The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten Facts

[katie_sane]

THANKYOU so much edna! You're a doll!! You too, CeeCee!!

Thanks also to Judo, who PT'd me some great songfacts. Bravo to you both, this thread would be nothing without your continued support

Now...

The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten #42

Songs desperately seeking facts are:

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue - Bob Dylan (1965)

New York Mining Disaster 1941 - Bee Gees (1967)

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.

The Songfish thanks you.

[edna]

"It´s all over now, Baby Blue" - Bob Dylan

Released in 1965 on his album "Bringing it all back home", according allmusic.com:

So who is Baby Blue? Well, like most of Dylan's subjects, the character is probably an amalgam of personalities in his orbit. But some speculation places the focus sharply on a heavily Dylan-influenced singer/songwriter named David Blue, who pops up, Zelig-like, in name or visage in a variety of pop music moments. He was a friend or possibly just a hanger-on of Dylan's (and Leonard Cohen's as well) from the early days in New York's Greenwich Village folk scene, and is pictured in the cover photo of Dylan and the Band's Basement Tapes (in the trench coat), appears in the Dylan film Renaldo and Clara (1978), and is speculated to have been the subject of Joni Mitchell's "Blue." Another person mentioned when fans discuss "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is Paul Clayton, a folksinger who had a fair amount of influence on Dylan. Of course, there may be a good amount of Bob Dylan himself in Baby Blue, the singer certainly undergoing great artistic and personal change in the mid-'60s. On Bringing It All Back Home (1965) alone, half of the songs feature — for the first time — a band of accompanying musicians and the album is a roughly half electric/half acoustic affair. These forays into rock & roll and pop music alienated a vocal segment of his fan base. Perhaps the singer sees himself moving on from them. It is very likely that they were the target. There is much evidence to support this theory, particularly Dylan's choice to play "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" as his last song — acoustically — at the infamous Newport Folk Festival, after having his electric set met with boos. Coming back to kiss off the crowd with the number, the singer seems to relish such lines as "look out the saints are coming through." One can only guess what he must have thought of the crowd finally cheering him.(...)

"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" has been covered countless times. Dylan himself originally recorded it acoustic, with just Joseph Macho Jr. on a melodic bass guitar, on Bringing It All Back Home (1965). Other standout Dylan versions include the solo acoustic recordings from the Genuine Bootleg Series, Take 2 (1996), Biograph (1985), and bootlegs of the Newport Folk Festival (1965). Van Morrison recorded a swinging, dreamy version with Them in 1966 on Them Again. That recording was later sampled by Beck for his "Jack-Ass." Morrison also covered it live and had Dylan join him when the two toured together in the late '90s. Bootlegs present a very Rolling Stones-y take on the song — specifically "Wild Horses," with Mick Taylor-esque guitar flourishes. Hole used the Them version as a blueprint for its cover on the soundtrack to the film The Crow: Salvation (2000), singer Courtney Love doing her best to sound like Thalia Zedek. Marianne Faithfull did a dark folky version on 1988's Rich Kid Blues. And of course, the Grateful Dead and solo Jerry Garcia had the song in their extensive repertoire of Dylan songs, one version of which is available on Dick's Picks, Vol. 9 (1997).

Other covers, from wikipedia:

...The 13th Floor Elevators, Them ( with vocals by Van Morrison), Barry McGuire, Joan Baez and, more recently, Hole and the duo of Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs. The Byrds recorded two versions, four years apart, the first of which was released as an unsuccessful promo single in late 1965. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band covered it for the release of their first album, Volume One. George Harrison referenced the title in his 1987 single When We Was Fab.

[edna]

"New York Mining Disaster 1941"- The Bee Gees

Released on their first album, "Bee Gees 1st", written by Barry and Robin Gibb. It was their first international hit, 1967.

[Dappled]

From http://www.geocities.com/gibbwords/new_york_mining_disaster_1941.htm and elsewhere:

“New York Mining Disaster 1941†was based on an actual historical incident, the landslide in Aberfan, South Wales in 1966 that killed 144 people (mostly children who were at school).

Barely out of their teens, the Brothers Gibb wrote a chilling tale of two trapped miners who feared that no one was coming to rescue them. The sparse arrangement – a few strumming guitars and an occasional foreboding cello – gives the Bee Gees a chance to display their tight harmonies and talent for fashioning lyrics that put the listener in that same dark pit with the miners: “I keep straining my ears to hear a sound, maybe someone is digging underground. Or have they given up and all gone home to bed, thinking those that once existed must be dead?â€

As it was so soon after the incident, the Bee Gees disguised it as a fictitious disaster, so that nobody would be unduly distressed by the song. Many people mistook them for the Beatles, who had greatly influenced them in their songwriting and singing styles since their tour of Australia.

[katie_sane]

Thankyou again Dappled and edna!

The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten #43

TWO songs from this top ten are currently not part of the Songfacts database:

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - The Animals

Victoria - The Kinks

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.

The Songfish thanks you.

[Farin]

from Wikipedia:

"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is a song written by Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell and Sol Marcus, and was first made popular by Nina Simone on the 1964 album Broadway-Blues-Ballads.

It has been covered by many other artists, such as Santa Esmeralda, Joe Cocker, The Moody Blues, Elvis Costello, Cyndi Lauper, Place of Skulls, John Legend and Gary Moore.

Also Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) has a Cover on his new album "An Other Cup"

[phil]

Victoria was the first track from the Kink's 1969 concept album, Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire).Ray Davies composed the songs for a television play that was never produced. Arthur is based on Davie's brother-in-law. The story is about his plight in post World War ll England and his leaving England for Australia to have better opportunities to raise his family.

From Wikepedia

Edited December 16, 2006 by Guest

[edna]

"Victoria" - The Kinks

Allmusic.com says:

"Victoria" is one of pop's greatest singles, just on musical merit alone (hook, performances, production, etc.), ignoring for a moment that under its infectious melody and singalong chorus is a genuine message. From the 1969 LP ^Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British mpire, another of the Kinks' concept records, "Victoria" is a sardonic look at the uptight mores, classism, and imperialism under Queen Victoria, not exactly the burning issues of rock music in the Vietnam era. Davies, via the title character, Arthur, lets his sarcasm shine through: "I was born, lucky me/In a land that I love/Though I am poor, I am free/When I grow I shall fight/For this land I shall die/Let her sun never set," a scathing reference to the proud Tory assertion of the past that the sun never set on the English Empire, the empire which Victoria exploited while turning her back on such bothersome issues as the 1845 potato famine of Ireland, during which over a million people starved as food continued to be exported to England. Albert, claims Davies in his autobiography, X-Ray, was a carpet layer intended to represent the common man, a "cog" in the empire that passed him by. As such, Davies identified with the character, whose shared name with the queen's husband and first cousin surely was no coincidence. When the king (also known as the "prince consort") died, Victoria became famous for her mourning, which is commonly thought of as the driving force behind her moral edicts: "Long ago life was clean/Sex was bad and obscene/And the rich were so mean/Stately homes for the Lords/Croquet lawns, village greens/ Victoria was my queen." (...) The Fall, caustic English art punk band of the '80s and '90s, covered the song(...) Davies himself did a great acoustic version of it for his 1998 The Storyteller LP, which was an inventive way for him to promote his autobiography. The concept gave way to the VH1 Storyteller series.

[edna]

Don´t let me be misunderstood"

It was released in 1965 as a single in the UK, produced by Mickie Most, and also on "Animal Tracks" (1965), their second album, in the US version. It came to #15 on the charts.

A review in allmusic.com

"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was one of the biggest and best mid-1960s British Invasion hits by the Animals, with a sour melody and defiant lyrical stance well-suited for the group's image. The Animals' version is substantially different from the Simone original right from the intro, which has an almost dark carnival-like sequence of organ notes. The Animals retain but emphasize the stop-start rhythms of the original, and of course give it a much more rock-oriented arrangement with guitar and organ, dispensing wholly with orchestration. Also crucially, Eric Burdon's vocal is far more insouciant than Simone's, particularly when the band burst into the chorus. The chorus has an anthemic resonance, given greater weight by the Animals' backing vocals, dramatically lowering the temperature for Burdon to plead-state the title phrase before leading into the verse again. The bridge is nice too, as Burdon bridles with tension when he says he doesn't mean to be edgy and take it out his frustration on his woman, though he doesn't seem to be able to keep from doing so. Both the Simone and Animals versions have substantial merits, but ultimately the Animals' recording is more forceful and memorable.

[katie_sane]

Thank you to edna, Dappled, Farin & Phil!

The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten CHRISTMAS EDITION

FOUR songs from our final top ten of the year are without a home on Songfacts. Those songs are:

Father Christmas - The Kinks

Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee

Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy - David Bowie with Bing Crosby

Run, Rudolph, Run - Chuck Berry

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.

Thanks to everyone (special mention to edna, Dappled, Phil - regular contributors) who has helped to find facts for songs this year. I am sure that this site has benefited from all the information we've collected.

The Songfish wishes you a super-funk Christmas and a golden New Year!

[edna]

"Run, Rudolph, Run"

Chuck Berry

Released in december 1958 with "Merry Christmas Baby" as B side.

from wikipedia:

Run Rudolph Run (sometimes referred to as Run Run Rudolph) is a Christmas song sung by Chuck Berry, written by Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie. This song was first recorded in 1958 and released by Chess Records 1714. It hit number 69 in the Billboard Hot 100. This song was one of the first songs to have freeways mentioned in it. Even though the song was written by Johnny Marks & Marvin Brodie, the 45rpm's always showed the song written by "C. Berry Music & M. Brodie". The thought was to cover up the known Christmas song writer Johnny Marks from hip R&B DJ's and buyers.

Run, Run Rudolph, Santa's gotta make it to town.

Santa, make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down.

This song was covered by Capricorn, Five Easy Pieces, Dave Edmunds, Hanson, Sheryl Crow, Bryan Adams, Click Five, The Grateful Dead, Keith Richards, Jimmy Buffett, Foghat, Paul Brandt, Reverend Horton Heat, and Brian Setzer Orchestra .

This song also uses the same chord progression as Johnny B. Goode, sung by Chuck Berry as well.

"Run Rudolph Run" has been played in many movies, including:

* Cast Away

* Diner

* Home Alone

* Jingle All The Way

* The Santa Clause 2

* Stealing Christmas

* Deck the Halls

[edna]

"Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy"

David Bowie & Bing Crosby

Single released in October 1982, produced by David Bowie and Tony Visconti.

from wikipedia, again:

"Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" is a medley of two traditional Christmas songs performed by David Bowie and Bing Crosby.

The track was originally recorded for Crosby’s 1977 television special Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas. The pair exchanged stilted dialogue about what they do for Christmas before singing a medley of two traditional songs, "Peace on Earth" and "Little Drummer Boy". Bowie's appearance has been described as a "surreal" event, undertaken at a time that he was "actively trying to normalise his career".[1] He has since recalled that he only appeared on the show because "I just knew my mother liked him."[2] Crosby would die just over a month after recording the special.

According to co-writer Ian Fraser, Bowie balked at singing "Little Drummer Boy". "I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?" Fraser recalls Bowie telling him. Fraser, along with songwriter Larry Grossman and the special's scriptwriter, Buz Kohan, then arranged the medley, which has Bowie singing "Peace on Earth" and Crosby performing "Little Drummer Boy".[3]

The medley was available for some years as a bootleg single backed with "Heroes",[4] which Bowie had also performed on the TV special. In 1982, RCA issued the recording as an official single, complete with the dialogue, arbitrarily placing "Fantastic Voyage" from the Lodger album on the B-side. Bowie was unhappy with this move, which further soured his strained relationship with RCA, and he left the label soon after.[2] The single would make #3 in the UK charts, boosted by a 12" picture disc release, and has since become a perennial on British Christmas compilation albums, with the TV sequence also a regular on UK nostalgia shows

[bluesboy]

This article was in the paper yesterday and was probably syndicated across the nation since it's the Washington Post. It repeats what Edna found but it does add a little bit more.

Bowie-Crosby Christmas duet almost didn't occur

By Paul Farhi

THE WASHINGTON POST

December 22, 2006

One of the most successful duets in Christmas music history – and surely the weirdest – might never have happened if it weren't for some last-minute musical surgery. David Bowie thought “The Little Drummer Boy†was all wrong for him. So when the producers of Bing Crosby's Christmas TV special asked Bowie to sing it in 1977, he balked.

Just hours before he was supposed to go before the cameras, though, a team of composers and writers frantically retooled the song. They added another melody and new lyrics as a counterpoint to all those pa-rumpa-pum-pums and called it “Peace on Earth.†Bowie liked it. More important, Bowie sang it.

The result was an epic, and epically bizarre, recording in which David Bowie, the androgynous Ziggy Stardust, joined in song with none other than Mr. “White Christmas†himself, Bing Crosby.

In the intervening years, the Bowie-Crosby, “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy,†has been transformed from an oddity into a holiday chestnut. You can hear it in heavy rotation on Christmas-music radio stations or see the performance on Internet video sites.

First released as a single in 1982, it still sells today. To add to its quirky afterlife, it's part of an album that ranked as high as No. 3 on the Canadian charts this month. How did this almost surreal mash-up of the mainstream and the avant-garde, of cardigan-clad '40s-era crooner and glam rocker, happen?

It almost didn't. Bowie, who was 30 at the time, and Crosby, then 73, recorded the duet Sept. 11, 1977, for Crosby's “Merrie Olde Christmas†TV special. A month later, Crosby was dead of a heart attack. The special was broadcast on CBS about a month after his death.

The notion of the Crosby-Bowie pairing apparently was the brainchild of the TV special's producers, Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion, according to Ian Fraser, who co-wrote (with Larry Grossman) the song's music and arranged it.

Crosby was in Britain on a concert tour, and the theme of the TV special was Christmas in England. Bowie was one of several British guest stars (the model Twiggy and “Oliver!†star Ron Moody also appeared). Booking Bowie made logistical sense, since the special was taped near his home in London, at the Elstree Studios. As perhaps an added inducement, the producers agreed to air the arty video of Bowie's then-current single, “Heroes†(Crosby introduced it).

It's unclear, however, whether Crosby had any idea who Bowie was. Buz Kohan, who wrote the special and worked with Fraser and Grossman on the music, says he was never sure Crosby knew anything about Bowie's work. Fraser has a slightly different memory: “I'm pretty sure he did (know). Bing was no idiot. If he didn't, his kids sure did.â€

Kohan worked some of the intergenerational awkwardness into his script. In a little skit that precedes the singing, Crosby greets Bowie at the door of what looks like Dracula's castle. The conceit is that Bowie is dropping by a friend's house and finds Crosby at home one snowy afternoon.

They banter for a bit and then get around to a piano. Bowie casually picks out a piece of sheet music of “The Little Drummer Boy†and declares, “This is my son's favorite.â€

The original plan had been for Bowie and Crosby to sing just “Little Drummer Boy.†But “David came in and said: 'I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?' †Fraser said. “We didn't know quite what to do.â€

Fraser, Kohan and Grossman left the set and found a piano in the studios' basement. In about 75 minutes, they wrote “Peace on Earth,†an original tune, and worked out an arrangement that weaved together the two songs. Bowie and Crosby nailed the performance with less than an hour of rehearsal.

And that was almost that. “We never expected to hear about it again,†Kohan said.

But after the recording circulated as a bootleg for several years, RCA decided to issue it as a single in 1982. It has since been packaged and repackaged in Christmas compilation albums and released as a DVD.

Among the song's fans is Roger Launius, who remembers watching the original Crosby TV special while he was a graduate student and his two children were ages 1 and 3.

“It was a very hectic time in my life, and the song was very peaceful and beautiful,†says Launius, chairman of the space history division at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. “I don't remember anything else about the special, but I remembered that song.â€

About seven years ago, his now-adult daughter sent him a Christmas CD. Among the selections was the Bowie-Crosby duet. The other day at his office, Launius played it again, letting the warm harmony, and the memories, come flooding back.

[edna]

"Rockin´ Around the Christmas Tree"

Brenda Lee

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' was written by Johnny Marks and recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958 on Decca. The song did not become a Christmas hit until 1960. The 45rpm came with a picture sleeve. In December 1987, the cover version by Kim Wilde and Mel Smith reached number 3 on Boxing Day in the UK singles chart.

(from wikipedia)

Very little info about this song... I´m sure there must be more.

[edna]

"Father Christmas"

The Kinks

Written by Ray Davies, released as a single in 1977.

b-side: "Prince of the Punks".

It´s a classic in Christmas time though it didn´t made the charts when it was released. It was later included in the album "Come Dancing with The Kinks (Greatest Hits)", 1986 and is also a bonus track in the re-edition cd of the 1978 album "Misfits".

wikipedia says:

It tells of a department store Santa Claus who is beaten up by a gang of kids asking him for money.

It appeared on several commercials for Unaccompanied Minors.

Once again, I got very little info about this song.

[RonJonSurfer]

"Father Christmas"

The Kinks

Written by Ray Davies, released as a single in 1977.

b-side: "Prince of the Punks".

It´s a classic in Christmas time though it didn´t made the charts when it was released. It was later included in the album "Come Dancing with The Kinks (Greatest Hits)", 1986 and is also a bonus track in the re-edition cd of the 1978 album "Misfits".

wikipedia says:

Once again, I got very little info about this song.

I watched BBC Jewels on VH1 the other day and they had The Kinks Christmas Concert from 1977. Ray Davies sang this in full Father christmas attire and it sounded great. The whole concert was great actually.

[bluesboy]

This article was syndicated a couple of weeks ago and adds a little to what Edna found.

Brenda Lee still 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree'

By John Gerome

Associated Press

December 18, 2006

NASHVILLE -- She's been "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" for almost 50 years, but Brenda Lee never tires of her holiday classic -- though some listeners might by the time Christmas rolls around.

"I don't think you ever get tired of the well-written, well-crafted songs," Lee said recently. "They're easy to sing, and they stand the test of time."

Lee was only 13 when she recorded "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" in 1958, starting a career that eventually got her into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

She's now 62, but she still goes by the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite" and she's still quick with a quip: "Do I look tall and thin?" the 4-foot-9 Lee asked a cameraman before an interview at The Associated Press bureau.

Later, on her way out, she graciously posed for a photo beside the office Christmas tree (Shameless, we know).

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" was written by Johnny Marks, who also composed "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "A Holly, Jolly Christmas." It was cut in Nashville with famed producer Owen Bradley.

No snow was falling that day. As Lee recalls, it was July.

"Owen had the studio all freezing cold with the air conditioning, and he had a Christmas tree all set up to kind of get in the mood just a little bit," she said. "We had a lot of fun."

And a lot of success. She recorded "Sweet Nothin's" and some of her other early hits in the same session.

"Rockin"' was released as a single in '58 and again in '59 before it finally took off in 1960 in the wake of her No. 1 smash "I'm Sorry" -- one of the first songs in Nashville with a string section, ushering in the "Nashville Sound."

Featuring Lee's boisterous voice and Hank Garland's ringing guitar, "Rockin"' is consistently listed among the most popular holiday songs of all time. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, it's as ubiquitous as poinsettias. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) lists it as the 14th most performed holiday song over the past five years.

The song's appeal is obvious to Rose Seaton, station manager at KFFA in Helena, Ark., which plays "Rockin"' on both its adult contemporary FM station and country AM station.

"It's one of those songs that people like to sing along to," Seaton said. "It's upbeat, and people like upbeat Christmas music."

Lee, who was born Brenda Mae Tarpley in Atlanta, became an international star in the early 1960s. The Beatles opened for her. Chuck Berry recorded a song about her.

But like other early rock-'n'-rollers, she shifted to country and found success with "Big Four Poster Bed" and "Nobody Wins." She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997.

"When they told me ... I certainly couldn't believe it," she said. "I would have thought the rock, maybe I had a chance, but I really didn't think country that much."

Ironically, her rock 'n' roll induction took longer and almost didn't happen.

"I was nominated three times for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the first two I didn't get in, so I figured it's pretty much over," Lee said.

She was finally chosen in 2002 alongside the Ramones, Talking Heads, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Isaac Hayes, Gene Pitney and old pal Chet Atkins.

Today, she performs about 30 shows a year and sings "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" at every one of them.

"I didn't used to. But about 10 years ago I'd be finishing a show, and they'd say, `You didn't sing Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree,' and I'd say, `Yeah, but it's not Christmas,' and they'd say, `We don't care.'

"So I put it in, and I close my shows with it."

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

[katie_sane]

Fantastic information, thank you edna, Blues Boy and RonJon!

The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten #44

In our first Top Ten for 2007, TWO songs are without facts on this here song facts site! They are:

Stray Cat Blues - The Rolling Stones (1968)

Wooden Ships - Crosby, Stills and Nash (1969)

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.

The Songfish thanks you.

[edna]

Stray Cat Blues

The Rolling Stones

Recorded April 3, 1968. Released on their Beggars Banquet LP in 1968

Vocals: Mick Jagger. Electric Guitars: Keith Richards. Slide Guitar: Brian Jones. Bass: Bill Wyman. Drums: Charlie Watts. Piano: Nicky Hopkins. Electric Keyboards: Brian Jones. Congas: Rocky Dijon  

from allmusic.com:

Perhaps trying to reclaim the sleaze factor from young upstarts like Iggy Pop, the Stooges, and the Velvet Underground, Mick Jagger and the Stones offer this raunchy tale of debauchery with underage groupies — "stray cats" that the narrator feels he should bring in to protect: "I can see that you're 15 years old/No I don't want your I.D./You look so restless and you're so far from home/But it's no hanging matter/It's no capital crime." A driving three-chord blues, the original 1968 Beggar's Banquet recording rides a mid-up-tempo with a pumping bass line. "Stray Cat Blues" has Jagger playing a role that he picked up somewhere around the release of "Jumping Jack Flash" and continued to embrace through "Sympathy for the Devil," "Cocksucker Blues," and "Memo From Turner" — from his film Performance — right through to 1978's "When the Whip Comes Down": the menacing man on the edge riding with the Devil through the "demon life" of "Sway," when not taking the point of view of Beelzebub himself. Perhaps after being labeled as the bad boys of the British Invasion — a sort of anti- Beatles — Jagger ingeniously realized he should go with it, forget about the group's forays into psychedelia and flower-power, and exploit the dark side of the blues, posing as the sleazeball and confirming parents' worst nightmares in the process. This all got put under the microscope, of course, after the murder at Altamont. As if trying to be as outrageous as possible, Jagger changed the already sordid "15 years old" to "13 years old" in concerts on their 1969 tour, as captured in the slower groove of the version of "Stray Cat Blues" on Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out. And bringing the ignoble metaphor to its rightful conclusion he adds, "I bet you mama don't know you can bite like that/I'll bet she never saw you scratch my back." The lyrics are so over the top that the intention is clearly tongue-in-cheek and humorous — a reaction to all the silly moralists worrying about the influence of the Stones and rock & roll in general. Texas blues-rocker Johnny Winter worked with the Southern boogie shape that "Stray Cat Blues" had started to take in live Stones performances with the addition of the blazing young blues guitarist Mick Taylor. Winter recorded a slow version on his 1974 Saints and Sinners LP. Soundgarden also did a surprisingly faithful version on their 1992 ^Badmotorfinger/Somms(Satanoscillatemymetallicsona as).

[edna]

Wooden Ships

Crosby, Stills and Nash

"Wooden Ships"

from their first album Crosby, Stills & Nash, 1969

Stephen Stills/Paul Kantner/David Crosby

Paul Kantner is credited on the 2006 cd re-edition.

Both CS&N and JA´s versions of "Wooden Ships" are considered as the original versions, as the song was co-written by members of the two bands and released in the same year.

from the book" Got a Revolution!(The turbulent fly of Jefferson Airplane)" by Jeff Tamarkin.

The song had its genesis during a weekend in paradise off the coast of Florida some time in 1968. There David Crosby had anchored his boat, the Mayan, while Stephen Stills, Grace Slick and Paul Kantner, and two or three of Crosby's girlfriends, cavorted aboard, diving, getting high in the sun, playing music and dreaming.

David Crosby: I'd been kicked out of the Byrds, and I found a boat and bought it, in Fort Lauderdale. Stephen came down to see me and Paul Kantner came down to see me, and they happened to be there at the same time. I had this set of changes that I'd been playing for a long time, that I really, really loved. We were sitting around in the main cabin of the boat, and we started fooling around, as we would naturally do, and we started playing that set of changes and we wrote that song together. Stephen came up with a couple of ways to arrange it, musically, and he wrote the "Horror grips us as we watch you die" verse. Paul came up with the original hook line, "Wooden ships on the water." It was a very organic process, we really wrote it very, very together. I'm amazed we never wrote anything else together. It was such a kick in the head to do it. Paul continued writing, and added an entire section to his version of it that we didn't. One of the things that I most liked was that we did it and they did it and then people would go out and buy both records and then play them back to back, and say, "Well, dig, this is a, oh, now, here, well, I really like, but see here, and I really like when they do that." It was a great thing.

Paul Kantner: That song comes out of "The House At Pooneil Corners," as a continuation, another obvious alternative to the same situation. It started out, actually, as the lyrics of the first song I ever wrote, when I was in college. Then David had had this piece of music for about a year or two that he hadn't written lyrics to. He had passed it around and nobody did anything about it. We had gone sailing with him–me and Grace. David would take us on his boat here and there. Grace and I weren't together yet at that point. I knew how fond David was of the ocean. It was his song, really, to start with. So I just put "Wooden ships on the water, very free and easy," which charmed David to no end. Most of that is my lyric and most of it's David's music. Stephen Stills wrote one verse, the nasty verse about watching you die, which is sort of fitting for Stephen.

"Wooden Ships"–Paul's original title for it was "Positively Negative"–is certainly one of the lovelier songs ever written about the quest for survival in a post-apocalyptic world, and the enduring human spirit that motivates the living to remain positive and rebuild from the ashes of destruction, in this case, a new civilization free from the madness that felled the old one.

On their ship–and what is this planet, in the end, but a vessel on which we are all passengers?–sailing "far from this barren land," they search for "somewhere where we might laugh again," living "free and easy," subsisting on "purple berries" (courtesy of Owsley?). "Haven't got sick once, probably keep us both alive," they sing. To the "Silver people on the shoreline"–who Crosby has characterized as "guys in radiation suits"–they say, "let us be."

Paul takes the first couple of lines–"If you smile at me, you know I will understand, 'cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language"–words modified from a saying that Crosby found on the side of a Baptist church in Florida. Grace, then Marty, follow, each taking a couple of lines by themselves, before they join together in pristine harmony.

Paul Kantner: That's an old folk thing. That goes back to the folk era, Irish jig kind of songs, where different members of the band will sing a song and all join in on the chorus.

As he mentioned, Paul lifted part of the lyrics, including the line "Take a sister by the hand, lead her far from this foreign land," from the very first song he wrote, something called "Fly Away," dating back to his college days circa 1962. The Airplane's version of "Wooden Ships" also includes a couple of verses–the ones added by Paul (who, interestingly, is deliberately not listed as a co-writer on the CSN version because he did not want Matthew Katz to hold up any royalties due to Stills and Crosby as part of his ongoing lawsuit over the Airplane's publishing rights at the time)–that CSN did not.

[katie_sane]

Thankyou edna!!

Now, to...

The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten #45

THREE songs from the current top ten are in need of facts:

Feel Like Making Love - Bad Company (1975)

The Wanderer - Dion (1961)

The Beat Goes On - Sonny and Cher (1967)

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.

The Songfish thanks you.

[phil]

After having success with Dion & The Belmonts, Dion DiMucci went solo in 1960. The Wanderer went to #2 on the 1961 Billboard charts. Dion said the Wanderer was the white version of Hoochie Coochie Man. Dion also had hits with, Runaround Sue #1, Ruby Baby #6, Donna The Prima Donna #6 and 1968's Abraham,Martin & John #4. Dion was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. He was introduced by Lou Reed.

[The Seeker]

From wikipedia: The Beat Goes On

"The Beat Goes On" is a song that Sonny and Cher released in 1967 on their album In Case You're in Love. It peaked at number 6 on the pop charts, charting January 14, 1967. It has been covered by American jazz musician Buddy Rich, jazz pianist/singer Patricia Barber and the British electronic music group All Seeing I produced a cover version of this for Britney Spears on her hit debut album, ...Baby One More Time. Britney also performed it at the 1999 World Music Awards and stated it was dedicated to Cher. It was track is #11 on Britney's CD. Although she never released it as a single, she performs it at many of her concerts. The song was recently featured on a television commercial for Egg Beaters.[citation needed]

The Beat Goes On was sung at Sonny Bono's funeral, and that phrase also appears on his tombstone.

World wide sales figures are 3.000.000.

[Rayzor]

From wikipedia: Feel Like Makin' Love

In 1975, (the album)Straight Shooter gave the group another #1 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. The album also spawned two hit singles, "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" at #30 and the slower "Feel Like Makin' Love" at #10.

All I could find Katie. Maybe someone else more net-saavy then me can find more

Raymond

[katie_sane]

Thankyou phil, Fintan and Raymond

Facts are still open if anyone else would like to contribute