Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
Bruce Springsteen - It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City (1973)
Bruce Springsteen - Jungleland (1975)
Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band - Erie Canal (2007) Miss Nixon (pictured) was our Elementary School music teacher.
It struck me like a ton of bricks the other day.
I was having a conversation with Harrison. How did it come up? We were talking about which songs he sang in hie Elementary School music class. He listed a bunch of songs that were on the radio at that time. Death Cab For Cutie and Imagine Dragons. Maroon 5. So what had happened was that the music teacher, to her credit, said to them, "What do you want to sing?" And that was their answer.
But POACA who lived in West Seneca, New York in the '70s were not afforded this delicious luxury. Nope. We sang this song, "Erie Canal". Do you know what the Erie Canal was?
Wikipedia: The Erie Canal in New York is part of the east–west, cross-state route of the New York State Canal System. It originally ran 363 miles from the Hudson River in Albany to Lake Erie in Buffalo. It was built to create a navigable water route from New York City and the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.
So, about 100 years after it was the main route for the traversing of goods from NYC to Chicago and beyond, to be replaced by the railroads, we kids were still singing about it.
WE sang:
"You're A Grand Old Flag"/"Señor Del Gato"/"O Suzanna"/"Camptown Races"/"America The Beautiful"/"I've Been Working On The Railroad"...lots of jingoism hammered home early, as was racism. What did we think "G'wine ta run all night" meant?
And we didn't get to pick.
There were these records that Miss Nixon would break out. There must have been a whole industry of songs written for kids, with attendant sheet music and these records featuring what sounded like adults pretending to be kids. If you know of any let me know. I recall one song, "Fender Bender", about a guy who played bass guitar. Another one, "A Better World", which I actually learned to play for my own band, Leo. I would LOVE to hear one of these creepy records. Anyhow...
Bruce Springsteen - The River (1979)
Steel Mill - Goin' Back To Georgia (1970)
Bruce Springsteen Band - Don't You Want To Be An Outlaw (1972)
Child - Hold On, I'm Comin' (1969)
Tom Waits - Jersey Girl (1980)
Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul - Lyin' in a Bed of Fire (1982)
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes - The Fever (1976)
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes - Trapped Again (1978)
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes - Why (1980)
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes - I Don't Want to Go Home (1976)
Stevie Wonder - Feeding Off the Love of the Land (1975)
Terrible Lizard - Bang Your Head (1981) This is Human League, the same band that would have a HUGE hit with "Don't You Want Me Baby" and "(Keep Feeling) Fascination".
“We’d often finish sessions late and everyone would go home – apart from Jo,” recalls Dave Allen. “Jo was staying at the studio because he didn’t have anywhere else to go and after a while we had this idea to make a heavy metal ‘Stars On 45’ record. The beat isn’t difficult, is it? That took 10 minutes. And then it was, ‘OK, what songs have we got to do?’. ‘Smoke On The Water’, ‘Alright Now’, ‘Silver Machine’, ‘School’s Out’… It was a joy to get a guitar out and do a really terrible version of ‘Purple Haze’ over a ‘Stars On 45’ beat. It was relaxation.
“Martin came home very drunk one night when we were trying to do the middle eight of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and we said,’C’mon Martin, we need a mad toms solo like that Led Zeppelin song’, and so he played this brilliant freestyle Linn Drum tom tom solo. In the end, the medley was called ‘Bang Your Head’ and released as a single on Island. The band was called Terrible Lizard. We had a meeting with a guy who said, ‘How are we going to do the promo for this?’. Andy Peebles called it the worst record ever made when he played it on his lunchtime [Radio 1] show. I was very proud.”
Patty Devick - Kill Me! (1979) I love the crazy nature of this single. Artist and song were lost in the shuffle, but I like it. It's unique.
Patty Devick - Sugar, Sugar, Drive Me (1979)
The Association - Silent Song Thru The Land (1972)
The Association - Little Road and a Stone to Roll (1972) Written by John Stewart, who wrote "Daydream Believer" for The Monkees, as well as his own solo hit, "Gold" in 1979. What a great song this is. By then, no one was paying attention to them, but I like this record MUCH more than the ones they made in their halcyon days.
Brainstorm - She Lets Her Hair Down (Early in the Morning) (1969) NOTE: NOT the same Brainstorm that is featured in the "Conductors" episode.
I've played the version by The Tokens. Would you like to see a hair commercial featuring this song from 1970? Sure you would, you deviant.
Three labels issued versions of "Early in the Morning" as singles in November, 1969 to capitalize on the popularity of the Clairol TV commercial. The first to be released was Gene Pitney's "She Lets Her Hair Down". The record stalled at No. 89 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Tokens` version was released a week or two later and was the most successful of the three versions, peaking at No. 61 on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 10, 1970 (No. 59 in Cash Box on Jan 31, 1970). Bang, as their trade ad highlighted, went to the source and released Don Young's original version, first released under the name "Brainstorm". Mr. Young also sang on the Clairol TV commercial. The Don Young single never broke out of the Billboard Bubbling Under chart. |
From Discogs.com:
As a side note, Buddah Records took a full-page ad in Billboard promoting the Tokens' single, "Don't Worry Baby" (February 22, 1970), claiming that the Tokens had performed in the Clairol "She Lets Her Hair Down" commercial. No doubt in response to threats of legal action from various aggrieved parties, Buddah had to take out a full-page "Correction" in Billboard (March 21, 1970) acknowledging the fact that Don Young was the performer in the commercial, and explaining that Buddah had "inadvertently" failed to reference a different Clairol commercial which the Tokens had actually produced.
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