Date Added: 6/23/2008

New Soundalike - from a reader

Mercy        Duffy

Home By The Sea        Genesis      play soundalike clip

Reader Ross contributed this clip and says: "The rhythm, downbeat baseline and base drum, the percussive keyboard, and even some of the repetitive intro vocal melody are quite clearly the same."

Thanks Ross. A reasonably strong soundalike (how'd you know Genesis was my favorite band in high school?)

And why not rip off Phil Collins's rhythm/drum sound? "In the Air Tonight" would fall into a category on this site which is unique-sounding songs, in the Performance, delivery section.

Though I'm a big fan of Phil Collins's drumming, he (and Genesis) are not technically heroes of this site, but I can't resist posting his collaboration with Russ Ballard (songwriter) and Abba's Anni-Frid Lyngstad, since Russ Ballard and Abba ARE heroes of this site.

(Collins was the drummer/producer of this epic collaboration, and Daryl Stuermer, Genesis's touring guitarist played guitar. Owing to the high degree of overlap between Genesis fan-dom and computer nerds, there's A LOT of information about Genesis on the internet.)

I Know There's Something Going On-Frida-EDIT.MP3

And I'll post Phil Collins's amazing drum freakout in the second half of Nuclear Burn from Brand X's first album Unorthodox Behavior. Brand X was a fusion band side project of Collins's. The first album is outstanding, and the second album too had a lot of great moments.

Nuclear Burn-Brand X-EDIT.MP3

Date Added: 5/9/2008

Songs with simulated (we hope) sex sounds

Female

More Human Than Human        White Zombie

Repetition, rhyming, alliterativeness, and "palindromitiveness" in Abba titles

Knowing Me, Knowing You

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do

Ring Ring

Money, Money, Money

Voulez Vous

Super Trouper

Mamma Mia

Chiquitita

SOS

New Soundalikes

Tighter, Tighter        Alive & Kicking

Your Saving Grace        Steve Miller Band      play soundalike clip

the intros of these sound the same

(this is just an excuse to mention this superb Steve Miller Band song, written and sung by drummer Tim Davis. The main part of the song chugs along, and then that trippy breakdown)

Don't Look Back in Anger        Oasis

Pretty Flamingo        Rod Stewart (tribute cover of) Manfred Mann 

"... so Sally can wait" -- Oasis
"Some sweet day" -- Rod Stewart
The Oasis has a guitar section just like the guitar in Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night" (a many-songed title)

Wonderwall        Oasis

Take Me to the Pilot        Elton John        

"... but I don't know ho-o-ow" -- Oasis
[leads into ...] "Take me to the pilot" -- Elton John

Wonderwall        Oasis

Sandman        America        

"And all the roads around me now are winding" -- Oasis
"Cos I understand you been runnin' from the man
      (that goes by the name of the sandman)" -- America

1970        Smashing Pumpkins

Harborcoat        R.E.M        

"she ... don't even try" -- Smashing Pumpkins
"she's ... comin' from the harborcoat" -- R.E.M.

Come Out and Play        Offspring

Runaway Boys        Stray Cats        

"... and you're doin' it in sty-ee-eye-al [style]" -- Offspring
"you're only 18 and can't get a job" -- Stray Cats

Date Added: 3/8/2008

You: Listen to these records

Two Dance-y Trance-y Covers of 60s Tunes

                                     Can't Find My Way Home - Torch Song

    Nights In White Satin - Linda Law

You: Listen to these records ...

Date Added: 2/26/2008

Bright Spots in a Bleak Frontier: Interesting Things from the Early 90s

The Nirvana revolution of the early 90s is an important and much-talked-about period. A lot of people think it was a great time in music but I don't. My "thesis" about the Nirvana revolution and the years leading up to it is complex; I'll eventually get around to presenting that. For now, rather than just being a negative fuck all the time, I want to look at some songs and artists from that period I actually DO like.

Girl Groups

Part of what happened in the early 90s was that formerly "indie" sensibilities broke through and got some mainstream attention. There was an important female wing in the indie and quasi-indie acts of the early 90s: the Breeders, Belly, Liz Phair, and P. J. Harvey. 

At best I'm lukewarm about those acts, but Scrawl and Throwing Muses are two precursors to the above that I do like. Belly's Tanya Donelly played second fiddle in Throwing Muses to Kristin Hersh, but I've always liked her "Green" on Throwing Muses first album.

Green - Throwing Muses

Scrawl first came to my attention with the simple refrain in their first-album song "Sad," which goes "I'm sad, I'm so fucking sad." I like "Sad" but since then I've discovered "Loser" on that album, and I like it considerably more. It's a real keeper.

Sad - Scrawl

Loser - Scrawl

I don't know much about the Chicago group Veruca Salt. I get them confused with Velocity Girl. Here's their hit "Seether."

Seether - Veruca Salt

Slo-Core (Slow-Core?)

One annoying trend that picked up speed in the early 90s was the creation of meaningless terms to describe things the term-makers convinced themselves were discrete movements and "sounds." Slo-Core is one of them (post-rock, shoegazing, emo are others). In spite of not knowing what Slo-Core is, somehow I found myself with this song "Lazy," by Low, which I've since come to understand is Slo-Core. Instead of Slo-Core, would it be less arbitrary to link it to Hetch Hetchy, a band/project produced and supported by Michael Stipe in 1986-87 or so? If memory serves, Hetch Hetchy had two-bass-guitars, no guitar, and a very slow tempo like Low. So go figure. Also, "Lazy" can go in the list of great songs about girls named Sara.

Lazy - Low

American Music Club is a band that was long-lived enough and varied enough to transcend the Slo-Core label (I got that from Wikipedia). I've heard them very little, and the only album I have, California, is their second major-label and the last before their breakup in 1994. AllMusic describes the album this way: "the record suffers under the weight of overly slick, commercial arrangements, and production which renders tracks like 'It's Your Birthday,' 'Wish the World Away,' and 'Hello Amsterdam' as bland alterna-rock."

The song that stands out for me is "It's Your Birthday," and the tracks AllMusic recommends HAVEN'T stood out. The song has an interesting structure (the quick little drum beats before each line of the chorus), the brooding bass line, and the melody has hooks in verse and chorus.

Music criticism of alternative-era music is often like the AllMusic review above. Because my buying habits are to get used records, and cheap, I often end up with the "lesser," later, and more commercial records by groups. People, reviewers, record guides, etc. tell me the one I have isn't as good as ______, that I don't have. Eventually I get ______ and therefore I've had many opportunities to test those distinctions. Needless to say, I've often learned more about the person making the statements than the usually slight differences between the quality of the records.

It's Your Birthday - American Music Club

Date Added: 10/18/2007

Night Moves: Pop Music in the Late '70s

Here are a couple quotes from this book. These brother authors also have a book on the early '70s, Precious and Few.

Today, listening to "vintage" corporate rock for any length of time conjures a storybook collection of faceless tin men crying "oil can," a band of formulaic Foreigners in the Land of Oz on a futile Journey to find a Heart. As they march along the winding road -- did we mention it's paved with gold? -- they survey the barren, almost lunar, landscape. "Toto," they whisper, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

The Chain: California Pop's Old-Dude Network

Jackson Browne produces Warren Zevon ... whose "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" is covered by Linda Ronstadt ... whose backup band becomes the Eagles, who cover "Ol' 55" by Tom Waits, who is romantically linked to Rickie Lee Jones ... whose "Easy Money" is covered by Little Feat founder Lowell George, who produces Shakedown Street by the Grateful Dead ... whose Terrapin Station is produced by Keith Olsen, producer of Fleetwood Mac ... whose Stevie Nicks duets on "Whenever I Call You 'Friend'" with Kenny Loggins, who co-writes "What a Fool Believes" with the Doobie Brothers' Michael McDonald, who is a former member of Steely Dan ... whose later albums feature guitarist Larry Carlton, who is a former member of the Crusaders, who are featured on Sleeping Gypsy by Michael Franks ... whose albums feature saxophonist David Sanborn, who also plays on "How Sweet It Is to Be Loved By You" by James Taylor, who is produced by Peter Asher, who also produces The Glow by Bonnie Raitt, who performs at the M.U.S.E. concerts ... which also features Ry Cooder, who plays on Sail Away by Randy Newman ... whose Born Again features the Eagles ... whose Joe Walsh produces Souvenirs by Dan Fogelberg, who guests on albums by Jackson Browne, who co-writes "Take It Easy" with the Eagles ... whose mid-seventies lineup includes Randy Meisner, who is a former member of Poco ... whose Jim Messina records seven albums with partner Kenny Loggins, who is a charter member of Gator Creek ... whose Michael Omartian plays piano on Aja by Steely Dan whose former drummer Jeff Porcaro later joins Toto whose members back Boz Scaggs, who is a former bandmate of Steve Miller, who has a hit entitled "Heart Like a Wheel" which is also the title of an album by Linda Ronstadt, who covers "Willin'" by Lowell George, who, as mentioned, covers "Easy Money" by Rickie Lee Jones ... whose debut album features saxophonist Tom Scott, who also plays on Aja by Steely Dan ... whose alumni include Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, who produces Livingston Taylor, who is the younger brother of James Taylor ... whose "Her Town Too" is a duet with J.D. Souther, who is a former member of Longbranch Pennywhistle, a band which also featured Glenn Frey ... whose Eagles partner Don Henley's "Desperado" is covered by Linda Ronstadt ... whose backup vocalists include Nicolette Larson, who duets on "Let Me Go, Love" with Michael McDonald ... whose "It Keeps You Runnin'" is covered by Carly Simon, who is married to James Taylor ... whose touring band includes pianist Bill Payne of Little Feat ... whose Lowell George is former bandmate of Frank Zappa ... whose opening acts include Tom Waits, who ... Well, you get the idea.

Date Added: 10/1/2007

You: Listen to these records

I've added a new page, containing recordings I'm recommending you listen to. In a lot of cases these are obscure, overlooked artists. If you like these please do what you can to get me a Sirius radio show. Just kidding.

You: Listen to these records ...

Date Added: 9/5/2007

Questions

Other than that it's obvious, why do a lot of songs about jail have a homosexual undercurrent?, the ready example: "Jailhouse Rock", but also "Rubber Bullets" (10cc) (rubber? effeminate singing -- there's something about "squeal" in the song).

What's paradoxical about "Me and Mrs. Jones"?    Is Jones Mrs. Jones's real name or not?

The Categories of My Record Collection 

(going soon on rate your music?)

Folk

--Sing-a-long era, --Ethnic, --Old-timey, --Mando, --Bluegrass, --Irish (inc. Fairport), --Acoustic, finger-style guitar (John Fahey)



Punk, Post-punk, New Wave, into the 00s



R&B, Soul, Disco, and after

--Reggae, African



Light, Easy Listening, Adult, Parents' music



Jazz

--Early jazz (Dixieland) thru --Fusion



Country (includes alt-country)



Various Artist Comps

--Chrono, --Rock, --Soul

VARIETIES OF ROCK, along with Punk above


Hippie rock: the Band, Byrds, Jef Airplane, Van M., Joplin, Steppenwolf, Quicksilver, Neil Young



Alt stream rock (i.e., what punk wouldn't write out of music history):

--early rock (Elvis), --Stones-Beatles-Who-Kinks, --garage, hits ("Brandy," Stories), Move, Mott the Hoople, Lou Reed, Tubes --power pop



Hybrid rock - blues-rock, country-blues rock, "roots"-styles-derived (NRBQ), Leon Russell is signature artist, Cream, --Stevie Ray Vaughan



Hard rock - Aerosmith thru Uriah Heep and Wishbone Ash



Schmuck rock - Rock by somewhat "smarmy" characters (prob'ly my favorite categ): Eagles, The Guess Who, Bruce Springsteen



Jazz rock - self-explanatory



Southern rock



Pub rock



R-R- R- R- R- R-Real Rock & Roll - Lyres, A-Bones, Link Wray



Art Rock



Singer-Songwriter

Date Added: 8/26/2007

Site Innovations (yeah, right)

Mando-folk pages

In addition to keeping a running talley of songs with chicken sounds in them (see Great minds think alike) I play music, centering on the mandolin. If I post material from those pages on the main page here, it will have a different background color, like the Les Paul post below.

Sound files open in a new Window

Should be the default behavior for soundfile "links," shouldn't it?

Edited sound files, for my peace of mind

From now on, I will post whole songs with approx. 1/3 to 1/4 of the song TRIMMED from the end. This is so I can leave them up for long periods without worrying about them (hopefully).

Date Added: 8/19/2007

New Sound Files for Earlier Items

Here are some items from earlier that didn't have sound files

"Goony" singing style

Highwire        Linda Carr         play Highwire-LindaCarr-EDIT.MP3

My mother used to say, "so and so is goony" or "don't be goony," which expresses well the way Carr pronounces "highwire," essentially as "how are you."

Observation

"Nice and Slow" Jesse Green from double cd Let's Go Disco has Herb Alpert-style horn fills, sublime

           play NiceAndSlow-JesseGreen-EDIT.MP3

Strange refrain in lyrics

Stop Alternating        Vulgar Boatmen

play Stop-Alternating-VulgarBoatmen-EDIT.MP3

In addition to the refrain, "stop alternatin," this song uses the word "vacillation." This is the only song by this group I know (I have it on a promotional comp), but I like it.

And I was gratified to see the Vulgar Boatmen mentioned on the only music blog I make a point of reading regularly (other than my friends' blogs, that is). BTW, I recommend that blog pretty highly, it's the Driftwood Singers, and here's a link to their January 2007 archive (3 posts down) on the Vulgar Boatmen Driftwood Singers

    |

Date Added: 8/15/2007

Stuff from readers

I got a major spike in traffic on this site a couple weeks ago, with the Avril Lavigne-Rubinoos controversy.* My site got linked to from a rollingstone.com story on the subject, and in addition to the traffic I got some nice e-mails from readers.

---

How do I add stuff to your website, Eye Eee, bands named after that last name of the "talent"............ Travers (Randy Travers), Winger (Kip Winger) Vandenberg (Adrien VandenBerg) Montrose (Ronnie Montrose). Or Brothers.........why art thou????..........Nelson.........Van Halen. etc????

Wm's comments: Good categories

---

I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you're mishearing a Bob Seger
lyric.
He's actually saying: she had been born with a face that Would let her get her way

Completely changes it, right?
I think this might be a new category for you -- the Lyric I was Hearing Is Better than the Actual Lyric

Wm's comments: This reader really groks what I'm doing here

---

I don't see these two on your list, and I am amazed by the similarity of the two. Track #8 in Fuel's Natural Selection album, "Most of All" and U2's "With or Without You." Almost exactly the same at the beginning. Just thought you might find it interesting.

Wm's comments: I've been a moderate fan of U2 since the beginning. I knew "I Will Follow" and got my favorite alb of theirs, October, when it came out. However, I'm quite dismayed by how pervasive U2's influence has been. In a trend growing since the 80s, so many bands (important and un) these days sing like Bono, or the guitar is like the Edge, or both. In copying U2, these bands are not doing themselves, nor us, the poor listeners, any favors.

---

"The Only One I Know" Charlatans UK 1990 rips off "Midnight Rider" Allman Brothers Band 1970

Wm's comments: In terms of finding something to rip off, one could definitely do a lot worse. I didn't know the Charlatans song, nor the Charlatans at all. I listened to the song and didn't hear the Allman Bros in it, but since the main "riff/groove" of the Charl. song is the same as Deep Purple's Hush (& the Joe South orig.), I wonder if that's the song the reader meant.

---

"Songs with simulated sex sounds" category. "Love is a social disease" by Bon Jovi has a intro full of moaning and groaning. I think it was on their 3rd or 4th album

---

Songs that have sex sounds: "Do Me Baby" by Prince and "Drive" by Melissa Ferrick. Also Corey Hart's song, "It Ain't Enough": "it ain't enough for you" sounds like "that enema for you," which is kinda funny when it keeps repeating.

*Not to toot my own horn, but since I do know the Rubinoos song (though I don't have it, only the second alb), I did recognize the similarity when I first heard the Avril Lavigne track

    |

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer the Psychedelic Furs

Lyrical tics

"Stupid" is, like, the Psychedelic Furs' favorite adjective. Below are the "stupid"-containing songs and lines, all from the first album

INDIA
“Stupid on the carpet floor”
“Stupid on the carpet floor”
“This is for the discotheque / This is stupid I object”

SISTER EUROPE
“Stupid on a steinway”
“The radio upon the floor / Is stupid, it plays Aznavour”
“Even dreams must fall to rules / So stupidly”

FALL
“Sail upon the stupid sea”
“Parties for our stupid friends”
“We will live our stupid dream”
“Flowers for our stupid friends”
“Parties for our stupid friends”
“We will live our stupid dream”

WE LOVE YOU
“We are so stupid, we all dream”

FLOWERS
“And out of him came stupid light”

What do these lyrics mean?

"Paint me like the shirt I'm in"

Sister Europe        Psychedelic Furs

What's up with the blue cars in "We Love You"?

“I'm in love with your blue cars”

. . .

“Love is just a car like you”
“That turns so blue and turns so blue”
“No blue cars will run my world”

Date Added: 10/31/2006

Guillermo's Latin mix

Ojos Chinos        El Gran Combo

The origin of this mix, this is the awesome-est track from an EGC's greatest hits tape from the mid-'70s

Sopa De Caracol        Bando Blanca

Turtle soup. I listened to "super GAGU(?)," a latin station here in NYC for a few months in 1991 or so, and this was the most memorable number I heard. I found the 12" about a year ago

The Speak Up Mambo        Al Castellanos And Orchestra

Merengue #28        Al Castellanos And Orchestra

This nifty seemingly faux-Latin (Castellanos?) 45 sounds authentic enough to me. Finding it pushed me over the edge into thinking I had enough material for this mix 

Mambo Watusi        Rene Bloch

Watermelon Man        Mongo Santamaria

(Watermelon Man        Sly And the Family Stone)

Viva Tirado        El Chicano

El Watusi        Ray Barretto

Guarare        Ray Barretto

The two Barretto (mid-'60s to mid-'70s spanning) numbers I have on K-tel-style comps of American hits. RB's El Watusi also appears, along with Mongo Santamaria's Watermelon Man and Viva Tirado, on the tremendous "Soul" volume of Rhino's Instrumental hits series. I don't know if Rene Bloch is latin, but Mambo Watusi rocks. (I don't have the Herbie Hancock version of Watermelon Man; if I did I might have thrown that in)

Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White        Perez Prado

Great, low trombone "blats" starting around .55

Robi-Rob's Boriqua Anthem        C&C Music Factory

    |

Date Added: 7/4/2006

Confusing lyrics that use the word "confusing"

I Want to Tell You        Beatles

"So if you think that I'm unkind / It's only me and not my mind . . . [long pause makes you think a new line is starting] that is confusing things." "That is a confusing thing" would make sense as the third line. Only once the hearer recognizes that a singular to plural error like that wouldn't happen in this context, do we take the next step of recognizing that the third line is a continuation of the second. Ain't interpretation a bitch?

New Soundalike

Urban Guerilla        Hawkwind

Search & Destroy        Iggy & the Stooges

Is it possible this is a real rip-off? ask Robin. UG from a UK metal comp

By extension . . .

Put a Little Love in Me        Delegation

"I was sent here to ask you to put a little love in me"

Date Added: 1/1/2006

People I get confused (honk if you do too)

The Brunettes: Match the suave, handsome brunette actors whose first names begin with "Ro"

Robert Vaughn

Robert Wagner

Robert Conrad

Robert Culp

Roger Moore

Robert Goulet

The Blondes: Match the light-hair color villains or sometimes-villains, whose names, though not the same, kind of lead into one another

James Coburn

Jason Robards

George Peppard

Lee Marvin 

Lee Van Cleef

Doo-wop white singer cluster

Jay Black, (name changed from David Blatt), big-voiced, white singer of Jay & The Americans, a 50s-60s bridging group. Black replaced group-founder singer John "Jay" Traynor who sang "She Cried." Jay Black sang the group's biggest song "Come a Little Bit Closer" and also "Cara Mia"

Johnny Maestro (& The Crests) (& The Brooklyn Bridge), big-voiced, white singer. Maestro also bridged the 50s-60s in these two groups, singing "Sixteen Candles" and "Step by Step" for the Crests and "The Worst That Could Happen" for the Brooklyn Bridge.

The 50s hits of these groups are typical simplistic teen songs, whereas their 60s entries "Come a Little Bit Closer" and "The Worst That Could Happen" are high-concept lyrically ambitious songs. Also I can't keep the two straight when they appear on oldies revival PBS shows.

Date Added: 12/27/2005

Songs with simulated (we hope) sex sounds

Female

Lazy Lagoon        Anjali

From Real Fidelity comp.

Songs with bad grammar

Misc grammar problems

Don't Make the Same Mistake as I Did        Johnny Kidd

Date Added: 12/16/2005

Two chilling anecdotes of racism in the South at the turn of the '60s

These are as told by Solomon Burke from Gerri Hersey's book Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music. The first also involves Sam Cooke.

[ANECDOTE 1]

". . . I buried countless strangers and far too many friends. Otis Redding, Sam Cooke. They were babies. Babies. Otis was twenty-six. Otis loved planes too much. A woman killed Sam Cooke. She claimed self-defense; she said she was afraid. It is hard to believe you could look at that man and be afraid."

I wonder aloud if maybe it wasn't Sam Cooke's exceptional beauty -- musical and physical -- that made some people uneasy.

"You mean, if he found it to be a curse sometimes? I'd say yes. I'd say yes because I was there and I saw it. It happened in Shreveport."

Solomon was with Sam Cooke in that sticky Louisiana town, was witness to the reason Sam wished aloud the rich black earth would heave up and swallow the damned place and wipe it from memory.

What Shreveport did was this: It singled Sam Cooke out for his talent and his beauty and humiliated him beyond his imagination.

As Solomon begins the story, he notes that Sam Cooke was shot to death in a motel not far from here. But he says that something got killed -- at least, gravely wounded -- earlier on, in Shreveport.

"Sam was a very proud man," he says. "He was a star. But for a minute he forgot what he was in the South."

It began in a small flyspecked restaurant, next door to the motel where Sam, Solomon, and others had put up for the night before their next date in New Orleans.

"B. B. King's backup orchestra was with us, too. And I think Jerry Butler. Maybe Bobby Blue Bland. I'm not sure of the show lineup, but the rest I'll never forget. We were in these little row houses, like motel cottages, and the restaurant was next door. We went in there, and they wouldn't serve us. But another waitress recognized Sam. You know, he was so good-looking.

"Anyhow, she was a white girl, and she came over to the motel and said to him, 'I'll get you what you want to eat. Send your road manager or somebody to the side door, and I'll give it to them.' So she took all our orders. We gave her the money, and we were waiting on her to call us back on the phone at the desk so we could get the food. The next thing we know, police are coming into the room from everywhere. The police took Sam and I out of there.

"They took us to the fire station and made us take off our clothes. They said, 'Now get your microphones, boys, and start singing.' They had us do the whole show."

He is smiling at the visual memory now, of the tall, slim Sam Cooke and himself, both sweatin' like Niagara, dancing naked for the red-faced firemen and cops, trying to sing with fear-parched throats. "You should have seen me singing 'Cry to Me.' Shreveport, Louisiana. Okay. My Lord. We did all our records. I did the background for Sam's pop stuff, the ooh-doo-doos, and Sam did my background. And when we had finished, the guy told us, 'Get in them stolen limousines, boys, and don't ever bring your band to Shreveport again.' We were happy to oblige.

"Just another day," as Sam had sung with the Soul Stirrers. "Just another day my Lord has kept me."

"He never did get over it."

[ANECDOTE 2]

". . . [I called myself the king of] 'rock and soul' because soul singing to me is just basically singing from your soul. Whatever you do can be soulful. And that especially went for the country stuff. That got me a lot of bookings in the Deep South, in some places no other black artists could get into. That kind of country soul bridged a lot of waters. Of course, once or twice it dam near killed me. . . .

Occasionally a white southern audience would not know that Solomon Burke was a black man until the curtain parted. Even more frightening was a gig in Alabama when the artist was unable to see the faces of his audience.

"It was to be one of those big outdoor deals," he says. "We got down there early, about four in the afternoon. And the sheriff came up and said, 'Now don't you boys worry 'bout nothin.' We have a whole setup over here for you.' "

On a ridge, in the middle of a large field, there was a huge tent. "There were beds and radios, and oh, Lord, all the beautiful black girls were out there with their mothers, cooking chicken and potato salad, slicing watermelons."

The white sheriff let it be known that he had spared no effort in orchestrating his idea of a black man's paradise. "He said, 'Now you boys remember this is sponsored by the county sheriff, so you don't have nothin' to worry about. Eat here, sleep here. Got an outhouse, four outhouses just for y'all. The ones with the green crosses is your outhouses."

As the sheriff walked off, Solomon counted the money, $7,500 in cash. The band rested in the cool early evening, ate the food provided by the women, and met with a sheriff's emissary for final instructions.

"The guy says, 'We want your band to hit just as dusk starts falling and let them play until it gets dark. Dark. And when it gets dark, I want you to come on with 'Down in the Valley.' Then if you could make the next number 'Cry to Me.' And I said, 'We'll do it, we sure will, by God.' "

The man smiled and made to leave. "You boys is all right," he said.

The band went on at dusk, as requested, and played until dark. The emissary reappeared and told Solomon it was time for him to go on. Though he could see no people beyond the stage, he walked out and began "Down in the Valley."

"All of a sudden I could see lights. Lights coming all around us, from all directions. You know, glowing over all the ridges. Thousands and thousands of lights it seemed. They were coming closer. And then I could see beyond the lights. It was the KKK, in robes, with torches. All KKK -- husbands, wives, children in bitty little sheets. Walkin' in out of the field towards us. I want to tell you, that's when I knew that the Lord had called me to ministry. 'Cause I said, 'Jesus, if you walked with me ever in my life, run with me now. And if you can, show me which way to go, Lord. Like straight up.' "

The band was in a 4/4 coma of fear, keeping the beat with ice-cold fingers and pounding hearts. The drummer was able to croak to his boss, "Man, you said this was the greatest gig we ever had. You didn't say nothin' 'bout it bein' the last."

The crowd had begun to yell at Solomon. To his relief, they were screaming the titles of his hits.

"We did the show, and when we got to 'Travel On,' well, I think we did 'Travel On' for thirty minutes. I'm singing and wishing, you know, 'Feel like I got to travel on . . .' and some guy in a sheet yells, 'One more time.' Okay, no problem, buddy. Thirty more times if you say so. I tell you, it was one of the greatest performances my band ever came up with."

When at last the torches burned down and the robed hosts departed, the sheriff presented Solomon with a sticker for his car thit would ensure him safe-conduct in all Klan territories.

"You boys is all right," he said again, and drove off across the field.

Date Added: 12/8/2005

A long time in the rehearsal studio

Hearts of Stone      Charms

Repetitions of "no" = 14, in two different places = 28

Ain't No Sunshine      Bill Withers

Repetitions of "I know" = 24

Ain't No Sunshine      Al Jarreau

Repetitions of "I know" = ?, probably 24 like Bill Withers's

Satisfaction      Devo

Repetitions of "baby" = 32

I'll let a commenter (hello, are you out there?) do Nobody But Me by the Human Beinz

Date Added: 12/6/2005

Songs where they speak French in them

Psycho Killer        Talking Heads

Credit: Thanks, Colin

Date Added: 12/4/2005

Tesco Vee on Agnetha Faltskog (of ABBA) from Forced Exposure

I present, for your edification, this guide to six pre-ABBA albums of Agnetha Faltskog by Tesco Vee (of the Meatmen), published in Forced Exposure, #12, summer 1987.

WARNING: Be advised that this article should have a Parental Guidance Advisory and also probably a Feminist Advisory Warning, like for my sister.

THE PENULTIMATE PETER METER GUIDE TO AGNETHA FALTSKOG
Some folks worship GOD almighty and some worship that most vile Sugar Daddy, Lucifer, but me ... I worship Agnetha Faltskog. That bombastic blonde bubble bottomed bimbo that used ta sing in Abba. The only way I can ever trick myself into rolling out of the sack in the morning is to gaze longingly upon her gleaming visage as it is displayed on a pin-up above my bed. As the rays of the seven o'clock sun caress her alpine features, ... read more

Date Added: 11/29/2005

In which a common phrase is (annoyingly) misused (Lyrics chapter)

"Little Red Book" Love, Manfred Mann, written by Bacharach & David (also to go in Song Titles) The common expression is "little black book."

Songs with chicken sounds in them

Cissy Strut        The Meters

Late '70s early '80s reggae pervasiveness

(What a) Wonderful World        Bryan Ferry

Actually has a calypso element, with steel drums

Date Added: 11/14/2005

Analysis of lyrics: Plush, Stone Temple Pilots

One of the reasons I wanted to do this site was that years ago I would go on the Internet looking to see that others shared my perplexed dismay verging into alarm that the lyrics of this song are "I believe when the dogs do smell her, will she smell alone." (Not to mention being ungrammatical in a few ways.)

When searching several years ago for explanations/interpretations of this song the best I could come up with was fansites where the Leslie Fiedlers of their time decided it was "a song Scott Weiland wrote about his girlfriend." Yeah, it was commonplace in 90s relationships to sic a pack of dogs on your girlfriend so they could smell whether she'd really "been alone," as she so innocently claimed. (And how were the dogs supposed to communicate their findings to Scott?)

I'm pleased to report, though, that since my original research (did I say that was 4 or 5 years ago?), the level of discourse on the Web has risen. In the entries below I found at www.lyrical-interpretations.com there's some mention of the dogs. 

e5rtt
he could be refering to his freinds in the song, for when he sings when the dogs do find her he could mean when his friends do find her. Also when he sings the times a wasted go he could mean hangin with his freinds doing nothing.

This song is about "hooking up"
I think that this song is about sex. When he sings "and I feel times a wasted go - where ya going to tomorrow". It's like he is saying - Why waste time, lets get together tomorrow. Then "I see that these are lies to come - would you even care". He is saying that he already knows that this affair will end badly, but who cares? Cuz "I feel it". I think the referral to dogs smelling her is sexual, like dogs sniffing for a partner. Then "I think that so much depends on the weather, so is it raining in your bedroom". It is like he is saying let's not make small talk about the weather, lets get to your bedroom. ;)
--Linda A.S.W.

thoughts of a serial killer?
perfect example of killer (no pun intended) music w/unnerving lyrics. irony rules here: musically upbeat/driving, but lyrically dark. great metaphors going on: wasted/wasting time; eyes of disarray; mask (one you wear for others or society; one that others or society wear(s);and one you don't even know you have on) = hints of serial killer mentality; dogs/smell/find her/alone? = victim/possibly multiples. whoa - maybe too much CSI/Cold Case Files? but also could be just a protest against society/status quo = why look forward to tomorrow when everything is fake and a lie? sorta like the Eagles' Hotel California: either a sinister song about satanic rituals or about the decadence of Hollywood.

And there's a veritable Algonquin Round Table going on at http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3422

Date Added: 11/10/2005

Younger Brothers' Bands

AC/DC (Angus Young)

Easybeats, Flash and the Pan (George Young)

.38 Special (Donnie Van Zant)

Lynyrd Skynyrd (Ronnie Van Zant)

Fabulous Thunderbirds (Jimmie Vaughan)

Stevie Ray Vaughan

I know, easy, but so what?

Album covers that say "Play this album loud" or some variation

Hot Tuna, America's Choice: "Warning: This album to be played at full volume for maximum effect"

On the front of the album, no less (great cover by the way)

New Soundalike

Primal Scream          Motley Crue (not putting in umlaut)

Shake Your Body          Jacksons

Date Added: 11/4/2005

Under-utilized Lyrical Subject Matter

"Got a funky walk / In his little orthopedic shoes"

Rockin' Roll Baby        Stylistics

A Backwards-Detective Soundalike Story

Oh Let the Sun Shine In          Pebbles (?), on The Flintstones

Silver Bell          Doc Williams

Country Song Idea

A Bad Time Was Had by All

New Soundalikes

Fast as You Can          Dwight Yoakam        play soundalike clip

Ballad of John and Yoko          Beatles

Joe's Garage          Frank Zappa

Mexican Shuffle          Herb Alpert

some U2 song         

slow song on side 1 of Black Sabbath 4   

The Way          Fastball        play soundalike clip

Delilah          Tom Jones

The Way          Fastball        play soundalike clip

It Would Take a Strong Strong Man          Rick Astley

Date Added: 11/1/2005

New Soundalikes

Bad Wisdom          Suzanne Vega

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald          Gordon Lightfoot

Space Truckin'          Deep Purple

Down on the Street          Stooges

Soul Finger          Bar-Kays, others

Lucille          Little Richard

Little Richard: "Please come back where you belong"

More Than a Feeling          Boston

Words          Bee Gees

"It's only words, and words are all I have / to take your heart away" leads into high, squeaky guitar part of More, right before the descending thing, coming out of the verse

Have you heard?

Wind Beneath My Wings        Gladys Knight & The Pips (1983)

Wind Beneath My Wings        Lee Greenwood (1984)

To go in Covers

In which a common phrase is (annoyingly) misused (Lyrics chapter)

"You've Got Another Thing Comin'" Judas Priest. (also to go in Song Titles) The common expression is "you've got another think coming," not thing.

Gross, or unpleasant to visualize, lyrics

Witchy Woman          Eagles

"She'll rock you in the night-time till your skin turns red"

Possible R&B influence on early reggae

Aw Shucks, Hush Your Mouth        Jimmy Reed

(If You Cry) True Love, True Love        Drifters

Reed from tape, Drifters from Pomus & Shuman comp

Weak insults

Big Boss Man        Jimmy Reed

"You ain't so big, you just talk that's all"

nevertheless, I can still fire your sorry ass

Sweet Home Alabama        Lynyrd Skynyrd

"Hope Neil Young will remember / A southern man don't need him round anyhow"

After having the whole ethos, history, and self-image of southerners hung out to dry by Neil Young in "Southern Man" the best comeback the self-appointed defenders of the south's virtue can come up with is the equivalent of "yeah, well nuts to you too"

Talkin' blues

In the grand tradition of the Talkin Blues that Dylan made several of, imitating Woody Guthrie, and just for good measure, one by Woody himself

Radar Blues        Coleman Wilson        play mp3

Talking Dust Bowl Blues        Woody Guthrie        play mp3

Things we may recognize only subliminally

Steve Perry's solo hit title rhymes with his last name: "Oh Sherrie"

Hipgnosis album covers that are mostly white: Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here; Led Zeppelin, Presence

Band where a (somewhat) bad-voiced singer dominates or gets more play relative to a better-voiced singing member of the group

Or, at least, there's some kind of discrepancy between singers and how much "play" they get in the group

Squeeze

Okay, Difford's voice is admittedly inferior, so he can't legitimately claim 50/50 but he should get more than one per album or one per side. I like his voice and think it's interesting. I'm sure there's even kneejerk contrarians out there who would say his voice is superior to Tilbrook's