Thursday, October 16, 2014

Sir Paul names his pick for best ever album


Our guest columnist and Karaoke King Jim Borgmann writes about Paul McCartney and what may be the greatest album ever.
Ask someone over 60 to name the greatest record album ever made and chances are they will say "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by the Beatles. 

It is hard to argue with that, unless and until you ask a certain Sir Paul McCartney.  Sir Paul will look you straight in the eye and say "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys.  Here's what he said in a 1990 interview with Albumlinernotes.com: 

WHEN DID YOU BECOME AWARE OF THE BEACH BOYS?

PAUL: "The early surf records...I was aware of them as a musical act, and I used to like all that, but I didn't get deeply interested in it---it was just a real nice sound...We used to admire the singing, the high falsetto really and the very sort of 'California' lyrics.

"It was later...it was Pet Sounds that blew me out of the water. First of all, it was Brian's writing. I love the album so much. I've just bought my kids each a copy of it for their education in life---I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album. I was into the writing and the songs."      (To see the complete interview, visit http://albumlinernotes.com/Paul_McCartney_Comments.html)
If you ask me, the Beatles and the Beach Boys, their combined bodies of work, had more influence on music from 1963 to 1969 than all the other bands of that era put together.  Of course there were other great artists and groups, but they all seemed to have their moment in the sun and then faded.  But if you read all the literature, you find that the "unofficial" competition between the Beatles and the Beach Boys drove them both to create more and even better music than  even they knew they were capable of!  Amazing.
So my question for you today's is, what is your favorite song from the Pet Sounds album and how does it touch your soul?
Mine would have to be "God Only Knows", a song Paul McCartney once called "the greatest song ever written".  

Certainly one of the classic love songs to come out of the 60's, "God Only Knows" features the incredible voice of Carl Wilson, which only adds to the song's appeal.  But it's those simple, yet amazing lyrics that find their way into your very being:   "I may not always love you, but long as there are stars above you, you never need to doubt it, I'll make you so sure about it, God only knows what I'd be without you".  
In a recent "rockumentary" I saw on YouTube, Brian Wilson was asked about the circumstances of the writing of the song. He admitted, rather nonchalantly, that he and Tony Asher wrote that song in one hour. One Hour!?!?  That's just not fair. But that sure is talent.

Until next time,
Jim

Thanks Jim!!

Now “God” weighs in on what he believes to be the greatest pop LP ever:

"I consider Pet Sounds to be one of the greatest pop LPs to ever be released. It encompasses everything that's ever knocked me out and rolled it all into one. Brian Wilson is, without a doubt, a pop genius."  – Eric Clapton




More golden oldies good stuff is coming up, so please sign up as a Follower so you don’t miss a single groovy thing.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood


In the last Wisdom of the Oldies posting, guest columnist Jim Borgmann wrote that for years, he had been singing the wrong lyrics to “What a Day for a Daydream” by the Lovin’ Spoonful. He thought the lyrics were:

Tomorrow I’ll pay the dues for dropping my load
And find me a place for being asleep before dawn.

The actual lyrics are quite different.

Tomorrow I’ll pay the dues for dropping my load
A pie in the face for being a sleepy bulldog.

I’d venture that at some point or another, all of us have gotten a lyric wrong. I remember my younger sister going around the house for months in 1966 singing “Wild Thing, you make my heart stink.”

I was surprised to learn there is actually a word for these mistakes: Mondegreen.

According to Wikipedia, a mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to clearly hear a lyric, substitutes words that sound similar, and make some kind of sense.


Probably the best showcase for misunderstood lyrics was Wayne’s World on Saturday Night Live. Their Top 10 screwed up songs included There’s a bathroom on the right instead of CCR’s There’s a bad moon on the rise. Also, from “Benny and the Jets”, She’s got electric boobs, a mohair suit, you know I read it in a magazine.  Party on Wayne and Garth!

Here are a few mondegreens I love. Tell me about your favorites.

Hold me closer, Tony Danza. Count the headlice on the highway.                                                      
                                                                   


                                                                    
                                                                    


                                                                        

                                                                          Tiny Dancer
      Elton John




Well since she put me down I’ve had owls pukin’ in my bed

                                                               Help Me Rhonda
                                                               – The Beach Boys

The ants are my friends, they’re blowin’ in the wind.
                                                               Blowing in the Wind
                                                               ­– Bob Dylan


Gross spiders in the sky…
                                                               Ghost Riders in the Sky
– Sons of the Pioneers

She’s a good girl, loves her Mama
Loves Cheez-its and America, too.
                                                               Freefalling
                                                               – Tom Petty


This is the dawning of the age of asparagus, age of asparagus.
                                                               Aquarius
The Fifth Dimension

Like a virgin, touched for the thirty-first time
                                                               Like a Virgin
                                                               – Madonna

Rock the catbox, rock the catbox.
                                                               Rock the Casbah
      The Clash 




Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with colitis goes by

                                                               Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
      Elton John

Sugar fried honey butt, you know that I love you
                                                               Can’t Help Myself
      The Four Tops
 

Goin’ to the jack-o-lantern, gonna get married.

                                 Chapel of Love
      The Dixie Cups






I think it’s so groovy now that people are finally getting together
I think it’s wonderful and how that people are finally getting together
Freak out in the garden
And you may find a friend
                                                               Reach out in the Darkness
      Friend and Lover

I’m not talkin’ bout Bolivia
And I don’t want to change your life
                                                       
                                                                         I’d Really Love to See you Tonight
      England Dan and John Ford Coley


We got the Flintstones microwave ovens…

                                                               Money for Nothing
                                                               Dire Straits

I dig a French bikini on a wild albatross

                                                               California Girls
      The Beach Boys
And when he died, all he left us was a lawn

                                                               Papa was a Rolling Stone
      The Temptations
Baby come back, you can play Monopoly

                                                               Baby Come Back
                                                               – Player

I wanna know, have you ever see Lorraine?
                                                        Have you Ever Seen the Rain
– Creedence Clearwater Revival

It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There’s nothing that a hundred Men on Mars could ever do
                                                                        Africa
      Toto

Muh, muh, muh, muh muh, mice aroma.
                                                               My Sharona
                                                               – The Knack




And then there’s Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away.” I’ve been singing these lyrics since 1973:



Gimme the Beach Boys and free my soul, I want to get lost in your rock and roll and drift away.

The actual lyrics are:
Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul…
                                                              
I like my version better.


Thursday, September 4, 2014

Words and Music

Today we welcome our first guest Wisdom of the Oldies guest columnist, my dear old friend (since second grade) and the new Karaoke King of South Florida, Jim Borgmann. Jim has written about himself, his love for great oldie goldies and how we all sometimes get the words screwed up. More about what is called "modegreen", mishearing of a phrase, in my next posting. In the meantime enjoy, and thanks Jim!!


A little bit about me before we start.  
I can remember back to my high school days in Miami and how the rock music on the radio (WQAM 560 AM and WFUN 790 AM) seemed to have so much meaning for me. You could literally see your own life in the words of the songs.  It wasn't "soul" music, but it touched your soul if you let it. 


One of the WQAM DJs, Rick Shaw, came to our high school's very first career day and I signed up to see him.  How can you get paid for playing music and touching people's souls?  This had to be too good to be true!  I had to find out from the Master!
Although this was not my ultimate career path, it was a serendipitous moment when almost 45 years later, in 2010, Rick Shaw, George Butticaz, and I formed "Rockin' Again Productions".  This was a "part time" concert promotion company that reunited the old rock bands from the 1960's in South Florida and presented them in concert for the benefit of children's charities. Imagine becoming business partners with a person you idolized as a teen! I had arrived. 

What was really neat was being able to chat with Rick about the oldies in a "one on one" environment.  The stories he told of the groups he had met kept me literally spellbound. The Beatles, Beach Boys, Monkees – he met them all and has a room full of autographed photos with them in his home. That's for another column, though.
Since my retirement as a city manager in 2012, I have been able to relax and do just about anything I want.  Maybe not so strangely, my love of the "Oldies" kept rising to the top of the bucket.  So about a year ago I decided  I should take a crack at being a disk jockey, something I always wanted to do.  Huh?  A 63-year-old wannabe DJ?  Seriously?  Yep! And so I did. But wait, there's more....
Most of you have been somewhere where Karaoke is offered.  And I am also sure most of you have heard some really good singers and some not so good.  (I used to joke that Karaoke is really a Japanese word for "Drunk Americans singing badly".) But for the most part, karaoke singers are very serious about what they do, and I have only begun to appreciate them since I have become a "KJ" (karaoke jockey.)
One of the fun parts of being a KJ is seeing the words on the screen and singing along.  I have been in the middle of a song (yes, I started singing again) when suddenly, the screen has the wrong words!  Well, not really, but they sure ain't the words I have been singing all these years! 

Perhaps the funniest moment occurred several months ago as I was singing "What a Day for a Daydream" by the Lovin' Spoonful. Here are the actual lyrics to one of the verses:
And even if time is passing me by a lot
I couldn't care less about the dues you say I got
Tomorrow I'll pay the dues for dropping my load
A pie in the face for being a sleepy bull dog
Click below to hear the original tune:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwH4wPz-URM

I could have sworn on my dear mother's grave that the last line was "And find me a place for being asleep before dawn".  I swear I looked at the screen and truly believed they made up the words!  Those couldn't possibly be the right lyrics.  "A pie in the face for being a sleepy bull dog"?  Seriously?? 
Now, I ask you, how many of you sang the actual lyrics?  How many of you sang them more like I sang them?  I would really love to know!  If you have a song in your head that you always sang wrong before finding out the right lyrics years later, send me an email:  jgatormann@gmail.com.  This could be a fun place to chat.

See you next time. 
Jim





Monday, August 25, 2014

Heartbreak Hotel



From the brilliant pen of Rick Kollinger


In Measure for Measure, Shakespeare wrote, “music oft hath such a charm to make bad good.”

When you recall how good the songs about love gone bad sounded during the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, you know the Bard was right on target.

A veritable river of tears flowed from every radio and jukebox during the golden age of rock and roll. These sad songs helped carry us through unhappy experiences and provided us with a primer for handling heartbreak.

For example, how can you tell when love is about to go cold? The Righteous Brothers reckon you’ll catch your beloved’s eyes open while kissing.

How can you prove your love is a cheat? Connie Francis recommends a detailed lipstick comparison.

What if the object of your affection dumps you? Despite all of the lovely Miss Brown’s attributes, Herman suggests getting on with life. Pining is simply a waste of time.

And these scenarios are just the tip of the Kleenex box. Because at the Heartbreak Hotel, there’s always room for one more old friend with a good, sad story to tell.    


Here are a few of the lyrics that have meant something to me over the years. Which are your tear-soaked faves?    


         Perish is the word that more than applies
         To the hope in my heart each time I realize
         That I am not going to be the one to share your dreams.
         That I am not going to be the one to share your schemes.

                  “Cherish”
         The Association

Yesterday’s love was like a warm summer breeze
But like the weather you changed.
Now things are dreary baby, and it’s windy and cold
and I stand alone in the rain, calling your name.

         “Stormy”
         Classics IV

I should have known you’d bid me farewell.
There’s a lesson to be learned from this
and I’ve learned it very well.
Now I know you’re not the only starfish in the sea.
If I never hear your name again,
it’s all the same to me.

         “Red Rubber Ball”
         The Cyrkle

You made me leave my happy home,
You took my love and now you’re gone.

“Since I Fell For You”
                   Lenny Welch

I walk in shadows, searching for light
cold and alone, no comfort in sight.
Hoping and praying for someone to care,
always movin’ and goin’ nowhere.

         “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted”
                     David Ruffin

Remember what we’ve said, and done,
and felt about each other.
Oh babe, have mercy.
Don’t let the past remind us of
what we are not now.

         “Suite Judy Blue Eyes”
         Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young 

A one-line note left by a suicide victim became the inspiration for Elvis’ first number one single. After reading “I walk a lonely street,” co-writer Mae Axton decided to put a heartbreak hotel at the end of it.

Though it’s always crowded,
you still can find some room.

                 “Heartbreak Hotel”
                     Elvis Presley

Even the rich and famous can't always buy happiness.

"Onstage, I make love to 25,000 people. Then I go home alone."
                                                                         – Janis Joplin