PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Max’s Drive-In Movie – Gone In Sixty Seconds (1974)

I won’t only review classic movies or cult movies…sometimes car chase movies will get in here. This movie is special to me because parked in the lobby of the Nashville Theater I saw this movie in… was Eleanor the car that was actually in the movie. I got to touch it and it was like touching gold to a 7-year-old. I remember watching the trailer and my aunt taking me to see it. My mom would not have approved of me seeing this movie but my rebellious aunt took my sister and me to see it.

This is not the best-acted film but the spirit of it is awesome. It was made on a low budget of $150,000 but made 40 million at the box office. It was written, directed, produced, and starring H.B. “Toby” Halicki. It became famous for its car chases and destruction scenes, especially the lengthy, chaotic chase near the film’s conclusion.

There is a 40-minute car chase in this movie. Any mistakes stayed in and they added to the action. In one scene Eleanor hits a telephone pole and the pole falls on Eleanor and it wasn’t planned…they just keep going which adds to the realism. During the filming of the final chase, Eleanor sustained over 90 accidents and collisions. Halicki, who performed most of his own stunts, was injured multiple times.

There was a remake in 2000 with Nicolas Cage (who I like) and Angelina Jolie but NO…the original was so much better. Why was it better Max? Because the crashes and everything was real. The wrecks were real and there was nothing faked. Some of the actors were actual cops and some thieves were real in this movie as well. Halicki wanted everything to feel as real as possible, so there were no special effects or green screens for the action scenes. All the stunts were performed live, which added to the film’s authenticity.

With the exception of a few extras, the bulk of the bystanders/members of the public in the movie are real people just going about their business who had no idea that a film was being made. This caused several incidents where people assumed a real police pursuit was in progress, with many trying to help the accident “victims”. This was guerilla filmmaking at it’s best.

I’ll give you a quick plot line. The movie follows a group of car thieves led by insurance investigator Maindrian Pace (played by Halicki) as they attempt to steal 48 high-end cars in five days. The plot itself is secondary to the car action.

This is not Gone With The Wind by any stretch of the imagination but if you want to see some very cool muscle and sports cars… this is the movie for you. He showed you exactly how to steal cars in the 70s and get away with it. The first half of the movie can drag at times but it sets you up for the last 40 minutes of that chase.

I will watch this movie every couple of years and I get caught up in the chase and how they switched Vin numbers, and motors, and hid what they were doing.

The FULL Movie

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Guess Who – No Time

I always had a soft spot for The Guess Who. Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings could write some really great songs. Both of them shared the credit on this one. I had a greatest hits package by the Guess Who given to me by a relative. At the time, I thought the Guess Who and The Who were the same. The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive were regulars on A.M. Radio in the 1970s. Randy Bachman would leave The Guess Who in 1970 and form BTO.

The Guess Who formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1958. They would release their version of Shakin’ All Over in 1965. Their name came about when their label Quality Records released their first hit single (“Shakin’ All Over”) credited only to “Guess Who?” in an attempt to build a mystique around the band. They wanted the public to believe that this was a possible British band. The real name of the band was “Chad Allan & The Expressions,” but radio station DJs continued to refer to them as “The Guess Who.” when playing subsequent singles.

This song was on the album Canned Wheat released in 1969. The album had three charting singles No Time, Undone, and Laughing. The album peaked at #91 on the Billboard Album Charts and #23 in Canada. The song peaked at #1 in Canada, #5 on the Billboard 100, and #16 in New Zealand in 1969-1970.

The most significant reunion occurred in 1983 when Bachman, Cummings, Kale, and Peterson reunited for a concert and the live album Together Again. In 2000, another major reunion tour, “Running Back Thru Canada,” featured Bachman and Cummings and was a huge success, reviving interest in the band.

No Time

(No time left for you)
On my way to better things
(No time left for you)
I’ll find myself some wings
(No time left for you)
Distant roads are calling me
(No time left for you)
Mm-da, mm-da, mm-da, mm-da, mm-da

No time for a summer friend
No time for the love you send
Seasons change and so did I
You need not wonder why
You need not wonder why
There’s no time left for you
No time left for you

(No time left for you)
On my way to better things
(No time left for you)
I’ll find myself some wings
(No time left for you)
Distant roads are calling me
(No time left for you)
Mm-day, mm-gay, mm-day, mm-gay, mm-day

No time for a gentle rain
No time for my watch and chain
No time for revolving doors
No time for the killing floor
No time for the killing floor
There’s no time left for you
No time left for you

No time for a summer friend
No time for the love you send
Seasons change and so did I
You need not wonder why
You need not wonder why
There’s no time left for you
No time left for you

No time, no time, no time, no time
No time, no time, no time, no time

I got, got, got, got no time
I got, got, got, got no time
I got, got, got, got no time
No, no, no, no, no, no, no time
No, no, no, no, no, no, no time
I got, got, got, got no time
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no time
I got no time, got no time, got no time, no time, got no time
Got no time, got no time

Who – Sister Disco

The Who Are You album was not the best album The Who released but it has its bright spots. Pete Townshend wrote this song and he said The Who would never use any disco elements in their songs. To his credit, they never used any. At this time Pete was hanging around with some of the punk bands like The Clash…so that makes sense.

The Who Are You album peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, and #6 in the UK in 1978.

Kenney Jones had the hardest job in the music world at the time. Replacing Keith Moon was an impossible task. He didn’t play in the same style, although not many did, but he did a good job. He was eventually forced out of the band 3 years later when Roger wanted something different. Roger said that Jones was a great drummer but didn’t fit The Who.

The Who after Moon’s passing was this… whether to get a Moon-styled drummer or get someone more traditional. If they’d gone with the former, Blondie’s Clem Burke or Mitch Mitchell would have fit the bill, as Zak Starr does now. But I doubt Clem was known enough to warrant consideration. That leaves a candidate who would not duplicate Moon’s frenetic approach…in Kenney Jones. Pete Townshend wanted stability and more of a straight beat. That is fine…but when they did that they didn’t sound like themselves as much…and Pete was probably happy about that fact.

I liked the Face Dances album a lot when it was released and I still do. Kenney did a great job on that album but with older Who fans…the drums were just as big of a part of the music as the singing and guitar. In other words, Kenney Jones could not win. He was more of a traditional drummer in a band that was not known for that. Entwistle also toned down his bass playing because he would play off of Moon and be all over the place.

Sometimes I wish they would have packed it up like Zeppelin did after Bonham died but I enjoyed a lot of the music that The Who released after Moon died. Jones was in a no-win situation.

Pete Townshend: With ‘Sister Disco’, I felt the need to say that the group would never, ever, in any way do anything like the Bee Gees. We stand over here and what we stand with is all right. They might say we’re boring old farts but we still feel more at home with the boring old farts than any of that crowd.

Pete Townshend: For this track I spent a lot of hours programming my analogue sequencers in my ARP 2500 studio synthesizer. It isn’t quite Kraftwerk, but in 1976 I don’t think they were doing much better. This is a perfect example of the progression I was making towards theatrical music writing. I was trying to evoke absurd Baron Munchausen musical textures. Roger sounds so seriously intent about everything that the pomposity becomes real and threatening rather than pictorial.

Pete Townshend: It’s got nothing to do with disco at all! It’s only a series of lines put together. The chorus ‘Goodbye Sister Disco, now I go where the music fits my soul’…that is not an indictment of disco music. I like a lot of disco music; I even like discos. It’s to do with saying goodbye to, I think, a sort of self-conscious poseur kind of thing The Who had been for such a long time.

Roger Daltrey: I really like ‘Sister Disco’ but I don’t necessarily understand what he’s saying. I do understand what he’s trying to say but I don’t know whether it comes off. It was a song about getting too old for discos and that whole line that Pete sings, ‘Goodbye Sister Disco, I go where the music fits my soul,’ is kind of operatic; it’s a bit pompous. That’s why I personally didn’t sing that line because I can’t…when Pete sings it he’s got enough kind of tongue-in-cheek quality to get away with it and it works, but if I sang it, it would be a total disaster.

This is a rehearsal version with Kenney Jones on drums getting ready for the 1979 tour. The first without Keith Moon.

Sister Disco

As I walked through that hospital door
I was sewn up like a coat
I got a smile from the bite of the wind
Watched the fresh fall of snow

I knew then that my life took a turn
I felt strong and secure
And with adhesive tape over my nose
I felt almost demure

Goodbye Sister Disco
With your flashing trash lamps
Goodbye Sister Disco
And to your clubs and your tramps

Goodbye Sister Disco
My dancing’s left you behind
Goodbye, now you’re solo
Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind

Bye, goodbye Sister Disco, now I go
I go where the music the music fits my soul
And I, I will never let go, I’ll never let go
‘Til the echo of the street fight has dissolved

I will choose nightmares and cold stormy seas
I will take over your grief and disease
I’ll stay beside you and comfort your soul
When you are lonely and broken and old

Now I walk with a man in my face
Ooh, a woman in my hair
I’ve got you all lookin’ out though my eyes
My feet are a prayer

Goodbye Sister Disco
With your flashing trash lamps
Goodbye Sister Disco
And to your clubs and your tramps

Goodbye Sister Disco
My dancing’s left you behind
Goodbye, now you’re solo
Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind

Jerry Lee Lewis – Mean Woman Blues

After all of the talk of The Shining yesterday I watched a few more scenes of the movie and then ran across this Jerry Lee Lewis live cut on YouTube. I pulled it up on Spotify and Jerry Lee entertained me while I painted our upstairs bathroom as fast as my arms would go. I combined painting while playing air drums. This could be an Olympic event!

Yes, today I will have to clean some paint on the base boards and on the ceiling…but it was worth it.

The album is called Live At The Star Club Hamburg released in 1964. This album is one of the best live rock albums I’ve ever listened to. The Star Club in Hamburg was one of the most important music venues of the era, having acts like The Beatles just a few years before. It was known for a crowd that demanded high-energy rock and roll, making it the perfect stage for Lewis. The audience was full of businessmen, dock workers, crooks, prostitutes, mobsters, and college kids. They all wanted hard-driving music.

The song was written by Claude Demetrius in 1957. It became famous through its association with several artists, such as Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. Per secondhandsongs it’s been covered 126 times. I heard it first by Elvis but I love this live version by Jerry Lee. In this live version, he was backed up by The Nashville Teens, an English rock band, formed in Surrey in 1962.

If you have time check out the entire live album. You can’t go wrong with Jerry Lee. To show you what the critics thought… magazines such as Rolling Stone, Mojo, Digital Dream Door, Goldmine, and the NME all have this live album listed among the best live albums of all time.

The Killer Live below has the entire Star Club album on it. Click play on Spotify and enjoy your Sunday.

Mean Woman Blues

Hmm, I got a woman mean as she can beYeah, I got a woman mean as she can beSometimes I think she’s almost mean as me

Well, I ain’t braggin’, it’s understoodEverything I do, well, I sure do it goodWell, I got a woman mean as she can beOh, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me, yeah

Well, she’s got ruby lips, shapely hipsBoy, she’d makes ol’ Jerry flipI got a woman mean as she can beOh, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me, yeah

Well, I like a little coffee, like a little teaJerry, Jerry, it’s the thing for meI got a woman mean as she can beOh, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me

Oh, a-ha, a-ha, a-ha-ha, ooh a-haHmm, uhm, uhmEasy now, ahh ooh, brr ha-ha-ha-haYeah, and let’s go one time

Hey, I got a woman mean as she can beYeah, got a little woman as mean as she can beWell, sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me

…

Brothers At Arms – Duane and Gregg Allman

We all know the great album Brothers in Arms from Dire Straits, but sometimes those brothers are “at arms” rather than in them. In this part of the mini-series with Max (Thats Me!) from PowerPop he talks about Duane and Gregg Allman from The Allman Brothers… Randy from https://mostlymusiccovers.com posted this a few months back right here.

Rare Live Footage of “Statesboro Blues” (1970)

Duane (born November 20, 1946) and Gregg (born December 8, 1947) Allman were born in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up with a loving but tough mother. Their father, Willis Turner Allman, was murdered in 1949 when Duane was 3 and Gregg was 2. They were raised by their strong mom Geraldine Robbins Allman. Geraldine never remarried because she was scared that a new husband might not treat the boys well. They lived in Nashville for a while but then moved to Daytona Beach and grew up there. Geraldine would soon go to a school to get her accounting degree and send the boys to Castle Heights Military Academy on two separate occasions in Lebanon, Tennessee.

The brothers were almost completely different except in music. Duane lived life on the very edge. Always doing things excessively, be it riding a motorbike, drugs, cars, or playing guitar. Gregg was much more conservative, thoughtful, and worried about the future. Gregg saved up his money from a paper route to buy a Silvertone acoustic guitar early on. He had $21, but the man at the store also wanted tax, so Gregg’s mom kicked in 95 cents.

In 1960, Duane had a small Harley Davidson and wrecked it. He quit school early and continued his partying ways. After a while, he started to get jealous of Gregg’s ability on guitar. Pretty soon they would be fighting over the guitar and the mom soon got Duane a guitar after he sold what was left of the Harley. Gregg showed Duane chords and Duane soon passed Gregg in ability. One, he had a natural gift, and two he had more time through the day. Soon Gregg and Duane started a band called The Allman Joys.

More Rare Live Footage “Whipping Post” (1970)

They developed a following as they started to tour in Florida after Gregg graduated from High School in 1965. Gregg had thoughts of being a dentist if it didn’t work out in music. Duane kept Gregg’s enthusiasm up through the rough times and kept him focused on his keyboard playing, songwriting, and vocals. They soon moved to California to start the band Hourglass and were signed. After two years Duane quit and moved back to the south. After Duane formed the band that would become The Allman Brothers…he called Gregg to come back home to sing. The brothers had a good relationship but were not above fights here and there. Gregg said that he was always Duane’s little brother and would listen to Duane like a second dad. Duane was killed on October 29, 1971, on a motorcycle. Gregg never got over it and it accelerated his drug use. He died on May 27, 2017, at age 69.

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Byrds – Drug Store Truck Driving Man

This song is on the Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde album by the Byrds. It’s a really good song and the song’s origin is interesting. It was written in response to an on-air argument with Ralph Emery, who was an all-night country DJ on a country radio station at the time. It was written by Roger McGuinn and Gram Parsons. The song was an open letter to Emery.

Before I get into the song which I really like…I want everyone to know I’m not downing Emery because of this. I grew up with Ralph Emery on television in the 1970s. I was never a fan because his show wasn’t in my age group. To be fair to Ralph…he did invite Roger McGuinn on his show in 1985 when Vern Gosdin covered Turn, Turn, Turn and Roger played guitar. He was on there more than once so it was all in the past by that time. Times had changed so much by the 80s…rock and country went together by then but in the 60s Buck Owens touched on it but not many people were doing both…the Byrds with Gram Parsons were pioneers in a way with Sweetheart Of The Rodeo.

In 1968 The Byrds were in Nashville promoting their new country album Sweetheart of the Rodeo and got a cool reception at the Grand Ole Opry. They got into an argument with Emery on air when he said that “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” wasn’t country and then proceeded to call them long-haired hippies and would not play the record. He also didn’t understand what the song meant and Roger told him that Dylan wrote it…well that didn’t help!

Ralph Emery would not budge…It was the 1960s in a very fifties Nashville and Ralph could not get past the hair although they didn’t have excessively long hair. It would open up a bit in the early seventies with Outlaw country music by Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings. That movement would soon join traditionalists and the outlaw crowd together. They Byrds helped, in their own way, to make that happen.

The lyrics were about the narrow-mindedness of then certain segments of the country music industry. Lines like “He’s the all-American boy” and “he don’t like the way we play” reflect the hate that McGuinn and Parsons felt from some in Nashville. The title, “Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man,” is a dig at Emery, suggesting that he was more of a conventional figure who could not appreciate or understand the Byrds’ approach to country music. But I’m glad it happened because we got a good country-rock song out of it.

Chris Hillman: “There was the funny story with Ralph Emery, the DJ in Nashville, where he had The Gilded Palace Of Sin tacked on the wall outside of his office, and with a big red pen it said, ‘This is not country music.’ Roger and Gram had gone to do an interview with him when we were all still with the Byrds, and Ralph was such a jerk to them then that they wrote that song “Drug Store Truck Driving Man”. A classic! I wish I’d written a part of that. But later, whenever I’d go on his show with the Desert Rose Band, Ralph would ask, “Did you write that song?” Finally, I had to say, “No, but I wish I had!” So when Roger was on later, Ralph would say, “Well, how is Gram doing?” and Roger would answer, “He’s still dead.” McGuinn was pretty darned quick in those situations!”

I’m adding a live version and a hell of a story by Jason and the Scorchers…on how they played this song and it found a spot on Ralph Emery’s TV show in the early 80s.

Ralph Emery when he invited McGuinn on his show in 1985

Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man

He’s a drug store truck-drivin’ man
He’s the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He’ll be lucky if he’s not in town

Well, he’s got him a house on the hill
He plays country records till you’ve had your fill
He’s a fireman’s friend he’s an all-night DJ
But he sure does think different from the records he plays

He’s a drug store truck-drivin’ man
He’s the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He’ll be lucky if he’s not in town

Well, he don’t like the young folks I know
He told me one night on his radio show
He’s got him a medal he won in the War
It weighs five-hundred pounds and it sleeps on his floor

He’s a drug store truck drivin’ man
He’s the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He’ll be lucky if he’s not in town

He’s been like a father to me
He’s the only DJ you can hear after three
I’m an all-night musician in a rock and roll band
And why he don’t like me I can’t understand

He’s a drug store truck-drivin’ man
He’s the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He’ll be lucky if he’s not in town

He’ll be lucky if he’s not in town

This one’s for you, Ralph

Max’s Drive-In Movie – The Shining

Jack Nicholson on Stanley Kubrick: Everyone pretty much acknowledges that he’s the man and I still feel that underates him.

This movie keeps you coming back. If you ask 15 people on what the movie meant…you would get 15 different answers. The movie is so much more than the quoted lines like REDRUM and Here’s Johnny! Every time I watch it I get something different out of it. This won’t be the last Kubrick movie I feature on here.

In 2016 or so…we saw this movie on the big screen on Halloween and it changed the movie completely for me. It made me appreciate it more than I did and that is saying a lot. The film drips with ambiguity. The Shining has to be one of the most dissected movies ever filmed. The cast was absolutely perfect. I also connect to the movie in different ways. It was released in 1980 and they filmed it in 1978 and 1979 and the hotel reminds me of that time so well.

Stanley Kubrick directed this movie and we see Jack Torrance slowly go insane and the drama builds throughout. There are no wasted scenes in The Shining…each scene has a purpose and it’s not wasted. The scenes are hard to explain. There is an open space of silence in many of them so you focus on what’s going on. The bathroom scene with Jack and Grady is careful and deliberate. Nothing else matters in the story except right now in each scene.

Stephen King wrote the book but did not like Kubrick’s interpretation of it. Usually 9/10 times I’m a book guy…on this movie/book, I’m not. I liked Stanley’s vision for the movie over the book. Kubrick didn’t explain everything to you and it’s stronger because of that. You also get isolation, madness, and the supernatural, leaving viewers with many questions about the true nature of the Overlook Hotel.

I have read complaints about Nicholson’s performance being too far over the top. I totally enjoyed his performance and I think Shelley Duvall is seriously underrated in this movie. I can’t imagine what she went through…she had to stay on edge and hysterical through half the movie. Danny Lloyd (5 years and turned 6 through filming) was great as Danny in the film. Kubrick kept Lloyd very reserved in the right spots and he doesn’t overact like some child actors do. The additional character actors fit their roles perfectly. Who would have thought Scatman Crothers would be cast in a movie like this? He was great at his role as was Philip Stone as Delbert Grady and Joe Turkel as Lloyd the Bartender.

Now the music…it makes it. Very few films I’ve seen where the music flows with the dialog. In one scene featuring Jack and Danny sitting on a bed…the orchestration goes up with a question and falls with an answer. The atmospheric synthesizer they used in this movie and A Clockwork Orange adds to the movie greatly. When you are watching the film you feel isolated like Jack, Wendy, and Danny and the music again adds to that.

The two scenes that still scare me when I see it in the movie? A simple scene really but when Wendy finds Jack’s novel she finds out what he’s been typing on a typewriter for a very long time. It sends chills up me when I see that. What a perfect way to show someone has gone insane without saying any dialogue.

The other one is when Danny is riding his Big Wheel or Trike down the hallways and you hear the wheels changing from carpet to hardwood floors…what will be around the next corner? Then the twins appear…that gives me the creeps…forever and ever and ever.

I’ve read a lot of Shining theories and all are all different. There are so many theories like… There were no ghosts at all, it was all in Jack’s head and what happened is what he wrote, it was all in Wendy’s head, the Hotel is really hell, it’s a reminder of the Holocaust, and even down to viewing the film forward and then backward. I think most (there are plenty more) of these are too far out there but that shows you what Kubrick built into this film…you WANT to watch it again and again. I watched it twice before writing this.

Plot IMDB

A psychological horror film centered around the Torrance family: Jack (Jack Nicholson), his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd). The story follows them as they move into the isolated Overlook Hotel for the winter, where Jack takes a job as the hotel’s caretaker. The hotel’s eerie history, which includes murder and supernatural occurrences, begins to affect Jack, who is struggling with writer’s block and a history of alcoholism. Meanwhile, Danny, who has psychic abilities called “the shining,” starts experiencing terrifying visions of the hotel’s past, including the ghostly Grady twins and a river of blood flowing from an elevator.

As time passes, Jack descends into madness, influenced by the hotel’s malevolent forces. He becomes increasingly violent and erratic, eventually attempting to murder his family. The film culminates in a tense chase through the hotel’s hedge maze

Quotes:

Wendy Torrance: Well, I’m very confused, and I just need time to think things over!
Jack Torrance: You’ve had your whole fucking life to think things over, what good’s a few minutes more gonna do you now?

__________________________________________

Lloyd: Women: can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
Jack Torrance: Words of wisdom, Lloyd my man. Words of wisdom.

___________________________________________

Jack Torrance: Hi, Lloyd. Been away. Now, I’m back.
Lloyd: Good evening, Mr. Torrence. It’s good to see you.
Jack Torrance: It’s good to be back, Lloyd.
Lloyd: What’ll it be, sir?
Jack Torrance: Hair of the dog that bit me.
Lloyd: Bourbon on the rocks.
Jack Torrance: That’ll do ‘er!

I remember this trailer back in 1980…it’s one of the best trailers I’ve seen of any movie. Modern trailer makers should study this one.

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Sgt Peppers Album Cover Art

Thanks to Dave who published this on TurnTable Talk. This time the subject was more of rock’s arty album covers…well of course I had to pick this one.

I’ll never forget buying the Sgt Pepper album. I bought it in 1977, 10 years after it was released, and I played it constantly. I remember opening it and finding this cool sheet of cardboard that contained a cutout mustache, paper pins, Sgt stripes, a cool photo of the Beatles, and Sgt Pepper himself! Thinking back…it’s cool that they included these 10 years after the release date. Here is what a 10-year-old Max found in the album. I wore that mustache for days.

I would venture to say that Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is probably the most famous album by anyone. Personally, I never thought it was their best, but I know many Beatles fans who do think that. If they had added “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” (which most bands would have done) and maybe dropped “Lovely Rita” and “When I’m 64”, then I would have probably considered it the best. Now, after saying that…I like both of those songs, don’t get me wrong. “ Lovely Rita” as a 10-year-old caught my attention. I think Revolver is very hard to beat and that is their best album artistically…personally as most of you know I have a soft spot for “The White Album” and that is my personal #1.

Sgt. Pepper’s is their most ambitious artistic statement, I think, but I listen to Revolver more often, I think it has higher replay value to me anyway. That is like comparing a great work of art by your favorite painter – you love both but see something else in one so it’s very subjective. As far as packaging… now that is where Sgt Pepper knocks it out of the park.

For really the first time on a massive scale, an album was like a work of art. The Beatles standing as Sgt Pepper’s band with a massive audience behind them. Beside them includes the younger Beatles and behind includes everyone from WC Fields to Lenny Bruce. John wanted Jesus and Hitler on the cover but was talked out of it by Sir Joesph Lockwood, the chairman of EMI.

It was designed by artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth. The cover features the band members dressed in colorful, military-style outfits standing in front of a collage of life-sized cardboard cutouts of famous people. Surrounding The Beatles are cutouts of various cultural icons, artists, actors, musicians, and other notable figures. Some of these include Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Karl Marx, and Oscar Wilde.

There are five people still alive who were on the cover as of right now. Bob Dylan (top right), Dion DiMucci (smiling blond guy above and to the left of Lennon), Larry Bell (between Lennon and Starr), and obviously Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

The cover cost approximately £25,000 ((equivalent to £573,000 in 2023)) to produce, which was a significant amount for an album cover at the time. In comparison, most album covers in the 1960s typically cost around £50. The high cost was due to the elaborate design, the custom-made costumes, the creation of the collage with life-sized cutouts, and the use of wax figures borrowed from Madame Tussauds.

The Beatles recorded their debut album Please Please Me in a remarkably short amount of time. The entire recording process for the album took approximately 9 hours and 45 minutes of studio time. Now let’s fast forward five years from 1962 to 1966-67. The Beatles used up to 700 hours of recording time to record Sgt Pepper. The reason why is because they wanted more tracks than just four. They connected two four-track machines together and recorded the album. That wasn’t done all of the time, and they experimented as they went. This album is one of the most important in music history if only because of the newer recording techniques and how far music advanced because of it.

Going off different memories of the albums by people who were there by the time. Some of them said that all you had to do was walk down a UK street and you would hear it from the windows. It was massively popular and peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1967. It also peaked at #1 on the Billboard CD charts in 1987 when it was re-released.

The following year The Band changed the course of music in some ways. they released Music From The Big Pink and influenced a generation. Bands started to play more earthy, more roots-oriented music. The Beatles did that by recording the rootsy “White Album”.

To close out…Sgt. Pepper was a game changer. Not one single was released from the album…it does need to be listened to as a whole.

A Day In The Life

I read the news today, oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well, I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph

He blew his mind out in a car
He didn’t notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They’d seen his face before
Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords

I saw a film today, oh boy
The English Army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
But I just had to look
Having read the book
I’d love to turn you on

Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, I noticed I was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
And somebody spoke and I went into a dream

I read the news today, oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall
I’d love to turn you on

Led Zeppelin – Going To California

This song was included on possibly their best album…Led Zeppelin 4 or Zoso… whichever name you know it by. It was released in 1971, which I think was the best year for rock albums. A few weeks before this album, The Who released their huge album Who’s Next.

I liked that they switched gears in this song and kept it a ballad. Plant has often mentioned that part of the song was a tribute to Joni Mitchell, whom he and Page admired. Her song California also inspired this song.

Zeppelin recorded this album at Headley Grange. It is an old, remote mansion in Hampshire, England, and they recorded there frequently. The informal, relaxed atmosphere helped the band focus and be creative.

They used a mobile recording studio, the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, which allowed them to record in various parts of the mansion, capturing different acoustics. Page has talked about recording Bonham underneath a staircase for the sound quality. For this song, however…it was recorded in Headley Grange’s lawn outside in the grass.

Bonham didn’t play on this one and Page played a 6-string and 12-string acoustic guitar. John Paul Jones plays the mandolin on it. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page wrote this song…it’s a great album track.

The album peaked at #1 in the Billboard 200, Canada, and the UK in 1971.

Going To California

Spent my days with a woman unkind
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine
Made up my mind to make a new start
Going to California with an aching in my heart
Someone told me there’s a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair

Took my chances on a big jet plane
Never let ’em tell you that they’re all the same
Oh, the sea was red and the sky was grey
Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today
The mountains and the canyons start to tremble and shake
As the children of the sun began to awake
Watch out

Seems that the wrath of the gods
Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow
I think I might be sinking
Throw me a line, if I reach it in time
I’ll meet you up there where the path runs straight and high

To find a queen without a king
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings
La la la la
Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin’ to find a woman who’s never, never, never been born
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams
Telling myself it’s not as hard, hard, hard as it seems, mmm, ah

…

Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose – Treat Her Like a Lady

Always loved this song. It has a great groove and a dynamic chorus. I also like the repeated backups. This is one soul song our band played and we loved every minute of it. That guitar is simple yet so effective in the verses. It’s a very powerful song live. This is high on my list of soul songs.

The group was formed in Dania Beach, Florida, and consisted of three siblings… Carter Cornelius, Eddie Cornelius, and Rose Cornelius. Later, they were joined by their sister, Billie Jo Cornelius, completing the lineup. The group started performing in the late 1960s and quickly gained a reputation for their smooth harmonies and soulful performances.

1971 was a big year for the band…they released this song and it peaked at #3 on the Billboard 100 and #10 in Canada in 1971. The group would also hit the following year with Too Late to Turn Back Now and it peaked at #1 in Canada and #2 on the Billboard 100 in 1972. Both songs were off their debut album Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose. The song was written by Eddie Cornelius.

These two songs would be their last top 20 hits in America. They did have two more top-40 hits but nothing that lasted. The group broke up in 1976.

Treat Her Like a Lady

All my friends had to ask meSomething they didn’t understandHow I get all the womenIn the palm of my hand

And I told them to treat her like a lady (Treat her like, you got to, got to treat her like)Do the best you can do (Treat her like, you got to, got to treat her like)You got to treat her like a lady and she’ll give in to youLord you can see, you know what I mean

I know you’ve heard (Treat her like)That the woman (Got to treat her like)Will soon take advantage of you (Treat her like, got to treat her like)Let me tell you (Treat her like)My friend (Got to treat her like)There just ain’t no substitute (Treat her like)

You ought to treat her like a lady (Treat her like, you got to, got to treat her like)Do the best you can do (Treat her like, you got to, got to treat her like)You got to treat her like a lady and she’ll give in to youLord you can see, you know what I mean

Oh, you got to love her (Love her)And tease her (Tease her)But most of all you got to please her (Please her)You got to hold her (Hold her)And want her (Want her)And make her feel you’ll always need her (Need her)You know a woman (Woman)Is sentimental (Woman)And so easy to upset (Woman, woman)So make her feel (Feel)That she’s for real, yeah (Feal)And she’ll give you happiness

Whoa, strange as it seems (Treat her like, you got to, got to treat her like)You know you can’t treat a woman mean (Treat her like, you got to, got to treat her like)So my friend, there you have itI said it’s the easy, simple wayIf you fail to do this, don’t blame her if she looks my way

‘Cause I’m gonna treat her like a lady (Treat her like, you got to, got to treat her like)So affectionately (Treat her like, you got to, got to treat her like)I’m going to treat her like a ladyAnd she’ll give in to meLord you can see, you know what I mean

Oh, you got to treat her like a lady (Treat her like, got to, got to treat her like)Do the best you can do (Treat her like, you got to, got to treat her like)You got to treat her like a lady

Dave Edmunds – Slipping Away

This is a good song that got lost in the 1980s shuffle. I had known about Edmunds in 1983 because of three things…seeing Stardust and the single I Hear You Knocking that was given to me. I also remembered him with Rockpile in The Concert for Kampuchea film with Robert Plant.

Dave Edmunds released this song in 1983. I remember hearing it and something about it reminded me of ELO…there is a reason for that. Jeff Lynne produced and wrote the song. It peaked at #39 in the Billboard 100. MTV also played it in a heavy rotation.

Edmunds wanted to do something different and he tried working with Phil Collins but Collins was busy so he connected with Jeff Lynne. Lynne left his mark on the recording but it still has some of the rockabilly elements that Edmunds will bring.

It got a lot of airplay in my region at the time so I was surprised it only went to #39. Very different from his 1970 hit I Hear You Knocking I think this song showed he was able to adapt to the 80s and still retain his rock roots sound.

Dave Edmunds: “Then I thought of Jeff Lynne, because he was Mr. Techno back then and he used to make great-sounding records, although now I listen to them and they sound a bit dated. I’m a bit puzzled why I was so enamored with Jeff, but he is very creative in the studio. He can go in with nothing and right on the spot make a record. I was taken with that. This being 1983, synthesizers were coming into vogue, especially in Edmunds’ native UK. For Jeff Lynne, this was a natural progression, but for Edmunds, it was out of step with his sound – he specialized in rock guitar and simplified productions (he had recently produced the Stray Cats first album). So when “Slipping Away” emerged, featuring a prominent synth played by Lynne, many of Edmunds’ fans were nonplussed.

Edmunds did more work with Lynne on his next album, Riff Raff, but soon returned to his rock roots.

Slipping Away

I can feel you slipping away from me.A little bit further now every day.I’m holding on, but I can’t believeThis is how you want it to be.

Oh, you’re slipping away.Oh, you’re slipping away.

It feels like walking down a long, dark road.You never talk to me the way you did before.You ride through the city with your head held high.And all I can do is watch you go by.

Oh, you’re slipping away.Oh, you’re slipping away.

I’m gonna give it all I’ve got to give.I’ve got to hold on, see what tomorrow brings.You’re slipping away, but give me one more try.One more chance to wipe these tears from my eyes.You’re slipping away.Oh, you’re slipping away

AC/DC – Baby Please Don’t Go

When I first saw this video it highly amused me. Seeing Bon Scott in pigtails caught me off guard. They did a great version of this song…I will always turn to Van Morrison’s Them as my definite version, but this one is a lot of fun.

This song appeared on their debut album High Voltage released in 1974. Bon Scott was an excellent singer. He was in a pop band called The Valentines and it’s odd, to say the least seeing him singing in this band. He adapted well to what was asked of him with AC/DC.

The band toured relentlessly in the mid to late seventies and when they released Highway To Hell, it was a milestone for them. They set themselves up for a huge payday on the next album. Scott died in 1980 as they were starting on their new album which turned out to be the mega-selling Back In Black. I think if Scott had lived they would have had just as big of an album. The Highway To Hell album was the key to getting them known worldwide.

Blues great Big Joe Williams is credited with writing this song, but it was developed from a folk song titled “Long John,” which was recorded in 1934 by John and Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. That recording captures the song sung by black prisoners at Darrington State Prison Farm in Texas. It was a popular tune because “Long John” was about an escaped prisoner on the run from authorities.

Baby Please Don’t Go

Baby please don’t goBaby please don’t goBaby please don’t go down to New OrleansYou know I love you soBaby please don’t go

When the man done goneWhen the man done goneWhen the man done gone down to the county farmHe got the shackles onBaby please don’t goDon’t leave me

I’ll be a dogI’ll be a dog woahI’ll be a dog kiss your way down thereWhen you walk alongBaby please don’t go

Baby please don’t goBaby please don’t goBaby please don’t go down to New OrleansYou know I love you soBaby please don’t go

No baby please don’t leave meWhy must you go away and do this to me babyI want to suffer for you, suffer, sufferOh baby please don’t goNo!

Baby, baby, baby, please don’t go, please don’t goDon’t go and leave me, please don’t goBaby, hummBaby, ahahOh don’t go, no don’t goOh don’t go, no don’t goAh don’t go, don’t go so slowOh don’t go, no don’t go

Why must you leave me lying on my backGoing across left side of the trackFound yourself a new man I knowSo baby please don’t goBaby please don’t go

No no no noOh please, please don’t leave meI don’t want to be left alone babyAh don’t go, don’t go, don’t goNo!

…

My Favorite Soul Songs

I love this genre of music. I really could put these songs in any order I wanted and it would work. I had to leave so many off…I could easily make this list with 100 different artists but I wanted the page to actually load so you could read it. This is just a partial list…if you like it I could do a part II one day.

James Carr – Pouring Water On A Drowning Man

No…his name is not a household name like the rest of the list but this song just gets to me every single time I listen to it. If you don’t listen to any other song on this post…give this one a try. I dropped Sam Cooke from this list because of Carr but I like this song that much.

His voice and that wonderful guitar. Pouring Water on a Drowning Man charted at #85 on the Billboard 100 and #23 on the R&B Chart in 1966. This song is so easy to listen to. Great guitar sound and Carr’s voice is wonderful. The small intro is worth it. The guitar can sound can seem so deceptively easy but it’s not to be right. He lived in Memphis and was called “the world’s greatest Soul Singer” but he had a bipolar disorder and that made it hard for him to tour because of the depression.

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

Arthur Conley – Sweet Soul Music

Otis Redding believed in Conley’s talent. In January 1967 Redding and his managers, Phil Walden (future ABB manager) and his brother Alan Walden (future Lynyrd Skynyrd manager) brought Conley to producer Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Conley recorded two singles at FAME Studios but they were not successful and Hall did not want to work with Conley anymore.

By this time Otis was fed up and took Conley himself to FAME and used his own band. With Jimmy Johnson Engineering they recorded Sweet Soul Music. It was a million-selling single. It peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #2 in the R&B Charts, and #7 in the UK in 1967.

It was written by Conley and Otis Redding. It was based on “Yeah Man” by Sam Cooke and was a tribute to soul singers. The songs mentioned in this song are “Going To A Go-Go,” “Love’s a Hurtin’ Thing,” “Hold On I’m Coming,” “Mustang Sally” and “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song).” The artists mentioned are Otis, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, James Brown, and Lou Rawls.

Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get It On

I never checked the statistics…but I have to think there had to be a baby explosion nine months after “Let’s Get It On” was released in 1973. Anyone born in 1974 may owe their very existence to this song.

This song’s co-writer Ed Townsend also produced the album with Marvin and co-wrote the three other songs on the first side of the disc, including “Keep Gettin’ It On.” He wrote with Marvin again on songs for Marvin’s 1978 album Here, My Dear.

This song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, The guitar and voice are excellent in this song. There is no guessing what this song is about.

Otis Redding – Shake

This song was a highlight when watching the Monterey Pop Festival. Otis had the voice, charisma, and loads of talent. Shake was written and originally recorded by Sam Cooke. Cooke’s version reached #7 on the Billboard 100. Cooke was a huge influence on Otis Redding; along with Shake, Redding also recorded covers of Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come, Chain Gang, Cupid, Nothing Can Change This Love, Wonderful World, and You Send Me.

The song peaked at #47 on the Billboard 100 in 1967. Otis was on his way to superstardom. Otis made a huge impact at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival along with The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin.

The Reverend Al Green – Let’s Stay Together

I never tire of hearing his voice. This song almost wasn’t released because Green hated the thin sound of his falsetto. Producer Willie Mitchell said: “The only fight I ever had with him was about ‘Let’s Stay Together,’ because he thought ‘Let’s Stay Together’ was not a hit.” It did pretty well for a song Green didn’t think was a hit.

The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #7 in the UK, and #14 in Canada in 1972. Let’s Stay Together also spent nine weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart.

It was selected by the Library of Congress as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry, which selects recordings annually that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

…

Brothers At Arms – The Bee Gees

We all know the great album Brothers in Arms from Dire Straits, but sometimes those brothers are “at arms” rather than in them. In this part of the mini-series Randy, from mostlymusiccovers.com, talks about the “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em” Siblings of the Bee Gees.

“To Love Somebody” was written by Robin and Barry Gibb. It was released as a single in 1967 and reached #41 in their native UK. The song did better elsewhere making several top 10s and #17 on the Hot 100. It would be a cover by Michael Bolton released in 1992 that put it at #1 on the Adult Contemporary charts in Canada and the US. It has endured to become a classic with over 210 versions of the song.

Formed in 1958 with brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice. After the family’s move to Australia they found their first success, just the three boys returned to their native UK in 1967. They would go on to sell an estimated 200 million records, post nine #1s on the Hot 100 and entered the top five of the most successful bands in history.

Life was not so easy, with an unreliable father they became the bread winners for the family at a very young age. Despite the pressures the boys got on quite well, until the dreaded “S” word enter in. Success. Their first #1 in the UK was “Massachusetts” in 1967. Robin sang lead on it and it was a position he was not willing to give up. The in-fighting began.

This is not perhaps the level of fighting on the same scale as some of our other brother groups, but they were not producing any hits and Robin was really at the heart of a split up in 1969. The reconciliation produced their first US #1 Hot 100 hit, “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” in 1971. It was very much an autobiographical song. Success is fleeting in the music business and another downturn followed as their next album was a flop. By 1975 they had all moved to the US. Both Robin and Maurice struggled mightily with addiction problems. Robin seemed to tolerate the more democratic Barry becoming the defacto leader, but there were tensions. Not enough though to stop them from reinventing themselves yet again.

The Disco era and Saturday Night Fever saw them rise to incredible worldwide success with eight Hot 100 #1 hits in the mid to late 1970s. Younger brother Andy would join in the success. Everyone knows the rise and fall of Disco, and no one paid a heavier price than the Bee Gees. All of a sudden no one wanted to hear a Bee Gees song. In fact, they were and are still hated by some. I was not a disco fan, but I was a Bee Gees fan, and I took my fair share of ribbing for it.

Despite all this turmoil surrounding them, only minor tensions erupted, and Barry, Maurice and Robin would discover other people respected their songwriting abilities. First came “Woman in Love” by Barbra Streisand, and then “Islands in the Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, both worldwide #1 smash hits. And also, songs for Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and others. So, the brothers Gibb had risen from the ashes for yet a third time but as songwriters. And then remarkably a fourth time, as recording success returned once again and they placed four more songs in the top 10 in the UK in the 90s.

Maurice would die at age 53 in 2003 and despite attempts to regroup, the band that was the Bee Gees were effectively no more. Younger brother Andy had died in 1988 and Robin in 2012. Barry the oldest, has continued to record and perform.

…

Bruce Springsteen – It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City

I had skin like leather and the diamond-hard look of a cobra
I was born blue and weathered but I burst just like a supernova
I could walk like Brando right into the sun, then dance just like a Casanova

What an opening that is…nothing like early Springsteen. The line I could walk like Brando right into the sun makes me get a chill every time. This song was on his debut album and still one of my favorite Springsteen albums, Greetings From Ashbury Park. This was the first song Springsteen played for John Hammond (who signed Bob Dylan and Springsteen) at his audition for Columbia Records in 1972. What was to be a short meeting turned into a 2-hour audition and earned him a record deal and this album was made.

I think of this as a street song…very organic and the words just flow perfectly. Springsteen and Dylan had wordy songs out of the gate for both artists. They both stopped with these kinds of songs a few years into their career. Personally, I love these early wordy songs that take you on a journey with vivid descriptions with a minimum amount of music…as they let the lyrics drive.

The imagery flows like water with Greetings From Ashbury Park, Bruce’s debut album in 1973… It’s not very polished but that adds to it. The songs have a stream-of-consciousness feel to them. It was critically praised but did not have huge sales. The album only peaked at #60 in the Billboard Album Charts.

The song has been covered by various artists, including David Bowie, who recorded a version during the sessions for his Young Americans album but wasn’t released at that time. It can be found on his 1989 rarities box set Sound + Vision.

I always felt this song what have fit in the movie Mean Streets.

It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City

I had skin like leather and the diamond-hard look of a cobra
I was born blue and weathered but I burst just like a supernova
I could walk like Brando right into the sun, then dance just like a Casanova
With my blackjack and jacket and hair slicked sweet
Silver star studs on my duds, just like a Harley in heat
When I strut down the street, I could feel its heart beat
The sisters fell back and said, “Don’t that man look pretty”
The cripple on the corner cried out, “Nickels for your pity”
Then gasoline boys downtown sure talk gritty
It’s so hard to be a saint in the city

I was the king of the alley, Mama, I could talk some trash
I was the prince of the paupers, crowned downtown at the beggar’s bash
I was the pimp’s main prophet, I kept everything cool
Just a backstreet gambler with the luck to lose
And when the heat came down it was left on the ground
The devil appeared like Jesus through the steam in the street
Showin’ me a hand I knew even the cops couldn’t beat
I felt his hot breath on my neck as I dove into the heat
It’s so hard to be a saint when you’re just a boy out on the street

And the sages of the subway sit just like the living dead
As the tracks clack out the rhythm, their eyes fixed straight ahead
They ride the line of balance and hold on by just a thread
But it’s too hot in these tunnels, you can get hit up by the heat
You get up to get out at your next stop, but they push you back in your seat
Your heart starts beatin’ faster as you struggle to your feet
Then you’re outa that hole and back up on the street

And then South Side sisters sure look pretty
The cripple on the corner cries out, “Nickels for your pity”
And then downtown boys, they sure talk gritty
It’s so hard to be a saint in the city