This morning they updated it with an announcement with the link below…The new song will be out on November 2, 2023.
Now and Then will be released on 11-2-23…Here is the Announcement
So the Beatles and Stones released something new…this is pretty cool. I wasn’t around when the Beatles were together…I was 3 when they broke up. Like 1995 and 96 I am looking forward to hearing it.
The song will be paired with Love Me Do…appropriately the first single they released and now the last.
This is another song I remember from Good Morning Vietnam. It has so many good songs on it plus is a great movie to me. The soundtrack to that movie is the soundtrack to the sixties. Martha and the Vandellas had a tough edgy sound.
A frightening story was going on at the time. Lamont Dozier said that one of the inspirations was a teenager who was frightened because he was about to go to Vietnam. Lamont threw a party for him but the boy was quiet because he said he would never make it back from Vietnam.
Dozier tried to cheer him up but it didn’t work. The nineteen-year-old didn’t make it back alive, he was killed after only two months. He said he felt trapped with nowhere to run. That really puts an awful spin on that song.
The song peaked at #8 on the Billboard 100 in 1965. The song was written by the songwriting team of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland.
The backing band on this one was “The Funk Brothers” who were the studio band for Motown at the time. During this session, they used snow chains that went on tires as part of the percussion. They would get inventive at Motown.
This song was a favorite of High School marching bands everywhere because of its sound and chorus.
Lamont Dozier: “His friends asked if I would throw a party for him at my house before he was shipped out. We had the party, but he was very solemn, just sitting with his girlfriend. He had a premonition that he wouldn’t be coming back. I told him to be positive, but he was adamant. I found myself thinking about how he was feeling trapped – nowhere to run. Sure enough, two months later they shipped his body back. I think he stepped on a land mine. Nineteen years old.”
Nowhere to Run
Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide
Got nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide.
It’s not love, I’m a running from,
It’s the heartbreak I know will come.
‘Cause I know you’re no good for me, but you’ve become a part of me.
Ev’rywhere I go, your face I see, ev’ry step I take, you take with me yeah
Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide
Got nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide.
I know you’re not good for me, but free of you I’ll never be, no.
Each night as I sleep, into my heart you creep.
I wake up feelin’ sorry I met you, hoping soon that I’ll forget you.
When I look in the mirror to comb my hair
I see your face just a smiling there.
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from you baby,
Got nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide.
I know you’re no good for me, but you’ve become a part of me,
How can I fight a lover, that shouldn’t be, when it’s so deep,
So deep, deep inside of me
My love reaches so high I can’t get over it
It’s so wide I can’t get around it, no
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from you baby
Just can’t get away from you baby, no matter how I try to
I know you’re no good for me, but free of you I’ll never be,
Nowhere to run to baby, nowhere to hide, got nowhere to run to baby.
After appearing on the covers of Time and Newsweek in October 1975, Springsteen sometimes changed the words to “Tell your papa I ain’t no freak, ’cause I got my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek” when he performed it live. This wasn’t a “hit” at the time but it still lives on in classic radio and is a key song in Bruce’s catalog.
I’ve seen Bruce do this song live and it is special. It’s one of the best live songs I’ve ever heard along with The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again. The song is exciting as he pleads with Rosie and calls out the nicknames of their friends.
I was around 7 years old when this was released. I remember being in a tire swing in my Aunt’s front yard when I heard this Hollies on a radio that was playing from a car that someone was working on. I still remember smelling the grass and the green surroundings of that day.
This song would be way up in my favorite songs ever. Graham Nash had left by this time and the band turned a corner when he had gone. They went from a pop sixties band to more of a rock/pop band with hits like Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress, He Ain’t Heavy (He’s My Brother), and finally this song which was their last top ten hit in the US and Canada. It was written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood.
Great song great music great voice. This song was performed by Rufus with Chaka Khan and written by Stevie Wonder. The Talk-Box which Frampton later used sounds great in this song.
Rufus evolved from a group called The American Breed, who had a hit with “Bend Me, Shape Me.” They took their name from a column in Popular Mechanics magazine called “Ask Rufus,” later shortened to Rufus when Chaka Khan joined the band in 1972.
Paul McCartney‘s Band on the Run was one of his best songs since the Beatles. This song fell in a grey area. The album was released in December of 1973 but the single was released in April of 1974 so it could have gone in either year.
The song was recorded in two parts, in different sessions. The first two were taped in Lagos while the third section was recorded in October 1973 at AIR Studios in London. Paul was robbed at knifepoint in Lagos, Nigeria and they took the tapes that he had at the time. They were never recovered and Paul figured they recorded over them.
The song was off the album Band On The Run which was I think Paul’s best solo album. It was written by Paul and Linda McCartney.
Trying to figure out Elton’s lyrics has always been interesting…not what they mean…I won’t even try that. No, it’s… what is he singing? “He’s got electric boots a mohair suit You know I read it in a magazine, oh” I wasn’t even close. I thought “masseuse” was in there. I don’t think I can even spell what I’ve been singing along with for years. Mick Jagger does this well also.
Regardless of the hard-to-decipher words…I love the song.
Elton wrote the music to this song as an homage to glam rock, a style that was popular in the early ’70s, especially in the UK…and of course, Bernie Taupin co-wrote it with Elton.
…
You don’t get more rockabilly than Carl Perkins. This concert was a show built around the man. The guests that showed their support were Dave Edmunds, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, and Roassane Cash. Plus you had Stray Cats Slim Jim Phantom on drums and Lee Rocker on bass.
It’s pretty cool to see these other legends openly admiring Carl Perkins. Most grew up with his songs and they show their appreciation.
Dave from A Sound Day featured the Roy Orbison concert in the eighties which was a little later on than this one. I remember both of them and this one I watched at a friend’s house at the time on VHS.
Everyone takes a turn singing Carl Perkin’s classic songs in this one. It was filmed at London’s Limehouse Studios in front of a live audience on October 21, 1985. It’s a great show and Carl Perkins hadn’t lost a thing on guitar. Perkins was around 53 at the time.
They had Johnny Cash, Rob Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis do a quick intro for Perkins at the beginning. It’s the bottom video on this post. They also played at The Capitol Theater in New Jersey on September 9, 1985. You can find that one on YouTube also.
Carl Perkins: “Nothing in the music business has even come close to this for me. At times I felt I was going to break down crying.”
Here are the guest Musicians:
Backing Musicians
…
Not Boris Karloff but the Edgar Winter’s 1973 #1 model.
The song has a killer riff that as a kid I could not get out of my head. It pounded you over the head. It was a big instrumental hit in the seventies. The song was seventies indulgence but that was ok. Keyboard solo, guitar, drum solo, saxophone and it drove the song on.
The videos have Edgar Winter running around with a keyboard slung over his shoulders like a guitar and playing anything he can get his hands on. It’s been used in a lot of movie soundtracks when they cover the seventies.
The song is called Frankenstein because of the heavy editing that had to be done in the studio to put it together. Back then they would have to cut the tape and then tape it back together in the correct place… Now it would just be cut and paste digitally.
Frankenstein was a B side to a song called “Hanging Around” but disc jockeys flipped it because they saw its potential. If you have a lot of patience and time…this is the Old Grey Whistle Test 9-minute version.
The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Charts, #1 in Canada, and #18 in the UK in 1973.
Once in a while, I’ll listen to a song that is so good that it’s beyond a normal song. It happens when lyrics can tell a story just right..in a real down-to-earth way. Few fit in this category…this song does. Townes said it was the first song he ever wrote. If so…that would be like painting the Mona Lisa on your first try.
He lived in an apartment with his first wife Fran and he converted a walk-in closet into a studio. Fran said that he wrote the song in there and she was disappointed that he didn’t write a happy or a love song.
“Waitin’ Around to Die” was first recorded for Van Zandt’s 1968 studio debut called For the Sake of the Song. It’s a dark song that encapsulates the pain, despair, and struggle that can engulf a person’s life. It also foretold Van Zandt’s life and ending in a lot of ways.
Townes was diagnosed with depression in his sophomore year of college. His father, Harris Williams Van Zandt, was a corporate lawyer. Townes tried to follow in his footsteps but dropped out of school to become a musician. Earlier in grade school, his friend Guy Clark said that Van Zandt found out that the sun was slowly burning out. Clark thinks that after that he didn’t take much seriously in life.
He was born John Townes Van Zandt in Fort Worth, Texas, into a wealthy oil family whose prestige was known throughout the state. His great-great-grandfather Khleber Miller Van Zandt became president of both a construction company and a bank, the Fort Worth National Bank. Khleber’s own dad, Isaac Van Zandt, was a leader of the Republic of Texas. Van Zandt County, located in the northeastern part of the state, was named for Isaac in 1848.
Townes Van Zandt died on New Year’s Day in 1997 at age 52, exactly 44 years after the death of his idol, Hank Williams.
Townes Van Zandt: “I talked to this old man for a while, and he kinda put out these vibrations. I was sitting at the bar of the Jester Lounge one afternoon drinking beer, thinking about him, and just wrote it down …..Sometimes I don’t know where this dirty road is taking me/Sometimes I can’t see the reason why/But I guess I’ll keep rambling/Lots of booze and lots of gambling/Well, it’s easier than waitin’ round to die.”
Townes Van Zandt: “I have a few others like that that I don’t play all the time. I have to watch that when I do shows. I have to stay away from that side because nobody wants to hear blues on blues on blues.”
Waiting Around To Die
Sometimes I don’t know where
This dirty road is taking me
Sometimes I don’t even know the reason why
But I guess I keep a-gamblin’
Lots of booze and lots of ramblin’
Well it’s easier than just a-waitin’ around to die
One time, friends, I had a ma
I even had a pa
Well he beat her with a belt once ’cause she cried
She told him to take care of me
Headed down to Tennessee
Well it’s easier than just a-waitin’ around to die
Well I came of age and I found a girl in a Tuscaloosa bar
She cleaned me out and hit in on the sly
I tried to hide the pain, I bought some wine and hopped a train
Well it’s easier than just waitin’ around to die
A friend said he knew
Where some easy money was
We robbed a man, and brother did we fly
The posse caught up with me
And drug me back to Muskogee
Two long years waitin’ around to die
Well, now I’m out of prison
I got me a friend at last
Well he don’t drink or steal or cheat or lie
His name’s codeine
He’s the nicest thing I’ve seen
Yah, together we’re gonna wait around and die
Yah together we’re gonna wait around and die
I was introduced to Ray Charles’ music by my mom. She would play Georgia on My Mind nonstop. This was a country song that Ray Charles kicked some soul into and it worked more than anyone would have thought.
Willie Nelson said that Ray Charles did more for country music than anyone did at that time. This song was a massive hit worldwide in 1962.
The song was written by Don Gibson and this was the B side to his Oh Lonesome Me. Ray Charles finally got artistic control over his albums so he decided to shock everyone…an album full of Country and Western music with his own unique touch on it. The album was called Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music and it peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts.
Ray Charles’ record company (ABC Records) didn’t release this as a single when the album came out. It was only when Tab Hunter heard this version and released a single…that ABC Records finally edited the song down to just over 4 minutes and released it after radio stations were playing it off the album. Charles was not happy when he heard Hunter’s version.
The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1962. I Can’t Stop Loving You won the Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording.
I Can’t Stop Loving You
(I can’t stop loving you)
I’ve made up my mind
To live in memories of the lonesome times
(I can’t stop wanting you)
It’s useless to say
So I’ll just live my life in dreams of yesterday
(Dreams of yesterday)
Those happy hours that we once knew
Though long ago, they still make me blue
They say that time heals a broken heart
But time has stood still since we’ve been apart, yeah
(I can’t stop loving you)
I’ve made up my mind
To live in memories of the lonesome times
(I can’t stop wanting you)
It’s useless to say
So I’ll just live my life in dreams of yesterday
(Those happy hours)
Those happy hours
(That we once knew)
That we once knew
(Though long ago)
Though long ago
(Still make me blue)
Still make me blue
(They say that time)
They say that time
(Heals a broken heart)
Heals a broken heart
(But time has stood still)
Time has stood still
(Since we’ve been apart)
Since we’ve been apart
(I can’t stop loving you)
I said I made up my mind
To live in memories of the lonesome times (sing the song, children)
(I can’t stop wanting you)
It’s useless to say
So I’ll just live my life of dreams of yesterday
(Of yesterday)
CB sent me a link to this song and I liked it on the first listen. It didn’t need to grow on me or take time to gel…first off I liked it. I started to listen to more of the album and again…first time I heard it was great.
Colin Linden is a great Canadian guitarist who has played with many artists. To name a few Bruce Cockburn, Lucinda Williams, T-Bone Burnett, Kevin Gordon, Colin James, Emmylou Harris, Leon Redbone, Rita Chiarelli, Chris Thomas King, The Band, Keb’ Mo’, Charles Esten, and last but not least Bob Dylan. He now makes his home near me…in Nashville.
Colin fulfilled a dream with this recording. He was always a huge fan of The Band. Garth Hudson and Rick Danko are on this song with him. If you listen to near the last verse you can hear Danko’s unmistakable harmony voice that he was so great at. Danko sings the last verse right before the solo. Along with that, you can hear Garth Hudson playing like only Hudson can…not many keyboard players have a certain sound…but Garth sure does. Danko and Linden met each other in 1985 in Toronto at the Diamond Club. Linden was opening up for The Band at the time. They got along well musically and personally.
As soon as you hear Rick Danko sing near the end he turns the song into Americana by just opening his mouth. The end of the song has a cool music breakdown of Linden’s guitar and Hudson’s organ taking the song in a really cool direction. Every song should have an ending like this one.
This song was the title cut to the album released in 1988. Danko, Hudson, and Levon Helm contributed to it. Along with his solo career he played with many artists on the way. He has released 14 albums in all beginning in 1980 and the last one called bLOW in 2021. He has also won multiple Juno awards for his contributions.
Colin joined Tom Wilson and Stephen Fearing in Hamilton, Ontario to form Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. I’ll be covering something by them soon.
The lyrics were nowhere to be found. After transcribing them I got an assist from CB on them…a thanks to him on that.
Colin Linden: “Rick’s way of looking at things is very much in keeping with what I feel about priorities, he’s a very Zen guy and he has a very positive aura about him. He looks at the world in a truly unjaded way–and he sees a lot of shit. The prospect of playing with him was so appealing to me because he treats life with a lot of respect, and that’s a perfect vibe for playing music and playing it well.”
When The Spirit Comes
When the spirit comes, electrons will charge through your veins
It won’t take any money, it won’t give you a name
When the spirit comes, you’re going to ride the fastest rail
And whatever you may try, no way you can fail
You will feel like superwoman, like you just discovered electricity
Here ye I’ll wait and I’m ready when the spirit comes
When the spirit comes, it will catch you mostly off guard
It will make things seem so easy, the same things that once seemed so hard
But you can’t force the spirit inside you, like you can’t force the dead to rise
And you can’t be on 10, and be ready when the spirit comes
When the spirit comes, sit down by your plough and be ready
When the spirit comes, throw away your crutches and be ready
When the spirit comes, put away your sheep suit and be ready
Be ready
Be ready
Be ready
When the spirit comes
When the spirit comes, you are gonna jump straight up in the air
And you will see the world from great heights, and you won’t have to travel anywhere
And there will be no tears or no funerals, and no preachers on TV
Just an intermittent spark that will let you know when the spirit’s come
Here ye I wait and I’m ready when the spirit comes
Pick up you belongings boys and scatter about
We’ve got an off-schedule train comin’ two miles out
Great title for Mr. Chuck Berry. My only complaint about this song is it’s way too short. He borrowed liberally from Johnny B. Good but that is alright…hell it’s his song to borrow from. Just think how many artists have taken this riff, especially the rhythm track, and used it over and over again. The Rolling Stones, Animals, and Beatles owe a large part of their success to this man.
Speaking of the Rolling Stones…they recorded this song live as a B-side in the UK for the single Brown Sugar. It was recorded live in March 1971 at the University of Leeds in England. Right around the time when The Who recorded possibly the best rock live album ever…Live At Leeds. The Stones do a good job on this song…it’s in their wheelhouse completely.
This song is not about teenagers. Chuck wrote this from the perspective of a railroad worker in Alabama. The phrase “Let It Rock” won’t be found in the lyrics. Supposedly the train that is coming is Rock and Roll.
The musicians on this album are Johnnie Johnson on piano, Willie Dixon on double bass, and Fred Below on drums. Johnnie Johnson was one of the best boogie-woogie piano players around at the time.
Johnnie Johnson never got his due for these wonderful riffs that he helped Chuck create. When Keith Richards wanted him to play in Hail Hail Rock and Roll in the mid-80s…he was driving a bus in Saint Louis. Chuck gave his OK and Johnnie was in the band. After he appeared in the movie he worked for the rest of his life as a musician.
This song has been covered by The Connection, The Grateful Dead, Rockpile, The Rolling Stones, Motörhead, Jerry Garcia, Hasil Adkins, Skyhooks, The Yardbirds, Widespread Panic, The MC5, Bob Seger, the Stray Cats, George Thorogood, The Head Cat, Shadows of Knight, John Oates, The Georgia Satellites, and Jeff Lynne to name a few.
The song peaked at #18 on the Billboard R&B Charts and #64 on the Billboard 100 Charts in 1959.
Have a great day and Let It Rock!
Let It Rock
In the heat of the day down in Mobile Alabama
Working on the railroad with the steel driving hammer
I gotta get some money to buy some brand new shoes
Tryin’ to find somebody to take away these blues
“She don’t love me” hear them singing in the sun
Payday’s coming and my work is all done
Well, in the evening when the sun is sinking low
All day I been waiting for the whistle to blow
Sitting in a tee pee built right on the tracks
Rolling them bones until the foreman comes back
Pick up you belongings boys and scatter about
We’ve got an off-schedule train comin’ two miles out
Everybody’s scrambling, running around
Picking up their money, tearing the tee pee down
Foreman wants to panic, ’bout to go insane
Trying to get the workers out the way of the train
Engineer blows the whistle loud and long
Can’t stop the train, have to let it roll on
Randy had a post a few days ago about Rock and Roll Revivalists and I started to search a little bit and ran across a live version of this song. I love roots music and this Texan delivers every single time. When I saw the live clip of this one I heard so much of Jerry Lee Lewis in it. The title alone gets my attention really quick.
This song was released in 1981 on an album with the same name…OK, I want to type it again… Musta Notta Gotta Lotta. Now I feel better. You could see something happening in the eighties out of the top 40. You have Joe Ely opening the door along with The Blasters and then Steve Earle came on through along with the alt-country bands like Uncle Tupelo.
Ely has 16 studio albums and 20 singles in his career so far. This album charted at #135 in the Billboard Album Charts. He has charted quite a few in the Country Charts.
Ely’s first album was released in 1977. He met The Clash the year after in London and both liked each other. They both toured together a bit after that. Ely sang backups on the Clash hit Should I Stay or Should I Go.
He also co-wrote a play called Chippy about a Texas prostitute who counted around 6,000 customers. She died in the 1960s and had a quote that I will never forget. “Texas had the bread and I had the butter.”
The man is known through the music industry. In 1990 he was part of a band for the house party for the premiere of Buddy that played some songs. That band included The E Street band members Max Weinberg and Gary Tallent along with The Crickets, Dave Edmunds, Steve Forbert, and Paul McCartney. Joe and Paul traded vocals on three Holly songs.
Musta Notta Gotta Lotta
Please understand me everything’s all rightI just musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night
I was high flyin’ down the riverside driveRockin’ to the radio man aliveStopped into a joint bought a round of boozeHot dog I got a buzz in my shoe
Please understand me everything’s all rightI just musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night
Writin’ you a letter it’s late in the nightSittin’ in a caffe honey eatin’ a biteI’m telln’ you about where all I’ve beenHot dog I’m gone again
Please understand me everything’s all rightI just musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night
Now there’s two kind of people in this big ‘ol townThere’s the early to rise and the late to go downI guess I better find a better way to stop the clockHot dog I like it a lot
Hot dog I like it a lot
Please understand me everything’s all rightI just musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night, yeah, hot dog
Please understand me everything’s all rightI just musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night
This song never gets old to me. It’s full of soul and pure Dusty. I will say, I always thought Dusty Springfield was from Memphis or somewhere like that. Never did I think that she was born in London.
Mary O’Brien was the daughter of a tax consultant who grew up in Hampstead in North London. In 1958 she became the third member of a short-lived girl group known as the Lana Sisters. She started to go by Dusty Springfield, she then joined her brother Dion (stage name Tom Springfield) in the British country-music trio the Springfields, who achieved moderate success in the early 1960s.
She signed with Atlantic Records in 1968 and recorded her Dusty in Memphis album in the famed American Sound Studios with producers Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin. The album brought her critical acclaim and this international hit Son of a Preacher Man.
The song was originally offered to Aretha Franklin (who is a preacher’s daughter), but she turned it down because she thought it was disrespectful. She then changed her mind and did a cover version of it.
The song was released in 1968 and peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100, #11 in Canada, and #9 in the UK. The song was written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins. The backup vocals were by a female group called the Sweet Inspirations, who were made up of Cissy Houston, Sylvia Shemwell, Myrna Smith, and Estelle Brown. Later on, they would tour with Elvis Presley.
Elton John: “I’m biased, but I just think she was the greatest white singer there ever has been … every song she sang, she claimed as her own.”
Son of a Preacher Man
Billy-Ray was a preacher’s son
And when his daddy would visit he’d come along
When they gathered round and started talkin’
That’s when Billy would take me walkin’
A-through the backyard we’d go walkin’
Then he’d look into my eyes
Lord knows to my surprise
The only one who could ever reach me
Was the son of a preacher man
The only boy who could ever teach me
Was the son of a preacher man
Yes he was, he was
Ooh, yes he was
Being good isn’t always easy
No matter how hard I try
When he started sweet-talkin’ to me
He’d come and tell me everything is all right
He’d kiss and tell me everything is all right
Can I get away again tonight?
The only one who could ever reach me
Was the son of a preacher man
The only boy who could ever teach me
Was the son of a preacher man
Yes he was, he was
(Ooh…) Lord knows he was
Yes he was
How well I remember
The look that was in his eyes
Stealin’ kisses from me on the sly
Takin’ time to make time
Tellin’ me that he’s all mine
Learnin’ from each other’s knowing
Lookin’ to see how much we’ve grown
And the only one who could ever reach me
Was the son of a preacher man
The only boy who could ever teach me
Was the son of a preacher man
Yes he was, he was
Ooh, yes he was
The only one who could ever reach me
He was the sweet-talking son of a preacher man
The only boy who could ever teach me
I kissed the son of a preacher man
The only one who could ever move me
The sweet-lovin’ son of a preacher man
The only one who could ever groove me
Ahh, ooh, ahh….
I thought I would go through my book collection (hardbacks, paperbacks, and audio) and see which ones I really like. I’m more of a non-fiction reader and I love biographies. I also like documentaries which I will do later on. There are some fiction books I’ve read that I will list later on. I thought I would do a few at a time.
1: Harpo Marx – Harpo Speaks – This is my top autobiography of all time. I have read it at least 8-9 times. When I fly, Harpo goes with me on every flight. Harpo was born in the latter half of the 19th century and his life is one of the most incredible stories I’ve read about. This guy adopted enough kids to fill up every window in his house. He would often wake his kids up just to play if he came home late. If rock bands tell sad stories of them just starting and how hard it was…you should read what the Marx Brothers went through. This book goes to 1964 when he passed away. The link on Harpo Speaks goes to my review of it. It was the first book post I did that actually got interest.
2: Beatles – Tune In – The absolute best biography on The Beatles and it only goes to 1962 and it’s well over 1000 pages. Mark Lewisohn wrote it and is planning to write a part two and then a part three. The criticism of this book is there are too many details…” who needs to know the color of George Harrison’s first car?” Well me that’s who! No, I have read at least 15 or more books on them and I learned a lot from this book. Lewisohn interviewed a lot of early fans who saw them in the Cavern and Hamburg. He uncovers events that no one knew before. He also backs things up so it’s the best by far on the Beatles.
Most books on the Beatles I don’t get through because all they are doing is repeating the well-known history…not this one. I’m impatiently waiting the Part II.
3: Keith Richards – Life – This book started a trend among older rock stars. Keith is upfront about his past and doesn’t hide much if anything. He is straightforward and you learn a lot about what was going on when the Stone’s golden years were happening. You would NEVER get a book like this with Mick Jagger. I’ve ranked this 3rd…but the following 2 could have easily switched places with this one but Keith is the one that started it. The format he used was soon used again by Gregg Allman, Robbie Robertson, and Bill Kreutzmann.
4: Gregg Allman – My Cross To Bear – It felt like Gregg was on a back porch telling you his story. I was an Allman Brothers fan but became a huge one after this book. I started to dive into their music and I saw how great they were. He goes through the Duane years, Cher, the narc incident, and up to the modern Allman Brothers. Even if you are not a huge fan…check this out.
5: Robbie Robertson – Testimony – Same as Keith and Gregg…a wonderful book about The Band. I had no clue what they went through before they toured with Dylan. They were as tight as any band could be musically and physically. Robbie is very even-handed about his relationship with Levon Helm…he doesn’t rip him and generally treats him with respect. You also learn more about Bob Dylan than I ever knew about his personality. Robbie is also such a cool guy and very down to earth.
6: Bill Kreutzmann – Deal – OK, you want Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll? You have it here with the Grateful Dead’s drummer. It’s not a complete bio of the Dead but he tells stories that I never heard before. Of all the bands I read about…The Dead probably had more fun than any other. They did have their arguments and Garcia wasn’t always a hippie guy that went along with everything. I did learn more about the Dead’s dynamics from this book than any other.
I don’t do anniversaries very much but some things I try to keep up with and this is one of them. I’ve posted this in the past few years on October 20.
It’s been 46 years since Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crashed in a swamp in Gillsburg, Mississippi. The band had just released the album “Street Survivors” and it was probably their best well-rounded album. With new guitarist Steve Gaines, they were primed for commercial success but on October 20, 1977, they lost singer-songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, backup singer Cassie Gaines, and road manager Dean Kilpatrick. The plane crash also claimed the lives of pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray Jr.
I believe that if the crash had not happened they would have moved into the most successful stretch of their career. They were leaving the “southern rock” label behind and into one of the top rock bands in the world.
A year earlier Steve Gaines joined the band and he was pushing them in directions they never had gone. Listening to “Street Survivors” you can hear his influence with the songs I Never Dreamed and I Know A Little. Steve was a super-talented guitarist, songwriter, and singer and I have to wonder where his career would have gone.
On this tour, they were headlining and moving up in status after years of touring as mostly an opening band.
Below is a good Rolling Stone article on the crash. The song below that is “I Never Dreamed,” a song heavily influenced by Gaines.
As of yesterday, she has been gone for 53 years. She dedicated this song to her dad. It was on her last studio album Pearl released in 1971 right after Joplin died.
Janis’s voice is gold on this one… a pure blues voice. I’m convinced Janis had a built-in dynamic. She had one of the best dynamics in her songs based purely on her building up to the choruses of her songs. Her influences were Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and last but not least…Otis Redding. She saw Otis a few months before he died and copped some of his stage mannerisms.
This was written by Jerry Ragovoy and Mort Shuman. Shuman’s credits include Teenager In Love and Let’s Live For Today. Ragovoy also wrote Joplin’s songs Piece Of My Heart and Try. The song was first released by Garnet Mimms in 1966.
I have included the studio version and a live version she did on the Dick Cavett show. Cavett talks about her as if he had somewhat fallen for her. It was an odd combination…Cavett attended Yale and here was Janis…a loud brash blues singer from Port Arthur Texas.
Cavett tells a story about Janis and him eating at a restaurant and the song “Down On Me” is playing while they are at the table. Cavett said to Janis…I bet they don’t play that song on the radio because of it’s sexual nature…Janis then leaned in and told Cavett…Dick…uh it’s a gospel song.
Cavett later credited Joplin for sending so many other major rock stars his way after her first appearance on his show in 1968. She told her fellow musicians that Cavett wasn’t a dreary television personality like many. The fact is…Cavett was different from other talk show hosts…especially now. He would dedicate entire shows to one person and he had conversations with them, not interviews. He also mixed and matched people that you would not see in everyday life. Janis for instance, was on a show with Raquel Welch and Gloria Swanson. Three completely different women but he had all of them in a conversation.
If you see the Cavett DVD’s…get them…if not many of them are on youtube.
The biography I read on Janis was by Holly George-Warren. It was released in 2019 and it is one of the best books about her I’ve read. Here are a few quotes from that author.
Holly George-Warren: You can look to two major influences that Janis had that I think affected her sexuality and the way she expressed it on stage. One was, of course, the great Bessie Smith, whose lyrics Janis knew by heart. She started out singing Bessie Smith songs way before we ever saw her, these images of her with Big Brother and the Holding Company. She started performing Bessie Smith songs around 1963. And those kind of lyrics of sexuality, of sexual longing, sexual betrayal, those very much informed Janis’ own songwriting and the songs that she chose to sing.
The other major influence was Otis Redding. She was a huge Otis fan until the day she died. And she got to see him perform live three nights in a row at The Fillmore back in 1966, and it transformed her because he was a very sexual performer. And he was able to emit this heat on stage that Janis herself was able to do through her own way of manifesting these feelings that she had while singing these songs. And I mean, Janis herself, she compared singing on stage to having an orgasm. She blew some journalists’ minds when she used that expression, but she – it was a very sexual experience for her.
The original version of this song was by Garnet Mimms.
My Baby
And when I work hard all day long
I tell you what, it don’t bother me nohow,
‘Cause how could anything ever go wrong
When I got my baby, Lord, yes,
When I got my baby, oh Lord!
And when they tell me love is pain
I said it might be true for you, honey,
But not for Janis no more, no no no no.
All I’ve ever got to do is call my daddy?s name
Yeah and I got m-my baby, Lord, yeah,
Yes I got my baby, good good God,
Honey, I want to tell you something that I do.
Deep down, h-honey, in the dark of the night,
When I lay my head down, I want to go to sleep,
And I know everything is gonna be alright,
Yeah I got my baby, Lord yeah,
‘Cause I got m-my baby, oh yeah.
And when I want to call the names
Or the things to be that want to be to you.
And when I want to reach out my hand
It always seems you hold me, dear,
Love, don’t you know how long I looked for you
Daddy, daddy, daddy.
Love, don’t you know how hard I tried,
But now I got my baby, Lord, yeah,
Now I got my baby, yeah.
Pink Floyd released one of the biggest albums of all time…Dark Side of the Moon.
Roger Waters put together the cash register tape loop that plays throughout the song. It also contains the sounds of tearing paper and bags of coins being thrown into an industrial food-mixing bowl. The intro was recorded by capturing the sounds of an old cash register on tape and meticulously splicing and cutting the tape in a rhythmic pattern to make the “cash register loop” effect. Waters also wrote the song.
Like many of their songs, this was not released as a single in the UK, where singles were perceived as a sellout…but it was released as a single in America in 1973
Another positive song that was written by George Harrison. “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” replaced Wings’ “My Love” at number 1 on the Hot 100 singles chart…For the week ending 30 June that year, the Harrison and McCartney songs were ranked numbers 1 and 2 respectively.
This song was based on a true story that happened to the band. Smoke On The Water took inspiration from a fire in the Casino at Montreux, Switzerland on December 4, 1971. Deep Purple was going to start recording their Machine Head album there right after a Frank Zappa concert, but someone fired a flare gun at the ceiling during Zappa’s show, which set the place on fire when Deep Purple was watching. It was released in May of 1973.
Music stores would not be the same without this song. It was written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice.
Allman Brothers released this song in August of 1973. It was the band’s biggest hit that almost didn’t get released. The band thought it was too country and almost didn’t release it. This one was written by Dickey Betts.
My sister had a Jim Croce greatest hits album and I played it non-stop. This one is easy for kids to remember. This song has been played to death but I still love it. This one remains one of the most remembered songs from the early seventies. Jim Croce wrote this one.
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