February 26, 2025 • 53 mins
Kick back, relax, and get cozy as host Eric Leckey spins a playlist full of songs inspired by the things that make a house a home—furniture! From chairs to beds and everything in between, this episode is packed with hits like "Our House" by Madness, "I Am the Table" by Metallica & Lou Reed, "Beds Are Burning" by Midnight Oil, and more. Whether you're lounging on the couch or dancing on the dining room table, these tunes will have you feeling right at home. Grab a seat and let’s rock the living room! 🛋️🎶
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to listen to this. This is the podcast dedicated
to bringing you stories behind the artists, behind the songs,
and hopefully we are introducing you to old songs that
have influenced all the music that we hear today. The
goal is we want you to hear an artist that
you might not normally listen to and search out their
music on whatever streaming service that you choose to subscribe to,
(00:21):
or of course, maybe whip out that old CD that
you own that you totally forgot about. We invite you
to subscribe, comment, and of course recommend this podcast to
a friend. Every episode has a theme, and today's is
Songs about furniture. Yeah you heard me, never in.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
The history of the United States a monster of such
size and power.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Welcome to listen to this a podcast that brings you
the stories behind the songs and artists with a theme
to tie it all together. Here's your hosts, Eric Leckey.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
If you're a long time loyal listener of this podcast,
you will know how much I truly love to come
up with weird, esoteric, off the wall ideas for themes
for a show. Well, today was not an easy category.
In fact, when I first took on the task of
finding relevant music based on furniture or furniture like items
(01:16):
in your home. I actually thought it would be easier,
to be honest with you, Well, it wasn't. But after
a lot of work, we were able to come up
with a bunch of good songs from a variety of
genres and decades. As we always do, we put our
playlist together for today's episode with that goal in mind,
and so overall I actually consider this podcast a big win.
(01:38):
Today you will be hearing some songs about beds and
chairs and lamps, desks, doors and sofas well. Let's get
it started with a chair, an angry chair.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Sitting round and a ration e Gray walls and seal Summings,
don't know, can on us across the way.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
See myself anyway? Telling me I'm afraid changing the shape
of a space or candles, red.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Shadows, dance everywhere burning on the ration.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Out from Alison Chain's MTV Unplugged performance that was the
(03:32):
song Angry Chair. The concept of the angry chair noted
in the song comes from Alison Chain's vocalist Lane Stanley's childhood.
His father would put him in a time out by
sitting him in a chair in front of the mirror.
The angry chair in the song, though, is clearly metaphorical.
All the lyrics are really just discussing adulthood corporate prison.
(03:56):
We say, Hey, I'm a dull boy, work all day,
so I'm strong out any way. He says I'm a
dull boy, work all day as a reference to the
all work no play makes Jack a dull boy proverb.
Corporate prison might be a reference to the band working
for a record label, which was still relatively new at
(04:16):
that point. They cut their first EP, We Die Young,
only two years earlier, in July of nineteen ninety. This
was also around the time that Staley is suspected to
have fallen into the early stages of heroin addiction, which
adds context to the line so I'm strung out anyway.
Staley's philosophy was that songs should be autobiographical to resonate emotionally.
(04:40):
It's not much of a stretch to tie his words
to the life that he was living at the time.
This is a rare Alison Chains song written entirely by
vocalist Lane Staley. Jerry Cantrell was the main songwriter for
most of their songs, and most of Staley's credits were
as a co writer only. Cantrell has stated that he
was very proud of state work on this particular song.
(05:02):
This is also the first song that Staley played guitar
on in the recording. He also sometimes played it for
the live performances of the song.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
I'm a mock anarchist.
Speaker 7 (05:27):
Guess I'm being totally honest.
Speaker 6 (05:30):
He had to see the other morning.
Speaker 8 (05:35):
I was playing a bombing.
Speaker 9 (05:40):
Lots and.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Lots by.
Speaker 10 (06:09):
Like anime.
Speaker 7 (06:12):
Thehattle is what it don't happen ba and balb no loss,
the Panics.
Speaker 11 (06:28):
Happened chat.
Speaker 9 (06:33):
Dam.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That was the British indie rock group Kingmaker with a
song called Armchair Anarchist and the song when it came
I was a minor hit in Britain and caused a
little bit of a fluff, a little bit of a
controversy because a lot of radio stations just flat out
refused to play the song. They said it would cause
a fence to the people of the UK. But this
is not because it was too sexually explicit or out there,
(07:11):
too weird for the nineties, even with lines like I'm
a young transvestite, I wear clothes that women like in fact,
I got a lovely silken blouse just to get me aroused.
But no, it was actually banned because of the line
bomb the idiots and Viva dynamite. This was seen as
a threat against politicians and too much of an anarchist view. Well,
(07:33):
the name anarchist is right in the title of the
song armchair anarchist, and an armchair anarchist is someone who
is content to mouth off against the system, perhaps in
a drunken rant, but never actually prepared to do anything
about it.
Speaker 12 (07:49):
A wig up be.
Speaker 13 (07:55):
Whilst matin ben jeeves a song bead in Mine, I
were talking.
Speaker 11 (08:04):
About all the.
Speaker 13 (08:05):
Things that I learned to be about them.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
But trucuy me the truth is.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Bathing wrong that I, a child in their born say
for the bad of me, just cousas those.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
Mesy.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
I still can't believe that that band made the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. I guess just because a
million women bought their albums. That was bond Jovie with
Bed of Roses. John bon Jovi started writing Bed of
Roses in a hotel room in Los Angeles. He had
the hotel bring a piano that they used for weddings
up to his room. The song is a personal song
(09:23):
that John Peel exposes a lot of the problems that
he was experiencing at the time as he was trying
to balance his home life with the demands and temptations
of life on the road. The first verse reflects what
John was feeling when he was trying to write this.
He was badly hung over from the night before, but
had a piano in the hotel room and was determined
to at least write something In the line, while my mistress,
(09:46):
she calls me to stand in her spotlight again. The
mistress is the music industry and the live stage. The
spotlight is the media itself. He calls music his mistress,
to show that it's a thrill, but something that perhaps
isn't gonna do him any good. Bon Jovi actually didn't
even play this song for quite a long time in concert,
(10:07):
from two thousand and three to two thousand and eight.
In fact, they had kind of vowed to not really
play it anymore at all. Well, this long time of
not playing it was broken on May twentieth of two
thousand and eight because the Sultan of Dubai paid him
a million dollars to play it in concert and he
relinquished and played it, and since then they've added it
(10:28):
back into their set. There's a line in the song
as I dream about movies they won't make of me
when I'm dead Lyric was inspired by watching the movie
The Doors with Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison. I liked
the movie a hell of a lot more than I
like the band, John bon Jovi explained in an interview
that movie was great, and I left the movie really invigorated.
(10:51):
We kicked up hell that night, driving the wrong way
down one way streets. I woke up the next day
thinking about the impact of it, and that's where the
line came from. On bed of Roses, Jon bon Jovi
sings regretfully of his dalliances on the road. These are
all the wonderful cliches of rock stardom, he has said
in interviews. It's never about lying about having been a saint,
(11:13):
but not being a fool enough to f up your
home life either.
Speaker 9 (11:18):
Oh well, she's gone.
Speaker 14 (11:24):
Up with the fad lives for passion, coming.
Speaker 13 (11:45):
With the way that you left me at Holly Cometa, Hobby.
Speaker 14 (11:54):
The Heart of the Angle, the Joy, the Man.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
Join up at Babe.
Speaker 13 (12:03):
Now No, I'm single they'll be.
Speaker 11 (12:06):
Firing my eyes following my I stay.
Speaker 13 (12:13):
I'm an outcoos for her.
Speaker 9 (12:15):
You love too nice, You love you.
Speaker 13 (12:20):
Now she's gone head, I'm back on the beach, staying
on my No boot.
Speaker 14 (12:34):
Says nothing to me.
Speaker 13 (12:39):
Oh man, she's gone, but I'm up with the friend.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
I'm your friend with little pair shot coming.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
That was the band Squeeze with black Coffee in bed.
Squeeze founding member and guitarist Chris Difford wrote this song
and the song lyrics, and says Chris about this song,
the lyric was inspired by me picking up my notebook
one day and seeing a coffee stain on it, which
inspired the first line. It was a very vivid image
(13:22):
for me and inspired this song of loss and regret.
Glenn Tilbrook, who was also a founding member of Squeeze
and writes the most of the music for their songs,
sang lead on this track, one of many Squeeze songs
from the seventies, Tilbrook and Dilford would actually sing together,
with Dilford being an octave lower. In nineteen eighty one,
(13:43):
Paul Karak joined the band and sang on their hit Tempted,
a pretty big hit even here in the United States.
Karac departed before the Sweets from a Stranger album, and
Tilbrook handled lead vocals on most of the Squeeze songs
after that. Tilbrook, who can be a little hard on himself,
says of this song quote, it's far too ponderous. It
could never be a fast song, but it certainly had
(14:04):
the opportunity to be slightly perkier. My vocal is mannered
and not very good at all, and I actually can't
stand to listen to it now. Elvis Costello and Paul
Young Paul Young of every Time You Go Away Fame
saying back up on this song. Costello actually produced some
of the songs on Squeeze's previous album, East Side Story,
(14:24):
including the song Tempted and labeled with Love.
Speaker 15 (14:45):
On the back of the motorbike. You're trying to take
reading everything behind.
Speaker 9 (14:58):
Our swiftest speak.
Speaker 16 (15:00):
We couldn't break from the concrete in the city while
we still.
Speaker 10 (15:10):
I've even Landlord love you for w a sea live mate, because.
Speaker 16 (15:22):
Now we say good night from our own separate sides,
Like brothers on a hotel, like brothers on a hotel bed,
(15:42):
like brothers on a hotel bend, like brothers.
Speaker 15 (15:48):
On a hotel bend.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
That was the band Death Cab for Cutie and the
song is Brothers on a Hotel Bed. The song is
talking about someone who believes that with time, the one
that he loves will fail to remember him for who
he is because he grows older, as they grow more
distant and out of love. You may tire of me
(16:15):
as our December sun is setting, because I'm not the
one I used to be, No longer easy on the eyes,
These wrinkles masterfully disguise the youthful boy below. He is
stating that he is who he used to be on
the inside, but that his beauty has faded and he
can no longer be seen as the boy he once was. Thus,
(16:36):
it's like two brothers on a hotel bed. They lay
on opposite sides, not facing each other and with space
in between them.
Speaker 11 (16:50):
Brave Coomerah.
Speaker 17 (16:54):
Roll the dies.
Speaker 15 (17:00):
It scisors through a.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Chip pan fire Fies go into business with a bristly bad.
Speaker 15 (17:13):
But just don't sit down because I've.
Speaker 9 (17:16):
Moved your chair.
Speaker 11 (17:37):
Find a way.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Out now start fire way shall see it on fo
fire night. Sitt than that square.
Speaker 9 (18:02):
Thought.
Speaker 18 (18:08):
Never thought the words you said were true.
Speaker 15 (18:13):
Never thought you said just what you meant, never knew
how much I needed you, never thought you'd leave unto you.
Speaker 18 (18:41):
Morning comes and morning goes with no regret.
Speaker 15 (18:46):
Evening brings the memories.
Speaker 18 (18:49):
I can't forget. Empty rooms that echo as I climb
the stairs, empty clothes that drap full on empty chairs.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
All right, we have some catching up to do, because
I played you two songs there. The first is a
song called don't sit Down because I've moved the chair,
and it's by English indie rock quartet The Arctic Monkeys.
It was actually their first single from their fourth album,
Suck It and See Great title. This was actually kind
(19:24):
of their only garage rocker type song on that album.
The inspiration from the song came from a comment that
was made by Chief Monkeys songwriter Alex Turner while they
were recording.
Speaker 15 (19:36):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
I said it to somebody whose chair I moved and
I didn't want them to fall and hurt themselves. This
is while we were in the studio doing the recording.
James Ford, our producer, said, oh, that phrase sounds like
it could be a sixties garage band type song from
Britain and we all had a laugh at that. So
he thought, well, okay, if that's what you can't do
(19:57):
sit down because your chair has been moved. Then what
sort of ridiculous things can you do? That is probably
more dangerous than if you just sit down, And that's
how the song was born. Next up after that was
Don McLean with a song called Empty Chairs. It's actually
from the same album that had his gigantic hit, American Pie.
Don McLean went through some rough times which are reflected
(20:20):
on his American Pie album. His father died when he
was just fifteen and his marriage was on the rocks
when he recorded the album. Faced with a bout of depression,
he sympathized with Vincent van Goh, the Dutch painter who
went insane and cut off his ear. Speaking with a
UK newspaper, The Telegraph, he revealed it in the song
is about a man who loses a love the empty
(20:42):
chair or van Go's paintings of a chair. The title
only appears once in the song, showing bing up in
the last verse in the line and empty clothes that
drape and fall on empty chairs. According to McLean, his
record company wanted him to change the title to I
never thought you would since that's a prominent line in
the chorus. McLean refuse and quote to me, that wasn't
(21:05):
what the song was about, and he got to keep
it as it was.
Speaker 13 (21:10):
You don't even see now, so you pass.
Speaker 6 (21:14):
Me the way.
Speaker 13 (21:19):
He couldn't any way.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
Right answer, he gets a.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Line that was the Cure and the song Let's Go
(22:16):
to Bed. Speaking to a rock alternative radio show in
nineteen eighty three, frontman Robert Smith of The Cure said
that he actually didn't want this sarcastic reflection on sexual
imagery in pop music to ever be released. Quote it
wasn't as dumb as I wanted it to be, he explained.
It was really me reacting against The Cure's overall image
(22:39):
the states we had gone through, so I wanted to
do something that was really really dumb and pop centric.
The words mean nothing. Once I recorded it, though I thought,
maybe this isn't quite right. It was taken over and
then taken to its logical conclusion and released. Looking back,
maybe it wasn't such a bad thing, but at the
time I was really really angry because I didn't want
(23:00):
it to be out there. The song was a pretty
moderate hit doing especially will in Australia when it reached
as high as number fifteen. This is both the first
and last song played on the radio station WFNX, Boston's
main alternative rock radio station, played this tune when they
signed on in nineteen eighty three, and then played it
as their final song in twenty twelve.
Speaker 15 (23:53):
Cashed Out in the.
Speaker 9 (23:54):
Front Room.
Speaker 15 (23:57):
As stained is this.
Speaker 9 (24:01):
Lucifer on the Sofa.
Speaker 15 (24:05):
Staring at you? Did you becount weekends? Never get it dressed?
Speaking in the person, trying to forget.
Speaker 8 (24:25):
One corner glow.
Speaker 11 (24:28):
Which your fast second?
Speaker 8 (24:33):
I A the.
Speaker 11 (24:34):
Waconds, I yourcess. You hit the corner market if feel
go in the sky.
Speaker 15 (24:49):
Looking through the windows.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
As you're passing by.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
I love the bandits Spoon. That was their song Lucifer
on the Sofa from the album of the same name.
They've actually made a bunch of good albums and are
quite prolific, so if you find that you like them too,
there's a bunch of albums to choose from that are
all pretty good. Lyrics Cashed Out in the front Room,
ashes Stained his lips, Lucifer on the Sofa, Staring at You.
(25:22):
Lead singer Britt Daniel wrote this song while locked down
in Austin, Texas during the pandemic. The lyrics came thick
and fast, as initially the Spoon front man was unsure
where the Lucifer on the Sofa line came from. When
the dust settled, it became clear the lyric was simply
a metaphor for where he's when he's at his lowest.
(25:42):
It's the worst that you can be when you face
that in time of stress, he explained an interview. It's
part of yourself that you have to deal with, a
representation of the bitterness and loneliness, and it's the thing
that can keep you on the couch and maybe doing
nothing for a week or more. It's very self indulging.
Song is about the battle between yourself and a down
(26:03):
beaten character. You can become the conflict in this case,
he explained, is played out through a long night of
troubles in downtown Austin all alone. This is the title
track of their tenth studio album. Britt Daniel said every
album needs a great title, and Lucifer on the Sofa
is one for this album. Loose on the Sofa is
the sole track on the album, recorded with Dave Fridman
(26:26):
of The Flaming Lips, who co produced the previous two
Spoon Records. Spoon begin laying down parts of the tune
in Austin during December of twenty twenty and sent them
to Fridman, who produced, mix and engineer the song remotely
because of the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Where the left ships up, Let's go out the room
of the rant about we're visiting what I'm going to
call a putty.
Speaker 8 (27:08):
Now, that's talk cosmo juice.
Speaker 19 (27:10):
The next down, the.
Speaker 9 (27:11):
Left ships up, the lights go out.
Speaker 11 (27:14):
This what they call a punny.
Speaker 9 (27:15):
Now, well, there makes a brity being on the round.
This one's console left.
Speaker 11 (27:20):
Un Isaac that we have a ship off.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
What you go?
Speaker 6 (27:25):
What I'm talking about?
Speaker 11 (27:26):
Shape my miums up to.
Speaker 13 (27:28):
The ground so I can't suprise right down.
Speaker 9 (27:32):
We can have two days place.
Speaker 11 (27:34):
Well, we'll make let's say.
Speaker 9 (27:35):
Mos stakes pulling it up.
Speaker 12 (27:37):
We'll choose to chop it down.
Speaker 6 (27:39):
This one go so rap time.
Speaker 11 (27:41):
Now I'll go with week.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That was the lead single from Modest Mouse's twenty fifteen
album Strangers to Ourself. The band first played this live
back in two thousand eleven. Even though the song is
called Lampshades on Fire, it's a danceable tune. It finds
vocalist Isaac Brock using extended partying metaphor, comparing the destructive
(28:11):
acts of the human race to the party life on
the road, where places can keep getting trashed. Pack up again,
head to the next place where we all make the
same mistakes. Burn it up because we'll just chop it down.
But this one's done, so we're off to now. Brock
concludes the song by singing about having reek tavoc on Earth,
humanity will be forced to search for another planet, where
(28:33):
inevitably the same mistakes will be made.
Speaker 14 (29:25):
Lamb.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
That was Jimmy Hendrix with the song Burning of a
Midnight Lamp. Hendricks wrote the lyrics on a flight from
New York to la in nineteen sixty seven. They expressed
the conf fusion that he felt about himself at the time.
Hendrix said, quote, that's a really a song I'm proud of.
Some people say it's the worst track I've ever done.
I think it's maybe one of the best. Even if
(30:11):
the technique of mine is not great, even if the
sound is not clear, and even if the lyrics can't
properly be heard, this is a song that you often
listen and come back to. I don't play neither piano
nor harpsichord. But I managed to put together all these
different sounds. It was definitely a starting point for what
I wanted to become. Hendrix used a wah wah pedal
on his guitar for this song. Frank Zappa was a
(30:32):
heavy influence for him on this. The Sweet Inspirations, who
often sang with Aretha Franklin, sang backup on this.
Speaker 20 (30:55):
My old desk doesn't how a best in the morning
when I first arrived, it's a pleasure to see.
Speaker 9 (31:05):
It's waiting, never me to keep my hopes alive. Such
a comfort. No has got no place to go. It's
always there.
Speaker 20 (31:20):
It's the one thing I've got a huge success my
good old day. My old desk never needs a rest,
and I've never once very cry.
Speaker 9 (31:41):
I've never seen it tease.
Speaker 20 (31:43):
It's always there to please be from nine till five.
Speaker 9 (31:49):
Such a comforting. No is dependable the snow, but it's
always there.
Speaker 20 (31:57):
It's the one friend of gum.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
That was Harry Nilsen with Good Old Desk. He's best
known for songs like Everybody's Talking and Without You. Neilson
is also fondly remembered for a pretty remarkable vocal range
and definitely an unwillingness to go on tour, and also
being the drinking buddy of both John Lennon and Keith Moon.
(32:25):
And I gotta tell you now there's a night out
that I'd like to be a fly on the wall
for Nilsen's song book is idiosyncratic and away bellied by
his best known songs and Good Old Desk. He might
be singing about a venerable piece of furniture, but then again,
the initial song title might suggest he's singing about something
else entirely. My good Old Desk does an arabesque in
(32:48):
the morning when I arrive. It's a pleasure to see
it's waiting there for me to keep my hopes alive.
Since a comfort to know it's got no place to go,
it's always there. It's the one thing I've got a
huge success, My good old desk.
Speaker 14 (33:21):
Two down, and I'm thinking out, having a ball to
flos down there, not open.
Speaker 11 (33:32):
Up, crying my heart out, feeling something evident.
Speaker 14 (33:36):
How then a call at the studs down, thank god,
these useless tears and getting myself together.
Speaker 9 (33:46):
They go under down hall and handle.
Speaker 11 (33:50):
Down because I can't stay inside this lonely.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
Room and crime level and then I really rather.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
Join two dogs no longer.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
And so.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
That's a Dolly Parton with two doors down. It's a
party going on in this upbeat tune, and a lonesome
Dolly Parton decides to join in and cheer herself up.
She hits it off with one of the party goods
and invites him back to her apartment two doors down,
where they have their own, let's call it private celebration.
Dolly wrote this song during a similar situation, although she
(34:42):
didn't get a man out of the ordeal. She and
her band were staying at a Howard Johnson's motor Inn.
While the rest of the group was sitting down to
dinner dieting, Dolly was alone in her room, trying to
stave off hunger with a disgusting protein shake. The band
was down there at the restaurant, and I could hear them.
I'm all laughing and talking, she recalled in her twenty
(35:02):
twenty books song Teller. I was in my room because
I couldn't go down there and eat. I remember just
feeling so sorry for myself in this lonely ass room
where they were having a party. I thought, well, I
can't eat. I can just sit here and feel sorry
for myself, or I could write a song. So I
wrote a song. Although she wrote the lyrics on stationary
from a Pennsylvania holiday inn, Dolly is pretty certain that
(35:24):
she wrote the song out of Howard Johnson's because she
distinctly remembers her hankering for the Motel's fried clams of
all things. Before Dolly's version even hit the radio, Hehaw
TV show regular Zella Lair released a cover version that
went to number seven on the country charts. In the meantime,
Dolly achieved her pop breakthrough with this album's lead single,
(35:47):
Here You Come Again, and, not wanting to compete with
Lair's countryfied take, she re recorded two Doors Down with
more of a disco pop feel well. It peaked at
number nineteen on the Hot one hundred notched a number
twelve entry on the Adult Contemporary charts. A new version
also replaced the original on subsequent pressings of the album.
Speaker 15 (36:17):
Do Bucking Kills Get Me.
Speaker 6 (36:21):
My King by Mussle.
Speaker 11 (36:26):
Based me the gin.
Speaker 21 (36:30):
For ating you.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
Can't get them this gable.
Speaker 16 (36:39):
Go just let me you.
Speaker 22 (36:47):
Have the lusbegnger.
Speaker 6 (36:53):
Mady in hearorb.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Me We carry.
Speaker 6 (37:06):
For the end.
Speaker 15 (37:07):
Of that Trouble.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Lou Rocking Jay Z Judgment Day.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Jay to My, A real old one for you. That
was back in nineteen forty two. That was the Mills
Brothers with a song called Rocking Chair. The Mills brothers
were John Mills Junior, Herbert Mills, Harry Mills, and Donald Mills.
The four brothers amazed listeners with their ability to recreate saxophones,
(37:44):
trumpets and trombones with only their voices and singles like
Tiger Rag and they had a string of hits in
the early nineteen thirties as well. In nineteen thirty four, actually,
the Mills Brothers became the first African American to give
command performance before the British Royalty. Musical instruments or mechanical
devices used on this recording other than one guitar. It
(38:05):
says on the album cover.
Speaker 15 (38:21):
Once upon a marriage in a corner of the world,
I who have been.
Speaker 9 (38:27):
Side of gold, then they love world black.
Speaker 20 (38:32):
I can feeling no, you're on my back.
Speaker 15 (38:35):
I can feeling no, you're on my back. One up
to so the truck gone with a fun goodbye win bluff.
How do you feel with nies against the world? Felt
pretty much black of wooden world. It felt pretty much
like a wooden world.
Speaker 18 (38:57):
Take these tables, take these six wins sims.
Speaker 15 (39:04):
Second second.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
That was by the Go Betweens, and the song is
called second Hand Furniture. The Go Betweens were an Australian
indie rock band. They started in the late seventies and
lasted until the late eighties. On an Autumn day in
nineteen eighty four, the Go Betweens appeared on John Peel's
BBC Radio show and performed four songs that would become
(39:31):
available on their EP. They just completed The spring Hill Fair,
their third album. Their single Bachelor Kisses was getting some
airplay and the band was in terrific form, bouncy, edgy
and pretty tight. You can hear early talking heads, I suppose,
but the band's songwriters, Grant mcclennan and Robert Forster also
(39:52):
approached lyrics with the humanity of a short story writer
and the song a divorced man sees his old marriage
bed in a second hand furniture store. All four songs
benefit from the stripped down production values. It's not surprising
to hear fans say despite its fourteen minute length, and
it's actually a favorite of the go Betweens releases.
Speaker 7 (40:31):
Yeah, We've got to Bite, We need way the babe,
Wait scratch, I'm gona bite.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
You can make it.
Speaker 8 (40:39):
Dies can make you grass the crack.
Speaker 6 (40:44):
That's the reason why no one else make me.
Speaker 8 (40:48):
Feel zastly beside and I do.
Speaker 9 (41:11):
Man.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
That was mister Alice Cooper with the song Bed of Nails,
and it's actually quite a vulgar song if you listen
to the lyrics. It's the second best charting song from
the album Trash. The song Poison ranked a little higher,
but the song did get to number thirty eight in
the UK and was never even released as a single
in the US. This album, which came out in nineteen
(41:34):
eighty nine, was a nice little career reboot for Cooper.
The song Poison was his first top ten hit single
since the song You and Me in nineteen seventy seven.
He was helped by his over the top and well
produced music videos, which definitely boosted the visibility of Cooper
and drove sales.
Speaker 19 (42:06):
I own a second hand furniture store, and I think
my prices are fat.
Speaker 11 (42:15):
Because there's real cheer. Guy I know came in one't
they saw this chair? He wanted to buy, but he
wouldn't claim the price was too high. So I looked
to him straight in his eye, and this was my reply.
Speaker 19 (42:43):
If I can't sell it, I'm gonna sit down on it.
I ain't gonna give it away now, Alan, if you
want it, you're gonna have to buy. And I mean
(43:03):
just what I say. Now, how'd you like to find this.
Speaker 11 (43:10):
Waiting at all for you? Every night? Only been used
once or.
Speaker 12 (43:16):
Twice, but it's still nice and tight. So if I
can't sell it, I'm gonna keep sitting on it. I
ain't about to.
Speaker 11 (43:31):
Give it away.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Oh that was good old Ruth Brown with If I
can't sell it, I'll keep sitting on it. It's all
about the tone of voice in this one. Not a
word of this song is improper in any way, but
there is no doubt what Ruth Brown really means when
you hear it. The song is not about furniture, actually,
but it's implied that it's about furniture. It's about the
(43:56):
art of the double entendre at its best. In case
you missed it, the woozy horn parts or another signal
that their things are not quite what they seem on
the surface. Ruth Brown began her musical career in the
nineteen fifties as a rhythm and blues singer. Her best
known song is still Mama he treats Your Daughter Mean,
which I absolutely love would go on my Top one
(44:17):
hundred all time songs list. Later in her career, Brown
reinvented herself as a jazz singer. Common thread though between
all of this is the blues. In fact, if you
go back and listen to her old R and B songs,
you will hear a lot of jazzy blues in them. Anyway,
by nineteen eighty nine, when keep Sitting On It came out,
the R and B genre had changed completely. From those
(44:39):
early days, Brown had not changed that much, and she
sounded just as good as ever.
Speaker 11 (44:51):
When to find the ladin lamp.
Speaker 23 (44:59):
Windows, smoke fields Away, oh Las good, Genie tramphy my one,
which come to that's the good of the leader of
me to.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
Myself, my.
Speaker 9 (45:55):
Myself.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
I got two songs for you there, Gene Pitney with
his song Aladdin's Lamp from the album Gene Pitney Sings
Just for You, which came out in nineteen sixty three,
and then after that a song by the Kinks who
We love hear it. Listen to this with a song
called Sitting on My Sofa. It was written by Ray Davies.
This nineteen sixty six song was the B side to
(46:36):
Dedicated Follower of Fashion from the album Kink Controversy Sessions,
but a song that didn't make the album cut. It
finally got its day in the Sun or Sunny Afternoon
when it was added as a B side give.
Speaker 6 (46:50):
Me, give Me All in the Fray, give Me in
(47:14):
the Bird, give Me the.
Speaker 9 (47:37):
Ski.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
That was the band of the Birds with the song
oil in my Lamp Oil my Lamp is also known
as give me oil in My Lamp and also sing Hosanna.
It's actually a Christian hymn based on the parable of
the ten versins. The song has been recorded many many times,
and it was a hit in Jamaica in nineteen sixty
four for Eric Monty Morris, as well as appearing on
(48:18):
the Birds nineteen sixty nine album Ballad of Easy Writer
and for us here at listen to this. It is
unusual to use our patron saint of the podcast, mister
Bob Dylan, as our final song. You'll find that we
very rarely do that. I sprinkle him in in the
middle somewhere. It is kind of breaking with tradition, but
we are gonna hear Bob tell his woman to lay
(48:39):
in his big brass bed. In the summer of nineteen
sixty eight, the producers of the movie Midnight Cowboy reached
out to Dylan to see if he had a song
that they could use for the film's main song of
the soundtrack. Well, Dylan had been playing around with the
song Lay, Lady Lay, It's a gentle love song, and
thought it would make a good mission, but he didn't
(49:01):
get it done on time. Producer John Slushinger settled on
Harry Nilsen's Everybody's Talking before he even got to hear
Dylan's song, and that song turned out to be pretty
iconic in the movie's film score. Clinton Halen observes in
the book Revolution in the Air that the song doesn't
make sense for the movie anyways, and it's possible Dylan
(49:21):
didn't even read the script as he developed the song.
Midnight Cowboy, released in nineteen sixty nine, is not a
romantic or sentimental film starring Dustin Hoffman and John Voy
It's a gritty story about two street hustlers who live
in a condemned building and spend their days looking for
ways to survive. Character Joe Buck played by Void, becomes
(49:42):
a jigglow to make his money, and there's a subsequent
scene with him in a bed with a New York socialite,
but it's hardly the kind of romantic situation that Lay
Lady Lay is suited for.
Speaker 4 (49:53):
Well.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
The song ended up on Dylan's nineteen sixty nine album
Nashville Skyline, which you should all just rush out out
and listen to as soon as this podcast is over.
Some radio stations refused to play this song stupidly because
of the use of the word lay in the title,
assuming it referred to sex, i e. Getting laid, But
it's not true. Despite the accusation of being sexually titled,
(50:17):
Dylan has profusely denied any sexual terminology grammatically, though the
correct title for this song would be Lie, Lady Lie,
but that wouldn't sing very well. English teachers will tell
you that Dylan's title is a command to place the
lady on a bed. But Dylan isn't in the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame for his strict adherence to
(50:39):
the rules of grammar. Neither is Eric Clapton who did
something similar with Laid Down Sally. Well, anyways, we're gonna end,
unusually with a Dylan song. Lay lady lay, and I
hope you crank it up as loud as you possibly can.
It's a fantastic song and Dylan's voice is really good
in this one for you people who don't really like
the typical Dylan singing voice. So turn it up loud
(51:01):
and join us next week, and don't forget to tell
your friends.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
M h.
Speaker 9 (51:17):
Lay lady, lay.
Speaker 21 (51:21):
Lay across my big brains, spade, Lay lady, lay lay
across my big braids, Babe.
Speaker 17 (51:42):
Whatever call us you have in your mind, I show
them to you, and you see them shine. Lay lady, lay.
Speaker 22 (51:57):
Lay across my big brains. Did steal lady? Still stay
with your man, awhile until the break of d Let
(52:22):
me see him, make him smile.
Speaker 17 (52:31):
It's close eye do it, buddies, his hands racking, and
you're the best thing thaties ever seen. Steal lady, Steve,
stay with your man, And while.
Speaker 3 (52:51):
Thank you for listening to listen to this, please recommend
to a friend, and don't forget to rate, review, and
subscribe for our podcast and online content. Please visit this
is funner dot com.
Speaker 6 (53:02):
This is Funner
Welcome to listen to this. This is the podcast dedicated
to bringing you stories behind the artists, behind the songs,
and hopefully we are introducing you to old songs that
have influenced all the music that we hear today. The
goal is we want you to hear an artist that
you might not normally listen to and search out their
music on whatever streaming service that you choose to subscribe to,
(00:21):
or of course, maybe whip out that old CD that
you own that you totally forgot about. We invite you
to subscribe, comment, and of course recommend this podcast to
a friend. Every episode has a theme, and today's is
Songs about furniture. Yeah you heard me, never in.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
The history of the United States a monster of such
size and power.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Welcome to listen to this a podcast that brings you
the stories behind the songs and artists with a theme
to tie it all together. Here's your hosts, Eric Leckey.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
If you're a long time loyal listener of this podcast,
you will know how much I truly love to come
up with weird, esoteric, off the wall ideas for themes
for a show. Well, today was not an easy category.
In fact, when I first took on the task of
finding relevant music based on furniture or furniture like items
(01:16):
in your home. I actually thought it would be easier,
to be honest with you, Well, it wasn't. But after
a lot of work, we were able to come up
with a bunch of good songs from a variety of
genres and decades. As we always do, we put our
playlist together for today's episode with that goal in mind,
and so overall I actually consider this podcast a big win.
(01:38):
Today you will be hearing some songs about beds and
chairs and lamps, desks, doors and sofas well. Let's get
it started with a chair, an angry chair.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Sitting round and a ration e Gray walls and seal Summings,
don't know, can on us across the way.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
See myself anyway? Telling me I'm afraid changing the shape
of a space or candles, red.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Shadows, dance everywhere burning on the ration.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Out from Alison Chain's MTV Unplugged performance that was the
(03:32):
song Angry Chair. The concept of the angry chair noted
in the song comes from Alison Chain's vocalist Lane Stanley's childhood.
His father would put him in a time out by
sitting him in a chair in front of the mirror.
The angry chair in the song, though, is clearly metaphorical.
All the lyrics are really just discussing adulthood corporate prison.
(03:56):
We say, Hey, I'm a dull boy, work all day,
so I'm strong out any way. He says I'm a
dull boy, work all day as a reference to the
all work no play makes Jack a dull boy proverb.
Corporate prison might be a reference to the band working
for a record label, which was still relatively new at
(04:16):
that point. They cut their first EP, We Die Young,
only two years earlier, in July of nineteen ninety. This
was also around the time that Staley is suspected to
have fallen into the early stages of heroin addiction, which
adds context to the line so I'm strung out anyway.
Staley's philosophy was that songs should be autobiographical to resonate emotionally.
(04:40):
It's not much of a stretch to tie his words
to the life that he was living at the time.
This is a rare Alison Chains song written entirely by
vocalist Lane Staley. Jerry Cantrell was the main songwriter for
most of their songs, and most of Staley's credits were
as a co writer only. Cantrell has stated that he
was very proud of state work on this particular song.
(05:02):
This is also the first song that Staley played guitar
on in the recording. He also sometimes played it for
the live performances of the song.
Speaker 6 (05:23):
I'm a mock anarchist.
Speaker 7 (05:27):
Guess I'm being totally honest.
Speaker 6 (05:30):
He had to see the other morning.
Speaker 8 (05:35):
I was playing a bombing.
Speaker 9 (05:40):
Lots and.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Lots by.
Speaker 10 (06:09):
Like anime.
Speaker 7 (06:12):
Thehattle is what it don't happen ba and balb no loss,
the Panics.
Speaker 11 (06:28):
Happened chat.
Speaker 9 (06:33):
Dam.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That was the British indie rock group Kingmaker with a
song called Armchair Anarchist and the song when it came
I was a minor hit in Britain and caused a
little bit of a fluff, a little bit of a
controversy because a lot of radio stations just flat out
refused to play the song. They said it would cause
a fence to the people of the UK. But this
is not because it was too sexually explicit or out there,
(07:11):
too weird for the nineties, even with lines like I'm
a young transvestite, I wear clothes that women like in fact,
I got a lovely silken blouse just to get me aroused.
But no, it was actually banned because of the line
bomb the idiots and Viva dynamite. This was seen as
a threat against politicians and too much of an anarchist view. Well,
(07:33):
the name anarchist is right in the title of the
song armchair anarchist, and an armchair anarchist is someone who
is content to mouth off against the system, perhaps in
a drunken rant, but never actually prepared to do anything
about it.
Speaker 12 (07:49):
A wig up be.
Speaker 13 (07:55):
Whilst matin ben jeeves a song bead in Mine, I
were talking.
Speaker 11 (08:04):
About all the.
Speaker 13 (08:05):
Things that I learned to be about them.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
But trucuy me the truth is.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Bathing wrong that I, a child in their born say
for the bad of me, just cousas those.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
Mesy.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
I still can't believe that that band made the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. I guess just because a
million women bought their albums. That was bond Jovie with
Bed of Roses. John bon Jovi started writing Bed of
Roses in a hotel room in Los Angeles. He had
the hotel bring a piano that they used for weddings
up to his room. The song is a personal song
(09:23):
that John Peel exposes a lot of the problems that
he was experiencing at the time as he was trying
to balance his home life with the demands and temptations
of life on the road. The first verse reflects what
John was feeling when he was trying to write this.
He was badly hung over from the night before, but
had a piano in the hotel room and was determined
to at least write something In the line, while my mistress,
(09:46):
she calls me to stand in her spotlight again. The
mistress is the music industry and the live stage. The
spotlight is the media itself. He calls music his mistress,
to show that it's a thrill, but something that perhaps
isn't gonna do him any good. Bon Jovi actually didn't
even play this song for quite a long time in concert,
(10:07):
from two thousand and three to two thousand and eight.
In fact, they had kind of vowed to not really
play it anymore at all. Well, this long time of
not playing it was broken on May twentieth of two
thousand and eight because the Sultan of Dubai paid him
a million dollars to play it in concert and he
relinquished and played it, and since then they've added it
(10:28):
back into their set. There's a line in the song
as I dream about movies they won't make of me
when I'm dead Lyric was inspired by watching the movie
The Doors with Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison. I liked
the movie a hell of a lot more than I
like the band, John bon Jovi explained in an interview
that movie was great, and I left the movie really invigorated.
(10:51):
We kicked up hell that night, driving the wrong way
down one way streets. I woke up the next day
thinking about the impact of it, and that's where the
line came from. On bed of Roses, Jon bon Jovi
sings regretfully of his dalliances on the road. These are
all the wonderful cliches of rock stardom, he has said
in interviews. It's never about lying about having been a saint,
(11:13):
but not being a fool enough to f up your
home life either.
Speaker 9 (11:18):
Oh well, she's gone.
Speaker 14 (11:24):
Up with the fad lives for passion, coming.
Speaker 13 (11:45):
With the way that you left me at Holly Cometa, Hobby.
Speaker 14 (11:54):
The Heart of the Angle, the Joy, the Man.
Speaker 6 (12:01):
Join up at Babe.
Speaker 13 (12:03):
Now No, I'm single they'll be.
Speaker 11 (12:06):
Firing my eyes following my I stay.
Speaker 13 (12:13):
I'm an outcoos for her.
Speaker 9 (12:15):
You love too nice, You love you.
Speaker 13 (12:20):
Now she's gone head, I'm back on the beach, staying
on my No boot.
Speaker 14 (12:34):
Says nothing to me.
Speaker 13 (12:39):
Oh man, she's gone, but I'm up with the friend.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
I'm your friend with little pair shot coming.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
That was the band Squeeze with black Coffee in bed.
Squeeze founding member and guitarist Chris Difford wrote this song
and the song lyrics, and says Chris about this song,
the lyric was inspired by me picking up my notebook
one day and seeing a coffee stain on it, which
inspired the first line. It was a very vivid image
(13:22):
for me and inspired this song of loss and regret.
Glenn Tilbrook, who was also a founding member of Squeeze
and writes the most of the music for their songs,
sang lead on this track, one of many Squeeze songs
from the seventies, Tilbrook and Dilford would actually sing together,
with Dilford being an octave lower. In nineteen eighty one,
(13:43):
Paul Karak joined the band and sang on their hit Tempted,
a pretty big hit even here in the United States.
Karac departed before the Sweets from a Stranger album, and
Tilbrook handled lead vocals on most of the Squeeze songs
after that. Tilbrook, who can be a little hard on himself,
says of this song quote, it's far too ponderous. It
could never be a fast song, but it certainly had
(14:04):
the opportunity to be slightly perkier. My vocal is mannered
and not very good at all, and I actually can't
stand to listen to it now. Elvis Costello and Paul
Young Paul Young of every Time You Go Away Fame
saying back up on this song. Costello actually produced some
of the songs on Squeeze's previous album, East Side Story,
(14:24):
including the song Tempted and labeled with Love.
Speaker 15 (14:45):
On the back of the motorbike. You're trying to take
reading everything behind.
Speaker 9 (14:58):
Our swiftest speak.
Speaker 16 (15:00):
We couldn't break from the concrete in the city while
we still.
Speaker 10 (15:10):
I've even Landlord love you for w a sea live mate, because.
Speaker 16 (15:22):
Now we say good night from our own separate sides,
Like brothers on a hotel, like brothers on a hotel bed,
(15:42):
like brothers on a hotel bend, like brothers.
Speaker 15 (15:48):
On a hotel bend.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
That was the band Death Cab for Cutie and the
song is Brothers on a Hotel Bed. The song is
talking about someone who believes that with time, the one
that he loves will fail to remember him for who
he is because he grows older, as they grow more
distant and out of love. You may tire of me
(16:15):
as our December sun is setting, because I'm not the
one I used to be, No longer easy on the eyes,
These wrinkles masterfully disguise the youthful boy below. He is
stating that he is who he used to be on
the inside, but that his beauty has faded and he
can no longer be seen as the boy he once was. Thus,
(16:36):
it's like two brothers on a hotel bed. They lay
on opposite sides, not facing each other and with space
in between them.
Speaker 11 (16:50):
Brave Coomerah.
Speaker 17 (16:54):
Roll the dies.
Speaker 15 (17:00):
It scisors through a.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Chip pan fire Fies go into business with a bristly bad.
Speaker 15 (17:13):
But just don't sit down because I've.
Speaker 9 (17:16):
Moved your chair.
Speaker 11 (17:37):
Find a way.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Out now start fire way shall see it on fo
fire night. Sitt than that square.
Speaker 9 (18:02):
Thought.
Speaker 18 (18:08):
Never thought the words you said were true.
Speaker 15 (18:13):
Never thought you said just what you meant, never knew
how much I needed you, never thought you'd leave unto you.
Speaker 18 (18:41):
Morning comes and morning goes with no regret.
Speaker 15 (18:46):
Evening brings the memories.
Speaker 18 (18:49):
I can't forget. Empty rooms that echo as I climb
the stairs, empty clothes that drap full on empty chairs.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
All right, we have some catching up to do, because
I played you two songs there. The first is a
song called don't sit Down because I've moved the chair,
and it's by English indie rock quartet The Arctic Monkeys.
It was actually their first single from their fourth album,
Suck It and See Great title. This was actually kind
(19:24):
of their only garage rocker type song on that album.
The inspiration from the song came from a comment that
was made by Chief Monkeys songwriter Alex Turner while they
were recording.
Speaker 15 (19:36):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
I said it to somebody whose chair I moved and
I didn't want them to fall and hurt themselves. This
is while we were in the studio doing the recording.
James Ford, our producer, said, oh, that phrase sounds like
it could be a sixties garage band type song from
Britain and we all had a laugh at that. So
he thought, well, okay, if that's what you can't do
(19:57):
sit down because your chair has been moved. Then what
sort of ridiculous things can you do? That is probably
more dangerous than if you just sit down, And that's
how the song was born. Next up after that was
Don McLean with a song called Empty Chairs. It's actually
from the same album that had his gigantic hit, American Pie.
Don McLean went through some rough times which are reflected
(20:20):
on his American Pie album. His father died when he
was just fifteen and his marriage was on the rocks
when he recorded the album. Faced with a bout of depression,
he sympathized with Vincent van Goh, the Dutch painter who
went insane and cut off his ear. Speaking with a
UK newspaper, The Telegraph, he revealed it in the song
is about a man who loses a love the empty
(20:42):
chair or van Go's paintings of a chair. The title
only appears once in the song, showing bing up in
the last verse in the line and empty clothes that
drape and fall on empty chairs. According to McLean, his
record company wanted him to change the title to I
never thought you would since that's a prominent line in
the chorus. McLean refuse and quote to me, that wasn't
(21:05):
what the song was about, and he got to keep
it as it was.
Speaker 13 (21:10):
You don't even see now, so you pass.
Speaker 6 (21:14):
Me the way.
Speaker 13 (21:19):
He couldn't any way.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
Right answer, he gets a.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Line that was the Cure and the song Let's Go
(22:16):
to Bed. Speaking to a rock alternative radio show in
nineteen eighty three, frontman Robert Smith of The Cure said
that he actually didn't want this sarcastic reflection on sexual
imagery in pop music to ever be released. Quote it
wasn't as dumb as I wanted it to be, he explained.
It was really me reacting against The Cure's overall image
(22:39):
the states we had gone through, so I wanted to
do something that was really really dumb and pop centric.
The words mean nothing. Once I recorded it, though I thought,
maybe this isn't quite right. It was taken over and
then taken to its logical conclusion and released. Looking back,
maybe it wasn't such a bad thing, but at the
time I was really really angry because I didn't want
(23:00):
it to be out there. The song was a pretty
moderate hit doing especially will in Australia when it reached
as high as number fifteen. This is both the first
and last song played on the radio station WFNX, Boston's
main alternative rock radio station, played this tune when they
signed on in nineteen eighty three, and then played it
as their final song in twenty twelve.
Speaker 15 (23:53):
Cashed Out in the.
Speaker 9 (23:54):
Front Room.
Speaker 15 (23:57):
As stained is this.
Speaker 9 (24:01):
Lucifer on the Sofa.
Speaker 15 (24:05):
Staring at you? Did you becount weekends? Never get it dressed?
Speaking in the person, trying to forget.
Speaker 8 (24:25):
One corner glow.
Speaker 11 (24:28):
Which your fast second?
Speaker 8 (24:33):
I A the.
Speaker 11 (24:34):
Waconds, I yourcess. You hit the corner market if feel
go in the sky.
Speaker 15 (24:49):
Looking through the windows.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
As you're passing by.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
I love the bandits Spoon. That was their song Lucifer
on the Sofa from the album of the same name.
They've actually made a bunch of good albums and are
quite prolific, so if you find that you like them too,
there's a bunch of albums to choose from that are
all pretty good. Lyrics Cashed Out in the front Room,
ashes Stained his lips, Lucifer on the Sofa, Staring at You.
(25:22):
Lead singer Britt Daniel wrote this song while locked down
in Austin, Texas during the pandemic. The lyrics came thick
and fast, as initially the Spoon front man was unsure
where the Lucifer on the Sofa line came from. When
the dust settled, it became clear the lyric was simply
a metaphor for where he's when he's at his lowest.
(25:42):
It's the worst that you can be when you face
that in time of stress, he explained an interview. It's
part of yourself that you have to deal with, a
representation of the bitterness and loneliness, and it's the thing
that can keep you on the couch and maybe doing
nothing for a week or more. It's very self indulging.
Song is about the battle between yourself and a down
(26:03):
beaten character. You can become the conflict in this case,
he explained, is played out through a long night of
troubles in downtown Austin all alone. This is the title
track of their tenth studio album. Britt Daniel said every
album needs a great title, and Lucifer on the Sofa
is one for this album. Loose on the Sofa is
the sole track on the album, recorded with Dave Fridman
(26:26):
of The Flaming Lips, who co produced the previous two
Spoon Records. Spoon begin laying down parts of the tune
in Austin during December of twenty twenty and sent them
to Fridman, who produced, mix and engineer the song remotely
because of the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Where the left ships up, Let's go out the room
of the rant about we're visiting what I'm going to
call a putty.
Speaker 8 (27:08):
Now, that's talk cosmo juice.
Speaker 19 (27:10):
The next down, the.
Speaker 9 (27:11):
Left ships up, the lights go out.
Speaker 11 (27:14):
This what they call a punny.
Speaker 9 (27:15):
Now, well, there makes a brity being on the round.
This one's console left.
Speaker 11 (27:20):
Un Isaac that we have a ship off.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
What you go?
Speaker 6 (27:25):
What I'm talking about?
Speaker 11 (27:26):
Shape my miums up to.
Speaker 13 (27:28):
The ground so I can't suprise right down.
Speaker 9 (27:32):
We can have two days place.
Speaker 11 (27:34):
Well, we'll make let's say.
Speaker 9 (27:35):
Mos stakes pulling it up.
Speaker 12 (27:37):
We'll choose to chop it down.
Speaker 6 (27:39):
This one go so rap time.
Speaker 11 (27:41):
Now I'll go with week.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That was the lead single from Modest Mouse's twenty fifteen
album Strangers to Ourself. The band first played this live
back in two thousand eleven. Even though the song is
called Lampshades on Fire, it's a danceable tune. It finds
vocalist Isaac Brock using extended partying metaphor, comparing the destructive
(28:11):
acts of the human race to the party life on
the road, where places can keep getting trashed. Pack up again,
head to the next place where we all make the
same mistakes. Burn it up because we'll just chop it down.
But this one's done, so we're off to now. Brock
concludes the song by singing about having reek tavoc on Earth,
humanity will be forced to search for another planet, where
(28:33):
inevitably the same mistakes will be made.
Speaker 14 (29:25):
Lamb.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
That was Jimmy Hendrix with the song Burning of a
Midnight Lamp. Hendricks wrote the lyrics on a flight from
New York to la in nineteen sixty seven. They expressed
the conf fusion that he felt about himself at the time.
Hendrix said, quote, that's a really a song I'm proud of.
Some people say it's the worst track I've ever done.
I think it's maybe one of the best. Even if
(30:11):
the technique of mine is not great, even if the
sound is not clear, and even if the lyrics can't
properly be heard, this is a song that you often
listen and come back to. I don't play neither piano
nor harpsichord. But I managed to put together all these
different sounds. It was definitely a starting point for what
I wanted to become. Hendrix used a wah wah pedal
on his guitar for this song. Frank Zappa was a
(30:32):
heavy influence for him on this. The Sweet Inspirations, who
often sang with Aretha Franklin, sang backup on this.
Speaker 20 (30:55):
My old desk doesn't how a best in the morning
when I first arrived, it's a pleasure to see.
Speaker 9 (31:05):
It's waiting, never me to keep my hopes alive. Such
a comfort. No has got no place to go. It's
always there.
Speaker 20 (31:20):
It's the one thing I've got a huge success my
good old day. My old desk never needs a rest,
and I've never once very cry.
Speaker 9 (31:41):
I've never seen it tease.
Speaker 20 (31:43):
It's always there to please be from nine till five.
Speaker 9 (31:49):
Such a comforting. No is dependable the snow, but it's
always there.
Speaker 20 (31:57):
It's the one friend of gum.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
That was Harry Nilsen with Good Old Desk. He's best
known for songs like Everybody's Talking and Without You. Neilson
is also fondly remembered for a pretty remarkable vocal range
and definitely an unwillingness to go on tour, and also
being the drinking buddy of both John Lennon and Keith Moon.
(32:25):
And I gotta tell you now there's a night out
that I'd like to be a fly on the wall
for Nilsen's song book is idiosyncratic and away bellied by
his best known songs and Good Old Desk. He might
be singing about a venerable piece of furniture, but then again,
the initial song title might suggest he's singing about something
else entirely. My good Old Desk does an arabesque in
(32:48):
the morning when I arrive. It's a pleasure to see
it's waiting there for me to keep my hopes alive.
Since a comfort to know it's got no place to go,
it's always there. It's the one thing I've got a
huge success, My good old desk.
Speaker 14 (33:21):
Two down, and I'm thinking out, having a ball to
flos down there, not open.
Speaker 11 (33:32):
Up, crying my heart out, feeling something evident.
Speaker 14 (33:36):
How then a call at the studs down, thank god,
these useless tears and getting myself together.
Speaker 9 (33:46):
They go under down hall and handle.
Speaker 11 (33:50):
Down because I can't stay inside this lonely.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
Room and crime level and then I really rather.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
Join two dogs no longer.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
And so.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
That's a Dolly Parton with two doors down. It's a
party going on in this upbeat tune, and a lonesome
Dolly Parton decides to join in and cheer herself up.
She hits it off with one of the party goods
and invites him back to her apartment two doors down,
where they have their own, let's call it private celebration.
Dolly wrote this song during a similar situation, although she
(34:42):
didn't get a man out of the ordeal. She and
her band were staying at a Howard Johnson's motor Inn.
While the rest of the group was sitting down to
dinner dieting, Dolly was alone in her room, trying to
stave off hunger with a disgusting protein shake. The band
was down there at the restaurant, and I could hear them.
I'm all laughing and talking, she recalled in her twenty
(35:02):
twenty books song Teller. I was in my room because
I couldn't go down there and eat. I remember just
feeling so sorry for myself in this lonely ass room
where they were having a party. I thought, well, I
can't eat. I can just sit here and feel sorry
for myself, or I could write a song. So I
wrote a song. Although she wrote the lyrics on stationary
from a Pennsylvania holiday inn, Dolly is pretty certain that
(35:24):
she wrote the song out of Howard Johnson's because she
distinctly remembers her hankering for the Motel's fried clams of
all things. Before Dolly's version even hit the radio, Hehaw
TV show regular Zella Lair released a cover version that
went to number seven on the country charts. In the meantime,
Dolly achieved her pop breakthrough with this album's lead single,
(35:47):
Here You Come Again, and, not wanting to compete with
Lair's countryfied take, she re recorded two Doors Down with
more of a disco pop feel well. It peaked at
number nineteen on the Hot one hundred notched a number
twelve entry on the Adult Contemporary charts. A new version
also replaced the original on subsequent pressings of the album.
Speaker 15 (36:17):
Do Bucking Kills Get Me.
Speaker 6 (36:21):
My King by Mussle.
Speaker 11 (36:26):
Based me the gin.
Speaker 21 (36:30):
For ating you.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
Can't get them this gable.
Speaker 16 (36:39):
Go just let me you.
Speaker 22 (36:47):
Have the lusbegnger.
Speaker 6 (36:53):
Mady in hearorb.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Me We carry.
Speaker 6 (37:06):
For the end.
Speaker 15 (37:07):
Of that Trouble.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Lou Rocking Jay Z Judgment Day.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Jay to My, A real old one for you. That
was back in nineteen forty two. That was the Mills
Brothers with a song called Rocking Chair. The Mills brothers
were John Mills Junior, Herbert Mills, Harry Mills, and Donald Mills.
The four brothers amazed listeners with their ability to recreate saxophones,
(37:44):
trumpets and trombones with only their voices and singles like
Tiger Rag and they had a string of hits in
the early nineteen thirties as well. In nineteen thirty four, actually,
the Mills Brothers became the first African American to give
command performance before the British Royalty. Musical instruments or mechanical
devices used on this recording other than one guitar. It
(38:05):
says on the album cover.
Speaker 15 (38:21):
Once upon a marriage in a corner of the world,
I who have been.
Speaker 9 (38:27):
Side of gold, then they love world black.
Speaker 20 (38:32):
I can feeling no, you're on my back.
Speaker 15 (38:35):
I can feeling no, you're on my back. One up
to so the truck gone with a fun goodbye win bluff.
How do you feel with nies against the world? Felt
pretty much black of wooden world. It felt pretty much
like a wooden world.
Speaker 18 (38:57):
Take these tables, take these six wins sims.
Speaker 15 (39:04):
Second second.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
That was by the Go Betweens, and the song is
called second Hand Furniture. The Go Betweens were an Australian
indie rock band. They started in the late seventies and
lasted until the late eighties. On an Autumn day in
nineteen eighty four, the Go Betweens appeared on John Peel's
BBC Radio show and performed four songs that would become
(39:31):
available on their EP. They just completed The spring Hill Fair,
their third album. Their single Bachelor Kisses was getting some
airplay and the band was in terrific form, bouncy, edgy
and pretty tight. You can hear early talking heads, I suppose,
but the band's songwriters, Grant mcclennan and Robert Forster also
(39:52):
approached lyrics with the humanity of a short story writer
and the song a divorced man sees his old marriage
bed in a second hand furniture store. All four songs
benefit from the stripped down production values. It's not surprising
to hear fans say despite its fourteen minute length, and
it's actually a favorite of the go Betweens releases.
Speaker 7 (40:31):
Yeah, We've got to Bite, We need way the babe,
Wait scratch, I'm gona bite.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
You can make it.
Speaker 8 (40:39):
Dies can make you grass the crack.
Speaker 6 (40:44):
That's the reason why no one else make me.
Speaker 8 (40:48):
Feel zastly beside and I do.
Speaker 9 (41:11):
Man.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
That was mister Alice Cooper with the song Bed of Nails,
and it's actually quite a vulgar song if you listen
to the lyrics. It's the second best charting song from
the album Trash. The song Poison ranked a little higher,
but the song did get to number thirty eight in
the UK and was never even released as a single
in the US. This album, which came out in nineteen
(41:34):
eighty nine, was a nice little career reboot for Cooper.
The song Poison was his first top ten hit single
since the song You and Me in nineteen seventy seven.
He was helped by his over the top and well
produced music videos, which definitely boosted the visibility of Cooper
and drove sales.
Speaker 19 (42:06):
I own a second hand furniture store, and I think
my prices are fat.
Speaker 11 (42:15):
Because there's real cheer. Guy I know came in one't
they saw this chair? He wanted to buy, but he
wouldn't claim the price was too high. So I looked
to him straight in his eye, and this was my reply.
Speaker 19 (42:43):
If I can't sell it, I'm gonna sit down on it.
I ain't gonna give it away now, Alan, if you
want it, you're gonna have to buy. And I mean
(43:03):
just what I say. Now, how'd you like to find this.
Speaker 11 (43:10):
Waiting at all for you? Every night? Only been used
once or.
Speaker 12 (43:16):
Twice, but it's still nice and tight. So if I
can't sell it, I'm gonna keep sitting on it. I
ain't about to.
Speaker 11 (43:31):
Give it away.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Oh that was good old Ruth Brown with If I
can't sell it, I'll keep sitting on it. It's all
about the tone of voice in this one. Not a
word of this song is improper in any way, but
there is no doubt what Ruth Brown really means when
you hear it. The song is not about furniture, actually,
but it's implied that it's about furniture. It's about the
(43:56):
art of the double entendre at its best. In case
you missed it, the woozy horn parts or another signal
that their things are not quite what they seem on
the surface. Ruth Brown began her musical career in the
nineteen fifties as a rhythm and blues singer. Her best
known song is still Mama he treats Your Daughter Mean,
which I absolutely love would go on my Top one
(44:17):
hundred all time songs list. Later in her career, Brown
reinvented herself as a jazz singer. Common thread though between
all of this is the blues. In fact, if you
go back and listen to her old R and B songs,
you will hear a lot of jazzy blues in them. Anyway,
by nineteen eighty nine, when keep Sitting On It came out,
the R and B genre had changed completely. From those
(44:39):
early days, Brown had not changed that much, and she
sounded just as good as ever.
Speaker 11 (44:51):
When to find the ladin lamp.
Speaker 23 (44:59):
Windows, smoke fields Away, oh Las good, Genie tramphy my one,
which come to that's the good of the leader of
me to.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
Myself, my.
Speaker 9 (45:55):
Myself.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
I got two songs for you there, Gene Pitney with
his song Aladdin's Lamp from the album Gene Pitney Sings
Just for You, which came out in nineteen sixty three,
and then after that a song by the Kinks who
We love hear it. Listen to this with a song
called Sitting on My Sofa. It was written by Ray Davies.
This nineteen sixty six song was the B side to
(46:36):
Dedicated Follower of Fashion from the album Kink Controversy Sessions,
but a song that didn't make the album cut. It
finally got its day in the Sun or Sunny Afternoon
when it was added as a B side give.
Speaker 6 (46:50):
Me, give Me All in the Fray, give Me in
(47:14):
the Bird, give Me the.
Speaker 9 (47:37):
Ski.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
That was the band of the Birds with the song
oil in my Lamp Oil my Lamp is also known
as give me oil in My Lamp and also sing Hosanna.
It's actually a Christian hymn based on the parable of
the ten versins. The song has been recorded many many times,
and it was a hit in Jamaica in nineteen sixty
four for Eric Monty Morris, as well as appearing on
(48:18):
the Birds nineteen sixty nine album Ballad of Easy Writer
and for us here at listen to this. It is
unusual to use our patron saint of the podcast, mister
Bob Dylan, as our final song. You'll find that we
very rarely do that. I sprinkle him in in the
middle somewhere. It is kind of breaking with tradition, but
we are gonna hear Bob tell his woman to lay
(48:39):
in his big brass bed. In the summer of nineteen
sixty eight, the producers of the movie Midnight Cowboy reached
out to Dylan to see if he had a song
that they could use for the film's main song of
the soundtrack. Well, Dylan had been playing around with the
song Lay, Lady Lay, It's a gentle love song, and
thought it would make a good mission, but he didn't
(49:01):
get it done on time. Producer John Slushinger settled on
Harry Nilsen's Everybody's Talking before he even got to hear
Dylan's song, and that song turned out to be pretty
iconic in the movie's film score. Clinton Halen observes in
the book Revolution in the Air that the song doesn't
make sense for the movie anyways, and it's possible Dylan
(49:21):
didn't even read the script as he developed the song.
Midnight Cowboy, released in nineteen sixty nine, is not a
romantic or sentimental film starring Dustin Hoffman and John Voy
It's a gritty story about two street hustlers who live
in a condemned building and spend their days looking for
ways to survive. Character Joe Buck played by Void, becomes
(49:42):
a jigglow to make his money, and there's a subsequent
scene with him in a bed with a New York socialite,
but it's hardly the kind of romantic situation that Lay
Lady Lay is suited for.
Speaker 4 (49:53):
Well.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
The song ended up on Dylan's nineteen sixty nine album
Nashville Skyline, which you should all just rush out out
and listen to as soon as this podcast is over.
Some radio stations refused to play this song stupidly because
of the use of the word lay in the title,
assuming it referred to sex, i e. Getting laid, But
it's not true. Despite the accusation of being sexually titled,
(50:17):
Dylan has profusely denied any sexual terminology grammatically, though the
correct title for this song would be Lie, Lady Lie,
but that wouldn't sing very well. English teachers will tell
you that Dylan's title is a command to place the
lady on a bed. But Dylan isn't in the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame for his strict adherence to
(50:39):
the rules of grammar. Neither is Eric Clapton who did
something similar with Laid Down Sally. Well, anyways, we're gonna end,
unusually with a Dylan song. Lay lady lay, and I
hope you crank it up as loud as you possibly can.
It's a fantastic song and Dylan's voice is really good
in this one for you people who don't really like
the typical Dylan singing voice. So turn it up loud
(51:01):
and join us next week, and don't forget to tell
your friends.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
M h.
Speaker 9 (51:17):
Lay lady, lay.
Speaker 21 (51:21):
Lay across my big brains, spade, Lay lady, lay lay
across my big braids, Babe.
Speaker 17 (51:42):
Whatever call us you have in your mind, I show
them to you, and you see them shine. Lay lady, lay.
Speaker 22 (51:57):
Lay across my big brains. Did steal lady? Still stay
with your man, awhile until the break of d Let
(52:22):
me see him, make him smile.
Speaker 17 (52:31):
It's close eye do it, buddies, his hands racking, and
you're the best thing thaties ever seen. Steal lady, Steve,
stay with your man, And while.
Speaker 3 (52:51):
Thank you for listening to listen to this, please recommend
to a friend, and don't forget to rate, review, and
subscribe for our podcast and online content. Please visit this
is funner dot com.
Speaker 6 (53:02):
This is Funner
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