FranklynJones

Aggression As A Trait Is Constitutional

Back To The Future 322. A short film inspired by my environment...

Runnin' Down A Dream Album: Full Moon Fever (1989) American Girl Album: Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (1977) by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers In Runnin' Down A Dream Tom Petty sings about driving into the great wide open, with nothing but glorious possibility in his path. Petty started running down his dream of being a rocker in 1961 when he met Elvis Presley. Petty, 11 years old, came to the Ocala, Florida, set where Elvis was working on the film Follow That Dream - a title Tom took to heart. In a brief encounter, Petty saw how Elvis captivated onlookers and made the girls go crazy. Petty became fascinated with Elvis and set out to follow his path. The animated video was inspired by a comic strip called Little Nemo In Slumberland by Winsor McKay. Each strip told the story of one of Nemo's dreams, and at the end, he always woke up. Full Moon Fever was listed as a Tom Petty solo album even though members of The Heartbreakers played on it. Petty had another band at this time as well: the Traveling Wilburys, which included Jeff Lynne, who co-produced the album and played many of the instruments. Heartbreakers' guitarist Mike Campbell wrote this with Petty and Jeff Lynne. The three of them worked on the album at Campbell's house. Petty and Campbell were very impressed with Lynne's production techniques, and learned a lot from the experience. Campbell gave an example of Lynne's style: "We'd put the mics up on the drums, and he'd walk out and take the microphone over the drum and he'd turn it away from the drum facing the corner, and he'd go 'OK, record it like that.' Sure enough, 99% of the time he'd be right. We'd go, 'Yes sir, Mr. Lynne.' We learned so much from him about arrangements and countermelodies and all kinds of stuff." The line, "Me and Del were singin,' little 'Runaway'" is a reference to the 1961 Del Shannon hit "Runaway." Shannon is credited on the album for "barnyard noises," which can be heard just after this song ends on the album. Under the animal noises, Petty says, "Hello CD listeners. We have come to the point in this album where those listening on cassettes or records will have to stand - up or sit down - and turn over the record or tape. In fairness to those listeners, we will now take a few seconds before we begin Side 2. Thank you, and here is Side 2." Those noises were made by Shannon and Jeff Lynne; Petty used them as an interlude to mark the middle of the album, because you don't have to flip over a CD. This section was included only on CD versions of Full Moon Fever, but survived the transition when the album was released digitally. In 2007, the documentary Runnin' Down A Dream was released. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, the film chronicles the career of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played Runnin' Down A Dream at the halftime show of the Super Bowl in 2008. Rather than the usual medley of hits, the band played four full songs, the others being "American Girl," "I Won't Back Down" and "Free Fallin'." The song is used in the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, where it shows up on the radio station K-DST. In 2023, another Full Moon Fever track, "Love Is A Long Road," soundtracked the trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. A track from the first Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album, "American Girl" was never a hit, but it became one of their most popular songs. Part of its lasting appeal is its intrigue, as it is the subject of an urban myth that reads as follows: The University of Florida is located in Petty's hometown of Gainesville, Florida. A dorm at the school, Beatty Towers, provided the backdrop to a popular urban legend at UF as well as the story behind "American Girl". The story was that there was this virginal, All-American, debutante sort of girl, blonde locks and all, who decided to take hallucinogens for the first time while in her room at Beatty Towers. This being the 1960's and the age of limitless possibilities, it was pretty common to do something like that, especially in a college setting. Apparently, the girl thought she could fly, so she exited through the window and arrived face first on the concrete below. Some modern minstrels like to add that she jumped from the 13th floor, but this is probably part of campus lore. This incident was a big deal in Gainesville, which was still a picturesque Southern college town. It represented the end of innocence experienced by baby-boomers during the 1970's. Using it as inspiration, Tom Petty wove a captivating and poignant song based on this story for his first album and the rest is history. Expanding on the concept of innocence lost, this song speaks volumes and resonates even today. Beatty Towers are by State Road 441, which is mentioned in the second verse. Tom Petty said of American Girl: "I wrote that in a little apartment I had in Encino. It was right next to the freeway and the cars sometimes sounded like waves from the ocean, which is why there's the line about the waves crashing on the beach. The words just came tumbling out very quickly - and it was the start of writing about people who are longing for something else in life, something better than they have." Mike Campbell has been The Heartbreakers' guitarist since they formed the band. Here's what he told us about this song: "We used to have people come up to us and tell us they thought it was about suicide because of the one line about 'if she had to die,' but what they didn't get was, the whole line is 'if she had to die trying.' Some people take it literally and out of context. To me it's just a really beautiful love song. It does have some Florida imagery." In our interview with Mike Campbell, he said: "We cut that track on the 4th of July. I don't know if that had anything to do with Tom writing it about an American girl." Roger McGuinn recorded this on his 1977 album Thunderbyrd. McGuinn was a member of The Byrds and a big influence on Petty. He once joked that this number was a Byrds song he'd forgotten. Petty told Mojo magazine January 2010: "'American Girl' doesn't really sound like The Byrds; it evokes The Byrds. People are usually influenced by more than one thing, so your music becomes a mixture. There's nothing really new, but always new ways to combine things. We tried to play as good as whoever we admired but never could." Even though Petty and his band were from the US, this caught on in England long before it got any attention in America. As a result, Petty started his first big tour in the UK, where this was a bigger hit. This was featured in the 1991 movie Silence Of The Lambs. It was used in a scene where a female character is listening to it in a car before she meets Buffalo Bill, a serial killer who abducts her. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers opened their Live Aid set in Philadelphia with "American Girl." At one point in the song, Petty gives a little smile and flips off someone in the crowd. The concert was broadcast live to an audience of millions, so this was certainly one of the most-seen one-finger salutes in history. The Goo Goo Dolls played this at the 2001 "Concert For New York," a benefit show organized by Paul McCartney. Classic rockers like The Who and David Bowie were big hits among the crowd of police officers and firefighters, and they responded very well when The Goo Goo Dolls played this. Petty gave his reaction to the performance: "I was watching the 9/11 concert in New York and the Goo Goo Dolls played 'American Girl.' I could see the crowd cheering in this really patriotic context. But it was just a story when I wrote it. In my mind, the girl was looking for the strength to move on, and she found it. It's one of my favorites." Petty credits their producer, Denny Cordell, with helping him understand the importance of crafting a story in the lyrics to American Girl. Petty says Cordell told him, "When you put a little truth in a song, it elevates things." In the Bob Dylan tradition, Petty doesn't have a typical singing voice, but as heard in American Girl, he writes compelling lyrics that he delivers with conviction. This song opens the 2004 movie Chasing Liberty. Other films to use the song include Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and That's My Boy (2012). Among the TV series that have used it: Scrubs ("My Own American Girl," 2003) Cold Case ("Bad Night," 2005) The Sopranos ("Join the Club," 2006) Parks and Recreation ("Harvest Festival," 2011) The Goldbergs ("Shopping," 2013) Petty and the Heartbreakers played American Girl to open their set at the halftime show of the Super Bowl in 2008. This was featured in an episode of the TV show Scrubs called "My American Girl." Petty told Mojo that the girl in this song was not based anyone in particular. "She was a composite, a character who yearned for more than had life had dealt her." Hillary Clinton used American Girl at her campaign rallies when she was running against Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination. The choice was based solely on the title, as they lyric about desperate longing wasn't the message she was trying to get across. American Girl was the last song that Tom Petty ever performed. His final gig was at the legendary Hollywood Bowl on September 25, 2017 and the rock veteran closed his set with "American Girl." Petty died a week later at UCLA Santa Monica Hospital on October 2, 2017 following a cardiac arrest. The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas admitted to ripping off this song on their 2001 hit "Last Nite." "Good for you," Petty replied, admiring his audacity in admitting it. "It doesn't bother me." In Francis Ford Coppola's directorial debut film, Dementia 13 (1963), protagonist Louise Haloran (played by Luana Anders) remarks, "Especially an American girl... you can tell she's been raised on promises." Petty never publicly confessed to getting the line from that film, but it would be a mighty strange coincidence if it was by chance.

Red House Album: Are You Experienced? (1967) All Along The Watchtower Album: Electric Ladyland (1968) by Jimi Hendrix Running about 13 minutes depending on the rendition, "Red House" is a scorching blues number where Hendrix sings about returning home to see his girl, who lives in a red house. When he gets there, his key won't work, and he realizes she doesn't live there anymore. Instead of wallowing in his misery, he turns back and decides to pay a visit to her sister. According to the book Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight, Jimi worked up Red House in New York City when he was still a struggling musician. He was staying in a friend's apartment that was decorated almost completely red, which gave him the lyrical inspiration for this song. There have been lots of rumors about the origin. These are the most pervasive: 1) One of his girlfriends in Seattle lived in a house painted red. 2) It comes from a Hopi legend about a mysterious red city. Red House is a very intricate song that demonstrates Hendrix' mastery on guitar. It's one that earned him the respect of many musicians, including Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Gibbons says he was "completely turned upside down" when he heard it. Hendrix recorded this in a call-and-response blues style where each line is repeated twice. This style dates back to the field hollers workers would sing to pass time in the American south. This was not included on the original US release of Are You Experienced?; the omission of Red House tweaked Hendrix, since it was one of his favorites. He often performed the song at his concerts, constantly changing the arrangement. Hendrix recorded many versions of this song. The first release was on the UK version of his debut album, Are You Experienced? The original studio version of the song is 3 minutes, 49 seconds. Here's the timeline of the studio versions: Version 1: Recorded December 13, 1966, includes studio chat by Chas Chandler and Jimi, released on the original UK version of Are You Experienced? and on the 1997 30th Anniversary CD re-issue. Version 2: This version The same basic recording as version 1 but with a different vocal take by Jimi recorded March 29, 1967 and a different mix with more guitar echo. The studio chat introduction was mixed out, and the song released on the US version of Smash Hits in 1969, on the 1993 CD re-issue of Are You Experienced? and on The Ultimate Experience CD in 1993. Version 3: Recorded October 29, 1968 and introduced by Jimi as played by the Electric Church, it was released on Variations On A Theme: Red House CD in US only in 1989, released on Blues CD in 1994 and retitled "Electric Church Red House." This song was covered on the 1997 G3 Live In Concert album, where it was performed by Hendrix acolytes Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Eric Johnson. This appears on the City Of Angels movie soundtrack, and was used in a scene in the movie where Meg Ryan, who plays a cardiovascular surgeon, requests a nurse to turn on Jimi while she's operating on someone. Hendrix performed Red House at many of his famous festival appearances, including Woodstock and the Isle of Wight. All Along The Watchtower was written and originally recorded by Bob Dylan in 1967, but it was the Jimi Hendrix cover that made the song famous. Many other artists have covered it, including Eric Clapton, Neil Young, U2, Dave Matthews Band and The Grateful Dead. Dylan was so impressed with Jimi's version that Dylan for years played it the way that Jimi had recorded it. This was Hendrix' only Top 40 hit in the US, where his influence far outpaced his popularity. He charted a few times in the UK, where he rose to fame before making a name for himself in America. All Along The Watchtower was recorded while Hendrix played with the Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hendrix on guitar, Noel Redding on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums. For this song, however, Redding was not on bass; Hendrix did it. Redding was also the guitar player for his band Fat Mattress, which Hendrix referred to as Thin Pillow. Hendrix often felt that Redding did not put his heart into the bass and was concerned that Redding concentrated more on Fat Mattress than he did on the Experience. Things like these led to him being replaced by Billy Cox. The original version of All Along The Watchtower is very slow. Jimi Hendrix' version had a large impact on Dylan which made him make his own version "heavier." Hendrix said: "All those people who don't like Bob Dylan's songs should read his lyrics. They are filled with the joys and sadness of life. I am as Dylan, none of us can sing normally. Sometimes, I play Dylan's songs and they are so much like me that it seems to me that I wrote them. I have the feeling that Watchtower is a song I could have come up with, but I'm sure I would never have finished it. Thinking about Dylan, I often consider that I'd never be able to write the words he manages to come up with, but I'd like him to help me, because I have loads of songs I can't finish. I just lay a few words on the paper, and I just can't go forward. But now things are getting better, I'm a bit more self-confident." Hendrix had been working on and off with the members of the band Traffic as he recorded Electric Ladyland. Traffic guitarist Dave Mason caught Hendrix at a party and the two discussed Bob Dylan's newest album, John Wesley Harding, containing "All Along The Watchtower." Hendrix, long fascinated with Dylan, decided to cover the song on the album. On the resulting track, Mason plays rhythm on a 12-string acoustic guitar. In an interview with Mason, he explained: "Hendrix just happened to be sitting in one of those semi-private clubs in London. He was there one night just sitting alone, and it was like, "F--k, I'm just going to go over and say hi and talk to him." Mason recorded All Along The Watchtower himself in the Hendrix arrangement for his 1974 self-titled album. He also made the song a mainstay of his concerts. Mason says it's a deceptively simple song: "It's just the same three chords, and they never change." This was used in an episode of The Simpsons when Homer's mother was telling him a story that took place in the '60s about why she had to leave him. In a 2008 poll conducted by a panel of experts in the Total Guitar magazine, All Along The Watchtower was voted the best cover song of all time. The Beatles' rendition of "Twist and Shout," first recorded by the Top Notes, came second, followed by the Guns N' Roses version of the Wings song "Live and Let Die" in third place. All Along The Watchtower was used in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump shortly after the title character arrives in Vietnam. It's rare to find a list of the greatest rock guitarists without Jimi Hendrix on it, and this song is often cited as proof of his genius. In 2020, Rik Emmett of Triumph ranked it #1, calling it, "Still the greatest guitar recording that ever made the Top 40. A legendary guitarist making a defining statement. Plus, the epic transfigured Biblical setting of a Bob Dylan song? As good as it gets." Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones handled percussion on the track. In the intro, he played a vibraslap, a modern-day jawbone that creates a rattling sound when it's struck. The rattle also opens Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train."... Brian Jones death rattle...

Love My Way Album: Forever Now (1982) Here Come Cowboys Album: Mirror Moves (1984) by The Psychedelic Furs Furs frontman Richard Butler had a specific audience in mind when he penned the lyrics to Love My Way. He explained in an interview with Creem in 1982: "It's basically addressed to people who are f--ked up about their sexuality, and says 'Don't worry about it.' It was originally written for gay people." To the best of our knowledge, Love My Way is the most popular song featuring a marimba as a lead instrument. The Forever Now album was produced by Todd Rundgren and recorded at his studio, Utopia Sound. It was his idea to use the marimba on this track, and he played it. The demo of the song had a different instrument for those sections, but Rundgren had a marimba in the studio and thought it would be worth a shot. "It turned out that the little musical theme just sounded perfect with the marimbas, and became a signature element of the song," he said in an interview. "So it just was a question of availability. It's not like I had to go rent some marimbas. I happened to have them." The lead single to their third album, "Love My Way" was the first Psychedelic Furs song to chart in America, where it reached #44 thanks in large part to exposure on MTV. To that point, most Americans only heard the band on college radio or at listening stations in independent record stores. When the song caught on in the States, the band moved there because they found the audience more receptive and they liked what New York had to offer. Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of The Turtles sang backup on this track, but you would never peg the "Happy Together" singers as the backing voices. Producer Todd Rundgren used them essentially as an instrument, creating a wash of vocals under the chorus and at the end of the song. The dreamy, heavily tinted video, directed by Tim Pope, was the first by the band to get significant airplay on MTV, which launched a year earlier. Like many new wave British bands, Psychedelic Furs had been making music videos from the jump and had refined the form by the time MTV went on the air. Their videos didn't rely on subplot storylines where actors would portray characters in the songs. Instead, they typically showed just the band, offset by some abstract imagery. The Forever Now album marked a change in direction for the band, which had slimmed down to a quartet after losing saxophone player Duncan Kilburn and guitarist Roger Morris. Their first two albums were produced by Steve Lillywhite, but Todd Rundgren was at the controls for Forever Now. Richard Butler doesn't write love songs, but he does write songs about love. He told Songfacts that "Love My Way" is a great example. This song is included on the Valley Girl (1983) soundtrack. It was used in the scene when Nicolas Cage surprises Deborah Foreman in the bathroom at a party. Because of issues with music licensing, this song and others hits from the soundtrack, like Men at Work's "Who Can It Be Now?," have been replaced with other songs on the DVD release. Love My Way also appears in the 1998 movie The Wedding Singer and in a 2009 episode of the TV series Hung. When Rich Good filled in for guitarist John Ashton on tour in 2009, he quickly learned how passionate fans were about this song. He remembered in an interview with a now-defunct unofficial Psychedelic Furs website: "We got some rather heated responses when we didn't do 'LMW' for the first dates of 2009. I believe violence was threatened… You can't please all the people all the time." Love My Way features in a dance party sequence in the 2017 movie Call Me by Your Name where we see Armie Hammer bust out some awkward moves. It collected 177,000 audio and video streams in the US in the week ending November 30, 2017 following the film's release, according to Nielsen Music. That marked the song's largest ever streaming week. Written by the Butler brothers of The Psychedelic Furs (lead singer Richard and bass player Tim), "Here Come Cowboys" is one of the few songs by the band that takes a political lean, with Richard taking aim at US President Ronald Reagan and his law-and-order cohorts. In an interview with Artist magazine, Butler said that Reagan was the main cowboy, but the song is also "an attack on TV heroes." Tim Pope directed the Here Come Cowboys music video, which cuts between shots of the band performing the song and scenes from rural America, including sheriffs, rodeos, and, yes, cowboys. It's one of the few videos where you'll see star wipes. (Why have hamburger when you can have steak?) Mirror Moves was the fourth Psychedelic Furs album. Drummer Vince Ely left before they started making it, so their producer, Keith Forsey, stepped in behind the kit. Psychedelic Furs are from England, but by this time, Richard and Tim Butler had moved to America, which explains the very America-oriented lyric. The song was released as a single but failed to chart. Hopes were high that Mirror Moves would be the US breakthrough for the band, but the only single to chart was "The Ghost In You" at #59. 1978- Richard Butler Vocals 1978- Tim Butler Bass guitar 1978- Duncan Kilburn Saxophone 1978-1982 Paul Wilson Drums 1978-1979 Roger Morris Guitar 1978-1982 Vince Ely Drums 1979-1989 John Ashton Guitar 1979-2008 Paul Garisto Drums 1986- Rich Good Guitar 2009- Mars Williams Saxophone 1986- Amanda Kramer Keyboards 2003- The Psychedelic Furs were born amidst the chaos of the late-'70s punk scene in England when bands like The Sex Pistols were chewing scenery and spewing vitriol to the delight of disgruntled teens. But the Furs, formed by brothers Richard and Tim Butler, resist the constant stream of labels thrown at them and their unique blend of sound. Tim explained in an interview: "People for years have been trying to lump music into different categories. Music is just music. I can remember when we first came out, people were asking, 'How would you describe yourself? Punk? Or alternative? Or new wave?' Why pigeonhole people? It's just music." Although the Furs' music has been memorably featured in '80s teen flicks like Pretty in Pink and Valley Girl, Tim Butler leans toward a different genre. He told That Music Magazine his favorite film from the decade is John Carpenter's The Thing. Unfortunately, there are no songs from the band in the horror movie.

Aint Life Grand Album: Aint Life Grand (1994) Blue Indian Album: Til the Medicine Takes (2001) by Widespread Panic Ain't Life Grand is the fourth studio album by the Athens, GA-based band Widespread Panic. It was released by Capricorn Records and Warner Bros. Records on September 6, 1994. It was re-released in 2001 by Zomba Music Group. On July 3, 2014, the band announced that Ain't Life Grand would be reissued on vinyl in August 2014. The band got minor airplay for their cover of Bloodkin's "Can't Get High," as well as their own "Airplane." They performed the song '"Ain't Life Grand'" at Morehouse College for Good Morning America. The band began rehearsing for the album by recording pre-recording sessions at John Keane's home studio like their first album, Space Wrangler. They were so pleased with the results that they decided to use the sessions for Ain't Life Grand instead of going into the studio on a future date with their producer Johnny Sandlin. John Bell – guitar, mandolin, vocals John Hermann - keyboards, vocals Michael Houser – guitar, vocals Todd Nance – drums, vocals Domingo S. Ortiz – percussion Dave Schools – bass guitar Guest performers David Blackmon – fiddle Eric Carter – vocals Adriene Fishe – vocals John Keane – guitar, pedal steel, vocals Dwight Manning – oboe Ain't Life Grand Widespread Panic Watchin people roll by Wonderin where they're goin Hey, what's your job What are you knowin Drivin to the grocery store Pull my money out Passin by the liquor store Throw my money down Ain't life grand Ain't life grand My wife's got the blues Now I've got them Gonna bring her a kiss Make those blues run Ain't life grand Ain't life grand Sun came out the other day Through those dusty clouds And in my mind I was a child And it felt good! Ain't life grand (x4) Blue Indian Widespread Panic Oh, Pappy left a chair like he's still sittin' there Once I almost saw him make his move Brave Indian who never changes his mood In a painting on the wall right there Oh, how long 'til the morning wakes Oh, how long 'til the medicine takes Oh, Sally buffalo in the apartment just below Just a bein' without a care Oh, children from my brood they come and bring me food Maybe open up a window for air Oh, just now I smell the cornbread bake Oh, now, now, now I feel the medicine take Just like home Where the stray dogs go through it all Still right here, still just here, Brave little friend Well, we got a party goin' on many spirits strong Ain't preacher just a happy to meet ya Half a bottle 'neath the bed keep our spirits fed My hat's off to you, to you and you And now our brave friends, too, dancing circles through the room And a broom and a radio and a twistin out a dos-e-do Brand new day, the whole world's goin' Whole room's goin' so Just now, don't hesitate (hesitate) Oh, taste the morning break (morning break) Sweet, sweet, young honeycomb (honeycomb) On, now, now, now just like home (just like home) Oh, just like, just like home Where the stray dogs go Oh, oh, rest my bones Like a fresh skipped stone to it all Still right here, still just here, Still just here, brave, brave friend

“The divine in human nature disappears and interest, greed and selfishness takes it place. When a Republic begins to plunder its neighbors the words of doom are already written upon its walls.” Albert Pike , Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

Fell On Black Days Black Hole Sun Album: Superunknown (1994) by Soundgarden Soundgarden lead singer Chris Cornell wrote Fell On Black Days about how he suffered from a severe case of depression during his teenage years, rarely leaving the house. At one point, he spent a whole year without leaving his house, during which time he would play drums and guitar. It was released as a single in different versions, each with different B-sides. Cornell told Artist Direct in a 2012 interview that the song is "about waking up and realizing you're in a dark period of your life." Cornell had the idea for this song - and the title - about three years before he completed it. The delay came because he couldn't get in "the right musical mood to support the lyrics," until one day he was playing his guitar and came up with the riff he was looking for. In 1994, Chris Cornell spoke to Melody Maker about creating the song and the meaning behind it. "'Fell On Black Days' was like this ongoing fear I've had for years. It took me a long time to write that song. We've tried to do three different versions with that title, and none of them have ever worked," he said. "It's a feeling that everyone gets. You're happy with your life, everything's going well, things are exciting - when all of a sudden you realize you're unhappy in the extreme, to the point of being really, really scared. There's no particular event you can pin the feeling down to, it's just that you realize one day that everything in your life is f--ked!" The band is named after a sculpture in Seattle called "Soundgarden," and longtime speculation was that Black Hole Sun got its name from another Seattle sculpture called "Black Sun" by the artist Isamu Noguchi. (The piece is located in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill. It looks kind of like a huge, black doughnut and is aimed so you can see the Space Needle through the middle of it.) Chris Cornell stated in a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly that the title came from something he heard on the news - he thought the anchor said "black hole sun," but he really was saying something else. Cornell started thinking about the phrase and decided to write a song around it, as he felt it was a thought-provoking title. He wrote the lyrics first, then composed the music based on the images he came up with. Black Hole Sun was written entirely by Chris Cornell. "If I write lyrics that are bleak or dark, it usually makes me feel better," the Soundgarden frontman said. Black Hole Sun is certainly bleak, with references to snakes, a dead sky, and the summer stench. It's one of the more morose songs to get consistent airplay, and it helped associate the grunge sound with depression and angst. Cornell, however, was simply expressing some dark thoughts in song - he was not suffering or crying for help in the manner of Kurt Cobain. In an interview with Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil, he said of this song: "We'd had singles before. But that was easily our biggest hit. That was more singer/songwriterish. Chris went that direction of singer/songwriter guy, and the band was more accepting because of the success of singer/songwriting stuff as opposed to more guitar oriented rock. It was more vocal accompaniment rock, some guitar. So we started utilizing a little bit more of that." This song got a lot of radio play because the Alternative format and grunge sound were popular at the time and Top 40 radio stations were playing a lot of songs by artists like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Stone Temple Pilots. It didn't make the Hot 100 because it wasn't released as a single and therefore ineligible for the chart (it did make #24 on Billboard's Airplay chart). Holding back singles was a common ploy around this time, as it encouraged fans to buy the albums. Accordingly, Superunknown went to #1 in America, far better than the #39 peak of their previous album, Badmotorfinger. Black Hole Sun won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. They also won Best Metal Performance that year for "Spoonman." The song was covered by Peter Frampton on his 2006 instrumental album Fingerprints. The lyrics were replaced by Frampton on guitar, playing through his trademark "talk box," through which he simulated the pitch of the vocals, but not the words. The only distinguishable words (played through the talk box) in the rendition are "Black hole sun, won't you come," which can be heard in the verses after the bridge/guitar solo. Fingerprints won the 2007 Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album. The surreal Howard Greenhalgh-directed video finds the band performing the song in an open field as a suburban neighborhood are swallowed up by a black hole. Speaking with Artist Direct in a 2012 interview, Cornell said that at the time he had made a number of videos with directors who didn't understand where the band was coming from and he was disillusioned with the whole process. "We just read treatments for it, and Howard Greenhalgh's treatment just read weird as the video turned out," he recalled. "I suggested we just pick one that we want, try to find a great one, and let the guy do whatever he wants," continued Cornell. "We should just be there and not emote, not pretend to be excited to play the song, deadpan, stand there, and do absolutely nothing. We chose his treatment because it seemed interesting. I told him on the phone, 'We're not going to do anything. You're not going to get anything out of us. We're just going to stand there because we don't want to do this anymore.'. Somehow, for whatever reason, he loved that. I love the video because it worked. It just happened to be a guy with a great idea who happened to believe in our notion that we're reluctant video stars who are going to give you nothing. The contrast of us giving you nothing and your vision is actually going to be better than if we're jumping around acting like crazy rock people and you're doing these flash jump-cut edits and crazy lighting. We're weird enough as it is, and we're tired of trying to not be. It worked. It was a big lesson. If you get out of somebody's way, or collaborate in the right way, a good thing can come out of it." Chris Cornell got the idea for Black Hole Sun while driving home from Bear Creek Studio, near Seattle, where Soundgarden were recording a version of "New Damage" for a charity album. He recalled to Uncut magazine August 2014: "I wrote it in my head driving home from Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, a 35-40 minute drive from Seattle. It sparked from something a news anchor said on TV and I heard wrong. I heard 'blah blah blah black hole sun blah blah blah'. I thought that would make an amazing song title, but what would it sound like? It all came together, pretty much the whole arrangement including the guitar solo that's played beneath the riff." "I spent a lot of time spinning those melodies in my head so I wouldn't forget them," he continued. "I got home and whistled it into a Dictaphone. The next day I brought it into the real world, assigning a couple of key changes in the verse to make the melodies more interesting. Then I wrote the lyrics and that was similar,a stream of consciousness based on the feeling I got from the chorus and title." Cornell reflected on the song's lyrical content to Uncut: "What's interesting to me is the combination of a black hole and a sun," he said. "A black hole is a billion times larger than a sun, it's a void, a giant circle of nothing, and then you have the sun, the giver of all life. It was this combination of bright and dark, this sense of hope and underlying moodiness." "I even liked the way the words looked written down," Cornell added. "I liken it to Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, where there's a happy veneer over something dark. It's not something I can do on purpose but occasionally it will happen by accident."

One Trick Pony God Bless The Absentee Album One-Trick Pony (1980) by Paul Simon One-Trick Pony is the fifth solo studio album by Paul Simon released in 1980. It was Simon's first album for Warner Bros. Records, and his first new studio album since 1975's Still Crazy After All These Years. His back catalog from Columbia Records would also move to Warner Bros. as a result of his signing with the label. Paul Simon's One-Trick Pony was released concurrently with the film of the same name, in which Simon also starred. Despite their similarities, the album and film are musically distinct: each features different versions of the same songs, as well as certain songs that appear exclusively on either the film or the album. The title track was released as a single and became a U.S. Top 40 hit. Two of the tracks (the title song and "Ace in the Hole") were recorded live at the Agora Theatre and Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio in September 1979, while the rest are studio cuts. Several session musicians appearing on the album also appeared in the movie as the character Jonah's backing band: guitarist Eric Gale, pianist Richard Tee, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Steve Gadd. Simon toured Europe and America in 1980 with this band in support of the album, with one concert from Philadelphia recorded on video and released on VHS under the title "Paul Simon in Concert", then subsequently on DVD under 2 different titles for the same concert footage ("Live at the Tower Theatre" and "Live from Philadelphia"). In 2004, One-Trick Pony was remastered and re-released by Warner Bros. Records. This reissue contains four bonus tracks, including "Soft Parachutes" and "Spiral Highway" (an early version of "How the Heart Approaches What It Yearns") both of which were featured in the film but were missing from the original album release. Also included in the re-release were the outtake of "All Because of You" (an early version of "Oh, Marion" that would also spawn "God Bless the Absentee") and "Stranded in a Limousine", which originally appeared on the 1977 compilation Greatest Hits, Etc... The title is a colloquial American expression meaning a person specializing in only one thing, having only one talent, or of limited ability. Paul Simon – vocals, nylon string guitar, electric guitar, percussion Eric Gale – electric guitar Richard Tee – Fender Rhodes, piano on "God Bless the Absentee" Tony Levin – bass guitar on all songs except where noted Patti Austin – vocals Bob Friedman – horn and string arrangements Lani Groves – background vocals Dave Grusin – horn and string arrangements Ralph MacDonald – percussion Hugh McCracken – acoustic guitar

In honor of the Eclipse I give you For Whom The Bell Tolls Album: Ride The Lightning (1984) by Metallica The rules change April 8th. 04/08 2024 Forty-eight is the double factorial of 6 The number of symmetries of a cube. The number of Ptolemaic constellations. According to the Mishnah, Torah wisdom is acquired via 48 ways (Pirkei Avoth 6:6). In Buddhism, Amitabha Buddha had made 48 great vows and promises to provide ultimate salvation to countless beings through countless eons, with benefits said to be available merely by thinking about his name with Nianfo practice. He is thus hailed as "King of Buddhas" through such skillful compassion and became a popular and formal refuge figure in Pureland Buddhism. On Tool's album Ænima, there is a song named "Forty-Six & 2", the sum of which is 48. 48 Hours is a television news program on CBS. '48 is an alternate history novel by James Herbert. The number 48 in ASCII is what you add to any single digit integer to convert to its ASCII value. In my world, a 48 is an Incomplete Sequence Relay / Blocked Rotor The lyrics are based on the 1940 Ernest Hemingway novel of the same name. The book is about an American who is given the job of taking out a bridge held by the Fascist army in the Spanish Civil War - the precursor to World War II. He fell in love and then found out very disturbing things about life and death. The phrase "For Whom The Bell Tolls" originated in a 1623 poem by the Englishman John Donne, who wrote: Send not to know For whom the bell tolls It tolls for thee Hemingway's book used the title. This song is a commentary on the futility of war. The last few lines of the song diverge from the book to make this point. >> This is another song in which Cliff Burton's unique lead bass style is often mistaken for a guitar solo. Burton played the intro using light distortion on his bass. According to Kirk Hammett, Burton regularly played the intro bass riff when the pair of them were hanging out in their hotel room. The guitarist recalled to Rolling Stone in 2014: "He used to carry around an acoustic classical guitar that he detuned so that he could bend the strings. Anyway, when he would play that riff, I would think, 'That's such a weird, atonal riff that isn't really heavy at all.'" "I remember him playing it for James (Hetfield, vocals), and James adding that accent to it and all of a sudden, it changed," Hammett added. "It's such a crazy riff. To this day, I think, 'How did he write that?' Whenever I hear nowadays, it's like, 'OK, Cliff's in the house.'" Burton, Hetfield and Lars Ulrich are the credited writers on the song. Ride The Lightning is the second Metallica album, and the first co-produced by Flemming Rasmussen, who worked on their next two albums as well. He came on board when the band decided to record the album in Europe, where studio time cost much less than in America thanks to a favorable exchange rate. They chose Rasmussen's Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen and used him as engineer and co-producer (along with the band). On this song, they tried something new. "'For Whom the Bell Tolls' was the first song we ever did to a click track," Rasmussen said in a Songfacts interview. "That was kind of tricky. That was also Lars learning how to play to a click." The song opens with the tolling of a bell, which rings throughout the first minute of the song before gradually fading out. It's the second-most famous rock song to do this, placing behind AC/DC's "Hell's Bells," from their 1980 album Back In Black. The bands got their bell sounds in very different ways; AC/DC ordered a custom, one-ton bell from a foundry and recorded it using a mobile unit and 15 microphones. Metallica used a sound effects reel. "We edited in the bell effect so it would fit and be in tempo," Flemming Rasmussen told Songfacts. "I copied it and cut it in where it was supposed to come. So, once we got that tape started at the right spot, it simply played itself, and then dumped it into 24-track."

Mother Goodbye Blue Sky Album: The Wall (1979) by Pink Floyd Pink Floyd's album The Wall is mainly the creation of founding member Roger Waters. It's a semi-autobiographical story about a young boy who loses his father in the war and is raised by his overly protective mother, who is the focus of this song. The child grows up alone as an outsider that absolutely does not fit in. He feels trapped by his overly protective environment while being shunned by the men around him. Waters told Mojo that the mother portrayed in the song has some similarities to his own mum. He said: "My mother was suffocating in her own way. She always had to be right about everything. I'm not blaming her. That's who she was. I grew up with a single parent who could never hear anything I said, because nothing I said could possibly be as important as what she believed. My mother was, to some extent, a wall herself that I was banging my head against. She lived her life in the service of others. She was a school teacher. But it wasn't until I was 45, 50 years old that I realised how impossible it was for her to listen to me." When Mojo asked Waters if his mother saw herself in the song, he replied: "She's not that recognizable. The song is more general, the idea that we can be controlled by our parents' views on things like sex. The single mother of boys, particularly, can make sex harder than it needs to be." The main character in the song and throughout The Wall is named Pink. In this song, he's portrayed by Roger Waters, who asks his mother a series of questions: Mother, do you think they'll drop the bomb? Mother, do you think they'll like this song? Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is the voice of the mother telling him the world is terrifying, but she'll protect him: Mama's gonna put all of her fears into you Mama's gonna keep you right here under her wing Unlike many of the songs on The Wall, "Mother" works well when extracted as an individual song, making it suitable for airplay. The songs on the album all flow together, so most don't have clear starting and stopping points, but "Mother" follows "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)," which ends with the sound of a phone ringing. There's then a brief silence before we hear Roger Waters take a deep breath and sing the first line of "Mother." The song is the last track on Side 1 of the double album, so it has a clear ending on the line, "Mother, did it need to be so high?" Radio stations took advantage and gave the song lots of airplay, playing it right off the album because it wasn't released as a single. It endured for many years on classic rock radio. The Wall was made into a 1982 movie starring Bob Geldof as Pink. There are animated sequences throughout the film created by Gerald Scarfe, who visualized the mother as a huge monstrous woman with a brick-wall bosom. Roger Waters told Mojo magazine December 2009: "The song has some connection with my mother, for sure, though the mother that Gerald Scarfe visualises in his drawings couldn't be further from mine. She's nothing like that." Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason didn't play on this track. According to Roger Waters, this was because Mason had trouble with the 5/4 time signatures and other changes, as "his brain doesn't work that way." Jeff Porcaro, who was a session drummer and also a member of the band Toto, took his place. Mason was also replaced on drums (this time by Andy Newmark) on the track "Two Suns in the Sunset" from the album The Final Cut. Roger Waters came up with the idea for The Wall after Pink Floyd's 1977 tour. Over the next year, he developed the idea, and when the band reconvened, he had a 90-minute demo with just his voice and guitar to lay out his vision. With help from producer Bob Ezrin, Waters and the band expanded the songs and tied them all together with sound effects and musical transitions. Many of the songs changed drastically from Waters' demo, but "Mother" hewed close to the original. Other songs that remained pretty much intact include "Is There Anybody Out There?" and "Don't Leave Me Now." Roger Waters took over most of the songwriting in Pink Floyd starting with their 1975 album Wish You Were Here. By the time they recorded The Wall, there was a great deal of tension in the band. They pulled off one more album (The Final Cut in 1983) before Waters left, which he assumed would be the end of the group. He was wrong. Gilmour and company carried on without him as Pink Floyd, releasing their first Waters-less album, A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, in 1987. Waters wasn't done performing The Wall though. In 1990 he staged an ambitious concert in Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, enlisting famous singers to help out. On "Mother," he was joined by Sinéad O'Connor and three members of The Band: Garth Hudson, Rick Danko and Levon Helm. Pearl Jam performed "Mother" on September 30, 2011 as part of a week-long Pink Floyd tribute on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The Shins, Foo Fighters, MGMT, and Dierks Bentley all played Pink Floyd songs on the show that week. Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines recorded a cover version in 2013 which was the title track to her first solo album. She decided to cover the song after hearing Roger Waters perform it on his The Wall Live tour, which ran 2010-2013. Waters loved her rendition, telling Rolling Stone, "I get goosebumps just talking about it." "Goodbye Blue Sky" is part of Pink Floyd's seminal album The Wall, the creation of founding member Roger Waters. It's a concept album centered on the character Pink, who is in many ways an outcrop of Waters' psyche. The song finds Pink in early adolescence, already beset by fear in the aftermath of World War II in England ("Did you hear the falling bombs?"). He's getting ready to set out on his own, leaving behind any childhood innocence - the "blue sky." On the vinyl version of the album, "Goodbye Blue Sky" is the first track on Side 2 (The Wall was a double album). In an interview around the album's release, Roger Waters described the song as being a recap of the first side of album one, summing up Pink's life to that point. As Waters says, in it's most simplistic form "it's remembering one's childhood and then getting ready to set off into the rest of one's life." The child who says the line, "Look mummy, there's an airplane up in the sky" is Roger's son Harry, who was only two years old at the time. Harry, like his father, also became a musician. The lead vocal on this one is by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, who in various spots on the album shows up as the voice of someone addressing Pink. For instance, he's the voice of Pink's mum in "Mother." The Wall was adapted into an movie in 1982 starring Bob Geldof as Pink. "Goodbye Blue Sky" plays in one of the many sequences animated by Gerald Scarfe. The sequence starts with a dove transforming into a vulture and ends with a cross dripping blood - scary stuff! Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 but that didn't stop him from performing The Wall in Berlin in 1990 after the Berlin Wall fell. He used guest vocalists to fill David Gilmour's parts. For "Goodbye Blue Sky" he got a good one: Joni Mitchell. Waters did an entire tour for the album that ran from 2010 to 2013.

It's a Mother Beautiful Bridge

Somebody Told Me Album: Hot Fuss (2004) by The Killers As the Killers strolled onto the rock scene in the early ’00s, their unique blend of classic rock and ’80s flavored dance beats took a minute to catch on—but once it did, it spread like wildfire. Their heavy-on-the-synthesizer debut was preceded by several hit singles, including “Mr. Brightside,” “All These Things I’ve Done” and “Somebody Told Me” that defined rock music of the era. “Somebody Told Me” was not an instant success. Cowering in the colossal shadow of the lead track “Mr. Brightside,” the song didn’t quite measure up. However, after the group shared a revamped version of the track, it rose in the ranks, settling in comfortably beside its predecessor atop the charts. The song’s meaning has long been debated amongst fans with many thinking a deeper metaphor lies underneath the pulsing club rhythm. When you first listen to the Bowie-Esque disco of “Somebody Told Me,” the lyrics seem to point to a man trying his darndest to get the attention of a girl in a club—a typical unrequited love tale for the rock outfit. However, the lyrics also seem to point to the ever-growing challenge for a songwriter to reach their audience. Whether it’s a romantic connection or fame frontman Brandon Flowers craves, he lays it all out in this song. Breakin’ my back just to know your name Seventeen tracks and I’ve had it with this game A breakin’ my back just to know your name But Heaven ain’t close in a place like this Anything goes but don’t blink, you might miss In the first verse, Flowers sings about being in a dance club and hearing 17 songs come and go while trying to capture the attention of a woman he’s interested in. Many Killers fans also point out that the “Seventeen tracks” line could also point to creating oodles of music without reward, leading Flowers to “be done with this game. Well somebody told me you had a boyfriend Who looked like a girlfriend That I had in February of last year It’s not confidential, I’ve got potential Inside the chorus, the double meaning continues as he sings both about the couple being attracted to similar-looking people—so it must mean they fit together well too. Conversely, when reading between the lines, it could point to someone having written a song that is similar to one Flowers has penned. When talking about this track, Flowers has only ever said, “We were going out to clubs a lot at the time. It speaks to a young man’s frustration, the difficulty of picking up girls.” However, the song was released as part of the group’s debut studio album, Hot Fuzz, and was little noticed by the industry. So much so that this single had to be released in two separate forms to gain traction. The first iteration of the track was released with the above pink single cover, but due to poor sales, production stopped altogether. A newer version, featuring a blue background, was re-released which then began to garner some buzz. Breakin' my back just to know your name Seventeen tracks and I've had it with this game A breakin' my back just to know your name But Heaven ain't close in a place like this Anything goes but don't blink, you might miss 'Cause Heaven ain't close in a place like this I said Heaven ain't close in a place like this Bring it back down, bring it back down tonight (hoo hoo) Never thought I'd let a rumor ruin my moonlight Well somebody told me you had a boyfriend Who looked like a girlfriend That I had in February of last year It's not confidential, I've got potential Ready let's roll onto something new Takin' it's toll then I'm leaving without you 'Cause Heaven ain't close in a place like this I said Heaven ain't close in a place like this Bring it back down, bring it back down tonight (hoo hoo) Never thought I'd let a rumor ruin my moonlight Well somebody told me you had a boyfriend Who looked like a girlfriend That I had in February of last year It's not confidential, I've got potential A rushing, rushing around Pace yourself for me (for me) I said maybe, baby, please (please) But I just don't know now (baby, baby) When all I want to do is try Well somebody told me you had a boyfriend Who looked like a girlfriend That I had in February of last year It's not confidential, I've got potential A rushing, rushing around Now somebody told me you had a boyfriend Who looked like a girlfriend That I had in February of last year It's not confidential, I've got potential A rushing, rushing around Somebody told me you had a boyfriend Who looked like a girlfriend That I had in February of last year It's not confidential, I've got potential A rushing, rushing around

Turn Blue Fever Album: Turn Blue (2014) by The Black Keys It was reported in February 2013 that Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach and his wife Stephanie Gonis were in the midst of divorce proceedings. Many of the lyrics on the Turn Blue address the breakdown of his marriage and the moody title track finds the vocalist battling depression as he struggles to "stay on track just like Pops told me to." The arrival of Turn Blue on May 13, 2014 was announced using Mike Tyson's Twitter. The idea to have the boxer unveil the album originated after he called the band to thank them for licensing a song for use in a documentary he was making and he offered to do them a favor in return. The title is based on a catch phrase used by Ghoulardi, a Cleveland TV host of a late night horror movie presentation between 1963-66. The Black Keys were asked by the BBC what made this appropriate as the title track? Auerbach replied: "We just liked the phrase, first off. We liked the association with Ghoulardi, this kind of weird freak from Ohio from the early 60s - that was phrase he used to use. And then so much of the album was lyrically melancholy and introspective and personal, so it was very blue. I guess it just made sense." He added: "We also liked how we could translate Turn Blue into artwork for the cover." After the Black Keys had finished touring El Camino in January 2013, the pair headed to the Key Club studio in Benton Harbor to record an album's worth of songs on Sly Stone's old console. "We left the building once in two weeks," guitarist Dan Auerbach recalled to NME. "It felt like we were on a ship in the ocean." The band felt that they'd unnecessarily rushed the process and only retained two cuts from the sessions for their Turn Blue album "Fever" and "Gotta Get Away." This was released as the first single from Turn Blue. The Black Keys gave the song's first UK airing on XFM's Evening Show with Georgie Rogers. "Ultimately I think it's something different than anything we've done before," drummer Patrick Carney told Georgie. "It's a pretty diverse album and a little bit more psychedelic than the last record." "It always feels strange releasing a single because you have to separate the song from the whole album and you kind of listen to a song out of context for a few weeks," he added. "That's the part I have always had trouble wrapping my head around because for Dan and I, our albums are meant to be listened to as albums. I'm excited for people to hear the song. I'm more excited for people to hear the whole album." The song's music video features Dan Auerbach as a televangelist, whilst Patrick Carney nods along approvingly on the side. The clip was directed by photographer Theo Wenner, who is the son of Rolling Stone co-founder and publisher Jann Wenner. Auerbach urges his followers to call his donation hotline number - 1 (646) 397-6172 , which flashes at the bottom of the screen. Try dialing it for a largely indecipherable pre-recorded message, which turns out to be Patrick Carney, posing as New Age act Quartzazium, prank-calling the Black Keys' own label, Nonesuch. The Black Keys felt freed of the need to write hit singles for Turn Blue, but this still became radio hit. Auerbach told the BBC: "We made five albums without once ever thinking about a single and then we wrote 'Tighten Up' and it got played on radio and changed our career. So from then we started looking at it as a challenge." "So when we were writing 'Fever,' we wanted it to be catchy," he continued. "We weren't thinking 'this is a radio hit' but it was like 'the melody is catchy, let's do things that would make it even catchier.'"

Arizona Album Blackout (1982) Always Somewhere Album Lovedrive (1979) Scorpions Lovedrive is the sixth studio album by the German rock band Scorpions, released in 1979. Considered by some critics to be the pinnacle of their career, Lovedrive was a major evolution of the band's sound, exhibiting their "classic style" that would be later developed over their next few albums. Lovedrive cemented the "Scorpions formula" of hard rock songs combined with melodic ballads. Lovedrive was the band’s first album to be released by Harvest Records in Europe and Mercury Records in the United States and Canada following the band's departure from RCA. This is the first album to feature Matthias Jabs on lead guitar, and thus the first record to feature the band's "classic" lineup. Jabs replaced Uli Jon Roth who went on to form his own band, Electric Sun. Michael Schenker, younger brother of rhythm guitarist Rudolf, had just split from UFO. He recorded lead guitars on "Another Piece of Meat", "Coast to Coast", "Holiday", "Loving You Sunday Morning" and "Lovedrive". At the beginning of the Scorpions' German tour in February 1979, Michael rejoined the band and the group reluctantly parted ways with Matthias Jabs. However, in April 1979 while the band was touring in France, Michael quit, which led to Jabs' immediate return after intense negotiations. The original album cover depicted a well dressed man and woman seated in the back of a car, with the woman's right breast exposed and connected to the man's hand by stretched bubblegum. The back cover featured the same man and woman, but holding a photograph of the band, and with the woman's left breast completely exposed without any gum. It was created by Storm Thorgerson of the design firm Hipgnosis. It caused some controversy in the US upon the album's release, with later pressings of the album bearing a simple design of a blue scorpion on a black background. The original uncensored art was restored for the remaster series. Recalling the cover photo with the woman and the car, Thorgerson remarked: "Not exactly the most politically correct scene you've ever seen. I thought it was funny, but women read a different inflection into it now." In a 2010 interview, singer Klaus Meine commented on the album cover, stating: "We just did not know it would be a problem in America, it was just sex and rock 'n' roll. It is odd that in America some of these covers were a problem, because in the '80s when we would tour here, we always had boobs flashed to us at the front of the stage. Nowhere else in the world, just here. We just did not think it would be a problem to put out a record like Lovedrive in America." Blackout is the eighth studio album by the German rock band Scorpions. It was released in 1982 by Harvest and Mercury Records. After losing his voice during the writing of the album, lead singer Klaus Meine had to undergo surgery on his vocal cords and was uncertain as to whether or not he would be able to record. Demos of the material were recorded with singer Don Dokken from Dokken, a then-unknown band from Los Angeles. However, none of those recordings are featured on the album and Dokken is only credited with backing vocals. A self-portrait of artist Gottfried Helnwein is featured on the cover of the album. Schenker portrays this character in the "No One Like You" music video.

Dazed and Confused (The Yardbirds in '68 - Live at the BBC and Beyond) by The Yardbirds Led Zeppelin’s self-titled debut album came out 50 years ago today. But if you’ve purchased it more recently, you might have seen the following writing credit under the song “Dazed and Confused”: “By Jimmy Page; Inspired by Jake Holmes.” Those seven words may seem pretty innocuous on the page, but that phrase is the result of decades of controversy and litigation. Those words reveal questions of what counts as a cover song, how an artist needs to credit a songwriter from whom they draw material, and where the line lies between homage and theft. Jake Holmes wrote “Dazed and Confused” for his debut album, “The Above Ground Sound” of Jake Holmes. A young California singer-songwriter, Holmes was hotly tipped by the industry to be the next breakout star in the folky Donovan vein. When he wrote “Dazed and Confused,” he knew immediately that it would be a big song. He just thought it would be a big song for him. On August 25, 1967, Holmes was promoting his new album with a concert at New York’s Village Theater. Also on the bill were two bands with similar names: the Youngbloods (best known for their hit “Get Together”) and the Yardbirds. The latter band may have been the best training ground for budding guitar hotshots in history. Their first guitarist, a young buck named Eric Clapton, had left the band by this point, as had his replacement, Jeff Beck. The Yardbirds had recently hired the third guitarist in this incredible run, a promising session musician named Jimmy Page. Though the Yardbirds’ series of guitarists seems amazing now, at the time of the show with Jake Holmes it felt like a drag. Tired from all the turnover, the band was struggling to find a rhythm with their newest member. “We were quite stale and stuck creatively” when Page joined, Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty remembers today. “We were still playing really similar things as we had with Jeff Beck. We had very few new things and running a bit low on ideas of songs to cover or songs that we wanted to do.” Inspiration finally struck at that Village Theater show. Before his band’s set, McCarty stood at the side of the stage watching Holmes play. (Page may have stood there with him; memories differ.) “Now and then you go up and you see who’s playing with you,” McCarty says. “Jake Holmes was playing with two other guys. They were playing sort of jazzy things. I thought the music was quite pleasant, but didn’t think much of it. Then all of a sudden they started to play this riff. And I thought, oh that’s a very good riff, very haunting, quite interesting.” The riff was Holmes’ new song “Dazed and Confused.” “The following day I went down and got his album at Bleecker Bob’s record store,” says McCarty. “I had a little record player on the road and I played it to Jimmy and the guys and then we said, we should work out a version.” The band agreed, mesmerized by that same guitar line. “The song had all the feeling of our old material,” McCarty says. “That descending riff is very haunting; it creates an atmosphere. That’s the sort of music we liked, music that’s a little bit dark.” Hoping this song would stir them out of their creative funk, the Yardbirds worked up a cover of “Dazed and Confused” at their next rehearsal. It was clear from the start this would be an opportunity for Jimmy Page to shine. As a replacement for both Clapton and Beck, the new guitarist had massive shoes to fill. On “Dazed and Confused,” he could show he was equal to the task. “Anything with a riff like that would be a guitar showcase,” McCarty says. “We worked it up and added other bits. Jimmy added that other riff in the middle [a bridge borrowed from another Yardbirds track, ‘Think About It’]. He played all those nice little wah-wah things. It had all the trademarks of the Yardbirds sound.” Their arrangement of the song also added something new to the band: a violin bow. Page had begun experimenting with running a bow over his guitar strings in the studio for an ethereal, swirling effect, and found the technique worked perfectly with such a trippy song. What would later become such an iconic part of Led Zeppelin was then just a young and unproven guitarist trying to bring something new to his instrument. The Yardbirds quickly added “Dazed and Confused” to their live shows and even performed it once on a French TV show. But, in one of music history’s great missed opportunities, they never recorded the song. Though they enjoyed playing it, ultimately the song had not inspired the rejuvenating spark they’d hoped for. They never recorded another album with the Jimmy Page lineup, abandoning a session in New York after only three songs due to exhaustion.

Rock Bottom Doctor Doctor Album: Phenomenon (1974) by UFO Rock Bottom is Co-written by vocalist/lyricist Phil Mogg and then lead guitarist Michael Schenker, "Rock Bottom" was recorded initially for the 1974 Phenomenon album, on which it runs to 6 minutes 22 seconds. It was also released as a single - a format that could not possibly do it justice - the live version from Strangers In The Night is unquestionably the definitive. This album was recorded on the band's 1978 US tour and was released on the Chrysalis Label in January the following year. Running to 11 minutes 8 seconds, "Rock Bottom" is the high point, with Schenker demonstrating awesome speed and technique, but this is more than a mere guitar solo; towards the end, Paul Raymond on keyboards provides a thrilling racing effect with the mercurial German, who, incredibly, was said to be unhappy with the recording. Others beg to differ. In 2004, Classic Rock magazine rated UFO's Strangers In The Night double album the #2 live rock album of all time behind only Thin Lizzy's Live And Dangerous. In September 2008, when asked what had inspired the song lyrically, Phil Mogg said it was a horror film, but that he had forgotten its title. It is possible though that he was influenced subconsciously by the traditional song/poem "The Unquiet Grave", which contains the phrase "one kiss of your clay-cold lips." Mogg uses the same phrase "one sweet kiss on your clay-cold lips" (which is likewise to be taken literally) although in a different context. It took a while for Phil Mogg to settle on a set of lyrics for this song. An early performance reveals how he sang completely different words early on. In a Songfacts interview with Michael Schenker, he explained that this song had a very spontaneous conception. "We were just sitting there looking for an additional song, and when I played 'Rock Bottom,' the riff, that's when Phil jumped up and said, 'That's it! That's it!'" said Schenker. "So we started putting it together and putting it into form." Speaking about the freeform nature of this song and how he improvises it during live performances, Schenker told us: "'Rock Bottom' has that piece in the middle of free expression, and it's perfect for me because I love pure self-expression. It's a really, really good part to play over that particular chord there, and it leaves a lot of space to come up with a whole bunch of creative ideas. Over the years, the solos have changed. I keep the basic structure of it, but there is a lot of space to put new 'sparks' on here and there and keep it fresh. It's always enjoyable to play over and over and over, because I can be very creative with it on the spot. That's a very fascinating, enjoyable part of music for me." "Doctor Doctor" is a UFO standard; co-written by lead vocalist Phil Mogg with their new recruit Michael Schenker, it was released as a single in May 1974 backed by "On With The Action" and "Try Me." The album version runs to 4 minutes 10 seconds, and it also appeared on the live double Strangers In The Night. She walked up to me And really stole my heart And then she started To take my body apart What sort of woman does that to a man? Perhaps the same "White Lady" a certain John Lees wrote about in "Hymn." As Phil Mogg told Michael Hann of the Guardian in March 2012: "We must have done a lot for Peru!" This didn't chart when it was first released, but it went to #35 UK in 1979 after a live version was released as a single. Iron Maiden uses "Doctor Doctor" as its entrance music at all their concerts. "Everybody knows we play 'Doctor Doctor' before we go on stage," lead singer Bruce Dickinson explained in his February 11, 2022 spoken-word show at The Vic Theatre in Chicago. "So, before the intro tape, there's five minutes of 'Doctor Doctor.' It's brilliant, so people go, 'Oh, quick.' Stop having a piss, drink the last pint, get to your seats. 'Doctor Doctor' is playing."

Lucky Man Album: Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970) C'est La Vie Album: Works, Volume 1 (1977) by Emerson Lake & Palmer Greg Lake started writing "Lucky Man" when he was just 12 years old. "I was round my friend's house and he had a broken down old guitar," Lake explained on his Songs of a Lifetime tour. "In fact, it only had one string on it. Luckily, it was the bottom string. With a matchstick, I picked out this tune. It made me think, you know, perhaps I could play guitar. So it came to Christmas and I said to my mom, 'Do you think there's any chance of me having a guitar for Christmas?' And she said, 'No.' You know, we were pretty poor. So that was it. I just accepted it. But anyway, Christmas came, and there it was, the guitar. And of course I was thrilled. The first four chords I learned were D, A minor, E minor, and G. With these chords I wrote this little song. It's a kids' song, really. And it was a medieval fantasy, really. And I never wrote it on a piece of paper. I just remembered the words." Arguably Emerson, Lake & Palmer's best known song, this almost did not happen. On the last day of recording their first album, ELP did not have enough material to fulfill their contract requirements of 21 minutes per album side. Greg Lake explained: "Everybody looked round the studio, you know, 'Has anybody got any more material?' And there was deadly silence. So I said, 'Well, look, you know, I've got this little thing I wrote when I was a kid. And if there's nothing else, maybe that would do.' You know. So Keith said, 'Well, you play it, then, let's have a listen.' So I played it, and nobody liked it. So I said, 'Yeah, but you know, the thing is we've got nothing else.' Keith said, 'Well, you record it on your own and I'm going to go down the pub.' So off he went down the pub. So Carl Palmer and I, we recorded the first part together, just drums and acoustic guitar. And it sounded pretty dreadful. But then I put a bass on it and it sounded a bit better. And then I went and put some more guitars on it, and an electric guitar solo. Then I put these harmonies on, these block harmonies. And in the end it sounded pretty good, it sounded like a record." The guitar chords on the chorus: A minor, E minor, D, then Dsus - just play a regular D chord and add a G played on the first string, according to Greg. The end of this song contains one of the most famous Moog synthesizer solos in rock history. Keith Emerson had just recently gotten the device, and only decided to play on this song after hearing the track Lake and Palmer came up with and realizing it was a legitimate song. "Keith came back from the pub and he heard it and was shocked," said Lake. You know, it had gone from this silly little folk song to this quite big production. And so he said, 'Wow, I suppose I'd better play on that.' And so I said, 'The thing is, I've already put the guitar solo on.' He said, 'Look, I could play something at the end.' He said, 'I've just had this gadget delivered next door. It's called a Moog synthesizer. I haven't tried it before, but maybe there's a sound on there that would work on this.' So I said, 'Okay. Why don't we give it a try.' And so Keith went out into the next room. And he said, 'Run the track, then, for an experiment.' So I flipped it in record and pressed play. And because he was experimenting, we didn't really listen. In fact, we put the speakers on dim. The track went through and Keith experimented, and when it got to the end I turned to the engineer, Eddie Offord. I said, 'Was that me or did that sound good?' And Eddie said, 'I think it did sound good.' And we played it back. And that is the solo that's on the record." This song does not have a happy ending. The "lucky man" has riches and acclaim, but he decides to fight for his country, gets shot, and dies. Greg Lake says that even though he wrote the song when he was very young, the story was always the same. "The lyrics never changed," he said. "But strangely enough, over time the way that people perceived the song changed. Perhaps it was vaguely something to do with the Vietnam War, that period, just at the end of the Vietnam War. Some people associated it with the John F. Kennedy assassination. It had those sort of overtones. So it was connected in a way to an era when there was a lot of war and drama like that. But the lyrics really got interpreted in a way in which I'd never intended them to be, of course, when I wrote it as a young kid." (Here's our full Greg Lake interview.) By Emerson, Lake & Palmer standards, this is a very simple song; they got far more complex on their next albums. "Most tracks recorded by ELP, we would say that the backing track would have to be a killer instrumental before we added any voice, so the music had to stand up on its own without the lyrics," Carl Palmer said in his Songfacts interview. "A very simple lyric like 'Lucky Man' is fine - you can take that, too. But the lyrics did mature as time went by, and I think Sinfield and Lake did a great job." Lake was part of the Mandoki Soulmates, a supergroup assembled by the drummer Leslie Mandoki. Of the many famous songs they played, Leslie says this one was the most challenging to interpret. Works, Volume 1 was a double album with Keith Emerson the focus of the first side, Greg Lake the second, Carl Palmer the third, and the entire band sharing equally on Side 4. "C'est La Vie" was one of the songs Lake wrote for his side with help from lyricist Pete Sinfield, who was his bandmate in King Crimson. Telling the story of the song, Lake said: "I used to live in Paris for a while. A very beautiful city. I sometimes would go out walking in the streets there, and you'd often hear this instrument playing. I don't know what they call it, really, but it's one of these barrel organ things you wind up. It's the sort of sound, it's a bit like a Las Vegas casino. It kind of lives with you. Anyway, I'd heard this barrel organ playing. And I walked on back home towards my apartment. I went past this cafe and I heard the voice of Edith Piaf, the famous French lady singer. And when I got back to the apartment I thought, I really would like to write a sort of French song with some French feeling. I don't really speak French, but I knew this phrase, 'c'est la vie,' that's life. And so I thought, That would make a good idea for a song. So I wrote this song, "C'est la Vie," and we recorded it and put it onto Works Volume I. However, a couple of years later it was covered by a French singer called Johnny Hallyday. And he's a sort of French Elvis Presley. Anyway, he had a #1 hit with it in France, which as an Englishman, of course, gave me a great deal of pleasure."

Boned

Care of Cell 44 Album: Odessey And Oracle (1968) Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914) Album: Odessey And Oracle (1968) by The Zombies Paul Ashley Warren Atkinson (19 March 1946 – 1 April 2004) was a British guitarist and record company executive, best known as a founding member of the pop/rock band The Zombies. Atkinson was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. At St Albans, Atkinson met Rod Argent and Hugh Grundy, and the three formed a band initially called the Mustangs, later changed to The Zombies. Colin Blunstone and Paul Arnold joined the new band in mid 1958, but Arnold soon left and was replaced by Chris White. After the group won a local contest, they recorded a demo as their prize. Argent's song "She's Not There" got them a deal with Decca Records and was a hit in the UK and US. An album, Begin Here (renamed to The Zombies when released in the US) would follow. They would appear on American television for the first time on January 12 1965, when they appeared on the first episode of Hullabaloo. The Zombies would have another chart-topper in 1964 with Tell Her No. The group continued to record successfully through the 1960s, but disbanded in December 1967, reportedly over management disagreements. Care of Cell 44 is an uptempo pop symphony about a guy writing to his girlfriend, who is in prison. The group's main songwriter Rod Argent recalled in Mojo Magazine February 2008: "It just appealed to me. That twist on a common scenario, I just can't wait for you to come home to me again." This was released as the first single from the Odessey And Oracle album in the UK, but it didn't make the charts, which surprised vocalist Colin Blunstone. He said in his Songfacts interview, "It's a wonderfully crafted song. I think it's got an incredible lyric, wonderful chord sequences and a great melody - it's just got everything." Blunstone was shocked by the song's lack of popular appeal, as he thought it was a very commercial track. Soon after it stiffed, the band split up and Blunstone took a job in the Burglary Department of a London insurance office. Bassist Chris White admitted: "We tried to promote 'Care Of Cell 44,' but there was no positive reaction. It was downhill from then on." However the band did have a surprise hit in America a year after their breakup when "Time Of The Season" peaked at #3. Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914) is written by Zombies bassist Chris White, who recalled in Mojo magazine February 2008 how this dark and chilling war protest number came about: "I'd been reading AJP Taylor on the First World War and my uncle had died at Passchendaele. I was driving to St. Albans and working out that in the first morning there were 60,000 casualties in the Battle of The Somme. The enormity hit me and I had to pull over to the side of the road because I was shaking. That's where that (lyric) came from. 'I just can't stop shaking.' In the flat I had an old American pedal organ with the knee swells. I wrote it on that, but Rod played it so much better in the studio." Despite being the album's least commercial track, this was released as its first US single. White admitted in the same interview: "I was surprised. I think it was the resonance of the Vietnam War." Unsurprisingly the single flopped. There was a printer's error with the title. It was actually called "Butcher's Tale Somme 1916" but they printed it as "Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)." This was on top of another error on the album as the designer of the LP cover misspelt the word "Odyssey" as '"Odessey." In our interview with Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone, he explained why he didn't sing on this track. "I don't know if you've ever listened to the lyric, but it's pretty dark stuff," he said. "People thought it was about Vietnam but really it's about the First World War, and I just couldn't see how it could fit on the album. But I was wrong. Everybody plays the album through, and I've never heard the running order questioned ever. So, originally I was going to sing that, but I thought it was too dark for me, especially at 19. I could handle it now, but at 19 I just thought it was a bit dark."