Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 3: Shouldn't turned down those jukeakes?
Speaker 4: How does Sasa Jonnithan Diasberry jukes?
Speaker 2: Hey, this is Tom Chapin.
Speaker 5: Hello, this is preaching in Rock and Roll History Show.
Speaker 6: You're listening right now?
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Rock and Roll History
Show on Hudson River Radio. I'm Brian Horowitz. Tonight we're
talking about old stuff thanks to Mercedes, and of course
I took a different interpretation than everybody else did. But
you're just gonna have to sit and wait and see
how that turns out. But before we hop in as always,
allow me to introduce all the crambones who are joining
us here tonight. First and foremost from the Richter Observatory.
He has a fear of really tall people. It's called
fee fi phobia.
Speaker 4: E five four. How you doing, everybody?
Speaker 2: And from paranormally yours, she figured out that pirates never
finish the alphabet because they keep getting lost at sea. Gil.
Speaker 3: I need to try to remember that one because I
have a friend who's older.
Speaker 4: He go as a pirate.
Speaker 7: You need to center.
Speaker 2: Well, that just opens up more questions, doesn't it. Yes,
let's come back to that, all right, welcome back, and
from the silver screen she saw a Buddhist walk into
a bar until the bartender make me one with everything.
Speaker 8: Mercedes here, Wow, that's a good one. Brian, Hey, everybody,
very teep.
Speaker 2: Brian, though right, we try to make you think around here.
And our officially retired teacher, he wanted to try planting
an apple tree, but he was nervous. He wasn't sure
about it, so his wife told him to grow a pair.
John Kelly is here.
Speaker 9: Oh boy, ouch, how are you?
Speaker 2: Everybody? At last, but not least, the host of shaving cream.
She recently asked the toy store clerk where the Arnold
Schwarzenegger action figures were. He said, I'll be back barbarveal.
Speaker 3: Very good.
Speaker 2: Brian, Hey, everybody, all right. So Mercedes came up with
tonight's topic. I don't know how. It's just old. That
was the one word to go on, was old.
Speaker 4: Old.
Speaker 2: So did something happen that kind of prompted that or.
Speaker 8: There's no perspective none whatsoever. It just popped into my
head and I was like, well, we haven't done that,
so let's.
Speaker 2: It's true we haven't done that. And yeah, so knowing
what's coming. I don't know the stories. I know the
tracks that everybody picked. Mineus so far the outlier for
everybody that, yeah, bless you exactly we are.
Speaker 8: We are all curious.
Speaker 2: Well why don't we hop in? And this week, Neil,
you're going to lead us off?
Speaker 4: So it's age before beauty, right, Yes, indeed, And for
this topic, no one here amongst the crambones is more
qualified to speak on the subject of being old than
I am myself. I am the septagenarian of the group
that say that five times fast.
Speaker 2: And you're the only one who uses s A T
words in the whole group too.
Speaker 4: Hey, it's the glorious results of a misspent youth. What
can I say? Anyway? The song I picked is called
The Old Man Down the Road by John Fogerty now
John Cameron Fogerty born in nineteen forty five is an
American musician, singer, and songwriter. Now Fogerty began his musical
career way back in nineteen fifty nine. Now that's going
that's old baby when he was a.
Speaker 8: Junior and I remember it well.
Speaker 4: Actually so do I. But anyway, his first band was
in junior high school. It was a cover band that
was inspired by the rock and roll pioneers, you know,
Chuck Berry and all that. Elvis along with bassist Stu Cook,
drummer Doug Clifford, and a little bit later on his
brother Tom. So I think you can see where this
might be going. They were originally called the Blue Velvets
and they signed The band signed with Fantasy Records in
nineteen sixty four. Now, unbeknownst the Blue Velvets, Fantasy Records
changed their name to the Gollywogs against their better judgment
or whatever. They recorded several singles that frankly were not
all that successful, although they did have one called fight
Fire that I've heard and I actually liked that. But
that's neither here nor there. Because this, of course laid
the groundwork, laid the foundation of what would become Creeden's
Clearwater Revival, a band that lasted from nineteen sixty eight
until nineteen seventy two. They would basically introduce what is
known as swamp rock to the world. Would dominate the
charts with ten top I'm sorry, nine Top ten singles
and eight gold albums, and all of them with John
Fogerty as lead singer, lead guitarist, and the primary songwriter.
So moving along. After CCR parted ways in nineteen seventy two,
John would release several albums and singles that had some
moderate success, but he was pretty disillusioned with the whole
music business. He was kind of beaten down by it.
I think what I read. He wouldn't even perform CCR
songs at concerts at that time.
Speaker 2: He got hosed by Fantasy.
Speaker 4: Well we'll get to that in a minute. But after
his hiatus of several years, he re emerged in nineteen
eighty five with an album called center Field, and it
went right to the top of the charts. The title
track is frequently played on classic rock radio stations and
at baseball games right to this day. The LP also
included the critically acclaimed top ten hit The Old Man
on the Road, which we'll hear a little bit shortly,
and it also led to some big legal problems for Fogerty,
which we will also talk about a little later. But first,
why don't we hear the song?
Speaker 10: You take um the problem the Mountains, You take a
Langan problem scat, you bring a prong man to the bag,
and you make the young mom crack.
Speaker 6: You got the had it had You got the jump
bare round.
Speaker 7: You got the had.
Speaker 9: The old man.
Speaker 11: Down the road.
Speaker 6: You got the voices beating riddles.
Speaker 10: You got the hash black coat, you gotta foot tape coat,
rasteak hat and staying right in the road.
Speaker 6: You got the had it hat.
Speaker 9: You got to jump up the way.
Speaker 6: You got the hid it hide it half.
Speaker 9: The old man.
Speaker 6: Down row.
Speaker 10: Stemaker rim call you love, you make the barget of
the happen.
Speaker 9: Put a shed up.
Speaker 10: Across the window when the old man comes around.
Speaker 11: You got the half of half.
Speaker 6: You got the jump bare round you, you got the
hid hide it half the old man. It's down a roup,
the old man, it's down a rough.
Speaker 4: That's an awesome song. I think it's cool now. Lyrically Lyrically,
the song depicts a mysterious kind of supernatural figure or
wizard or sorcerer or something like that who commands the
forces of nature and strikes fear into the hearts of
men with an almost demonic presence, kind of like a
voodoo hoodoo that they do do so well, that kind
of thing. But the lyrics are also analogous to kind
of the ugly side of the music industry that Fogerty
had been experiencing firsthand when he was with to See
Records and its owner of Saul's Ants. Now, how do
we get into this story?
Speaker 2: Which story you got?
Speaker 12: Well?
Speaker 4: No, no, well basically, well, let me go, let me
go back a little ways. That back when CCR broke up,
Fogerty had to give up his copyrights and publishing rights
for all the credence songs that he wrote to Saul's Ants,
the president of Fantasy Records and Fancay Records themselves, in
order to be released from his contract, which sounds like
a pretty hefty price to pay. I mean, but you
gotta do what you gotta do. So anyway, he lets
you know, releases Old Man down the road and finds
himself getting sued for plagiarism by pall z Ants and
Fantasy Records. Accused of plagiarism for sounding like himself. How
does that? How does that happen? Well, as I say that,
I mean it's it's a pretty underhanded thing if you
ask me for you know, but this is the music business.
People they are not they are not good people. They
are not nice people, not musicians. That's another story. But
I'm talking about the suits. So yeah, he gets sued
for ripping off himself. Basically the song was run through
the Jungle that Fogerty had written for CCR many years before,
and they said, no, it's just like that. But ultimately,
ultimately Fogerty did prevail in the Landmark case and proved
the two songs were distinctly different compositions by actually playing
them on his guitar in court on the witness stand, which.
Speaker 2: I think is I never get a jury duty for that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, for that, that would be the best concert ever.
But and well, by the way, Yeah, Fogerty also wrote
a couple of other songs directed directed towards Zance, which
I think he got, you know, sued for too, like
for defamation or something he was going to be so yeah,
it was it caused a little bit of a problem.
Speaker 2: But Zance Can't Dance was the track on there. Yeah,
dance can't dance. But he'll steal your money watch them,
or he'll rob you blind. And so I know he's
threatened another lawsuit, so they chang instead of Zance it
was Vance Can't Dance. But the video for that is
a pig that's literally robbing the singer in the video.
So yeah, there there was no ambiguity in that whatsoever.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there was another one called mister Greed. I think
that was obviously maybe a little less uh, you know,
it didn't mention him by name. But yeah, But anyway,
aside from all that, in my opinion, the old Man
down the Road is also a metaphor kind of for
what's waiting for us all at the end of the line,
at the end of the road. And I'm talking about
you know, the grim Reaper missed the death that we
all have to come down the end of the road
and meet eventually. But on a lighter note CCR. They
were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
back in nineteen ninety three. Fogerty was placed on the
Rolling Stone magazine's list of the one hundred Greatest Songwriters,
landing at number forty, and on its list of the
one hundred greatest singers of all time, and that would
be number seventy two for him. He was also inducted
into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in two thousand and five. Now,
believe it or not, and I full transparency here, I
never saw Creeden's Clearwater Revival perform live in concert. It
was well, they broke up in seventy two. I was
going to stuff, but I don't even remember them playing
anywhere particularly that was accessible to a sixteen or fifteen
year old at the time. But I am going to
see John Fogerty this fall, possibly twice, so I can
make up for that. And back in two thousand and
eight at the south By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas,
I actually got to sit and eat dinner at a
restaurant with Creden's Clearwater Revival's bass player Stu Cook, who
we've gelled as those all sorts of tales of you know,
how much how.
Speaker 2: Much dislike there is amongst Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that, And he was also with Doug Clifford. They
had a group called I don't know, they may still
be doing it Creden's clear Water Revisited, and they were
doing that at the time, which apparently I didn't. I
didn't see them, but apparently all I heard was good
things that they almost sounded better than the originals. But
I can't, I can't.
Speaker 2: I think there were issue legal issues with the name too.
I think they tried to take Creeden's clear Water Revival,
and then that turned into a mess, so they wound
up renaming the group.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I remember I was somewhere and they were in
the area, but I didn't get to see them. I know,
it was just not feasible. Anyway, That's that's my story
for today. And now go see a concert.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you and I are going to be
at the same show, at least one of them.
Speaker 4: Uh huh, that's right. Yet at the site of Woodstock itself,
the original festival in dethel Yep will be there, which
they played at, and we're kind of overshadowed or undershadowed
by the Grateful Dead, who took more time tuning their
guitars than they did actually playing. Yeah, and by the
time Creden's came on, if I'm not mistaken, it was
like way you know, everyone in the morning, Yeah yeah,
everyone had fallen asleep.
Speaker 2: So yeah, well he puts on a great show. His
two sons are in the band, you know, they each
play guitar and all that, So definitely worth going to
see him.
Speaker 4: I'm looking forward to it. Like I said, I never
saw him, so this is this will be a first
for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's eighty now, I believe right.
Speaker 4: Yep, yeah, if he was born forty five. Yeah, so
he hated a birthday last year and all that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, definitely a good show.
Speaker 4: I'm catching up to him, but not not quite.
Speaker 2: And the video for the Old Man down the Road
is definitely eighties but it's worth watching. It was simple
but kind of creative. It follows a guitar cable everywhere
through the woods, down the road, blah blah blah, and
it just snakes all over the place. And of course
at the end of the cable is John playing and singing.
Speaker 4: So he appears in it a few times as you
travel through the you know, in different not disguises, but
different different guys. Is I guess it's good?
Speaker 2: Yeah, fun, excellent. All right, you got a thumbs up
for me so far one of my favorites, so works
for me. Good lead off, all right, thanks Neil, Gail.
We're up to you.
Speaker 4: You know me.
Speaker 3: I'm always looking for something a little different. I didn't
want to just pick, you know, anything too well known,
although some of the people in this group might know
some of these people's work. The band I chose is
Bowling for Soup. Yes, did you, Barbara, didn't you do
a Bowling for Soup song once.
Speaker 6: On a while back?
Speaker 13: But I don't remember which one I picked because I
love them all.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I did one on this show also yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay, I knew somebody. Yeah yeah yeah. So apparently they
are commonly abbreviated to BFS and they're an American rock band.
Formed in Wichita Falls, Texas, in nineteen ninety four. They've
had various member changes over the years, between people going
to do solo projects and people having health issues, and
it all ended up where following the lead guitarist, Chris
Bernie's retirement in twenty twenty five, Jarrett Reddick is the
only remaining original member now. Before they were Bowling for Soup,
they were a band called Rubberneck, but they decided in
nineteen ninety three to change the name of their group
to Bowling for Soup, which was derived from the phrase
bowling for and it's a word that begins with S
but is poop from a comedy act by Steve Martin.
And in nineteen ninety six, Bowling for Soup relocated to Denton, Texas.
They have done some work with the Dolly Ruts. September
eighth of ninety No September twenty fifth, twenty twelve, they
released a split album with The Dolly Ruts and Patent
Pending called One Big Happy, where the bands performed covers
of each other's songs. Those three bands went on tour
of the same name that year. In October twenty twenty.
Bowling for Soup had planned and announced a Surf the
UK tour in twenty twenty one with Litt and The
Dolly Rots, but they were forced to cancel due to
why what happened in twenty twenty COVID. It had to
be rescheduled, and it got rescheduled to April of twenty
twenty two. Now, the song I chose.
Speaker 2: Is from.
Speaker 3: Well, the song itself is getting old sucks, but everybody's
doing it, which that's true in it.
Speaker 2: I don't know I'm getting older. I'm kind of liking it.
Speaker 4: You know, as the older you get, the more you
like it too, because from what I'm told, it beats
the alternative.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, when you're.
Speaker 4: Young, you say, oh, I don't want to get old.
I don't want to get old, and suddenly it's like,
wait a minute, this doesn't sound like actually a bad idea.
I think I'll keep signing up for this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's better than not getting old. So getting
old sucks, but everybody's doing it. Is a catchy pop
punk song I Didn't know that was a thing? Pop
Punk released as a single on May seventh, twenty twenty one,
and later featured on their twenty twenty two studio album
Pop Drunk Snot Bread Now. The name of that album
was a riff on uh, pop Punk's not dead.
Speaker 2: Gotcha? Okay, that was a long walk, but I got
you there.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah.
Speaker 14: You may think it's funny, but it's not.
Speaker 3: The song itself pokes fun at the physical and cultural
realities of aging, such as going to bed early, guilty,
hurting knees, got one, and not understanding TikTok. While I
deal with is Facebook, I don't have the energy to
deal with anything else. Also, the themes are complaining about
loud cars, fading tattoos, early bedtimes, asking what's TikTok, and
dealing with modern media and realizing that while aging hurts,
everyone goes through it together. So let's have a listen.
Speaker 15: He grew up three blocks away the same old neighborhood
to do much time on is one, then there's no
football on.
Speaker 12: Where did the time go?
Speaker 6: What's that on his face?
Speaker 7: So we thought we live forever out of thing? We're
up to that.
Speaker 6: By nine?
Speaker 7: Well, then the streets sound we come playing. When cons try,
he said, saying the music is insanely love turn.
Speaker 6: To No Wady and looking back, it was all worth it.
Speaker 16: The truth is getting all suss, but everybody's doing it.
Speaker 6: We were t on the Saint John.
Speaker 15: We changed the same girls, we played in, all the
same beads, each other's bestest.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 7: You had a heart attack.
Speaker 6: I've got too bunnies.
Speaker 7: We don't want to live forever? What the fuck is
tip to child checkers.
Speaker 15: In the streets, how we complained when cons try to say,
saying the music is insanely not crazed, and looking.
Speaker 9: Back it was all worthy.
Speaker 6: The truth is getting all subs good. Everybody's doing it.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 7: I don't think we.
Speaker 15: Can do bridges anymore.
Speaker 6: We need a break.
Speaker 16: Sounds like words original in here and old Milwaukee and Folgers.
Speaker 12: For those new ballads, we.
Speaker 7: Have to run with them the streets.
Speaker 15: Now we complain when const she says him the music
and anything.
Speaker 7: Now the smoothies our car shots and remakes and ship
down when we playing on music to our memories away
and looking that she was all worth it, all worth
the true is getting all sucks.
Speaker 14: But everybody's doing it.
Speaker 8: Everybody's doing it.
Speaker 3: Everything that almost sounds like it could be a theme
song for like a sitcom.
Speaker 4: Totally definitely yeah, you know, yeah, growing old but doing
it right reminds me of the phrase, you know, growing
old disgracefully.
Speaker 2: Didn't they do a theme for a was it a
Nickelodeon show?
Speaker 9: Uh?
Speaker 3: So, Ricking No, rick and Morning.
Speaker 2: No, Now it was a kids show. I know they
did a theme for a kids show. I have to
look it up. I don't remember which one.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I had never heard this song before I
did the research for tonight's show. The album charted and
this I don't know. I don't know if it didn't
chart over here or what, but this is just the
UK figures. UK album sales peak position was eighty. UK
album downloads official charts peaked at twenty seven. UK independent
albums official charts peaked at thirty seven, UK physical albums
peaked at seventy three, and UK Rock and Metal Albums
official charts peaked at number thirteen.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: Their musical style has been described as pop punk, pop rock,
alternative rock, and power pop. Wow, that's kind of a variety.
AllMusic describes Bowling for Soups style as a feverishly catchy
and humorous blend of power pop, ska punk, and hardcore,
further characterizing it as a cheeky take on pop punk
and melodic alt pop. Bowling for Soups influences include Green Day, Bad, Religion, Ramones, NFX,
I have no idea who that is, descendants Elvis Costello
and Willie Nelson.
Speaker 2: Willie's the og.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I think you might have something to do
with habit ah, just one just guessing, you know.
Speaker 3: Ultimate Guitar Senior editor David Slavkovich named Bowling for Soup
the fifteenth weirdest band name of all time, highlighting a
quote from one of the site's users who asked, are
they bowling to obtain soup? Or are they bowling in
the name of soup?
Speaker 2: Too?
Speaker 4: Deep?
Speaker 3: Valid question, Yeah, very philosophical.
Speaker 13: So they actually the theme song that we're thinking of
is Phineas and Ferb and It's cold today is going
to be a great day.
Speaker 3: Yep ah, thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was Disney, not Nickelodeon, Disney Disney yep. Actually
does Disney own them yet?
Speaker 4: I know? Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, who knows?
Speaker 3: Well, considering since Disney owns the Star Wars, uh everything. Now,
that makes Princess Leah a Disney princess.
Speaker 2: You may have heard they bought you know, a lot
of the Fox Yeah TV shows and all that, including
mash So Corporal, And I.
Speaker 14: Think that would make him very happy.
Speaker 9: I really do.
Speaker 2: Section eight all the way.
Speaker 14: Ye, pibity bobbity boo.
Speaker 17: Wasn't he the only one that actually served in the
Korean War on that cast?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was a veteran. Yeah. Interesting, All right, well done,
I don't want to step on you if you're Yeah,
that's a good one. That was cute. I like that one.
I hadn't heard that one either. All right, we're gonna
take a real quick break and then uh we'll be
back with more.
Speaker 1: So stick around Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: This concludes the first part of this cassette. Please turn
the cassette over and begin again on side to listen
to Hudson River Radio dot Com. Don't make us come
and find you and welcome back. We're talking about old
stuff and mercedes, it's your turn, it is my turn.
Speaker 9: I am up.
Speaker 8: I was the one that picked this and when I
picked the topic, I had no idea what I was
going to pick for this song.
Speaker 2: It was just vague enough that it could go in
so many directions and that's great.
Speaker 4: I love that. Yeah.
Speaker 8: So when I actually thought about this topic, my immediate
thought was Aquilung. And I know it's a song that
like everybody knows, so it's a little cliche, but it
absolutely fits for me. It is a song that really
personifies an aging, old homeless man for me. The lyrics
are very vivid and detailed. I mean immediately when you
hear the opening lines, sitting on a park bench eyeing
little girls with bad intents, not running down his nose,
creasy fingers, smearing shabby clothes, you get a very descriptively
clear picture of where you are and who the person
is that you're observing.
Speaker 14: Yeah.
Speaker 8: It was written by Ian Anderson of the bandje Throtel
and his then wife Jenny Franks. Anderson has said, and
apparently she wrote those first two lines that I just recited.
And Anderson has said Aqualung wasn't a concept album, although
a lot of people thought so. The idea came from
a photograph that my wife at the time took of
a tramp in London. I had feelings of guilt about
the homeless, as well as fear and insecurity with people
like that who seem a little scary, and I suppose oh,
that was combined with a slightly romanticized picture of the
person who is a homeless but yet a free spirit,
who either won't or can't join in society's prescribed formats.
Although the album is not a concept album, it is
interesting to me that the Aquelon character is mentioned again
in another song on the album, Cross Eyed Mary, which
gives you an insight on the kind of person that
she is. Aqualung is on the album called Aqualung, released
in nineteen seventy one and never released as a single
because of its length six minutes and thirty four seconds.
At the time, there was a very clear divide between
AM and FM radio stations. AM played three minute pop
hits while FM played deep cuts. The album was Jethro
Tell's first American top ten album and reached number seven
in June of nineteen seventy one. The members are Ian Anderson,
David Goodear, John O'Hara, Scott Hammond, and Jack Clark, with
many more past members the Watercolor album. The Watercolor Album
cover art was created by the artist Burton Silverman. Jethro
Tell's manager, Terry Ellis, commissioned him after seeing his work
in Time magazine. Burton took some photos of Ian Anderson
wearing his old overcoat before he painted the cover, and
the resulting work looked a lot like a haggard version
of Ian, who was not pleased with the painting. Despite
his objections, the cover became, of course, an iconic image
in rock. The effect that you this is fascinating to me.
The fact that you hear when the song hits the
line sun Streaking Cold is called telephone burbles. Has anybody
heard of that hope where you remove all frequencies except
for a narrow band around the one thousand hertz mark.
This is to reproduce the sound of a telephone. Anderson
is quoted as saying, it's also like when you're a
dressing a crowd through a megaphone, or even perhaps the
tiny sound of a voice trumpet, which is a non
active megaphone. It's a form of address. It's a sound
that woke up young pilots in nineteen forty one and
sent them into the skies to battle the the hun
This is the sound of the Tonoi, the calling to
arms of young men going up in their hurricanes and spitfires.
It's something that's very much part of the blood of
an Englishman.
Speaker 3: Tony is what they call like a public good arrest system.
Speaker 8: Ah, thank you, I did not look that up. So
let's hear it and know we are not playing the
six minute version. You can thank me later.
Speaker 2: No, okay, really, we'll just fade it out at some
point then.
Speaker 8: I guess I did send you the radio edit.
Speaker 2: All right, Let's see how it goes.
Speaker 5: Stung spunding down his nose, raising big.
Speaker 6: Spirit, shabby flood.
Speaker 12: Hailove, crying in the full sun, watching over greeny pad
is love Love, feeling like a dead dock.
Speaker 9: Smith out lobby, the.
Speaker 7: Love Manlove.
Speaker 18: Sunstreak and cold, a hold man mon drink lovely taking
time the only way.
Speaker 9: Mad.
Speaker 19: As it bends to pick Duggan, it goes down to
the bark and warns his feet feeling alone. The army
is up park road.
Speaker 12: Solihlam boat and a club teeth equal longer, friend, don't
just start away, leasing.
Speaker 9: Your poor old sort.
Speaker 6: You see it's only me. Do you still remember when.
Speaker 12: Decembers fucking freeze, when the ice the krings.
Speaker 6: Onto your fill w a sqeak, make agony, making a
sat rattle.
Speaker 20: The glass threats with deep sea diam sounds, and the flowers.
Speaker 7: Fill night lamps and the screaming.
Speaker 11: Sunscreaming cold.
Speaker 6: An old man wanderloaded, taking time the only way heloads.
Speaker 12: Leg turning bad events a pair to tucket. It goes
down to the bark and walk his feeling at home.
The army und salvation had bad covert.
Speaker 6: Aqualung.
Speaker 12: My friends, don't just got away unathing your brown son,
you see it.
Speaker 21: Turn back along, my friend, don't just start away uneasy,
your poor old summat your seats.
Speaker 9: Sitting on the monk bench.
Speaker 14: I met the girls with fading heads.
Speaker 20: And stop spuning down his nose, reasying a smearing, shabby.
Speaker 12: Headlong trying in the full.
Speaker 9: Sun what tring have a brady pan?
Speaker 6: Is long.
Speaker 12: Headlong feeling like a dead duck, spending out cases of
his brow long.
Speaker 8: Hackld Brian, thank you for playing the whole time. It's
so good, though it's so good. I really do get
lost in that song. So I don't think I have
to say much more about the band. They are John's
favorite band and he's done many of the songs. But
I do want to add that an aqualung is a
portable breathing machine, which Anderson had seen on the TV
show Sea Hunt, where there was a lot of heavy
underwater breathing. Anderson thought that. Anderson thought that's how people
might refer to this character in the song because of
his heavy breathing from being unhealthy. He didn't know that
it was a brand name, and the company Aqualunge sued
after the album came out. The case was eventually dropped.
I looked up a few of the terms that I
had never understood. So a dog end is a cigarette butt,
not what you always thought.
Speaker 2: Is that a British thing? A dog?
Speaker 8: Not that I know, but maybe it's an old British thing.
I don't know.
Speaker 4: It isn't It isn't the bad end of a dog,
you know?
Speaker 12: You know?
Speaker 9: No?
Speaker 4: No, yeah, it's a cigarette yeah.
Speaker 8: And going down to the bog to warm his feet
is probably about peeing on his shoes to warm his feet.
That's from a comment on song facts, so that's not verified, but.
Speaker 2: That seems counterproductive in the long run.
Speaker 8: Yeah yeah, yeah, But you never know what you're going
to do in a pinch either, so who knows. There's
a lot of comments about Aqualunge being a pedophile, which
some people say that it is actually the impression of
the people walking by him, not necessarily what he is.
So people are just assuming all kinds of things about
him as they see him sitting on the park bench.
Whether he is really all those things or maybe happy,
we don't know. Also, there was a comment on song
song what did I say? Song Facts from Jenny Franks
from Colorado saying this is all wrong. I was married
to Ian Anderson and I wrote the lyrics. Unfortunately, it
seems I'm being edged out of my credit. I'm going
to assume that that was his actual wife, but it's
hard to tell what she was referring to exactly the
way the comments landed. Oh and there is an official
video of the song that was released in Anybody No.
Twenty twenty one?
Speaker 2: Wow really twenty twenty one?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, free time during.
Speaker 8: COVID huh I guess yeah, I mean, who knew? I
thought that was super interesting. I did watch it.
Speaker 14: It was it was good. It wasn't great, but.
Speaker 8: That's aquaalum.
Speaker 4: All right. Well, I think that that opening riff that dead.
That that is like as iconic as like you as Beethoven.
Speaker 2: M it's you know what it is the moment you
hear it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's so good. Yeah, Neil do knew anything about
the story about when they were in the studio and
they were recording it and they came to the riff
and apparently in those days you had to get a
riff sort of on first take. And oh my gosh,
now I can't remember what the other band was that
it was in the studio next to them, and they
came out somebody like really huge and they came out
out in there. They were like waving to the guitar
player is he was trying to lay down these tracks
and he was very stressed out. I didn't hear that one,
but I'm going to have to look up who it was.
Speaker 14: But but it worked.
Speaker 8: The riff is great.
Speaker 4: I love that. Yeah. No, if I say that that,
you know, one hundred years from now people are going
to hear that and know what it is. Yeah, that's
what I think exactly the same thing with maybe like
the opening chords to uh Purple Haze by Yeah, yeah,
you know you can name that song in one you know,
one note.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a good one. All right, thank you, Mercedes, John,
You're up okay. Well, as Mercedes pointed out, jeth Rotell
certainly is just about my favorite band, but I also
have another favorite, and it's a decidedly different form of music,
Harry Chapin and his folk rock, and I have been
I've loved that man's story songs my entire life, you know,
ever since I was a kid. I remember having vinyl
with Harry Chapin on it, and you know, and it's
I don't know, it's just.
Speaker 11: Take to it.
Speaker 17: And there's a lot of selections there. You know, this
is a great topic. It's an interesting topic. What's interesting
is you can go in so many different ways, the
way Mercedes went, you know, the way Neil had gone
and everybody. It's just so many different directions. My direction
was Cat's in the Cradle. Now everybody knows Cat's in
the Cradle. I know that, But a couple of little
bit interesting points about it.
Speaker 2: It is from the.
Speaker 17: Album Verities and Bouldered ash from nineteen seventy four, when
Harry Chapin was about thirty one years of age, So
we're talking.
Speaker 2: About age and growing old.
Speaker 17: When he wrote this, he was thirty one, so I
think in a lot of ways, I think he's a
very old soul. You know, you could see a young
child sometimes and you can say they have a very
old soul. I really think Shapin had an old soul
if you go back to some of those original cuts
that he had done, and it just it just as
a certain sophistication to the songs themselves. The song itself
cats in the Cradle. It's narrated by a guy who
becomes a father. He's constantly too busy with his work
to spend time with his son, despite his son looking
up to him and promising he will grow up to
be just like him, and when the son graduates from college,
he declines his father's offer to relax with him and
instead ask for the car keys. In the final stanza,
the now retired father calls his adult son and asks
to spend some time together, but the son is now
too busy with his own work and family time. Obviously,
the son had grown up just like his old man.
So the song itself, I think is about the full
circle of life, you know. And I think no matter
what kind of past somebody might have, whether it's with family,
whether it's whatever it happens to be, life always seems
to have these these circles, as I think Harry Chapman
would say, So, why don't we play the song and
we'll talk a little bit.
Speaker 9: After the child arrived.
Speaker 22: Just the other day he came to the world and LEU,
you were way, but there were planes to catch and
bills to pay. He learned to walk while I was away,
and he was talking for and doing, and as.
Speaker 23: He grew he'd say, I'm gonna be like you. And
you know, I'm gonna be like you and the cats
and the man when you're coming.
Speaker 6: Home that or don't don't win?
Speaker 9: Who will get together there?
Speaker 6: You know, we'll have a good time.
Speaker 9: Man. My son turned in just the other day.
Speaker 6: He said, thanks for the ball that tomorrow let's play.
Speaker 9: Can you give me the throw?
Speaker 6: I said, or not today, I got a lot to do.
He said, that's okay.
Speaker 14: Then you want a way boy smile never tim and.
Speaker 9: Said I'm gonna be like him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I'm gonna be like him and the
cats in the brail and the.
Speaker 2: Seas little ball with the man on the ball when.
Speaker 6: You're coming home that or don't don't win.
Speaker 9: Will get together there? You know we'll have a good time.
Speaker 6: Then.
Speaker 4: Well it came from.
Speaker 12: Gollege just the other day, so much like a man
I just can't to say his son, am brown of you?
Speaker 6: And you said for a while. He shook his.
Speaker 2: Head and he said, with a smile.
Speaker 12: What I feeling like, Dad, is the power of the
car keys, see you laid again, have them breathe, and
the cats in.
Speaker 14: The braider and the silverspoon, little boy, and the man
of the bone.
Speaker 6: When you're coming home.
Speaker 12: Son, I don't know when we will get together there,
and you know we'll have a good time.
Speaker 6: Then.
Speaker 9: I've long since your time.
Speaker 6: My son has moved away. Call him up just the
other day. I said, I'd like to see you if
you don't mind. He said, I'd love to.
Speaker 9: Dad, if I can find the day you've seen. My
new jobs are hassled and the kids of the flood.
Speaker 23: But it's your nice talking to you that if mature
nice talking to you.
Speaker 8: And as a hung up the phone, it occurred to me.
Speaker 9: He grown up just like me.
Speaker 6: My boy was just like me. And the Cats in
the Cradle and soon the little.
Speaker 9: Warclue and a man on when you're coming home son.
I don't know, man, but we'll get together there that
we're gonna have a good time there, Okay.
Speaker 17: Cats in the Cradle from Veriteth and Balderdash teen seventy
four Harry Chapin, as we said, it was thirty one
when he wrote this particular song. A couple of interesting
facts about the song. The chorus itself references a children's
game called Cat's Cradle, silver Spoons and silver spoons Excuse
me as traditional baby gifts, as well as the nursery
rhymes little Boy Blue and the Man in the Moon,
and part of the beginning of the song was influenced
by Chapin's wife, Sandra, in a poem she wrote. Another
interesting point, Chapin himself is quoted as saying the song
was about his own relate. This song was actually about
his own relationship with his son Josh, and frankly it
scares him to death. So interesting points there. So it's
that whole first full circle of life that comes with
growing old. Sadly, Harry Chapin did not grow old, as
we know, at the age of thirty eight, in nineteen
eighty one, he was in a violent automobile accident on
the Long Island Expressway in a New York state and
where he was heading westbound on the highway, and he
was in a rather bad accident with a truck and
was flown to Nassau County Medical Center in East Meadow,
New York, where he passed away. What I have always
found chilling and eerie about this story and the fact
that I've always loved his music, was in nineteen ninety five,
when I was twenty six, fourteen years after Harry Chapin,
I was also on the Long Island Expressway in the
very same stretch of roadway, in the same direction as
Harry Chapin. I was also in a violent accident. I
was also flown to Nasau County Medical Center by a
police helicopter, And I of course am here to talk
about it, and Harry Chapin is not. And I always
find that kind of eerie. So whenever I hear his
music that it just comes to mind, it really comes
to mind.
Speaker 2: But sorry to be a real buzz killed everybody, but
it's just no more going along island. That's the end
of this. So I will say this this song is
about being old, or the topic of old and or
to get a ride in a helicopter.
Speaker 17: Yeah, but it was all about the full circle of
life in Cats in the Cradle. So that is my
selection for this evening.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, if it's If it is any consolation, there
is a hard rock version of the song that came
out in like ninety two by a band called Ugly
Kid Joe. So I mean it's this same message, I suppose,
but at least it's a little more you know, a
little more upbeat musically, but lyrically same, don't.
Speaker 17: I'll make it up on the next show. I'll pick
out something that's just I don't know, happy, fastly, happy,
different whatever. I'm sorry, Mercedes, I stepped.
Speaker 2: On you there.
Speaker 14: That's okay.
Speaker 8: I was just going to say I actually met him
at a convention, like a national music convention for.
Speaker 17: Like, what was he like?
Speaker 3: Oh, he was great, he was great.
Speaker 8: He was actually sitting on the dais behind me, so
we sat through dinner together. But you know, I didn't
really get my nerve up to turn around and like
like I was younger then, Okay, today would be different.
Speaker 4: I was gonna say, you've you've changed your way, I've changed.
Speaker 8: But I did turn around finally and start talking to
him because I had to. I mean, he's behind me
on the dais are you kidding me? So I actually
I got his autograph, and which I was not going
to do because how tacky is that? But I did
it anyway, And yeah, he was really nice. He was
very sweet. I mean, his brother is sorry. His brother
is Tom Chapin, who lives in Piemont. And Tom is amazing.
He's amazing. I just love him so much. And his
wife is amazing.
Speaker 17: So my uncle actually met him trying to sneak out
at the end of a show one night. My uncle
was a police officer in New York City and he
he was kind of in the back area, you know,
kind of guarding the back of the stage area, I guess,
and he actually caught shape and trying to climb a
fence to get to his car.
Speaker 8: To leave Witch Chapin Harry, Oh, okay, yes.
Speaker 17: I'm sorry, not Tom but Harry, Yes, Harry Chapin. But yeah,
And in case anyone was wondering, another little piece of Trivia.
The car he was driving was a nineteen seventy five
Volkswagen Rabbit, and his wife got twelve million dollars in
a lawsuit against the company of the for the the
company that owned the truck that hit him.
Speaker 8: Wow, yeah, Can I Can I just go back to
my topic for a second, please do.
Speaker 9: So.
Speaker 8: It was Jimmy Page in the next studio from obviously
from Led Zeppelin, and he was at the control room window,
and he was waving to him to say hi, and
he was waving madly at Barr.
Speaker 2: That would be a little intimidating, I would say, yeah.
Speaker 8: So Barr was in the middle of recording his icond
of improvised guitar solo and simply turned his back to
keep playing.
Speaker 4: Martin is no slouch young guitar either, let's you know.
So I don't think I don't think he'd have anything
to be embarrassed about.
Speaker 2: But no, it's just nerds to get you. You know,
you're all balanced now something like that.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, no, I well, And at that point Jimmy
Page was actually established. He had been with the with
the Yardbirds, and Martin had just pretty much joined a
couple of years earlier. He was not the original Told guitarist,
but he was the longest standing and you know most
you know, he is the Jethro Tolds guitar player, let's
put it that way. But yeah, I could see him
being a little bit little rat.
Speaker 17: I saw a Tall at all enduring a thunder and
lightning storm at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate
New York, and it was like one of the best
shows I've ever been in my life because it was
a pretty violent storm with wind and rain and thunder,
and you know, that's an outdoor venue and they didn't
stop the show and he just played right right through
the lightning strike. It was just incredible, absolutely incredible.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I think there's a few groups I've seen,
like more than I can count, and obviously it would
be The Ramones, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and probably
Jethro Tall. And the first time I saw Jethrow Tall,
they didn't play acalone, no, because.
Speaker 9: I didn't see them.
Speaker 8: It's their most played song in concert after.
Speaker 4: Locomotive Breath, and they didn't play that either.
Speaker 2: You know why they They hadn't been written, written, It.
Speaker 4: Was nineteen seventy. They hadn't.
Speaker 2: Happen Okay, you got us there, Neil, So Marvin Barry
wasn't backstage. Guess not guess not? All right, all right.
Speaker 4: The times after that they played them Yester, yeah.
Speaker 2: Nice, all right. I think I think we need a
break after that one. That's yeah one, yeah, so, but
we have two more to go, so don't go anywhere.
We'll be right back.
Speaker 4: Hudson River Radio dot com. Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: And welcome back, Barbara. We're up to you.
Speaker 14: Okay.
Speaker 13: Well, I chose something a little more obscure, but believe
it or not, I played this on my show at
least three times because I keep getting requests for it,
and I happen to like this song a lot, and
it's a song that many folks of my age can
relate to. It's called I Look Good Naked Anymore and
it's by the Snake Oil Willy.
Speaker 17: Band, Snake Oil Willie Band.
Speaker 14: I'll get to. I'll get to how they call themselves
that in a bit.
Speaker 4: Is that on the same list as bowling for Soup
being a weird top ten weird names? I think?
Speaker 13: Well, I think this band formed, like you know, after that,
they actually formed a New Jersey in ninety Yes in
nineteen ninety five, and although they went through various lineup changes,
the core members consist of Tony Krusinski on drums and vocals,
and he also handles all their bookings because they do
perform live still Seth Fleischmann on lead guitar and vocals,
and he does the songwriting. And after I wrote that line,
I realized that they basically have two original songs and
the rest of us all covers, So I don't I
couldn't find anything else that was original, but and if
anybody does, please let me know. Also band member Frank
de Bonus on bass and vocals, and he handles the
band's social media and their repertoire includes classic rock of
the sixties through the nineties, and southern and country rock.
Speaker 14: As you'll hear.
Speaker 13: Some of their influences include Leonard Skinnyard, Johnny Cash, and
the Doobie Brothers, among others. I Don't Look Good Naked
Anymore was released digitally in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 14: So let's pause here and have a listen.
Speaker 6: Will my body could use a little swimming?
Speaker 4: I bet my shirt all when to go swim in?
And I ain't seen my feature.
Speaker 6: It's nineteen eighty four. The old lady watch a roll
in the haye.
Speaker 16: We turned the lights down all the way because I
don't look good in a kid a anymore. No, I
don't up could naked anymore. I'm a deep fried, double
white version of the.
Speaker 6: Man I was before.
Speaker 16: If I keep on like I'm doing it, I won't
fit through the door, and I don't look good naked anymore.
Speaker 2: Well, it used to be a hell of a man.
Speaker 6: I chump wood with just one hand. But I can't
do the things I've done before.
Speaker 16: Well, it all happened kind of slow, but I guess
I kind of let myself go. Now I don't You
couldn't naked anymore, No, I don't luck couldn't naked anymore.
I'm a deep fried, double white version of.
Speaker 6: A man I was before. If I keep on like
I'm do it, I won't fit through the door or
and I don't look good naked anymore.
Speaker 16: With each and every passion year came a lot of
French fries and beer.
Speaker 6: And Mabelly hung a little closer to the floor. Now
Mabella as big as a truck.
Speaker 4: And the old lad he don't want to.
Speaker 6: She don't want to because I don't look good naked annymore. No,
I don't look goodn't naked anymore.
Speaker 16: I'm a deep fried, double white version of the man
I was before.
Speaker 6: If you keep on like I'm doing, I won't fit
through the door. And I don't look good naked anymore.
Speaker 9: No, I don't look.
Speaker 14: Goodn't naked anymore.
Speaker 16: I'm a deep fried, double white verson of the man
I love before.
Speaker 6: If on noon a long fade through the door, and
I don't look good naked anymore. No, I don't look
good naked anymore.
Speaker 13: Then I cannot tell you how much I love that song.
It's very catchy. It's a catchy tune.
Speaker 14: I confess. I walk around the house singing it.
Speaker 13: And if you have like an earworm, a song that
got stuck in your head and you don't want it there,
sing this one. It'll get rid of it, which is
another reason why I like it. So The Snake Oil
Willy Band got their name from a Halloween party that
had a fake tombstone duration that had the inscription here
lies snake Oil Willy. So besides, I don't look good
naked anymore. They recorded another original song called Gift Card.
It's a Christmas song about receiving gift cards. According to
their official website, they describe themselves as seasoned professional musicians
with many years of dedication.
Speaker 14: To their craft.
Speaker 13: They go on to note that they are firmly implanted
in classic rock, but appeal to a variety of musical tastes.
Their website also provides a schedule of their appearances in
case anybody wants to go see live music, and links
to live videos of them performing both of their original
songs as well as their covers.
Speaker 14: And I just love them.
Speaker 13: It's crazy. People are always asking me to play this song.
They're just they're such an obscure band. But a lot
of people I know just know this song. And I
think that's really cool.
Speaker 4: And I love them a lot, so and now a
lot more people know them. So there you go.
Speaker 2: I see the appeal.
Speaker 14: Yes, all right, that's what I got.
Speaker 2: That's a good one. That's a good one, all right.
So I'm gonna throw a monkey wrench in this whole
thing because I went in such a completely different direction.
Everybody went with, you know, songs about old people are
getting old, you know, the logical choices. But I went
with an old song. But crambones, I'm gonna I'm gonna
be picking your knowledge on this, so jump in. All right,
So we all know that the Star Spangled Banner is
the national anthem of the United States of America. Right,
So who wrote it? Scott Francis Scott Key. Do you
know what he did for a living? In his story?
Speaker 4: Wrote songs about flags?
Speaker 2: You would think so, But no.
Speaker 14: Was he a journalist, no partian?
Speaker 2: No, No, he was actually an attorney and an all
He was from Maryland. He wrote a poem called Defense
of Fort Mahenry. Now the fort's name is Mick Henry.
He took out the sea and put in the apostrophe
because you clearly saved a whole lot of time. I'm
sure that's why he did it.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Well the copyright infringement thing, yeah.
Speaker 9: It could be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know how copy was going on at
the time.
Speaker 4: Oh, you would be surprised.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it could be. Could be. So his poem Defense
of Fort ma Henry, which would become the Star Spangled Banner?
Now during which war was it written? Eighteen twelve? Bonus
point to Gale. I'm gonna keep track of bonus points
because they might be worth something someday. I don't know.
Very briefly, the War of eighteen twelve took place between
eighteen twelve and eighteen fifteen. England and France were at
war over maritime rights in trade, and the US wound
up joining because England was all so messing around with
American trade as well while trying to interfere with French trade,
so they were using blockades all that kind of stuff,
So the United States wound up going back to war
with England. A friend of Francis scott Key, doctor William Beans,
was arrested and held by the British on the ship
HMS Tunant, accused of detaining British soldiers who had been wounded.
The President at the time, James Madison, sent Franciscott Key
to meet Colonel John Skinner, an American colonel, and then
proceed to negotiate with the British to try to gain
Bean's release. They were invited aboard the British ship. They
wound up having dinner with British Major General Robert Ross,
who ultimately agreed to release Bean because the general had
received letters that were written by injured British soldiers about
the compassionate care that they actually received. From American doctors.
So it was a compassionate kind of thing. So the
American doctors treated British soldiers well. So the doctor was
granted his release. But the three of them, Francis Scott,
Keef Skinner and Bean, had overheard the British plans to
attack Fort McHenry, so they were not allowed to return
to land. They were transferred to an American ship that
was actually lashed tied to a British ship, and they
were held out on the water until after the attack
was complete. So this is where the story comes from.
Speaker 4: Why didn't they just why didn't they text them?
Speaker 2: You would think everybody blow to cover all that kind
of stuff.
Speaker 14: So so what I'm taking from this is the guy's
name was Billy Bean.
Speaker 3: I know, I know he Does that mean he was
mister Bean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was doctor Bean, So he didn't go through
four years of medical school to be mister Bean.
Speaker 9: I don't know.
Speaker 13: I know some people that that would fit the description
fair enough.
Speaker 2: All right. So at dawn on September thirteenth, eighteen fourteen,
the British bombardment of Fort McHenry off the coast of
Baltimore started. It went for twenty five hours straight. This
is where Franciscott Key observed the rockets red glare bombs
bursting in air. The British fired around eighteen hundred bombshells
and seven hundred rockets at the fort, but they had
to do so from a maximum distance, so they would
be out of range of the fort's cannon, which were
superior weapons to what the British had, so the Americans
could have knocked them out of the water if they
got closer, so they had to stay far away, so
they wound up sacrificing accuracy at the well. By the
end of the battle, four American soldiers died and twenty
four were wounded, which is a lot, but it could
have been a whole lot worse, considering it was the
whole fort under attack. At the start of the attack,
the fort was flying what's known as their storm flag,
the smaller version, which was twenty five feet by seventeen feet.
That's the small flag that is roughly the size of
two full sized pickup trucks park next to each other.
That's how big the small flag was. At the end
of the battle, when they realized that they had come
out on top, they lowered the storm flag and raised
the garrison flag, which was forty two feet by thirty feet,
just to make the statement that is a giant flag. Now,
this garrison flag is the actual star spangled banner that
is on display at the Smithsonian in Washington, d C.
Which is worth the trip. It's one of those displays
that you walk in, you go around the corner and boom,
it's laid out and very impressive, and you realize how
big that flag really was. So all patriotic, it all
sounds good, right all you know, Americans came out on top, yay,
and we write a poem about it. But you know,
I'm not leaving it there. It should be noted that
Francis Scott Key was a slave owner. He owned eight
when he died. He publicly would denounce slavery while owning them.
He represented both enslaved people who were fighting for their
freedom and slave owners in court cases. I'm guessing it
was whoever wrote the check got represented. Maybe maybe not.
His poem Defense of Fort ma Henry has four stanzas.
We only sing the first one as the US anthem.
The other stanzas have some pretty racist language in them.
If you care to go ahead and read them yourself.
I'm going to leave that to you. Make that your
homework assignment, because we're not going to read them here.
I will leave that to you.
Speaker 12: Now.
Speaker 2: The words that he wrote happened to fit a popular
tune called the Anacreontic Song, which was the official tune
of the Anacreontic Society, which was an amateur musician gentlemen's
club in London, England. Nowadays we would just call it
like a garage band, but they didn't have garages back then.
A horse barn, a carriage house, ben.
Speaker 4: A garage, a garage.
Speaker 2: I stay corrected, You are absolutely correct. You know we
could call it a bro jam. How about that. There
you go, so you get the idea. Things were a
little bit more formal back then. The society was named
after the ancient Greek poet Anacreon, who wrote drinking songs
and erotic poems. Rock and roll. So at their yeah.
Speaker 4: Awesome.
Speaker 2: So at their meetings they would have a guest, either
a composer or a performer, come in, often quite famous,
like Hiding the composer Hyden, who was still famous to
this day. He was famous in his day. He would
come in, speak, perform, do his own songs and then
and the members of the group would perform their own songs,
have their little jam sessions themselves. Now the Society seems
to have fallen apart because in seventeen ninety two they
had a duchess attend as a guest, and their subject
material was questionable, to say the least at the time,
and would not have gone over well with a duchess
being present. So I think everybody kind of side eyed
it and everything fizzled out after that.
Speaker 8: Prior to that, were there women, there no.
Speaker 2: Gentlemen's club, Nope, nope, nope, nope. So yeah, that kind
of burst the bubble just a little bit. But the
Society's theme was composed by John Stafford Smith, who was
a well known composer and music historian at the time.
Speaker 14: Why do these guys always have three names?
Speaker 4: Who?
Speaker 2: Because they had a lot more time. The lyrics are
attributed to Ralph Tomlinson two names, who was president of
the Society at the time. The whole thing was ritten
around seventeen seventy three. Nobody's entirely sure of exact timeframe,
but the melody became so popular that people would write
new lyrics over it and there were just countless versions
over and over. Like folk songs. They knew the melody
and they would just write lyrics to fit whatever occasion
they want.
Speaker 3: Mike, that's like one of the most unsingable pieces on
the planet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, why do.
Speaker 4: You hear it?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: So our national anthem is actually a spoof on a
body British drinking song.
Speaker 14: Yea, I love it.
Speaker 2: So let's go over the first verse of the original song.
The idea of the tune is the society is asking
an Acreon to basically be their party bro, come join us,
be the group leader, and he agrees to it. So
the lyrics to an Acreon in heaven, where he sat
in full glee, a few sons of harmony sent a
petition that he there inspirer and patron would be all right.
So the sons of harmonies are asking him to come
join us. When his answer arrived from the jolly old
Grecian voice, fiddle and flute no longer be mute. I'll
lend you my name and inspire you to boot. And besides,
I'll instruct you like me to entwine the myrtle of
Venus with Bacchus's vine. Now the Myrtle of Venus is
a plant dedicated to Venus, the goddess of love, and
was thought to be an aphrodisiac at the time. Bacchus
was the Roman god of wine and agriculture, so Bacchus's
vine would be the wine that they're talking about. So
this song is sex and alcohol.
Speaker 4: I thought Bacchus was.
Speaker 2: And mister Magoo, yeah he's a few generations later. Oh yeah,
he's coming back. So all right, so that is the
song that our national anthem is based on. We're going
to hear the original song. And this recording was done
by a group called the Star Spangled Music Foundation, which
was a nonprofit back in twenty thirteen. I went digging.
I wanted to find out more about them, but their
website is down, so I don't know what their status is.
I don't know if the group disbanded or what happened.
But when they did this recording, they used the harpsichord,
which would have been accurate for seventeen seventy three. Harpsichord
has a very distinctive sound. You've heard it before, even
if you didn't know what it was. If you've never
seen one, they look like a little grand piano, but
they're often embellished with a lot of artwork and brighter
colors and figures.
Speaker 3: And it's what Lurch plays.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, Lurch plays yep, yep, but you only see
that in black and white. You don't actually see how
fancy that they would make these harpsichords. They really they
would deck these things out. You know Eddie van Hilen's
Franken guitar kind of thing, same idea, that's nothing new.
The difference is that in a piano, the strings are
struck by a hammer, so the player presses a key,
the key moves a hammer, the hammer hits the string,
so you can play loudly, you can play softly, depending
on how hard you hit the key. On a harpsichord,
the keys are a little bit smaller. The scale of
the keys is smaller. So it's funny if you see
an experienced piano player sit down and try to play
a harpsichord, because they invariably mess it up because their
fingers are hitting the wrong keys because the scale is
a little bit smaller. And when a key is pressed
on a harpsichord, it lifts up a strip of void
called a jack, and the jack is attached to a plectrum,
which is usually the tip of a quill, and the
string is actually plucked instead of hit with a hammer,
so it's actually plucked upward with the tip of a quill.
So no matter how hard you hit the keys on
a harpsichord, the volume remains the same. It's always plucked
with the same same amount, so it's the same volume.
So if you wanted to make something louder on a harpsichord,
they would play octaves, so you'd get the same note,
but you'd hear, you know, two notes at the same time,
so it would be a little bit louder. Yeah, gotcha,
all right, So we went over the lyrics. It's a
song in more of an operatic style with the harpsichord,
but it's still sex and drugs and alcohol. So here
you go the Anacreontic song from seventeen seventy three. Oh,
I'm gonna say, we're only gonna do two verses. So
there's a verse in the chorus, a verse and the chorus,
and then you get the idea and that's enough, all right,
so we don't have to do the whole thing, all right.
Here we go on.
Speaker 10: Where he's hot.
Speaker 11: A few songs of.
Speaker 9: And talk about this.
Speaker 11: That's the inspirer on the page on when it's a answer.
Speaker 9: All arrived from.
Speaker 6: The jolly.
Speaker 9: Boy spit on.
Speaker 11: No longer be huge, Ill lane you my name and
inspire you to boot. And besides, I'll instruct you like
me too.
Speaker 19: In fine they in us when a bacasas line and
SI shot you like me to in finetic.
Speaker 23: News to.
Speaker 11: Passing media.
Speaker 21: If when a fonder preturn to agave himself pays, These
mortols are sofer the team to pursue the time.
Speaker 11: God, this will stay hardt. But already they cry, and
transports of joy all way to the sons of anacron
will fly under that. We've got a puddles weln to
in wine. That's a lot as coss whine.
Speaker 2: I think we all had the urge to raise our
drinks and sway back and forth right, absolutely a drinking song. Right,
So there we go. That's our anthem right there.
Speaker 8: So what did they think of it when they changed
it or was vastly different.
Speaker 2: It didn't become our national anthem till the nineteen thirties.
Speaker 8: Oh okay, so officially anybody around for that version had
no clue.
Speaker 2: They've heard so many versions of it because it was
such a popular melody that I don't think anybody cared.
Speaker 8: I would guess, yeah, I mean it's just funny because
it's too completely different, uh.
Speaker 13: Huh and drinking and bombs, yeah, the whole concept of everything.
Speaker 8: So who decided to change it to the national anthem?
Like knowing the history of.
Speaker 2: It, I don't know. I don't actually know, you know what,
that would have been a good thing to look into.
Speaker 13: I guess you were so be funneled by what you
did find out that it distracted you from further investigation.
Speaker 2: It's the kind of thing, you know, papers are written on.
And how long can I make you sit there and
listen to.
Speaker 17: Complicated and colorful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you know, we have to find that
right balance of entertainment and facts, so.
Speaker 12: We'll have.
Speaker 2: I think so well, now, you know, right next time
you hear it, you're gonna start giggling and no one
else is gonna know why.
Speaker 3: Absolutely every day, I'm just impressed, As I said off air,
I'm just impressed. The one guy hit that high note,
and that is not easy, trust me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it was those tight pantaloons they will.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hoist up your breeches.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 13: And also in those days, they didn't have a right
or a left shoe. They just had one a shoe
and yeah, those must have hurt. So that would really
help you hit those high notes.
Speaker 14: Pantaloons and tight shoes.
Speaker 2: All right, that's all I've got for tonight.
Speaker 4: You know you're leaving you're leaving out a very important,
very important fact here, but I don't think you even
know that.
Speaker 2: All right, what's that?
Speaker 4: Okay? The topic for today was what Okay, now, the
star Spangled banner is what the American flag? What is
another nickname for the American flag?
Speaker 2: Oh, the grand old flag, Old Glory, Old Glory.
Speaker 4: You completely glossed over that, and I'm like waiting for it,
and I'm like, I have to, I have to point
this out to you, old Glory.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 14: Yeah, you totally nailed the topic.
Speaker 2: All right. Cool, So that means it's the perfect time
to pull the plug.
Speaker 8: And you get all the points.
Speaker 14: Kick off those big buckled shoes.
Speaker 2: Sit back, loosen your breeches. All right, Yeah, it's time
to go. Definitely time to everybody, holds your drink up
and we're gonna we're gonna make our our classy exit.
Here we go, all right. Thank you Mercedes for a
good topic, excellent choice as always, Crambones, awesome selections across
the board, and thank you all for joining us here
for the Rock and Roll History Show. Please remember to
subscribe in your favorite podcast app and check out all
the other shows we do at Hudson River Radio. There
is something for everybody. We'll see you next week with
another brand new episode. Until then, start singing drinking songs
and wave your drink in the air and have some
fun and we'll see you next week. Peace out, everybody.
Speaker 4: Bottom Okay, bye bye.
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