So which is it?  A “fourth dimension” that is independent of events but in which events occur in sequence, or simply part of a fundamental intellectual structure in which we sequence and compare events?

When I’m feeling adventurous I hold with the former (hey, if it was good enough for Newton it’s good enough for….), but since I perennially (sic) seem to be running behind it, and often find myself wishing for more of it, I’m far from an authority. Still, I do happen to agree with the incisive Ambrose Bierce, whose take on time can be found in his definition of the word, “day” (à la the “The Devil’s Dictionary”): “Day n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent.”

Time is tight and with Christmas Eve swiftly sneaking up on us, it’s feeling tighter all the time.  Back to Booker T & the M.G.’s (you may recall “Green Onions”) who were primetime by the summer of ’67 after backing Otis Redding at Monterey Pop.  They were all set to take Woodstock by storm as well, but drummer Al Jackson, Jr. didn’t want to ride in the helicopter that would get them to the stage…so they didn’t play.

All of which made little difference to the Beatles, who always seemed to be at the vortex of musical trends and had limousines sent to the airport to collect them when they arrived in London for their “Hit the Road, Stax!” tour later that summer. John Lennon was quoted as saying that he’d always wanted to write an instrumental for Booker T. and the M. G.’s, or as he laughingly referred to them, “Book a Table and the Maître D’s.”

The following year the group recorded a soundtrack album for “Up Tight,” a now forgotten remake of John Ford’s film, “The Informer” which moved the setting from 1922 Dublin to contemporary Cleveland. Perhaps like me you’re unable to place the movie, but you’ll no doubt recall this track from the album, which reached Number 6 (their second biggest hit) on the Billboard Charts in 1969.  Sometimes “Time is tight” in a very good way.

LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Friday 14 December  

Born in Philadelphia in 1943, Antonia Christina Basilotta was relocated with her family while her father conducted orchestras in Chicago and Las Vegas, where (significantly) she was a cheerleader at Las Vegas High School. After graduation, and with the adopted stage name, Toni Basil, she made the short leap to L.A., in hopes of becoming a choreographer.

Having danced professionally as a child, Basil managed to land a dancing gig during the first season of Shindig! in 1964 and quickly worked her way up to assistant choreographer.  From there she ventured into film work, both as an actor (with minor roles in Sweet Charity, Easy Rider, Myra Breckinridge, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Movie and (ouch) Mother, Jugs & Speed) and more importantly as a choreographer in the T.A.M.I. Show and that wonderfully adventurous psychedelic comedy (featuring the brazenly out-of-character Monkees) Head.

All of which led to choreographing more mainstream films like: American Graffiti, The Rose, Peggy Sue Got Married, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Legally Blond and Charlie Wilson’s War … and to (brilliantly) choreographing such music videos as Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” and the one that accompanies today’s selection.

Unsurprisingly Basil also sang, mainly for film scores, although she was also a featured solo artist singing  “Wham Rebop Boom Bam” (remember it?) on the first season of Saturday Night Live (me neither).  Still, she is easily best known for a single that was written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn and initially entitled “Kitty” when it was performed by the British group, Racey in 1979

Basil proceed to change the song’s title to “Mickey” to make it about a man, and though her version was recorded in 1980 her label didn’t actually issue it until 1982, when it  quickly knocked Lionel Richie from the top of the Billboard Charts (another reason to like it) and reached the Number Two spot in the UK.

LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Thursday 13 December

After making her recording Basil went on to conceive, direct and choreograph her famous video, wearing a head cheerleader uniform from her alma mater, Las Vegas High School.  Although it is now remembered as one of the most popular videos on early MTV perhaps the most amazing detail about its production is that like the song itself, it was first released (in the UK) in 1980 … nearly a year before MTV’s inception in 1981.

 Oh Mickey, you’re so fine you’re so fine you blow my mind,

Hey Mickey, Hey Mickey,

Oh Mickey, you’re so fine you’re so fine you blow my mind,

Hey Mickey, Hey Mickey,

Oh Mickey, you’re so fine you’re so fine you blow my mind,

Hey Mickey, Hey Mickey,

Oh Mickey, you’re so fine you’re so fine you blow my mind,

Hey Mickey, Hey Mickey,

 Hey Mickey!

You’ve been around all night and that’s a little long

You think you’ve got the right, but I think you’ve got it wrong

Why can’t you say goodnight so you can take me home, Mickey

 ‘Cause when you say you will, it always means you won’t

You’re givin’ me the chills, baby, please baby don’t

Every night you still leave me all alone, Mickey

 Oh Mickey, what a pity you don’t understand

You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand

Oh Mickey, you’re so pretty, can’t you understand

It’s guys like you Mickey

Oh, what you do Mickey, do Mickey

Don’t break my heart, Mickey

 Hey Mickey!

Now when you take me by the hooves, everyone’s gonna know

Every time you move I let a little more show

There’s somethin’ we can use, so don’t say no, Mickey

 So come on and give it to me any way you can

Any way you wanna’ do it, I’ll treat you like a man

Oh please, baby, please, don’t leave me in a jam, Mickey

 Oh Mickey, what a pity you don’t understand

You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand

Oh Mickey, you’re so pretty, can’t you understand

It’s guys like you Mickey

Oh, what you do Mickey, do Mickey

Don’t break my heart, Mickey

 Oh Mickey, you’re so fine you’re so fine you blow my mind,

Hey Mickey, Hey Mickey,

Oh Mickey, you’re so fine you’re so fine you blow my mind,

Hey Mickey, Hey Mickey,

Oh Mickey, you’re so fine you’re so fine you blow my mind,

Hey Mickey, Hey Mickey,

 Oh Mickey, what a pity you don’t understand

You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand

Oh Mickey, you’re so pretty, can’t you understand

It’s guys like you Mickey

Oh, what you do Mickey, do Mickey

Don’t break my heart, Mickey

 Oh Mickey, what a pity you don’t understand

You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand

Oh Mickey, you’re so pretty, can’t you understand

It’s guys like you Mickey (Mickey)

Oh, what you do Mickey, do Mickey

Don’t break my heart, Mickey

 Oh Mickey, what a pity you don’t understand

You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand

Oh Mickey, you’re so pretty, can’t you understand

It’s guys like you Mickey

Oh, what you do Mickey, do Mickey

Don’t break my heart, Mickey

It was half a century ago this year that Brian Jones had to come up with a name for his band while on the phone with Jazz News. Asked the obvious question he responded after noticing a Muddy Waters record on the floor, which had “Rollin’ Stone” as one of the tracks.  Later, when they played their first gig, they were billed as “the Rollin’ Stones.”

By the following year, with a new manager and a properly spelled name, the Rolling Stones had landed a sweet deal with Decca Records, which had regrettably passed on the Beatles and was happy to go along with positioning this capable new group as the anti-Beatles. But suddenly they were expected to record their own material and there’s a learning curve to songwriting.  Their initial song-list mainly consisted of R&B covers and it wasn’t until the release of their fourth studio LP, “Aftermath” in 1966, that the Rolling Stones finally had an entire album of original tracks, each written by the burgeoning songwriting team of Jagger/Richards.

Recorded entirely in the US, at RCA Studios in Hollywood, and fully released in stereo (two Rolling Stones firsts) “Aftermath” was also noteworthy for the brilliant/tragic Brian Jones’ musical experimentation, including sitar, marimba and dulcimer.  But as it was then common practice to release different versions of an album in the UK and the US, today’s selection received little recognition on this side of the Atlantic.

Songs that had already been released as singles weren’t usually included on British pop albums, but British records still tended to be longer-playing than their American counterparts because 13 or 14 tracks was the standard length, as opposed to the 11 or 12 tracks included on an American LP.   Take “Aftermath” for example, which quickly topped the UK charts, released in April 1966 with 14 tracks, it didn’t include the Stones’ hit singles, “Paint It, Black” and “19th Nervous Breakdown.”

Released a few months later with only 12 tracks, the American version (which peaked at Number 2) did include “Paint It, Black” but excluded “Mother’s Little Helper” “Take it or Leave It”  “What to Do” and “Out of Time”.  While “Mother’s Little Helper” was also released as a single (peaking at Number 8 on the Billboard Charts), it and the other eliminated tracks were later included on that tried-and-true concept, the American-only compilation album.

Released in 1967, “Flowers” featured tracks (some dating back to 1965) that had either been released as UK singles or had been omitted on the American versions of “Aftermath” and it’s follow-up album “Between the Buttons”.  Smart marketing perhaps, as “Flowers” reached Number 3 on the Billboard Album charts in 1967…but if you happen to enjoy what Brian Jones did on marimba with this song, it was rather a gyp.  While the original version ran for 5:37 (as it does here), the American version was abridged to 3:29.

At least that Summer of Love was a turning point for the custom of releasing differing US/UK versions of an album. Like most British Invasion groups, Beatles albums had also been produced and marketed this way.  But in 1967, with the game changing “concept” release of “Sgt. Pepper” the practice had…well…begun to run out of time.

LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Wednesday 12 December 

Out of Time

 You don’t know what’s going on

You’ve been away for far too long

You can’t come back and think you are still mine

You’re out of touch my baby

My poor discarded baby

I said, baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time

Well, baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time

I said, baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time

You are all left out

Out of there without a doubt

‘Cause baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time

 The girl that wants to run away

Discovers that she’s out of day

It’s no good you’re thinking that you are still mine

You’re out of touch, my baby

My poor unfaithful baby

I said, baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time

 Well, baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time

I said, baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time

Yes, you’re all left out

Out of there, without a doubt

‘Cause baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time

 You thought you were a clever girl

Giving up your social whirl

But you can’t come back and be the first in line,

oh no

You’re obsolete my baby

My poor old-fashioned baby

I said baby, baby, baby you’re out of time

 Well, baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time

I said, baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time

Yes, you’re left out

Out of there, without a doubt

‘Cause baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time

Sing the song….

I said, baby, baby, you’re out of time

Yes, of course she performed the song on Sesame Street, adding that working with the Muppets was a career highlight.

Born in in Nova Scotia in 1976, but with a truly western upraising in Alberta and Saskatchewan, singer/musician/songwriter Leslie Feist has used the stage name, Fesit, since launching her solo career in 1999.  A poster child for the Indie pop and folk scene, it was her third album in 2007, “The Reminder” that sold over a million copies and earned her international recognition, mainly on the strength of this song that was co-written by the Australian singer-songwriter whose band opened for her during a cross-Canada tour.  

 LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Tuesday 11 December

“After meeting Feist, I started to wonder whether she might like to do a cover of “1234 (One, Two, Three, Four),” recalled Sally Seltmann of New Buffalo, “but I was too shy to tell her about it. At the [final show] I plucked up the courage to tell her that I had written a song, which I thought she might like to use. We went onto the tour bus, and I recorded a simple version…into her laptop, with guitar and vocals. To my surprise, she loved the song, and started playing it live.”

With lyrics that differed from Seltmann’s original, Feist’s commercial version was digitally released as a single through iTunes, becoming an instant hit after it was used in an iPod nano commercial.  Reaching Number 8 on the Billboard Charts and Number 8 in the UK, it was a rare feat for an indie rock musician, especially as its sales were based on downloads alone.

The Sesame Street appearance occurred the following year and not only did Feist perform a special version of “1234” to help preschoolers learn to count, she also got to sing with Elmo later in the episode.

1234 (One, Two, Three, Four)

 One, two, three, four

Tell me that you love me more

Sleepless long nights

That is what my youth was for

Old teenage hopes are alive at your door

Left you with nothing but they want some more

 Oh, you’re changing your heart

Oh, You know who you are

 Sweetheart bitter heart now I can’t tell you apart

Cozy and cold, put the horse before the cart

Those teenage hopes who have tears in their eyes

Too scared to own up to one little lie

 Oh, you’re changing your heart

Oh, you know who you are

 One, two, three, four, five, six, nine, or ten

Money can’t buy you back the love that you had then

One, two, three, four, five, six, nine, or ten

Money can’t buy you back the love that you had then

 Oh, you’re changing your heart

Oh, you know who you are

Oh, you’re changing your heart

Oh, you know who you are

Oh, who you are

 For the teenage boys

They’re breaking your heart

For the teenage boys

They’re breaking your heart

In ’67 she became a Cliffie, entering Radcliffe College to major in Social Relations and African Studies. “I wanted to help undo the damage that Western colonialism had done to native cultures around the world,” she later said. “Cambridge was a hotbed of this kind of thinking, and I was thrilled.”

Born in Burbank, California in 1949 but mainly raised outside of New York City, where her father, John was a Broadway musical star, Bonnie Lynn Raitt discovered the guitar at an early age, picking up the bottleneck-style playing that would bring her fame while at summer camp in the Adirondacks.

Among so much else, the 1960s brought a Blues revival and Raitt learned that an important figure in that movement, promoter Dick Waterman, was a Harvard Square regular.  The two became friends and soon she was playing along-side the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Sippie Wallace and Mississippi Fred McDowell  “…much to the chagrin of my parents, who didn’t expect their freshman daughter to be running around with 65-year-old bluesmen,” she recalled.

When Waterman moved to Philadelphia the following year, bringing the core of the local Blues community with him, Raitt decided to take a hiatus, later recounting how “…these people had become my friends, my mentors, and though I had every intention of graduating, I decided to take the semester off and move to Philadelphia…. It was an opportunity that young white girls just don’t get, and as it turns out, an opportunity that changed everything.”

Perhaps better known now for her ‘90s recordings, Bonnie Raitt released a number of acclaimed albums throughout the ’70s that incorporated elements of Blues, Folk and Country, including her 1973 album “Takin’ My Time”  that was produced by Lowell George of Little Feat fame.

One of the record’s more lively tracks is today’s selection. Originally a hit for The Sensations in 1962, “Let Me In” with music and lyrics by Yvonne Baker, expresses sentiments well suited to this social season.

LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Monday 10 December 

Let Me In

 Let me in

Wee-ooh, wee-ooh, woo-wee-ooh

Wee-ooh, wee-ooh, woo-wee-ooh

I can see the dancin’

The silhouettes on the shade

I hear the music, all the lovers on parade

Open up, I want to come in again

I thought you were my friend

Pitter and patter on the feet

Movin’ and a groovin’ with that beat

Jumpin’ and stompin’ on the floor

Let me in, open up

Why don’t you open up that door?

I hear music let me in

Whoa I heard it just then

Let me in, I wanna’ come in again

I thought you were my friend

Wee-ooh, wee-ooh, woo-wee-ooh

Wee-ooh, wee-ooh, woo-wee-ooh

Pitter and patter on the feet

Movin’ and a groovin’ with that beat

Jumpin’ and stompin’ on the floor

Let me in, open up

Why don’t you open up that door?

I hear music let me in

I wanna’ come in again

Let me in, Whoa I heard it just then

I thought you were my friend

Wee-ooh, wee-ooh, woo-wee-ooh

Wee-ooh, wee-ooh, woo-wee-ooh

 Alright, I’m in.

It was the last pitched battle on British soil and it was a bloody rout.  The Battle of Culloden spelt the end of the long, brave attempt to overthrow the House of Hanover (established through “parliamentary interference”) and restore the exiled House of Stuart to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Taking its name from the exiled King James II, the Jacobite Movement (Latin for James is Jacobus) ultimately brought forth King James’ grandson, the dashing 26-year-old pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, aka “Bonnie Prince Charlie.”  But on 16 April 1746 near the highland city of Inverness the out-gunned and under-trained Jacobites were slaughtered by the loyalist troops commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, aka “the Butcher.”

Forced to flee into the moors, Charles’ flight became the stuff of legend.  Helped by many a highlander, despite the £30,000 on his head (big money to this day), he managed to elude his pursuers and barely evaded capture by making it to the Isle of Skye.  There he was spirited away by frigate to France where (except for a brief return to London incognito) he remained in exile for the rest of his life.

While on a trip to the Isle of Skye in the 1870s, musicologist Anne Campbell MacLeod was being rowed over Loch Coruisk when the rowers broke into a striking Gaelic song called “Cuachag nan Craobh.” MacLeod later set down what she remembered of the melody with the intention of using it in a book she was to co-author with fellow musicologist Sir Harold Boulton.

Boulton then added in the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s escape in which he was rowed to Skye disguised as a serving maid, with the aid of the Jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald (who was later imprisoned in the Tower of London before emigrating to North Carolina). “The Skye Boat Song” was indeed published in that co-authored book, “Songs of the North” by Boulton and MacLeod, London 1884.

This is yet another track from the prodigious Hollie Smith on her 1999 album of Celtic music “Light From a Distant Shore.” A singer-songwriter of Māori descent, it was recorded when she was 16.

 LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Sunday 9 December

The Skye Boat Song

 Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing

Onward the sailors cry

Carry the lad that’s born to be king

Over the sea to Skye

 Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar

Thunder clouds rend the air

Baffled, our foe’s stand on the shore

Follow they will not dare

 Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing

Onward the sailors cry

Carry the lad that’s born to be king

Over the sea to Skye

Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep

Ocean’s a royal bed

Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep

Watch by your weary head

Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing

Onward the sailors cry

Carry the lad that’s born to be king

Over the sea to Skye

 Many’s the lad fought on that day

Well the claymore could wield

When the night came, silently lay

Dead on Culloden’s field

 Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing

Onward the sailors cry

Carry the lad that’s born to be king

Over the sea to Skye

Burned are our homes, exile and death

Scatter the loyal men

Yet, e’er the sword cool in the sheath

Charlie will come again

Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing

Onward the sailors cry

Carry the lad that’s born to be king

Over the sea to Skye

Although the Inner German border had been closed throughout the country since 1952, from Czechoslovakia to the Baltic Sea, Berlin itself was still administered by the post-war occupying powers.  With no barriers and a still-active subway system throughout the city,  East Germans continued to find a portal to the West. In fact by 1961 fully 20 percent of the East German (GDR) population had emigrated, with a disproportionate amount being professionals and skilled workers.

And then…as the clock struck midnight on Sunday 13 August, GDR troops sealed-off the East/West border while pavement was torn up and barbed wire entanglements installed along it’s entire 43 kilometer length through the city.  The same happened along the 156 kilometers of border that separated the three western sectors of the city from the surrounding GDR.

Next came improved wire fencing and a second, parallel fence that created a 100 meter No Man’s Land, blithely called the “Death Strip.”  Covered with raked sand, to reveal footprints, and eventually incorporating anti-vehicle trenches, guard dogs, watchtowers and bunkers, the Death Strip also offered clear lines of fire.

Through the years the Wall itself, or the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart as GDR authorities called it, continued to evolve until it consisted of 45,000 sections of reinforced concrete, each 12 feet high, with strategically placed “break through” points for Warsaw Pact armored vehicles in the event of war.   Not that they didn’t welcome visitors and their money.

By the spring of 1984, when I took this picture near the sadly positioned Brandenburg Gate, NATO citizens could purchase a day visa, along with a requisite minimum of 25 East German Marks at Checkpoint “Charlie” for a venturesome stroll through the Iron Curtain.   And while the airwaves reverberated with separate versions of today’s selection back in the West, here in the Soviet Sector there was a grand opportunity to put that currency to good use at an Alexanderplatz café.

“Herr Ober, Ein bier bitte” (Waiter, a beer please). 

Born in 1960 in the West German city of Hagen, Gabriele Susanne Kerner acquired her nickname, “Nena” (German pronunciation for “niña’) while on a family holiday in Spain.  After moving to Berlin in 1981 she and some friends formed a New Wave band, also dubbed Nena, and it quickly became popular throughout the country.

However the group’s international breakthrough (rare for a German band) came the following year after guitarist Carlo Karges attended a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin.  At one point a bunch of balloons had been released and Karges watched them as they floated away in slowly shifting clusters.  When they began to look a lot like aircraft he wondered what might happen if the wind were to change and they floated into the Soviet Sector.

Recorded and released in Germany in 1983 (with music by keyboardist Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen) the resulting “99 Luftballoons” shot to the top of the domestic charts and received a great deal of airplay throughout Europe.  In 1984 an English version, “99 Red Balloons” using the same music but with lyrics written by Belfast-born Kevin McAlea, topped the UK Singles Chart while in the US, where the original German version resonated most, “99 Luftballoons” hit Number 2 on the Billboard Charts.

Both versions follow below. Although not direct translations, each describes the advent of a nuclear war, triggered by faulty GDR radar equipment that registers 99 balloons as incoming weapons. Intriguingly, it was later documented that after the song’s initial release in 1983, a Soviet early-warning system operator willfully disregarded a false attack alarm (from shining clouds, rather than balloons) and is roundly credited with preventing a nuclear holocaust.

Hmmm, what’s the German word for another?  Oh right, it’s “noch”…. “Herr Ober! Noch ein bier bitte!!”

 LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Friday 7 December

99 Luftballoons

 Hast Du etwas Zeit für mich

Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer Dich

Von 99 Luftballons

Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont

Denkst Du vielleicht grad’ an mich

Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer Dich

Von 99 Luftballons

Und dass sowas von sowas kommt

 99 Luftballons

Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont

Hielt man fuer UFOs aus dem All

Darum schickte ein General

Eine Fliegerstaffel hinterher

Alarm zu geben, wenn es so war

Dabei war da am Horizont

Nur 99 Luftballons

 99 Duesenjaeger

Jeder war ein grosser Krieger

Hielten sich fuer Captain Kirk

Das gab ein grosses Feuerwerk

Die Nachbarn haben nichts gerafft

Und fuehlten sich gleich angemacht

Dabei schoss man am Horizont

Auf 99 Luftballons

 99 Kriegsminister

Streichholz und Benzinkanister

Hielten sich für schlaue Leute

Witterten schon fette Beute

Riefen Krieg und wollten Macht

Mann, wer hätte das gedacht

Dass es einmal soweit kommt

Wegen 99 Luftballons

 99 Jahre Krieg

Ließen keinen Platz für Sieger

Kriegsminister gibt’s nicht mehr

Und auch keine Düsenflieger

Heute zieh’ ich meine Runden

Seh’ die Welt in Trümmern liegen

Hab’ ‘nen Luftballon gefunden

Denk’ an dich und lass’ ihn fliegen

 LISTEN TO THE ENGLISH VERSION

99 Red Balloons

 You and I, and a little toyshop

Buy a bag of balloons with the money we’ve got

Set them free at the break of dawn

‘Til one by one, they were gone

 Back at base, bugs in the software

Flash the message, “Some thing’s out there”

Floating in the summer sky

Ninety-nine red balloons go by

 Ninety-nine red balloons

Floating in the summer sky

Panic lads, it’s a red alert

There’s something here from somewhere else

 The war machine springs to life

Opens up one eager eye

Focusing it on the sky

Ninety-nine red balloons go by

 Ninety-nine Decision Street

Ninety-nine ministers meet

To worry, worry, super-scurry

Call the troops out in a hurry

This is what we’ve waiting for

This is it boys, this is war

The President is on the line

As ninety-nine red balloons go by

 Ninety-nine knights of the air

Riding super high-tech jet fighters

Everyone’s a super hero

Everyone’s a Captain Kirk

With orders to identify, to clarify and classify

Scrambling in the summer sky

As ninety-nine red balloons go by

Ninety-nine red balloons go by

 Ninety-nine dreams I have had

Every one a red balloon

Now it’s all over and I’m standing pretty

In this dust that was a city

 If I could find a souvenir

Just to prove the world was here

And here is a red balloon

I think of you and let it go

Formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by blues aficionados Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson and Bob “The Bear” Hite, the provocative name comes from a 1928 Tommy Johnson song, “Canned Heat Blues” about a poor inebriate who turns to drinking Sterno, or “Canned Heat” as it’s commonly known.

Derived mainly from ethanol, methanol and a dyed gelling agent that allows it to be burned directly in the can, Sterno has been used to heat chafing dishes and camp stoves for over a century.  Although the methanol is added to make the stuff too toxic to drink, it famously has not deterred those at their wit’s end from using the inexpensive Canned Heat as the high-test ingredient of “Jungle Juice.”

Ever providing interesting conversation around the dinner table, I well remember my father, who made a study of such things, describing how such a concoction is made, first by cutting off the ends of a loaf of bread, and then squeezing the Sterno through the loaf. The resulting liquid (aka “Squeeze”) is then blended with Kool-Aid or fruit juice and those who imbibe quickly become “blind” (sometimes permanently so) drunk.

While the life expectancy of a Sterno drinker is sadly marginal, the life span of Canned Heat, the full-tilt-boogie band now in its fifth decade, has been a marvel to behold. Although none of the original ’65 line up remains (and dozens of musicians have come and gone through the years) three members from the group’s “hippie era” still do: Larry “The Mole” Taylor, Adolfo “Fito” de la Parra and Harvey “The Snake” Mandel.

Thanks in large part to the Monterey Pop and Woodstock festivals, Canned Heat acquired a worldwide reputation for its exhilarating live performances. And “Going Up the Country” which reached Number 11 in the US and Number 19 in the UK, would go on to become the unofficial Woodstock theme song as featured in the opening credits of Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 documentary of the festival.

Sung by Boston-born “Blind Owl” Wilson (who would tragically OD soon after Woodstock) it first appeared on the group’s 1968 album “Living the Blues”.  Although Wilson is credited with writing the song, the flute part is a note for note rendering of “Bulldoze Blues” as recorded in 1927 by Blues musician Henry Thomas.

 LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Tuesday 4 December

Going Up the Country

 I’m going up the country, baby, don’t you wanna’ go

I’m going up the country, baby, don’t you wanna’ go

I’m going to some place where I’ve never been before

 I’m going, I’m going where the water tastes like wine

I’m going where the water tastes like wine

We can jump in the water, stay drunk all the time

 I’m gonna leave this city, got to get away

I’m gonna leave this city, got to get away

All this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure can’t stay

 Now, baby, pack your leaving trunk, you know we got to leave today

Just exactly where we’re going I can not say

But we might even leave the USA

‘Cause it’s a brand new game, and I want to play

 No use of you running or screaming and crying

‘Cause you got a home as long as I’ve got mine

I discovered “Harry” back in the ‘70s, at Cheapo Records in Cambridge’s Central Square; amazingly still there; although I remember it as being under the ‘W’ of the long-gone neighboring Woolworth’s. Anyway, with its odd blend of ballads, nostalgia and Tin Pan Alley numbers “Harry” was a favourite album in college, its cover featuring a schoolboy portrait of Harry Nilsson himself.  If I were ever to put out an album, that’s what I’d do.

Released in 1969 it was Nilsson’s first LP to land on the charts, reaching Number 120 and remaining there for 15 weeks, its best known original hit being “I Guess the Lord Must be in New York City”. Then there was this one.

Written by Nilsson at Paul McCartney’s request, “The Puppy Song” was first recorded by Mary Hopkin (perhaps you remember her hit, “Those Were the Days”), who became McCartney’s protégé after the model Twiggy (remember Twiggy?) saw her on ITV’s Opportunity Knocks and gave him a call.  Hopkin’s version of the song was featured on her debut album, “Postcard” which was released a few months prior to Nilsson’s “Harry”.

Through the years there have been other covers, including one by the amazing Astrud Gilberto (perhaps you remember her hit, “The Girl From Ipanema”). But for me this silly song has been something to sing to myself, Harry’s way, when things are at their worse…dubiously trying to reach some of the notes he himself managed to hit.

Years ago I well remember being stuck in the desert, forced to hitchhike late at night. I was exhausted, yearning to get the hell out of there and wondering, once again, how I managed to get myself in such a situation in the first place.  Nothing had come along for hours and the prospects of any form of salvation seemed pretty dim. So I resorted to singing this song as blithely as I could.

Eventually a work crew in a beat-up, old truck came along and slowed down just long enough for me to hop into the cargo bed for the long lift into the next town… Thank you Harry.

 LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Monday 3 December

The Puppy Song

Dreams are nothing more than wishes

And a wish is just a dream you wish to come true

If only I could have a puppy

I’d call myself so very lucky

Just to have some company

To share a cup of tea with me

I’d take my puppy everywhere

La la la la I wouldn’t care

But we would stay away from crowds

With signs that say no dogs allowed

Oh we… I know he’d never bite me

We… I know he’d never bite me

 If only I could have a friend

Who’d stick with me until the end

And walk along beside the sea

To share a bit of moon with me

I’d take my friend most everywhere

La la la la I wouldn’t care

But we would stay away from crowds

With signs that say no friends allowed

Oh we…we’d be so happy to be…

We…we’d be so happy to be together

 But dreams are nothing more than wishes

And a wish is just a dream you wish to come true

Dreams are nothing more than wishes

(Your wish will come true)

And a wish’s just a dream

(Your wish will come true)

You wish to come true

(Your wish will come true)

Founded in Cincinnati, Ohio as trade paper for the bill posting industry in 1894 it’s now one of the oldest trade magazines in the world, but its initial name reflected its initial focus, Billboard Advertising.  As circuses, fairs, carnivals, minstrel shows and amusement parks were major billboard advertisers the publication began to carry news about them and then live entertainment in general.

In time its name was changed to The Billboard broadening its coverage to include motion pictures in 1909, then radio in the 1920s. With the rise of the jukebox industry in the 1930s The Billboard  began to publish music charts for Pop, Rhythm & Blues and Country & Western, and in 1940 published its first weekly Music Popularity Chart based on sales and radio play.  Still carrying news of outdoor entertainments until 1961, when they were spun off into a separate weekly magazine, The Billboard was renamed Billboard Music Week and then in 1963, simply Billboard.

Billboard currently publishes more than 100 music charts every Thursday, each tracking the most popular songs and albums in various categories, but the two most notable charts are the Billboard 200, for the week’s top 200 albums based on sales, and the Billboard Hot 100 which, since 1958 has served as America’s music industry standard for ranking the week’s 100 most popular songs, regardless of genre.Initially combining singles sales and radio airplay to establish a song’s placement, Billboard now combines digital sales,radio airplay, and Internet streaming data.

While “Poor Little Fool” by Ricky Nelson was the Billboard Hot 100’s first Number One Song on August 4, 1958 and “Diamonds” by Rihanna, is its current Number One (as of this Billboard week ending on December 8, 2012) the chart has had 1,020 different Number One hits since it’s inception. However there have been only nine songs to have topped the charts with different versions recorded by different artists:

“Please Mr. Postman” – The Marvelettes (1961) and The Carpenters (1975)

“The Loco-Motion” – Little Eva (1962) and Grand Funk (1974)

“Go Away Little Girl” – Steve Lawrence (1963) and Donny Osmond (1971)

“You Keep Me Hangin’ On” – The Supremes (1966) and Kim Wilde (1987)

“When a Man Loves a Woman” – Percy Sledge (1966) and Michael Bolton (1991)

“Venus” – Shocking Blue (1970) and Bananarama (1986)

“I’ll Be There” – The Jackson 5 (1970) and Mariah Carey (1992)

“Lady Marmalade” – Labelle (1975) and Christina Aguilera/Lil’ Kim/Mýa/Pink (2001)

And (naturally) today’s selection, “Lean on Me” – Bill Withers (‘72) and Club Nouveau (‘87)

Born on the Fourth of July in 1938, William Harrison Withers, Jr.’s childhood in the coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia was the inspiration for “Lean on Me” which he wrote in 1971, after he’d moved to Los Angeles and found himself missing the strong community ethic of his hometown.  Despite such classics as “Ain’t No Sunshine”, “Just the Two of Us”, “Lovely Day”, and “Grandma’s Hands” it was Withers only Number One single (albeit twice) on any of those Billboard Charts.

LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Sunday 2 December 

Lean On Me

 Sometimes in our lives

We all have pain

We all have sorrow

But if we are wise

We know that there’s always tomorrow

Lean on me, when you’re not strong

And I’ll be your friend

I’ll help you carry on

For it won’t be long

‘Til I’m gonna need

Somebody to lean on

Please swallow your pride

If I have things you need to borrow

For no one can fill those of your needs

That you won’t let show

 You just call on me brother, when you need a hand

We all need somebody to lean on

I just might have a problem that you’d understand

We all need somebody to lean on

Lean on me, when you’re not strong

And I’ll be your friend

I’ll help you carry on

For it won’t be long

‘Til I’m gonna need

Somebody to lean on

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand

We all need somebody to lean on

I just might have a problem that you’d understand

We all need somebody to lean on

If there is a load you need to bear

That you can’t carry

I’m right up the road

I’ll share your load

If you just call me

 Call me (if you need a friend)

Call me (Call me)

Call me (if you need a friend)

Call me (if you ever need a friend)

Call me (Call me)

Call me

Call me (if you need a friend)