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Todd Rundgren – I Saw The Light

I always thought of this as a perfect pop song. The lyrics won’t challenge Dylan but they fit the melody perfectly. Todd only had 8 songs in the top 100 and one top ten hit which surprises me because I thought it would have been more. He was an excellent producer. He produced Badfinger, The New York Dolls, Grand Funk, and many more. This song peaked at #16 in the Billboard 100 in 1972.

Rundgren talked about this song: “I wrote this song in 15 minutes from start to finish. It was one of the reasons that caused me to change my style of writing. It doesn’t matter how clever a song is – if it’s written in 15 minutes, it is such a string of clichés that it just doesn’t have a lasting impact for me. And for me, the greatest disappointment in the world is not being able to listen to my own music and enjoy it.”

From Songfacts

This song is about a mixed-up young man, perhaps a teenage boy, who stumbles into his first affair and doesn’t know if he loves the girl. It was a solid hit for Todd Rundgren, but far from his favorite. He explained: “‘I Saw The Light’ is just a string of clichés. It’s absolutely nothing that I ever thought, or thought about before I sat down to write the song.”

This was the first song on the album. According to the liner notes of Something/Anything?, Rundgren thought it would be a hit, so he placed it first just like Motown used to do with their records.

The 45 RPM single was pressed on blue vinyl.

Rundgren learned piano on his own, which gave him a nontraditional approach to the instrument. When he wrote this song, he was doing what came naturally, moving his hands up and down the keyboard. As he did it, he came up with very simple lyrics, letting one line flow into another without thinking about it at all:

It was late last night
I was feeling something wasn’t right

Rundgren knew the song had hit potential, which he later learned can often come by keeping things simple. “Sometimes when these things just come spilling out, I’ve found, sometimes they have a more broad appeal to the average listener than if you’re trying to do something impressive,” he told Red Bull Music Academy during a 2013 talk. “I thought, ‘This is a real simple, straight-ahead, easy-to-understand song. I’ll pretend it’s a single and I’ll put it first on the record.”

This was used in the TV shows Six Feet Under, Beavis and Butthead and That ’70s Show. The song was also used in the movies Kingpin and My Girl.

Rundgren wrote this song, produced it, sang it and played all the instruments on it.

Todd states that after the release of Something/Anything he evolved as an artist and reached beyond writing about love and relationships. He states that he’d been using a brief relationship from high school as song fodder, throwing around the word “love” cheaply, and he began to feel strange about it. It inspired him to dig deeper for new material.

Rundgren re-recorded this with The New Cars after joining the band. It appears on their 2006 album It’s Alive!

There is barely any chorus on this song – it’s almost entirely verses and bridge. The chorus is just either “In your eyes” or “In my head” repeated twice.

The following year, another song using lots of “ite” rhymes hit the charts: “Dancing In The Moonlight” by King Harvest. In that one, the end of ever line ends in a rhyme for “light.”

I Saw The Light

It was late last night
I was feeling something wasn’t right
There was not another soul in sight
Only you, only you
So we walked along,
though I knew there was something wrong
And the feeling hot me oh so strong about you
Then you gazed up at me and the answer was plain to see
‘Cause I saw the light in your eyes

Though we had our fling
I just never would suspect a thing
‘Til that little bell began to ring in my head
In my head
But I tried to run,
though I knew it wouldn’t help me none
‘Cause I couldn’t ever love no one, or so I said
But my feelings for you
were just something I never knew
‘Til I saw the light in your eyes

But I love you best
It’s not something that I say in jest
‘Cause you’re different, girl, from all the rest
In my eyes
And I ran out before but I won’t do it anymore
Can’t you see the light in my eyes

Supertramp – Bloody Well Right

Supertramp was one of those bands I’ve never known much about. They did have songs I liked and this is one of them. This song peaked at #35 in the Billboard 100 in 1975. “Bloody Well Right” was their first charting hit in America but it failed to chart in the UK.

Supertramp had 10 songs total in the Billboard 100 and 2 top ten hits. It was included on the 1974 album Crime of the Century, “Bloody Well Right” became one of Supertramp’s signature songs.

From Songfacts

“Bloody Well Right” was Supertramp’s first charting hit in the US, while it failed to chart in the UK. One theory on why the song didn’t chart in their UK homeland has it that Brits were still offended by the adjective “bloody” in 1975. These days it is considered a mild expletive at best all around the world.

Written by Supertramp leaders Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, Davies sings lead on this one. The song deals with youthful confusion, class warfare, and forced conformity in the British school system (kind of like Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall (part II)”). This anti-establishment take was a theme of the album.

The song has a unique structure, with a 51-second piano solo at the start that meanders around, playing the “Locomotive Breath” trick of starting out vaguely recognizable and giving people plenty of time to guess who and which song this is before the more familiar parts kick in. Then a grinding power guitar riff thunders by, making you think this is going to be heavy metal. Nope, guess again – the light piano and suddenly chipper lyrics on the chorus take us back to pop rock.

“Bloody Well Right” is actually an answer song to the previous song on the album, “School.” Crime of the Century is a concept album that tells the story of Rudy. In “School,” Rudy has lamented that the education system in England is teaching conformity above education (boy, Rudy, you should see America). In “Bloody Well Right” he joins a gang believing them to be the organized resistance that he longs for; instead, they’re basically apathetic punks who mock him for his higher aspirations. It’s not that Rudy’s wrong, it’s that Rudy is galvanized by something that is common knowledge to everyone else. Hello, Occupy Wall Street? We have your theme song!

Bloody Well Right

So you think your schooling’s phony
I guess it’s hard not to agree
You say it all depends on money
And who is in your family tree

Right, you’re bloody well right
You know you got a right to say
Right, you’re bloody well right
You know you got a right to say

Ha-ha you’re bloody well right
You know you’re right to say
Yeah-yeah you’re bloody well right
You know you’re right to say
Me, I don’t care anyway!

Write your problems down in detail
Take them to a higher place
You’ve had your cry, no, I should say wail
In the meantime hush your face
Right, quite right, you’re bloody well right

Right, you’re bloody well right
You know you got a right to say
Right, you’re bloody well right
You know you got a right to say

Beatles – The Night Before

This is a hidden gem that was never released as a single in America. I first heard this on the Rock and Roll Music compilation album. Paul wrote this song (John and Paul both confirmed this) and his voice and melody are strong. He wrote it in the family home of his current girlfriend Jane Asher where Paul was living.

The song was originally on the “Help!” soundtrack and the album showed the growth the band was making. It’s not among the masterpieces of the Beatles but a very good pop/rock song. John Lennon is playing the electric keyboard (Hohner Pianet) on this song. The Beatles performed this on the Salisbury Plain in their second film, Help!. The album was released in 1965.

Lennon said that Paul and George played the same solo together but in different octaves.

The Night Before

We said our goodbyes, ah, the night before.
Love was in your eyes, ah, the night before.
Now today I find you have changed your mind.
Treat me like you did the night before.

Were you telling lies, ah, the night before?
Was I so unwise, ah, the night before?
When I held you near you were so sincere.
Treat me like you did the night before.

Last night is a night I will remember you by.
When I think of things we did it makes me want to cry.

We said our goodbye, ah, the night before.
Love was in your eyes, ah, the night before.
Now today I find you have changed your mind.
Treat me like you did the night before.

When I held you near you were so sincere.
Treat me like you did the night before.

Last night is a night I will remember you by.
When I think of things we did it makes me want to cry.

Were you telling lies, ah, the night before?
Was I so unwise, ah, the night before?
When I held you near you were so sincere.
Treat me like you did the night before,
Like the night before.

Artist Neysa McMein

I discovered Neysa McMein through Harpo Marx’s autobiography “Harpo Speaks” and I looked up her artwork. I’ve seen her art plenty of times by reading and collecting 20’s and 30’s magazines but never knew the artist. She was also a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table.

She sold millions of magazines with her covers for McCall’s, Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, McClure’s, Woman’s Home Companion, Photoplay, Liberty, Associated Sunday Magazine, Ladies World. Ad work: memorably for Palmolive; also Cadillac, Lucky Strike, Adam’s Gum, Coke, Hummingbird Hosiery, Gainsborough Hair Nets, Colgate.

She painted portraits of two sitting presidents, Warren G. Harding, and Herbert Hoover.

She also created the first Betty Crocker and updated her through the years.

Neysa marching in 1917 in a Suffrage Parade.

Harpo Marx said this about Neysa: The biggest love affair in New York City was between me—along with two dozen other guys—and Neysa McMein. Like me, Neysa was an unliterary, semi-illiterate gate-crasher at the Algonquin. But unlike me, she was beautiful and bursting with talk and talent. A lot of us agreed she was the sexiest gal in town. Everybody agreed she was the best portrait and cover artist of the times.

She taught Harpo Marx how to paint and according to Harpo she only had one failing as a teacher: Neysa had one failing as an art instructor. It was, as far as I knew, her only failing, period. That was her passion for fires. If a siren or bell should sound during one of our late-night seminars, that was the end of the seminar. Neysa was such a fire buff that she once dashed to Penn Station and jumped on a train when she heard there was a four-alarm fire burning in Philadelphia.

The Harpo quotes are from his autobiography “Harpo Speaks.”

Neysa died in 1949 and was inducted into the Society of Illustrators’ Hall of Fame in 1984.

To see more of her artwork check out this from Pinterest.

Elvis Presley – Promised Land

I had a hard time deciding which version to use…Chuck Berry’s who wrote the song or the Elvis version. This is the version I know the best. The many reasons I really like this version is the clavinet and Ron Tutt’s drumming…and of course, that guy named Elvis does a good job. He also did a really good job on the charts. Altogether he had 109 songs in the Billboard 100, 25 top ten hits and 7 number 1 hits.

I heard this song a lot growing up along with his other hits.

Promised Land peaked at #14 in the Billboard 100 and #9 in the UK Charts. Chuck Berry wrote this when he was serving time in jail for violating the Mann Act. He had to borrow an atlas of the US from the prison library to plot his hero’s journey from Virginia to California.

Promised Land

I left my home in Norfolk Virginia
California on my mind
I Straddled that Greyhound,
and rolled in into Raleigh and all across Carolina

Stopped in Charlotte and bypassed Rock Hill
And we never was a minute late
We was ninety miles out of Atlanta by sundown
Rollin’ out of Georgia state

We had motor trouble it turned into a struggle,
Half way ‘cross Alabam
And that ‘hound broke down and left us all stranded
In downtown Birmingham

Right away, I bought me a through train ticket
Ridin’ cross Mississippi clean
And I was on that midnight flier out of Birmingham
Smoking into New Orleans

Somebody help me get out of Louisiana
Just help me get to Houston town
There are people there who care a little ’bout me
And they won’t let the poor boy down

Sure as you’re born, they bought me a silk suit
Put luggage in my hands,
And I woke up high over Albuquerque
On a jet to the promised land

Workin’ on a T-bone steak a la carte
Flying over to the Golden State
Oh when The pilot told me in thirteen minutes
We’d be headin’ in the terminal gate

Swing low chariot, come down easy
Taxi to the terminal zone
Cut your engines, cool your wings
And let me make it to the telephone

Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia
Tidewater four ten O nine
Tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin’
And the poor boy’s on the line

Stone Poneys – Different Drum

My favorite Monkee wrote this song. Micheal Nesmith wrote this song before he was picked to be a Monkee. At the time, he was developing his skills as a folk singer…a long way from what the Monkees turned into. In 1965, he met John Herald, guitarist for a bluegrass/folk group called The Greenbriar Boys. They played songs for each other, and Herald loved “Different Drum.” He brought it to his group, slowed down the tempo, and released it on the group’s 1966 album Better Late Than Never! Linda Ronstadt heard this version and recorded it with her group The Stone Poneys (named after the Charlie Patton song “Stone Pony Blues), this version is the best-known version of Different Drum.

This version peaked at #13 in the Billboard 100 in 1968. This would be their only top twenty hit. They stayed together a little while after this and even toured with the Doors with Jim Morrison who Rondstadt didn’t like too well. The Stone Poneys broke up and Rondstadt went solo.

From Songfacts

Like “Me And Bobby McGee,” this is a song written and originally recorded by a guy that switched genders when a female recorded it. With a male narrator, the girl is tying him down, and he has to leave her to strike out on his own. With Ronstadt singing it, the girl become the one who is reigned in, and leaves her man so she can do her own thing. Notice that she ends up describing the guy as “pretty,” which makes a lot more sense when it was Nesmith singing about a girl.

In this song, Ronstadt is ready to bail on a relationship, claiming they are very different people and she doesn’t want to be tied down to one person anyway. It’s a variation of both the “I want to see other people” and the “It’s not you, it’s me” breakups. Mike Nesmith wrote it in character – he was newly married and his wife was pregnant.

The Monkees were given very little control of their musical output, which didn’t sit well with Mike Nesmith, who found out after he joined the ensemble that session musicians would be playing on their albums and hired guns would write their songs. Nesmith was a talented performer and songwriter, and he proved it with this tune, which he pitched for The Monkees. He explained in 1971: “Most of the songs I did write, they didn’t want, so on the last few albums I didn’t contribute much in the way of material. I took them ‘Different Drum’ and they said all it needed was a hook. They asked me to change it and told me it was a stiff.”

The Stone Poneys were a folk trio of Ronstadt, Kenny Edwards and Bobby Kimmel. They released their first album earlier in 1967, and it went nowhere. This song was included on their second album, Evergreen Volume 2, later that year and appeared to be headed toward a similar fate. In dire financial straits, the band was driving to a meeting with their record company when their car broke down on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. At the gas station where they ended up, they heard this song playing on the radio – it had been added to the playlist at KRLA-AM, a huge station in LA. Suddenly, they had a hit on their hands.

Their fortunes improved, but the song only took them so far. After one more charting single (“Up To My Neck In High Muddy Water” – #93) the band broke up. Ronstadt went solo and charted a few minor hits from 1970-1974, but landed a #1 in 1975 with “You’re No Good,” launching her to stardom.

Bobby Kimmel did most of the songwriting in The Stone Poneys, who generally shared vocals like Peter, Paul and Mary. These songs rarely suited Linda Ronstadt’s voice, but when she heard “Different Drum” by The Greenbriar Boys, she thought it was a perfect fit and a great opportunity to take a lead vocal.

Mike Nesmith played a short, intentionally awful version of this song on the “Too Many Girls” episode of The Monkees TV series. The episode aired December 19, 1966, which was shortly before Ronstadt released the song.

Fittingly, this song was far different than previous Stone Poneys material, and the male members of the group, Kenny Edwards and Bobby Kimmel, didn’t even play on it. Ronstadt envisioned the song as an acoustic piece, but their producer, Nick Venet, had different ideas. When the group showed up for the three-song session at Capitol Records’ Studio B in Los Angeles, there were a number of studio musicians there. Edwards and Kimmel played on two of the songs, but when it came time to record “Different Drum,” they watched from the control room as the seasoned studio pros worked up the song under Venet’s direction. Among the musicians:

Don Randi – harpsichord
Al Viola – guitar
Jimmy Bond – bass
Jim Gordon – drums

There was also a string section conducted by Sid Sharp. Gordon and Randi also played on many of the Monkees recordings in place of the actual group.

Ronstadt did one run-through of the song before recording her vocal, start to finish, in the next take. As she developed her vocal talents, she came to hate the way she sounded on the song. “Today I will break my finger trying to get that record off when it’s on,” she said in the 2016 book Anatomy of a Song. “Everyone hears something in that song – a breakup, the antiwar movement, women’s lib. I hear a fear and a lack of confidence on my part. It all happened so fast that day.”

The Monkees were in their second (and final) season when this song reached its chart peak in January 1968. Mike Nesmith heard it for the first time on a Philadelphia radio station when the group was riding together in a limousine.

Nesmith recorded this himself in 1972 on a solo album called And The Hits Just Keep On Comin’. Nesmith had a substantial solo output after The Monkees TV series was canceled.

A Different Drum

You and I travel to the beat of a different drum
Oh, can’t you tell by the way I run
Every time you make eyes at me. Wo oh
You cry and you moan and say it will work out
But honey child I’ve got my doubts
You can’t see the forest for the trees

Oh, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I’m knockin’
It’s just that I’m not in the market
For a boy who wants to love only me
Yes, and I ain’t sayin’ you ain’t pretty
All I’m sayin’s I’m not ready for any person,
Place or thing to try and pull the reins in on me
So goodbye, I’ll be leavin’
I see no sense in the cryin’ and grievin’
We’ll both live a lot longer if you live without me

The Buckinghams – Kind of a Drag

This song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100 and #1 in Canada in 1967. This was an American band from Chicago that formed in 1966. They scored 3 top ten hits (#5 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, #6 Don’t you Care and this song).

The Buckingham was a band from Chicago that formed in 1966. They were very successful in 1967 and 68 and broke up in 1970. They reformed in 1980 and are still together today.

From Songfacts

“Kind of a Drag” was written by Jim Holvay, who was a friend of the band’s from Chicago. It is The Buckingham’s only #1 hit, although they peeked into the Top 10 twice more and charted a couple more times after that. Holvay went on to write “Don’t You Care,” “Susan” and “Hey Baby They’re Playing Our Song” for The Buckinghams.

Is that a song from the late-’60s/ early-’70s with a horn section? Then odds are good it’s produced by James William Guercio. Guercio produced both early Chicago and The Buckinghams, and the latter influenced the formation of Blood Sweat & Tears. Try playing “Kind of a Drag” back-to-back with “Saturday In The Park” (Chicago) and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” (BS&T).

Meet The Buckinghams: Dennis Tufano (vocals), Carl Giammarese (guitar), Martin Grebb (keyboard), Nick Fortuna (bass), Jon Poulos (drums). The band had dissolved by 1970, but a reunion has since taken place starting in 1980, with the only two original members now being Carl and Nick. Jon Poulos died from a drug overdose in 1980.

The Buckinghams had five charting hits, and they all occurred in 1967, prompting Billboard magazine to declare them “the most-listened-to band of the year.” So why did they fall off the map? In our interview with Tommy James, he explained that 1968 marked the emergence of album-oriented bands, with singles acts dying off. Said James: “When we left in August (1968, for the Democratic National Convention), all the big acts were singles acts. It was the Association, it was Gary Puckett, it was the Buckinghams, the Rascals, us. But the point was that it was almost all singles. In 90 days, when we got back, it was all albums. It was Led Zeppelin, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Joe Cocker, Neil Young. And there was this mass extinction of all of these other acts. It was just incredible. Most people don’t realize that that was sort of the dividing line where so many of these acts never had hit records again.”

The modern-day version of The Buckinghams have risen to such heights as playing at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration ball, and being inducted into the 2009 class of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Kind of a Drag

Kind of a drag
When your baby don’t love you
Kind of a drag
When you know she’s been untrue

Oh oh, listen to what I’ve gotta to say
Girl, I still love you
I’ll always love you
Anyway, anyway, anyway

Kind of a drag
When your baby says goodbye
Kind of a drag
When you feel like you want to cry

Oh oh girl, even though you make me feel blue
I still love you
I’ll always love you
Anyway, anyway, anyway

Oh, listen to what I’ve gotta say
Girl, I still love you
I’ll always love you
Anyway, anyway, anyway

Billy Preston – Nothing From Nothing

Billy Preston played with and toured with a lot of artists. Mahalia Jackson, Ray Charles, Little Richard, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and more. He had 17 songs in the Billboard 100, six top ten hits, and three number 1’s… One of the #1’s was with the Beatles with Get Back.

This song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100 in 1974. Preston performed this song on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live. He and Janis Ian were the musical guests on the October 11, 1975 debut.

From Songfacts

Preston started writing this one night in the dressing room of an Atlanta nightclub where he was performing. He wanted to write a song based on the saying, “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.”

“The saloon piano gave it character,” Preston explained, “and I had a feeling it would be a hit because it was a sing-a-long kind of thing.”

Bruce Fisher, who was Preston’s songwriting partner (he co-wrote his previous American chart-topper, “Will It Go Round In Circles”), added a second verse.

The B-side of the single was another song Preston wrote with Fisher: “You Are So Beautiful,” which was later a hit for Joe Cocker.

Preston started off at the age of 10 playing keyboards for gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. Later he joined Ray Charles’ touring band before recording with The Beatles on several of their tracks including “Get Back” and “Let It Be” (The Beatles considered him to be the fifth Beatle). He also played on a number of Sly & The Family Stone recordings. Preston went on to have a successful solo career with five Top 10 US hits. In 1997 he was sent to prison on drug charges. He died in 2006 at age 59.

In the US, this was used in a TV commercial for Fidelity Investments. >>

This was used in several movies, including the 1995 thriller To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman, the 2003 comedy Elf, starring Will Ferrell, the 2008 comedy Be Kind Rewind, starring Jack Black and Mos Def, and the 2011 comedy Bad Teacher, starring Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake.

Nothing from Nothing

Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’
You gotta have somethin’ if you want to be with me
Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’
You gotta have somethin’ if you want to be with me

I’m not tryin’ to be your hero
‘Cause that zero is too cold for me, Brrr
I’m not tryin’ to be your highness
‘Cause that minus is too low to see, yeah

Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’
And I’m not stuffin’, believe you me
Don’t you remember I told ya
I’m a soldier in the war on poverty, yeah
Yes, I am

Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’
You gotta have somethin’ if you want to be with me
Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’
You gotta have somethin’ if you want to be with me

You gotta have somethin’ if you want to be with me
You gotta bring me somethin’ girl, if you want to be with me

Sarah McLachlan – Building a Mystery

I like the overall sound of this recording. The mix and depth are perfect. Sara’s voice is powerful and the structure of the song is great. This is a song that you turn up to 11 on your stereo, iPod, or phone with good headphones. The engineer of this song did his or her job very well.

She talked about the song and said: “basically about the fact that we all… have insecurities to hide, and we often do that by putting on a façade.” She also goes on to say that “unfortunately, if we just be who we are, that’s usually the more attractive and beautiful thing.”

Building a Mystery peaked at #13 in the Billboard 100 and #1 in Canada in 1997.

Dave from “A Sound Day” wrote about Sara’s early career. https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/140925716/posts/2345

Building A Mystery

You come out at night

That’s when the energy comes

And the dark side’s light

And the vampires roam

You strut your rasta wear

And your suicide poem

And a cross from a faith that died

Before Jesus came

You’re building a mystery

You live in a church

Where you sleep with voodoo dolls

And you won’t give up the search

For the ghosts in the halls

You wear sandals in the snow

And a smile that won’t wash away

Can you look out the window

Without your shadow getting in the way?

You’re so beautiful

With an edge and charm

But so careful

When I’m in your arms

‘Cause you’re working

Building a mystery

Holding on and holding it in

Yeah you’re working

Building a mystery

And choosing so carefully

You woke up screaming aloud

A prayer from your secret god

You feed off our fears

And hold back your tears, oh

Give us a tantrum

And a know it all grin

Just when we need one

When the evening’s thin

You’re a beautiful

A beautiful fucked up man

You’re setting up your

Razor wire shrine

‘Cause you’re working

Building a mystery

Holding on and holding it in

Yeah you’re working

Building a mystery

And choosing so carefully

Oh, you’re working,

Building a mystery

Holding on and holding it in

Yeah you’re working

Building a mystery

And choosing so carefully

Yeah, you’re working,

Building a mystery,

Holding on and holding it in,

Oh yeah you’re working,

Building a mystery

And choosing so carefully

You’re building a mystery.

O’Jays – Love Train

This song has been featured in many commercials and movies but I’ve never get tired of it. What a positive vibe it has to it. The O’Jays had six top ten hits, twenty-nine songs in the Billboard 100, and one #1 which was Love Train in 1973.

To honor their contributions to Philadelphia Soul, the BET network awarded the O’Jays a lifetime achievement award, which was presented by the Soul Train creator Don Cornelius.

According to Eddie Levert of the O’Jays, when they started working on this song, it didn’t have lyrics. Kenny Gamble wrote them on the spot in about five minutes. “By the time we started laying down the vocals, we knew we had a hit,”… “Love Train felt like destiny. It had such perfect, timeless lyrics that it was almost as if they’d come from God, and we had to deliver them to the people.”

From Songfacts

It was 1973, the height of the Philadelphia soul genre was dawning, and “Love Train” came along with just the right sound at just the right time. It was written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, producers for the O’Jays. The team of Gamble & Huff would go on to write and produce over 170 gold and platinum records – and they also wrote “Back Stabbers” and “For The Love Of Money,” two more key songs in the O’Jays’ career.

The lyrics make a call for unity and world peace, mentioning England, Russia, China, Egypt, Israel, and Africa. “Love Train was the first of our big message songs,” O’Jays singer Walter Williams told The Guardian. 1972 was explosive – Vietnam was rumbling on, the rich were getting richer – so it was the perfect time to sing about social issues. The song mentioned places that were having human rights problems, but in a positive, hopeful way: “The first stop we make will be England… tell all the folks in Russia and China too.”

The O’Jays made a music video for this song, mainly for airing in Europe, where many shows played these clips. In the video, the O’Jays take a group of children on a train to Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

This song was a big part of the satirical 2010 “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear,” put on basically by the Comedy Central network. The “rally” included songs with a train theme, so they got “Love Train,” Ozzy’s “Crazy Train,” as well as “Peace Train.” A merry time was presumably had by all.

The song has been used in numerous TV and film soundtracks, as well as in popular commercials for Coors Light.

Love Train

People all over the world (everybody)
Join hands (join)
Start a love train, love train
People all over the world (all the world, now)
Join hands (love ride)
Start a love train (love ride), love train

The next stop that we make will be soon
Tell all the folks in Russia, and China, too
Don’t you know that it’s time to get on board
And let this train keep on riding, riding on through
Well, well

People all over the world (you don’t need no money)
Join hands (come on)
Start a love train, love train (don’t need no ticket, come on)
People all over the world (Join in, ride this train)
Join in (Ride this train, y’all)
Start a love train (Come on, train), love train

All of you brothers over in Africa
Tell all the folks in Egypt, and Israel, too
Please don’t miss this train at the station
‘Cause if you miss it, I feel sorry, sorry for you
Well

People all over the world (Sisters and brothers)
Join hands (join, come on)
Start a love train (ride this train, y’all), love train (Come on)
People all over the world (Don’t need no tickets)
Join hands (come on, ride)
Start a love train, love train
Ride, let it ride
Let it ride
Let it ride
People, ain’t no war

People all over the world (on this train)
Join in (ride the train)
Start a love train, love train (ride the train, y’all)
People all over the world (come on)
Join hands (you can ride or stand, yeah)
Start a love train, love train (makin’ love)
People all over the world (’round the world, y’all)
Join hands (come on)
Start a love train, love train
People all over the world
Join hands
Start a love train, love train
People all over the world
Join hands
Start a love train, love train
People all over the world
Join hands
Start a love train, love train

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/nov/01/the-ojays-how-we-made-love-train-interview

The Influence of the Emergency! TV Series

When this show premiered in 1972, there were only 12 paramedics in North America. By 197,7 50% of the US Population was within 10 minutes of a paramedic unit. Former Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said, “Watching Johnny and Roy in action on Emergency! was a reflection of how early Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics really worked; it redefined the scope of the fire service. It was truly one of America’s first reality shows.”

Of course, this show wasn’t the purpose of the increase..but the show did influence a generation of kids to be paramedics and firefighters.

Emergency! was created by Jack Webb, Robert A. Cinader, and Harold Jack Bloom. Webb and Cinader also created the police dramas Adam-12 and Dragnet.

Adam-12 Webb and Cinader would go to great lengths to make everything as authentic as possible, sometimes using real case files. Randolph Mantooth explained how series co-creator and producer Robert A. Cinader asked the writing staff to pull all the rescues to be portrayed on the show from a real fire station’s logbook. “He told them it didn’t have to come from just LACoFD or Los Angeles or even California, but it did have to come from someone’s logbook.”

Fire Station “51” was where they were based. At that time, there was no Station 51 in Los Angeles. In 1995, when Universal City needed a fire station, they opened one, and it became 51 in honor of the show.

The show followed two firemen-paramedics who would get calls for car wrecks, earthquakes, fires, and any kind of emergency taking place. The show starred Randolph Mantooth as John Roderick “Johnny” Gage and Kevin Tighe as Roy DeSoto. The hospital staff included Julie London as Dixie McCall, Bobby Troup as Dr. Joe Early, and Robert Fuller as Dr. Kelly Brackett.

Adam 12 and Emergency! would sometimes cross over to each other’s shows.

There were a couple blink-and-you ”ll-miss-it crossovers between Emergency! and the motorcycle patrol show CHiPs. Squad 51 can be seen responding in the season one episode “Cry Wolf,” while in season two’s “MAIT Team,” Engine 51 and Squad 51 show up to the scene of a horrific pile-up.

I liked Emergency! as a kid…I prefer Adam-12 because of the 30-minute format compared to the hour-long Emergency! But it’s a good show.

From EMS World…this article about the show.

https://www.emsworld.com/article/10476608/show-started-it-all

Eddie Floyd – Knock On Wood

This song never gets old. It has been recorded by many artists including David Bowie to a disco version by Amii Stewart. The song was written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd. This song peaked at #28 in the Billboard 100 and #19 in the UK. It was released on Stax Records.

Stax Records boss Jim Stewart wasn’t a fan of this song, as he thought it was too similar to “In The Midnight Hour.” He didn’t release it until about six months after it was recorded. When he did, Cropper and Floyd did much of the promotion themselves, visiting radio stations to try to get airplay for the song.

Steve Cropper on the song: “We were trying to write a song about superstitions, and after we’d exhausted about every superstition known to man at that time, from cats to umbrellas, you name it, we said, what do people do for good luck? And Ed tapped on the chair and said, ‘knock on wood, there it is.’ So basically the whole theme of the song changed, and we started to sing about, I’d better knock on wood for good luck, that I can keep this girl that I got, because she’s the greatest – and that’s what it was about.”

From Songfacts

This was Eddie Floyd’s biggest hit. He wrote the song with Stax Records guitarist Steve Cropper in the Lorraine Motel, which is where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. Working late at night, they came up with the famous line, “It’s like thunder, lightning, the way you love me is frightening” when Floyd told Cropper a story about how he and his brother would ride out the storms in Alabama.

“In Alabama, man, there’s like thunder and lightning,” he told Cropper. “We’d hide under the bed because we’d be frightened of the thunder and lightning.”

Cropper liked this phrase and came up with the famous line.

The saying “Knock On Wood” is used to express gratitude for good fortune while humbly acknowledging that it might not continue: “My back has been feeling better ever since I gave up spearfishing… knock on wood.” This is often accompanied by the speaker actually tapping on any nearby (and preferably wooden) surface.

In the song, Eddie Floyd is knocking on wood because he’s so lucky to have found the girl of his dreams.

This song has one of the most effective pauses in music history: After Floyd sings, “I better knock,” there’s some space before drummer Al Jackson comes in with his drumbeats and Floyd completes the line with “on wood.”

This section wasn’t planned – Jackson came up with the idea of putting the pause in and simulating the sound of knocking on a door to break up the line. This little flourish made the song very memorable.

A disco version by Amii Stewart was a #1 hit in 1979. It was the only hit for Stewart, who was also a dancer and actress – she starred in the Broadway musical Bubbling Brown Sugar. The innovative arrangement of her version inspired Jay Graydon’s production of The Manhattan Transfer’s “The Boy From New York City.”

Says Graydon: “There was a re-release of ‘Knock On Wood’ that was fantastic. And some guy played a triplet guitar part in it. I decided to borrow the idea because professionals borrow where amateurs steal. (laughs) So I was borrowing the concept… with different notes that I played, of course, And that was the secondary hook of the song.” (read more in our interview with Jay Graydon)

The intro, with horns and guitar, is similar to another hit for Stax Records: “In The Midnight Hour” by Wilson Pickett. The guitar lines in both songs are deceptively simple. Steve Cropper explained on his website: “It’s a little school-of-guitar thought that I called ‘follow the dots.’ Basically, you look down on the front markers of the guitar and just kind of follow them out and you can come up with the intro of either ‘In The Midnight Hour’ or the intro of ‘Knock On Wood’ depending on where you start. It was kind of funny that sometime after ‘In The Midnight Hour’ had been a hit, I was laughing that we had always put a lot of pride in our intros at Stax, and you could tell it meant a lot because the hits were pretty identifiable – the old game of name that song in one note, and usually you’d get it right off of the intro before the lyrics start. This is one of those cases. We just thought it was funny and I hit it. Eddie said, ‘man, that’s it!’ That’s how the intro to ‘Knock on Wood’ came about.”

After Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper wrote this song at the Lorraine Motel, they called trumpet player Wayne Jackson, who was doing a gig 10 minutes away in West Memphis, and asked him to come by to work on the horn lines before their session the next morning. He came by around 2 a.m., and an hour later they had the horn lines written and ready to go. At the session, they didn’t have to spend time working up the song because it was already prepared.

This song confused British listeners a bit, as the phrase “knock on wood” in not in their vernacular. In England, the expression is “touch wood.”

According to Eddie Floyd, it was Isaac Hayes, a regular at Stax Records, who came up with the bridge, which ended up being played on a saxophone.

The soul singer Tyrone Davis released a slower version of this song in 1969 on his album Can I Change My Mind.

Otis Redding recorded the song as a duet with Carla Thomas (credited to “Otis & Carla”). Their version went to #30 in 1967.

The Stax house band – Booker T. & the MG’s – provided backing on this track. Isaac Hayes played the piano.

Knock on Wood

I don’t want to lose you, this good thing
That I got ’cause if I do
I will surely,
Surely lose a lot.
Cause your love is better
Than any love I know.
It’s like thunder and lightning,
The way you love me is frightening.
You better knock, knock on wood, baby.

I’m not superstitious about ya
But I can’t take no chance.
I got me spinnin’, baby,
You know I’m in a trance.
‘Cause your love is better
Than any love I know.
It’s like thunder and lightning,
The way you love me is frightening.
You better knock, knock on wood, baby.

It’s no secret,
That woman is my loving cup
‘Cause she sees to it
That I get enough.
Just one touch from here,
You know it means so much.
It’s like thunder and lightning,
The way you love me is frightening.
You better knock, knock on wood, baby.

You better knock, knock, knock on wood

Johnny Rivers – Poor Side of Town

This song has always stuck with me because of that odd guitar riff. The song was written by Johnny Rivers and Lou Adler. Johnny had 29 songs in the top 100, 9 top ten hits, and one number one song. This is the one chart-topper Rivers achieved. It hit #1 in the Billboard 100 in 1966.

The song was on his Changes album that peaked at #33 in 1967. With this album, he moved into a more soulful, contemporary direction with his music. Instead of basic guitar-bass-drums, he added orchestral sounds from horns and strings.

From Songfacts

This is Johnny Rivers’ only American chart topper. He co-wrote it with Lou Adler. Marty Paich, who arranged for Mel Torme and Ray Charles, did the string arrangement.

Johnny Rivers: “I had this tune I’d been working on, and I kept playing it for Lou. It took me about 6 months to finish. We cut it with Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborn and Hal Blaine. I did my vocal performances live with the band. I sat and played my guitar and sang. There weren’t any overdubs. So we said it could use some singers and maybe some strings. That’s the time we got together with (arranger) Marty Paich.”

This was a change of direction for Johnny Rivers, who had tired of the upbeat Go-Go sound that provided him with his early hits. However, he found his record company reluctant to tamper with a winning formula. He recalls, “Al Bennett and those guys were goin’ Man. don’t start comin’ out with ballads. You’re gonna kill your career. You got a good thing goin’ with this funky trio rock sound, stay with that.”

Poor Side of Town

How can you tell me how much you miss me
When the last time I saw you, you wouldn’t even kiss me
That rich guy you’ve been seein’
Must have put you down
So welcome back baby
To the poor side of town

To him you were nothin’ but a little plaything
Not much more than an overnight fling
To me you were the greatest thing this boy had ever found
And girl it’s hard to find nice things
On the poor side of town

I can’t blame you for tryin’
I’m tryin’ to make it too
I’ve got one little hang up baby
I just can’t make it without you

So tell me, are you gonna stay now
Will you stand by me girl all the way now
Oh with you by my side
They just can’t keep us down
Together we can make it girl
From the poor side of town

(So tell me how much you love me)
(Come be near to me and say you need me now)

Oh, with you by my side
This world can’t keep us down
Together we can make it baby
From the poor side of town

Moody Blues – The Voice

I remember in Jr High school in 1981 I bought Long Distant Voyager by the Moody Blues. The album received heavy play and peaked at #1 in the Billboard album charts. The album had two top twenty hits with The Voice and Gemini Dream. The Voice peaked at #15 in the Billboard 100.

With no clear title in the lyrics, Justin Hayward had no idea what to name this song. When the group’s engineer, Greg Jackman, asked him what to call it, Hayward replied, “I’ll think of that after.”

Jackman thought he said, “Fat Arthur,” and wrote that on the tape. That was the song’s name right up to the mastering process when Jackman pushed for a more sensible title before they turned it over to the label. Hayward went through the lyrics and picked out “The Voice,” which is what stuck.

Mike Pinder left after the previous album Octave and was replaced by Patrick Moraz.

From Songfacts

This was one of the songs that propelled The Moody Blues to a comeback in the early 1980s, and of their newer songs, it appealed the most strongly to fans of their original work. Written by Justin Hayward, the lyrics have the same philosophical tone of their songs in the late 1960s, and the song is alternately urgent and hopeful about the future. It seems to be telling listeners that they face major choices on how their world will turn out, and that there is great hope in it, but only if they make it happen of their own initiative.

After the Moody Blues came to San Francisco and played their psychedelia-tinged songs in 1967, they’ve been perceived in some circles as a Flower Power band. They are certainly very introspective, but their music changed with the times, thanks in part to a shift in songwriting for Justin Hayward. By the ’80s, he no longer needed to be in just the right mood to write a song (like he was on one Tuesday Afternoon), but could compose in his music room on a regular schedule. Hayward cites this discipline for the band’s continued success in the ’80s.

Hayward did something different on this track, recording two guitars to a click track and then bringing that tape to the band to give them the tempo and feel of the song. This is the method he used on many songs throughout the decade.

The Voice

Won’t you take me back to school?
I need to learn the golden rule.
Won’t you lay it on the line?
I need to hear it just one more time.

Oh, won’t you tell me again?
Oh, can you feel it?
Oh, won’t you tell me again tonight?

Each and every heart it seems,
Is bounded by a world of dreams.
Each and every rising sun,
Is greeted by a lonely one.

Oh, won’t you tell me again?
Oh, can you feel it?
Oh, won’t you tell me again tonight?

Cause out on the ocean of life my love.
There a so many storms we must rise above.
Can you hear the spirit calling, as it’s carried across the waves?
You’re already falling it’s calling you back to face the music.
And the song that is coming through.
You’re already falling the one that it’s calling is you.

My a promise take a vow.
And trust your feelings it easy now.
Understand The Voice within.
And feel a change already beginning.

Oh, won’t you tell me again?
Oh, can you feel it?
Oh, won’t you tell me again tonight? Tonight?

Oh, won’t you tell me again?
Oh, can you feel it?
Oh, won’t you tell me again tonight?

And how many words have I got to say?
And how many times will it be this way?
With your arms around the future and your back up against the past.
You’re already falling it’s calling you on to face the music.
And the song that is coming through.
You’re already falling the one that it’s calling is you.

Each and every heart it seems,
Is bounded by a world of dreams.
Each and every rising sun,
Is greeted by, a lonely, lonely one.

Won’t you tell me again?
Oh, can you feel it?
Oh, won’t you tell me again tonight?

George Harrison – What Is Life

A good rocker by George. He recorded this song when he was making his album All Things Must Pass in 1970. Eric Clapton, Jim Gordon, Bobby Keyes, and Badfinger are among the musicians on this recording.

The song peaked at #10 in the Billboard 100 and #3 in Canada in 1971. Originally, Harrison wrote this for Billy Preston with sort of a gospel feel. After it ended up being a fast rocker, he decided to record it himself.

In 2014 there was a contest to come up with a video to this song. The winner is at the bottom of the post. This is the announcement.

Congratulations to Brandon Moore from the United States whose video was chosen by Olivia & Dhani Harrison as the overall winner of the Genero.tv ‘What is Life’ Competition!

From Songfacts

Preston was one the early artists on the Beatles’ Apple label (he released two albums), and he was present at the sessions that yielded “Get Back.”

Harrison was writing many religious songs at the time, but this wasn’t one of them. The lyrics are directed to a person, not God.

The original song had piccolo, trumpet, and oboe parts that weren’t used because Harrison didn’t like the feel. They can be heard on the 2000 reissue of the album, where the original backing track is included as an extra song.

Phil Spector produced the album. Bobby Whitlock, who played keyboards at the sessions, had this to say about him in his Songfacts interview: “The real show in that whole place was Phil Spector – what a funny guy. He’s not too funny now, but then, what he was doing in there and the way he was carrying on, I thought, they’ve got all these mics out here catching us jamming, where they need a mic is on the inside. He was a pretty colorful character to say the least. That was one of the highlights of it – listening to him and watching him and watching how he operated. I learned a lot just from being around him. He’s just eccentric, he’s real creative. I agree with his work ethic. I concur with him 100% when it comes to being creative in the studio – put 6 guitars on it if you need it. If it wasn’t for Phil Spector, forget about The Righteous Brothers. There probably wouldn’t be a lot of us here from ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin” – you know how many babies were made to that?”

On the album, the “O’Hara-Smith” singers are credited as background vocalists. Whitlock explains: “That’s Eric Clapton and me. If you listen, you can hear Eric and me wailing away.” (For more on these sessions, check out our Bobby Whitlock interview)

This has been covered by Olivia Newton-John and the surf band The Ventures. A version by Shawn Mullins appeared on the Big Daddy soundtrack.

In the UK, this was released as the B-side to “My Sweet Lord.” In the US, it was released as its own single, with “Apple Scruffs” as the B-side.

What Is Life

What I feel, I can’t say
But my love is there for you anytime of day
But if it’s not love that you need
Then I’ll try my best to make everything succeed

Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side

What I know, I can do
If I give my love now to everyone like you
But if it’s not love that you need
Then I’ll try my best to make everything succeed

Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side
Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side

What I feel, I can’t say
But my love is there for you any time of day
But if it’s not love that you need
Then I’ll try my best to make everything succeed

Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side
Oh tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side

What is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side

Oh tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me who am I without you by my side