Norman Whitfield Songs I Like

Norman Whitfield died on September 16, 2008. He was 68 and someone I would've liked for us to have interviewed. He actually wrote the famed rock critic Dave Marsh's number one song of all time. That would be Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through the Grapevine.

I hadn't really paid that much attention to the song, mostly I heard the Creedence Clearwater Revival version which I like a lot. Once I read how highly rated the song is, I heard it with different ears. I wanted to know if I was missing something. And I guess I was because it really is a wonderful song. In the LA Times obituary it says that Norman wrote some songs on a key so high, which gave Marvin Gaye so much trouble to sing, that they would practically come to blows.

As much as I now like Grapevine and turn it up every time it comes on the radio, I still like another Norman song even more. That would be Just My Imagination by the Temptations. Not just because of the song which is one of the most romantic songs I know but also because there's a girl involved. And as everyone knows, whenever there's a girl involved, things seem to change.

She was one one of my friend's sister. And it's not even something amazing. Not even close. It's just a pleasant reminder of my past. We were in my friend's garage at night. There were about five of us. Three guys and two girls. The radio was on. We were just horsing around with the girls, when my friend tried to give his sister a hickey. I thought that was pretty odd because I have a younger sister and I've never even remotely thought of giving her a hickey. And I've been told she's attractive. Anyway, so the girl screamed and got away from my friend's grasp and ran right into me. I held her briefly just so she wouldn't fall. She felt and smelled fantastic. Then she ran away from me too. I didn't know what to think. I mean, of all the people there, why would she run into me? Guys quickly start getting ideas. But you try not to think about your friend's sisters so nothing much could've happened anyway. I did think at the time, though, that if anyone should be giving her a hickey, it should be me.

Another great song from Norman Whitfield is Papa Was A Rolling Stone by The Temptations. It's a terrific song with a great bass line and violins. The song reminds me of my father. I love my father very much but he was, as they say, a rolling stone. He would leave the family behind to look for work elsewhere. My father was different from the song though, which says that "And Mama, some bad talk going around town saying that Papa had three outside children and another wife. And that ain't right." He just had the one wife. My mother. Unfortunately. You try spending time with my parents.

One time I remember vividly. It was Christmas time and my friends and I went to downtown El Paso, Texas, which is my hometown. We went to see the lights and the Christmas tree in the plaza. So we're walking down the plaza all bad ass, my friends and I, carrying a boombox that for some reason, was colored bright red. I'm certain that the redness must've diluted our badassness. But what are you going to do. Then Papa was a Rolling Stone came on and a raised the volume, just in case the people across the street couldn't hear it because of the drone of the Christmas songs. My friends and I walked in step to the song. We were bad.

There's not a lot I can say about Norman other than a sincere thank you. Your songs will live on for a very long time.

Getting a Back Door Virus

So I've been battling a computer virus. Nasty business if you ask me. I've had the free AVG anti-virus software for close to ten years. I've had viruses but AVG took care of them. This one was a tough one. Maybe it was me not keeping AVG up to date or maybe it was them. I don't know. All I know is that the virus couldn't be deleted. The computer would freeze and I'd have to do a restart. At one point I closed all the applications and all of a sudden a woman's voice came on. It was too soft to hear what she said. So I turned up the volume and rap music started blaring from my speakers. I have rap songs on my music catalog, but nothing like this. I hate to admit it, but I got the chills. Someone had taken over my computer.

I quickly turned it off, disconnected the online cable and restarted it. It froze. I restarted it again. It let me in so I did a scan with Spybot Search and Destroy and another with Lavasoft Adware. They all found and removed infected items.

So I went back online. Seemed ok. I tried to go to Microsoft updates and it froze. This went on every time I went on Microsoft. I must've restarted the computer about fifty times. At one point whenever I clicked on Microsoft updates it would redirect me to other sites . Finally the computer wouldn't let me do anything so I did a PC recovery. It was a good thing I had all my stuff backed up on Carbonite. I've lost files before so I've learned the hard way to do back ups.

Once I did the recovery, I could get into Microsoft. So I did all the updates. I also figured it was time to not be cheap and buy a good anti-virus. I went to sites that reviewed the software and found
Bit Defender. It was highly rated at a good price. So I bought it. I tried to download it but it told me it couldn't download because I had a virus. It suggested I do an online scan, which I did. Two hours later it found a back door virus it couldn't remove. That was odd. What was I supposed to do now?

My brother in law Joe told me to do an online scan using Kaspersky, which was another highly rated software. Two hours later it found the same virus and it could not remove it. So I copied the name of the virus and googled it. I found another website called Adware Alert, which found a ton of viruses. I started entering my personal data but on a hunch I did a review of the website. Turns out some reviews claim it gives out false positives on viruses. Who knows if this is true or not, I don't want to take any chances so I didn't buy it.

I finally found another site called Cyber Defender. It scanned and found viruses in five minutes. Cost fifty bucks though. But that's for 5 computers. We only have four but that's ok. The bad part is that now I'm concerned about identity theft. How much personal information, if any, did the intruders find from the computer? Should I cancel my credit cards? What about my bank account? I called my bank and they told me to send a fraud alert to the credit monitoring services and check my bank account regularly. It seemed too much work so I gave the work to
Lifelock. This is the one who gives out the CEO's social security number and dares people to use it. A couple of days later they sent me several emails notifying me that they've put out a fraud alert to the three services. They've opted me out of getting credit card applications through the mail and also not getting any more junk mail. Not bad for ten bucks. That's monthly, so I don't know how long I'll do it for. A few months maybe. It would've taken me a long time to do all that. I'm slow.

So what have I learned from this aside from the obvious don't be cheap. All I can think is, well, nothing. I already know everything I need to know about not getting viruses. Just whatever it is I did to get it, Don't Do It. It's the opposite of
Nike. I KNOW what I did to get it. I'm just not saying.

Jerry Lewis Telethon and Gary Lewis and the Playboys

So it's the Labor Day Weekend and I'm off on Monday. Hurrah. I'll still do the blog though. I was going to take it off but actually, it being Labor Day, it reminded me of the
Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. We used to watch it growing up cause it was kind of interesting. They had good guests and for some reason it was interesting to watch. Nowadays it's interesting for totally different reasons. Including how big is Jerry's head going to be. I think it is okay now, but one year it was gigantic. Literally. As big as a watermelon.

Love him or hate him, Jerry Lewis is still an American icon. He's been in show business since the 40s. And at one point, along with Dean Martin, was the biggest act in Hollywood. Not very many people can say that. I know the telethon is sometimes hard to watch, but it is occasionally good to switch on from time to time. Over the years, they have raised more than a billion dollars.

My father used to work at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas and the telethon used to be on at the hotel. He used to get tickets and I went one time. The funny thing is that I don't think I saw Jerry Lewis. I would remember seeing him. I do remember seeing Ed Mcmahon. And I remember seeing Rick Springfield sing Jessie's Girl. I remember him practicing because he couldn't get the guitar riff right. My mother was feeling sorry for him, but I thought it was funny. One thing I remember without a doubt is watching the Solid Gold Dancers perform. That I remember. They were awesome. Solid Gold was a TV program that was around in the 80s that featured the dancers and a countdown of the weeks top ten, along with guest performers.

I keep getting sidetracked because the main reason for this blog is to discuss Gary Lewis and the Playboys. He was on a few years ago. One of his biggest hits is This Diamond Ring. That is one of the songs I would like to do a podcast on. I did email the bands management, Rick Saphire, but did not get a response. It's an interesting story in it's own right, but a big reason is that Gary is one of Jerry's kids. A real one. With Jerrys DNA. It would be awesome to interview both at the same time. Jerry actually helped Gary at the beginning of his career. Including getting the band on the Ed Sullivan Show. Several talented people helped record the single, including Leon Russell, who also co-wrote it. And Hal Blaine on drums. Hal has been in more Rock and Roll hits than just about any other drummer.

I just think it would be interesting to hear the story of how the band got hot from the perspective of both Jerry and Gary. It's also interesting that in 1965 Gary Lewis was Cash Box Magazine's "Male Vocalist of the Year," and two years later, he was drafted into the U.S Army. Imagine that happening now. Young celebrities, men and women, getting drafted into service. That would be awesome actually. One can only dream.

Messing up the Podcast for "Oh Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison

One of the songs I wanted to do a podcast for was Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison. I knew a few facts about the song before I started doing the research. And basically it was what most people know. Namely that it was a hit for Roy Orbison in the 60's. Van Halen covered it in the 80's. And that there's a movie by that name with Julia Roberts, Richard Gere and a Jason Alexander with way too much hair. So I figured there was a lot of territory to explore. Little did I know there was enough story there for a whole book. Well, for someone who is capable of writing books. I was certain I could write enough questions for a ten to fifteen minute podcast.One of the things I do is go to Amazon to check out the books on the subject. I found a few and finally picked one called Dark Star The Story of Roy Orbison by Ellis Amburn. I checked it out from the library because for some reason it is too expensive to buy online. It costs $48. It was an interesting book about the life of Roy Orbison. You kind of felt bad for the guy because he saw himself as an unattractive guy . And he had those thick bottleglass eyeglasses. He had this crush on a girl who hooked up with one of the guys in his band when he was a teenager. Which must've been rough. Roy finally got the nerve to ask her out once his band mate and her split up. But only after their first single came out. Anyway, they finally married and she became the inspiration for Pretty Woman and they lived happily ever after. Or did they?

Anyway, it's an interesting story. Eventually, I would imagine, he felt more satisfaction when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and realized how much fans as well as artists like Bruce Springsteen adored him. And of course being in The Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.I emailed Ellis Amburn and didn't hear from him, so I found another book that seemed interesting and contacted the author. The book was Roy Orbison: Invention Of An Alternative Rock Masculinity by Peter Lehman. He was interested. I was on a roll. Two out of three ain't bad. I wish I had those kinds of odds when I was dating. Well, if I had dated. I was actually worse than Roy Orbison. Asking girls out was something I was not very good at.
So a date was set for the interview. I had the host and the back up ready. The host was going to be the woman who liked Nic Harcourt and I was looking forward to listening to her because she had a nice voice. The questions were written. But I had a feeling something wasn't right. I had written the questions from the perspective of Dark Star. I hadn't read the Peter Lehman book and he struck me as a person who would not discuss some of the questions we were going to ask him because he seemed like a huge fan. A few of the questions didn't put Roy in such a good light. He was going to have a symposium about Roy Orbison at Arizona State University where he taught. So on a lark I sent him the questions. Sure enough he emailed me back and told me he was withdrawing from the interview. Some of the questions were too biographical, he told me. And he was not a biographer. I thought of asking someone else but I changed my mind once I saw a website that has Wesley Orbison, son of Roy, writing briefly about his father. So I'm holding out for him. Once we get the website going I would like to approach him for an interview about Roy and his mother, the inspiration for the song Pretty Woman

Picking Hosts

One of the things I learned the hard way, after doing our first interview, was that I needed more hosts. I hadn't realized that I would need a back up for the back up. So I looked at my options. Not having any friends and family that are qualified or would even want to interview people, I chose to place an ad. I checked out Variety first, because, well, it's THE show biz magazine, but they were too expensive. They start out at $225 and go as high as $2250. It was a bit too pricey and not only that, but anyone looking at ads there would probably want to get paid. A lot. On a hunch, I checked out craigslist. $25 sounded perfect to me.

So I placed the ad and got a response very quickly. And not just a response, I got more than I thought I would. It was by no means overwhelming. It was just a good response. There were around thirty or so people who left me messages . The most interesting one was a real live morning deejay from Northern California. We played phone tag for a while and finally connected briefly. But we were having a party at the house so it was hard to hear. She still seemed interested when I suggested we speak again under better circumstances, but I never heard from her again. I called a few times and emailed her but it was just as well. We weren't ready for someone like her.

After all the contacts, I eventually picked three people. Matt, a guy who said he worked for MTV. Jackie, a girl who said she was a fan of Nic Harcourt. He is an influential music director from KCRW, the public radio station in Santa Monica. The third person was a lady who was shot out of a cannon.

She told me I would not regret my decision to pick her. The lady was interesting in a weird kind of way. She sent me her My Space page where she had video clips of her saying that she was at a famous person's house but we never saw the famous person or anything remotely suggesting that this famous person lived there. It was actually pretty funny. She wanted to start right away, but I told her it took time to find the right song and person to interview. Then I suggested that if she was interested, she could pick a song and write some questions about it. I was surprised when she sent me the song and questions in a few days.

I replied to her that it was a good effort and I appreciated her enthusiasm. However, although George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is an American classic, it was a bit too old for what I had in mind for Story of Songs. Even though Janis Joplin did a version of Gershwin's Summertime, it was a rather obscure song from Janis. One of the questions she wrote was a multiple choice question. Now that would've been funny asking a guest a multiple choice question. Unfortunately, I never heard from her again. It would've been a more interesting blog if she had stayed on board.

Louie Louie Part II

Reading "Louie Louie Me Gotta Go Now" actually did help in writing the questions for the interview. I had enough questions to ask just by researching online. Reading the book, however, made the questions more personal. Some of the stuff we discussed in the interview is not found anywhere. Well, except for the book.

So I wrote all the questions, about fifty of them. Then I informed Dick that we were ready and to let us know when he was available. He replied and sent me his phone number. Bam, right there. I got his phone number. I must've been dumb because it hadn't really occurred to me that I was going to have to ask people for their phone numbers. As it turned out, Dick was gracious enough to send it to me without asking. I would imagine he has several phone numbers and one is strictly for business.

Anyway, so we got that out of the way and now it was the computer's turn to get ready. I got a Skype account so we can call out and do conference calls. I got a way to record the calls. I didn't know Skype has a recorder available, so I bought one called Freecorder. They have a free version, but you can only record fifteen minutes. So I needed to upgrade. Once that was done, I set up the computer in the garage. Just in case something happened to the Freecording recording, I also set up the camcorder to record. It actually turned out that the recording from the camcorder sounds better than the one on Freecorder.

So we were set. We had the date set. Everyone was ready. I sent the host the questions. We did a little re-editing to fit his style. I got a back up host ready just in case the first host couldn't make it. The day before the interview is to be done, the first host lets me know he won't be able to make it. Ok, things happen. So I notify the back up. He is ready. Then a few hours before the interview, he informs me he won't be able to make it at seven o'clock. He might be available at 7:30. So I'm stuck. I don't want to postpone it. This is our first interview. For all I know, Dick has cancelled other things from his busy life to do the interview. Postponing it at this late a time will just let him know that we're amateurs, which we are. But we want to act like professionals. Besides it's not like we're Rolling Stone magazine and it's worth his time to re-schedule. Not only that, Dick is giving us credibility by doing our podcast. From now on, we can let other possible guests know that we've already done an interview with a musician from a legendary band. And The Kingsmen truly are a legendary band. Not just because they have one of the most famous songs in rock history, but because of their history. They actually do have an amazing story.

There was no way I was going to do the interview, because as I've said before, I hate my voice and I stutter. So I did the only thing I could think of. I asked my wife. She said ok and said I owed her. Big time. Turns out she did really well for someone who was totally unprepared. And Dick seemed to like her. He was laughing and kidding with her. We called at the set time. He answered the phone. I spoke to him briefly. Very briefly. And the interview was off. At the end of the interview, which lasted less than thirty minutes. I thanked Dick and I'm thanking him now. Now that I'm in a thanking mood. I'd like to thank my wife Yolanda too. She came through for me and for that I'm grateful. (Besides, she might read this someday) Dick was very giving and I will always be thankful that he went out of his way to help us. Especially since we are a podcast that doesn't even exist. Yet. I spoke to him again briefly after the interview and it was awkward. I mumbled something. Then quickly told him that I would email him, which I did. I told him that I put his book on Wikipedia. He thanked me for that.

I will post a clip or two of the interview as a teaser for the real podcast on my next post. I hope you enjoy them and that it makes you want to listen to the whole thing. The whole thing will be available as soon as I get together five podcasts. Then we will get the website going as well. It will be more exciting once we get the website going. At least that is my hope.