October 9, 2024 • 64 mins
In this episode of *Listen to This*, host Eric Leckey spins a playlist of songs inspired by idioms and common sayings. From classics like "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Hit the Road Jack" to "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," Leckey explores how artists have turned familiar phrases into unforgettable hits. With his signature mix of music history and witty commentary, he breaks down the origins of each idiom and how these songs have become cultural staples. Tune in for a fun and lyrical journey through tracks that prove there's always truth in a good saying!
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Transcript
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 introducing you to old songs that have influenced
all the music that you hear today. The goal is
I want you to hear an artist that you might
not normally listen to and search out their music and
whatever streaming service you subscribe to, and maybe even buy
(00:20):
it on vinyl or cassette or LaserDisc or an MP
three that you own, anything except for streaming it where
you don't own it. We invite you to subscribe, comment,
and please recommend this podcast to your friends and loved ones.
Every episode has a theme, and today's is songs with
titles that are idioms or sayings.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Never in the history of the United States a monster
of such size and power.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
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.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Here's your hosts, Eric letty In. Dear listen to this listeners.
I gotta tell you I love doing a few of
these esoteric categories each year, ones that you either have
to think about or categories that unfortunately take me a
really long time to research and come up with which
is a me problem and not a you problem? And
(01:18):
today's episode is one of those. Man, was this a
hard category to come up with, but I had fun. Nonetheless,
song titles that are sayings or idioms or figures of speech.
Some example so that we can all be on the
same page would be something like the saying on the
same page, for instance, or rome Wasn't built in a day?
(01:39):
Or barking up the wrong tree, et cetera. By the way,
none of those examples will be in today's episode, but
let's get our first song going so you can kind
of understand the concept of today's show.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
How lucky can one god be? I kissed her and
she kissed me. Like the fellow once said, ain't that
a kick in the hand? Her room was completely black.
I hurd she hurt back, like the sailor said, foot,
(02:20):
Ain't that a hole in the bowl?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
My head? Keetter's spinner, I go to sleep and keep
you're in it. If it said Ester be Ginner, my
life is going to be before I have sunshine enough
to spread.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
It's just like the fella's sadden tell me quick, ain't
of a kick? In the head.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Fagna Fellow once said, ain't that a kick in the head?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
That was Dino mister Dean Martin with ain't that a
kick in the head. Dean Martin originally recorded this in
a Nelson Riddle arrangement for his nineteen sixty album This
Time I'm Swinging, but it didn't make the cut. That
same year, he performed it in the movie Ocean's Eleven
and an alternative arrangement with Red Norveau and his quartet.
(03:35):
This was written by Sammy Kahn with music by Jimmy
van Hewson in nineteen sixty. Conan Van Howson also wrote
to Love and Be Loved for the nineteen fifty nine
film Some Came Running, starring Sinatra and Dean Martin. In
that movie, there's a scene in which, after a poker
hand with both Sinatra and Martin at the table, Sinatra's
(03:55):
character says, ain't that a kick in the head. This
scene would have been shot before where the song was
even written. So the question is did the line originate
in the James Jones novel of the same name or
in the screenplay or was it ad lib We don't know.
In any case, it seems likely to have been the
impetus for the song itself.
Speaker 7 (04:28):
What We're both.
Speaker 8 (05:00):
A better and a line call.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
Colna doors down and a son the Gods all and that.
Speaker 9 (05:30):
I'm going into Hollenda got better and.
Speaker 10 (05:33):
Ram on a severle black Fano bike on and Amazon and.
Speaker 11 (05:38):
Jenny, I've got to see the whole night, nothing of a.
Speaker 10 (05:42):
Roll and it's running a ll never things donned out
at all, and nothing in a lot.
Speaker 8 (05:50):
And nothing in the rolls and not have a lot
the colf.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
That's an idiom or saying that we've all heard like
a bad out of Hell. That was Meatloaf with bad
at a Hell, like all of Meetloaf's hits. This was
written by the pianist composer Jim Steinman. He said he
wrote it to be the quote ultimate motorcycle crash song.
The lyrics refer to a rider being thrown off his
bike in a wreck and his organs being exposed from
(06:17):
the song and the last thing I see is my
heart still beating, breaking out of my body and flying
away like a bad out of Hell. The song Leader
of the Pack, which also features a motorcycle, was a
big influence on this song. The motorcycle sound in the
middle of the song is producer Todd Runggren on electric guitar.
Todd hated the idea at first, but Steinman begged him
(06:39):
until he tried it, pulling it off along with the
subsequent solo in one take. Steinman trademarked the name Bad
out of Hell in nineteen ninety five, and in two
thousand and six, meetloafs sued him when Steinman wouldn't let
him use the title Bad out of Hell three for
an album. Steinman produced the album Bad out of Hell two,
but Desmond Child produced the two thousand and six album
(07:01):
Bad out of Hell and It's an expression meaning very fast.
Producer Todd Rundgren has spoke on the Bruce Springsteen's influence
on the Bad out of Hell album, said run Green quote.
Jim Steinman still denies that record has anything to do
with Springsteen. But I saw it as a spoof. You
take all the trademarks over long songs, teenage, angst handsome
(07:22):
loner and turn them upside down. So he made these
epic songs full of the silly puns that Steinman loves.
If Bruce Springsteen can take it over the top, Meat
Loaf can take it five stories higher than that. And
at the same time he's this big, sweaty, unappealing character.
Yet we out Springsteen Springsteen. He's never had a record
that's sold like Bad Out of Hell, And I don't
(07:43):
think anyone would ever catch on to it. I thought
it would just be a cult thing. The royalties from
that album enabled me to follow my own path for
a long time after that.
Speaker 11 (07:59):
Ah, all the things you said to me, the man
fest and dust and the long of.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
This could go away right now, and everyone was in
the band and I was out, And now the planning.
Speaker 11 (08:21):
All alone. And you wanna be a big shot. You
wanna be the big man. You wanna hold a big gun.
You gotta have a quick hand, you wanna be the
big shot. Now the shows and one you man love
(08:45):
the most.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And after all that was the Lumine Ears, with the
saying and song big Shot, to be a big shot.
I could have played the Billy Joel song big Shot,
but I played the Lumine Years Big Shot instead, which
is a totally different song rather than the Billy Joel version.
A big shot, of course, is a person of consequence
or prominence, someone important. The phrases has developed of a
(09:11):
nineteenth century of saying great Gun or big Bug for
the Lumineer's duo of Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Frates. Their
road to success has been a long and arduous one.
During the two thousands, they lived a life of struggling musicians,
taking whatever jobs they could to pay the rent. Their
big break came in December twenty eleven when their song
(09:31):
ho Hey was used in the first season of the
CW's Heart of Dixie show. Their long journey has kept
them humble and stopped them from thinking of themselves as
big shots.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
Dinner between Love and hate.
Speaker 8 (10:08):
Is the dinner.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Between love and hate. It's five o'clock in the morning.
I'm just kidding me. I'm not going to lock avoid
see sweet and Lord says biz.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
She opened up the door and let me.
Speaker 6 (10:38):
Never once does she say where have you been?
Speaker 7 (10:41):
She says long or your hory?
Speaker 12 (10:45):
Honey, did you eat ye?
Speaker 6 (10:50):
Let me hang on your cold? The woman tell it
past your hand all the time?
Speaker 7 (11:00):
Is never.
Speaker 10 (11:07):
This faveck in the moment, I don't give it a
second thought.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Hey, don't, then you they'll keep backing your moment.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
We've all heard the saying A thin line between love
and hate and that was the persuaders singing about it.
But the opposite of love isn't hate, it's actually indifference,
and this song that thin line that separates love and
hate are crossed. The song is written from the perspective
of a guy whose woman is really good to him,
despite his blatant indiscretions. In the first verse, when he
(11:45):
comes home at five am, she hangs up his coat
and hat and asks if he's hungry, and never questions
where he's been. But then we hear some sage advice,
don't think you can keep breaking a woman's heart. We
don't know the details, but the second verse five him
in the hospital, and it's clear that she put him there.
He didn't think she had it in her. Songs about
(12:06):
domestic violence rarely get much airplay, and exception is the
song he Hit Me and It Felt Like a Kiss
by The Crystals, one of actually a song I really
really like, But this one makes no mention of how
the guy ended up in the hospital, which keeps it
more let's call it abstract. A common reaction to the
song is well, he deserved it. The song was written
by the brothers Richard and Robert Poindexter. Yes that's their
(12:28):
real last name, and I can't believe they didn't change it,
along with Robert's wife Jackie members who also helped write
the song, the Poindexter Brothers, who also produced the track
and wrote the Linda Jones songs give My Love a
Try and the Song Hypnotized. They also wrote a song
called my Girl She's a Fox that was recorded by
The Iceman that featured Jimmy Hendrix on guitar when he
(12:49):
was young and starting out. The Persuaders were a New
York group originally known as The Internationals. In the late sixties,
a shifty promoter lured them to England and had them
impersonated group called the Showstoppers, who had a UK hit
called Ain't Nothing But a House Party. After coming back
to America, they took a hiatus and returned as The Persuader,
(13:11):
signing a deal with Atlantic Records. The Thin Line Between
Love and Hate was released as their first single and
was the title track to their debut album. Under the
new name. They reached the top forty once more with
a song some Guys Have All the Luck, which reached
number thirty nine in nineteen seventy three. Rod Stewart had
more luck with that one, taking it to number ten
(13:31):
in nineteen eighty four. This song brought the title phrase
into the popular lexicon. Regarding how he handled racism, James
Brown once said, it's a thin line between love and hate,
and I always know the line. The saying is sometimes
heard as a fine line between love and hate.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
Across the roof.
Speaker 13 (13:59):
Of the modays, here is the month of the year,
at the worst time, at the worst place. That's all
I see there here, Or go to a bully so
I could greet the cottage of the dawn appended in
(14:24):
my wagon, abandoned all hope, and I crossed the ruver
k well the Ruby Connor is the red river. Go
and gently as your flows better than your ruby lips.
(14:47):
And a blood that goes from the roads three miles
an hoth of furgatory, one step from the great Beyond.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Bob Dylan, the patron Saint of the Listen to this
podcast with his song Crossing the Rubicon, one of his
recent songs. On January tenth of forty nine BC, Roman
Governor Julius Caesar led his army across the Rubicon River
in direct opposition to the orders of the Roman Senate
(15:21):
triggering the Roman Civil War. Caesar knew this would happen.
Upon completing the crossing, he reportedly uttered, and so the
die is cast. In the ensuing conflicts, Caesar became the
sole dictator of Rome. Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon was
so historically significant that to this day there's a common
saying for it. To cross the rubicon means to cross
(15:43):
a point of no return. It means a person has
definitively committed him or herself to a course of action,
and there's no turning back. Dylan is using the notion
of crossing the Rubicon in the latter general sense rather
than the former historical one. The whole song makes this
pretty clear, but there's also a detail in the very
first line that gives it away. I crossed the Rubicon
(16:06):
on the fourteenth day of the most dangerous month of
the year. Dylan's intended meeting, if there is indeed linear meaning,
is hard to see in this one, but there are
some clues. We can also make assumptions based on the
context of the album Rough and Rowdy Ways, which is
heavy on biblical imagery and Christian ideas, as heard in
(16:26):
the song's False Prophet Goodbye Jimmy Reid, and murder most Foul.
One verse in particular, gets his Christian viewpoint across. I
feel the Holy Spirit inside, see the light that freedom gives.
I believe it's in the reach of every man who lives.
Keep as far away as possible. It's dark. As for
the donno Lord, I turn the key, I broke it off.
(16:49):
I cross the Rubican. It's tempting to say that Dylan
is referring to his own Christian conversion experience, but we
really don't have any evidence for that beyond the fact
that he did Verse sometime back in the seventies, and
that his song seems to be discussing crossing the Rubicon
into his Christian faith. I told you this would be
(17:42):
a pretty esoteric episode. Of course, we've all heard the
phrase It's a small world, and that was the Disneyland
Children's sing along chorus with It's a Small World, directly
from the ride and into your brain, and you'll never
unhear that song. This was written for the nineteen sixty
four World's Fair in New York City. Walt Disney was
(18:02):
in charge of the Children of the World pavilion, which
after the fair became the ride It's a Small World
of the attraction at Disneyland. He asked Richard and Robert
Sherman to write a song for the attraction. The brothers
tell a story of when Walt Disney gave them the assignment. Quote,
Walt showed us a mock up of the exhibit. All
of these audio animatronic children sang their own national anthems
(18:26):
and it was a cacophony. Walt said to them, I
want you to just write me one song. I don't
know what it's called, but I think it's called a
round delay. And we said you mean in the round
and he said, yes, a round delay. And so that's
how A Small World was born. The song just goes
round and around. It's a Small World attraction quickly became
very popular Disneyland. The ride is now featured at every
(18:49):
Magic Kingdom, Disneyland and Walt Disney World, Tokyo, Disneyland, euro Disney.
The song plays continuously during the ride. This might be
the greatest ear worm of all time. The song you
just can't get out of your head. And Robert Sherman
Junior told us why. Quote, Like many songs, It's a
Small World has a verse and a chorus. One thing
which makes the song particularly catchy is that the verse
(19:11):
and the chorus work in counterpoint to each other. That
means that you can play the same chords over and
over again, but with different melodies. The repetitive yet varied
pattern tricks your mind into absorbing the work without becoming
tiresome to your ear. I don't know about that. It
gets pretty tiresome when you're stuck in the line and
you've listened to the song four hundred times before getting
(19:32):
on the right.
Speaker 9 (19:33):
The penny finally dropped.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
I finally understood that I was in the middle of
a near Vanna reunion.
Speaker 9 (19:40):
As a gentleman, mister Dave bole, Well.
Speaker 14 (19:54):
Is it?
Speaker 9 (19:55):
Chris novaslach, I'm mister Patsmith. We're gonna do the song we.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
Jumped now.
Speaker 9 (20:14):
The last time we've done it live for you here tonight.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
The Phraeze cut me some slack goes back up pretty
long way. That wasn't really a band so much as
that was Nirvana, but with Paul McCartney on lead. There
Paul McCartney, Dave Girl, Chris Novaceelic and Pat Smear. This
song was recorded for Dave Girl's feature length sound City documentary.
(22:17):
In the accompanying soundtrack film titled sound City Reel to Reel,
former Nirvana bandmates Dave Girl, Chris Nova Selic and unofficial
fourth member Pat Smear were joined by Paul McCartney for
a performance of this song at the twelve twelve twelve concert,
a benefit event to gather relief funds following Hurricane Sandy.
Introducing the song, McCartney told the crowd, recently some guys
(22:40):
asked me to go and jam with them, so I
showed up, and in the middle of it, these guys
kept saying, we haven't played together for years, you know,
and the penny finally dropped. I finally understood that I
was in the middle of a Nirvana reunion. The song's
title is an expression meaning a request to ease the pressure.
It originated in African American slang of the nineteen sixties.
(23:02):
Speaking with the radio station KRQ in Los Angeles, Dave
Girl revealed that this was written and recorded in just
three hours, having recorded some performances for Girls Sound City documentary.
The Foo Fighter frontman later asked McCartney if he just
wanted to jam again. We walked in jammed the song
and it just came out of nowhere. But I feel
that the best songs happened that way. We recorded it
(23:25):
live and put a vocal over it, and that was it.
It was three hours and it was perfect. Eight months later,
Girl asked McCartney to come back again and play at
the twelve twelve twelve concert.
Speaker 8 (24:00):
Sass stuff, who says this this last? I've got a
lot the top this.
Speaker 15 (24:05):
As stuff you to town my cost, taunting us, with bishops,
affecting us, with predicting long the minions and not all theirs.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
No, I have scared the way it is. No I
as here, who's to go? No askin what's the game?
Speaker 16 (24:38):
We ask who's the game?
Speaker 8 (24:43):
They're gonna die?
Speaker 16 (24:44):
And they got.
Speaker 6 (24:47):
They go you gotta tell and you're gonna doll.
Speaker 8 (24:54):
And they're gonna do that. Will m.
Speaker 6 (25:17):
You play that lot? Do continued.
Speaker 8 (25:29):
Down, lide, borrow, sprite, don't be really, don't tr So far.
Speaker 17 (25:40):
It's dogging ducky docking, buggy dusky, tucky docking, donkey back
talk at busting Danny, oh.
Speaker 8 (25:53):
Oh oh.
Speaker 14 (25:57):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Two songs I played for you there. The first was
from Iron Maiden and the phrase that pays today is
to die with your boots on, and the song die
with your boots on, well, it's an idiom referring to
dying while fighting, or to die while actively occupied, employed, working,
or in the middle of some action. This song takes
on religious zelots who predict the end of the world.
(26:23):
Lead singer Bruce Dickinson made the point that people would
have been predicting the end of time for centuries, but
yet we're all still here. The phrase die with your
boots on is a saying from the American Old West,
meaning to die with honor after putting up a fight.
The second song I Played You is from Adam and
the Ants, and the song is the phrase dog eat Dog.
Doggy dog is an informal expression which means ruthlessly competitive.
(26:47):
I guess would be the best way to describe it.
The lyrics of this song are about bands in competition
with each other. It finishes with Adam Ant saying how
proud he is of his fans. In his autobiography, Adam
Ant said dog Eat Dog was inspired by a quote
by Margaret Thatcher from a newspaper. Now this was far
from a new phrase, of course. Margaret Thatcher was elected
(27:08):
Prime Minister on May fourth, of nineteen seventy nine. She
served all the way until November nineteen ninety, when she
was forced to resign by a cabinet revolt. This was
Adam and the Ant's first top twenty hit in the UK,
introduced the band's tribal drum style. They did have two drummers,
by the way, and spaghetti western guitar sound, which made
(27:28):
them one of the more popular acts in the early
eighties in the UK, at least with lyrics like Leapfrog
the Dog and brush Me Daddy.
Speaker 12 (27:35):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
It certainly wasn't the words and the lyrics that carried
the tune.
Speaker 12 (28:19):
And you can never shut up.
Speaker 16 (28:26):
You can never shut down.
Speaker 12 (28:32):
This house, this house, my dad.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I love that we're playing some heavier stuff. On today's
episode that was Mega Death with a House Divided. Front
man Dave Mustain brought in session trumpeter Bob Findlay, who'd
work with like Neil Diamond, Steely Dan and others to
play horns on this track. Quote it's not every day
that you'll have a horn player play on a heavy
metal song. But we're one of those bands that can
(29:01):
kind of delve into it and we're not afraid of it.
It's not like it's going to take over the track
and the band and suddenly become to sound like we're Earth,
Wind and Fire or something like that. But you know
what I mean, It's just something that adds a little
flavor to a song, something different for our fans. The
phrase a house divided refers to a group of or
organization weakened by internal dissensions. It comes from a parable
(29:24):
that Jesus recounted in Marx Gospel three, verse twenty five,
where he countered accusations of him being under Satan's power.
When President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection
in nineteen sixty eight, he said, quote, it is true
that a home divided against itself cannot stand. There is
division in the American house. Now. He was alluding to
(29:46):
the Biblical passage, as Abraham Lincoln had done previously in
an eighteen fifty eight speech when he was warning of
the dangers of slavery based disunion.
Speaker 18 (30:01):
Listen provided that s the US, it's like beating alone.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
I'm a one beloved and never fall I love too,
hall on my friends sometimes safe.
Speaker 8 (30:17):
But I didn't leave.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
I didn't leave, not a woman.
Speaker 12 (30:21):
To be loved that way.
Speaker 6 (30:23):
But should see a treat to us.
Speaker 16 (30:28):
Got somebody somewhere, tell her.
Speaker 6 (30:33):
It's a fast.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Can I get some with me?
Speaker 16 (30:37):
Then I get up with me?
Speaker 6 (30:39):
Fad? Can I get a win away to somebody? Is
in the right to be treated from bed?
Speaker 18 (30:49):
When you've given everything ahead, give up talking? And lastly,
because I haven't been my baby all we now you
chick to me?
Speaker 6 (31:00):
And then then I'm the way love the the bit.
Let me.
Speaker 7 (31:05):
Let me.
Speaker 12 (31:11):
In the morning, all.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
The fun all night that I have, but I've been
a man. I'm all stick. Tell the man.
Speaker 14 (31:37):
That I'm again.
Speaker 6 (31:38):
How love the ba.
Speaker 8 (31:41):
I'm aware that.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Was Marvin Gay, and Marvin Gay wrote many of his
own hits. But the song Can I Get a Witness?
Which I just played for you, was written by the
famous motown team I've mentioned a few dozen times, Holland,
Dozer and Holland. The title is a phrase commonly you
in black churches and has a very spiritual connotation. When
the preacher asks can I get a witness? He's asking
(32:07):
the congregation for affirmation, often met with the response of amen.
The song helped popularize the phrase. All three members of
the Holland Dojer Holland songwriting team had a background in
gospel music, Dozer of Holland. Dojer Holland explained in an
interview in nineteen eighty four, when I was coming up,
my aunt played piano, and my grandma instructed her to
(32:29):
what singing in the church was. She was one of
the church's directors. My aunt played different classical music, and
I remember sitting on the stool and she would serenade
me with these tunes, and they all stuck with me
and influenced me throughout the years. Gospel music, on the
other hand, influenced myself and the Holland Brothers because it
was the thing that we did every Sunday, go to church.
Black gospel music was part of our lifestyle. And they're
(32:51):
barely audible, but if you listen closely. The Supremes added
background vocals on this track along with the song's writers,
Holland doj Or Hauling. The call and response style mimicked
to church congregation shouting back to the preacher, you.
Speaker 13 (33:15):
Got the hellen ase in the hole, A little secret
that nobody knows.
Speaker 16 (33:23):
Life is a gamboo game we all play, but you.
Speaker 6 (33:27):
Need to say something for any day. You've got to
learn to play.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Your cards right.
Speaker 6 (33:35):
If you expect to win in life.
Speaker 10 (33:40):
Don't put it all online for just one role.
Speaker 6 (33:44):
You've got the Hellenise in the Hole.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
That was the song Ace in the Hole by the
very great George Strait making his first appearance on the
Listen to This podcast. This is a Dennis Adkins penned
song and it was recorded by George straight for the
album Beyond the Blue Neon. It was released in July
of nineteen eighty nine as the third single from the
LP and became his eighteenth number one country single his
(34:11):
eleventh chart topper in a row that's really a hell
of a feat and tough to beat. The song is
about how you have to keep a few tricks up
your sleeve in order to get ahead in life. The
title is an idiom, meaning a secret or powerful advantage,
and according to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, this
(34:33):
Ace in the Hole is a reference to the game
of stud poker, in which an ace, being the most
valuable card, is faced down on the table and is
not revealed to anyone except for the only player who
holds it knows of its secret power. The hole in
this phrase is simply a place of concealment. George's touring band,
by the way, is called the Ace in the Whole Band.
(34:53):
He was the band's lead singer before beginning his solo
career in the early eighties.
Speaker 6 (35:04):
You're too rude. Oh what a rod race? Oh? What
the rat race?
Speaker 12 (35:26):
For? What?
Speaker 8 (35:27):
The rat race? This is the rat rang.
Speaker 19 (35:38):
Red rage race, Summer love, ser summer bars, summer taxon.
Speaker 16 (35:46):
For what the refrace?
Speaker 8 (35:51):
Redfriend?
Speaker 19 (35:54):
Some of the ho summer who is summergain? Other in
this cre.
Speaker 16 (36:04):
Refrace?
Speaker 19 (36:05):
I'm saying, well, the gats away, the mice play.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
Violence.
Speaker 20 (36:16):
Yes, yeah, don't Rasta in your Rasta set.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
That was the great Bob Marley with the song rat Race.
We've all been in the rat race before. Most of
us can't seem to get out of it. This is
the closing track of the album Rasta Man Vibration, Bob
Marley's most successful album, at least in the US during
his lifetime. The song decried Jamaica's status as a pawn
(36:53):
of the capitalist US atop a chord structure adapted for
a Philly soul hit. Guitarist Earl China Smith said that
the song came together when he started jamming on the
Spinners nineteen seventy four song Since I've Been Gone, along
with keyboard player Tyrone Downey and drummer Carly Barrett. Bunny
Whaler suggested they add an intro, and Marley came up
(37:15):
with the lyrics along with his wife Rita don't involve
Rasta and your say say Rasta don't work for no Cia.
Rat Race is all I'm saying. He ain't wrong. Rat Race,
of course, is a term used to describe the frustrating
competitive lifestyle live by countless people in the West, especially
critics of the capitalist free market economy, argue that Westerners
(37:37):
feel like they are caught on a treadmill as they
strive without success to get ahead of their rivals. Marley
was no fan of the capitalist system and criticized American
attempts to impose it on his homeland. Rosta Man Vibration
reached number eight on the Billboard two hundred, the highest
US chart position of any Whaler's album would achieve at
least during Marley's lifetime.
Speaker 6 (38:23):
In Every Hard Verisu.
Speaker 21 (38:29):
A sanctuary, safe festival.
Speaker 8 (38:35):
To heal the woods.
Speaker 6 (38:38):
From lover's bad until a new one comes alone.
Speaker 16 (38:48):
I spoke to you.
Speaker 21 (38:51):
In cautious stall, you answered me when no Britis.
Speaker 6 (39:00):
And still Life.
Speaker 14 (39:03):
Said too much.
Speaker 21 (39:07):
My silence is myself defence, and every time myvel rose,
it seems I only felt to thor.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
And so it goes, and so go.
Speaker 6 (39:30):
And so will you soon.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I suppose there was a reason I didn't play you,
that Billy Joel's version of the phrase big shot earlier
in this episode, And I played the lumineers instead because
I wanted to save my Billy Joel bullet in my
gun for this particular phrase and so it goes, which
was by Billy Joel, and so it goes as a
phrase used to express resignation or acceptance when something continues
(39:57):
to happen repeatedly or persistently, often despite efforts to change it.
It implies that the situation is unchanging and will continue
in the same way. Billy Joel started writing a song
in the early nineteen eighties about a relationship he was
having with supermodel El McPherson. Their backgrounds and heights, let's say,
because he's a short man, were so different that he
(40:18):
knew the relationship would fail, which it did. He predicted
the end of the affair with the line and you
can have this heart to break The title comes from
television journalist Linda Ellerbee's signature line and best selling book title.
When Joel appeared on The Howard Stern Show in twenty ten,
he said that this was his least appreciated song, and
(40:40):
he thinks it's a really good one. Thinks it's the
best one that casual fans aren't aware of. In twenty seventeen,
he actually listed it among his top five songs that
he ever did. As the title suggests, the tracks on
the album build an intensity like a storm front moving in.
Although this song wasn't written specific before the album, Joe
(41:01):
wanted to include it as the closer to signify the
calm after the storm storm front. The album was Joel's
first number one album in America since the album Glass
Houses hit the top of the charts all the way
back in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 6 (41:22):
I don't want to lose just good me, I got
just get glad to I was good.
Speaker 14 (41:39):
Love bad up. I know it's like come no.
Speaker 6 (41:52):
Flightening, I flightening, I'm bad on on.
Speaker 10 (42:01):
Wo babe, I'm not supersticis about you?
Speaker 6 (42:16):
Ain't ignal? Chance got me speeding.
Speaker 12 (42:23):
And baby.
Speaker 6 (42:25):
Baby, I'm in a friends I so love mad Then
he didn't love.
Speaker 8 (42:37):
It's like don no.
Speaker 6 (42:40):
Lighting. The way love me is riding compared on.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Wor love this song, that was the phrase and the
song knock on Woodbye Eddie Floyd, and this was Eddie
Floyd's biggest hit by far. He wrote the song with
Stax record guitarist Steve Cropper in the Lorraine Motel, which,
by the way, is the hotel where Martin Luther King
(43:10):
Junior was assassinated in nineteen sixty eight. Working late at night,
they came up with the famous line it's like thunder
lightning the way you love me is frightening. When Floyd
toward Cropper a story about how he and his brother
would write out storms in Alabama and Alabama there's this
thunder and this lightning, he told Cropper we'd hide under
the bed because we'd be frightened of the thunder and
the lightning. Cropper liked the phrase and came up with
(43:32):
the famous line. The saying knock on wood. It's an
old one. It's used to express gratitude for good fortune,
while humbly acknowledging that it might not continue. Quote, my
back has been feeling better ever since I gave up
I don't know spearfishing knock on wood. This is often
accompanied by the speaker actually tapping on any nearby, preferably
wooden surface. It's a really stupid, stupid thing that we
(43:55):
all still do, but you know, we all do it.
And the song Eddie Floyd is knocking on wood because
he's so lucky to have found the girl of his dreams.
This song has to be one of the most effective
pauses in music history in my opinion. After the Floyd
sings I better knock, there's a real big space before
drummer Al Jackson comes in with his drum beats and
(44:16):
Floyd completes the line with on wood. It's fantastically done,
and that section, by the way, wasn't planned. Jackson came
up with the idea of putting the pause in and
simulating the sound of knocking on a door to break
up the line. That little flourish made the song very memorable.
The song confused British listeners a bit, though, as the
(44:37):
phrase knock on wood is not in their vernacular. In England,
the expression is touch if you ever talk to an
English person and you want to converse with him. According
to Eddie Floyd, it was Isaac Hayes. Yes, that Isaac Hayes,
a regular at Stax Records and actually really important to
the Stax record story who came up with the bridge,
which ended up being played on a Saxophone.
Speaker 8 (45:17):
Fi doll fives, Let it Fly, dong files, Let it Fie.
Speaker 10 (45:37):
You can't see the morning look, I can see the line.
Speaker 8 (45:41):
By tie tie, let it fly, way running up here,
waiting after night, by tide tide, let it Fly, and
one little cry if I from out line.
Speaker 6 (45:59):
Him more Ride Ride.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
That was Bachman Turner Overdrive bt O with let It Ride.
Randy Bachman and Fred Turner of Bachman Turner Overdrive got
the idea for the song when they were driving to
a gig in New Orleans. As Bachmann tells that, they
were driving on a highway when a few truckers decided
to have some fun with the musicians who were riding
in the little van from Canada. The truckers boxed them
(46:37):
in and slowed down to a crawl. When they finally
turned into a truck stop, Randy and Fred followed them
with the intent of giving them a good talking to,
let's say. Unfortunately, in the words of Randy Bachman, the
trucker looked like a Volkswagen with a head. The truckers
had a good laugh and told the band that they
needed to learn to let it ride. Bachman and Turner
had never heard that expression before, but they liked the
(46:59):
sound of it. It means to just relax and not
let things upset you. When they got to New Orleans,
they wrote the song in their dressing room before the show.
The distinctive guitar riff in this song is something Randy
Bachman came up with after listening to a classical piece
by Antonina Devorak called Piano Concerto ind He transposed a
(47:20):
chord progression he heard in the piece to guitar, and
he like the way it sounded and added it to
this song.
Speaker 16 (47:35):
Bas A.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
Blondie with a little Shakespeare There for You with a
Rose by any other Name. This is the lead single
from Blondie's Ghosts of Download album. The song features the
band The Gossips front woman Beth Diddo on lead vocals
with Debbie Harry. It was released as a digital download
in June of twenty thirteen. The phrase Rose by any
(48:45):
other Name originates from a dialogue in William Shakespeare's play
Romeo and Juliette, in which Juliette argues that the name
is of little consequence. What matters is the inherent qualities
of the person or the thing. What's in a name?
That which we call a rose by any other name
would smell as sweet, so Romeo would, were he not
(49:06):
Romeo called, retain that dear perfection which he owes, I
will accept, my Oscar. That was the Bee fifty two's
(50:34):
telling you to nip it in the bud, and baby,
you better stop right there, you better stop it, Stop
it right there, nip it in the bud. The expression
nip it in the bud means to put a quick
end to something abruptly. This race comes from the gardening world,
but it has branched out. When a leaf or flowers
beginning to form, it's just a little bud, and if
you nip it, cut it, then it won't grow. You
(50:55):
nip it in the bud. In an interview with the
Bee fifty two's Cindy Wilson, who sings lead on this one,
by the Way, one of her attempts to write a
punkish kind of a song, and in the punk tradition,
Wilson's lyrics convey more of a feeling than a story,
as she repeatedly directs someone to nip it in the bud.
The B fifty twos vocalists would often improvise lyrics during
(51:17):
jam sessions. The lines head him up, head him up,
move him out, move them out? Whoah refers to the
theme song of the nineteen sixties television show raw Hide.
This is the final track on the Mesopotamia album, which
was produced by David Byrne of The Talking Heads. The
B fifty two's had a hankering to work with him
after touring with the band.
Speaker 9 (52:13):
Find Our Double.
Speaker 19 (52:14):
Girls and set down Live sible life in the quite.
Speaker 8 (52:19):
Down Steady she goes, sbby as she goes, So.
Speaker 16 (52:28):
Theb me as he goes, your friends are so the
king in the single life.
Speaker 6 (52:40):
You've had to mut to think. Now you need a wife.
Steady as she goes, she.
Speaker 16 (52:49):
Go, let me go again. You found yourself a friend.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
I know you.
Speaker 6 (52:59):
Now he goes.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
That was a rack on tours with Steady as she goes,
and the term steady as she goes describes an activity
or situation that is progressing in a stable manner. It's
a nautical phrase and it was originally used in reference
to a ship when the sailing was steady. Ships were
traditionally referred to as female. By the way, That's why
the references she goes. The subject matter of the lyrics
(53:33):
is very rare for a rock song. Frontman Jack White
sings about nurturing a stable home life by marrying someone
who will support you. It's not something you'll hear Kiss
or the Rolling Stones sing about. According to Jack White,
it's asking a question many people think about before they
tie the knot. Is getting married and settling down, the
start of a new life, or just giving up. Jack
(53:56):
White first got married in nineteen ninety six to Meg White.
He took her last name, changing it from Gillis. They
formed The White Stripes a year later, but their marriage
didn't survive the band. They split up in nineteen ninety
nine before releasing their first album, and finalized the divorce
in the year two thousand. Still, they carried on as
a musical duo, a very successful one, and settled in
(54:18):
as very good friends. In two thousand and five, he
married Karen Elson and Meg was the best woman. This
song was released a year later, but White says he
wrote it about a year before his marriage to Karen.
White isn't known for hashing out his personal life and songs,
but he seems to be wondering here if he'll fall
into the same pattern in his second marriage. He sings, well,
(54:41):
here we go again. You found yourself a friend that
knows you well. But no matter what you do, you
always feel as though you tripped and fell. White and
Elson split up in twenty eleven and finalized their divorce
in twenty thirteen. She didn't go that steady, We'll see I'm.
Speaker 22 (55:08):
Falling with all your critical Can I watch you do
your make up? I do you and all those spots showing.
Speaker 16 (55:22):
Its time so hard.
Speaker 12 (55:25):
To see if you put.
Speaker 16 (55:27):
Yourself to come a fly.
Speaker 8 (55:30):
When you go away, You're going on. When I'm loan,
they coming home tonight.
Speaker 6 (55:40):
We'll go all.
Speaker 12 (55:47):
Really to us the Romstee's.
Speaker 6 (56:06):
You can see when you're.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
Not wrong the world, but see right, it's the feless
(56:42):
the rooms.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Damn it. I had to play another Billy Joel song.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. I was just
trying not to. But on the same album of the
song I played for you earlier, he has another song
called when in Rome, which is just too good of
an idiom to pass up, and that idiom when in Rome,
do as the Romans means to follow the customs and
traditions of the place you're visiting, usually a foreign land.
(57:06):
When Billy Joel was putting together the Stormfront album in
the late eighties, he had a slight preoccupation with the
tabloid gossip that suggested he and his supermodel wife, Christy
Brinkley spent their lives enjoying the spoils of their collective wealth.
But nothing could be further from the truth. According to
Billy in this track, they're just a normal couple who
(57:28):
go to work every day and come home to each
other at night. There's a song on Stormfront called when
in Rome about a working couple working just like us.
Speaker 4 (57:37):
Now.
Speaker 1 (57:38):
We may not have the same kind of jobs that
everybody else has, but we do work, and we probably
work harder than the people who comment on us. I've
actually had journalists write nasty lies about my kid, and
she never heard anyone. She's not even four years old.
Most of Billy Joel's albums have a song that he
doesn't like. On Stormfront, it's this one. He actually said
(57:59):
in interview in twenty sixteen. It's a cliche when in
Rome do as the Romans Do. I think it's one
of my crappy songs. I wish I could take that
one back when I'm home. It's all I gotta be
is me and you when do as the Romans Do. Wow,
how profound, I said sarcastically to myself. I think I
might have just been tapped out of ideas when I
wrote that one. Joel, I don't think it's that bad.
(58:22):
It is a little hacky, but it isn't that bad.
Joel explained that he's not like other songwriters who write
a hundred songs for a project and then just pick
a handful for an album. That means he doesn't have
a cachet of unused songs to fall back on when
he gets burnt out, and sometimes he just has to
put out one that's a clunker.
Speaker 6 (58:39):
I'm seeing. Don't think you'll have to see him face again.
Speaker 19 (58:49):
Don't know much, tim Fast, because it never reckoned me.
Speaker 6 (58:58):
You feeling, I think you a bit of more than
you could choose.
Speaker 8 (59:07):
In the words.
Speaker 7 (59:09):
Time to make a dress.
Speaker 8 (59:13):
In him is your so follow it's all jump brow man. Follow.
Speaker 6 (59:39):
Now it's all jup man play.
Speaker 1 (59:51):
Man that was the southern California kind of punk band
from the nineties Unwritten Law with Seeing Red. Seeing Red
as an expression that means very upset. In this song,
the singer's furious and feels he has been betrayed. Unwritten
Law singer Scott Russo explains Seeing Red is a song
(01:00:14):
I wrote about how I felt my ex girl felt
about me. It's taken from the narration of her point
of view towards me. It's the quickest song I ever wrote. Well,
we've reached the end of our episode, but don't be disappointed.
Speaker 5 (01:00:27):
It is what it is.
Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Well, maybe it's a blessing in disguise, but hey, I
don't want to beat around the bush or cut any corners.
So let's bite the bullet and play our final song.
And it's a good one. This is from Buddy Holly,
and Buddy Holly had been kicking around his hometown in Lubbock, Texas,
trying to write a hit song for his small little
rockabilly band since he had attended an Elvis Presley gig
(01:00:51):
at his high school sometime in nineteen fifty five. His
band in those days consisted of him on lead vocals
and guitar, Jerry all us Son on the drums, and
Joe b. Maudlin on upright base. Well, He and Jerry
decided to get together and go see the new movie
The Searchers, a Western movie starring John Wayne Well. In
the movie, John Wayne keeps replying, well, that'll be the
(01:01:15):
day every time another character in the film predictsor proclaims
something will happen. When he felt it was not likely
to happen, the phrase stuck in Jerry's mind, and when
they were hanging out at Jerry's house one night, Buddy
looked at Jerry and said that it would sure be
nice if they could record a hit song the dream
that they've had. Well, Jerry replied with that'll be the day,
(01:01:37):
imitating John Wayne in the film. Holly and his band
The Three Tunes recorded this in Nashville nineteen fifty six,
but Decca Records didn't like the result and actually refused
to release it. Well. A year later, Holly re recorded
it with the Crickets in a studio in Clovis, New Mexico,
owned by his new producer, Norman Petty. Backup vocalists were
(01:01:58):
brought in and the he was lowered to fit Holly's
voice a little bit better. This version became a huge
hit and made Holly a star that summer. Norman Petty
took a writing credit on this because he produced it.
This meant Holly and Allison had to share royalties with him.
But them's the breaks. See I ended one on an
idiom in case you didn't notice that. Anyways, guys, this
(01:02:21):
has been a really fun episode for me to put together.
It was a lot of hard work, but I think
it paid off. And these are some great songs and
great sayings that we've played for you today. I really
want you to recommend this podcast to a friend and
get out there and vote everybody. Other than that, I
want you to turn this song up loud and I'll
see you next week.
Speaker 6 (01:02:45):
When you say goodbye the day when you made me cry, you.
Speaker 16 (01:02:53):
Know, it's like.
Speaker 6 (01:02:55):
The day.
Speaker 23 (01:03:00):
You turn it out at your house against your money
do well?
Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
You know you know me, baby, dude, You tell me.
Speaker 12 (01:03:09):
Maybe that's someday.
Speaker 23 (01:03:11):
Well, will ladall be the day when you say goodbye?
S'll be the day when you made me cry. I
say you're gonna leave, you know, It's like god, sall
be the day. But I like, well, Lad'll be the
(01:03:52):
day when do you say goodbye Saturday, the day when
you made me cry, You say you go.
Speaker 13 (01:04:01):
You know it's a lie cause Sad'll be the day
when I die.
Speaker 6 (01:04:06):
Well, when you me shot is dark.
Speaker 23 (01:04:09):
We shot it at your heart, so maybe we in
the pody alive.
Speaker 12 (01:04:13):
You see it in polling.
Speaker 23 (01:04:18):
That's someday, well, Lobby Willy. The day when you say
goodbye Sadurday, the day.
Speaker 9 (01:04:27):
When you make me cry, you say gon' leave.
Speaker 6 (01:04:31):
You know it's a lie. Call sadday the day when
I die.
Speaker 3 (01:04:36):
With Thank you for listening to listen to this, Please
recommend to a friend, and don't forget to rate, review,
and subscribe. For more podcasts and online content, please visit
this is Funner dot
Speaker 16 (01:04:48):
Com 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 introducing you to old songs that have influenced
all the music that you hear today. The goal is
I want you to hear an artist that you might
not normally listen to and search out their music and
whatever streaming service you subscribe to, and maybe even buy
(00:20):
it on vinyl or cassette or LaserDisc or an MP
three that you own, anything except for streaming it where
you don't own it. We invite you to subscribe, comment,
and please recommend this podcast to your friends and loved ones.
Every episode has a theme, and today's is songs with
titles that are idioms or sayings.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Never in the history of the United States a monster
of such size and power.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
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.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Here's your hosts, Eric letty In. Dear listen to this listeners.
I gotta tell you I love doing a few of
these esoteric categories each year, ones that you either have
to think about or categories that unfortunately take me a
really long time to research and come up with which
is a me problem and not a you problem? And
(01:18):
today's episode is one of those. Man, was this a
hard category to come up with, but I had fun. Nonetheless,
song titles that are sayings or idioms or figures of speech.
Some example so that we can all be on the
same page would be something like the saying on the
same page, for instance, or rome Wasn't built in a day?
(01:39):
Or barking up the wrong tree, et cetera. By the way,
none of those examples will be in today's episode, but
let's get our first song going so you can kind
of understand the concept of today's show.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
How lucky can one god be? I kissed her and
she kissed me. Like the fellow once said, ain't that
a kick in the hand? Her room was completely black.
I hurd she hurt back, like the sailor said, foot,
(02:20):
Ain't that a hole in the bowl?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
My head? Keetter's spinner, I go to sleep and keep
you're in it. If it said Ester be Ginner, my
life is going to be before I have sunshine enough
to spread.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
It's just like the fella's sadden tell me quick, ain't
of a kick? In the head.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Fagna Fellow once said, ain't that a kick in the head?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
That was Dino mister Dean Martin with ain't that a
kick in the head. Dean Martin originally recorded this in
a Nelson Riddle arrangement for his nineteen sixty album This
Time I'm Swinging, but it didn't make the cut. That
same year, he performed it in the movie Ocean's Eleven
and an alternative arrangement with Red Norveau and his quartet.
(03:35):
This was written by Sammy Kahn with music by Jimmy
van Hewson in nineteen sixty. Conan Van Howson also wrote
to Love and Be Loved for the nineteen fifty nine
film Some Came Running, starring Sinatra and Dean Martin. In
that movie, there's a scene in which, after a poker
hand with both Sinatra and Martin at the table, Sinatra's
(03:55):
character says, ain't that a kick in the head. This
scene would have been shot before where the song was
even written. So the question is did the line originate
in the James Jones novel of the same name or
in the screenplay or was it ad lib We don't know.
In any case, it seems likely to have been the
impetus for the song itself.
Speaker 7 (04:28):
What We're both.
Speaker 8 (05:00):
A better and a line call.
Speaker 6 (05:05):
Colna doors down and a son the Gods all and that.
Speaker 9 (05:30):
I'm going into Hollenda got better and.
Speaker 10 (05:33):
Ram on a severle black Fano bike on and Amazon and.
Speaker 11 (05:38):
Jenny, I've got to see the whole night, nothing of a.
Speaker 10 (05:42):
Roll and it's running a ll never things donned out
at all, and nothing in a lot.
Speaker 8 (05:50):
And nothing in the rolls and not have a lot
the colf.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
That's an idiom or saying that we've all heard like
a bad out of Hell. That was Meatloaf with bad
at a Hell, like all of Meetloaf's hits. This was
written by the pianist composer Jim Steinman. He said he
wrote it to be the quote ultimate motorcycle crash song.
The lyrics refer to a rider being thrown off his
bike in a wreck and his organs being exposed from
(06:17):
the song and the last thing I see is my
heart still beating, breaking out of my body and flying
away like a bad out of Hell. The song Leader
of the Pack, which also features a motorcycle, was a
big influence on this song. The motorcycle sound in the
middle of the song is producer Todd Runggren on electric guitar.
Todd hated the idea at first, but Steinman begged him
(06:39):
until he tried it, pulling it off along with the
subsequent solo in one take. Steinman trademarked the name Bad
out of Hell in nineteen ninety five, and in two
thousand and six, meetloafs sued him when Steinman wouldn't let
him use the title Bad out of Hell three for
an album. Steinman produced the album Bad out of Hell two,
but Desmond Child produced the two thousand and six album
(07:01):
Bad out of Hell and It's an expression meaning very fast.
Producer Todd Rundgren has spoke on the Bruce Springsteen's influence
on the Bad out of Hell album, said run Green quote.
Jim Steinman still denies that record has anything to do
with Springsteen. But I saw it as a spoof. You
take all the trademarks over long songs, teenage, angst handsome
(07:22):
loner and turn them upside down. So he made these
epic songs full of the silly puns that Steinman loves.
If Bruce Springsteen can take it over the top, Meat
Loaf can take it five stories higher than that. And
at the same time he's this big, sweaty, unappealing character.
Yet we out Springsteen Springsteen. He's never had a record
that's sold like Bad Out of Hell, And I don't
(07:43):
think anyone would ever catch on to it. I thought
it would just be a cult thing. The royalties from
that album enabled me to follow my own path for
a long time after that.
Speaker 11 (07:59):
Ah, all the things you said to me, the man
fest and dust and the long of.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
This could go away right now, and everyone was in
the band and I was out, And now the planning.
Speaker 11 (08:21):
All alone. And you wanna be a big shot. You
wanna be the big man. You wanna hold a big gun.
You gotta have a quick hand, you wanna be the
big shot. Now the shows and one you man love
(08:45):
the most.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And after all that was the Lumine Ears, with the
saying and song big Shot, to be a big shot.
I could have played the Billy Joel song big Shot,
but I played the Lumine Years Big Shot instead, which
is a totally different song rather than the Billy Joel version.
A big shot, of course, is a person of consequence
or prominence, someone important. The phrases has developed of a
(09:11):
nineteenth century of saying great Gun or big Bug for
the Lumineer's duo of Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Frates. Their
road to success has been a long and arduous one.
During the two thousands, they lived a life of struggling musicians,
taking whatever jobs they could to pay the rent. Their
big break came in December twenty eleven when their song
(09:31):
ho Hey was used in the first season of the
CW's Heart of Dixie show. Their long journey has kept
them humble and stopped them from thinking of themselves as
big shots.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
Dinner between Love and hate.
Speaker 8 (10:08):
Is the dinner.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Between love and hate. It's five o'clock in the morning.
I'm just kidding me. I'm not going to lock avoid
see sweet and Lord says biz.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
She opened up the door and let me.
Speaker 6 (10:38):
Never once does she say where have you been?
Speaker 7 (10:41):
She says long or your hory?
Speaker 12 (10:45):
Honey, did you eat ye?
Speaker 6 (10:50):
Let me hang on your cold? The woman tell it
past your hand all the time?
Speaker 7 (11:00):
Is never.
Speaker 10 (11:07):
This faveck in the moment, I don't give it a
second thought.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Hey, don't, then you they'll keep backing your moment.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
We've all heard the saying A thin line between love
and hate and that was the persuaders singing about it.
But the opposite of love isn't hate, it's actually indifference,
and this song that thin line that separates love and
hate are crossed. The song is written from the perspective
of a guy whose woman is really good to him,
despite his blatant indiscretions. In the first verse, when he
(11:45):
comes home at five am, she hangs up his coat
and hat and asks if he's hungry, and never questions
where he's been. But then we hear some sage advice,
don't think you can keep breaking a woman's heart. We
don't know the details, but the second verse five him
in the hospital, and it's clear that she put him there.
He didn't think she had it in her. Songs about
(12:06):
domestic violence rarely get much airplay, and exception is the
song he Hit Me and It Felt Like a Kiss
by The Crystals, one of actually a song I really
really like, But this one makes no mention of how
the guy ended up in the hospital, which keeps it
more let's call it abstract. A common reaction to the
song is well, he deserved it. The song was written
by the brothers Richard and Robert Poindexter. Yes that's their
(12:28):
real last name, and I can't believe they didn't change it,
along with Robert's wife Jackie members who also helped write
the song, the Poindexter Brothers, who also produced the track
and wrote the Linda Jones songs give My Love a
Try and the Song Hypnotized. They also wrote a song
called my Girl She's a Fox that was recorded by
The Iceman that featured Jimmy Hendrix on guitar when he
(12:49):
was young and starting out. The Persuaders were a New
York group originally known as The Internationals. In the late sixties,
a shifty promoter lured them to England and had them
impersonated group called the Showstoppers, who had a UK hit
called Ain't Nothing But a House Party. After coming back
to America, they took a hiatus and returned as The Persuader,
(13:11):
signing a deal with Atlantic Records. The Thin Line Between
Love and Hate was released as their first single and
was the title track to their debut album. Under the
new name. They reached the top forty once more with
a song some Guys Have All the Luck, which reached
number thirty nine in nineteen seventy three. Rod Stewart had
more luck with that one, taking it to number ten
(13:31):
in nineteen eighty four. This song brought the title phrase
into the popular lexicon. Regarding how he handled racism, James
Brown once said, it's a thin line between love and hate,
and I always know the line. The saying is sometimes
heard as a fine line between love and hate.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
Across the roof.
Speaker 13 (13:59):
Of the modays, here is the month of the year,
at the worst time, at the worst place. That's all
I see there here, Or go to a bully so
I could greet the cottage of the dawn appended in
(14:24):
my wagon, abandoned all hope, and I crossed the ruver
k well the Ruby Connor is the red river. Go
and gently as your flows better than your ruby lips.
(14:47):
And a blood that goes from the roads three miles
an hoth of furgatory, one step from the great Beyond.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Bob Dylan, the patron Saint of the Listen to this
podcast with his song Crossing the Rubicon, one of his
recent songs. On January tenth of forty nine BC, Roman
Governor Julius Caesar led his army across the Rubicon River
in direct opposition to the orders of the Roman Senate
(15:21):
triggering the Roman Civil War. Caesar knew this would happen.
Upon completing the crossing, he reportedly uttered, and so the
die is cast. In the ensuing conflicts, Caesar became the
sole dictator of Rome. Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon was
so historically significant that to this day there's a common
saying for it. To cross the rubicon means to cross
(15:43):
a point of no return. It means a person has
definitively committed him or herself to a course of action,
and there's no turning back. Dylan is using the notion
of crossing the Rubicon in the latter general sense rather
than the former historical one. The whole song makes this
pretty clear, but there's also a detail in the very
first line that gives it away. I crossed the Rubicon
(16:06):
on the fourteenth day of the most dangerous month of
the year. Dylan's intended meeting, if there is indeed linear meaning,
is hard to see in this one, but there are
some clues. We can also make assumptions based on the
context of the album Rough and Rowdy Ways, which is
heavy on biblical imagery and Christian ideas, as heard in
(16:26):
the song's False Prophet Goodbye Jimmy Reid, and murder most Foul.
One verse in particular, gets his Christian viewpoint across. I
feel the Holy Spirit inside, see the light that freedom gives.
I believe it's in the reach of every man who lives.
Keep as far away as possible. It's dark. As for
the donno Lord, I turn the key, I broke it off.
(16:49):
I cross the Rubican. It's tempting to say that Dylan
is referring to his own Christian conversion experience, but we
really don't have any evidence for that beyond the fact
that he did Verse sometime back in the seventies, and
that his song seems to be discussing crossing the Rubicon
into his Christian faith. I told you this would be
(17:42):
a pretty esoteric episode. Of course, we've all heard the
phrase It's a small world, and that was the Disneyland
Children's sing along chorus with It's a Small World, directly
from the ride and into your brain, and you'll never
unhear that song. This was written for the nineteen sixty
four World's Fair in New York City. Walt Disney was
(18:02):
in charge of the Children of the World pavilion, which
after the fair became the ride It's a Small World
of the attraction at Disneyland. He asked Richard and Robert
Sherman to write a song for the attraction. The brothers
tell a story of when Walt Disney gave them the assignment. Quote,
Walt showed us a mock up of the exhibit. All
of these audio animatronic children sang their own national anthems
(18:26):
and it was a cacophony. Walt said to them, I
want you to just write me one song. I don't
know what it's called, but I think it's called a
round delay. And we said you mean in the round
and he said, yes, a round delay. And so that's
how A Small World was born. The song just goes
round and around. It's a Small World attraction quickly became
very popular Disneyland. The ride is now featured at every
(18:49):
Magic Kingdom, Disneyland and Walt Disney World, Tokyo, Disneyland, euro Disney.
The song plays continuously during the ride. This might be
the greatest ear worm of all time. The song you
just can't get out of your head. And Robert Sherman
Junior told us why. Quote, Like many songs, It's a
Small World has a verse and a chorus. One thing
which makes the song particularly catchy is that the verse
(19:11):
and the chorus work in counterpoint to each other. That
means that you can play the same chords over and
over again, but with different melodies. The repetitive yet varied
pattern tricks your mind into absorbing the work without becoming
tiresome to your ear. I don't know about that. It
gets pretty tiresome when you're stuck in the line and
you've listened to the song four hundred times before getting
(19:32):
on the right.
Speaker 9 (19:33):
The penny finally dropped.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
I finally understood that I was in the middle of
a near Vanna reunion.
Speaker 9 (19:40):
As a gentleman, mister Dave bole, Well.
Speaker 14 (19:54):
Is it?
Speaker 9 (19:55):
Chris novaslach, I'm mister Patsmith. We're gonna do the song we.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
Jumped now.
Speaker 9 (20:14):
The last time we've done it live for you here tonight.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
The Phraeze cut me some slack goes back up pretty
long way. That wasn't really a band so much as
that was Nirvana, but with Paul McCartney on lead. There
Paul McCartney, Dave Girl, Chris Novaceelic and Pat Smear. This
song was recorded for Dave Girl's feature length sound City documentary.
(22:17):
In the accompanying soundtrack film titled sound City Reel to Reel,
former Nirvana bandmates Dave Girl, Chris Nova Selic and unofficial
fourth member Pat Smear were joined by Paul McCartney for
a performance of this song at the twelve twelve twelve concert,
a benefit event to gather relief funds following Hurricane Sandy.
Introducing the song, McCartney told the crowd, recently some guys
(22:40):
asked me to go and jam with them, so I
showed up, and in the middle of it, these guys
kept saying, we haven't played together for years, you know,
and the penny finally dropped. I finally understood that I
was in the middle of a Nirvana reunion. The song's
title is an expression meaning a request to ease the pressure.
It originated in African American slang of the nineteen sixties.
(23:02):
Speaking with the radio station KRQ in Los Angeles, Dave
Girl revealed that this was written and recorded in just
three hours, having recorded some performances for Girls Sound City documentary.
The Foo Fighter frontman later asked McCartney if he just
wanted to jam again. We walked in jammed the song
and it just came out of nowhere. But I feel
that the best songs happened that way. We recorded it
(23:25):
live and put a vocal over it, and that was it.
It was three hours and it was perfect. Eight months later,
Girl asked McCartney to come back again and play at
the twelve twelve twelve concert.
Speaker 8 (24:00):
Sass stuff, who says this this last? I've got a
lot the top this.
Speaker 15 (24:05):
As stuff you to town my cost, taunting us, with bishops,
affecting us, with predicting long the minions and not all theirs.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
No, I have scared the way it is. No I
as here, who's to go? No askin what's the game?
Speaker 16 (24:38):
We ask who's the game?
Speaker 8 (24:43):
They're gonna die?
Speaker 16 (24:44):
And they got.
Speaker 6 (24:47):
They go you gotta tell and you're gonna doll.
Speaker 8 (24:54):
And they're gonna do that. Will m.
Speaker 6 (25:17):
You play that lot? Do continued.
Speaker 8 (25:29):
Down, lide, borrow, sprite, don't be really, don't tr So far.
Speaker 17 (25:40):
It's dogging ducky docking, buggy dusky, tucky docking, donkey back
talk at busting Danny, oh.
Speaker 8 (25:53):
Oh oh.
Speaker 14 (25:57):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Two songs I played for you there. The first was
from Iron Maiden and the phrase that pays today is
to die with your boots on, and the song die
with your boots on, well, it's an idiom referring to
dying while fighting, or to die while actively occupied, employed, working,
or in the middle of some action. This song takes
on religious zelots who predict the end of the world.
(26:23):
Lead singer Bruce Dickinson made the point that people would
have been predicting the end of time for centuries, but
yet we're all still here. The phrase die with your
boots on is a saying from the American Old West,
meaning to die with honor after putting up a fight.
The second song I Played You is from Adam and
the Ants, and the song is the phrase dog eat Dog.
Doggy dog is an informal expression which means ruthlessly competitive.
(26:47):
I guess would be the best way to describe it.
The lyrics of this song are about bands in competition
with each other. It finishes with Adam Ant saying how
proud he is of his fans. In his autobiography, Adam
Ant said dog Eat Dog was inspired by a quote
by Margaret Thatcher from a newspaper. Now this was far
from a new phrase, of course. Margaret Thatcher was elected
(27:08):
Prime Minister on May fourth, of nineteen seventy nine. She
served all the way until November nineteen ninety, when she
was forced to resign by a cabinet revolt. This was
Adam and the Ant's first top twenty hit in the UK,
introduced the band's tribal drum style. They did have two drummers,
by the way, and spaghetti western guitar sound, which made
(27:28):
them one of the more popular acts in the early
eighties in the UK, at least with lyrics like Leapfrog
the Dog and brush Me Daddy.
Speaker 12 (27:35):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
It certainly wasn't the words and the lyrics that carried
the tune.
Speaker 12 (28:19):
And you can never shut up.
Speaker 16 (28:26):
You can never shut down.
Speaker 12 (28:32):
This house, this house, my dad.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I love that we're playing some heavier stuff. On today's
episode that was Mega Death with a House Divided. Front
man Dave Mustain brought in session trumpeter Bob Findlay, who'd
work with like Neil Diamond, Steely Dan and others to
play horns on this track. Quote it's not every day
that you'll have a horn player play on a heavy
metal song. But we're one of those bands that can
(29:01):
kind of delve into it and we're not afraid of it.
It's not like it's going to take over the track
and the band and suddenly become to sound like we're Earth,
Wind and Fire or something like that. But you know
what I mean, It's just something that adds a little
flavor to a song, something different for our fans. The
phrase a house divided refers to a group of or
organization weakened by internal dissensions. It comes from a parable
(29:24):
that Jesus recounted in Marx Gospel three, verse twenty five,
where he countered accusations of him being under Satan's power.
When President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection
in nineteen sixty eight, he said, quote, it is true
that a home divided against itself cannot stand. There is
division in the American house. Now. He was alluding to
(29:46):
the Biblical passage, as Abraham Lincoln had done previously in
an eighteen fifty eight speech when he was warning of
the dangers of slavery based disunion.
Speaker 18 (30:01):
Listen provided that s the US, it's like beating alone.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
I'm a one beloved and never fall I love too,
hall on my friends sometimes safe.
Speaker 8 (30:17):
But I didn't leave.
Speaker 6 (30:19):
I didn't leave, not a woman.
Speaker 12 (30:21):
To be loved that way.
Speaker 6 (30:23):
But should see a treat to us.
Speaker 16 (30:28):
Got somebody somewhere, tell her.
Speaker 6 (30:33):
It's a fast.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Can I get some with me?
Speaker 16 (30:37):
Then I get up with me?
Speaker 6 (30:39):
Fad? Can I get a win away to somebody? Is
in the right to be treated from bed?
Speaker 18 (30:49):
When you've given everything ahead, give up talking? And lastly,
because I haven't been my baby all we now you
chick to me?
Speaker 6 (31:00):
And then then I'm the way love the the bit.
Let me.
Speaker 7 (31:05):
Let me.
Speaker 12 (31:11):
In the morning, all.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
The fun all night that I have, but I've been
a man. I'm all stick. Tell the man.
Speaker 14 (31:37):
That I'm again.
Speaker 6 (31:38):
How love the ba.
Speaker 8 (31:41):
I'm aware that.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Was Marvin Gay, and Marvin Gay wrote many of his
own hits. But the song Can I Get a Witness?
Which I just played for you, was written by the
famous motown team I've mentioned a few dozen times, Holland,
Dozer and Holland. The title is a phrase commonly you
in black churches and has a very spiritual connotation. When
the preacher asks can I get a witness? He's asking
(32:07):
the congregation for affirmation, often met with the response of amen.
The song helped popularize the phrase. All three members of
the Holland Dojer Holland songwriting team had a background in
gospel music, Dozer of Holland. Dojer Holland explained in an
interview in nineteen eighty four, when I was coming up,
my aunt played piano, and my grandma instructed her to
(32:29):
what singing in the church was. She was one of
the church's directors. My aunt played different classical music, and
I remember sitting on the stool and she would serenade
me with these tunes, and they all stuck with me
and influenced me throughout the years. Gospel music, on the
other hand, influenced myself and the Holland Brothers because it
was the thing that we did every Sunday, go to church.
Black gospel music was part of our lifestyle. And they're
(32:51):
barely audible, but if you listen closely. The Supremes added
background vocals on this track along with the song's writers,
Holland doj Or Hauling. The call and response style mimicked
to church congregation shouting back to the preacher, you.
Speaker 13 (33:15):
Got the hellen ase in the hole, A little secret
that nobody knows.
Speaker 16 (33:23):
Life is a gamboo game we all play, but you.
Speaker 6 (33:27):
Need to say something for any day. You've got to
learn to play.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Your cards right.
Speaker 6 (33:35):
If you expect to win in life.
Speaker 10 (33:40):
Don't put it all online for just one role.
Speaker 6 (33:44):
You've got the Hellenise in the Hole.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
That was the song Ace in the Hole by the
very great George Strait making his first appearance on the
Listen to This podcast. This is a Dennis Adkins penned
song and it was recorded by George straight for the
album Beyond the Blue Neon. It was released in July
of nineteen eighty nine as the third single from the
LP and became his eighteenth number one country single his
(34:11):
eleventh chart topper in a row that's really a hell
of a feat and tough to beat. The song is
about how you have to keep a few tricks up
your sleeve in order to get ahead in life. The
title is an idiom, meaning a secret or powerful advantage,
and according to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, this
(34:33):
Ace in the Hole is a reference to the game
of stud poker, in which an ace, being the most
valuable card, is faced down on the table and is
not revealed to anyone except for the only player who
holds it knows of its secret power. The hole in
this phrase is simply a place of concealment. George's touring band,
by the way, is called the Ace in the Whole Band.
(34:53):
He was the band's lead singer before beginning his solo
career in the early eighties.
Speaker 6 (35:04):
You're too rude. Oh what a rod race? Oh? What
the rat race?
Speaker 12 (35:26):
For? What?
Speaker 8 (35:27):
The rat race? This is the rat rang.
Speaker 19 (35:38):
Red rage race, Summer love, ser summer bars, summer taxon.
Speaker 16 (35:46):
For what the refrace?
Speaker 8 (35:51):
Redfriend?
Speaker 19 (35:54):
Some of the ho summer who is summergain? Other in
this cre.
Speaker 16 (36:04):
Refrace?
Speaker 19 (36:05):
I'm saying, well, the gats away, the mice play.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
Violence.
Speaker 20 (36:16):
Yes, yeah, don't Rasta in your Rasta set.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
That was the great Bob Marley with the song rat Race.
We've all been in the rat race before. Most of
us can't seem to get out of it. This is
the closing track of the album Rasta Man Vibration, Bob
Marley's most successful album, at least in the US during
his lifetime. The song decried Jamaica's status as a pawn
(36:53):
of the capitalist US atop a chord structure adapted for
a Philly soul hit. Guitarist Earl China Smith said that
the song came together when he started jamming on the
Spinners nineteen seventy four song Since I've Been Gone, along
with keyboard player Tyrone Downey and drummer Carly Barrett. Bunny
Whaler suggested they add an intro, and Marley came up
(37:15):
with the lyrics along with his wife Rita don't involve
Rasta and your say say Rasta don't work for no Cia.
Rat Race is all I'm saying. He ain't wrong. Rat Race,
of course, is a term used to describe the frustrating
competitive lifestyle live by countless people in the West, especially
critics of the capitalist free market economy, argue that Westerners
(37:37):
feel like they are caught on a treadmill as they
strive without success to get ahead of their rivals. Marley
was no fan of the capitalist system and criticized American
attempts to impose it on his homeland. Rosta Man Vibration
reached number eight on the Billboard two hundred, the highest
US chart position of any Whaler's album would achieve at
least during Marley's lifetime.
Speaker 6 (38:23):
In Every Hard Verisu.
Speaker 21 (38:29):
A sanctuary, safe festival.
Speaker 8 (38:35):
To heal the woods.
Speaker 6 (38:38):
From lover's bad until a new one comes alone.
Speaker 16 (38:48):
I spoke to you.
Speaker 21 (38:51):
In cautious stall, you answered me when no Britis.
Speaker 6 (39:00):
And still Life.
Speaker 14 (39:03):
Said too much.
Speaker 21 (39:07):
My silence is myself defence, and every time myvel rose,
it seems I only felt to thor.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
And so it goes, and so go.
Speaker 6 (39:30):
And so will you soon.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I suppose there was a reason I didn't play you,
that Billy Joel's version of the phrase big shot earlier
in this episode, And I played the lumineers instead because
I wanted to save my Billy Joel bullet in my
gun for this particular phrase and so it goes, which
was by Billy Joel, and so it goes as a
phrase used to express resignation or acceptance when something continues
(39:57):
to happen repeatedly or persistently, often despite efforts to change it.
It implies that the situation is unchanging and will continue
in the same way. Billy Joel started writing a song
in the early nineteen eighties about a relationship he was
having with supermodel El McPherson. Their backgrounds and heights, let's say,
because he's a short man, were so different that he
(40:18):
knew the relationship would fail, which it did. He predicted
the end of the affair with the line and you
can have this heart to break The title comes from
television journalist Linda Ellerbee's signature line and best selling book title.
When Joel appeared on The Howard Stern Show in twenty ten,
he said that this was his least appreciated song, and
(40:40):
he thinks it's a really good one. Thinks it's the
best one that casual fans aren't aware of. In twenty seventeen,
he actually listed it among his top five songs that
he ever did. As the title suggests, the tracks on
the album build an intensity like a storm front moving in.
Although this song wasn't written specific before the album, Joe
(41:01):
wanted to include it as the closer to signify the
calm after the storm storm front. The album was Joel's
first number one album in America since the album Glass
Houses hit the top of the charts all the way
back in nineteen eighty.
Speaker 6 (41:22):
I don't want to lose just good me, I got
just get glad to I was good.
Speaker 14 (41:39):
Love bad up. I know it's like come no.
Speaker 6 (41:52):
Flightening, I flightening, I'm bad on on.
Speaker 10 (42:01):
Wo babe, I'm not supersticis about you?
Speaker 6 (42:16):
Ain't ignal? Chance got me speeding.
Speaker 12 (42:23):
And baby.
Speaker 6 (42:25):
Baby, I'm in a friends I so love mad Then
he didn't love.
Speaker 8 (42:37):
It's like don no.
Speaker 6 (42:40):
Lighting. The way love me is riding compared on.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Wor love this song, that was the phrase and the
song knock on Woodbye Eddie Floyd, and this was Eddie
Floyd's biggest hit by far. He wrote the song with
Stax record guitarist Steve Cropper in the Lorraine Motel, which,
by the way, is the hotel where Martin Luther King
(43:10):
Junior was assassinated in nineteen sixty eight. Working late at night,
they came up with the famous line it's like thunder
lightning the way you love me is frightening. When Floyd
toward Cropper a story about how he and his brother
would write out storms in Alabama and Alabama there's this
thunder and this lightning, he told Cropper we'd hide under
the bed because we'd be frightened of the thunder and
the lightning. Cropper liked the phrase and came up with
(43:32):
the famous line. The saying knock on wood. It's an
old one. It's used to express gratitude for good fortune,
while humbly acknowledging that it might not continue. Quote, my
back has been feeling better ever since I gave up
I don't know spearfishing knock on wood. This is often
accompanied by the speaker actually tapping on any nearby, preferably
wooden surface. It's a really stupid, stupid thing that we
(43:55):
all still do, but you know, we all do it.
And the song Eddie Floyd is knocking on wood because
he's so lucky to have found the girl of his dreams.
This song has to be one of the most effective
pauses in music history in my opinion. After the Floyd
sings I better knock, there's a real big space before
drummer Al Jackson comes in with his drum beats and
(44:16):
Floyd completes the line with on wood. It's fantastically done,
and that section, by the way, wasn't planned. Jackson came
up with the idea of putting the pause in and
simulating the sound of knocking on a door to break
up the line. That little flourish made the song very memorable.
The song confused British listeners a bit, though, as the
(44:37):
phrase knock on wood is not in their vernacular. In England,
the expression is touch if you ever talk to an
English person and you want to converse with him. According
to Eddie Floyd, it was Isaac Hayes. Yes, that Isaac Hayes,
a regular at Stax Records and actually really important to
the Stax record story who came up with the bridge,
which ended up being played on a Saxophone.
Speaker 8 (45:17):
Fi doll fives, Let it Fly, dong files, Let it Fie.
Speaker 10 (45:37):
You can't see the morning look, I can see the line.
Speaker 8 (45:41):
By tie tie, let it fly, way running up here,
waiting after night, by tide tide, let it Fly, and
one little cry if I from out line.
Speaker 6 (45:59):
Him more Ride Ride.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
That was Bachman Turner Overdrive bt O with let It Ride.
Randy Bachman and Fred Turner of Bachman Turner Overdrive got
the idea for the song when they were driving to
a gig in New Orleans. As Bachmann tells that, they
were driving on a highway when a few truckers decided
to have some fun with the musicians who were riding
in the little van from Canada. The truckers boxed them
(46:37):
in and slowed down to a crawl. When they finally
turned into a truck stop, Randy and Fred followed them
with the intent of giving them a good talking to,
let's say. Unfortunately, in the words of Randy Bachman, the
trucker looked like a Volkswagen with a head. The truckers
had a good laugh and told the band that they
needed to learn to let it ride. Bachman and Turner
had never heard that expression before, but they liked the
(46:59):
sound of it. It means to just relax and not
let things upset you. When they got to New Orleans,
they wrote the song in their dressing room before the show.
The distinctive guitar riff in this song is something Randy
Bachman came up with after listening to a classical piece
by Antonina Devorak called Piano Concerto ind He transposed a
(47:20):
chord progression he heard in the piece to guitar, and
he like the way it sounded and added it to
this song.
Speaker 16 (47:35):
Bas A.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
Blondie with a little Shakespeare There for You with a
Rose by any other Name. This is the lead single
from Blondie's Ghosts of Download album. The song features the
band The Gossips front woman Beth Diddo on lead vocals
with Debbie Harry. It was released as a digital download
in June of twenty thirteen. The phrase Rose by any
(48:45):
other Name originates from a dialogue in William Shakespeare's play
Romeo and Juliette, in which Juliette argues that the name
is of little consequence. What matters is the inherent qualities
of the person or the thing. What's in a name?
That which we call a rose by any other name
would smell as sweet, so Romeo would, were he not
(49:06):
Romeo called, retain that dear perfection which he owes, I
will accept, my Oscar. That was the Bee fifty two's
(50:34):
telling you to nip it in the bud, and baby,
you better stop right there, you better stop it, Stop
it right there, nip it in the bud. The expression
nip it in the bud means to put a quick
end to something abruptly. This race comes from the gardening world,
but it has branched out. When a leaf or flowers
beginning to form, it's just a little bud, and if
you nip it, cut it, then it won't grow. You
(50:55):
nip it in the bud. In an interview with the
Bee fifty two's Cindy Wilson, who sings lead on this one,
by the Way, one of her attempts to write a
punkish kind of a song, and in the punk tradition,
Wilson's lyrics convey more of a feeling than a story,
as she repeatedly directs someone to nip it in the bud.
The B fifty twos vocalists would often improvise lyrics during
(51:17):
jam sessions. The lines head him up, head him up,
move him out, move them out? Whoah refers to the
theme song of the nineteen sixties television show raw Hide.
This is the final track on the Mesopotamia album, which
was produced by David Byrne of The Talking Heads. The
B fifty two's had a hankering to work with him
after touring with the band.
Speaker 9 (52:13):
Find Our Double.
Speaker 19 (52:14):
Girls and set down Live sible life in the quite.
Speaker 8 (52:19):
Down Steady she goes, sbby as she goes, So.
Speaker 16 (52:28):
Theb me as he goes, your friends are so the
king in the single life.
Speaker 6 (52:40):
You've had to mut to think. Now you need a wife.
Steady as she goes, she.
Speaker 16 (52:49):
Go, let me go again. You found yourself a friend.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
I know you.
Speaker 6 (52:59):
Now he goes.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
That was a rack on tours with Steady as she goes,
and the term steady as she goes describes an activity
or situation that is progressing in a stable manner. It's
a nautical phrase and it was originally used in reference
to a ship when the sailing was steady. Ships were
traditionally referred to as female. By the way, That's why
the references she goes. The subject matter of the lyrics
(53:33):
is very rare for a rock song. Frontman Jack White
sings about nurturing a stable home life by marrying someone
who will support you. It's not something you'll hear Kiss
or the Rolling Stones sing about. According to Jack White,
it's asking a question many people think about before they
tie the knot. Is getting married and settling down, the
start of a new life, or just giving up. Jack
(53:56):
White first got married in nineteen ninety six to Meg White.
He took her last name, changing it from Gillis. They
formed The White Stripes a year later, but their marriage
didn't survive the band. They split up in nineteen ninety
nine before releasing their first album, and finalized the divorce
in the year two thousand. Still, they carried on as
a musical duo, a very successful one, and settled in
(54:18):
as very good friends. In two thousand and five, he
married Karen Elson and Meg was the best woman. This
song was released a year later, but White says he
wrote it about a year before his marriage to Karen.
White isn't known for hashing out his personal life and songs,
but he seems to be wondering here if he'll fall
into the same pattern in his second marriage. He sings, well,
(54:41):
here we go again. You found yourself a friend that
knows you well. But no matter what you do, you
always feel as though you tripped and fell. White and
Elson split up in twenty eleven and finalized their divorce
in twenty thirteen. She didn't go that steady, We'll see I'm.
Speaker 22 (55:08):
Falling with all your critical Can I watch you do
your make up? I do you and all those spots showing.
Speaker 16 (55:22):
Its time so hard.
Speaker 12 (55:25):
To see if you put.
Speaker 16 (55:27):
Yourself to come a fly.
Speaker 8 (55:30):
When you go away, You're going on. When I'm loan,
they coming home tonight.
Speaker 6 (55:40):
We'll go all.
Speaker 12 (55:47):
Really to us the Romstee's.
Speaker 6 (56:06):
You can see when you're.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
Not wrong the world, but see right, it's the feless
(56:42):
the rooms.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
Damn it. I had to play another Billy Joel song.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. I was just
trying not to. But on the same album of the
song I played for you earlier, he has another song
called when in Rome, which is just too good of
an idiom to pass up, and that idiom when in Rome,
do as the Romans means to follow the customs and
traditions of the place you're visiting, usually a foreign land.
(57:06):
When Billy Joel was putting together the Stormfront album in
the late eighties, he had a slight preoccupation with the
tabloid gossip that suggested he and his supermodel wife, Christy
Brinkley spent their lives enjoying the spoils of their collective wealth.
But nothing could be further from the truth. According to
Billy in this track, they're just a normal couple who
(57:28):
go to work every day and come home to each
other at night. There's a song on Stormfront called when
in Rome about a working couple working just like us.
Speaker 4 (57:37):
Now.
Speaker 1 (57:38):
We may not have the same kind of jobs that
everybody else has, but we do work, and we probably
work harder than the people who comment on us. I've
actually had journalists write nasty lies about my kid, and
she never heard anyone. She's not even four years old.
Most of Billy Joel's albums have a song that he
doesn't like. On Stormfront, it's this one. He actually said
(57:59):
in interview in twenty sixteen. It's a cliche when in
Rome do as the Romans Do. I think it's one
of my crappy songs. I wish I could take that
one back when I'm home. It's all I gotta be
is me and you when do as the Romans Do. Wow,
how profound, I said sarcastically to myself. I think I
might have just been tapped out of ideas when I
wrote that one. Joel, I don't think it's that bad.
(58:22):
It is a little hacky, but it isn't that bad.
Joel explained that he's not like other songwriters who write
a hundred songs for a project and then just pick
a handful for an album. That means he doesn't have
a cachet of unused songs to fall back on when
he gets burnt out, and sometimes he just has to
put out one that's a clunker.
Speaker 6 (58:39):
I'm seeing. Don't think you'll have to see him face again.
Speaker 19 (58:49):
Don't know much, tim Fast, because it never reckoned me.
Speaker 6 (58:58):
You feeling, I think you a bit of more than
you could choose.
Speaker 8 (59:07):
In the words.
Speaker 7 (59:09):
Time to make a dress.
Speaker 8 (59:13):
In him is your so follow it's all jump brow man. Follow.
Speaker 6 (59:39):
Now it's all jup man play.
Speaker 1 (59:51):
Man that was the southern California kind of punk band
from the nineties Unwritten Law with Seeing Red. Seeing Red
as an expression that means very upset. In this song,
the singer's furious and feels he has been betrayed. Unwritten
Law singer Scott Russo explains Seeing Red is a song
(01:00:14):
I wrote about how I felt my ex girl felt
about me. It's taken from the narration of her point
of view towards me. It's the quickest song I ever wrote. Well,
we've reached the end of our episode, but don't be disappointed.
Speaker 5 (01:00:27):
It is what it is.
Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Well, maybe it's a blessing in disguise, but hey, I
don't want to beat around the bush or cut any corners.
So let's bite the bullet and play our final song.
And it's a good one. This is from Buddy Holly,
and Buddy Holly had been kicking around his hometown in Lubbock, Texas,
trying to write a hit song for his small little
rockabilly band since he had attended an Elvis Presley gig
(01:00:51):
at his high school sometime in nineteen fifty five. His
band in those days consisted of him on lead vocals
and guitar, Jerry all us Son on the drums, and
Joe b. Maudlin on upright base. Well, He and Jerry
decided to get together and go see the new movie
The Searchers, a Western movie starring John Wayne Well. In
the movie, John Wayne keeps replying, well, that'll be the
(01:01:15):
day every time another character in the film predictsor proclaims
something will happen. When he felt it was not likely
to happen, the phrase stuck in Jerry's mind, and when
they were hanging out at Jerry's house one night, Buddy
looked at Jerry and said that it would sure be
nice if they could record a hit song the dream
that they've had. Well, Jerry replied with that'll be the day,
(01:01:37):
imitating John Wayne in the film. Holly and his band
The Three Tunes recorded this in Nashville nineteen fifty six,
but Decca Records didn't like the result and actually refused
to release it. Well. A year later, Holly re recorded
it with the Crickets in a studio in Clovis, New Mexico,
owned by his new producer, Norman Petty. Backup vocalists were
(01:01:58):
brought in and the he was lowered to fit Holly's
voice a little bit better. This version became a huge
hit and made Holly a star that summer. Norman Petty
took a writing credit on this because he produced it.
This meant Holly and Allison had to share royalties with him.
But them's the breaks. See I ended one on an
idiom in case you didn't notice that. Anyways, guys, this
(01:02:21):
has been a really fun episode for me to put together.
It was a lot of hard work, but I think
it paid off. And these are some great songs and
great sayings that we've played for you today. I really
want you to recommend this podcast to a friend and
get out there and vote everybody. Other than that, I
want you to turn this song up loud and I'll
see you next week.
Speaker 6 (01:02:45):
When you say goodbye the day when you made me cry, you.
Speaker 16 (01:02:53):
Know, it's like.
Speaker 6 (01:02:55):
The day.
Speaker 23 (01:03:00):
You turn it out at your house against your money
do well?
Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
You know you know me, baby, dude, You tell me.
Speaker 12 (01:03:09):
Maybe that's someday.
Speaker 23 (01:03:11):
Well, will ladall be the day when you say goodbye?
S'll be the day when you made me cry. I
say you're gonna leave, you know, It's like god, sall
be the day. But I like, well, Lad'll be the
(01:03:52):
day when do you say goodbye Saturday, the day when
you made me cry, You say you go.
Speaker 13 (01:04:01):
You know it's a lie cause Sad'll be the day
when I die.
Speaker 6 (01:04:06):
Well, when you me shot is dark.
Speaker 23 (01:04:09):
We shot it at your heart, so maybe we in
the pody alive.
Speaker 12 (01:04:13):
You see it in polling.
Speaker 23 (01:04:18):
That's someday, well, Lobby Willy. The day when you say
goodbye Sadurday, the day.
Speaker 9 (01:04:27):
When you make me cry, you say gon' leave.
Speaker 6 (01:04:31):
You know it's a lie. Call sadday the day when
I die.
Speaker 3 (01:04:36):
With Thank you for listening to listen to this, Please
recommend to a friend, and don't forget to rate, review,
and subscribe. For more podcasts and online content, please visit
this is Funner dot
Speaker 16 (01:04:48):
Com This is Funner
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