It is time for another edition of Turntable Talk, hosted by Dave from A Sound Day. There seems to be no shortage of music topics for him to present. This month the topic is a bit different. Here are his instructions:
It’s time to Hit the Road, Jack … you’re invited to take part in a sort of magical road trip… but with a few restrictions. You can go to any music location you’d like to see, and if it is long gone, we can assume it was still there for you to see (or that you could go back in time to see it). Studio, concert venue, house, record store, you name it! Wanna see Graceland (or see it again if you’ve been) – boom! You’re there.
As I began to think on my musical place, I became depressed. This is because there are so many places that I have never been to. Yes, I have been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yes I have been to Graceland. Sadly, despite the 90 minute drive from where I live, I have never visited the Motown Museum!
Next I began to think about concert venues. I looked up “Greatest Concert Venues” and it is quite a list. Surprisingly, Pine Knob Music Theater (in Clarkston, MI) is one I have been to numerous times! It’s a great place to see a show. I couldn’t believe that it was counted as one of the “greatest” among some of the others.
In the cartoons, it meant you had made it if you played The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. It was always a big deal if an artist is playing Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall or Madison Square Garden in New York. As many times as I have been to Nashville, I have never seen a show at the Ryman Auditorium. Outside of the US, it is big to play the Syndey Opera House in Australia or Royal Albert Hall in London.
There are so many great places on the list, but one stood out. It is a venue that I truly hope to see a show at some day. Many artists have recorded albums or videos there. They include, the Grateful Dead, Joe Bonamassa, U2, Barenaked Ladies, Stevie Nicks, The Dave Matthews Band, and even John Tesh! That place is the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison Colorado.
I am in awe of this truly amazing place. The venue is approximately ten miles southwest of Denver. The venue is best recognized by its two massive monoliths. They are named “Ship Rock” and “Creation Rock”. There is also the smaller “Stage Rock”. All of them together flank its 9,525 capacity seating area and naturally form the amphitheater.
Imagine seeing your favorite band on stage, while enjoying the breathtaking scenery! It is on my bucket list!
The experience that a concert viewer would have is incomprehensible to me. Go back to the first photo and scroll down. Think about the various changes in light, the beauty of the setting sun, the lights up on the rocks, and finally night fall. Wow!
I would think that this has to be an extraordinary experience for the artists, too. While their view is a bit different than the audience, it still is pretty amazing.
I believe that I am the last contribution before Dave wraps up this topic. I can’t help but wonder what the other bloggers have chosen. Did they chose a venue? A recording studio? A musical museum? By the time you read this, you will already know – and so will I. Right now, however, I am excited to find out what they chose.
Thanks again to Dave for asking me to participate in this feature. I would also like to thank him for his understanding. I chose to run my Share Your Nostalgia Feature right around the same time as Turntable Talk. He did some shuffling and made it work for all of the writers involved. Should I do another topic, I will check with Dave and make sure the schedules are good for everyone.
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.
Before we get into the music, I have to take a moment to mark a blogging milestone. This blog will be the 1400th blog I have written since the Nostalgic Italian site went live.
1400 posts and here you are still reading. For that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am glad that you are here. Now, let’s celebrate by going back to 1989…. when I turned 19.
As I sorted through the singles from 1989, I noticed that there were a lot of duets recorded that year. After All from Peter Cetera and Cher, Don’t Know Much and All My Life from Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, were just a few of them. No duets made my list, however, as I just didn’t feel any of them connected with me enough to bump the ten songs I picked.
I grew up listening to Roy Orbison. He was a favorite for a long time. I used to ask my dad to play his songs on the stereo all the time as a kid. In 1988, Roy saw his career take on new life. He recorded with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan as part of the group The Traveling Wilburys (More on them in a moment) and had recorded a brand new album (Mystery Girl) in November of 1988.
On December 6, 1988, I was at the radio station when an “Urgent” Bulletin came across the AP Newswire stating that Roy had died after having a heart attack. I had never met Roy, but his music was such a big part of my life that seeing the story upset me quite a bit.
You Got It was the first single released from the Mystery Girl album in January of 1989. Orbison wrote the song with his Wilbury friends, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty. Lynne produced the track and also played guitar, keyboards and bass; Petty played acoustic guitar and sang backup. It would reach #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #9 on the Top 40 chart.
Orbison performed this song just once: at the Diamond Awards Festival in Antwerp, Belgium on November 19, 1988. This performance was used as the song’s music video.
You Got It
Every interview I have seen with the guys from the Traveling Wilburys always has them saying how wowed they were by having Roy in their group. When Jeff Lynne was asked about the recording sessions, he said, “Everybody just sat there going, ‘Wow, it’s Roy Orbison!’ … Even though he’s become your pal and you’re hanging out and having a laugh and going to dinner, as soon as he gets behind that [microphone] and he’s doing his business, suddenly it’s shudder time.”
Roy was in the group’s first video (for Handle With Care), and was set to travel to London a couple days after he passed away. One of those videos was for The End of the Line. One of the reasons that I love this video is that the group gives a heartfelt tribute to their friend. When Roy’s vocal happens, we see Roy’s guitar in a rocking chair next to a framed photo of Roy.
The End of the Line
I have never seen the movie Road House. My mom liked it a lot, because she liked Patrick Swayze. Jeff Healey and his band were shooting scenes for the movie (and Jeff had many scenes with Swayze) and recording his See The Light album simultaneously. One of the cuts from this album was Angel Eyes.
I had never heard of Healey before this song. I had no idea that he was blind and marveled at the way he played his guitar (on his lap, like a piano). I was really blown away by his vocals and his guitar playing. He was discovered by two blues legends – Stevie Ray Vaughn and Albert Collins.
He toured and sat in with some fantastic people over the years including Buddy Guy, BB King, Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, The Allman Brothers and Bonnie Raitt (just to mention a few.) While he is mainly known for his bluesy style, by the year 2000 he actually was releasing many jazz albums.
He loved music and he was an avid record collector. He amassed a collection of well over 30,000 old 78 rpm records. Starting in 1990 he hosted a radio program of very early jazz on CIUT at the University of Toronto with Colin Bray. Later he went national on CBC Radio’s program entitled My Kind of Jazz, in which he played records from his vast vintage jazz collection.
Too many people write him off as a “One hit wonder” act. His music is fantastic and this song is so soulful … he was a talent taken too soon.
Angel Eyes
“Hey, man! Have you heard that new song by Marvin Young?” I can’t even imagine what type of music someone called Marvin Young would be singing! However, Young MC just screams rap music, right?! I’ve never been a big rap fan, but there was just something about the baseline and the catchy lyrics that made this a favorite for me.
Bust a Move was a song that whenever I played it, the crowd always new the words and sang along. The verse that every one knows is “Your best friend, Harry, has a brother Larry, in five days from now he’s gonna marry…” The whole rhythm of that verse and the baseline fit so well together. I also like the fact that while there is some sexual innuendo, there is no profanity in the song.
Interesting story from songfacts.com: Flea from The Red hot Chili Peppers played bass on this song and appears in the video, but he didn’t reap the rewards. He explained to Bass Player magazine: “I have a bitter taste in my mouth about that, because I feel as though I got ripped off. The bass line I wrote ended up being a major melody of the tune, and I felt I deserved songwriting credit and money because it was a #1 hit. They sold millions of records, and I got $200! Afterwards, my lawyer told them, ‘You should throw down Flea some cash,’ but the record company said, ‘We told him exactly what to play.’ No one was even in the room at the time but me and the engineer! It was ridiculous, but I learned from it.”
It was one of the first rap records to cross over to the mainstream charts. It went to #7! Young MC recalled to Rolling Stone: “People looked at rap and hard rock as the type of music that you slam your door after you argue with your parents, and bang your head in defiance. My record wasn’t necessarily rebellious, but it was clever enough to grab in a decent segment of people that didn’t listen to rap music.”
Bust a Move
The next song is one that I used to play for my prom date, Karen, after we started dating. This and Just You and I from Eddie Rabbit and Crystal Gayle were “our songs.” I remember the first time I heard Luther Vandross sing Here and Now. I remember how powerful the lyric was and just how perfect his voice was for the song.
Karen and I dated for a bit and broke up around 1990, only to get back together a year or so later before breaking up after another year or so. Somewhere during that time I had made her a mix tape of love songs. This was just one of many that made it to that tape.
It was hard for me after we broke up because I was DJing a lot of weddings and this was a very popular Bride and Groom song. I almost always had to put headphones on and listen to something else while it played. Today, I can listen to it and it doesn’t bother me, but at the time, it brought about a lot of pain.
Here and Now
My next tune is one that I have featured before and I wrote about how it was helpful to me post-divorce. You can read about it here:
I have said many times that Willie Nelson always seemed to have one song on each album that I connected with personally. Many times it was more than that. In 1989, he released a fantastic album entitled “A Horse Called Music.” On the album is a cut that was co-written by Mike Reid (who played five seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and had a brief country singing career) called There You Are.
I had heard the song many times when listening to the album, but it wasn’t until after the final break up with Karen (see above) that the song really hit me hard. At the time, I was still wrapped up in feelings and hated that we were not together. I found myself thinking about her more than I should have been, especially since she had moved on with her life. Then I heard this song…
I could have written this song! It literally was exactly what was happening to me. For no reason, she’d pop into my head. It was never bad things, it was always some good memory of when we were together. The string arrangement and Willie’s vocal convey those feelings in such a magnificent way. It is beautifully sad …
I had never seen the video for this song until I searched for it today. Willie cleans up pretty good…
There You Are
When you make a list of great songwriters – Leiber and Stoller always are on that list. The next song was written by Oliver Leiber, the son of Jerry Leiber of that aforementioned team. Oliver had already written a couple songs for Paula Abdul (Forever Your Girl and The Way That You Love Me) when he got a call saying that the label needed one more song for her album. That song would be Opposite Attract.
From songfacts: This song evolved into a duet with a cartoon cat named MC Skat Kat, who was actually the duo The Wild Pair. Oliver Leiber explains: “I wrote it all from the perspective of one person singing it. It wasn’t initially a duet. It was saying, ‘I like this and you like that.’ It was basically: I like potatoes, and you like po-tah-toes, all from one singer’s perspective. But I had these two singers I had been working with – Marvin Gunn and Tony Christian. They’re the guys that sang on Prince’s “Kiss” and they were incredibly soulful funky singers that I had been using as part of my sound on the first two tracks I did with Paula, helping to preserve the Minneapolis sound, because they sounded very Prince-y and it really added something to Paula’s vocals.
Basically, he had the Wild Pair sing the entire song and then got Paula to cut her lines later. He wasn’t happy with the original mix, which is why the album and the single versions sound so different.
In the video, the real Paula interacted with the animated MC Skat Kat. The concept of Paula dueting with a cat came from Anchors Aweigh, a movie where Gene Kelly dances with the mouse from Tom & Jerry. The video was directed by Michael Patterson and his wife Candace Reckinger, who also created the MC Skat Kat character and animation. Patterson said: “Gene Kelly loved it; he was a friend of Paula’s. Gene was also an inspiration to Candace and I.”
Fun Fact: Patterson and Reckinger got their start in music videos when they created the iconic clip for a-ha’s Take On Me
I loved the Gene Kelly and Jerry Mouse dance, so naturally, I loved this video (and Paula) too!
Opposites Attract
Before I knew the song was about Elvis, I really loved the sound of Black Velvet by Alannah Miles. It was considered a power ballad, but to me it sounded more like a good blues song. Miles’ voice had that bluesy and sultry voice that fit with the groove of the song perfectly.
The story of how the song came to be is a good one. Co-writer Christopher Ward, who was Myles’ then-boyfriend, was inspired on a bus full of Elvis fans riding to Memphis attending the 10th Anniversary Vigil at Graceland, in 1987. Upon his return to Canada, he brought his idea to Myles and producer David Tyson, who wrote the chords for the bridge. The song was one of three in a demo Myles presented to Atlantic Records, which eventually got her signed to the label.
Songfacts provides a bit of lyric analysis:
“Black velvet and that little boy’s smile” – You can buy a black velvet Elvis painting at any respectable yard sale. Early female fans were drawn to his “Little boy smile.”
“Black velvet with that slow southern style” – Elvis delivered some of his songs with slow, undulating hips. Check out “Steamroller Blues” live.
“Up in Memphis the music’s like a heatwave” – Sun Studios. The epicenter of early rock music and where Elvis recorded.
“Love Me Tender leaves ’em cryin’ in the aisle” – Love Me Tender was a huge hit for Elvis in 1956.
“The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true” – Elvis’ legendary hips swivel, the Pelvis.
“Every word of every song that he sang was for you. In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon, what could you do?” – Elvis died suddenly in 1977.
Black Velvet
For me, the last song for this week is something that I continue to work on in my personal life. In my first marriage and throughout that period of my life, I just found it easier to back down and make everyone happy. I did this even if it made me unhappy. It is challenging to stand your ground and not back down from what you believe in or what you feel is right.
Tom Petty’s song was helpful to him as well. Before recording his Full Moon Fever album, an arsonist burned down his house while he was in it with his family and their housekeeper. They escaped, but Petty was badly shaken and spent much of the next few months driving between hotel rooms and a rented house.
Songfacts says that: It was on these drives that he came up with many of the songs for the album; the fire was a huge influence, especially on this song. Petty felt grateful to be alive, but also traumatized – understandable considering someone had tried to kill him. “I Won’t Back Down” was his way of reclaiming his life and getting past the torment – he said that writing and recording the song had a calming effect on him.
The song was used as a patriotic anthem after the September 11th terrorist attacks. Regarding that, Tom said: “The song has also been adopted by nice people for good things, too. I just write them, I can’t control where it ends up.”
The song has a Wilburys connection. The video features Ringo Starr on drums, with Wilburys’ George Harrison and Jeff Lynne on guitar. Harrison did play on the track and contributed backing vocals, but Ringo had nothing to do with the song itself.
I Won’t Back Down
That’s it for the 1980’s! We’ll dive into a brand new decade next week. 1990 was a good year for music. Starting in the 1990’s my music choices tended to lean a bit more country as far as new stuff. In 1990 alone, I could have picked 10 country songs for the list. I didn’t, but I could have.
Next week’s list will feature and interesting mix of music, largely due to the radio station where I was working at the time … some classic rock, some soulful songs, and big pants ….
Did I miss a favorite of yours from 1989? Tell me all about it in the comments. See you next week.
On August 16, 1977, 47 years ago today, Elvis Presley died in Memphis, Tennessee. I was just 7 years old when he passed away, but I can recall how his passing hit my father and many others who grew up with his music and his legacy. As a kid, I knew Hound Dog, Teddy Bear, All Shook Up, and Don’t Be Cruel. It wasn’t until after he passed and as I began to dive deeper into his music that I came to appreciate his talent and why he was adored by his fans.
The first radio station I worked at (WKSG-FM, 102.7 Kiss-FM) was an oldies station, so I played my share of Elvis songs there. I played even more when I moved over to Honey Radio (WHND AM560) as they focused on early rock and roll. Discovering “new” Elvis music by playing unfamiliar (to me) songs on the radio only made me a bigger fan.
It was in the early 2000’s that I had the chance to go to Memphis on a radio trip. After we had finished our business at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in preparation for our radiothon, I had the opportunity to go to Graceland – Elvis’s home.
We had to wear these Walkman like headphones and carry a small device attached to them that allowed us to hear narration of the rooms and such on the tour. When we pulled up in front of the house I was surprised. It really doesn’t look as big as it does in the pictures.
Naturally, I had brought a camera, but the lighting within the house wasn’t that great for picture taking and there was a “No Flash Photography” rule on the tour. This was before we all carried around cameras on our phones. I had a camera with actual film in it that had to be developed. My photos came out dark or blurry. I was really upset by this.
The tour itself was really amazing. The various colors of the rooms, the 1977 appliances, the Jungle Room, the piano where Elvis played on the night he passed away, and the memorabilia had my brain overloading. One wall had gold records, awards, album covers and more line from floor to ceiling! Throughout the place were outfits from his movies and movie posters and various other things encased in glass. I was loving every second of my visit, snapping as many pictures as I could take and getting excited to show them to my dad when I developed them. And then, in an instant, I was silenced.
Full disclosure: the above photo is not mine. Mine came out blurry.
As you walk outside, you are almost at once in front of Elvis’ grave. The emotions that hit me were completely unexpected. I was overwhelmed to the point where I was almost in tears. I remember thinking, “Why am I almost crying? I never met Elvis before, yet I am overcome with feelings of sadness, wonder, and awe.” It was a humbling experience.
I had seen photos of the grave before, but now I was literally standing in front of it. There were flowers everywhere. It was beautiful. I stood there for quite a long time just lost in my thoughts and the moment. I had even forgot to press the button on the little audio thingy to hear this part of the tour.
As I think back to that moment, I really can’t explain what I was feeling or experiencing. It was surreal. It was like feeling a bunch of emotions all at once. There was respect and admiration as well as reverence and grief. Those few minutes at Graceland are certainly in my Top 5 “Most Complex” moments of my life.
There have since been some additions to the Graceland Graveyard since my visit. I wonder if it would hit me the same way if I were to go back.
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. I turned five in ’75, so let’s give a listen together…
Why not start off with a song that soared to number one? Shining Star was released by Earth, Wind and Fire in January of 1975. Maurice White was taking a late night walk while recording the album That’s the Way of the World and was inspired by the stars in the sky. He took the idea back to other members of the band and wrote the song.
The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008 and still sounds great today! One music critic called the song, “sweaty funk” … So let’s get funky!
Shining Star
Honestly, I wasn’t really into KISS when I was five. I suppose I was in my teens when I came to appreciate some of their songs. We played one or two at the first oldies station I worked at and I heard them a lot when me and my buddies would go play pool together. One that always played was Rock and Roll All Night.
Originally released on their Dresses to Kill album, the studio version only went to number 69 on the singles chart. Later, the live version would go all the way to number 12. I would guess that it has become their “theme” song. It has been the song that the group has used as a closing concert tune in almost every show since 1976.
The song was written by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons in Los Angeles, but on January 26, 1976, Stanley told an audience at Cobo Hall in Detroit that the song was written in and for Detroit! I like that, so I’ll go with it…
Rock and Roll All Night
(Studio version)
(Live version)
Speaking of Detroit, the next song comes from hometown hero Bob Seger. Bob released his Beautiful Loser album in ’75 and Katmandu was a cut from it. Katmandu wasn’t a huge hit, but it has always been one of my favorite Seger tunes. It was later featured on his Live Bullet album.
Seger says that the song was written at a time in his life where he wasn’t sure if he was going to make it. He said, “It’s an exasperated song. It’s like: ‘I’m never gonna make it, I’m just gonna go to Katmandu.'”
He says that Glenn Frey and Don Henley pulled him aside and “told me that the Beautiful Loser album was the first little step in the right direction for me. Then the next step after that was Live Bullet, which was a huge step. And the next step was Night Moves, which was an even huger step. By 1980 both records were at six million, and they kept selling continuously. Beautiful Loser was a transitional album, and in the song “Katmandu” I still had some of that defeatist mentality and you can hear it in there.”
Katmandu
The next song was released one day before my fifth birthday. Low Rider appeared on War’s Why Can’t We Be Friends album.
From song facts.com:
The group’s sax player, Charles Miller, came up with the idea for the song. Harold Brown told Songfacts: “What happened on ‘Low Rider’ was in the studio, we were jamming, and I was supposed to have been on the downbeat. But all of the sudden I was on the upbeat. And I said, ‘Oh, boy. I got the beat turned around.’ I didn’t panic. I said, ‘Wait a minute. Stay there. Don’t change it. Stay.’ Because as long as you keep doing it over and over and over, it won’t be a mistake.
We were just messing around, you know. Then the next thing I know, Charles started just singing, ‘Low ri-der drives a little slower. The low…’ he was just pumping it. And then the next thing I know Lee’s over there putting that harmonica on, because Lee is a melody man all the time. And then – boom.
If you’d hear the original version of it, all with that jam, that would be worth a million right there. When we finished it, all of us looked at it, ‘That’s a hit.’ We didn’t know that it was going to be an icon.
Low Rider
In June of ’75, Bad Company released a classic. Did you know that Feel Like Makin’ Love is actually a combination of two separate songs?
Several years after Paul Rodgers wrote the song, he played it to Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs, who came up with some big chords for the chorus. Ralphs recalled:
“I came up with the riff, and I suggested we put the two together to create a song. I think that’s the feel of the song, the verses are very appealing to the ladies, probably more than the men; and then the riff comes in which is all bloody macho. It’s a big chorus and it worked out really well.”
It reached number 10 on the Hot 100 Chart.
Feel Like Makin’ Love
Despite being a song of their second album, Orleans scored their first Top 40 hit with “Dance With Me.” The song was released in July of ’75. It was written by group member John Hall and his then wife Johanna. John told Songfacts.com:
“I started playing it on acoustic guitar and developed it, just jamming by myself in the living room. The whole song – the verses, the bridge, the ending – was all complete coming out of my acoustic guitar. Johanna yelled from the other room, ‘That sounds like ‘Dance With Me.” And I went, ‘Can’t we come up with something a little bit more unusual than that?” And she said, “I don’t know, it really sounds like ‘Dance With Me.”
She couldn’t get past that and I couldn’t get past that any further, so I played the instrumental version for Larry Hoppen and he said, ‘Boy, you really need to finish that, that sounds like a hit song.’
So coming back from a show in Ithaca, New York, on the western part of the state, through the Woodstock area again, Johanna and I were riding in the car, and suddenly she says, ‘Pick the beat up and kick your feet up.’ She starts scribbling on another one of those envelopes, and by the time we got home, we had kicked the ideas back and forth and finished the lyric.
I love the guitar work and harmonies in it.
Dance With Me
I was probably about 4 years away from my introduction to Willie Nelson in 1975. When I was finally introduced to him, it was thanks to my dad and my grandfather. They had a cassette of Willie’s Stardust album and they played the heck out of it. It drove us kids crazy! After my grandfather passed away in 1981, I began to listen to more and more from Willie and came to really love his music.
Willie is a fantastic song writer, having written hits like “Crazy,” “Hello Walls,” and so many others, but he did NOT write Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain. It was written by Fred Rose in the late 1940’s. It was recorded by Roy Acuff, Hank Williams Sr., Ferlin Husky, Bill Anderson and Conway Twitty all before Willie recorded it in 1975 for his Red-Headed Stranger album.
In October 1975, the song became Willie’s first Number 1 hit as a singer, and at year’s end, was the third-biggest song of 1975 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. It got Top 40 airplay, too, reaching number 21 on the Hot 100 Chart. At the 18th Annual Grammy Awards, the song won Willie a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
Fun (but sad) Fact: Elvis Presley recorded a version of the song in the Jungle Room at Graceland in 1976. The song would be the last one he played before he died. In the early morning of August 16, 1977, he played it on his piano in Graceland. Later that day, he died.
Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain
Earlier I mentioned playing pool with some my friends in my teens and many of the songs I mention will be ones that played on the jukebox while we were there. One of those songs was Tush by ZZ Top. Before the song’s release in 1975, they were well known in Texas, but Tush became their first nationwide hit.
According to Dusty Hill, the song was written in under ten minutes during a soundcheck in Alabama. Billy Gibbons said “We were in Florence, Alabama, playing in a rodeo arena with a dirt floor. We decided to play a bit in the afternoon. I hit that opening lick, and Dave Blayney, our lighting director, gave us the hand [twirls a finger in the air]: ‘Keep it going.’ I leaned over to Dusty and said, ‘Call it ‘Tush.’
So what does it mean? In a 1985 interview with Spin magazine, bass player Dusty Hill explained: “Tush, where I grew up, had two meanings. It meant what it means in New York. Tush is also like plush, very lavish, very luxurious. So it depended on how you used it. If somebody said, “That’s a tush car,’ you knew they weren’t talking about the rear and of the car. That’s like saying, ‘That’s a cherry short.’ But tush as in ‘That’s a nice tush on that girl,’ that’s definitely the same as the Yiddish word. I don’t know how we got it in Dallas. All it could have took was one guy moving down from New York.”
Tush
The next song is one that comes from my family’s infamous red 8 track tape. It was one of the first things I blogged about when I started this site. You can read that blog here:
Songfacts.com says: In the DVD Hell Freezes Over, the Eagles discussed this song’s origins. When they were a struggling band in Los Angeles, they saw a lot of beautiful women around Hollywood who were married to wealthy, successful men, and wondered if they were unhappy. One night they were drinking in a bar (their favorite watering hole: Dan Tana’s) when they spotted this stunning young woman; two steps behind her was a much older, fat, rich guy. As they were half laughing at them, Glenn Frey commented, “Look at her, she can’t even hide those lyin eyes!”
Realizing they had a song title, the band members began grabbing for cocktail napkins to write down lyrics to go with that great observation.
The song reached number 2 on the Hot 100 Chart.
Lyin’ Eyes
In 1975, Capitol Records couldn’t seem to make up their mind about which song to release first from Linda Ronstadt’s Heart Like a Wheel album. It was a toss up between You’re No Good and When Will I Be Loved and the prior won out. Linda’s Everly Brothers cover would be the second single, released in March of ’75.
Both the Everly’s and Linda had top ten hits with the song, but Linda’s went to number 2 while the Everly Bros peaked at number 8. Linda’s version also went to number 1 on the country chart. Singing with Linda on this single are Kenny Edwards (from her band the Stone Poneys) and Andrew Gold (Who later had success with Thank You For Being a Friend). I absolutely love the harmonies on this one.
And there are my picks for 1975! What did I miss?
Next week, I’m sure there will be a shiny disco ball hanging over the dance floor as we head to 1976! See you then.
For our anniversary, my wife and I wanted to plan a little getaway to celebrate. Neither one of us had too much PTO in our “banks” at work, so we decided on a weekend trip. During the planning the destinations changed frequently. Originally, we had hoped to head back for another trip to Florida, but due to the lack of time available, we decided on something a bit closer to home.
There was talk of going to Nashville and maybe catching a show at the Grand Ole Opry. Then there was talk of Gatlinburg, where my mom so often talked about. I think we even chatted about Pennsylvania, too. Eventually, we decided that Chicago was where we wanted to go, but then realized that it was St. Patrick’s Day weekend, and we figured it might be just a tad crazy (although seeing the river turned green would have been cool.
Cleveland??
To be honest, I am not even sure how we decided on Cleveland, Ohio. I had mentioned that my dad had gone to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and said it was cool. I started to look at things in Cincinnati. There was a lot to do there, but why wasn’t the Hall of Fame coming up in any of my searches? I knew that Cincy was close to Louisville, KY and thought that we could maybe do something there, too. I had gone as far as to drop a radio buddy a note to say we were gonna be down there and asked for good restaurants to eat at … only to then realize the Hall of Fame was in Cleveland!
Now that we had cleared that up, we were set for Cleveland. Now, I will be the first to admit “Cleveland,Ohio” as the answer to “Where did you and your wife spend your first wedding anniversary?” is not at all romantic. Many people laughed when I told them. Here is the thing about my wife and I, the destination really didn’t matter – it was simply the fact that we were going to be together. To me, this is just one of the reasons I love her. We can be content with just having time with each other, no matter where we are, or what we are doing.
We have made it a tradition to go to restaurants that local wherever we go. If we can go there at home, we’ll go there at home! By doing this, we have really been treated to some amazing food. We always try to find a good steak house or something very unique to the city we are in and we have yet to be disappointed.
The Hall of Fame
Personally, I think Sam loves watching me get excited about stuff like this. We both love museums, but I must have been like a little kid on his birthday during this trip! I had, of course, seen pictures of the Hall of Fame, but it was something else to be standing in front of it. The big red block letters that sit upon the sidewalk read “LONG LIVE ROCK”. As I walked up the steps, there are phoney concert speakers erected by the hand rails. The excitement builds as you walk in.
As you enter, you walk into a huge foyer/lobby. The gift shop is to your right, to the left a cafe/coffee shop, and in front of you there is an escalator to take you down to purchase tickets. After buying our tickets, you get ready to enter and above the doors the perfect AC/DC quote to welcome you: “For those about to rock …”
Walking into the main exhibition hall, the first thing I noticed were pictures of John Lennon and Ray Charles on the wall. The first thing I am drawn to is a glass case containing Bill Haley’s guitar. Bill is often credited as being the singer of the first “rock and roll” song – Rock Around the Clock. There is a picture of him playing it in the case as well. I am not sure why I was so taken in by it, but I was.
The next thing we saw was a line of bass guitars that belong to Geddy Lee of Rush. I didn’t count , but there had to be like a dozen of them. The information said that this was only part of his massive collection.
The Roots
One thing I was thrilled to see here was the fact that the “roots” of Rock and Roll were well represented. Rock really evolved from a combination of Gospel, R&B, Bluegrass, Country, Folk, and Blues music. Each of those genres was represented here. Among my favorite things I saw: a suite belonging to Hank Williams Sr.; Louis Jordan’s music folder with his music and cue sheets; stuff from Muddy Waters, BB King, and Mahalia Jackson; Ray Charles sunglasses; Carl Perkins Guitar; salutes to Johnny Otis, Big Joe Turner, and Sam Cooke and so much more. The roots of rock were so well represented. Without these people and the genres of music, there would be no rock and roll.
Elvis
There is a pretty cool section devoted to Elvis, who was one of the first 10 artists inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Hall has a standing agreement with Graceland in Memphis (which is a museum in itself) and they send memorabilia to them often, so the exhibit changes often. There was a very cool motorcycle that was custom-built for Elvis. His gold sequins suit is there, and a jukebox which was given to him as a gift from RCA Records – it contains only Elvis records. Also on display was a double Gibson guitar which he played in his film Spinout.
The Summer of Love
With the 50th anniversary of the “Summer of Love”, there were some very cool things here. I saw groovy outfits from the Mama’s and the Papa’s, clothing from Jimi Hendrix, and the HUGE mixing board that was used to record some of Jimi’s music.
On thing I really liked to see was the various things that song lyrics were written on. There were quite a few original pieces of paper where the beginnings of songs were scribbled. There were also plenty of hotel pads of paper with lyrics on them. Loved seeing where changes were made to lyrics.
Cities and Sounds
I loved that there was a section of the hall that saluted cities and sounds. There was a section devoted to Memphis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and Liverpool, Seattle, and of course, Detroit.
In the Memphis section, there were plenty of neat things from Sun Records. Johnny Cash, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison all recorded there. To stand in front of Roy Orbison’s glasses and guitar was pretty awesome. My earliest musical memories are of my dad playing Roy’s music for me.
A nice tribute to Motown is here with stuff from Barry Gordy, The Supremes (you can see some of their dresses), Smokey Robinson, and the Temptations are all here. They were playing the episode of To Tell The Truth with Barry Gordy as we walked through this section.
The Beatles and the Rolling Stones each have a nice section at the Hall. I thought Mick Jagger of the Stones was taller, but standing by some of his outfits, he’s shorter than I thought. There is the Asher family piano that Paul McCartney donated, some of John Lennon’s outfits, and the handwritten lyrics to “In My Life”. A very cool documentary was playing in their section as well.
I jumped ahead a bit because the next section was London and Liverpool. There were some very neat things from the Yardbirds, Peter and Gordon, Herman’s Hermits and the Zombies too. All in all a nice salute to the British Invasion.
San Fran featured stuff from The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, while LA featured stuff from The Eagles, Jackson Brown, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. One cool thing here was a duffle bag full of hotel keys. I don’t recall, but I think it said it belonged to one of the Eagles. They basically kept the hotel key (and keychain) from every place they stayed while on tour. The bag was stuffed full of some very cool looking keychains!
This section also had tributes to grunge music, punk music and a section called “Rave On” which focused on the “pioneers” of rock. Those pioneers included Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, The Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly. Soul Music was also spotlighted here with some awesome suits from James Brown, stuff from Aretha Franklin, pieces of the wreckage from Otis Redding’s plane crash, and Sam and Dave. Featured in the soul section were two amazing things – guitars from Donald “Duck” Dunn and Steve “The Colonel” Cropper. They played on almost every Atlantic and Stax record. They were members of Booker T and the MG’s, and also played with the Blues Brothers. Very cool to see!!!
Don’t worry metal heads, there was a section for Heavy Metal too. Oh, and a section for Rap, as well.
Protests
When Rock and Roll started to make waves, it wasn’t too popular with folks. We tend to forget the hatred toward the genre, but they had plenty of newscasts about burning records, and protests that happened. It was weird to watch the hatred toward the Beatles and read hate mail to the Rolling Stones. Other artists that were discussed in this section were Frank Zappa and ELO.
On the Radio
As a radio guy, it was cool to be able to walk up to an interactive touch screen and select a region of the US and then listen to old airchecks of DJ’s from different eras. Naturally, I had to listen to some of the Detroit personalities: Dick Purtain, Robin Seymour, and The Electrifying Mojo! There were plenty of familiar names from all over the states and it was nice to get to listen to their stuff too.
The Power of Rock
On the third level, there was a wall with each “class” inducted into the Hall of Fame by year. You could also go to a touch screen and search by class, by year, or by artist, and listen to their music. SO many great songs!!!
The Power of Rock is a short film by Jonathan Demme which features many performances from past Hall of Fame inductions. So many stars and so many great songs were in this film. The theater had a light show and great sound for the film and it was almost like you were watching a concert live. The film ends with Prince’s guitar solo on While My Guitar Gently Weeps – WOW! Forgot how amazing that was! They also had some of the great quotes on the walls of the hallway that you left the theater by. Prince’s outfit from that show and other outfits were there as well.
Rock on TV
It was also very cool to see some of the TV show memorabilia on this level. You could go and record something about your favorite singer or album in special booths. It was pretty cool to stand in front of Dick Clark’s American Bandstand podium! His microphone was in a glass case with other things like the set design for the Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan. They had TV cameras there, Don Cornelius’ suit from Soul Train, outfits from the Jackson Five and Sonny & Cher and the coat worn by Davy Jones of the Monkees that he wore on The Brady Bunch. There was also some cool musically related stuff from Saturday Night Live, and from various music videos we all watched on MTV. It was neat to see Paul Shaffer’s keyboard that he played for so many years on the Late Show with David Letterman.
On the Radio – LIVE
One thing I didn’t realize was that Sirius XM broadcasts their “Classic Vinyl” station out of the Hall of Fame. Rachel Steele was on air when we went through. There is a glass window that allows you to look into the studio and watch them broadcast. I actually felt bad for her. One thing radio people like is the fact that they can go in to work without really worrying about what to wear, because….who is going to see you!? Whoever is on the air here, really has to “doll up” every day.
Over all, I loved every second of my visit here! Any music lover would enjoy themselves!! If you have never been …. you have to!
Christmas in March
The final stop on the trip was The Christmas Story House. It is the house featured in the holiday classic. They renamed the street “Cleveland Street” in honor of the movie. The Leg Lamp proudly sits in the front window and the Bumpass House is next door.
This is such an inexpensive treat! The house looks a little different on the inside, but they have restored much of it to be exactly like it looks in the film, which took a bit because there were a few owners since the movie.
We were allowed to take as many pictures as we liked. There was a guide who took us through the house and told some stories. You can see the bathroom where Ralphie solves Little Orphan Annie’s secret message, you can see the many plugs the tree was plugged into, pick up the phone that Mrs. Parker calls Flick’s mom on, see the boy’s room, and see the damper in the kitchen that billows black smoke because of the “clinker” furnace.
From the backyard you can see the steel mill (still in operation), which helped Jean Sheppard (the author) pick that particular house for the film. Across the street is a museum with the actual Red Rider BB gun used in the film, outfits from the cast, Darren McGavin’s plaster life mask (used for make up and such), plenty of behind the scenes pictures, and the Old Man’s car. The gift shop is full of great items and yes, you can purchase a pink bunny suit or a leg lamp (in various sizes).
Sam told me she’d buy me a bunny suit, but only if I wore it every Christmas! Incidentally, if you have the $$, you can spend the night in the house or next door at the Bumpass house.
The trip was short, but full of good memories. I love that we were able to do it and I love that we got to spend time with each other. It was the perfect anniversary trip.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 