Wishing a very happy 43rd birthday to a talented artist who hails from Waterloo, Iowa – Emily West. When I worked in radio, we got to meet a lot of new artists when they did radio tours across the country. I had the pleasure of meeting Emily back in 2008 when she was signed to Capitol Records. I remember her really being something special.
We had her come in and play for our staff in the conference room at the radio station. She was very personable and had a contagious laugh. It was a joy to get to know her before she began to sing for us. I remember her doing 4 or 5 songs for us and two of them really struck a chord with me.
The first was her debut single “Rocks in Your Shoes.” It was a song that I could totally relate to. Life can be very difficult, and sometimes you gotta walk through life with the rocks in your shoes. It was just her and a guitar player in the conference room. When she began to sing, I fell in love with her voice. It was powerful and pure. The song was uptempo and I thought it should have been a hit (it reached number 39 on the charts).
The second song was called Blue Sky. It was a gut wrenching song of heartache that she sang with such emotion that it nearly brought me to tears. And that was just with her and her guitar player! The fully produced version was hauntingly beautiful. It was remixed as a duet with her labelmate, Keith Urban and released in 2010. Roughstock gave the song 4½ stars out of 5, stating that “‘Blue Sky’ is already a contender for one of 2010’s best singles.” Sadly (and to me, unbelievably), it only reached number 38 on the charts.
When we had to pick a new act to perform at a local women’s expo, we all unanimously picked Emily as our top pick. She made that big of an impact on us and we all loved her! When we found out she was available, it made us even more excited. Naturally, she was just wonderful and many listeners told us how much they enjoyed her.
Perhaps you have seen her on television? She also won $25,000 on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader in 2009. Emily appeared in a 2010, episode of Celebrity Apprentice as the “music make-over” target for the women’s team led by Cyndi Lauper. Lauper won the challenge and as a result West donated 100% of the first month of iTunes sales of her song “Blue Sky” to the Stonewall Community Foundation, Lauper’s charity. Then, in 2012, she did a guest appearance on the crime drama Body of Proof. But it was in 2014 that TV viewers came to know her and love her when competed on America’s Got Talent during their 9th season.
I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I was that she was only the runner up that year. She was amazing in every performance she did. Her talent was on display for all of America to see and she knocked it out of the park every time! Her version of Sia’s Chandelier was talked about for weeks after it aired. It was stellar. I am sure that I wasn’t the only one who thought that there was no way that she should have lost to a magician!
Here is Emily West with Keith Urban singing harmonies on Blue Sky.
Wow. Just Wow!
Just because, here is her debut single, Rocks in Your Shoes
Happy Birthday, Emily West!!! I’m proud to be a “Westie!”
In honor of Kevin Bacon’s 66th birthday, we dip into the title track from the soundtrack of Footloose. It is interesting to note that Dean Pitchford wrote all the lyrics for all the songs found on the soundtrack (with various co-writers), and wrote the screenplay for the film.
The title song is one of two that Kenny Loggins has on the soundtrack. He has great success with I’m Alright from Caddyshack and the studio was big on having him on the soundtrack. It almost didn’t happen, though.
From songfacts.com:
Getting Loggins for the title track was huge for Pitchford, who had never written a screenplay before and was trying to sell a movie based around nine songs – not a popular concept at the time. Losing Loggins could have derailed the entire project, and when Kenny broke a rib from a fall he took at a show in Provo, Footloose almost met its doom. Loggins had to take time off to recover, and the only chance for Dean to write with him was during his engagement at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, where he was performing before heading to Asia.
Pitchford says, “each day he would come to my room with a guitar and he was still taped up, with gauze and tape around his midriff while his rib was healing. He would show up with a guitar and he would ease himself into a chair, and it was obvious that sitting down was painful – if he was standing he was fine.
The movie was, of course, a big hit and so was the soundtrack and the title song! The soundtrack spent 10 weeks at #1, knocking Michael Jackson’s Thriller album out of the top spot in the US. It was a number one song for Kenny Loggins for three weeks and was his biggest hit.
One last story from the birthday boy. Kevin Bacon revealed to Conan O’Brien that he bribes DJ’s at weddings with cash so they won’t play the song. “I go to the disc jockey and hand him $20 and say, ‘Please don’t play that song,'” he told the talk show host. “Because, first off, a wedding is really not about me. It’s about the bride and groom.”
My latest read wasn’t a mystery, believe it or not. While that tends to be my most read genre, this historical fiction novel came up as a recommendation on Goodreads and it was really just a good story.
The Air Raid Book Club is the first book I’ve read by author Annie Lyons. Unlike many of the World War II stories I have read, this one takes place in London.
Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
London, 1938: The bookstore just doesn’t feel the same to Gertie Bingham ever since the death of her beloved husband Harry. Bingham Books was a dream they shared together, and without Harry, Gertie wonders if it’s time to take her faithful old lab, Hemingway, and retire to the seaside. But fate has other plans for Gertie.
In Germany, Hitler is on the rise, and Jewish families are making the heart-wrenching decision to send their children away from the growing turmoil. After a nudge from her dear friend Charles, Gertie decides to take in one of these refugees, a headstrong teenage girl named Hedy. Willful and fearless, Hedy reminds Gertie of herself at the same age, and shows her that she can’t give up just yet. With the terrible threat of war on the horizon, the world needs people like Gertie Bingham and her bookshop.
When the Blitz begins and bombs whistle overhead, Gertie and Hedy come up with the idea to start an air raid book club. Together with neighbors and bookstore customers, they hold lively discussions of everything from Winnie the Pooh to Wuthering Heights. After all, a good book can do wonders to bolster people’s spirits, even in the most trying times. But even the best book can only provide a temporary escape, and as the tragic reality of the war hits home, the book club faces unimaginable losses. They will need all the strength of their stories and the bonds they’ve formed to see them through to brighter days.
This was one of those stories that I could see as a movie. It was a nice change for the book to be set in England and see how they prepared for war and still have the German/Jewish elements involved with driving the story along.
I will certainly check out other Annie Lyons books in the future, as I found this to be a nice read.
The Fourth didn’t quite turn out the way we had planned, but it was fun just the same. Our original plans? Stay home and relax. The plans changed in the blink of an eye, of course.
My niece called and asked if she could spend the night on the 3rd. My father-in-law and mother-in-law decided to wait to go up north so they would miss the traffic and asked to come by on the fourth, which through the grapevine led almost everyone else coming over, too!
We took the kids and our niece to one of the local Fourth of July parades. It was hotter than we expected and forgot water, of course. Thankfully, the cloud cover cooled us every so often.
Before the parade, the kids saw these horses awaiting to line up. The officers were kind enough to let them pet the horses. When one neighed loudly, they were thrilled.
As a marching band geek, I am always looking for the band. As they approached, I heard them playing the Notre Dame fight song. I will forever associate that song with the movie Airplane!
When they were almost in front of us, I heard the drum major whistle for a “roll off” and the band played This is My Country. It was fun to hear that, as it was one we played in parades when I was in band.
The band wasn’t large by any means, but it sounded great. One thing I’ve noticed as of late is that more and more bands are marching in T-shirts instead of full uniform. We never had that luxury!
The parade features lots of tractors, a jeep club, the local VFW, Moose Lodge, political people, and my favorite entry…
The Rockin’ Marching Grannies! They followed a jeep, which had a small mobile DJ in the back. As the marched behind it, they did a marching dance routine to songs. When they walked by us, they DJ was playing Ice, Ice, Baby!
Oh yeah, then there was the guy in knee-high black socks….
Ella, loved when the Blueberry Queen drove by. “Daddy! I can’t believe I saw a real queen!!!”
Every Fourth of July, we’ve given the kids a flag and they walk around with them. I’ve been able to snap pictures of them in almost the same spot every year. It’s amazing to see how much they change in a year.
The one thing we didn’t get, which we have done every year is a family selfie. By the time we thought about it, family had already started arriving.
My in-laws brought hot dogs for the grill and we had dinner and conversation before the festivities began. We also had our first bonfire of the year.
Our backyard bumps up against where they do the fireworks every year, so it’s always great to pull up a chair and watch. They had plenty of new stuff this year. My phone didn’t catch many great pictures of them this year, but I did get a couple worth sharing.
After everyone left, Sam, the kids and I went inside and promptly fell asleep. It was a nice birthday celebration.
This week’s Friday Photo Flashback is brought about by my wife. The kids both have bikes with training wheels on them. We’ve had them outside a few times on them and Andrew seems to get how to pedal, but Ella needs a bit of help.
My wife is what I would call a “Tik Tok-er.” Between that and Pinterest, she always seems to be coming up with creative things for the kids and projects for me. She video called me this week and said, “The kids want to show you something.” She turned the phone around and there were my two kids on their bikes – in out living room!
The bike’s training wheels were each lodged inside a tennis shoe. This does two things 1) the bike doesn’t move and 2) it raises the back tire up a bit so it spins while they pedal. Brilliance! They will be pedaling in no time outside!!
It made me think to when I first learned how to ride a bike. I remember being terrified when my dad took off the training wheels! Today’s photo shows a very proud Keith on his first ride without falling!
This historic event took place at the first home I lived in. Isn’t it amazing that I can remember the entire address and phone number from this house and have trouble remembering where I left my wallet on most days!?
At the time our house was the last one on the block. There was a field next to our house. There was a pond that we’d catch tadpoles at in the summer, and play on the ice in the winter. They have since built a bunch of homes where the field was. about 10-15 years ago, I DJ’d a wedding out that way and had to take a drive by the old house. I was really surprised at how much had changed.
I know that I am riding toward our driveway in the picture. I probably fell off that bike countless times and fell on our neighbor’s lawn while trying to figure out how to balance. I don’t remember much about the bike except that it was black and had big fenders over the tires. I also notice from this photo that it would seem to be a girl’s bike – URGH!
My folks must have known I would fall and scrape my knees, so they picked an extremely ugly pair of plaid pants for me to wear for the occasion. Brown shoes, plaid pants and a mustard colored shirt – I am a style ICON here, huh? It appears that I am either holding something in my left hand OR that just might be that Rrraw Power thing that made the motorcycle noise. I honestly don’t remember. I think it would be weird for me to try to ride my bike for the first time while holding onto something, though.
I don’t really remember much from the neighborhood, but I remember that big white rock at the corner across the street from me. I want to say that the owner used to edge his lawn with a really wide edger. My bike tire got caught in it once and I fell against that rock. FYI for all the adults reading – kids on bikes HATE lawns that are edged!!
It’s kind of fun to see that old blue and white Suburban in that driveway. I wish I had more pictures of the many old cars my folks drove. One thing you can barely notice (and this is where I wish old photos were clearer) is what looks like a Big Wheel on the sidewalk between the parent on the sidewalk on the kid on the bike in the street. I could be dead wrong, but it sure looks like those 1970’s yellow Big Wheel handlebars to me.
We moved from this house in the winter of 1976. I truly wish I had more pictures of the outside and inside of that house. I’ve often thought about going to the house and explaining that I used to live there and asking to have a look around. In today’s society, I highly doubt anyone would let that happen!
That book was good enough that I wanted to read more by him. I knew him as a singer, but not as a novelist. I came across a book entitled Swing. As someone who loves a good mystery and big band music, I decided to check this out. I listened to the audio book.
The book had a Film Noir feel to it and it did have a few twists that threw me for a loop. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:
“Swing just might be the best historical thriller of the year. Certainly it is the most creative.” –Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In the swinging big band era, jazz saxophonist and arranger Ray Sherwood is haunted by personal tragedy. But when Gail Prentice, a beautiful and talented Berkeley student, seeks his help in orchestrating an original composition slated to debut at the newly created Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, Ray is diverted from his worries and drawn to the beguiling coed. Within moments of their first meeting, however, Ray witnesses a horrifying sight: a woman plunging to her death from the island’s emblematic Tower of the Sun.
Ray soon finds himself trapped in a coil of spiraling secrets in which nothing is certain, including Gail’s intentions toward him and her connection to the dead woman. And as events speed toward the shocking climax, Ray must unlock an ominous puzzle with sinister implications that stretch far beyond anything he could imagine.
As a musician, there were some neat musical things in the book that I liked. Many musical terms, which Rupert defines for you, fit into the story as well. Do you have to be a musician to like this one? Not really, but I really connected to it a bit more.
One interesting thing about the audio book was that on occasion, Ray, the main character might talk about a piece of music he arranged as it begins to play in the background. Sometimes, he talks about singing a song on stage and the song plays before the story picks back up. There is a piano piece that Ray discovers and he describes it and then it plays for you. It was certainly a bit different and unexpected, but it enhanced the story a bit. If you don’t like swing music, you may not care for those bits.
The story had a few spots where it felt like it dragged a bit, but overall, I liked the book. I didn’t know it was set in the WWII era, but it makes sense with that big band music theme. It seems like I have a lot of WWII books on my list, and as of yet, they are not boring me.
As a side note, Rupert Holmes is working on a second story in the “Murder Your ____” series. Murder Your Mate is due out later this year.
Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year. May 15, 1977, I turned a whopping 7 years old. I have some really great memories of 1977 and I think you’ll get to read about them and how they tie into some of these songs.
I love stories where a radio DJ plays a significant role in the creation of a song. Released in January of ’77, I’m Your Boogie Man is one of those songs.
Written by KC & The Sunshine Band bassist-producer Richard Finch and frontman Harry Wayne Casey, The “boogie” of the title is in the sense of dancing, shaking your booty, and getting down, not with the scary kind of “boogie man.” Harry Wayne Casey tells the story:
“‘I’m Your Boogie Man,’ in the initial writing of it I called it ‘I’ll Be A Son Of A Gun’:
I’ll be a son of a gun Look what you’ve done
Then I went back and ‘I’m Your Boogie Man’ came into my head because I was thinking about how disc jockeys were always there on the radio. Like it says:
Early morning Late afternoon Or at midnight It’s never too soon I’m your Boogie Man
It’s taking the theme of the disc jockey being the one that’s there for you all the time, no matter when. So it was as if I was a disc jockey, I’m the Boogie Man. Like if you call in and want to hear a certain song, or talk about what was going on in your life, I’m your Boogie Man. And of course I put in ‘turn me on,’ but that could also mean turned on the radio.”
A specific DJ who influenced this song was Robert W. Walker at Y-100 in Miami, Florida, who was the first to give the group’s hit single “Get Down Tonight” airplay. So Walker “was the Boogie Man that brought all the funk and the good feeling and the vibes to the people every morning,” according to Richard Finch.
I’m Your Boogie Man
Bob Seger had a couple big songs in 1977. Mainstreet was released in April of that year, while an anthem was released in June – Rock and Roll Never Forgets.
According to Seger, he wrote this song after attending a high school reunion. “I wanted to just write an honest appraisal of where I was at that moment in time,” he said. “I was 31 years old and I was damn glad to be here.” He goes on, “A song like “Rock ‘n’ Roll Never Forgets” is just slammin’. When we play that song live people go nuts. At that point in my life I was 31 years old. And the first 10 or 11 years in my career I was making six, eight grand a year and just doin’ it because I loved the music. So I’m writing for Night Moves and I just felt grateful; here I am and I’m starting to make it. You know, rock ’n’ roll never forgets. You build up goodwill over 10 years and you set the stage. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Never Forgets” is a grateful song. I’m grateful to all the people I played for in those small clubs, on the top of cafeteria tables, in gymnasiums and in hockey rinks. Suddenly all those people came out and bought my records and said: “I remember him. I saw him at the high school or hockey rink.”
The song is about aging and the ongoing power of rock music. The song advises the 31 year old listener to return to the rock ‘n’ roll she loved when he/she was 16. The line, “All Chuck’s children are out there playing his licks” is a reference (and tribute) to Chuck Berry, the rock pioneer whose sound is in the DNA of many musicians how followed.
Rock and Roll Never Forgets
The very last single that Elvis ever released before his death was Way Down in June of 1977. It was recorded in the famous Jungle Room at Graceland. It was also a song that had a very interesting chart performance. The song peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart at the beginning of August, fell to number 52 by the end of August, and after his death, it climbed back up to number 18 before falling again.
Way Down
In July of 1977, Foreigner released Cold As Ice. It was one of the many songs I remember buying on 45 and spinning on my little record player. It was written by Lou Gramm and Mick Jones.
According to Wiki, “Cold as Ice” was a replacement for a song that was intended for Foreigner but which producer Gary Lyons didn’t feel fit the album. According to Mick Jones “I went home after Gary said this, sat down at my piano and out came the riff for Cold As Ice. And the rest of the song flowed from there.” Lyons said that “When I got back, they played me Cold As Ice and it worked for me. So we went into Atlantic Studios one night to cut it.” According to Ian McDonald, “Gary and I were in there all night working on the vocals. And when we got out of the studio we discovered that a blizzard had been raging. Everywhere was covered in snow, and we heard on the radio that it had been coldest night in New York on record! Somehow that seemed to be a good omen for the song.”
Cold As Ice
One of the biggest movies of 1977 was Star Wars. It comes as no surprise to me that the main title theme was a Top 10 hit!
What can you say about composer John Williams? He conducted this score with the London Symphony Orchestra, but his main orchestra was the Boston Pops Orchestra, with which he conducted other famous film themes. This theme won him a simultaneous Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA, Saturn, and Grammy award. THAT is amazing!!
Star Wars Main Title
The next song was released in August of 1977 and people STILL dance to it today! Brick House epitomizes the funky side of the Commodores, who could switch between uptempo R&B and easy listening by swapping singers. “Brick House” was sung by their drummer Walter Orange, with Lionel Richie on saxophone.
In a way, the Commodores recorded it as a “radio edit.” This disco classic is about a woman with a great body. She is “Built like a Brick House.” Lionel Richie says that this is a play on the original phrase, “She’s built like a brick s–thouse.” That’s the reason for the pause with the horn fill between the words “brick” and “house.”
Brick House
A few songs ago, I mentioned the last single Elvis released before his death. For those who have been following this blog a while, you know where I was the night Elvis died. My family was at a drive-in movie theater waiting for the sun to go down when the radio broke the news that he had passed away. The movie we were there to see? Smokey and the Bandit.
The song’s lyrics tell the basic plot of the movie (leaving out the runaway bride element) of making a 28-hour round-trip run from Atlanta, Georgia, to Texarkana, Texas and back to illegally transport 400 cases of Coors beer for an after-race celebration put on by Big and Little Enos.
Back when Max from the PowerPop Blog was hosting a song draft, East Bound and Down was my pick. Here is that blog if you would like to read it:
In October of 1977, Johnny Paycheck released a David Allen Coe song that expressed what many a worker felt about their employer/employment. Take This Job and Shove It was a number one country hit for Paycheck and the phrase took on a life of its own in pop culture.
This was one of the songs that was on Paycheck’s Greatest Hits Volume 2 that my grandfather and dad always played up north.
Take This Job and Shove It
The next song makes the list because I became familiar with it not by Billy Joel, but by the wedding band my dad played in. I can’t tell you how many times my brother and I sat and watched TV while the band practiced new songs. Just The Way You Are was one of them.
According to Joel, some listeners missed the point and thought the song was misogynistic because he was telling a woman she wasn’t “allowed” to change. “No, no, no. Don’t go changing to try and please me,” he told SiriusXM in 2016. “People forget these things. If they don’t like what I do, they’ll go, ‘Oh yeah, he hates women. Look at this. Don’t change, stay the way you are, the same old someone that he knew. Wow, he really doesn’t like her. ‘Don’t change for me. You wanna change for yourself, fine. But you don’t have to change for me because I’m happy exactly the way you are. That’s why I love you in the first place.”
Billy wrote this song about his first wife, Elizabeth. A pure expression of unconditional love, he gave it to her as a birthday present. Sadly, after nine years of marriage, Joel and Elizabeth divorced in 1982. Joel’s next two marriages didn’t work out either: he was married to Christie Brinkley from 1985-1994, and to Katie Lee from 2004-2010. “Every time I wrote a song for a person I was in a relationship with, it didn’t last,” Joel said. “It was kind of like the curse. Here’s your song – we might as well say goodbye now.”
Just The Way You Are
The last song was bigger in 1978 because it was released in December of 1977. It is simply an amazing song. Lovely Day was written for Bill Withers’ Menagerie album.
Skip Scarborough was a songwriter and producer who worked with Earth, Wind & Fire, Patti Labelle, LTD, and many other R&B stars before his death in 2003. He wrote the music for this song, and was also the inspiration for the lyrics Withers came up with. In a Songfacts interview, Bill explained: “Skip was a very nice, gentle man. The way Skip was, every day was just a lovely day. He was an optimist. We’re all sponges in a sense. You put us around very nice people, and the nice things come out in us. You put us around some jerks, and we practice being jerks. We all adjust. Did you ever notice the difference in the way you speak to your grandmother or your best contemporary friend? If I had sat down with the same music and my collaborator had been somebody else with a different personality, it probably would have caused something else to cross my mind lyrically. It was a combination of the music and the person and the ambiance in the room.”
One of the highlights of the song is Bill holding a note for about 18 seconds at the end of the song! It may be one of the longest notes held by a singer on a pop song.
Lovely Day
So there you have it – 10 great songs from 1977. I’m sure there are plenty others I’ve missed. Can you name any? Next week, I will age another year and we’ll visit 1978. The sound of music will start to sound a bit different as we get closer and closer to the 1980’s.
I was reminded by my friend Eddie Deezen that the Beatles song “Her Majesty” was recorded on this day- July 2, 1969.
Eddie posted:
“Her Majesty” was written by Paul McCartney. It was sung entirely by Paul, with no other Beatles featured. This makes Paul the only Beatle to record two songs completely alone, the other being his classic song “Yesterday” in 1965.
“Her Majesty” is also the shortest song ever released by The Beatles. It clocks in at just 23 seconds. It took Paul just three takes to record it.
As “Her Majesty” is the final song on the album “Abbey Road”, it is, technically, the last song on the last Beatles album.
Today the beautiful Michelle Branch celebrates birthday 41. She broke onto the music scene in 2001 when she released her debut album, The Spirit Room. The album produced hits like Everywhere and All You Wanted. In 2003 she released her follow up album, Hotel Paper, which offered the top 20 hit, Are You Happy Now?
It was in 2005 that she teamed up with her backup singer (and good friend) Jessica Harp to form a group called “The Wreckers.” Her husband, as a joke, called the group the “Cass County Homewreckers” at first, but they shortened it to the Wreckers. The sound was a mixture of pop and country.
Their debut album (Stand Still, Look Pretty) was supposed to be released in 2005, but Michelle was pregnant at the time, so it wasn’t released until May of 2006. Their first single was released in February of 2006 and was called “Leave the Pieces.” They followed that with “My, Oh My” which I liked just as much. I had the chance to meet them when they came to town. I apologize for the quality of the photo, as I only have a digital scan of it. (I hate how digital photos loose sharpness the older they get.)
In 2005, the Wreckers appeared on the song “I’m Feeling You” with Santana on his All That I Am album. They also opened for Rascal Flatts on their US tour and appeared on the TV show One Tree Hill. he group was nominated for Vocal Duo of the Year at the 2006 CMA Awards and a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group. I truly loved this group and wish that they had made more music together, but they split in 2007 to focus on their solo careers.
It’s a Tune Tuesday Two-Fer today! Here are both of the Wreckers songs I mentioned …
I love the “period” costumes in the video for My, Oh My!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 