Speaker 1: Hudsonriverradio dot com. Do we have to listen to you?
Speaker 2: Well, no you don't, but if you have any interest
Speaker 2: in history done.
Speaker 1: This is John Fulbright.
Speaker 3: Hi, this is Jar Williams.
Speaker 4: Hi.
Speaker 5: This is Mitch Margle of the Tokens.
Speaker 6: Hi.
Speaker 2: This is Gary us Bonds mad here on the Rock
Speaker 2: and Roll History Show. Hello, everybody, Welcome back to the
Speaker 2: Rock and Roll History Show on Hudson River Radio. I'm
Speaker 2: Brian Horowitz. It's not exactly news that it's been ridiculously
Speaker 2: hot outside, and so it's only seemed natural that we
Speaker 2: decided to do a bunch of songs about being hot
Speaker 2: in hot weather and just general stickiness.
Speaker 7: And all that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we'll get into more of that in a moment. First,
Speaker 2: allow me to introduce all the cranbones who are joining
Speaker 2: us here tonight. First and foremost, from the Richter Observatory,
Speaker 2: he read that humans eat more bananas than monkeys because
Speaker 2: humans rarely eat monkeys. Richt is here.
Speaker 8: I'll speak speak for yourself, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I said rarely a little a little.
Speaker 8: Robes with monkeys. You know, how are you doing? Everybody?
Speaker 2: Sound like we have a new topic. Yeah, and from
Speaker 2: paranormally yours She burned two thousand calories today. She left
Speaker 2: the brownies in the oven too long. Gail Lupam is here.
Speaker 3: That's about the only way to do that.
Speaker 8: Hello.
Speaker 2: From the silver screen. She saw a guy with a
Speaker 2: giraffe walk into a bar. The giraffe drank so much
Speaker 2: that it just passed out on the floor, totally unconscious.
Speaker 2: The guy gets up to leave, and the bartender says, hey,
Speaker 2: you can't leave that lion here. And the guy says,
Speaker 2: it's not a lion, it's a giraffe, you idiot. Mercedes
Speaker 2: can't get here.
Speaker 9: Hey, I just want to know, did anybody pick a
Speaker 9: song about people being hot.
Speaker 7: Hot?
Speaker 2: You know, I didn't even think. I didn't, sort of
Speaker 2: sort of telling me at the end.
Speaker 10: Didn't even come to mind.
Speaker 2: That's a good one, that's true, It really didn't. I
Speaker 2: think mine might fit the bill. You tell me when
Speaker 2: we get.
Speaker 9: Okay, all right, we'll check it out.
Speaker 2: All right, sounds good. And our officially retired teacher he
Speaker 2: heard that horses can't join the army only the naybe.
Speaker 2: John Kelly is here.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, Brian, I was good and no really locome.
Speaker 2: So thanks.
Speaker 1: In the dad joke.
Speaker 2: Realm, Yeah, it was good, fair enough, and last, but
Speaker 2: not least, the host of shaving Cream, She learned that
Speaker 2: Forrest Gump's favorite pasta is pennay. Oh man, I'm sorry.
Speaker 11: All right, everybody unlike me, stay cool. And I mean
Speaker 11: that like literally and figuratively.
Speaker 2: I wish I think in Boston it's a which wicked scorcher.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't think I do the accent very well, but
Speaker 2: you get the idea. Yeah, it's been disgusting just watching
Speaker 2: the electric meter turn and turn and turn and turn
Speaker 2: and turn. And yeah, so let's have some fun with
Speaker 2: hot music. At least maybe you'll cool us off for
Speaker 2: a little bit. We'll jump right in and Gail, won't
Speaker 2: you lead us off tonight?
Speaker 3: Okay? Jokay. Well, last week, after after last week's show,
Speaker 3: when we were discussing what topic to choose, this particular
Speaker 3: song came right into my mind. And it's very very,
Speaker 3: very very nostalgic for me. It's called Hot Fun in
Speaker 3: the Summertime by sly on the Family's Stone. And I
Speaker 3: remember when this came out. And it's interesting because this
Speaker 3: came out in nineteen sixty nine. I was nine at
Speaker 3: the time, but I remember no because I have I
Speaker 3: have a sister who's seven and a half years older
Speaker 3: than me, so I was listening to the music that
Speaker 3: she was listening to, And so anytime I hear this song,
Speaker 3: it's just kind of brings back, like mellow memories from back.
Speaker 2: Then before air conditioning it was much more common.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely absolutely. My parents had one in the master
Speaker 3: bedroom and that was it. And of course, you know
Speaker 3: the house we lived and didn't have central air, it
Speaker 3: was built before I was born, so but we survived.
Speaker 3: But when I was a kid.
Speaker 11: I don't remember being hot and miserable, feeling hot.
Speaker 8: Like now.
Speaker 2: The worst was trying to sleep when it was hot
Speaker 2: and miserable. Yeah, like during the day, especially as a kid,
Speaker 2: you're up and playing and you're not really thinking about it,
Speaker 2: you know, but sleep when it's one hundred degrees in
Speaker 2: your bedroom.
Speaker 3: And we had this cat when I was little, and
Speaker 3: she was crazy. She was an absolute harodin, but I
Speaker 3: adored her. And you know how in the summer, you
Speaker 3: don't sleep with a comforter or something unless you have
Speaker 3: air conditioning in your room. So at that time, we
Speaker 3: would sleep with just a sheet on top of us. Well,
Speaker 3: all you had to do was move your feet under
Speaker 3: that sheet with the cat in the room, and you
Speaker 3: would wake up with no toes because she loved to
Speaker 3: attack feats. And she was quite young back then. She
Speaker 3: was only born in sixty four, sixty five, so she
Speaker 3: was still pretty pretty young.
Speaker 2: So she's what sixty two now.
Speaker 3: She actually lived to eighteen.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: And it was awful because when she became ill and
Speaker 3: had to be helped to cross over to the other side,
Speaker 3: I was devastated because she was she was only four
Speaker 3: years younger than me, and it was absolutely devastating. But
Speaker 3: I have so many memories of her because she was
Speaker 3: just so so crazy and fun and obnoxious. But anyway,
Speaker 3: back to the song. The song as I Said came
Speaker 3: out in nineteen sixty nine and it was recorded by
Speaker 3: Sly and the Family Stone. It was released just prior
Speaker 3: to the band's higher file performance at Woodstock, which greatly
Speaker 3: expanded their fan base. The song peaked at number two
Speaker 3: on the US Billboard Hot one hundred Singles chart, only
Speaker 3: kept out of the number one spot by I Can't
Speaker 3: Get Next to You by the Temptations, which is another awesome,
Speaker 3: awesome song, but has nothing to do with summertime.
Speaker 9: H unless you're talking about the peat and everybody's sweaty
Speaker 9: and you get next to sweaty people.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: True.
Speaker 3: Hot Fun in the Summertime also peaked at number three
Speaker 3: on the US Billboards Soul Singles Chart in autumn of
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty nine. It is ranked as the seventh biggest
Speaker 3: US hit of nineteen sixty nine and the sixty fifth
Speaker 3: in Canada. I guess it didn't go over quite as
Speaker 3: well in Canada. Rolling Stone ranked the song numbers.
Speaker 9: Because it's cooler there, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: Rolling Stone ranked the song two hundred and forty seven
Speaker 3: on their list of the five hundred Greatest Songs of
Speaker 3: all Time, and it's also been named in lists by
Speaker 3: Yahoo Music and ask Men as an all time summer anthem,
Speaker 3: which is why it just totally popped into my head
Speaker 3: when we decided on this topic. Thematically, it's a dedication
Speaker 3: to the fun and games to be had during the summer.
Speaker 3: It was intended to be included on an in progress
Speaker 3: album at the time, with Everybody as a Star and
Speaker 3: Thank You for letting Me be Myself Again. That LP
Speaker 3: was never completed, and the three tracks were instead included
Speaker 3: on the band's nineteen seventy Greatest hits LP. This song
Speaker 3: is known for its rare use of strings in a
Speaker 3: sly and the family Stone song featuring violins being played
Speaker 3: in the rest. Let's have a listen, and then I'll
Speaker 3: tell you a few things about the band and the
Speaker 3: spring and.
Speaker 12: She him some day some day.
Speaker 7: That's when I have the vines.
Speaker 1: Well some day.
Speaker 6: Some day, Well.
Speaker 13: Country bear in the country, sir, everything.
Speaker 12: That she goes bye bye bye bye.
Speaker 14: Fun s.
Speaker 12: How did everybody is cool?
Speaker 3: Is that just the most mellow, wonderful, takes you back,
Speaker 3: comforting kind of song? That was golden?
Speaker 1: It is?
Speaker 3: It is actually before I tell you about Sling the
Speaker 3: Family Stone. Believe it or not. The Beach Boys covered
Speaker 3: that in nineteen ninety two on their album called Summer
Speaker 3: in Paradise. I the Beach Boys is a completely different sound.
Speaker 3: So I'm not even gonna look that up and listen
Speaker 3: to it, because I'm perfectly happy with the original. Supposedly,
Speaker 3: it was performed on stage in HBO's nineteen eighty one
Speaker 3: television special The Peewee Harman Show. The song was also
Speaker 3: covered by a group called The Party, which was originally
Speaker 3: supposed to be on their nineteen ninety two album Free
Speaker 3: but was then released on their nineteen ninety three album
Speaker 3: The Party's Over, Thanks for Coming. It was covered in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty two with somewhat greater chart success by a
Speaker 3: funk outfit known as Dayton which I've never heard of,
Speaker 3: and again covered in nineteen ninety five by the Manhattan
Speaker 3: trans For featuring vocals by Shaka Kahn. Genesis vocalist and
Speaker 3: drummer Phil Collins cited the song as one of the
Speaker 3: musical inspirations for his song Misunderstanding, and the members of
Speaker 3: Toto have also cited it as an inspiration for hold
Speaker 3: the line.
Speaker 8: I can hear that.
Speaker 11: Yeah, definitely both, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: The personnel in the song were Sly Stone on vocals
Speaker 3: and piano, Freddie Stone, his brother on vocals and guitar,
Speaker 3: Larry Graham on vocals and bass guitar, Rose Stone, their
Speaker 3: sister on vocals, Cynthia Robinson on trumpet, Jerry Martini on saxophone,
Speaker 3: and Greg Erico on drums. Interesting fun fact was that
Speaker 3: Freddie and Sly were both guitarists, so they decided that
Speaker 3: Freddie would be the one to play the guitar in
Speaker 3: the band, and Sly learned keyboards, so that's that's inventive.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They were one of the first, if not the first.
Speaker 2: They had a female trumpeter.
Speaker 3: Yes, run yeah, and they kind of invented psychedelic soul
Speaker 3: from what I understand, and there were a big influence
Speaker 3: on following American popular music. They had a series of
Speaker 3: top ten Billboard Hot one hundred hits such as Dance
Speaker 3: to the Music in nineteen sixty eight, Everyday People nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty eight, This One in ninet eighteen sixty nine, Thank
Speaker 3: You for Letting Me Be Mice Elf Again in nineteen
Speaker 3: sixty nine, and critically acclaimed albums such as Stand in
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty nine, which combined pop sensibility with social commentary, which,
Speaker 3: as we may remember back then, was in style now.
Speaker 3: In the nineteen seventies, their sound transitioned into a darker
Speaker 3: and less commercial funk sound on releases such as There's
Speaker 3: a Riot going On which I don't think I've ever
Speaker 3: heard and Fresh in nineteen seventy three. Unfortunately, by nineteen
Speaker 3: seventy five, drug problems and interpersonal clashes, probably caused by
Speaker 3: the drug problems, led to dissolution of the band, although
Speaker 3: Sly continued to record and tour with a new rotating
Speaker 3: lineup under the name Sly and the Family Stone until
Speaker 3: his own drug problems forced his effective retirement in nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty seven. Now he only passed away in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 3: and considering the issues that he had, I'm kind of
Speaker 3: amazed that he lived that long.
Speaker 8: If I'm not mistaken, I might be. But didn't he
Speaker 8: like end up living like in a van or something
Speaker 8: like that, or you know, like he was somehow he
Speaker 8: was destitute. He lost all his money, and.
Speaker 3: That's, yeah, unfortunately.
Speaker 8: Because he was he was also a producer before sliming
Speaker 8: Family Stone, he was, so he was in the business
Speaker 8: a long time and I would imagine probably did all
Speaker 8: right financially, So to lose all that, well, you know what,
Speaker 8: don't take drugs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, unfortunately, that's what happens sometimes.
Speaker 8: And I don't take that many drugs, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah. He died on June ninth, twenty twenty five, at
Speaker 3: the age of eighty two, from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Speaker 3: COPD and other underlying health conditions, of which I imagine he
Speaker 3: had several.
Speaker 8: But I think you're right, living eighty two with all that,
Speaker 8: that's pretty good. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But then look at Keith Richards.
Speaker 9: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 8: Well that's that's the problem, you know. You get people say, oh,
Speaker 8: look I can do all this. Look at Keith Richards.
Speaker 8: He No, he's like one in a billion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's why we keep bringing him up
Speaker 2: when we talk about things like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because he's the exception.
Speaker 9: Fly in the family Zone in nineteen seventy two Madison
Speaker 9: Square Guard Wow, Yeah, wow, third contract ever. I was young.
Speaker 9: They were great, they were amazing.
Speaker 11: Well back some years ago when I saw Elton John
Speaker 11: at Bethel Woods, he made an announcement that some of
Speaker 11: his backup singers were from the Family Stone. I don't
Speaker 11: know what lineup he was talking about, and it was
Speaker 11: so long ago. I don't remember which, you know, what
Speaker 11: their names or whatever he said that, but I remember
Speaker 11: being really impressed and surprised.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Definitely, very cool.
Speaker 3: All Right, That's all that's all I got. But I love, love,
Speaker 3: love the song, and I hope our listeners do too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. That hits the topic right on the head. Definitely,
Speaker 2: I can argue that.
Speaker 8: All right.
Speaker 2: Thanks gle uh Neil, We're up to you.
Speaker 8: All right. My fun in the Summertime Sun song for
Speaker 8: today is called on the Beach by the band The Rattlers. Now,
Speaker 8: the Rattlers weren't American rock band formed in New York
Speaker 8: City in nineteen seven seventy nine. The band was led
Speaker 8: by vocalist guitarist Mickey Lee, who was born Mitchell Lee
Speaker 8: Hyman in nineteen fifty four. He also happens to be
Speaker 8: the younger brother of Jeffrey Hyman, who you'd probably know
Speaker 8: by his stage name. A little more, uh, he went
Speaker 8: by the name Joey Ramone, the vocalist for The Ramones. Obviously,
Speaker 8: so yes, Mickey is Joey's brother. Now the family connection
Speaker 8: goes a little further. But let me start off by saying, no,
Speaker 8: the Ramones were not all related. They adopted that surname.
Speaker 8: They were not related. They were not family. Okay, But
Speaker 8: when Mickey was fourteen he played in a band with
Speaker 8: future Ramones Johnny and Tommy, and early on in the
Speaker 8: Ramones career, Mickey served as the band's roadie and tech guy.
Speaker 8: So he was there, he was in on it. Now,
Speaker 8: The Rattlers had a similar vocal style to the Ramones,
Speaker 8: of course, with Joey and Mickey being brothers and all,
Speaker 8: but the Rattlers had more of a power pop style
Speaker 8: to their sound as opposed to straight up punk. Now
Speaker 8: The Ratler's independently released nineteen seventy nine debut single of
Speaker 8: on the Beach actually featured Joey helping out on some vocals,
Speaker 8: and the song was then re recorded for their only
Speaker 8: full length album called Rattled in nineteen eighty five. And
Speaker 8: that's the version we're going to hear in just a moment. Now.
Speaker 8: On the Beach is basically a love song with a
Speaker 8: decidedly sci fi vibe to it. It's about a radioactive
Speaker 8: sea monster that comes ashore and steals the singer's girlfriend,
Speaker 8: leaving him to wonder if he will ever see her again.
Speaker 8: So pass the tanning butter and let's give it a sure.
Speaker 7: And be chilled by the sea.
Speaker 1: That's when she said she went on Sleep Deep. From
Speaker 1: wil Deep, she took Goods back to live it.
Speaker 15: Sleeps house chair, about saving school and just.
Speaker 1: Kinda find that one of girls something to go away.
Speaker 16: From me on the big chap by to see she
Speaker 16: was waiting.
Speaker 17: Steve came out the doxy fected by some radio activity.
Speaker 15: A great mind baby with the great big smile that
Speaker 15: overhead in the direction of.
Speaker 18: The three miles.
Speaker 1: Now I sare about saving school. I just gotta find
Speaker 1: that one.
Speaker 14: This girl something to go away.
Speaker 16: From men, betail buy to.
Speaker 14: Say, yeah, she will wait something like this to real exist.
Speaker 14: Just can't believe that is true.
Speaker 15: One thing I know, I'm letting her go. Don't people
Speaker 15: say I might have me chill about the Saints. I
Speaker 15: swear she said she waits.
Speaker 19: Something came from way yeuse team speak to those facts.
Speaker 15: The wage sleeves share about savings.
Speaker 1: This kind of bind them. One stood something now wait
Speaker 1: by me?
Speaker 16: How the Betama scene see whats wait ba.
Speaker 7: See waita wait please wait love book.
Speaker 3: That was awesome.
Speaker 12: I was good.
Speaker 8: I love that song. Yeah now. Although it did get
Speaker 8: good critical reception, with music journalist Robert Christgau calling it
Speaker 8: one of the top fifty albums of nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 8: but otherwise the album Rattled was pretty much widely ignored.
Speaker 8: But the band did play around New York City and
Speaker 8: did tour with bands like the B fifty two's The Clash,
Speaker 8: Jon Jet and the Blackhearts and many other legendary bands
Speaker 8: of the time before they called it quits in nineteen
Speaker 8: eighty eight. Now Ever, since Joey's I'm Sorry. Mickey's brother
Speaker 8: Joey passed away in two thousand and one. Mickey has
Speaker 8: held an annual concert in New York City to honor
Speaker 8: his birthday, which is aptly called the Joey Ramon Birthday Bash.
Speaker 8: And the event features numerous artisan bands, and I've attended
Speaker 8: many of them, not all of them, but many of them.
Speaker 8: And in twenty eleven it actually included a set by
Speaker 8: a reunited Rattlers, so that was pretty cool. And in
Speaker 8: recent years Mickey's included his current musical project called Mickey
Speaker 8: Lee's Mutated Music.
Speaker 3: I Like that.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 8: In two thousand and nine, Mickey published a book called
Speaker 8: I Slept with Joey Ramone, A family memoir. Yes, pretty clever.
Speaker 8: It's a good book. I recommend it because in twenty
Speaker 8: twenty one, there were plans announced from Netflix to make
Speaker 8: a movie based on the book, with Pete Davidson scheduled
Speaker 8: to play Joey Ramone. But just recently, after a long
Speaker 8: legal battle, a settlement was reached regarding the control of
Speaker 8: the Ramones estate between Mickey and Johnny Ramone's widow, Linda.
Speaker 8: They both had a fifty to fifty share and they've
Speaker 8: been going back and forth for a while, but the
Speaker 8: decision basically she bought him out and got total control
Speaker 8: of the estate. So unfortunately that leaves the future of
Speaker 8: the film kind of in doubt. But yeah, you know
Speaker 8: what they say, life's a beach. Now go to a concert.
Speaker 2: Excellent, All right, thanks Neil. We are going to take
Speaker 2: a real quick break. Go cool off, top off the drink.
Speaker 2: Come right back. We have a lot more lined up.
Speaker 2: Hudson River Radio. Your dog likes us.
Speaker 3: This concludes the first part of this cassette.
Speaker 9: Please turn the cassette over and begin again on side
Speaker 9: to This is Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Ah right, all right, welcome back. It's still hot, but
Speaker 2: we're doing it. We're getting the job done in all
Speaker 2: this heat, because that's how much we care about what
Speaker 2: we do here on the Rock and Roll History Show.
Speaker 2: So Mercedes shows how it's done.
Speaker 9: Alrighty, then, I don't know why I've been taking these
Speaker 9: big swings lately. Last week I did Prince lots of
Speaker 9: research and writing, And this week is Jannis Chaplin. Unless
Speaker 9: you were born under a boulder, I am betting that
Speaker 9: you've heard of her. We all know that she played
Speaker 9: at Woodstock with big brother in the holding company. We
Speaker 9: all know that she had a substance abuse issue and
Speaker 9: died of hair and overdose, and that she had a
Speaker 9: dynamic stage presence and a powerhouse of a voice. You
Speaker 9: probably know her songs like Me and Bobby McGhee, her
Speaker 9: only number one hit, Piece of My Heart, Cry Baby
Speaker 9: Down on Me, Ball and Chain, and Summertime, as well
Speaker 9: as her original song Mercedes Benz, which was her final recording.
Speaker 9: Once you dig in, this so much about her and
Speaker 9: her life like so much, so let's start with the basics.
Speaker 9: She was born Janie Lynn Joplin in nineteen forty three
Speaker 9: in Texas. When she hit her teens, it was obvious
Speaker 9: to her parents that she needed more attention than her siblings,
Speaker 9: and she started spending time with a group of outcasts.
Speaker 9: In high school, she was terror bullied and ostracized, voted
Speaker 9: the ugliest man on campus. Oh yeah, and she became
Speaker 9: overweight and struggled with severe acne. But through her new
Speaker 9: friends group, she learned of blues artists Bessie Smith, Marainey
Speaker 9: and Led Belly, and later credited them with her influencing
Speaker 9: her with influencing her decision to become a singer. Her
Speaker 9: first song, What Good Can Drink and Do, was recorded
Speaker 9: in December nineteen sixty two at the home of a
Speaker 9: fellow student. But Texas was not working for her, so
Speaker 9: she hitchhiked to San Francisco with a friend. There, she
Speaker 9: met a guitarist who later became the guitarist for Jefferson
Speaker 9: Airplane and recorded a bunch of blues standards with his
Speaker 9: wife in the background using a typewriter, and these were
Speaker 9: later called the Typewriter Tapes, which were released posthumously. Soon after,
Speaker 9: her friend were noticing her physical decline from drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 9: They threw a bus fair party to return her to
Speaker 9: her parents' home in Texas. She weighed eighty eight pounds.
Speaker 9: In Port Arthur, she changed her lifestyle, got clean, and
Speaker 9: enrolled as an anthropology major at lamar University. She got engaged,
Speaker 9: but while she and her mother were planning the wedding,
Speaker 9: he called off the engagement another slap in the face.
Speaker 9: So back in San Francisco, Big Brother and the Holding
Speaker 9: Company Band reached out to her and she returned to California,
Speaker 9: and in nineteen sixty eight they released the album Cheap
Speaker 9: Thrills with piece of my heartball chain in summertime after
Speaker 9: playing the Monterey Pop Festival. Summertime obviously if you haven't
Speaker 9: picked that up by now is my summer heat song.
Speaker 9: So let's hear it.
Speaker 5: M summer term turned turn.
Speaker 20: Chap, living disease, fi.
Speaker 5: Shure jumping, none Hay, the coming on con hime unders
Speaker 5: and your mother so good looking, baby, she's looking good night.
Speaker 5: Hush babe a babe, a babe, a babe a baby.
Speaker 5: No no no no, don't you cry, don't cry? What
Speaker 5: this morning?
Speaker 21: And you're gonna rise.
Speaker 7: Rise?
Speaker 5: I'm seeing you got spraying always.
Speaker 20: Charity, take for the sun?
Speaker 7: Who this gun?
Speaker 21: Until harmon?
Speaker 5: No thanks going to harm me?
Speaker 21: No no no no no no no no no no
Speaker 21: no no no no no no no no no no
Speaker 21: no no no no no no no no.
Speaker 10: Damn very emailo. You know what I could do a
Speaker 10: vibe of just sitting in an old kind of like
Speaker 10: nightclub late at night after quieted down. It's hot, it's steamy,
Speaker 10: there ain't no air conditioning, and you're just sweating there
Speaker 10: with a drink in hand. You know, it just has
Speaker 10: that whole vibe.
Speaker 9: Oh John, will you take me there? Because I'd like
Speaker 9: to go there right now. I'm down sure, I'm.
Speaker 2: Good with all that except the hot and sweaty part.
Speaker 5: I like the hot and.
Speaker 9: Sweaty, so I have no problem with that.
Speaker 8: Well, you know you mentioned them. You know that she
Speaker 8: played at Woodstock in at Monterey. But it was small
Speaker 8: places like that that a lot of these groups got started.
Speaker 8: And that's where they really sounded like that, you know.
Speaker 8: So it wasn't all like the huge festivals, right, It
Speaker 8: was little places like that that they played like that.
Speaker 8: I think there was a place I've never been there.
Speaker 8: I didn't grow up in California or San Francisco, but
Speaker 8: like clubs like I think the Matrix, and there was
Speaker 8: another one, and they weren't that big, you know, a
Speaker 8: lot came out of them. But you think that, oh
Speaker 8: there was some you know, these these big auspicious places. No,
Speaker 8: they weren't same thing here with New York. There were
Speaker 8: places like that too, But I digress.
Speaker 9: I would love to see here in a small place
Speaker 9: like that. I think that would be my one, not
Speaker 9: my only, but my one of my regrets of not
Speaker 9: being able to see people live as her. So a
Speaker 9: little bit about the song itself. It was written by
Speaker 9: and this is kind of questionable. I don't know. There's
Speaker 9: a couple of different places that I read a couple
Speaker 9: of different things. It was written by Ira Gershwin, George
Speaker 9: and George Gershwin, Dubos, Heywood, and Dorothy Haywood, which some
Speaker 9: said just George Gershwin and wrote the music, and that
Speaker 9: Dubos wrote the lyrics. So I'm not really clear on that.
Speaker 9: But it was written for the folk opera Porgy and
Speaker 9: Bess in nineteen thirty five, and if anybody has not
Speaker 9: seen that movie.
Speaker 8: It's.
Speaker 17: So good it is.
Speaker 9: It is one of the most covered songs in history,
Speaker 9: covered by Billie Holliday, Nina Simon, Sam Cook, Mahela Jackson,
Speaker 9: Miles Davis, Ricky Nelson, John Coltrane, and Julie London, Franks Nata,
Speaker 9: and chanis Chaplin. Of course, according to song Facts, George
Speaker 9: Gershwin was visiting a friend who said this one night.
Speaker 9: I came in after dinner about eleven o'clock, and as
Speaker 9: I walked up the stairs to my apartment, I heard
Speaker 9: the piano. I tiptoed in. George turned and saw me
Speaker 9: and said, sit down. I think I have the lullaby.
Speaker 9: I knew who he had been working hard to get
Speaker 9: the lullaby, and that he had done several versions that
Speaker 9: didn't suit him, and so he sang in this high
Speaker 9: wailing voice summertime, and it was exquisite. We looked at
Speaker 9: each other and the tears were just coursing down my cheeks,
Speaker 9: and I just knew that this was going to be
Speaker 9: beloved by the entire world. Another thing, and you Beatles
Speaker 9: fans follow along with me here, because I don't know
Speaker 9: my Beatles history as much as maybe I should. But
Speaker 9: also according to song facts and maybe some of you know,
Speaker 9: this was the first song the Beatles played with Ringo
Speaker 9: Star in nineteen sixty. They recorded at the Acoustic and
Speaker 9: That's a k us Tik recording studio in Germany. The
Speaker 9: place was an absolute shambles at the back of a
Speaker 9: railway station. The main vocalist was Wally Iamond aka Lou
Speaker 9: Wally Walters, who was guitarist for Rory Storm. I don't
Speaker 9: know any of these people and the Hurricane sorry, well yeah,
Speaker 9: oh okay, Beatles drummer Pete Best wasn't there, so i'mond
Speaker 9: bandmate Ringo Star played. This was only a day or
Speaker 9: so after Sue Sutcliffe, the Beatles original bass player, was
Speaker 9: brutally beaten, so he wasn't involved, although it's possible he
Speaker 9: was in attendance. Johnny Guitar and Ty Bryan were all
Speaker 9: so at the recording as observers, only nine copies of
Speaker 9: the record were pressed. Summertime was the A side, with
Speaker 9: Fever on the B side, It's Old News to Me.
Speaker 9: Janis Joplin performed the song at Woodstock in nineteen sixty nine.
Speaker 9: It was also the last song she sang in concert,
Speaker 9: as it was the last song in her set at
Speaker 9: her last show in nineteen seventy at Harvard Stadium in Boston.
Speaker 9: As to her death, which I was wasn't really going
Speaker 9: to talk about, but I guess everybody you know, it's
Speaker 9: no surprise. As to her death in nineteen seventy, which
Speaker 9: incidentally made her part of the twenty seven Club, she
Speaker 9: had been staying at the Landmark Motor Hotel near Sunset
Speaker 9: Sound Recorders in Hollywood, where she'd been recording her upcoming
Speaker 9: album Pearl. She learned of a heron dealer who would
Speaker 9: delivered the hotel rest. Obviously, as history, it was ruled
Speaker 9: accidental and there is a belief, pretty documented belief that
Speaker 9: the heroine she had obtained was part of a batch
Speaker 9: that was particularly potent and stronger than anything that she
Speaker 9: was used to. Several other customers of the dealer died
Speaker 9: of overdoses during the same weekend. She was inducted to
Speaker 9: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 9: and was the first solo female artist to achieve that.
Speaker 9: Among the artifacts at the Rock and Roll Hall of
Speaker 9: Fame Museum exhibition are John Choplin's Excuse Me scarf and necklaces,
Speaker 9: her psychedelically painted nineteen sixty five Porsche three point fifty
Speaker 9: six cabriolet, and a sheet of LSD bladder paper designed
Speaker 9: by Robert Crumb, who designed the Cheap Thrills cover that
Speaker 9: I would like to see. I think there's no doubt
Speaker 9: that she was one of a kind with an incredible
Speaker 9: talent and a force to be reckoned with. I'm very
Speaker 9: sad that, you know, she didn't have more time to
Speaker 9: do what she did best.
Speaker 2: Yeah, who knows where she would have gone. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: could see her getting into movies and acting and kind
Speaker 2: of thing, you know, I can see that. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: too bad.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 9: The the movie Rose was based on her life rough
Speaker 9: roughly with Bette Midler, and it's I just remember the
Speaker 9: high school scene when the football team took her around
Speaker 9: the back of the bleachers, and it's just oh, yeah,
Speaker 9: that that broke me.
Speaker 2: It really did.
Speaker 9: So she I think she was tough. I think she
Speaker 9: she was strong. I think she had a really rough life.
Speaker 9: And you know, you do what you got to do,
Speaker 9: I guess to keep on going.
Speaker 8: Well, you talked about the heroine, but you left out
Speaker 8: the Southern comfort, which was like her, that was her trademark.
Speaker 9: That was I did mention alcohol, Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, oh yeah, I just meant in particular.
Speaker 2: Yeah, didn't they give her? I know, they gave her
Speaker 2: like a coat. I think so the comer gave her
Speaker 2: a bunch of gifts for you know, all the promotion.
Speaker 8: Yeah they did, they did.
Speaker 2: I just don't remember what it was that they gave her.
Speaker 2: But yeah, like, thank you Janice who gave Southern Comfort.
Speaker 2: Gave Janice a bunch of because she put Southern Comfort
Speaker 2: out front.
Speaker 8: Yeah yeah, that's where I first heard about it, you know, yeah,
Speaker 8: Southern comfort that is not.
Speaker 2: Yeah all right, good, thank you, Mercedes, And we're going
Speaker 2: to turn it over to Barbara.
Speaker 11: All Right, that's a tough fact to follow, Okay. So
Speaker 11: my song choice for this topic is Cruel Summer by Bananaama.
Speaker 14: So good.
Speaker 11: Yeah, It's just when we were given this topic, it
Speaker 11: was like, yeah that one yeh. Bananarama is a girl
Speaker 11: group that formed in London in nineteen eighty. Band members
Speaker 11: Sarah Dollan and Karen Woodward were college students living in
Speaker 11: the local YMCA, but it was about to shut down
Speaker 11: for good, so they needed another cheap place to live
Speaker 11: that a student could afford, and so by chance, they
Speaker 11: ran into sex Pistols Paul Cook at the club Studio
Speaker 11: twenty one, and he offered them a room above the
Speaker 11: Sex Pistols old rehearsal space Boy and now picture this.
Speaker 11: They arrived to find Johnny Rotten's drawings of Sid and
Speaker 11: Nancy covering the walls. So soon after, Dollan and Woodward
Speaker 11: met Chevan Faihie at school and hit it off, and
Speaker 11: the three began to write songs together and when their
Speaker 11: art school friends' bands were playing, they would jump on
Speaker 11: stage and join them, and they recorded a demo of
Speaker 11: the band Black Blood. Now they're like a Swahili band,
Speaker 11: so forgive my pronunciation of the following. So the band
Speaker 11: Black Blood had recorded this song called a ai eu
Speaker 11: Juana and the song was sung in Swahili and so
Speaker 11: Banana Rama were able to do that phonetically.
Speaker 19: Wow.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 11: They decided that they needed a name for their band
Speaker 11: and they wanted it to involve bananas because it sounded tropical,
Speaker 11: and Dallan, being a big fan of Roxy music, perused
Speaker 11: their song titles and found a song called Pajamarama Love it.
Speaker 11: They proceeded to spend the next five years writing and
Speaker 11: demoing songs, and they achieved an international success with their
Speaker 11: song Cruel Summer, and it made number eight on the
Speaker 11: UK Singles Chart and number nine on the US Billboard
Speaker 11: Hot one hundred.
Speaker 3: So I've got some more info for you.
Speaker 8: But first, why don't we cool off for.
Speaker 20: A bit and listen to Cool Summer.
Speaker 7: Misty man.
Speaker 20: Trying to smile, but the air.
Speaker 22: Is so petty, drying, strange choices society. The second side
Speaker 22: understand it's too us to come with the sea's bride.
Speaker 2: And it's.
Speaker 14: Sucking.
Speaker 7: It's it's a sun that you know, the.
Speaker 18: City sma, my friends away.
Speaker 5: And oh man, it's too heads.
Speaker 21: So it's a.
Speaker 7: It's a it's a great son, it's some son, It's
Speaker 7: it's a song.
Speaker 18: That young, crullesome. It's true crude son that.
Speaker 7: You don excres son.
Speaker 11: So the Cool Summer was released as a single in
Speaker 11: nineteen eighty three and included on Bananarama's self titled second
Speaker 11: album a year later. It was featured in the film
Speaker 11: Karate Kid in nineteen eighty eight. The inspiration for the
Speaker 11: song was the oppressive heat of that summer, partnered with
Speaker 11: the feeling of not being able to be with someone.
Speaker 11: As the summer went by, the band members could not
Speaker 11: go on their annual vacation due to all the promotion
Speaker 11: required to keep up their success, so it was like
Speaker 11: all work and no play that summer. The video for
Speaker 11: the song was shot in the Dumbo section of New
Speaker 11: York City, where the heat exceeded one hundred degrees daily
Speaker 11: during filming. Besides being covered by various other artists, Bananarama
Speaker 11: recorded four other versions of Cruel Summer, the first being
Speaker 11: Cruel Summer eighty nine, followed by a Latin theme version
Speaker 11: in two thousand and one, an updated version in two
Speaker 11: thousand and nine followed by a fortieth and very version
Speaker 11: called Cool Summer three AM. In twenty twenty three, band
Speaker 11: member Chavon Fayhee was replaced by Jackie O'Sullivan. In nineteen
Speaker 11: eighty eight, Bananarama had two band aid appearances and an
Speaker 11: entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as the
Speaker 11: most successful female band worldwide with the most charting singles.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 11: To date, they have had thirty top hits and have
Speaker 11: released twelve albums and thirty million records and change previous
Speaker 11: ideas of what a girl band should be.
Speaker 6: That's it.
Speaker 11: Anybody have anything they wanted?
Speaker 2: Had no idea that they had looked out?
Speaker 8: Yeah, wow, that was like off.
Speaker 11: That was right off of the Bananaama website.
Speaker 20: So all, I hope it's right.
Speaker 10: I learned a lot about an iconic song.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I had no idea. I didn't know they
Speaker 2: were that prolific, honestly.
Speaker 10: Yeah, very cool, very cool. Like said, I learned a
Speaker 10: lot about a iconic song. It's one of the joys
Speaker 10: of this show is a lot of times like this
Speaker 10: one was an example. We feature a lot of really
Speaker 10: cool music that everybody knows, but you don't really know
Speaker 10: the backstory.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, it's it's pretty funny because when I was
Speaker 11: in college, a bunch of people they would I don't
Speaker 11: know if my school was the only place that it
Speaker 11: was popular, but for some reason, air bands were popular
Speaker 11: where they would play air instruments. And this air band
Speaker 11: that I followed was called it was called band that
Speaker 11: you follow. It was somewhere my friend, my friends from
Speaker 11: my dorm and my school were in it, so we
Speaker 11: followed them. And the band's name was nup Rio, which
Speaker 11: is air punk spell backwards. And they actually had some
Speaker 11: girls that really didn't play with them so much or
Speaker 11: whatever up here with but they would do like girl
Speaker 11: bands stuff like you know, Banana Rata and you know
Speaker 11: other girl bands of the time, and they would come
Speaker 11: up with little dance routines and stuff like that, and
Speaker 11: you know, play air guitar and air drums and.
Speaker 5: All that stuff.
Speaker 8: I want to I want to be I want to
Speaker 8: be a roadie. I want to be a roadie for
Speaker 8: air band and you handle it the easiest job in
Speaker 8: the world. I'll carry that for you. Thanks.
Speaker 9: Yeah, do you know the randomly day before yesterday, I
Speaker 9: don't know where this came from. I was thinking about
Speaker 9: whatever happened to air guitar.
Speaker 1: See that?
Speaker 12: See that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, Okay your truer psycho, I mean psychic.
Speaker 11: Yeah, both geminis. Yeah, it's it's that twin thing.
Speaker 9: Yeah right.
Speaker 2: I'm going to take that as a hint that we
Speaker 2: need a break, So let's do that. And we have
Speaker 2: two more to go, so stick around. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2: Hudson Riverradio dot com.
Speaker 5: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: And welcome back. We're in our final stretch of hot
Speaker 2: sticky weather related songs and John your turn.
Speaker 10: Okay, everybody speaking of summertime. I picked the Summertime Blues.
Speaker 10: It was originally recorded by Eddie Cochran in nineteen fifty eight.
Speaker 10: It's a timeless rock and roll anthem with a theme
Speaker 10: revolving around teenage frustration with adult authority, who hasn't had
Speaker 10: that before, the burden of summer employment, and the classic
Speaker 10: generational gap experience during adolescence. All classic themes we've all experienced.
Speaker 8: And anybody else in the DNA of rock and roll.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you have out there.
Speaker 10: If you're listening and you have teenagers, you know exactly
Speaker 10: what I'm talking about.
Speaker 9: You have young children, just know that it's coming, It's.
Speaker 1: On its way, It's on its way.
Speaker 10: The lyrics famously highlight the relatable tension of wanting to
Speaker 10: enjoy youth but being constrained by adult responsibilities. The narrator
Speaker 10: finds himself stuck in a loop, and he works for
Speaker 10: a demanding job to earn money, only to be denied
Speaker 10: time off by his boss and restricted by his parents
Speaker 10: from using the family car on dates. Does any of
Speaker 10: this sound familiar? It creates a vivid picture of a
Speaker 10: teenager caught in a system, culminating culminating in the iconic
Speaker 10: realization he's too young to vote, but too old to work.
Speaker 10: So that is the summertime Blues Now was originally recorded
Speaker 10: by Eddie Cochran in nineteen fifty Night fifty nine, nineteen
Speaker 10: fifty eight. But tonight are we are going to be
Speaker 10: talking about the Brian Setzer version. There's been a lot
Speaker 10: of ver yeah, now the Brian Now. This song has
Speaker 10: been featured by a lot of artists. And one of
Speaker 10: the things I found in my research I didn't and
Speaker 10: I guess I gotta listen to it again is Alan Jackson.
Speaker 10: Country Music Fame did a version of the song which
Speaker 10: kind of blew me away. But who has done a song?
Speaker 6: I love that version, Yes, deconitely.
Speaker 10: Now we're gonna do Brian Setzer. The original was fifty eight.
Speaker 10: This one was in nineteen eighty seven. It was recorded
Speaker 10: in nineteen eighty seven, and I'm gonna leave it at
Speaker 10: that because we're going to talk a little bit about
Speaker 10: that when we come back to the flip side. So Brian,
Speaker 10: let's hear the song.
Speaker 1: We're rocking now.
Speaker 5: I'm at working on.
Speaker 3: Very time.
Speaker 13: I go, baby, try to get things nor die Son,
Speaker 13: you gotta work with ladies.
Speaker 15: Sometimes wonder what I'm a gonna do, But there ain't
Speaker 15: non cure more the suppertime.
Speaker 6: Whoever Mama Baba told me, Son, you kind of next
Speaker 6: to money lady.
Speaker 1: If you won't you use a car or.
Speaker 6: Go ride next Sunday where I working bull.
Speaker 14: The US, I'll say, no, you used to call.
Speaker 5: Of course you didn't work with it.
Speaker 14: Sometimes I long.
Speaker 5: Oh what I'm a gun do? But there ain't non
Speaker 5: cure more the suppertime.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm gonna take two weeks.
Speaker 23: I'm gonna have a Bundy case.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna take my Robbins in the United.
Speaker 15: Stations where I called my congrehisman, he said, but you're.
Speaker 6: Too young to Sometimes I wonder nothing, but now I'm
Speaker 6: a dona cud. But there ain't anna cure for summertime.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I said, there, okay, Summertime Blue.
Speaker 10: Brian sets her originally recorded by Eddie Cockran. Now what
Speaker 10: do I want to say about nineteen eighty seven? But
Speaker 10: what came out in nineteen eighty seven LaBamba? All right,
Speaker 10: and that is where Brian Setzer did a cameo where
Speaker 10: he played the late great Eddie Cochran in the film itself.
Speaker 10: Now a little sad note here on Eddie Cochran. He
Speaker 10: actually only lived twenty one years.
Speaker 14: Of age out.
Speaker 10: Yes, he died in a car accident in England. I
Speaker 10: believe he was on his way home from a set or.
Speaker 4: Something like that.
Speaker 8: But gene Vincent was in the car with him. Oh okay,
Speaker 8: he survived.
Speaker 10: But yeah, yeah, it's one of those sad things. But
Speaker 10: his music lives on, recorded by so many artists but
Speaker 10: La Bamba and Brian Setzer. So I hope you all
Speaker 10: enjoyed that little taste of summertime, the classic teenage angst frustration, rebellion,
Speaker 10: but loving the summertime.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good one. That is a good one.
Speaker 8: All right.
Speaker 2: It's funny you mentioned Alan Jackson doing a cover because
Speaker 2: guess who I'm talking about?
Speaker 4: Gee, who could that be? Brian?
Speaker 2: Total coincidence. Did not know you were going to say that.
Speaker 2: But it is part of my ongoing quest to see
Speaker 2: if I can push Neil over the edge.
Speaker 19: With a song.
Speaker 8: Challenge challenge, accept it.
Speaker 2: I try to throw a curveball and he knocks him
Speaker 2: out of the park, Like I picked something from the
Speaker 2: eighties that I know he's not a huge fan of,
Speaker 2: and he's like, no, I love this song, this is great,
Speaker 2: and I'm.
Speaker 8: Like during Banana Rama, I was like, you know, I
Speaker 8: know my reputation of loathing the eighties, but I had
Speaker 8: that record. I like Banana Rama.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so there you go. Exactly.
Speaker 9: That's the probably never ceased to surprise.
Speaker 2: Exactly exactly. I have a feeling this may push some
Speaker 2: of the other crambones over the edge as well.
Speaker 3: But yes, because you all know how much I adore
Speaker 3: country music.
Speaker 2: Uh huh, Well, I actually really enjoy country music, so
Speaker 2: I like a lot of it. I do a lot
Speaker 2: of it. I really do not So it's not either way.
Speaker 2: Some of the twiny stuff, some of the old twangy stuff,
Speaker 2: but a lot of the new stuff is so overproduced.
Speaker 2: Like everything else, it's all the same, full of bush.
Speaker 14: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I don't know. I don't know really anything about this guy.
Speaker 8: So this will be, you know, like a blind test,
Speaker 8: you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, let's see.
Speaker 8: How it go.
Speaker 3: Like he used to sing something about how he loved
Speaker 3: his truck.
Speaker 6: Running.
Speaker 3: It's like a running theme. They all did that.
Speaker 10: Yeah, that's Alan Jackson is a he's a a well
Speaker 10: liked country artist.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he's been around a long time too. Time
Speaker 2: time flies, because like for me, it was new and
Speaker 2: then I that was the nineties and that was not
Speaker 2: five years ago anymore.
Speaker 8: So I've heard the name, but I don't I know
Speaker 8: other than that nothing, all right.
Speaker 6: So let's hop in.
Speaker 2: Let's see how it goes, and you tell me what
Speaker 2: you think when we're done. Sound good, Yeah, let's do it,
Speaker 2: all right. So Alan Jackson is actually one of the
Speaker 2: best selling artists of all time, not just country, I
Speaker 2: mean artists across the board of all time. He has
Speaker 2: sold over seventy five million records worldwide. He had sixty
Speaker 2: six songs make it onto the Billboard Hot Country songs
Speaker 2: chart thirty five of those hit number one, thirty five
Speaker 2: number one songs. He's a member of the Grand Ole Opry,
Speaker 2: which is an invitation only they surprise you kind of thing,
Speaker 2: which is huge. He's in the Country Music Hall of Fame,
Speaker 2: which is big. It's in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame,
Speaker 2: and lots more. We could talk awards all night, but
Speaker 2: you get the idea. So Jackson was born in nineteen
Speaker 2: fifty eight in Georgia. He grew up listening to gospel
Speaker 2: and then got hooked on classic country like Hank Williams Junior,
Speaker 2: the twangy stuff. He played and sang while attending Noon
Speaker 2: In High school in Noon and Georgia, and after graduation
Speaker 2: he worked as a forklift operator and construction worker while
Speaker 2: still playing clubs around the Georgia area. He got married
Speaker 2: to his wife, Denise at twenty one. They are still
Speaker 2: married and six years after they got married, they moved
Speaker 2: to Nashville so he could try to start a full
Speaker 2: time music career. He got a job at the Nashville
Speaker 2: Network if you remember that channel back when that existed
Speaker 2: on basic cable TNN. So yeah, it was like in
Speaker 2: New York. You would just skip it because it was TNN,
Speaker 2: but they had some pretty good stuff on it. He
Speaker 2: got a job in the mail room, which how stereotypical
Speaker 2: can you be? So he started in the mailroom and
Speaker 2: because of that, he was able to go sit in
Speaker 2: the audience during the taping of a show called You
Speaker 2: Can Be a Star, which was an American Idol style
Speaker 2: show with celebrity judges and all that. American Idol is
Speaker 2: not a new idea, even though some people may think
Speaker 2: it is. It's been around a long time. So he
Speaker 2: got to sit in the audience, watch tapings, watch some
Speaker 2: up and comers, and then one night he got the
Speaker 2: opportunity to sing on an episode, and he did the
Speaker 2: song he Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones, a
Speaker 2: very well known song. He would become good friends with
Speaker 2: George Jones and sang the same song at George Jones's funeral.
Speaker 2: We talked about no show Jones a long time ago,
Speaker 2: if you remember it. Took his lawnmower to the liquor
Speaker 2: store because his wife wouldn't drive him there, so he
Speaker 2: wrote his tractor both directions. Yeah, so always a good story.
Speaker 2: So yeah, the two of them became really good friends.
Speaker 2: But the appearance on this show gave him a good
Speaker 2: jump start, as did a chance encounter that his wife
Speaker 2: had while working as a flight attendant. Glenn Campbell was
Speaker 2: on one of her flights and talk about a captive
Speaker 2: audience when you're stuck in a big metal tube thirty
Speaker 2: six thousand feet in the air and I want to
Speaker 2: pick your brain. Where are you gonna go? So she
Speaker 2: had a little chat with Glenn Campbell, and Campbell actually
Speaker 2: gave gave her his manager's information and said give him
Speaker 2: a call, and they did, and in nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 2: Alan Jackson got signed as the first artist on the
Speaker 2: new Arista Nashville label subsidy or of Arista. So sometimes
Speaker 2: it's all about timing and not being shy, walk up
Speaker 2: and say what you gotta say. I guess the list
Speaker 2: of albums that Alan Jackson put out just goes on
Speaker 2: and on. Like I said, we could spend all night
Speaker 2: talking about that. But there was one event that people
Speaker 2: still talk about. It was the nineteen ninety nine Country
Speaker 2: Music Association Awards. They asked George Jones to perform, but
Speaker 2: then they asked him to cut his song down to
Speaker 2: ninety seconds. A ninety second performance for a country legend
Speaker 2: that did not go over well. So George Jones, as
Speaker 2: in many other shows, did not show up this time.
Speaker 2: It was on purpose, not because he was blasted out
Speaker 2: of his mind, but yeah, he was not going to
Speaker 2: take that insult, so he didn't show up. Alan Jackson
Speaker 2: was booked to fill that slot, and when Jackson's band
Speaker 2: got up, they started to do one of their own songs,
Speaker 2: abruptly stopped and then started singing George Jones's song Choices,
Speaker 2: So they wound up doing a George Jones song over
Speaker 2: that ninety second thing, just as a little bit of
Speaker 2: you know up yours to the Country Music Association, and
Speaker 2: people still talk about the little bad boy kind of
Speaker 2: thing doing that on a live broadcast. After nine to eleven,
Speaker 2: he released the song where Were You When the World
Speaker 2: Stopped Turning? Which was appropriate at the time, and then
Speaker 2: at least for me, and I think a lot of
Speaker 2: other people had kind of turned schlocky quite quickly because
Speaker 2: it just got overplayed and overplayed and overplayed, and it
Speaker 2: was you know so, but that put him over the top,
Speaker 2: to the point where South Park did a really really
Speaker 2: good spoof on where We So I suggest head over
Speaker 2: to YouTube and look that up. So it was really good,
Speaker 2: but it really helped him become a mainstream performer. In
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, Alan Jackson went public with his diagnosis
Speaker 2: of Charcot Marie tooth disease CMT. It's an inherited neurological
Speaker 2: disorder affecting the pathways between the brain and spinal cord
Speaker 2: and the rest of the body. It can cause weakness,
Speaker 2: muscle atrophy. Sometimes basic functions like sweating and your balance
Speaker 2: can become uncontrolled, and it could even cause foot deformities
Speaker 2: from the muscle and balance of your body trying to
Speaker 2: balance itself and not being able to control the muscles
Speaker 2: so much it can cause the victim to hunch over.
Speaker 2: It can cause hip problems, gi problems. It's not a
Speaker 2: life threatening kind of thing, but obviously it could just
Speaker 2: make you completely miserable, depending on how severe your case is,
Speaker 2: and it started to hit him pretty hard, especially as
Speaker 2: a singer where you kind of need your muscles to
Speaker 2: you know, sing, stand and perform on March. In March
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty two, he launched a farewell tour because
Speaker 2: of this diagnosis, and he just held his final concert
Speaker 2: on June twenty seventh, twenty twenty six, at the over
Speaker 2: sold Nissan Stadium in Nashville. I believe it was over
Speaker 2: eighty thousand cramped into the stadium there, and they live
Speaker 2: streamed it and it was broadcast live and all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. But today we are going to check
Speaker 2: out his nineteen ninety three hit Chattahoochie, which he co
Speaker 2: wrote with Jim McBride. Their goal, they set out to
Speaker 2: write an uptempo song. They started with the line way
Speaker 2: down Yonder on the Chattahoochie, Yonder is coming back. I
Speaker 2: don't know if it ever went away. Yonder's coming back.
Speaker 2: I'm going to use that as often as I can,
Speaker 2: all right. So the song's about growing up in a
Speaker 2: small town, having fun, making memories with your friends. The
Speaker 2: Chattahoochee River flows from northern Georgia and shares a border
Speaker 2: with Alabama and Florida, so that's a real river. It
Speaker 2: was a country hit, and it also made it to
Speaker 2: number four on the Billboard Hot one hundred in May
Speaker 2: of nineteen ninety three. There's your crossover as well. The
Speaker 2: video for it is completely ridiculous because it features Alan
Speaker 2: Jackson water skiing while wearing jeans and a cowboy hat,
Speaker 2: which is not what you would typically wear when you
Speaker 2: go water skiing, No, at least not me anyway, I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 8: I've never gone water skiing, so you'll never.
Speaker 2: I've tried, and I was terrible at it. I would
Speaker 2: absolutely try it again. I is so much harder than
Speaker 2: it looks, and I cannot imagine trying to do it
Speaker 2: in jeans and keeping your cowboy hat on on top
Speaker 2: of that. So yeah, but he did it, and he
Speaker 2: actually did it for the video that's him water skiing,
Speaker 2: so feel free to go check that out in your
Speaker 2: spare time. I chose the song because of the second
Speaker 2: part of that opening line, well way down yonder on
Speaker 2: the chattahoochie, it gets hotter than a uci coucih Now,
Speaker 2: huci couci originally was a pockative belly dance. The term
Speaker 2: came around in the mid to later eighteen hundreds. What
Speaker 2: the phrase has taken on new meetings, especially in the South.
Speaker 2: And I will leave it to you to interpret what
Speaker 2: a huci couci is to you.
Speaker 9: So let's may I interjection I encourage you to do so.
Speaker 9: So I work at a city reliquary. It's a museum
Speaker 9: in Brooklyn, and we have an exhibit about little Egypt
Speaker 9: who was a who who started the Houcci Cucci dance. Okay,
Speaker 9: and she was She was wildly famous and danced for
Speaker 9: all the dignitaries and political people and you know, everybody,
Speaker 9: and like off and around like the Coney Island area.
Speaker 9: And she was so popular that they had to hire
Speaker 9: two more little Egypts to like take her place when
Speaker 9: she couldn't do it anymore, or when you was bored.
Speaker 9: But yeah, yeah, she was the one. And she was
Speaker 9: not Egyptian, by the way. She just picked up that
Speaker 9: name and stuck with it.
Speaker 2: Welcome for Yeah, very cool. All right, So let's check
Speaker 2: out Chattahoochee and let's see how Neil handles hit.
Speaker 1: Let's go. We went down under rona Chada pooch. It
Speaker 1: gets hotter than a hoochie coochie. We laid rubber on
Speaker 1: the Georgia asphalt. We got a little crazy, but we
Speaker 1: never got caught down by the river on a Friday
Speaker 1: night here.
Speaker 24: In little cans in the pil like talking about cars
Speaker 24: and dreaming back when never had a plan just to
Speaker 24: live in for a minute.
Speaker 1: Yeah, went down yonder on the chad a foots.
Speaker 19: You never knew how much and muddy water meant to need,
Speaker 19: but'll learn how to swim, and I learned who.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of battle.
Speaker 23: Living and a little about love, really fogging up the
Speaker 23: windows in my shitting.
Speaker 1: I was willing, but she wasn't ready, So I settled
Speaker 1: for a burger and a great snow cone. Dropped her
Speaker 1: off early, But I didn't go home down by the
Speaker 1: river on a Friday night hearing medle.
Speaker 24: Cans in the pale moon by talking about cars and
Speaker 24: dreaming about winning.
Speaker 19: Never had a plan, just to live in for a minute. Yeah,
Speaker 19: any time he under gonna chat a foods. You never
Speaker 19: knew how much of muddy water.
Speaker 1: Meant to me, But I learned how to swim, and
Speaker 1: I learned who I was. A lot of battle living
Speaker 1: and a little bout love. Yeah, and down yonder on
Speaker 1: the chat foods. You never knew how much that money
Speaker 1: water meant to me.
Speaker 23: But I learned how to swim, and I learned to
Speaker 23: It was a lot of battle lidden and a little
Speaker 23: battle a lot of battle itting, and a little bout love.
Speaker 2: So Neil gave me the finger and walked off. Zoom
Speaker 2: I've never had that before.
Speaker 8: I did not know. I sat here and endured the
Speaker 8: whole thing.
Speaker 3: I was tempted.
Speaker 8: Now, you know, I think I have heard that song before.
Speaker 8: I didn't know who it was or but let me
Speaker 8: tell you this. It contains every cliche everything I did
Speaker 8: test about country music all in one song. So yes,
Speaker 8: that that's how I feel about it. Now, if you're
Speaker 8: talking about a Huci Coucie Man Muddy Waters song, yeah,
Speaker 8: I'll take that any day over this Suci Couci nonsense
Speaker 8: here with this guy?
Speaker 2: Did we break Neil tonight?
Speaker 8: You know, I've got my right to free speech absolute
Speaker 8: kind of sort of maybe not after you know tonight.
Speaker 8: But no, sorry, no, that did not did not do
Speaker 8: anything for me.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I get it, I get it. I actually like it.
Speaker 2: I found it catchy.
Speaker 8: So that the fiddle that yeah, oh that's like, oh
Speaker 8: I'd rather.
Speaker 3: Like that's actually like the only part I didn't mind.
Speaker 8: I'd rather have, you know, like sir, injury or something done.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, all right, sorry, that's all right, tortures over.
Speaker 8: But but but you know what you were saying. How
Speaker 8: you know, country music, in spite of popular belief, is
Speaker 8: the most popular music like on the planet. You think
Speaker 8: you know rock or pop or what.
Speaker 15: No.
Speaker 8: Country music consistently has been out selling everything all the time.
Speaker 8: So yeah, no, that does not surprise me.
Speaker 3: There's no accounting for taste.
Speaker 8: It just doesn't you know. Well, maybe I have no taste,
Speaker 8: but you know that's okay with me too.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 9: It a big country, that is true, very large country.
Speaker 8: No. No, so, I mean you know what everyone's Everyone
Speaker 8: can like what they like, and that's.
Speaker 9: Just something you don't have to listen to it.
Speaker 2: That's here.
Speaker 8: Oh well, and you're off the hook, like I said,
Speaker 8: But I did. I sat quietly and listened.
Speaker 2: Ye, and Mercedes, did I meet the criteria for the topic?
Speaker 9: I was too busy listening trying to decide whether I
Speaker 9: liked it?
Speaker 2: Okay, well, all right, what did you think? At the end?
Speaker 9: I thought, I agree about the fiddle thing that I
Speaker 9: don't love that, but I didn't. It was fine. It
Speaker 9: was fine not going out to buy the record, but yeah,
Speaker 9: I mean it was okay. It was country music.
Speaker 2: Barber's shaking her head new I don't.
Speaker 11: Want to really say this on the air, but that
Speaker 11: was the whitest song I've ever heard.
Speaker 2: It's out there yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 8: Well, like I said, it had every cliche known to
Speaker 8: country music all wrapped up to how many like three
Speaker 8: and a half minutes or whatever. It's all stuck all
Speaker 8: together like that.
Speaker 2: All right, So, uh, this seems like a good time
Speaker 2: to pull the plug.
Speaker 8: That would have been about about five minutes ago.
Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, I feel as though I have accomplished my objective.
Speaker 2: So I stirred the pot and now I'm.
Speaker 8: Going to leave.
Speaker 2: I actually enjoyed it, Brian, all right, there you go.
Speaker 2: Well it's two out of two out of six. Could
Speaker 2: have been, could have been a whole lot worse.
Speaker 9: I'm musa say two and a half out of.
Speaker 2: Six, two and a half. All right, I'll take the half.
Speaker 2: I'll take it, all right. So yep, let's pull the plug.
Speaker 2: Let's go. We'll head out. And with that, thank you Cranbones,
Speaker 2: Thank you Mercedes for the topic, because once again I
Speaker 2: had to narrow it down. I know, I had to
Speaker 2: put some time into deciding which I wanted to go
Speaker 2: with this.
Speaker 9: So was that my topic?
Speaker 2: It was your topic, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 8: Yeah I think so.
Speaker 3: No, I thought it was mine.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm sorry it wasn't mine.
Speaker 9: That's all I know, all right, I never complained about
Speaker 9: the heat, so I would be surprised if all.
Speaker 2: Right, well, I asked the wrong person, Barbara. Did I
Speaker 2: meet the criteria?
Speaker 8: Then?
Speaker 2: I guess I don't know.
Speaker 11: I was just trying to trying to trying to listen
Speaker 11: to it without throwing up.
Speaker 8: All right, Oh my god, I thought I thought I
Speaker 8: was being demonstrative about my opinion. Oh she's holding back,
Speaker 8: and I have made.
Speaker 2: Enemies this evening.
Speaker 9: Was the criteria about whether it's about hot people.
Speaker 8: It was hot, Well, it's about it was like a
Speaker 8: summer time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, hot summer, that's it.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Well, I mean I might not like the song,
Speaker 8: but it fit the topic. I thought, Yeah, I guess
Speaker 8: it did.
Speaker 2: All right. All right, so I guess I owe you
Speaker 2: an apology just for the torture. But everybody else did
Speaker 2: such a great job at picking songs, right, all right,
Speaker 2: So thank you all for joining us here for the
Speaker 2: Rock and Roll History Show. Don't forget to subscribe to
Speaker 2: your favorite podcast app and check out all the other
Speaker 2: shows we do here at Hudson River Radio. There is
Speaker 2: something for everybody. We're off next week. We'll be back
Speaker 2: in two weeks with another brand new topic. So we
Speaker 2: hope you join us. Then until then, you stay cool
Speaker 2: as cool as you can, be safe, and we'll catch
Speaker 2: you soon. Peace out, everybody, come a rock top bottomed drum.
Speaker 20: Okay, bye bye.
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