This episode we celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest ever made– A Night At The Opera by Queen. I’m joined by author Gillian Gaar, whose new book, Queen and A Night at the Opera 50 Years, offers a fascinating look at the making of this legendary record. Together, we explore the unique personalities of the band members, the pressures they faced leading up to the album’s release, and the innovative production techniques that defined their sound.

Each track on A Night At The Opera is a testament to Queen’s eclectic style and musical genius. Join us as we celebrate the artistry behind this classic album and the enduring legacy of Queen. Whether you’re a lifelong fan or new to their music, this episode is a must-listen!

Purchase Gillian’s book here:
Queen & a Night at the Opera a book by Gillian G Gaar – Bookshop.org US

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on the Pantheon Podcast Network. I’m your host, Brad Page, and on the next couple of episodes, we’re celebrating the anniversary of one of the greatest albums ever made: “A Night At The Opera” by Queen.

Author Gillian Gaar has a brand new book out called “Queen and A Night At The Opera: 50 Years”. This is a great book, and so I’m happy to have her join me for this episode as we dig into this classic album. Here’s our conversation.

Brad Page: All right, Gillian Gaar, thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the podcast. Just a few episodes back, I did a show on all of the amazing records that came out in 1975. It was an incredible year for some classic albums, and one record in particular that’s celebrating its 50th this year, is by any measure, an all-time classic. It’s Queen “Night At The Opera”. And you have a fantastic new book– I have it here, I’ve read it, it’s great. Couldn’t recommend it any higher. You’re kind of giving us the inside scoop on the making of “A Night at the Opera”. So, thanks for coming on the show to talk about the book and about this amazing record.

Gillian Gaar: Well, I’m excited to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Brad Page: Yeah, thanks for coming on. So, let’s set the stage here. Let’s talk about who Queen was. I think when you look back at, not all, but many of just the legendary bands, there are four very distinct characters, right? John, Paul, George, Ringo… The Who… Led Zeppelin. Each one of those guys is singularly unique in where they fit in those bands and really irreplaceable, I think. And I think Queen is the same way. You had four very distinct individual characters in this band. So, let’s talk a little bit about just who those guys were; Let’s start with Brian May and Roger Taylor, because they were kind of the core of the band and they had sort of been playing together before Queen became Queen, right?

Gillian Gaar: Yeah. In fact, they were all in college, and Freddie Mercury knew them at that time and they were in the band Smile. And Freddie desperately wanted to be in a band, but Smile was a trio, so they couldn’t, he couldn’t really fit himself into that format, but he just hung around. He was an ambitious guy already at that stage; you know, he’d have suggestions for them. “Oh, why don’t you play this song? Why don’t you move like that on stage?” That kind of thing.

Brad Page: Yeah. Freddie kind of weaseled his way into the band just kind of on sheer personality, I think.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah. I mean once Tim Staffell left and Smile was over, well, then Freddie could step right in. And then it just took a while to find John Deacon. I mean, that’s a kind of interesting aspect about how a band comes together; they had three other bass players that they worked with before John Deacon, and it didn’t say that any of them weren’t necessarily, That John was necessarily so much a better bass player than them. I think they probably perhaps had the same level of skill, but they just weren’t the right fit. And John came along and he was like the last piece of the puzzle, which you see that in retrospect, though it couldn’t have felt like that at the time– they were probably thinking “Are we ever going to find a bass player?” And, kind of like the moment when Ringo joins the Beatles, the last part of the puzzle finally falling into place.

Brad Page: Right. The key piece that fits. And then it just gels, and it’s magic.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah, yeah. It’s also interesting, because they are four very different personalities, and yet they all worked well together. I mean, yes, of course they were known for their arguments in the studio and all, but in general they meshed well together. And I think I quoted, it was probably Freddie, or maybe Brian, just saying how he thought that element made them a more interesting group; that you did have all these different people instead of all the same kind of person.

Brad Page: Right. Well, yeah, again, that goes back to where you look at The Beatles, or The Who– I mean, that’s a bandwidth four very distinct characters. Led Zeppelin… John Deacon is kind of that John Paul Jones-type of character, right. The quote-unquote “Quiet One”.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah.

Brad Page: But an incredibly important force. I think every band has a “secret weapon”, Somebody who’s sort of under-the-radar but is so important, and to me, that’s John Deacon and Queen.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah, well he turned out giving them some of their most notable hits.  And who knows, if he had not been in Queen, if he’d been in some other group, maybe he would not have become a songwriter, because he sort of blossomed with that. He didn’t join and say, “Oh, I have all these songs”. He sort of developed.

Brad Page: Yeah, and we’ll talk about that as we go through the record. So, as we come into 1975, Queen’s got three albums on the books. They’ve had a taste of success with “Killer Queen”. They didn’t really have any hits off the first two records, but “Killer Queen” on the previous album did pretty well.

There’s a thing where, by the time you get to your third record, if you’re not producing hits, there’s a lot of record company pressure. But where do you see the band as they come into this record? Where are they at in their career, in your perspective?

Gillian Gaar: Well, as you say, you know, obviously they hadn’t had the big breakthrough, but they were coming along, as frustrated as they probably felt that the three albums didn’t do better than they hoped. But by the time they made, “Night At The Opera”, they were a headlining act in Britain– not in the US; they had been to the US and were opening for other bands, and so probably the next step would have been to be the headliner. But they were headlining in Britain, so they had come on that much. “Killer Queen” was the first song I remember hearing from them. So that was like the first US breakthrough… I was going to say big hit; It wasn’t a “big hit”, but it got in the Top 40. So, you heard it on the radio, even in the suburbs.

They’ve got a new manager by that time, because they were having, they were having some conflicts with Trident where they were making the records. They were sort of under a management contract with Trident, who was also, I think, looking after their publishing and having them record in Trident Studios, which in Norman Sheffield’s book– he was one of Tritee’s co-owners, the founder, he owned it with his brother. He wrote out pretty interesting book, because the band was saying, “Oh yes, they didn’t pay us enough royalties”, etc. And he said that at the beginning, he didn’t want Trident to be overseeing all those aspects of the band because he just envisioned it generating conflicts of interest down the road, which of course it did, when the band was unhappy. But they brought in John Reid at this time and John said, you know, “Don’t worry about any management issues, record company issues. You just go out and make the best album you can.” So he sort of took that pressure off. He’s like, “Don’t think about business. Your job is to make this record. So just focus on the record and don’t even think about these business issues.” But I know Brian has said he considered it a make-or-break record, because they were on the verge of breaking through. So they were in a good position, they were in a great position for that. But then you have to deliver. And if they’d put out an album that wasn’t as strong, you know, they may have just stayed kind of at that middling success level. You don’t generate the momentum to carry you to the next level. So that was what they were looking to do with “Night at the Opera”. So certainly they themselves felt pressure for that.

Brad Page: Yeah. So they begin rehearsals in July of 1975. And they end up, over the course of the album, they end up using a total of six different studios, I think, between the overdubs and all of that.

Gillian Gaar: Yes. If you want to count the national anthem, it was seven, because they recorded that before that even started proper work on “Night at the Opera”.  They recorded it to play at the end of their concerts, because in Britain, they usually play the national anthem at the end of a theatrical performance. And, they thought, well, let’s provide them with a rock version to play. And so they’d already recorded that and decided to put it on the end of “Night at the Opera”.

Brad Page: Before we dig into the record, one more person to talk about, and that’s the producer, Roy Thomas Baker. Talk a little bit about Roy and his role here.

Gillian Gaar: Well, when he was starting out, learning his trade, he actually worked with some opera companies in the studio, which was very helpful, I think. One reason Queen got on so well with him was that he was as experimental as they were. And when they were making Queen II– which one band member, or maybe it was Roy had called it “the kitchen sink album”, because they just threw everything into that. But he had been told by Freddie when they were starting work on it, Freddie saying,” if there are any other crazy ideas you want to try that other bands wouldn’t let you do, you could do them on this album”. So they were both interested in experimenting and pushing the studio technology. So they were lucky in having Roy with them, because he was just as excited to see what could be done in the studio as they were.

Brad Page: Exactly. Particularly in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, you had a lot of those pop producers that were, you know, they made some great records, no doubt, but it was very much almost an assembly line in a way. It was just, you come in and you do X, Y and Z, and back out on the road. And there wasn’t a lot of room for the acts to experiment. I mean, sometimes they didn’t even get to play on their own records.

Luckily, you had four very strong-willed characters here who weren’t about to let themselves get steamrolled by any producer.

So let’s go through the record, track by track.  Because to me, when I think of the all-time great records, what makes a great record– not just a good record, but one that really stands out– to me, it’s sort of a cliche, but I always feel like a great record has to take you on a journey, from start to end. Doesn’t necessarily have to tell a story like a concept record, but it’s got to take you somewhere from the moment you drop the needle, so to speak, ‘till the end of the album. And to me, this record really does. It just takes you to so many different places and it’s such a fantastic record for that. So let’s look at these individual pieces that make this great work of art.

The album kicks off with a track by Freddie, that Freddie wrote called “Death on Two Legs”. And I don’t want to get too deep into it here, because we’re going to actually explore this track in detail on the next episode of the podcast… but just to kind of put it out there, this is one of the nastiest tracks that’s ever been written about another person. I think particularly written about their two managers, who, frankly, I don’t know that really deserve this level of vitriol. But it is a brutal takedown of Barry and Norman Sheffield, who you mentioned before, who had been acting as their managers. And clearly Freddie wasn’t particularly happy with that situation.

Gillian Gaar: Well, the whole band actually was wondering why they weren’t getting more money since their records were selling. And in particular, “Sheer Heart Attack”, the third one, selling more because it was the most successful. And Norman, in his book, which he called “Life on Two Legs”, he said that Queen had such expenses, such high expenses that they were still in debt to the company. Freddie in particular, always wanting a new costume to wear, and they had a kind of elaborate stage show, lights and all the rest of it that they wanted to use. So, he could certainly be right about that. And he was trying to tell them, or was trying to tell them. “Well, as more money comes in, then you’ll earn back this debt and then you go start to get money of your own”. But, yeah, that relationship did not last. And, they worked out a settlement to where the Sheffield’s were no longer involved. But they did get money from the next few albums until a certain period. Norman recognized that the song was about them and they were considering legal action, but he didn’t really want to, you know, hold up their career. It was easier to just make a settlement, let the album come out. And, if you notice, if you read interviews done at the time, Freddy’s careful to never name them. And he doesn’t even say, you know, our former managers or anything. He’s really kind of vague.

Brad Page: Yeah, he’s pretty cagey about it.

Gillian Gaar: They probably came to some agreement that, yes, we don’t want to get in legal trouble either.

Brad Page: Yeah.

Gillian Gaar: And I mean, it’s interesting to know that about the song, the backstory, if you will, but certainly you can relate to it anyway, even if you have no idea what they’re talking about. Because probably everyone’s had a boss or a superior that you didn’t like. Maybe not to that degree… Or a teacher. You know, there’s probably some figure that’s grated on you. Or these days, maybe it’s a politician. So, it has a lot of universal appeal, I would say.

Brad Page: Right, right. I mean, it is certainly a brutal takedown. And Freddie, just the way he digs into those lyrics vocally, it’s just like he’s just like breathing fire.

Gillian Gaar: He’s so over the top, though, that it’s kind of funny. I mean, you sense that his tongue is a bit in cheek there because it’s somewhat delivered with a wink. The animosity is real, but it’s, um, I think it’s tempered a little bit.

Brad Page: And then the song ends, and we go right into about as much of a polar opposite as you could get: Track two, “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon”, another track written by Freddie.

Gillian Gaar: Oh, I love that one.

Brad Page: I do too. The song is 1 minute and 7 seconds long; it’s like it’s over before you Know it. But even in that little over a minute time, there’s some interesting things going on. Let’s talk about how they recorded the vocal on this track because that’s pretty fun.

Gillian Gaar: You know, these days, I suppose you just hit a switch on the console and get a  digital effect to make your voice have that kind of “old timey” sound, like from a Victrola record player. Back then, you had to do those things, you know, the analog way, the hard way. So they had his microphone, they sent the vocal into a microphone in a bucket, to give it that kind of echoey sound, which actually is pretty clever when you think about it. A lot of the things they did on this album were very clever. They thought of all kinds of solutions to get the sounds they wanted.

Brad Page: Right. It’s pretty ingenious. He sings in the studio, as you normally would, but then they pump that audio into a pair of headphones; they put the headphones in a bucket and then stick a mic in the bucket to record the audio kind of bouncing around inside that tin bucket, and you get this sound that really sounds just like an old time radio or Victrola like you said.  It’s fun, it’s just a fun little track and I really dig it. And I love the juxtaposition of the fury of “Death On Two Legs” with “Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon”.

Gillian Gaar: Oh yeah, the album starts out that way, it continues on. Each song is kind of, you know, so different from the one before it.

Brad Page: Yeah. And so the next song on the record is Roger Taylor’s moment to shine, and kind of became his signature song. “I’m In Love With My Car”.

Gillian Gaar: This is an aspect that isn’t talked about with Queen very much, but there was always a sense of humor running through what they did. I think not so much in the ‘80’s, and maybe that’s why I didn’t like their music as much in the ‘80’s, I’m more a ‘70’s Queen person.

But, of course, “I’m In Love With My Car” has all these great innuendos in it that are, you know, not unheard of in songs about cars. So he kind of continues that fine tradition.

Brad Page: It’s in 6/8 time, which is not an unusual time signature, but for kind of a more heavy rock song, it’s not typically used in that format, so that’s kind of interesting. It has that sort of false ending at the end, where it fades out and then it comes back in with the guitar part. And I believe Roger actually played rhythm guitar on this track, right?

Gillian Gaar: Yes, yes. Helped to thicken the sound.

Brad Page: Yeah. So you got, I think, both Brian and Roger playing a little guitar at the end of it. And then of course, they overdub Roger’s sports car at the end of it. That is a real car. Yeah, that’s his Alfa Romeo. That’s his actual car. You hear revving it again at the end. It’s  it’s not a sound effect, it’s an actual recording.

And then we get John Deacon’s moment, a song that he wrote called “You’re My Best Friend”. And, spoiler alert– this is my favorite track on this record. I think this is an absolutely perfect pop song. I love the sentiment of it, it’s just so pure, and I just think wonderful. And it’s like the second song he wrote, right? Because he had written one track on one of the previous records, and I think this was song number two?

Gillian Gaar: Yeah. I mean, you know, technically, I don’t know if he wrote a song in between or not.

Brad Page: Yeah, he may have had other songs, but this was this only the second song he brought to the band. But I mean, wow. You know, this is the kind of song I think you could write and just if you write this once in your life, that’s a big accomplishment. Pretty incredible. Such a great song. He plays the electric piano on it. It’s very distinctive, that electric piano sound.

That’s all John. Incredible bass part on here. If you go back and listen to the bass on this part, super busy. Very McCartney-esque, in that way that Paul’s bass parts are kind of like a song all unto themselves. You don’t really hear any guitar until you get to the third verse, and then Brian does that great harmonized guitar solo. Kind of what I always think of as that guitar orchestration that he was so great at. That’s such a big part of the Queen sound is in here.

Gillian Gaar: And it’s really the first on the album where you can see the group’s harmonies on full display.

Brad Page: Right? Yeah. Those classic Queen harmonies really come into play here. Just a great track.

Gillian Gaar: Oh, yeah.

Brad Page: And then the spotlight turns to Brian. So: so far on the record, we’ve had two Freddy’s songs, we’ve had a Roger song; John doesn’t sing “You’re My Best Friend”, but it’s really his moment to shine. And then we’ve got “’39”, which is one of Brian May’s featured tracks on the album. He sings it. It’s kind of this, it’s a sci-fi folk song, which is a genre all of its own.

Gillian Gaar: I think Brian had to himself.

Brad Page: Yeah, yeah, I can’t think of too many other sci-fi folk songs out there.

John Deacon learned to play the upright bass specifically for this one. It became a real staple of the Queen’s setlist. They would play this live in kind of their acoustic section.

Gillian Gaar: Yes. They’d come down to the front of the stage.

Brad Page: Yeah. Brian on vocal; it’s a pretty heartfelt vocal. And, you talk about it in the book, that ostensibly the song is about the concept of when you go out in space and you travel at the speed of light, a year might pass for you between the time your journey begins and ends. But back on Earth, like 100 years could have passed. So he comes back to Earth, He’s a year older, but his family, his wife has probably passed away at this point, or she’s an old woman, and his kids are fully grown. He’s missed all of that.

But in your book, you have quotes of him talking about that’s kind of like how he felt as a touring musician. Going out on the road, on tour, and then coming back, you’re almost a different person than the family you left behind, which I think is fascinating.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah, it’s sort of an allegory as well as just being the song about interplanetary travel. I’ve read something similar from other musicians; especially if you’re on a big tour, a big major tour, that there’s sort of a disconnect when you come off the road and then you get back to, quote, real life with, maybe you’re married, your spouse and your family… you haven’t been dealing with them, you’ve been dealing with all this other stuff. And if you’re a big band, you know, you’re catered to all the time, right? And now you’re back home and wait, “I’ve got to get my own dinner?”

Brad Page: Yeah. “I have to take out the garbage?”

Gillian Gaar: “What do you mean, mow the lawn?”

Brad Page: Yeah, yeah. And meanwhile, your family at home has been living their lives, you know, they’re almost on a separate path than you are. It’s no wonder so many of these relationships just… they fail because it’s such a hard thing. It’s nobody’s fault, you know, it’s just the nature of being a touring musician. You’re kind of in your own world and then you have to come back and reorient yourself into, quote, unquote, real life. And it’s kind of a weird thing… but I love how this song gets at that. And there’s a point towards the end of the song where the music breaks and he just says, “Pity me”. And just. I don’t know, the way he sings that, to me, there’s like some real emotion in that, that’s getting at something deeper than just the story that he’s telling.

And then that’s followed up by another song written by Brian, a track called “Sweet Lady”. This is kind of the one that sort of gets short shrift on this record, I think. The one nobody ever talks about.

Gillian Gaar: Well, it is the weakest track, I would say, on the album, certainly.

Brad Page: You know, I love the guitar riff. I think it’s a great guitar riff. But somehow it never quite seems to take off or to gel, I guess.

At the end of the song, the band kind of tries to ramp it up and go into overdrive, but somehow it feels smaller to me, uh, when it should feel bigger.

I think it’s almost a production failure. It’s not a terrible song by any stretch, but it’s kind of tough to live up to all the rest of the tracks on this record, I think.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah, I think that fade out– and here, I’m looking it up– it lasts about a minute and a half. I think that’s my favorite part. That’s when they really sound the most engaged in the song. Because I have to say, the rest of it, I don’t know, there’s almost kind of a forced Quality. It’s kind of leaden.

Brad Page: Yeah, yeah… Brian was trying to do this thing of having 3/4 time in the verse and 4/4 time in the chorus, and it almost feels, in a way, like maybe more of like an exercise than a finished product, if you know what I mean. Like, it’s nice idea but doesn’t necessarily go anywhere.

Gillian Gaar: Mhm.

Brad Page: Again, I really do dig that guitar riff I think it’s a great guitar riff. So, I don’t want to completely crap this on this song, but you know, it’s on a record that’s chock full of, I think, masterpieces. So you know, something’s got to come last, right?

And then side one closes out with another one of Freddie’s old timey songs,  “Seaside Rendezvous”, which I think has a fantastic vocal by Freddie.

Only he could do a song like this and pull it off that way.

Gillian Gaar: Well, that was the aspect I liked about Queen, in particular that camp side that Freddie embodied. Because I grew up listening to musicals, and it was fun reading Mark Blake’s book on Queen, “Is This The Real Life”, and hearing what a fan Freddie was of the musical “Cabaret”, the movie in particular. And I was, too. Probably appreciating a different level from him, because I was still in junior high school. So, I always liked that aspect. So I kind of, I understood more where those songs were coming from. And maybe I think some of the rock contingent didn’t quite get that. Or maybe they were just things they tolerated or put up with from Queen. But I always liked those type of songs.

Brad Page: I do too. And it’s a very Beatle-esque kind of thing, too, right? ‘Cause so many of the great Beatle records would have, usually from McCartney but not necessarily always, you’d have these kind of British music hall throwback-type numbers, and I just think it adds to the, just the whole overall scope of the record. Like I said, sort of taking you on a journey through different musical genres and different times, and I love that. I love a record that just throws all kinds of things at you. And I think these songs hold up as well as the more classic rock numbers. I think “Seaside Rendezvous” was great for that, and I think it’s a great way to wrap up side one.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah, yeah. Because of course, that’s how we heard these albums in those days; there was a side one and a side two.

Brad Page: Yep.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah. When you think about it, when they were putting the albums together, not like today with the CD thinking what’s going to open and close the album. You had to do that twice, because you had to think of what’s going to open side one and close side one.

Brad Page: Right.

Gillian Gaar: So you have to think of two openings and two closings.

Brad Page: Right. But I think the feel of albums benefited from that. And there was something about that break, where you physically had to flip the tape or flip the album. There was just something about that pause that was like an Act 1, Act 2.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah, yeah, it did have that quality.

Brad Page: Yeah. And so speaking of that, side two kicks off with the song that I think was supposed to be the epic on the record. I know Brian always felt that this song kind of got overshadowed by “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which is one of the all-time epics, but “Prophet’s Song” is the song that kicks off side two, and it’s really an intense piece. What’s your take on this song?

Gillian Gaar: Oh, I always like that one. Especially when you, you know, got your first pair of headphones and you could appreciate the canon part in the middle, with the vocal kind of going around first on one channel, then on the other, and then in the middle.

And that was very exciting. And it was so long.

Brad Page: Yeah, it’s over eight minutes long. I believe it’s the longest song Queen ever did.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah. I wrote that, and I said technically, on one of the very later posthumous albums, they put this sort of long track together…

Brad Page: Yeah, there’s like an ambient piece that closes out the “Made in Heaven” record.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah.

Brad Page: But that’s not like a “song” song, right.

Gillian Gaar: No. I always, I liked it quite a bit. I do like Brian’s songs, he was the one that was more apt to go into, you know, the realms of fantasy and mythology. That was, well, you  saw that in “’39”. And then this similarly is tapping into that.

Brad Page: Yeah, this came From a dream he had, right?

Gillian Gaar: Yeah, yeah, that was the impetus of it. And then he just said it was a very difficult song for him to bring all the different parts together. But, I know he always felt it was overshadowed by “Bohemian Rhapsody”, but I don’t know if it really would have been, say, as successful as “Bohemian Rhapsody” had “Rhapsody” not existed or been on that album.

Brad Page: Right.

Gillian Gaar: I think, because of the length, and then also just the different passages. You had the canon sequence with Freddie’s vocals, but then coming out of that, you have this kind of long rock instrumental section that goes on.

Brad Page: Yeah. “Prophet’s Song”’s not quite as catchy, in terms of… you know, I can’t really picture it ever being a hit on the radio, the way “Bohemian Rhapsody” took off.

Gillian Gaar: Oh, they’d take the middle section out completely. You know they would have done that.

Brad Page: True. Yeah. And if I had one criticism, I think it may go on a little too long.

You’ve got the sound of this wind, which is actually just an air conditioner, like a microphone in front of…

Gillian Gaar: Yes, it was funny.

Brad Page: Right. And this is kind of a kitchen sink thing too, because Brian’s playing a toy koto, which is a Japanese instrument that I think was gifted to him on a Japanese tour.

like a microphone in front of.: Yeah.

Brad Page: You’ve got tape effects in it; there’s one point where they actually, you hear the sound of the tape starting from dead stop. You know, when you turn a tape on, it doesn’t immediately… It’s not like a cassette, you know, these reel to reel tapes, they took a second to ramp up to full speed. And so you’d kind of get that ramp up sound. And they actually used that in here. They edited that in, which is very difficult to do.

Gillian Gaar: Well, especially then you’d have to cut the tape and, you know, like literally tape it back in there. Yeah.

Brad Page: Lterally editing with razor blade and splicer tape. You could not afford to screw up. You really had to know what you were doing or the whole thing would be trashed. Wasn’t for the faint-hearted.

And then you have this beautiful acoustic guitar at the end of it that turns into the next track. Freddie’s piano comes in, and you get the song Love Of My Life, which is one of the most beautiful songs that Freddie ever wrote and ever sang. Let’s talk about that song.

Gillian Gaar: Well, I think it was Brian who said that later on in the ‘80’s, Freddie was somehow a bit insecure about his piano playing. So in the ‘80’s, he didn’t play piano that much on Queen’s records, they’d get other people in to do it. But, here he does, and I think that makes all the difference. And it just shows how artists can be self-conscious about something that to the rest of us sounds perfectly wonderful.

Gillian Gaar: It’s a beautifully performed piano part.

Brad Page: And you see the classical influence. I mean we had, you know, his love of vaudeville in the earlier songs. But now the classical influence comes in to play, very strongly on this number.

Brad Page: Yeah. And he asked Brian to play harp. Brian had to learn how to play the harp.

I think you say in the book Brian basically had to do it like one chord at a time. ause he didn’t know how to play harp.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah. And then he found it would go out of tune pretty frequently. So you’d have to stop and retune it then play the next chord. So yes, he wondered how they managed in symphonies. But, I suppose perhaps in more climate controlled rooms, that’s easier. I have heard that harps can go out of tune very easily.

Brad Page: So yeah, it’s a tricky instrument.  The guitar solo: Brian’s guitar work here really feels like what a violin would play; at other points, it feels more like cello. You know, Brian was so great, and we’ll talk about it further on on the record, of just making his guitar… I mean, it always sounds like Brian May’s guitar. That’s the other thing too, is that on one hand, it’s so distinctive. Brian is one of those players where you can hear two or three notes of a Brian May guitar part and say “That’s Brian May”. And at the same time, he can become other instruments, like violins and cellos, and play those parts. What a brilliant player.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah. I think he’s underrated in a lot of ways. Perhaps people remember the big guitar riffs, the signature guitar riffs, something like “Tie Your Mother Down”. But he was just very inventive and very expressive. I mean, think about “Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon”. You know, his little guitar part at the end there, which is just so fun, and it’s probably only 10 seconds or 20 seconds. I think people overlook that side of his skills.

Brad Page: Yeah. Just incredibly versatile as a player and yet always sounding like Brian May.

It’s an amazing track. It’s one of their greatest ballads, if not their best ballad.

Gillian Gaar: Yes, it probably is the best ballad. Freddie’s best ballad. Yeah, certainly.

Brad Page: And one of the things that I love about this song, and just in general sort of fascinates me about music and songs in general, is that they would play this song live– and it would be a big part of their live set– but it became something else. They would do it acoustically, basically just Brian, I think, maybe John playing bass, and Freddie singing, but the audience would sing with him. The song kind of became this whole other thing.

It’s like this heartbreaking kind of lonely song on the album…

Gillian Gaar: Yes.

Brad Page: …but when they brought it live, you would get this 10,000, 20,000 people singing it, and it becomes something else.

Brad Page: How this song of one man’s broken heart kind of became almost an anthem in a way. And sung by 20,000 people, all kind of sharing the same feeling. It’s just, it’s just great. And to me, that’s a sign of a great song; it can withstand being taken apart and performed in different ways, but still always works.

Gillian Gaar: Mhm.

Brad Page: That’s followed by another Brian May song. Another song that he takes the lead vocal on, a song called “Good Company”.

Brad Page: That’s another favorite.

Brad Page: Yeah, he plays ukulele on it, as well as taking the vocal. He turns his guitar into an entire brass band.

Gillian Gaar: I know, it was remarkable. And just talking about creating the horn parts by recording them one note at a time. So, it was just an incredible amount of effort that he put into just getting it just right. That was typical of his meticulous approach to his music like that.

Brad Page: Just incredible amount of work for, again, it’s probably 30 seconds worth of music, but it probably took weeks of work.

Gillian Gaar: Mhm.

Brad Page: There’s one interesting thing in this song where lyrically he rhymes the line “My very good friends and me” with “The girl from Number Four”, which doesn’t even rhyme, right? You’d think it’d be “The girl from Number Three”.

Gillian Gaar: Number three, but you’re right.

Brad Page: It’s got to be an intentional, like, well, “I’m not going to go where you think I’m go going to go. You think I’m going to say three, I’m saying four”.

I love the way at the end of this song there’s this guitar trill that’s kind of an unresolved thing.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah, it’s like this minor discord and it gives you a little, it kind of leaves the song hanging, sort of a bittersweet note.

Brad Page: But that also takes you into “Bohemian Rhapsody” and the a capella intro of that. Just the way that flows is really interesting.

Brad Page: So then, of course, that leads us to the last track on the album, Freddie’s masterpiece. I mean, I don’t know what more we could say about the song that hasn’t been said a million times by other people, but it is a tour de force. I mean, it’s iconic. It’s hard to think of any song more iconic. There are songs as iconic, but I don’t know if there are any that are more iconic than “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

Gillian Gaar: You know, we’ve been talking about the different styles on the album, and this has all those different styles in one song.

Brad Page: Yeah, yeah, exactly. You’ve got just every element that makes Queen great; that they’re able to do all these different things, and do them masterfully. And it’s all crammed into this one song.

I love the little touches, like after he sings “Shiver down my spine”, you get that kind of metallic clanging, which is actually Brian hitting the strings behind the bridge on his guitar.

And you’ve got that big gong at the end of it.

Gillian Gaar: Yes. It really was remarkable. And to think of that being played on the radio. I don’t know that a track like that could get played on the radio these days, or would get played, rather.

Brad Page: Right. This song is sui generis, to use a big word. You can’t think of anything like, “Oh, well, that’s just like this other song”.

It’s hard to come to a song like this and hear it fresh. Sometimes you have to kind of force yourself to just to flush it out and try to hear it as it sounded in 1975 and what, like, a shock it was.

Gillian Gaar: Yeah. Uh, people say the same thing about “Stairway to Heaven”, too. Just overplayed. And perhaps you could say that about “Hey Jude”, the Beatles song. So much out there. But younger people, though, who maybe haven’t had all that exposure, as much exposure to it in things like commercials; maybe, you know, each generation comes to it with fresh ears, one can think.  You know, I find you have to sort of step back sometimes, and not play that favorite album for a while, and then listen to it again, and you can revisit how great you thought it was.

Brad Page: Yeah, sometimes you just, “Wow, that really is great. I forgot how great that song was”, you know?

And then the album closes on “God Save the Queen”.

Gillian Gaar: I think it sort of underscores the idea that you could see the album as a theatrical presentation.

Brad Page: Mhm.

Gillian Gaar: I mean, the cover kind of suggests a theatrical program that you might get when you were seeing a show.

Brad Page: Yeah– Let’s talk a little bit about the album art. For Queen, it’s kind of an understated cover, I mean, considering how big and flamboyant they could be. It’s basically just very white with some bright colors. And that Queen coat of arms on the front, that Queen logo on the front kind of represents each of the four members of the band, right?

Gillian Gaar: Yes. That was designed by Freddie based on their astrological signs. Remember, astrology being such a popular thing then.

Brad Page: And I think you said it kind of feels almost like a theater program or an opera program, kind of the way it’s laid out. It’s very elegant, which befits the title of the record.

Gillian Gaar: Yes, that too. And then, on the inside; it’s a gatefold, having the lyrics and the portraits of the band members, they look like headshots– always made me think of headshots, the kind of things that actors and performers would use to pass out to agents and so on.

Brad Page: It’s just a very complimentary album design to go with this record, and the music that’s contained within. I really love the whole package of it.

So the album comes out in November 1975.What happens?

Gillian Gaar: You know, if you look at the reviews at the time… I mean, there are some raves, but there are also some, they did get some mixed reviews as well. Just because it was so elaborate and so many different styles, and people were sort of not sure how to take this. But certainly the sales came out strong, and soon they had a number one album & single, right away in England; I don’t think either of those got to a number one in America, interestingly. But yeah, certainly in England. And it broke through, gave them their number ones and around the world it certainly performed strong, got in the top 10. It was the breakthrough they had wanted and waited for, and worked so hard for.

Brad Page: Yeah, no doubt. This is the record that really brought them to that higher level, that broke them, made them legends and again, when I think of the great records, the great albums, this is absolutely one that’s always up there for me. I just think it’s an incredible record.

By the time this episode airs, the book will be out April 1st. I encourage anyone who’s listened to the show that’s a Queen fan of any measure– Go pick it up. It’s great. It’s just a great fun read and it’s a beautiful package. Jillian, they really did a wonderful job putting the book together. It looks great. Packaging is great. It looks beautiful on your bookshelf.

Gillian Gaar: It’s got a golden spine, folks. It’s in a slip case and it has a lovely golden spine.

Brad Page: Yeah, it’s befitting a band as elegant as Queen, for sure. You can find it on Amazon, but of course, if you can get it from your local bookshop, please do. Wherever you get it, get it. You won’t be disappointed.

I love the book, I love the album and I love the chance to talk to you about both the book and the album. So, thanks so much for coming on the show. I really, really appreciate it.

Brad Page: Well, you’re welcome. I had a great time.

Brad Page: Thanks, Gillian.

The book is called “Queen and A Night At The Opera” 50 Years” by Jillian G. Gaar. It’s a  must-have for Queen fans.

One of my favorite places to order books from is bookshop.org.  When you order from them, you’re actually supporting your local bookstore, so it’s always a great place to get any book. Look, I’m not making any money from this… I’m not getting a kickback, I’m not sponsored by any of this. I just genuinely enjoyed Gillian’s book and I think you will, too.

I’ll be back here in two weeks, digging deeper into “Death On Two Legs”. So I will see you then. Until then, take care of those you call your own and keep good company.

Saxon came out of England in the 1970’s and quickly established themselves as one of the leading lights of the “New Wave Of British Heavy Metal” (NWOBHM). Their 2nd album, Wheels Of Steel, is considered one of the classic Metal albums. On this episode, we dive into “747 (Strangers In The Night)“, one of the hits from this album and remains a concert favorite at any Saxon show.

747 (Strangers In The Night)” (Words & Music by Byford, Quinn, Oliver Dawson, Gill) Copyright 1980 Carrere Music/Heath Levy Music Co. Ltd. – 2009 Union Square Music Limited, a BMG Company

— Is Rock dead? Of course not! And there’s plenty of podcasts on the Pantheon Network to prove it!

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome back, true believers, to the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast. I’m the host of the show, Brad Page, coming to you on the Pantheon Podcast Network. Each episode of this show, I pick a favorite song to dig into, as we continue our exploration to uncover what makes great songs work. No knowledge of music theory or technical jargon is necessary here. We’re just going to use our ears to listen and see what we discover.

This episode, we’re going back to 1979 to take a look at the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and a song by one of the bands at the forefront of that scene. This is Saxon with a song called “747 (Strangers In The Night)”.

We haven’t touched on the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal on this show before. So before we get into the song, let’s talk about that.  If you’re not familiar with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, or as its often abbreviated in print, NWOBHM or “Newabum”– which I find either of those pretty awkward, so I’m just going to keep calling it the “New Wave Of British Heavy Metal”.

This was a scene that began in the mid-seventies in England, and by the early eighties it broke big around the world, with bands like Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest. The scene really developed in parallel with punk, but it was its own separate thing.

This is, of course, a gross generalization. Like any scene, there’s a lot of complexity when you dig into it. But one of the things that distinguished the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal was that they took the core sounds of hard rock and early metal bands like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, and they injected it with some of the energy of punk. It was faster, more aggressive. Again, I’m giving a surface level overview here, but I think you get the idea. The term New Wave Of British Heavy Metal was coined by Jeff Barton, a writer for Sounds magazine, in 1979. There were literally hundreds of bands that came out of that scene, everything from Motorhead and Venom to Girlschool and the Tigers of Pantang. But one of the most successful and long lasting was a band called Saxon.

Though they never cracked the big time in the US, Saxon were huge in England, Europe and Japan. They had eight albums in the UK. Top 44 of them that reached the Top 10, and they’re still making records in touring today.

Saxon came together around 1975, after two separate bands disintegrated. The remaining members merged into a new band they initially called Son of a Bitch. They were negotiating a deal with a French record label, but the label insisted that they change their name to something a little more commercially acceptable. So Saxon was born in July 1978.

Their first album, titled Saxon, was released in 1979. Their second album, “Wheels of Steel”, was released in 1980. It hit number five on the UK chart and generated two hits for them, the title cut, “Wheels of Steel” and “747 (Strangers In The Night)”.

The lineup of this album was Graham Oliver and Paul Quinn on guitars, Steve Dawson on bass, Pete Gill on drums, and Peter “Biff” Byford on vocals. All five band members share writing credit, and the song was produced by Saxon and Pete Hinton.

Biff Byford was watching a BBC documentary about the great northeast blackout that happened in America on November 9, 1965. That started when a 230-kilovolt transmission line in Ontario, Canada, failed, which then caused other lines to go down, eventually bringing down the entire northeastern transmission network. It plunged eastern Canada, parts of seven US states and all of New York, including New York City, into darkness. People were trapped in subways and elevators, supposedly even the airport runway lights went down.

This inspired Biff to write the song. That image of planes coming in to land and the airport lights suddenly go out, the planes forced to divert or circle going nowhere. The song begins with one of the classic metal guitar riffs, with a great guitar solo played over the top.

Let’s check out the guitars here. Just classic heavy guitar tones across the board. Pretty straightforward recording, too. Just a little bit of reverb on the rhythm guitar and some echo on the lead guitar. One is panned left and one is on the right, though there is some crossover on each channel. I believe that’s Graham Oliver on the guitar on the left and Paul Quinn on the solo on the right.

The band breaks here, letting that rhythm guitar come to the front, really establishing that riff before the vocals come in for the first verse. You can really hear that reverb on the guitar during the break.

Biff sings those first two lines solo and then overdubs a harmony with himself on the next two lines. But on the next part of the verse, he sings three lines solo and only harmonizes on the last line.

And that lands us at the first chorus. This is the part of the song that Biff Byford wrote first. He liked the idea of strangers meeting in the night during the blackout. There’s always been a legend that nine months after the blackout, there was a baby boom. I don’t think there’s any evidence to really prove that, but hey, makes for a great punchline to the story. And Biff was tapping into that.

Second verse. Biff mentions a plane, Scandinavian 101, in this verse, based on a real flight involved in the 1965 blackout. The actual plane was Scandinavian Airlines flight 911. The pilot had his eye on the airport landing lights, but when he glanced down at his controls and looked back up, the lights were gone. Dangerously low on fuel, the plane was lucky to make it. Some planes were able to land thanks to a full moon that just happened to be that night. Bits of all of this make it into the song.

Let’s listen to what’s going on musically during the chorus. The two guitars, again panned left and right, are playing the same arpeggio throughout the whole chorus.

But the bass is playing a descending pattern, going lower every four beats. Now, let’s hear that all together, and then we’ll bring the vocals back in.

Here comes another guitar solo. This time it’s Graham Oliver who gets the spotlight. He’s the guy panned to the left. It’s another great solo.

Third and final verse. We’ll focus in on some of Biff Byford’s vocals here.

The Band UFO released an album called “Strangers In The Night” in 1979, a full year before Saxon recorded this album, but I haven’t seen any evidence that Biff Byford was influenced by that title. Biff has said that he probably got the idea from Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers In The Night”. Biff’s actually a Sinatra fan. They return to the Riff here one more time and we get some jet engine sound effects.

One interesting thing is that on the verses, Biff overdubs harmonies with himself, but on the choruses, he doubles the vocal– but it’s not a harmony. He sings them in unison. Both parts are the same.

That’s a nice big raise of the vocal there. And with that, they’ll play out the fade with one final guitar solo from Paul Quinn.

 Saxon – “747 (Strangers In The Night)”

I don’t claim to be the biggest metal fan, but there’s a lot that I do like, and I’ve always had a soft spot for Saxon. I first saw them open for Rush in September 1980, if I remember correctly, and they rocked. Biff was every bit the rock star, and Paul Quinn was almost an anti-rock star.  He had kind of an Angus Young thing going on; he wore a little cap, probably to hide his balding head (which I can relate to), and he spun his guitar around on his chest. I saw him do that long before I ever saw ZZ Top do it. The whole Band was great.

Thanks for listening to the show. New episodes of the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast are released on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so we’ll be back here soon. If you’d like to dig into our previous episodes, you’ll find them on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com or look for us in your favorite podcast app. We’re on Apple and Google and Amazon and Spotify and Pandora and every place that you can think of. So you got no excuse for not joining in on the fun.

Which reminds me, don’t forget to follow the show so you don’t miss an episode. If you’re inclined to support the show, well, you don’t have to spend any money, just leave us a good review and tell a friend about the show. Your recommendation is our best advertising.

I’ll see you next time here on the Pantheon Podcast network. Thanks for being a part of this show on “747 (Strangers In The Night)” by Saxon.

REFERENCES:

Saxon
https://www.saxon747.com/

Wheels of Steel album
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheels_of_Steel

Motorhead
https://imotorhead.com/

Venom
https://www.venomslegions.com/

Girlschool
https://www.girlschool.co.uk/

Tygers of Pan Tang
https://www.tygersofpantang.com/

Jeff Barton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Barton

Sounds magazine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounds_(magazine)

On this episode, we fix our gaze on guitarist Robin Trower. Though he’s not a household name today, he continues to be held in high regard by guitar aficionados. His time with Procol Harum and the formation of his own power trio laid the foundation for a sound that would captivate audiences and inspire countless guitarists. From Trower’s use of the middle pickup on his Fender Stratocaster to the swirling effects of the Univibe pedal, we explore the sonic artistry behind “Day of the Eagle“, and the power of music across decades… from the days when guitars ruled the airwaves and heroes were measured by bend of a string.

“Day Of The Eagle” – Robin Trower Copyright 1974 Chrysalis Music Ltd

TRANSCRIPT:

Greetings, fellow travelers, on the road from yesterday to today… you’ve crossed the bridge into the Pantheon Podcast Network, and your path has brought you here to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. My name is Brad Page, and each edition of this show, I rummage through my music library and pick one of my favorite songs, and we explore it together. Not in a technical way– we don’t get into music theory here, we’re just listening in a way to uncover those little nuances, those magical moments that make it a great song.

The history of modern music, especially rock music, is replete with brilliant guitar players. So many great guitar players.  We’ve celebrated some of them here. From the earliest sounds of rock and roll, the guitar– and the men and women who wielded them– demanded attention, playing louder, faster, pushing the boundaries of creativity and sonic exploration. Even today, when the guitar is not the ever-present driving force of the music business the way it used to be, there are still plenty of players making an exquisite racket with this infernal instrument.

In some ways, guitar heroes were a dime a dozen. There’s never been a shortage of guitar players. Even now, many of the greats are still celebrated today, but many more are overlooked or just plain forgotten. Well, on this episode, we’re going to shine a light on a player who was one of the biggest guitarists of the 1970’s. He’s not a household name now, but guitarists still hold him in high regard. This is Robin Trower with a song called “Day Of The Eagle”.

Robin Trower was born in March 1945. He was born in London, but during his childhood his family lived in Canada and New Zealand before moving back to London when he was about eight years old. In his teens, he started playing guitar, largely influenced by Cliff Gallup, Steve Cropper, and BB King. He formed the Paramounts with some friends, including keyboard player and vocalist Gary Brooker. They mostly played R&B covers and had a minor hit with their cover of “Poison Ivy”.

The Paramounts eventually split and Brooker went on to form Procol Harum, who had a big hit with “A Whiter Shade of Pale” in 1967. When their guitarist Ray Royer left, they asked Robin Trower to join.

Robin played with them from 1967 to 1971, appearing on their first five albums, though he’s not on “Whiter Shade of Pale”, because that was recorded before he joined. But by 1971, Trower was looking to move on. He was writing more of his own songs, and Procol Harum was dominated by the songwriting of Brooker, Keith Reed and Matthew Fisher. There just wasn’t room for Robin Trower’s songs. Also, Procol Harum was a keyboard-based band, and Robin was itching to play more guitar music.

So he left Procol Harum and put together a band named Jude, a four piece featuring Frankie Miller on vocals, ex-Jethro Tull, drummer Clive Bunker, and James Dewar, who had been playing with Stone The Crows, on bass. But this lineup didn’t work out, and it fell apart before they ever recorded anything.

So, Trower decided to form a power trio, following the example of bands like Cream. Besides playing bass, James Dewar was an excellent vocalist in the Jack Bruce mold, so he took over lead vocals, and they brought in Reg Isidore on drums. The trio of Trower, Dewar and Isidore released their first album, “Twice Removed From Yesterday”, in March 1973.

By this time, Robin was very inspired by Jimi Hendrix, as you can certainly hear on that track. The Hendrix influence is probably most direct on this first Robin Trower album, but the general Hendrix style would remain a part of Trower’s sound.

The band returned to the studio in late 1973 to record new material, which would become their second album, “Bridge of Sighs”, the album that many would consider their peak. It would be their commercial breakthrough, and is still Robin Trower’s most popular album today.

The album was produced by Matthew Fisher, Robin’s old buddy from Procol Harum, and it was engineered by Geoff Emerick, the legendary engineer who worked with the Beatles among many, many others, and is really the one responsible for the incredible sound of this album.

“Day Of The Eagle” is the song that opens the album. Side one, track one. It was written by Robin Trower and performed by Trower on guitar, James Dewar on vocals and bass, and Reg Isidore on drums. The basic tracks were recorded live in the studio. Rhythm guitar, bass, and drums. They nailed it in about two or three takes. The lead vocals and lead guitar were overdubbed shortly after.

The song begins with a heavy guitar riff, accented by the snare drum. Then the bass joins in for the second half of the riff. Let’s hear just the bass and drums there.

Let’s talk about Robin Trower’s guitar sound. He’s using two Marshall 100-watt amp heads with two 4×12 speaker cabs. He’s playing a Fender Stratocaster. It’s just a stock Fender Strat, but one of the unique things about Robin is that he favors the middle pickup. Most guitarists don’t really use the middle pickup much at all, but Robin prefers it, and that does contribute to his sound.

Another highly identifiable thing about Robin’s sound is the use of a Univibe pedal. It creates that swirling, fluid sound, and he uses that a lot on this track. He’s also using a homemade booster pedal, which allows him to drive the amplifier that much harder. There’s no distortion pedal or fuzz box in use here, just the amps cranked up and that boost pedal pushing the sound into overdrive.

Here’s the first verse. James Dewar on vocals.

Let’s back it up and listen to those vocals.

“I’m living in the “Day Of The Eagle” not the dove”. That’s pretty much the chorus. They return to the riff and then the second verse. Let’s pick it up from here.

I Love the way Robin bends those notes there. It’s like he just twists them. We’ll go back just before the second verse.

Back to the riff and then the guitar solo. Very interesting tone for this guitar solo. It’s very mid rangy, a honky, nasal tone. Not a very appealing tone all on its own, but I bet it was chosen for the way it lets the solo sit in the mix. It stands out in contrasts from the other guitar parts.

These tones all start with microphone placement. Jeff Emerick used three mics on the guitar amps: one close up to the speakers, one mic about 15ft away, and a third microphone in between, and he could choose and blend together all three of those microphones. I’d bet that the rhythm guitar is primarily the close microphone, whereas the guitar solo is mostly a blend of the two further away mics. Let’s push the vocals back up again for this last verse.

And now they’re gonna slow it down and change the whole feel of the song.

Let’s hear just the bass and drums for a little bit, and then we’ll bring the guitar back up.

You can hear that they’ve overdubbed an overdriven distorted guitar that takes over the solo here, while the cleaner guitar plays sparingly and quietly in the background.

Robin Trower “Day Of The Eagle”

The “Bridge Of Sighs” album was the record that gave Trower his big break, though he would always be more popular in the US than in his home country of England. Reg Isidore would leave after this album, replaced by drummer Bill Lorden, but James Dewar would stick around for a whole bunch of records: “For Earth Below”, “Long Misty Days”, “In City Dreams”, “Caravan To Midnight”, “Victims Of The Fury”. These were all good records– and great album titles too– though his profile diminished as tastes and trends changed in the eighties.

Record labels and bandmates would come and go, but Robin Trower has released new albums consistently in every decade, a solo career lasting over 50 years.

Reg Isidore passed away in March 2009 – heart attack.  James Dewar suffered from a debilitating condition that caused him to have multiple strokes, eventually succumbing in May 2002. But at the time of this recording, Robin Trower is 80 years old, still with us and still playing.

I hope you enjoyed this journey across the Bridge of Sighs into the “Day Of The Eagle”. New episodes of this podcast come out on the first and the 15th of every single month, so I’ll be back here poking your eardrums again soon. You can catch up on any episodes that you missed on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or of course, you can find us in pretty much every podcast player, so wherever you like to listen to your podcast, I’m sure you’ll find us there. And while you’re there, leave a review of the show, and if you’d like to send me a comment, you can do it on our Facebook page or send an email to lovethatsongpodcastmail.com.

To support the show, the absolute best thing you can do is to just share it with your friends. Tell someone about the show because your recommendations carry a lot of weight and I appreciate it.

 On behalf of everyone here at the Pantheon Podcast Network, I thank you for listening. Now it’s time to crank up your turntable, CD player or the mp3 files– however you prefer to listen, and blast out “Day Of The Eagle” by Robin Trower.

RESOURCES:

Robin Trower
https://www.robintrower.com/

Procol Harum
http://www.procolharum.com/

Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster History: The 1950s | Fender Guitars

Marshall Amplifiers
Marshall Amps – The Complete History (guitar.com)

Univibe pedal
Uni-Vibe – Wikipedia

Cliff Gallup
Cliff Gallup | Vintage Guitar® magazine

Steve Cropper
https://staxrecords.com/artists/steve-cropper/

BB King
https://www.bbking.com/

Gary Brooker:
Gary Brooker – Wikipedia

Geoff Emerick
Geoff Emerick – Wikipedia

Iggy Pop made his (first) comeback with the Raw Power album, released in 1973. The album opens with the ferocious track “Search And Destroy”.  Produced by David Bowie and powered by the savage energy of the reconstituted Stooges (featuring James Williamson’s guitar fury), this track set the tone, not only for this album, but for decades of punk and heavy metal to come.

“Search And Destroy” (Iggy Pop & James Williamson) Copyright 1973 by Bug Music (BMI) and EMI Music Publishing Ltd.

— This show is part of the Pantheon podcast network — THE place for music junkies, geeks, nerds, diehards and fans!

TRANSCRIPT:

Greetings, wild ones. I am Brad Page, your host here on the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, one of many great shows on the Pantheon Podcast Network. Each episode of this show, I pick a song and we dig into it together, trying to get a handle on what makes it a great song. You do not have to be a musical expert to enjoy this show; we run a jargon-free, low-tech shop here that’s light on music theory and heavy on just listening.

There are rock stars, there are legends, and there are huge personalities. And then there are people like Iggy Pop, who somehow manage to transcend all of that, who reach beyond genre. You like hard rock or heavy metal? Iggy Pop was kicking ass with the originators of those sounds. You like punk? Iggy is one of the founding fathers of punk. If you prefer new wave, Iggy made his mark there, too. The dude even released a jazz album.

What a career.

On this episode, we’re heading back to 1973 for “Raw Power”, Iggy’s third album with the Stooges, and one of their all-time classic songs. Buckle up, because this is Iggy & The Stooges with “Search And Destroy”.

James Osterberg, Jr. Was born in Michigan in April 1947. His dad was an English teacher and he grew up modestly living in a trailer park in Ypsilanti. But his parents were supportive of his musical endeavors, even making room in the trailer for his drum set. He played drums for some local bands, including the Iguanas, which is how he would earn the nickname “Iggy”. He eventually landed in Chicago and started a band called the Psychedelic Stooges. Iggy became the lead singer, with Ron Ashton on guitar, his brother Scott Ashton on drums, and Dave Alexander on bass. They started calling him “Pop”.  And so Iggy Pop was born.

In 1968, they signed with Electra Records and their first album, “The Stooges”, produced by John Kale, was released in August 1969.

They followed that with their second album, Funhouse, in 1970.

Neither album was commercially successful. Of course, they’ve gone on to become classics, but at the time, few people were interested. But one person who was listening was David Bowie. By then, the Stooges had split up and Iggy was pretty deep into his heroin addiction. But Bowie scooped him up, along with guitarist James Williamson, who had joined the Stooges at the tail end. Before they split, Bowie took them both to London, hoping to hook them up with some British players to form a new band.  But that just wasn’t working out. Iggy and Williamson were just too “Detroit” for these London glam musicians, so they brought back Ron and Scott Ashton, with Williamson on guitar. Ron switched to bass. He wasn’t exactly happy about that, but he did it.

They signed a deal with CBS Records and recorded the new album at CBS Studios in London. Iggy originally produced and mixed the album, but apparently that mix was kind of a mess and CBS wouldn’t release it. So Bowie was brought in to remix the record. Working under a limited budget, and with limited time, he had to mix the album in one day and it kind of shows it’s a rough and raw mix.

Released in February 1973, the album, called “Raw Power”, wasn’t any more commercially successful than his first two albums. But like those records now, “Raw Power” is considered a classic.

Now, before we delve into the album, there’s one thing we have to discuss, and that is these various mixes. As I mentioned before, David Bowie had mixed the album under less-than-ideal conditions and that is the version that was released on vinyl in 1973. But when the album was rereleased on CD in 1997, Iggy Pop remixed the whole album, and this has led to differing opinions. Some, like the legendary critic Robert Christgau, prefers Iggy’s remix. But many fans, including both James Williamson and Ron Ashton, who were in The Stooges, didn’t like Iggy’s new remix at all, and say the original Bowie mix was better. Now, none of this really matters if you’re listening to the album on vinyl– that’s the original mix. But if you’re listening on CD, well, which one are you really listening to?

There’s the first CD version from 1989, which, like many early CD’s, was not a great transfer. Then there’s Iggy’s remix from 1997. And then there’s the deluxe “Legacy” version CD released in 2010 that restored Bowie’s original mix. And, if you’re listening to it by streaming, well, good luck, because who knows which version you’re getting?

Let’s quickly compare the two. Here is the original Bowie mix and as acknowledged, it’s far from perfect:

And this is the 1997 Iggy remix.  You can hear he’s pushed everything into the red. It’s a lot louder, but there’s also a lot of digital distortion which you can clearly hear:

The version that I am going to use here is from the 2010 “Legacy Edition” CD with the remastered and restored Bowie mix. I think that gets us closest to the original version and the original intent. Again, it’s not a great mix, but I think it’s the best of the choices available.

Ok, so the album opens with “Search And Destroy”. Like all the tracks on the album, it was written by Iggy Pop and James Williamson. It features James Williamson on guitar, Ron Ashton on bass and backing vocals, Scott Ashton on drums, and Iggy Pop on lead vocal.

The whole band launches in from the start. A couple of bars in, James Williamson overdubs a few guitar licks.

The song was inspired by an article in Time magazine about the Vietnam War. It’s always been assumed that the character in the song is a soldier, but there’s plenty of Iggy in this character, too. On the back of the album cover, there’s a photo of Iggy in one of his favorite jackets with a cheetah sewn on the back. So Iggy himself could be the “street walking cheetah”.

Let’s look at each element of the second verse. First, let’s hear the bass. Ron Ashton is using a really gnarly, fuzzed out bass sound on this track.

And now let’s hear Scott Ashton on the drums. I really like what he’s doing here.

And let’s check out guitar.

And listen to that second verse.

Let’s listen to the guitar in this section again. You can hear that there’s a second rhythm guitar overdubbed on this part, which adds a little extra punch to this already pretty powerful tracker.

You can barely hear the bass and the drums, they’re mixed so low.

Let’s go back and listen to just the bass and drums.

There’s let’s hear that all together again.

And there’s another short solo from James Williamson.

James Williamson really tearing it up here. Listen to his guitar behind the vocal.

“Search And Destroy” by Iggy and The Stooges.

Whether you want to call it proto-punk, primitive, heavy metal, or just the purest form of rock and roll, there is no denying how influential Iggy and The Stooges were, and how important “Search And Destroy” was in particular.

As always, I thank you for joining me for this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. New episodes are released into the wild on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll join you again then. And if you’re still jonesing for more, there are a ton of old episodes just waiting for you to discover them.  You’ll find them on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or just look for them in your favorite podcast app.

You can support the show by writing a review and by telling a friend about the show. The power of your recommendation is the strongest advertising tool that we have. So, thanks for spreading the word.

On behalf of everyone on the Pantheon network, I remind you to support the artists you love by buying their music. And I thank you for listening to this episode on Iggy Pop and The Stooges and “Search And Destroy”.

REFERENCES:

Iggy Pop
https://www.iggypop.com/

The Stooges
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stooges

Raw Power Album
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_Power

David Bowie
https://www.davidbowie.com/

James Williamson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Williamson_(musician)

Ron Ashton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Asheton

Scott Ashton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Asheton

CBS Records
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Records_International

Time Magazine
https://time.com/

Robert Christgau
https://www.robertchristgau.com/

Pink Floyd has been a cornerstone of rock history, producing some of the most iconic albums ever recorded. One song that stands out in their catalog is “Have a Cigar” from the album Wish You Were Here, a track that offers a scathing critique of the music industry. In the latest episode of the podcast, we dive deep into this song, uncovering what makes “Have a Cigar” a classic.

“Have A Cigar” (Roger Waters) Copyright 1975 Roger Waters Overseas, Ltd

Take advantage of our discount code lovethatsong and save 15% off t-shirts & merch from your favorite bands at OldGlory.com!

TRANSCRIPTS:

Come on, you ravers, you seers of visions– shine on with the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast. I’m your host, Brad Page, and every two weeks, we come together here on the Pantheon Podcast Network to explore a different song. Each episode, I pick one of my favorite songs and we dig into it together, uncovering all the elements that go into making a great song. You don’t have to be a musician or have any technical knowledge– this isn’t a show for just the experts, this is for anyone who just wants to listen and explore what makes a good song great.

In this episode, we’re exploring a real classic. By any measure– artistically, commercially– Pink Floyd were one of the most successful bands of all time. They created a handful of the greatest albums ever released. On this episode of the podcast, we’re exploring a song from an album that came out just about in the middle of their career, an album that represents many things for this band, and the stories of making it are the stuff of legend. From the album “Wish You Were Here”. This is a song called “Have A Cigar”.

Pink Floyd have been covered on this show before: In episode 58, we looked at “Us And Them”, and episode 114 featured “See Emily Play”. If you haven’t heard either of those episodes, go check them out. I’m not going to go over their history again, you can revisit those previous episodes if you’d like. We’re going to pick up where we left off after “Dark Side Of The Moon”.

“Dark Side Of The Moon”, of course, was their breakthrough album. I don’t need to tell you how big that album would become, but it was an important, significant record from the moment it was released. So, for Pink Floyd, the challenge was: what to do next?

The band was searching for a direction. First weeks, then months, went by with not much to show for it. Endless sessions in their rehearsal studio, trying to come up with something. Something not just good, but something to match or top “Dark Side Of The Moon”. That’s no easy task.

Compounding the problem was the fact that fractures were beginning to occur within the band. The pressure of what to do next exacerbated the disagreements between the four band members. Initially, they returned to a concept that they first explored back in 1970. It was a project called “Household Objects”, where they would forego the use of their traditional instruments and create songs using rubber bands, broomsticks, wine glasses, aerosol cans, smashed Light bulbs. They had abandoned that idea before, but now, without any better ideas, they returned to “Household Objects” and spent at least a month in 1973 trying to conjure music from kitchen appliances and hand tools. But ultimately, they abandoned the idea again.

To my knowledge, the only thing that survived from the “Household Objects” project is a two-minute recording of tuned wine glasses, and a three-minute track called “The Hard Way”.  The sound of those wine glasses would be used at the beginning of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, but the rest of it all went by the wayside.

Finally, in January 1974, during one of those endless jam sessions, guitarist David Gilmour stumbled across a four-note phrase. Almost by accident, they took that idea and expanded it, pushing it in different directions and adding new elements, eventually forming it into a song called “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, a multi-part suite that would open and close their new album. They would also take the sound of those wine glasses and incorporate a little bit of that into “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”.

The subject of that song, as all Pink Floyd fans know, was their former singer, guitarist and bandleader Syd Barrett. “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is a fascinating piece of music worthy of an exploration all on its own. But not in this episode… we’re here for a different song.

So now Roger Waters, the bassist and primary lyricist, had some themes to work with: absence and the harsh realities of the music business, both of which directly related to Syd Barrett, but also extended beyond him.

The actual recording sessions for the album, which would be called “Wish You Were Here”, began at Abbey Road in January 1975, a year after they first came up with that riff that inspired the album. One of the tracks they worked on was a darkly funky track called “Have A Cigar”, a ripping takedown of the music industry, sung from the perspective of a typically greedy, self-serving record executive. It was written by Roger Waters, produced by the band, and performed by David Gilmour on guitars, Richard Wright on keyboards, bass by Roger Waters, drums by Nick Mason and vocals… well, we’ll get there in a minute.

The song begins with a riff played together on the bass and the guitar. Sounds like both the guitars and the bass have a flanger effect on them.

After a couple of playthroughs of the riff, the drums and the keyboards come in. There’s a little whoop sound in there. Let’s back it up a bit.

I like that descending guitar part that leads back into the riff. Here comes the second riff.

There are two synthesizer parts plus an electric piano, each one placed in a different spot in the stereo mix that allows each part to occupy its own space. When you add in the bass, drums and guitars– and I’m sure there’s more than one guitar track here– there’s a lot of music here, but the mix doesn’t feel cluttered at all.

That’s the first of these little guitar and keyboard fills that play off of each other, answer each other. It’s nothing fancy, but I just like the dialogue between the guitar and the piano throughout the song. Let’s pick it back up from there.

And it sounds to me like Richard Wright has also added a clavinet part now. 

And here’s the first verse. But that voice doesn’t belong to anyone in Pink Floyd. When it came time to record the vocals for this track, both David Gilmour and Roger Waters took a stab at it, but neither of them were happy with their performance. Just by happenstance, a singer songwriter guitarist named Roy Harper was recording his own album next door. Roy Harper is a fairly obscure figure, certainly in the United States, he’s never had any hits here and never got much radio play. If Americans know his name at all, it’s likely from the song title of the Led Zeppelin song “Hats Off To Roy Harper”. But Roy Harper is a brilliant British folk-rock songwriter and performer who has released a number of unique, and you could say eccentric, albums. He’s a musician’s musician, a songwriter’s songwriter. And he was friendly with the guys in Pink Floyd. Since they were both working on albums at Abbey Road, they would pop in to visit each other’s sessions. He watched Pink Floyd wrestle with the vocals on this track for days and eventually, he offered to sing it for them.

Here’s a little bit of the version with Roger Waters attempt at the vocal. It’s really not that drastically different, but Roy Harper brought a wonderfully acerbic tone to the track. Roy had his share of misfortune at the hands of record companies, so he could relate to these lyrics for sure.

That’s one of the best lines in the whole Pink Floyd canon. The idea that this record company bigwig who’s trying to schmooze them doesn’t even know that there’s no one in the band actually named Pink Floyd.

I love the way he elongates the word “train” and twists his phrasing at the end.

Sounds like he’s double tracked his vocal there too.

Here comes the second verse. You know, I’ve listened to this song so many times, but I never really noticed until now just how much work the keyboards are doing here. I’m even hearing a little bit of Stevie Wonder influence in there.

Let’s bring up the vocals again. Roy Harper is just killing it here.

So that brings us to the guitar solo. It’s another classic solo by David Gilmour. And we’ll listen to that in a minute. But first I wanted to focus on the rhythm section for a bit. I think it’s fair to say that neither Nick Mason or Roger Waters are virtuosos. Nick Mason is not a flashy drummer, but he’s rock solid. And neither he or Roger Waters are exactly funky players, but they’re laying down a pretty cool groove here. So let’s just listen to that for a while.

Alright, now let’s go back and listen again with the guitar solo.

Let’s bring up that guitar.

And now, we get a change of audio perspectives, as a synthesized “whoosh” repositions us,  as though were listening to the song now through an old transistor radio.

And that, of course for everyone who’s familiar with the album, leads us into the next song, “Wish You Were Here”. But that’s another story.

“Have A Cigar” by Pink Floyd. The “Wish You Were Here” album was released in September 1975 and topped the charts in the US and the UK. It is still regarded as one of Pink Floyd’s best albums. In fact, I believe it is David Gilmour’s favorite Pink Floyd album.

But it was the beginning of the end of the band. Roger Waters had taken over creative control and over time, would push the other members further away. Richard Wright was essentially fired from the band and then rehired as a session player for the group. Eventually, Roger Waters pushed himself out of the band.

But despite the personal unpleasantness, “Wish You Were Here” is a really cohesive album. Every band member contributes excellent performances, and the album flows perfectly as a whole. It’s a masterpiece.

Richard Wright died from lung cancer in September 2008. He was 65. Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Roy Harper are still with us today at the time of this recording.

Thanks for being a part of 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 a t-shirt or two? They have a bunch of Pink Floyd shirts in stock, along with a ton of other bands, and if you use our promo code, “LoveThatSong”, you’ll get 15% off and you’ll be supporting the show. So thanks in advance.

You can find our previous episodes on Pink Floyd, along with over 150 other songs that we’ve covered, on our website lovethatsongpodcast.com, or just look for them in your favorite podcast app. Send us an email to lovethatsongpodcast@gmail.com or post your comments and feedback on our Facebook page. And of course, it would be great if you left us a rating or a review wherever it is that you listen to this show.

We are part of the Pantheon family of podcasts, home to a ton of other great podcasts, all featuring the music we love.

I will be back in about two weeks, so let’s meet here again. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode on Pink Floyd and “Have A Cigar”.

RESOURCES:

Pink Floyd
https://www.pinkfloyd.com

Wish You Were Here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wish_You_Were_Here_(Pink_Floyd_album)

Dark Side of the Moon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon

Roy Harper
https://royharper.co.uk

Abbey Road Studios
https://www.abbeyroad.com

In this epic episode, we embark on a sonic exploration of The Who‘s towering anthem “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” We explore the song that encapsulates the very essence of rock music– its intensity, grandeur, and unyielding spirit. We dive deep into the tumultuous history behind one of the most ambitious projects in rock history, The Who’s Lifehouse, and how it gave rise to an album that, despite its fraught genesis, stands as a masterpiece of the genre.

From Pete Townsend’s futuristic visions to the band’s quest for a universal musical connection, we unravel the tapestry of a song that has been both celebrated and misunderstood. With a careful ear, we dissect the iconic keyboard riff, Keith Moon’s explosive drumming, John Entwistle’s virtuosic bass lines, and Roger Daltrey’s soul-stirring vocals. This episode isn’t just a tribute to a classic track; it’s a deep dive into the heart of rock music and the relentless pursuit of artistic vision.

“Won’t Get Fooled Again” Pete Townshend Copyright 1971 Towser Tunes, Inc., Fabulous Music Ltd. and ABKCO Music Inc.

Save 15% off t-shirts & merch from The Who– and all your other favorite bands– by using our discount code lovethatsong at OldGlory.com!

PREVIEW:

TRANSCRIPT:

Time to sing your song to the wide-open spaces, and sing your heart out to the infinite sea– Because we’re back with another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, right here on the Pantheon Podcast network. My name is Brad Page, I’m the host of the show, and each episode I pick one of my favorite songs and we explore it together, uncovering all the elements, those little moments that make it a great song.

We’ve looked at a lot of great songs on this podcast, many of them all time classics. But if you had to pick one song that captures everything rock music has to offer– the intensity, the grandeur, the spirit, the power… one song to represent everything that’s great about rock and roll… If you had to explain to an alien what makes rock music great, what song would you pick? For me, it might just be this song: “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who.

Today were exploring a song that’s about as iconic as a song gets. But to understand how this song came to be, we have quite a journey ahead of us. From big ideas to failed concepts, through ambition and frustration, and even suicidal thoughts, to a compromise that, in the end, produced one of the greatest albums ever made.

Our voyage begins sometime after 1969. The Who had struck gold with “Tommy”, one of the first rock operas, certainly the first one to capture the public’s attention.

So how do you follow that up? Pete Townsend, guitar player, principal songwriter, and the driving creative force behind The Who, had an idea to expand on the ideas and themes he explored in “Tommy”. “Tommy”, of course, was the story of a boy who, after a traumatic experience, psychologically made himself deaf, dumb, and blind, essentially shutting himself off from the outside world. And it’s the story of his spiritual awakening.

Well, Pete had this new vision; this science fiction tale of a future where a large percentage of the population would be shut off from the outside world. They would live their lives sealed in these experience suits, linked together by something he called “The Grid”, that would be run by autocrats. In order to maintain control over the population, music was outlawed.  But some people rebelled; they created a secret place where they could create music and hack into the grid to reintroduce people to music. This secret clubhouse was called the “Lifehouse”. The goal of the Lifehouse was to bring everyone together, through music, to a universal consciousness, with everyone attaining enlightenment.

Now, let’s stop right here for a minute and think about this.  Because today, you can probably wrap your head around most of that, even if the spiritual stuff isn’t your kind of thing. But remember, this was happening in 1972, decades before the internet was available to the public. There was no virtual reality. There was no network. Townsend was presenting a future where people were linked together through and controlled by a computer system and faceless corporations that controlled the population.

Now, can you imagine the blank stares Pete Townsend would get from people when he tried to explain this concept? Most people just didn’t understand it, and the few that did, it all just seemed like an improbable fantasy. But let’s give Pete Townsend some credit. In some ways, he envisioned the world that you and I are living in today.

OK, so that’s the story of “Lifehouse” in a very rough summation. I’m leaving out a lot of detail, but I think you get the gist of it. But theres a whole ‘nother aspect to this story. We talked about how the Lifehouse was a place where the music would be performed and then fed back into the grid, where it would be experienced by the population. Integrated into the grid. Well, Pete Townsend envisioned a real-life Lifehouse, a venue where The Who would play, and it would be what we would describe today as an “interactive experience” for the audience.

See, by this time, The Who had played in front of some massive crowds, like the Isle of Wight festival. And Pete was aware of the energy that could be generated between the artist and the audience. Townsend always believed in the power of rock music. He had felt it. He said, “The most precious moments of my life happened on stage” when he and the audience became one. If that energy could be channeled, what could be achieved? Maybe even enlightenment.

This tied into some spiritual ideas or concepts that Pete had been studying. The idea that at the core of everything is one vibration, one musical note. As philosopher and musicologist Inayat Kahn theorized, “Music creates a resonance which vibrates the whole being. And that sound is the force which groups all things, from atoms to worlds.”

This is what Townsend was after in the Lifehouse performances:  some kind of spiritual link between the band and the audience that would attain something greater.

So, Pete would write the script and the songs; the songs would be recorded for an album; The Who would perform the songs in front of an audience, and the whole thing– the dystopian story and the concerts would be filmed and released as a movie.

The thing was that Townshend was having a hard time explaining the concepts to the band and to the other members of The Who’s organization. I don’t think the fault lies entirely with Pete or with the other band members. These were very esoteric ideas, not easy to grasp, especially in the world of 1970.

The other challenge was the live performances where The Who would conduct their experiments to find the vibrations that would unite the band and the audience and provide a key element of the film. Townsend knew that he had to find a better way to meld the band and the audience than the typical one-night-only concerts that they performed on tour. They needed a venue where they could take up residency and play to an audience over time.

They made an arrangement with a theater called the Young Vic in southeast London, where they could rehearse and perform. As the concerts and the film were described in the New Music Express magazine: “It was an experiment in relationship between the group and the audience. An attempt to create a portrait in music of The Who’s own audience. And with this in view, the cameras will follow the audience out of the theater and into their own lives.” Pretty ambitious goals.

They began rehearsing at the Young Vic in late 1970, and played their first public performance there in January 1971. At a press conference that same month, Pete explained, “We shall not be giving the usual kind of who rock show. The audience will be completely involved in the music which is designed to reflect people’s personalities. We shall try to induce mental and spiritual harmony through the medium of rock music.” That’s some vintage Townsend for you.

They announced a series of free shows at the theater. Pete hoped that pretty much the same audience would return each night and they would, over time, become more and more a part of the show. But it was never really clear exactly how the audience and the band and the overarching storyline of “Lifehouse” would all coalesce. Pete had expected that, somehow, characters would develop out of the crowd and become part of the film. But no one in the audience really understood what exactly they were expected to do. The new songs were unfamiliar to the audience, and the band weren’t quite 100% comfortable performing them yet. As a result, nobody was really happy with how the Young Vic shows turned out. After only a handful of shows, they closed up shop at the Young Vic.

Around the same time, they got the bad news that Universal pulled their funding; there would be no “Lifehouse” film.

The band did return to the Young Vic once more on April 26, 1971, for one more show, primarily to record it for posterity. Here’s a bit of a track from that show, an unreleased “Lifehouse” track called “I Don’t Even Know Myself”.

The band decided to salvage what they could, and regrouped in New York City at the Record Plant studios to record some of the new songs that they’d worked on for “Lifehouse”. But those sessions only lasted a week. Townsend was already suffering from overwork and exhaustion, putting so much time and effort and heart into “Lifehouse”, when he overheard one of his managers, Kit Lambert, being dismissive of Pete and his work. Well, that sent Townsend into an emotional tailspin. He ended up on the window ledge of his hotel room, considering whether he should jump.

The band returned to England, and in April, around the time of that final Young Vic performance, they convened with producer Glyn Johns. Glyn listened to the recordings made at the Record Plant and said that they were good, but he could do better.

Initially, they set up at Stargroves, Mick Jagger’s mansion that was often used as a place to record. They only stayed there two days, managing to record the basic tracks for only one song: “Won’t Get Fooled Again”.  They reconvened at Olympic Sound Studios in southwest London and, for the next two months, laid down the tracks that would become their next album, “Who’s Next”.

The album would include quite a few songs from “Lifehouse”, but not all of them. Originally envisioned as a double album like “Tommy”, Glynn, Johns pushed them to trim it down to a single, concise LP. As a result, even though many of the songs came directly from “Lifehouse”, there is no concept or story to the “Who’s Next” album. It’s just a collection of songs. But what a collection of songs. In my opinion, it’s one of the strongest albums ever made, by anybody. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is the last song on the album, bringing the album to an epic conclusion.

By this time, Townsend was spending tons of time recording demos in his home studio, a concept pretty standard these days. But back in the late sixties, very few people had anything you could legitimately call a “home studio”. But Pete had converted two rooms of his house in Twickenham, built in 1721, into a small but very functional home studio. He had a 3M M23 eight-track tape machine, a small Neve BCM10 console, and large Lakewood Tannoy speakers, along with studio gear like limiters and reverbs, plus an array of guitars, pianos and keyboards.

At the heart of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is that iconic keyboard part, played on a Lowry Berkshire organ and fed through an EMS VCS23 synthesizer to create the filtered, pulsating sound that drives the song. Here’s Pete’s original demo, recorded in that home studio. Pete is playing all of the instruments on this demo, including the drums.

The keyboard part on the demo was so good that they would reuse it for the final version rather than re-recording it. They lifted the keyboard part off of the demo and the band built the final version around it.

That final version features Roger Daltrey on vocals, John Entwistle on bass, Keith Moon on drums, and Pete Townsend on guitars and of course, that Lowery organ part. It was produced by The Who and Glyn Johns.

 This was the first song laid down for the album, and as mentioned before, it was the only track recorded during the two-day attempt at recording at Stargroves. Johns set the band up in the Stargroves reception hallway. Let’s listen to the opening of the final version.

The keyboard part sounds exactly the same, right? Same as the demo version. Of course, when Keith Moon comes in on the drums, it has a very different feel than Pete’s basic drumming on the demo. Let’s listen to a little bit of those Keith Moon drums.

And there’s a tasty little guitar lick there, right before the first verse starts. Townsend throws in a lot of nice guitar fills throughout the song.

I think what Pete’s playing during the verses is pretty interesting, so let’s bring up his guitar part.

Let’s stop and talk about the lyrics, because this song has been misunderstood since the day it was released.  Many people take it as a call to revolution; it’s as much a cautionary tale about revolutions as it is a call to arms. In the context of the “Lifehouse” story, the song is about the people on the front lines who are expendable to the leaders calling the shots. It’s a call to pacifism and passive resistance. It’s about the negative effects of revolt. As Townsend once said, “The revolution is only a revolution in the long run, and a lot of people are going to get hurt.” The song is essentially dubious of the forces that cause revolution. He’s not saying revolution is inherently bad, but that there is a serious cost. And you have to weigh that against the cause., or maybe more accurately, weighed against the leaders that call for revolution. Who’s to gain? To quote Townshend again, “I’m more of a fighter than a sleeper, but there are times one should think about which path to take very, very seriously.”

Let’s listen to Roger Daltrey’s vocals on this first verse.

OK. There’s so much going on in that chorus, so much to listen to. Where to begin? Let’s listen to the one thing we haven’t highlighted yet– the absolutely incredible bass playing by John Entwistle.

And not to be outdone, let’s hear Keith Moon’s drums.

Alright, we’ll look more at the chorus coming up, but for now, let’s move on to the next verse. And this time we’ll take it all one piece at a time. First, there’s a few instrumental bars before the verse begins. So, let’s hear that, starting with that keyboard part.

The sound of that part, to me, it’s like the audio equivalent of some amorphous shape, like an amoeba that keeps shifting as it moves forward. And yet, at the same time, it’s the foundation the song is built on.

Also, there’s an acoustic guitar that plays throughout the song. It’s pretty low in the mix to the point where it’s felt more than it’s heard. And that’s a production technique that’s often used quite effectively. But let’s bring that acoustic to the front so that we can hear it clearly.

And then, of course, there’s Keith Moon wailing away at the drums.

Now let’s put all of that together with the rest of the instrumentation. Notice how the keyboards are panned to the right channel, while the acoustic, if you can hear it, is on the left.

Now here’s the second verse. Let’s start by just hearing Pete Townsend’s electric guitar. I like these little guitar stabs here.

Next, how about Roger Daltreys vocal track?

And John Entwistle’s great bass part.

Now let’s hear all of that together for the second verse change.

As we get to the second chorus, let’s look at a couple of things we passed over the previous time. There are backing vocals on the chorus by Roger and Pete, and possibly Entwistle, too. In the right channel, along with the keyboard track is a backing vocal by Pete. Let’s bring those tracks to the center and hear that.

While in the left channel, there’s a backing vocal dominated by Roger, with Peter, maybe John in there too. And what strikes me about this is, listening to it with just the acoustic guitar, is how it stands up with just the guitar and vocal. There’s an old axiom that if you can strip a song down, no matter how complex, down to just an acoustic guitar and a vocal, and it still works, that’s how you know it’s a really good song. I think that’s true here.

Let’s hear that verse all together.

I really like Townsend’s guitar fills there. Let’s go back and hear some of that for a second.

I hate to keep interrupting the song, but there’s just so many great moments. How about that walk-down on the bass there? Let’s back it up and hear that again.

And that leads us into another instrumental section, this one featuring those old favorites, you can’t go wrong with hand claps. Pete is playing power chords in that unmistakable Townsend style. You can hear after the first pass that he’s doubled the guitar in stereo. There’s also an acoustic guitar, again, lower in the mix, that’s playing a more frenetic part. Let’s hear that all together.

Listen to how Pete changes up his guitar part here. And with that Keith Moon drum fill, that takes us to the bridge.

Now let’s break this down a bit. First, let’s hear the backing vocals and some guitar, including the acoustic, which is doing some riffing in the background here.

And let’s hear the bass and the drums together. The rhythm section of John Entwistle and Keith Moon is one of the most formidable in rock history.

Awesome. Let’s pick it up at the end of the bridge into the next section.

You can hear Pete interject “Do ya”.  Let’s back it up again and hear that.

Townsend’s gonna play a guitar solo. You can hear that there’s two guitar leads there, playing on top of each other. Let’s see if we can pull them apart a bit. Here’s one; this is the one that’s a little bit lower in the mix compared to the other one, along with the acoustic guitar.

And here’s the other solo. This is the one that’s a little bit more forward in the mix.

Okay, let’s go back and hear all of that together.

Then there’s kind of a break with more of those huge Townsend chords. And there’s the first of Daltrey’s big screams.

Let’s play that again. This is actually the last verse, but there’s plenty more of the song to go. Let’s start this one with just Daltrey’s vocals.

Let’s listen to just Pete’s guitar fills here.

And now, let’s go back and hear those in context.

Once again, there’s more great Keith Moon drumming all through that part. So let’s go back and hear some of that.

Let’s pick it back up again. This is an extended section of the band just jamming. Maybe we’ll highlight some of the individual instruments as we go along.

Let’s hear just the guitars and now the bass. Let’s hear a little more of the guitar again. And finally, some of Keith’s drums.

And I really like Keith Moon’s drum fills here, leading into the break. Just love the sound of those floor toms.

And that brings us to the dramatic break, a tension-building section where the song is reduced to just the keyboard part. Over the course of about a minute, that keyboard part will build in intensity, until the band comes back in, in about the most dramatic way possible. So let’s listen through this section.

If you listen closely in the left channel, you can hear that the acoustic guitar actually keeps playing on a little bit longer after the rest of the band stops. Let’s hear just that.

OK, let’s go back to the beginning of that break and hear that again. This time, listen for that acoustic guitar on the left.

And the keyboard part remains primarily in the right channel. Remember that this is the same keyboard part from Pete’s original demo. It’s amazing to think that he got this sound and performance so right, back in his little home studio.  But he could envision the band relying on this track, not just for the album, but for live performances, too, which they’ve done right up until this day.

Things start to build back up with the reentrance of Keith Moon’s drums.

OK, first, let’s just hear those drums.

Come on, is there any moment in rock as powerful, as iconic as that moment right there? The keyboards have reached a crescendo, Keith Moon’s pounding away, the band comes crashing in, and Roger Daltrey lets loose one of the greatest screams in rock history. This moment is cathartic, it’s orgasmic, it’s transcendent… If Pete Townsend was looking for music that reached a higher plane, well, it’s happening right here.

Let’s listen to Townsend’s electric guitar. He’s overdubbed a couple of parts here to create those massive guitar chords. Pete was known for playing Gibson SG’s around this time, but on most of the tracks for this album, including here, he’s playing a 1959 Gretsch 6120 hollow body known as the Chet Atkins model, that was given to him by Joe Walsh.

And then there’s that scream. Theres actually two screams overdubbed. Here’s one of them. It’s so throat-shreddingly loud that you can hear it overdriving the microphone, just driving the meters way into the red.

And here’s another one, along with the acoustic guitar track, no less intense.

Let’s back it up and hear all of that all together again.

“Meet the new boss same as the old boss” — says it all right there.

Notice how he doubles the vocal on the line, “same as the old boss”.

Listen to that bass part. It’s interesting what Entwistle is doing. He’s playing octaves here.

And let’s listen to just the guitars here, both the electric and the acoustic. You can hear Townsend playing some guitar fills there.  They’re pretty low in the mix, in fact, you can barely hear them at all in the final mix.

Keith does some classic Keith Moon cymbal work there, and you can hear him let out a final exclamation at the end.

“Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who.

“Who’s Next” went on to become one of The Who’s best-selling and highest regarded albums. But I think Townsend couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a failure… because it wasn’t “Lifehouse”, not anywhere near how he envisioned it. Over the years, he’s revisited the “Lifehouse concept”, and tons of demos and reimaginings of the project have been released. I think he’ll always be at least a little disappointed that “Who’s Next” wasn’t the album that he wanted to make, and I can understand that from his perspective. But for me, that album is a masterpiece, and one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Out of the collapse of Townsend’s most ambitious project came one of the most essential albums in the rock canon. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

Well, thanks for sticking with me for this one. This has been one of our longest episodes ever on a single song, but I think this one deserves it. Research for this episode came from a few sources, including the book “Won’t Get Fooled Again: From Lifehouse to Quadrophenia” by Richie Unterberger. That’s a great book.  And especially from the “Who’s Next/Lifehouse” Super Deluxe Edition box set. That is really the ultimate story of this album and the “Lifehouse” project. It ain’t cheap, but I highly recommend it.

I’ll be back in two weeks with a new episode. If you’ve missed any of our previous shows, you can find them all on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or look for them in your favorite podcast app. Share your thoughts on this song on The Who, or any music-related subject on our Facebook page, just look for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on Facebook, or send an email to lovethatsongpodcastmail.com.

And speaking of music related subjects, there are plenty of other shows on the Pantheon Podcast network, just waiting for you to discover them, so go check those out.

And if you’d like to support this show, as I always say, the best thing you can do is to tell someone about it. Recommend this show to your friends, your family, or your coworkers, because endorsements from people like you are what keeps every podcast growing.

I’ll meet you back here again soon. Thanks for listening to this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who.

RESOURCES:

The Who
https://www.thewho.com/

Tommy
https://www.allmusic.com/album/tommy-mw0000192438

Pete Townsend
http://petetownshend.net/

Lifehouse project
https://www.thewho.com/music/lifehouse/

“Won’t Get Fooled Again: From Lifehouse to Quadrophenia” by Richie Unterberger
https://www.amazon.com/Wont-Get-Fooled-Again-Quadrophenia/dp/1900924950

Who’s Next (Lifehouse super deluxe edition box set)
https://www.thewho.com/music/whos-next-super-deluxe/

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.

PREVIEW:

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

Fleetwood Mac
https://www.fleetwoodmac.com/

Gene Autry
https://www.genautry.com/

Record Plant Studio
http://recordplant.com/

Suki Jones Band
https://www.discogs.com/artist/

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

Save 15% off t-shirts & merch from your favorite bands by using our discount code lovethatsong at OldGlory.com!

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”.

RESOURCES:

Big Star
https://www.bigstarband.com/

Stax Records
https://staxrecords.com/

Ardent Studios
http://ardentstudios.com/

Fender
https://www.fender.com/

Hiwatt
http://www.hiwatt.co.uk/

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/

Few bands left a legacy as deep and as lasting as The Ramones.  You literally couldn’t count the number of bands who were influenced by these 4 New York ne’er-do-wells. They created a sound and a look that virtually created a whole genre of music.  Let’s have a listen to one of their classic tracks, “I Wanna Be Sedated”.

“I Wanna Be Sedated” (Jeffrey Hyman, John Cummings & Douglas Colvin) Copyright 1978 Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc and Taco Tunes

TRANSCRIPT:

This ain’t no Mud Club or CBGB’s– this is the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. My name is Brad Page, and each episode of this show, I pick a favorite song and we poke it and prod it, unearthing all the elements that go into making it a great song. Musical knowledge or experience is not required here, the only prerequisite is a little curiosity and a lot of love for music.

On this edition, we’re digging into a song by the progenitors of punk, the forefathers from Forest Hills– The Ramones and “I Want To Be Sedated”.

The Ramones came together around 1974, when guitarist John Cummings and bassist Doug Covid recruited Jeffrey Hyman to play drums in their new band.

Doug was the first one to change his name. Inspired by a fake name that Paul McCartney used to use, he changed his name to Dee Dee Ramone. He convinced the others to change their names, too. So, John became Johnny Ramone and Jeffrey became Joey Ramone.  It didn’t take long for Dee Dee to realize that he wasn’t any good at playing bass and singing at the same time, so Joey took over lead vocals, and then he realized that he couldn’t sing and play the drums. So their would-be manager, Tommy Erdelyi, changed his name to Tommy Ramone and became their drummer.

They played their first gig in March 1974. Their songs were fast, short and loud. Dressed in black leather jackets, these guys were not Greenwich Village hippies. This was something new. They became regulars at CBGB’s, and in 1975, they signed a contract with Sire Records. They released their first self-titled album in 1976, a total of 14 original songs. The longest song clocking in at a breakneck 2 minutes and 35 seconds. That album is a classic.

They recorded two more albums, but by 1978, Tommy was tired of the relentless touring and left the band. But he would continue to work with them as their producer. They recruited a new drummer, Mark Bell, who had played with Richard Hell, Wayne County, and a band called Dust, and rechristened him Marky Ramone.

They started work on their fourth album, “Road to Ruin”, co-produced by Tommy and Ed Stasium. The Ramones never strayed far from their trademark sounds. But “Road to Ruin” shows just a tiny hint of advancement. There’s some acoustic guitars, short guitar solos, and some of the songs even crack the three minute mark. I think it’s one of their better records, and it contains one of their most enduring songs. “I Want To Be Sedated”.

Their constant touring schedule brought them to London during Christmas 1977. The band was exhausted, and when everything in the city shut down for Christmas, they were stuck at their hotel with nothing to do, nowhere to go. Apparently, after one show, Joey had said to their manager, “put me in a wheelchair and get me on a plane before I go insane”. All of this would work its way into the lyrics to this song.

The song is credited to Joey, Dee Dee, and Johnny Ramone. It’s the track that opens side two of the album.

Like so many great Ramones songs, the track kicks off with a bang, with all instruments coming in together.

From what I can tell, there are probably four guitar parts here. There’s a guitar panned all the way to the left and another to the right. It’s possible that that’s just one guitar in stereo, but I think it’s two separate parts. Those guitars are just chugging away on the power chords, while there’s a third guitar in the middle playing in a higher register. Then there’s another guitar, also in the center channel, playing a twangy single note part, Dwayne Eddy-style. This is a good example of how multiple, pretty simple guitar parts can be layered together to create one big guitar sound.

Let’s take a listen to Joey’s vocal. There’s some classic 1950’s Sun Studio style echo on his voice.

And let’s check out the bass and the drums.

And that guitar break is even simpler than it sounds.

And here’s a key change.

And the hand claps return for this final section.

And that one note guitar part comes back here, too.

The Ramones – “I Want To Be Sedated”

The Ramones recorded over a dozen albums of original material. None of the records were that commercially successful. The band struggled their entire career. It’s so ironic that now that the band has long since broken up and all the original members are gone, now they’re probably more well-known than ever. They still probably sell more t-shirts than records. I bet half the people wearing Ramone’s t-shirts barely know anything about the band. But there’s no question how important they are in the history of rock and roll and how influential they were. Spanning decades, they inspired the British punks in the ‘70’s well as bands like Nirvana in the 90’s. It’s just a shame the guys didn’t live long enough to enjoy this success.

Joey Ramone died from lymphoma in 2001. Dee Dee died from a heroin overdose in 2002. It was prostate cancer that took Johnny Ramone in 2004, and Tommy died from cancer in 2014. But Marky Ramone, who plays drums on this song, is still with us today.

And that will do it for this episode of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. New episodes are released on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll be back with you in about two weeks with a new show. You can find all of our previous episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon, Google, pretty much anywhere where podcasts are available. And of course, they’re all on our website too: Lovethatsongpodcast.com.

Keep in touch with us on Facebook, just search for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, or on Podchaser, where you can leave reviews and comments and feedback.

This show is part of the Pantheon family of podcasts, where you’ll find plenty of other great music related shows to check out.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. Remember to support the artists you love by buying their music. Take a few bucks out of your pocket and buy that album, that CD, or those m p three files. Now everybody sing along, as the Ramones play us out with “I Want To Be Sedated”.

REFERENCES:

The Ramones
https://www.ramones.com/

CBGB
http://www.cbgb.com/

Sire Records
https://www.sirerecords.com/

Wayne County
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/wayne-county-the-electric-chairs-mn0000247765

Dust (Band)
https://www.discogs.com/artist/

Pantheon Podcasts
https://pantheonpodcasts.com/

I’m in Love with That Song Podcast on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/lovethatsongpodcast

I’m in Love with That Song Podcast on Podchaser
https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/im-in-love-with-that-song-688085