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Gladys Knight & the Pips – Midnight Train to Georgia

I remember watching Gladys Knight and the Pips perform this on television when I was a small kid.

“Midnight Train To Georgia” was not only a #1 hit on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B, but also a #10 on the UK Singles chart. It garnered the group the 1974 Grammy Award for “Best R&B Vocal Performance” and was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

The song was written by Jim Weatherly…here he explained how he wrote the song… Who would have thought Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett Majors would have anything to do with it.

“The song actually came about after a phone call I had with Farrah Fawcett. Lee Majors was a friend of mine. We’d played in the Flag Football League together in L.A. He had just started dating Farrah. One day I called Lee and Farrah answered the phone. We were just talking and she said she was packing. She was gonna take the midnight plane to Houston to visit her folks. So, it just stayed with me. After I got off the phone, I sat down and wrote the song probably in about 30 to 45 minutes. Something like that. Didn’t take me long at all, ’cause I actually used Farrah and Lee as kind of like characters I guess. A girl that comes to L.A. to make it and doesn’t make it and leaves to go back home. The guy goes back with her. Pretty simple little story, but it felt real to me. It felt honest to me. I played it for them and they loved it. I cut it on my first album as ‘Midnight Plane To Houston.’ And then later on, maybe a year or six months later, a guy in Atlanta wanted to cut the song on Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mother. They called and said they would like a more R&B sounding title and asked if we would mind if they changed the title to ‘Midnight Train To Georgia’ [so that “Houston” wouldn’t appear in both the title and artist name]. We said ‘change anything but the writer and publisher.’ So, he cut the song on Cissy Houston and it was a nice little cross between an R&B and country record. It got on the R&B charts. That’s the version that Gladys heard. Some of the background vocals you hear on Glady’s records were first on Cissy Houston’s record. It wasn’t as much, but just some of the feel of the background vocals. And of course, Gladys’ record was more of a groove-oriented thing. It wasn’t as slow. It just became a monster record.”

Here is a better detailed write up about it by Dave from “A Sound Day”

From Songfacts.

This was written and originally recorded by Jim Weatherly, who had a solo hit in 1974 with “The Need To Be”

Gladys Knight & The Pips recorded Weatherly’s “Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)” in 1973 and released it as a kiss-off record as their contract to Motown Recording Company (Soul Record) was expiring. “Neither One of Us” was their biggest Motown/Soul hit, reaching #2 as the group signed with Buddha Records. When they decided to record an album consisting of only Jim Weatherly songs (Imagination), his publisher sent a copy of the song to Knight. This was the second single from the album, after “Where Peaceful Waters Flow.” It became the group’s biggest hit. The third and fourth singles off the album didn’t do too badly either – “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination” peaked at #4 in the US, “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me” #3.

This title is name-checked in Billy Crystal’s 1989 TV special Midnight Train to Moscow.

Films and television shows in which “Midnight Train To Georgia” is part of the soundtrack include The Deer Hunter, 30 Rock, House M.D., Broadcast News, and Las Vegas. It also gets its day in the sun in the 1974 episode of VH1’s I Love the ’70s: Volume 2. Richard Pryor (we still miss him) also used it in his 1977 special.

You might ask what, exactly, a “pip” is besides Knight’s backing singers. Well, a ‘pip’ is casino/gaming jargon for the spots on a die or domino. So when you’re at a craps table and you roll a “hard 8” on the dice, that means that there’s four pips showing on the face of each die, as opposed to an “easy 8” which would be the statistically more common 2-6 or 3-5 combinations of pips.

Other songs involving trains include “Last Train To Clarksville,” “City Of New Orleans”, “Love Train”, “Runaway Train”, and of course Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'”, which also has a “midnight train.” Train themes seem to be most popular in folk music and R&B.

This song has special relevance when you consider 21st century online dating, which unites partners over the internet who are separated by a great distance. The decision the protagonist has to make, choosing to move to Georgia to “live in his world,” is a common one that people have to eventually face if they start a long-distance relationship.

Midnight Train to Georgia

L.A. Proved too much for the man
Too much for the man, he couldn’t make it
So he’s leavin’ the life he’s come to know uhoo
He said he’s goin’
He said he’s goin’ back to find
Goin’ back to find
Ooh, what’s left of his world
The world he left behind
Not so long ago

He’s leavin’ (leavin’)
On that midnight train to Georgia
Leavin’ on the midnight train
Said he’s goin’ back
Goin’ back to find
To a simpler place in time
Oh yes he is

And I’ll be with him (I know you will)
On that midnight train to Georgia (leavin’ on the midnight train to Georgia)
I’d rather live in his world
Than live without him in mine
That world is his, his and ‘ers alone

He kept dreamin’ (dreamin’)
That someday he’d be a star
A super star, but he didn’t get far
But he sure found out the hard way
That dreams don’t always come true
So he pawned all his hopes
And he even sold his old car
Bought a one way ticket back
To the life he once knew
Oh yes he did
He said he would

Oh oh he’s leavin’
On that midnight train to Georgia (leavin’ on the midnight train)
Said he’s goin’ back to find
Oh a simpler place in time

And I’m gonna be with him (I know you will)
On that midnight train to Georgia
I’d rather live in his world
Than be without him in mine

The world is his, his and ‘ers alone
Oh he’s leavin’
On that midnight train to Georgia (leavin’ on the midnight train)
Said he’s goin’ back to find (goin’ back to find)
Oh a simpler place in time

And I’ve gotta be with him (I know you will)
On the midnight train to Georgia
I’d rather live in his world
Than be without him in mine

The world is his, his and ‘ers alone
For love gonna board
The midnight train to Georgia
For love gonna board
The midnight train to Georgia

For love gonna board
The midnight train to Georgia
For love gonna board
The midnight train to Georgia
For love gonna board
The midnight train to Georgia

For love gonna board
The midnight train to Georgia
For love gonna board
The midnight train to Georgia
For love gonna board
The midnight train to Georgia
For love gonna board
The midnight train to Georgia

Ringo Starr – It Don’t Come Easy

Maybe Ringo’s best solo song. Ringo is the only songwriter credited on this, but he had a lot of help from George Harrison, who was very generous in giving him full writing credit. The track (less Ringo’s vocal and horn parts) was already completed when Harrison gave it to him, and it included a scratch vocal by George (youtube video at the bottom).

The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada and #4 in the UK in 1971.

Pete Ham and Tom Evans from Badfinger are on this track.

From Songfacts.

If you listen carefully during the guitar solo, the backup singers throw in a “Hare Krishna,” which was mixed way down. This is a nod to George Harrison’s 1970 hit “My Sweet Lord,” where he sings the mantra.

This was Ringo’s first big hit as a solo artist (his cover of “Beaucoups of Blues” made #87 US a year earlier). From 1971-1975 he had a string of hits, including two #1s: “Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen.”

Peter Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger sang on the intro to this song (“It don’t come easy, ya know it don’t come easy”). Badfinger was signed to The Beatles’ Apple Records, and helped out George Harrison’s first solo album.

This song served Ringo well throughout his career. When he assembled his first “All Starr Band” in 1989 (featuring Dr. John, Clarence Clemmons, Joe Walsh and Billy Preston), this was the opening number on their tour. Throughout several subsequent incarnations of the band, “It Don’t Come Easy” typically remained at the top of setlist when they performed live.

Ringo performed this song with his good friend, musical cohort, and brother-in-law Joe Walsh when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

Here is the George Harrison version

It Don’t Come Easy

One, two,
One, two, three, four!

It don’t come easy
You know it don’t come easy
It don’t come easy
You know it don’t come easy

Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues
And you know it don’t come easy
You don’t have to shout or leap about
You can even play them easy

Open up your heart, let’s come together
Use a little love
And we will make it work out better

I don’t ask for much, I only want your trust
And you know it don’t come easy
And this love of mine keeps growing all the time
And you know it don’t come easy

Peace, remember peace is how we make it
Here within your reach
If you’re big enough to take it

Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues
And you know it don’t come easy
You don’t have to shout or leap about
You can even play them easy

Peace, remember peace is how we make it
Here within your reach
If you’re big enough to take it

I don’t ask for much, I only want your trust
And you know it don’t come easy
And this love of mine keeps growing all the time
And you know it don’t come easy

“What’s my name?” Ringo!
“What’s my name?” Ringo!

“Just in case anybody forgot”

The Mindbenders – A Groovy Kind of Love

I can’t listen to this every day but once in a while, it’s alright. It’s very mid-sixties plus it has the word groovy in it. Winner winner …

They were a beat group from Manchester, England. They were known as Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders but Mr. Fontana decided to quit in the middle of a concert in 1965… Eric Stewart (later in 10cc) became the lead singer.

The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100 in 1966.

Phil Collins covered the song in the 1980s and it peaked at #1 in 1988.

From Songfacts.

This was written by New York songwriters Carole Bayer Sager and Toni Wine; Sager was 22 when they wrote it, and Wine was 17. They wrote the song for Screen Gems publishing, and Jack McGraw, who worked at Screen Gems’ London office, thought the song would be perfect for the British group The Mindbenders. The song became a huge hit in England, and was released in America a year later, where it was also very successful.

Sager was still teaching high school when she wrote this, and Wine was still in high school. Both went on to very successful careers in the music industry, with Sager writing popular songs for stage productions and movies (including “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)”), and Wine writing the hit “Candida” and singing on many famous songs, including Willie Nelson’s version of “Always On My Mind” and “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies. They wrote this in Sager’s apartment.

In our interview with Toni Wine, she explained: “We were talking about ‘Groovy’ being the new word. The only song we knew of was 59th Street Bridge Song, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. You know, ‘Feelin’ groovy.’ And we knew we wanted to write a song with that word in it. Because we knew it was the happening word, and we wanted to jump on that. Carole came up with ‘Groovy kinda… groovy kinda… groovy…’ and we’re all just saying, ‘Kinda groovy, kinda groovy, kinda…’ I don’t exactly know who came up with ‘Love,’ but it was ‘Groovy kind of love.’ And we did it. We wrote it in 20 minutes. It was amazing. Just flew out of our mouths, and at the piano, it was a real quick and easy song to write. Those are incredible things when those songs can get written. Like some you can just be hung on for so long, and then others just happen very quickly. And that was one of them. And it’s been so good to us.”

In 1966, this was also recorded by Patti LaBelle And The Bluebelles, but the version recorded by The Mindbenders, who released it as their first single without lead singer Wayne Fontana, became the hit.

Wayne Fontana left the Mindbenders after numerous singles failed to chart after their hit “Game of Love.” To quote an angry Eric Stewart after Wayne just walked off the stage while they were playing: “All we lost was our tambourine player. Wayne had been threatening to leave the band for some time and drummer Ric Rothwell had reached the end of patience with his groaning an moaning. Ric was urging him to take his ego trip and p–s off.”

This was a #1 UK and US hit for Phil Collins in 1988. His version was used in the movie Buster, where Collins plays the title role of Buster Edwards. Collins put together the soundtrack using various ’60s songs because that’s when the movie was set (he enlisted Motown hitmaker Lamont Dozier to co-write “Two Hearts,” another US #1 hit used in the film). According to Toni Wine, “Separate Lives” composer Stephen Bishop wanted to record a cover and brought a demo to his pal Collins, hoping he would produce it. Instead, Collins convinced Bishop to let him record it for the movie.

A child actor, Collins was wary about taking a movie role after becoming famous as a musician, and he made sure the song didn’t appear until the end of the film so musical perceptions wouldn’t taint his performance. The film was a box office flop, but Collins stood by it, saying it was an excellent film.

The music is based on the Rondo from “Sonatina in G Major” by Muzio Clementi.

Collins’ version was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 1989 Grammy Awards, but lost to Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry Be Happy.”

Sonny & Cher recorded this for their 1967 album, In Case You’re In Love.

A Groovy Kind Of Love

When I’m feelin’ blue, all I have to do is take a look at you,
Then I’m not so blue.
When you’re close to me I can feel you heart beat
I can hear you breathing in my ear.

Wouldn’t you agree, baby, you and me got a groovy kind of love.
We got a groovy kind of love.

Any time you want to you can turn me on to anything you want to.
Any time at all.
When I taste your lips
Oh, I start to shiver can’t control the quivering inside.

Wouldn’t you agree, baby, you and me got a groovy kind of love.
We got a groovy kind of love.

When I’m in your arms nothing seems to matter
If the world would shatter I don’t care.
Wouldn’t you agree, baby, you and me got a groovy kind of love.
We got a groovy kind of love.
We got a groovy kind of love.
We got a groovy kind of love

Bob Dylan – Tangled Up In Blue

This was on the great album Blood on the Tracks. In my opinion Bob’s best album of the seventies. When I first got this album I couldn’t quit listening to it and I really wore this song out. I could sing this song in my sleep…I know every word because it’s ingrained in my head.

This would make my top 10-15 Bob Dylan songs. I’ve seen Bob 8 times and the first 6 times I saw him I kept waiting for this song because with Bob you don’t know what you will get live. He finally played it on the 7th time and I was surprised the next time because it was the only older song he played.

The song peaked at #31 in the Billboard 100 in 1975.

Talking to Ron Rosenbaum, Bob Dylan once told him that he’d written “Tangled up in Blue”, after spending a weekend immersed in Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue.

From Songfacts.

Dylan wrote this in the summer of 1974 at a farm he had just bought in Minnesota. He had been touring with The Band earlier that year.

Blood On The Tracks was Dylan’s first album under his new contract with Columbia Records. He left the label a year earlier to record for David Geffen’s label, Asylum Records.

This was influenced by the art classes Dylan was taking with Norman Raeben, a popular teacher in New York. Dylan credits Raeben for making him look at things from a nonlinear perspective, which was reflected in his songs.

This is a very personal song for Dylan. It deals with the changes he was going through, including his marriage falling apart.

Dylan sometimes introduced this on stage by saying it took “Ten years to live and two years to write.”

Tangled Up In Blue

Early one mornin’ the sun was shinin’
I was layin’ in bed
Wondrin’ if she’d changed at all
If her hair was still red
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like
Mama’s homemade dress
Papa’s bank book wasn’t big enough
And I was standin’ on the side of the road
Rain fallin’ on my shoes
Heading out for the east coast
Lord knows I’ve paid some dues
Gettin’ through
Tangled up in blue

She was married when we first met
Soon to be divorced
I helped her out of a jam I guess
But I used a little too much force
We drove that car as far as we could
Abandoned it out west
Split up on a dark sad night
Both agreeing it was best
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin’ away
I heard her say over my shoulder
We’ll meet again some day
On the avenue
Tangled up in blue

I had a job in the great north woods
Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much
And one day the axe just fell
So I drifted down to New Orleans
Where I happened to be employed
Workin’ for a while on a fishin’ boat
Right outside of Delacroix
But all the while I was alone
The past was close behind
I seen a lot of women
But she never escaped my mind
And I just grew
Tangled up in blue

She was workin’ in a topless place
And I stopped in for a beer
I just kept lookin’ at the side of her face
In the spotlight so clear
And later on as the crowd thinned out
I’s just about to do the same
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me “Don’t I know your name?”
I muttered somethin’ under my breath
She studied the lines on my face
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces
Of my shoe
Tangled up in blue

She lit a burner on the stove
And offered me a pipe
I thought you’d never say hello, she said
You look like the silent type
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century
And everyone of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin’ coal
Pourin’ off of every page
Like it was written in my soul
From me to you
Tangled up in blue

I lived with them on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafes at night
And revolution in the air
Then he started into dealing with slaves
And something inside of him died
She had to sell everything she owned
And froze up inside
And when finally the bottom fell out
I became withdrawn
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keepin’ on
Like a bird that flew
Tangled up in blue

So now I’m goin’ back again
I got to get to her somehow
All the people we used to know
They’re an illusion to me now
Some are mathematicians
Some are carpenters’ wives
Don’t know how it all got started
I don’t know what they’re doin’ with their lives
But me, I’m still on the road
Headin’ for another joint
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point
Of view
Tangled up in blue

Freda Payne – Band of Gold

I’ve always liked this song. It’s a bit of a soap opera but it’s a really good soul song. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 in 1970. The guitar had a rubberband type effect that was used on this song.

Because of the subject matter, Freda Payne did not want to record this at first. She thought the song was about a woman who was a virgin or sexually naïve and felt it was more suitable for a teenager. When Payne objected to this song, Ron Dunbar (co-writer of the song) said to her, “Don’t worry. You don’t have to like them! Just sing it,” and she did. Little did she know that this song would become her biggest hit and would give her her first record of gold.

The lead guitarist on this track was Ray Parker Jr., who later found success with the theme song for the comedy movie Ghostbusters.

From Songfacts.

There is some mystery to this song. Some people think it is about an impotent man, while others think it is about a frigid woman. In a Songfacts interview with Lamont Dozier, who co-wrote the song, he explained: “The story was, the girl found out this guy was not all there. He had his own feelings about giving his all. He wanted to love this girl, he married the girl, but he couldn’t perform on his wedding night because he had other issues about his sexuality. I’ll put it that way.

It was about this guy that was basically gay, and he couldn’t perform. He loved her, but he couldn’t do what he was supposed to do as a groom, as her new husband.”

This was released on Invictus Records, which Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland formed after they left Motown in 1968. Holland-Dozier-Holland produced the track and wrote it with their collaborator Ron Dunbar, but because of their dispute with Motown, the H-D-H trio couldn’t put their names on the label and credited themselves as “Edythe Wayne.” Members of the Motown house band The Funk Brothers played on the track.

Freda Payne is the older sister of Scherrie Payne, the final lead singer of The Supremes. Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote many of The Supremes’ hits.

According to 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Freda Payne said of this song: “It is about a wedding night that didn’t work out. I wondered why a girl would have a problem on her wedding night and why they would be in separate rooms, but they said, ‘Just learn it.’ I had no idea that it would be such a big hit.”

Band of Gold

Now that you’re gone,
All that’s left is a band of gold
All that’s left of the dreams I hold
Is a band of gold
And the memories of what love could be
If you were still here with me

You took me from the shelter of my mother
I had never known or loved any other
We kissed after taking vows
But that night on our honeymoon,
We stayed in separate rooms

I wait in the darkness of my lonely room
Filled with sadness, filled with gloom
Hoping soon
That you’ll walk back through that door
And love me like you tried before

Since you’ve been gone,
All that’s left is a band of gold
All that’s left of the dreams I hold
Is a band of gold
And the dream of what love could be
If you were still here with me

Ohhh

Don’t you know that I wait
In the darkness of my lonely room
Filled with sadness, filled with gloom
Hoping soon
That you’ll walk back through that door
And love me like you tried before

Since you’ve been gone,
All that’s left is a band of gold
All that’s left of the dreams I hold
Is a band of gold
And the dream of what love could be
If you were still here with me

The Music Explosion – A Little Bit Of Soul

A good song for a beginner on guitar plus it’s just a cool 60s pop/rock song. I bought the single when I was a kid after I heard it on AM radio. The Music Explosion was an American garage rock band from Mansfield, Ohio. It’s one of those songs that will stick in your head all day…in a good way.

The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100.

From Songfacts.

The remedy for life’s lows is found in this little pop ditty from 1967, which claims all you need to get by is a “little bit o’ soul.” It was written by British songwriting duo John Carter and Ken Lewis, who wrote the 1965 hit “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat” for Herman’s Hermits. That same year, The Little Darlings recorded an early version of “Little Bit O’ Soul,” but it was largely ignored until a band from Mansfield, Ohio, called The Music Explosion got a hold of it. They were auditioning for producers Jeff Katz and Jerry Kasenetz, known as the Kings of Bubblegum, when they were given the song to practice.

“It was a folk version, sung like a ‘Puff The Magic Dragon,’ with a flat-top guitar,” Richard Nesta, the band’s guitarist, recalled in the book One Hit Wonders by Wayne Jancik. “It was a chordy song. Nothin’ special.”

That is, until they came up with the tune’s signature bass guitar riff (played by Butch Stahl). The Music Explosion’s version started out as a local hit and, once Kasenetz started shopping it around to California stations, it shot to #2 on the Hot 100.

All that roof raising that was going on in the late ’90s can be traced back to this song, with frontman Jamie Lyons singing, “When you raise the roof with your rock ‘n roll, you’ll get a lot more kicks with a little bit o’ soul.”

The controversial rap group 2 Live Crew sampled the riff in their 1989 song “The F–k Shop.” The group’s Luther Campbell, aka Luke, also recorded a #1 rap single in 1997 called “Raise the Roof,” which popularized the hands-in-the-air dance of the same name.

The Music Explosion disbanded in 1969. Their only other hit on the Hot 100 was 1967’s “Sunshine Games,” which peaked #63.

The Ramones covered this on their 1983 album, Subterranean Jungle.

This was used on the TV drama The Wire in the 2004 episode “Middle Ground.”

This was used in the 2017 film Detroit, set during the 1967 Detroit riots.

Little Bit Of Soul

Now when you’re feelin’ low and the fish won’t bite
You need a little bit o’ soul to put you right
You gotta make like you wanna kneel and pray
And then a little bit of soul will come your way

Now when your girl is gone and you’re broke in two
You need a little bit o’ soul to see you through
And when you raise the roof with your rock’n’roll
You’ll get a lot more kicks with a little bit o’ soul

And when your party falls ’cause ain’t nobody groovin’
A little bit o’ soul and it really starts movin’, yeah

And when you’re in a mess and you feel like cryin’
Just remember this little song of mine
And as you go through life tryin’ to reach your goal
Just remember what I said about a little bit o’soul

A little bit o’ soul, yeah (a little bit o’ soul)

Moody Blues – I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock & Roll Band)

This song I’m highlighting off of the Seventh Sojourn album released in 1972. The song peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100 and #36 in the UK. Like Ride My See-Saw I like the tone of the guitar on this one…not as distinctive as Ride My See-Saw but still good. The song was written by Joh Lodge…this is John talking about it:

It was a strange time in the world [back in the 1960s), and I know we live in strange times now (laughs). The Vietnam War was going on, and at the same time, people around the world were looking for different things—looking for hope and looking for some way to get out of everything that was piling pressure on them.

I suddenly thought…just a minute…I’m only a musician. I didn’t know the answers to the questions that people were seeking. I wanted to say that. But also, there’s a reference in the song to a famous photograph from the Vietnam War. There’s a little girl running along the street who’s just been on fire, and so I had to write that in the song as well…the line, “scorching the earth.” So I wanted to put everything in [the song]. I wanted to tell you what is actually going on in the world, [but] it seemed we couldn’t do anything else about it. And that’s really what this song is about.

I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock & Roll Band)

I’m just a wandering on the face of this earth
Meeting so many people who are trying to be free
And while I’m traveling I hear so many words
Language barriers broken, now we’ve found the key

If you want this world of yours to turn about you
You can see exactly what to do, don’t tell me

I’m just a singer in a rock and roll band

A thousand pictures can be drawn from one word
Only who is the artist, we got to agree
A thousand miles can lead so many ways
Just to know who is driving, what a help it would be

So if you want this world of yours to turn about you
And you can see exactly what to do, don’t tell me

I’m just a singer in a rock and roll band

How can we understand
Riots by the people for the people
Who are only destroying themselves
And when you see a frightened
Person who is frightened by the
People who are scorching this earth, scorching this earth

I’m just a wandering on the face of this earth
Meeting so many people, who are trying to be free
While I’m traveling I hear so many words
Language barriers broken, now we’ve found the key

If you want this world of yours to turn about you
You can see exactly what to do, don’t tell me

I’m just a singer in a rock and roll band

How can we understand
Riots by the people for the people
Who are only destroying themselves
When you see a frightened
Person who is frightened by the
People who are scorching this earth, scor-scorching this earth

Music is the traveler crossing our world
Meeting so many people, we’re bridging the seas

I’m just a singer in a rock and roll band
I’m just a singer in a rock and roll band
I’m just a singer in a rock and roll band
We’re just the singers in a rock and roll band

Soul Survivors – Expressway To Your Heart

When I was 18 I would listen to 96.3 in Nashville that would only play oldies. This one I heard quite a bit but never knew who performed this song…until now. It’s a nice 60s soul song that you don’t hear every day.

The song was written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100 in 1967. It was on the Soul Survivors album When the Whistle Blows Anything Goes.

From Songfacts.

This was the first hit record written and produced by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, who helped create the Philadelphia Soul sound with songs like “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” and “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia),” which were released on their Philadelphia International label. Gamble and Huff are from Camden, New Jersey, which is just east of Philadelphia, and often took the Schuylkill Expressway, which is the “Expressway To Your Heart.” Gamble wrote the lyrics, and he explained to National Public Radio: “I was on my way over to see a young lady, and the expressway was backed up. This is when they just started the expressway in 1967 – I was sitting there for what seemed like hours, so I started beating on the dashboard and singing, ‘Expressway to your heart, trying to get to you.’ Songs come from your imagination. You have to be quick to capture the moment.”

This song starts with the sound of car horns, which came from records containing sound effects. The horns were inspired by the Lovin’ Spoonful song “Summer In The City,” which also used the effect.

Gamble and Huff reused the lyrics “Shower you with love and affection, now you won’t look in my direction” on the song I’m Gonna Make You Love Me, which contains the line, “I’m gonna shower you with love and affection, look out, it’s comin’ in your direction.”

The Soul Survivors were a white group from New York City. They had one more Top 40 hit: “Explosion (In My Soul).”

Expressway To Your Heart

I’ve been tryin’ to get to you for a long time
Because constantly you been on my mind
I was thinkin’ ’bout a shortcut I could take
But it seems like I made a mistake

I was wrong, mmm, I took too long
I got caught in the rush hour
A fellow started to shower
You with love and affection
Now you won’t look in my direction

On the expressway to your heart
The expressway is not the best way
At five o’clock it’s much too crowded
Much too crowded, so crowded
No room for me (too crowded)
Oh, too crowded

Now there’s too many ahead of me
They’re all the time gettin’ in front of me
I thought I could find a clear road ahead
But I found stoplights instead

I was wrong, baby, I took too long
I got caught in the rush hour
A fellow started to shower
You with love and affection
Come on, look in my direction

On the expressway to your heart
The expressway is not the best way
At five o’clock it’s much too crowded
Much too crowded, so crowded
No room for me (too crowded)
Oh, too crowded

Oh, much too crowded
Oh, so crowded

Jimi Hendrix – The Wind Cries Mary

This is the softer side of Jimi. I had the American version of Are You Experienced and came across this song and it has always stuck with me. It was written about his girlfriend Kathy Mary Etchingham.

The song peaked at #6 in the UK charts and was the B side to Purple Haze in America. Bob Dylan was one of Hendrix’s biggest influences and it shows…this song has some great imagery.

From Songfacts.

Jimi wrote this in 1967 for Are You Experienced?; it was inspired by his girlfriend at the time, Kathy Mary Etchingham. He’d gotten into an argument with her about her cooking. She got very angry and started throwing pots and pans and finally stormed out to stay at a friend’s home for a day or so. When she came back, Jimi had written “The Wind Cries Mary” for her.

Kathy Mary recalled, “We’d had a row over food. Jimi didn’t like lumpy mashed potato. There were thrown plates and I ran off. When I came back the next day, he’d written that song about me. It’s incredibly flattering.” (Source Q magazine February 2013)

Jimi wrote the song quietly in his apartment and didn’t show it to anybody. After recording “Fire” (which was about his sexual relationship with Kathy), he had 20 minutes to spare in the recording studio, so he showed it to the band. They managed to record it in the 20 minute period they had. The band later recorded several more takes of the song, but they all seemed very sterile and they decided to go with the original recording.

This was the third single from Are You Experienced?.

A lot of people assumed this was about marijuana, which is also known as “Mary Jane.”

This song begins with a distinctive and recognizable introduction, in which three chromatically ascending ‘five’ chords are played in second inversion. A ‘five’ chord consists of two notes (first or “root,” and fifth) instead of three (root, third and fifth). The missing middle note gives the chord a more ‘open’ or ‘bare’ sound. A second inversion “flips” the notes in the chord, so that the fifth, not the root, is the lowest sounding note. This makes it more difficult for the listener to immediately identify what key the song is being played in. In addition, a syncopated rhythm makes it difficult for the listener to identify the “downbeats” of the song. This combination of musical elements creates a unique and disorienting experience when the song is heard for the first time.

Jamie Cullum covered this song, replacing the guitar part with a jazzy piano. Other artists to record the song include John Mayer, Popa Chubby and Robyn Hitchcock.>>

According to the book Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy, Hendrix wrote this as a very long song, but broke it down to fit the short-song convention and make it radio friendly. Hendrix was concerned that listeners wouldn’t understand the song in its shortened form.

The Wind Cries Mary

After all the jacks are in their boxes
And the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footprints dressed in red
And the wind whispers “Mary”

A broom is drearily sweeping
Up the broken pieces of yesterdays life
Somewhere a queen is weeping
And somewhere a king has no wife
And the wind cries “Mary”

The traffic lights they turn blue tomorrow
And shine the emptiness down on my bed
The tiny island sags downstream
Cause the life that lived is dead
And the wind screams “Mary”

Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past
And with its crutch, its old age, and its wisdom
It whispers no this will be the last
And the wind cries “Mary”

The Mamas & The Papas – I Saw Her Again

I never was a huge fan of The Mamas and Papas but I did like some of their songs like this one. This song was written by John Phillips, the leader of the Mamas And The Papas, about the affair between his wife, Michelle Phillips (a Mamas And Papas member), and Denny Doherty (a Mamas And Papas member).

After that Michelle had an affair with Gene Clark of the Byrds which ultimately led to Michelle Phillips’ dismissal from the band temporarily.

Ironically enough, Doherty received a songwriting credit. The sessions for this album must have been as uncomfortable.

I found this researching the song. The two women of the group were Michelle Phillips and Cass Elliott were opposite…one had model looks and insecure and Cass Elliott was heavy and outgoing making friends with everyone. This is a quote from Michelle Phillips…the lone survivor of the band.

“People assume that there must have been tension between us, but the truth is I wanted to be just like Cass,” says Phillips. “Cass liberated me; she stopped John trying to have too much control over me. She taught me a lot about feminism, and she always encouraged me, although I was obviously inferior to her as a singer.”

Elliot died of a heart attack in 1974, aged 32. Phillips died of heart failure in 2001, and Doherty died of an abdominal aneurysm in 2007.

This song peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100 in 1966 and #11 in the UK. This was their second album called The Mamas and Papas.

Jill Gibson took Michelle’s place in the band for a few weeks when this album was being recorded and then Michelle was asked back to finish out the album. Some songs have both of their voices on them.

From Songfacts.

Lou Adler produced this song, and Bones Howe was the engineer for the session. According to Bones, the part around the 2:45 mark where “I saw her” is repeated twice was a happy accident. Said Bones: “We were punching vocals in, and when we came to that part where the rhythm stops and the group goes, ‘I saw her again last night,’ I just punched in early. They came in early, and so we stopped. And then we went back and started again, and I punched in at the beginning of the vocal, they started two bars later or whatever it was. And when I played it back, the vocal went, ‘I saw her – I saw her again.’ It was a mistaken punch. And Lou said, ‘I love it! Leave it in.’ It was an error, it was a mistake. But Lou was wise enough, it caught his ear and he left it. And I learned something from that. You go with your gut. If something catches – they could be – there are wonderful mistakes that happen in the studio and you have to learn to catch those when they happen and use them.”

I Saw Her Again

I saw her again last night
And you know that I shouldn’t
To string her along’s just not right
If I couldn’t I wouldn’t

But what can I do, I’m lonely too
And it makes me feel so good to know
You’ll never leave me
I’m in way over my head

Now she thinks that I love her
Because that’s what I said
Though I never think of her
But what can I do, I’m lonely too

And it makes me feel so good to know
You’ll never leave me
Every time I see that girl
You know I want to lay down and die

But I really need that girl
Don’t know why I’m livin’ a lie
It makes me want to cry
I saw her again last night

And you know that I shouldn’t
To string her along’s just not right
If I couldn’t I wouldn’t
But what can I do, I’m lonely too

And it makes me feel so good to know
You’ll never leave me

But what can I do, I’m lonely too
And it makes me feel so good to know
You’ll never leave me
Every time I see that girl

You know I want to lay down and die
But I really need that girl
Don’t know why I’m livin’ a lie
It makes me want to cry

I saw her again last night
And you know that I shouldn’t
To string her along’s just not right
If I couldn’t I wouldn’t

I’m in way over my head
Now she thinks that I love her
Because that’s what I said
Though I never think of her

Beatles – I Am the Walrus

I first heard this when I was a kid and I tried wrapping my brain around it. It starts with a siren-like sound and dives into chaos…my favorite place. John famously said he wrote the first line on an acid trip on one weekend and the second line on another acid trip the next weekend and filled in the rest after he met Yoko.

This was the first song recorded after Beatle’s manager Brian Epstein’s death in 1967. After John first sang the song to Beatle’s producer George Martin…the did this before they worked on their songs so George could get a feel for it. George said: “Well, John, to be honest, I have only one question: What the hell do you expect me to do with that?” John was not happy about it but after being played a song with two notes… and singing about a Walrus and Eggman…you can’t really blame him.

The song was the B side to the Hello, Goodbye. I think…as well as John the A side should have been I Am the Walrus.

I Am the Walrus

I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together
See how they run like pigs from a gun
See how they fly
I’m crying

Sitting on a cornflake
Waiting for the van to come
Corporation T-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday
Man you’ve been a naughty boy
You let your face grow long

I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus
Goo goo g’ joob

Mr. City policeman sitting
Pretty little policemen in a row
See how they fly like Lucy in the sky
See how they run
I’m crying
I’m crying, I’m crying, I’m crying

Yellow matter custard
Dripping from a dead dog’s eye
Crabalocker fishwife
Pornographic priestess
Boy, you’ve been a naughty girl
You let your knickers down

I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus
Goo goo g’ joob

Sitting in an English garden
Waiting for the sun
If the sun don’t come you get a tan
From standing in the English rain

I am the eggman
(“How do you do sir”)
They are the eggmen
(“The man maintains a fortune”)
I am the walrus
Goo goo g’ joob Goo Goo Goo g’ joob

Expert, texpert choking smokers
Don’t you think the joker laughs at you
(Ho ho ho hee hee hee hah hah hah)
See how they smile like pigs in a sty
See how they snide
I’m crying

Semolina Pilchard
Climbing up the Eiffel tower
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna
Man, you should have seen them kicking
Edgar Allen Poe

I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus
Goo goo g’ joob
Goo goo goo g’ joob
Goo goo g’ joob
Goo goo goo g’ joob
Goo goo
Juba juba juba
Juba juba juba
Juba juba juba
Juba juba

(Oh I’m tired, servicible villain
Set you down father, rest you)

Paul Simon – Kodachrome

As a kid, I learned what Kodachrome meant by this song. Paul Simon was working on a song with the title “Coming Home” when the word “Kodachrome” came to him. He had no idea what it meant, but knew it would make for a much more interesting song than “Coming Home.” The song became an appreciation of the things in life that color our world.

Kodachrome is a registered trademark of the Kodak company. It is a method of color transparency, but more commonly known as a type of color film the company started marketing in 1935. The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100 and Canada.

From Songfacts.

This was not a hit in England, partly because UK radio stations rarely played it. The BBC had very strict rules about commercial endorsements, and they would not allow stations to play songs that seemed to push products. It’s the same reason The Kinks had to re-record part of “Lola.” The lyrics were, “We drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola,” But Ray Davies had to redo them as “…Just like cherry cola” so the song could get airplay in Great Britain.

Paul Simon recorded this at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama with the famous Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. He sought out the musicians when he found out they played on “I’ll Take You There” by the Staple Singers, and was surprised to learn that they were not Jamaican musicians, but four white guys from the South. Simon went to Muscle Shoals to record just one song: “Take Me To The Mardi Gras,” but when they finished that one much sooner than he expected, he also recorded “Kodachrome” and “Loves Me Like A Rock.” Simon was the first big rock artist to record at the studios – Bob Seger and The Rolling Stones were some of the others who recorded there in the ’70s.

David Hood, the bass player in the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, told us this story: “When Paul Simon walked into our studio, he thought, God, what a funky place. Because it was. He was used to working at A&R and Columbia Studios in New York, and studios in England and different places. And when he came and saw our little place, he probably thought, man, this is a rat trap.

It just so happened that the roof leaked in our studio right over the recording console, and as a short term fix, we taped sanitary pads across the ceiling just to absorb the water so it wouldn’t drop down on the recording console. So we had Paul Simon, who’s got hit record after hit record walking in and seeing this place with Kotex on the ceiling. He must have thought, what in the world have I gotten myself into? But we cut this track for him in two takes, and I think he thought, wow, well these guys know what they’re doing. It doesn’t really matter.” (Here’s more on the history of the Muscle Shoals sound.)

Simon sometimes sings the line “Everything looks worse in black and white” as “Everything looks better in black and white.” He changes it a lot, and claims he can’t remember which way he wrote it.

On June 22, 2009, Kodak officially retired Kodachrome color film after 74 years. Photographers had turned to more recent Kodak products and digital technologies, which led to Kodachrome’s decline.

Kodachrome

When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder
I can think at all
And though my lack of education
Hasn’t hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away

If you took all the girls I knew
When I was single
And brought them all together for one night
I know they’d never match
My sweet imagination
Everything looks worse in black and white

Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away

Mama don’t take my Kodachrome
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome
Leave your boy so far from home
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away

My Favorite Songwriters

This one was the most fun to do. These are the songwriters that I have listened to and admired the most.

1… Bob Dylan – There was no one else I could remotely place as number 1.

2… Lennon – McCartney – As a team…it was quantity and quality. Their music will live long after we are gone.

3…Chuck Berry – He wrote the blueprint for future rockers.

4…Jagger – Richards – For blues rock it doesn’t get much better than these two.

5…Paul Simon – One of the best craftsman of pop songs there is…

6…Bruce Springsteen – One of the best writers of his generation.

7…Goffin and King – Wrote some of the best known and successful songs of the sixties.

8…Smokey Robinson – Bob Dylan said of Robinson…”America’s greatest living poet”

9…Pete Townshend – Took the “Rock Opera” to new levels.

10…Hank Williams – The country poet.

Honorable Mention

Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ray Davis, Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt, Leiber and Stoller, Elvis Costello, Randy Newman, Woody Guthrie, Merle Haggard, Robbie Robertson, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Tom Petty, Curtis Mayfield, John Prine, George Harrison, Steve Wonder, Warren Zevon, Brian Wilson

My Favorite Singers

There are so many singers that I cannot possibly list them all. I could make a top 30 and not get them all. This is my personal favorite top 10 plus some extra.

For the most part, I like singers with soul and meaning to their singing…not vocal gymnastics.

1…Aretha Franklin – Aretha could make any song better by singing it.

2…Van Morrison, Them and Solo – Probably my favorite male singer.

3…John Lennon, Beatles – John hated his voice and always wanted an effect on it…It didn’t need it…one of his best performances was “A Day In The Life”

4…Bob Dylan – Bob changed popular singing. I would rather hear Bob sing than many of the great traditional singers.

5…Elvis Presley – Hey he’s Elvis…

6…Otis Redding – Just a fantastic singer and performer and just taking off before he was killed in a plane crash.

7…Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones – Mick makes the most out of his voice.

8…John Fogerty…CCR – If I could have the voice of anyone…it would be Fogerty. The power that John has is incredible…his voice is its own instrument.

9…Janis Joplin – She put everything she had in each song. Her last producer Paul A. Rothchild was teaching Janis how to hold back and sing more traditional to save her voice for old age…which never came.

10…Johnny Cash – Last but far from least. Only one man can sound like Cash…and that is Cash

Honorable Mention…any of these could have easily been on the list.

Steve Marriott, Paul McCartney, Levon Helm, Bessie Smith, Little Richard, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, Elton John, Neil Young, Roy Orbison, Smokey Robinson, Sam Cooke, Joe Cocker, Billie Holiday, Freddie Mercury, Kate Bush, Ella Fitzgerald, Paul Rodgers, David Bowie.

Kingsmen – Louie Louie

This song has been played in thousands of bars, clubs, and garages. It’s an important milestone in Rock and Roll’s history. Louie Louie caused a scandal when it was released. Many people thought the mumbled words were obscene. John Ely was the lead singer for the Kingsmen at the time. He had to sing from a distance or rather shout at a distant microphone.

The FBI got involved and started an investigation…even Robert Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover received letters about it. The governor of Indiana, Matthew Welsh wanted it banned. Some technicians play it backward and forwards, they played it at different speeds, they spent a lot of time on it but it was indecipherable at any speed. The one person they didn’t ask about it was John Ely.

You have to wonder if the band or most likely the record company started the rumor about the lyrics. It was said some college student caused it but my money would be on the record company. The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100 and #27 in the UK in 1963.

The song was written by Richard Berry in 1955.

Here is the official FBI file on the Kingsmen’s Louie Louie.

Also, Eric Predoehl is supposedly making a documentary on the song.

The drummer did shout out something at 0.57 below that could have been the f-bomb after dropping a stick.

From Songfacts.

This was written by an R&B singer named Richard Berry in 1955. With his group The Pharaohs, he was also the first to record it, and it got some airplay in some cities in the Western US when it was released in 1957. Various garage bands heard it and started covering the song, until it became a phenomena with the Kingsmen’s 1964 version. While much of the song’s notoriety comes from the indecipherable lyrics, in Berry’s original version words are quite clear: the song is about a sailor who spends three days traveling to Jamaica to see his girl.

Dwight Rounds, author of The Year The Music Died, 1964-1972, writes: “The words to ‘Louie Louie’ are almost impossible to understand, and are rumored to be obscene. No question that this added significantly to the sales of the single. There was probably a leak somewhere that the lyrics were obscene; otherwise no one would have realized it. This was the most ingenious marketing scheme ever. The FBI tried to track down Richard Berry, The Kingsmen, and various record company executives. They were never able to determine the actual lyrics used. The Kingsmen insisted they said nothing lewd, despite the obvious mistake at the end of the instrumental, where Jack Ely started to sing the last verse one bar too soon, and can be heard yelling something in the background. Ely also said that he sung far away from the microphone, which caused the fuzzy sound, and that the notoriety was initiated by the record company. The words sound much more like the official version seen below, especially the word “rose” instead of “bone.” The lyrics rumor was a sham. The official lyrics are listed below in plain print, with one of the many alternative versions in italics.

Chorus: “Louie, Louie, oh no. Me gotta go. Aye-yi-yi, I said. Louie Louie, oh baby. Me gotta go.”

“Fine little girl waits for me. Catch a ship across the sea. Sail that ship about, all alone. Never know if I make it home.”

“Three nights and days, I sail the sea.” Every night and day, I play with my thing.
“Think of girl, constantly.” I f–k you girl, oh, all the way.
“Oh that ship, I dream she’s there. On my bed, I’ll lay her there.
“I smell the rose in her hair.” I feel my bone, ah, in her hair.

“See Jamaica, the moon above.” Hey lovemaker, now hold my thing.
“It won’t be long, me see my love.” It won’t take long, so leave it alone.
“Take her in my arms again.” Hey, senorita, I’m hot as hell.
“Tell her I’ll never leave again.” I told her I’d never lay her again.

The FBI launched an extensive investigation into this song after Indiana governor Matthew Welsh declared it “Pornographic” in early 1964 and asked the Indiana Broadcasters Association to ban it. The investigation spanned offices in several states, with technicians listening to the song at different speeds trying to discern any obscene lyrics. None were found; the FBI eventually figured out what happened when they contacted the FCC. The report details this correspondence:

“She explained that for approximately two years her company has been receiving unfounded complaints concerning the recording of ‘Louie Louie.’ She advised that to the best of her knowledge, the trouble was started by an unidentified college student, who made up a series of obscene verses for ‘Louie Louie’ and then sold them to fellow students. It is her opinion that a person can take any 45 r.p.m recording and reduce its speed to 33 r.p.m. and imagine obscene words, depending upon the imagination of the listener.”

This song was prominently featured in the film Animal House, starring John Belushi, despite the fact that it wasn’t actually recorded until almost two years after the period of time in which the movie is set (1962).

Louie Louie

Louie Louie, oh no
Me gotta go
Aye-yi-yi-yi, I said
Louie Louie, oh baby
Me gotta go

Fine little girl waits for me
Catch a ship across the sea
Sail that ship about, all alone
Never know if I make it home

Louie Louie, oh oh no
Me gotta go, oh no
Louie Louie, oh baby
I said we gotta go

Three nights and days I sail the sea
Think of girl, constantly
On that ship, I dream she’s there
I smell the rose in her hair.

Louie Louie, oh no
Me gotta go
Aye-yi-yi-yi, I said
Louie Louie, oh baby
Me gotta go
Okay, let’s give it to ’em, right now!

See Jamaica, the moon above
It won’t be long, me see me love
Take her in my arms again
I tell her I’ll never leave again

Louie Louie, oh no
Me gotta go
Aye-yi-yi-yi, I said
Louie Louie, oh baby
Me gotta go

I said we gotta go now
Let’s take it on outta here now
Let’s go!!