THE GREATEST LOVE

Normally I would not have considered writing about this song, except for the fact that Story of Songs has a fan. "The Greatest Love of All" is her favorite song, which she's mentioned to me, Twice. She'd like for us to do a story on this. The fact that she's from France sort of had something to with it as well. Now that we live in the age of Obama and we want people from other countries to like us. I suppose you could say this is my feeble attempt at that concept.

It's actually an interesting story. It was written by Michael Masser and Linda Creed and recorded by George Benson in 1977 for a Muhammad Ali biopic called “The Greatest.” The movie did not do well. We found out that it's not easy to play yourself in a movie. Even a charismatic figure like Muhammad couldn't do it. I guess it does take talent to act. The song, however, did reasonably well. It went to number two in the R&B charts.

Linda Creed was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 26, but kept on writing while fighting it. She helped write several of The Stylistics greatest songs, including "Bet You by Golly Wow" and "You are Everything." Her favorite song that she wrote, however, was "The Greatest Love of All." About a month after getting radical mastectomy, she was hired to write a song. That's when she wrote it. Linda was concerned about losing her life and leaving her one year old daughter at a young age. The lyrics reflect this concern.

Almost ten years later, Whitney Houston wanted to record “The Greatest Love of All” for her first album. Clive Davis, the founder of Arista records, didn't want her to do it. Michael Masser eventually persuaded Clive to let her. It turned out to be a good thing because Whitney Houston's version became a real hit in 1986. It was number one on Billboards music chart for three weeks. In fact Whitney's first tour was called the Greatest Love tour. Sadly, Linda was not around at the time. She died weeks before the song reached number one after a ten year battle with breast cancer.

In 1987, Gordon Lightfoot filed a lawsuit naming Michael Masser, among others. The lawsuit claimed that Michael stole part of the melody from his song "If You could read my mind". The case was settled out of court. Michael publicly apologized. Interestingly enough, Gordon didn't file a lawsuit when George Benson recorded it.

The video to the song has Whitney singing in an auditorium. There is a little girl there with other kids and I imagine that little girl turns into Whitney because at one point they walk towards each other and merge as one. It's a powerful song and Whitney has a powerful voice. At the end, Whitney walks over to an older lady that looks a bit like Dionne Warwick and they hug. That would've been a good move if she is Dionne Warwick, because they are cousins. “Greatest Love of All” has become a standard song for auditions and for good reason. Whitney's voice is a measure by which other singers compare their voices.

MORE WOODSTOCK

>So given that it was the Woodstock Festival's fortieth anniversary weekend, I checked out to see if any station had something about it. It turns out The History Channel had a program called “Woodstock Now and Then.” There were a few things I learned. One being that doctors came in to treat the “wounded”. For free. Which was nice of the doctors. Another thing was that the Army helped out as well. They transported people with helicopters. In fact, it would've been hard for the concert to go on without their help. It was a terrific gesture on their part given the fact that most of the people and performers were against the Vietnam war.

iv> There were two deaths that occurred. One of them was drug related, which makes sense, while the other was a real tragedy. Someone driving a tractor ran over a person covered by a blanket. Just thinking about that is horrible. I don't know what happened as a result of that, but on last weeks blog I mentioned that something like Woodstock wouldn't happen now because the promotors would be afraid of too many lawsuits. Well it turns out that the promoters were sued quite a bit. Even back then. Around eighty lawsuits. One of the lawsuits was because a cow wasn't giving out enough milk, presumably because of the stress of the concert.

WOODSTOCK FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY

This week marks the fortieth anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair. It's no surprise that Rolling Stone magazine listed it as one of the 50 moments that changed the history of Rock and Roll. And this was for several good reasons. The main one, of course, was the caliber of the artists who performed. From The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly and the Family Stone, Santana and Jimi Hendrix, to name just a few.

Nothing like this had ever happened before. Not even close. The promoters told the city, in order to get a permit, that they were expecting no more than fifty thousand people. And that was considered a lot. Fifty thousand people attending a concert was unheard of back then. They sold 186,000 tickets at seventeen dollars a pop. That's around seventy five dollars today if you adjust for inflation. In the end, almost half a million people showed up. If I do my math correctly, that's almost ten times more than fifty thousand, which they thought was too much already. Traffic jams were twenty miles long.

The promoters wanted the best acts around and were willing to pay for it. So they told they agents they wanted the acts no matter what. They signed some acts for twice as much as they usually got. Jefferson Airplane, which was the top acid Rock band at the time, usually got around $5,000 to $6,000. They signed for $12,000. Once they signed, it became easier to sign other artists. Supposedly the only reporter around was a New York Times reporter. They were the only ones that thought this was a worthy news event. The newspaper wanted the event reported as a disaster. But the reporter, to his credit, refused to do so. Instead, the reporter did the story on what was actually going on. There were two deaths that occurred as well as two births. Incredibly for the amount of people who showed up and the conditions they lived in those three days, there were no violent crimes reported.

Can something like this happen now? I seriously doubt it. I can just imagine the lawsuits as a result of something like this. It truly is sad for the U.S. If you ask me. Not that I would go if something like this did occur. But I can still dream.

Canned Head played "Going Up the Country", the video of which I think distills the essence of the concert. The carefree attitude, the cameraderie, the zonked out kids, the dancing and of course the music. Oh yeah, and don't forget the nuns.

ELVIS TRIBUTE AT THE PARK

I admit having a fondness for tribute bands and artists. And this is for several reasons. The main one being that they are generally good musicians who love the artists they give tribute to. Among others, I've seen The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Doors and the David Lee Roth version of Van Halen. Needless to say , there's a slim to none chance I would see them in person. So a tribute band is usually the best and only way to experience them live. And frankly they've all been terrific. It's amazing how similar they look and sound. Besides, it's hard to beat the price, which is usually free where I live. I guess it's one of the perks of living in SoCal.

This last one I've gone to was an Elvis tribute. I know Elvis impersonators are a cliche and a joke. And for good reason. You can't get any cornier than the Flying Elvi. Which are officially sanctioned by Elvis Enterprises. Fortunately, and to quote Mr. Larry David, the Elvis impersonator was "pretty pretty good." He didn't take himself seriously and was funny to boot. Probably funnier than the real Elvis. He spent a great deal of time with the audience and would mostly go after the older ladies, which was fun. He sung a good deal of the hits. There was one song from one of his movies that I've never heard before that was really good. It was a bluesy number that I wish I could remember. I wish I knew his real name so that I could recommend him. All I remember is that his first name was Richard and spends a great deal of his time in Vegas.

One of the songs he played was "Heartbreak Hotel". The song has a really interesting story. Elvis was only 21 years old when he recorded it. This was the first single he recorded for RCA. Sun Records sold Elvis's contract for $40,000. The idea for the song came to Thomas Durden when he read a newspaper article about a person who killed himself in a hotel room. The suicide note said, "I walk a lonely street." The song was recorded in the hallway to get that echo sound . When the RCA executives heard the song, they hated it and didn't want to release it. It was released anyway and the song was number one for eight weeks. “Heartbreak Hotel” has become such a big part of the American culture that there's even a hotel named after it in Memphis. You can't say that about that many songs. Maybe just Hotel California. If you ever get a chance to see an Elvis impersonator, by all means go. It just might surprise you.

LIVE HIT SONGS

There was a plea for money on one of the local public radio stations and the gift one got for donating, I don't remember, a few hundred dollars, was a DVD of the fortieth anniversary of the concert at "Woodstock". It seemed like a good DVD to get because there is supposedly new music that was not released on the first Woodstock album. The first Woodstock has terrific live performances by artists such as Santana, Ten Years After, The Who, and of course Jimi Hendrix.

Having said this, the blog is not about Woodstock since that's about a month away. Rather, it is a roundabout way of doing a blog about live music. There have been a number of terrific songs recorded live that have become hits. There is a list of Top Ten Live Hits in a list at About.com.

There are a few good songs on the list. These include Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me". That song could be better if it wasn't so repetitive. They probably say "I want you to want me" about fifty times.

Just went to the lyric websites to check out how many "I want you to want me"'s they say. They stop at seven in the end. I don't know, maybe they don't say it as much as I think. Actually I think "Surrender" from the same album is a much better song. But that's just me.

Another song they have that I like from the list is "Show Me the Way" by Peter Frampton. It's amazing how both of these songs I've mentioned so far did nothing when they first came out, then became hits once they were released as a live version. There is an energy there that is not present in the studio recording. In fact, the studio recordings by comparison sound rather lame.

This brings up a good point. I like some of those MTV live acoustic sets that were performed a while back. And some of these were included on the list. These are good but don't really do it for me because, once again, they lack the energy. Nirvana is an exception because they did an incredible set. Some of these MTV live recordings were on the top ten list. They shouldn't be on the list because something happens sometimes when a song is played acoustically. It loses something. You have to be really good to pull it off. For example, Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters does an acoustic version of "Everlong" that is fantastic. A lot of times the songs are slowed so much that they become listless. It bugs me sometimes when they do that, especially if I like the original.

It doesn't happen that often now that a song that was recorded live becomes a hit. I tried googling for the last hit song that was recorded live, but couldn't find it. I'm sure it's out there somewhere. It is kind of a shame because music is heard best when it's live. Or at least a live recording of it.

MISSING THE BOAT ON MICHAEL JACKSON

You may think that I missed the boat when I chose to blog about the Fourth of July instead of the most important story in the history of music. Ever. Okay, so maybe not ever. But in quite a long time. At least in this century. Namely, the sudden death of Michael Jackson. If I was on a major media outlet and didn't comment on something like that, I'd get fired for sure. Fortunately, I can't get fired from my own blog. At least not yet.

Having said that, I would like to think that maybe, just maybe, the music took a back seat to the story of his death and legacy. And now it's time to get back to what matters most about his life. The music.

It would be hard to pick just one song to profile. There are so many good songs and so many stories about these songs. From "Thriller" to "Beat It" to "Bad" to "Billy Jean". These are all terrific songs. So why am I picking a song about a rat.

"Ben" is actually a touching song and is one of the few Michael Jackson songs I can dance to. The only Michael Jackson dance move I can make is grabbing my crotch. And nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to see that.

The movie "Ben" is about a boy who befriends a rat, which he names Ben. The rat is the leader of a pack of rats who kill people. It is a sequel to "Willard", which is another movie about killer rats.

I've always found it interesting as to who winds up recording the song first. It can be as simple as someone being on tour so they give it to somebody else. This is precisely what happened to Donny Osmond. They wanted to give it to him but he was on tour. So Michael wound up doing it. I'm surprised Michael was not top billing. Maybe Donny was hotter at that point in time.

The song turned out to be Michael's first solo #1 hit. It won a Golden Globe award for best song, but lost the Academy Award for best original song to "The Morning After" by Maureen McGovern from the movie "The Poseidon Adventure."

Michael was on an episode of "The Simpsons" during the shows third season, which is pretty impressive. I know the show now has had a huge amount of celebrity voices throughout it's long life. In fact, it's probably a coup to land a spot on the show. But I can't imagine it being like that during it's third season. Maybe Michael started the ball rolling.

In any event, Michael liked the show and personally called Matt Groening to be on the show. Michael didn't actually sing "Ben" on "The Simpsons". He was only signed on to act. The song was sung by Kipp Lennon. Michael also wrote, but didn't sing, the song "Happy Birthday Lisa" for the show.

If you ever get a chance to dance to "Ben" by all means take it. It's a good song to dance to. Even if it is about a rat.

FOURTH OF JULY SONG LIST

So we're nearing the fourth of July and you know what that means? Picnics, fireworks, and a list of songs that goes along with picnics and fireworks. You could say I like lists.

Nothing says the Fourth of July better than Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture." I guess it doesn't matter that he's a Russian composer. Those cannon fires in the song more than make up for it. Actually "The Stars and Stripes Forever" is another terrific song that goes really well with fireworks. The piccolos sound especially good. One of these days I would like to see any of those songs performed along with fireworks. But these songs are not on the list. I'm looking for Rock songs.

I'm back. I checked out some lists and figured I might as well make my own. So here's the Top Ten Rock songs for a Fourth of July party. In no particular order.

1. "American Pie" by Don McLean. I saw this one on a list and it kind of made sense. It is very Americana with a lot of American culteral references. Including Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin.

2. "American Girl" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. This is a terrific upbeat song. Although there have been rumors of it being about a girl who killed herself at a university in Florida. Tom Petty himself dispelled the rumor.

3. "Living in America" by James Brown. This is a good song although not one of his best. Would do good, though for a BBQ.

4. "Pink Houses" by John Mellencamp. Good song with that hometown American feel.

5. "R.O.C.K. in the USA" again by John Mellencamp. The song is about regular Americans searching for their pipedreams of making Rock music in the USA.

6. "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen. I know it's an anti-Vietnam song. But who listens to the lyrics. Most people just know the chorus. and it's hard to beat Bruce singing at the top of his lungs "Born in the USA."

7. "Philadelphia Freedom" by Elton John. Okay so Elton and Bernie Taupin, who wrote it, are foreigners. So what. Good or bad, the good ole US of A is full of them. Actually the song is about a tennis team called "Philadelphia Freedom." But we won't tell anyone that.

8. "We're an American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad. The song is exactly what the title says.

9. "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwate Revival. There are not that many things more American than protest songs. Because, after all, we live in a free country. This is a terrific song about the common folk who isn't born with a "silver spoon in hand."

10. "America" by Neil Diamond. This song is about immigrants coming to America. You could say that this song is about my parents. And millions of other parents in America.

I started writing this a few days ago and last night we went to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was terrific and it had, of course, fireworks and "Stars and Stripes Forever" with fireworks. It was terrific. So I can cross that out from my list. It also had John Fogerty of CCR. He was also terrific and he sang "Fortunate Son" which got a great reaction from the audience.

Have a great Fourth of July.

MORE STUTTERING SONGS

Okay so one more entry about stuttering songs. And that's it. The reason being that as I did some research on songs, I came across a few lists of songs with stuttering. Some of these songs seemed way out of place.

For example, on one list was Billy Joel's "Moving Out(Anthony's Song)" because he sings "Attack ck ck ck ck. As far as I know, stutterers do not stutter at the end of a word. So that just seems like a song filler.

Another song on another list is The Beach Boy's "Barbara Ann". This song was included because they sing the "Ba ba ba, ba ba baran." To me, that is bo bo bo, bo bo bogus". That song shouldn't be on the list. It's bogus because in that case all those la la la la la's, and ta da da da da's and cu cu ru cu cu's should be on the list as well. But they're not stuttering. They're just singing without using real words.

Also on the list, there's a whole bunch of songs that have a sound that is repeated. Some of these songs are B B B Benny and the Jets by Elton John, K K K Katmandu by Bob Segar and Ma ma ma My Sharona by The Knack. It doesn't feel right that these songs are included on the list either. It just makes the phrasing a little more interesting. They're just making the lyrics fit the melody of the song. There's even a list that included a song that they admit is not a real stutter, but they list it anyway. Go figure. The song is "Reflex" by Duran Duran. They do "fle fle fle" on the song.

Along with "My Generation" by The Who, my other favorite stuttering in a song is by Bachman Turner Overdrive called "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet". Now that's stuttering in a song. Randy Bachman wrote it that way to make fun of his brother who stutters. The song was not even supposed to be released. It was just a fun song they were playing. The song went to number one in the charts.

There are a lot more songs that use stuttering. If you're interested check this out.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY "FATHER AND SON"

Here's a video from Cat Stevens to the song "Father and Son." It is hard to believe why Cat Stevens, who turned to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam, could reject his work when he became a convert. It's not that the songs are typical Rock subjects like sex, drugs and Rock n Roll.

It does seem that he has come around and started singing his songs again. "Father and Son" actually has two voices singing. The slow modulated voice is the father and the higher more emotional voice is the son. The video starts slow because he is tuning the guitar but it's worth it. Enjoy and Happy Father's Day to the fathers out there. Being a father is truly one of the best things ever. Mostly.

THE "MY GENERATION" STUTTER

It's always interesting to go back and learn something about a song. Particularly a song that you've heard hundreds, if not thousands, of times. In this case I'm referring to "My Generation" by The Who.

Specifically, I'm referring to why they decided to stutter in the song. What's up with that? There are actually a few explanations for this. One of these is that they got the idea from the John Lee Hooker song "Stuttering Blues." Here's just a sample of the lyrics.

I'm a stut-stut-stut-stutterin' man.
And I can't talk worth a damn.
Sometimes I wanta cry.
Sometimes I wanta die.

They don't call them the blues for nothing. The song could very well be about himself, because it turns out he stutters. Who knew. I've known of John Lee Hooker for a long time and even have songs of his. His "Boom Boom" with his booming voice is a blues classic. And so is his "Boogie Chillen." Yet I never knew he stuttered. He was illiterate as well. That's a new one on me, a writer who is illiterate.

It also turns out there is another Blues legend who stutters as well. And his name is BB King. Again, who knew. I've never even thought of this before, but now that I know he stutters, I wonder what the B B's stand for. He must've had a horrible time saying his name.

Another explanation for Roger Daltry stuttering in "My Generation" is that the band was making fun of the British upper class stammer. Kind of like that Hugh Grant stammer.

Whatever the reason for the stuttering in the song, it seems to work. And there was no reason for the British Broadcast Corporation to ban the song because they didn't want to offend people who stutter. Thankfully, when the song took off, they changed their tune and started playing it on the radio.

SOMETHING IS HAPPENING

To paraphrase a Mr. Bob Dylan, Something is happening and you DO know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones. In this case, the Mr. Jones is me. And what is happening is that my speech is improving. You see, as I've probably mentioned on another blog entry, I've stuttered for most of my life. And if you know anything about that, or if you know anyone who does, it's not a particularly easy life.

It's a constant state of stress caused by something almost everyone takes for granted. Speaking. Opening your mouth and conversing with someone. Anyone.

I have a nephew who stutters worse than I do and my five year old son started copying him. You could tell he was just mimicking him. "Daddy" was suddenly "da da da daddy." We had to tell him to knock it off and fortunately he did. Occasionally, I would find myself stuttering while conversing with my son too and I hated it. So I figured I gotta do something. Now. My wife has somehow tolerated it all these years, but even she wants me to do something.

I took years of speech therapy in high school and college. And it did help some because I used to be worse. But it's not enough. I want to be fluent. I want to say my name without the dread of contorting my face while I say it. I want to be able to say my wife's name too.

So I went online for a book and of course there are tons of them. One book that caught my attention is "Understanding & Controlling Stuttering." What it says, basically, is that some people stutter because they use the Valsalva mechanism to speak. The Valsalva mechanism is used by everyone whenever they try to lift a heavy weight and hold one's breath. It is also used whenever you push while on the toilet bowl. To put it bluntly, I've been using my butt hole muscles to talk. That is the craziest explanation I've ever heard. And it's precisely what I do. My stomach tightens when I speak and so does my sphincter. I can't get over it. This is crazy. All this time and no one has ever told me to relax my sphincter. Except, of course, for my doctor when he's checking my prostate.

So what now, you may ask. Well, all I can tell you is that I'm c-c-cured. Just kidding, they do give you some vocal exercises to do. One of them is to start every sentence with aaahh. This is because saying aaahh causes the rectal and stomach muscles to relax. This is true because I do not stutter when saying words that start with "a". Anyway, I have been doing some of these exercises and it seems to be helping already, whenever I remember to use it in speech. Stuttering is also a habit that needs to be changed. I need a new habit of speaking without using all those unnecessary muscles I've been using.

And to get to the point of this blog, this does not mean I will be doing interviews once we start doing the podcasts. Because, well, there is the issue of me hating the sound of my voice. I will remain in the background as producer.

I just thought I'd let you know a little about this and next week I'll do a blog on songs where the singer stutters. And if you know anything about stuttering, stutterers don't stutter when they sing. But that's okay, the songs are pretty good anyway.

So here's "My Generation" by The Who. Roger Daltry does a terrific job singing and stuttering. Everyone else is great too. Especially Keith Moon. He is so entertaining to watch on the drums. And watch out for debris.

A MEMORIAL DAY STORY

There's a story of Memorial Day on Wikipedia that blew me away. It seems, according to a professor David Blight of Yale University, that freed slaves from the South were the first to observe Memorial Day. They did this by going to a Union soldier's mass gravesite in Charleston, North Carolina, digging up their remains and re-interring them in individual graves. They then placed a sign proclaiming it as a Union soldiers graveyard.

Imagine this for a moment, someone actually thought this up. To dig up dead bodies that have been dead for a few years. Then separate the corpses and bury them in separate graves. This is crazy. And then,he, or she, probably a he, told others this cockamamie idea. And they went along with it. In other words, other people thought it was a good idea too. This, in and of itself, is an amazing thing to me. And to top it off, they did this in the South, where memories were still fresh in the minds of many people in the area about Union soldiers killing their Confederate comrades and destroying their home towns.

I can just imagine some of these former Confederates harrassing the former slaves about digging up the enemy and giving them a proper burial. Where the memorial part began was that a few years later, in 1868, they went back to the graves and decorated the graves with flowers. Memorial Day first began as Decoration Day. It also was first a memorial for Union soldiers, but then it expanded to all other soldiers as well.

I usually don't think twice about Memorial Day, other than what to put on the grill or where to find the best deals. But this year I will think of these former slaves who put their lives on the line to give thanks to these soldiers who lost their lives to free them. It is so easy to just say thanks, say a little prayer for someone and then move on. It takes a special someone to do something as moving and as memorable as these former slaves did to these unknown soldiers. On second thought, it might not be such a crazy idea after all. I salute these people whoever they were.

Ray Charles is a true American genius and he performed the best rendition of "America The Beautiful" ever. Some people have wanted this song to be the national anthem but The Star Spangled Banner won out. Anyway, here is Ray performing the song for your enjoyment.

Happy Memorial Day.

BALLAD OF JOHN AND YOKO VIDEO

I'm trying to do some changes to the blog and one of the changes is to have a video embedded on the blog. This being so, I figured which video to place. I mean, there are literelly thousands and thousands of videos out there. The easiest thing to do was to have one of what I was listening to at the moment. So "The Ballad of John and Yoko" became the one and I thought, I wonder if they have a video. And so they do. The great thing about this song is how John Lennon sings "You know how hard it can be." He sings "be" with four syllables. Check it out. The bass part is also great. One thing I might've said before is that the good thing about Yoko, if there is such a thing, is that she inspired John to create some great songs. And this is one of them.

The interesting thing about the song is that only John and Paul recorded it. George and Ringo were not involved. Another thing is that the song was banned in some radio stations in the U.S. because one of the lyrics says "Christ" and "crucify." One of the things I haven't noticed, which they have on Wikipedia is that Paul sings back up vocals but does not sing the "Christ" lyric. I'll have to check that out as well.

Anyway, enjoy the video and hopefully there will be more changes. Eventually.

MORE SONGS ABOUT MOTHERS

John Lennon isn't the only singer-songwriter who's composed songs about mothers. On last weeks entry, I wrote about three songs John recorded about his mother. Other artists have as well. One of these is Paul Simon, who had his first solo hit with a song called "Mother and Child Reunion." It's a terrific song, although it's really not about his mother. One of the more interesting interpretations about the song is that it is about a chicken and egg dish called mother and child reunion. Amusing, but far-fetched. Unlike Weird Al, Paul Simon doesn't sing about food. I actually prefer Simon's voice over Garfunkel's if you can believe it. Garfunkel has a nicer voice and Simon and Garfunkel's hits probably wouldn't sound as good if they were sung by Paul. Simon has a more interesting voice though.

Pink Floyd has a pretty good song called "Mother" on their album "The Wall." "The Wall" is an amazing concept album that has become an absolute classic for good reason. Supposedly, the idea for the album came to Roger Waters as a result of spitting on a fan during a concert. It also became a movie of the same title. "Mother" is a song about an over protective mother. In the song, Roger Waters sings the son's part while David Gilmore sing's the mother's part. They sound the same to me though. But what do I know. To my untrained ear, the legendary Bon Scott and Brian Johnson of AC/DC sound the same.

Madonna has a song out called "Mother and Father," from the "American Life" album. Madonna lost her mother to breast cancer when she was six years old.

There are more songs about mothers out there that I haven't really heard. If you're interested, check out Allan Raible's blog about mothers.

For all the mothers out there, Have a Happy Mother's Day.

JOHN LENNON'S SONGS ABOUT HIS MOTHER

It's not often you get a renown singer-songwriter who records three songs about his mother. And yet, that is what John Lennon of The Beatles did. He wrote "Julia" for the White Album. He wrote two songs as a solo artist in his debut album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band about his mother. One simply called "Mother" and one I never heard of called "My Mummy's Dead."

Julia Lennon gave birth to John while the Germans were bombing Liverpool during World War II. Her sister Mimi ran to the hospital during the air raid to help her sister. Around the age of five, John started living in his aunt Mimi's house because her aunt kept complaining to Social Services that Julia was living in sin with an unmarried man and sleeping in the same bed with them. Mimi was the one who raised him although Julia was in daily contact with John. I don't think John wrote any songs about his aunt Mimi.

Julia seemed like a fun girl. She had a great sense of humor and knew how to play guitar and accordion. She bought John his first guitar, but John could only play it at her house because John's aunt Mimi was against it. She taught John how to play guitar and piano accordion. The song "Julia" is from the White Album. John sang and played the instruments without the help of any of The Beatles. John took some of the lyrics straight out of a poem by Kahlil Gibran called “Sand and Foam.” These lyrics are “Half of what I say is meaningless.” The lyric “Julia, Julia, oceanchild, calls me,” is supposedly about Yoko Ono. Yoko means “child of the sea” in Japanese.

The song "Mother" was written by John and produced by Phil Specter. Ringo played on drums and supposedly John asked George to play but George refused because he hated the song. The song was influenced by John doing primal therapy. This therapy is based on the belief that neurosis is caused by childhood trauma that has been repressed. This trauma has to be re-lived to be cured. The song also mentions his father though not by name.  His name was Alfred, but was known as Alf. Never heard a name like that except for a smart alecky life form with a sitcom by the same name. Alf was an absent father, although he almost ran off with John to New Zealand when John was six.

The third song that John Lennon recorded about his mother was called “Mummy's Dead.” The song is only 49 seconds long. The song is about the pain of losing his mother. Julia was killed by an off-duty police officer who was driving under the influence. John was seventeen at the time.

Who knows how many songs John wrote about Yoko. Gotta figure that one out one of these days. Some of them are actually really good. So in that sense, thank God for Yoko. There must've been something John saw in her that most of us don't see. Still don't in fact.

POSSUMS LIVING IN THE GARAGE

On last weeks blog, I mentioned being on vacation, tidying up the garage and cleaning up the cat puke. I haven't gotten around to the cat puke yet. The reason being that I've been busy battling a family of possums living in our garage.

We have about five trash bags of bottles and cans that I was going to take to the local recycler. When I picked one of the bags up, the hairs on my back stood up. There lying on the floor of the garage was a mother possum and her litter. Mind you, it wasn't such a horrifying sight that made my hairs stand up, rather, it was the total unexpectedness of it.

We called Animal Control and they took away the mother, who had gotten tangled up in a plastic bag, and one of her young ones. Several times, while picking up plastic bags, I encountered other joeys, which is what young possums are called. The dogs next door to us have gotten two of them. So all in all, there have been six taken away or killed and one that got away and still on the loose in our garage. The officer who came by said they can have up to ten in the litter. So there might be more. I did a little research on a website called The Possum Pages. It said they are born the size of bumble bees. The ones we have are the size of rats. Possums are also the only marsupials in North America. Marsupials are the only animals that carry their offspring in a pouch. One other interesting fact is that they are one of the few animals that have opposable thumbs. So take that Focker.

Isn't this a blog about music, some might be wondering. Well it is, and I was wondering of a way to tie it in to music. There aren't that many songs about possums that have become hits. In fact, I've only found one. The song is Possum Kingdom by The Toadies and it isn't really about possums at all.
Possum Kingdom is a State Park in Texas.

The song, however, isn't about the park either. It may be about a stalker or a rapist or about vampires. There are different interpretations to what the lyric "I'll show you my dark secret" means. The "I'll never die" lyric has been used as the impetus for the song being about vampires.

Whatever the song is about, it's still a good song which I never would've mentioned in this blog if it weren't for the possums living in our garage.

Vacation by the Go-Go's

Vacation is a song by the Go-Go's that was released in 1982. From the brief reading that I did about the song, namely Wikipedia, there is not enough in the story to merit a podcast. Although a decent podcast could be made just about the Go-Go's and them being the first band with all women band members who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments. They should also be known as probably the only successful band with both a hyphen and an apostrophe in their name. What other band has an apostrophe in their name? And why Go-Go's? What does that mean?

That's pretty good for the band and really sad for women in general. Why did it take so long for women to accomplish that? Is there something about the nature of women to make it really tough to be in a band?

There have been lots of accomplished women composers who sang and played their own instruments. But they were solo artists. From Carly Simon to Joni Mitchell to Carol King. And now Norah Jones and Alicia Keys are doing it. Gwen Stefani and Pat Benetar and a host of other women don't count because they were in a band with men. And of course, The Supremes and all those Motown girl bands don't count either because men wrote their songs. Even Beyonce, who is incredibly talented and was in Destiny's Child with all women and wrote hit songs, doesn't count because they didn't play their own instruments. They do, however, count in the bands with apostrophes in their names.

So the Go-Go's are just about in a league of their own. But forget about them. The reason the song is on my mind, though, is because I will be going on vacation next week. Which usually means I will be doing chores around the house. Including, cleaning the mold under the sink and the cat puke in the garage. I'm so looking forward to it.

IT'S "TAXMAN" TIME

Tax season is almost over and newscasts are sure to dredge out the one hit song about taxes during their coverage at the local post office. I'm talking about The Beatles song "Taxman". It's not easy to make a hit song about taxes. But somehow The Beatles managed to do it. The Beatles thought the song was so good that they put it as the first song on side one of the "Revolver" album. The album itself is considered one of the best albums ever. Most lists rank it in their top five. It's also one of my favorites. Along with "Rubber Soul" and "Meet The Beatles" and "The White Album" and, I can keep going.

George Harrison was actually the one who wrote it. He asked for and got help from John Lennon. John supposedly helped George, but very reluctantly. Apparently, he didn't want to piss off his writing partner Paul McCartney. George didn't ask help from Paul because he knew he wouldn't get it. Paul did, however, play lead guitar on the actual recording and this includes him playing that terrific guitar solo.

One of the lyrics to the song is, and this is the taxman talking, "Here's one for you, nineteen for me." The thing about that lyric, which is pretty incredible, is that George wasn't that far off. Taxes for the upper tax brackets in England back then were incredibly high. In fact, most of their money did go to pay taxes. I guess George found out the hard way and decided to write a song about it. Must be nice to be like that. Something bugs you, bam, you write a hit song about it. It must be nice.

THE GREATEST SPRING BREAK LIST OF PARTY SONGS

Last week, I wrote about some Spring Break song lists I found that I thought were just plain bad. With songs like "The Theme to Jaws" and "The Long and Winding Road," who can blame me.

So I figured I'd make my own list. So here it is, The Greatest Spring Break List of Songs Ever. One of the criteria for the list was that the songs can be played on any given Spring Break now and in the near future. Of course the songs on any Spring Break is going to include current hits. None of those were included. So these songs on this list can be played right along with the current stuff. Here's the list, in no particular order.

1. "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffet. I guess this song is a must on any Spring Break list. Songs about drinking are also a must.

2. "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" by The Beastie Boys. I know the song was supposed to be an ironic take on party songs. But it really is a pretty good party song in its own right. It also turned out to be an irony of an irony. Or in mathematical terms, irony squared.

3. "Pretty Woman" by Van Halen. I could've included several Van Halen songs on the list, but one will do. The original by Roy Orbison is also good but there is a tinge of sadness in his version. David Lee Roth has none of that.

4. "Bad to the Bone," by George Thorogood. I know "Bad to the Bone" is somewhat of a cliche by now. But there is no denying the power of that guitar. And that stutter. B-B-B-B-Bad. As far as cliches go, it's still a good one.

5. "I Get Around," by the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys is another band that could've had several songs on the list. I picked this one because its good to know that during Spring Break, people do get around.

6. Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Even though they knock Neil Young, they make up for it with that great intro riff.

7. "Super Freak" by Rick James. Everybody knows this song. And anyone, and I mean anyone, can dance to it. As proven in the movie "Little Miss Sunshine."

8."Love Shack," by The B-52s. I wouldn't necessarily put it on for my own enjoyment. But lots of people seem to like it. Why else would it be on the list of 365 Songs of the Century?

9. "Lady Marmalade," by Labelle. Good catchy song. And now that I finally know what the French lyrics mean, it's even more appropriate for Spring Break. "Do you want to sleep with me tonight?"

10.“(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty” by KC and the Sunshine Band. Come on, who can resist not shaking their booty to this song. Well I can, but a lot of people can't. And let's face it, shaking your booty is the essence of a party.

SPRING BREAK PARTY TUNES

Spring Break is around the corner and as everyone knows, it's time to party. Connie Francis had a movie called "Where The Boys Are" in the 1960s that might've popularized Spring Break partying even more than it already was. Frankly, a movie with a title like that is something I might not be interested in seeing. But that's just me. I never did any partying during Spring Break. The closest I ever got was turning on MTV and checking out the latest dance moves at Lake Havasu. I guess you really can't call that a party.

Having said this, if I had a party during Spring Break and had to put on some tunes, which ones would I play? So I went looking for a list of the ultimate Spring Break songs. I checked out a site from the University of Wisconsin's Daily Cardinal and they had a list. The most interesting song on the list was the "Theme from 'Jaws'". Jaws? Come on University of Wisconsin, Jaws? I guess that happens when you have too much cheese. The list did have a few good songs though. "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffet and "Wouldn't it be Nice" by The Beach Boys.

I also found another site with a list of the Top 50 Spring Break party songs. So I figured this was it. This was exactly what I was looking for. So I check out the list and frankly, it is just about the lamest list I have ever seen. And to prove it, I will tell you one of the songs on the list. A song on the list for the Top 50 Spring Break party songs is, hold on to your breath, "The Long and Winding Road" by The Beatles. "The Long and Winding Road" is just about the most boring song ever and I love The Beatles. They are my favorite all time band. So if you want to put someone to sleep, that's the song to play. In fact, I wouldn't mind if they played "The Long and Winding Road" at my funeral. But only if I lived to be a hundred. In fact, McCartney feels the same way about the song. He was outraged at what Phil Spector did to his song. And was one of the reasons the band broke up.

The Spring Break list actually includes another Beatle song that just doesn't make any sense at a party and that is Magical Mystery Tour. I suppose if you had to play Beatle tunes at a party, I would play "Twist and Shout" and "Money." Another song that doesn't make any sense on the list is a song by Barbra Streisand called "Somewhere." I've never heard this song but I can tell you right now with complete accuracy, it is not a good song for a Spring Break party. I just can't imagine any Barbra Streisand song being any good at a Spring Break party. Amazing voice? Yes. Terrific songs? Absolutely. For all I know, Somewhere is probably a fantastic song. But Spring Break party song? Not possible.

The list is not totally bad. I mean it does have some decent songs. For example, the list includes "Born to be Wild" by Steppenwolf, "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd and "Here I Go Again on My Own" by Whitesnake. But all in all, it is not a very good list. In fact, there is a song there that was listed twice. This just means that I might have to create my own list of Spring Break songs for when I do have a party. I just have to figure out how to ditch my wife and five year old son.

DEAD PEOPLE'S MUSIC

As I was listening to NPR's list of most important works of the twentieth century, I came to an interesting realization. Well, interesting for me anyway. Dead people's music is better than living people's music. Not always, of course, but mostly.

I'm no fuddy duddy either (are those words still being used?). I like good music no matter who plays it and how old it is. Even if it's from the Jonas Brothers. Well, if they played good music I might like it. This is a horrible realization. And what does this mean anyway? The last album I bought was, well, a gift for my wife. The soundtrack to Summer of Sam, which for some reason she seems to like. Actually, some of the songs are pretty good. It has a good mix of living and dead people's music.

Maybe the fact that they are dead kicks their songs up a notch. Especially if they die a sudden horrible death. I'm sure artists like Tupac, Biggy Smalls and Selena were helped somewhat as a result of their tragic deaths. I had never even heard of Selena before she was shot to death.

I wonder if, when I was young, I listened to dead people's music. Let me think...all The Beatles were still alive, CCR, J Geils...Holy smokes, I mostly listened to music from people who were still alive. I must be getting old.

I listen to Kevin and Bean on KROQ here in LA and they play modern Alternative music, so I keep up to date on some of the new artists like The Killers and Linkin Park. But even KROQ plays music by dead people, such as Nirvana and Sublime.

I think I started listening to dead people's music, in earnest, when I started going to college. I would go to the library and check out old records and tapes. Sometimes I would even check out albums on Classical music. And those guys are REALLY dead. I'm sure they're dust by now. Even Jimi Hendrix must be dust by now.

The one thing that makes me still feel young is that I have a five year old son. He keeps me young. Unfortunately, he also listens mostly to dead people's music too. No thanks to me. Oh, and let's not forget the Disney channel and Noggin. He also listens to that. So I know about Laurie Berkner.

I don't really mind this realization so much because there is just so much good music out there. Even if all new music stopped coming out, for some crazy reason, there is just so much old music out there that I still need to discover that I don't really mind knowing that I mostly like dead people's music.

If I had a cover band, I would call it Dead People's Music. Nobody take it.

MORE NPR

So I've been listening to more of the NPR's list of 100 most important works of the twentieth century and I've realized a few things. They use different styles of story telling. One of their variations is the one person narrating the whole thing. It is usually a writer or musician that tells their take on a song. For instance, Don Dixon tells the story of Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis. He is a record producer that has produced acts like The Smithereens and REM. His take on the song, and Jerry in particular, is that he was the first dangerous guy in Rock N Roll. Elvis was too pretty, and nice, while Little Richard was having too much fun. But Jerry had the Devil in him. They even have a clip of Jerry Lee arguing with someone in the studio about the Devil. Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Lee's cousin and the famed televangelist knew the score about Jerry, as portrayed in the movie "Great Balls of Fire." And it turned out later in Jimmy's career that he had a little of the Devil in himself as well.

Another type of storytelling is the one where the host narrates the story and mixes in an occasional blurb by a guest. It's a pretty good style of storytelling which gets to the point quickly since there are no questions asked. An example of this is Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line." On this one, Roddy Crowell, is the one with the blurbs.

One more style of storytelling, and my favorite, is the regular interview where the host asks questions and the guest, well, answers them. A typical Q and A. With some narration on the side. Kind of like 60 minutes. Ray Charles was interviewed in this fashion for What'd I Say and the interaction between guest and host, Robert Siegel, was pretty good.

There are just so many stories that I haven't gotten to yet. There are 100 in all, hence the name of the series. Hopefully I will get around to the rest of the stories and if I hear anything else I like I will certainly write about it.

LISTENING TO NPR

So I've been listening to NPR's list of 100 most important American musical works of the twentieth century and I must say they're pretty good. I found it while clicking on links at NPR. The programs aired in the year 2000. So I guess it would make sense to have a list like that at that time.

The segments are well produced, the guests and hosts are good as well. As guests they've had people like James Taylor, Loretta Lynn, Arlo Guthrie, Al Green, Ray Charles and Paul Simon. So you can't go wrong with guests like that. Although, the host who interviewed James Taylor for the song Fire and Rain did treat James like he might bust out crying at any moment. I know the song is autobiographical about a painful time in his life, but that was forty years ago. I'm sure James has learned to cope with it by now. And maybe even humorously. James is an amusing guy and anyone who's been to one of his concerts would know this.

My favorite guest so far has been Rodney Crowell for Johnny Cash's I Walk the Line. Rodney is a Grammy winning Country music artist. He was once married to Rosanne Cash, who is Johnny's daughter. I haven't listened to all of the stories yet. So my favorite might change. One of the things I liked about Rodney was his description of Cash's voice. He said something like, if any one of those faces on Mount Rushmore could sing, it would come out singing like Johnny Cash. I thought that was a pretty descriptive way of putting it, and probably quite true. Of course, if those sculptures could talk, they would sound like James Earl Jones.

I've learned a few things from the programs which could be used on the podcasts. One of them being to have a point of view. This definitely makes the stories more interesting. I'll keep you posted on other stories that grabbed my attention. Till next time.

"HURT" BY NINE INCH NAILS AND JOHNNY CASH

Hurt by Nine Inch Nails was the next song picked for a podcast. It's a pretty depressing song, if you ask me. It does, however, have an interesting story. Trent Reznor wrote it and in fact Trent IS Nine Inch Nails. He does everything except stand at the Walmart counter and sell it to you. Actually, who knows if they even sell it at Walmart...Just checked and they do, but only online and in limited stores. I'm surprised because Nine Inch Nails has songs with titles like Star#*@#er. And lyrics that would make Christian Bale blush.

Anyway, one of the most interesting facts about the album, The Downward Spiral, which includes Hurt is that Trent rented a house to set up his equipment and record the album. What Reznor didn't realize until later when someone told him, was that the house he rented was where Sharon Tate was killed by Charles Manson's butchers. Once Trent was out of the house, he supposedly tried to convinced the owner to tear down the house. The owner did tear down the house eventually.

Another good story about Hurt was that Johnny Cash covered it and won a Country Music Award for best single. The video also won a Grammy. Another interesting turn of events is that the house on the video, which is Johnny Cash's house in Tennessee, was bought by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees once Johnny passed away. He was renovating it when the house burned down. Who knows, maybe the ghost of Johnny Cash didn't want a Bee Gee to live there. And what is a Bee Gee anyway. Can you imagine Johnny singing Stayin' Alive. That would be something. Oh man, I wish I could do voices.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get anyone interested in being interviewed. I tried the fan sites but no one bit. Maybe I will try a book author. I've tried to get real authors, but haven't had any luck. I'm sure we will eventually.

THE LOST PODCAST

We did a podcast that I think of as The Lost Podcast. The podcast in question is about the Donna Summer song Love To Love You Baby. It's an interesting story about the beginnings of the disco era. Donna Summer is known as the Queen of Disco. She has expanded to other types of music and has sold an impressive 130 million records worldwide.

One of the more interesting facts I found out was that Donna testified at a murder trial she witnessed when she was a teen. She actually knew the person on trial. He was from the neighborhood. That must've been tough for her and her family because there is always the fear of retaliation from the guy's friends. Just think of it. What would you do in that situation? I don't know what I would've done. It would've been pretty easy for me to say that I couldn't see well cause I need a new set of glasses. I guess Donna did the right thing and it worked out for her. This was one of the reasons she left for Germany, where she hooked up with Giorgio Moroder and as they say, the rest is history.

Giorgio Moroder is an Italian record producer who has been a big part of Donna's career. Giorgio has gone on to win three Oscars, for Top Gun, Flashdance, and Midnight Express. When he produced the song for Donna, it was just a demo for someone else to sing. He then showed it to Neil Bogart from Casablanca. He liked it so much that he didn't want anyone else to sing it. They eventually released it.

We interviewed Cathy, a fan who has a Donna Summers tribute site. The raw interview had potential. The reason it is considered as the Lost Podcast is because I did not back up the file and it got lost. This won't happen again because I now have Carbonite? And it backs up everything quickly.

I haven't really contacted her to redo it because it's embarrassing. Maybe I'll ask someone else. The research and the questions are done already, so might as well. Every podcast, if done correctly, is a learning experience. And I am pretty sure that I've gotten something out of this.

BACK TO WORK

That felt good. Taking some time off, that is. I was, as they say in self-help lingo, sharpening the saw. Which kind of means relaxing so that you can resume to work refreshed. In my case, however, I was busy reformating my hard drive and re-installing all the software. This is no way to relax and is actually the opposite of relaxing. I suppose these are the trials and tribulations of using a computer. It's not like I was checking out porn or downloading illegal music. There are actually people out there who will put viruses on Christmas images. Oh well.


I'm looking forward to working on Story of Songs this year. I can't wait to find out which songs we do and who we interview. Both are, of course, crucial to the success or failure of the podcasts. Some songs have terrific stories. One would think that just repeating the story would make a good podcast. It hasn't turned out that way however. It's very easy for a bad interviewee to ruin an otherwise good story. I imagine the same is also true in reverse. A good interviewee can make a lackluster story shine. That might be one of our goals. It would be good to take a regular top forty song and get the best possible person to do the interview. It would be interesting to hear the results.

I will also continue writing the blog. Writing it is kind of interesting for me and I've learned things that I would not otherwise have known. If anyone read the Christmas blogs, they would know what I mean. How would anyone know, for instance, that Irving Berling, who wrote White Christmas, had an infant son who died. On Christmas Day. That must've been heartbreaking. Or that "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" was banned in Boston.

Anyway, so here's to the New Year. And new administration while we're at it.

Cheers

HAPPY NEW YEAR

We wish you all a Happy New Year from the staff at Story Of Songs.