Weller, if it had been suggested in the early ’80s that there were ardent Tories coming to Jam concerts, what would he have thought? He replied: “I’d have been really, really surprised. I think I pretty much nailed where I was at to the mast. But people come to gigs for different reasons: it isn’t necessarily about what the person on stage is singing. But at the same time, you do think, ‘Well, maybe this’ll change their minds.”

The Walking Dead Season 7 third episode starts with a montage of the Saviors’ Sanctuary soundtracked by this song.

Town Called Malice

Better stop dreaming of the quiet life
Cause it’s the one we’ll never know
And quit running for that runaway bus
Cause those rosy days are few
And, stop apologizing for the things you’ve never done,
Cause time is short and life is cruel
But it’s up to us to change
This town called malice
Rows and rows of disused milk floats
Stand dying in the dairy yard
And a hundred lonely housewives clutch empty milk
Bottles to their hearts
Hanging out their old love letters on the line to dry
It’s enough to make you stop believing when tears come
Fast and furious
In a town called malice

Struggle after struggle, year after year
The atmosphere’s a fine blend of ice
I’m almost stone cold dead
In a town called malice

A whole street’s belief in Sunday’s roast beef
Gets dashed against the Co-op
To either cut down on beer or the kids new gear
It’s a big decision in a town called malice

The ghost of a steam train, echoes down my track
It’s at the moment bound for nowhere
Just going round and round
Playground kids and creaking swings
Lost laughter in the breeze
I could go on for hours and I probably will
But I’d sooner put some joy back
In this town called malice

Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy

Maybe the darkest pop song that I know. You first hear this song and it sounds cheery until you pay attention to the lyrics. I must admit I love the song because it’s just so different. The upbeat happy music with Linda Ronstadt on backing vocals is very catchy and then Warren tells the story and it ends up very dark, to say the least.

When I first paid attention to it…I was shocked and listened to it over and over to make sure I was hearing the lyrics right…No he couldn’t be singing this right? Warren had a dark sense of humor and it shows on this.

The song was not released as a single. The album peaked at #8 in the Billboard 100. Werewolves of London was the hit off of the album. It is perhaps Zevon’s best album.

Excitable Boy
Well, he went down to dinner in his Sunday best
Excitable boy, they all said
And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest
Excitable boy, they all said

He took in the four a.m. show at the Clark
Excitable boy, they all said
And he bit the usherette’s leg in the dark
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he’s just an excitable boy

He took little Suzie to the Junior Prom
Excitable boy, they all said
And he raped her and killed her, then he took her home
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he’s just an excitable boy
After ten long years they let him out of the home
Excitable boy, they all said
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he’s just an excitable boy

Eurythmics – Here Comes The Rain Again

It took a while for me to warm up to the Eurythmics in the 80s but I did. Here Comes the Rain Again peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100 in 1984. Annie Lennox’s voice is so distinguishable, strong, and versatile that they didn’t have just one style. They did this and then the next year they had the more R&B song Would I Lie To You.

Here Comes The Rain Again was recorded in an old church that was converted into a studio – except the studio wasn’t finished yet and they brought in the orchestra anyway. About 30 string players had to improvise by playing in corridors and even the toilet. The song was mixed blending the orchestra on top of electronic sounds created by a sequencer and drum machine.

From Songfacts

The Eurythmics were vocalist Annie Lennox and instrumentalist Dave Stewart. Both were members of The Tourists before forming Eurythmics in 1980. They met when Lennox was working as a waitress in Stewart’s home town of Sunderland; they lived together for four years before forming Eurythmics and ending their romantic relationship while forging ahead as a duo. Writing and recording as ex-lovers created an interesting tension in their songs.

In our interview with Dave Stewart, he explains that creating a melancholy mood in his songs is something he excels at. Says Stewart: “‘Here Comes The Rain Again’ is kind of a perfect one where it has a mixture of things, because I’m playing a b-minor, but then I change it to put a b-natural in, and so it kind of feels like that minor is suspended, or major. So it’s kind of a weird course. And of course that starts the whole song, and the whole song was about that undecided thing, like here comes depression, or here comes that downward spiral. But then it goes, ‘so talk to me like lovers do.’ It’s the wandering in and out of melancholy, a dark beauty that sort of is like the rose that’s when it’s darkest unfolding and blood red just before the garden, dies. And capturing that in kind of oblique statements and sentiments.”

Instead of the conventional verse-chorus-verse, this song alternates an A section (“Here comes the rain again?”) and a B section (“So baby talk to me?”) with very little variation between repetitions – just a short instrumental bridge in the middle of the song. This creates the feeling of monotony, as the rain keeps falling.

The Eurythmics were named after a mime performed by Emile Jacques-Dalcrose. They had nine UK Top 10 hits and three in the US, including the #1 “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).” In 1987, Stewart married Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama. Lennox left in 1990 but the pair reunited in 1999.

In The Dave Stewart Songbook, Stewart explains that he and Lennox wrote this song when they were staying at the Mayflower Hotel in New York City. Writes Stewart: “I’d been out on 46th Street and bought an early Casio keyboard, about 20 inches long with very small keys. It was an overcast day. Annie was sitting in my room, and I was playing some little riff on the keyboard sitting on the window ledge, and I was playing these little melancholy A minor-ish chords with the B note in it. I kept on playing this riff, and Annie was looking out the window at the slate grey sky above the New York skyline and just sang spontaneously, ‘Here Comes The Rain Again.’ And that was all we needed. you see, like with a lot of our songs, you only need to start with that one line, and that one atmosphere, that one note, or that intro melody. And the rest of it was like a puzzle where we needed to just fill in the missing pieces.”

The video was shot at the Orkney islands in Scotland, where Annie Lennox is seen performing the song in and around a scuppered ship. The whole time, we see Dave Stewart recording her with a video camera, appearing to stalk her. “The videos all express an interior world going on between me and Dave — emotional tensions,” Lennox told Q magazine in 1991.

The line, “Talk to me like lovers do” shows up in the 2007 song “Taking Chances,” which Stewart wrote with Kara DioGuardi.

Here Comes The Rain Again

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you

So baby talk to me
Like lovers do
Walk with me
Like lovers do
Talk to me
Like lovers do

Here comes the rain again
Raining in my head like a tragedy
Tearing me apart like a new emotion
Oh
I want to breathe in the open wind
I want to kiss like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you

So baby talk to me
Like lovers do

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
(Here is comes again, here it comes again)
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you

Edna Purviance

When I first started to read about and watch Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton in the 90s I noticed in most of Chaplin’s early short films this beautiful lady with expressive eyes as his leading lady. Chaplin never found a better leading lady than Edna.

Edna was born in Paradise Valley, Nevada in 1895. In 1900 her parents moved to Lovelock where they ran the Singer Hotel, though they later divorced. Edna was musically inclined and played the piano well. Shortly after her high school graduation, she moved to San Fransisco, took a business course and began work as a secretary.

While searching for a leading lady in 1915 an associate of Chaplin suggested a girl he remembered as a regular at a local San Francisco café. After rejecting several chorus girls, Chaplin arranged a meeting with Purviance, who he was impressed by her beauty and personality but still wasn’t sure she was right. They went to a party and Chaplin claimed he could hypnotize her and she said he could not in front of everyone… she ended up going along with the joke and pretended to be hypnotized and that won Chaplin over.

In real life as in the films, Purviance and Chaplin were romantically involved, and they remained close friends even after their affair was over in 1918. While he entertained serious thoughts of marriage, he also had doubts that he expressed in his 1964 Autobiography. Edna also had her reservations as well.

Chaplin continued to feel not only friendship but responsibility for Purviance, and she drew a small monthly stipend from his film company for the remainder of her life. Edna was his leading lady from 1915-1923.

Purviance eventually married John Squire, a Pan-American Airlines pilot, in 1938. They remained married until his death in 1945. Edna died of throat cancer on January 13, 1958.

A quote from Edna from IMDB

Mr. Chaplin asked me if I would like to act in pictures with him. I laughed at the idea but agreed to try it. I guess he took me because I had nothing to unlearn and he could teach me in his own way. I want to tell you that I suffered untold agonies. Eyes seemed to be everywhere. I was simply frightened to death. But he had unlimited patience in directing me and teaching me.

Beatles – Martha My Dear

Martha My Dear is a song off of the White Album. It has one of my favorite McCartney piano melodies. The song is not a great Beatle song nor even close to the best on the album but it’s a likable song.

Martha was Paul’s English Sheepdog that he got in 1966. You can see her in some Beatles pictures through the late sixties. Martha lived a long life and passed away in 1981 at the age of 15.

In 1993 Paul released the Paul is Live album with his dog Arrow, granddaughter of Martha on the cover.

Paul talks about Martha

‘You silly girl, look what you’ve done,’ all that sort of stuff. These songs grow. Whereas it would appear to anybody else to be a song to a girl called Martha, it’s actually a dog, and our relationship was platonic, believe me.”

She was a dear pet of mine. I remember John being amazed to see me being so loving to an animal. He said, ‘I’ve never seen you like that before.’ I’ve since thought, you know, he wouldn’t have. It’s only when you’re cuddling around with a dog that you’re in that mode, and she was a very cuddly dog.

Martha was my first pet ever. I never had a dog or a cat at home. My parents both went out to work, which was why we couldn’t have any, even when one terrible day they were giving away free puppies! Just a hundred yards away from where we lived. We came screaming home, my brother and I, ‘They’re giving ’em away! We can get one if you tell us now, we can go and get one, we’ve chosen the one we want!’ They said, ‘You can’t have one, son. Me and your mum go out to work and it wouldn’t be fair on a dog.’ ‘We’ll look after it, we’ll do it.’ ‘You’re at school.’ ‘Well, we’ll come back at lunchtime. Surely?’ ‘No, no, no.’ Crying, crying, crying. We just couldn’t understand not buying one because we weren’t that well off, but passing up a freebie puppy! He was quite firm about stuff like that and I suppose he was right.

From Songfacts

Fourteen session musicians were used to play strings and horns.

Lennon played guitar on this while Harrison supplied bass.

One of Martha’s offspring can the seen on the cover of McCartney’s 1993 album Paul Is Live.

Seth Swirsky, who wrote the songs “Tell It To My Heart” and “Love Is a Beautiful Thing,” produced the Beatles documentary Beatles Stories, where he interviewed over 100 people who crossed paths with the Fab 4. When we asked Seth who his favorite songwriter was, he replied: “My favorite of all time is Paul McCartney. He could do so many things, and he could do things that are hard to quantify. Some people might say, ‘Well, I like Hall and Oates as songwriters,’ let’s just say. But they do that 8th note thing where they’re just banging on the piano, like ‘Kiss On My List,’ so you could kind of copy their sound a little bit, or copy their style of writing. Very hard to copy McCartney, because you just don’t come out with ‘Martha My Dear,’ where it changes keys in the middle of it.”

A young Stuart Goddard, whose mother used to clean Paul McCartney’s apartment in St. John’s Wood, would sometimes take the sheepdog Martha for walks. Goddard would grow up to be Adam Ant.

Martha My Dear

Martha, my dear
Though I spend my days in conversation, please
Remember me
Martha, my love
Don’t forget me
Martha, my dear

Hold your head up, you silly girl
Look what you’ve done
When you find yourself in the thick of it
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you
Silly girl

Take a good look around you
Take a good look you’re bound to see
That you and me were meant to be
With each other
Silly girl

Hold you’re hand out, you silly girl
See what you’ve done
When you find yourself in the thick of it
Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you
Silly girl

Martha, my dear
You have always been my inspiration
Please, be good to me
Martha, my love
Don’t forget me
Martha, my dear.

Linda Ronstadt – Poor Poor Pitiful Me

I couldn’t decide which version to use. Linda had the hit from this Warren Zevon song but I like Warren’s version so much. Warren’s version is much cruder lyrically and musically but Linda did a great job with this song. Linda had such a powerful voice that she made it her song.

The song peaked at #31 in the Billboard 100 and the same in Canada in 1978. This is the version I first heard but I do have a soft spot for Warren’s version also.

From Songfacts

Written and originally recorded by Warren Zevon, this first appeared on his self-titled album in 1976. It became a hit when Linda Ronstadt covered it the next year. In the ’70s, Ronstadt had several hits originally recorded by other artists.

Typical of Zevon’s songwriting, this is a pretty crude and risqué song. His character is such a disaster that he can’t even kill himself: he puts his head on the railroad tracks, but the train doesn’t run anymore. He then meets a girl and engages in some sadomasochism.

Ronstadt’s cover was a cleaned-up version with the gender reversed. Her character still fails at suicide, but the S&M references are gone

Poor Poor Pitiful Me

Well I lay my head on the railroad track
Waiting on the Double E
But the train don’t run by here no more
Poor poor pitiful me

Poor poor pitiful me
Poor poor pitiful me
Oh these boys won’t let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe woe is me

Well I met a man out in Hollywood
Now I ain’t naming names
Well he really worked me over good
Just like Jesse James
Yes he really worked me over good
He was a credit to his gender
Put me through some changes Lord
Sort of like a Waring blender

Poor poor pitiful me
Poor poor pitiful me
Oh these boys won’t let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe woe is me

Well I met a boy in the Vieux Carres
Down in Yokohama
He picked me up and he threw me down
He said “Please don’t hurt me Mama”

Poor poor pitiful me
Poor poor pitiful me
Oh these boys won’t let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe woe is me

Poor poor poor me
Poor poor pitiful me
Poor poor poor me
Poor poor pitiful me
Poor poor poor me
Poor poor pitiful me