"I Put A Spell On You" (Words & Music by Jay Hawkins) Copyright 1956 (Renewed 1984) EMI Unart Catalog Inc.
It’s time for our occasional, somewhat-annual Halloween Spooktacular episode, where we pick a song appropriate to the season and see what terror awaits us. And what better way to get into the Halloween spirit than an examination (autopsy?) of the original “shock rock” song—“I Put A Spell On You” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
“I Put A Spell On You” (Words & Music by Jay Hawkins) Copyright 1956 (Renewed 1984) EMI Unart Catalog Inc.
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TRANSCRIPT:
It is time to ask the eternal question that has beguiled all of us since childhood: Trick Or Treat. That’s right, it’s time for our sort-of annual, somewhat occasional Halloween Special Edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. My name is Brad Page. I’m here on the Pantheon Podcast Network, where each episode I pick a favorite song and we deep-dive into it.
In keeping with the Halloween tradition, this time I’ve selected a seasonally appropriate track. In fact, this one is almost ground zero for over-the-top performances out of some kind of nightmare. Before there was Tobias Forge, before there was Marilyn Manson, before Alice Cooper, before Arthur Brown, there was Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and “I Put A Spell On You”.
The life of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins is one big tall tale. So much so that it’s hard to tell fact from fiction with any details of his life, at least as he told them. He made up stories about his military record; he claimed to have studied at the Ohio Conservatory of Music– there is actually no such place; and he said that he fathered 57 children, although 33 children so far have been traced back to him… so maybe that part is true.
After he was discharged from the army, where he played saxophone in the Special Services branch, he returned home to Cleveland, Ohio. He left his first wife and child– this was the first in a long line of pretty terrible treatment of women– and connected with DJ Alan Freed. From there, he hooked up with a performer named Tiny Grimes. Tiny’s schtick was to dress up like a Scottish Highlander, kilt and all. It was with Tiny Grimes that he first developed his Screamin’ Jay Hawkins personality. He eventually went solo and over time, developed the stage show that he became famous for. Leopard skin costumes, capes, voodoo imagery, carrying a skull and a stick.
He wrote and first recorded “I Put A Spell On You” in 1954, but that version wasn’t released. He did release a handful of other singles, though, but none of those were very successful. He moved from label to label, and in 1956 landed at Okeh Records, where he recorded a new version of “I Put A Spell On You”. The producer, Arnold Maxim, thought that they were playing it a little too straight, too safe, not wild enough. So he brought a few cases of beer into the studio, and when the band was suitably trashed, that’s when he pressed the record button.
The song is in 6/8 time, which you can count as two groups of three, like 123-456. And they play it with this very lumbering feel. I can picture some kind of zombie clomping out of the fog. Each footstep on the count of one and four: 123, 456.
That laugh he does there is so great.
Along with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins on vocals, the band included Mickey Baker on guitar, Ernie Hayes on piano, Al Lucas on bass, David Panama Francis on drums, Bud Johnson on baritone sax, and Sam “The Man” Taylor on tenor sax. Here’s where the sax gets to play a solo.
And there’s one more verse, and that’s it. The song is only 2 minutes and 25 seconds long. You know, back in the ‘50’s, there wasn’t a lot of time to mess around. They kept these singles real tight.
Let’s bring up his vocals here.
Now that’s an ending. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – “I Put A Spell On You”.
Initially, radio stations didn’t want to play it, probably no surprise… but over time, this song would sell a million copies and make Screamin’ Jay Hawkins the original shock-rocker. They used to call him the “Black Vincent Price”. He never really had another hit, but he milked this song for all its worth and made a whole career out of it. He performed right up until his death in February 2000 of an aneurysm.
This song has been covered over 100 times. There are many versions out there by a wide range of artists, like Credence Clearwater Revival.
That’s from their debut album back in 1968. Annie Lennox released a version in 2014.
Of course, Marilyn Manson released a version in 2005.
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown also did it back in ‘68.
Brian Ferry from Roxy Music covered it in 1993.
One of the most popular versions was by Alan Price, the keyboard player from The Animals, who went solo in 1965 and released a version of “I Put A Spell On You” in 1966 that reached number nine on the UK charts, which I believe makes it the highest charting version of this song.
My personal favorite version of the song is by Tim Curry, from “Rocky Horror” fame. He recorded a version on his 1981 album “Simplicity”.
But the most significant version, the most critically and culturally important version, was by Nina Simone. Nina was a serious artist and she brought a whole ‘nother level to this song. She released her version in 1965.
Nina Simone, one of the many versions of “I Put A Spell On You”. Thanks for being a part of this Halloween edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. Join us here on the Pantheon Podcast Network in two weeks for another new episode. Until then, you can listen to all of our previous episodes on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or pull us up in your favorite podcast app.
Remember to support the artists that you love by buying their music, and thanks for listening to this episode on Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and “I Put A Spell On You”.
REFERENCES:
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screamin%27_Jay_Hawkins
Alan Freed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Freed
"Back In The Saddle" (Steven Tyler & Joe Perry) Copyright 1977 Music Of Stage Three, All Rights Administered by Stage Three Music US Inc.
Aerosmith were at their commercial & creative peak in 1976 when they released Rocks, a high-water mark in their career. The album opens with “Back In The Saddle”, one of their hardest-rocking songs and the perfect way to kick off their heaviest album. There’s lots to uncover in this song, so join us for this episode where we explore this classic track.
“Back In The Saddle” (Steven Tyler & Joe Perry) Copyright 1977 Music Of Stage Three, All Rights Administered by Stage Three Music US Inc.
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Save 15% off t-shirts & merch from Aerosmith and your favorite bands by using our discount code lovethatsong at OldGlory.com!
TRANSCRIPT:
It’s time to open up pandora’s box for another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I am your master of ceremonies, Brad Page, and this is the Pantheon Podcast network. Each episode of this show, I pick one of my favorite songs and we explore it together as we continue our quest to understand what makes a song great. As always, no musical skill or expertise is needed here. This show is open to anyone willing and able to listen.
Aerosmith, one of the greatest American bands, was supposed to be on their final tour, going out in style. But singer Steven Tyler suffered a serious vocal injury last year. They had to delay the tour, rescheduling it a couple of times, but sadly, they just announced last month that they have to cancel the entire tour– Steven’s injury was just too severe. And with that, Aerosmith’s career as a live, touring band came to an abrupt end. Unfortunately, the band will not be back in the saddle again. So I thought it would be fitting to revisit this classic track from one of their greatest albums. This is Aerosmith with “Back In The Saddle”.
We’ve featured Aerosmith on this podcast before; we covered “Seasons Of Wither” back on episode 23, and “Kings and Queens” on episode 97. So, I’m not going to rehash the whole Aerosmith history here, but let’s just set the stage for this particular track.
In 1976, Aerosmith were riding high on the success of their third album, “Toys in the Attic”. They had just finished a lengthy tour supporting that album, and after a short break, they reconvened at the band’s rehearsal space.
The year before, 1975, the band was looking for a place to rehearse. Ray Tabano was originally their guitarist, but when he was replaced by Brad Whitford, he became sort of their assistant and their fan club manager. They sent Ray on a mission to find a new place for them to practice and kind of a home base for the band. Ray found an empty building on Pond Street in Waltham, Massachusetts, not far from Boston, which they leased, rewired, built a stage, and turned into their clubhouse. They called it “A Wherehouse”. The Wherehouse became their band office as well as their rehearsal space, and it was a place they all felt comfortable.
Producer Jack Douglas, who had produced their last two albums, was there with them, helping them to develop and work out new songs for their next album. They decided, rather than move everything into a formal studio, they would just record the album right there at the Wherehouse. So, Jack brought in the Record Plant’s remote recording truck, and he mic’d up the Wherehouse,m trying to capture that raw live sound. They spent about six weeks hammering out the songs and laying down the basic tracks. Then the band took the tapes into the Record Plant studio in New York to record the vocals and the guitar overdubs.
The finished album, dubbed “Rocks”, was released on May 14, 1976. It was their hardest-rocking album to date. In fact, looking back now at their entire catalog, it’s still the hardest rocking album that Aerosmith ever made. For many fans, this is their favorite Aerosmith album, and “Back In The Saddle” is the track that opens the record.
It was written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, was produced by Jack Douglas and the band, and was performed by Steven Tyler on vocals, Joey Kramer on drums, Brad Whitford on guitar, Tom Hamilton on bass, and Joe Perry on guitar and six string bass. Joe Perry had purchased a Fender Bass VI, which more or less plays like a regular guitar, but it’s tuned an octave lower, like a bass. If you’ve seen The Beatles “Get Back” documentary, then you’ve seen John Lennon play a Bass VI in that film. But Joe Perry was inspired to pick up a Bass VI because one of his guitar heroes, Peter Green from Fleetwood Mac, used to play one. In fact, back on episode 67 of this podcast, we explored the Fleetwood Mac track “The Green Manalishi” and talked about Peter Green and his six-string bass. Then here’s a little bit of Peter Green on his six-string bass.
So, inspired by Peter Green, Joe Perry got himself a six-string bass and started messing around with it. According to Joe himself, he was in his bedroom, lying on the floor on his back, wasted on heroin, when he came up with the riff for “Back In The Saddle”.
The song begins with a long, slow buildup. You can hear the sound of a horse galloping. According to legend, that’s Steven Tyler tapping two coconuts together, Monty Python style. I don’t know if that’s really true or not, but I like to picture that in my head.
And you can hear the horse winnying in the background of the right channel, and that launches us right into the chorus. It’s not exactly unusual for a song to start with the chorus, but it is a little uncommon.
Before we go further, let’s listen to Joe Perry’s six-string bass riff. That was the genesis of this song. That is one brutal riff.
For Stephen Tyler’s voice, Jack Douglas used a particular type of microphone referred to as a shotgun mic. Very unusual choice for a lead vocal mic. Shotgun mics are extremely directional and mostly used to focus on a sound that’s very far away. In this case, it really captures all of the rasp and the ragged edge of Tyler’s voice. It also sounds like Douglas used quite a bit of compression on this vocal track, which accentuates that even more.
While they were at the record plant working on overdubs, the idea of being back in the saddle came up. With a new album coming out, the band would be saddling up and hitting the road again. It reminded Jack Douglas of that old song by Gene Autry, “Back In The Saddle
For Steven Tyler, because he’s Steven Tyler, “back in the saddle” meant having sex with his girlfriend again. But he took these ideas and his notepad and went into the stairwell at the Record Plant. He liked to go there for some quiet and privacy, and that’s where he wrote the lyrics to this song.
You can hear the footsteps there of our main character, his spurs jangling. This was achieved by taping tambourines and bells to Steven Tyler’s boots and then recording him stomping on a piece of plywood.
He mentions the Crazy Horse Saloon and a woman named Suki Jones. He just made those names up. But sometimes characters take on a life of their own. Stephen Adler, the former drummer for Guns N’ Roses, loved this song so much, he named his band Suki Jones.
Throughout the song, there’s a couple of guitars, one on the left, one on the right channel, just making these wild noises, bending and pulling notes and wrangling with their whammy bars. There is also, very low in the mix, two other guitars, one electric and one acoustic– in fact, the acoustic might even be in Nashville tuning– that are hammering on this droning part in the background. Let’s listen to these guitars.
Let’s pick it back up at the second chorus.
That brings us to the second verse. Let’s look at some of the parts that make up the verse. First, let’s hear just the guitars. And this includes the six-string bass.
Then you have the rhythm section with Joey Kramer’s drums and Tom Hamilton playing the regular four-string bass.
All right, let’s hear that all together.
There are some guitar licks in the mix there. I believe those are played by Brad Whitford. Let’s go back and listen to those.
Let’s go back and hear those in context.
There are some really intense Steven Tyler vocals there, enhanced by the use of that microphone and the compression. Let’s hear just that vocal track peeling off.
Let’s go back and listen to the guitars that play under that chorus. And there are more of those clip-clopping steps that are mixed pretty tightly with the drums. You don’t really notice them in the final mix, but you’ll hear them clearly here.
We’ll back it up again and play into the next section.
This is one of my favorite parts of the song. There’s a harmony added to the lead vocal.
The six-string bass is playing another great part. And notice how they’ve added a flanger to it to give it that swirling sound.
The bass and drums are just really driving forward and the layered guitars are really adding a lot of texture. Notice when the acoustic guitar doubles that little descending part. Let’s hear that all together again.
We’re going to hear another chorus. And then there’s a guitar solo that’s off to one side and fairly low in the mix, but we’ll fade some of the other tracks in and out so that you can hear that guitar part a little clearer.
Steven Tyler actually yodels there. You can hear that in the left channel.
There’s more of that Steven Tyler nonsense. Obviously, they were having a lot of fun in the studio with this track. You can hear the sound of a whip cracking. They actually brought a bullwhip into the studio, trying to capture the sound of a real whip. But after a few hours of messing around with the whip, all they ended up with was some cuts and bruises with no usable sounds. So, Steven Tyler ended up whirling a microphone cable around, and they used a cap gun for the sound of the whip cracking. So let’s hear all of that, along with a little more of those backing guitar tracks.
And while all of that is going, on mostly in the left channel, there’s some nice guitar playing going on in the right. So let’s check that out.
Aerosmith – “Back In The Saddle”
Joe Perry and Brad Whifford would leave the band a few years later, Joe in 1979 and Brad in ‘81. But of course, they reunited in 1984, and Aerosmith went on to do the unthinkable: they became even bigger after their reunion.
Very few bands get a second chance at success. You can count on one hand the number of bands who achieved greater success the second time around. Aerosmith is one of them, and they maintained that success for a long time. Say what you will about Aerosmith, but what they’ve done is unprecedented.
The other thing, too, is that all five original members are still with us. There have been dangerous drug habits, overdoses, car accidents. Joe Perry even had a heart attack on stage a few years ago. But at the time of this recording, they’re all still alive. Just the fact that all five of them still walk the planet is some kind of miracle. If this truly is the end of the line, I’m gonna miss them. But they’ve left behind some incredible records and some of my favorite music of all time.
Thanks for listening to this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on the Pantheon Podcast Network. You’ll find new episodes of this show on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll see you back here in about two weeks. Until then, you can catch up on all of our previous shows on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.
We always appreciate your reviews and your comments, and please go tell a friend about this show. Your help in spreading the word is better than any advertising we could ever pay for.
In these trying times for musicians, whether they’re legacy artists or new acts, remember to support the artists you love by buying their music. And thanks for jumping “Back In The Saddle” with Aerosmith.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Aerosmith https://www.aerosmith.com/
Toys in the Attic Album https://www.allmusic.com/album/toys-in-the-attic-mw0000192339
Rocks Album https://www.allmusic.com/album/rocks-mw0000189173
Fender Bass VI https://shop.fender.com/en-US/electric-basses/other/six-string-bass/
The Beatles ‘Get Back’ Documentary https://www.disneyplus.com/series/the-beatles-get-back/4SrN28ZjDLwH
On this episode, we take a journey through the rich history of Stax Records, the iconic label that defined Southern Soul music, and I play some of my favorite Stax tracks from their earliest years– 1959 to 1963.
Stax produced some of the most unforgettable songs in music history. Join us as I spin up some of my personal favorites, featuring legends like Booker T. and the MGs, Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, The Mar-Keys and Carla Thomas. Learn about the unique sound of Stax, the community that fostered it, and the incredible music that continues to resonate today.
Save 15% off t-shirts & merch from your favorite bands by using our discount code lovethatsong at OldGlory.com!
TRANSCRIPT:
Hold on, I’m coming– it’s the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast. My name is Brad Page, here on the Pantheon Podcast Network with another edition of the show.
If you’re familiar with this podcast, then you know what we usually do here is to take a song and examine it, looking at the structure, performance and production elements that go into making a great song. But on this episode, we’re going to do something a little different. This is something we’ve never done before.
We’ve looked at specific songs, specific artists, individual albums, and music that came out during certain key years. But this time, we’re going to take a look at the releases from one particular record label– one of the most important record labels in the history of popular music: Stax Records.
I love the music that came out on Stax Records from their humble studios in Memphis, Tennessee, in my opinion, some of the greatest music ever made. So much great music that there’s no way I could cover it all in just one episode. So, this is going to be the first in an occasional series. Well come back to it now and then over the next few years. Today, we begin our exploration of Stax with a look at my favorite Stax singles from 1959 through 1963.
I imagine most people are familiar with Motown– the “Sound of Young America”, as they used to say. It was fresh, urban; the sound coming from the black communities in the northern cities. The sound coming from Stax, well, that was different. It was more raw, more sweat, the sound of southern soul music. Where Motown aspired to be uptown, Stax was down home.
It probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: This was music made primarily by, and for, Black Americans. But music this infectious, this good, couldn’t be contained. It made America a better place, and it caught the ear of people all around the world. But this is music born from segregated communities.. though it would not have been possible without black and white artists, black and white executives, working together, creating something together that was magical. But let’s be honest, it wasn’t always Kumbaya and rainbows. There were conflicts and challenges, and the limitations of integration at the time… I will leave that to the experts, the historians and the scholars. There are some fantastic books on the history of Stax, and there’s a fantastic documentary on HBO Max that I highly recommend.
The story of Stax is, like so many of our greatest stories, a story of triumph and tragedy, of serendipity and bad luck, of dreaming big and overreaching, of success and failure… and most importantly, the story of the music that has survived and outlasted it all.
And it all began in 1959 with Jim Stewart and his sister, Estelle Axton. Jim and Estelle were white, and they both worked in banking; Jim for First Tennessee, and Estelle for Union Planters Bank. But Jim’s real love was playing fiddle, which he did semi-professionally for a while. When Elvis Presley hit the big time with the records he made at Sun Studios in Memphis, well, that got Jim interested in recording. He made a few recordings, rockabilly and country stuff that didn’t really go anywhere.
But his sister Estelle mortgaged her House to buy an Ampex mono tape recorder, and she became an equal partner in the recording business. They set up their first studio, which they called “Satellite”, in Brunswick, Tennessee.
Jim Stewart didn’t really know anything about Rhythm & Blues, but somehow he got connected with a black vocal group named The Veltones, and they recorded a song at Satellite called “Fool In Love” in 1959. I don’t think it’s a particularly great song, it’s most memorable for its vibrato guitar sounds.
But that track was snatched up by Mercury Records and distributed nationally. It also brought Stewart in contact with Rufus Thomas, a singer and DJ on WDIA, the biggest black station in the area.
By now, Jim and Estelle had moved the studio into Memphis, setting up shop in an old movie theater at 926 Macklemore Avenue, in the heart of a black neighborhood. Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla Thomas came into the studio on Macklemore Ave– in fact, they were the first act to record there– and laid down the track called “Cause I Love You”. Released in August 1960, it became a hit, and set the course for the future.
“Cause I Love You” featured a 16-year-old kid named Booker T. Jones on baritone sax. Though he would soon become known as a legendary keyboard player, Booker T was part of the Stax family from the very first record cut in Memphis.
The success of “Cause I Love You” caught the attention of Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records. He reached out to Jim Stewart and made a deal for Atlantic to distribute Stax’ records. Of course, Stax wasn’t even called Stax yet; that would come later. They were still using the name Satellite.
While Jim ran the studio in the back, Estelle ran the Satellite Record Shop out front. The neighborhood kids shopped and hung out there, and Estelle would use them as a test audience for the latest single recorded out back in the studio.
With the success of “Cause I Love You, they cut a solo Carla Thomas single, a song she had written when she was 16: “Gee Whiz”.
That was the record that really put Stax (or Satellite) on the map. It reached number five on the R&B chart and number ten on the Pop chart. In retrospect, it doesn’t really sound like a Stax record. They hadn’t really discovered that sound yet. That would come about a year later with the release of an instrumental by The Mar-Keys called “Last Night”.
Released in June 1961, The Mar-Keys started out as an all white band called, ironically enough, the Royal Spades. The band included guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, trumpeter Wayne Jackson, and tenor sax player Charles “Packy” Axton, who was Estelle’s son.
When they recorded “Last Night” in the studio, they were joined by some black session players: Louis Steinberg, Curtis Green, Floyd Newman, maybe some others, making this the first integrated band at Stax. In its own way, it’s a milestone. It’s also a milestone in terms of the sound: heavy on the horns, powerful drum sound, the organ up front, and that groove.
There is no guitar on this track; Steve Cropper is actually playing keyboards along with Smoochie Smith, who takes the organ lead.
“Last Night” made it to number two on the R&B chart and number three on the Pop chart.
Around the time they were creating the sound that would become the Stax sound, they also created the Stax name. Not exactly by choice; there was another record label out in California that used the “Satellite” name first. To avoid legal trouble, they changed the name of the company. They took the first two letters from Stewart’s name (ST) and the first two letters from Estelle Axton’s last name, (AX) and created “Stax”.
One of the other producers working at Stax besides Jim Stewart was Chips Moman. He would go on to have a long, successful career as a producer, but it was these early years at Stax where he first made his mark. He signed a young singer named William Bell. Bell was also a great songwriter, and his first single for Stax was a song he wrote called “You Don’t Miss Your Water, released in November 1961. It’s a ballad in 12/8 time. If you want a deeper understanding of what 12/8 time is, go back and listen to our episode on “Somebody To Love” by Queen– we covered that time signature in detail there.
“You Don’t Miss Your Water” didn’t make much of an impact on the charts, but I think it was Stax first great soul ballad, and it’s now considered a classic.
Not every song released by Stax was a hit, and not every artist had a lasting career. Many of them, you can’t even call them “one hit wonders” because they didn’t have any hits. There were some forgettable records. Barbara Stevens recorded three singles for Stax between 1961 and 62. None of them hit, but I’ve always had a soft spot for one of them, a track called “Wait A Minute”, a fun song with a lively little vocal from Barbara. After those three singles, Barbara Stevens faded into obscurity.
Now, in 1961, Stax created a sister label, a subsidiary label called “Volt”. Radio stations could be reluctant to play too many records from one label, so it was common practice for many labels to create offshoots to get around that. So Stax had Volt. Most of the singles were released on the Stax labels, with occasional singles released on Volt. The only single released on both the Stax and the Volt labels was a little track by Booker T. And the MG’s called “Green Onions”.
One day, while waiting for another artist to show up at the studio, Booker T, Steve Cropper, Louis Steinberg, and Al Jackson Jr. started jamming on a slow blues riff, and Jim Stewart happened to record it. When they played it back, they thought it sounded pretty good. They called it “Behave Yourself” and decided it was good enough to release. Now they needed something for the other side of the single, so they took another riff that they’d been noodling around with and turned that into “Green Onions”. It was originally released August 1962 on the Volt label. Once it started selling, they reissued it on the Stax label, and it went on to hit number one on the R&B chart and number three on the Pop chart.
Booker T and his crew were really just studio cats and backing musicians, but after “Green Onions” became a smash hit, they became a band on their own. They would release several more hit records as Booker T and the MGs, as well as continue to be the backing band for many of the Stax’s artists.
Around the same time as “Green Onions” was burning up the charts, William Bell released his second single, “Any Other Way”. It never became a big hit, but stay tuned, because this song, um, will show up again on this podcast sometime next year.
Another artist who found his way to Stax in 1962 was Otis Redding. He was working with Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers, and he was actually just driving Jenkins to the session at Stax– he wasn’t even supposed to sing. But when the Jenkins session hit a dead end, they let Otis sing a couple of numbers… and one of them was “These Arms Of Mine”, and they were blown away. Jim Stewart signed Otis right away, and “These Arms Of Mine” was released on Volt in October 1962.
In January of 1963, Rufus Thomas released “The Dog”. You know when you see Rufus Thomas’ name on a record, you’re in for a good time.
Deanie Parker was a local teenage girl in a band called The Valadors. When they came in first place in a Memphis talent contest, they won an audition at Stax. They didn’t have any original songs, so Deanie went home and wrote her very first song, “My Imaginary Guy”, which became her first single. Though she never had any big hits as a singer, she continued to write songs for Stax artists like William Bell, Albert King, and Carla Thomas, and remained a Stax employee all the way until the very end. Here’s Deanie with her very first song, “My Imaginary Guy”.
May 1963, guitarist and harmonica player Eddie Kirkland, who had been a member of Otis Redding’s touring band, released a single on his own called “The Hog”, featuring Kirkland on harp. For some reason, they shortened his name to Eddie Kirk for this record. But either way, this song smokes.
Booker T and the MGs continue to release instrumental singles, including one of their best– or at least it’s one of my favorites—“Chinese Checkers” in June 1963. This one features Booker T on electric piano.
In September, Rufus Thomas was back with another “dog” song. This time it’s “Walking The Dog”. This one’s an all-time classic and would go on to be covered by many artists, including Aerosmith. But here’s the original, the one and only Rufus Thomas with “Walking The Dog”.
I love that one. And as 1963 wound down in November, Carla Thomas released “Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas”, the first, but not the last, Christmas-themed single for Stax.
And that’s where we’ll leave it for this episode. But we’ll revisit Stax again next year, because I love these songs and I love the chance to share them with you.
I want to thank Rob Bowman; he’s the guy that wrote the extensive liner notes for the Stax box sets, and that was my primary source for all the information presented in this here episode. I couldn’t have done it without him. So thanks, Mr. Bowman, for your incredible work documenting this music.
I hope this episode inspires some of you to seek out these Stax artists. It’s really great stuff, and I think an important part of American history.
Thanks for joining me for this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast. If you’d like to support the show, why don’t you head over to oldglory.com and buy yourself a t-shirt or two? They have stock on all of our favorite artists, and when you use our discount code lovethatsong, you’ll get 15% off, and we get a little kickback. So you’ll end up with some cool merch and you’ll be supporting this show. Such a deal! That’s oldglory.com and the discount code is lovethatsong.
I’ll be back in two weeks with another new episode. In the meantime, you can catch up on all of our previous episodes on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com and you can check in with us on Facebook. If you’d like to find more podcasts like this, be sure to check out the Pantheon Podcast Network, its home to our show and a ton of other great music-related podcasts. As always, I thank you for being part of this show and thanks for listening to this episode featuring my favorite tracks from Stax.
“September Gurls” (Alex Chilton) Copyright 1974 Koala Music Corporation/Almo Music Corporation, USA
One song can’t really define a whole genre, but “September Gurls” by Big Star comes pretty damn close – it IS the sound of Power Pop. Jangly guitars, plaintive vocal, angelic harmonies, all neatly wrapped up in under 3 minutes. It became a template to inspire bands as diverse as R.E.M., Cheap Trick, The Bangles, KISS, and The Replacements. Discover why Big Star is often called “the most influential band you’ve never heard of”.
“September Gurls” (Alex Chilton) Copyright 1974 Koala Music Corporation/Almo Music Corporation, USA
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TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome, seekers of knowledge and keepers of the flame. This is the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, part of the Pantheon family of podcasts. My name is Brad Page, and each edition of this podcast, I pick one of my favorite songs and we explore it together on our mission to understand how great songs come together. We don’t get into music theory here; no musical expertise is necessary. We’ll spend our time looking at the arrangements, the performances, and the production that make each song great.
Today we’ll be listening to one of the defining bands in power pop history. In fact, this is one of the defining songs of the power pop genre. People often talk about artists that were overlooked or not appreciated in their day, but went on to become legends and inspirations for future generations. Well, there is no band that exemplifies that better than this band. In fact, this band is the poster child for “the most influential band you’ve never heard of”. This is Big Star and their classic song, “September Gurls”. We covered Big Star on this podcast before, back on episode number 73, where we explored “The Ballad of El Goodo”, a song from their first album released in 1972. So, on this podcast, we’ll pick up the story where that episode left off.
They called that first album “#1 Record”, somewhat ironically, but also with high hopes– and rightly so, because that album is a masterpiece. It got great critical reviews. But there was one big problem. The album was distributed by Stax Records, and Stax was going through a rough time at that point. They didn’t have the money or the ability to promote it or distribute it properly. So even when the band got good reviews or got some radio play, people couldn’t buy the record in the stores because the stores just didn’t have it. It’s pretty hard to sell an album when it’s not on the shelf. So, the record flopped commercially.
Guitarist and singer Chris Bell, who was really the driving force behind the band up until that point, fell into a deep depression, and in November 1972, he quit the band. The remaining three members stuck together for a while, and though they never officially broke up then, they weren’t really working together either. Enter John King, who was working on promotion at Ardent Studios, which was Big Star’s home base. And he came up with this idea to hold a rock writers convention in Memphis. The critics were the one audience who had found Big Star. So, John King invited 150 rock writers and record industry people to the Holiday Inn for a two-day convention. Most of the big names and rock criticism were there. Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye, Cameron Crowe, Ed Ward, Stanley Booth– they were all there for this convention, which was really just an excuse for Big Star to play a show in front of a receptive and very influential audience. So the three remaining members played the gig, and the critics loved them. That gave the band some hope that maybe it was worth making a second album.
So the band went back to work as a three piece. Jody Stevens on drums, Andy Hummel on bass, and Alex Chilton on guitar and lead vocals. The resulting album was called “Radio City”, released in February 1974. The recording was done very efficiently with John Fry producing. The basic tracks were recorded in one, two, maybe three takes. The drums were recorded with a minimal amount of microphones, just four mics. But those mics were meticulously placed, resulting in one of the great drum sounds.
Andy Hummel primarily played a Fender Precision bass, plugged directly into the console, with some vintage tube compression applied. And Alex Chilton played a Fender Stratocaster most of the time, through either a Fender or a Hiwatt amp.
The song “September Gurls” is nestled away towards the end of side two of the album. Considering that, to many people, this song is like the ultimate Big Star song, if not the ultimate power pop song, it’s kind of shocking that it’s unceremoniously placed where it is on the record. You’d expect it to get a more prominent placement. “September Gurls”, and that’s girls spelled with a “u” – g-u-r-l-s, was written by Alex Chilton. It was performed by Alex Chilton, Jody Stevens and Andy Hummel, and produced by the band with John Fry. It clocks in at two minutes and 49 seconds. Tight, sweet, perfect. Not a second wasted.
It opens with the sound of Alex Chilton’s Fender Stratocaster mixed towards the right channel. You can hear Andy Hummels bass note come in there, too.
Now, one of the defining characteristics of power pop is what’s often described as the sound of “chiming” guitars. Well, what does that mean? What is a chiming guitar sound? Well, I submit that this is the textbook example of a “chiming guitar”. And you also hear the first few notes of another guitar part there, panned to the center. That is Alex Chilton playing a mando guitar. A mando guitar has a body shape and roughly the size of a mandolin, but it’s tuned like a guitar. It’s also a solid body electric, not an acoustic instrument. Alex will overdub parts on the mando guitar throughout the song.
And that’s it. Just those two guitar tracks, the Strat and the mando guitar. But as we play through the song, listen to how rich and full this song sounds with just those two parts.
Let’s listen to just the backing track there. The bass, drums and guitar were all recorded live, and this was actually done on the second take, with the mando guitar overdubbed. And that part is really just doing some minimal ornamentation here.
Now let’s hear that again, this time with the vocals, and we’ll play through the first chorus.
The mando guitar is playing a descending, arpeggiated part that’s simple, but just perfect. Then there’s a short little interlude before the second verse, with the mando guitar playing some fills.
Let’s listen to the bass and the drums during this verse. Again, it’s not complex, but I just really like what they’re doing here.
Now let’s spend a minute with Alex Chilton’s vocals. To me, Alex always had this wistful, plaintive ache to his voice that adds some poignancy to his vocals. Even if the lyrics aren’t particularly deep, the emotion is there.
That gets us to the bridge, or what’s often referred to as the middle eight, because typically it takes up eight bars. Although in this case, I think it’s just seven. Here’s that instrumental track, without the vocals, that segues into a guitar solo played on the mando guitar.
But what I really like here are the backing vocals. That drum fill is great. It’s just this cathartic release before the final verse. I like how all the instruments pause to let Jody Stevens become the focus for a second, before they come back in for the verse. Let’s hear that again.
Let’s bring up the vocals one more time.
I love that little vocal “woo” at the end there. Let’s play that back.
And the backing vocals return here, too. And that’s another great drum fill from Jody Stevens.
“September Gurls” by Big Star.
They released the album “Radio City” in February 1974 and hoped this time, things would go better. But they didn’t. This time it was Columbia Records who dropped the ball. They had taken over distribution, but in the end, they had no real interest in Big Star and made little, if any, attempt to support the album. It sold 10,000, maybe 20,000 copies. That’s hardly anything for a nationally released record. It disappeared, and with it went any hope of success.
Andy Hummel was the next to quit. He left and went back to college. The band played a few more gigs with John Lightman on bass, but that was it. Alex and Jody did go back into the studio to record some more tracks, which were eventually released as their third album. It was called either “Third” or “Sister Lovers”, depending on which version you got. That is a profoundly strange album. Nothing like the first two, but for some people, that’s their favorite Big Star album.
Chris Bell, the original guitarist, singer, and songwriter for Big Star, died in a car accident on December 27, 1978. Unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough to see the band that he put his heart and soul into finally get its due in the mid-nineties.
Alex and Jody reformed Big Star, released some live albums and cut an album of all new material in 2005. Alex Chilton died of a heart attack on March 17, 2010. Andy Hummel, who didn’t participate in the reunion, passed away from cancer on July 19, 2010.
But at the time of this recording, Jody Stevens is still with us, still playing drums, and he’s now the CEO of Ardent Studios.
There’s a pretty decent documentary about Big Star, it’s called “Nothing Can Hurt Me”, which I’m sure is available on one of the streaming services. If you’d like to know more about Big Star, check it out.
And thanks for checking out this episode of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. A new episode will be coming your way very soon, and all of our previous episodes, including the other one on Big Star, they’re all available on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com.
This is the part where I’m supposed to tell you to leave a review of the show and to “like and subscribe” to the show. I guess if you’ve never listened to a podcast before, then you wouldn’t know the drill, but I think you all know what to do. Sharing the show with your friends really does help, though, so that’d be great.
We are part of the Pantheon podcast network, home of the greatest music related podcasts. Thanks for listening to this episode on Big Star and “September Gurls”.
“Happy” (Jay Bennett, Ken Hartz, Michael Trask, Lars Gustafsson) Copyright 1991 Virgin Music, Inc./Say Jim Music (ASCAP)
Titanic Love Affair never got a big break and flew under the radar with a couple of albums before calling it quits. On this episode, we explore a song by this underappreciated band—a supremely catchy number called “Happy” that shoulda been a contender. Join us in appreciation for this song, this band, and the late, great Jay Bennett.
“Happy” (Jay Bennett, Ken Hartz, Michael Trask, Lars Gustafsson) Copyright 1991 Virgin Music, Inc./Say Jim Music (ASCAP)
Hey, thanks for showing up once again to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast– the party never stops here on the Pantheon Podcast Network, home of the earth’s mightiest music podcasts. I’m your host, Brad Page. And as always, I’ve picked a song and we’ll be exploring it together, discovering what makes it a great song.
All guests are welcome at this party. You don’t have to be a musician or have any musical knowledge to get something out of the show. If you’ve got ears, this show has got something for you.
Great music and great songs aren’t measured by sales or chart positions. Despite what American Idol would lead you to believe, music is not a popularity contest. There are thousands of great songs, really great songs that most people have never heard and will probably never hear. So it’s up to us– you and me– to play them and share them.
Case in point: on this episode, we’re listening to an overlooked band that released a couple of albums in the nineties and then moved on. But what they did release, I think, was a cut above most of what came out during that time. This is Titanic Love Affair and a song called “Happy”.
I missed out on Titanic Love Affair the first time around. The first time I heard them was on the “Rock And/Or Roll Podcast”. Yeah, that’s right– It was thanks to Brian Cramp and his podcast that turned me on to this band. So, if you really want to know the whole history and story behind Titanic Love Affair, go and check out that episode of the Rock And/Or Roll podcast– it’s episode number 245. You can listen to it on their blogspot page. I’ll also put a link to that show in the show notes. It’s a great podcast. Check it out.
But just to sum things up here: the band came out of Illinois in the late eighties. Initially, they were a three piece, but by the time they signed with the Charisma label in 1991, they were a four piece, with Jay Bennett on guitars and vocals, Ken Hartz on lead vocals and guitar, Lars Gustafson on bass, and Michael Trask on drums. If the name Jay Bennett sounds familiar to you, it’s because he was a member of Wilco and was a key contributor to three of their best albums: “Being There”, “Summer Teeth” and “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”. But he was fired from the band after that album was released, which is all captured on film in the documentary about Wilco. “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”. And that documentary is worth watching, too.
But back in the early nineties, Bennett was still a member of Titanic Love Affair. They released one album on Charisma, the self-titled album “Titanic Love Affair”. Then the Charisma label folded, and the band was dropped or released from their contract. Then they released a five-song EP on an indie label. That EP was called “No Charisma”. Then the band split up around 1994.
But there was one last collection of previously unreleased stuff that came out in ‘96. That album’s called “Their Titanic Majesty’s Request”. These guys had great album titles.
We’re going to listen to a song from that first self-titled album, a song called “Happy”. The song is credited to all four band members, Jay Bennett, Ken Hartz, Michael Trask and Lars Gustafson. And it was produced by Alby Galuten.
The song begins with a quick snare drum fill, and then the whole band comes in. Sounds to me like there are two guitars, one panned left, one right, but they’re playing so tightly together, it almost sounds like one guitar sometimes. This is a really energetic, spirited part, melodic. It just lifts me up as soon as I hear it. And that leads us right into the first verse.
All right, let’s take a look at the first part of this verse. For the vocals, there’s a lead and a harmony part on most of it. There’s also a little bit of echo on the vocals.
When the band started, Jay Bennett was their lead singer, but apparently he blew his voice out and didn’t want to sing anymore, so Ken Hartz took over the lead vocals. And I think his voice is perfect for a song like this.
Now let’s have a listen to Michael Trask’s drums. For the first part of this verse, he’s playing on the floor tom and the snare, a rollicking beat that really drives the song forward. But when they hit the second part of the verse, he’s going to switch from the floor tom to the hi hat.
That brings us to the first chorus. And this is just a great chorus.
The vocal melody and the guitar parts really complement each other. First, let’s listen to just the electric guitar parts again. There’s one on the left and one on the right.
Now let’s hear all the instrumental parts. And this time listen for the arpeggiated part in the left channel. Higher pitched, with a cleaner tone. It stands out against the other guitar parts. And to me, this is the secret sauce. That little bit of extra “pixie dust” on the chorus that really adds something special. Let’s put that all back together and finish up with the rest of the chorus.
A nice little bass lick there that leads right into the last part of the chorus. I particularly like what the guitars are doing here, so let’s listen to that first. Listen to how they play off of each other and how they kind of rhythmically ping pong back and forth.
Now let’s go back and hear that. See how it all fits together in the final mix.
Here’s the second verse, and this time let’s listen to what the guitars are doing during the verse.
Let’s hear the vocals on this chorus.
Nice little drum fill there. And that leads us into a guitar break. There’s a cool little harmony guitar part at the end there. You know, one of the knocks against Titanic Love Affair was that they were just a second-rate version of The Replacements. I think that’s pretty unfair. I love The Replacements. I mean, this show is named after a Replacements song, but I think the musicianship here is just a notch above. Things like this, The Replacements just wouldn’t have done.
And that takes us back into a version of the introduction again. It’s a great melodic guitar part. There’s another nice little drum fill, and he’s going to go back to playing the floor tom here on the last verse. Not many guitar fills in this song, but there’s one right there. After that, there’s going to be a break before they continue with the verse. It’s the first time they’ve done that on this song. It’s always smart songwriting to add something new, something unexpected for the listener.
And notice how there’s a little bit of guitar feedback that swells up in the background before they continue with the verse.
And we haven’t listened to the bass and drums together yet, so let’s hear a little bit of that on this last verse.
Now for the ending, there’s a short guitar solo over a new section. These chord changes don’t appear anywhere else in the song. Right at the end, they’re throwing something new at you. Check it out.
“Happy” by Titanic Love Affair.
After the band split up, I’m not really sure where most of the guys ended up. Lars Gustafson was in a band called Mother May I? But I don’t know what happened to Ken Hartz or Michael Trask.
Jay Bennett, as we mentioned before, landed a gig in Wilco, but after three albums, he was let go. Wilco has always been Jeff Tweedy’s band, and I think Jay was just pushing a little too hard. Bennett was supposed to play a reunion gig with Titanic Love Affair in May of 2009, but Bennett never showed up to the gig. Bennett had died in his sleep. He was in desperate need of hip replacement surgery, but he couldn’t afford it. Like most musicians, he couldn’t afford a healthcare plan. He was trying to manage the pain with a fentanyl patch, and he died of an accidental overdose. In fact, though I don’t think we’ll ever know for certain, his death may have been caused by a defective patch that leaked and caused the overdose.
If we had real, affordable healthcare in this country, Jay Bennett would probably still be alive today.
I want to thank you for joining me once again here on the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. Our journey continues, and we’ll be back in about two weeks with another new episode. In the meantime, you can find all of our previous episodes on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com. Or just look for us in your favorite podcast app. And after that, if you’re still looking for even more music related podcasts, be sure to check out the other shows here on the Pantheon Podcast Network.
If you’re inclined to support the show, well, the best thing you can do is just tell a friend about it, share it with all your music loving friends, because your word-of-mouth and recommendations really do mean a lot.
I will see you back here soon with another new episode. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode on Titanic Love Affair and “Happy”.
REFERENCES:
Rock and or Roll Podcast http://rockandorrollpodcast.blogspot.com/
Wilco https://wilcoworld.net/
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart Documentary https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327920/
“A Hard Day’s Night” (Lennon/McCartney) Copyright 1964 Sony/ATV Music Publishing
60 years ago—July 1964 in the UK, August 1964 in the US—The Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night was unleashed, driving Beatlemania to even greater heights. Accompanying the film was the album of the same name, and its classic title cut. One of The Beatles’ finest singles, “A Hard Day’s Night” features all the elements that made The Beatles so special. On this episode, we break down this legendary track to see what makes it such a great song.
“A Hard Day’s Night” (Lennon/McCartney) Copyright 1964 Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Take advantage of our discount code lovethatsong and save 15% off t-shirts & merch from your favorite bands at OldGlory.com!
TRANSCRIPT: Whether you’ve been working like a dog, or sleeping like a log. It’s time for another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I’m your host, Brad Page, and twice a month here on the Pantheon podcast network, I pick one of my favorite songs, and we explore it together to discover what makes it a great song. You don’t have to be a musician, or know anything about music theory; we don’t get too technical here. All that’s needed are your ears and a little curiosity.
Back on August 11, 1964– 60 years ago this month– The Beatles film “A Hard Day’s Night” debuted in America; it came out a month earlier in the UK. It’s a watershed moment in rock history, and the film is still as alive and fun today as it was 60 years ago. So we’re going to celebrate the anniversary of this classic with an exploration of the title song. A high point in the Beatles career all on its own. “A Hard Day’s Night”.
There was a tradition of pop stars performing in movies; Elvis made a whole career out of it, so it was natural for The Beatles to have their own film. Of course, being the Beatles, they weren’t going to settle for just any knockoff, formulaic film.
Their manager, Brian Epstein, signed a deal with United Artists in October 1963 for three films. For the first movie, Alan Owen was hired as the scriptwriter and Richard Lester as the director.
They started filming on March 6, 1964, and wrapped by April 24. Now, I’m not going to give you a breakdown of the script or the film, because I expect you’ve already seen it, probably multiple times. And if you haven’t seen it, please stop this podcast right now and go watch the movie. Seriously, it’s a classic!
So, the Beatles needed a bunch of new songs to perform in the film. Between the constant touring, performing, TV appearances, and acting in the film itself, there was limited time and a lot of pressure to write the new material. By mid-April, they were getting close to the end of filming, but they still didn’t have a title or a theme song for the movie.
Now, the familiar story is that one day, Ringo blurted out, “it’s been a hard day’s night”. And that’s where the title came from. However, in John Lennon’s book, “In His Own Write”, a book of short stories and poems, there’s one story called “Sad Michael”, which includes the phrase “a hard day’s night”. That book was published in March 1964, during the time that they were filming the movie, so it had to have been written sometime before that. So, who really came up with “A Hard Day’s Night” first, we don’t really know.
On April 13, director Richard Lester announces that the title of the film will be “A Hard Day’s Night”, but they still need the song. So, John Lennon goes home, and the next day– apparently he didn’t have any scrap paper available, so he grabs a leftover birthday card from his son Julian’s birthday, and on the back of that card, he scribbles down the first draft of the lyrics to “A Hard Day’s Night”.
They begin recording the song on April 16, only three days after the title was even decided. They start recording at EMI Studios, otherwise known as Abbey Road, in studio number two. They start recording, working on the basic tracks, with John playing his acoustic guitar, the Gibson J 160 E; George is on twelve-string, playing his Rickenbacker 360-12; Paul is on bass with his classic Hofner 501; and Ringo is playing his Ludwig Super Classic kit, the one with the Oyster Black Pearl finish, to be exact. John takes the lead vocals on the verses, while Paul takes lead on the bridge or middle eight. They were recording on a four-track tape machine, so the basic tracks were laid down with the twelve-string bass and drums on track one and the lead vocals and acoustic guitar together on track two. They record about nine takes this way. Let’s have a quick listen to take #1.
You can hear they’re still working out the details on the parts and the vocals there. They eventually decide that take number nine is the keeper. But let’s go back and listen to a little bit of take #6 & 7.
Now, before we go any further, we have got to talk about that opening chord– maybe the most famous opening chord in history. Now, that was part of the song from the very start. If you go back and listen to take #1 from the beginning, that chord is there; it’s not something that was an afterthought or that they came up with later. It was part of the song from the very beginning. Whether that was something that John brought in, or maybe Paul or George or even George Martin contributed, it was always a key element from the song right from the start.
But that chord has always been a bit of a mystery, a source of great debate as to what exactly they’re playing here. Well, I’m not the one to definitively answer this question, but based on quite a bit of research, this is what I think is happening here. Let’s start with George Harrison’s part. There’s always been a question on exactly what chord he’s playing, but, well, let’s ask the man himself:
GEORGE HARRISON: “To answer your question, it’s F with a G on the first string, your little finger. Sounds better on a twelve string.”
So, there you go. That’s what’s called an Fadd9 chord. I’m going to plug in my twelve-string and play that for you.
Next would be, “what is John playing?” And if anything, this would be an even more hotly debated chord. But when you listen to the isolated tracks, it sounds pretty clear to me that he’s playing pretty much the same chord as George, an Fadd9, except that John is playing it on his acoustic guitar. So here, I’ll play that on my acoustic.
And then there’s Paul McCartney’s bass. He is playing a D, probably on the fifth fret of his A string. So I’ll play that for you.
And finally, there is a piano, I assume played by George Martin. Now, I’m no piano player, but after doing some poking around online, the best explanation I can find is that the piano is playing a chord made up of these notes, D, G, E, G and C. So let’s hear what that sounds like.
So let’s mix all of those together and play it back. Now, keep in mind that I’m not trying to recreate the sounds exactly. I’m using different guitars, different amplifiers, different mics; I’m recording digitally, not onto tape. So it’s not going to sound exactly the same as the Beatles. But in terms of that intro chord itself, I think this is pretty close.
That’s my take on it anyway. Now let’s go back to the recording sessions in April 1964.
So, they’ve decided that take #9 is their best version. They’ve recorded guitars, bass, drums and vocals on tracks 1 and 2 of the four-track tape. So using that take, on track number 3, they double-track the lead vocals. Both John and Paul double track their vocals. Also, on the same track, mixed in, they add a cowbell played by Ringo and bongos, played by engineer Norman Smith. Let’s listen to just those double tracked vocals.
Paul comes in here with his harmony vocal.
All right, let’s go back to the top and listen to the final mix, through the first verse. Listen for some of those individual elements that we’ve been talking about so far: The electric twelve string guitar, the acoustic guitar, those bongos, the double tracked vocals, and of course, starting with that iconic first chord.
Now, one more important point to mention here is that from this point forward, when I play the final mix, I’ll be using the mono version. It may be true that you can pick out some of the individual instruments a little better in the stereo version, but the fact is that the mono version best represents what The Beatles and George Martin were aiming for, what they were happy with. When they were completing the final mixes, they made ten passes at the mono version to settle on the one they were most happy with. They made only one pass at the stereo version, which just shows you which version they were more concerned with. So, here’s the mono mix.
Here’s the second verse. And this time, let’s focus on John a little bit. Let’s just hear his vocal and acoustic guitar.
Here comes the middle eight, or the bridge. And this is where McCartney takes over the lead vocal. So let’s just hear his vocal part.
I love the way that the vocals overlap there. When John comes back in, you really get the feeling of the two of them singing this song together.
The middle eight is also where the cowbell is overdubbed and it’s particularly prominent on the stereo mix. So let’s listen to the instrumental tracks without the vocals for the bridge from the stereo mix.
Next is a repeat of the first verse. Let’s hear a little bit of George Harrison’s twelve-string guitar here.
And this time let’s zoom in on the vocals.
I love both John and Paul screaming at the end there.
Next to come is the guitar solo, or actually a guitar and piano solo. They tried recording it a number of times, but they just weren’t happy with the way it came out, so producer George Martin, as always the brilliant problem solver that he was, came up with the idea to slow the tape down to half speed. Then the two Georges– George Martin playing piano, and George Harrison on his Gretch country gentlemen guitar, or perhaps his Gretch Tennessean, we’re not really sure exactly which guitar he played, but we do know it’s definitely not the Rickenbacker twelve-string– the two of them play the solo together at half speed and octave lower.
Then once it’s on tape, they play it back at normal speed. And that’s the sound of the solo that we’re all familiar with. Here’s what it actually sounded like when recorded at half speed.
Speeded back up to normal speed. Here’s what it sounds like in the final version.
The guitar solo leads into a short tag from the second verse before McCartney repeats the middle eight again.
And while we’re talking about McCartney, let’s touch on his bass part here. Paul McCartney is, in my opinion, one of the greatest bass players of all time. He didn’t play like the Motown players, or like a jazz player, or like a standard rock bassist, either. He essentially invented a whole style, a very melodic approach to the bass. But on this track, he sticks to the basics. It’s probably one of the simplest bass parts that he ever played. So let’s hear just a little bit of his bass part on this last verse.
Let’s give Ringo some love, because he’s playing his heart out on this song. Here’s Ringo’s drum track on this last verse.
And then at the end, rather than fading the song out or having an abrupt ending, they overdubbed George Harrison playing arpeggios on his twelve-string Rickenbacker. That was laid down onto track number 4, along with the guitar and piano solo. Here’s that twelve-string guitar part.
And here’s the full ending in the final mono mix.
The Beatles – “A Hard Day’s Night”
One of their greatest hit singles, along with one of the greatest songs ever written for a movie. And to think the song was written and recorded in just a couple of days. That, my friends, is genius at work.
Thanks for listening to this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, here on the Pantheon Podcast Network. New episodes of this show are released on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so don’t worry, I’ll be back soon. But if you can’t bear to wait for the next new episode, you can always catch up on all of our previous shows on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or follow us on your favorite podcast app. And it’d be great if you left a review wherever it is that you listen to the show, because that always helps. But even better, share this show with your friends, your family, your neighbors. Your word-of-mouth support is by far the best advertising that we could get. So thanks for that, and thanks for listening to this episode on “A Hard Day’s Night” by the Beatles.
REFERENCES: The Beatles https://www.thebeatles.com/
A Hard Day’s Night (film) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058182/
"Itchycoo Park" (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane) Copyright 1967 United Artists Music Limited, EMI United Partnership Limited
Small Faces are one of the all-time great British bands from the 1960’s but they never got the attention, success or respect they deserved. (Some of that was due to self-inflicted damage, but still…) Their biggest hit was “Itchycoo Park“, 2:45 of psychedelic pop perfection. All 4 members of the band shine, and engineer Glyn Johns gets to introduce the world to the sound of flanging. Feel inclined to blow your mind? Check out this episode.
“Itchycoo Park” (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane) Copyright 1967 United Artists Music Limited, EMI United Partnership Limited
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome, everyone, to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, part of the Pantheon family of podcasts. I’m your host, Brad Page, and each episode, I pick one of my favorite songs, and we listen to it together, uncovering all the little moments, those special touches that make it a great song. You don’t need to be a musical expert here, we don’t get too technical. All you need is a love for music, and you’ll fit right in here.
On this episode, we are revisiting the Small Faces, because I really do love this band, and I think they’re criminally underrated, certainly here in the US.
The mid 1960’s were an amazing time for music: lots of change, experimentation, and invention. The psychedelic sounds of this era are this perfect blend of adventure, exploration, and naivete. There’s an “Alice in Wonderland” feel to all of it. And one of the best examples of this is “Itchycoo Park” by Small Faces.
We talked about the Small Faces before on this podcast, back on episode #54, and their song “Tin Soldier”, so I won’t rehash their biography again. You can go back and listen to that episode.
But for a quick refresher, Small Faces was formed in 1965 by guitarist/vocalist Steve Marriott and bass player Ronnie Lane, with Kenny Jones on drums and Ian McLagan on keyboards. Like other British bands of the era, The Who, for example, they started by playing covers of American blues and R&B artists. But by 1966, they were writing their own songs, primarily composed by Marriott and Lane. “Itchycoo Park” was their 10th single overall, but only their second single for their new record label, Immediate Records, who allowed them a lot more freedom in the studio to experiment.
The song was released in August 1967, the height of the “Summer of Love”, and it reached number 3 on the UK charts, number 16 in the US and number 1 in Canada.
The song was written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. It all started with an idea from Ronnie Lane, inspired by Oxford, England, and a park near where Marriott and Lane lived. Exactly which park is a question, because both Lane and Marriott referred to different parks over time. According to Lane, the initial musical idea came from a hymn called “God Be In My Head”.
See if you can catch how that melody influenced this song.
They structured “Itchycoo Park” as a dialogue between a normal average “straight” person and someone who was “tuned-in” and enlightened. That’s pretty much the psychedelic sixties in a nutshell.
Marriott and Lane are credited as producers on the track, with Glenn Johns as the engineer.
The song begins with an acoustic guitar in the left channel. Pretty quickly after that, Ronnie Lane’s bass joins in on the right channel, followed by the drums also on the right and the organ on the left. I think there’s a piano in there as well, but it’s pretty low in the mix. And that’s it for the intro– pretty short. The vocals come in right there.
Steve Marriott is one of the all-time great soulful belters, just one of the ballsiest singers. He influenced generations of vocalists, from Robert Plant and Paul Rogers right up through Chris Robinson of the Black Crows and beyond. He’s on my list of the all-time greatest singers. I just love his voice. But, you know, he could also hold back and sing more gently, as he does here.
A couple of other things I want to point out before we move on: Let’s remove the vocals and listen to just the backing track here. You can hear Ian McLagan’s organ part a lot clearer and especially listen to the bass. Ronnie Lane had this really unique loping style of playing that’s really on display here.
All right, let’s get to the second part of the verse. This is the part where the dialogue between the two characters comes in, as we mentioned before, with the backing vocals from Ronnie Lane; Ronnie Lane playing the part of the straight man and Steve Marriott being, well, Steve Marriott.
That’s more of the classic Marriott vocal there. This leads us into the chorus. “It’s all too beautiful”– the ultimate vision of the sixties if only that were.
There’s this little descending keyboard lick that’s kind of central to that whole chorus.
Now this brings us to the bridge. This was Steve Marriott’s biggest writing contribution to the song. He wrote this part, but what really makes it interesting is the way it was recorded. This was one of the very first records to use the effect that would become known as “flanging”. You can hear it on the vocal and the drum track.
A recording engineer named George Chkiantz is generally credited with inventing this flanging technique. He showed it to Glyn Johns, who used it on this recording. Eventually, they developed a way to do this electronically. And of course, now, like everything, you can do it digitally. I’m using a software plugin to do it to my voice right now. But back in 1967, the only way to do this was manually. Two tape machines were synchronized together, playing the same song. And by slightly slowing down one of the tapes, usually by placing your thumb on the flange of one of the tape reels, hence the name flanging, you would get this effect, which would then be recorded onto a third tape machine. There was a lot of work required to get this sound.
So we’ve been listening to the stereo version of this song because I think the stereo version provides a little better differentiation on the individual parts. But on the original mono mix of this track, I think the flanging is a little more obvious. So let’s just hear this chorus from the mono mix.
Let’s go back to the stereo version and hear the second verse. This features more of the back and forth between the lead and the backing vocals.
Let’s listen to just the vocal track.
The BBC initially banned this song because they were concerned that “I get high” was a drug reference. But the band said, “Oh, no, this song, it’s about a park. Of course, we’re talking about swinging on a swing. You know, when you’re swinging, you try to get higher and higher. That’s what we meant.” They were shocked – shocked – that you would think this song was about drugs. And the BBC bought that story.
Here’s the second time around for the bridge, and this time I think the flanging is even more prominent.
That “Ha” that Marriott puts in there. From here, they repeat the chorus until the song fades out, and they apply the flanging effect to it as well. Steve Marriott, as he always does, sounds great here.
Small Faces – “Itchycoo Park”
The small faces recorded dozens of songs that I think stand up to the best British bands of that decade. The Beatles, Stones, The Who, The Kinks… The Small Faces released stuff that was just as good, in some cases even better.
But fate just didn’t really go their way and to be honest, they never really got their act together. There was a self-destructive streak there, especially with Steve Marriott, which would only get worse throughout his life. As we’ve discussed on this podcast before, Steve Marriott died in a house fire in 1991. He was 44. Ronnie Lane was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and died in 1997, age 51. Keyboard player Ian McLagan had a long career as an in-demand session musician and sideman until he died of a stroke in 2014. Drummer Kenny Jones went on to play with The Who, and at the time of this recording, he’s still with us and continues to oversee the legacy of the Small Faces.
If you’d like to explore more Small Faces, there’s a ton of compilation albums out there. Some are better than others. My favorite is one called “The Autumn Stone”. I would start there. There’s also one called “The Ultimate Collection”. That one’s pretty good, too.
Thanks for hanging out here on this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. As you probably know by now, new episodes of this show come out twice a month, so I’ll be back in about two weeks with a brandy new episode. If you can’t bear to wait for the next episode, you can catch up on all of our previous shows on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com or just look for us in your favorite podcast app.
And if that’s not enough, there are plenty more music-related shows that you should check out right here on the Pantheon Podcast Network. We’d love it if you’d leave a review of the show wherever it is that you listen, just post a comment there. You can also find us on Facebook, just search for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, you’ll find our page.
And the most important thing you can do if you’d like to support the show is to just recommend the show to your friends, because your word-of-mouth carries a lot more weight than any promotion I can do. So, as always, thanks for that.
And thanks for listening to this episode on “Itchycoo Park” by Small Faces.
"The Tracks Of My Tears" (William "Smokey" Robinson, Warren Moore, Marvin Tarplin) Copyright 1965 Jobete Music Co. Inc. (ASCAP)
William “Smokey” Robinson was the man behind many of Motown’s greatest hits– not just the tracks he recorded himself with The Miracles, he also wrote many hits for other Motown acts. But perhaps his greatest achievement was “Tracks Of My Tears“. It was selected by the RIAA & NEA as one of the 365 Greatest Songs of the 20th Century; it’s on the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock & Roll, and Rolling Stone magazine named it The Greatest Motown Song Of All Time. Join us for this episode as we explore this masterpiece.
“The Tracks Of My Tears” (William “Smokey” Robinson, Warren Moore, Marvin Tarplin) Copyright 1965 Jobete Music Co. Inc. (ASCAP)
TRANSCRIPT:
Every good song tells a story. The story is often all there in the lyrics; sometimes you have to use a little imagination to fill in the gaps, sometimes the story is mostly in the rhythm or the groove. Sometimes the melody tells you everything you need to know. Either way, a song takes you on a journey. Sometimes inward, sometimes outward. This is the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, where we look at how these songs, these stories, are put together and trace the steps along those journeys.
My name is Brad Page. I’m your tour guide on these musical trips. You don’t have to be any kind of musical expert here. Just open your ears and come along for the ride.
“Shop Around”, “You Really Got A Hold On Me”, “Ooh Baby, Baby”, “Going To A Go Go”, “I Second That Emotion, “Tears Of A Clown”. All of these were huge hits from Motown, all written or co-written by Smokey Robinson, and all performed by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. That’s quite a track record. But if I had to pick just one Smokey Robinson song, my favorite would have to be “Tracks Of My Tears”. Three minutes of pop perfection. On this episode, we’ll be tracing the “Tracks Of My Tears” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.
William Robinson Junior was born in Detroit on February 19, 1940. His uncle Claude gave him the nickname Smokey Joe because little William loved cowboy movies and that was his cowboy nickname. By the time he was twelve, he dropped the Joe, but Smokey stuck. He and his friends at Detroit’s Northern High School, Pete Moore, Ron White, Sonny Rogers and his cousin Bobby Rogers, formed a doo wop group, first called The Five Chimes and later The Matadors.
Smokey’s mother had died when he was ten years old and his sister Jerry became his legal guardian. Jerry was a jazz lover and turned Smokey onto singers like Sarah Vaughn, who became a big influence on Smokey.
I can definitely hear the influence in Smokey’s vocal style there. In 1957, Sonny Rogers left the band and he was replaced by Sonny’s sister, Claudette.
With a woman now in the group, they changed their name to The Miracles. Smokey and Claudette would eventually get married. Right around that time, they had an audition for Jackie Wilson’s manager. They didn’t get that gig, but they did meet Barry Gordy at that same audition– a chance meeting that would literally influence the course of music history. Gordy became their manager and producer, and he nurtured Smokey’s songwriting. When Gordy started Motown Records, The Miracles were one of the first artists he signed. In 1960, they released “Shop Around”, which became their first big hit, and Motown’s first million selling record.
A lot more hits would follow, including “Mickey’s Monkey” and “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me”.
And of course there was “Ooh Baby Baby”.
By then, guitarist named Marvin Tarplin had joined as an unofficial “Miracle”, and became one of Smokey’s key collaborators. Besides The Miracles, Smokey was writing and producing records for other Motown artists, like Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations. By 1965, with the release of the “Going To A Go Go” album, the name of the group was changed to Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. And Claudette stopped performing with the band. Though she would record with them in the studio, no more live gigs.
“Tracks Of My Tears” was released as a single, and it’s included on the “Going To A Go Go” album. The track was recorded on January 20, 1965. It was written by Smokey Robinson, Warren Moore and Marvin Tarplin. In 2021, Rolling Stone magazine ranked “Tracks Of My Tears” as the greatest Motown song of all time.
Now, as to who actually played on the track, well, that’s tricky, because I have a hard time finding documentation of who exactly plays on a lot of these old Motown tracks. Of course, it’s well known that Motown had its own in-house band, the Funk Brothers. And if you’ve never seen the documentary about the Funk Brothers, “Standing In The Shadows of Motown”, go watch it right now. It is essential viewing. But the Funk Brothers was a conglomeration of many players; multiple drummers, guitarists, horn players, etcetera. And determining which guys played on which record, well, I found it really hard to do. So here are just some of the key players in the Funk Brothers, who probably played on this track.
You had Earl Van Dyke, who was not only a keyboard player, but also the bandleader. On guitars, there were Robert White, Eddie Willis, Joe Messina. James Jamerson and Bob Babbitt on bass—I’m pretty sure it’s James Jamerson on this track. Drums, Benny Benjamin, Richard “Pistol” Allen and Uriel Jones. And on percussion, you had Eddie “Bongo” Brown and Jack Ashford. Jack turned tambourine playing into an art form. And for the horn section, well, that number of potential players is just too long to list here.
We do know that Smokey’s songwriting partner, guitarist Marv Tarplin, played on the track. And the members of The Miracles who provide backing vocals are Bobby Rogers, Ronnie White, Pete Moore and Claudette Robinson. With Smokey Robinson, of course, on the lead vocal, the song opens with a guitar part played by Marv Tarplin.
As the story goes, Marvin Tarplin was just kind of messing around with the chord changes to “The Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte.
He switched the chords around, changed the rhythm, and the central idea for “Tracks Of My Tears” was born.
That little drum fill is such a classic Motown intro. It’s simple, but it’s so perfect. You can also hear Eddie Brown on bongos and Jack Ashford on that tambourine. The bongos are fairly low in the mix on the final version, but that tambourine jumps out through the whole song. Drum fills like that would be borrowed and used on hundreds of songs to come, because they announce what’s coming. They ease you into the song, but they don’t step on any of the other instruments or vocals. Just perfect. I believe that’s Uriel Jones playing drums on this track. One of the unsung greats.
Let’s listen to just Smokey’s vocal track. It sounds so great acapella.
Remember, this was before AutoTune and before they were punching in every other phrase or word even, to get the perfect take.
That short verse brings us right to the first chorus in classic Motown fashion. They don’t waste any time here. They’re packing as many hooks as they can into three minutes. And for my money, this chorus can’t be beat.
Smokey said that Marv Tarplin would make tape recordings of his guitar parts and give them to Smokey, and he would listen to them over and over to come up with melodies and lyric ideas for this song. The first three lines of the chorus came to him pretty quickly. “Take a good look at my face, you’ll see my smile looks out of place. If you look closer, it’s easy to trace”. You’ve got that nice triple rhyme in there, face, place, and trace. But he was stuck on what comes next. Until one day, Smokey was looking into the mirror shaving, and the thought popped into his head. What if someone had cried so much that it left tracks down their face? And that was all he needed to finish the rest of the song.
And then we have this short little two measure transition that gets us from the chorus into the next verse.
And that gets us to the second verse. And I especially like Smokey’s performance and his phrasing on this verse.
Let’s go back and listen to that vocal track again.
Smokey is not a belter. He’s a smoother, gentler singer. He’s up on the mic so you can really hear his breath. And I think that just adds to the intimacy and the humanness of the part.
Now, about the next line. Pete Townsend of The Who was a big fan of this song and the story I’ve heard– I don’t know how true this is, but what I’ve read is that Townshend was so captured with the way Smokey sings the word “substitute” that that inspired Townsend to write his song “Substitute”, which would become a Who classic.
Let’s listen to the backing track. Under that verse, you can hear some bells or maybe vibes, probably played by Jack Ashford. And notice how the strings swell up under the second half of the verse, all, um, building for that chorus. That little descending part that happens all throughout the song. That is such a crucial part of the song, resolving the end of each line, bringing it back to the start to the root. Now, let’s listen to the vocal track for this chorus and notice how he leaves out the last word of each line. Those key rhyming words, face, place, and trace. Smokey doesn’t sing them this time. He leaves that to the backing vocals.
Now let’s listen to that again as it all comes together in the final mix.
I love how they just stop there. They pause everything for a heartbeat and then another great drum fill takes us into the bridge.
That’s the crescendo of the song right there. A repeating set of four triplets, 123-223-323-423; the whole band is hitting those notes so dramatically. Even the tambourine is in on the action. And the vocal is hitting those beats too.
Smokey Robinson and The Miracles – “Tracks Of My Tears”
My mother-in-law wasn’t what you’d call a diehard music fan, but she did love Smokey Robinson. She’s gone now. So this one’s for you, Kath.
You can be forgiven for thinking of Motown as your parents’ music. For many people, that’s probably true. The music of Motown was the sound of Young America. It was everywhere when your parents, or maybe your grandparents, were young. It’s part of the soundtrack of their youth. These songs may have been oldies by the time you were discovering your own music, but I believe– I have always believed– that there is no expiration date for a great song.
Thank you for once again joining me on the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. The journey continues, and we’ll be back in about two weeks with another new episode. In the meantime, you can find all of our previous excursions on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or just find us in your favorite podcast app.
And if you’re still looking for even more musical adventures, be sure to check out some of the other podcasts here on the Pantheon Podcast Network. If you’d like to support our show, the best thing you can do is to recommend it to a friend, share it with your other music loving friends and help to spread the word.
I’ll see you soon. Thanks for listening to this episode on “Tracks Of My Tears” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.
RESOURCES:
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/smokey-robinson-and-miracles
Motown Records https://www.motownmuseum.org/
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (Documentary) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314725/
by Al Stewart - Copyright 1978 D.J.M./Frabjous Music Approximate Music
Singer/Songwriter Al Stewart came out of the London folk scene, but by the mid-70’s struck it big with MOR/AM Radio hit, “Year Of The Cat“. But there’s more to this Mr. Stewart than just that one hit. On this episode, I’m joined by fellow podcaster (and Al Stewart fan extraordinaire) Craig Smith to discuss the deep cut “Life In Dark Water“.
“Life In Dark Water” – Al Stewart Copyright 1978 D.J.M./Frabjous Music Approximate Music
TRANSCRIPT:
Brad Page: Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight, because I gotta get back for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on the Pantheon Podcast Network! I’m your host, Brad Page, and this episode, we’re exploring a song by Al Stewart– a deep cut from his 1978 album “Time Passages”; this is a song called “Life In Dark Water”.
Now, I gotta admit, I don’t know all that much about Al Stewart, really, but luckily, I happen to know somebody who does: Craig Smith, former host of the Pods and Sods Network, has joined us on this show before, and he’s the biggest Al Stewart fan I know. So I figured, let’s bring Craig back on the show, and we’ll all explore “Life In Dark Water”.
Brad Page: All right, well, Craig Smith, thank you for joining me on this episode to talk about Al Stewart. You are the biggest Al Stewart fan I know, so I couldn’t think of anyone better to come on and, uh, do this with me. So thank you for joining me.
Craig Smith: Absolutely. There are others of us around, too… you may be familiar with Brian Linnen…?
Brad Page: Yes, I know that young man– the upstanding citizen Brian Lennon. For the most part, my knowledge of Al Stewart is fairly minimal. You know, usually I do a ton of research for these things, but I thought I would be lazy and go to the expert I know to take care of that. So, let’s talk about Al Stewart. And what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna be talking about a song that, I guess I would put this maybe in, like, the middle of his career?
Craig Smith: Yes. Almost dead middle.
Brad Page: Yeah, from the “Time Passages” album. And let’s talk about how he gets to this record. If you could fill me in, because I know none of this, so tell me about Al Stewart up to this point.
Craig Smith: Okay. I should preface by saying that Eric and I were fortunate enough to interview Al Stewart in the very, very early days of Pods And Sods, which was a podcast that I was part of for ten years. But he comes from kind of the London scene in the mid-sixties, at a place called… now, I’ve heard it referenced as “Le Cousin”, but during our interview, I’m fairly certain he called it “Les Cousins”… which was a folk club. He played there with people like Paul Simon, Roy Harper, who was also somebody that I know you and I both admire, also comes from that same pocket of time. His first album came out in 1967. It was called “Bedsetter Images”. It was later re-released as “The First Album” with some different tracks. What is more interesting is that his second album, “Love Chronicles”, beat John Lennon by a year for throwing, uh, the very weighted f-word into a song, which is part of the title track, which is a sidelong folk number going through a bunch of relationships that he was in.
Craig Smith: His first four albums, very folky. And then, after that, starting with “Past, Present and Future” into “Modern Times”, snd then you start to move towards “Year of the Cat” & “Time Passages”. You’re getting into his commercial peak, as it were. He meets Alan Parsons– and Alan Parsons, I believe, did some work on modern times also— but he started to get more radio play around this time with a song from “Modern Times” called “Carol”.
Craig Smith: Of course, “Year of the Cat” is the song that, over here, propels him. It was a huge hit here, of course. “Time Passages” is the follow-up album. There’s another hit, the title track, flies very close to the blueprint “The Year Of The Cat” was built from.
Craig Smith: And then after that, he did a great album after “Time Passages” called “24 Carrots”, had a killer band called Shot In The Dark. Amazing live record after that. And then kind of after that, his releases get a little more, I don’t know that I want to say “electronic”… a little more “synthetic”, as eighties albums are want to do. But so much good stuff in that catalog. Even going in the later years, he never lost it.
So, to kind of just sum up what he is: I can’t remember if he said this during our interview or if I read it somewhere else, but he said ideally what he considers himself is a lyricist, period. And I think his singing is fantastic. It may not be everybody’s cup of tea, it is a very mellow leaning towards yacht rocky delivery, which I happen to love. But I think once you get into the middle period of Al Stewart, it kind of goes from folk to more of like, I don’t even know if this is the right term, but like a “progressive folk”, there’s more arrangement-wise going on in these songs. And across the board, fantastic lyrics. Amazing lyrics. I’m an idiot when it comes to history and things like that… the funny thing is, if you’re looking at an Al Stewart lyrics without looking at who penned the song, it could either be Al Stewart or Iron Maiden. Given the balance of British history in both of their catalogs, it’s amazing, right? But yeah, what a rich catalog. Absolutely love it.
Brad Page: I’m not familiar with any of the early stuff… like most people, my first exposure to him was “Year of the Cat”, which was a bit of a mixed blessing, because this is back in the day when AM radio was still king.
Craig Smith: Oh yeah.
Brad Page: And that song was a big hit on AM radio. And at that point, AM radio was so formulaic and formatted that you knew exactly what song they were going to play, at what time, to the point where, like, on the school bus, you know, they would play the AM radio and without fail, we’d always be at one kid’s bus stop and they would play “Night Moves” by Bob Seger. And then, like two stops later, it would be “Year of the Cat” by Al Stewart.
It got to the point where I hated both of those songs, because you just heard them, like, every day. And it was, that’s what AM radio was like back then. When you have a song that just kind of– you’re sick of, sometimes it can throw you off a little bit. But “Time Passages”, that song I always liked quite a bit.
We’re gonna take a look at a song from that record. This is a song called “Life In Dark Water”, and it always jumped out to me from this record. I wouldn’t call it “heavy”, but it’s an intense song. It definitely has that Alan Parsons kind of Pink Floyd lite production to it. It’s very rich production, the whole album, but particularly in this song. Do you know the history of this song?
Craig Smith: Not too much of the history, aside from, there are some things that I can tell you about things that he said when introducing the song live on the “Time passages” concert. This is what he says: “This is a number which is about being stranded alive, thinking that you’re the last person in the world alive, alone on a seabed in a nuclear submarine. It’s a psychedelic sea song in which we never find out if the narrator is alone or not.” And then he goes on to say that “the Marie Celeste, which is referenced in the lyrics, was a ship found floating off the coast of the British Isles in the Atlantic Ocean with nobody on board, half eaten meals, and half smoked cigars. One of the great mysteries of the sea. In his trance, he thinks that he’s back in the Marie Celeste.” However, Al is wrong about this…
Brad Page: Yeah, the ship was actually called the Mary Celeste, not the Marie Celeste, but he’s not the only person to misname it. A lot of people called it the Marie Celeste, but it was the Mary Celeste. It was a ship built in Canada, registered in the US, that just showed up off the coast of wherever it was, with nobody on board and, you know, some damage, but not trashed or anything. And the lifeboat was missing. And they never found any of the crew. Just kind of one of those creepy stories. But interesting.
Craig Smith: The kind of story that podcasters make a mint off these days, right?
Brad Page: If we were a true crime type podcast, we’d dig into that.
Craig Smith: Never too late! But when he, when he introduces the song, he does say Mary, just to be clear. But in the lyrics, I believe it’s printed Marie. And he, in the song, he pronounces it Marie with a rolling r, which I cannot do. Yeah, that’s the Mary Celeste.
Brad Page: Yeah. It’s very interesting and intriguing lyrically, and I guess we can kind of talk about it as we go along. But that was one of the things that pulled me into the song.
Craig Smith: And musically as well.
Brad Page: Yes.
Craig Smith: When I got into Al Stewart, I don’t know that I would have expected a song like this. It’s just such an epic sound.
Brad Page: Yes.
Craig Smith: That was the word that I kept coming to.
Brad Page: Yeah, absolutely. It’s not really something that I would have expected from Al Stewart, if you only know the few hits. This is a lot… It’s darker, it’s a lot more atmospheric like. This is a lot spookier.
Craig Smith: Yeah.
Brad Page: All right, well, let’s dig into the track. It opens relatively atmospherically with kind of a riff or chord change that sounds pretty familiar. It’s the James Bond chord change. Right?
Craig Smith: The chords, from what I looked up– and this can be wrong or not– but on the intro, the chords are D Minor, B Flat with a D bass, Dminor6. So that’s where that note is moving around, giving it that James Bond feel. Yeah. Good ear. I didn’t pick that out.
Brad Page: I mean, I’m not saying that it’s like a knockoff or anything, but it’s just, it’s very effective. I like it.
Craig Smith: It works really well.
Brad Page: And then the first verse, he’s talking about “Living in the bottom of the sea, down metal snake corridors, steely gray engines hum for nobody but me”.
Brad Page: I mean, it puts you in a place, right? You could feel this guy, alone on this submarine, right from the beginning. I’m wondering, “How did this guy get here? Why is he all by himself?”
Craig Smith: You’re dropped into the story.
Brad Page: Yeah, right! Yeah, you’re literally dropped in the middle of the story, trying to figure out what is going on.
Craig Smith: And even the line “No message crackles through the radio leads”, just another worded so well, you know?
This is one of those songs for me where it’s the music and the lyrics are both a ten out of ten.
Brad Page: Yeah. I mean, they’re intertwined, right?
Craig Smith: Yeah.
Brad Page: The mood of the music fits the mood of the lyrics so perfectly. And it takes a certain level of confidence to just plop people down in the middle of the story. Like, there’s no setup for this, right? There’s no, “We set sail from the port”, none of that. Like you’re just suddenly at the bottom of the ocean, alone on a submarine with this guy, not knowing, as he doesn’t know, apparently, who else is out there.
Craig Smith: Yeah. Fantastic. That’s what that “Year of the Cat” money can make you write songs like that.
Brad Page: Yeah.
Craig Smith: Drop the listener wherever you want.
Brad Page: Right. And you can afford to make a record that sounds this good too.
Craig Smith: One of the things that I really love about the arrangement: the piano tinkles.
Brad Page: Yes. Me, in my notes, I had basically the same words you’re using. I had “tinkling glass-like piano”. Uh, yeah, just very… It’s like icicles in a way, you know what I mean?
Craig Smith: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like something visual was coming to mind, I think that describes it very, very well.
Brad Page: Let’s talk about the second verse here. You’ve got some, like, sonar pings in the background. I really like that. They’re very subtle.
Craig Smith: Yeah. Not completely unlike the pings we hear in another masterpiece that I know you and I both love.
Brad Page: Yes. Where those are much more upfront. I mean, they’re kind of like the key to that song.
Craig Smith: These are very subtle.
Brad Page: Yeah, yeah. The bass is playing octaves.
Craig Smith: Yeah.
Brad Page: The line, “jet planes nose through the clouds above me, they look for radar traces of me to see”.
So, then I started thinking, “Well, did this guy, like, hijack a submarine?” Like, why are they looking for him? How does he know that they’re looking for him? Are they really looking for him? Or is he imagining that?
Craig Smith: Right. That was my thought. Like, how does he know they’re looking for him? This is kind of likely all in his head.
Brad Page: Yeah, but you never get an answer to any of this, which is, you know, the song always leaves you to decide.
Craig Smith: Exactly. And it could also be just like his hope, you know?
Brad Page: Right.
Craig Smith: That there is somebody out there looking for him.
Brad Page: Right.
Let’s talk about his voice, because you kind of mentioned that it’s, um, it might not be for everyone. I guess it’s a little bit of an acquired taste. I mean, it’s an extremely “white guy voice”, right?
Craig Smith: Oh, yeah.
Brad Page: There’s no R&B or Soul to his singing. And he does have, you know, he’s got a bit of a lisp, which is something that I can relate to. You don’t hear that a lot on pop records. You certainly would never hear that today. You’d never make it on “American Idol”.
Craig Smith: Yeah. Oh, no, absolutely not.
Brad Page: But how did you take his voice? I mean, were you immediately taken by it? Did it put you off at all or…
Craig Smith: It didn’t put me off. Um, “Year of the Cat” is part of my DNA. One of those songs that, before I got into Al Stewart, kind of like… and you know what, here’s another guy with a very similar voice” “Alone Again, Naturally”, by Gilbert O’Sullivan.
Craig Smith: But, um, I think that I didn’t have that roadblock at all. Like, I knew “Year of the Cat” from being a kid. And I’m like, oh, this is this dude’s voice. It doesn’t, there’s nothing about it that I find unpleasant. It’s– I don’t know that smooth is the, you know, because that’s going to make him sound like a crooner, but there’s absolutely no grit in Al Stewart’s voice in that respect. It is very smooth. So, like, Al Stewart’s voice isn’t going to, that’s not going to slow me down any. How about you?
Brad Page: Well, I think it, I’m not sure I’d say it was off-putting… I thought it was a little strange, I didn’t necessarily love it, but again, that was kind of all mixed up in the thing of just being sick of “Year of the Cat”.
Craig Smith: Yeah.
Brad Page: It doesn’t bother me. Um, but I can see why some people might be turned off by it.
Craig Smith: I get it.
Brad Page: But what I like about it today is that it’s not generic.
Craig Smith: Oh, yeah.
Brad Page: Nobody else sounds like that. And today, I think because of the influence of things like “American Idol”, singers are so generic and they’re so auto tuned and everything, that we’ve lost a lot of this individuality.
And then there’s this bridge, which is pretty incongruous for the rest of the song. It’s kind of this very Beatle-y, a British music hall sound.
Craig Smith: Oh, yeah.
Brad Page: And there’s this kind of slapback delay on the vocal. Just a minimal delay time. Almost a radio broadcast sound.
Craig Smith: Yeah, absolutely. Radio EQ.
Craig Smith: And we’re moving into, like, tack piano. A very chorus-effected piano.
Brad Page: It’s that kind of player piano, old barroom feel.
Craig Smith: Stride. Like Stride piano.
Brad Page: Yeah, yeah. The guitar is there, but it’s just kind of doing these kind of staccato chords. It’s really the piano that comes to the front. The bass is almost, kind of feels like what a tuba would be playing, you know, almost an Oompa kind of sound. It’s a very interesting bridge to put into this song.
Craig Smith: The one thing that’s interesting about this part to me is that, on the record, it really feels shoehorned in, in terms of how the arrangement switches on a dime.
On the live versions– or the live version, I should say, that the whole band plays on in the 1978 show– It’s a lot smoother transition, because they’re all playing it live. But, like, on the record, it does kind of feel like an edit. I’m not entirely sure if it is, but it feels like a splice onto a different, you know, something different. But then the way it kind of melts back into the song with that held note and the reverb is, is mesmerizing. So good.
Brad Page: Yeah. So we have this bridge out of nowhere that ends with this kind of big power chord that takes us into the guitar solo. And what a guitar solo.
Craig Smith: It is one of my favorites. It’s hard not for me to throw this in with, like, “Comfortably Numb”, but it’s one of those songs… I think this guitar solo, there is not one note that isn’t perfect. Tim Renwick playing it. A monster, monster guitar solo.
Brad Page: Yeah. Tim Renwick was, uh, one of those British studio guys that just played on lots of records. Of course, he worked with Alan Parsons a lot, which is probably how he ended up on this project. He played with Pink Floyd live, and he worked with Eric Clapton and Elton John; just, you know, one of those guys with a pretty impressive resume. I’m pretty sure he’s playing a Fender Strat. It sounds, uh, pretty Strat-y to me. But it’s just, it’s a great guitar tone; it starts kind of clean and then it gets a little more distorted, more bite to it, more echo in the middle. He’s doing these harmonics. It’s very cool.
It kind of gets heavier and more intense as it progresses, and just ends with that big power chord. It’s a really well-structured solo, really well performed. And the way they’ve recorded it just makes it even better. It’s a great moment. Yeah. He deserves a gold star for this one.
Craig Smith: Absolutely. And my favorite thing about the solo, this was actually the reason I kind of dug up the chords, I kind of wanted to see what that big moment in the solo, what it was doing. So most of the song’s in D Minor, or kind of moving around a D Minor chord. The part of the solo that I’m thinking of is when it goes, you’re moving into major chords there. You’re moving into an F, C, A, B Flat seven and a D Minor. And then, right as it goes to that run, that’s an A Flat Diminished chord, resolving to an A, which is just an amazing run of chords for that solo. Because that solo, as great as it is, once it starts snarling, when it really takes off on that F chord, it is a chills moment. And great as the whole solo is, that one moment when that string bends is just one of my favorite things in the Al Stewart catalog. Absolutely fantastic.
It’s one of those things that, you know, when you’re listening to this record, this comes around and you’re like, wow, I didn’t expect a minor key, at least not moody like this song, by Al Stewart. You’re getting into the song and the song’s great, and then this guitar solo completely pushes it over.
Brad Page: Yeah.
Craig Smith: And you didn’t, you listen to the song and you’re like, yeah, this song probably can’t get better. And it does– you know, that’s one of the best things about it. Like the way it does soar during that section and we have the first verse, the second verse comes in, brings in the drums by the time we’re in the solo, like everything is kind of just peaking. And I love it. Absolutely love it. It’s always a chills moment for me. Always.
Brad Page: It’s so well structured. It’s cinematic.
Craig Smith: Yes, absolutely.
Brad Page: Yeah. And like you said earlier, this is track number three on this album, which is an interesting placement for it. This, to me, feels like a side one ender, or a side two, or even maybe the last song on the album. But to put it that far up front on the record, it’s kind of a shock.
Craig Smith: Yeah. Yeah. And coming after… the one thing, the one issue that I kind of do have with the “Time Passages” album is I don’t love the sequencing of it. I don’t know how I would restructure all of it, but “Life In Dark Water” would absolutely be a side ender, on either side. I think that “End of the Day” is a great song to end the album with, but “Life In Dark Water”, I think, should absolutely be at least a side A closer. That’s me sidetracking on something not important to anybody except me…
Brad Page: Well, you know, I’m an album guy, and so a lot of times how I feel about songs is impacted on, in the context of an album, right? Because I tend to not listen to songs, I listen to albums. As much as this podcast is about songs, I typically, you know, I’m putting on an album and I’m listening it front to back, and how things feel in the context of that. So I’m with you.
So after the guitar solo, we get into the third verse. There’s guitar fills throughout the verse. More tasty Tim Renwick playing. This is the verse where we get the lines “No memory, tell me what’s wrong with me why am I alone here with no rest”.
Brad Page: And then there’s the Marie Celeste or Mary Celeste reference: “And now the name of the ship’s not the same. How long has it been Marie Celeste”.
Craig Smith: Now, this is something that I didn’t even realize this until I read the lyrics: Not kind of clocking what the line before it was. I always took it as “How long has it been” comma “Marie Celeste”. Like he was talking about another ship.
Brad Page: Or referencing it, right?
Craig Smith: Yes, yes. I never thought that he was speaking about the ship that he’s on, right?
Brad Page: He’s, I guess, kind of losing it.
Craig Smith: Yeah.
Brad Page: And he thinks he’s on the Marie Celeste.
Craig Smith: Yeah. Which completely opened up as soon as I read it. I was like, “Oh, this?” I never even realized that’s what he was trying to get across there.
Brad Page: “Tell me what’s wrong with me”– I don’t know, we don’t know! We don’t. And then, um, the verse wraps up with “Now there’s nobody from the crew left. 500 years supply of food just for me”.
Craig Smith: Yeah.
Brad Page: I mean, cinematic lyrics, right?
Craig Smith: Just the whole thing– and essentially the end of the story. That’s all we get.
Brad Page: Yeah, that’s all we get. And we don’t know what happens to him. We don’t know anything. Just, still to this day– 500 years of food, right” Still to this day, he could be an 80-year-old man still at the bottom of the sea in this submarine.
Craig Smith: I mean, Al Stewart could choose to write a sequel. He has chosen so far not to, and to leave the listeners hanging.
Brad Page: Yeah. Really intriguing lyrics. And then we’ve got, you know, there’s just a huge ending. More of that kind of tinkling piano. And then we ride out on, now very blatant, sonar pings.
Craig Smith: And also that last chord is fantastic.
Brad Page: Yeah.
Craig Smith: I would love to know what that is. Something tells me that if I was to look it up online, I would not get an accurate answer. But there’s something funky going on with that last chord. The site I’m looking at has it as a D Major 7 Sus 2. So I will need to try that later to see if that’s actually the case. But, uh, yeah, it’s just, it’s just one of those chords you haven’t heard in the song, so it’s just ending on this note of, uh, uncertainty is really the only way I could probably put it.
Brad Page: It’s not fully resolved. Right.
Craig Smith: Yeah.
Brad Page: Uh, just as the story is not resolved; just as those sonar pings just kind of fade, Like they could still be going today, right? It’s just cinematic.
You know, there’s a lot of ways to write a song: there’s the personal revelations, there’s opening your soul, there’s all, you know, those kind of things. There’s twists, and ways to turn cliches, and all of that. But one way to write a song is to kind of tell a story. And to me, this is one of my favorite story type of songs. You know, it’s not a personal thing, he’s telling a story, but you’re only getting this, like, one chapter in the middle of a book.
Craig Smith: Absolutely not what you expect from Al Stewart.
Brad Page: No, not at all. And I think that’s kind of one, that’s one of the things that drew me in from the beginning, is because it’s not what I expected. When I put this record on for the first time, I didn’t expect to hear a track like this. And again, as we said, it’s one of the first songs you hear and really grabs you. Just a great track.
So tell me how you got into Al Stewart.
Craig Smith: It’s a very strange story. So, always loved the “Year of the Cat”, but never sought it out, never owned it… I take that back, I did own it on a K-Tel album, I believe the album was called “Stars”, and it also had either “Beth” or “Rock And Roll All Night” on it.
Brad Page: Did it have, like, 30 songs on one vinyl record? Was it one of those?
Craig Smith: It’s a K-Tel album– Of course it did. So, it was one of those songs, like “Torn Between Two Lovers”, like all those are on this album and represent a very specific period of time of me being a toddler. So I grew up with this album in the house, so I knew “Year of the Cat” from that.
There was a friend of mine, Otto, who I used to, in my thirties, would often… here was a karaoke place. We were the two guys that might have been a little too old to be hanging out at the bar, but we would go there and we would do karaoke. And I remember one of the times coming out, it was like a block or two from my house, so we would walk there, but for some reason he had had his car and he drove there, and he’s like, “I got to hear “Year of the Cat” before I go home. And we’re sitting in the parking lot, and he’s just sitting in the car, and he’s playing “Year of the Cat” on his car stereo, and he is blissing out in his car, just like it’s the best thing he’s ever heard. And me, having always kind of enjoyed the song, I was like, “Okay, this might be the time where I dig further in”.
When I sought out “Year of the Cat after that, probably the next day or whatever, I specifically remember sitting at my desk at work listening to it on a loop for 8 hours while I worked. I did not shut the song off. Shortly after, I bought the album, and then Otto turned me on to “Time Passages”. And then after that, I just kind of, I moved in different directions; one of the first things I grabbed was the “Uncorked” live album. So this had to be around 2009. I saw him shortly thereafter, uh, three times, with Dave Nachmanoff, who’s a guitarist. They were acoustic shows. Al pretty much played rhythm and Dave riffed on top of him like a madman. The “Uuncorked” album is also a nice way to get into other eras of Al Stewart. It’s not kind of hits-focused, it doesn’t have “Year of the Cat”, doesn’t have “Time Passages”. It’s all deeper cuts. “Life In Dark Water” is on there. Fantastic version.
But, yeah, after those three shows, I was like, “I’m in”. One of the most disappointing moments of my life was buying the 8-track to “Year of the Cat” to have him sign it, because I was like, “this is a conversation piece right here”. He’s going to be like, “Oh, I haven’t seen one of these”. No, he didn’t say a word about it. He threw a signature on there and handed it back. So I was like, well, okay… Yeah, a super nice guy and just like a storyteller, which is something that we kind of talked about it in terms of song, but he is also a storyteller. His song intros are maybe second to none. But if you have a chance to check him out, I absolutely would.
And then I just started listening to the whole catalog, and realized I loved every bit of it. There are hidden gems all over the catalog, but right in the middle, you have “Year of the Cat” and “Time Passages”. If you’re going to pick two, those are probably the two to pick. And then if you were going to go further, I’d go backwards a little bit. “Modern times”, “Past, Present and Future”. Maybe forward a little bit– Oh, absolutely “24 Parrots”. The live album “Indian Summer”. Fantastic, also great– except for that stupid thing they do where they fade every song out on the original vinyl. The CD is not like that. These are the kind of things I can contribute, Brad, from having owned literally every incarnation of Al Stewart CD’s that have been released.
Brad Page: That’s good to know; So on the vinyl, they fade out the live tracks, but on the CD, they do not, correct?
Craig Smith: Yeah, I bought a couple of vinyl copies, thinking maybe it was like the first run, but every vinyl copy I got fades them out. So, super weird. But remember, there’s a 38-disc box set called the “Admiralty Lights” at the end of this, if that’s a road you want to go down. And that is a road that I did go down. So, um, yeah, tons of Al Stewart out there, and I couldn’t be happier.
Brad Page: Thank you so much for the recommendations. Thanks for coming on and talking about this song and for the, edumacation on Al Stewart. I really appreciate it.
Craig Smith: Thank you for having me on. Always a pleasure.
Brad Page: It’s always a pleasure to have you on. Thank you, Craig.
And thank you for joining Craig and I on this journey deep into dark water. If you’d like to revisit any of my previous episodes, you’ll find them all on our website at lovethatsongpodcast.com, or just look for them in your favorite podcast app. If you’d like to support the show, all I ask is that you share it with your friends. Tell people about the show, because we count on your word-of-mouth to grow our audience and to celebrate and preserve this music.
I’ll be back in approximately 15 days with another new episode, so let’s get together then. Thank you for coming aboard for this edition on Al Stewart and “Life In Dark Water”.
REFERENCES:
Al Stewart https://www.alstewart.com/
Time Passages album https://www.discogs.com/master/
Pods and Sods Network https://podsodcast.com/
Roy Harper https://www.royharper.co.uk/
Bedsetter Images album https://www.discogs.com/master/
Al-Stewart-Bedsitter-Images 8— Love Chronicles album https://www.discogs.com/master/
Al-Stewart-Love-Chronicles 9— Modern Times album https://www.discogs.com/master/
Al-Stewart-Modern-Times 10— Year of the Cat https://www.discogs.com/master/
Al-Stewart-Year-Of-The-Cat 11— Alan Parsons https://alanparsons.com/
Marie Celeste https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste
Tim Renwick https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tim-renwick-mn0000594665
Admiralty Lights box set https://www.discogs.com/release/
"It's All I Can Do" (Ric Ocasek) Copyright 1979 Lido Music Inc
The Cars debut album was a commercial and critical success. The pressure was on for a follow-up, and the band delivered big time with their 2nd album, “Candy-O“. The album was packed with more Cars classics, including the subject of this episode, “It’s All I Can Do”, a song that shows the strengths of each band member– everyone contributing something special top this great track.
“It’s All I Can Do” (Ric Ocasek) Copyright 1979 Lido Music Inc
…and check out this previous episode on The Cars: lovethatsongpodcast.com/the-cars-just-what-i-needed/
TRANSCRIPT:
Time for another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I’m your host, Brad Page, sending these love letters to the music we cherish, care of the Pantheon podcast Network. Each episode I pick a favorite song and we look at it in detail, trying to understand what makes it a great song. You don’t have to be a musician or have any advanced knowledge, because we don’t get into music theory or technical stuff here. If you’re willing to listen, then this podcast is for you.
On this episode, we’re exploring a track from a band that came onto the scene as the 70’s were coming to a close, and their sound was critical in launching the sound of the 80’s. This is The Cars with “It’s All I Can Do”.
We talked about The Cars on this show once before, back in episode number 43, “Just What I Needed”. So you can check out that episode for an overview of the band’s history. This time, we’ll pick up where that episode left off.
They released that first album in June 1978. A year later, their second album, “Candy-O”, hit the shelves. That first album was considered one of the strongest debut albums of all time, and it still is. Rolling Stone ranks it in their Top 20 Greatest Debut Albums. So when it came time to record their second album, the pressure was on, and they delivered… no sophomore slump here.
“Candy-O” ended up charting higher than the debut album. It made it to #3 and would eventually sell over 4 million copies. There were three singles released off of “Candy-O”. “It’s All I Can Do” was the second single. The song features Rick Ocasek on rhythm guitar, Elliot Easton on lead guitar, Greg Hawks on keyboards, David Robinson on drums, and Benjamin Orr on bass and lead vocals.
The song begins with a bass drum hit and a quick open and close of the hi-hat. One guitar on the left with a slightly distorted tone is playing staccato, muted power chords. The bass in the center is duplicating that guitar part. On the right, there’s another guitar playing smoothly strummed, ringing chords. Sounds like there’s maybe some reverb, perhaps some chorus effect on that guitar. The rest of the tracks are pretty dry, and Greg Hawks is playing a simple but effective melody on the keyboards.
Rick Ocasek is universally acknowledged as the architect of The Cars’ sound, and he wrote all the songs on the album; but every member of the band contributed something special, and to me, the magic ingredient of the best Cars songs is the vocals of Benjamin Orr. He had a great voice and so perfectly suited to The Cars sound.
For the second half of the verse, the guitar that was playing those clean, ringing chords on the right is going to suddenly shift to playing heavy, distorted chords. Listen for the change.
Then David Robinson is going to do a short drum fill on the toms to launch us into the first chorus, and those toms are pretty high in the mix.
The instrumentation behind the chorus is pretty minimal, not a lot of overdubs, just the basic band performing, but each player is doing something just a little different enough that it sounds nice and full, with Greg Hawke’s melodic keyboard part just riding on top. Let’s bring the vocals back in and listen to that again.
Both The Cars’ first album and “Candy-O” were produced by Roy Thomas Baker, one of the most famous and successful producers of the 1970s. Baker is probably most known for working with Queen, including producing “Bohemian Rhapsody”, so he knew how to layer vocals. Though the cars kept the production tricks to a minimum on this album, there are moments where the Roy Thomas Baker effect shines through those rich backing vocals at the end of the chorus. Here is a good example.
That chorus leads immediately into the second verse, and notice that clean, ringing guitar is back.
That’s one of my favorite lines in the song—“When I was crazy, I thought you were great.” We’ve probably all had a time in our lives where we were so crazy in love that we couldn’t see just how bad that person was for us.
And the distorted guitar returns.
Greg Hawkes is playing pretty much the same keyboard part that he played on the first chorus, but he’s using a different sound this time. Here’s the sound again from the first chorus. And here’s the keyboard sound on this second chorus. They add an extra six beats in there to lead us into the guitar solo.
And I’ve mentioned before on this show that I love Elliot Easton’s guitar playing. And this is another great example of a tasteful, melodic, memorable guitar solo by Elliot Easton. Check it out.
One thing we haven’t looked at yet is David Robinson’s drum part on the verses. What he’s doing is pretty subtle, but it’s not just a straightforward drum beat. He’s put some pretty clever twists into it. Let’s listen.
Also on this final verse, Greg Hawkes has added a new keyboard part. You can imagine a string section playing this part. It really adds a new layer of drama to this last verse. Listen to how it builds through to the end of the verse.
And that’s another great line; “As soon as you get it, you want something new”. How many of you have been on one end of that in a relationship?
Listen to the way the guitar and the keyboard are going to answer each other. It’s the guitar on the right, the keyboard on the left.
Like the way Benjamin sings this line here.
“It’s All I Can Do” by The Cars
The Cars released six albums between 1970 – 1987. Five of them were top 20 hits. Four of them reached the top ten. They split up in 1988.
Benjamin Orr died from cancer in 2000. The remaining members reformed for one more album in 2011. But without Benjamin Orr, it just wasn’t the same.
Rick Ocasek died in 2019. David Robinson has more or less retired from the music business and owns an art gallery in Rockport, Massachusetts. Elliot Easton is still active and has a number of musical projects that keep him busy, and Greg Hawkes does session and touring work, working frequently with Todd Rungren.
Thanks for taking a few minutes out of your day to listen to this show. I always appreciate it. New episodes of the podcast come out on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll be back soon with another episode. You can keep in touch with the show on our Facebook page, or on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, where you’ll also find all of our previous episodes. And you can find the show on your favorite source of podcasts, whether it’s Amazon, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher– wherever you listen to podcasts, you’ll find this show. We are part of the Pantheon Network of podcasts, the place for music related podcasts, so be sure to check out some of the other shows, too.
Thanks again for listening to this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast featuring The Cars and “It’s All I Can Do”.
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