What happens when two R&B veterans team up with a psychedelic band for a one-off single? It’s either one of the weirdest songs of the ’60’s or a forgotten classic, depending on your take on these things. For me, I’m firmly in the “lost treasure” camp. This original mash-up by Larry Williams & Johnny “Guitar” Watson, with The Kaleidoscope backing them up, is a relic from a time when anything seemed possible.

“Nobody” (Dick Cooper, Ernie Shelby) Copyright 1967 Mikim Music Inc/Carlin Music Corp.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome back to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I’m your host, Brad Page, and we are here on the Pantheon Podcast Network. Each episode, I pick one of my favorite songs and we explore it together, trying to get at the heart of what makes a great song. We don’t get into music theory here, so you don’t have to be an expert. This show is open to anyone interested in just listening.

On this edition of the podcast, we are listening to a song by an offbeat duo, but it’s really the result of an unlikely combination with a third force that makes this song such an anomaly. The song is called “Nobody”. It’s by Larry Williams and Johnny Watson, with The Kaleidoscope.

Larry Williams was born in New Orleans in May 1935. He moved around, living in Chicago for a while, then Oakland, California, but eventually returned to New Orleans where he connected with Little Richard and got signed to Specialty records. Little Richard was the biggest star on the specialty label, but when he quit the music business in 1957 to join the church, specialty needed another big act. And that was Larry Williams’ opportunity. Larry’s first hit was his biggest, “Short Fat Fanny” reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1957.

You can definitely hear the Little Richard influence there. He followed that up with a song called “Bony Maroney”.

But Larry Williams is probably most remembered today for his next single, which had “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” on the A side.

And “Slow Down” as the B side.

Both of those tracks would be recorded by The Beatles. In fact, The Beatles would cover a third Larry Williams track, “Bad Boy”, making Larry Williams one of the very few artists that The Beatles covered multiple times.

John Watson, Jr. was also born in 1935. He came from Houston, Texas, but moved to LA with his mother when he was 15. He gained a rep as a hotshot guitarist and a flamboyant showman, and earned the nickname Johnny “Guitar” Watson. He played without a pick, using his fingers to produce a snapping, stinging attack that Frank Zappa would describe as “an ice pick to the forehead” tone. And he meant that as a compliment.

In 1954, Johnny Guitar Watson released a single, the instrumental called “Space Guitar”, that pretty perfectly illustrates his tone, and features reverb and feedback in a way that was really years ahead of its time.

In 1957, he released “Gangster of Love”, which wasn’t a big hit at the time, but would eventually become his most popular song and would earn him another nickname as “Johnny Guitar Watson, The Gangster Of Love”.

Steve Miller would later nick that line for his song “The Joker”.

As the 50’s gave way to the 60’s, Johnny focused more on doing session work and being a sideman. He hooked up with Larry Williams and they worked together for quite a few years. Though they never had any big hits, they were a very popular live act, especially with black audiences. The duo released one album in 1967 called “Two For The Price Of One”. Johnny was as good a piano player as a guitarist, and this album features as much of his piano as his guitar. But it’s got some great overlooked R&B moments.

At the end of 1967, they released a brand new single, a song called “Nobody”. For this track, they brought in a new band to back them up, a psychedelic group of all white musicians from La called The Kaleidoscope.

Kaleidoscope was founded in 1966 and featured David Lindley. David would go on to become an in-demand session musician and a hired gun, as well as a solo artist. He was an incredibly talented and versatile musician on virtually any stringed instrument you can think of. David Lindley has played on tons, tons of albums, but he is mostly famous for one guitar solo– the solo he played using a lap steel guitar on Jackson Brown’s “Running On Empty”.

But back in 1967, Lindley was playing in this psychedelic band, Kaleidoscope. They released their first album, “Side Trips”, in June 1967, the Summer of Love. Here’s a song from that album called “Pulsating Dream”.

So somehow, Larry Williams and Johnny Watson, two lifelong R&B performers, decided to bring in this psychedelic band, Kaleidoscope, to back them on this one song.

“Nobody” was written by Dick Cooper and Ernie Shelby. It was produced by Larry Williams and Johnny Watson, and released in December 1967.

All the members of Kaleidoscope were multi-instrumentalists and often played traditional instruments. Not the kind of stuff you hear on most rock songs, and not my area of expertise. Sounds to me like there’s one part played on maybe an Oud, which is a fretless, stringed instrument from the Middle east. There might be a sitar in there, an acoustic slide guitar… I don’t know. Like I said, I’m no expert, but this is definitely not your typical Motown or Stax track.

Let’s listen to just their vocal track.

Now, they’re gonna do a classic R&B-style break here, but the oddball instrumentation puts such a great and fresh spin on this.

“The way we look and the way we dress may make some people frown, they just don’t understand our bag, that’s why they put us down”. You can tell this was written in 1967, and I love it. I also love this little vocal part here, too.

Let’s pick it back up right before that part.

And that gets us to a short little instrumental section where Kaleidoscope gets to do their instruments here. I don’t know who’s playing what, if that’s David Lindley playing the main part or not, but let’s listen.

And that brings us into another chorus.

Let’s back it up a little bit. We’ll take out the vocals and listen to just the instrumentation and the percussion.

I love these parts. Let’s go back and listen to just the vocals.

And here’s the instrumental part underneath that.

And check out this totally psychedelic ending.

“Nobody” by Larry Williams and Johnny Watson, with The Kaleidoscope.

This song would be recorded and released as a single a year later by Three Dog Night in November 1968. But their version is more conservative, without the exotic instrumentation and the psychedelic sounds. I much prefer this version.

Larry Williams lived a hard life. Drugs and violence were a consistent part of his life. He spent time in prison. On January 1980, he was found dead in his home, a bullet in his head. His death was ruled a suicide, but some suspected he’d been murdered. He was only 44.

As I mentioned before, Frank Zappa was a big fan of Johnny “Guitar” Watson, and Zappa invited Johnny to play on four of his albums. In the 1970’s, Johnny reinvented himself as a funk and disco artist. He re-recorded the song “Gangster of Love” in 1978, and it finally became a hit.

After Larry Williams death, Johnny kind of retreated from the public for a while. Though he would still perform overseas, he staged another comeback in 1994 with his album “Bow Wow”. A tour of Japan was planned for 1996 starting on May 12th; on May 17, Johnny and his band took to the stage in Yokohama. As he began the second verse of “Superman Lover”, he grabbed his chest and fell to the floor. He died that night of a heart attack, age 61.

Kaleidoscope would go on to release four albums between 1967 and 1970, along with two reunion albums, one in ‘76 and one in 1991. David Lindley, of course, went on to much greater success as a sideman and with his own band, El Rayo X.

Four of the original five members of Kaleidoscope have passed away now, including David Lindley, who died last year, March 3, 2023. He was 78.

Thanks for joining me on this episode. I hope you like this one. As always, there are more coming. Another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast will be here in just about two weeks. And of course, if you’d like to catch up on all of our previous episodes, you’ll find them on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com. Or look for us in your favorite podcast app.

If you’d like to support the show, write a positive review, those algorithms really love those positive reviews. But even better is if you tell a friend about the show, because your recommendations really do carry a lot of weight.

I’ll meet you back here soon on the Pantheon Podcast Network. Until then, stay groovy like Larry Williams and Johnny Watson with the Kaleidoscope on “Nobody”.

REFERENCES:

Larry Williams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Williams

Johnny Watson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_%22Guitar%22_Watson

The Kaleidoscope (band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidoscope_(American_band)

Specialty Records
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specialty_Records

The Beatles
https://www.thebeatles.com/

Frank Zappa
https://www.zappa.com/

David Lindley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lindley_(musician)

Jackson Browne
https://www.jacksonbrowne.com/

Steve Miller Band
https://www.stevemillerband.com/

Pantheon Podcast Network
https://pantheonpodcasts.com/

This episode, we travel back to Chicago, 1965 and dive into Fontella Bass‘s iconic hit, “Rescue Me.” Let’s explore this timeless track, recorded at the legendary Chess Studios, and discover the musical elements, the stellar lineup of musicians, and the story of Fontella Bass– an artist who did things her way.

“Rescue Me” (Carl Smith and Raynard Miner) Copyright 1965 Chevis Publishing Corporation, USA

TRANSCRIPT:

Well, hello. It’s good to have you back. This is the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, and I’m your host, Brad Page, coming to you on the Pantheon Podcast Network with another one of my favorite songs that we’re going to explore together on our continuing quest to understand how great songs come together. You do not have to be a musician or a musical expert to enjoy this show. All we ask is a willingness to listen, and you’ll come away from this show with a new appreciation for how great songs work.

On this episode, we’re travelling back to Chicago 1965, the famed Chess studios, and Fontella Bass with a song called “Rescue Me”.

There are many genres of popular music, but there’s one trait or trend that’s common in all of them: the “one-hit wonder”. Doesn’t matter if you’re talking about rock & roll, country music, R&B, hip-hop, rap, Top 40, they all have a history that’s littered with so-called one-hit wonders. In many cases, you can walk up to people on the street and nine out of ten of them might have heard of the song, but they couldn’t tell you who did it. But behind most of these songs are artists who worked for years before that song was a hit– and in many cases, worked for years afterwards. And this is one of those stories.

Fontella ass was born in July 1940. Her mother was a well-respected gospel singer, but Fontella made her career in the less-wholesome world of rhythm and blues. She played piano for guitarist Little Milton’s band. Here’s a song by Little Milton called “Satisfied” with Fontella on piano.

One night, Little Milton was late to the show so Fontella sang a few songs, and she did so well that they started giving her a featured vocal every night. When Milton’s bandleader, Oliver Sain, left, Fontella went with him. She eventually signed with Bobbin Records and released her first single, “I Don’t Hurt Anymore” in 1962.

Then she ended up with Ike Turner and recorded a few singles for his label, including 1964’s “Poor Little Fool”, which features Tina Turner on backing vocals.

Around this time, she met the legendary jazz trumpet player Lester Bowie, and they eventually got married. In 1965, she signed to Checker Records, a subsidiary of the great Chess Records label. Her first couple of singles for Checker were duets with singer Bobby McClure, the most successful one being a song called “Don’t Mess Up A Good Thing”.

In August 1965, Fontella was bouncing ideas around with Raynard Miner and Carl Smith, two of the producers and songwriters at Chess. Arranger Phil Wright joined in, and by the time they were done, they had written “Rescue Me”.

You would be forgiven for thinking that “Rescue Me” was a Motown song. It has all the hallmarks of a Motown classic: the four-to-the-bar snare (that insistent drumbeat with the snare on every beat), the horn section hooks, the infectious chorus. I’m sure that was intentional. The Motown sound was the new sound. Chess Records was starting to sound dated, and I think they were desperate to capture some of that Motown magic with the “Rescue Me”. They did.

According to Fontella, she was assured that she would get a writing credit for “Rescue Me”. But when the single came out, it was credited to Miner and Smith. Her name was not included. The song would go on to sell a million copies; it was Chess’ biggest hit in a decade. But Fontella didn’t get any of those songwriting royalties.

The song was performed by Raynard Miner on piano, Sonny Thompson on organ, Pete Casey and Gerald Sims on guitars, Gene Barge on tenor sax. And check this out: Louis Satterfield on bass, Charles Stepney on vibes, and Maurice White on drums. Maurice White was the man behind Earth, Wind And Fire, and both Setterfield and Stepney would be a key part of Earth, Wind And Fire. And if that wasn’t enough, on backing vocals, you’ve got the great Minnie Ripperton. Now, that is quite the band.

The song begins with the groove laid down by Louis Satterfield on bass and Maurice White on drums. Next in are the piano and a chucking guitar part. A quick drum fill by Maurice White brings in the rest of the band, including the horns. And then we’re off.

Now, that little part right there, you’ve probably heard parts like that many times, but I love that part. And it’s interesting to me because here’s why. First off, it’s descending in pitch. I mean, that’s obvious, but it is also kind of stretching in time.

Now, I know I always say we don’t get technical here, we don’t get into music theory, so don’t worry, I’m going to keep this simple. But I do want to at least scratch the surface of what’s going on here, so stick with me.

The first two notes of this section are 8th notes, hitting on the first beat of the measure. So, if you were counting it, as in “one and two and three and four and”, those first two notes would be the “one and” of this measure. But the next three notes fall in between those beats. There’s a pause or a “rest” in musical terms. So again, if you’re counting it, those notes hit on the and two and three and four. And so that leaves you with the rhythmical sensation of things slowing down. They don’t actually slow down– you can tap your foot to the beat and it stays in time. But those pauses and that shift in rhythm give the feeling of things slowing just a bit. Combine that with the notes descending in pitch, and you’ve got a very simple but very effective manipulation of your senses.

So let’s go back and hear all of that again in context.

“Rescue Me” just a great vocal performance by Fontella through the whole song. Let’s go back and focus on her vocal here.

And that brings us to the first chorus, with Fontella supported by the great Minnie Ripperton on backing vocals. It’s just an all-time classic chorus, augmented by those horns. And notice how high the horns are in the mix.

And that leads directly into the second verse. So let’s let that play through.

Now let’s go back and listen to that verse without the vocals, so we can just hear the band grooving. Couple of things to note. The bass is doing most of the heavy lifting here, but the piano is providing most of the flourishes. The rest of the instruments are playing it pretty straight. There’s a decent amount of reverb on the track, but it’s not overdone. And then, of course, there’s the ever-present tambourine, the secret weapon on many Motown tracks. So, of course, they gotta add one here, too. You can also hear some percussion on this track, probably conga drums.

Okay, here’s the second chorus.

And here comes a breakdown. Essentially the same as the intro, with everything dropping out except the bass and the drums, and then building back up. I like that descending piano part right before the vocals come back in. Let’s hear this last verse.

I like what the piano is doing here. Bring up the vocals again.

And here at the end, they break it down again, bringing it down to just the drums and percussion, bass and vocals.

And we ride out with just the bass, congas, and vocals.

“Rescue Me” by Fontella Bass.

Fontella never did get the songwriting credit she deserved. She said they kept promising her that they’d take care of it, but it never happened. When she got her first royalty check from Chess, it was so small, she tore it up and threw it back at them.

She got sick of the pop music business and did some work with her husband, Lester Bowie, performing on a couple of jazz albums with him. She released one more solo album in 1972, but then largely retired from the music business. She would release a few gospel albums down the road, but that was about it. But the one album she released for Chess in 1966 following the success of “Rescue Me”, it’s a pretty solid record. I like that album.

Around 1990, she was watching TV when she heard a voice singing “Rescue Me” in an American Express commercial. No one had asked her permission. She challenged American Express and in 1993 they settled with her for over $50,000.

Later in life, she suffered some health issues; breast cancer, a few strokes, and she had a leg amputated. She died from complications from a heart attack on December 26, the day after Christmas, 2012. She was 72 years old.

“Rescue Me” may have been her only big hit, but Fontella Bass did things her way, with integrity. She didn’t spend the rest of her life trying to find the next “Rescue Me”. I think there’s a lesson in there for other one-hit wonders.

Thank you for joining me for this search and rescue mission. We’ll be back again in about two weeks with another new episode of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, right here on the Pantheon Podcast Network.

If you’d like to catch up on any of our previous episodes, you’ll find them all on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or of course, you can find us in pretty much every podcast app and player that’s out there.

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 it’s your word-of-mouth that really helps us to grow our audience and celebrate this music that we love.

I’ll see you again in about 15 days. Thanks for listening to this episode on “Rescue Me” by Fontella Bass.

Welcome to our annual Bonus Holiday Episode, where I dig through my collection of Christmas & Holiday songs and pull out one of my favorites to play for you. No deep dive here, just a nice little holiday ditty to add to your playlist if you’re so inclined. Also, join me at the end as say a few “thank you’s” to friends, family, and most importantly, to you– my heartfelt thanks for spending your time with the show this year. More to come in 2025, so I hope you keep listening!

“All I Want For Christmas Is A Go-Go Girl” – Copyright B.G. Hinds, Westex Music BMI

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.

REFERENCES:

Stax Records
https://staxrecords.com/

HBO Max Documentary on Stax Records
Stax: Soulsville USA | Official Website for the HBO Series | HBO.com

Booker T. and the MGs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._%26_the_M.G.%27s

Otis Redding
https://otisredding.com/

Rufus Thomas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufus_Thomas

Carla Thomas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carla_Thomas

Rob Bowman
https://www.rob-bowman.com/

Satellite Records
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Records

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/

Pantheon Podcast Network
https://www.pantheonpodcasts.com/

John Lennon’s book “In His Own Write
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48573.In_His_Own_Write

United Artists
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Artists

Alan Owen (scriptwriter)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alun_Owen

Richard Lester (director)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lester

EMI Studios (Abbey Road)
https://www.abbeyroad.com/

Gibson J-160E (acoustic guitar)
https://www.gibson.com/Guitar/ACCEKJ966/J-160E

Rickenbacker 360/12 (guitar)
https://www.rickenbacker.com/model.asp?model=360/12

Hofner 500/1 (bass guitar)
https://www.hofner.com/bass-hofner-violin-bass.html

Ludwig Drums
https://www.ludwig-drums.com/

George Martin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Martin

In His Own Write” by John Lennon
https://www.amazon.com/His-Own-Write-John-Lennon/dp/0684868075

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.

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/

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