Tag: Them

Them – Gloria

Please pardon the personal story…but, you should be used to it by now, by the way I go on.  I hope I haven’t told this story before, but if I have…I apologize. This is just one of the songs we played. 

This song belongs right beside Louie Louie and Wild Thing as a staple of garage band rock. Three chords… E D A, and you are off to the races.  A beginner guitar player can emulate this song rather well. When I was in high school, the band I was in… played this song. We would play more challenging songs, of course, but this one always got a good response and participation from the crowd with the call-and-answer lyrics.

When I was a senior, we played in the “fall frolics” (rock bands, singers) in our high school gym, and I had a couple of friends who were curious/envious and wanted to know how it felt to play in front of people. We had been playing at parties and a bar (shhhh yea we were underage) by this time. What I did was show one of them this song on bass…it’s that easy… and the other one we handed a tambourine and told him to participate in the chorus.

For that one song, we called them up and they got to know how it felt. I ran into one of them a few years back, and he thanked me again. He said it was one of the scariest but best moments he ever had in high school.

Sorry for the detour… This song was by “Them,” which featured no other than Van the Man Morrison (who also wrote the song). It peaked at #93 in the Billboard 100 in 1965 and #71 in 1966.

Morrison wrote this song while fronting Them at the Maritime Hotel in Belfast, often using it as their closer, a song that could stretch to ten minutes or more depending on the crowd and Van’s mood. Recorded at Decca Studios in London, it was originally the B-side to Baby, Please Don’t Go. Ironically, this song would outlive its A-side by miles, becoming a rock ’n’ roll rite of passage for any band that could play an A, D, and E chord. Well…their version of Baby, Please Don’t Go is my definite version of the song.  

The song charted higher for The Shadows of Knight in 1966 at #10 on the Billboard 100, but this is the version I listen to. Finding Them at 18 led me to Van Morrison, which I have followed ever since. The first thing I did was order an album from the UK, which I still have with many of their hits. 

At this stage in their career, sometimes, some session musicians played on Them’s records instead of the actual band, although Van Morrison did the real singing. One of these session players was Jimmy Page, who played guitar on this song.

In the video below…is that a donkey they flash to? 

Gloria

Like to tell you ’bout my baby
You know she comes around
Just ’bout five feet-four
A-from her head to the ground
You know she comes around here
At just about midnight
She make me feel so good, Lord
She make me feel all right

And her name is G-L-O-R-I
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
I’m gonna shout it all night
Gloria!
I’m gonna shout it every day
Gloria!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

She comes around here
Just about midnight
She make me feel so good, Lord
I want to say she make me feel all right
Comes a-walkin’ down my street
Then she comes up to my house
She knock upon my door
And then she comes to my room
Yeah, and she make me feel all right

G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
G-L-O-R-I-A
Gloria!
I’m gonna shout it all night
Gloria!
I’m gonna shout it every day
Gloria!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
So good
Gloria!
All right
Feels so good
Gloria!
All right, yeah

Van Morrison – Tupelo Honey Album

I don’t do many album reviews because frankly…I think other people do them better but sometimes I cannot resist…and this is one of them.

When I was 18 or so, I ordered exports from Tower Records because you could not just go to many record stores in America and buy a Them album in the eighties.

I bought the “Backtracking” album which was a compilation of Them. His voice blew me away. That is when I looked in the Van Morrison section for the albums I could buy there. The first album I bought…just by chance…was Tupelo Honey.  Compared to the raw intense Them songs…this was a totally different ballgame. The songs’ production values and sophistication were in a new league.

Van Morrison - Tuepelo Honey 2

Personally, I really like this album. I thought it was a great introduction to his catalog.  Is it his best? No, it’s not, but for a beginner Van fan, it was a great introduction album. The songs on Tupelo Honey are very radio-friendly. After this album I bought Moondance, His Band and Street Choir, Veendon Fleece, etc…the 8 albums up to Wavelength. After that, I started on the 80’s catalog.

He made this album in 1971 when he moved to Northern California with his wife Janet Planet who was from that area. He originally wanted to make a country album. Soon that idea was dropped and he worked with Ted Templeton as producer. He used a lot of unused songs that he had.

The opening track Wild Night has an irresistible hook and is one of Van’s best-known songs. The title track may be my favorite Van Morrison song period. The only song that I would skip when I got the album, and still do, is I Wanna Roo You. In Moonshine Whiskey and some other songs, you can hear some of the country album he was going to make.

Another favorite on the album is Old Old Woodstock and he puts you there with his lyrics and the feel of the song. You’re My Woman was a song for Janet Planet and I’ve always liked that one.

The album peaked at #27 on the Billboard Album Charts and #32 in Canada in  1971.

Again, this is not Van’s best album but it got me into his solo career. It’s a great-sounding album and one of Van’s most commercial. I would highly recommend this to anyone wanting to explore Van the Man’s catalog.

Tracklist

Wild Night
(Straight to Your Heart) Like a Cannonball
Old Old Woodstock
Starting a New Life
You’re My Woman
Tupelo Honey
I Wanna Roo You (Scottish Derivative)
When That Evening Sun Goes Down
Moonshine Whiskey

I could not find the complete album on Spotify so I found it all grouped together on YouTube with this link…

Tupelo Honey

You can take all the tea in China
Put it in a big brown bag for me
Sail right around the seven oceans
Drop it straight into the deep blue sea
She’s as sweet as tupelo honey
She’s an angel of the first degree
She’s as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee

You can’t stop us on the road to freedom
You can’t keep us ’cause our eyes can see
Men with insight, men in granite
Knights in armor bent on chivalry
She’s as sweet as tupelo honey
She’s an angel of the first degree
She’s as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee

You can’t stop us on the road to freedom
You can’t stop us ’cause our eyes can see
Men with insight, men in granite
Knights in armor intent on chivalry
She’s as sweet as tupelo honey
She’s an angel of the first degree
She’s as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee

You know she’s alright
You know she’s alright with me
She’s alright, she’s alright (she’s an angel)

You can take all the tea in China
Put it in a big brown bag for me
Sail it right around the seven oceans
Drop it smack dab in the middle of the deep blue sea
Because she’s as sweet as tupelo honey
She’s an angel of the first degree
She’s as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee

She’s as sweet as tupelo honey
She’s an angel of the first degree
She’s as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like the honey, baby, from the bee
She’s my baby, you know she’s alright…..

Them – Richard Cory

Them Backtracking

When I bought the album “Backtracking” in the mid-1980s…I was in Van Morrison heaven. This was the only Van Morrison era I knew at the time. The first time I heard Brown Eyed Girl was in 1985. I fell in love with that song so just like I do now…I wanted to find out everything about this man. The first thing I did was to go to Tower Records. I looked it up with a magazine there and they ordered it…Tower did not have a huge stock of Them albums, to say the least.

I wore this album out and I still have it. It was the best $10 I ever spent. This was the intro song to the album. I noticed that Paul Simon wrote this one. After devouring this and another Them album I made the jump to Van’s solo career. I’m happy I did it in order. The album had songs that caught my attention. Baby Please Don’t Go, Richard Cory, Don’t Start Crying Now, and most of all…Mighty Like a Rose which was never released but on this 1974 compilation album. That song would not have passed by the censors…if you haven’t heard it give it a listen. A song about a nympha and her sugar cubes.

Richard Cory is a folk-based song but Morrison supercharges it with his voice. Simon wrote some standards but he could have never done this like Them did. The song was based on a poem called Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson. It’s about a lonely rich man who everyone thought was happy because of his money but they were too intimidated to come around him.

Them released this as a stand-alone single in 1966. It didn’t chart but the band was pretty much over… at least Van’s participation. The following year Van would release Brown Eyed Girl and begin his solo career with Bert Berns and Bang Records.

Them’s influence on garage, punk, and rock bands was immense.

Richard Cory

They say that Richard Cory
Owns one-half of this here town
With political connections
Spread his wealth around

Born into society, a banker’s only child
He had everything a man could want
Power, grace and style

But I, work in his factory
And I curse the life I’m livin’
And I curse my poverty
That I wish that I could be
Yeah, I wish that I could be
Lord, I wish that I could be, Richard Cory

Paper’s print his pictures
Almost everywhere he go
Richard Cory at the opera
Richard Cory at the show

And the rumours of his a-parties
And the orgies on his yacht
Well, he surely must be happy
With everythang that he has got

But I, work in his factory
And I curse the life I’m livin’
And I curse my poverty
And I wish that I could be
I wish that I could be, yea-ah
I wish that I could be, Richard Cory

He freely gave to charity
And had that common touch
They were grateful for his patronage
And thanked him very much

So my mind was filled with wonder
When the evenin’ headlines read
That Richard Cory went home last night
And put a bullet through his head, hu

But I, I, I, work in his factory
And I, I don’t don’t dig the life I’m livin’
And I don’t dig my poverty
And I wish that I could be
Yeah, an’ I wish that I could be
Well, wish that I could be, Richard Cory

Ay-hey, I wish that I could be
I wish that I could be
Sometime, I wish that I could be
A-just like a-Richard Cory
Just li-iiiiiiike, a-Richard Cory
A-Richard Cory

A-Richard Cory
Just like Richard Cory…

Them – Here Comes The Night

Van The Man Morrison sounds great on this one.  This song was written by Bert Berns and was released as a single in 1965 with “All For Myself” as the B-side. He sings this with a pop voice at the beginning of the skipping beat and then comes in with that edgy voice only he can give you.

It was the biggest hit for Them. Bert would later sign Van Morrison to a solo contract with Bang Records. Here Comes The Night was their biggest hit. Gloria is probably the most famous song they did but they had many more. I discovered them when I was 18 and I had to import an album from the UK to get an album. It’s not like it is now…you had to work for it. Their other songs include Mystic Eyes, Baby Please Don’t Go, and others.

Here Comes The Night peaked at #24 on the Billboard 100, #2 in the UK, and #8 in Canada in 1965. The song was originally released by LuLu in 1964 but only charted at #50 in the UK and didn’t chart in America.

In the 1980s unlike today I had to order a UK import album to get this song. Van went on to bigger and better things but Them produced some memorable songs. They are criminally overlooked. They had an edge and bite…up there with the Stones and Animals. Van’s voice on this one is spot on.

Bert Berns (born Bert Russell) knew how to write a hit. Berns was a talented songwriter and producer who died at age 38 of a fatal heart attack in 1967. Among his writing credits are Twist And Shout, Hang On Sloopy, Piece Of My Heart, and Tell Him. His production credits include Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl and Under The Boardwalk by The Drifters.

Here Comes the Night

Whoa, here it comes
Here comes the night
Here comes the night
Whoa whoa whoa yeah

I could see right out my window
Walkin’ down the street, my girl
With another guy

His arm around her
Like it used to be with me
Whoa, it makes me want to die
Yeah yeah yeah

Well, here it comes
Here comes the night
Here comes the night
Whoa whoa whoa whoa yeah

There they go
It’s funny how they look so good together
Wonder what is wrong with me
Why can’t I, accept the fact she’s chosen him
And simply let them be
Whoa whoa whoa

Well, here it comes
Here comes the night
Here comes the night
Whoa whoa whoa yeah

She’s with him he’s turning down the lights
And now he’s holding her
The way I used to do

I could see, her closing her eyes
And tellin’ him lies
Exactly like she told me, too
Yeah yeah yeah

Well, here it comes
Here comes the night
The long, the long and lonely night
Night, night, night, night, night, night

Whoa, here comes the night

Them – Mystic Eyes

Van is the man….he made some absolutely classic songs when he started out with Them. Gloria is probably the most famous song they did but they had many more. I discovered them when I was 18 and I had to import an album from the UK to get an album. It’s not like it is now…you had to work for it. It’s pure music with a relentless backbeat.

This powerful song builds up and lead singer Van Morrison takes over. Van’s voice and the bass are hypnotic. It was the first song on the first album by Them…named Angry Young Them released in 1965. It was written by Van Morrison who would in the future use the word Mystic in a few more songs.

The song peaked at #33 on the Billboard 100 and #24 in Canada but didn’t chart in the  UK. I  mentioned earlier that Gloria is their most popular song but the hit version was by Shadows Of Night in 1965. It was a B side with Them to the great song Baby Please Don’t Go.

Van has said the band was improvising in the studio and the song was born.

Van Morrison said the song was inspired by his own experience walking around England’s Nottingham Park when he saw some kids playing by a graveyard. Morrison was struck by the powerful intersection between the “bright lights in the children’s eyes” and “the cloudy lights in the eyes of the dead.”

Mystic Eyes

One Sunday mornin’
A-we went walkin’
Down by, the old graveyard
The mornin’ fog
I looked into
A-yeah, those mystic eyes

Her mystic eyes
Mystic eyes
Mystic eyes
Mystic, eyes
Mystic eyes
Mystic eyes
Oh, the mystic eyes
Mystic Eyes

Them – Mighty Like A Rose

Ya’ know, their turnin’ on
in the classroom
ain’t the point.
It’s when you’re missin’ out
teacher teach ya’ how to
roll a joint.

I’ve pulled the album out and I’ll type the liner notes on this song… Mighty Like A Rose:

“Remember Brown Eyed Girl? (It’s not here) Well it’s father, Mighty Like a Rose is one elegant slice of raunch and it’s here in spades. It’s a simmering summer song about a nympha and her sugar cubes. “

This song was not a B side… it was never released when the band was together. I first heard it when I bought an old import album called Them Featuring Van Morrison ‎– Backtrackin’ that was released in 1974. I found it in a cutout bin in the mid 80s.

It has the sound of Brown Eyed Girl. Van Morrison has said that this was just a demo…not a finished song but it sounds really good. It does predate Brown Eyed Girl…after he left Them he recorded for Bert Burns and released Brown Eyed Girl.

Them was a very good sixties band. Some of their songs were Stones like…in many cases a little tougher and raunchier…and I mean that in a good way. Mighty Like A Rose is one of my favorite Them songs.

I doubt the song would have passed the censors back then…it probably would have been blacklisted immediately.

Mighty Like A Rose

You have drowned
a thousand sorrows
all in one,
and mixed with mugs, (?)
and millionaires
you have done.
Ya’ been and gone and done it
for a quid,
and just what you don’t know,
up there you got hid.

Lord, you’re only
fourteen summers
and God knows,
yeah, child,
you’re gettin’ mighty
like a rose.

You got pulled (?)
for tryin’ to straighten
up this town,
and looked bashful
bribin’ old, bent
Barrister Brown.

Ya’ know, their turnin’ on
in the classroom
ain’t the point.
It’s when you’re missin’ out
teacher teach ya’ how to
roll a joint.

Lord, hey,
while you’re down there
lookin’ up my nose,
yeah,
child you’re gettin’ mighty
like a rose.

Next time they try to fire me,
ya’ make the scene.
You’re gettin’ sugar cubes
for breakfast.
Ya’ know what I mean.

And the, the hazard old, (?)
the wind blows
through you’ ears.
Ya’ haven’t got enough
of those
what ya’
haven’t got for years.

Yeah, but never mind
steppin’ on my toes.
Yeah, child,
you’re gettin’ mighty
like a rose.

Yeah, hey, hey,
you’re mighty like a rose.
Uh-huh, aww, aww, aww, aww, aww, aww,
mmm-mm, mmm-mm, mmm-mm, mmm-mm…

Them – Baby Please Don’t Go

There are many versions of this old blues song but the one I know the best is Them featuring a 19-year-old Van Morrison on lead vocal. This song was the A-side to Gloria when it was released. Gloria ended up being the hit but this one managed to peak at #10 in 1961 and #65 in the UK in 1991.

Morrison based Them’s version on John Lee Hooker’s 1949 arrangement, which he titled “Don’t Go Baby.” He heard the song on Hooker’s 1959 Highway of Blues album.

A pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page, a session musician at the time, played guitar on Them’s version. There’s debate over whether or not he wrote the guitar part or simply played what Them’s Billy Harrison came up with. Whether or not Page is actually the one playing is, itself, debated.

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 being sung by black prisoners working at Darrington State Prison Farm in Texas. It was a popular tune there because “Long John” was about an escaped prisoner on the run from authorities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6RNptsBorM

Baby, Please Don’t Go

Baby, please don’t go
Baby, please don’t go
Baby, please don’t go
Down to New Orleans
You know I love you so
Baby, please don’t go

Baby, your mind done gone
Well, your mind done gone
Left the county farm
You had the shackles on
Baby, please don’t go

Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
To git you way down here
I make you walk alone
Baby, please don’t go
Hey

Baby, please don’t go
Baby, please don’t go
Baby, please don’t go
Down to New Orleans
You know I love you so
Baby, please don’t go

Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Git you way down here
Make you walk alone
Baby, please don’t go

Know how I feel right now
My baby leavin’, on that midnight train
And I’m cryin’

Baby, please don’t go
Oh, baby please don’t go
Baby, please don’t go
Down to New Orleans
You know I love you so
Baby, please don’t go
Let’s go

Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
To git you way down here
I make you walk alone
Baby, please don’t go, yeah

Alright

New Musical Express Winners 1965 Concert

I have the video of this show. First, the lineup to this event included

  • The Moody Blues
  • Freddie and the Dreamers
  • Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames
  • The Seekers
  • Herman’s Hermits
  • The Ivy League
  • Sounds Incorporated
  • Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders
  • The Rolling Stones
  • Cilla Black
  • Donovan
  • Them
  • The Searchers
  • Dusty Springfield
  • The Animals
  • The Beatles
  • The Kinks

Think about the talent on that stage. To see the Stones, Animals, Van Morrison with Them, The Kinks and The Beatles all in the same day on the same stage. This would be a dream concert. Jimmy Saville hosted the event. It’s hard to watch the guy knowing what we know now about him.

It’s great to see The Rolling Stones with Brian Jones but you can tell the Beatles were THE Band of the day and were clearly the most anticipated.

You see a young Van Morrison fluff a line in “Here Comes The Night” but his voice comes through loud and clear. It’s a wonder you have a sound at all. In between songs you see roadies roll out amps and drums for the next band. They did quite well and it was never a long break between bands.

The sound quality is not the greatest but it’s good enough to watch considering the hectic way they had everyone perform.

The next year the Who, Rolling Stones, and the Beatles would play but The Beatles and Stones would not let their segments be recorded.

As far as I know, there is not an official release of this video…You can watch it on Youtube or order a bootleg DVD on various sites.

Van Morrison

Van the man is supposedly a difficult man to know but man can he sing and write… He started out with a group called Them in Belfast Ireland. They were very underrated and made some great music in the mid 60s. Gloria, Mystic Eyes, Baby Please Don’t Go, Here Comes The Night, Don’t Look Back and my favorite that is hard to find…”Mighty Like A Rose”…

He quit Them and signed with Bert Bern’s Bang records and wrote Brown Eyed Girl which sounds fresh no matter how many times i hear it. After the death of Berns he started on his great albums. Astral Weeks, Moondance, His Band and The Street Choir, Tupelo Honey, Saint Dominic’s Preview, Hard Nose the Highway and the list continues on.

My favorites are Moondance and Tupelo Honey. These albums are consistently great. I also love the title track to Saint Dominic’s Preview…it’s an epic song that I can listen to over and over with the imagery never getting old. I would suggest to anyone to get the early to mid seventies albums (but his other albums are great also) and listen to all the songs….not just the radio friendly ones. The radio songs are great… Moondance, Crazy Love, Tupelo Honey, Blue Money, Domino, Blue Money, Caravan, Wild Night but there is so much more.

Van’s voice and phrasing is like no other. I saw him live finally in 2006 and his voice was even better than I thought. If I could sing like anyone…I would pick Van.

For a person who wants to listen to Van for the first time… I would recommend the Tupelo Honey and Moondance albums to start off with…. Rock, country, folk, pop and some jazz for good measure…all mixed together in terrific songs… for his early work with Them get The Story of Them Featuring Van Morrison.