Jump to content

The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten Facts


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 2.8k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

The Songfactors' Choice Top Ten #231

This week there are four songs needing facts.

When I Was Young - Eric Burdon & the Animals (1967)

CC Rider/Jenny Takes A Ride - Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels (1965)

Don't Bring Me Down - The Animals (1966)

Fire On The Mountain - Marshall Tucker Band (1975)

If you have any info on any of the songs mentioned anywhere in this thread, please feel free to post your knowledge here. Submissions on songs will be collated and sent to the main site and you will receive credit for your contribution.

As always the Songfish thanks you. :bow: :bow: :bow:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I Was Young

According to wiki:

"When I Was Young" is a song performed in 1967 by The Animals with Eric Burdon on vocals. It was released on 8 April. It charted in Australia peaking #2 and stayed 4 weeks there. Later it was a hit charting #10 on the Canadian RPM chart, # 15 in the US and #7 in the Netherlands. The song was featured several times in German director Doris Dörrie's film Men... (German: Männer…), as well as in other motion pictures. The song has been covered by many punk rock and heavy metal bands.

"When I Was Young" was covered by many artists:

Trek with Quintronic (1981)

Riot (1982)

Tina Turner (1984)

Riblja ÄŒorba (1992)

Ramones (1993)

Poison 13 (1994)

Golden Earring (1995)

Ed Kuepper (2000)

Inmates (2003)

Eddie Fisher

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't Bring Me Down

Also from wiki:

"Don't Bring Me Down" is a rock song composed by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and recorded as a 1966 hit single by The Animals. "Don't Bring Me Down" was the third of The Animals' epic personalisations of Brill Building material, following the 1965 hits "We Gotta Get out of This Place" and "It's My Life". According to one account, all three came out of one call in 1965 that The Animals' then-producer Mickie Most made for songs.

The Animals had always had a somewhat contentious relationship with such songs, knowing they gave them hits but preferring the more straightforward R&B numbers they used for album tracks. Moreover now they were performing a Goffin and King selection; although the couple was already legendary for their pop songwriting prowess, Animals lead singer Eric Burdon had previously seemingly mocked Goffin-King's "Take Good Care of My Baby" in The Animals' 1964 stream-of-consciousness rock history "Story Of Bo Diddley". Furthermore they were now using Tom Wilson as a producer, who promised them more artistic freedom than they had had under Mickie Most.

The Animals' arrangement is led by a pulsating organ riff from Dave Rowberry, which is then set against a prominent bass guitar line from Chas Chandler. Hilton Valentine decorates the song with unusual fuzz guitar chords. Eric Burdon sings the verses in a quiet manner:

When you complain - and criticize

I feel I'm nothing, in your eyes

It makes me feel - like giving up ...

before sliding into a loud, pleading voice on the chorus:

Oh, oh no!

Don't bring me down,

no no no no

Oh babe! Oh no,

Don't bring me down ...

"Don't Bring Me Down" was a solid hit, reaching the Top 10 (#6) in the UK pop singles chart, and falling just short of that on the U.S. pop singles chart, reaching number 12 during June and July 1966. It was also popular in Canada, reaching number 3 on the CHUM Chart. It was also one of their most popular singles in Germany, reaching number 17.

Rolling Stone would later write that "Don't Bring Me Down" represented one side of the Goffin-King "boy-girl, loneliness-togetherness" duality. Allmusic considers "Don't Bring Me Down" an exemplar of The Animals' "brutally soulful inspiration."

New York Dolls singer David Johansen's Animals medley from his 1982 live album Live It Up gained considerable MTV exposure; "Don't Bring Me Down" was in the middle, following "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" and before "It's My Life".

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had "Don't Bring Me Down" in their concert repertoire from 1977-1986, and a 1978 performance of it was captured on their 1986 live album "Pack up the Plantation: Live!"

The song has also been recorded by Riki Maiocchi, Paul Shaffer, and Southside Johnny.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"CC Rider/Jenny Take A Ride"

Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels

"Jenny Take a Ride is credited to Bob Crewe/Enotris Johnson/E. Johnson/Little Richard/R.Penniman

"CCRider" : popular American 12-bar blues" song. It was first recorded by Gertrude "Ma" Rainey in 1924, and since then has been recorded by many other artists.

The song uses mostly traditional blues lyrics to tell the story of an unfaithful lover, commonly called easy riders: "See See rider, see what you have done", making a play on the word see and the sound of easy.

Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels covered this song in a meddley called "Jenny Take a Ride!" in 1965.

The song reached #10 in the pop charts.

Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels had their first big hit in 1965 with "Jenny Take a Ride", which reached #10 on national charts, and #1 on the R&B chart—the first time a self-contained rock group had achieved the latter distinction.[2] Crewe had originally planned to release the track as a B side, but changed his mind after seeing the reactions of Brian Jones and Keith Richards, of The Rolling Stones, who were in the Stei-Philips studio in New York City as it was being recorded.

The Searchers also covered this meddley.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Fire On The Mountain"

Marshall Tucker Band

Written by George McCorkle. A song from their 1975 album "Searchin' for a Rainbow"

And that's all I know...

:help: :help: :help:

I'll add something I know about the song, "Fire On The Mountain" and The Marshall Tucker Band:

Charlie Daniels played fiddle on this song.

It peaked at #38 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart in Dec. 1975.

Marshall Tucker was the owner of the band's rehersal hall.

They are a Southern-Rock group from Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I Was Young

According to wiki:

Credited to Vic Briggs/Eric Burdon/Stephan Jenkins/Daniel McCulloch/John Weider.

The song was part of their last album as The Animals (before they became Eric Burdon & the Animals) "Animalism", released in 1966.

The B-side of the single, released in April 8th 1967 was "A Girl Named Sandoz".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A correction:

The song by Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels is not titled "C.C. Rider", nor is it titled "CC Rider/Jenny Takes A Ride".

It is a medley of the songs, "C. C. Rider" (made popular by many artists over the years) and "Jenny, Jenny" by Little Richard.

The title of the song, as released, is:

"Jenny Take A Ride!", with no letter 's' on the end of the word take and an explanation point at the end of the title.

It was recorded in 1965 and peaked at #10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart in 1966.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here is some additional info on the seperate song, "C.C. Rider" (one of the various spellings used for the song title).

It was recorded in 1924 as:

> "See See Rider Blues" by Ma Rainey and became a #14 hit for her in 1925.

Many artists recorded the song over the years.

A few of the most notable are:

> "C.C. Rider" - Chuck Willis (#12 on the U.S. Billboard Top 100 Chart in 1957. It was also a #1 hit on the R&B Chart).

Chuck Willis' version inspired the "Stroll" dance craze.

> "See See Rider" - Laverne Baker (#34 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart in 1963).

> "See See Rider" - Eric Burdon & The Animals (#10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart in 1966).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Songfactors' Choice Top Ten #232

This week there are three songs needing facts.

Chimes Of Freedom - Bob Dylan (1964)

(We Ain’t Got ) Nothin’ Yet - Blues Magoos (1966)

I Put a Spell On You - The Animals (1966)

If you have any info on any of the songs mentioned anywhere in this thread, please feel free to post your knowledge here. Submissions on songs will be collated and sent to the main site and you will receive credit for your contribution.

As always the Songfish thanks you. :drummer: :guitar: :rock:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really? No facts for "Chimes Of Freedom"?

From the almighty wiki:

"Chimes of Freedom" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan, produced by Tom Wilson. It was written in early 1964 and was influenced by the symbolist poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. The song depicts the feelings and thoughts of the singer and his companion as they wait out a lightning storm under a doorway. The singer expresses his solidarity with people who are downtrodden or otherwise treated unjustly, and believes that the thunder is tolling in sympathy for them. Music critic Paul Williams has described the song as Dylan's Sermon on the Mount. The song has been covered many times by different artists, including The Byrds, Jefferson Starship, Youssou N'Dour, Bruce Springsteen and U2.

"Chimes of Freedom" was written shortly after the release of the "The Times They Are a-Changin'" album in early 1964 during a road trip that Dylan took across America with musician Paul Clayton, journalist Pete Karman, and road manager Victor Maimudes. It was written at about the same time as "Mr. Tambourine Man", which is similarly influenced by the symbolism of Arthur Rimbaud. There are conflicting stories about exactly when during the trip this song was written. One story is that Dylan wrote the song on a portable typewriter in the back of a car the day after visiting civil rights activists Bernice Johnson and Cordell Reagon in Atlanta, Georgia. However, a handwritten lyric sheet from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Toronto, Canada that was reproduced in The Bob Dylan Scrapbook 1956-1966 indicates that this story cannot be entirely true. Dylan was in Toronto, Canada in late January and early February, before the road trip on which the song was supposedly written. So, although parts of the song may have been written on the road trip, Dylan had started working on the song earlier. The first public performance of the song took place in early 1964, either at the Civic Auditorium in Denver on February 15, or at the Berkley Community Theater in San Francisco on February 22. "Chimes of Freedom" was an important part of Dylan's live concert repertoire throughout most of 1964, although by the latter part of that year he had ceased performing it and would not perform it again until 1987, when he revived the song for concerts with the Grateful Dead and with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Music critic Paul Williams has described the song as Dylan's Sermon on the Mount. The song is a lyrical expression of feelings evoked while watching a lightning storm. The singer and a companion are caught in a thunderstorm in mid-evening and the pair of them duck into a doorway, where they are both transfixed by one lightning flash after another. The natural phenomena of thunder and lightning appear to take on auditory and ultimately emotional aspects to the singer, with the thunder experienced as the tolling of bells and the lightning bolts appearing as chimes. Eventually, the sights and sounds in the sky become intermixed in the mind of the singer, as evidenced by the lines:

As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds,

Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing.

Over the course of the song the sun slowly rises and the lyrics can be interpreted as a proclamation of the hope that as the sky clears after a difficult night, all the world's people will rise together to proclaim their survival to the sound of the church bells.

In Chimes of Freedom: The Politics of Bob Dylan's Art, author Mike Marqusee notes that the song marks a transition between Dylan's earlier protest song style (a litany of the down-trodden and oppressed, in the second half of each verse) and his later more free-flowing poetic style (the fusion of images of lightning, storm and bells in the first half). In this later style, which is influenced by 19th century French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud, the poetry is more allusive, filled with "chains of flashing images." In this song, rather than support a specific cause as in his earlier protest songs, he finds solidarity with all people who are downtrodden or otherwise treated unjustly, including unwed mothers, the disabled, refugees, outcasts, those unfairly jailed, "the luckless, the abandoned and forsaked," and, in the final verse, "the countless confused, accused, misused, strung out ones and worse" and "every hung-up person in the whole wide universe." By having the chimes of freedom toll for both rebels and rakes, the song is more inclusive in its sympathies than previous protest songs, such as "The Times They Are A-Changin'", written just the prior year. After "Chimes of Freedom", Dylan's protest songs no longer depicted social reality in the black and white terms he renounces in "My Back Pages" but rather use satirical surrealism to make their points.

The assassination of U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, is one possible inspiration for Dylan starting the song. Although Dylan has denied that this is the case, he did draft a number of poems in the fall of 1963 in the aftermath of Kennedy's death and one of those poems in particular, a short six line piece, appears to contain the genesis for "Chimes of Freedom":

the colors of friday were dull

as the cathedral bells were gently burnin'

strikin for the gentle

strikin for the kind

strikin for the crippled ones

and strikin for the blind.

Kennedy was killed on a Friday, and the cathedral bells in the poem would have been the church bells heralding his death. Using a storm as a metaphor for the death of a president is similar to Shakespeare's use of a storm in King Lear. By the time Dylan wrote the first draft of "Chimes of Freedom" the following February, it contained many of the elements of this poem, except that the crippled ones and the blind were changed to "guardians and protectors of the mind." In addition, the cathedral bells had become the "chimes of freedom flashing", as seen by two lovers finding shelter in a cathedral doorway.

Besides Rimbaud's sybolism, the song is also influenced by the alliterative poetry of Gerald Manley Hopkins, the poetic vision of William Blake and the violent drama, mixed with compassion and romantic language, of William Shakespeare. In addition, Dylan had used rain as a symbol in earlier songs, such as "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall". In his memoir, folk musician Dave Van Ronk claimed that the song was influenced by an old sentimental ballad, "Chimes of Trinity" by Michael J. Fitzpatrick, which Dave Van Ronk had introduced to Dylan

As of 2009, Dylan continues to perform "Chimes of Freedom" in concert, although he did not play the song live during the 23 years between late 1964 and 1987. In 1993 Dylan played the song in front of the Lincoln Memorial as part of Bill Clinton's inauguration as U.S. president.

"Chimes of Freedom" has also been covered by artists as diverse as Phil Carmen, Jefferson Starship, Youssou N'Dour, Joan Osborne, Bruce Springsteen and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Although U2 have never released a recording of the song, they played it live in concert during the late 1980s. Bruce Springsteen's cover version managed to reach #16 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1988, although it was never released as a single. It was recorded in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 3, 1988, when Springsteen performed it during his Tunnel of Love Express tour. Springsteen used the performance to announce before a worldwide radio audience his role in the upcoming Human Rights Now! tour to benefit Amnesty International and mark the fortieth anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The song was subsequently released as the title track of the live Chimes of Freedom EP. Springsteen's performance is rousing and fervent, transforming the song into a ringing anthem for the full E Street Band, without losing the power of the words evident in Dylan's own solo performance. On the Human Rights Now! tour itself, Springsteen led a group performance of "Chimes of Freedom" featuring the other artists on the tour: Tracy Chapman, Sting, Peter Gabriel, and Youssou N'Dour, with each taking turns on the song's verses.

Jefferson Starship covered the song on their 2008 release, Jefferson's Tree of Liberty, with Paul Kantner, David Freiberg and Cathy Richardson on vocals. Additionally, the Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour recorded an unusual cover version of the song, in which he treated the song as an anthem for the many people in Africa struggling to survive. The melody of "Chimes of Freedom" was deliberately borrowed by Billy Bragg for the song "Ideology", from his third album, Talking with the Taxman about Poetry. In addition, the Bon Jovi song "Bells of Freedom", from their Have a Nice Day album, is somewhat reminiscent of "Chimes of Freedom" in structure. Neil Young's song "Flags of Freedom" from his Living with War album mentions Dylan by name and melodically recalls the tune and verse structure of "Chimes of Freedom", though Young is listed as the song's only writer.

Edited by Guest
I can't figure out why it won't do the quote box. Anyone have any ideas?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's stuff for "I Put A Spell On You", though it has nothing to do with The Animals specific version so I'm not sure if we have the facts for that.

From wiki:

"I Put a Spell on You" is a 1956 song written by Screamin' Jay Hawkins, whose recording was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. It was also ranked #313 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Hawkins had originally intended to record "I Put a Spell on You" as a refined love song, a blues ballad. He reported, however, that the producer "brought in ribs and chicken and got everybody drunk, and we came out with this weird version. I don't even remember making the record. Before, I was just a normal blues singer. I was just Jay Hawkins. It all sort of just fell in place. I found out I could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death."

Some sources claim that "I Put a Spell on You" had been released earlier than 1956 in a more sedate form, but this has not been verified. The date of 1949 for an original release on the Grand label would appear unlikely, since it predates both the formation of the record label and the beginning of Hawkins' performing career.

"I Put a Spell on You" became a quick success, despite being banned by some stores and radio stations. A softer version, minus certain sounds deemed "cannibalistic", did not chart but brought Hawkins together with Alan Freed and his "Rock and Roll Review".

Up to this time, Hawkins had been a blues performer; emotional, but not wild. Freed suggested a gimmick to capitalize on the "demented" sound of "I Put a Spell on You": Hawkins wore a long cape, and appeared onstage by rising out of a coffin in the midst of smoke and fog.

The act was a sensation, later bolstered by tusks worn in Hawkins' nose, on-stage snakes and fireworks, and a cigarette-smoking skull named "Henry". The theatrical act was one of the first shock rock performances, and was the progenitor of much that came later in rock and roll, including Dr. John, Alice Cooper, Eric Burdon, Screaming Lord Sutch, Warren Zevon, Arthur Brown, Black Sabbath, Ted Nugent, George Clinton, The Butthole Surfers, The Cramps, and Marilyn Manson -- among the many who vied for Hawkins' title as a rock and roll madman.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...let me add some facts...

"I Put A Spell On You" - The Animals

A track from their third album " Animalisms", released in 1966.

The album reached #4 in the UK in June.

The song wasn't released as a single in the UK or in the US (it was though released in an EP with See See Rider and Sweet Little Sixteen in Europe)

but it's included in many compilations.

Eric Burdon did an amazing cover of this song in his famous concert in 2006, in Lugano (Italy).

He reunited the Animals for that tour. A film is supposed to have been shot but has not been released.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...and just a bit of facts for

"We Ain't Got Nothing Yet"

The Blues Magoos

Released in November 1966 as a single.

The B-side was "Gotta Get Away"

Though it was #5 on the US Top, it did not chart in the UK. It's part of the "Easy Rider" movie's soundtrack(1968)

Also a track from their first album, Psychedelic Lollypop".

The group's biggest song, "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet", whose Vox Continental organ riff bears an uncanny resemblance to the 1962 hit by Ricky Nelson, "Summertime"...

allmusic said:

"(We Ain't Got) Nothing Yet" is an extraordinary and magical two minutes and ten seconds which, like the Box Tops' "The Letter," is one of those little two-minute blasts of pop which brought the transistor radio to life and which is the proverbial breath of fresh air on oldies radio stations daring enough to play psychedelia

Blues Magoos' second Top Ten hit in late 1966, "We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet," is almost a continuation of their first hit, a rocking cover of "Tobacco Road." Utilizing the same guitar/organ riff and overall Yardbirds-inspired fury, the song is a blinding wedding of psychedelia, hard rock, and R&B. The band also throws in a chant-like vocal riff that again is reminiscent of the Yardbirds. Guitarist Mike Esposito's Echoplex-drenched riffing ascends to dizzying heights and is one of the highlights of the record. Lyrically, this group-written song seems to celebrate their own sense of accomplishment, and this bravado fits the rock genre like a glove.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...