Last weekend I wrote a diary entitled "Five Great Songs, and the Stories Behind Them." It generated several requests to me for more in the same vein, and since it was such a fun diary to write I promised to do so. Originally, I was prompted to write the diary after browsing Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Best Songs of All Time." There are so many songs on the list that we all know, but aside from the music and the words...that's all we do know. Many, not all, of them have great back stories to them.
As well...the Rolling Stone list is just that...someone's list. There are a lot of great songs that fail to make it on their list. They give short shrift to Country Music, for example, and Jazz as well. Then there are instrumental songs...some of which are great even in the absence of lyrics. Green Onions, anyone?
So...here is my next edition of "Great Songs & Their Stories."
If you have suggestions/requests, let me know. As I said in the last diary, this is a very deep well to draw from, and it is fun history to write as well as to read.
Gotta Have a Friend in Jesus...
Norman Greenbaum is one of Rock's oddities. Prior to recording this huge hit, he led a psychadelic Jug Band named Dr West's Medicine Show and Jug Band. The closest thing they had to a hit song was "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago." My Mom worked for a record distributor in San Francisco during the 60's, and we actually had that album at home.
Norman was born in Massachussetts to a Jewish family, and attended Hebrew school growing up, and is, in fact, a practicing Jew to this day...so it's a bit ironic that he's best known for what would seem to be a Christian rock song. Actually, though, he's always been as much of a hippie as anything else, and the inspiration for the song came one evening while he was watching the Porter Wagoner Show on TV. (He was a big fan of Grand Ole Opry, too). He listened to Porter sing a gospel song and said to himself..."I can do that." He wrote the lyrics in 15 minutes, and spend another few months coming up with the music to accompany them. The rest is history.
Greenbaum played lead guitar on the song, using a Fender Telecaster into the body of which a friend had directly wired a built in fuzz box. That was how he was able to get the signature "beep...beep...beep" sounds. To this day he still gets emails and letters from frustrated guitarists who have tried to cover the song but are unable to duplicate the sound he recorded. Sadly, he no longer owns that guitar...he sold it many years ago, along with many other possessions, when he was flat broke.
Spirit in the Sky rocketed up the charts and sold 2 million records, but there was to be no other hits in Greenbaum's short career. He and his wife at the time owned a small goat farm in Petaluma, California, and he had as much of a reputation in "the Business" as being a hippie goat rancher as he did for being a serious musician, and unable to come up with anything that could replicate the sound or potential for success that his one hit had, record deals were not forthcoming.
Spirit In The Sky has been used in some 32 movie soundtracks, more than a dozen TV commercials, and appears on some 50 compilation albums/cds. As the New York Times observed in an article they ran about him several years ago, he is the rare "one hit wonder" who has actually made a career from that one hit. In my opinion, the song has one of the tastiest and most distinctive guitar tracks ever laid down.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Must Be The Clouds In My Eyes...
You could be forgiven if you have always just assumed that the song "Daniel" was a musical 'adieu' by Elton John to a former lover of his. Many people have thought that to be the case, but it isn't. According to his lyricist, Bernie Taupin, this is the most widely misinterpreted song they ever put out.
Bernie wrote the song after reading a Newsweek article about a returning Vietnam vet who had been wounded in combat, and the difficulties he encountered trying to readjust and resume his former life. The line "your eyes have died..." refers to the man's blindness. The main reason the song seems so ambiguous is the fact that Elton John, after writing the music to go with it, decided the song was too long. His guitarist, Davey Johnstone, recalls that Elton was also unhappy with the last verse that Bernie had written, and so he tore that verse slowly and very deliberately off of the page that contained the lyrics. Two problems were solved: The verse was eliminated and the song was shortened. Unfortunately, it was that last verse that really revealed that the song was about a wounded combat vet, so the song as recorded left the listener to make his or her own interpretation. Incidentally...Taupin wrote this song in one morning, and John wrote the music and recorded it that same day.
"Daniel" reached #2 on the charts, but MCA was hesitant to release it as a single, thinking it was too somber in tone and lacking in commercial appeal. They selected "Crocodile Rock" as the first single on the album (Don't Shoot Me, I'm Just The Piano Player) to promote.
As for the missing third verse? It's gone. Elton never recorded a demo including the missing verse, and Bernie Taupin did not have another copy of the lyric sheet that Elton tore the verse from. Neither of them can remember now how the missing verse went.
xxx
Oooh oooh OOOH oooh oooh oooh oooh...
I still remember running down to the record store to buy the new Rolling Stones album, Some Girls, in 1978. It was with a mixture of excitement and relief. Excitement, because the music was so good...and relief because, in 1978, the fate of the kings of the old Rock and Roll guard was something of a question mark. It was a time of a lot of musical change, what with disco and "prog-rock" and a newly nascent punk scene (singers who couldn't sing, and guitarists who couldn't play the guitar). Some Girls announced to the world that the Stones were still King of the Hill, and "Miss You" was one of the best cuts on the album.
Keith Richards shares cowriting credit on the song, but Jagger actually wrote this one by himself while jamming with Billy Preston in Toronto the previous year. It's one of the few tracks on the album where they used additional studio musicians, bringing in pianist Ian McLagan, sax player Mel Collins, and a harmonica player the band discovered in the Paris subway by the name of Sugar Blue. (Most of the album's music was written during an extended stay in Paris, though it was recorded in New York.)
The Stones hadn't had a number one hit in 5 years before Miss You was released, and this turned out to be their last #1. Richards had been arrested in Toronto,Canada during their tour the year before the album's release, and it was unclear what the sentence might be (he faced a life sentence). One of the results of that uncertainty was more reliance than in the past upon Wyman's bass playing to set the groove and propel many of the songs on the album. Ultimately, Richards was lucky and got off with a slap on the wrist, but he continued to shoot up speedballs so frequently at this point in time that he jokingly referred to the cocaine and heroine concoction as "the breakfast of champions." And Ron Wood was involved in affair with Margaret Trudeau, wife of the then Prime Minister of Canada. So there was a lot going on at this point in their career.
In the face of all that was going on musically at the time, and especially the punk scene, the Stones deliberately made a choice to prove that their brand of rock and roll was till relevant with the album, focusing on guitar riffs, dance beats and adding horns. The album went platinum 6 times over.
xxx
She has a young man waiting...
This song may not rate on Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs, but I always loved Warren Zevon, it's my diary and it's at least a very good song. It almost didn't make it on the Excitable Boy album released in 1978.
Zevon, as many of you may know, was a world class alcoholic, and was indulging in most of the other recreational drugs of the time. He had always battled substance abuse, but during the time that Excitable Boy was recorded his life was in a particularly acute state of tumult. His marriage was on the verge of falling apart, and most of the friends and fellow musicians he was hanging out partied just as hard as he did. Waddy Wachtell, a long time friend, guitarist and producer with Zevon, was instrumental in making this record. Most of the budget that Electra/Asylum records had allocated for the album had been consumed in recording just one song, Werewolves Of London, which wasn't gelling in the studio and required almost 7 different bands and configurations of musicians to get right. It left them exhausted, and once completed they were anxious to call it a wrap and send the album off.
Wachtell recalls getting a call from Zevon inviting him to a party to celebrate completion of the album, and when he listened to it and added up the songs' running times, it clocked out to only 24 minutes. He scolded Zevon and told him the album was NOT done yet, but that he (Wachtell) had to go on the road for a bit to play with Linda Ronstadt, and would be back in 3 weeks. He insisted that Zevon have at least two more songs ready by the time he returned. Zevon came up with "Lawyers, Guns and Money" and "Tenderness on the Block."
Jackson Browne, who was the lead producer on the album as well as contibuting vocals and backing guitar, got a call one night from Zevon's wife. Warren was drunk, and had torn the bannister off of the staircase in their house, and she asked him to come over. When he got there Warren was working on Tenderness and asked Browne to help him with it. They worked through the night, and Jackson Browne recalls that they drank so much that Browne passed out. When he came to the next day the song was completed.
Wachtell was blown away by both of the songs that had been done in his absence, and played guitar on Tenderness in the studio. When they submitted the finished record to Elektra, Zevon and Wachtell were dumbfounded that the company chose "Werewolves" as the single to promote:
"Tenderness" was an exceptional song, and I (Wachtell) was thrilled with what I got to do on it guitar-wise. When Elektra picked "Werewolves" as the single, Warren and I just about threw up. We were insulted, depressed. Artistically, it was like a fuck you. They took that piece of shit after we gave them "Tenderness on the Block" and "Johnny Strikes Up the Band"? Meanwhile, it was the only hit we ever had...but we didn't see that logic at all.
source: "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon", by Crystal Zevon
There was a constellation of LA based musicians who appeared on the album...J.D. Souther, Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel, Karla Bonoff, Linda Ronstadt, Jennifer Warnes, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. To the extent that Warren had a breakout record, Excitable Boy was it. A note about the album cover...the close-up shot of Warren on the album's cover was repeatedly touched up. Zevon had a horrible complexion due to acne scars, and when they started touching up the photo he would look at it and say..."touch it up some more." They did this so many times that when they were done it looks as though he's almost 12 years old and never had so much as a whitehead before.
xxx
Tall and Tanned and Young and Lovely...
Stan Getz didn't write "The Girl From Ipanema", but then Orville Reddenbacker didn't invent popcorn, either. I picked this song out before doing research on it, just because i love it so much. I have to say, there is a treasure trove of background information on this song, and it deserves its own diary...which I will do. Here, however, are the bare bones.
Antonio Carlos Jobim used to frequent the rather artsy town just south of Rio de Janiero called Ipanema. His favorite hangout was a bar just one block off of the beach, called Bar Veloso. It was a pleasant place to sit and have a beer, smoke a cigarette and chat. Whenever he was there, a young girl would pass by, and it wasn't just he that was smitten by her. But smitten he was.
Her name was Heloísa Eneida de Menezes Paes Pinto, and she was 18 years old. Tall (5'8"), and beautiful...each day that she passed by, either to the beach in a swim suit, or to the market, or to the bar to pick up a pack of cigarettes for her mother...everyone noticed her. There were wolf whistles and catcalls. She never paid them any heed. Jobim was entranced by her, though he was twice her age. If ever a song wrote itself, this one did.
He invited songwriter friend Vinicius de Moraes to come with him to the bar, so he could point the girl out to him. Sure enough, she appeared, just like every day, to the same whistles and catcalls. "Isn't she lovely?" Jobim asked his friend. Noting the way she kept her composure and ignored the catcalls, Moraes replied "She is full of grace."
This song practically wrote itself. All Moraes did was transform the communal desire for "The Girl" into a more poignant story about one man's unspoken desire, and the girls complete oblivion to it. Yet that was also Jobim's story.
Stan Getz was drawn to Brazilian music at the same time, and had collaborated with Jobim. A couple of years later Jobim and Joao Gilberto were in New York, working with Stan on an album. The Girl From Ipanema had already been released in Brazil to success, and Getz wanted to record it, but thought it should have English lyrics, since it was such a good story, and the producer, Creed Taylor of Verve, felt it needed a more "Brazilian title." The original title was "Menina Que Passa"..."Girl Who Passes". It was changed to "A Garota de Ipanema"...The Girl From Ipanema. Lyricist Norman Gimbel provided the English language version of the original lyrics, and all that was left was to find a vocalist.
The entourage of musicians that flew up from Brazil to record with Getz included only one person who spoke English fluently...Joao Gilberto's wife, Astrud. She was not a prefessional singer or musician...and had no training...but the vocals fell into her lap by that circumstance. Talk about serendipity.
The song rocketed to the top of the charts after its release, and became a huge hit not only in the U.S. but internationally. In Brazil, everyone wanted to know just one thing: Who is "The Girl?" Jobim and Moraes played coy for as long as they could, but the subject became almost a cottage industry in the country, and finally Moraes held a press conference, with Heloisa (better known as Helo Pinheiro) at his side. Once identified, she became an instant celebrity in Brazil. There is much more to say about this song...but I'll save it for a separate diary...I promise you'll enjoy it.
"The Girl from Ipanema" ranks 21st on BMI's list of most recorded songs of all time. Everyone and their brother or sister has seemingly recorded a version of it. The album Gatz released with Joao Gilberto is one of the best selling jazz albums ever released, and it catapaulted Astrud Gilberto into fame, quite by accident. Helo Pinheiro was forever a celebrity, and once graced the the cover of Playboy Magazine.
I know you're curious...so here she is (rated GP)
http://www.sobrasa.org/...
More, as they say...to follow.
Hope you enjoyed.