Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: This is a favorite by men at work.
Speaker 3: Big get about it. He get mad.
Speaker 2: At Marie with a brand new Hyunda.
Speaker 4: Hey, this is Jesse Carmichael from Room five. Hi, this
Speaker 4: is Phil Margo of the Tokens.
Speaker 3: Hello.
Speaker 5: It's Nicole Atkins on the Rock and Roll History Show.
Speaker 6: Hello, everybody, Welcome back to the Rock and Roll History
Speaker 6: Show and Hudson River Radio. I'm Brian Horowitz. Tonight we're
Speaker 6: gonna take a little trip around the world and talk
Speaker 6: about songs about different places. No passport needed and no
Speaker 6: follow up quiz, So just sit back, not not no,
Speaker 6: that's true. If you want to scan yourself, go ahead.
Speaker 6: I would choose the pat down. It's a little more fun,
Speaker 6: but that's it. That's up to you. As always, before
Speaker 6: we start, allowing me to introduce all the crambones who
Speaker 6: are joining us here tonight. First and foremost, from the
Speaker 6: Erector Observatory, he learned that if you walk the entire
Speaker 6: distance of the equator, you'd be really tired.
Speaker 4: Neil rectors and kind of wet to at some point.
Speaker 4: I think you're right, but yeah, and you know, I'm
Speaker 4: so old that I've actually used a paper road map. Yeah,
Speaker 4: same like no GPS. No GPS here, dame.
Speaker 6: The skill is to be able to fold it neatly
Speaker 6: to this section you need.
Speaker 4: That's why I've been walking around lost for decades. I'm okay.
Speaker 1: Road maps and fitted sheets or the Bane of Mind
Speaker 1: system fitted sheets.
Speaker 6: You just roll them up and cram everything into the
Speaker 6: pillowcase and put it away in the bag. That's that's
Speaker 6: how you fold the fitted sheet.
Speaker 7: I just see that video.
Speaker 4: Okay, did you say that fitted sheet? Did you say yeah? Okay,
Speaker 4: just check say that fast.
Speaker 6: No, I'm not. We're gonna move on from paranormally yours.
Speaker 6: She's planning on quitting her job and traveling the world
Speaker 6: until she's broke. So we'll see her tomorrow morning. Dale
Speaker 6: Nuclem is here absolutely on the silver screen. She saw
Speaker 6: the beach boys walk into a bar. Round round, get around.
Speaker 6: I'll get around. Yeah, and last but not least, a
Speaker 6: host of shaving cream. She read that Elton John recently
Speaker 6: retired from touring. Now he's worried about packing on a
Speaker 6: few pounds. Goodbye normal jeans, barb.
Speaker 1: I'm just glad I got to see him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I saw him a few times. It was never disappointing.
Speaker 6: I never saw a hissy fit. I know some people
Speaker 6: got stuck at some he fit concerts and it was miserable.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So I was lucky. He was always in a
Speaker 6: good mood. So what can I say?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I would have liked to have seen a
Speaker 4: hissy fit.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know what, there were times and he would
Speaker 6: just stop playing. There were times he would play poorly.
Speaker 6: He wouldn't you know, it wasn't you know. He would
Speaker 6: take it out on He had a hissy fit on
Speaker 6: an usher once who was asking people to sit down,
Speaker 6: and you know, because they're blocking people and that ain't right.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean there's entertainment hiss he fits, and then
Speaker 6: there's like you're being a jerk hiss he fit.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. None of that occurred when I went
Speaker 1: to see him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, same, same. I was lucky.
Speaker 4: You should get your money back or you know, half
Speaker 4: your money back. Yeah, no, hissy fit.
Speaker 6: True, No, that usually comes from the audience.
Speaker 7: I want the hissy fit discount.
Speaker 6: You need a punch card your fifth hissy fit.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 6: All right, so yeah, we're talking about songs about different
Speaker 6: places around the world. Mercedes. I think it was your idea, right,
Speaker 6: It was my idea, and you're going to leave us
Speaker 6: off this week, so take it away, good, Okay.
Speaker 7: So this song I love and you will too, if
Speaker 7: by a chance you've never heard it. It's a song
Speaker 7: by They Might Be Giants, a band with a great
Speaker 7: sense of humor and wonderfully clever lyrics. They were formed
Speaker 7: in nineteen eighty two by John Flansburgh and John Linnell,
Speaker 7: who started out as a duo and then added Marty Beller,
Speaker 7: Dan Miller, and Danny Weincoff. John and John began writing
Speaker 7: songs together in high school, but never played together in
Speaker 7: a band back then. After going to separate colleges, they
Speaker 7: reunited in nineteen eighty one after moving to the same
Speaker 7: apartment building in Brooklyn. And no, I don't know if
Speaker 7: that's a crazy coincidence. Planned I tried to find out
Speaker 7: they had originally chosen a name that, according to John Flansburgh,
Speaker 7: was quote so bad that John Lennelle and I have
Speaker 7: made a vow that we will never tell anyone, even
Speaker 7: our children. And now that's my life goal is to
Speaker 7: find out what it was. Then, after they settled on
Speaker 7: They Might Be Giants, after the movie with George She's
Speaker 7: c Scott and Joanne Woodward, which is in turn taken
Speaker 7: from a don Quixote passage about how cute they mistook
Speaker 7: windmills for evil giants. According to Dave Wilson in his
Speaker 7: book Rock Formations, the name they Might Be Giants had
Speaker 7: been used and subsequently discarded by a friend of the
Speaker 7: band who had a ventriloquism act. In nineteen eighty three,
Speaker 7: after a broken wrist and an apartment break in, they
Speaker 7: were unable to play live, so they started diala song,
Speaker 7: which was, according to Wikipedia, an answering machine with a
Speaker 7: tape of the band playing various songs. The machine played
Speaker 7: one track at a time, ranging from demos an uncomplete work,
Speaker 7: to mock advertisements that the band had created. It became
Speaker 7: so popular that the tagline was always busy, often broken.
Speaker 7: Of course, I dialed the number and it is disconnected.
Speaker 7: They began playing in New York City's Lower East Side
Speaker 7: at the Pyramid Club, first as a duo with Flansborough
Speaker 7: and guitar Linelle on accordion and saxophone, accompanied by a
Speaker 7: drum machine or pre recorded backing track on audio cassette.
Speaker 7: They can't remember those that had.
Speaker 4: To be a good show. No really.
Speaker 7: They became the house band from nineteen eighty four to
Speaker 7: nineteen eighty seven. They have recorded twenty three studio albums.
Speaker 7: The song I picked for the show is from their
Speaker 7: third album, Flood, which went platinum.
Speaker 2: And it's awesome.
Speaker 7: It's awesome on Electure Records titled Stamboul Not from the Times.
Speaker 2: Time and I think we should hear it in n Yah.
Speaker 3: I love this song.
Speaker 8: Tell it's Stanbul's Consentinople now it's just stan Bol the
Speaker 8: Constantinople band A long time gone and Contantinople now jerk.
Speaker 2: You're like automble late night break out.
Speaker 8: The Constantinople because it is Stanbult the Consenttinopiso.
Speaker 9: Do you but they Constantine?
Speaker 3: She'll be waiting again?
Speaker 2: Is Stanbul? Even old New York was once New AMSTERDAMN?
Speaker 2: Why they change it?
Speaker 9: I can't say.
Speaker 2: People just like, way, take me back.
Speaker 8: To Constantine open or you can't go back to Constantinople
Speaker 8: ben a long time gone and consantin noble.
Speaker 9: Why the Constantinople get the works?
Speaker 2: That's no what it because about.
Speaker 10: The Jerms.
Speaker 11: Temple still Even Old New York was once New AMSTERDAMN.
Speaker 2: Why they change it?
Speaker 9: I can't say, you'll just like to better that way.
Speaker 2: Stun bold is.
Speaker 9: Consent, it's a noble.
Speaker 8: Now it'sis stunt bold my consent and noble, but a
Speaker 8: long time gone and consent to noble?
Speaker 9: Why the content and noble get the works?
Speaker 3: That's nobs.
Speaker 9: It's about the terms. So take me back to content.
Speaker 8: You can't go back to constantinoble, been a long time gone, Consantino, consentine, noble.
Speaker 9: Get the works.
Speaker 2: That's no long body's business. Bubble is Sanbol.
Speaker 12: So good?
Speaker 13: You cannot possibly be in a bad mood while listening
Speaker 13: to that song?
Speaker 6: Sure for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So there's a couple of reasons that I like this song.
Speaker 7: For one, I lived in Istanbul for two years as
Speaker 7: three and four year old, and no, I don't remember
Speaker 7: much except making mud pies on the balcony and hearing
Speaker 7: the moves in who is the official who calls people
Speaker 7: to prayer five times a day from the mosques minaret.
Speaker 7: The other reason is that their former former manager is
Speaker 7: a high school friend of mine. Oh that's pretty cool,
Speaker 7: I think. But the thing that blew my mind is
Speaker 7: that this song is a cover. Yeah did anybody know that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 9: I knew that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was I was going to see yeah, I
Speaker 4: was going to mention that if you hadn't.
Speaker 7: I was really surprised. This is from Wikipedia. It is
Speaker 7: a nineteen fifty three novelty song with lyrics of course
Speaker 7: you would know that.
Speaker 6: Barbara, Where Are You?
Speaker 7: With lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy and music by Nat Simon.
Speaker 7: It was written on the five hundredth anniversary at the
Speaker 7: fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. The lyrics humorously refer
Speaker 7: to the official renaming of the city of Constantinople to Istanbul.
Speaker 7: The song's original release, performed by the Four Lads, was
Speaker 7: certified as a Gold record. Numerous cover versions have been
Speaker 7: recorded over the years, and most famously a nineteen ninety
Speaker 7: version by They Might Be Giants. They have won two
Speaker 7: Grammy Awards, one four Bosamy the theme of Malcolm in
Speaker 7: the Middle and here comes the one two three's Best
Speaker 7: Children album. And they have sold over four million.
Speaker 6: And they played in our area a bunch of times, right,
Speaker 6: didn't they do fundraisers and stuff?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think some of them live there. I know
Speaker 7: the manager, my friend lives up there.
Speaker 6: Okay, nice? Oh yeah, I forgot you're down there. Where
Speaker 6: you know it's above freezing. Yay, Look how many degrees
Speaker 6: it was today.
Speaker 14: You know.
Speaker 6: I'm kidding.
Speaker 7: I never brag about that.
Speaker 6: You don't need to, all right, Thanks Mercedes Neil.
Speaker 4: You are up all right? Well, I uh, I didn't
Speaker 4: go as far out as Istanbul. I kept it pretty
Speaker 4: much close to home because the geographical location I've chosen
Speaker 4: for this topic is Boston, Massachusetts, a city that I've
Speaker 4: visited many times now. Boston is the capital and the
Speaker 4: most populated city in the state of Massachusetts. It covers
Speaker 4: about forty eight and a half square miles and is
Speaker 4: the cultural and financial center of the New England region.
Speaker 4: The Greater Boston Metropolitan Area is home to about four
Speaker 4: four point nine million people, making it the eleventh largest
Speaker 4: metropolitan area in the United States.
Speaker 7: Which is why it's so impossible to drive around.
Speaker 4: Oh god, yes, Well, Boston was founded by English Puritan
Speaker 4: settlers back in sixteen thirty coincidentally, the year I got
Speaker 4: my driver's license.
Speaker 13: That explains a lot.
Speaker 4: And it's been home or is the home to several
Speaker 4: historical events that happened during the American Revolution, including the
Speaker 4: Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker
Speaker 4: Hill and the legendary midnight ride of Paul Revere. Boston
Speaker 4: has gone on to become a global leader in higher
Speaker 4: education and is a national leader in scientific research, law, medicine, engineering,
Speaker 4: and business.
Speaker 6: And donuts and donuts, nuts, really Boston cream, Oh.
Speaker 4: My favorite?
Speaker 13: That was my mom's favorite.
Speaker 4: Now, this song that I've chosen to represent the city
Speaker 4: of Boston is a song called dirty Water by the
Speaker 4: band The Standel's. The Standell's were an American garage rock
Speaker 4: band from Los Angeles, California. Note the irony there, Los Angeles,
Speaker 4: not Boston. But they formed in nineteen sixty two, and
Speaker 4: they've been credited for inspiring many of the punk rock
Speaker 4: bands of the nineteen seventies. The Standell's recorded and released
Speaker 4: their biggest and most recognizable song, dirty Water, in nineteen
Speaker 4: sixty five. It was written by their producer, a man
Speaker 4: named Ed Cobb, who incidentally wrote the song Tainted Love,
Speaker 4: the Gloria Jones song that became a hit for the
Speaker 4: band Soft Cell in the nineteen eighties with its iconic
Speaker 4: opening guitar riff. The song is actually kind of a
Speaker 4: backhanded tribute to Boston. It's not exactly complimentary at all,
Speaker 4: referencing in particular that then famously polluted Charles River that
Speaker 4: runs through the city and into the Boston Harbor. According
Speaker 4: to legend, some of the song was also inspired when
Speaker 4: producer Cobb got mugged while he was in Boston, notably
Speaker 4: the line in the song about muggers and thieves. Additionally,
Speaker 4: other local references in this song include Boston University's women's curfew.
Speaker 4: They used to make all the women they had to
Speaker 4: be in their dorms at a certain hour, thus leading
Speaker 4: to the line the frustrated women happened to be in
Speaker 4: by twelve o'clock and the singer hoping that just once
Speaker 4: those doors weren't locked. Oh, of course, and has the
Speaker 4: obligatory nod to the infamous Boston strangler. Now in the end,
Speaker 4: the singer ultimately professes and confesses his affection and adoration
Speaker 4: for his hometown. So let's show Boston a little love
Speaker 4: with some dirty water by the standouts.
Speaker 2: I want to tell you a story down by the
Speaker 2: bags of the river. Chob Ah, that's what's happened to baby.
Speaker 2: But that's where you're finding.
Speaker 15: Along with lovers, buggers and things of their cooeper.
Speaker 10: But I love that Dirty Waters.
Speaker 3: Your mind, you're no. Number one leak.
Speaker 10: Frosted Winver, I mean a frustrated had to be.
Speaker 2: Yem by twelve o'clock. All that's a shame. But I'm
Speaker 2: a wall shattan.
Speaker 10: That just one dose doors.
Speaker 2: One clocks like the same time.
Speaker 5: I'm prad.
Speaker 16: But you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I stand.
Speaker 17: You.
Speaker 10: Yeah, but.
Speaker 4: I think he loves it now. Band members on this
Speaker 4: recording include drummer and lead vocalist Dick Dodd, a singing
Speaker 4: drummer from we could have used that Yeah episode here Yeah,
Speaker 4: keyboardist Larry Tamblin, Tony Valentino on guitar and harmonica, and
Speaker 4: Gary Lane on bass. Now, although Cobb received soul songwriting credit,
Speaker 4: Larry Tamblin said that the band had completely rearranged the
Speaker 4: song into what it became and they didn't get any
Speaker 4: credit for that. So that figures further in irony involving
Speaker 4: the song about Boston sung by a Los Angeles band
Speaker 4: was that dirty Water first became a hit down in Florida.
Speaker 4: That's right, breaking up, breaking out on the Orlando radio
Speaker 4: station WLFDL okay wlof in January of nineteen sixty six. Now, overall,
Speaker 4: the song peaked at number eight on the cash Box
Speaker 4: chart and hit number eleven on the Billboard Hot one hundred.
Speaker 4: Dirty Water was also the title of the band's most
Speaker 4: successful album, and that was their only nationally charting LP.
Speaker 4: Dirty Water was included on Lenny Kaye's Influential Nuggets Garage
Speaker 4: rock compilation in nineteen seventy two, and it's listed in
Speaker 4: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's five hundred Songs
Speaker 4: That Shaped rock and Roll. The song has also been
Speaker 4: traditionally played at Boston sporting events like baseball's Boston Red
Speaker 4: Sox and hockey's Boston Bruins games. But perhaps the the
Speaker 4: coolest thing about the Standels is that they appeared as
Speaker 4: themselves on The Monsters TV show in nineteen sixty five. Yes, nice, else,
Speaker 4: we're on the Monsters and it doesn't get any better
Speaker 4: than that. Yep, my book. So enclosing, let me say
Speaker 4: this that, having been born and raised here in the
Speaker 4: New York metropolitan area, Boston is a nice place to visit,
Speaker 4: but I wouldn't want to live there because I love
Speaker 4: New York. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 6: All right, thank you, Neil. That's a good one. I
Speaker 6: suit the riff. As soon as I heard the beginning,
Speaker 6: I was like, all right, yeah, I remember that. I
Speaker 6: love that song. Yeah, and it's got the harmonica for
Speaker 6: Gale right in the middle to make sure she's everyone.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, thank you, Oh come on, yeah it was.
Speaker 4: That was a very tasteful harmonica short.
Speaker 13: Yeah, sweet, just.
Speaker 4: Like me any other any other instrument. Think about it,
Speaker 4: what it It wouldn't make sense, you know what a
Speaker 4: saxophone or you know what.
Speaker 13: That's even worse.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, you know it's the perfect the perfect choice.
Speaker 6: All right, good, thank you, Roger Rock excellent. We're going
Speaker 6: to take our first real quick break. I think, Mercedes,
Speaker 6: are you ducking out politely for something better? I guess.
Speaker 6: Thanks for joining us. Made. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 6: All right, and stick around everybody, We'll be right back.
Speaker 9: Hudson River Radio.
Speaker 6: Your dog likes us.
Speaker 7: This concludes the first part of this cassette.
Speaker 6: Please turn the cassette over and begin again on side to.
Speaker 1: This is Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Speaker 6: And welcome back, Gail. We're up to you. So where
Speaker 6: will you be taking?
Speaker 13: Well, let's see, there were so many, so many choices.
Speaker 13: I chose a song by guns n' Roses it's called
Speaker 13: Paradise City now. Guns n' Roses, as many of you
Speaker 13: may know, is an American rock band formed in Los
Speaker 13: Angeles in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 5: I did not know.
Speaker 13: They only started in nineteen eighty five. They drew members
Speaker 13: from two other bands, La Guns, which apparently is still functioning,
Speaker 13: and Hollywood Rose, which is not. They signed with Geffen
Speaker 13: Records in nineteen eighty six. Now, the band's classic lineup
Speaker 13: features vocalist Axel Rose, who people are gonna hate me,
Speaker 13: but I honestly think he sounds a lot like Jannis Choplin.
Speaker 13: Lead guitarist Slash aka Saul Hudson is much catchier, I
Speaker 13: guess than Saul Hudson. Rhythm guitarist Isy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan,
Speaker 13: and drummer Stephen Adler. These all sound like names of
Speaker 13: guys I went to school with. It's like, I don't know,
Speaker 13: it might be I didn't realize how many popular songs
Speaker 13: came off of their first album. Their first album was
Speaker 13: called Appetite for Destruction and it was released on July
Speaker 13: twenty first, nineteen eighty seven. The first single called It's
Speaker 13: So Easy, which I don't even know if I've ever heard.
Speaker 13: It was released exclusively in the UK on June fifteenth,
Speaker 13: nineteen eighty seven, and that reached number eighty four on
Speaker 13: the UK Singles Chart. In the United States, their debut
Speaker 13: single from this album was Welcome to the Jungle, which
Speaker 13: is pretty well known, served as the lead single in October,
Speaker 13: accompanied by a music Feed video. There's so many songs
Speaker 13: on this album that I really really like sweet Child
Speaker 13: of Mine, which I'm addicted to. It reminds me of
Speaker 13: my pets, but that's another story. That was the second
Speaker 13: US single, and it originated as a poem axel Rose
Speaker 13: wrote for his then girlfriend Aaron Everley. It's broad appeal
Speaker 13: and heavy rotation on radio and MTV propelled it to
Speaker 13: number one on the Billboard Hot one hundred. That was
Speaker 13: the band's only chart topper. Slash later remarked, I hated
Speaker 13: that song with a huge passion for the longest time,
Speaker 13: and it turned out to be our hugest hit. Following
Speaker 13: this success of Sweet Child of Mine, Welcome to the
Speaker 13: Jungle was reissued and reached number.
Speaker 4: Seve in the US.
Speaker 13: The song I Chose Paradise City peaked at number five,
Speaker 13: and the album, Appetite for Destruction eventually reached number one
Speaker 13: on the Billboard two hundred. This album has since sold
Speaker 13: more than thirty million copies worldwide, including eighteen million in
Speaker 13: the United States, making it the best selling debut album
Speaker 13: in US history and the eleventh best selling album overall.
Speaker 13: Now Paradise City was released as a single in January
Speaker 13: nineteen eighty nine. It's the only song on the album
Speaker 13: to feature a synthesizer, and it also hit number six
Speaker 13: on the UK's Singles Chart. It peaked at number five
Speaker 13: on the Billboard Hot one hundred.
Speaker 6: And Let's have a listen, and.
Speaker 13: Then I have something funny that's got to be partially
Speaker 13: censored to say afterwards.
Speaker 3: Take Down, you know I don't have the screen and
Speaker 3: a girl?
Speaker 15: Oh yeah, yeah, tame Down's the paradise.
Speaker 2: It was the grasses, green and the girls.
Speaker 3: Don Britt and the ball not gonna say, I think
Speaker 3: I can.
Speaker 10: Certain mind they were again, why remember most the devils
Speaker 10: the Green and I haven't the singer in my name
Speaker 10: to the Dame, Save the Downs l Paradise.
Speaker 3: It was the brassiest breed of the girls. Don't Britta.
Speaker 10: All yeah, Save the Downs Paradise. It was the brassiest
Speaker 10: green of the Girl's um.
Speaker 3: Britt although you being man so far.
Speaker 15: So brass in the character to go out doesn't okay,
Speaker 15: I'm not to think your backs.
Speaker 10: Clay tags me down to the parade of the brasses
Speaker 10: brain of the Girl's Opera. Yeah, take me down to
Speaker 10: the paranda where the brasses brain of the girls up.
Speaker 13: I don't know if that do all, but I think
Speaker 13: that rocks.
Speaker 6: My neck hurts now I'm getting hold.
Speaker 1: Wait till you're my age.
Speaker 13: Slash, the guitarist, had said that that song was written
Speaker 13: in the back of a rental band as they were
Speaker 13: on their way back from playing a gig in San
Speaker 13: Francisco with the band Rock and Riders. He says that
Speaker 13: the band was drinking and playing acoustic guitars. Is that
Speaker 13: against the law?
Speaker 6: Like p guitar while drunk? No depends.
Speaker 4: For them. I think for them, I think it was mandatory.
Speaker 2: But yeah.
Speaker 6: So that's when.
Speaker 13: Slash came up with the intro. Duff McKagan and Izzy
Speaker 13: Stradlin started playing along Stash hearted s fifth Stash started
Speaker 13: humming a melody when Axel Rose saying, take me down
Speaker 13: to the Paradise City. Now keep that in mind, and
Speaker 13: what what the last word would rhyme with? Because when
Speaker 13: Axel sang the first line again, Slash shouted out, where
Speaker 13: the girls are fat and they've got big fill in
Speaker 13: the blank plural big foot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so there were a couple of words at rhyme
Speaker 4: that I was but.
Speaker 13: I'm rose finished with take me home.
Speaker 4: That's all you need to know.
Speaker 13: Yes, Slash preferred his second line, but the rest of
Speaker 13: the Found Rented Teeth. The rest of the band felt differently.
Speaker 13: Slash was outvoted and they used the line that Axel
Speaker 13: had written. The band then expanded upon the rest of
Speaker 13: the lyrics in rounds. Finally, Slash wrapped up by coming
Speaker 13: up with the heavy riff that drives the song, and
Speaker 13: at their concerts it's usually performed last as an encore.
Speaker 6: I've never seen them live me No, I haven't either,
Speaker 6: And now I don't know how good he sounds, believe.
Speaker 4: It or not. Yeah, but I the only discrepancy I
Speaker 4: have with them, I mean they were kind of marketed.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, sitting in a you know, in
Speaker 4: the back of a van, you know, and drinking and
Speaker 4: that's yeah, that's normal now that that that I can buy.
Speaker 4: But they were marketed as being this like like totally
Speaker 4: out of control, you know, drug addicted, alcoholic, you know,
Speaker 4: just totally street urchins, just totally a mess, and that
Speaker 4: that's rock and roll. But you don't make a record
Speaker 4: that sounds as good as that, because that record sounds phenomenal.
Speaker 4: You don't make a record that sounds that good if
Speaker 4: you're whacked out on booze and drugs. No, you make
Speaker 4: records when you're whacked out on boos and drugs like
Speaker 4: Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers. You don't sound like Guns
Speaker 4: n' Roses.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, assuming they're the ones who played everything.
Speaker 4: True, I mean, but I'm just saying that, and I'm
Speaker 4: not I'm not putting down the record. I'm just I'm
Speaker 4: just saying that the way that they were, you know,
Speaker 4: as I said, they were marketed and people are like,
Speaker 4: yeah and no, you can't function now. And to prove
Speaker 4: the point, when one of them members, the drummer Steven Adler,
Speaker 4: did get into some serious trouble, you know, being addicted
Speaker 4: just and they threw him out of the band. So
Speaker 4: how bad, yeah, do you have to be to get
Speaker 4: thrown out of Guns and Roses for being you know
Speaker 4: on the front. Yeah, I think if you see what
Speaker 4: if you get what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it was tough though. Went back to college,
Speaker 6: got a degree in business, was working, he was working
Speaker 6: in finance.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And they they are the last metal like hair metal
Speaker 6: kind of band that held on before grunge pushed everything
Speaker 6: out and somehow they had longevity where others kind of
Speaker 6: faded before them.
Speaker 4: I had an album called Appetite for Self Destruction, but
Speaker 4: it never went anywhere, just kind of fell apart.
Speaker 6: Did you have to kick yourself out of the band?
Speaker 4: It just yeah, it was like, you know, self fulfilling prophecy.
Speaker 6: All right, that was a good one. All right, thanks Gail, Barbara,
Speaker 6: We're up to you.
Speaker 1: Okay. Well, so far we've heard some pretty lively tunes
Speaker 1: and I am going to kick it down a notch.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to begin by mentioning the name Epstein.
Speaker 1: Now that I have your attention, allow me to elaborate.
Speaker 1: Jerry and the Pacemakers were the second band to be
Speaker 1: signed to manager Brian Epstein, the first being, of course,
Speaker 1: The Beatles. The band formed in nineteen fifty nine and
Speaker 1: their first single was how Do You Do It? Released
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three and recommended to them by George
Speaker 1: Martin after the Beatles had recorded it but decided against
Speaker 1: releasing it.
Speaker 4: Wow does that recording exist anywhere?
Speaker 1: I couldn't find it, I trust me, trust may I looked,
Speaker 1: but we'll say yeah, I'd love to hear it. So
Speaker 1: the geographical theme song I chose happens to be one
Speaker 1: of my favorites. Ferry Cross the Mersey, written by Jerry
Speaker 1: Morrisden the Jerry in Jerry and the Pacemakers. It was
Speaker 1: released in nineteen sixty four and was a hit in
Speaker 1: both the US and the UK, reaching number six in
Speaker 1: the US and number eight in the UK. The title
Speaker 1: comes from the film of the same name, which starred
Speaker 1: Jerry and the Pacemakers and was considered to be their
Speaker 1: version of the Beatles A Hard Day's Night. Not surprisingly,
Speaker 1: the song Ferry Across the Mersey is an example of
Speaker 1: music known as Mersey Beat, a British popular music genre
Speaker 1: that developed around Liverpool in the nineteen fifties and early
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. It combined influences from British and American rock
Speaker 1: and roll, RnB, skiffle, pop and music hall. So why
Speaker 1: don't we hop on the ferry and listen to Across
Speaker 1: the Mersey.
Speaker 14: Life goes on day after day, has torn in a everyway.
Speaker 16: So fairy cristin Mersey, because this lands the place side
Speaker 16: of I'm here.
Speaker 3: I'll stay.
Speaker 17: Be people they rush everywhere, be with their own secret cave.
Speaker 16: So fairy cristin Mersey, and always take me the The
Speaker 16: place is love.
Speaker 2: People around every corner.
Speaker 18: They seem to smile and say, we don't.
Speaker 2: Care what your name is.
Speaker 17: Boy, We'll never tend you.
Speaker 18: So I'll continue to say he I always will stay.
Speaker 16: So fairy cross the Mersey, because this lands the place
Speaker 16: silve I'm here, I'll stay and here I'll stay.
Speaker 5: Here, say.
Speaker 13: So.
Speaker 1: Mersey refers to the River Mersey in northwest England, which
Speaker 1: flows into the Irish Sea at Liverpool. The Mersey Ferry
Speaker 1: is a service that operates on the river, and fairies
Speaker 1: have been used on this route going back to at
Speaker 1: least the twelfth century. Regarding the song title, the word
Speaker 1: cross from the title is not a contraction of the
Speaker 1: preposition across, but instead an imperative verb, as in ferry
Speaker 1: comma cross the Mersey. The song is a love letter
Speaker 1: to Liverpool and a dedication to staying there and represents
Speaker 1: a sense of belonging and finding peace. And I just
Speaker 1: think it's a beautiful song and it sounds so sixties
Speaker 1: to me. I just love the way it sounds.
Speaker 6: San, I've always liked that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's so such a pretty sweet song, very
Speaker 1: pretty and very peaceful. All right, thank you, not like us,
Speaker 1: I know. I think we fell asleep next to pods.
Speaker 11: Could be.
Speaker 6: It's nice to relax there once in a while. All right, thanks, Barb.
Speaker 6: One more quick break and we have one more to go,
Speaker 6: so stick around because I think you're going to enjoy it.
Speaker 4: We'll be right back.
Speaker 9: Hudson Riverradio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Hudson Riverradio dot Com.
Speaker 6: All right, so I'm not going to tell you where
Speaker 6: my selection is. You'll figure that out at the end.
Speaker 6: I don't know if you guys have noticed, but recently
Speaker 6: politics is kind of a hot topic.
Speaker 2: A little bit.
Speaker 1: Did you hear the first sentence to what I said today?
Speaker 6: Fair enough? So the song we're going to talk about
Speaker 6: has found itself kind of in the middle of politics
Speaker 6: and patriotism over and over again since it came out.
Speaker 6: But there's just no way I would make it that simple.
Speaker 6: So just stick with me until the end. We start
Speaker 6: with the song God Blessed the USA, also known as
Speaker 6: Proud to Be an American, Written and sung by Lee Greenwood.
Speaker 6: The song was released in May nineteen eighty four on
Speaker 6: Greenwood's third album, You've Got a Good Love Coming, which
Speaker 6: is harder to say than it should be. And I
Speaker 6: don't know what that means, but I'm not gonna We're
Speaker 6: just gonna keep moving on. Lee Greenwood is actually Melvin.
Speaker 6: Lee Greenwood dropped the Melvin for some reason. He is
Speaker 6: now eighty three years old. He's still performing. He is
Speaker 6: from California, grew up on his grandparents farm. When his
Speaker 6: parents split up. He started singing in church at age seven,
Speaker 6: which a lot of our singers have done, and as
Speaker 6: he got older, rumors started go and especially as he
Speaker 6: made a big rumors started going around that he was
Speaker 6: a draft dodger during Vietnam and fled to Canada, which is,
Speaker 6: to his credit, not true. He did say in an
Speaker 6: interview with snopes dot Com, it angers me when I
Speaker 6: hear this. I never served in the military because I
Speaker 6: had children. At the age of seventeen, I was given
Speaker 6: the classification three A. The draft never got to that number.
Speaker 6: If it had, like my father, I would have left
Speaker 6: my wife and children for I know they would have
Speaker 6: understood to fight and die from to fight and die
Speaker 6: if necessary for my country. So I just want to
Speaker 6: put rumors to resk give credit where credit is due.
Speaker 6: He wound up skipping college and supposedly a possible baseball
Speaker 6: career to sing and perform. One source said, a possible
Speaker 6: baseball career. So I don't know how true that is.
Speaker 6: I'm guessing every kid that played the little league could
Speaker 6: have had a baseball career, so you could throw that
Speaker 6: on your resume. I don't really know how. Oh that
Speaker 6: was me, but I couldn't hit the curveball, so yeah,
Speaker 6: but it was a possible baseball career.
Speaker 4: Possible, it was possible. Not for me, me neither.
Speaker 6: He moved to Las Vegas. He worked as a blackjack
Speaker 6: dealer during the day and he sang in clubs in
Speaker 6: the evening. His style shifted towards country music, and that
Speaker 6: got him a record contract. In nineteen eighty one. He
Speaker 6: and his band were touring. They would typically play three
Speaker 6: hundred days a year, which is just insane. That is
Speaker 6: a crazy amount of traveling. Three hundred nights per year. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and he always had the urge to write a patriotic
Speaker 6: kind of song. Then on September one, nineteen eighty three,
Speaker 6: I don't know if you remember, I was a little young,
Speaker 6: but there was a Korean Airlines flight that was scheduled
Speaker 6: to fly from JFK in New York City to Soul, Korea,
Speaker 6: with a stop in Anchorage, Alaska. When the plane landed
Speaker 6: in Anchorage, when it took off again, it wound up
Speaker 6: drifting in and out of Soviet airspace twice. And this
Speaker 6: was at the height of the Cold War. The Soviets
Speaker 6: at the time were afraid of President Ronald Reagan. There
Speaker 6: were computer issues with the plane, with air traffic control,
Speaker 6: all that kind of stuff, malfunctioning equipment. Things just went wrong.
Speaker 6: The Soviet Union launched four meg fighters to intercept and
Speaker 6: they wound up shooting the plane down, killing everybody on
Speaker 6: board two hundred and sixty nine people. There were a
Speaker 6: number of Americans on board, including a congressman, And it
Speaker 6: was this event that prompted Lee to put pen to
Speaker 6: paper and write the patriotic song that he.
Speaker 4: Wanted to do.
Speaker 6: So God Bless the USA was released in May nineteen
Speaker 6: eighty four. Like I said, it was included in a
Speaker 6: film about Reagan at the nineteen eighty four Republican National Convention.
Speaker 6: He performed it at the nineteen eighty eight RNC for
Speaker 6: George Herbert Walker Bush. It became popular again in nineteen
Speaker 6: ninety during the Gulf War, so he re recorded it
Speaker 6: in nineteen ninety two. Then nine to eleven happened, and
Speaker 6: the song came back. Then in two thousand and three
Speaker 6: the invasion of Iraq when he re re re recorded it.
Speaker 6: I think I have the right number of reason there again.
Speaker 6: And it was used extensively in the last three presidential
Speaker 6: elections by the Republican Party, as I'm sure you've heard.
Speaker 6: So Greenwood has capitalized on the success of this song,
Speaker 6: and I don't blame him. If you have a hit,
Speaker 6: get what you can get out of it. I'm okay
Speaker 6: with that. But twist time, the song has been used
Speaker 6: also extensively at naturalization ceremonies where immigrants become naturalized citizens
Speaker 6: of the United States, and they would play the song
Speaker 6: something to be proud of if it's your song. But
Speaker 6: proud in quotes doesn't have monetary value. So Lee Greenwood
Speaker 6: forced the government into a settlement and he now gets
Speaker 6: seven hundred dollars per year to allow them to use
Speaker 6: the song at naturalization ceremonies, not a lot of but
Speaker 6: still that just doesn't sit well with me.
Speaker 4: I have to admit.
Speaker 6: The awkward silence.
Speaker 4: Across the panel. Proud to be a capitalist? I think exactly.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, it's such a token amount that I don't
Speaker 6: I don't get it, you know, But all right, you
Speaker 6: know what? Sure song? Is that good enough?
Speaker 13: No?
Speaker 6: Am I going to leave the story there? No, he's
Speaker 6: proud to be an American, but he's also proud to
Speaker 6: be somewhere else Canada. In nineteen eighty nine, he changed
Speaker 6: some lyrics, very very few of the lyrics to make
Speaker 6: the song about Canada, and then he would sing that
Speaker 6: version when he would tour in the Great White North. Eh,
Speaker 6: how about that? So let's hear God Bless You Canada
Speaker 6: by Lee Greenwood.
Speaker 5: If tomorrow all things well gone.
Speaker 19: Work wrong my life.
Speaker 5: And I had to start again, just my children, and.
Speaker 12: Thank my lucky stars to be living here today because
Speaker 12: the flag.
Speaker 5: Still stands for freedom and they can't take away.
Speaker 19: And I'm proud to be in Canada. Wearingly stangl I'm free,
Speaker 19: and I won't forget the men who died who gave
Speaker 19: that right to me, And I'm glady stand next to
Speaker 19: you and defend hers to today because they're a new down.
Speaker 2: I love this lave, God bless you Canada.
Speaker 5: From the shores of Nova Scotia to the forest INBC.
Speaker 12: Montreal, to win a pit from seed to shiny sea.
Speaker 3: From Detroit.
Speaker 12: We can see her above the unsay because there's bride
Speaker 12: in every Canadian heart.
Speaker 2: And it's time and stand.
Speaker 5: In sane.
Speaker 2: That ambout to be in Canada where it is nine.
Speaker 12: I'm free, and I'll both forget the men who died
Speaker 12: who gave that fight to me, and I'm glad to stand.
Speaker 2: Next to you and defend her to today us.
Speaker 20: I read no down, got the s Canada, and I'm
Speaker 20: bound to be in Canada very this time library.
Speaker 3: And I'm.
Speaker 2: Nobody who died today that right to hold meet, and
Speaker 2: I climbed these day next to you and defend her
Speaker 2: fill today. Does I read no doubt on this head, godless.
Speaker 6: I don't know how to come out of that song.
Speaker 4: So there you go.
Speaker 1: Well, I will admit that I've never met a Canadian
Speaker 1: I didn't.
Speaker 6: Like I met four of them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we know that.
Speaker 6: I know, Barbara brought it up.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 6: All the rest of them were fine, but those four.
Speaker 1: I went to college in Buffalo, and I spent every
Speaker 1: weekend in Canada. I love Canadians.
Speaker 6: Yeah, been there a bunch of times.
Speaker 4: I yeah, I had a couple of vacations there. And
Speaker 4: this is back in the eighties, so yeah, I was
Speaker 4: enjoying their you know, favorite beverage there, you know, Mulson's
Speaker 4: and all. Yeah. And we and the people that I
Speaker 4: went with had you know, they had gone there a lot,
Speaker 4: and they knew some of the people, so you know,
Speaker 4: they had their friends there. And in the morning we'd
Speaker 4: hear this very familiar like crack popish the opening of
Speaker 4: a can of beer. And we said, and we look
Speaker 4: at this, it's like eight o'clock in the morning. Oh
Speaker 4: it's it's a Canadian alarm clock.
Speaker 1: It's made from wheat, it's breakfast, it's good for you.
Speaker 4: Well, of course, when in Rome went in Canada, it
Speaker 4: passed me one of those you know, Okay, Yeah.
Speaker 6: I went to college up north. Barbarie went out west.
Speaker 6: I was north in near the Canadian border, so we
Speaker 6: would go across every once in a while. The drinking
Speaker 6: age was nineteen. I was never a big drinker, but
Speaker 6: like you could have one and be like all right,
Speaker 6: and it was cheaper because of the exchange rate. Yeah,
Speaker 6: well then you come back.
Speaker 1: The drink in Asia was eighteen when I went, and
Speaker 1: then when it changed in nineteen, I was already nineteen,
Speaker 1: so what didn't matter. And I will have to say,
Speaker 1: Niagara Falls in the middle of winter when it's frozen,
Speaker 1: is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that I've done. And oh my god, it's cold.
Speaker 6: It's just it's a different cold, but it's for the trip. Yeah, no,
Speaker 6: I remember.
Speaker 1: I remember one spring break the snow coming up to
Speaker 1: my second floor dormitory window.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 6: Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, all right, Well that's all I've got.
Speaker 6: I think, I think that's it. That was a good
Speaker 6: trip around the world. I like it, all right. And
Speaker 6: I had just enough Harmonica to get get Gail GMing,
Speaker 6: so that was good.
Speaker 1: That wasn't even planned and it worked out.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, sometimes you get lucky. All right, Well, good selections.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Crambone. So I appreciate all the effort as always,
Speaker 6: and thank you all for joining us here for the
Speaker 6: Rock and Roll History Show. Don't forget to subscribe in
Speaker 6: your favorite podcast app and check out all the other
Speaker 6: shows we do at Hudson River Radio because there really
Speaker 6: is something for everybody. We're off next week, but we'll
Speaker 6: be back in two weeks with another brand new episode,
Speaker 6: so until then, be safe, Thank you everybody, and have
Speaker 6: a great weekend.
Speaker 4: We'll see it.
Speaker 1: Rock cop Bottom and Cram.
Speaker 3: Okay, Bye bye.
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