tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post4351519312140123672..comments2024-03-18T21:33:35.309-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: When Bad Songs Happen to Good ArtistsGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-59018394883950469192010-09-27T08:31:14.785-07:002010-09-27T08:31:14.785-07:00well you know my taste--JF is too straight clean s...well you know my taste--JF is too straight clean successful & normal for me to be interestedgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-84317200211722797082010-09-27T07:31:04.341-07:002010-09-27T07:31:04.341-07:00I've read elsewhere that Zaentz was a great gu...I've read elsewhere that Zaentz was a great guy, and that Fogerty was the d*ck.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-17089509680888979292010-09-27T07:23:10.358-07:002010-09-27T07:23:10.358-07:00JF mistake # 1---signing with Fantasy's Saul Z...JF mistake # 1---signing with Fantasy's Saul Zaentz <br />who caint daince<br /><br />meanwhile no list of revolutionized covers'd be complete w/out:<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDyajDLz4pw" rel="nofollow">Donovan's Colours </a>gehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-57909472968798251252010-09-27T06:16:12.949-07:002010-09-27T06:16:12.949-07:00Did he ever make any mistakes?
Yes.
But first ...Did he ever make any mistakes? <br /><br />Yes.<br /><br />But first it is interesting to note that while the vast majority of popular music songs are about the 1001 varieties of young love, Creedence recorded not a single conventional love song on any of their albums. The only exception is the b-side of their first single, Call it Pretending, which didn't appear on an album. <br /><br />But the mistake? His first solo album, Blue Ridge Rangers, at least as far as I can recall (haven't heard it since it came out). I think because he was so bitter at his former bandmates and wanted to rub their faces in it, he plays all the instruments, which ends up sounding flat and artificial -- which Creedence never sounded like.<br /><br />Those other three guys weren't just stiffs, especially as a whole. None of them were virtuosos, but they had a band feel that had developed since the early sixties, way before they had any commercial success.<br /><br />His other mistake? Letting those other stiffs contribute songs to their last album!Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-11209882894079645402010-09-26T23:58:48.466-07:002010-09-26T23:58:48.466-07:00As I read this post - one I can possibly understan...As I read this post - one I can possibly understand from some of rest of your stuff, I am listening to John Fogerty, full blast doing his live "Premonition" album. Did he ever make any mistakes? I'm a <br />1948er so I grew up in the 60's and never remember any mistakes by CR or John. Pure hogwaller as far as I know. love youlorrainehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05442150597701836126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-44009583978071689962010-09-26T20:56:15.498-07:002010-09-26T20:56:15.498-07:00Russel Malone-
Theme from Gunsmoke and The Price ...Russel Malone-<br /><br />Theme from Gunsmoke and The Price is Right.debasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13546940741042023260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-47317836921602380762010-09-26T17:19:33.029-07:002010-09-26T17:19:33.029-07:00Pat Boone doing heavy metal.
No, we don't ne...Pat Boone doing heavy metal. <br /><br />No, we don't need examples.<br /><br />The Crop-Dusting song was awesome, Mr. Sippican!!Joan of Argghh!https://www.blogger.com/profile/14729682908266300507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-48981079427909151522010-09-26T15:33:21.364-07:002010-09-26T15:33:21.364-07:00Johnny Cash has a cover of "Sloop John B"...Johnny Cash has a cover of "Sloop John B".<br /><br />JWMJWMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05564732483476859555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-27444319710889401502010-09-26T14:31:38.753-07:002010-09-26T14:31:38.753-07:00ah yes Cocker--
i one day met the the aging autho...ah yes Cocker--<br /> i one day met the the aging author of BYE BYE BLACKBIRD Ray Henderson [Brost]; he mentioned someone's giving him Cocker's album, i wish i remembered his exact words...this dude also penned: "That Old Gang of Mine", "Annabelle" (both 1923), , "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue", "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" (all 1925), "The Varsity Drag" (1927), "You're The Cream In My Coffee" (1928), "Button Up Your Overcoat", "You Are My Lucky Star" "I'm A Dreamer, Aren't We All", "Keep Your Sunny Side Up" (1929), "The Thrill Is Gone", and "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries"<br />which makes him almost the elton john of that roaring era!gehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-67590209045650276032010-09-26T13:39:26.453-07:002010-09-26T13:39:26.453-07:00As G-Bob can well imagine, I love this essay with ...As G-Bob can well imagine, I love this essay with the fierce urgency of a four-year-old in the back seat of mom's minivan, forty miles from the nearest restroom. <br /><br />As far as Aretha goes, I used to work construction with my little brother. We had the battered radio going, of course, and Aretha was singing Bridge Over Troubled Water, and by "singing" I mean she was really beating the hell out of it, starting on the last note and going up from there; I mean just pounding it like a cutlet. About halfway through, my brother turned to me and said mordantly: "I can't even hear Garfunkel." Funniest thing ever spoken to me. <br /><br />I have an entry! <a href="http://sippicancottage.blogspot.com/2007/02/here-we-are-now-entertain-us.html" rel="nofollow">Smells like... well, something </a>SippicanCottagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14940797380578921776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-3008734158627393522010-09-26T13:09:10.302-07:002010-09-26T13:09:10.302-07:00And Joe Cocker, of course... In jazz, Sonny Rolli...And Joe Cocker, of course... In jazz, Sonny Rollins did that a lot, e.g. There's No Business Like Show Business, or I'm an Old Cowhand....Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-88338527787394330122010-09-26T13:06:21.017-07:002010-09-26T13:06:21.017-07:00Aretha was really good at re-imagining songs, star...Aretha was really good at re-imagining songs, starting with Respect and on through I Say a Little Prayer, Eleanor Rigby, Don't Play that Song, You're All I Need to Get By, Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, Until You Come Back to Me, etc., etc.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-31930204347092074932010-09-26T12:58:30.084-07:002010-09-26T12:58:30.084-07:00hello-o-o-o-o?
anybody home?
well the converse of...hello-o-o-o-o?<br />anybody home?<br /><br />well the converse of yr examples GB might be: <br />FILE UNDER 'Surprising-inspired reimaginings of cover material.' <br />the first that comes to mind in my life would be:<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e75BUYdZq-g" rel="nofollow">this version</a>gehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-6739012863202268502010-09-26T09:41:03.927-07:002010-09-26T09:41:03.927-07:00http://www.avclub.com/articles/jimmy-webb,44819/
...http://www.avclub.com/articles/jimmy-webb,44819/<br /><br />[recent interview w/ author of MacArthur Park, see p 2 on that song]gehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-68206756674129670582010-09-26T09:38:05.397-07:002010-09-26T09:38:05.397-07:00Author of “MacArthur Park.” interview
AVC: The ba...Author of “MacArthur Park.” interview<br /><br />AVC: The back-and-forth that you’re talking between writing songs, which is a form of self-expression, and then not wanting to reveal too much about yourself, plays out in a song like “MacArthur Park.” People have called it incomprehensible; they can’t figure out what the cake is doing in the rain. But it’s based on a place you went, a relationship you had, and things you saw. It seems like a lot of the details in it are fairly straightforward, at least to you.<br /><br />JW: Sam, I thank you for that. You are a gentleman and a scholar. Yes, it is, for the most part, a quite detailed song that’s very linear. It’s just that there were a couple of lines that get under the skin of a certain group of people, and it rankles them, because they think I’m deliberately tampering with them. I’m not. I was just a kid. I was like 18, 19 years old, writing this thing, pouring it out, a victim of Dylan Thomas. Just pouring out these lyrics, hoping that somehow the end result would be greater than the sum of its parts, which is one of the great hopes of the poet, is that somehow this mess will magically organize itself into a great work of art. So much of poetry is that, and I think I was much more the poet then than I was the lyricist. If I had to go back and do it all over again, believe me, I would go back and change it to something else. But it’s too late. Just the other day, I had a Ph.D. write me and say, “I would like you to know, Mr. Webb, that as much comfort as this may be to you, that I am a Ph.D. of Letters—” at somewhere. I’m not going to say the university. It was a big university. And he said, “I’m the head of the English Department. I am the Dean. I have been listening to the lyrics to ‘MacArthur Park’ since I was 6 years old. They have always made exquisitely perfect sense to me. Yours truly, Dean so-and-so.” [Laughs.] It’s like he just wanted to get his shot in. He just wanted to say, “Look, it makes sense to me.” It’s interesting. You know what? Sometimes I have felt badly about it because some people have reviled it so terribly—Dave Barry, among others. Somebody said he had recanted in his column. He took it back, and said, “Well, it wasn’t the worst song in the world.”<br /><br />AVC: Another backhanded compliment.<br /><br />JW: I don’t care. It has made so much money for me. He should have a tiny percentage of the money that it has made for me. I still feel good about it. It’s seven and a half minutes of classically influenced music that actually moved through several different movements and built to a cataclysmic ending, almost in the Russian romantic style. That was quite something to put on the radio in the ’60s. You can quibble all day about the cake in the rain, but stand back and look at the record we made. I’m glad that we did it, and I’d do it again...<br />http://www.avclub.com/articles/jimmy-webb,44819/gehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-23671006070505476252010-09-26T09:05:21.680-07:002010-09-26T09:05:21.680-07:00I can never hear "Downtown" without thin...I can never hear "Downtown" without thinking of <a href="http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/manwood/1/doontoon.wav" rel="nofollow">Willie</a>.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.com