Tag: Dwight Yoakam

Max Picks …songs from 1986

1986

Crowded House – Something So Strong

It was love at first listen to this song. They had another hit that was larger in Don’t Dream It’s Over but this song is a perfect pop song. The lyric “bring life to frozen ground” still stands out to me and I cannot hear this song enough. As far as pop songs go it’s hard to beat this New Zealand band.

The song dates back to 1984 when Neil Finn did a demo of the song. He was still in Split Enz at that time. They split in 1985 so Finn and drummer Paul Hester formed Crowded House.

The song was written by Neil Finn and  Mitchell Froom.

R.E.M. – Fall On Me

A musician friend of mine invited me over to listen to this album. We must have played it 5 times through by nighttime.

Bill Berry (drummer) said the song was specifically about Acid Rain, which occurs when the burning of fossil fuels releases sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, causing rain to be acidic and threatening the environment.

Michael Stipe said about the song: “I was reading an article in Boston when I was on tour with the Golden Palominos, and Chris Stamey showed me this article about this guy that did an experiment from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, whereby he dropped a pound of feathers and a pound of iron to prove that there was… a difference in the… density? What did he prove? I don’t even know. They fall just as fast.”

Steve Earle – Someday

Ever since I heard him in the mid to late 80s I liked Steve Earle. He opened up for Bob Dylan in 1988 and he was fantastic. His music was between country, folk, and rock. You can’t really put Earle in a box…and you shouldn’t. I’ve read reviewers compare him to Randy Newman, Bruce Springsteen, and Waylon Jennings in the same review. That is a great span of artists.

The song is about escaping the town you are living in. I knew a lot of people who wanted to escape the small town I grew up in. The song reminds me a little of The River by Bruce Springsteen in content. It’s a song that many people will be able to relate to.

The song was from his debut album Guitar Town. I remember he was being played on country radio and WKDF…Nashville’s number-one rock station back in the 80s. The album is ranked 489 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 albums. They called it a rocker’s version of country.

Georgia Satellites – Keep Your Hands To Yourself

A friend of mine who played guitar in high school got a bootleg of this song a year before it was officially released. His band was playing in the gym before we went on and they played this song. I thought they wrote it until I asked him. It’s a great-sounding song live.

It was an instant bar band song classic. It was a song you didn’t really have to rehearse…just one listen would do it. We learned it in one take… and again it was one of only a handful of times that we played a song in the top ten at the time. This is the kind of music I missed in the mainstream during the mid to late eighties.

This was the only big hit for the Georgia Satellites, although lead singer Dan Baird had a hit as a solo artist in 1992 with “I Love You Period.” They didn’t have another big hit but they did have some songs that got airplay on radio and MTV like Battleship Chains and a cover of Hippy Shake. This was one of the few straight-out rock and roll songs to hit the charts at this time.

Dwight Yoakam – Guitars, Cadillacs

Buck Owens made the Bakersville sound popular and it’s one of my favorite types of country. Yoakam and Steve Earle came out at around the same time and they were not like everyone else (George Jones has a funny quote about that at the bottom). They were a breath of fresh air in country music and they crossed over genres as well. They essentially brought the country back to being country and not southern rock pop with a twang.

It was released in 1986 and was the second single off of his debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. This song was written by Dwight Yoakam. Pete Anderson (producer) was a huge help in the making of the album. He provided some ideas music-wise, played the guitar, and even sang background vocals.

George Jones: ‘We spent all these years trying not to be called hillbillies, and Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle fucked it up in one day.’”

…

Buzzin’ Cousins – Sweet Suzanne

While researching a post about Joe Ely I came across this band. What a band it was. This was a one-off supergroup that was formed in the 1990s. I love jangle and this song has it…it’s called Sweet Suzanne and was written by John Mellencamp…he did assemble a supergroup. They all take turns singing lines…

The members included John Mellencamp, Joe Ely, Dwight Yoakam, John Prine, and James McMurtry. Mellencamp said this was his answer to The Travelin’ Wilburys. The band’s one-and-done status was by design, Mellencamp said. I wouldn’t expect an album or anything, It really was a one-shot deal.

In 1992, Mellencamp made his acting and directorial debut in the film Falling From Grace, a drama that cast the Midwestern singer as a country-music star who gets caught up in a Jerry Springer-level family drama during a trip home to Indiana. He needed another song for the soundtrack album.

The band all traveled to Bloomington Indiana to record the song in Mellencamp’s studio. They all stayed in a Best Western and McMurtry said: “Not long after I checked in, there was a knock on my door. I opened the door and there was John Prine and Joe Ely. Prine had a half-empty pint bottle of vodka in his hand and a big grin on his face. I don’t remember what happened after that.”

This song was from the Falling From Grace soundtrack. The song was an outtake from either The Lonesome Jubilee or Big Daddy album. Sweet Suzzane peaked at #68 on the Billboard Country Charts in 1992.

Released as a single to country radio, the song ended up being nominated for the 1992 CMA Award for Vocal Event of the Year. It lost to Marty Stuart and Travis Tritt’s This One’s Gonna Hurt You (For a Long, Long Time).

Sweet Suzanne

Now, Right now,
Look at the place I`m in,
When I think about things that I could have done
It´s impossible for me to pretend.
But I see it now as the lights grow dim
and the world starts to close its eyes.
I just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.
I hear the music playin`
but I no longer understand,
Around the corner, down the street
It’s got to be better than where I am.
I see it all now, as the light grows dim
And the world starts to close its eyes.
I just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.
I just wanted to say goodnight,
Just wanted to see if everything was all right,
Just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.
Time goes by
Oh, so quietly,
Hazy days and memories
And in the end there was only me.
Wouldn`t have been, I ask sometimes,
But I see myself inside this rhyme.
Enjoyed what I had back then,
Would I do it again?
Well, I see it now
As the lights grow dim
I just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.
I just wanted to say goodnight,
I just wanted to see if everything`s all right
Just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.
I just wanted to say goodnight,
I just wanted to see if everything` s all right,
I just wanted to say goodnight,
Sweet Suzanne.

Dwight Yoakam – Guitars, Cadillacs

Buck Owens made the Bakersville sound popular and it’s one of my favorite types of country. My friend deKE mentioned this one on a list and again I’m surprised I haven’t posted it already. Yoakam and Steve Earle came out at around the same time and they were not like everyone else (George Jones has a funny quote about that at the bottom of the page). They were a breath of fresh air in country music and they crossed over genres as well.

It was released in 1986 and was the second single off of his debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. This song was written by Dwight Yoakam. Pete Anderson (producer) was a huge help in the making of the album. He provided some ideas music-wise, played the guitar, and even sang background vocals.

The two of them were surprised that the album had as much success as it did. Country music at the time was geared more toward country-pop and Dwight wrote these honky tonk type songs that weren’t popular at the time.

It originally came out as a six-track EP in 1984 on a small label. Warner Brothers were listening as he made it into a full album and it was released in 1986. The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts, #61 on the Billboard Album Charts. The song Guitars, Cadillacs peaked at #4 on the Billboard Country Charts, and #2 on the Canadian Country Charts in 1986.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked this song as number 94 in their list of the 100 greatest country songs.

Dwight Yoakam:  “We were reinterpreting the Bakersfield ‘shuffle sound’ of Buck Owens and what he was doing with that terse kind of shuffle.”

Pete Anderson: “I was a guitar player for hire in the early ’80s in Los Angeles, and I played mostly country music. I played some blues gigs and kind of roots rock Americana gigs. He needed a guitar player to play a gig, and we played together. He was playing some of his original songs and I got to hear the songs and said..Man, these are really good songs.”

George Jones: ‘We spent all these years trying not to be called hillbillies, and Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle fucked it up in one day.'”

Guitars, Cadillacs

Girl you taught me how to hurt real bad and cry myself to sleep
And showed me how this town can shatter dreams
Another lesson ’bout a naive fool who came to Babylon
And found out that the pie don’t taste so sweet

Now it’s guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yeah, my guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
It’s the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on

Ain’t no glamour in this tinseled land of lost and wasted lives
Painful scars are all that’s left of me
Oh, but thank you girl for teachin’ me brand new ways to be cruel
If I can find my mind now I guess I’ll just leave

And it’s guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yeah, my guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
It’s the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on

Oh it’s guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yeah, my guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
It’s the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on
It’s the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on
It’s the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on

…

Dwight Yoakam – Fast As You

I was playing in some club in 1994 and the other guitar player wanted to try a new song that he and the drummer knew. He said it was easy so we followed him and this was the song. It went over really well and I had never heard it before. We didn’t do that often…to attempt a song that most of us never heard but we kept playing it for the next couple of years.

The song crosses the country line into rock so I was surprised it didn’t rise higher in the Billboard 100.

The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard Country Charts, #5 in the Canadian Charts in 1993…it also peaked at #70 in the Billboard 100.

It was on his great album This Time released in the spring of 1993…it was a big hit, spawning three number two country singles — “Ain’t That Lonely Yet,” “A Thousand Miles from Nowhere,” and “Fast As You.”

Fast As You

Maybe someday I’ll be strong
Maybe it won’t be long
I’ll be the one who’s tough, yeah
You’ll be the one who’s got it rough

It won’t be long
And maybe I’ll be real strong

Maybe I’ll do things right
Maybe I’ll start tonight
You’ll learn to cry like me, girl
Baby, let’s just wait and see

Maybe I’ll start tonight
And do things right

You’ll control me, oh, so boldly
Rule me ’til I’m free
The pain that shakes me finally makes me
Get up off of my knees
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Maybe I’ll be fast as you
Maybe I’ll break hearts too
But I think that you’ll slow down
When your turn to hurt comes around

Maybe I’ll break hearts
And be as fast as you, uh

You’ll control me, oh, so boldly
Rule me ’til I’m free
The pain that shakes me finally makes me
Get up off of my knees

Maybe I’ll be fast as you
Maybe I’ll break hearts too
I think that you’ll slow down
When your turn to hurt comes around

Maybe I’ll break hearts
And be as fast as you
Maybe I’ll break hearts
And be as fast as you

Oh, sookie

Maybe someday I’ll be strong
Maybe it won’t be long
I’ll be the one who’s strong
You’ll be the one who’s got it rough

You’ll be the one who’s got it rough

…

Dwight Yoakam – Ain’t That Lonely Yet

I was forced to listen to country music at work around this time…but this one and other songs off of the album Time I really liked. It crossed over to pop/rock stations also. I always liked bitter breakup songs like this one.

It peaked at #2 in the Hot Country Songs Chart in 1993… It also peaked at #2 on the “US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles” Charts (way too many charts) and #3 on the Canada Country Tracks.

The song was written by James House and Kostas Lazarides.

 

From Songfacts

This tale of a girl trying in vain to win back her ex was written by Greek-born songwriter, Kostas (Patti Loveless’ “I Can Love You Better”) and country artist James House (Martina McBride’s “A Broken Wing”).

House told American Songwriter the story of the song.

“We had already been working on another song idea for a couple of hours but it had gotten stale so we decided to take a break,” he said. “We started talking and Kostas asked me if I was going to get back together with my estranged girlfriend and I said, ‘I ain’t that lonely yet,’ and we looked at each other and said, ‘let’s write that’.”

“I grabbed my guitar and started singing the verse melody and Kostas was furiously writing lyrics,” House continued. “After 10 or 15 minutes he sang the first verse to the melody I was playing. The chorus fell out of him as we were jamming it out. I knew it was a special song when Kostas looked up with a smile and sang the lyric about the spider in my bed. You know you’re onto something when the lyrics are coming as fast as you can write them, I think there were four or five more verses that we didn’t use.”

The song was recorded by Dwight Yoakam and released as the lead-off single to his This Time album. 

“Kostas was writing with Dwight a couple of weeks later and played him the cassette work demo we did,” House recalled. “If I remember right it was recorded fairly soon and released within a couple of months.”

The song earned Yoakam his first Grammy award, which he won for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.

Ain’t That Lonely Yet

You keep calling me on the telephone
You say you’re all alone
Well that’s real sad

And you keep leavin’
Notes stuck on my door
Guess you’re hungry for some more
Girl that’s too bad

‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet
No I ain’t that lonely yet
After what you put me through
I ain’t that lonely yet

Once there was this spider in my bed
I got caught up in her web
Of love and lies

She spun her chains around my heart and soul
Never to let go
Oh but I survived

‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet
No I ain’t that lonely yet
After what you put me through
I ain’t that lonely yet

There’s nothing left that you can do
To try and bring me ’round
‘Cause everything you do
Just brings me down

‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet
No I ain’t that lonely yet
After what you put me through
I ain’t that lonely yet

‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet
No I ain’t that lonely yet
After what you put me through
No I ain’t that lonely yet

‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet
No I ain’t that lonely yet
After what you put me through
No I ain’t that lonely yet
‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet
No I ain’t that lonely yet