I was excited to see this week’s music genre for Song Lyric Sunday. Jim Adams, our host, has asked for Bluegrass. I have chosen the song, Annabel Lee, by an artist I have come to really like. Sarah Jarosz, an American folk and bluegrass singer. She was inspired by the poem called ‘Annabel Lee’ by American author, Edgar Allen Poe. It was his last complete poem. Like many of Poe’s poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The narrator, who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels are envious. He retains his love for her after her death. There has been debate over who, if anyone, was the inspiration for “Annabel Lee”. Though many women have been suggested, Poe’s wife Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe is one of the more credible candidates. Written in 1849, it was not published until shortly after Poe’s death that same year. Like all good mysteries there are local legends. Jarosz’s lyrics are very similar to the poem.
The Song
The song is from, ‘Follow Me Down’, the second studio album by American folk and bluegrass singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz, released on May 17, 2011 on Sugar Hill Records. It was recorded and mixed at Minutia Studios and mastered at The Mastering Lab in Nashville, by Gary Paczosa with additional engineering by Brandon Bell. In 2012, the song “Come Around” was nominated for Song of the Year at the Americana Music Honors & Awards.
Annabel Lee is the singer’s interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s last published poem about young, doomed lovers in a kingdom by the sea.
Some say that Poe, who served a brief stint at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island, was inspired by a Lowcountry tale. Legend has it that a young soldier fell in love with a girl named Annabel Lee. For several months they were inseparable, despite her father’s disapproval, but when the man was shipped out of Charleston, Annabel died of Yellow Fever. He returned to say his goodbyes, but the girl’s father wouldn’t allow him into the funeral. Some say Annabel’s ghost still haunts the Unitarian Cemetery, where she was buried.
Granted, there’s no real proof that Poe had ever heard the legend, and some argue the poem was based on his relationship with his own wife. It went on to inspire Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, which was originally going to be titled The Kingdom by the Sea.
Wherever the chain of inspiration came from, Jarosz performed her fresh interpretation of the haunting poem just a few blocks away from from the cemetery where Annabel’s ghost is said to reside in Charleston, SC.
I finally get to choose a Beach Boys song for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday. Our host, Jim Adams, has given us Surfer Rock as a theme. I picked Surfin’ USA as my main choice and threw in Fun, Fun, Fun as I liked it too. I actually prefer some of their slow stuff like God Only Knows and, of course, Good Vibrations but the genre is Surfer Rock so I thought it best to stick with the upbeat music. I’m looking forward to hearing some songs today that I might not have heard before. It’s always fun to see what the others choose.
Have a great Sunday!
The Song
The lyrics are basically a guide to good surf locations, but the “Surfin’ U.S.A.” music was based on Chuck Berry’s 1958 hit “Sweet Little Sixteen.” The Beach Boys did it as a tribute to Berry, but didn’t get his permission first – maybe because Berry was in jail for transporting a minor across state lines. When Berry threatened to sue, The Beach Boys agreed to give him most of the royalties and list him as the song’s composer. The song also helped build Berry’s legend while he served his time.
David Marks, who was a guitarist in The Beach Boys from 1961-1963, explains on the DVD Brian Wilson Songwriter 1962 – 1969, that he and Carl Wilson would play guitars every day after school, and one day Carl brought home the album Chuck Berry Is On Top. They loved the album and introduced Berry’s sound to Brian Wilson, who loved the rhythm parts and put together “Surfin’ U.S.A.” based on that sound. Brian changed the lyrics and added a hook, but it is basically a rewrite of Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen.”
Many of the early Beach Boys’ songs were about surfing. Dennis Wilson was the only Beach Boy who actually surfed, but surfing was a very popular at the time, especially with teenagers who bought records. For The Beach Boys, the surfing subculture gave them an opportunity to write songs about adventure and fun while exploring vocal harmonies and new production techniques. And while the majority of Americans didn’t surf, the songs represented California, which was considered new and modern and a great place to be. Surfing, and California by extension, became more about a state of mind.
This is a very early Beach Boys song, following up their first hit “Surfin’ Safari.” Brian Wilson was gaining confidence as a producer, and this song marks the emergence of what would become the Beach Boys signature sound over the next few years. Wilson got the most of 1963 studio technology, and managed to create a sound with bright guitars and sophisticated background vocals – something he accomplished with double-tracking. Brian also used his falsetto vocals in the chorus to offset Mike Love’s lead.
Carl Wilson came up with the guitar intro, which is reminiscent of Duane Eddy’s “Moving and Grooving.” Wilson explained: “On ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.,’ Brian wanted an opening lick and I just did this Duane Eddy riff. I was worried that it had been on another record, but what the hell. That was the first time we were aware we could make a really powerful record. For the first time, we thought the group sounded good enough to be played with anything on the radio.”
Leif Garrett, who was not a surfer, but a skateboarder, recorded this in 1977 and took it to #20 in the US. Garrett was a teen idol who acted in some popular movies in the ’60s and ’70s, including Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, but got hooked on drugs and fought a heroin addiction. In 2006, after one of his arrests for heroin possession, Garrett’s mother told the New York Daily News that rock stars like The Rolling Stones were a bad influence on him and led him to drugs.
Guitarist David Marks played guitar on the Beach Boys first five albums. He recalled to I Like Music laying down this track: “The energy on the Surfin’ USA session was very upbeat and happy. That’s where that chemistry thing kicks in again… there was a certain energy on that track that was a one-of-a-kind happening. It wasn’t perfect in a technical sense, but the vibe was something special that had a lasting effect.” This was re-released in the US in 1974. It went to #36.
I was so happy that Jim Adams picked Swamp Rock for the week’s Song Lyric Sunday. It gives me a chance to share a song by probably my most favorite band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and you can’t get a swampier song than Green River. Although CCR’s music gives the impression they are from the Bayou, they are actually from California and just happen to have that great sound. Hope you enjoy it. The Woodstock video is exceptional. Fogarty doesn’t miss a beat.
The Song
This song was written by group leader John Fogerty, who explained in his Storytellers special: “Green River is really about this place where I used to go as a kid on Putah Creek, near Winters, California. I went there with my family every year until I was ten. Lot of happy memories there. I learned how to swim there. There was a rope hanging from the tree. Certainly dragonflies, bullfrogs. There was a little cabin we would stay in owned by a descendant of Buffalo Bill Cody. That’s the reference in the song to Cody Jr. [“Up at Cody’s camp I spent my days…”]
The actual specific reference, Green River, I got from a soda pop-syrup label. You used to be able to go into a soda fountain, and they had these bottles of flavored syrup. My flavor was called Green River. It was green, lime flavored, and they would empty some out over some ice and pour some of that soda water on it, and you had yourself a Green River.”
John Fogerty has said that Green River is his favorite Creedence Clearwater Revival album, in part because it sounds like the ’50s albums by the likes of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash that came out of Sun Records in Memphis.
Asked about his song writing by Mojo magazine, John Fogerty replied: “More common is me fooling around on the guitar coming up with a riff or a lick or even just a tone which sparks some kind of creativity. Your mind gets a vibe, like the lick for ‘Green River’ – that’s what it sounded like, a green river, ha ha. And that was a title I had carried around since I was about eight years old.”
Well, take me back down where cool water flows, y'all
Oh, let me remember things I love
Stoppin' at the log where catfish bite
Walkin' along the river road at night
Barefoot girls dancin' in the moonlight
I can hear the bullfrog callin' me, oh
Wonder if my rope's still hangin' to the tree
Love to kick my feet way down the shallow water
Shoo fly, dragon fly, get back to your mother
Pick up a flat rock, skip it across Green River
Well
Up at Cody's camp I spent my days, Lord
With flat car riders and cross-tie walkers
Old Cody Junior took me over
Said, "You're gonna find the world is smoldering
And if you get lost, come on home to Green River"
Well
Come on home
Writer/s: John Cameron Fogerty
Publisher: CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
This week’s music prompt for Song Lyric Sundayis Bubblegum Pop which is very similar to last week’s Sunshine Pop. Both genres go back to the late 60s so I have come up with Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes by Edison Lighthouse. An English pop band, formed in London in 1969. The band was best known for this 1970 hit recorded in late 1969. It’s definitely Bubblegum!
The Song
The British producers Tony Macaulay and Barry Mason wrote this song with Sylvan Mason, who was Barry’s wife at the time. (Sylvan is often uncredited, but her divorce agreement provides hard evidence that she co-wrote this song and the Tom Jones hit “Delilah.”) The song is about a free spirit named Rosemary who leaves the singer besotted.
Many have claimed to be the actual Rosemary the song is about, but Sylvan Mason says that like Delilah, no such person exists. She told Songfacts: “Tony [Macaulay] came over with a melody and rough idea for a song, which title originally was ‘It’s My Heart You’ll Be Breaking Apart,’ but he said he wanted to put a girl’s name in the title because that’s what sold records in those days. The girl’s name Rosemary fitted with the title so we started the song from scratch merely using the name Rosemary”
Macaulay and Barry Mason recorded the song using session musicians. When it became a hit, they put together a band from members of the group Greefield Hammer in order to perform it live. McCaulay eventually put together another group using the Edison Lighthouse name.
A session singer named Tony Burrows sang lead. He was the voice of several studio groups, including White Plains, The Pipkins, and Brotherhood Of Man, First Class (“Beach Baby”) and the Flowerpot Men (“Let’s Go To San Francisco”). He famously appeared on one UK TV show three times in one night when three different groups (all fronted by him) were due to perform their current chart hits. He said, “I just kept changing hats.”
Why is the love growing? That’s a play on the name Rosemary, which is an herb.
She ain't got no money
Her clothes are kinda funny
Her hair is kinda wild and free
Oh, but Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me
She talks kinda lazy
And people say she she's crazy
And her life's a mystery
Oh, but Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me
There's something about her hand holding mine
It's a feeling that's fine
And I just gotta say
She's really got a magical spell
And it's working so well
That I can't get away
I'm a lucky fella
And I've just got to tell her
That I love her endlessly
Because Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me
There's something about her hand holding mine
It's a feeling that's fine
And I just gotta say
She's really got a magical spell
And it's working so well
That I can't get away
I'm a lucky fella
And I've just got to tell her
That I love her endlessly
Because Love grows where my Rosemary goes
And nobody knows like me
Fadeout:
It keeps growing every place she's been
And nobody knows like me
If you've met her, you'll never forget her
And nobody knows like me
La la la- believe it when you've seen it
Nobody knows like me
Writer/s: Roger Frederick Cook, Roger John Reginald Greenaway
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
This week’s musical genre for Song Lyric Sunday, hosted by Jim Adams, is Sunshine Pop. According to Wiki, “Sunshine pop (originally known as soft pop) is a subgenre of pop music that originated in Southern California in the mid-1960s. Rooted in easy listening and advertising jingles, sunshine pop acts combined nostalgic or anxious moods with “an appreciation for the beauty of the world”. There were certainly plenty of songs from that time that fit the Sunshine Pop category but there is one that stands out from the rest and has stood the test of time. I’m referring to “Happy Together” by The Turtles. It is as popular today as it was then being used in multiple movies and commercials over the years. I featured this about three years ago for another SLS prompt ‘Couples’.
The Song
Despite what the title implies, this is not a song about a couple in love. According to Gary Bonner, who wrote the song with Alan Gordon, the song is about unrequited love. Our desperate singer wants the girl to “imagine how the world could be so very fine,” proposing what would happen “if I should call you up.” The line in the fadeout, “How is the weather?” is when he realizes they will never be more than passing acquaintances, as he resorts to small talk to keep from bursting into tears. >> The song’s composers Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon were the bass player and drummer of the Boston area group The Magicians. Bonner became a regular member of Kenny Vance and the Planotones. Gordon, who died in 2008 at the age of 64, had songs recorded by Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa and The Lovin’ Spoonful.
Talking about how the song came together, Alan Gordon said: “I had nearly half a song already written, mostly lyric ideas, but couldn’t find the right melodic concept. The Magicians were in the middle of a week-long engagement at the Unicorn Club in Boston, and one early morning I was visiting my divorced father in nearby Ayer, Massachusetts after being up all night. I had stopped to have breakfast at the Park Street Diner in the town and was miserable with no sleep, the endless dumb gigs we were playing and having a songwriter’s block. About the only melody that was throbbing in my tired, fried brain at that hour was the time-immemorial repeated open string pattern that Allen (Jake) Jacobs, the Magician’s lead guitarist, would use as he incessantly tuned and retuned after, before, and frequently during each piece we played. Suddenly, some words began to fit and literally minutes later music and lyrics started to take shape. I excitedly and in fairness asked Jake to complete the song with me as co-writer, but he refused, saying it was all ‘too simple’ for him to be involved, so my regular partner Gary then helped me with the finishing touches. When Gary Klein at the Koppleman/Rubin office heard the result, he immediately knew the song would be perfect for the new and upbeat image being created for The Turtles, and it was his continued enthusiasm that convinced the group to record it.”
After the song was turned down by a number of groups, Bonner and Gordon recorded a demo at Regent Sound Studio with some session musicians, including guitarist Ralph Casale and bassist Dick Romoff. It was Casale who came up with the main figure which set the groove for the song. He told us: “A chord sheet was placed in front of the musicians and we immediately proceeded to put this song together. I came up with what I considered and called a Lovin’ Spoonful feel. I created the figure and all the other musicians including Bonner and Gordon immediately understood the direction. The vocal arrangements fell into place very nicely. Regent Sound was an excellent studio so the demo sounded like a finished product. I later told everybody, ‘I just heard a hit record.’ As Aunt Flo put it, the original demo was phenomenal. In fact the Turtles’ recording sounds as though they used the basic demo track and overdubbed horns. The Bonner/Gordon vocal arrangement sounded a lot like the hit record also.”
The Turtles were formed by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. They were saxophone players who did whatever was trendy in order to make a living as musicians. They played surf-rock, acoustic folk, whatever was big at the time, and in addition to their own bands, played backup for The Coasters, Sonny And Cher and The Righteous Brothers. After a while, they gave up sax and became singers, signing a deal with White Whale Records as The Crosswind Singers. When British groups like The Beatles took over America, they tried to pass themselves off as British singers and renamed themselves The Tyrtles. The record company made them change the name to The Turtles, and tried to make them sound like The Byrds, who were leaders of the folk-rock trend. Like The Byrds had done before, The Turtles recorded a Bob Dylan song for their first single – “It Ain’t Me Babe.” They had a few more minor hits, and recorded the original version of “Eve Of Destruction,” which became a #1 hit for Barry McGuire. They recorded some gloomy songs that completely flopped, so they decided to try some happier songs. After many other artists passed on “Happy Together,” The Turtles decided to record it in an effort to change their image once again.
Imagine me and you, I do
I think about you day and night, it's only right
To think about the girl you love and hold her tight
So happy together
If I should call you up, invest a dime
And you say you belong to me, and ease my mind
Imagine how the world could be, so very fine
So happy together
I can't see me lovin' nobody but you
For all my life
When you're with me, baby, the skies'll be blue
For all my life
Me and you, and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together
I can't see me lovin' nobody but you
For all my life
When you're with me, baby, the skies'll be blue
For all my life
Me and you, and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba
Me and you, and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together
So happy together
And how is the weather?
So happy together
We're happy together
So happy together
Happy together
So happy together
So happy together
Writer/s: Alan Gordon, Garry Bonner
Publisher: BMG Rights Management
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Welcome to another Song Lyric Sunday. Our prompt for this week is Yacht Rock, suggested by John Holton from the blog The Sound of One Hand Typing. I suppose Yacht Rock is a ritzier name for Soft Rock and it’s a genre with plenty of easy listening to choose from. I have picked a Boz Skaggs song that i like called Lowdown. I hear it frequently on the playlists,
The Song
Scaggs wrote this song with the keyboard player David Paich, who would later form the band Toto and write many of their hits. “Lowdown” was the first song that Scaggs and Paich wrote together; it was Silk Degrees producer Joe Wissert who put them together.In a Songfacts interview with Boz Scaggs, he explained: “We took off for a weekend to this getaway outside of LA where there was a piano and stayed up all night banging around ideas. We hit on ‘Lowdown,’ and then we brought it back to the band and recorded it. We were just thrilled with that one. That was the first song that we attempted, and it had a magic to it.”
This was the second single released from Silk Degrees. The first was “It’s Over,” which charted at a modest #38 in May 1976. Scaggs had little name recognition at the time, and sales were stagnant for the album until an R&B radio station in Cleveland started playing “Lowdown.” Other stations followed suit, and it quickly became clear that the song had crossover appeal and hit potential. Scaggs’ label, CBS, released it as a single and it climbed to #3 on the Hot 100 in October, spurring sales of the album along the way.
The song is about a girl who doesn’t appreciate what her man gives her. The “dirty lowdown” is the honest truth – what Scaggs is encouraging this poor sap to face.The word “Lowdown” was popular slang meaning a summary of what’s going on for real. The first Hot 100 entry with the term in the title came in 1969 with the instrumental “Lowdown Popcorn” by James Brown (#41, 1969). Next came Chicago’s song “Lowdown” (#35, 1971).
Along with keyboard player David Paich, two other future Toto members also played on this track: drummer Jeff Porcaro and bass player David Hungate. The Silk Degrees marked the first time that Scaggs used these studio pros, and it was also his first album produced by Joe Wissert, who was a staff producer at Columbia Records who had previously worked with Earth, Wind & Fire.The crew for the album found just the right sound, a disco-blend that could play in dance clubs and pool halls. Scaggs credits Wissert for giving him and the other musicians plenty of freedom in the studio, resulting in one of the most successful albums of the ’70s – Silk Degrees went on to sell over five million copies.
This won the Grammy for Best R&B Song of 1976, making Scaggs the first white artist to win the award (Leo Sayer was the second, taking the trophy the next year for “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.”)
The producers of Saturday Night Fever asked to use this in their movie, but Scaggs’ manager turned them down and instead used it in the movie Looking For Mr. Goodbar. Not a good move – Saturday Night Fever became one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.
When the actor Rob Lowe started a podcast in 2020, he wanted to call it Lowe Down and use this song as the theme, but getting the rights proved too expensive. He went with Literally! for the title, a reference to something his Parks And Recreation character, Chris Traeger, often said.
Courtesy of Songfacts
The Lyrics
Baby's into running around
Hanging with the crowd
Putting your business in the street
Talking out loud
Saying you bought her this and that
And how much you done spent
I swear she must believe it's all heaven sent
Hey boy you better bring the chick around
To the sad, sad truth the dirty lowdown
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Taught her how to talk like that
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Gave her that big idea
Nothin' you can't handle
Nothin' you ain't got
Put your money on the table
And drive it off the lot
Turn on that old love light
And turn a "maybe" to a "yes"
Same old schoolboy game got you into this mess
Hey son, better get back on to town
Face the sad old truth, the dirty lowdown
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Put those ideas in your head
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Yeah
Come on back down, little son
Dig the low, low, low, low, lowdown!
You ain't got to be so bad, got to be so cold
This dog eat dog existence sure is getting old
Got to have a Jones for this
Jones for that
This runnin' with the Joneses, boy, just ain't where it's at, no, no
You gonna come back around
To the sad, sad truth, the dirty lowdown
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Got you thinking like that, boy
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who
Said I wonder, wonder, wonder, I wonder who
Oh, look out for that lowdown (ohh, I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
That dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty lowdown
Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who
Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who
Got you thinkin' like that
Got you thinkin' just like that
(Ooh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who)
Lookin' that girl in the face is so sad
I'm ashamed of you
I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who
Writer/s: Boz Scaggs, David Paich
Publisher: CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Spirit Music Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
The genre for this week’s Song Lyric Sundayis New Wave. Thank you to our host, Jim Adams, for the prompt. New Wave Music really came into its own in the early 80s with a rush of new bands. It was cool and chic and the bands had a definite new look and sound. The use of synthesizers became more prominent. One of my favorite bands at that time was Tears For Fears. Their biggest and most recognizable song is “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”. It has been covered many times over the 30 plus years since its release, by different artists and featured in TV shows and movies, Most recently it was featured in the Budweiser video for The FIFA World Cup theme “The World is Yours To Take” by Lil Baby and Tears For Fears (See end of post for video)
The Song
This song is about the quest for power, and how it can have unfortunate consequences. In an interview with Mix magazine, the band’s producer Chris Hughes explained that they spent months working on “Shout,” and near the end of the sessions, Roland Orzabal came into the studio and played two simple chords on his acoustic guitar, which became the basis for the song. Said Hughes: “‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ was so simple and went down so quickly, it was effortless, really. In fact, as a piece of recording history, it’s bland as hell.”
This was the first US #1 hit for Tears for Fears. “Shout” went to #1 two months later.
“Everybody Wants To Rule The World” is a line from the 1980 Clash song “Charlie Don’t Surf.” Did Tears for Fears lift it? Joe Strummer of The Clash thought so. He recounted a story to Musician magazine about confronting Roland Orzabal in a restaurant, informing Orzabal that “you owe me a fiver.” Strummer said that Roland reached in his pocket and produced a five pound note, ostensibly as compensation for poaching the line for his hit title.
Although musically this is quite a jangly and catchy song, its lyrical theme is actually pretty dark. “The concept is quite serious – it’s about everybody wanting power, about warfare and the misery it causes,” Curt Smith of Tears For Fears explained on the band’s website.
Dennis Miller used this over the closing credits of his HBO TV show, which ran from 1994-2002.
Curt Smith did a solo, acoustic version of this for the soundtrack to The Private Public, a 2001 movie where he made his acting debut.
The song was covered by Lorde for the Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack, which was released by Republic. She reworked Tears for Fears’ tune into a haunting dirge, bringing out its inherent darkness. The label’s executive VP Tom Mackay explained to Billboard magazine that the New Zealand singer-songwriter was wrapping her Pure Heroine album at the time tracks were being solicited for the soundtrack. “There was not time for her to write a demo, submit it and come back after changes [are requested],” Mackay said. “Like a lot of songs on this album, it’s an artistic leap. When we heard it, we were amazed how she reshaped it-it’s hard not to think about President Snow and the Capitol in the film and in the book.”
In a season 2 episode of the TV series Mr. Robot, the character Angela Moss (Portia Doubleday) sings a plaintive karaoke version of this song as she struggles through a moral crisis. “You really have a desire to rule the world?” a guy asks her when she comes to the bar. “Oh, my desires go way beyond that,” she replies.
The band had trouble getting into the original incarnation of the song, which featured the lyric “everybody wants to go to war.” When it was changed to the title phrase, everything clicked. “Once we got those lyrics, it was a joyful song,” Orzabal explained.
Tears For Fears spent most of 1985 touring in support of the Songs From The Big Chair album. It took so much out of them physically and emotionally, they didn’t go back to work until a few years later, finally emerging in 1989 with their album The Seeds Of Love. Curt Smith explained in Outlook magazine: “We soon realized that touring isn’t much fun with a bunch of drum machines and sequencers. We didn’t get into the music business to be computer programmers. I did it to be a musician! On that tour, I just went out and did the album for nine months. If people wanted to hear the album, they could’ve stayed home and listened to it.”
This was used in the 1985 movie Real Genius, about a group of teen geniuses, led by Val Kilmer, who try to foil their professor’s plot to sell their high-powered laser to the military. It was also featured in the 1997 comedy Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, starring Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino, the 2015 NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton and the ’80s-themed Steven Spielberg film Ready Player One (2018).
This was featured in several TV shows, including ER (“Sharp Relief,” 1998), Cold Case (“Greed,” 2004), Malcolm in the Middle (“Lois Battles Jamie,” 2005), Numb3rs (“Hot Shot,” 2006), Brothers & Sisters (“States of the Union,” 2007), The Wire (“React Quotes,” 2008), Medium (“But for the Grace of God,” 2008), Psych (“A Nightmare on State Street,” 2014), and Riverdale (“Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Midnight Club,” 2018).
Because “Shout” was the group’s first single in the rest of the world, Tears For Fears thought it should also be their first release in the US, but the record label insisted “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” was better suited for their American debut. “Which is interesting in retrospect,” Smith told Consequence of Sound, “because it was one of those times when the record company was right and we were wrong, because for America, yes, it was a better first single.”
The 30th anniversary re-release of the album contains a few different versions of the song, including a live performance from Canada’s Massey Hall, an alternate single, and an instrumental rendition. Smith said of the instrumental: “When you strip a vocal off a track, you get to then appreciate how that track was built because you’re just listening to the elements of the music behind it.”
Gloria Gaynor and the Glee Cast are among the artists to cover this song. Weezer included it on their 2019 covers collection known as The Teal Album.
In 2016, the musician Ted Yoder played this in his backyard on a hammered dulcimer. Streamed to Facebook Live, it got over 100 million views, earning Yoder the title, “Dulcimer Dad.”
Welcome to your life
There's no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you
Acting on your best behaviour
Turn your back on mother nature
Everybody wants to rule the world
It's my own design
It's my own remorse
Help me to decide
Help me make the most
Of freedom and of pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world
There's a room where the light won't find you
Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down
When they do I'll be right behind you
So glad we've almost made it
So sad they had to fade it
Everybody wants to rule the world
I can't stand this indecision
Married with a lack of vision
Everybody wants to rule the world
Say that you'll never, never, never, never need it
One headline why believe it?
Everybody wants to rule the world
All for freedom and for pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world
Writer/s: Christopher Merrick Hughes, Ian Stanley, Roland Orzabal
Publisher: BMG Rights Management, Songtrust Ave, Tratore, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Jim Adams, our host for Song Lyric Sunday, has given us Country Music this week. Being a big city girl I was never really into country music growing up. I was not familiar with it at all. However after living in Texas for a number of years, I opened my senses to it and was pleasantly surprised. In recent years country has a lot of crossover into other genres and has an immense appeal to most audiences. I am sharing a song by an artist I really like. Her style combines elements of Bluegrass, Appalachian, Folk and Country. I think this particular choice fits the bill for today. It is Gillian Welch singing ‘The Way It Goes’
The Song
I was unable to find any background for the writing of The Way It Goes but being a country song it tells its own story.
The song is from the album The Harrow & the Harvest. The fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Gillian Welch. It was Welch’s first album in eight years and was released on June 28, 2011. The album was nominated for Best Folk Album for the 54th Grammy Awards.
The eight years since the release of 2003’s Soul Journey marked the longest period of time between album releases for Welch. In explaining the relatively long recording absence, Welch said, “The sad truth is we never liked anything enough to put it out, which is not a pleasant place to be.” She added, “over the course of that time that we were quiet we probably had enough songs to put out two or three records. Actually we made a few tentative steps at trying to record, but inevitably the heart would go out of it when we realized that we simply didn’t like the material enough to go on with it.” Welch frequently performed the song “The Way It Will Be” in years prior to the release of the album. Welch explains that this tense time period inspired the album title: “Our songcraft slipped and I really don’t know why. It’s not uncommon. It’s something that happens to writers. It’s the deepest frustration we have come through, hence the album title.”[3] The writing process involved “this endless back and forth between the two of us,” Welch said, stating that “It’s our most intertwined, co-authored, jointly-composed album.” John Dyer Baizley provided artwork for the album.
A blast from the past is the prompt from Jim Adams, the host of Song Lyric Sunday. He has asked us to find a song from the Mersey Beat era of the 60s. There are so many that came out of Liverpool at that time, including the Beatles, but for me one that song that describes the feeling of the time is ‘Ferry Cross The Mersey” by Gerry and the Pacemakers. Gerry Marsden wrote the song.
The first video below was remastered in stereo and the second is the original song. Hope you enjoy them.
Wishing you all a Happy Holiday Season!
The Song
The Mersey Ferry runs along the Mersey river from Liverpool to the Wirral Peninsula in England. It still runs, but these days is mostly a tourist attraction. Written by lead singer Gerry Marsden, the song is a nostalgic look at the area where he is from.
The music played by bands from the Liverpool area around this time became known as the “Mersey Sound.” This song came to symbolize the style, which was made famous by The Beatles and The Kinks. In 1965, Gerry & the Pacemakers starred in a film called Ferry Cross The Mersey, which was based on this song. The song and the film took off together. The song reached the top ten in the UK in 1964 and in the USA in 1965. Many years later, the life of frontman Gerry Marsden was re-created in a stage musical, also called Ferry Cross the Mersey. The musical opened in Liverpool and was staged elsewhere, including Australia and the USA.
“Ferry Cross The Mersey” was remade in May 1989 as a charity version to help those affected by the Hillsborough disaster, which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool football fans. Featuring Gerry Marsden and other Liverpool stars such as Paul McCartney, The Christians, and Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Holly Johnson, it reached #1 in the UK and raised millions of pounds.
Fun Facts
The Mersey is a famous river in Liverpool, England, a city in which the Beatles began their musical career. But this song was begun by another group of Merseyside musicians called Gerry and the Pacemakers. “Ferry Cross the Mersey” was produced by George [now Sir George] Martin, who was responsible for almost all of the records recorded by The Beatles.
You can still catch the Mersey ferry and cross the river Mersey today. It sails from Birkenhead into Liverpool. And as sometimes happens with song lyrics, there is a dispute as to whether the word is “cross” or “across.” Some people write “Ferry, ‘Cross the Mersey,” meaning “across” the river, but the correct version is “cross.” It’s a command or request to the ferry captain meaning, “Please cross the Mersey.”
The Lyrics
Life goes on day after day
Hearts torn in every way
So ferry 'cross the Mersey
'Cause this land's the place I love
And here I'll stay
People, they rush everywhere
Each with their own secret care
So ferry 'cross the Mersey
And always take me there
The place I love
People around every corner
Seem to smile and say
We don't care what your name is, boy
We'll never turn you away
So I'll continue to say
Here I always will stay
So ferry 'cross the Mersey
'Cause this land's the place I love
And here I'll stay
And here I'll stay
Here I'll stay
Writer/s: Gerrard Marsden
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Courtesy of Songfacts
It’s Motown Week at Song Lyric Sunday! I have chosen an old favorite by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Ooo Baby Baby. It’s such a sexy break up/make up smoochy song. I love it.
Have a great Sunday.
The Song
The song is about cheating, with the singer apologizing for stepping out on his girl and letting her know that he’s all torn up about it. Robinson insists it isn’t autobiographical.
When Smokey Robinson appeared on American Idol in 2009, he said that this song came about by accident. The Miracles used to sing a medley of love songs on stage, and at the end of the medley (a song called “Please Say You Want Me” by the Schoolboys) he broke off into singing “ooh, baby baby.” The Miracles were so in tune that the other members started harmonizing with him, and the crowd went crazy. They incorporated this bit into their live act, then used it as the basis for the song when they decided to record it.
Smokey Robinson wrote this with fellow Miracle Pete “Warren” Moore. It is now considered the Miracles’ signature song.
According to the Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs, “Robinson called this ballad his ‘National anthem,’ noting, ‘Wherever we go, it’s the one song that everybody asks for.'”
This is one of the most confusingly credited songs of all time; the title sometimes appears as “Ooo Baby Baby” instead of “Ooh Baby Baby,” and the group alternately listed as The Miracles or Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. We’ve even seen a demo 45 where the song is listed as “Oo Baby Baby.”
On most compilation albums, the song is listed as “Ooo Baby Baby.”
It is officially published as “Ooh Baby Baby,” with the alternate titles covering all the permutations:
Linda Ronstadt, who also covered the Miracles song “The Tracks Of My Tears,” released a version of this song that went to #7 US in 1979. The Five Stairsteps also charted with the song, taking it to #63 US in 1967. Other popular versions are by Shalamar, Sylvester and Ella Fitzgerald. John Lennon, a huge fan of American soul music, copped the “I’m Crying” line in “I Am The Walrus” from the refrain in this song.
Lenny Kravitz covered the song for his 2014 Strut album. Kravitz told The Daily Telegraph that he rarely does covers, but an unexpected blast of this tune left him wanting to record it. “One morning early I was having my make up done for Hunger Games and the make-up artist was listening to a Motown station and it came on,” he said. “I hadn’t heard it for a long time (and) it sounded so beautiful.”
Ooo la la la la
I did you wrong my heart went out to play
But in the game I lost you
What a price to pay, hey I'm crying
Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby
Mistakes I know I've made a few
But I'm only human
You've made mistakes too, I'm crying
Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby
I'm just about at the end of my rope
But I can't stop trying I can't give up hope
'Cause I feel that one day I'll hold you near
Whisper I still love you
Until that day is here I'm crying
Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby ooo
Writer/s: CLIFFORD N. BRANCH JR., PHYLLIS ROBINSON
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
