Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Have you ever put butter on a pop jot?
Speaker 3: You're so freakin good?
Speaker 2: Have you ever put butter on a pop jot? If
Speaker 2: you haven't bet a thank you should?
Speaker 4: Everybody come along with us.
Speaker 5: Have you have a bud butter Runner?
Speaker 6: It's so freaking good.
Speaker 7: Yeah. Have you have a butut butter?
Speaker 2: If you haven't bet a thank you should?
Speaker 8: Hey, this is Jesse Carmichael from Room five. Hi, this
Speaker 8: is Phil Margol of the Tokens.
Speaker 9: Hello.
Speaker 6: It's Nicole Atkins on the Rock and Roll History Show.
Speaker 7: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Rock and Roll History
Speaker 7: Show on Hudson River Radio. Brian Horowitz, we have an
Speaker 7: interesting topic for you tonight. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 7: a good one. But as always, before we hop in,
Speaker 7: allow me to introduce all the crambones joining us here tonight.
Speaker 7: First and foremost, from the Richter Observatory. He was worried
Speaker 7: about his cell phone collecting data, but his vacuum has
Speaker 7: been collecting dirt on him for years. Neil Richter is here.
Speaker 8: I deny everything. I plead the fifth. Why are you doing? Everybody?
Speaker 7: I'm weady on that one. From Paranormally yours. She tried
Speaker 7: a new fragrance today. It's called leave Me the fuh cologne.
Speaker 7: Jale nuclemb is here.
Speaker 10: Absolutely, that's that sounds wonderful that I would like to
Speaker 10: order an entire case.
Speaker 8: Did you say that again? A little faster?
Speaker 7: I cannot. And from the silver screen she walked into
Speaker 7: a bar and the bartender said, hey, you should try
Speaker 7: this new boxed wine. It's called cardboard dou Mercedes cancers here.
Speaker 9: I think I've had that.
Speaker 7: I think it's lovely, full of fiber. What's the aroma
Speaker 7: like folding cardboard?
Speaker 11: Again?
Speaker 9: Hey, everybody?
Speaker 7: And our officially retired teacher. He tried to figure out
Speaker 7: how many skunks it takes to make a stink turns
Speaker 7: out just a pew. John Kelly is here, Oh.
Speaker 2: My god, Yes, Brian Grandbas, how you doing? Everybody great
Speaker 2: to be here?
Speaker 7: And the host of shaving cream. She heard that Elton
Speaker 7: John bought his pet rabbit a treadmill. It's a little
Speaker 7: fit bunny.
Speaker 4: Well, that are the rabbit than me? No treadmills in
Speaker 4: my house.
Speaker 7: At last, but not least, we have a special guest
Speaker 7: here tonight. You may have heard his voice on our
Speaker 7: station IDs in between breaks and whatnot. He is my
Speaker 7: fellow co owner of Hudson River Radio. Came up to
Speaker 7: New York all the way from Texas just for tonight.
Speaker 7: He recently ate two big cans of alphabet soup and
Speaker 7: then had a large vowel movement. This is Neil Prisco
Speaker 7: sitting right.
Speaker 12: Next to Heyah.
Speaker 13: I was called the aquacious Ones, So I wonder if
Speaker 13: that's part of it.
Speaker 7: That's something. Oh glad to have you here for now.
Speaker 7: We'll see how the rest of the night goes, I suppose.
Speaker 2: So tonight's topic is you may want to run to Texas.
Speaker 7: You may. Our topic is courtesy of Mercedes, and it's
Speaker 7: lies and liars and all the lies that the lying
Speaker 7: liars lie about and all.
Speaker 9: That kind of those damn liars.
Speaker 7: Yeah, did I get that right? Was that an adequate description?
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
Speaker 7: All right?
Speaker 8: Good?
Speaker 7: And actually, Mercedes, you're going to lead us off tonight,
Speaker 7: so take it away.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be leading off tonight. I'm really
Speaker 1: excited about this my section. So my song for this
Speaker 1: topic is Don't Lie to Me by Big Star. I
Speaker 1: will venture to say that many of you probably are
Speaker 1: not familiar with them.
Speaker 8: Wrong, wrong, wrong, So.
Speaker 1: Three out of six, three out of seven seven. So
Speaker 1: first I want to talk about their legacy. Although the
Speaker 1: band's career ended in nineteen seventy four, they amassed a
Speaker 1: vast cult following and still influenced bands to this day.
Speaker 1: RIM's Peter Bucket admit, we sort of flirted with greatness,
Speaker 1: but we've yet to make a record as good as
Speaker 1: Revolver or Highway sixty one, Revisited, or Exile on Main
Speaker 1: Street or Big Stars Third. In twenty fourteen, Paul Stanley
Speaker 1: cited Big Star as an influence to early Kiss moments.
Speaker 1: He said, We've always been about versus choruses bridges. It's
Speaker 1: called a hook for a reason because it grabs you,
Speaker 1: and that's my mentality. Give me the raspberries, give me
Speaker 1: small phases, give me Big Star. The Van was such
Speaker 1: an influence on the Replacements that they recorded song titled
Speaker 1: Alex Chilton on there Pleased to Meet Me album, released
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty seven. Critics have continued to cite Big
Speaker 1: Star's first three album albums as a profound influence on
Speaker 1: subsequent musicians. Rolling Stone notes that Big Star created a
Speaker 1: seminal body of work that never stopped inspiring succeeding generations
Speaker 1: of rockers, from the power pop revivalists of the late
Speaker 1: seventies to alternative rockers at the end of the century
Speaker 1: to the indie rock nation in the new millennium. Jason
Speaker 1: Acne and Ane No I'm Saying Anne Kenney A and
Speaker 1: k e n y Okay. Music critic for AllMusic identifies
Speaker 1: Big Star as one of the most mythical, I'm sorry, mythic,
Speaker 1: and influential cult acts in all of rock and roll,
Speaker 1: whose impact on subsequent generations of indy bands on both
Speaker 1: sides of the Atlantic is surpassed only by that of
Speaker 1: The Velvet Underground. A cover version of September Girls appeared
Speaker 1: on the Bengals nineteen eighty six triple platinum album Different
Speaker 1: Light September Girls. John Borak, film critic wrote, was and
Speaker 1: is the scenic snee qua non.
Speaker 4: Bless You, a.
Speaker 1: Power pop, a glorious glittering jewel with every facet cut
Speaker 1: and shine to absolute perfection, A peerless, aching distillation of
Speaker 1: love and longing. September Girls may not actually be the
Speaker 1: greatest song ever recorded, but for the duration of its
Speaker 1: two minutes forty seven seconds running time, you can be
Speaker 1: forgiven for believing it is, and I.
Speaker 10: Know that song, so I also have heard Big Star.
Speaker 9: You've heard.
Speaker 1: By the Bengals, though no oh by them the original okay.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety eight, a shortened version of their song
Speaker 1: in the Street was used for the theme song for
Speaker 1: that seventy show, and in nineteen ninety nine it was
Speaker 1: re recorded by Cheap Trick for the same show. From
Speaker 1: a podcast on NPR quote the statement usually ascribed to
Speaker 1: Peter Buck of RAM that only a thousand people bought
Speaker 1: The Velvet Underground's albums in the nineteen sixties, but every
Speaker 1: one of them started a band also holds true for
Speaker 1: a Southern band whose albums in the seventies sold even
Speaker 1: fewer copies, but whose posthumous reputation is just as large.
Speaker 1: Rhino Records has released Keep an Eye on the Sky,
Speaker 1: a four disc collection of recordings, demos, and outtakes by
Speaker 1: Big Star, as well as an expanded version of I
Speaker 1: Am the Cosmos, a collection of recordings by founding member
Speaker 1: Chris Bell. They they influenced bands like Rim, The Replacements
Speaker 1: and Matthew Sweet So who was Big Star. Big Star
Speaker 1: was a band formed in nineteen seventy one in Memphis,
Speaker 1: Tennessee by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jodie Stephens, and Andy Hummel.
Speaker 1: From nineteen sixty seven to nineteen seventy, Alex Chilton was
Speaker 1: the lead singer of the group The Box Tops, with
Speaker 1: hits like the Letter and Cry Like a Baby. At
Speaker 1: the age of sixteen, Chilton became disillusioned by the music
Speaker 1: industry and left to form his own band. He was
Speaker 1: offered the position of Al Cooper's position for lead vocals,
Speaker 1: but turned it down, saying they were too commercial. Chilton
Speaker 1: and Bell had been impressed by the music of The Beatles.
Speaker 1: During the band's nineteen sixty four debut US tour. Chilton
Speaker 1: asked Belle to perform in a rock duo last Simon
Speaker 1: and Garfuckle, but Belle declined and invited Chilton to join
Speaker 1: his band, Ice Water, which later became Big Star. The
Speaker 1: name came from a food store near where they recorded
Speaker 1: and bought snacks.
Speaker 9: So let's hear Big Star. Don't lie to me.
Speaker 14: No.
Speaker 5: No, No, less low Boombo.
Speaker 1: Their first album dropped in nineteen seventy two, titled Number
Speaker 1: One Record, to good reviews and Billboard stating every cut
Speaker 1: could be a single. Rolling Stone judged the album exceptionally good,
Speaker 1: while cash Box stated this album is one of those
Speaker 1: red letter days when everything falls together as a total
Speaker 1: sound and called it an important record that should go
Speaker 1: to the top with proper handling. Sadly, proper handling was
Speaker 1: not what happened. Their label, Stacks Records, proved incapable of
Speaker 1: promoting or distributing the record very well at all.
Speaker 9: The record was not even often in.
Speaker 1: Stores, partially because Stas had signed a deal with Columbia,
Speaker 1: who had no interest in independent dealers that the Stacks
Speaker 1: had used, and Columbia actually removed existing copies from the stores.
Speaker 1: So fans were looking for the record because it was
Speaker 1: actually getting airplay, but they couldn't find the record. A
Speaker 1: quote from I Believe the NPR podcast stated, their brilliant
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two debut album number one record flapped completely
Speaker 1: because their label, Stacks Records, mainly handled soul music and
Speaker 1: had no idea how to market it or distribute a
Speaker 1: pop rock record. In nineteen seventy four, they released their
Speaker 1: second record, Radio City, but just barely and leading to
Speaker 1: a similar fate as their first release. There was infighting
Speaker 1: among the members. They were frustrated and depressed, Columbia refused
Speaker 1: to distribute the record at all. By nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: there were rumors that there was a third album in
Speaker 1: the works.
Speaker 9: By the time.
Speaker 1: The album titled either Third or Sister Lovers, depending on
Speaker 1: which version you bought, came out in nineteen seventy on
Speaker 1: the Tiny PVC label. Big Star was history. Bell had
Speaker 1: been killed in a car accident. Jody Stephens continued working
Speaker 1: at Ardent Studio where they had been recording. Andy Hummel
Speaker 1: went back to school, and Alex Chilton spent years washing
Speaker 1: dishes at a restaurant in New Orleans. He did re
Speaker 1: emerge reluctantly to produce The Cramps. There was a Big
Speaker 1: Star second era in nineteen ninety three, with only Alex
Speaker 1: Chilton and Jody Stephens from the original band, and adding
Speaker 1: guitarist John Auer and bassist Ken Stringfellow of the Posies.
Speaker 1: They joined Chilton and Stevens. They did play some big shows,
Speaker 1: and their original earlier material was re released Rhino Records.
Speaker 1: In Why Can't I Talk, Tonight issued a four box
Speaker 1: CD set containing ninety eight records made between nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: eight and nineteen seventy five. Keep an Eye on the sky,
Speaker 1: including live and demo versions of Big Star songs, solo work,
Speaker 1: and material from Bell's earlier band Rock City and Ice Water.
Speaker 1: There are many books out there if you're interested, and
Speaker 1: a documentary titled Big Star Nothing Can Hurt Me, which
Speaker 1: is on streaming. I have a friend Alan, who with
Speaker 1: Susan Shaw, does a radio show All That Gumbo on
Speaker 1: WIOX Community Radio, the Spicy Sounds.
Speaker 9: Of New Orleans.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about this band recently because I had
Speaker 1: never heard of them, and Alan was going down a
Speaker 1: rabbit hole both listening and reading. So I asked going
Speaker 1: to tell me something I could use on the show today,
Speaker 1: and this is what he said. They were so ahead
Speaker 1: of their time in my honest opinion for me, they
Speaker 1: had to find the power pop genre and are such
Speaker 1: good writers. The songs are the thing, and Alex Chilton
Speaker 1: is an amazing guitarist and singer. As I listened to
Speaker 1: their music today, it is timeless, like all great rock
Speaker 1: and roll, Big Star Forever. Thank you to Alan, and
Speaker 1: that's what I've got.
Speaker 8: You know, earlier at the beginning, you said something about
Speaker 8: who had ever heard of Big Star before? I think
Speaker 8: the question is more, whoever saw big Star. Anybody have
Speaker 8: any hants hands on.
Speaker 7: The great, the great pants.
Speaker 8: That would be me. Yes, now now listen, all right,
Speaker 8: it was a reunion. It was in two thousand and
Speaker 8: four at Little Stephen's Underground Garage Festival on Randall's Island,
Speaker 8: two thousand and four, So it was a reunion. I
Speaker 8: know Alex Chilton was there. I'm not sure who the
Speaker 8: others were, but it was built a big stars, so
Speaker 8: it counts in my book, so.
Speaker 7: I would agree.
Speaker 8: I'm good with that. Yeah, very cool. I think sadly
Speaker 8: Alex Chiltern he died during Katrina when it hit New
Speaker 8: Orleans and uh yeah that uh he drowned. I think,
Speaker 8: oh yeah, it's terrible.
Speaker 2: But well, pants, way to bring the way, to bring
Speaker 2: the episode, to bring it on down there, pants, I mean, seriously,
Speaker 2: that's all I got your problem?
Speaker 10: Now?
Speaker 8: Yeah, well, I'm glad I got to see him perform
Speaker 8: before before that though, But yeah, no, the world lost
Speaker 8: a great talent. And but as he kind of kept
Speaker 8: it on the down low. I mean, you know, he
Speaker 8: was not you know, he was not built for superstardom.
Speaker 1: You know, I guess I don't kept it on the
Speaker 1: down low as much as the record company kept.
Speaker 8: It well, but it probably hit it probably crushed his
Speaker 8: spirit or whatever, you know, saying well, you know what, yeah,
Speaker 8: out with it? Yeah?
Speaker 7: Sure, all right, Well, mister pants on fire, you're next.
Speaker 8: Of course, I'll try to I'll try to bring it
Speaker 8: back up a little bit here, all right now. The
Speaker 8: song I picked is a garage rock classic. It's called
Speaker 8: Lies by the band The Knickerbockers. Now. The Knickerbockers were
Speaker 8: an American garage rock band that formed in Bergenfield, New Jersey.
Speaker 8: She met nineteen sixty.
Speaker 7: Four, right around the corner there.
Speaker 8: They took their name from Knickerbocker Road, also known as
Speaker 8: County Route five oh five, which is a major thoroughfare
Speaker 8: that runs just east of Bergenfield and incidentally not far
Speaker 8: from where I grew up as a kid. Now. The
Speaker 8: nucleus of the band were the brothers, Bo Charles on
Speaker 8: guitar and vocals and John Charles on bassin vocals. Their
Speaker 8: real names, incidentally, were Robert and John carlos Checchino, respectively.
Speaker 8: Now the brothers played with fluctuating rosters until they met
Speaker 8: singer and saxophone player Buddy Randall and drummer Jim Walker,
Speaker 8: and that solidified the classic Knickerbockers lineup. They came to
Speaker 8: the attention of producer and singer songwriter Jerry Fuller while
Speaker 8: playing a gig up in Albany, New York. Fuller signed
Speaker 8: them to the Los Angeles based Challenge Records label, and
Speaker 8: then for the next several years, the Knickerbockers would try
Speaker 8: to sound and emulate other Aren't bands that were on top,
Speaker 8: you know, the musical trends of the time, the fads
Speaker 8: of the time, such as the vocal harmonies of the
Speaker 8: four seasons and with lyrics referring to like hot rod cars,
Speaker 8: somewhat like what the Beach Boys were doing, those songs
Speaker 8: you know of the day. Now. In nineteen sixty six,
Speaker 8: the group hit the Top twenty with the song lies
Speaker 8: We're About to Hear. It's a song that's known for
Speaker 8: its resemblance to the Beatles, So they kept that trend
Speaker 8: up and I think the Beatles did all right, But.
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 7: This is a little hunch. I think they were.
Speaker 8: About the song really well. You'll see about the song
Speaker 8: bo Charles said, quote, we desperately tried to write something
Speaker 8: that sounded like the British invasion, and it took them
Speaker 8: about thirty minutes to write the song. Now. In fact,
Speaker 8: the track sounded so much like the Beatles that the
Speaker 8: record was often passed off as an actual Beatles song
Speaker 8: to unsuspecting listeners. So why don't we give it a listen?
Speaker 8: And you tell me what you say?
Speaker 5: Lies? Lies. You're telling me that you'll be true lies. Lies.
Speaker 15: That's all I ever get from you.
Speaker 5: Cheers, cheers, I shall on meaner or you know, cheers cheers.
Speaker 5: And now you love someone who don't know well jest
Speaker 5: lies Rea. You think that you're such.
Speaker 16: A smart girl, and I don't believe what you say,
Speaker 16: but do.
Speaker 5: You thank you? I'll girl to lead me on this way?
Speaker 5: Nay lies lies. I don't believe a word you say. Lies, lies.
Speaker 3: I gonna make you said something, some gonna do love,
Speaker 3: but you won't be lies lies bragging mind something but
Speaker 3: I don't know where just said.
Speaker 15: Lies, bragging mind. I think that you're such a smuck and.
Speaker 16: I don't believe what you say, but believe you.
Speaker 15: Thank you. I don't believe the day I'll go to
Speaker 15: make your send some day.
Speaker 5: You wag.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't know. Kind of sounds a little like
Speaker 8: the Fab four.
Speaker 2: Just a little movie, Charles right, just a tad you
Speaker 2: know it has the vibe there, mister pants, you know,
Speaker 2: a little bit.
Speaker 8: A little bit anyway. Lives was featured on the Knickerbockers
Speaker 8: nineteen sixty six LP of the same name. It entered
Speaker 8: the Billboard Hot one hundred in the final week of
Speaker 8: December nineteen sixty five, and went to number twenty on
Speaker 8: the charts in late January of nineteen sixty six and
Speaker 8: remained on the Hot one hundred for thirteen weeks. It
Speaker 8: also reached number eleven on the charts up in Canada Now.
Speaker 8: The follow up single was a song called one Track
Speaker 8: Mind and it would have been a hit as well,
Speaker 8: and it was. It's a very good song in my opinion,
Speaker 8: but the band's label mishandled the distribution be Theme Here
Speaker 8: Going Right, and the single only reached number forty five.
Speaker 8: Like I said, it's a pretty dark good song too,
Speaker 8: a very beatlesque as well. But the Knickerbockers pushed on
Speaker 8: and appeared as regulars on the Dick Clark produced program
Speaker 8: Where the Action Is between sixty five and nineteen sixty seven,
Speaker 8: and they also appeared in a film called out of Sight,
Speaker 8: which I've never seen or heard of, but more films
Speaker 8: than I've appeared in. But because of the problems with
Speaker 8: the label, drummer Jimmy Walker left in nineteen sixty eight,
Speaker 8: and he actually went on to replace Bill Medley in
Speaker 8: The Righteous Brothers, who I guess who had departed. Not
Speaker 8: a bad move, I guess when you think about it,
Speaker 8: and Buddy Randall would also depart soon after that. Now
Speaker 8: the Charles Brothers, they would continue playing in various forms
Speaker 8: and under various names, and there were even a couple
Speaker 8: of Knickerbocker's reunions, although none of them really ever captured
Speaker 8: their former glory. Now. Both the songs Lies and one
Speaker 8: track Mine. The singles were included on the legendary Nuggets
Speaker 8: box set, the collection of garage rock classics basically put
Speaker 8: together by Lenny Kay of the Patti Smith Group, and
Speaker 8: a compilation, A comprehensive CD by the band was also released,
Speaker 8: with both brothers Bo and John Charles being involved in
Speaker 8: the production. And that my friends ain't no lie. So
Speaker 8: now go to a concert.
Speaker 7: Well, now the question is did you see them?
Speaker 8: Yeah? You know, I feel free to lie.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, well.
Speaker 8: In that case, oh, Yeah, I went over the house.
Speaker 8: I rode my bicycle over you.
Speaker 7: That's what I wanted to hear.
Speaker 8: Nineteen sixty six, I was what ten years old something
Speaker 8: like that.
Speaker 7: You may have heard them practicing.
Speaker 9: Mom cooked to dinner, right.
Speaker 8: Yeah, dropped me off and had to pick me up
Speaker 8: before you know. But yeah, we hung out in the garage.
Speaker 8: You know, they played and I was dancing. Yeah.
Speaker 9: No, oh, now I know you're lying.
Speaker 2: Well pants, you gave us a visual. It's all I
Speaker 2: can say.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's that's why I'm here.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we're gonna end on that visual and take a
Speaker 7: break and let that do around in your brain for
Speaker 7: a minute that marinate. Right, Yeah, we'll be right back,
Speaker 7: or maybe we won't. We're all lying.
Speaker 10: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 7: This concludes the first part of this cassette.
Speaker 1: Please turn the cassette over and begin again on side.
Speaker 17: To Leutson Riverradio dot Com and welcome back.
Speaker 7: We're lying tonight, lying, liars and lies and all that
Speaker 7: good stuff and John All right, everybody turn, I'm not
Speaker 7: lying about that.
Speaker 2: No, you're not lying about that. Well, the truth is,
Speaker 2: y'all may like or not like what I have to
Speaker 2: offer tonight. However, what I've chosen is the song Liar.
Speaker 2: And this was written originally by an English musician by
Speaker 2: the name of Russ Ballard Neil. Do you remember when
Speaker 2: you used to ride your bicycle over to his house
Speaker 2: and you know, hang out.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I used to deliver papers to his house. Yeah.
Speaker 7: Okay, yeah, I thought so, I thought so.
Speaker 2: Anyway, he recorded this with his band Argent for their
Speaker 2: self titled debut album.
Speaker 7: I think it was the accent on the rung sala.
Speaker 2: Yeah, ah, okay, Well then I don't know what the
Speaker 2: Argent Argent Argent Okay, Argent got it. Okay, and that's
Speaker 2: no lie anyway, Argent for their self titled debut album,
Speaker 2: released in nineteen seventy. Although it didn't gain a lot
Speaker 2: of popularity when it was released by Argent in nineteen seventy,
Speaker 2: it did, however, gain a lot of popularity when Three
Speaker 2: Dog Night featured it on their fourth studio album, Naturally
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy one. Three Dog Night's version peaked at
Speaker 2: number seven on the Billboard Hot one hundred that year,
Speaker 2: marking one of the group's many top forty hits during
Speaker 2: the commercial peak in the early nineteen seventies. But that
Speaker 2: is not the version we are going to be listening
Speaker 2: to tonight. I wanted to go old school on this
Speaker 2: and I wanted to go right where it started because
Speaker 2: I think it just it shows you that sometimes you
Speaker 2: have the right song, but maybe it's released at the
Speaker 2: wrong time, maybe it for whatever reason, and it sometimes
Speaker 2: it just needs a little bit of a kickstart to
Speaker 2: give it some popularity. And three Dog Knight did that.
Speaker 2: But let's hear the original from nineteen.
Speaker 11: Seventy and Argent Ryan.
Speaker 5: Good, Mama, s take my soul.
Speaker 16: That's what you said, then, I want.
Speaker 5: I want to be long as you want me to
Speaker 5: a lot of way.
Speaker 3: That what you said.
Speaker 18: That what you said, man, what you say, yes say
Speaker 18: no night, yes it O day.
Speaker 5: If I have a lead, will will be instead. You
Speaker 5: can't believe in me. I don't believe it. I won't
Speaker 5: let him go.
Speaker 18: That's what you said.
Speaker 5: That's what you've said. What you say?
Speaker 7: Okay, everybody.
Speaker 2: That was Russ Ballard's liar from his band ur Gent.
Speaker 2: I'd say that properly there, Okay, thank you. Released in
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy. Russ Ballard was a founding member of our
Speaker 2: Gent composed liar during the band's formation in nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 2: Drawing from his experience in the British rock scene after
Speaker 2: stints with groups like The Roulettes, the song explores themes
Speaker 2: of deception in a romantic relationship. Boy, nobody's ever heard
Speaker 2: that before, with lines like I won't ever leave you
Speaker 2: while you want me to stay. Nothing you could do,
Speaker 2: nothing you could do that could turn me away. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, that is so cliche. But he made it
Speaker 2: sound so good.
Speaker 7: You know, it's only cliche now because people wrote it first.
Speaker 7: That's true. That's true. So that's a little bit now.
Speaker 2: As they said, this particular version, believe it or not,
Speaker 2: wasn't as I mean, people liked it, but it didn't hit.
Speaker 2: Didn't it become really popular until Three Dog Night did
Speaker 2: it in seventy one. And I know other people have
Speaker 2: done it as well. Neil, you have some experience in
Speaker 2: that regard.
Speaker 8: Well, Rod Argent Argent like a pirate Urgent Urgent Argent
Speaker 8: he first came to my ear. Was a member of
Speaker 8: the band The Zombies in the sixties with time in
Speaker 8: the season and you know which has the very predominant
Speaker 8: keyboard parts in it, you know, the organ solos yea
Speaker 8: and yeah, well, and Argent had a couple other songs,
Speaker 8: God gave rock and roll to you being one of
Speaker 8: them that Kiss would cover a little bit later. Probably,
Speaker 8: I don't know I had a bigger hit, but I mean,
Speaker 8: obviously Kiss was a bigger band. But I did see
Speaker 8: Rod Argent and Colin Blundstone together in a reunited Zombies,
Speaker 8: and again this is probably about twenty years ago or so,
Speaker 8: but they also played Argent songs too, so I think
Speaker 8: it might have been in his contract that I'll do
Speaker 8: the reunion show with the Zombies. He got to play
Speaker 8: my stuff too, Was it the Zombies es zombiesbi exactly
Speaker 8: that I didn't mind them playing that song? It was
Speaker 8: all good, you know.
Speaker 2: Well it's the song has been played by quite a
Speaker 2: few people, and it was even actually featured in Italian
Speaker 2: believe it.
Speaker 7: Or not, Yes it was. I'm trying to find that.
Speaker 2: I'm not even going to try to title the Italian
Speaker 2: I will just say suffice it was actually even featured
Speaker 2: as a hit in Italian as well, And you can
Speaker 2: google that because I'm going to ruin it trying to
Speaker 2: even pronounce it.
Speaker 8: What what what is the Italian word for liar?
Speaker 12: What's spell it? How do they spell the title?
Speaker 7: It was.
Speaker 2: I lost it here, it was, oh you're you're you're
Speaker 2: putting me on the spot here, guys, I.
Speaker 8: Think there's just as many. So, I mean, you know,
Speaker 8: love is like the theme of most songs. I think
Speaker 8: liars are probably a close second.
Speaker 7: Yeah, guess which one comes first? And then I can
Speaker 7: tell you.
Speaker 2: Three dog Nights selected Liar for recording after encounting Our
Speaker 2: Gents version on the band's Self Tired album. So they
Speaker 2: saw it on the album and decide and they got
Speaker 2: their idea for it for it then, so it's, oh,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm gonna have to pop in later
Speaker 2: on the show for the Italian version. Guys, I don't
Speaker 2: want to take all the time.
Speaker 8: No worries.
Speaker 12: I was just curious, curious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's but anyway, yeah, yeah, that liar. Oh boy,
Speaker 2: But anyway, I'm kind of babbling on here, but that
Speaker 2: was a liar by uh the Argents and mister Ballar
Speaker 2: and hope you will.
Speaker 10: By any chance bugiarto that apparently the Italian word for
Speaker 10: a lawyer.
Speaker 7: Sounds like a dish.
Speaker 13: I saw the other night.
Speaker 2: It was here it is it was the song's influenced
Speaker 2: extensive adaptations in other languages, such as the Italian Pforte
Speaker 2: di Noi performed by Bruno Bruno Barisi Ela lyrics by
Speaker 2: Luccia and Medini in nineteen seventy one as well.
Speaker 9: I love that version totally.
Speaker 7: Ahead of the album came with one of those little
Speaker 7: tiny plastic tables on it, so it didn't.
Speaker 12: I used to use this when I was little, used
Speaker 12: to use this from my Barbie dolls.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 13: Well, if you cut them down, you can actually put
Speaker 13: them in for the forty five on your turntable.
Speaker 9: Really, you're a lion.
Speaker 7: Yep.
Speaker 2: What I liked about the song, and this is no lie,
Speaker 2: was it was people liked it, but it didn't really
Speaker 2: get any chart success when it was first release, but
Speaker 2: it spawned a whole era of people taking that music
Speaker 2: and kind of making it their own. And so that's
Speaker 2: what I like about it, And that's no lie.
Speaker 7: All right.
Speaker 8: I'm surprised nobody picked the Lion sleeps Tonight. Oh wait, no,
Speaker 8: that's different Leon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's Leon sleeps Tonight, their pants on fire.
Speaker 8: The Lion.
Speaker 7: I think we beat that to death enough, all right,
Speaker 7: we're gonna dump it over to our special guest here
Speaker 7: and make it his problem to dig out of the hole.
Speaker 7: Can't wait.
Speaker 13: That's what I do best, all right. So one of
Speaker 13: the songs that I went through was from a van
Speaker 13: Queens of the Stone Age. I'm not sure if anyone's
Speaker 13: familiar with them, that they have been around for a while.
Speaker 13: They've had different iterations. They actually started as a band
Speaker 13: Caias that Josh Hammi and Nicol Valari were in. They
Speaker 13: then parted company and then Josh went into play guitar
Speaker 13: and backing vocals for the for Screaming Trees, and in
Speaker 13: nineteen ninety six they were on the Lallapalooza tour, so
Speaker 13: anyone who went to that show got to see a
Speaker 13: pre version of Queens of the Stone Age at ninety six.
Speaker 13: I was lucky enough to be able to see that show.
Speaker 13: As they went through they've had different members of the band.
Speaker 13: Mark Lanagan from Screaming Trees was a guest vocalist and
Speaker 13: has done a lot of work until his passing here
Speaker 13: some years ago. Some other members of the band you
Speaker 13: may know was Dave Grohl. He played drums and he
Speaker 13: actually put his Foo Fighters second album on pause to
Speaker 13: go play with Queens of the Stone Age. One of
Speaker 13: the comments that Dave made was that the band that
Speaker 13: made him kind of get back into and want to
Speaker 13: continue with rock and roll was Caius and Queens of
Speaker 13: the stone Age. So there's a lot of begetting with
Speaker 13: these bands. Kias and Screaming Trees turned into the Queens
Speaker 13: of the Stone Age. So they went through This is
Speaker 13: from their sixth studio album. It was Light Clockwork and
Speaker 13: it was an outstanding album. It had two big hits
Speaker 13: on it. The one is I Sat by the Ocean,
Speaker 13: and the song itself goes into quite a bit of
Speaker 13: relationship issues and it's very very descriptive of what Josh
Speaker 13: Hamie was going through. He's gone through divorce, breakup, and
Speaker 13: it's a very common theme with a lot of music.
Speaker 13: So when we listen through this, you'll hear a lot
Speaker 13: of it. But again, Queens of the Stone Age have
Speaker 13: been around for a while. I highly recommend listening to
Speaker 13: any of their newer albums. I was fortunate enough to
Speaker 13: go see their Catacomb's performance, and many times you go
Speaker 13: see these artists and it's a concert, you rarely see
Speaker 13: a performance. What Queens of the Stone Age did was
Speaker 13: they had an orchestra, They had audience interaction. It was
Speaker 13: one of the most interactive and kind of big shows
Speaker 13: that they had done, but it was a performance. The
Speaker 13: Austin version of it is on Austin City Limits that
Speaker 13: they have available if you have a chance on check
Speaker 13: them out. One of the things about Queens of the
Speaker 13: Stone Age they have splintered off into many other groups,
Speaker 13: one of them being the Eagles of Death Metal. They've
Speaker 13: also done another one with Josh Hammie Dave Grohl and
Speaker 13: this basis that you may know John Paul Jones from
Speaker 13: a little band led Zeppelin. They've done some touring with that.
Speaker 13: And a side note, Cheryl Crow has asked Josh Hammy
Speaker 13: to produce her new album and some several songs not
Speaker 13: show Crump Sorry Shania Twain, which is kind of a
Speaker 13: departure from what he's used to, but when we get
Speaker 13: back the song itself will lend into some of the
Speaker 13: themes that he was going through during his divorce and
Speaker 13: breakup at that time. In twenty thirty days, he said,
Speaker 13: go ahead, Brian, We're going to listen to I Sat
Speaker 13: by the Ocean by Queen's Stone, you know.
Speaker 19: The Sadbody Other Child enjoy the full shirt thing to raise.
Speaker 5: You sas down at the bottom, yet I could blace
Speaker 5: you very eyes.
Speaker 19: Try it doesn't change and the things for baby does to.
Speaker 5: The Frontisle said that does baby not.
Speaker 8: Jo to.
Speaker 13: Not be what.
Speaker 5: It's said on the road.
Speaker 16: And the loss said what the say 'm saying.
Speaker 5: So way some boy view of the god with some
Speaker 5: of us in free that is a fun day. This
Speaker 5: is the day day because times the reels and man
Speaker 5: it's not so still but the same sens.
Speaker 13: Again Queens of the Stone Age from their album Light Clockwork.
Speaker 13: As you can guess it's it's a very common tone
Speaker 13: of breakup and how to deal with it, and a
Speaker 13: lot of times with breakups we only hear one side
Speaker 13: of it. Again with this one, this is goes through
Speaker 13: the the typical and very common idea of I'm going
Speaker 13: to go drink and I'm going to go do this
Speaker 13: to try and cope with and get over the breakup
Speaker 13: and the heartache and the feelings. But you go through
Speaker 13: a lot of these, you know, types of stories, and
Speaker 13: you feel sorry for him. One of the lines is
Speaker 13: you know your friends feel sympathetic for me, but I
Speaker 13: don't think they should. They go through and he talks
Speaker 13: about the situation of untruths and was it something that
Speaker 13: happened or was it the untruth of the situation. One
Speaker 13: of the lines that catches you is, you know, lies
Speaker 13: are a funny thing. They slip through your fingertips because
Speaker 13: they're never happened to you. So it's one of those
Speaker 13: ideas of when you do lie or lies are happen,
Speaker 13: the person doing a lie isn't really absorbing what happens
Speaker 13: because of it. Josh really captures a lot of that,
Speaker 13: and they're very very much into kind of changing some
Speaker 13: of the common phrases of different lyrics. If you listen,
Speaker 13: it's a time wounds all the heels as we fade
Speaker 13: out of you. You know, even though time passes on,
Speaker 13: those heart feelings continue through. So yeah, time heals all,
Speaker 13: but does it really? As you go through some of
Speaker 13: the other lyrics, and Josh is very much into a
Speaker 13: little bit of dealing with those situations in those indirect ways.
Speaker 13: But this album itself was during one of his harder
Speaker 13: times of the breakup, the divorce, the kids and.
Speaker 5: All of that.
Speaker 13: So as you go again with some of that is
Speaker 13: the lie itself, the situation of the relationship of Hey,
Speaker 13: we're gonna be together forever. We've all heard that before
Speaker 13: or is it something that happened deeper? But again, is
Speaker 13: it all the story or is it just one side
Speaker 13: of it? And you also have to take into consideration
Speaker 13: this was after a night of heavy drinking, you know,
Speaker 13: I drank the potion to try and forget of you.
Speaker 13: So is he doing a little artistic license of this
Speaker 13: or is this just him being very honest about it.
Speaker 13: So it's very indicative of a lot of what Queens
Speaker 13: of the Stone Age do. They've got a lot of
Speaker 13: different albums out there.
Speaker 7: If you have a chance.
Speaker 13: Again, they were one of the desert rock and they
Speaker 13: call it Stone of rock groups that came out the
Speaker 13: Desert Sessions Sessions. I'm sorry they've gone through again if
Speaker 13: you haven't heard of them, if you haven't heard any
Speaker 13: of the spinoffs, go through. But it's one of those
Speaker 13: great songs that bears feelings without really bearing those feelings,
Speaker 13: and you've got to listen to through that. So again,
Speaker 13: thanks to Josh Hami and Queens of the Stone Agent.
Speaker 13: I thank Brian for being able to go that one time.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that was a lot of fun. I had never
Speaker 7: seen him, you know, I was impressed.
Speaker 13: It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but they
Speaker 13: have They are very very well versed, and they have
Speaker 13: a lot of versatility.
Speaker 7: I've the interaction with the crowd too. That was a
Speaker 7: big thing.
Speaker 13: And you may not like one song, but you made
Speaker 13: like another song or another album.
Speaker 7: So and it was outside in Texas and it was
Speaker 7: still fun.
Speaker 13: I think it was what May or April, I don't remember.
Speaker 13: I've got the T shirt somewhere.
Speaker 7: Okay, so without a doubt. Nice, all right, good one,
Speaker 7: Thank you, Neil, thank you. We'll go back to New York.
Speaker 7: Now you're leaving, right, Yeah, I'm okay. That's it, one
Speaker 7: and done. Uh, Gail, you're up.
Speaker 12: Okay, that's kind of a hard act to follow.
Speaker 7: But are you lying?
Speaker 12: Sorry?
Speaker 10: No, I'm not going to Texas. I should go to
Speaker 10: work in Nanuet tomorrow. So I actually chose a song
Speaker 10: from an artist whose music I don't normally like, but
Speaker 10: this particular song grabbed me the minute I heard it,
Speaker 10: and I just think it's a really good song. It's
Speaker 10: by Sheryl Crowe, who was born February eleventh, nineteen sixty two,
Speaker 10: which means she's about three years younger than Me. She's
Speaker 10: an American singer, songwriter, producer, actress, and guitarist.
Speaker 12: She has released twelve.
Speaker 10: Studio albums, five compilations, three live albums, and contributed to
Speaker 10: several film soundtracks and A Partridge.
Speaker 12: And a Prey You Know You Knew I had to
Speaker 12: go There.
Speaker 10: Her most popular songs include All I Want to Do
Speaker 10: from nineteen ninety four, strong Enough nineteen ninety four, which
Speaker 10: is the one I choose if It makes You Happy
Speaker 10: nineteen ninety six, every Day Is a Winding Road nineteen
Speaker 10: ninety six, Tomorrow Never Dies from the James Bond film
Speaker 10: in nineteen ninety seven, My Favorite Mistake, which actually is
Speaker 10: another one I that I do like of hers from
Speaker 10: nineteen ninety eight, and Soak Up the Song from two
Speaker 10: thousand and two.
Speaker 12: Now the song I chose. Strong Enough is the song from.
Speaker 10: Her debut album, which was called The Tuesday Night Music Club,
Speaker 10: which came out in nineteen ninety three. It was co
Speaker 10: written by Crow and produced by Bill Botrell, who also
Speaker 10: wrote co wrote it. The single was released in November
Speaker 10: of nineteen ninety four by A and M Records, and
Speaker 10: it reached number five on the US Billboard Hot one
Speaker 10: hundred for three consecutive weeks, now three in Australia and
Speaker 10: number one in Canada. In Australia, it received a double
Speaker 10: platinum certification for sales and streams exceeding one hundred forty
Speaker 10: thousand units. It charted higher in the USA, Canada, Australia
Speaker 10: and the Netherlands than elsewhere in Europe. And let's he
Speaker 10: listen and then I'll give a few fun facts.
Speaker 5: After gotta be like hell to night.
Speaker 12: To use a rage, I cannot bye be the last?
Speaker 6: Help you understand? Are you strong enough to be Moby?
Speaker 6: Nothing true and nothings by? Let me be alone to
Speaker 6: night because you can't change the way I Are you
Speaker 6: strong enough.
Speaker 5: To be mobbing.
Speaker 12: By a promise? I believe?
Speaker 5: But still.
Speaker 12: He face cannot show.
Speaker 6: Make the rules up as I do, strive love me
Speaker 6: if you can.
Speaker 5: Are you strong enough to be Mom?
Speaker 20: I used Johnda Meme Ma Man, I used John enugh
Speaker 20: to be. I used John.
Speaker 6: When I shown you that I just don't care when
Speaker 6: I'm doing butches in me when I broken down buck
Speaker 6: instead to be man enough to be mad Man? Promise?
Speaker 5: I believe loud, but.
Speaker 10: Don't I think the lyrics to that song are so
Speaker 10: poignant because on the one hand, she's saying, are you
Speaker 10: strong enough to be with me? You know, with all
Speaker 10: my faults and everything. But on the other hand, she's saying,
Speaker 10: lie to me, I promise, I'll believe, just please don't leave.
Speaker 10: So to me, that's that's really poignant lyrics, and people
Speaker 10: have been in that sort of situation.
Speaker 7: She was probably on his Netflix account.
Speaker 10: Yeah, one of the other, Yeah, exactly. Anyway, this is
Speaker 10: a little scary to me. In live performances, she often
Speaker 10: plays the accordion to it. Yeah, shades of weird al amazing,
Speaker 10: although this instrument was not thankfully featured in the original
Speaker 10: According recording Travis Tritt wrote and released an answer song
Speaker 10: called strong Enough to Be Your Man in two thousand
Speaker 10: and two. I tried really hard to listen to it.
Speaker 10: It's a country song. You know how country and I
Speaker 10: do not go together.
Speaker 2: So you said you loved country if I recall correctly, right, No,
Speaker 2: I love my country.
Speaker 12: I don't love country.
Speaker 4: Views More importantly, did he have accordion in his song?
Speaker 10: No, he didn't, and it's in completely different melody and
Speaker 10: just you know anyway, Cheryl Crowe has sold over fifty
Speaker 10: million albums worldwide and has won nine Grammy Awards from
Speaker 10: thirty two nominations. In twenty twenty three, she was inducted
Speaker 10: into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition
Speaker 10: to her music career, she has appeared in television series
Speaker 10: and films which I did not realize, including thirty Rock Rock, GCB,
Speaker 10: I Don't Know What That Is, Cougartown, One Tree Hill,
Speaker 10: and NCIS New Orleans. In nineteen ninety seven, she contributed
Speaker 10: the theme song to the James Bond film Tomorrow Never
Speaker 10: Dies Now.
Speaker 2: That's cool?
Speaker 10: Yes, yes, And in two thousand and five, she contributed
Speaker 10: Real Gone, the opening track to the soundtrack for Disney
Speaker 10: and Pixars two thousand and six animated film Cars.
Speaker 12: How cool is That?
Speaker 13: Also did a version of a Sweet Child of Mind
Speaker 13: for A Big Daddy.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I want to listen to that. That's I love
Speaker 12: that song.
Speaker 13: It's a good one. She was also my favorite mistake.
Speaker 13: That song was about the relationship with Eric Clapton.
Speaker 12: So that was and it wasn't a rumor.
Speaker 8: Yes, interesting, you said there was this the country guy
Speaker 8: the travels now he did a response? Was that also?
Speaker 8: Was he the guy she was singing about?
Speaker 12: I don't think.
Speaker 8: So, Okay, why would you respond to it if it's
Speaker 8: not about maybe wishful thinking he.
Speaker 7: Wanted a new swimming pool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah, I just ride the coattails.
Speaker 7: Yeah, she wouldn't be that.
Speaker 8: She wouldn't be the first one to write a lot
Speaker 8: of songs about you know X.
Speaker 12: Yeah, we know, we know a couple of people that
Speaker 12: did that.
Speaker 7: So we actually, Neil and I saw her when just
Speaker 7: before she was making it big. She was on the
Speaker 7: Hord tour in ninety was that ninety four ninety five?
Speaker 7: It was the Alman Brothers were the headline, hard.
Speaker 8: H Could you say that again?
Speaker 7: Yeah, brothers were the headline, and there's a Blues Traveler
Speaker 7: organized it. Blues Traveler was on the big side, and
Speaker 7: it was just before Dave Matthews made it big. So
Speaker 7: those were the three government Mule was on it, the Mule,
Speaker 7: Sheryl Crow was on it. Who else? But yeah, so
Speaker 7: we saw that that in Saratoga.
Speaker 13: I actually saw him that summer prior to Darien Lake.
Speaker 13: So it was billed as the Alman Brothers, but it
Speaker 13: was part of the Horde turn. I actually have maybe
Speaker 13: it was maybe.
Speaker 12: Got her, you really got him enunciation.
Speaker 9: Sorry, but I really loved the hoard tour.
Speaker 13: That's a different type of.
Speaker 4: Who doesn't love a good hord tour?
Speaker 7: Please don't. I don't know if our insurance covers that.
Speaker 12: So that's it, very good.
Speaker 7: Here's one other.
Speaker 13: She was a backup singer for Michael Jackson.
Speaker 7: I read that she was an elementary music teacher first,
Speaker 7: and then I wanted to make it big and then
Speaker 7: wound up doing that. Yeah, there you go. All right, excellent.
Speaker 7: That was a good one to end on a happy
Speaker 7: note this time. So we're gonna take another quick break
Speaker 7: and we have two more, so stick around. We'll be
Speaker 7: right back.
Speaker 5: This is Hudson River Radio dot com. Hudson Riverradio dot com.
Speaker 7: All right, welcome back to our show about lies and
Speaker 7: lying and all that stuff. And I'm not gonna lie
Speaker 7: about this one. I know what Barbara picked, and the
Speaker 7: reason I know is because I picked it. I wrote
Speaker 7: the whole thing up and then got her text message
Speaker 7: that this is my selection, and I.
Speaker 4: Went h But but last week, when you gave us
Speaker 4: the topic, I told you I wanted I know you did.
Speaker 7: But I didn't remember it, and then I didn't see
Speaker 7: your text message until I after I wrote it all up.
Speaker 7: But that's okay. So we'll see if our notes are
Speaker 7: are similar.
Speaker 4: On the spot look at all?
Speaker 7: Right, I picked a whole different one. I went in
Speaker 7: a totally different directions.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you did. I'm sure we're no like, way
Speaker 4: better than mine.
Speaker 7: To No knowledge goes to waste. So I saved my
Speaker 7: notes for no, just.
Speaker 4: Interject whenever you want. I'm cool with it. So it's fine.
Speaker 4: So we we picked Lies by the Thompson Twins. And
Speaker 4: before I go on, I have to apologize to my
Speaker 4: buddy Pants here because it's quintessential eighties, which I know
Speaker 4: he doesn't like.
Speaker 8: Well, you know, I I've been busted before about you
Speaker 8: know that it's not entirely true that I.
Speaker 7: It's not the whole decade. No, no, something.
Speaker 4: It was good. I mean, you know there's except But
Speaker 4: the thing is, I back when you know, they were popular,
Speaker 4: I was in college, So this is a type of
Speaker 4: thing that I listened to. So Pants, I got one
Speaker 4: question for you. Yeah, when you were a little kid
Speaker 4: in New Jersey riding your bike pasted all those people's houses.
Speaker 8: Yeah, did they call you shorts? Well not not until
Speaker 8: I stood up. Yeah, but no, anyway.
Speaker 4: But yeah, no, I just figured how to grow me.
Speaker 8: Thanks. I have no comeback for that. But no, actually,
Speaker 8: well this is the type you know, the Thompson Twins
Speaker 8: et cetera were the type of bands that and Mercedes
Speaker 8: can back me up on this. That the station w
Speaker 8: l I R out on Long Island that championed a
Speaker 8: lot of this stuff. Uh, and they were the only
Speaker 8: ones playing it at the time. So yeah, I I
Speaker 8: I do like this song, so you know, Okay, I
Speaker 8: appreciate your concern, but actually I actually saw Tom Bailey
Speaker 8: of the you know, Thompson Twins perform just himself with
Speaker 8: an all female backup band.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I'm gonna talk a little bit about that, but
Speaker 4: that's all right.
Speaker 8: That's okay, good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's no, that's good. I'm okay, sure, okay.
Speaker 4: So anyway, moving on the Thompson Twins, where they called
Speaker 4: themselves an English pop band. I looked at several sources
Speaker 4: and they like to refer to themselves as an English
Speaker 4: pop band. They formed in Sheffield in nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 4: They kind of started out as a new wave group
Speaker 4: and they were not, believe it or not, actual twins.
Speaker 4: The bands the band's name comes from the fictional characters
Speaker 4: of Thompson and Thompson, who were Intelligence service detectives from
Speaker 4: the Adventures of Tintin Comics by Okay, now we have
Speaker 4: a fan, everybody.
Speaker 8: The next thing, you're gonna tell me that the Ramones
Speaker 8: weren't brothers. Wait.
Speaker 4: I really don't want to let you down there, but okay,
Speaker 4: I will tell you.
Speaker 8: Then you can lie about it. Sorry, all right?
Speaker 4: Okay, So Adventures of Tintin Comics by Belgian cartoonists Urge
Speaker 4: that made their debut in nineteen thirty two. The original
Speaker 4: Thompson Twins' nineteen seventy seven lineup consisted of Tom Bailey
Speaker 4: on bass, guitar and vocals, Pete Dodd on guitar and vocals,
Speaker 4: John Rug on guitar, and John Podgorski on drums, and
Speaker 4: this lineup remained for about three years before undergoing numerous
Speaker 4: lineup changes, which I'll touch upon a little bit later.
Speaker 4: They released their first single in nineteen eighty and their
Speaker 4: first studio album the following year, achieving modest commercial success.
Speaker 4: Also by nineteen eighty the band included Bailey, Dodd, Rug,
Speaker 4: and drummer Chris Bell, with former roadie Joe Leeway and
Speaker 4: saxophonist Jane Shorter joining as well. However, recognizing that a
Speaker 4: smaller lineup was more practical, they reverted back to being
Speaker 4: a TREDO in nineteen eighty two, consisting of Alana Curry
Speaker 4: along with Bailey and Leeway, and the other band members
Speaker 4: were then told that the band was breaking up and
Speaker 4: were allowed to keep their instruments, with the understanding that
Speaker 4: they were not to perform using the name Thompson Twins.
Speaker 4: The band broke into the UK singles chart and the
Speaker 4: US bill were Hot one hundred in nineteen eighty three
Speaker 4: with their single Lies, which we'll enjoy now before we
Speaker 4: discuss further.
Speaker 8: Of me.
Speaker 7: So I don't understand.
Speaker 15: Why promises are snapped into what's a man defense.
Speaker 5: Beggar stolen from Japan to look from around the world
Speaker 5: and shore they can size? Why not to catch you out?
Speaker 7: No one's on your mind.
Speaker 14: Cleopatra died for regents, right, don't waste time?
Speaker 7: White one wine some you can't disguise, twist.
Speaker 13: Shopping half for youtp, hiding in your eyes, Si Si.
Speaker 5: Yea Li fly, Sli.
Speaker 14: Li Fly flies, sails TI hard up.
Speaker 5: But I think it's just too late.
Speaker 2: When the car is rubbing in the drive and I'm
Speaker 2: not listen to.
Speaker 5: A begar.
Speaker 7: Some nick from.
Speaker 5: Outside around the world. Love Lives On Lives Lives Yet You.
Speaker 16: Live Lives Lies Ye.
Speaker 3: Live Size Lies Yet Lives Lives Lives.
Speaker 16: Ye size Size Lie Size Sive Live Size Live Lie Size.
Speaker 12: Okay.
Speaker 4: Also in nineteen eighty three, the Thompson Twins' biggest success
Speaker 4: came with their single Hold Me Now. We peaked at
Speaker 4: number four in the UK, number three in the US.
Speaker 12: And I just have to say this.
Speaker 4: When Hold Me Now came out, I was I think
Speaker 4: I was almost home from college or I was getting
Speaker 4: ready to come home from college, and Hold Me Now.
Speaker 4: I was pleased and horrified at the same time because
Speaker 4: to me, it's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful song, and I
Speaker 4: love it so much. It's one of my favorites. But
Speaker 4: it meant to me like Thompson Twins were like selling
Speaker 4: out and going mainstream because it was like it was
Speaker 4: like a pop tune. It wasn't, you know, like their
Speaker 4: usual stuff. And I was like disappointed, but the song
Speaker 4: was so good that I wasn't disappointed for a long
Speaker 4: I love this.
Speaker 12: I do too.
Speaker 4: It's Beautiful So. Their nineteen eighty four album Into the
Speaker 4: Gap sold five million copies worldwide and included the singles
Speaker 4: hold Me Now as well as Doctor Doctor. In nineteen
Speaker 4: eighty five, they participated in Live Aid, performing three of
Speaker 4: their songs and were joined on stage by Madonna. The
Speaker 4: follow Joe Leeway left the band, leaving the duo of
Speaker 4: Tom Bailey and Alana Curry, and at this time their
Speaker 4: music style shifted more toward electronic pop. Their nineteen eighty
Speaker 4: seven album Close to the Bone and their nineteen eighty
Speaker 4: nine album Big Trash received some positive reviews, but did
Speaker 4: not achieve the commercial success of their prior work. Bailly
Speaker 4: and Curry got married, and the band officially ended in
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety three, with their last album, Queer, being released
Speaker 4: in nineteen ninety one. During the late nineteen eighties into
Speaker 4: the early nineteen nineties, they wrote material for other artists
Speaker 4: such as Deborah Harry. But I'm sure you guys haven't
Speaker 4: heard of her, so I'll just keep going. They then
Speaker 4: formed a new electronic project called Babbel, releasing two studio
Speaker 4: albums with songs featured in the film's Coneheads in nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety three and with honors in nineteen ninety four. Curry
Speaker 4: quit the music business in the mid nineteen nineties to
Speaker 4: raise her children and to raise awareness against genetic engineering
Speaker 4: and food and the environment. And to illustrate her point,
Speaker 4: she designed a billboard that showed a woman with four
Speaker 4: breasts hooked up to a milking machine to spark a
Speaker 4: debate against genetically modifying cows with human genes to produce
Speaker 4: a new kind of milk. Say, I wonder what they
Speaker 4: put on that milk carton and she and Baally divorced
Speaker 4: in two thousand and three, and there has never been
Speaker 4: an official reunion of the Thompson Twins, but in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 4: Tom Bailey returned to performing their songs as a solo act. Brian,
Speaker 4: did you have anything you'd like to add?
Speaker 8: She did not.
Speaker 9: Research.
Speaker 7: That's I think you hit everything I had as well.
Speaker 13: Okay, So if you play solo, was it a Thompson
Speaker 13: Twins or the Thompson Twin or was.
Speaker 7: This just Thompson?
Speaker 12: Oh yeah, that's what I need to know.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So so I know he's still touring, but I
Speaker 4: haven't heard of anything like locally that I would go see.
Speaker 4: But I would really like to see.
Speaker 7: Him that would go on, Yeah, I would definitely, yeah, absolutely, Yeah.
Speaker 13: Well, there's such a there's such a big thing of
Speaker 13: having all those conglomerations of artists from the eighties and
Speaker 13: the nineties play like three or four songs and they
Speaker 13: go through and they do, you know, their big hits,
Speaker 13: and then they go and they move on to.
Speaker 4: The next Well, they do those things called nostalgia tour.
Speaker 8: Yes, that's where I saw him. Was like like a
Speaker 8: package tour with that, maybe six or eight different you know,
Speaker 8: and they and you know, they came on and play
Speaker 8: their hits and you know, and move along. But you
Speaker 8: know what that that's fine now, you know, I just
Speaker 8: want to hear the hits. I don't want to hear
Speaker 8: I don't want to hear new stuff. I don't want
Speaker 8: to hear I don't want to hear deep cuts. Play
Speaker 8: the songs.
Speaker 12: I know this, no play the song.
Speaker 11: I know.
Speaker 13: I won't admit to it, but I did. Somebody may
Speaker 13: have seen Vanilla Ice a couple of years ago with Different.
Speaker 7: I was down with it, are you kid? That was
Speaker 7: Coolio was part of that package tour too. Well, it
Speaker 7: was right before you died. Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 13: It was color Me Bad, but it was like color
Speaker 13: Me maybe.
Speaker 7: Color It happened to be the same tour and my
Speaker 7: family we saw it up here in New York by coincidence,
Speaker 7: like a week or two later, he saw it down
Speaker 7: in Texas with his wife. Yea, but Coloring Me Bad
Speaker 7: wasn't there, because that would have been time to get
Speaker 7: a drink.
Speaker 8: Some of them have to get there and do a
Speaker 8: medley of their hit yeah.
Speaker 13: Exactly, And I don't remember this guy from that band.
Speaker 13: I was like, that's not color Me Bad. That's like
Speaker 13: color Maybe It's Me bad? Isn't the rest of the band?
Speaker 8: So they had It's just bad?
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm kind of glad we didn't get that versions.
Speaker 7: I had a good night. It was a lot of fun,
Speaker 7: you know.
Speaker 13: I just did a good job. But yeah, I've seen
Speaker 13: those nostalgia ones, and I think the Thompson Twins would
Speaker 13: be a good one.
Speaker 7: Definitely. Yeah, that would that would be a good one.
Speaker 7: I'd go cool, all right, thank you, barbar I got
Speaker 7: one more for you, and it happens to be the
Speaker 7: third song of the night. That's just simply called lies.
Speaker 7: But again, I'm the outlier. I'm going back ninety for
Speaker 7: the outliar there, Brian out liar. Uh huh. I'm also
Speaker 7: going to freely and truthfully admit that was unintentional, but
Speaker 7: I'll take credit. I'm going back to nineteen thirty one
Speaker 7: for my selection and this. This song titled Lies, was
Speaker 7: written by George E. Springer, with the music composed by
Speaker 7: Harry Barris, who was one of the many forgotten composers
Speaker 7: of the era. Unfortunately. Barris was born in nineteen oh
Speaker 7: five into a Jewish family in New York City. They
Speaker 7: moved to Denver, Colorado, where he started playing piano. He
Speaker 7: was a tiny little kid. He was thin, he wore
Speaker 7: his hair slick back, but he was good so people
Speaker 7: liked him. Started playing professionally at fourteen, and he put
Speaker 7: a band together that was booked on a tour of
Speaker 7: East Asia at seventeen.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 7: Pretty good. He got married at twenty, had a daughter
Speaker 7: at twenty one. In nineteen twenty seven, at age twenty two,
Speaker 7: who was playing and singing in a popular orchestra at
Speaker 7: the time that two other singers, Al Rinker and Bing
Speaker 7: Crosby had joined up to teens Oh play with them.
Speaker 7: You may have heard that name yup that orchestra was
Speaker 7: booked into a large New York City theater, but unfortunately
Speaker 7: that theater did not have a sound system, so nobody
Speaker 7: could hear what they were doing, so they got dropped
Speaker 7: pretty quickly. Wasn't the orchestra's fault, it was kind of
Speaker 7: the venue's fault. Seemed to be unprepared. But somebody in
Speaker 7: that orchestra also knew Barris and suggested that they team up,
Speaker 7: which they did so Harry Barris, Al Rinker and Bing Crosby.
Speaker 7: The three of them became the Rhythm Boys in April
Speaker 7: nineteen twenty seven. By nineteen thirty, they were hired to
Speaker 7: perform with the legendary Coconut Grove Orchestra in the world
Speaker 7: famous Coconut Grove Nightclub in the world famous Ambassador Hotel
Speaker 7: in Los Angeles, which happens to be the same spot
Speaker 7: that RFK Senior would be shot in nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 7: Each of the Rhythm Boys would then go on to
Speaker 7: solo careers, with Baris writing a number of big band
Speaker 7: songs along with appearing in around sixty films. He usually
Speaker 7: played a band leader, which seems fitting because he was
Speaker 7: a band leader and a handful of those films. Yeah,
Speaker 7: handful of those films actually starred Bing Crosby, so they
Speaker 7: were clearly still on good terms. And like many stars,
Speaker 7: he would go overseas to entertain the troops during World
Speaker 7: War Two. Unfortunately, Harry Barris wound up with a bad
Speaker 7: drinking problem. He wound up falling in nineteen sixty one
Speaker 7: and fractured his hip, and he just never recovered from that.
Speaker 7: He died at age fifty seven, just after his last song,
Speaker 7: titled Never Been So Lost, was published. His nephew is
Speaker 7: or was Chuck Barris also made a name for himself, and.
Speaker 4: I was wondering if you were going to say that, Yeah, huh.
Speaker 7: He wrote the early rock and roll song Palisades Park,
Speaker 7: done by Freddy Cannon and later covered by some group
Speaker 7: that I think Neil's heard of. Yeah yeah, yeah, if
Speaker 7: you think of it just happens.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's on the tip of my tongue, ye spillet
Speaker 8: pants Yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 7: And he would create the Newlywed Game and the Dating Game,
Speaker 7: and he hosted the Gong Show for Remember the Gang Show.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I love that show.
Speaker 1: At least five versions of the song I'm sorry I
Speaker 1: had to blurt the sound blurt away, do you know
Speaker 1: that he lived in Rockland? I did know, Yes, he
Speaker 1: lived in Snathan's Landing. Yeah, yeah, he lived next door
Speaker 1: to a friend of mine.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 8: Didn't they make it? Was there a movie about him?
Speaker 9: Yeah, Essions of a.
Speaker 8: Something.
Speaker 7: We're way off on the wrong person. But he made
Speaker 7: a story that he worked for the CIA. So they
Speaker 7: went through all that and it was all nonsense. He
Speaker 7: made it all up. He later admitted he made the
Speaker 7: whole thing lies. It was all lies. It does tie in, okay,
Speaker 7: but yeah true. So at least for five version of
Speaker 7: the song Lies were recorded shortly after it was published
Speaker 7: in nineteen thirty one, Bing Crosby did one Gus Harnheim
Speaker 7: with vocals by Dave Marshall, was apparently a famous orchestra.
Speaker 7: I hate to admit I don't know that, and Gene
Speaker 7: Austin in nineteen thirty one. So I'm going with the
Speaker 7: Gene Austin version because it's someone we never talked about,
Speaker 7: and I think it's time to bring somebody new into
Speaker 7: the mix. We talked about Bing Crosby, we've heard his
Speaker 7: songs and stuff before. So Gene Austin was born Lemuel
Speaker 7: Eugene Lucas. It's a shame you don't hear the name
Speaker 7: lemuele Mule.
Speaker 13: I need to bring it back.
Speaker 7: It is a perfect name for uh La Lama as
Speaker 7: far as I'm.
Speaker 8: Nothing like a barnyard animal.
Speaker 7: So yeah, yeah, we don't hear that too often.
Speaker 4: Le Mule walks into a bar.
Speaker 7: Le bartender says, let get out.
Speaker 13: So.
Speaker 7: Lemuel was born in nineteen hundred in Gainesville, Texas. He
Speaker 7: learned piano and guitar, and then ran away at age fifteen.
Speaker 7: As one I guess may have done back at that time.
Speaker 8: Okay, if my name was Lemuel, I would have ran
Speaker 8: away a lot sooner.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I would have had a few words. He
Speaker 7: wound up at a vaudeville show in Houston, where part
Speaker 7: of the show was that they would invite audience members
Speaker 7: to come up on stage and perform you know, open
Speaker 7: mic ish kind of thing, and the friends he was
Speaker 7: with dared him to do it. So he did it,
Speaker 7: and he actually did so well at it that the
Speaker 7: Voudville show hired him. After the show that night, they
Speaker 7: offered him a spy. So there you go. That's why
Speaker 7: you should run away. Don't run away. Wait, maybe name
Speaker 7: your kid lemule.
Speaker 8: Maybe that that's the secret, depends on which direction you're
Speaker 8: running in.
Speaker 7: I guess that's also true.
Speaker 4: This is a heck of a PSA.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't know which advice to take her, so
Speaker 7: I'm leaving it out to you. Austin joined the army
Speaker 7: at fifteen and served in World War One because apparently
Speaker 7: they didn't check IDs back then. After being discharged, he
Speaker 7: moved to Baltimore to start law school and that didn't
Speaker 7: work out, and he started dental school and that didn't
Speaker 7: work out. So clearly a smart kid who just was
Speaker 7: on the wrong track. He wound up back behind the
Speaker 7: microphone where he belonged, and he became known as one
Speaker 7: of the early crooners that we've talked about, like especially
Speaker 7: Bing Crosby. This is when microphones got much better and
Speaker 7: singers got their own microphone. They were able to get
Speaker 7: up close and kind of used the microphone as an instrument,
Speaker 7: you know, moving in and out depending on your volume
Speaker 7: and your and the emotions that the song called for.
Speaker 7: So he was on the list of crooners. He had
Speaker 7: a long list of hits, both as a songwriter and
Speaker 7: a recording artist, and he got promoted on tour by
Speaker 7: one Colonel Tom Parker, who may have worked with some
Speaker 7: other individual that we may or may not have heard
Speaker 7: of before.
Speaker 8: I think he worked with the Ramones too.
Speaker 7: I think so. I think it was the Ramones. I
Speaker 7: think it was Elvis Ramone.
Speaker 13: Wait, I think the thing I started a KFC could be, could.
Speaker 7: Have been, could have been that guy also. But yeah,
Speaker 7: Geene Austin sold over eighty six million records and we
Speaker 7: really don't talk about him anymore, which I think is
Speaker 7: kind of a shame, because way do you hear his voice?
Speaker 7: His best known recording is the nineteen twenty eight song
Speaker 7: My Blue Heaven, which would thirty years later be covered
Speaker 7: by Fats Domeno and become a giant hit. Unfortunately, Austin
Speaker 7: died in nineteen seventy two from lung cancer. So he
Speaker 7: was around for the Beatles. We'll give him that. So
Speaker 7: let's check out. He was what seventy one? He would
Speaker 7: have been seventy two. He was born in nineteen hundred,
Speaker 7: which makes him that easy. And you still missed it.
Speaker 13: Now it's not my strong point.
Speaker 7: That's all right, you were close. We'll give closer minus fies. Fine,
Speaker 7: So this is nineteen thirty one Lies by Gene Austin.
Speaker 5: Lie that made me.
Speaker 7: Lie, That made needles.
Speaker 14: You lie to me the day that you promised you
Speaker 14: the true.
Speaker 5: Lie.
Speaker 14: That bro my Molly believe them, but mes lies sad.
Speaker 20: You told you what.
Speaker 5: Love you.
Speaker 8: The whole.
Speaker 11: Ly?
Speaker 7: So great voice. And again we've said it before, this
Speaker 7: was a time when there was no editing, no redoing.
Speaker 7: There was only starting all over again and all that
Speaker 7: and done straight through, which I like it. I like
Speaker 7: that stuff. It's good to pop that in every once
Speaker 7: in a while. So there you go.
Speaker 13: We'll chose the musicianship and the professionalism and all of that.
Speaker 13: They did so much of that. Just all right, we're going.
Speaker 7: Yep, that is true. It's still a time when your
Speaker 7: local radio station still had live musicians. Wow, yeah, that
Speaker 7: was the norm. Well, again we've said before, the term
Speaker 7: disc jockey was derogatory because it used to be live musicians,
Speaker 7: and station owners realized it was cheaper to just buy records,
Speaker 7: so you went from musicians to these idiots that just
Speaker 7: move records around, and there's your disc jockey. So it
Speaker 7: was an insult that wound up getting embraced like crambone.
Speaker 7: All right, that's all. I've got any final thoughts, any
Speaker 7: final lies, truth, anything in between before we wrap it up.
Speaker 13: Remember, pop rocks and soda don't really actually cause an insumt,
Speaker 13: So that's true, you know, Neil.
Speaker 2: We will have to keep that one in mind.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and birds don't explode from rice at weddings. Wait
Speaker 7: they don't, No, they don't.
Speaker 13: I did have one I wanted to go back to.
Speaker 13: Were the treving Wilbury's all brothers because they were all Willbury?
Speaker 7: Mister Richter?
Speaker 13: Is that true? Or for is that along the same
Speaker 13: lines as the Ramons all being related?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 8: I think they were all born in the same hospital.
Speaker 13: Okay, I'm just making sure.
Speaker 7: Yeah, all right, that means it's time to pull the plug.
Speaker 2: Before we pull the plug, just can I say, mister
Speaker 2: pants on fire, enjoy riding your bike around the neighborhood.
Speaker 9: You know, boy, John, you're on fire tonight.
Speaker 12: Do you bet you can coffee all day?
Speaker 8: I could make a very bad joke about that, but
Speaker 8: I'm just not gonna know.
Speaker 12: John.
Speaker 4: What kind of an app where you it's taken before?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 2: Apparently a very deep one.
Speaker 7: Good for you?
Speaker 8: Wow?
Speaker 7: All right, outstanding? Well, thank you cram Bones. For excellent
Speaker 7: selection as always, and thank you mister Briscoe for coming
Speaker 7: all the way up from Texas just for our show today.
Speaker 7: Thank you for it was nice to have one here
Speaker 7: so and thank you all for joining us for the
Speaker 7: Rock and Roll History Show. And don't forget to subscribe
Speaker 7: to your favorite podcast app and check out all the
Speaker 7: other shows we do at Hudson River Radio because there
Speaker 7: is something for everybody. We will hopefully see you next week,
Speaker 7: no promises, We're gonna have to see how it goes,
Speaker 7: but we'll be back at some point with another brand
Speaker 7: new episode. Until then, be careful and peace out, everybody.
Speaker 10: Rock bottom, okay.
Speaker 8: The Bye
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