PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Van Morrison – Caravan

Just a perfect song. I listen to it and can’t believe it wasn’t a hit. When I bought the Moondance album I zeroed in on this song. I then heard Van Morrison on The Last Waltz singing it and it was a clincher.

The performance of this song on the Last Waltz for me may have been the best performance in the film and that says a lot. I’ve seen Van live one time and his voice seemed stronger in person than on record…if that is possible. This song blends folk rock, R&B, and jazz styles perfectly.

The album is one of his great ones. It has some great songs like And It Stoned Me, Moondance, These Dreams of You, Brand New Day, Crazy Love, and Come Running which all sound like they belong on the radio. Morrison’s love of radio influenced this song heavily.

This was his second album for Warner Brothers following up the critical smash Astral Weeks. This album peaked at #29 on the Billboard Album Charts, #46 in Canada, #36 in New Zealand, and #32 in the UK in 1970. His albums never charted too high. The highest in the 70s was for Saint Dominic’s Preview at #15 on the Billboard charts in 1972.

Van Morrison: I could hear the radio like it was in the same room. I don’t know how to explain it. There was some story about an underground passage under the house I was living in, rumors from kids and stuff and I was beginning to think it was true. How can you hear someone’s radio from a mile away, as if it was playing in your own house? So I had to put that into the song, It was a must

Caravan

And the caravan is on it’s way
I can hear the merry gypsies play
Mama mama look at Emma Rose
She’s a-playin with the radio
La, la, la, la…

And the caravan has all my friends
It will stay with me until the end
Gypsy Robin, Sweet Emma Rose
Tell me everything I need to know
La, la, la…

Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher radio
Turn it up, turn it up, so you know, radio
La, la, la, la…

And the caravan is painted red and white
That means ev’rybody’s staying overnight
Barefoot gypsy player round the campfire sing and play
And a woman tells us of her ways
La, la, la, la…

Turn up your radio and let me hear the song
Switch on your electric light
Then we can get down to what is really wrong
I long to hold you tight so I can feel you
Sweet lady of the night I shall reveal you
Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher, radio
Turn it up, that’s enough, so you know it’s got soul
Radio, radio turn it up, hum
La, la, la, la…

Purina Chuckwagon Commercials

I loved these commercials when I was a kid. I wasn’t allowed to have a dog in the house (which is probably why I’ve had three Saint Bernard house dogs). Some poor dog would be bewildered by a miniature chuck wagon, then scurries through the home and into the kitchen cabinet or tv after it.

In 1967, Purina launched “Chuck Wagon” as their latest dog food innovation. Packaged as dry dog food, adding warm water would rehydrate the serving to some extent, as well as cause the meal to produce its own gravy

The commercials had a Western theme, playing into Chuck Wagon’s branding as a hearty, wholesome meal for dogs. The animated mini chuck wagon would appear from unexpected places—such as behind a cabinet door, under a table, or from inside a dog food bag…creating a playful and imaginative effect. I can’t tell you how much this worked during that time period.

In some shots, stop-motion animation was used, where the wagon was moved frame by frame to give the illusion of self-propelled motion. In other cases, puppetry techniques such as invisible wires or rods helped guide the wagon across the floor.

Now… this was hard to believe but in 1983 Atari released a video game based on this commercial called “Chase the Chuckwagon.“

Eurythmics – Would I Lie To You

I had just met my first serious girlfriend when this song came out. I never paid much attention to the Eurythmics when I first heard them because they were so keyboard-heavy…this changed my feelings toward them. This was out when I graduated and I liked the R&B direction they were going with this song.

Dave Stewart had said that he came up with this riff after trying to make a “killer R&B riff.” He said Annie Lennox wasn’t sure about the song at first because it was so different than their usual sound. Unlike their earlier synth-heavy work, this song had a heavier rock and R&B influence, featuring a strong brass section and Stevie Wonder’s former guitarist, Jimmy Zavala, on harmonica. Lennox also had to change her delivery for this song.

Some fans have speculated the lyrics reflect tension between Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, who had previously been a couple before forming the band. However, neither of them has confirmed it directly.

This song was released in 1985, and it peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #17 on the UK Charts, and #2 in Canada. They were voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. The song came off of the album Be Yourself Tonight. The album peaked at #9 on the Billboard Album Charts, #3 in Canada, #2 in New Zealand, and #3 in the UK in 1985.

Dave Stewart: “When we started putting it down the song had a lot of energy and inspired Annie to come up with the great lyric, ‘Would I Lie To You” and a melody with very odd answering harmonies, ‘Now, would I say something that wasn’t true.’ These harmonies are very unusual and Annie is a genius at working them out very quickly in her head. The song started to be a fusion between Stax type R&B and Eurythmics.”

Would I Lie To You?

Would I lie to you?
Would I lie to you honey?
Now would I say something that wasn’t true?
I’m asking you sugar
Would I lie to you?

My friends – know what’s in store.
I won’t be here anymore.
I’ve packed my bags
I’ve cleaned the floor.
Watch me walkin’.
Walkin’ out the door.

(Believe me – I’ll make it make it)

Tell you straight – no intervention.
To your face – no deception.
You’re the biggest fake.
That much is true.
Had all I can take.
Now I’m leaving you

(Believe me – I’ll make it make it)

[Chorus repeats]

(Watch me – watch me! Ooh yea)

Magic 8 Ball

I was told as a kid that a Magic 8 Ball could predict the future. I bought it hook line and sinker…I was also told by my older sister (8 years older) that snakes bite the second person in a line while I was merrily leading the way hiking in the woods as a 5-year-old…so I caught on pretty quick after I stepped on a snake…didn’t get bit though…but I never let her forget it.

I bugged my mom till she got me the mysterious Magic 8 Ball. I was amazed at this toy…well it wasn’t a toy to me. I thought this was great. So being 5-6 years old I thought I would put it to use… Oh, Magic 8 Ball should I color in the encyclopedias with my crayons? I shook it up and waited for the triangle to give me the answer… “signs point to yes”…those signs must have pointed in a different direction than my Mom… she wasn’t a fan of the Magic 8 ball after that.

Abe Bookman invented the Magic 8 Ball, a fortune-telling toy currently manufactured by Mattel.

During World War II, a man named Alfred Carter in Cincinnati created a tube-like fortune-telling toy. To help him he got his brother-in-law to help…that would be Abe Bookman. they created a 7″ tube device with glass on both ends with a pair of floating dice with responses. It was sold as the “Syco-Seer: The Miracle Home Fortune Teller.” Their company was called Alabe Crafts.

Carter died in 1948 and Bookman revised it into a crystal ball but it still didn’t sell really well. Then the Brunswick Billiards company commissioned Bookman to make them one shaped like an 8 ball as a promotional giveaway.

After the giveaway was finished Bookman kept producing them shaped like an 8 ball.

The Magic 8 Ball that we have known since then has contained a 20-sided polygon inside a hollow plastic ball, floating in a liquid-filled, 3-inch diameter tube. The liquid largely consists of dark blue ink and alcohol. The predictions, yes, no, or non-committal, appear on each triangular face of the polygon.

Bookman marketed it as a conversation piece, a paperweight and then a toy.

Ideal Toys bought Alabe Crafts in 1971. Next, Tyco Toys bought the ball in ’87. Mattel owns it today and sells one million units a year.

Here are the magical statements of the Magic 8 Ball

As I see it, yes
Ask again later
Better not tell you now
Cannot predict now
Concentrate and ask again
Don’t count on it
It is certain
It is decidedly so
Most likely
My reply is no
My sources say no
Outlook good
Outlook not so good
Reply hazy, try again
Signs point to yes
Very doubtful
Without a doubt
Yes
Yes, definitely
You may rely on it.

Moody Blues – Story in Your Eyes

Great melody in this song. One of the best rock songs of its era. I bought the album Every Good Boy Deserves Favour when I heard this song from Columbia House. I would say that this song made me a Moody Blues Fan. The Moody Blues are sometimes described as a progressive band, but unlike some progressive bands, they kept a good pop/rock sensibility…some have called them an “Art”rock band which fits much better to me. And…the bass in this song is great.

If you were stuck on the orchestral sounds of Days of Future Passed, The Story in Your Eyes might have caught you off guard…in the best way possible. The song was released in 1971 as the lead single from Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, this Justin Hayward-written song is one of the Moody Blues’ most energetic, guitar-driven tracks, proving they could rock with their harder peers.

The album title, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour comes from a mnemonic phrase used to remember the notes on the lines of the treble clef. E, G, B, D, F, (Every Good Boy Does Fine) from bottom to top.

The song peaked at #23 on the Billboard 100, and #7 in Canada, in 1971.

Justin Hayward: “Despite its personal nature, ‘The Story in Your Eyes’ is also kind of about the band, We’re part of the fire that is burning, and from the ashes we can build another day.” “There’s a kind of confession in it, as we were soon about to go through a rather awkward phase.”

Justin Hayward: “The song just sprung out of my acoustic guitar one day while I was at home. I was just playing my Martin D-28…I don’t know for certain if it’s from ’55 or ’57, but it’s been with me since 1969 and the first thing that came to me was the middle-eight section. And from there, the rest of the song came together.”

“Only a couple of weeks before entering the studio, I had done a version of it with Mike (keyboardist Mike Pinder) at his place, with just me playing the guitar and him working out the piano part for the outro. Mike then did eight or 12 tracks of Mellotron, bouncing from one machine to another. And it only sounded good when he had done it and multitracked it.”

“When it came time for the electric guitar part, I used a Cherry Red 1963 [Gibson] ES-335 that I’ve had since 1968. The electric guitar that opens the song including feedback that’s in tune to an A note…and goes all the way through the song is the ES-335 direct into the Normal chan

nel of an AC30 Top Boost turned up full. In the solo and at the end, that’s the ES-335 again through a Marshall Reverb-Fuzz Unit.”

Story in Your Eyes

I’ve been thinking about our fortune
And I’ve decided that we’re really not to blame
For the love that’s deep inside us now, is still the same
And the sound we make together
Is the music to the story in your eyes
It’s been shining down upon you now, I realize

Listen to the tide slowly turning
Wash all our heartaches away
We are part of the fire that is burning
And from the ashes we can build another day
But I’m frightened for your children
And the life that we are living is in vain
And the sunshine we’ve been waiting for
Will turn to rain

When the final line is over
And it’s certain that the curtain’s gonna fall
I can hide inside your sweet sweet love
Forever more

Del-Vikings – Come Go With Me

This is one of those songs that is a mile marker for the 1950s. When I think of the 1950s I think of dairy dips, sock hops, and Come Go With Me. I always feel better after hearing this song. It’s one of the most famous doo-wop songs ever.

They were formed in 1955 by a group of U.S. Air Force servicemen stationed at the Pittsburgh Air Force Base. The original lineup included Cornell Gunter, Clarence Quick, Kripp Johnson, Don Jackson, Bernard Robertson, and Norman Wright. Clarence Quick, the group’s bass singer, also served as their main songwriter. He wrote the song while still in the U.S. Air Force, where the original members of The Del-Vikings were stationed.

With their name…there are different answers. Some say Clarence Quick knew a basketball team out of New York and they used the Vikings name. Some say the group was reading about Vikings and took that name…and the books were the company Viking Press. The “Del” or “Dell” part happened because they wanted to add a bit of mystery to the name. Some say it was because some of them had been stationed in Delaware and that might be where they got the name. Either way the Del-Vikings came up with a signature song of the 1950s.

Due to contract disputes, some members later formed a separate group called The Dell Vikings (with two “L”s), while others continued under the original Del-Vikings name. Despite this, both versions of the group were recorded and performed in the late 1950s.

Clarence Quick wrote this song for his band and it was their debut single. The song was released on the small Fee Bee label before being picked up by Dot Records. The song peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100 in 1957… and it became one of the most recognizable doo-wop songs of all time. That same year they would have two more top twenty hits with Whispering Bells and Cool Shake.

It’s been featured in classic films such as “American Graffiti” (1973) and “Stand by Me” (1986). It’s been covered by several artists, including Dion, Cliff Richard, The Beach Boys, and The Excellents.

Come Go With Me

Well I love, love you darlin’Come and go with meCome home with meWay beyond the seaI need you darlin’So come go with me

Come, come, come, comeCome into my heartTell me darlin’We will never partI need you darlin’So come go with me

Yes, I need youYes, I really need youPlease say you’ll never leave meWell, say you neverYes, you really neverYou never give me a chance

Come, come, come, comeCome into my heartTell me darlin’We will never partI need you darlin’So come go with me(Yeah)

Yes, I need youYes, I really need youPlease say you’ll never leave meWell, say you neverYes, you really neverYou never give me a chance

Love you darlin’Come and go with meCome home with meWay beyond the seaI need you darlin’So come go with me

Come on go with meCome on go with meCome on go with me

…

Hank Williams – Hey, Good Lookin’

I got a hot rod ford and a two dollar bill
And I know a spot right over the hill
There’s soda pop and the dancin’s free
So if you want to have fun come along with me

If you had told me that Chuck Berry wrote those lyrics I would have completely believed you. I have to wonder how often this line has been used in the history of dating since this song came out?

Little Jimmy Dickens said that Williams wrote the song in just 20 minutes while on tour with Dickens and Minnie Pearl. He intended the song for Dickens but decided to keep it for himself after realizing its potential.

The song was released in 1951. It was recorded at Castle Studio in Nashville with his backing band The Drifting Cowboys. After the release, he was on the Kate Smith Evening Show to debut it. The video is at the bottom and the girl beside him is June Carter…later to be June Carter Cash.

Williams was making inroads into a more crossover audience. He was the first country star to make an appearance on the Perry Como show at the time. He was wildly popular in the early 1950s. He probably would have helped broaden country music’s popularity had he lived longer.

This song is very popular, to say the least. It has been covered 252 times and more than once by his son as well. Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Gene Vincent all tackled it in 1958. Other versions have included those by George Jones (1959), Ray Charles (1962), Del Shannon (1964), Roy Orbison (1970), and Waylon Jennings (1985). A 1973 live version by Van Morrison was on the expanded 2016 reissue of his It’s Too Late To Stop Now set.

Hank Williams took 12 songs to #1 and had 55 charted singles in his career, which ended too soon when he died on Jan. 1, 1953, at the age of only 29. He is listed as the writer or co-writer of 167 songs in his lifetime.

The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles at the time. In 2004 it peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart with Jimmy Buffet singing and also #63 on the Billboard 100.

The man lived hard…look at the bottom video. He is just 27 years old in that clip…he could be easily mistaken for much older. He was one of the best songwriters in the 20th Century.

Hank Williams: “If a song can’t be written in 20 minutes, it ain’t worth writing.”

Hey Good Lookin’

Say hey, good lookin’ whatcha got cookin’?
How’s about cookin’ something up with me?
Hey, sweet baby don’t you think maybe
We can find us a brand new recipe?

I got a hot rod ford and a two dollar bill
And I know a spot right over the hill
There’s soda pop and the dancin’s free
So if you want to have fun come along with me

Hey, good lookin’ whatcha got cookin’?
How’s about cookin’ something up with me?

I’m free and ready so we can go steady
How’s about saving all your time for me
No more lookin’ I know I been cookin’
How’s about keepin’ steady company?

I’m gonna throw my date book over the fence
And find me one for five or ten cents
I’ll keep it ’til it’s covered with age
‘Cause I’m writin’ your name down on every page

Say hey, good lookin’ whatcha got cookin’?
How’s about cookin’ something up with me?

…

Sugar – Tilted

As most of you know, I’m a huge Replacements fan and the Minneapolis Music Scene they came from in the 1980s. The one band I haven’t listened to enough from that scene was Hüsker Dü formed by Bob Mould. I’ve seen and heard more of his solo career than I’ve heard from either one of his bands. He covers a lot of ground…from punk rock to power pop.

He formed Hüsker Dü with drummer Grant Hart and bassist Greg Norton. At first, they were just another punk band, but something was different…Mould and Hart were more punk/pop songwriters. They had a melodic edge to their punk sound.

Hüsker Dü split up in 1988. Mould’s first solo outing, Workbook, in 1989, took a different turn. Unlike his previous band, it featured acoustic-driven songs. In 1992, he formed Sugar with David Barbe (bassist) and Malcolm Travis (drummer), a trio in which he could release his aggressive music with a little more polish and refinement.

I can see why Husker Du might not have regularly made the charts, but this band gave you a little bit of everything. Their songs were catchy and good.

This song came out in 1993 on their second album Beaster. It came out of the same recording sessions as their debut album, Copper Blue, but had a darker, heavier, and more intense sound. Mould has said that he didn’t expect Beaster to be as widely embraced as Copper Blue but was pleased that fans appreciated it.

Beaster peaked at #130 on the Billboard Charts, #18 in New Zealand, and #3 in the UK in 1993. Tilted peaked at #48 in the UK.

This song is another off of Beaster called Come Around.

Tilted

I only do these things to freak you out
I never wanted you to doubt me
I believe you/ Do I believe you
I try to block you out to hear myself
I can’t believe I’m thinking to myself
Would I leave you/ In such suspense

I let it go and go and go
But what you’re thinking through the silence
I really wish you understood
A couple of words get so much mileage

I never felt an urge to say a word
I’d rather listen to the din of
Other people closing in one me/ I lay in bed
And think of words that you should hear
I fall asleep and then they disappear
A fall from grace/ From memory

I hear a voice inside the silence
Speak your peace and all’s forgotten
I hear the static on the line
Remember how this all got started

Remember/ Remember/ It’s tilted

I turn away a minute disappears
I turn away in shame when I don’t hear
What you’re thinking/ Tell me what you’re thinking
You take it out on me
You’re not flaking out on me, are you
Turn it tilted/ Hey wait a minute

I never wanted you to be upset
But I can see you’re trying to forget
What was said/ What was said
Don’t try to hang me up again
Don’t try to hang up on me wait up

Turn it tilted/ I need help it’s

Remember/ Remember/ It’s tilted

…

Grateful Dead – Fire On The Mountain

I like a couple of Fire on the Mountain songs: The Marshall Tucker Band and this one. They’re two totally different songs, but both are really good. I want to thank Jim for this because he sent me some information about this song in an email.

Fire on the Mountain’s music was primarily written by one of the Grateful Dead’s drummers, Mickey Hart, with lyrics by the band’s lyricist, Robert Hunter. The song’s groove reflects Hart’s rhythm sensibilities, while Hunter’s lyrics (as with most of his) are open to interpretation and rich with imagery.

The song initially existed as an instrumental titled Happiness is Drumming, which appeared on Mickey Hart’s 1976 solo album, Diga. The instrumental version already contained the core melody. The song evolved into the version that the Grateful Dead began performing live in 1977 and eventually included on their 1978 album Shakedown Street.

The first time I heard the song was a live video of The Grateful Dead playing in Egypt in 1978. I’ve watched that concert many times, and it’s fantastic. This song was one of the songs that got me into the band. When they played it live, the song was frequently paired with Scarlet Begonias.

The Dead didn’t always do commercially huge songs but some songs like this one…should have been at least released as a single.

Robert Hunter: “Written at Mickey Hart’s ranch in heated inspiration as the surrounding hills blazed and the fire approached the recording studio where we were working.”

Fire On The Mountain

Long distance runner, what you standin’ there for?Get up, get out, get out of the doorYou’re playin’ cold music on the barroom floorDrowned in your laughter and dead to the coreThere’s a dragon with matches that’s loose on the townTakes a whole pail of water just to cool him down

Fire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountain

Almost ablaze, still you don’t feel the heatIt takes all you got just to stay on the beatYou say it’s a livin’, we all gotta eatBut you’re here alone, there’s no one to competeIf Mercy’s a business, I wish it for youMore than just ashes when your dreams come true

Fire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountain

Long distance runner, what you holdin’ out for?Caught in slow motion in a dash for the doorThe flame from your stage has now spread to the floorYou gave all you had, why you wanna give more?The more that you give, the more it will takeTo the thin line beyond, which you really can’t fake

Fire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountainFire! Fire on the mountain

…

John Doe – The Golden State

A few years ago, CB sent me a link for a guy named John Doe (John Nommensen Duchac). At first, not knowing CB well at the time, I thought he had to be mistaken. A definition for John Doe is “originally in legal use as a name of a fictitious plaintiff.” It’s often used to identify an unidentifiable man. I knew nothing about X at that point. I was in for a pleasant surprise when I heard this man. He has many genres covered plus a very successful acting career. Doe is worth checking out if you haven’t already.

He was born and raised in Decatur, Illinois. He moved to Los Angeles in the late ’70s, where he co-founded X in 1977, along with singer Exene Cervenka, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer DJ Bonebrake. The band’s sound combined punk rock, rockabilly, and other genres, creating a style that set them apart from other punk bands at the time.

He started his solo career in 1990 with the album Meet John Doe and since, he has released 15 albums. Unlike a lot of the X material, his solo material seems to go to alt-country or Americana. X regrouped as well in the early 90s and he also is an actor. He has appeared in movies such as Ring of Fire, ER, Road House, and Great Balls of Fire! to name a few. He has 102 credits as an actor alone.

The Golden State was released in 2007 on his solo album A Year in the Wilderness, the track showcases Doe’s blend of punk and country influences. The song is a duet that has featured various artists, including Canadian Kathleen Edwards on the original album version. The album peaked at #42 on the US Heatseeker Charts in 2007.

I like all the versions below including The original album version because Kathleen Edwards sounds so good with Doe. He also has a version with Eddie Vedder and Corin Tucker.

This version below is with Eddie Vedder and Corin Tucker.

The Golden State

You are the hole in my headI am the pain in your neckYou are the lump in my throatI am the aching in your heartWe are tangledWe are stolenWe are living where things are hidden

You are something in my eyeAnd I am the shiver down your spineYou are on the lick of my lipsAnd I am on the tip of your tongueWe are tangledWe are stolenWe are buried up to our necks in sand

We are luckWe are ]fateWe are the feeling you get in the golden stateWe are loveWe are hateWe are the feeling I get when you walk awayâ€¦.Walk away

Well you are the dream in my nightmareI am that falling sensationYou are not needles and pillsI am your hangover morningWe are tangledWe are stolenWe are living where things are hidden

We are luckWe are fateWe are the feeling you get in the golden stateWe are loveWe are hateWe are the feeling I get when you walk awayWalk awayWalk away

You are the hole in my headYou are the pain in your neckYou are the lump in my throatI am the aching in your heart

…

Keep On Truckin’ Poster

I have this hanging in my music room. I saw it on shirts, bumper stickers, and walls everywhere once upon a time. This phrase was used in a song from the 1930s called “Truckin’ My Blues Away” by Blind Boy Fuller and is the origin of this image.

In the seventies as a kid…I remember this phrase and picture everywhere. I saw bumper stickers, pics in magazines, and on patches for pants. In one local restaurant I went to as a kid they had this poster in the dining room. Fast forward to the 90s and the picture was still there. The place was sold in the 2000s and I tried to get the poster but they threw it away…arghhhh. It would have been cool to have that original one.

Besides the smiley face…it’s one of the most iconic graphics of the 1970s. It was created by Robert Crumb for Zap Comics in 1968. The image was used many times without his permission for years. It was claimed that the Trademark symbol ™ was not on the original drawing.

Crumb went to court and the court ruled it Public Domain. The decision was later reversed in 1977. He sued many for using it including Amazon 2005. Crumb also came up with Fritz the Cat…

Quotes from Robert Crumb on the drawing.

For a while I was most well known for that [the Janis Joplin album cover, and for “Keep on Truckin’.” That was a drawing that came out of LSD trips, and the words came from a Blind Boy Fuller song from 1935. I drew it in my sketchbook and then for Zap. It sort of caught the popular imagination. It became a horrible popular thing.

Take Keep On Truckin’… for example. Keep on Truckin’… is the curse of my life. This stupid little cartoon caught on hugely. … I didn’t want to turn into a greeting card artist for the counter-culture! I didn’t want to do ‘shtick’—the thing Lenny Bruce warned against. That’s when I started to let out all my perverse sex fantasies. It was the only way out of being “America’s Best Loved Hippie Cartoonist.”

Johnny Rivers – Seventh Son

In the 1980s I worked at a printing place and I was a stock guy basically. I was in a locked cage full of printer and copier parts and my job was to put the place in order. They never had a stock boy before and I organized everything. When I was there I would listen to an oldies channel that played 50s – 70s songs and I learned about Johnny Rivers that way with Poor Side of Town, Slow Dancing, Summer Rain, Secret Agent Man, and many more including Seventh Son.

This is a song written by the blues legend Willie Dixon. Willie Mabon did the first version of this song back in 1955. The song is based on the folklore that a seventh son of a seventh son has mystical powers, such as prophecy and healing. The blues version never really hit big but this pop/rock version by Rivers did.

Rivers recorded live at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, like many of his early hits. River’s version of it brought it to a mainstream audience. Rivers was different than many of his peers, he successfully mixed blues, rock, and pop for a teen audience. Rivers never wrote much but when he did…it was fantastic. He wrote his biggest hit Poor Side Of Town but only wrote a few more songs in his career to date.

The song was released in 1965 and peaked at #1 in Canada and #7 on the Billboard 100. It came from the album Meanwhile Back at the Whisky à Go Go and it peaked at #21 on the Billboard Album Charts.

Willie Dixon: The Seventh Son is kind of a historical idea. In New Orleans and Algiers, Louisiana, they have these people calling themselves born for good luck because they’re the seventh sister or seventh brother or the seventh child. The world has made a pattern out of this seven as a lucky number. Most people think the seventh child has the extra wisdom and knowledge to influence other people.

Seventh Son

Everybody talkin’ ’bout the seventh son
In the whole wide world there is only one

And I’m the one, I’m the one
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son

I can tell your future, it will come to pass
I can do things to you make your heart feel glad
Look in the sky, predict the rain
Tell when a woman’s got another man

I’m the one, oh, I’m the one
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son

I can talk these words that will sound so sweet
They will even make your little heart skip a beat
Heal the sick, raise the dead
Make the little girls talk outta their heads

I’m the one, oh, I’m the one
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son

I can talk these words that will sound so sweet
They will even make your little heart skip a beat
Heal the sick, raise the dead
And make the little girls talk outta their heads

I’m the one, oh, I’m the one
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son

I’m the one, hey, hey
I’m the one
Oh, I’m the one, babe
Ooh, I’m the one
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son
I’m the one, I’m the one
The one they call the seventh son

…

Who – The Seeker

People tend to hate me
Coz I never smile
As I ransack their homes
They wanna’ shake my hand

Good Who song that was not as well known as some of their others. In 1999 it was featured in the movie “The Limey”. This was The Who’s first single released after Tommy. I first heard it in the early 80s and it helped me become a huge Who fan.

Like most of Townshend’s songs around this time it was influenced by spiritual teachings and figures such as Meher Baba. It was recorded at IBC Studios in London during the sessions for Who’s Next but wasn’t included on that album. It’s been covered by Rush, The Smithereens, Joe Lynn Turner, Leslie West, and Nick Piunti.

The song was released as a single only at the time. After that, it was on the great album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy released in 1971. It’s one of my favorite compilation albums. That album introduced me to pre-Who’s Next music. This one has a raw power to it and it’s pushed by Pete’s riff and Keith Moon driving the song along.

In 1970 The Seeker peaked at #44 in the Billboard 100, #19 in the UK and #21 in Canada.

Pete Townshend: “It sounded great in the mosquito-ridden swamp I made it up in – Florida at three in the morning, drunk out of my mind. But that’s where the trouble always starts, in the swamp.”

The Seeker

I’ve looked under chairs
I’ve looked under tables
I’ve tried to find the key
To fifty million fables

They call me The Seeker
I’ve been searchin’ low and high
I won’t get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

I asked Bobby Dylan
I asked the Beatles
I asked Timothy Leary
But he couldn’t help me either

They call me The Seeker
I’ve been searchin’ low and high
I won’t get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

People tend to hate me
Coz I never smile
As I ransack their homes
They wanna’ shake my hand

Focusing on nowhere
Investigating miles
I’m a seeker
I’m a really desperate man

I wont get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

I learned how to raise my voice in anger
Yeah but look at my face ain’t this a smile

I’m happy when life’s good and when its bad I cry
I got values but I don’t know how or why

I’m lookin’ for me
You’re lookin’ for you
Were lookin’ at each other and we don’t know what to do

They call me The Seeker
I been searchin’ low and high
I wont get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die

Bigfoot

No, it’s not a new or old rock band. I have posted on many icons and events of the 1960s-1970s but never really concentrated on this big fellow.

I know as a kid…Bigfoot was part of the culture and kids thought yea…he is real. Native American legends tell of large, hairy human-like creatures that have been part of Indigenous cultures across North America for centuries. Many tribes have their own names and variations of Bigfoot, each with distinct characteristics and significance.

The most famous film clip was the Patterson-Gimlin footage from 1967.

Jeffery Meldrum is a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, and he’s known for being one of the few academics to openly study Sasquatch. “It’s all so easy to say, ‘Obviously that’s a man in a fur suit.’ Until you see it up against a man in a fur suit.”

The National Geographic documentary Mystery 360: Bigfoot Revealed, where they went absolutely all-out to try and recreate the Patterson-Gimlin bigfoot with modern technology (suit and all…) but ultimately couldn’t. Before this documentary, everyone assumed there was someone with a gorilla suit.

No matter how real the subject in the film appears, how much muscle movement you think you see, or how unhuman they claim the gait is, the subject has no corroborating specimen, and can therefore be no more than a question mark. The film has always been, is, and likely always will be an unsettled controversy.

In 2003 Bob Heironimus, a retired Pepsi bottler from Yakima, Washington came out and said that he played Bigfoot in the film. “It’s time to let this thing go. I’ve been burdened with this for 36 years, seeing the film clip on TV numerous times. Somebody’s making lots of money off this, except for me. But that’s not the issue — the issue is that it’s time to finally let people know the truth.” Heironimus, 63, makes his full “confession,” as he calls it, in a published book by paranormal investigator Greg Long. He also wanted money from the film and filed a suit but it never went anywhere.

Tom Malone, a lawyer in Minneapolis, on behalf of Bob Gimlin, an associate of the now-dead Bigfoot filmmaker. “I’m authorized to tell you that nobody wore a gorilla suit or monkey suit and that Mr. Gimlin’s position is that it’s absolutely false and untrue.” And the mystery lives on . . .

Many have broken the film down frame by frame and investigating it. It’s really interesting.

I remember on television that some shows featured Bigfoot. The Six Million Dollar Man featured Bigfoot and don’t think we were all watching at the time. There has been many documentaries on him and movies including Harry And The Hendersons. We cannot forget the monster truck Bigfoot.

Bigfoot is part of our popular culture and will probably always be but I would guess he peaked in the 1970s.

The Stabilized Clip

Roy Orbison – Crying

When I played music as I was younger our singer could sing Journey songs and AC/DC songs (from both singers) but when it came to Orbison…a totally different story. Mark is a very good singer but he balked at Roy Orbison. He told me that couldn’t happen…at least not in the way Roy did it.

Not only did the man have a once in a generation voice he was also known to be an extremely nice and good guy. He went through so many tragedies in his short life. He lived around 30 minutes from me but I never got to catch him in concert or just seeing him.

There was a quote that Tom Petty gave…that when he joined the Wilburys he called his mom and told her “Mom, I’m in a band with Roy Orbison!” Not Mom I’m in a band with Bob Dylan or a Beatle George Harrison…no it was Roy. That voice was golden and magical but he paid for his success dearly as you will read below.

In 1957, Orbison married his sweetheart, Claudette Frady. She was 17 at the time and he was 21. As the young couple’s romance was soon thrust into jeopardy given Orbison’s rapid rise to fame, cracks began to appear. In November 1964, Orbison divorced Claudette over her alleged infidelities. However, within ten months, the pair had reconciled their differences and were once more in a loving relationship. They had three children.

It started on June 6, 1966, when Claudette and Roy were riding motorcycles. Claudette hit the door of a pickup truck and was killed instantly. Orbison poured himself into his work after that. He wrote and toured but was out of step with the mid to late-sixties music. It was in Birmingham, England in September 1968 when catastrophe struck once more. News reached Orbison that a fire had broken out at his home in Tennessee and that his two eldest sons had tragically passed away. His younger child went to live with his grandparents.

This song was written by Orbison and Joe Melson and released in 1961. It was a smash here, peaking at #2 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, #11, and #25 in the UK. It would hit again in 1980-81, with Don Mclean covering it. It peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #1 on the Canadian Country Charts, #7 in Canada, #11 in New Zealand, and #1 in the UK.

Roy Orbison died suddenly on December 6, 1988, in Hendersonville Tennessee. His new album Mystery Girl would be released around a month and a half after Roy passed. The album was hugely successful peaking at #5 in America and #4 in Canada.

Crying

I was alright for a while, I could smile for a whileThen I saw you last night, you held my hand so tightWhen you stopped to say, “Hello”You wished me well, you couldn’t tell

That I’d been crying over youCrying over you then you said, “So long”Left me standing all aloneAlone and crying,

Crying, crying, cryingIt’s hard to understandThat the touch of your handCan start me crying

I thought that I was over youBut it’s true, so trueI love you even more than I did beforeBut darling what can I do?For you don’t love me and I’ll always be

Crying over youCrying over youYes, now you’re goneAnd from this moment onI’ll be crying, crying, crying, crying,Crying, crying, over you

…