Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Don't Joanna I thank don't jawana wan i sank go,
don't jowan i wan I thank God.
Speaker 3: It doesn't keep me up at night, but it helps
me boo.
Speaker 4: This is John Fulbright.
Speaker 5: Hi.
Speaker 6: This is jar Williams.
Speaker 7: Hi.
Speaker 5: This is Mitch Margle of the Tokens.
Speaker 6: Hi.
Speaker 8: This is Gary Us Bonds mad here on the Rock
and Roll History Show.
Speaker 9: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Rock and Roll History
Show on Hudson River Radio. I'm Brian Horowitz. This week
we're gonna help you recover from your hangover from last
week's alcohol show. We got lots of coffee lined up.
Plus I think a lot of people need it for
the start of the school year if you're not back
at school yet, and you will be pretty soon, so
full disclosure. Usually I do drink coffee while we're recording.
This week, I'm having the old fashion that I couldn't
have last week, so I'm legging behind. So we'll see
how it goes tonight. As always, before we hop in,
allow me to introduce us all the cranbones joining us
here tonight. First and foremost, from the Richter Observatory, he says,
rolling out of bed is easy. Getting up off the
floor is hard, Neil.
Speaker 4: Right, Ain't that the truth? Ain't that that's truth? And
let me let me just say yeah, No, sanka decaf no, No,
that's not coffee. No, that's just that's sad brown water.
Speaker 7: No.
Speaker 9: I remember my grandmother specifically ordering sanka like if we
went out to eat, And that is the last I've
ever seen or heard of it. So yeah, no, I
don't know why that was the thing.
Speaker 4: And it shouldn't be.
Speaker 9: It shouldn't be. I would agree with you there.
Speaker 4: But how are you doing, everybody? I'm well caffeinated today,
so I'm ready to get.
Speaker 9: Good from paranormal yours. She bought a new pair of
pants made entirely of spider silk, but the fly keeps
getting stuck. L Nuklem's here, good, one good, and our
official teacher is here. As the school year begins, he
child prooved his classroom, but the kids still seem to
keep getting in. John Kelly is back. Hey, everybody, I'm
doing my best, but they is. I can't stop him.
Speaker 10: I don't know why.
Speaker 9: Hey, Last, but not least, the host of shaving cream,
the guy from the furniture store keeps calling her, but
all she wanted was one night stand. Barbara deal is here.
Speaker 6: Well that's it.
Speaker 1: You got me, all right? Hey everyone, Now, now I'm
like fixated on where the name Senka comes from.
Speaker 9: San cafe without caffeine.
Speaker 11: Sounds ow.
Speaker 7: See that.
Speaker 6: I'm trying to remember the name of the guy that
was in the commercial. Yeah, wasn't it Robert somebody or other?
But I can't.
Speaker 4: I should remember because oh, yeah, he played the Marcus Welby.
He played Marcus Welby. Oh, Robert Young, Robert Young, thank you? Okay,
that is yeah.
Speaker 9: I just remember the hot water and it was a
little brown and orange packet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you put the one in the glass jar with
the orange leer.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Why why?
Speaker 9: I don't get it.
Speaker 4: It makes no sense. I don't know.
Speaker 9: Do they still make it?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 9: There was big was that seventies and it was in
the seventies into the eighties. Yeah, And I just can't
say I've seen it since. Doesn't mean it's not there,
but I've never looked for it.
Speaker 5: It's like tang, you know it's there, you go it suddenly.
It kind of dawned on me that nineteen seventy five
was over fifty years ago.
Speaker 6: Isn't that depressing?
Speaker 9: It's totally depressing.
Speaker 4: I was already out of high school by then. John, Yeah, yeah, yeah, well.
Speaker 9: You know they'll go to reality. Yeah yeah, I guess so.
Speaker 4: I guess. I wasn't drinking sanka then either.
Speaker 9: Let me tell you anyway.
Speaker 5: You know, I was thinking of having a little coffee tonight,
of the Irish kind. However, I have the ingredients, of course,
but I figured i'd better when it's my turn to
do my selection that I'm more lucid.
Speaker 1: I just looked up Senka in my shop right app
and it's there, Okay, I.
Speaker 6: Looked it up online.
Speaker 9: Is it like new old stock that they stopped making
in nineteen eighty four that they're trying to unload. There's
a joke that if you put instant coffee in a microwave,
you go back in time. I don't know who wrote it,
instant coffee in micro clave, yeah, because it's not instant
never mind, Okay, I didn't write it, so I can't
take the blame for it.
Speaker 4: The question I need more, I wi I've you know,
reached and recoiled in horror when i've you know, it's
it's been decaf, and I'm like it actually decaf costs
more than regular coffee. Yeah, you get nothing and you
pay more for it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, really processing marketing and I've I've turned into a
complete coffee snob. I'm sure everybody else has as time
goes on. Yeah, you know when you have real kna
from Hawaii or Jamaica blue like and I've got I've
been drinking it black for years. So you can't hide
bad coffee, you know, with the milk and the sugar
and all all that. When you're drinking something good, you
don't have that, so you know whether it's good or bad.
So I'm a total snob. I'd rather go with quality
than quantity. Yeah, I'm with you on that there, Brian,
I really am.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Back in the EMS days, it was total quantity.
Speaker 5: I remember those seven eleven.
Speaker 9: Sold a I think it was a half gallon mug.
Speaker 4: Yes, I had it.
Speaker 9: Actually they sold a half gallon mug and they had
dollar refills, but they never said you couldn't fill the
half gallon mug as part of the refills you could
just read. So every morning I'd be in there refilling
it and they didn't like me.
Speaker 4: Well, I've been I've been drinking black coffee now for
for years and years, but I used to, you know,
And if I go to a like, you know, a
diner or a restaurant, maybe I'll put in some you know,
if they have half and a half or something like that.
But I used to hate it when you you know,
you get you know, you put your sugar and you
put your cream in there. Get it right, so you
like it. You drink about half and then the waitress
comes on, oh can I fill it? And then can
I ruin it for you?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 1: Then, so the ratio of half and half to coffee
sweet total ballance.
Speaker 4: And doesn't give you any room to put any more
in because yeah, it fills it.
Speaker 9: But you solve that problem I drinking black. It's like, yeah,
I drink I drink coffee.
Speaker 6: Coffee to be black. They really really good for me
to drink it black.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to be able to savor the flavor.
Speaker 6: And one of the women I work with who's from
d R she grinds her own beans and makes it
in the family coffee percolate thingy, what's it. And once
in a while she'll bring some of that in and oh,
my god, that is so good that I can drink black.
But I don't put sugar in hot coffee because to me,
that's gross.
Speaker 9: But yeah, it's an antertaste. Same with the milk. For me,
it's like an It's gotta just be straight, plain old
black coffee. I've got the long black coffee.
Speaker 4: If I could hook up an IVY drip, I would
hang the thing up there right right.
Speaker 9: Oh my god. Can you imagine the waitress coming over and.
Speaker 6: Just go straight?
Speaker 4: I guess, yeah, I guess maybe, Yeah, it'll be a
little Yeah, you.
Speaker 9: Might want to cool it down. Yeah, but I get
the sentiment and I completely concur So let's talk about
coffee tonight. Let's hop right in, and Gail, you are
going to lead us up this week.
Speaker 6: Okay. Well, actually considering this song that I picked, I
realized I could have used it a few episodes ago
when we did our murder episode. Now. The song is
called Coffee Home Ground, and it's by Kate Bush and
she wrote it while she was in the USA in
May of nineteen seventy eight. It was on the Lionheart
album that was her second studio album, and she only
had time to write three new songs for that album,
so it was Coffee Home Ground, Full House and Symphony
in Blue. Lionheart is one of my favorite albums ever.
I listen to it from beginning to end many many times.
So Coffee Home Ground is about somebody who's who knows
that somebody else is trying to poison them in their coffee.
But she does it in a very campy way. She
engages in sprech sprechaisang, which is the kind of singing
where a singer rapidly moves back and forth between speaking
and singing, and she also does it with a funny
German accent. So it's very campy, very almost Breach style
kind of thing. And the lyrics actually mention this doctor Crippen,
Holly Crippen, that was his first name, who gained infamy
after poisoning his wife. So let's have a listen and
I'll just say a couple of more little things afterwards.
Speaker 12: Yo, you spin some on the side into my glass
and I don't want anything?
Speaker 11: Can you jog?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 10: Die?
Speaker 13: I just know my dad, you know your day.
Speaker 12: Tell me just a come you smell a bitter U?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 12: No, do your coffee.
Speaker 7: It?
Speaker 11: Say?
Speaker 12: What answer?
Speaker 10: Scary?
Speaker 13: Set long, lots of.
Speaker 2: Into there was a comelap so anas.
Speaker 12: That's all.
Speaker 13: This compound.
Speaker 12: And I bet you gave the compani world. Nye you
love the little company. If your recipe as a verse.
Speaker 6: Restive pace co.
Speaker 9: He sare.
Speaker 12: He still steal.
Speaker 4: Time?
Speaker 13: Name as a god, focus the bosoms of.
Speaker 14: The walk.
Speaker 11: As you got it a bit, it's different, I'll give
you that.
Speaker 6: And the theme of the thank you, Yeah, it seems
that in the song she's addressing someone that might be
lonely and as a way of keeping people around, poisons them.
A grim way of preserving people and keeping them trapped,
slipping poison into coffee and food. Now the song actually,
according to Cark, Kate Bush was in fact inspired directly
from a cab driver that she met who was a
bit nutty. And it's just a song about somebody who
thinks they're being poisoned by somebody else, and they think
that there's belladonna in their tea and that whenever they
offer them something to eat, it's got poison in it.
And it's just a humorous aspect of paranoia. And we
kind of did it in a Brechtian style, the old
sort of German vibe to try and bring across the
humor side of it. She was on vocals and piano.
Stuart Elliott was on drums and percussion. Ian Berenson was
in the rhythm guitar. Bass was David Patten and Duncan
Mackay on the synthesizer.
Speaker 9: If you like stories about arsen making your food and drink,
I highly suggest Murder in the Hudson Valley because a
number of cases. But scroll back. I was trying to
look up the date in between. I couldn't find it,
but we did. I did the true story behind the
play Murder of Arsenic and Old Lace. Okay, so scroll
back and look for that. If you like Arsenic, that's
the one for you. Plus get checked out because that's
messed up.
Speaker 5: If you like Arsenic.
Speaker 6: Fun facts, Arsenic and Old Lace was the play in which,
many many years ago, because both both these fellows have
crossed over now, Jonathan Fried from Dark Shadows and Larry
Storch from f Troop did Arsenic and Old Lace Once
upon a time.
Speaker 9: Very cool.
Speaker 4: I don't think it was just poisoned. She just was
giving him sanka. Couldn't I'm saying, would could be.
Speaker 6: He kept falling asleep, he would be awake only your
hairdresser nose for sure.
Speaker 9: All Right. I admit I'm not a big Kate Bush fan.
I'm probably in the minority, but that one's catchy. I
like that one. Good cool, all right, thanks Gil John.
Speaker 5: Okay, Well, my song obviously is about coffee. It doesn't
delve into arsenic or sanka for that matter, but the
simple combination of.
Speaker 9: Cigarettes and coffee.
Speaker 6: What fun is that?
Speaker 5: Yes, exactly nineteen sixty six Otis Redding that was on
It was the third track on their soul album. It's
kind of a soul It's actually a nice song. I
don't know how else to describe it, very very different
from some of the other music that I've put on here,
with some of the sarcasm in it and some of
the depressing qualities to it. But this has kind of
got a sweet kind of a tone to it of
a couple sitting I guess in a restaurant or a
diner at quarter to three in the morning and talking
about that relationship over cigarettes and coffee, and Brian, let's
take it from there.
Speaker 8: It's early rendon money about one up till three. I'm
sitting and talking with my baby with a signal that's
in coffee.
Speaker 14: And to tell you that.
Speaker 8: I've been so sapped it fair, honey, since I've met you, Baby,
since I've met you, he's in that I've been around,
and all good looking girls out there, they just don't
seem to fit in no I particular lissen.
Speaker 14: But it seems so not for dal.
Speaker 8: That you when that hockey here.
Speaker 14: Just talking all the cigarettes and drinking talk me.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 13: My heart man low love?
Speaker 8: That s not fair, honey. Want to let me just
feel my whole life for man? I complete, I complete
my whole lad.
Speaker 10: Would be here.
Speaker 8: If you wouldn't take things on the consideration and walk
down miss.
Speaker 12: With me, I wouldn't love it.
Speaker 8: Jain Well, I say, it's a world that rent the
ball in who went to quote until three? Seeing you're
talking cgarettes and drinking coffee hand.
Speaker 12: And I'd like to.
Speaker 4: Show you why.
Speaker 8: I've no knowhing but good old job.
Speaker 4: Since I met you.
Speaker 7: Go.
Speaker 4: On it since I w mad you, babe, one.
Speaker 14: Drink of coffee, drn help me small, just one more ciga.
Speaker 8: I don't want no cream and sugars.
Speaker 5: I got you do.
Speaker 8: What lett me get job?
Speaker 10: Help me doing job it's good time.
Speaker 12: That we'll have.
Speaker 10: It's uh so uh no more so uh.
Speaker 5: Uh Yes, Cigarettes and Coffee by the late Great Otis Redding. Uh.
I like it because it's simple. It's you know, the
cigarettes and coffee is a metaphor about a relationship. Obviously
if you listen to it.
Speaker 9: And uh, it's sweet, it's simple.
Speaker 5: It's definitely kind of crooning soul.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: It's just a good piece of music. It's not what
Otis Reading is most famous for, of course, and we
all know what he had that and we had been
talking about it in between. But I think this is
one of those sleeper hits.
Speaker 9: It makes you think, what how bad did everything smell
back then when everybody was smoking inside all the time,
Like it's so far removed from everybody's memory at this point.
Speaker 5: And another thing, too, is how bad was the coffee?
Speaker 9: And I'm sure it was not good coffee. It's just
not it's probably sat and burnt by quarter to three
in the morning.
Speaker 5: You're smoking cigarettes, you got you got the the burnt
bottom of the coffee cup, you know, the coffee pot.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm guessing I'm I'm like the only like
ex smoker in the in the group here today and
so I can comment. And I quit smoking. I didn't quit.
I upped the coffee. I cut out the cigarettes. I
uped the coffee. And but but being a smoker, I
didn't notice because you know, but I guess. Yeah, I
was walking around smelling like an ash tray. Now you
miss this right now, I missed me sneeze. Yeah. No,
I can't even.
Speaker 9: Smell it from across the street if somebody smoking a cigarette.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's it's been Oh geez. I
quit in the early eighties. I had almost forgotten that,
I you know, I was like, oh, wait a minute, Yeah,
I used to smoke, and it's it's it's stunk, you know,
so did I you know.
Speaker 5: Well, the song itself, I would say, it's it's it's
nothing that stands out. It's kind of a nice, soulful,
slow moving metaphor for a relationship between two people as
they talk about it over cigarettes and coffee. Albeit probably
not very good coffe, but I'm sure it was, you know, coffee. Nonetheless,
so kind of a sweet, simple song. And uh, he
rests in peace, mister Redding, thank you.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 9: He died just before his giant, giant hit. Yes, came
after of the Dock of the Bay, right, Yeah, yeah,
Steve Cropper wound up fixing it.
Speaker 5: So that was so that was Neil.
Speaker 9: You said it was sixty eight he passed.
Speaker 4: That was the pipe, I believe, So I believe that's
at least that's when the Doc of the Bay, I believe,
you know, hit the charts and it was yeah, like
you said it was. It was posthumously released. And the
irony is that became his signature song and his biggest hit, right,
and he didn't get to you know, any of it.
Speaker 9: You enjoy it and yeah, moren't familiar. He wrote respect
and did the first version of it before I read
the Franklin got it. Yeah, and his is just as good.
She just made it a mega hit.
Speaker 5: Oh, she just it was her delivery, that's all.
Speaker 4: He was on par with it though he was at
the the you know, the legendary Monterey Pop Festival, which
you know, pretty much introduced Jimmy Hendrix to the world
and and and the Who to the United States. Yeah,
and Otis Redding was there and they actually about that
time and just about after that. I don't know what
it was, but maybe around nineteen sixty nine, nineteen seventy
they released. It was a double double. One side was
the Hendrick set, the other side was the Otis Redding set.
And you know, and I'll say the irony of that
was that they were both gone at that point. But yeah, no,
he does respect and he you know, oh he kicks it.
You know, he was not all that kind of slow
bluesy crooning stuff. He let it rip. You know, he
knew how to you know, he knew how to bring it.
Speaker 5: So, oh yeah, I hope you like my kind of
soulful pleasant selection for tonight lit cigarettes and coffee my
friends omelly soulful collection.
Speaker 4: Yep, yes, coffee, good, cigarettes bad.
Speaker 9: Agreed, Yes, I agreed. Antioxidants whenever anybody says you just
say antioxidants. Whatever you're talking about, antioxidants. Coffee's got anti.
Speaker 6: You don't like uncle oxidants? No, oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker 5: I had to uh huh, Gillia Gale, quick with the
dad jokes here, old old people humor.
Speaker 4: I take gant acids. But oh.
Speaker 9: Oh man, I'm gonna take that as a cue that
we need a break. Yeah, yes, yeah, all right, so
why don't we do that? And we will be right
back Hudson River Radio dot Com a favorite among shut
ins and dogs.
Speaker 6: This concludes the first part of this cassette.
Speaker 9: Please turn the cassette over and begin again on side too.
Speaker 1: This is Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Speaker 9: Man welcome back. Now the waiter has a chance to
ruin your coffee to cream ratio. We're gonna hop right
back in and barber take it away.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, I'm gonna talk about my song choice in
a moment, but first I wanted to talk about a
nineteen eighties publicity event put together as an ad campaign
from the National Coffee Association, which was meant to make
coffee appear more cool to a younger generation. The association
was concerned that young people thought of coffee as an
old people's drink. So what did they do. They hit
up the MTV roster for what they believed to be
some hip acts like Bowiello Heart and for some reason,
no disrespect, Cecily Tyson and Jane Curtin Okay, yeah.
Speaker 9: A little behind the curve and Jane Curtin as as
I am a little behind Yeah.
Speaker 1: So these ads, known as the Coffee Achievers, featured these
hip celebs performing various activities and drinking coffee. All the
ads had the following voiceover dialogue. And this is going
to be important later. You are the new American society,
the movers and the shakers. You are the new coffee
generation because coffee lets you calm yourself down and picks
you up. Coffee gives you the serenity to dream it
and the vitality to do it. No other drink does
that like coffee. Join the Coffee Achievers, do your best.
So did this ad campaign have the desired effect? Not really?
But what did boost coffee consumption among young people occurred
a few years later in the nineteen nineties with the
immersions of grunge rock and the Seattle scene, which gave
birth to Starbucks, which now brings us to my song
choice called Coffee Achievers by the band seventy six Percent
Uncertain from their nineteen eighty four debut album Estimated Monkey Time.
So why don't we sit back, take a sip, savor
the flavor in hell, that rich coffee aroma, and listen
to Coffee Achievers.
Speaker 15: Coffee spikes up, coffee bread prey, tack my every poot,
never let.
Speaker 9: Pay down, Nothing done.
Speaker 4: It's why I got you pump in.
Speaker 10: I'm a copy into.
Speaker 16: Cas the same coffee rips in my eyes, my dollars.
Speaker 10: And the same birthday, that space thing freaking buy the boat.
It's the big on bro.
Speaker 12: Makes my life complete as the light and drink the
bans that brother a good.
Speaker 16: Dream fall and so what I did ever both go
coffee let me Oh, I'm typing in my driends. I'm
a popping at Tva Gangster.
Speaker 15: Cantil White, I stand it may pay up cured.
Speaker 10: My every hill miracle prob Russell.
Speaker 12: So I know, no that's getting signed.
Speaker 14: I mean that's been made.
Speaker 6: Just light up, balling up in.
Speaker 10: But I'm god by a.
Speaker 16: Stream Madam, Madam tell and Don.
Speaker 15: John a cockneya Teba John Nicoffia Ta.
Speaker 10: Don N Copia Teva half ball.
Speaker 15: Bill Yus Gone Sonny bamfy roll Muffy's Glenn.
Speaker 16: Color By saw it on t bad.
Speaker 15: Gotten a cocky by, I'm a boy yea Teva Danta
same Copys do live it talent it the Tenda ding Switch,
don N Cockatiba, Don Coffee Teba Dohn Coffy Tuber.
Speaker 6: All right, Well.
Speaker 1: Seventy six percent Uncertain was formed in nineteen eighty three
in Bridgeport, Connecticut, by members of the bands C I
A and Reflex from Paine members Mike Bones Hammond on vocals,
Kenny Peterson, Mike Spadaccini and Todd Knapp on guitar, Dave
Ware on bass, and William Knapp on drums. In nineteen
eighty nine, Mike Spataccini left the band and was replaced
by Jeff Roberts. Unfortunately, the same year, after further lineup
changes and a bad record deal, the band broke up.
In nineteen ninety seven, Jeff Roberts died in a car accident,
and the band reunited to play a series of benefits
to raise money for his widow and children. So, despite
the lyrics which do allude to the fact that they
had this ad campaign in mind, I couldn't find anything
online that directly said, yes, they're related, even though the
lyrics kind of allude to that. So I do want
to just read you some of the lyrics. I'll be
brief and you be the judge. Pick me up, bring
me down, take my every move, never let me down.
Nothing for me to see you. My dream by the
world makes my life light. It makes me a man.
You're my every join the community can't be wrong for me.
I don't want a dream.
Speaker 4: So now.
Speaker 1: That's why I read the voice over to the Coffee
Achiever's ad, because it really, it really does pull from that.
And I just I basically picked the song because I
thought it was cool and it you know, it's a
type of song that I kind of go for, and
I just thought that. And then and the thing is,
when I was googling it Coffee Achievers, this band, I
had to actually type in Coffee Achiever's song because when
I googled it, I wasn't aware of this ad campaign
and all these things started coming up with this ad campaign,
and I was like, what's what's this? And then I
found all this information on this ad campaign and so
now that gave me some background information unintentionally about the song.
Speaker 4: What I really liked was the intro that it was.
It was like the jingle for it was Maxwell House
or something like that. Yeah, yeah, and oh that had
me hooked. Right as I heard that, I sud this,
this is right up my alley. This is great. I
really liked that song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really liked it too. That's that's basically why
I picked it. And then, you know, as I was
researching it and trying to figure out what to write
because I couldn't really find a lot on the band themselves.
But boy, there's loads of these YouTube videos with these
voiceovers and they're hilarious. I heard you to check them
out and go down the same rabbit hole. I left
rabbit tracks for you. Not a problem I left. I
left coffee beans.
Speaker 6: You can follow them.
Speaker 9: Excellent.
Speaker 6: There you have it.
Speaker 9: That's a prime example of true inspiration because you can
follow that from.
Speaker 1: Actually actually found the band's Facebook page and they seem
to be like active recently. So I messaged them to
ask me, you know, what exactly was their inspiration for
the song, but I didn't get an answer.
Speaker 6: Song.
Speaker 9: Okay, it'll come as soon as we're done recording.
Speaker 1: Of course.
Speaker 9: They're brewing coffee to sit down and type their response
right now. Of course, all right, thanks Barb. Mercedes is
not with us tonight, but she did want to participate
because she had a selection and she pre recorded her segment.
So let's check out what Mercedes has sent for us.
Speaker 17: Hey, everybody, As Neil and I often say, there is
an Alice Cooper song and a Ramone song for every occasion.
If given our own show, it would be The Ramone
slash Alice Cooper Music Show with Neila Mercedes. Alice has
a really good song titled Caffeine. I don't know what
the correlating Ramone song would be, but I'm sure there
is one. But I've been cut off from using Alice
songs for a while, so it took me a minute
to think of this one. I never think of the
song to be about coffee, but it is. I always
think of it as being about sugar. The song is
No Sugar Tonight slash New Mother Nature Medley by the
Guests Who from nineteen sixty nine. It was released as
the B side of American Woman, which you'll probably know
without the New Mother Nature edition. The record hit number
one on the Billboard Hot one hundred and stayed there
for three weeks. At the time, cash Box and other
important music trade magazine would rate sides of singles separately,
and No Sugar Tonight reached number thirty nine. The story
about adding New Mother Nature and making it a medley
goes like this Bachmann had written or was in the
process of writing, depending on your source. A short song
in the key of F Sharp called No Sugar Tonight.
When he presented the song to Burton Cumming and Orca,
he was told that the song was too short. Bachman
and Cummings expanded the song by adding to it a
song that Cummings had written or was in the process
of writing, that was also in the key of F sharp.
New Mother Nature Radio DJs would play them together and
it was released as a medley. This was the last
record that Randy Bachman played on as a member of
The Guests Who. He was a Mormon and his religious
beliefs conflicted with the sex, drugs, and rock and roll
lifestyle of the other band members. In nineteen seventy three,
Bachman began a band with two of his brothers, Fred Turner,
and called themselves Bachman Turner Overdrive. You certainly know them.
You ain't seen nothing yet, getting taken care of business,
rocking on down, sorry, rolling down the highway. But let's
get back to the Guests Who. Their first album, a
garage rock out called Shaken All Over with a single
of the same name, a cover of the original by
Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, was released in nineteen sixty five.
It was the beginning of the British Invasion. So what
was a new Canadian band going to do to get noticed?
While their Canadian label, Quality Records disguised the single by
crediting it to Guess Who with a question mark as
a publicity stunt to generate speculation that it was by
a more famous British Invasion band working incognito, the record
company revealed that the band's name was actually Chad Allen
and the Expressions, but the radio DJ has continued to
use the name the Guess Who, which stuck the question
mark was later dropped. But I cannot find any information.
Speaker 1: About when or why.
Speaker 17: So let's hear no sugar tonight, slash new mother nature.
Speaker 10: Lonely, feeling deep inside, find the corner your hide, silent footsteps,
crowded me, sudden darkness.
Speaker 11: But I can see.
Speaker 10: No sugar tonight or coffee. No sugar to night in
my tea, No sugar to sound, sign me.
Speaker 16: No sugars around with me down outdown own own you
got out down now out.
Speaker 15: In the silence of her mind, quiet movements where I
can find.
Speaker 4: Ven for me.
Speaker 11: With her eyes.
Speaker 10: Now fallen from her sky.
Speaker 16: Sk no sugars a din call me, no sugars are done.
Speaker 10: No sugar stand sid me, No sugars are.
Speaker 4: Run with me.
Speaker 16: Don lou down down down down, go out down down undut.
Speaker 3: Jaca says yes, and I believe him. I'm gonna talk
about the things I see. She hasn't got the feeble
that gots to leave him. Understand it in each other's way,
get trimming back tide to places you've been to.
Speaker 18: You wonder what you're.
Speaker 13: Gonna fight him.
Speaker 12: You know you've been wrong, but it won't.
Speaker 10: Belong before you leave him above behind.
Speaker 18: Because it's the number of the nature.
Speaker 5: Take it over.
Speaker 18: It's the new spend the lady go to gold. It's
the umber of the nature.
Speaker 10: Take it over.
Speaker 18: She's getting us all, she's getting us all.
Speaker 10: Shuck said no when I came back last.
Speaker 18: Time, it's looking like I lost a friend.
Speaker 4: No use calling because the sky.
Speaker 10: Is falling and I'm getting pretty neat at it.
Speaker 3: In a small field groom in a corner basement, the
situation must be rising.
Speaker 10: Mag your good. He's in a bottle of wine.
Speaker 18: We're gonna get in on riding to night. Because it's
the new mother nature, take it over. It's the middle spleen.
The lady comes to color it's the new the nature
taking it over.
Speaker 4: She's getting us all. She's getting us all.
Speaker 10: Lovely because is guessing. I believe my side.
Speaker 3: Other things I see. You find the corner of the feeble,
the guts to living with us had in each other's weak, silent.
Speaker 10: Just step side to play. He says, you what you're
gonna find the son Get this song and it below.
Speaker 3: The major take it.
Speaker 18: It's the lady come to the nature as having us all.
Speaker 10: She's getting us all.
Speaker 17: So you might get an idea of what No Sugar
Tonight refers to, But I'm gonna tell you the story
behind it. This is from the song Fact's website. John Preshow,
who knew Randy Bachman had worked security for the Bandan
Turner over Over, gave us this account of how the
song came together. Randy told me that the inspiration for
writing No Sugar Tonight came from to him from an
experience he had walking in downtown Berkeley, California. Randy was
walking and talking with a bandmate when he looked up
and saw four big biker guys walking on the same sidewalk.
Approaching them. Randy made up his mind across the street
rather than confront the bikers. Then he heard the skidding
of car tires. Just as Randy was stepping off the sidewalk,
the car came to a skidding stop, and a biker
lady got out of the car, walked over to one
of the bikers and engaged him at a heated conversation.
When the argument ended, the biker lady walked back to
the car, opened the door, turned around, then shouted to
the biker one more thing, honey, you're not getting any
sugar tonight, indicating that he was not going to get
any sex that night from her. The car took off,
Randy crossed the street, went back to his hotel and
started writing the song based on that experience. So that's
my coffee song, No sugar Tonight.
Speaker 4: I like it.
Speaker 6: I've always loved that song.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I think Burton Cummings is one of the most
underrated vocalists, especially from around that time. You never see
him on a list of you know, greatest singers of
all time and all that, but he certainly should be.
And and he has such a great voice, and yes,
and he's still out there doing it.
Speaker 9: Last I knew good. So I like those guitar riffs. Yeah,
he does. He pops up on social media. He's got
some videos, he does little things.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, no, I don't say he was totally unknown, but.
Speaker 9: Yeah, he doesn't get the name that like Brandy Bachman
is better known. Yeah yeah, yeah, that was a good one.
All right. Just so, how HAPs Mercedes is in Canada
as we're recording, and I think there's a snaff who
because her name is Mercedes, they're trying to stick a
tariffunder to bring her back. Oh, we're going to see
how that out.
Speaker 1: Goodness.
Speaker 4: See, yeah, we'll see how that works.
Speaker 6: Ye.
Speaker 9: All right, let's take our second quick break and we
have two more to go, So stick around.
Speaker 15: Freshen your coffee, sir, Yeah, yeah, yeah, keep it coming,
put the butt down, get away.
Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 9: And welcome back, Neil. We're up to you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm gonna echo the sentiments that Mercedes said that
between Alice Cooper and the Ramones, there's always a song
for every occasion. And I'll be honest, I'm hard pressed
to come up with a Ramone song about coffee, other
than the fact that all of their songs sound like
they've been drinking too much. Yep. But and I've got
the coffee right now. But the name of the song
and the band that I've chosen for today, the song
is called Coffee Mug by The Descendants, Okay now. The
Descendants are an American punk rock band that formed in
Manhattan Beach, California, in nineteen seventy seven. They began as
a power pop, surf punk trio with drummer Bill Stevenson,
who also would go on to become their producer, main
songwriter and would be the only constant member of the
band throughout its history, along with guitarist Frank Nevada and
bassist Tony Lombardo. Now in nineteen seventy nine, they added
Stephenson's friend Milo Auckerman as the lead singer, and his
addition to the band led them to write shorter, faster,
and more aggressive songs. Auckerman would say later that quote,
we started drinking too much coffee. Because of that and
the addition of me, the music became very quick and
all about bursts of energy, and we'll see that in
just a minute. They went on to become central figures
in the la hardcore scene that had been developing around
that time. They recorded their debut album, Milo goes to
college in June of nineteen eighty two, because well that's
what Milo did. He decided he wanted to go to college.
As Milo explains, when I decided to go to university,
the guys in the band were pretty hip on it
because they knew how big a nerd I was, and
they were cool with it. By the way, Ackerman went
on to earn a PhD in biochemistry.
Speaker 6: Nice anyway.
Speaker 4: Around the same time, Stevenson had also joined the band
Black Flag. So with Ackerman in college and Stevenson in
Black Flag, the Descendants went on kind of a hiatus
until nineteen eighty five. Also during this time, guitarist Nevada
had burned all his equipment and moved to Oregon, as
one would do all over the stream, while the remaining
members continued to perform as the Ascendants get It Descendants Ascendants,
we get it anyway, this kind of revolving door back
and forth. There was a mix and match type of
thing with basically the same small core of musicians that
went on in several different bands went on until about
nineteen ninety six, which was actually pretty cool because from
what I understand, they were all cool with it. There
was no jealousy or rivalry. They were just like, oh,
let's get you know, we want to play. Okay, get
the guys that were available, you know. So they went
on and it was it was like a cool scene.
And I wish more, I wish more musicians were.
Speaker 6: Like that, to be honest, or people in general.
Speaker 4: There you go. Anyway, we're up to nineteen ninety six
and that's when the Descendants reformed with Milo back in
the fold, Stevenson on drums, Stephen Egerton on guitar, and
Carl Alvarez on bass, and they got together and recorded
the album Everything.
Speaker 9: Sucks, shortened to the point.
Speaker 4: And speaking of speaking of shortened to the point, it
contains the song We're gonna hear right now coffee Mode.
Speaker 7: When I.
Speaker 4: And there you have it all thirty thirty five seconds
of coffee mug.
Speaker 9: Wow, that is a six minute song squished through thirty seconds.
Speaker 4: That's actually a very long song played very very fast. Yeah. Now,
in case you missed any of the lyrics, I saw
you writing them down, John, I know you got them right.
Speaker 5: Of course, every every word, Neil, every word.
Speaker 4: But for the rest of you, let me give mug
mug mug, coffee mug going to clear away the haze.
Liquid proof that I can win this race. Coffee mug
the grip that keeps me tall, my interlink, keeps me
questing all. I don't need no booze or drugs. I
just chug a lug, my coffee mug. I don't need
your kiss or hug. I just chuck the lug my
coffee mug. They haven't banned my liquid drug of choice.
There's too many, there's too many hooked, and they've got
too much voice. So for the moment, we're all pretty
good to go with ninety eight cups, with ninety eight
more to go. I don't need no booze and drugs.
I just chugle love my coffee mug. I don't need
your kiss and hug. I just chuggle love my coffee mug.
Here a bean, there are being everywhere a mean mean bean.
Coffee mug mug, mug mug.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's like ode to coffee mug.
Speaker 9: That is a four minute song.
Speaker 4: Yeah that you could have played that song three times
in the amount of time it took me to read
the lyrics.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, wow, Neil, I gotta say, you know, compared
to the kind of the soulful, slow, cigarettes and coffee
that just kind of kicks it up and notch.
Speaker 4: To borrow a phrase, I think they've they've got the
that's well say, coffee allows you to calm yourself down
and picks you up. That's right now. In spite of
going on one hiatus or another or two or whatever,
the Descendant's lineup was basically or has basically remained the
same with Auckerman, Stevenson, Eagerton, and Alvarez since nineteen eighty six.
In twenty sixteen, Milo decided to leave his scientific career
behind and focus his attention on the Descendants full time,
citing burnout with biochemistry and also getting laid off from
his job at DuPont. So hey, you go with what
you know. A caricature of Milo has been used as
the band's mascot or logo since the early nineteen eighties.
It has appeared on many of their album covers and
on much of their merchandise and promo material as well. Overall,
have released eight studio albums, plus numerous live albums, compilations
and ep EPs, and a documentary film about the band
was released in twenty thirteen, and finally the descendants have
been cited as an influence on many modern day punk
bands such as Green Day, Blink one two, and The Offspring,
and their records have been included on several lists of
noteworthy punk albums. So a little more coffee please, I
don't know right there, I'm all tired out now.
Speaker 9: Yeah wow, Yeah, that was a lot of music in
a very short amount of time.
Speaker 4: Yes, I can't even speak that, fan, I can't even
How could you spit all those lyrics out that quickly?
Speaker 9: If spress over a song, yeah, yes, much.
Speaker 4: I would have to like slow the tape down and
record it. But then it would sound like Alvin and
the Chipmunks, which wouldn't wouldn't be you know, it would
kind of fit too. That's sped up chiels true. Right,
there you go.
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's a hard one to follow. Yeah, great, So
here we go. I went with something that is much slower,
not quite as slow and mellowis John's. But in between
it's a song called Afternoons and Coffee Spoons by the
crash Test Dummies. Yep, the crash Test Dummies are from
Winnipeg in the Manitoba province of Canada. A when you
hear a song of theirs, the first thing that pops
out is Brad Roberts voice. He's one of the few
mainstream singers that are in like that bass baritone range.
You don't see that too often. It's Cyclopedia dot Com said,
if a bullfrog could sing appealingly, it would probably sound
like Brad Roberts. That's a pretty good description. I would
go with that. Brad is now sixty one. He graduated
with honors in English literature and philosophy from the University
of Winnipeg. He dropped his plans for earning a master's
degree when the music stuff started taking off. He was
working as a bartender and writing songs on the side,
and his first band, back in nineteen eighty six, was named,
unbeknownst to him by band member and club owner Curtis Fordell.
He named it Bad Brad Roberts and the Saint James
Rhythm Pigs.
Speaker 4: That kind of rolls right off the tongue.
Speaker 14: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Really, that did not last very long. That got kaibash
pretty quickly. The band evolved into the Crash Test Dummies.
That name was a joke that was made by a
friend who was in medical school who just kind of
made it as a one off comment, and that's what's stuck.
It's better than the rhythm pigs, I think in this
particular situation. I don't know for their type, their style
and all that rhythm Pigs has. It has its place,
but exactly, yeah, exactly. Now a crash test dummy itself,
which if you're unfamiliar, is a substitute for a human
used in crash tests for automobiles and planes and all
that kind of stuff. Anybody want to guess when the
first injury from a motor vehicle accident happened? You want
to take a guess what year.
Speaker 4: I was going to be. Probably about ten minutes after
the first car rules on the assembly line.
Speaker 9: You're not far off, Neil. Yeah, we're going back to
eighteen sixty nine and automobile accident. Yes, Mary Ward, which
I don't think you could sound more irish, fell off
of a steam powered carriage and then got run over
by that carriage. The first motor vehicle accident with an
injury and the first fatality. So that's Mary's claim to fame. Unfortunately,
so engineers, they wanted design cars that minimize in during
accidents because, as we have seen, if there is something
that can be hit, a driver will somehow find a
way to hit it. So when they started doing this,
they use cadavers for a number of years, which didn't
sit well with a lot of people because it's of
gross and some thought it was disrespectful for us. And
were they volunteers.
Speaker 4: Were they not?
Speaker 9: I don't really know. They started using volunteer people, and
they started using non volunteer animals, which also did not
go over very well. So engineers started working on something
to simulate a human person. The first crash test on
ME came out in nineteen forty nine and has evolved
ever since with more sensors, more computers, more advanced and
all that kind of stuff. So generally you don't see
too many people getting strapped in and crashed into walls
on purpose. Now back to the band. They have changed
their lineup a few times, but the best known lineup
is Brad on vocals and guitar, Ellen Reid on keyboards
and vocals, Brad's brother Dan on bass and backup vocals,
Benjamin Darvel on mandolin and harmonica, and Mitch George on drums.
They gained a following around the Winnipeg area and they
wound up getting signed to BMG Records in nineteen ninety one,
which is pretty good. Their first album, The Ghosts That
Haunt Me, had a single titled Superman Song that was
huge in Canada. It was nothing in the United States
for some reason. It just didn't crash, it didn't cross
the border. But it was their next album, nineteen ninety
three's God Shuffled His Feet that helped them break into
the US. Happened to be in college up in Potsdam,
near the Canadian border, so we could hear Canadian radio.
So I got to hear them first that way, and
they started gaining some traction here in the US. That
is the album that has the song on it, which
is the giant hit that if you know them, that's
the song you know here in the US. Not only
was it a big hit in the US, it topped
the charts in Europe, Australia, and Yes, weird Al did
a parody called Headline News. Of course he did, of
course he did. Both songs are about the struggles of
three different kids as they grow up. The Crash Test
Dummies tends to be a little more profound and serious
because remember Brad was a philosophy major and weird Else
tends to be the complete opposite. I encourage you to
check out both of those. Their next single didn't do
so well, but it happens to be my favorite song
of theirs. It's the one we're going to hear as
it did hit the charts. The Afternoon and Coffee Spoons
hit the charts, but not as high as it did, however,
help the album hit platinum sales with over a million sold,
and after that they just kept putting out new material,
both as solo artists and as a band. They got
back together for a tour a few years ago, and
I did get to see them at City Wine in
New York City in twenty twenty three. It was a
terrific show with them getting back together again, so that
was a lot of fun. So to the song itself,
Afternoons and Coffee Spoons. Remember, Brad Roberts is an English
lit philosophy guy, and this song happens to be the
result another result of the influence of poet T. S. Eliot.
We talked about never forgiving ts Eliott for his inspiration
of the musical Cats in the past, amongst other things.
This one, maybe we can forgive him for The song
is based on the poem The Love Song of j
Alfred proof Rock, which I tried reading and I am
very very much not an English lit and philosophy guy,
and I just couldn't make it past the first paragraph stanza,
what do you call it in a poem? I don't
even know, so I tried, but nope. The song and
the poem are both about being afraid of getting older
and maybe dying a slow death, and the fear that
comes with that kind of stuff. A typical lighthearted topic
with a contrasting lighthearted, kind of upbeat music underneath it.
The lyrics talk about the smell of being in a hospital,
talks about wearing pajamas all day, which, if it's by choice,
sounds pretty cool. I was going to say, wait a minute, right,
but if you're stuck in a hospital or a nursing
home and then you don't have a choice, not so good. Yeah,
losing your hair, good stuff all around.
Speaker 4: You know that kind of Well, sometimes you can't, sometimes
you can't.
Speaker 9: Yeah, People Magazine, I love this description. People Magazine describe
the quintet as neo folky, pseudo hippies, sort of celtic,
dryly humorous, exceptionally literate pop band. Okay, that's a lot
of it is I'm pretty descriptive.
Speaker 4: That's a band name right there. I think there you go.
Speaker 9: Yep, it'll have to be a double album because you
have to open it because the time is going to
go to the inside.
Speaker 1: The T shirt only comes into XL true.
Speaker 9: So let's give it a listen. This is crash test
Dummies afternoons and coffee spoof.
Speaker 4: Oh is it?
Speaker 10: That makes me just a little bed creiser.
Speaker 5: There is a breezer makes my breezing not so EASi.
Speaker 7: I've heard my lunch jack got to the next trades.
I've spurled the hospital ways, stop I disappear and hell
lie sun jams in the day time times Well I
lay by side track weirdes sings of Barnas in Berfick order.
Speaker 10: Like Game the Doctor, my dis groom shun. I've tried
to stick to my frist room shunks.
Speaker 7: Some a disappear on Helle some well jamas take time.
Speaker 6: O news.
Speaker 4: We'll be measured out, measured out.
Speaker 7: Measured with God spooz in gs ilios. Maybe b I
could go blame by lay back, I could keep this results.
Speaker 4: Of I will get back.
Speaker 10: I've watched for some of you.
Speaker 7: The best bye I've heard the rattle is my brother
Guy disappearing here. Like Jams, we will be measured.
Speaker 4: Mentioned us weird.
Speaker 7: We will be measured mentioned weird.
Speaker 9: I remember hearing that the first time when I was
in college, and it's just catchy. So that's one of
the feel that doesn't get old. I could hear that
over and over and you cannot mistake the voice. As
Gail said, while it was playing, we were chatting very distinctive,
and they were probably smart for going deeper because as
you've seen, as people get older, they tend to lose
the high notes. You don't really lose the into low notes,
and they still sound good. Have you seen clips of
David Lee Roth's current tour. No, oh my, I don't
know if you want to, because it may destroy the memories.
Speaker 13: You have of Van Halen.
Speaker 9: So he's got terrific musicians with him, and most of
what I seen him do is stand up front and smile,
grinning ear to ear, happy as could be to be
there with the occasion of wow, yeah why, and he
looks like the background people do the work. Oh boy, Yeah,
it's uh, it's something well it sounds painful.
Speaker 4: Now with the you know, all the electronic gizmos and stuff,
and they've been doing this for a while that when
they go for the high notes, they haven't they just
sample their own record somewhere of the keyboard player just
hits the note, you know, hits a button and.
Speaker 9: He like, they can be done for. It's since the
dawn of time there had been people backstage singing while
people on stage.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that kind of nothing.
Speaker 9: Vince Neil is on par with what David Lee Roth
is doing right now with.
Speaker 4: The Hey, there were some things that they couldn't do
even in the day. You know, they did it once
in the studio and that was that. Yeah, so they
just drop it down and octave and hey, you know what.
Speaker 9: That's fine if they did that. But if they don't
do that, and they're trying to you know, oh no.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, no, don't if he can't do it,
like you said, drop Hey, Robert Plant can't hit those
high notes, but he can still sing.
Speaker 9: Right, Yes he can, and he adjusted accordingly.
Speaker 6: He has matured very nicely, say in my opinion.
Speaker 9: So we're leaving Gale on a happy note tonight, all right,
So that's all I've got. I thought I thought it
was a catchy one. I was good, So, yeah, that
was a good topic. I like that one.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Next week the plan and the following week the plan
is that Alison and Avon from Getting Dirty are going
to be joining us for the annual pre far made
episodes that we like to do. Farm Maide is in
Minneapolis this year. I have never been to Minneapolis, so
I am looking forward to that and h Von can't
make the trip, but Alison and the group of us
we're planning on visiting a Paisley Park which was Prince's
house and studio, which man, they gouge you just to
get in the door. So we're going to be doing
the cheap tour, not the expensive tour. But I'm looking
forward to that along with other things. And then after
I'm going to be hitting clear Lake, Iowa. The plan anyway,
because the Buddy Holly and et cetera a plane crash site.
The surf ballroom is there. They have a little museum
and all that.
Speaker 4: Yeah that's still there.
Speaker 9: That that Yeah, the surf ballroom I still function is
a functional venue.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've not been there, but I know it's it's
still yeah, it's still running yet.
Speaker 9: They don't have an event for the night that I
plan on being there, but that may change. I'm gonna
keep my eyes open. We'll see, but at least I
get to check it out. They have a little museum
and you can walk out to the to the crash
light and all that. So I will report back with
all that good stuff. But as of now, for next
week and the week after, we'll have Alison and Levon
and we'll be doing some farm made related stuff. So
nice looking forward to that, right, nice looking forward to it,
all right, So good time to pull the plug, I think, so.
All right, thank you Crambones, excellent selections across the board,
and thank you all for joining us for the Rock
and Roll History Show. Don't forget 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.
Like I said, we'll be back next week and the
week after with some farm maide related material. Until then,
be careful, We'll be safe and peace out. Everybody A rock.
Speaker 6: Cop bottom it okay, bye bye.
Speaker 9: Udson River Radio dot Com a subsidiary of Glacier Entertainment LLC.
Speaker 10: Potentially successful.
Speaker 9: The multi hundred dollar corporation