September 11, 2024 • 66 mins
If movies can have them, then why can't songs. Eric is going to take you through time and do it with songs that have baby song. Or would it be Jr.? Either way, listen up!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another fabulous episode of Listen To This. This
is a podcast that is dedicated to bringing you stories
behind the artists, behind the songs, and hopefully we're introducing
you to old songs have influenced all the music that
we hear today. The goal is I want you to
hear an artist that you might not normally listen to,
and search out their music on whatever streaming service that
you subscribe to, and maybe even buy it on physical
(00:22):
media so that you actually own it. We invite you
to subscribe, comment, and please, please please recommend this to
a friend. Every episode has a theme. In today's is
songs that have sequels.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Never in the history of the United States a monster
of such size and power.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Welcome to Listen.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
To This, a podcast that brings you the stories behind
the songs and.
Speaker 5 (00:46):
Artists with a theme to tie it all together.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Here's your hosts, Eric Lecky, Godfather Part two, Terminator Part two,
The Empire Strikes Back, Spider Man, The Born Supremacy, Dawn
of the Dead, Blade Runner twenty forty nine, Star Trek two,
The Wrath of Khan, Back to the Future Part two,
(01:09):
and of course, the biggest classic of them all, Police
Academy two their first assignment. Well, if movies can have sequels,
why not music. Sometimes an artist doesn't get it all
out what they want to say in the first song.
And also, just like movie sequels, it's just a cash
grab to capitalize on a hit song, striking while the
iron is hot. So today we will investigate some songs
(01:31):
that have follow ups, sequels, or the continuation of a story.
In some instances, I'll play you the sequel itself and
sometimes the original that led to a sequel. In other instances,
I'll play you clips of both. Because I'm crazy mad
with power. Let's get it started with Toots and the Maytalls,
where I'll play you the original and the sequel. Let's
get it started.
Speaker 6 (02:00):
There's a lot of what I said.
Speaker 7 (02:04):
Gott in this say I am a John the Horpice.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
Thirty this his son keep me a number? Now, it's
the what's your number? I don't answer. It's the what's
your number?
Speaker 6 (02:20):
Man?
Speaker 8 (02:21):
I don'nswer.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
It's the what you know?
Speaker 5 (02:25):
He's the whatn' you know? Fifty? Ore MoMA says, that's
my number? Will you there's nothing with me? And give
me the police name. I wouldn't do that. I never
(02:46):
do that. I would say I want to put the
dogs on me.
Speaker 8 (02:51):
I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
I wouldn't do that. Another would you heard my name?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So I was inof me.
Speaker 6 (03:03):
It was wrong.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Happened one they were wrong? Oh yeah, done to you?
Speaker 6 (03:12):
It me, do to you?
Speaker 5 (03:15):
It till May sweet time? What Tom What?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
In nineteen sixty six, Toots and the Maytals won Jamaica's
National Popular Song Contest with a song called Bam Bam.
But everything was put on hold after Fred Toots Hibbert
was wrongfully arrested on a ganja smoking charge. Toots wrote
the song about his time in jail. Fifty four forty
(03:49):
six was Toots prisoner ID number during his servitude. He
made the recording shortly after his release, quote, I never
smoked weed in those times. I've never done anything like that.
I was just finished leaving school and I won this festival,
the inaugural Jamaican Independence Festival Song Competition, with the song
Bam Bam. People got jealous and framed me for weed.
(04:11):
They get to hold me back because of my success.
It's a long story, but hey, what did I do?
I wrote a song about it. I still have to
feed off of my enemies who did it to me.
It was three persons. I can't call out any names.
I think they've all died now. They were in the
music industry, but I have a good mind for them
and wish them the best in the afterlife, he says.
Originally released on January first, nineteen sixty eight, the song
(04:34):
was a huge reggae hit in Jamaica. It samples the
rhythm from a song called tra Trained to Skaville by
Toots in the Maytals contemporaries the Ethiopians, which were a
big band in Jamaica at the time. A follow up version,
released a year later, fifty four forty six was My Number,
was one of the first reggae songs to receive widespread
(04:56):
popularity outside of Jamaica. Toots and the Maytals later included
that track on their nineteen seventy three international album called
In the Dark. The closing refrain of the Clashes. Nineteen
seventy eight song Jail Guitar Doors features Joe Strummer singing,
fifty four forty six was my number. Right now, somebody
else has that number as a tribute to this song.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Their song We Met that you were a kennel made
you gave me a tip I got me for cost page.
You were in the Greyhound in Chat number one.
Speaker 9 (05:37):
Your white coat was shining in the afternoons.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Now it were Nea rega.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
No, we're up happy you and me. We're a greyhound.
Speaker 10 (06:01):
She used to war them, khmen, what dogs?
Speaker 8 (06:04):
That That was nothing.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Spe sent in.
Speaker 6 (06:32):
Big up you and me.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
That was the Who with the song Dogs. This tribute
to White City's Dog Track was inspired by Pete townsend
friend Chris Morphett, who had a fascination with greyhound racing.
Morphit contribute harmonica and backing vocals on the tune. Song
was not a major commercial success at the time of
its release has been virtually disowned by the group since.
(07:03):
According to Roger Daltrey, Townshend had small facist bassist Ronnie
Lane in mind when he wrote it and wanted to
give it to them instead. Quote, he was such a
lovely geezer, Ronnie was. Those are all a bunch of
great guys over in, small faces, all of them. But
I think it had been better if he had just
given the song to Ronnie in the first place. As
a WHO record, it feelt felt a bit frivolous for me,
(07:24):
Roger said. A musical, unrelated sequel was called Dog's Part Two,
and it was released as the B side of Pinball
Wizard in nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 11 (07:35):
You made me cry when you see it, goodbye head.
Speaker 12 (07:43):
Shame.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
My till Philly, shame.
Speaker 11 (07:53):
You one to blame you broke my heart when you
see it will part.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Shame my till mill Are.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Shame you one you play?
Speaker 11 (08:22):
Oh well, goodbye? Although I cry, shame my till mill
a shame you won't play.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I was Ain't That a Shame? By Fats Domino. It's
a heartache song about a breakup that was the other
partner's fault. Domino wrote it with Dave Bartholemew, who actually
worked on most of Fats Domino's hits. This is the
first song to cross over from the R and B
charts to the mostly white pop charts of the day.
Like several other songs previously heard exclusively in black bars
(09:09):
or nightclubs, it was covered by the crooning Pat Boone.
Concerned about how educated, upper class whites would respond to
the title, he originally wanted to change it to Isn't
That a Shame, but the producers realized the original title
would sell better and kept it that way. Pat Boone's
cover was a huge hit, going to number one on
the US Pop charts and reaching number seven in the UK. Well.
(09:31):
This gave Domino's original recording a boost and really helped
it cross over to mainstream audiences. According to Pat Boone,
both Domino and Little Richard, another artist he covered a
lot of songs from, appreciated his efforts. They didn't see
it as a negative at all. Like he did on
I'm Walking, Domino made sure the beginning of the song
was quite memorable, since if the hook comes right at
(09:52):
the beginning, it's more likely to be heard. You may
not know the lyrics, but you probably know how the
song starts. You made boom boom, he cry bomp bo't
when you said bump bump goodbye? Ain't that a shame?
Starts it off pretty memorably. This was a favorite songwriting
trick of Domino's, by the way. He looked for a good,
simple section to start a song, and even though songs
(10:14):
like this were often attached to melancholy lyrics, it was
the sound that Domino felt was most important. If he
could make the sound happy, it would evoke pleasant memories.
This was Fats domino first hit song that was not
recorded in New Orleans, where the singer lived. He recorded
it in March of nineteen fifty five in a Hollywood
studio when he was on tour in Los Angeles. Imperil
(10:37):
Records had the engineers compress Fats vocals and speed up
the song a bit to make it sound less bluesy
and give it a more mainstream appeal. This also made
it more difficult for other artists to cover the song.
In nineteen sixty, Domino recorded a sequel called Walking to
New Orleans, where he leaves and goes back to his hometown.
I actually played that song for you in our episode
(10:58):
on Walking. This song is also memorably used in the
nineteen seventy three movie American Graffiti.
Speaker 8 (11:34):
I Gave You, I gave you my Dad buy your
bone up the.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Scary as I'm a Scary outs.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
That was the gap band with burn Rubber on Me.
When you burn rubber, you drive away so fast that
the tires leave some of their rubber on the road.
There's often a cloud of smoke left behind as the
car takes off. In this funk classic, the girl makes
a quick exit, burning rubber and leaving the guy behind
after she sends him out for a soda of all things.
(12:53):
The poor dude can't figure out what he did to
even deserve it. The lyrics are a composite of two
true stories. It was by Gap Band producer Lonnie Simmons,
lead singer Charlie Wilson, and Rudy Taylor, who did mixing
for the band and contributed to the songwriting. Simmons had
a girlfriend in college who left him very abruptly, and
a roadie for the band had a girl who sent
(13:14):
him to the store and moved out while he was gone.
They took it and mashed it all together. Quote it
could have been a love story if you slowed the
track down, because it talked about this girl leaving and
the guy running home to mother and burning rubber out
the back door and taking all of her clothes and
leaving only hangers and bows in the closet. Simmons explained
the song was just a modest hit on the pop charts,
(13:34):
though it went to number one in the R and
B charts and actually stayed there for two weeks. It
was the biggest hit for the Gap Band to this point.
They later scored some more hits with Early in the Morning,
You Dropped a Bomb on Me and the song Outstanding.
Dave Grohl told Farrell Williams that he stole the opening
drums for this song for the open of the Nirvana
(13:55):
classic Smells Like Teen Spirit. I mean, listen to the
opening again. That drum beat is exact actly what starts
off Smells like teen Spirit. He said he borrowed liberally
from the Gap band Cameo and Chic on that Whole
never Mind album. Early in the Morning, the first single
from the group's next album, is a sequel to the
song with Charlie Wilson getting up and looking for a
(14:15):
new girl.
Speaker 9 (14:17):
It's my Heart.
Speaker 13 (14:24):
You would try too if it happened to and nobody
knows where my Johnny is to Johnny the.
Speaker 14 (14:34):
Jude left the same tom Why was he holding her
head and he's supposed to be man, It's my party,
You would try to if it.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
Happened to Gos. Judy's started to cry.
Speaker 15 (15:01):
Judy's started to cry, and Judy's started to cry.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
Post Johnny's gone back.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
To me?
Speaker 15 (15:14):
Oh when Judy left with Johnny at the party pack
and came back.
Speaker 16 (15:19):
Where in his Ray, I sat down and cried like
this out.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
Now that was a foolish thing.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
God, No, it's Judy's starting to cry.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Juda's daring to cry.
Speaker 9 (15:32):
So Judy's turning to cry.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
Post Johnny's gown back.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
To me.
Speaker 6 (15:43):
Well, then hurt me.
Speaker 13 (15:44):
Start to see them dance together. I felt like mag.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
In a scene.
Speaker 13 (15:51):
Then my sisters fell like rage, Charles Push.
Speaker 15 (15:55):
Judy's spell was so mean, but love Judy's.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
That was It's My Party and Judy's turn to cry
by Leslie Gore, I played you both. Gore was only
sixteen when she recorded this song, which led the media
to call her the Teen Queen. She took some voice
lessons in New York City and recorded some piano demos
with her instructor, which somehow got Quincy Jones, at the
time an up and coming producer, to help her. Jones
(16:34):
liked what he heard and decided to record her and
produce her song. In late February of nineteen sixty three,
he brought a stack of demo tapes to her house
and they spent an afternoon listening to one after another.
The only one that they both liked was It's My Party,
so they decided to record it. Jones booked a standard
three hour session at Bell Studios in New York City
and had Paul Anka write two more songs for Gore
(16:56):
to record. They completed all three at the session on
March thirty, and Gore went back to just ordinary teenage
life well. Six days later, It's My Party was released
as Gore's first single, and she heard it on the
radio for the first time without knowing it was gonna
come and it was gonna happen. On June first, the
song shot up to number one, making her teenage life
(17:18):
far less ordinary and the tale of this song, the
lead character's birthday party does not turn out to be
the happy occasion she thought it would be. In the
middle of the party, her boyfriend Johnny departs with the
girl named Judy. Since it's her party, she feels that
even she has the right to cry. The second half
of that clip I played for You was the sequel
to that song and Gore's second single. It was called
(17:39):
Judy's Turn to Cry, and as you can probably tell,
it's a sequel that tells the story of the lead
character forgiving Johnny and reuniting with him, making Judy the
one crying.
Speaker 17 (17:58):
All the last the stars pray at the sky spray.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
I can't say that if my.
Speaker 9 (18:24):
God, I thought, I thought your man stopped into a church.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
I passed along a way. Wait, I got down on my.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
And that with care way, I think that.
Speaker 18 (18:49):
Wait, good, he knows I'm going to stay.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
That was the Mamas and the Papas with California Dreaming
Michelle Phillips. She explained how the song came about. It
was nineteen sixty three and she was newly married to
John Phillips. They were living in New York City, which
was having a really bad cold winter, at least by
Michelle's standards, as she was from sunny California. Well John
would walk around the apartment at night working out tunes.
(19:29):
In one morning, brought the first verse of the song
to Michelle. It was a song about longing to be
in another place, and it was inspired by Michelle's homesickness.
Michelle enjoyed visiting churches, and a few days before she
and John visited Saint Patrick's Cathedral, which inspired the second verse,
stopped into a church that whole line. Well John hated
(19:49):
the verse, but he was just so turned off by
churches by unpleasant memories of a parochial school when he
was younger, but he couldn't think of anything better, so
he left it in. This is a rare pop song
that contains a flute solo. Even more surprising, it's an
alto flute, which is larger than a regular flute and
plays in a much lower register. A jazz player named
(20:11):
Bud Shank was brought in for the session just to
play it well. The sequel to this song is the
nineteen sixty seven song Creek Alley, which, by the way,
I played for you many seasons ago. The Mamas and
the Papas gave a history of the band and explained
what happened when they did come to California. After dreaming
about it.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Out in the West Texas town of a Castle, I
fell in love with a Mexican Ooh, nighttime would find
me in Roses Canteen music would.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Play hoo.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Blacker than night for the eyes of wicked.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
And Evil while casting the spell.
Speaker 19 (21:06):
While I was deep for this Mexican maiden, I was
in love, but in vain.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
I could tell one night a while your cowboy came in.
Speaker 9 (21:19):
While there's the West Texas, weady seen and darry.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
A drink he was sharing with wicked.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
Erlina, the girl that I loved.
Speaker 19 (21:42):
Out in New Mexico many long years ago. They're in
a shack on the desert one night, in a store,
mid streaks of light and a loud desert thunder.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
Two young Mexican couple. The baby was born.
Speaker 19 (22:05):
Just as the baby cried, thunder and lightened died. Moon
game its light to the world, and the stars did
the same. Mother and father both proud of the daughter
that Heaven had sent them.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
Fellino was this baby's name.
Speaker 19 (22:27):
When she was seventeen, Bothered by crazy dreams, she ran
away from the shack.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
And left them to road.
Speaker 19 (22:38):
Father and mother both asked one another what made her
run away?
Speaker 5 (22:44):
What made Filino?
Speaker 7 (22:45):
LEVI?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I played you two there From Marty Robbins the song
El Paso and then the song Fellina. Robins wrote the
first song, I'll Passo in a car as he and
his family were traveling through Texas on the wait Arizona.
The song is a Western saga complete with drama, violence,
and even romance. Well, a singer falls in love with
a beautiful Mexican girl named Felina, but when he sees
(23:10):
her with another man, he shoots the guy killing him.
He steals a horse and makes his escape, but love
compels him to return to the scene of the crime,
where he has met with a bullet to the chest.
At four minutes and forty seconds, this song was exceptionally
long by pop standards of the time. Columbia Records bucked
convention and in October of nineteen fifty nine released it
(23:30):
as a single at that length without cutting it, and
it was a good decision because the decision paid off
when the song topped the Hot one hundred chart in
the first week of nineteen sixty making it the first
time a song longer than four minutes ever hit number one.
El Paso was over a minute longer than any other
songs on the Hot one hundred that year. Georgia on
My Mind by Ray Charles was the second longest, and
(23:52):
it was only three and a half minutes long. This
song won the first Grammy ever awarded in the category
Country and West and Performance. Marty Robbins visited the city
again in song when he recorded in nineteen sixty six
Felina from El Paso, which tells the story the life
story of Fellina, the Mexican girl from the song El
(24:13):
Paso and a third person narrative. In nineteen seventy six,
Robins released yet another sequel to this, called El Paso City,
in which he sings of being in an airplane flying
over El Paso, seeing the city reminds him of a
song that he heard oh so long ago, and then
he then summarizes the original El Paso story.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
Will it took me?
Speaker 20 (24:43):
A woman? Late last night? I s three forced drunk.
She looked alright, just started peeling off her onion. Gook
it took off for a week, said, how do a look?
I's high flying, very naked out the window. Well, sometimes
(25:08):
I might get drunk, walk lock a duckt and smell
like's kunk. Don't hurt me, Nona, don't hurt my pride,
because I.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Got my little lady.
Speaker 18 (25:15):
I'd buy on my side.
Speaker 20 (25:17):
She's just trying to hide, pretending you.
Speaker 19 (25:20):
Don't know me.
Speaker 20 (25:29):
Eyes out there painting on the old wood shed. When
a can of black paint it fell on my head.
I went down to scrubbing rub but I had to
sit in back of the tub across the porter heath
Price when my telephone ring and would not stop. This
(25:53):
President Kennedy calling me up he said, my friend, Bob,
what do we need to make a country grow? I
see my friend John Bridget, Bardo Honeede Ickberg, Sophie Lauren,
country of World.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
That was the last song on Bob Dylan's second album,
The Free Wheeling Bob Dylan A Great album. It's a
rewrite of Lead Belly's We Shall Be Free, which was
recorded with Woody Guthrie and Sonny Terry back in nineteen
forty four. Dylan admired all of these singers, but Guthrie
was clearly his idol. The roots of the song I
(26:36):
Shall Be Free from Dylan go even farther back than
the nineteen forty four song, though in his essay Don't
Leave Me Here Non Commercial Blues from nineteen twenty four
to nineteen sixty, John Colly traces the song as far
back as the mid nineteenth century. Kelly reveals the song,
like most early American songs, that'd been from the evolution
of many earlier songs that just get passed down well.
(26:59):
Dylan's particular version as a satirical talking blues song about
a drunk who gets called by the President and has
asked for advice on how to make the country better.
There's more to it than that, as much of Dylan's
songs have a much bigger message underlying the silly lyrics.
But the whole thing is so winding and absurd that
trying to pin down exactly about what it's about ends
(27:20):
up sounding equally winding and absurd. There may be may
be more than humor at play here, though in his
early career, Dylan made his name with political songs and
was taken on as sort of a political mascot by
the progressive intellectual crowd of the day. In the song,
President Kennedy asked Dylan, who plays the character of a
hard drinking and irrational man, my friend, Bob, what do
(27:43):
we need to make the country grow well? This may
be Dylan poking fun at his own status for the
people conferring the status upon him of someone of a
spokesperson for a generation. He's poking fun there. Dylan did
five takes of this song, which he recorded at Studio
A of Columbia Recording Studio. The second take became the
master track, which is heard on the album. Dylan had
(28:04):
some semi sequels to the song similar name and theme.
A year after this, on another side of Bob Dylan.
Dylan released the song I Shall Be Free number ten.
Then he also wrote in nineteen sixty seven I Shall
Be Released. Dylan actually never performed the song live.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
She drew out all.
Speaker 21 (28:24):
Her money at the Southern Rap and put a little boy.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
I bought a great hound buff leave in thea for
the golden wet down. Came a tears from her happy name, her,
oh little thumb name, Johnny be good. We're gonna make
some motion picture by Danny. Good Bye, Danny.
Speaker 21 (28:59):
Be good, She remembered, taking money here together and come
and find Johnny.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Gets her out of broker's shop. As long as he.
Speaker 21 (29:09):
Was playing by the roadside and wouldn't get the troubles,
he was satisfied, but never thought they'd ever come.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
A daylight didn't, which he would have to give her
time for.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
Good back.
Speaker 22 (29:27):
Ford class to get in his pocket and punching out
the shadows underneath the soccer tweet coat turned up against
the fall, the coaches rolling on the mall between the
very memory and approaches overall.
Speaker 23 (29:45):
Sail bread and curling on lunching gund this change lling
on the right around forgotten man rather than differmation, hiding
on a platform out.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Of Ancucius Stash.
Speaker 22 (30:03):
Somebody is calling you again.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
The sky has fallen, jim is standing in.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
The red Oh God.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
Who wants to buy? Counterfeited Verry Lullaby and call you
a time?
Speaker 22 (30:22):
The flasking double skin of some stitch, DoD Joseph.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
In Who's all He'll get Now? As coming in and
out of focus?
Speaker 23 (30:34):
Milan Bitter from t Verrcuous's Forgotten mad in Definition Witten
on a platform Ato and cusioush.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
I played you two sequel songs for you. The first
one was from Chuck Berry and the second one was
from Elvis Costello and Chuck Berry's song it was called
Bye Bye Johnny. By the way, you can probably guess
that it follows the same character as heard in Barry's
Ultra Famous Johnny Be Good. Johnny is now a grown
man and boarding a bus to go out into the
(31:08):
world and start his life. It was from a really
fun album Rocking at the Hops from nineteen sixty, which was,
aside from four new tracks, just songs that were originally
issues as forty five singles. Previously, Elvis Costello song was
called Jimmy Standing in the Rain. It's the first song
in a sequel of songs. The protagonist of this piece
(31:29):
of melancholy, Ragtime, is a failed fake cowboy singer roaming
around the music halls in nineteen thirty seven's Northern England.
Now You're Walking Off to Jeers, the lonely sound of
jingling spurs he sings. Costello revisited this character in the
sequel to the twenty eighteen song under Lime, which finds
Jimmy Now struggling to stage a comeback and getting humiliated
(31:51):
as part of a game show.
Speaker 16 (32:13):
My Girls Met at Me.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
I didn't want to see the film tonight. I found
it hard to say.
Speaker 8 (32:25):
She thought I'd had enough.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
On her.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
Work. She said she's having to be but.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
I'd like to stay here and was.
Speaker 24 (32:42):
Oh.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
Every day.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
My girls met at Me, being on the.
Speaker 25 (32:54):
Telephone before an hour, we hardly said her word.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
And that was the song My Girl by Madness. Madness
(33:30):
keyboard player Mike Barson wrote this on the back of
a cigarette packet while employed delivering bananas, of all things.
He explained to a newspaper quote, the bloke I worked
with on this truck was always talking about my girl
and me. We're gonna go live in Essex, My girl
and me. We're going to the coast this weekend. My
girl and me, blah blah blah. This song is about
a guy who likes to keep to himself, which doesn't
(33:52):
go over well with his girlfriend. He'd rather stay home
and watch TV than head to the theater and talking
on the phone as a chore to him, and it's
filled with long, awkward silences. According to Mike Barson, the
song is semi autobiographical according to his girlfriend at the time,
Kirsten Rogers, though it is spot on quote. He's not
intrinsically a sociable or chatty person. Men like to stay
(34:13):
in their man cave, watch football, drink beer on their own,
and women are always just trying to relate to them.
The band Madness emerged from the ska band The Invaders,
which formed in London back in nineteen seventy six. They
changed their name to Madness in nineteen seventy eight to
honor an old Prince Buster ska song of the same name.
In the UK, they had sixteen top ten singles between
(34:36):
nineteen seventy nine and nineteen ninety nine, including a number
one in nineteen eighty two with House of Fun. Their
most successful single in the US was Our House, which
is pretty much the only song that they're known for
here in the States. Madness recorded a sequel called My
Girl two for their twenty twelve reunion album OIOI CC
JA Ja Da Da Love Silly album names. The new
(34:58):
song continues a story Mike Barson's volatile relationship with his girls.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Johnny Sunday lives on water. It's on that.
Speaker 26 (35:24):
Johnny Sundays don't need no words, don't want mom. All
people at the town they can't get through to Johnny.
They would never ever break you down. Johnny thunders, He's far,
(35:51):
don't work, goes.
Speaker 8 (35:52):
On and she has through that.
Speaker 7 (36:03):
Johnny O every Sunny jo Johnny bad that he will
(36:38):
never ever.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
Johnny thunder rids the High Wait.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Ye that was Johnny Thunder by the Kings. What a
great song. Everything I've played from them in these thirteen
seasons have been great. The King's Village Green Preservation Society
album finds Ray Davies paying tribute to the colorful people
that he knew growing up in London, like do you
remember Walter Wicked, Annabella, et cetera, et cetera. In fact,
I've played almost half of that damn album for he
so far in the thirteen seasons that we've been doing.
(37:10):
Listen to this on this Rocker. He recalls Johnny Thunder,
a rebellious biker that he once knew. Johnny Thunder was
semi inspired by the Marlon Brando movie The Wild One
and also a Cockney Ray Davies Knew, whom he told
Rolling Stone that he saw as a Neil Cassidy type character.
All rebels look like Marlon Brando on a motorbike, but
(37:31):
they don't wear a bowler hat. He added. Ray's brother,
Kink's guitarist Dave Davies, had different memories of the inspiration
for Johnny Thunder. I know it's a surprise that the
two brothers who fought all the time would have different versions,
but that's pretty much in character for them.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
There was this guy I knew that I thought Ray
modeled Johnny Thunder after he said in an interview he
was a loner and he drove around and didn't say much.
In the middle of Muswell Hill, there's a big roundabout
where you go just around before the hill itself, and
it's very steep. The guy used to say speed on
his bike round the roundabout, and the story has it
that one day his foot rest hit the road and
he toppled and that was the end of Johnny Thunder.
(38:08):
But Ray has different memories than I do. Ray Davies
return to the Johnny Thunder character in The Kinks nineteen
seventy three Preservation Act one song. One of the survivors
see Johnny Thunder sitting on his motorbike riding along the highway,
rock and roll songs from the nineteen fifties buzzing around
in his brain. He sings in that song.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
On Jubilee Street, there was a girl named the She
had a history, but she had no pass. When they
(39:11):
shut her down, the Russians moved, Yeah, I'm too scared.
I'm too scared.
Speaker 19 (39:31):
Too even walcome Pas.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
She used to say, all those good people down Jubulee Street,
they are a practice when they preach.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
That was Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with Jubilee Street.
It's a prostitute centric song, and it finds Cave singing
of a girl named Bee who lived on Jubilee Street.
She would say to all those good people who lived
on the street that they ought to practice what they preach.
Asked if he is referencing the Jubilee Street, located in
his hometown of Brighton. Cave replied, if people think they're
(40:12):
going to have a good time down on Jubilee Street,
I say forget about it, unless they're particularly interested in
going to the library or a sushi joint. But when
I was writing that, I had in my mind that
Jubilee Street was another more colorful street than I was
actually walking along it. I looked up and went, oh,
this isn't Jubilee Street. So it had to be a
complete creation in my mind. So let's just say Jubilee
(40:33):
Street is of the imagination. But I can say in
a rather lovely serendipitous way that the song reflects how
Jubilee Street used to be before they made it. It
was a sleazy down at a heel place.
Speaker 17 (40:44):
Well.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Cave wrote another song called Push the Sky Away about
the creation of Jubilee Street. On finishing Jubilee Street cut,
he puts down his pen and spins in a dream
where a young bride called Mary Stanford walks down Jubilee Street.
Speaker 14 (41:00):
Don't be.
Speaker 5 (41:11):
Lonely, only lonely. Only the lonely know the way I
feel inn only the longer reading, no dis feeling.
Speaker 20 (41:36):
Right there goes.
Speaker 27 (41:41):
My baby, there goes my home. They're gone forever so
far wall, but only lonely.
Speaker 6 (42:08):
All.
Speaker 5 (42:09):
He said that I'm the bad again.
Speaker 27 (42:16):
There I come run into you, INTI.
Speaker 20 (42:24):
I thought that you were on your.
Speaker 26 (42:32):
And now I Fin'm going not alone, bad alone.
Speaker 9 (42:40):
I'll see you do the rain, bad alone, the hearty
can bay alone.
Speaker 6 (42:50):
In her flag, never before you alone.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
And that was the song only the Lonely Know the
way I Feel by Roy Orbison. Well, this is one
of the sadder songs ever recorded. Projecting that misery onto
Orbison would actually be a mistake. In nineteen eighty, he
explained that many of his most painful songs were actually
(43:21):
written in very happy times. Said Roy quote, I've always
been very content when I wrote all of these songs.
By this, I'm saying that a lot of people think
you have to live through something before you can write it,
and that's true in some cases. But I remember the
times that I was unhappy or discontent. I couldn't eat,
I couldn't sleep, I couldn't communicate, and I certainly couldn't
write a song, no way, no how All the songs
(43:43):
I wrote that were successful or written when I was
in a contented state of mind. Roy Orbison wrote this
with his songwriting partner Joe Melson, but intended to offer
the song to either Elvis Presley or the Everly Brothers, who,
by the way, had already recorded Orbison's song Clawed Debt
for themselves. Beverly Brothers persuaded Orbison that he should cut
it for himself. The song was subtitled Know the Way
(44:06):
I Feel to avoid confusion with another song called only
the Lonely, which Sammy Kahn and Jimmy Van Heusen had
written for my guy Frank Sinatra back in nineteen fifty eight.
This quickly became Orbison's biggest hit, in one of the
songs that exemplified his poignant lyrics and soulful vocal delivery
as he sings about what it's like to be lonely.
When Orbison was with the Traveling Willbury's with Bob Dylan,
(44:28):
Tom Petty, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynn, he wrote a
sequel to the song called not Alone Anymore, which I
played for you second and is a song that I
really like from this supergroup.
Speaker 21 (45:00):
Turn Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah, Picking Month, Stay Back at
the Back, Thank You, bost Turn About It as by.
Speaker 6 (45:15):
I don't know, I don't know why. Oh I don't
know why.
Speaker 8 (45:21):
Oh yeah, father, oh.
Speaker 13 (45:24):
Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, monk for the bus.
Speaker 6 (45:44):
Check, get the book. I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know what. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
That was the Ramones with Judy is a Punk. The
song tells a vague story of two adventurous girls, Jackie
and Judy. We know that Jackie is a punk and
Judy is a runt, and they've decided to join the SLA.
The Symbionese Liberation Army SLA was a fringe political group
that was in the news for kidnapping Eiris Patty Hurst
in nineteen seventy four. Lead singer Joey Ramone wrote the
(46:32):
song and It's purely fictional. Running at only a minute
and thirty second, this blast off first wave punk was
one of the ramones first songs. They developed a reputation
in nineteen seventy five for playing rapid fire sets in
and around the New York City area, often blasting through
twelve songs and twenty five minutes and the whole show
is over. When they recorded their first album in nineteen
(46:54):
seventy six, they had honed this song during many of
those performances and included it on the album. Recorded a
follow up to the song called the Return of Jackie
and Judy on their nineteen eighty album End of the Century.
Speaker 28 (47:26):
You think that I don't feel.
Speaker 13 (47:28):
But what I feel for is real love.
Speaker 8 (47:31):
You know is a zasty reflected.
Speaker 29 (47:32):
I heard school, rejected sound, never MESSI they all time
born in the poverty, they at time, never mestivated and.
Speaker 6 (47:49):
A time.
Speaker 5 (47:51):
The love that start in my lege.
Speaker 28 (47:56):
Can an old, cold run, duntainous line father never even
Mama s gilts my mama, nd no name this mountain
blame is wall the pain of way.
Speaker 13 (48:28):
Society.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Always listen to this podcast the only place where you
can hear an obscure ramone song followed by The Supremes.
That was the Supreme's first number one hit not written
by the team of Holland Dosher Holland, as the trio
had left Motown in a dispute over royalties. A song
(48:55):
was called Love Child. Motown founder Barry Gordy wrote this
with staff song writers Dieke Richards, Pam Sawyer, and Dean Taylor.
Instead of writing about love, they came up with a
much more controversial song about a child born to unmarried parents.
A year after this came out, the Supremes released a
sequel song called I'm Living in Shame, which told the
(49:15):
story of the child growing up embarrassed by her mother.
Neither founder member Mary Wilson nor more recent edition Cindy
Birdsong replacing Florence Ballard sang a note on this single.
The test run with motown session group The Ondettes as
backup singers was issued as the singer. Mary claims that
this was a move made by Barry Gory to make
(49:36):
clear to her and Cindy that they were expendable and
to further establish his power over them, as well as
playing up his protege and lover Diana Ross. Mary further
says that miming to the number for the Ed Sullivan
Show was particularly difficult, knowing that she didn't even sing
on it.
Speaker 6 (50:00):
Peggy Suit.
Speaker 12 (50:02):
Didn't you know why I feel blue without Peggy my
peggy suit, Oil, I love you call it, I love you,
Peggy Suit, Peggy Suit, the peggy suit for my hearty
(50:22):
earns for you call Paggy my baggy suit.
Speaker 5 (50:30):
Oh please don't tell no.
Speaker 6 (50:39):
No, don't don't see what I've told you. So I
just heard a rumber birl O bread.
Speaker 5 (50:51):
I don't say that it's true.
Speaker 24 (50:54):
I'll just leave that up to you.
Speaker 5 (50:58):
If you don't be leave understand and.
Speaker 24 (51:04):
You call the girl that's been.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
In song, this is what I Of course, the story
could be wrong. She's the one I've been to you.
She's wearing a band of girl Peggy Silk Mary.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Not long ago, the first song in that series of
(51:48):
sequels from Buddy Holly was Peggy Sue. And I played
a bit of it so you can hear the awesome song,
and then I cut into the sequel. Buddy Holly wrote
the first version as Cindy Lou. It went, if you
knew Cindy Lou, then you know I'll feel blue without Cindy.
When his drummer Jerry Allison heard it, he asked Buddy
if he would change the name to Peggy Sue, after
(52:10):
a girl he had dated named Peggy Sue Garin. Holly agreed.
This song probably wouldn't be heard outside of Lubbock anyway,
he thought, and it would really mean some brownie points
for Jerry with his new girl. Well, the gambit worked
for Allison. He and Peggy Sue eloped in nineteen fifty eight,
and they divorced nine years later. This is the first
hit credited to Holly without the backing band, the Crickets.
(52:32):
The Crickets did play on this, but Holly songs were
released on one of two labels, Choral Records crediting him
as a solo artist and Brunswick with the Crickets. Both
labels were owned by Decca Records. Drummer Jerry Allison had
trouble keeping the right beat when they recorded this. The
song had been written in a chaw chaw time. The
(52:52):
engineer came on the mic and told Jerry, if you
don't get it right on the next take, we're gonna
change the name back to Cindy Lou. Jerry thought the
guy might not be kidding, so he asked her a
few minutes to go through some drumming exercises. He did
just that, and as he was going through the new
warm up, the beat to the song was changed from
Cha cha to Jerry's new beat, and that was mary
part of his warm up routines for his high school
(53:14):
marching band. But he began to change the guitar licks
to fit that new beat, and the new rhythm developed
right there on the spot. Peggy Sue has been mentioned
in the lyrics to several other songs, including Splash Splash
by Bobby Darren, Barbara Ann, by the Regents, and later
by my favorite band, The Beach Boys, but for the sequel.
Holly wrote a sequel to the song Peggy Sue Got Married,
(53:35):
which was released on a compilation album which was released
after he died, and it inspired the nineteen eighty six
movie Peggy Sue Got Married.
Speaker 20 (53:43):
It was raining hard in Frisco.
Speaker 5 (53:47):
I needed one more fare to make my night. A
lady up ahead, wave to flag it down. She got it,
little light, Oh way you're going to milady blue. It's
a shame you roamed your gown in the rain. She
(54:12):
just looked down the window.
Speaker 24 (54:15):
She said sixteen offside, something about I was familiar.
Speaker 5 (54:32):
I could swear a scene her face with ball.
Speaker 26 (54:36):
But she said, I'm sure you're mistaken, and she didn't
say anything more.
Speaker 5 (54:46):
It took a while, but she looked in the mirror.
Then she glanced at the license for my name. A
smile seemed to come to her slowly. It was a
sad just to say.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
I was Singer songwriter Harry Chapin with taxi Taxi was
Chapin's first single. He had his taxi driver's license in
New York City and worked as a driver for six
months in Long Beach, New York. Sandy Chapin, who was
married to Harry from nineteen sixty eight until his death
in nineteen eighty one, told the story quote he had
(55:25):
been working in film and that was how he made
his living. Harry's plan at the time was to make
enough money in five or six months that he would
not have to work for another five or six months,
during which time he could write his screenplays, and then
the money did run out, and then he'd have to
go back and look for some more work in film.
But there wasn't anything available. He needed a job and
still wanted to be able to write, so he applied
(55:45):
for a cab license, and I was something like eight
months pregnant. I felt very positive about it because I thought, Wow,
it would be great experience because of all the cabs
will tell him stories and need to get all kinds
of characters for his songs. I think he was feeling
pretty low about it and wrote the song Taxi with
the idea that the people he had told his dreams
to that he was going to be a big film
(56:06):
star would mock him for driving a taxi. He actually
felt great shame about it. This song is about a
cab driver who picks up a passenger who turns out
to be his former lover. They broke up so she
could be an actress and he could learn to fly.
At the end, he realizes they both got their wish
as she acts like she's happy when he flies in
(56:27):
his taxi by getting stoned. Eight years later, Chapin followed
this up with another hit, appropriately titled Sequel, which continued
the chronicles of the former lovers Harry and Sue.
Speaker 5 (56:39):
Oh no, why do.
Speaker 8 (57:00):
Get a matap?
Speaker 6 (57:15):
I don't mean? And woo had know leto tain? No
(57:41):
let that be a.
Speaker 5 (57:44):
Command.
Speaker 1 (57:52):
That was Sam, the Sham and the Pharaohs with Wooly
Bully and the titles pure nonsense, But of course a
few theories sprouted up to explain what the phrase wooly
bully means. Some of my favorites an expression people use
as a way of congratulating each other. Hey, willy bully, Ah,
willy bully. Willy bully sounds good to me. Another rumor
(58:13):
was that that was the name of Sam's pet Cat.
There aren't many lyrics in this song that don't contain
the words wooly or bully, but one line managed to
capture a fleeting piece of sixties slang in the line
let's not be L seven come learn to dance and
L seven was a unhip person. Someone was just not
(58:34):
with it. More literally, it means let's not be squares.
If you put an L and A seven together, you
get more or less a square. That's, by the way,
how the all female punk band L seven got their name. Sam,
who wrote this song's real name is Domingo Samundo. The
term sham means jive talk. His backup group, The Pharaohs,
(58:56):
wore strange Egyptian outfits. They had five more top five
US hits, including the number two song Little Red Riding Hood.
Sam recorded for Atlantic Records in nineteen seventy and reformed
The Pharaohs in nineteen seventy four, and later became a
street preacher in Memphis. A sequel to the song, titled
Wooly Bully Again, was recorded in nineteen sixty six by
(59:19):
the Winston Salem, North Carolina group The Soul Brothers. Sam
didn't want to record it and let it go to
another group instead. It was too hard to find a
good copy of that song to showcase you for this episode,
so I just played the original.
Speaker 6 (59:37):
One.
Speaker 5 (59:37):
Two. Look at this, Look at him, die game, I've be.
Speaker 6 (01:00:00):
In this thing.
Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
I'm not lame dream his name from the strict, but
he's head mister.
Speaker 6 (01:00:07):
That's why.
Speaker 30 (01:00:10):
I are you Neglas Day or you Mistering?
Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
This famous my hearty.
Speaker 30 (01:00:17):
And mister Lamous because I love you so and never
let you go.
Speaker 6 (01:00:24):
Miss I'm miss.
Speaker 30 (01:00:27):
Lamous, stinglessing, I'm miss Lamously listening, I'm miss Lamously, he calls, Missleam,
try by back, come to me, try by back on
the three turn. My mom is try a boy back
in my live ball Let's job with Jo tell back,
(01:00:48):
come on, miss.
Speaker 9 (01:00:49):
Tidy back and all trying by back, Come on miss
me my mom. I was going to be now tis.
Speaker 8 (01:00:59):
Him one too?
Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
That was the Bobbettes with mister Lee from nineteen fifty seven.
It was the first hit for the Bobbettes. This song
made them the first girl group to have a number
one R and B hit and a top ten American
pop hit written by the Bobbettes themselves, which is kind
of surprising for this time period. This song was inspired
by his school teacher that the girls strongly despised. It
(01:01:35):
was originally written as an insult to mister Lee, but
their record company, Atlantic Records, told them to revise it
as a loving tribute to him. In nineteen fifty nine,
the Bobbettes recorded the sequel to the song I Shot
Mister Lee, which revealed with the group really felt of him,
but it remained unreleased. When Atlantic released them from their contract,
(01:01:55):
they signed with a small label called Triple X, where
they recorded it and it reached number fifty ten two
in the US. Atlantic responded to its release by releasing
the original version of it to kind of Screw with Him.
And now, before this episode gets so long it becomes
a part three, we need to end our exploration into sequels,
and we will do so with the band the Marvellettes.
(01:02:18):
When the Marvelettes auditioned for Motown, the label didn't yet
have their full songwriting machinery in place, so they asked
the girls to bring in their own material. William Garrett,
a songwriter friend of the group member Georgia Dobbins, offered
this song to the Marvellettes when she asked if he
had anything for them to sing. He wrote it as
(01:02:40):
a blues song, but Dobbins completely rewrote it. She saved
only the title and taught it to lead singer Gladys Horton.
Before the Marvelettes recorded it, Dobbins left the group to
care for her mother. Motown producers Robert Bateman and Brian
Holland worked on this song with the Marvelettes and crafted
it into a hit. Holland, along with his brother Eddie
(01:03:00):
and Lamon Doser, went on to of course write many
of the other Motown classics I've mentioned the New Yer's
Times on this podcast. Marvin Gay actually plays drums on
this song. He was only twenty two at the time
and really trying to break into the music business. Part
of this was written by a postman who helped complete
the lyrics. His name was Freddie Gorman, and his male
(01:03:21):
route included Brewster Public Housing, where members of the Supremes lived.
Gorman also sang with the Motown group the Originals. Marvelette's
follow up single was twistin Postman, which got it to
a number thirty four in America and tried to capitalize
on the dance craze and also continued the story of
a woman who waits for a letter from her boyfriend.
(01:03:42):
In the continuing story, the woman begins to lose hope
over ever even receiving the letter, and then of course
finally receives one once she's given up hope. So normally
I love to play just one song for the closing song,
but I'm gonna try something different. I'm going to play
you the clip of Please Mister Postman, and then I
will take you right into the sequel Twist and Postman
(01:04:03):
to end today's show. I hope you had fun listening.
This has been one of the more fun episodes I've
done in a long time. We recommend this podcast to
a friend, don't we. That's what we all do. We're
gonna go out and say, hey, people, got this great
podcast you should listen to. Of course you will, I
know you will. I trust all of you. Anyways, we
will see you next week and turn these songs up loud.
Speaker 5 (01:04:24):
Oh yes, title minute, just.
Speaker 10 (01:04:28):
By, Hey, Hey, just the phonebody.
Speaker 14 (01:04:50):
Sitting by the window, Filly sad and blue, all because
I have.
Speaker 5 (01:05:01):
Her from you.
Speaker 13 (01:05:03):
And then my mama said, he you know the little
count the bo smeller twst do it's not alive.
Speaker 16 (01:05:13):
It is he and no one has to before you.
It's not a no sa Tristan Dallas season. He's a
justn do the justn't those advicement, just an know bout
it making time, maybe taking bad to maybe feeling badly.
Speaker 5 (01:05:33):
I was going for tuning time, then I felt play.
Speaker 16 (01:05:37):
He came in town, toss and taking her most because
he's okay, Yeah, to.
Speaker 6 (01:05:51):
Go away very little. Yeah, it's taking down.
Speaker 5 (01:05:55):
That's pretty well, to make it the sun. Thank you
for listening.
Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
To listen to this, please recommend to a friend, and
don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe from.
Speaker 5 (01:06:20):
Our podcast and online content. Please visit this is funner
dot com This is Funner
Welcome to another fabulous episode of Listen To This. This
is a podcast that is dedicated to bringing you stories
behind the artists, behind the songs, and hopefully we're introducing
you to old songs have influenced all the music that
we hear today. The goal is I want you to
hear an artist that you might not normally listen to,
and search out their music on whatever streaming service that
you subscribe to, and maybe even buy it on physical
(00:22):
media so that you actually own it. We invite you
to subscribe, comment, and please, please please recommend this to
a friend. Every episode has a theme. In today's is
songs that have sequels.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Never in the history of the United States a monster
of such size and power.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Welcome to Listen.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
To This, a podcast that brings you the stories behind
the songs and.
Speaker 5 (00:46):
Artists with a theme to tie it all together.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Here's your hosts, Eric Lecky, Godfather Part two, Terminator Part two,
The Empire Strikes Back, Spider Man, The Born Supremacy, Dawn
of the Dead, Blade Runner twenty forty nine, Star Trek two,
The Wrath of Khan, Back to the Future Part two,
(01:09):
and of course, the biggest classic of them all, Police
Academy two their first assignment. Well, if movies can have sequels,
why not music. Sometimes an artist doesn't get it all
out what they want to say in the first song.
And also, just like movie sequels, it's just a cash
grab to capitalize on a hit song, striking while the
iron is hot. So today we will investigate some songs
(01:31):
that have follow ups, sequels, or the continuation of a story.
In some instances, I'll play you the sequel itself and
sometimes the original that led to a sequel. In other instances,
I'll play you clips of both. Because I'm crazy mad
with power. Let's get it started with Toots and the Maytalls,
where I'll play you the original and the sequel. Let's
get it started.
Speaker 6 (02:00):
There's a lot of what I said.
Speaker 7 (02:04):
Gott in this say I am a John the Horpice.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
Thirty this his son keep me a number? Now, it's
the what's your number? I don't answer. It's the what's
your number?
Speaker 6 (02:20):
Man?
Speaker 8 (02:21):
I don'nswer.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
It's the what you know?
Speaker 5 (02:25):
He's the whatn' you know? Fifty? Ore MoMA says, that's
my number? Will you there's nothing with me? And give
me the police name. I wouldn't do that. I never
(02:46):
do that. I would say I want to put the
dogs on me.
Speaker 8 (02:51):
I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
I wouldn't do that. Another would you heard my name?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So I was inof me.
Speaker 6 (03:03):
It was wrong.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Happened one they were wrong? Oh yeah, done to you?
Speaker 6 (03:12):
It me, do to you?
Speaker 5 (03:15):
It till May sweet time? What Tom What?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
In nineteen sixty six, Toots and the Maytals won Jamaica's
National Popular Song Contest with a song called Bam Bam.
But everything was put on hold after Fred Toots Hibbert
was wrongfully arrested on a ganja smoking charge. Toots wrote
the song about his time in jail. Fifty four forty
(03:49):
six was Toots prisoner ID number during his servitude. He
made the recording shortly after his release, quote, I never
smoked weed in those times. I've never done anything like that.
I was just finished leaving school and I won this festival,
the inaugural Jamaican Independence Festival Song Competition, with the song
Bam Bam. People got jealous and framed me for weed.
(04:11):
They get to hold me back because of my success.
It's a long story, but hey, what did I do?
I wrote a song about it. I still have to
feed off of my enemies who did it to me.
It was three persons. I can't call out any names.
I think they've all died now. They were in the
music industry, but I have a good mind for them
and wish them the best in the afterlife, he says.
Originally released on January first, nineteen sixty eight, the song
(04:34):
was a huge reggae hit in Jamaica. It samples the
rhythm from a song called tra Trained to Skaville by
Toots in the Maytals contemporaries the Ethiopians, which were a
big band in Jamaica at the time. A follow up version,
released a year later, fifty four forty six was My Number,
was one of the first reggae songs to receive widespread
(04:56):
popularity outside of Jamaica. Toots and the Maytals later included
that track on their nineteen seventy three international album called
In the Dark. The closing refrain of the Clashes. Nineteen
seventy eight song Jail Guitar Doors features Joe Strummer singing,
fifty four forty six was my number. Right now, somebody
else has that number as a tribute to this song.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Their song We Met that you were a kennel made
you gave me a tip I got me for cost page.
You were in the Greyhound in Chat number one.
Speaker 9 (05:37):
Your white coat was shining in the afternoons.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Now it were Nea rega.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
No, we're up happy you and me. We're a greyhound.
Speaker 10 (06:01):
She used to war them, khmen, what dogs?
Speaker 8 (06:04):
That That was nothing.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Spe sent in.
Speaker 6 (06:32):
Big up you and me.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
That was the Who with the song Dogs. This tribute
to White City's Dog Track was inspired by Pete townsend
friend Chris Morphett, who had a fascination with greyhound racing.
Morphit contribute harmonica and backing vocals on the tune. Song
was not a major commercial success at the time of
its release has been virtually disowned by the group since.
(07:03):
According to Roger Daltrey, Townshend had small facist bassist Ronnie
Lane in mind when he wrote it and wanted to
give it to them instead. Quote, he was such a
lovely geezer, Ronnie was. Those are all a bunch of
great guys over in, small faces, all of them. But
I think it had been better if he had just
given the song to Ronnie in the first place. As
a WHO record, it feelt felt a bit frivolous for me,
(07:24):
Roger said. A musical, unrelated sequel was called Dog's Part Two,
and it was released as the B side of Pinball
Wizard in nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 11 (07:35):
You made me cry when you see it, goodbye head.
Speaker 12 (07:43):
Shame.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
My till Philly, shame.
Speaker 11 (07:53):
You one to blame you broke my heart when you
see it will part.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Shame my till mill Are.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Shame you one you play?
Speaker 11 (08:22):
Oh well, goodbye? Although I cry, shame my till mill
a shame you won't play.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I was Ain't That a Shame? By Fats Domino. It's
a heartache song about a breakup that was the other
partner's fault. Domino wrote it with Dave Bartholemew, who actually
worked on most of Fats Domino's hits. This is the
first song to cross over from the R and B
charts to the mostly white pop charts of the day.
Like several other songs previously heard exclusively in black bars
(09:09):
or nightclubs, it was covered by the crooning Pat Boone.
Concerned about how educated, upper class whites would respond to
the title, he originally wanted to change it to Isn't
That a Shame, but the producers realized the original title
would sell better and kept it that way. Pat Boone's
cover was a huge hit, going to number one on
the US Pop charts and reaching number seven in the UK. Well.
(09:31):
This gave Domino's original recording a boost and really helped
it cross over to mainstream audiences. According to Pat Boone,
both Domino and Little Richard, another artist he covered a
lot of songs from, appreciated his efforts. They didn't see
it as a negative at all. Like he did on
I'm Walking, Domino made sure the beginning of the song
was quite memorable, since if the hook comes right at
(09:52):
the beginning, it's more likely to be heard. You may
not know the lyrics, but you probably know how the
song starts. You made boom boom, he cry bomp bo't
when you said bump bump goodbye? Ain't that a shame?
Starts it off pretty memorably. This was a favorite songwriting
trick of Domino's, by the way. He looked for a good,
simple section to start a song, and even though songs
(10:14):
like this were often attached to melancholy lyrics, it was
the sound that Domino felt was most important. If he
could make the sound happy, it would evoke pleasant memories.
This was Fats domino first hit song that was not
recorded in New Orleans, where the singer lived. He recorded
it in March of nineteen fifty five in a Hollywood
studio when he was on tour in Los Angeles. Imperil
(10:37):
Records had the engineers compress Fats vocals and speed up
the song a bit to make it sound less bluesy
and give it a more mainstream appeal. This also made
it more difficult for other artists to cover the song.
In nineteen sixty, Domino recorded a sequel called Walking to
New Orleans, where he leaves and goes back to his hometown.
I actually played that song for you in our episode
(10:58):
on Walking. This song is also memorably used in the
nineteen seventy three movie American Graffiti.
Speaker 8 (11:34):
I Gave You, I gave you my Dad buy your
bone up the.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Scary as I'm a Scary outs.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
That was the gap band with burn Rubber on Me.
When you burn rubber, you drive away so fast that
the tires leave some of their rubber on the road.
There's often a cloud of smoke left behind as the
car takes off. In this funk classic, the girl makes
a quick exit, burning rubber and leaving the guy behind
after she sends him out for a soda of all things.
(12:53):
The poor dude can't figure out what he did to
even deserve it. The lyrics are a composite of two
true stories. It was by Gap Band producer Lonnie Simmons,
lead singer Charlie Wilson, and Rudy Taylor, who did mixing
for the band and contributed to the songwriting. Simmons had
a girlfriend in college who left him very abruptly, and
a roadie for the band had a girl who sent
(13:14):
him to the store and moved out while he was gone.
They took it and mashed it all together. Quote it
could have been a love story if you slowed the
track down, because it talked about this girl leaving and
the guy running home to mother and burning rubber out
the back door and taking all of her clothes and
leaving only hangers and bows in the closet. Simmons explained
the song was just a modest hit on the pop charts,
(13:34):
though it went to number one in the R and
B charts and actually stayed there for two weeks. It
was the biggest hit for the Gap Band to this point.
They later scored some more hits with Early in the Morning,
You Dropped a Bomb on Me and the song Outstanding.
Dave Grohl told Farrell Williams that he stole the opening
drums for this song for the open of the Nirvana
(13:55):
classic Smells Like Teen Spirit. I mean, listen to the
opening again. That drum beat is exact actly what starts
off Smells like teen Spirit. He said he borrowed liberally
from the Gap band Cameo and Chic on that Whole
never Mind album. Early in the Morning, the first single
from the group's next album, is a sequel to the
song with Charlie Wilson getting up and looking for a
(14:15):
new girl.
Speaker 9 (14:17):
It's my Heart.
Speaker 13 (14:24):
You would try too if it happened to and nobody
knows where my Johnny is to Johnny the.
Speaker 14 (14:34):
Jude left the same tom Why was he holding her
head and he's supposed to be man, It's my party,
You would try to if it.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
Happened to Gos. Judy's started to cry.
Speaker 15 (15:01):
Judy's started to cry, and Judy's started to cry.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
Post Johnny's gone back.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
To me?
Speaker 15 (15:14):
Oh when Judy left with Johnny at the party pack
and came back.
Speaker 16 (15:19):
Where in his Ray, I sat down and cried like
this out.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
Now that was a foolish thing.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
God, No, it's Judy's starting to cry.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Juda's daring to cry.
Speaker 9 (15:32):
So Judy's turning to cry.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
Post Johnny's gown back.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
To me.
Speaker 6 (15:43):
Well, then hurt me.
Speaker 13 (15:44):
Start to see them dance together. I felt like mag.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
In a scene.
Speaker 13 (15:51):
Then my sisters fell like rage, Charles Push.
Speaker 15 (15:55):
Judy's spell was so mean, but love Judy's.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
That was It's My Party and Judy's turn to cry
by Leslie Gore, I played you both. Gore was only
sixteen when she recorded this song, which led the media
to call her the Teen Queen. She took some voice
lessons in New York City and recorded some piano demos
with her instructor, which somehow got Quincy Jones, at the
time an up and coming producer, to help her. Jones
(16:34):
liked what he heard and decided to record her and
produce her song. In late February of nineteen sixty three,
he brought a stack of demo tapes to her house
and they spent an afternoon listening to one after another.
The only one that they both liked was It's My Party,
so they decided to record it. Jones booked a standard
three hour session at Bell Studios in New York City
and had Paul Anka write two more songs for Gore
(16:56):
to record. They completed all three at the session on
March thirty, and Gore went back to just ordinary teenage
life well. Six days later, It's My Party was released
as Gore's first single, and she heard it on the
radio for the first time without knowing it was gonna
come and it was gonna happen. On June first, the
song shot up to number one, making her teenage life
(17:18):
far less ordinary and the tale of this song, the
lead character's birthday party does not turn out to be
the happy occasion she thought it would be. In the
middle of the party, her boyfriend Johnny departs with the
girl named Judy. Since it's her party, she feels that
even she has the right to cry. The second half
of that clip I played for You was the sequel
to that song and Gore's second single. It was called
(17:39):
Judy's Turn to Cry, and as you can probably tell,
it's a sequel that tells the story of the lead
character forgiving Johnny and reuniting with him, making Judy the
one crying.
Speaker 17 (17:58):
All the last the stars pray at the sky spray.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
I can't say that if my.
Speaker 9 (18:24):
God, I thought, I thought your man stopped into a church.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
I passed along a way. Wait, I got down on my.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
And that with care way, I think that.
Speaker 18 (18:49):
Wait, good, he knows I'm going to stay.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
That was the Mamas and the Papas with California Dreaming
Michelle Phillips. She explained how the song came about. It
was nineteen sixty three and she was newly married to
John Phillips. They were living in New York City, which
was having a really bad cold winter, at least by
Michelle's standards, as she was from sunny California. Well John
would walk around the apartment at night working out tunes.
(19:29):
In one morning, brought the first verse of the song
to Michelle. It was a song about longing to be
in another place, and it was inspired by Michelle's homesickness.
Michelle enjoyed visiting churches, and a few days before she
and John visited Saint Patrick's Cathedral, which inspired the second verse,
stopped into a church that whole line. Well John hated
(19:49):
the verse, but he was just so turned off by
churches by unpleasant memories of a parochial school when he
was younger, but he couldn't think of anything better, so
he left it in. This is a rare pop song
that contains a flute solo. Even more surprising, it's an
alto flute, which is larger than a regular flute and
plays in a much lower register. A jazz player named
(20:11):
Bud Shank was brought in for the session just to
play it well. The sequel to this song is the
nineteen sixty seven song Creek Alley, which, by the way,
I played for you many seasons ago. The Mamas and
the Papas gave a history of the band and explained
what happened when they did come to California. After dreaming
about it.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Out in the West Texas town of a Castle, I
fell in love with a Mexican Ooh, nighttime would find
me in Roses Canteen music would.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Play hoo.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Blacker than night for the eyes of wicked.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
And Evil while casting the spell.
Speaker 19 (21:06):
While I was deep for this Mexican maiden, I was
in love, but in vain.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
I could tell one night a while your cowboy came in.
Speaker 9 (21:19):
While there's the West Texas, weady seen and darry.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
A drink he was sharing with wicked.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
Erlina, the girl that I loved.
Speaker 19 (21:42):
Out in New Mexico many long years ago. They're in
a shack on the desert one night, in a store,
mid streaks of light and a loud desert thunder.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
Two young Mexican couple. The baby was born.
Speaker 19 (22:05):
Just as the baby cried, thunder and lightened died. Moon
game its light to the world, and the stars did
the same. Mother and father both proud of the daughter
that Heaven had sent them.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
Fellino was this baby's name.
Speaker 19 (22:27):
When she was seventeen, Bothered by crazy dreams, she ran
away from the shack.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
And left them to road.
Speaker 19 (22:38):
Father and mother both asked one another what made her
run away?
Speaker 5 (22:44):
What made Filino?
Speaker 7 (22:45):
LEVI?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I played you two there From Marty Robbins the song
El Paso and then the song Fellina. Robins wrote the
first song, I'll Passo in a car as he and
his family were traveling through Texas on the wait Arizona.
The song is a Western saga complete with drama, violence,
and even romance. Well, a singer falls in love with
a beautiful Mexican girl named Felina, but when he sees
(23:10):
her with another man, he shoots the guy killing him.
He steals a horse and makes his escape, but love
compels him to return to the scene of the crime,
where he has met with a bullet to the chest.
At four minutes and forty seconds, this song was exceptionally
long by pop standards of the time. Columbia Records bucked
convention and in October of nineteen fifty nine released it
(23:30):
as a single at that length without cutting it, and
it was a good decision because the decision paid off
when the song topped the Hot one hundred chart in
the first week of nineteen sixty making it the first
time a song longer than four minutes ever hit number one.
El Paso was over a minute longer than any other
songs on the Hot one hundred that year. Georgia on
My Mind by Ray Charles was the second longest, and
(23:52):
it was only three and a half minutes long. This
song won the first Grammy ever awarded in the category
Country and West and Performance. Marty Robbins visited the city
again in song when he recorded in nineteen sixty six
Felina from El Paso, which tells the story the life
story of Fellina, the Mexican girl from the song El
(24:13):
Paso and a third person narrative. In nineteen seventy six,
Robins released yet another sequel to this, called El Paso City,
in which he sings of being in an airplane flying
over El Paso, seeing the city reminds him of a
song that he heard oh so long ago, and then
he then summarizes the original El Paso story.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
Will it took me?
Speaker 20 (24:43):
A woman? Late last night? I s three forced drunk.
She looked alright, just started peeling off her onion. Gook
it took off for a week, said, how do a look?
I's high flying, very naked out the window. Well, sometimes
(25:08):
I might get drunk, walk lock a duckt and smell
like's kunk. Don't hurt me, Nona, don't hurt my pride,
because I.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Got my little lady.
Speaker 18 (25:15):
I'd buy on my side.
Speaker 20 (25:17):
She's just trying to hide, pretending you.
Speaker 19 (25:20):
Don't know me.
Speaker 20 (25:29):
Eyes out there painting on the old wood shed. When
a can of black paint it fell on my head.
I went down to scrubbing rub but I had to
sit in back of the tub across the porter heath
Price when my telephone ring and would not stop. This
(25:53):
President Kennedy calling me up he said, my friend, Bob,
what do we need to make a country grow? I
see my friend John Bridget, Bardo Honeede Ickberg, Sophie Lauren,
country of World.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
That was the last song on Bob Dylan's second album,
The Free Wheeling Bob Dylan A Great album. It's a
rewrite of Lead Belly's We Shall Be Free, which was
recorded with Woody Guthrie and Sonny Terry back in nineteen
forty four. Dylan admired all of these singers, but Guthrie
was clearly his idol. The roots of the song I
(26:36):
Shall Be Free from Dylan go even farther back than
the nineteen forty four song, though in his essay Don't
Leave Me Here Non Commercial Blues from nineteen twenty four
to nineteen sixty, John Colly traces the song as far
back as the mid nineteenth century. Kelly reveals the song,
like most early American songs, that'd been from the evolution
of many earlier songs that just get passed down well.
(26:59):
Dylan's particular version as a satirical talking blues song about
a drunk who gets called by the President and has
asked for advice on how to make the country better.
There's more to it than that, as much of Dylan's
songs have a much bigger message underlying the silly lyrics.
But the whole thing is so winding and absurd that
trying to pin down exactly about what it's about ends
(27:20):
up sounding equally winding and absurd. There may be may
be more than humor at play here, though in his
early career, Dylan made his name with political songs and
was taken on as sort of a political mascot by
the progressive intellectual crowd of the day. In the song,
President Kennedy asked Dylan, who plays the character of a
hard drinking and irrational man, my friend, Bob, what do
(27:43):
we need to make the country grow well? This may
be Dylan poking fun at his own status for the
people conferring the status upon him of someone of a
spokesperson for a generation. He's poking fun there. Dylan did
five takes of this song, which he recorded at Studio
A of Columbia Recording Studio. The second take became the
master track, which is heard on the album. Dylan had
(28:04):
some semi sequels to the song similar name and theme.
A year after this, on another side of Bob Dylan.
Dylan released the song I Shall Be Free number ten.
Then he also wrote in nineteen sixty seven I Shall
Be Released. Dylan actually never performed the song live.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
She drew out all.
Speaker 21 (28:24):
Her money at the Southern Rap and put a little boy.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
I bought a great hound buff leave in thea for
the golden wet down. Came a tears from her happy name, her,
oh little thumb name, Johnny be good. We're gonna make
some motion picture by Danny. Good Bye, Danny.
Speaker 21 (28:59):
Be good, She remembered, taking money here together and come
and find Johnny.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Gets her out of broker's shop. As long as he.
Speaker 21 (29:09):
Was playing by the roadside and wouldn't get the troubles,
he was satisfied, but never thought they'd ever come.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
A daylight didn't, which he would have to give her
time for.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
Good back.
Speaker 22 (29:27):
Ford class to get in his pocket and punching out
the shadows underneath the soccer tweet coat turned up against
the fall, the coaches rolling on the mall between the
very memory and approaches overall.
Speaker 23 (29:45):
Sail bread and curling on lunching gund this change lling
on the right around forgotten man rather than differmation, hiding
on a platform out.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Of Ancucius Stash.
Speaker 22 (30:03):
Somebody is calling you again.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
The sky has fallen, jim is standing in.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
The red Oh God.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
Who wants to buy? Counterfeited Verry Lullaby and call you
a time?
Speaker 22 (30:22):
The flasking double skin of some stitch, DoD Joseph.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
In Who's all He'll get Now? As coming in and
out of focus?
Speaker 23 (30:34):
Milan Bitter from t Verrcuous's Forgotten mad in Definition Witten
on a platform Ato and cusioush.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
I played you two sequel songs for you. The first
one was from Chuck Berry and the second one was
from Elvis Costello and Chuck Berry's song it was called
Bye Bye Johnny. By the way, you can probably guess
that it follows the same character as heard in Barry's
Ultra Famous Johnny Be Good. Johnny is now a grown
man and boarding a bus to go out into the
(31:08):
world and start his life. It was from a really
fun album Rocking at the Hops from nineteen sixty, which was,
aside from four new tracks, just songs that were originally
issues as forty five singles. Previously, Elvis Costello song was
called Jimmy Standing in the Rain. It's the first song
in a sequel of songs. The protagonist of this piece
(31:29):
of melancholy, Ragtime, is a failed fake cowboy singer roaming
around the music halls in nineteen thirty seven's Northern England.
Now You're Walking Off to Jeers, the lonely sound of
jingling spurs he sings. Costello revisited this character in the
sequel to the twenty eighteen song under Lime, which finds
Jimmy Now struggling to stage a comeback and getting humiliated
(31:51):
as part of a game show.
Speaker 16 (32:13):
My Girls Met at Me.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
I didn't want to see the film tonight. I found
it hard to say.
Speaker 8 (32:25):
She thought I'd had enough.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
On her.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
Work. She said she's having to be but.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
I'd like to stay here and was.
Speaker 24 (32:42):
Oh.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
Every day.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
My girls met at Me, being on the.
Speaker 25 (32:54):
Telephone before an hour, we hardly said her word.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
And that was the song My Girl by Madness. Madness
(33:30):
keyboard player Mike Barson wrote this on the back of
a cigarette packet while employed delivering bananas, of all things.
He explained to a newspaper quote, the bloke I worked
with on this truck was always talking about my girl
and me. We're gonna go live in Essex, My girl
and me. We're going to the coast this weekend. My
girl and me, blah blah blah. This song is about
a guy who likes to keep to himself, which doesn't
(33:52):
go over well with his girlfriend. He'd rather stay home
and watch TV than head to the theater and talking
on the phone as a chore to him, and it's
filled with long, awkward silences. According to Mike Barson, the
song is semi autobiographical according to his girlfriend at the time,
Kirsten Rogers, though it is spot on quote. He's not
intrinsically a sociable or chatty person. Men like to stay
(34:13):
in their man cave, watch football, drink beer on their own,
and women are always just trying to relate to them.
The band Madness emerged from the ska band The Invaders,
which formed in London back in nineteen seventy six. They
changed their name to Madness in nineteen seventy eight to
honor an old Prince Buster ska song of the same name.
In the UK, they had sixteen top ten singles between
(34:36):
nineteen seventy nine and nineteen ninety nine, including a number
one in nineteen eighty two with House of Fun. Their
most successful single in the US was Our House, which
is pretty much the only song that they're known for
here in the States. Madness recorded a sequel called My
Girl two for their twenty twelve reunion album OIOI CC
JA Ja Da Da Love Silly album names. The new
(34:58):
song continues a story Mike Barson's volatile relationship with his girls.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Johnny Sunday lives on water. It's on that.
Speaker 26 (35:24):
Johnny Sundays don't need no words, don't want mom. All
people at the town they can't get through to Johnny.
They would never ever break you down. Johnny thunders, He's far,
(35:51):
don't work, goes.
Speaker 8 (35:52):
On and she has through that.
Speaker 7 (36:03):
Johnny O every Sunny jo Johnny bad that he will
(36:38):
never ever.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
Johnny thunder rids the High Wait.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Ye that was Johnny Thunder by the Kings. What a
great song. Everything I've played from them in these thirteen
seasons have been great. The King's Village Green Preservation Society
album finds Ray Davies paying tribute to the colorful people
that he knew growing up in London, like do you
remember Walter Wicked, Annabella, et cetera, et cetera. In fact,
I've played almost half of that damn album for he
so far in the thirteen seasons that we've been doing.
(37:10):
Listen to this on this Rocker. He recalls Johnny Thunder,
a rebellious biker that he once knew. Johnny Thunder was
semi inspired by the Marlon Brando movie The Wild One
and also a Cockney Ray Davies Knew, whom he told
Rolling Stone that he saw as a Neil Cassidy type character.
All rebels look like Marlon Brando on a motorbike, but
(37:31):
they don't wear a bowler hat. He added. Ray's brother,
Kink's guitarist Dave Davies, had different memories of the inspiration
for Johnny Thunder. I know it's a surprise that the
two brothers who fought all the time would have different versions,
but that's pretty much in character for them.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
There was this guy I knew that I thought Ray
modeled Johnny Thunder after he said in an interview he
was a loner and he drove around and didn't say much.
In the middle of Muswell Hill, there's a big roundabout
where you go just around before the hill itself, and
it's very steep. The guy used to say speed on
his bike round the roundabout, and the story has it
that one day his foot rest hit the road and
he toppled and that was the end of Johnny Thunder.
(38:08):
But Ray has different memories than I do. Ray Davies
return to the Johnny Thunder character in The Kinks nineteen
seventy three Preservation Act one song. One of the survivors
see Johnny Thunder sitting on his motorbike riding along the highway,
rock and roll songs from the nineteen fifties buzzing around
in his brain. He sings in that song.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
On Jubilee Street, there was a girl named the She
had a history, but she had no pass. When they
(39:11):
shut her down, the Russians moved, Yeah, I'm too scared.
I'm too scared.
Speaker 19 (39:31):
Too even walcome Pas.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
She used to say, all those good people down Jubulee Street,
they are a practice when they preach.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
That was Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with Jubilee Street.
It's a prostitute centric song, and it finds Cave singing
of a girl named Bee who lived on Jubilee Street.
She would say to all those good people who lived
on the street that they ought to practice what they preach.
Asked if he is referencing the Jubilee Street, located in
his hometown of Brighton. Cave replied, if people think they're
(40:12):
going to have a good time down on Jubilee Street,
I say forget about it, unless they're particularly interested in
going to the library or a sushi joint. But when
I was writing that, I had in my mind that
Jubilee Street was another more colorful street than I was
actually walking along it. I looked up and went, oh,
this isn't Jubilee Street. So it had to be a
complete creation in my mind. So let's just say Jubilee
(40:33):
Street is of the imagination. But I can say in
a rather lovely serendipitous way that the song reflects how
Jubilee Street used to be before they made it. It
was a sleazy down at a heel place.
Speaker 17 (40:44):
Well.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Cave wrote another song called Push the Sky Away about
the creation of Jubilee Street. On finishing Jubilee Street cut,
he puts down his pen and spins in a dream
where a young bride called Mary Stanford walks down Jubilee Street.
Speaker 14 (41:00):
Don't be.
Speaker 5 (41:11):
Lonely, only lonely. Only the lonely know the way I
feel inn only the longer reading, no dis feeling.
Speaker 20 (41:36):
Right there goes.
Speaker 27 (41:41):
My baby, there goes my home. They're gone forever so
far wall, but only lonely.
Speaker 6 (42:08):
All.
Speaker 5 (42:09):
He said that I'm the bad again.
Speaker 27 (42:16):
There I come run into you, INTI.
Speaker 20 (42:24):
I thought that you were on your.
Speaker 26 (42:32):
And now I Fin'm going not alone, bad alone.
Speaker 9 (42:40):
I'll see you do the rain, bad alone, the hearty
can bay alone.
Speaker 6 (42:50):
In her flag, never before you alone.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
And that was the song only the Lonely Know the
way I Feel by Roy Orbison. Well, this is one
of the sadder songs ever recorded. Projecting that misery onto
Orbison would actually be a mistake. In nineteen eighty, he
explained that many of his most painful songs were actually
(43:21):
written in very happy times. Said Roy quote, I've always
been very content when I wrote all of these songs.
By this, I'm saying that a lot of people think
you have to live through something before you can write it,
and that's true in some cases. But I remember the
times that I was unhappy or discontent. I couldn't eat,
I couldn't sleep, I couldn't communicate, and I certainly couldn't
write a song, no way, no how All the songs
(43:43):
I wrote that were successful or written when I was
in a contented state of mind. Roy Orbison wrote this
with his songwriting partner Joe Melson, but intended to offer
the song to either Elvis Presley or the Everly Brothers, who,
by the way, had already recorded Orbison's song Clawed Debt
for themselves. Beverly Brothers persuaded Orbison that he should cut
it for himself. The song was subtitled Know the Way
(44:06):
I Feel to avoid confusion with another song called only
the Lonely, which Sammy Kahn and Jimmy Van Heusen had
written for my guy Frank Sinatra back in nineteen fifty eight.
This quickly became Orbison's biggest hit, in one of the
songs that exemplified his poignant lyrics and soulful vocal delivery
as he sings about what it's like to be lonely.
When Orbison was with the Traveling Willbury's with Bob Dylan,
(44:28):
Tom Petty, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynn, he wrote a
sequel to the song called not Alone Anymore, which I
played for you second and is a song that I
really like from this supergroup.
Speaker 21 (45:00):
Turn Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah, Picking Month, Stay Back at
the Back, Thank You, bost Turn About It as by.
Speaker 6 (45:15):
I don't know, I don't know why. Oh I don't
know why.
Speaker 8 (45:21):
Oh yeah, father, oh.
Speaker 13 (45:24):
Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, monk for the bus.
Speaker 6 (45:44):
Check, get the book. I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know what. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
That was the Ramones with Judy is a Punk. The
song tells a vague story of two adventurous girls, Jackie
and Judy. We know that Jackie is a punk and
Judy is a runt, and they've decided to join the SLA.
The Symbionese Liberation Army SLA was a fringe political group
that was in the news for kidnapping Eiris Patty Hurst
in nineteen seventy four. Lead singer Joey Ramone wrote the
(46:32):
song and It's purely fictional. Running at only a minute
and thirty second, this blast off first wave punk was
one of the ramones first songs. They developed a reputation
in nineteen seventy five for playing rapid fire sets in
and around the New York City area, often blasting through
twelve songs and twenty five minutes and the whole show
is over. When they recorded their first album in nineteen
(46:54):
seventy six, they had honed this song during many of
those performances and included it on the album. Recorded a
follow up to the song called the Return of Jackie
and Judy on their nineteen eighty album End of the Century.
Speaker 28 (47:26):
You think that I don't feel.
Speaker 13 (47:28):
But what I feel for is real love.
Speaker 8 (47:31):
You know is a zasty reflected.
Speaker 29 (47:32):
I heard school, rejected sound, never MESSI they all time
born in the poverty, they at time, never mestivated and.
Speaker 6 (47:49):
A time.
Speaker 5 (47:51):
The love that start in my lege.
Speaker 28 (47:56):
Can an old, cold run, duntainous line father never even
Mama s gilts my mama, nd no name this mountain
blame is wall the pain of way.
Speaker 13 (48:28):
Society.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Always listen to this podcast the only place where you
can hear an obscure ramone song followed by The Supremes.
That was the Supreme's first number one hit not written
by the team of Holland Dosher Holland, as the trio
had left Motown in a dispute over royalties. A song
(48:55):
was called Love Child. Motown founder Barry Gordy wrote this
with staff song writers Dieke Richards, Pam Sawyer, and Dean Taylor.
Instead of writing about love, they came up with a
much more controversial song about a child born to unmarried parents.
A year after this came out, the Supremes released a
sequel song called I'm Living in Shame, which told the
(49:15):
story of the child growing up embarrassed by her mother.
Neither founder member Mary Wilson nor more recent edition Cindy
Birdsong replacing Florence Ballard sang a note on this single.
The test run with motown session group The Ondettes as
backup singers was issued as the singer. Mary claims that
this was a move made by Barry Gory to make
(49:36):
clear to her and Cindy that they were expendable and
to further establish his power over them, as well as
playing up his protege and lover Diana Ross. Mary further
says that miming to the number for the Ed Sullivan
Show was particularly difficult, knowing that she didn't even sing
on it.
Speaker 6 (50:00):
Peggy Suit.
Speaker 12 (50:02):
Didn't you know why I feel blue without Peggy my
peggy suit, Oil, I love you call it, I love you,
Peggy Suit, Peggy Suit, the peggy suit for my hearty
(50:22):
earns for you call Paggy my baggy suit.
Speaker 5 (50:30):
Oh please don't tell no.
Speaker 6 (50:39):
No, don't don't see what I've told you. So I
just heard a rumber birl O bread.
Speaker 5 (50:51):
I don't say that it's true.
Speaker 24 (50:54):
I'll just leave that up to you.
Speaker 5 (50:58):
If you don't be leave understand and.
Speaker 24 (51:04):
You call the girl that's been.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
In song, this is what I Of course, the story
could be wrong. She's the one I've been to you.
She's wearing a band of girl Peggy Silk Mary.
Speaker 1 (51:27):
Not long ago, the first song in that series of
(51:48):
sequels from Buddy Holly was Peggy Sue. And I played
a bit of it so you can hear the awesome song,
and then I cut into the sequel. Buddy Holly wrote
the first version as Cindy Lou. It went, if you
knew Cindy Lou, then you know I'll feel blue without Cindy.
When his drummer Jerry Allison heard it, he asked Buddy
if he would change the name to Peggy Sue, after
(52:10):
a girl he had dated named Peggy Sue Garin. Holly agreed.
This song probably wouldn't be heard outside of Lubbock anyway,
he thought, and it would really mean some brownie points
for Jerry with his new girl. Well, the gambit worked
for Allison. He and Peggy Sue eloped in nineteen fifty eight,
and they divorced nine years later. This is the first
hit credited to Holly without the backing band, the Crickets.
(52:32):
The Crickets did play on this, but Holly songs were
released on one of two labels, Choral Records crediting him
as a solo artist and Brunswick with the Crickets. Both
labels were owned by Decca Records. Drummer Jerry Allison had
trouble keeping the right beat when they recorded this. The
song had been written in a chaw chaw time. The
(52:52):
engineer came on the mic and told Jerry, if you
don't get it right on the next take, we're gonna
change the name back to Cindy Lou. Jerry thought the
guy might not be kidding, so he asked her a
few minutes to go through some drumming exercises. He did
just that, and as he was going through the new
warm up, the beat to the song was changed from
Cha cha to Jerry's new beat, and that was mary
part of his warm up routines for his high school
(53:14):
marching band. But he began to change the guitar licks
to fit that new beat, and the new rhythm developed
right there on the spot. Peggy Sue has been mentioned
in the lyrics to several other songs, including Splash Splash
by Bobby Darren, Barbara Ann, by the Regents, and later
by my favorite band, The Beach Boys, but for the sequel.
Holly wrote a sequel to the song Peggy Sue Got Married,
(53:35):
which was released on a compilation album which was released
after he died, and it inspired the nineteen eighty six
movie Peggy Sue Got Married.
Speaker 20 (53:43):
It was raining hard in Frisco.
Speaker 5 (53:47):
I needed one more fare to make my night. A
lady up ahead, wave to flag it down. She got it,
little light, Oh way you're going to milady blue. It's
a shame you roamed your gown in the rain. She
(54:12):
just looked down the window.
Speaker 24 (54:15):
She said sixteen offside, something about I was familiar.
Speaker 5 (54:32):
I could swear a scene her face with ball.
Speaker 26 (54:36):
But she said, I'm sure you're mistaken, and she didn't
say anything more.
Speaker 5 (54:46):
It took a while, but she looked in the mirror.
Then she glanced at the license for my name. A
smile seemed to come to her slowly. It was a
sad just to say.
Speaker 1 (55:05):
I was Singer songwriter Harry Chapin with taxi Taxi was
Chapin's first single. He had his taxi driver's license in
New York City and worked as a driver for six
months in Long Beach, New York. Sandy Chapin, who was
married to Harry from nineteen sixty eight until his death
in nineteen eighty one, told the story quote he had
(55:25):
been working in film and that was how he made
his living. Harry's plan at the time was to make
enough money in five or six months that he would
not have to work for another five or six months,
during which time he could write his screenplays, and then
the money did run out, and then he'd have to
go back and look for some more work in film.
But there wasn't anything available. He needed a job and
still wanted to be able to write, so he applied
(55:45):
for a cab license, and I was something like eight
months pregnant. I felt very positive about it because I thought, Wow,
it would be great experience because of all the cabs
will tell him stories and need to get all kinds
of characters for his songs. I think he was feeling
pretty low about it and wrote the song Taxi with
the idea that the people he had told his dreams
to that he was going to be a big film
(56:06):
star would mock him for driving a taxi. He actually
felt great shame about it. This song is about a
cab driver who picks up a passenger who turns out
to be his former lover. They broke up so she
could be an actress and he could learn to fly.
At the end, he realizes they both got their wish
as she acts like she's happy when he flies in
(56:27):
his taxi by getting stoned. Eight years later, Chapin followed
this up with another hit, appropriately titled Sequel, which continued
the chronicles of the former lovers Harry and Sue.
Speaker 5 (56:39):
Oh no, why do.
Speaker 8 (57:00):
Get a matap?
Speaker 6 (57:15):
I don't mean? And woo had know leto tain? No
(57:41):
let that be a.
Speaker 5 (57:44):
Command.
Speaker 1 (57:52):
That was Sam, the Sham and the Pharaohs with Wooly
Bully and the titles pure nonsense, But of course a
few theories sprouted up to explain what the phrase wooly
bully means. Some of my favorites an expression people use
as a way of congratulating each other. Hey, willy bully, Ah,
willy bully. Willy bully sounds good to me. Another rumor
(58:13):
was that that was the name of Sam's pet Cat.
There aren't many lyrics in this song that don't contain
the words wooly or bully, but one line managed to
capture a fleeting piece of sixties slang in the line
let's not be L seven come learn to dance and
L seven was a unhip person. Someone was just not
(58:34):
with it. More literally, it means let's not be squares.
If you put an L and A seven together, you
get more or less a square. That's, by the way,
how the all female punk band L seven got their name. Sam,
who wrote this song's real name is Domingo Samundo. The
term sham means jive talk. His backup group, The Pharaohs,
(58:56):
wore strange Egyptian outfits. They had five more top five
US hits, including the number two song Little Red Riding Hood.
Sam recorded for Atlantic Records in nineteen seventy and reformed
The Pharaohs in nineteen seventy four, and later became a
street preacher in Memphis. A sequel to the song, titled
Wooly Bully Again, was recorded in nineteen sixty six by
(59:19):
the Winston Salem, North Carolina group The Soul Brothers. Sam
didn't want to record it and let it go to
another group instead. It was too hard to find a
good copy of that song to showcase you for this episode,
so I just played the original.
Speaker 6 (59:37):
One.
Speaker 5 (59:37):
Two. Look at this, Look at him, die game, I've be.
Speaker 6 (01:00:00):
In this thing.
Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
I'm not lame dream his name from the strict, but
he's head mister.
Speaker 6 (01:00:07):
That's why.
Speaker 30 (01:00:10):
I are you Neglas Day or you Mistering?
Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
This famous my hearty.
Speaker 30 (01:00:17):
And mister Lamous because I love you so and never
let you go.
Speaker 6 (01:00:24):
Miss I'm miss.
Speaker 30 (01:00:27):
Lamous, stinglessing, I'm miss Lamously listening, I'm miss Lamously, he calls, Missleam,
try by back, come to me, try by back on
the three turn. My mom is try a boy back
in my live ball Let's job with Jo tell back,
(01:00:48):
come on, miss.
Speaker 9 (01:00:49):
Tidy back and all trying by back, Come on miss
me my mom. I was going to be now tis.
Speaker 8 (01:00:59):
Him one too?
Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
That was the Bobbettes with mister Lee from nineteen fifty seven.
It was the first hit for the Bobbettes. This song
made them the first girl group to have a number
one R and B hit and a top ten American
pop hit written by the Bobbettes themselves, which is kind
of surprising for this time period. This song was inspired
by his school teacher that the girls strongly despised. It
(01:01:35):
was originally written as an insult to mister Lee, but
their record company, Atlantic Records, told them to revise it
as a loving tribute to him. In nineteen fifty nine,
the Bobbettes recorded the sequel to the song I Shot
Mister Lee, which revealed with the group really felt of him,
but it remained unreleased. When Atlantic released them from their contract,
(01:01:55):
they signed with a small label called Triple X, where
they recorded it and it reached number fifty ten two
in the US. Atlantic responded to its release by releasing
the original version of it to kind of Screw with Him.
And now, before this episode gets so long it becomes
a part three, we need to end our exploration into sequels,
and we will do so with the band the Marvellettes.
(01:02:18):
When the Marvelettes auditioned for Motown, the label didn't yet
have their full songwriting machinery in place, so they asked
the girls to bring in their own material. William Garrett,
a songwriter friend of the group member Georgia Dobbins, offered
this song to the Marvellettes when she asked if he
had anything for them to sing. He wrote it as
(01:02:40):
a blues song, but Dobbins completely rewrote it. She saved
only the title and taught it to lead singer Gladys Horton.
Before the Marvelettes recorded it, Dobbins left the group to
care for her mother. Motown producers Robert Bateman and Brian
Holland worked on this song with the Marvelettes and crafted
it into a hit. Holland, along with his brother Eddie
(01:03:00):
and Lamon Doser, went on to of course write many
of the other Motown classics I've mentioned the New Yer's
Times on this podcast. Marvin Gay actually plays drums on
this song. He was only twenty two at the time
and really trying to break into the music business. Part
of this was written by a postman who helped complete
the lyrics. His name was Freddie Gorman, and his male
(01:03:21):
route included Brewster Public Housing, where members of the Supremes lived.
Gorman also sang with the Motown group the Originals. Marvelette's
follow up single was twistin Postman, which got it to
a number thirty four in America and tried to capitalize
on the dance craze and also continued the story of
a woman who waits for a letter from her boyfriend.
(01:03:42):
In the continuing story, the woman begins to lose hope
over ever even receiving the letter, and then of course
finally receives one once she's given up hope. So normally
I love to play just one song for the closing song,
but I'm gonna try something different. I'm going to play
you the clip of Please Mister Postman, and then I
will take you right into the sequel Twist and Postman
(01:04:03):
to end today's show. I hope you had fun listening.
This has been one of the more fun episodes I've
done in a long time. We recommend this podcast to
a friend, don't we. That's what we all do. We're
gonna go out and say, hey, people, got this great
podcast you should listen to. Of course you will, I
know you will. I trust all of you. Anyways, we
will see you next week and turn these songs up loud.
Speaker 5 (01:04:24):
Oh yes, title minute, just.
Speaker 10 (01:04:28):
By, Hey, Hey, just the phonebody.
Speaker 14 (01:04:50):
Sitting by the window, Filly sad and blue, all because
I have.
Speaker 5 (01:05:01):
Her from you.
Speaker 13 (01:05:03):
And then my mama said, he you know the little
count the bo smeller twst do it's not alive.
Speaker 16 (01:05:13):
It is he and no one has to before you.
It's not a no sa Tristan Dallas season. He's a
justn do the justn't those advicement, just an know bout
it making time, maybe taking bad to maybe feeling badly.
Speaker 5 (01:05:33):
I was going for tuning time, then I felt play.
Speaker 16 (01:05:37):
He came in town, toss and taking her most because
he's okay, Yeah, to.
Speaker 6 (01:05:51):
Go away very little. Yeah, it's taking down.
Speaker 5 (01:05:55):
That's pretty well, to make it the sun. Thank you
for listening.
Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
To listen to this, please recommend to a friend, and
don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe from.
Speaker 5 (01:06:20):
Our podcast and online content. Please visit this is funner
dot com This is Funner
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