Songs with Choirs

There are usually a lot of people in them.  They can be aduts, children or even Nuns.  Choirs.  Lot's of songs have them in them, but do you really know what work went into it?  Well, this week Eric takes you on a musical journey with groups of people that they call "Choirs"!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to another episode of Listen toThis. This is the podcast that is
dedicated to bringing you stories behind theartists, behind the songs, and hopefully
we're introducing you to old songs thathave influenced all the music that we hear
today. The goal is we wantyou to hear an artists that you might
not normally listen to and search outtheir music on whatever streaming service you subscribe
to, or maybe dig up someof those old CDs and vinyls. Maybe

(00:23):
you have this song and you don'teven know it. We invite you to
subscribe, comment and recommend this podcast. Shout it from your rooftop. Every
episode has a theme, and today'stheme is Songs with choirs. Never in
the history of the United States amonster of such size and power. Welcome
to Listen to This, a podcastthat brings you the stories behind the songs

(00:47):
and artists with a theme to tieit all together. Here's your hosts,
Eric Lecky. Choirs and background singersthat harmonize as one is not really the
Norman rock and blues music, atleast not during its beginning, but then
sometime around the late sixties early seventies, bands started using choirs mainly just to

(01:08):
do something different, because it wasabout being big and showy. As the
concept of stadium concerts and big festivalsbecame the norm, the artists needed to
do something that would match the largesseof the moment, and today the use
of choral background is quite common,usually used just like any other instrument would
be used to add overall depth andmood to a song, not necessarily used

(01:33):
for impact or really to even beeasily noticed. Designed to be in the
background, you'll find it harder tohear the choirs in more recent songs,
whereas the songs from the seventies andeven the eighties will be right there in
your face. We will explore afew different styles and decades in today's episode,
So let's get it started with arecent example of song with a choir

(01:56):
background, Sea the les You Seathe RASI M do you Know Your Man?

(02:52):
And my hand and me mo tillme Bob comes fide. That was

(03:30):
the band Fleet Foxes with can IBelieve You? Fleet Fox's front man Robin
Pecknold started to write this song,which originated with a riff he came up
with during break from touring on theirthird album, Crack Up. Pecknold has
said that for a while he struggledto get anywhere with the tune. It
was actually the hardest track on therecord to finish. His original lyrics were

(03:51):
about an untrustworthy second party. Oncehe started thinking more about his own hang
ups with letting people in, thewords came easier. Quote As the song
developed, it turned into this headbangerabout trust issues, and it was funny
to me because it's such a funsong. It made sense for a song
about trust to have a verse functionlike the chorus, and the chorus like

(04:13):
the bridge. The whole thing isslightly upside down. The song's choral background
is actually pretty interestingly done. It'scomprised of over four hundred different voice clips
that were compiled from Instagram and hisfollowers there. It rested on top of
his lead vocal and he syncd itup so it would all harmonize together.
Pretty interesting way to make a choirsound. The album The Shore was a

(04:38):
surprise release. Fleet Fox has announcedit the record one day before it became
available and dropped it at one thirtyone pm Universal Time, coordinated on the
year twenty twenty two, mark thebeginning of the Autumnal Equinox, No Wity,

(05:00):
The Weird Child, Keep Bomb inyour Time, your fat of give
me last Thing, the Witch Child, Keep Bom, the Witch keeping in

(05:30):
your time, your friends in thelasting the Witch Child, Keep Mom,
Wird Child, Keep Bomb in yourtime, your fats. That was Everlasting

(06:14):
Nothing by Beck. Beck and PharrellWilliams have been friendly for a long time
and started making music together all theway back in twenty twelve. This is
a spacey themed track, and it'sthe first tune that they made together.
The pair didn't complete the song untilseven years later because Pharrell was consumed by
other projects. Eventually, Beck seizedthe moment recruited Williams to help him with

(06:36):
this hyper space album. Seven ofthe album's eleven tracks, including Everlasting Nothing,
were co written and co produced byPharrell Williams. Lyrically, it's a
reflection on the mortality and a tributeto friends those who have come and gone
before him. Beck, who identifiesas Jewish, refers to death as the
everlasting Nothing. This seems to implyhe's unsure whether he believes in the traditional

(07:00):
Judeo Christian teaching of eternal afterlife orthe secular view of oblivion after death.
Everyone was there waiting for me,like a standing ovation for the funeral of
the Sun. In the Everlasting Nothing, Beck and Williams played all the instruments
between them on the track. Beckcontributes vocals, guitar and piano, wa
Farrell performs drums and keyboards. Thesong features a nine person gospel choir who

(07:26):
act like a siren call to theafterlife. Christmas. So this is Christmas.
What have you done? A theroand you won't just be gone?

(07:50):
And so this is Christmas, thenear, the dear one, the omen.
Yeah, so this is Christmas fora weak and fall storm, the

(08:39):
rich and the poor ones, thewo this so long and so happy Christmas
for black and fall for Yeah,don't go looking at your calendars. It

(09:09):
is not Christmas time, even thoughI played for you a Christmas song that
was John Lennon's Happy Christmas. TheWar is Over. It's a very unusual
Christmas song. Instead of evoking sleighbells and missletoe, it asked us to
think about those who live in fearand collectively bring about the end of war
as we know it. This isa call to action and it's the refrain

(09:31):
of war is over if you wantit to be. It's an esoteric but
not unfounded concept that John Lennon andYoko Ono put forth in their Imagined album.
Even if enough people were wanting somethingto happen, maybe it will is
the concept. So the idea wasto get us to actively desire piece which
could bring about the end to war. Guess what. It didn't work,

(09:52):
you stupid, dirty hippie. JohnLennon and Yoko Ono wrote this in their
New York City hotel room and recordedit during the evening of October twenty eighth
and well into the morning of thetwenty ninth in nineteen seventy one at the
Record Plant in New York. Itwas released in the US rate at Christmas
time, but it didn't chart.The next year it was released in the
UK, where it did much better, charting at number four. Eventually the

(10:15):
song became a Christmas classic in America, but it took a while, about
a decade. Lennon and Ono producedthis with the help of Phil Spector.
Spector had work on some of thelater Beatles songs and also produced Lennon's Instant
Karma hit. The children's choral voiceswere the Harlem community Choir, who were
brought in to sing on this track. They are credited on the single along

(10:37):
with Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band. Because the road this happen, Family
now steaks, breaks, stop,pretend any stand everything, and there's an

(11:05):
able then transcribe the stand and standtill every from the Goths, Curly Lang
lives out. All they stand,don't even the stank and they stand happen.

(12:11):
That was the song Everything Now byArcade Fire, the title track off
of the Everything Now album, wasalso the first song to be released from
the record. Frontman Win Butler saidin an interview about this song quote,
there's sort of an everything nowness tolife. I feel like almost every event
and everything that happens surrounds you onall sides. Some of it is faked,

(12:33):
some of it is real, andsome of it is trying to sell
you something, and some of itcan be profound. Every moment of everything
refracts into a thousand different things.It's trying to capture some of the experiences
of being alive now and its flawsand all its glory. I remember being
in a cafe once and I wasoverhearing this woman talking about watching the Sopranos
and they had just finished watching thewhole series. They binge watched The Sopranos

(12:56):
over a weekend. One of themwas saying, Oh, it's so annoying
that there's no more Sopranos. Iguess I'm gonna have to find something else
to watch. This is maybe sixyears ago, and it just hit me
that this thing took ten years tomake and someone watched it in a weekend
and was annoyed that there wasn't more. I was like, WHOA. I
feel like culturally the moment that weare in is kind of this. We
need it now and have no patiencefor anything except for getting it immediately.

(13:20):
And I don't like that style.Arcade Fire backed by the harmonistic praise Crusade,
who are a New Orleans choir Inthis song, it's just they not

(14:03):
may now say actions, say not, may not the fall of the candle,

(14:24):
say the first say the say sayshello, Hi, say that they
have said oh the older time?Have I breaking the whole? Those kids

(15:33):
with those thick accents always make melaugh. Another brick in the wall,
That's how I always hear. Thatwas, of course pink Floyd Roger Waters
of pink. Floyd wrote this songabout his views on formal education, which
were framed during his time at theCambridgeshire School for Boys. He hated his

(15:54):
grammar school teachers and felt they weremore interested in keeping the kids quiet than
in teaching them. The wall refersto the emotional barrier Waters built around himself
because he wasn't in touch with reality. The bricks in the wall are the
events in his life that propelled himto build this proverbial wall around himself.
His school teacher was just another brickin the wall. The children's chorus that

(16:18):
sang on this track came from aschool in Islington, England, and was
chosen because it was so close tothe studio. It was made up of
twenty three kids between the ages ofthirteen and fifteen. They were over dubbed
twelve times to make it sound likethere were a lot more of them than
there actually were. There was somecontroversy when it was revealed that the kids
in the chorus were not paid.It also didn't sit well with teachers that

(16:41):
kids were singing an anti school song. The choir was given recording time in
the studio for exchange for the contributionthe school did also receive one thousand pounds
in cash and a platinum record fortheir efforts. So I Say, No
Harm, No Foul. The additionof the choir did convince Waters though,
that the song would come together.Finally, he said in Rolling Stone magazine

(17:03):
quote, it suddenly made it sortof great. I wasn't convinced at first,
but the choir put it over thetop for me. Pink Floyd's producer
Bob Ezrin had the idea for thechildren's choir. It wasn't the first time
he enlisted school kids to sing ona rock song. Ezron used choir kids
when he produced Alice Cooper's Schools Outin nineteen seventy two. He liked to
use children's voices on songs to singabout school When performing Schools Out Live,

(17:29):
Alice Cooper often transitions it into thechorus of another Brick in the Wall,
nod to Ezren's work on both tracksand speaking of schools out, well,

(18:00):
we got no choices of girls,bose me, no ones, comet find
new joys, can't So you jumpfine black flat, don't so jump that

(18:21):
dry summer to visas we now pass, we got now, prisons, we

(19:26):
got now in sense, we can'teven they got on the right. See

(19:55):
I plan these things, people,I have it all linked together. It's
like a puzzle, pieces all fit. That was Schools Out by Alice Cooper.
The title and song were inspired bya warning often said and the Bowery
Boys movies, in which one ofthe characters declares to another school is out,
meaning wise up. The Bowery Boyswere characters featured in forty eight movies

(20:18):
that ran from nineteen forty six tonineteen fifty eight. They were young,
tough guys in New York City whowere always finding trouble. The movies ran
on American TV throughout the sixties andseventies, eating up a lot of airtime
on independent stations. It was oneof these TV viewings that Cooper saw.
In the film, the character Satch, played by hunts Hall, did something

(20:40):
dumb, which prompted one of theother guys to say, hey, Satch,
schools out. Cooper liked the waythe phrase sounded and used it as
the basis for this song. SchoolsOut is a fixture of Cooper's concerts.
He says the difference between him andguys like Marilyn Manson is that he leaves
the crowd in a good mood.His shows are meant to be fun and
not to pressing. The song wasreleased in the summer of nineteen seventy two,

(21:03):
when school really was out. It'ssince become an anthem for summer vacation.
Cooper wrote this song with his guitaristMichael Bruce. At the time,
Alice Cooper was the name of theband, not just the lead singer,
and all members contributed to the songwriting. Bruce also wrote with the Groups with
Alice Cooper. The group songs Caughtin a Dream, Be My Lover,
and co wrote No More Mister NiceGuy with Cooper and a few others.

(21:29):
The chorus of children who sing onthis were put together by producer Bob Ezrin.
As I mentioned before, he likedthe idea of children's voices on the
background singing about school and the song. They chime in while Cooper is singing
the children's rhyme no more pencils,no more books, no more teacher's dirty
looks. They also come in onthe bridge and on the outro. The
School's out album opens up like aschool desk and contains a pair of paper

(21:52):
panties. Love Alice Cooper. Hiskind of added value is something you just
don't get with CDs or street meanservices. This is why I tell you
to go buy it on albums.We're no great ban just a little again,

(22:12):
a kind of thinking for the sameway general. The friends I used
to talk to me on the airof told me he was good. Do
you then ever seen that kind tome? Is it? Anyone? Never

(22:33):
a come? We're not drinking.That is the Alan Parsons Project with the

(23:42):
song Breakdown, and it was writtenby the Alan Parson Project leaders Alan Parsons
and Eric Wolfson. The song istold from the perspective of a person or
thing that constantly malfunctions and gets ignoredwhen broken. Quote. We tried to
make it whether we were talking froma robot perspective or a human talking to

(24:03):
a robot. Parsons said of thissong, I think we could argue that
robots could break down just like humansdo. This follows the theme of the
whole album, which is robots.The songs are loosely based on the work
of the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, who published a collection called I Robot
in nineteen fifty before forming the AlanParsons Project. Parsons did engineering work for

(24:26):
the Hollies both in the studio andon the road, where he befriended their
lead singer Alan Clark. With theProject, Parsons used an array of vocalists
and on Breakdown, Clark is theone who takes the lead. Holly's harmony
vocalist guitarist Terry Silvester appears in thefirst Alan Parsons Project album. Parsons used

(24:48):
a homemade device called a projectron toprocess the female backing vocals on this track.
The projectron was similar to a melotronand that it looked like a keyboard,
but was filled with tape loops thatcan be triggered by the keys.
The New Philharmonic Chorus is the oneswho appear on the track conducted by Andrew
Powell. That was the song Superstarfrom Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath guitarist Tommy

(26:59):
Iomi wrote this track at home witha mellotron as the previous song, used
to help boost the moodiness of thechoir sounds. They ended up booking a
London Philharmonic choir and a harpist.Lead singer Ozzie Osborne wasn't initially aware of
this, he walked in, sawthe choir in the harp and immediately walked
out, thinking that he had goneto the wrong studio. I know that

(27:21):
I am a prisoner to all myfather hasshold. I know that I'm a
hostage all his hopes and fears.I just wish I could have told him
in the moh come for bits offill with imperfect God. Still the conversation,

(27:53):
I'm afraid that's all with God sayit. Just don't see it,
He says, it's perfect sense.You just can't get agreement in this presente.
We'll talk a different language talking inso you'll save me as well.

(28:40):
Here's to go when we die.We don't see it to the second song
this season that I've played by Mikeand the The Mechanics. That song was
called The Living Years. The songis written from the perspective of a son

(29:06):
who has a conflicting relationship with hisfather. After his father dies, he
discovers that he and his dad hada much stronger bond than he ever realized,
and the son regrets not saying morewhile the dad was alive. It
was written by group founder Mike Rutherfordand the Scottish songwriter Ba Robertson. The
pair also co wrote the first Mikeand the Mechanics hit, Silent Running on

(29:27):
Dangerous Ground. Both Robertson and Rutherfordhad recently lost their fathers when they wrote
the song, making it a verypersonal endeavor for both of them. Mike
Rutherford was the bass player and laterthe guitarist for the band Genesis, and
formed Mike and the Mechanics as aside project using Paul Carrack and Paul Young
from the band Sad Cafe. Krokhad a hit in nineteen eighty seven,

(29:49):
by the Way that Don't Shed aTear. He's the one who sang lead
on this song. This garnered aGrammy nomination for Song of the Year,
but lost to the Wind Beneath MyWings by I Bet Middler. The children's
choir on the song came from theKing's Social House School in London, a
school for young poor boys. I'mI'm there, And when John breaks,

(30:37):
I see my fellow band and aflat screaming killed. And when the ninth
BOMs, I pray forts I toI'm driven multitudes. I raised my hand
days I never laws thought I madeto, never appeal to, never,

(31:34):
don't take no time Away, Don'ttake no mass Gray, Don't take no
Stock, do the show How theWest was The curtain moves Prey. This
song from Neil Young, Living withWar, is about how Americans have become
acclimated to a seemingly endless war afterthe US invaded Iraq in two thousand and

(31:56):
three under President George W. Bush. Young was a harsh critic of Bush,
which isn't a big surprise. AsYoung as two things, a hardcore,
lifelong liberal and a grumpy ass mana hundred voice choir saying on this
track, Loi's bay Itch, bestknown for writing the number one hit for
the artist Tiffany could Have Been,was one of the singers and one contractor

(32:20):
on that session. Most people,when they contract sessions, they get maybe
twenty five people at most. Maybethey'll get like a dozen singers, three
on each part, and they'll justdouble it and triple it and quadruple it
until it sounds like one hundred voices. But Neil Young wanted to make a
statement. He was very much againstwhat George Bush was doing at the time,
so he wanted to film it andmake it a documentary, to show

(32:42):
one hundred people singing these lyrics abouthow wrong things were going at the time
politically in terms of the whole Iraqinvasion. And it was really funny because
all of the pro Bush people,which were many of the studio singers in
Hollywood at the time, there werepeople not called for that session. It
was all the left wing people whowere not happy with the Bush administry who
are more than happy to go inthere and sing all these lyrics. Listen

(33:45):
to why osten negative? If youhave problems, why don't you solve?
We at least you won't be outof touch you feel such a listen to
show. That was Peter Bjorn andJohn with Nothing to Worry About. The

(34:30):
song features a children's choir, andthe Peter from the band told MTV News
that the American rapper jay Z wasan unlikely inspiration. He explained, quote,
we listened to jay Z's Hard KnockLife with the Annie sample, and
we needed a clear, bright voicesto get straight through the little radio,
so we recorded a children's choir kindof emulating what we heard in that song.

(34:53):
Plus, you know it's cheap laborwhen you hire children sleeping on the
songs and cots. The King SizeGreen machines, the green fires, the
sing files, let the thing betweenmy eyes and the fide life. Else
then I put it down tight Brill. I'm tight brill with the phoney rappers.
Y'all might feel me, homies,I'm like steal. Y'all don't know

(35:15):
me shit, I'm tight real.When my situation ain't improving, I'm trying
to murder everything movement. I don'tknow how to sleep. I gotta eat

(35:50):
steal. My toes got a lotof beef, So logically, I pray
on my foes. And since Ijust mentioned jay Z's Hard Knock Life as
the inspiration for the previous song,I figured i'd play it for you here
since it obviously has a choir onit, and I really don't play you
too much rap on this podcast.Not that I'm necessarily against it in principle,
I just feel that most of it'sjust silly and derivative and formulaic and

(36:14):
feels like it was created in alab and definitely not my wheelhouse. But
this song was huge culturally and ismostly the most known song, I would
say, of the jay Z catalog, and he's pretty important in our cultural
so I figured it was a goodfit for this episode, and obviously the
familiarity we feel in our culture withthe singing choir in this song is because

(36:36):
it's based on the Hard Knock Lifefrom the Broadway play Annie is sung by
Daniella Bois. In the play,Annie is an orphan who makes the most
of difficult circumstances. Well, jZ transposes this into a song about how
he overcame life in the ghetto toachieve massive success, something that would be
a pretty common theme in his raps. Bris Bo, a great singer,

(36:58):
was less than throw with this whenit became a hit song for the rapper,
despite her voice leading the sample.Because she was paid a flat fee
for the performance on the soundtrack,she doesn't earn any royalties on the song
as a result. Quote, I'msinging lead vocal on the number one song
in America, but not making apenny out of it, she said about
this song. This is one ofjay Z's most famous songs and helped the

(37:21):
album sell over five million copies andit really broke through with a mainstream audience.
In two thousand and two, thiswas spoofed in the movie Austin Powers
gold Member when it was performed byDoctor evil. Before releasing this album,
jay Z was preparing to retire fromperforming. It was caught off guard by
a burst of creativity, namely thissong and reconsidered Ben spending most times living

(37:45):
You, sir Ben, standing mosttime living U, Sir Ben, looking
in their minds by the day thatziless time we keep selling of the day
when the singer of love will cometo state? Tell me who will will

(38:09):
come to me? I'm indeed?Are you and me? Proclamation a bspilation,
consolation, legation, verification of revelation, acclamation or self reson vibration simulation

(38:38):
amblamation to peace of the world.Been spending most life living in the best
time Barada, been standing of stalar, spinning fast time Balada. They've been
spending mosttell life living in a futureWe've pastime. Paradise was first released by

(39:36):
Stevie Wonder on the album's Songs andthe Key of Life, which had become
Wonder's most highly praised album. MichaelJackson even considers it Wonders best past time.
Paradise certainly stands apart from the restof Stevie Wonders over in terms of
the overall mood and message. Whenone thinks of Stevie Wonder. Joy is
kind of the operative word, atleast the one I think that comes to

(39:58):
mind. But in Pastime Paradise,the synthesizer strings, one of the most
first novel attempts at using the sortof string sense in a song, creates
an edgy atmosphere of anxiety and stress, substantiated by the lyrics, which are
insistently negative in tone until the finalstanza. A combination of issues from race

(40:19):
and religion to the economy are vaguelyalluded to by using catchwords like race,
relations, exploitations without any further explanation. Anyone that would have been hearing these
words, though in nineteen seventy sixat the tail end of the Black Power
movement, would know exactly what theywere referring to. However, Wonder's final
statement defines the actual message of thesong. Let's start living our lives,

(40:44):
living for the future paradise as opposedto living in an unhappy past or the
future that we don't know yet toescape our present social issues is essentially what
he's saying. At the end ofthis song. Some chanting comes in along
with a version of we shall overcomesome ung by the West Angels Church of
God choir. The chanting was doneby a large group of Harry Krishna's who

(41:06):
could be found extolling their faith onthe streets of Los Angeles at the time.
Engineer Gary olsenbal brought them into theHollywood Boulevard studio and recorded them at
Crystal Sound in Hollywood. That wasthe Beatles with I Am the Walrus.

(42:52):
And for such a nonsensical song,I actually have a lot to say about
this one. So John Lennon wrotethis song. John was throwing together nonsense
lyrics to mess with the heads ofall these supposed scholars who kept trying to
dissect the Beatles' songs. They alsomentioned that it's John's answer to Bob Dylan's
getting away with murder style of songwriting, throwing things in there just to see

(43:15):
if people were paying attention. Lennonexplained the origins of this song in his
nineteen eighty Playboy interview, a prettyfamous interview that he did quote. The
first line was written on one acidtrip one weekend. The second line was
written on the next acid trip thenext weekend, and it was filled in
after I met Yoko. Part ofit was putting down Harry Krishna. All

(43:37):
these people were going on and onabout Harry Krishna. Alan Ginsberg in particular,
the reference to elementary Penguin is theelementary naive attitude going around and chanting
Harry Krishna, or putting all yourfaith in anyone idol. I was writing
obscurely Alah Bob Dylan in those days. Lennon got the idea for the oblique

(43:58):
lyrics when he received a letter froma student who explained that his English teacher
was having the class analyze Beatles songs. Lennon answered the letter. His reply
was sold as memorabilia in a nineteenninety two auction. The voices at the
end of the song came from aBBC broadcast of the Shakespeare play King Lear,
which John Lennon heard when he turnedon the radio while they were working

(44:20):
on the song. He decided tomix in bits of the broadcast into the
song, resulting in some radio staticand disjointed bits of dialogue. The song
helped fuel the rumor that Paul McCartneywas dead. It's quite a stretch,
but theorists found these clues in thelyrics, none of which, by the
way, are substantiated waiting for thevan to come. Well, that means
that three remaining Beatles are waiting fora police van to come. Pretty little

(44:44):
policemen all in a row means thepoliceman did show up. Goo goo god
jube. Silly, silly, silly. But those are the final words the
Humpty Dumpty said before he fell offthe wall and died. And then during
the fade, while the choir sings, a voice says bear, which is
what Paul might have said after hedied. During the fade, we hear
someone reciting the death scene from KingShakespeare's King Lear. In addition, a

(45:08):
rumor circulated that Walrus was Greek forcorpse. It isn't and Greeks and that's
what people thought of Paul being thewalrus. Also in the video, the
walrus was the only dark costume,so people, man, they really read
into this way too much. Inan episode of The Simpsons, The Bart
of War, airring on May eighteenth, two thousand and three, Bart and

(45:29):
Millhouse break into a secret room inFlanders household to discover that Ned is a
Beatles fanatic. Bart takes a sipof a can from a forty year old
Beatles themed novelty Soda and quotes thissong yellow matter Custer dripping from a dead
dog's eye while Millhouse takes a tripand sees various Beatles inspired hallucinations. The

(45:50):
choir at the end sings umpah umpa, stick it in your jumper, and
everyone's got one, Everyone's got one. Wise words, wise words. I've

(46:15):
gotta take a little time, alittle time to send things over, a
better read between the lines, incase I needed. When I'm older of

(46:50):
this mountain I must climb. Feelslike a world upon the shoulder through the
clothes Essie Love Show. It keepsme wolves life, cruise co clue.
In my life there's been a Honacan paint. I don't know if I

(47:19):
can found it again. Kats thatnow? How travel so far to change
that love? I want to knowwhat I want? I love singing the

(47:45):
chorus to this one, I wantto know what love is. That's by
foreigner or you couldn't if you couldn'ttell, that was me singing, not
foreigner. I just wanted to pointthat out. Foreigner. Guitarist Mick Jones
is the one who wrote the song. In an interview about it, he
said, quote I Want to Knowwhat Love Is started off on more of
a personal level. I'd been througha lot of relationships that failed and still

(48:07):
was searching for something that could reallyendure. And that sort of took on
a life of its own as well. It became more of a universal feeling.
I adjusted that during the recording ofit, ended up putting a gospel
choir on the end of it,and you know, realized suddenly that I
had written almost a spiritual song,almost a gospel song. Sometimes you feel
like you had nothing to do withit. Really, you're just putting it

(48:27):
down on paper, coming up withthe melody. The New Jersey Mass Choir
was the ones brought in to singthe backing vocals, becoming the first gospel
choir to appear in a number onepop hit. Mick Jones knew that he
wanted a choir on the song andfound the New Jersey Mass Choir through a
bit of serendipity. They had thesame lawyer. According to Jones, the

(48:49):
choir's first attempts to sing the partin the studio didn't have the magic,
but then they gathered in a circle, said the Lord's prayer and nailed it.
On the next take mm hmm.What what you do? If I

(49:43):
sang out to do what you?Stand up and walk? Caut on,
learn me o E. Then Ising you a song I will try not
to sing out of for man ahead, I'm saying, what do I do

(50:23):
when he's away? How do Imean? Lady of the day, I'm
trying to win, said again?Not. That person getting by with a

(50:58):
little help from his friend was JoeCocker. John Lennon and Paul McCartney are
the ones who wrote this song.The Beatles recorded it a year earlier,
but never released it as a single. The Beatles were so impressed with Cocker's
version that they sent him a telegramof congratulations and placed it in an ad
in music Papers praising its version.This was recorded in three fourth time,

(51:20):
which is known as waltz time.The Beatles' original version was traditional four four
time. Jimmy Page played guitar andbj Wilson from Pro cal Haram played the
drums for this track, and theSoul Singer's Madeline Belle Reeves and Rosetta high
Tower and Patricia Holloway are the oneswho provided the backing vocals. Cocker sang

(51:40):
his devotional version of this song atWoodstock, giving his career a huge boost.
The then twenty five year old Cockerwore a tie dyed shirt and was
drenched in sweat throughout the performance,securing his reputation as an entertainer who would
give it all on stage. Thisperformance appears in the Woodstock documentary Joe Cocker.

(52:00):
Version was the theme song to theTV series The Wonder Year, starring
Fred Savage, ran from nineteen eightyeight to nineteen ninety three. Seem the

(52:31):
Better Way When first I heard himspeak, Now it's much too late to
turn the other cheek. Sounded likethe true, seemed the better way.

(52:59):
Sounded like the truth, but it'snot the truth today. I wonder what
it was. I wonder what itmeant. First he touched on Lowe,

(53:22):
he touched on death. Sounded likethe truth, seemed in a better way,
Sounded like the truth, but it'snot the truth today. This heavily

(53:45):
spiritual song finds Leonard Cohen grappling withthe issues of faith and belief. The
song is called it seemed the BetterWay. Cohen describe the lyrical content press
materials as the feeling of a prayerthat's been there forever but the spiritual comforts
and the past are no longer available. The song features the canter Gideon Zellermeyer

(54:05):
and the Shah Hashamyam Synagogue Choir,who also appear on the album's title track.
They're the male choir of the Montrealsynagogue that Cohen attended as a child.
Cohen had already been thinking about amale choir when his son Adam,
who produced the record, suggested it. Our light bulbs lit up at the
same time. Cohen has recalled inan interview, I always wanted to work

(54:25):
with these singers. I've been playinga lot of cantorial music, wondering how
it would ever fit in. Itwas laid one nights counting. I'm a
stitches, laying that aside. Iwas a long time gone, living off

(54:51):
my wit ches, feeling leg asunder God, Yeah, I feeling les.
I didn't miss team built the consof Sherman Cloud at the foot of
my bad. He was long andlean, spoken, the perfect German.

(55:14):
And I regarded all that he said. Yeah, I recorded all that he
said, and he's so all.If we all die of we all I
off we alled, I off Manawoke next day, lame in the Lessans

(55:45):
feeling not a hole in my head. I was thinking about my dad,
think about the nice shames of allthe better things that he said. Yeah,
all the daring things that he hits. He say, we all die

(56:08):
U, we all ye, weall die Ye die young, We All
Die Young. That was the bandThe Decembrists with We All Die Young,

(56:32):
And it was their producer John Congletonwho proposed the idea of using a children's
choir and we All Die Young quotewhen I suggested the song should have a
call. In response, lead vocalistColin Melloy said, John just said,
well, it should be a kid'schoir, right. We used band members
kids and their friends, maybe tenin total, and they really took to
it. Kids love that stuff.They can get very dark. And now

(56:53):
to play the song that I thinkeverybody thinks of when they think of a
rock song with a choir, andit will be our final song. I
get that it is overplayed on rockradio, but that doesn't mean that this
song doesn't totally kick ass. Iwish I wish you could hear it with
fresh ears and so try to getit in your mind that you're hearing this

(57:15):
for the first time. The songis you can't always get what you want
by the Rolling Stones. There aretwo theories in the song though, as
to the identity of mister Jimmy,who appears in the third verse. I
was standing in line with mister Jimmy, and man, did he look pretty
ill. It could be a referenceto Jimmy Miller, who was the Stones
producer at the time, but italso could refer to Jimmy Hutmaker, a

(57:37):
local character who wandered around the businessdistrict in Excelsior, Minnesota, the trendy
artist community outside Minneapolis near Lake Minnetonka. Hutmaker was known as mister Jimmy.
Had some disabilities, but seemed mentallysharp on most days, although he would
talk to himself a lot. Hewalked miles and miles every day and was

(57:57):
cared for by all the local shopowners until his death in two thousand and
seven. While the Stones performed inExcelsior on their first US tour in nineteen
sixty four and were not well received, according to local town and area lore,
Mick Jagger went into the local drugstore to get a cherry coke.
Back then, cherry coke was cokewith real cherries in it. And they

(58:20):
didn't have any. The store didn'thave any of the cokes that he wanted,
and mister Jimmy, who was standingin line behind mister Jagger, said,
well, you can't always get whatyou want. While mister Jimmy was
at the Stones next show in Minneapolis. Legend has it that Jagger sent the
limo himself, but it's more likelythat the local business people worked it out
so that he could go. Thelyrics are about how hard it is to

(58:40):
find happiness. No matter what youhave, you always want more. The
Chelsea drug Store was in Chelsea,the King's Road in fact, which swung
just as much as Carnabie Street backin its day. But it wasn't a
drug store, not officially anyways.It was a pub. Stanley Kubrick filmed
part of a clockwork Orange there bythe way, But the most devastating fact

(59:00):
about the Chelsea drug Store is thatthe place is now a McDonald's. Mc
Jagger explained, it's a good song, if I may say so myself.
It's got a very sing a longchorus, and people can identify with it.
No one gets what they want.It's got a very good melody.
It's got a very good orchestral touchesthat Jack Nischke helped with, so it's

(59:21):
got all the ingredients of an awesomerock and roll song. The chorus of
children is the London Bach Choir.Their sixty voices were double track to make
it sound like there were even moreof them. The London Bock Choir tried
to have their name removed from thealbum when they found out the album was
called Let It Bleed and contained asong Midnight Rambler, which was about a
serial killer. But obviously they werenot successful, and I'm glad they weren't

(59:45):
successful because the song totally rocks.So listen with fresh ears, pretend that
you don't hear this on classic rockradio every fifteen seconds, and let it
wash over you, because you're gonnaturn it up loud and you're gonna join
us next week for our season final. Allie, you can't all get?
You want your dog? You can'talla get? Watch the all you can

(01:00:13):
hollad again, watch your hog?Pretty travel Well, you just stopper you
got today? Yes, I wentdown to the Chimpsy drug Soup to get

(01:00:39):
your prescription. Fie. I wasstanding in line, were mister Jimmy amazed
did he look pretty? Is?We decided that we will have a throw

(01:01:00):
my favers flam him, I smy so mister Jimmy yet stand my words
me and now you can't all getwhat ball, You can't always get wat

(01:01:24):
ball. You can't alway get watchall pretty you drive just my first if
you're watchin me. Oh yes,thank you for listening. To listen to

(01:02:22):
this, Please recommend to a friend, and don't forget to rate, review,
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