This week we are checking out a bunch of tunes related to people names! Some names are so powerful they evoke images of love, hate, holiness or even rock and roll. If there was a song called Lemmy we would feature it here! Tune in to see who made the cut! Don't forget to check out RecordKeeper Cases and get in on their Kickstarter asap!
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(00:00) Monuments in Ruin – Episode 229 Intro
(00:39) Ween - Sarah
(04:21) Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon
(08:26) Rod Stewart - Maggie May
(14:09) Eric Clapton - Layla
(24:16) Pure Prairie League - Falling In And Out Of Love
(26:25) Pure Prairie League - Amie
(30:50) Beatles - Eleanor Rigby
(32:54) The Rolling Stones - Angie
(37:23) The Police - Roxanne
(47:22) Pixies - Ana
(49:30) Dolly Parton - Jolene
(01:01:58) Toto - Rosanna
(01:07:20) Monuments in Ruin – Episode 229 Outro
Do the modern Billboard Charts still hold the same importance as originally intended?
~ Yes. It continues to shows us what is hot in pop culture.
~ No. Fans listen to far more music than is acknowledged by modern Billboard Chart system.
What are your favorite songs featuring people names?
#Ween #FleetwoodMac #RodStewart #EricClapton #PurePrairieLeague #Beatles #TheRollingStones #ThePolice #Pixies #DollyParton #Toto
MIR229 - People Names Notes...
~ This week we are tapping into songs that feature names of people. I guess some could also be pet names or a ship in certain cases but certainly not band names or locations. These song titles are more likely names attached to human beings. Names are how we reference each other in person or in a dialog about specific persons. Some people even find themselves at such an elevated level of fame that they can go by a single first name. Not a nickname or stage name like Prince or Meatloaf but a straight first name like Beyonce or Marilyn. Every single person listening is currently thinking of Marilyn from The Munster’s, right? HA!
~ Opening this week show was Ween with the track Sarah from their 1992 album Pure Guava. This was my introduction to Ween. After seeing the video for Push Th’ Little Daisies I went out and purchased the Pure Guava cassette. Though Daisies was quirky and catchy, I had no idea of the world I was walking into. This was the moment I realized that the music world was wide open if you want to step into it. It’s not always rock stars and jet airplanes. Ween are still actively touring to this day.
We discussed names that stand alone in the music world and this next track is certainly one to do so. It may not reference a specific person of fame but everyone knows the name Rhiannon belongs to Fleetwood Mac.
~ Fleetwood Mac 1975 – Talk about a hit machine. Those early Fleetwood albums are packed. I always get the self titled Fleetwood album and Rumours confused on their release dates. I’ve listened to Rumours 1000x more than the self titled and still picture them releasing in reverse order. I can’t change history, but my mind feels like that is one of those Mandela Effect things. The facts prove otherwise but I know history didn’t happen that way! Rumours was a 1977 release so maybe now that I’ve said the self titled was released in 1975 I’ll stop mixing them up. Rhiannon and Landslide where released before Dreams, Go Your Own Way and The Chain. It has been written!
~ Rod Stewart 1971 – Maggie May and our set opener Rhiannon kind of have a similar vibe to their intros. That’s bad news for the Fleetwood folks because this was released in 1971, a few years before theirs. We will revisit that in a moment. Rod Stewart is another artist I wrote off for the wrong reasons. It was always on AM/FM and even though I never minded hearing his music it was a victim of overplay, for me. My big mistake was not looking into his backstory. His work with the Jeff Beck Group and Faces in the late 60’s/early 70’s is pretty amazing. It’s easy to see how fans could fall in love with this dude. I even hear Lemmy from Motorhead one reference The Faces and being a band he enjoyed. That is certainly a rock and roll stamp of approval if there ever was one.
~ Layla originally written in 1970, is quote “about Eric Claptons forbidden love for the wife of his close friend George Harrison (Layla would eventually became Clapton's wife). That’s the story we are being told, anyway. –
And the topic continues! Cover songs and who wrote them, how they are reimagined and why they have a firm existence in the music world. In this case, this is borderline for cover song territory. Originally a Derek and the dominoes tune, co-written by EC and then drummer Jim Gordon. Though he was in the band when the electric version was released, here we heard the acoustic performance from MTV’s unplugged in 1992. This is a little bit of a throwback to ep228 when we discussed MTV unplugged, Nirvana cover songs and The Vaselines. We must acknowledge how cool the MTV unplugged series was, in general. This version, Imo, is way better than the original, which is also a terrific version. So, does this classify as a cover song or no? Probably not but it’s worth considering for the topic.
~ Up next we are going into the only song that steps outside of the name theme. The only reason is because it will be two tracks back-to-back and the second track ends with the title of the first. I feel they work so well together that they should be one track anyway. Maybe it was separated for radio edits. Who knows. This is the Pure Prairie League with Falling In And Out of Love which will then go directly into Amie.
~ Pure Prairie League 1972 – The vocals harmonies in this band are simply astounding. Every time I hear these tunes the voice delivery stands out to me. Curious if that came easy to the band, was or luck or if they really had to break it all down to get that precision delivery. A topic we discuss here often is about revisiting things that may have been overlooked. Turns out, this record was released and did not really make waves until a few years later in 1975. The label reissued the record and released Amie as the single. My research shows it made it to 27th on the charts. Landing in the mid 70’s, well, that is a lot of competition to break through. Great tune. Side note about the album art. The self titled album features a Norman Rockwell painting of a cowboy leaning beside an old gramophone. That’s the old record players with the horn for a speaker. All of the remaining albums are by a different artist though. Similar in style but only the first was a Rockwell piece.
~ Beatles – Speaking of classic artwork, the artwork for the Revolver album is something I’ve stared at for many an hour. The black and white imagery catches the eye and will not let go. Eleanor Rigby was originally released as a double A-Side with the song Yellow Submarine. The Mandela effect may be at work on me again for this. Yellow Submarine, the song, was originally released on Revolver in 1966. Yellow Submarine, the film, which is about as iconic as it gets regarding artwork, was not released until 1968. The soundtrack album was not released until 1969. So, the song precedes the release of the film and soundtrack both by a couple of years. Side note, if you ever have a chance to visit Collective Clothing in Chattanooga, Tennessee you will see some massive pieces of Yellow Submarine art featured in the shop.
Let’s jump back a step and talk about the Double A-side single. This is fascinating to me. In the days of the vinyl single, there was the focus track, the A-Side. This was the tune the label or artist wanted to push for the album single or the hit single, as they say. The flip side or B-side would often receive less attention. Why? I’m not totally sure. In the case of the Double-A side, both tracks were intended to promote the record as a double single or dual single, which is funny to say because both are oxymorons. Both songs would receive the same charting position. In this case we would have Eleanor Rigby/Yellow Submarine in the same charting slot. We live in a totally different world now.
~ Rolling Stones – Angie, released in 1973 may not be my favorite song by the stones, but the art layout is one of the darkest album covers of their discography, imo. The bands faces are seen through these thin veils, and it makes for some really creepy imagery. It’s hard to explain but when you hold the record in your hand the images slowly start to feel sinister. Then you open the record and there is a full color 12” insert of this bubbling cauldron featuring a goat head inside it. Whoever put this layout together really worked some dark magic on it, for sure. Regarding the stones, jump back to Episode 228 and check out the Godstar tune by Psychic TV which is about the death of Brian Jones.
~ Police 1978, also on episode 228 we discussed the importance of Reggae in the punk rock community which is where the next band started. Roxanne is another name that everyone associates with one song. This one has as much connection to music as Rhiannon, imo. There is only one Roxanne.
~ Pixies 1990 – The Pixies are one of my long-time favorite bands. I am so thankful to have seen the reunion tour with all the original team. They knocked it out of the park too. Every song they started playing made me say, “Oh! I am glad they are playing this one!” haha! Well, turns out, this is the song I briefly mentioned on ep227 regarding the Beck tune! Now the cycle is complete. Just like this episode.
~ Dolly Parton - The Queen! Great guitar riff and an absolute masterwork containing Jolene and I Will Always Love You. Wow! The songwriting universe pulled through for her on that day.
~ Toto - This song features a famous drum shuffle called the Purdie shuffle and is the end of our episode. The solo break at the end of this track is on fire!