Almanac Music: ‘I heard you on the wireless back in ‘52’: Songs Referencing Film, TV or Radio
[Wikimedia Commons.]
Almanac Music: ‘I heard you on the wireless back in ‘52’: Songs Referencing Film, TV or Radio
Hi, Almanackers! This week’s piece in my ongoing series about key popular song themes concerns songs that reference films, TV or radio. So, dear readers, please put your relevant songs in the ‘Comments’ section. Below, as usual, are some examples from me to get things going.
(What we are not after in this theme, though, are the theme songs of particular films, TV or radio shows. That would be a virtually endless list!)
‘Western Movies’, written by Cliff Goldsmith and Fred Sledge Smith, performed by The Olympics (1958)
‘My baby loves the Western movies’
‘Drive My Car’, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed by The Beatles (1965)
‘I wanna be famous, a star of the screen’
‘Candle In The Wind’, written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, performed by Elton John (1974)
‘Hollywood created a superstar’
‘Horror Movie’, written by Greg Macainsh, performed by Skyhooks (1974)
“Horror movie, right there on my TV’
‘Home on Monday’, written by Glenn Shorrock and Beeb Birtles, performed by Little River Band (1977)
‘Hollywood / You’re in my movie’
‘Who Listens to the Radio’, written by Stephen Cummings and Andrew Pendlebury, performed by The Sports (1978)
‘Who listens to the radio? / That’s what I’d like to know’
‘Lady Writer’, written by Mark Knopfler, performed by Dire Straits (1979)
‘Lady writer on the TV’
‘Video Killed the Radio Star’, written by Geoff Downes, Trevor Horn and Bruce Woolley, performed by The Buggles (1979)
‘I heard you on the wireless back in ‘52’
‘Girls on Film’, written by Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Roger Taylor, Andy Taylor and Nick Rhodes, performed by Duran Duran (1981)
‘Treaty’, written by Paul Kelly, Mandawuy Yunupingu, Stuart Kellaway, Cal Williams, Gurrumul Yunupingu, Milkayngu Mununggurr, Banula Marika and Peter Garrett, performed by Yothu Yindi (1991)
“Well I heard it on the radio / And I saw it on the television’
……………………………………………..
Now, dear readers / listeners – it’s over to you. Your responses to this topic are warmly welcomed. In the ‘Comments’ section, please add your own choice of a song (or songs) referencing films, TV or radio, along with any other relevant material you wish to include.
[Note: as usual, Wikipedia has been a good general reference for this piece, particularly in terms of checking dates and other details.]
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His sixth book-length poetry collection, Isle Full of Noises, was published in early 2026 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Here’s one to start the ball rolling:
‘Radio Song’ – Felice Brothers (cracking song)
Good morning KD & thanks for the theme….I’ll kick off with:
Masters’ Apprentices – Turn Up Your Radio (1970)
Thanks for such a highly fitting, quality song to begin proceedings, Col!
Thank you, Karl – another fine, apt song to set the tone for our new theme.
Donald Fagen (Steely Dan) released a great solo album in 1982, and the title track is The Nightfly.
I’m Lester the Nightfly
Hello Baton Rouge
Won’t you turn your radio down
Respect the seven second delay we use
and the chorus
An independent station
WJAZ
With jazz and conversation
From the foot of Mt. Belzoni.
Thanks, KD. Doubtless, a very deep well!
Ita – Cold Chisel
‘When all the boys are gathered around
Shouting Ita’s on TV”
Showtime – Cold Chisel
‘Thirteen years and over
Tuned to radio between the hours
Of six and seven-thirty, AM programmer’s delight”
TV Eye The Stooges
Who listens to the radio The Sports
Aloha Steve and Danno – Radio Birdman
Thanks, Mickey, for ‘The Nightly’. I agree regarding this new song theme – I don’t think the river will run dry, to put it another way.
Thank you, Greg A, for your Chisel and Birdman songs. In particular, ‘Ita’ had always been a favourite of mine, mainly because of the extent to which it captures/signifies a moment in time for me, and for Australian media, too, I suppose.
Thanks, Willo for your input. (I’d already included the Sports song in my initial list.)
Joni Mitchell – You Turn Me On, I’m A Radio (1972)
A few lines from the song with another name for radio that I haven’t heard or spoken for far too long….:
If you’re lying on the beach
With the transistor going
Kick off the sandflies honey
The love’s still flowing
Television Addict – The Victims
Mars Needs Guitars – Hoodoo Gurus
Danny Says – Ramones
Less Than Zero – Elvis Costello
The Bombs Dropped on Xmas – Reels
Bonzo Goes To Bitburg – Ramones
Mexican Radio – Wall Of Voodoo
Satisfaction – Rolling Stones
Radios In Motion – XTC
Radio Radio – Elvis Costello and the Attractions
1970 – Stooges
This Is Radio Clash – Clash
Capital Radio – Clash
Radio Free Europe – REM
Radio Ass Kiss – Wonderstuff
Coffee and TV – Blur
B Movie – Elvis Costello
‘Get off My Cloud’ – Rolling Stones
Questioningly – Ramones
Channel Z – B52s
Road Movie To Berlin – They Might Be Giants
Radio – Teenage Fanclub
Radio Sweetheart – EC
Do You Remember Rock n Roll Radio – Ramones
Radio Song – REM
We Want The Airwaves – Ramones
Love On The Radio – Skyhooks
Movie Star – Harpo
Surely there was a better Girls On Film video available KD?
Errol – Australian Crawl
Radio Ga Ga – Queen
A couple from Neil Young.
Motion Pictures
“Motion pictures
on my TV screen”
A Man Needs a Maid
“A while ago somewhere I don’t know when
I was watchin’ a movie with a friend”
Know Your Product – The Saints
Thank you, Karl, for the Joni Mitchell song – excellent pick up there!. Love its title, too!
Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man – Gram Parsons.
Wonderful demolishment of shock jocks.
Thanks for the brilliant lists, Swish! Wonderful array of songs there.
Re ‘Girls on Film’: yes, the are undoubtedly a couple of clips that would have taken the eye more (let’s say), but, quirkily, I thought with that one I’d just focus on the song itself!
Thank you, Col, for ‘Get Off My Cloud’. Great early-ish Stones!
Thanks, Greg A, for your latest selections. To choose just one for comment – one of the main reasons I love ‘Radio Ga Ga’ so much is because of Freddy Mercury’s fabulous performance of it at the Wembley Live Aid concert in the mid-1980s.
I’m with Swish on that call!
Now, some Warner:
Suburban Boy (Saturday night, no subway station/Saturday night just changing TV stations/I’m just a Suburban Boy, just a Suburban Boy)
Million Miles from Home (They’ll be sitting around the TV, watching the action replay) Yep, song came out around the time cricket was starting to engage technology and man how far we come!
John Arlott Makes Me Chuckle (I’ve an ex-wife and a sex life/That it took me years to find/And there’s just no greater pleasure/Than John Arlott on the tele/And her etching little numbers in my spine)
Girls Wank (Girls wank and so do the interviewers on GTK/They yank they tug the best years of their lives away/They’re in love with the sound of their own voice)
Midday Movie (I’m getting poisoned by the midday movie/Randolph Scott’s got a gun to my head/He’s a mean bastard/And he just might use it./The last ten month’s I been out of work/I’m part of the carpet and/I’m covered in dirt/Yesterday the man came and he shampooed me/But it didn’t fix the toxins from my TV)
More Warner to come!
Thanks, Peter C, for ‘Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man’.
Geez, whoa, Rick and Swish, it’s just a video clip! Ha!
Many thanks for the Dave W material – obviously fits the theme very well, and some great quotes.
With the Dave Warner classic ‘Half time at the Football’, weren’t the boys and girls watching the match on TV?
Sorry for the vagueness but I’ve not heard it for 40+ years.
There is a song called TV on the debut Rose Tattoo album. The song credits list it to the five bad members but I’ve got some idea the song was written by Ian Rilan’s , original Rose Tattoo bassist.
Glen!
Radio Radio “I want to bite the hand that feeds me,” sings a venomous early Elvis Costello
Watching Westerns – The Neighbours (NZ)
Video Violence – Lou Reed
Satellite of Love – Lou Reed, who confesses “I like to watch things on TV”
Roy Rogers – Eric Bogle (“On Saturday mornings I’d ride to the movies/Booted and spurred on my horse made of tin”)
And finally, Science Fiction, Double Feature – Richard O’Brien/Rocky Horror Show (count the film references!)
Christ, the Port Adelaide fans and PR Department must be busy! 29 music comments already. “The greatest AFL season of all time” was bound to end in tears. Bread and circuses.
Harry Chapin’s 1973 ‘W.O.L.D.’
i am the morning dj on w*o*l*d
playing all the hits for you wherever you may be
the bright good morning voice who’s heard but never seen
feeling all of forty-five, going on fifteen
i am the morning dj on w*o*l*d
Nice pick up by Greg A on 2 Neil Young lyrics (I’ll cross them off my list) and Peter C’s pick up of Lou Reed’s ‘Satellite Of Love’ – which I wish I had on my list – love that song & that lyric.
Dreamin’ – Blondie
“When I met you in the restaurant
You could tell I was no debutante
You asked me what’s my pleasure
“A movie or a measure?”
I’ll have a cup of tea
And tell you of my
Dreamin’, dreamin’ is free”
The last time I saw Richard – Joni Mitchell
“Richard got married to a figure skater
And he bought her a dish washer and a coffee percolator
And he drinks at home now most nights with the TV on
And all the house lights left up bright”
Spanish Pipedream – John Prine
“”Blow up your TV
Throw away your paper
Go to the country
Build you a home
Plant a little garden
Eat a lot of peaches
Try an’ find Jesus on your own”
Rex Bob Lowenstein – Mark Germino
“There’s a disc jockey in Hartlanberg
Who works at W.A.N.T.
He puts two or three eggs in him
And he’s in your car by 6.00 am
He lives for his job and he accepts his pay
You can call and request ‘Lay Lady Lay’
He’ll play Stanley Jordan, The ‘Dead and Little Feat
And he’ll even play the band from the college down the street
And his name is Rex Bob Lowenstein
He’s forty-seven, goin’ on sixteen
His request line’s open, but he’ll tell you where to go
If you’re dumb enough to ask him why he plays Hank Snow”
WOLD – Harry Chapin
“I am the morning DJ on W*O*L*D
playing all the hits for you wherever you may be
the bright good-morning voice who’s heard but never seen
feeling all of forty-five going on fifteen”
Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) – Woody Guthrie
“The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon
A fireball of thunder, it shook all the hills
Who are all of these dear friends, scattered like dry leaves?
The radio said, “They were just deportees”
Hi Karl,
You posted WOLD while I was getting my set together. Apologies for the double posting.
Dave
I liked to join songs up, so Video etc and Girls Talk aligned with the awesome 52 Girls in my head
You think you are a movie star-Harpo
Robert Deniro’s waiting – Bananarama
Hey Dave N – all good with the WOLD double dip – it is bound to happen. I liked your ‘Deportees’ pick up.
Bruce Springsteen – 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On) from his 1992 Human Touch album:
Man came by to hook up my cable TV/We settled in for the night, my baby and me
We switched round and round till half-past dawn
There was fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on
Fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on
Fifty-seven channels and nothin’ on
Hey Karl, please don’t remind people of that album and that song (LOL)
As a demonstration of my good faith in Bruce can I submit, Western Stars (Once I was shot by John Wayne, yeah it was towards the end/That one scene’s bought me a thousand drinks, set me up and I’ll tell it for you, friend)
And a Bob song (only because it’s way up high on my Bob faves list):
Brownsville Girl (Well, there was this movie I seen one time/About a man riding ‘cross the desert and it starred Gregory Peck/He was shot down by a hungry kid trying to make a name for himself) written with Sam Shepard and an absolute classic from whatever Bob era, it comes from maybe Bob’s lowest point, in the 80s, and if this is a low point for Bob god help the rest of us strugglers!
Television man: Talking Heads
Mr Radio: Electric Light Orchestra
Parade: Roger Daltrey
You are yourself: Roger Daltrey
Radio: Crosby Stills Nash and Young
Films: Gary Numan
Child of vision: Supertramp
Regrets: Ben Folds Five
Bullroarer: Midnight Oil
All the wrong reasons: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Runnin’ down a dream: Tom Petty
Making movies: McGuinn-Hillman
Turn your radio on: McGuinn-Hillman
Poor boy: Split Enz
And from one of music’s most incredible artist, Prince:
Kiss (you don’t have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude)
Movie Star – self-explanatory, yep
On the Couch ((Come on, baby/Don’t make me sleep on the couch/Love Jones is on the TV again, baby/Eye want to go down south, yeah)
Sign O’ the Times ((Hurricane Annie ripped the ceiling off a church and killed everyone inside/You turn on the telly and every other story is tellin’ you somebody died)
Then there’s Gil Scott-Heron 1970 masterpiece, ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ and man, that’s a song a half!
Hey Rick – what’s wrong with W*O*L*D* – apart from the song itself? Excellent pick up with your Gil Scott-Heron selection!…and I’ll cross ‘Brownsville Girl’ off my Dylan list – I somehow knew that you would get to it if I delayed more than a microsecond to add it.
Another Lou Reed contribution from his 1972 Transformer album to add to Peter C’s ‘Satellite Of Love’
Perfect Day
Just a perfect day
feed animals in the zoo
and then later a movie, too
and then home
Thanks, Glen, for your comments and for the Tatts song (I’m a bIt of Tatts fan, as you may know) – you mentioned the ‘five bad members’ instead of the ‘five band members’; either it was a typo, or you meant they were bad as in bad boys (for love, maybe).
Thank you, Peter C, for your foray into the new theme – ‘Radio Radio’ has already got a guernsey, but yours is an interesting and stimulating bunch of selections as usual.
Thenks, Peter B, for your characteristically thought-provoking interpolation. (Good word, interpolation.)
Thank you, Karl, for Harry Chapin’s ‘W.O.L.D.’ – fine narrative songwriting there.
Thanks, Dave N for your expansive input – typically, it is brimming with knowledge and detail.
To select just one song for comment, ‘Dreaming’ by Blondie is one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite bands. Indeed, I wrote in detail about the song and band in a past Almanac article: ‘Almanac Music: My Favourite Rock Drummers – Clement Burke of Blondie’
From Peter C to Peter B to, most recently, Peter W… thanks Peter W, for your input – and, while we’re on W’s, to Ian W for the Harpo and Bananarama songs.
Thanks, Karl and Rick, you’re interestingly cross-pollinating – so speak – in terms of your most recent Bruce and Bob material.
Separately, thank you, Rick, for your Prince and Gil Scott Heron songs – and thanks, Karl for Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’.
Thank you, Liam, for your suite of relevant material – the songs you choose add a dimension to the range of work already chosen for our theme. It’s a fine thing when one’s taste compliments the taste of others to add to an overall ‘picture’.
To Liam – the word should be ‘chose’, not ‘choose’, immediately above. Ooops!
Skateaway – Dire Straits (…she’s making movies on location…, from the album Making Movies)
Radio King – Golden Smog
On the Radio – Cheap Trick
Radio Bar – Fountains of Wayne
She Got The Radio – Corey Hart
Radio Nowhere – Bruce Springsteen
The Sun Always Shines on TV – A-ha
Mohammed’s Radio – Warren Zevon
In the Days before Rock ‘n’ Roll – Van Morrison (…those wireless knobs…)
Welcome aboard, Gerard! Many thanks for your song choices.
And we’ve now passed the fifty milestone, quite possibly in record time. Thank you to all involved.
Hey KD
Great momentum of the theme! What I really like about the themes and the contributors is when they include a song or a line of lyric which I have a deep fondness for, but hadn’t entered my ‘recall’ area. Gerard’s mention of ‘making movies on location’ is a prime example. Which raises a more important question?
Has Dire Straits ‘Money For Nothing’ been mentioned yet? I note you opted for Dire Straits’ ‘Lady Writer’
‘Now look at them yo-yos, that’s the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV……
…..We got to move these refrigerators, we got to move these color TVs’
Several songs from the late fifties and early sixties.
Wake Up Little Susie – The Everly Brothers
Saturday Night at the Movies – The Drifters
Along came Jones – The Coasters
Sad Movies (Make Me Cry) – Sue Thompson
Hi Karl. Yep, the momentum is great in relation to our new theme. Thanks for ‘Money For Nothing’, which hasn’t been mentioned until you did so.
Thank you, Dave N, for your latest four – a bunch of fine, distinctively fifties/early sixties numbers there.
Good Saturday morning KD. Fine sunny day in these parts.
Jon English – Hollywood Seven
‘And she said she’d be a movie star
And waited every mornin’ for the call’
David Bowie – 1984
‘You’ve read it in the tea leaves, and the tracks are on TV
Beware the savage jaw/Of 1984….
We played out an all-night movie role
You said it would last, but I guess we enrolled/In 1984’
Good morning to you, also, Karl. Weather’s pretty fine here, too.
Two good songs there – thank you. ‘Hollywood Seven’ is a reminder to me that the late Jon English had a notably good career back in the day, didn’t he?
Yes KD, JE had a solid career: 13 studio albums between 1973 – 1982; played Judas in JC Superstar; starred in ‘Against The Wind’. Later (circa 2009-10), he mentored up & coming musicians/singers in the ‘Rock Show’ series of concerts – I was fortunate to see the show in Queanbeyan in 2010 – it was excellent!
Although I have nothing of Jon’s to add to this theme, a scan of his songs suggests that he very well make an appearance in other recent themes.
And not to waste a comment (relevant to this & an earlier theme), I’ll add:
David Bowie – Starman
‘Didn’t know what time it was, the lights were low
I leaned back on my radio
Some cat was layin’ down some rock ‘n’ roll……
”””””Switch on the TV, we may pick him up on Channel Two’
Thanks, Karl, for the additional detail concerning Jon English. I’ve often thought one of his albums, Wine Dark Sea, had a particularly evocative title – it has stuck with me. I remember seeing JE live at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne in 1978, as a sixteen-year-old – he supported Thin Lizzy and Wha-Koo on that occasion. I wrote about him and that time in my life in the following Almanac (and Stereo Stories) piece. Check it out. I’d be interested to hear what you make of it: https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/almanac-memoir-and-music-words-are-not-enough/
Thanks also, for ‘Starman’.
The Trumpet Volunteer – Peter Sellers
The Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley
Ballad of the Teenage Queen – Johnny Cash
Did anyone say George Jones?
Radio Lover (Coming to you live like I do every night/From the heart of your radio/I play a little sad and I play a lot of glads/And a few old cheatin’ songs) kinda corny but with a twist, and it’s George Jones so, like Elvis, it’s already better than most!
Memories of Us (That old school bus has long stopped runnin’/And I heard the driver died/And the movie house is all boarded up/Where we set side by side) titular song from 1975 album and first release following Tammy and his you know what. Great album but sadly George’s life starts to head downhill for a decade …
Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes (You know this old world is full of singers/But just a few are chosen/To tear your heart out when they sing/Imagine life without them/All your radio heroes) a big sentimental fave of mine.
And one from Bruce:
Backstreets (Remember all the movies, Terry, we’d go see/Trying to learn how to walk like the heroes we thought we had to be/Well after all this time to find we’re just like all the rest/Stranded in the park and forced to confess/To hiding on the backstreets, hiding on the backstreets) – my absolute fave Springsteen song!
Cheers
Angie Baby – Helen Reddy
Welcome to the theme, Fisho. Thanks for your choices. Of particular interest to me was the novelty song ‘The Purple People Eater’, as it was a single in my mother’s extensive collection of 1950s singles.
Thanks, Rick for the George and Bruce songs, as well as the accompanying quotes, which always add a significant dimension.
And at this point your inclusion of George material has – by association – prompted me to include a Tom T. Hall classic (probably before you do), ‘Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine’, with its well-known line ‘The guy who ran the bar was watchin’ “Ironsides” [sic] on TV.’
Good arvo KD!
Had a read of your ‘Words Are Not Enough’ article – very, very cute!
Rick – you beat me to the draw on Springsteen’s ‘Backstreets’ but I’ll see you a ‘Thunder Road’ and chuck in a ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out’. Put together, those 3 ‘road’ related songs represent tracks 1,2 & 4 of side 1 of Springsteen’s 1975 ‘Born To Run’ – an album that sits comfortably in my top 5 albums of all time.
Thunder Road
The screen door slams, Mary’s dress sways
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
From a tenement window a transistor blasts
Turn around the corner, things got real quiet real fast
I walked into a Tenth Avenue freeze-out
Here’s 7 from ABBA –
Honey, Honey
King Kong Song
Love Light
Dream World
Gimme, Gimmie, Gimme
Put on Your White Sombrero
The Day Before You Came
Thanks for reading the ‘Words are Not Enough’ article, Karl. The short memoir piece seemed to disappear without trace at the time (that happens to some pieces, of course, regardless of their merit or the website concerned), though I retain a personal fondness for it.
Thank you, also, for your excursions into Bruce territory via songs from an absolute classic Bruce album.
Thank you, Fisho, for your ABBA selections – a few lesser-known songs from their oeuvre in that bunch.
Didja Ever (One of those Days) – Elvis Presley (The final song from GI Blues)
Thanks, Fisho – always good to get some Elvis material.
We can’t forget the Red Symonds song ‘Smut’ from Skyhooks’ Living in the Seventies album, can we?
A couple more Bowie song:
Life On Mars
‘And she’s hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a saddening bore
For she’s lived it ten times or more’
Five Years
‘I heard telephones, opera house, favorite melodies
I saw boys, toys, electric irons and TV’s’
UK Squeeze, as we affectionately knew this great band back in the day:
Cool for Cats
Up the Junction
Labelled with Love
Coincidentally they’d be in their best 10 so g’s, maybe even best 5.
I don’t think this song has been mentioned yet.
‘Celluloid Heroes’ – The Kinks.
Thanks, Karl, for the latest Bowie songs – I do associate Bowie with songs containing media references such as the ones relevant to this theme.
Love (UK) Squeeze, Rick – thanks for these. The wonderful and moving ‘Up the Junction’ would be the only song I know that rhymes ‘happen’ and ‘Clapham’, incidentally.
Thanks, Col, for the Kinks ‘Celluloid Heroes’.
And, while it’s in my head, ‘Faraway Eyes’ (1978) by The Rolling Stones, very much a song with radio at its centre – this song begins:
‘I was driving home early Sunday morning through Bakersfield
Listening to gospel music on the colored radio station
And the preacher said, you know you always have the Lord by your side…’
Whoops , sorry Kevin. Bad may be the appropriate term , though I did mean band.
In Rock’n’Roll is King, Angry sings, ” I don’t watch the news”. There’s a reference to not watching TV.
Glen!
The Stray Cats ‘Bring it back again’, starts with Brian Setzer singing.
“Bring it back. Bring it back. Bring it back again. I cruise around with the radio on.”
Glen!
Dum Dum – Brenda Lee
Lady Godiva – Peter and Gordon
Beverly Hillbillies Theme – Lester Flatt and Earl Scraggs
Hawks into second week of the finals, sunny day in Melbourne and fresh oolong tea for brekkie.
Here are some top shelf entries:
Roadrunner, Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers
The Magnificent Seven, The Clash (A.M., the F.M. the P.M. too/Churning out that boogaloo)
Boys of Summer, Don Henley
Left of the Dial, The Replacements
What’s the Frequency Kenneth? REM
Thank you, Glen, for the latest Rose Tattoo comment and for the Stray Cats song – you are certainly our ‘go to’ person when it comes to both bands..
Thanks, Fisho, for your latest three. The Beverly Hillbillies song fits our latest couple of themes – and probably a few more if we examined the matter closely.
Cats into Preliminary Final, windy down where I am (in the Surf Coast Shire), and Twinings Everyday Black tea is currently my ‘tea du jour’.
Thanks for your latest additions, Rick. ‘Boys of Summer’ is a particular favourite of mine – some lines in some songs speak to one so eloquently, don’t they? ‘I’m drivin past your house / though I know you’re not home…’ Ah, long-ago youth and a favourite young woman…
Hey KD
I recall being about 12 and riding my pushbike past the home of a girl I fancied. My heart was palpitating. Only god knows what I would have done had she actually been in her front yard and saw me. I guess it was her vision that conquered my mind.
Anyway, time for some Dylan – and in this case my favourite Dylan song of all time (or at least always in my top 5 mix).
Visions Of Johanna: from Blonde on Blonde (1966)
‘Lights flicker from the opposite loft
In this room the heat pipes just cough
The country music station plays soft
But there’s nothing, really nothing to turn off
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind’
BTW – I am just putting the finishing touches to my next Bob Dylan covers article – which should be loaded onto site in a day or 3.
Of course, that recollection concerning the girl you fancied resonates, Karl.
Thanks for that fabulous Dylan song – the more I ponder his work, the more I believe that lyrically he’s a descendant of Walt Whitman, who, for me is where American poetry really begins – though that is not saying anything totally unexpected, I suppose. (And there are others who’ve influenced Dylan in various ways, apart from Walt.)
I look forward to your next Dylan article, too.
May 12, 1963: Bob Dylan rehearses “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues” on The Ed Sullivan Show. A day later network censors insist the song be changed because of its political content. Dylan refuses to perform.
…..luckily there is no political censorship on this site
Well, I wus sittin’ home an’ started to sweat,
Figured they wus in my T.V. set.
Peeked behind the picture frame,
Got a shock from my feet, right up in the brain.
Them Reds caused it!
I know they did…them hard-core ones.
Thank you for ‘Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues’, Karl.
Excellent to see us steadily approaching our century with this theme!
Welcome to the working week with a shot of John Fogerty, including CCR and his own great catalogue. Four of the following five songs reference radio. See if you can pick the odd one out. Of course Fogerty songs would reference radio, he is one of the more singular music focused artists you could name. He also has melodies, arrangements and lyrics to die for and he’s armoured up with guitar hooks and a dyed in the wool rocker’s voice. Enjoy:
Travelin’ Band
Almost Saturday Night
I Saw it on TV
Hot Rod Heart
Rock and Roll Girls
Thanks for fine ‘shot’ of John Fogerty/CCR songs, Rick. I googled all the lyrics of the songs concerned, as I’d thought I’d better have the correct answer in my head – I’ll leave it to someone else to answer the question you posed.
Very funny :)
Re Karl’s Dylan songs, couldn’t agree more re Visions. What a wild song, actually more like a novel or a philosophical treatise on relationships, especially the one you have with yourself.
Also, shout out to CR for throwing in The Kinks Celluloid Heroes, I love that song.
I’ll add another more inferior Kinks song, Entertainment (There’s been another assassination/T.V. cameras moving in/To shoot the bloodstains on the pavement/And get them on the News at Ten) from a latter album as they were petering out.
Which reminded me of The Jam song, That’s Entertainment (An amateur band rehearsing in a nearby yard/Watching the telly and thinking ’bout your holidays) which has probably already been submitted.
Cheers
Hey KD
I’ll give Rick’s quiz a miss :).
Here’s another Dylan ‘Talkin” song from his 1963 Freewheelin’ album.
Talkin’ World War III Blues
‘Well, I remember seein’ some ad
So I turned on my Conelrad, but I didn’t pay the Con Ed bill
So the radio didn’t work so well’
FYI – Conelrad was a US devised method of emergency broadcasting to the public in the event of an enemy attack during the Cold War.
This song’s final line is one (of a few Dylan lines) that I have carried around for most of my life & use when the situation seems to call for it.
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours”
Thanks, Rick, for your latest material. The Jam’s ‘That’s Entertainment’ hasn’t been put forward until you did so, as far as I can see.
While I’m here, I’ll add Nik Kershaw’s catchy ‘Wide Boy’ (1985). One verse begins:’He made a movie /
He played the driver of a big yellow car…’
Thank you, Karl, for ‘Talkin’ World War III Blues’. Fine accompanying detail, too.
And, again while I’m here, I’ll include Paul McCartney’s ‘Ballroom Dancing’, originally released on his 1982 Tug of War album. (Ballroom dancing made a man of me / One, two, three, four / I just plain adore your ballroom dancing / Seen it on TV…’)
We may well be in the nervous nineties but like Bradman, I feel confident we can convert every 90 into a ton!
This next offering could easily sit in this or another recent theme, but I’ll add it to this one to get us a little bit closer to another century:
Rose Tattoo – The Radio Said Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Dead (circa mid-80’s)
‘Radio said rock ‘n’ roll is dead
To my room I panicked and fled
It wrecked my mind and filled me with fright
Elvis, Chuck ‘n’ Jerry got me through the long, long night’
The Minister, by The Move (lyrics include “movie star”)
Thanks, Liam – we’re approaching that milestone century!
David Essex – Rock On (1973)
‘Still looking for that blue-jean baby-queen
Prettiest girl I’ve ever seen
See her shake on the movie screen
Jimmy Dean/(James Dean)’
The bass player on this song is Herbie Flowers, who died this week, aged 86. Herbie’s bass & tuba can be heard on 100’s of songs/albums (eg Space Oddity, Diamond Dogs, Candles In The Rain, Give My Regards To Broadway) but my favourite & most distinctive Herbie bass line belongs in Lou Reed’s ‘Walk On The Wild Side’.
(Slightly out of sequence) Thanks so much, Karl, for Rose Tattoo – ‘The Radio Said Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Dead’. The Tatts are so invigorating!
Next thing you know someone will come up with something by Lobby Loyde and The Coloured Balls!
Thanks, also, for ‘Rock On’ , Karl – bit of a classic IMHO.
Believe it or not, I could play the tuba pretty well, back in the day! I played E-flat and B-flat tuba in Year 11 and 12 in my school brass band, even in marching band competitions and on big public occasions, like Melbourne’s Moomba and Geelong’s Gala Day.. I’m a biggish guy who could carry these instruments without too much trouble, and had ‘graduated’ from smaller instruments in earlier years..
Congrats to all concerned – one comment late – on the achievement of our century!
Here’s another contribution from me, ‘Closer to Fine’ (1989), by the wonderful Indigo Girls, which contains a reference to ‘a B-Grade movie’.
Hey KD – who would have thought that the century would be achieved by a snick through the slips off an e-flat tuba!
Anyway, 200 beckons…
.
Here’s another 1963 Dylan song that didn’t surface (officially until 2010).
I Shall Be Free
‘Oh, set me down on a television floor/I’ll flip the channel to number four
Out of the shower comes a football man/With a bottle of oil in his hand
Greasy kid stuff’
and a few further lines from the song that may or may not qualify:
I see better days and I do better things/I catch dinosaurs
I make love to Elizabeth Taylor/Catch hell from Richard Burton
Thanks for ‘I Shall Be Free’, Karl.
And ‘Songs from the Pop/Rock era involving Tuba or Sousaphone’ … let’s keep that topic on the backburner for a future Almanac piece of mine. (I’m serious! I mean, my past cowbell songs theme was a hoot!)
Cheers.
Hi Kevin,
I’m surprised nobody has yet nominated the tender love song “Do it like they do on the Discovery Channel”. They don’t write ’em like that anymore.
Ha ha, Ian! Thank you.
Pure gold!
Some Prime Prine:
Six O’clock News, from his first and probably best album (The whole town saw Jimmy on the six o’clock news/His brains were on the sidewalk and blood was on his shoes)
Far from Me, also from the first album, and a standout (As the cafe was closing on a warm summer night/And Cathy was cleaning the spoons/The radio played the hit parade/And I hummed along with the tune/She asked me to change the station/Said, the song just drove her insane/But it weren’t just the music playing/It was me she was trying to blame)
Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone, a quirky little observation about different times and mores (The movie wasn’t really doing so hot/said the new producer to the old big shot/its dying on the edge of the great Midwest/Sabu must tour or forever rest)
Picture Show, from the album in 89 that introduced me to the magnificence of John Prine (A young man from a small town/With a very large imagination/Lay alone in his room with his radio on/Looking for another station/When the static from the mouthpiece/Gave way to the sound below/James Dean went out to Hollywood/And put his picture in a Picture Show)
Lake Marie, is this his best song (Saw it on the news, the TV news/In a black and white video/You know what blood looks like in a black and white video?/Shadows, shadows/That’s what it looks like)
Thanks for the John Prine material, Rick, including the illuminating quotations. As I’ve indicated elsewhere, he’s someone whose work I’d like to know better.
Not sure if mentioned before – Transmission. Joy Division.
Yeah baby
And I’ll hand the mic over to Randy Newman, as trenchant a critic of America’s shortcomings as popular culture has seen and yet, contradictorily, a great observer of the best of us.
My Country (Picture a room/With a window/A sofa and some chairs/A television turned on for the night/Picture a woman, two children seated/A man lying there/Their faces softly glowing in the light)
God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind) – (Christians and the Jew were having a jamboree/The Buddhists and the Hindu joined on satellite TV/Picked their four greatest priests/And they began to speak)
Rednecks (Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show/With some smart-ass New York jew/The jew laughed at Lester Maddox/And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too/Well he may be a fool, but he’s our fool/If they think they’re better than him they’re wrong/So I went to the park and I took some paper along/And that’s where I made this song)
Mama Told Me Not to Come (The radio is blasting, someone beating on the door/Our hostess is not lasting, she’s out on the floor/I seen so many things here I ain’t never seen before/I don’t know what it is, but I don’t wanna see no more)
Cheers
Ingrid Bergman – Billy Bragg and Wilco (lyrics by Woody Guthrie)
“Ingrid Bergman, Ingrid Bergman
Let’s go make a picture
On the island of Stromboli
Ingrid Bergman”
A couple of songs from the 60s about Vietnam
We Didn’t Know – Tom Paxton
“We didn’t know said the puzzled voter,
Watching the President on TV.
I guess we’ve got to drop those bombs,
If we’re gonna keep South Asia free.
The President’s such a peaceful man,
I guess he’s got some kind of plan.
They say we’re torturing prisoners of war,
But I don’t believe that stuff no more.
Torturing prisoners is a communist game,
And You can bet they’re doing the same.
I wish this war was over and through,
But what do you expect me to do?”
The War is Over – Phil Ochs
“Silent soldiers on a silver screen
Framed in fantasies and drugged in dream
Unpaid actors of the mystery
The mad director knows that freedom will not make you free
And what’s this got to do with me?
[Chorus]
I declare the war is over
It’s over, it’s over”
The second most popular feminist song of the 70s (at least among lefties)
I’m Gonna Be An Engineer – Peggy Seeger
“Well, every time I turn around, there’s something else to do
It’s cook a meal, mend a sock, sweep a floor or two
Listening to Jimmy Young, it makes me want to spew
“I was gonna be an engineer!”
(Jimmy Young was a right-wing BBC talk show host, much given to interviewing Maggie Thatcher)
My Country ‘Tis of Thy People Your Dying – Buffy Sainte Marie
“Now that your big eyes have finally opened
Now that you’re wondering how must they feel
Meaning them that you’ve chased across America’s movie screens
Now that you’re wondering “how can it be real?”
That the ones you’ve called colourful, noble and proud
In your school propaganda
They starve in their splendor?
You’ve asked for my comment I simply will render
My country ’tis of thy people you’re dying.”
Thank you, Dips. Excellent pick up there, with Joy Division’s ‘Transmission’! (Brilliant drumming in that song, too.)
Thanks, Rick, for your latest choices – Randy Newman a great songwriter, to be sure.
Thanks, Dave N, for your latest additions to our theme – great inclusions there.
G’day KD. A few non-Dylan additions to the theme:
Cat Stevens – Pop Star (1970) – one of his lesser songs, me thinks – especially lyrically
Yes, I’m going on the T.V, now
Yes, I’m going on the T.V, now
Yes, I’m going on the T.V, now
Oh mama, mama see me
Mama mama see me on the T.V
Talking Heads – Burning Down The House (1983)
And I don’t know what you expect
Staring into the TV set
Fightin’ fire with fire, ah
Robbie Robertson – American Roulette – off Robbie’s 1987 debut solo album
They said she didn’t have a chance in hell
For the American Dream,
There’s a thousand young blonds out there
Trying to make it to the silver screen,
Lou Reed – Strawman (1989) – from the excellent New York album
Does anybody need another million dollar movie?
Does anybody need another million dollar star?
Does anybody need to be told over and over
Spitting in the wind comes back at you twice as hard?
Hi Karl. Thank you for these highly apt additions to our theme. Your inclusion of the Talking Heads song ‘Burning Down the House’ made me think of my current favourite number by that band, the also thematically spot-on ‘And She Was’: ‘And things were looking like a movie…’ (Jeez, I love that song! I recall reading online words to the effect that it was just about the perfect pop song, and I’m inclined to agree.)
Morning KD!
Agree with you re: ‘And She Was’.
On the lest theme – mountains etc. I referenced Dylan’s Black Diamond Bay (off his 1976 Desire album). It can make another appearance on this theme, when later in the song Dylan sings:
‘I was sitting home alone one night in L.A.
Watching old Cronkite on the seven o’clock news
It seems there was an earthquake that
Left nothing but a Panama hat
And a pair of old Greek shoes’
Morning, Karl! Thank you – really good pickup in terms of ‘Black Diamond Bay’.
And i’ve just thought of one of my nominations for THE song of the sixties – it cries out to be included in our current theme! The Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life’: ‘… I saw a film today, oh boy / The English Army had just won the war …’
It’s taken 117 comments for ‘Day In My Life’ and your quoted line of lyric to surface! Not only is is one of the songs of the 60’s, but also one of the songs of this theme.
Thanks, Karl – yes, it’s interesting how some songs are ‘hiding in plain sight’, as the expression goes.
Bruce:
State Trooper (In the wee-wee hours/Your mind gets hazy/Radio relay towers/Gon’ lead me to my baby/The radio’s jammed up/With talk show stations/It’s just talk, talk, talk, talk/’Til you lose your patience) – this is as eerie a song as Bruce has conjured, a man trapped by guilt, seeking redemption and lost in the night. Blackeyed Susans, led by Rob Snarski do an incredible version of this sad lament.
Fire (I’m driving in my car/I turn on the radio/I’m pulling you close/You just say no/You say you don’t like it/But girl I know you’re a liar/’Cause when we kiss/Oh, fire) – written for Elvis in 77, the year he passed away [or did he], big hit for The Pointer Sisters and best version by Robin Williams as Elmer Fudd.
Does this Bus Stop at 82nd Street (Dock worker’s dreams mix with/Panther’s schemes to someday own the rodeo/Tainted women in VistaVision perform/For out-of-state kids at the late show) – from Springsteen’s first album when he is still working in Dylan’s shadow, throwing every freaking image he can find into his blender of an imagination, in this song he is travelling on a bus in NYC and what he sees blows his freakin mind.
4th of July, Ashbury Park (Sandy) – (She worked that joint under the boardwalk/She was always the girl you saw/Boppin’ down the beach with the radio/The kids say last night she was dressed like a star/In one of them cheap little seaside bars/And I saw her parked with lover boy out on the Kokomo) – as wistful as Springsteen gets, and a picture perfect portrait of long hot summers on the Ashbury Park shore. I’ve heard it live several times and it has the audience swooning.
Open All Night (Your eyes get itchy in the wee wee hours/Sun’s just a red ball risin’ over them refinery towers/Radio’s jammed up with gospel stations/Lost souls callin’ long distance salvation/Hey Mr. DJ won’t ya hear my last prayer/Hey ho rock ‘n’ roll deliver me from nowhere) – another song from Nebraska, this one a rockabilly cum Chuck Berry stomp that speaks to the heart of Springsteen, rocknroll.
You latest selection wonderfully conveys Springsteen’s top-drawer talent, Rick. It was a pleasure to read, with its mixture of songs, quoted lyrics, and insightful, knowledgeable commentary.
Of course, immediately above should begin ‘Your latest selection…’. While I’m here I might as well mention that Springsteen’s howls/cries near the conclusion of ‘State Trooper’ remind me of the ‘barbaric yawp’ mentioned by Walt Whitman in his epic poem Song of Myself:
‘The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.’
4th of July Asbury Park (Sandy) is probably my favourite of Bruce’s early (i.e. pre-Born to Run) songs, both for the reasons you mentioned, Rick, but also for the line “Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for telling fortunes better than they do.”
Some Country songs on topic.
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road – Lucinda Williams
“Sittin’ in the kitchen, a house in Macon
Loretta’s singing on the radio
Smell of coffee, eggs, and bacon
Car wheels on a gravel road”
Speaking of Loretta…
One’s on the Way – Loretta Lynn
“I’m glad that Raquel Welch just signed a million dollar pact
And Debbie’s out in Vegas workin’ up a brand new act
While the TV’s showin’ newlyweds, a real fun game to play
But here in Topeka, the screen door’s a bangin’
The coffee’s boilin’ over and the wash needs a hangin’
One wants a cookie and one wants a changin’
And one’s on the way
K S O S – Emmylou Harris (from the album Ballad of Sally Rose)
“Come gather round me boys and lend an ear
I’ve got some things I think you all should hear
It’s time to shift into another gear
I’ve reached my final destination bought a radio station
And she’s fifty thousand watts pure and clear
K S O S help is on the way twenty-four hours of every day
A voice in the wilderness and we’re here to stay K S O S”
Gordon Lightfoot is thought of as folk rather than country but this is a pretty country sort of song
Second Cup of Coffee – Gordon Lightfoot
“I’m on my second cup of coffee, I still can’t face the dawn
The radio is playin’ a soft country song
And if I don’t stop this trembling hand from reaching for the phone
I’ll be reachin’ for the bottle, Lord, before this day is done”
Moving on to Dylan’s 1979 ‘Slow Train Coming’ album, we find:
Gotta Serve Somebody
‘You may be a state trooper, you might be a young Turk
You may be the head of some big TV network
…………….But you’re gonna have to serve somebody (serve somebody)
Well, it may be the Devil or it might be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Thanks for the excellent country material, Dave. Lucinda Williams, Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris and Gordon Lightfoot in a country mood … hard to go wrong there!
Thank you for ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’, Karl. I do enjoy how you studiously work your way through the Dylan career in these themed threads.
‘Accidentally Kelly Street’ (1992) a cute, clever pop song performed by Australian band Frente. Here’s the first verse, referencing both movies and TV:
‘Here’s a door and
Here’s a window
Here’s the ceiling
Here’s the floor
The room is lit like
A black and white movie
The t.v.’s on, that’s what it’s for
And if you walk real slowly
You can feel the planet breathe
There’s no need to feel so lowly
Now that we’ve all learned to give…’
Hi KD
I’ve been searching hi (treble) and lo (bass) to connect this theme to an impressive piece of tuba – and here it is:
Goodnight Ladies – final track on Lou Reed’s 1972 ‘Transformer’ album.
‘But now the tinsel light of star break
Is all that’s left to applaud my heart break
And eleven o’clock I watch the network news’
As a footnote, the tuba is played by Herbie Flowers who also played tuba on ‘Perfect Day’. When not playing tuba on the ‘Transformer’ album, Herbie played bass – including (as mentioned above but deserving of a second mention) the most iconic twinned ascending and descending basslines on ‘Walk In The Wild Side’.
Great tuba and bass info, Karl. Thanks for the research!
‘Goodnight Ladies’ is a fine jazzy song.
Believe it or not, an early Sherbet (minor) hit, not on theme in the present context, also featured tuba: ‘Free the People’ (1971).
That Madam Marie line is one of his best Dave.
One more Lucinda:
Rock’n’Roll Heart (Working class kid in a dead end town/Wants to get out before it brings him down/Turns on the radio and hears a sound/Now he knows that he’s been found) – this is my absolute fave Lucinda song, because as corny as it sounds, it speaks to me. She has Bruce singing backup and that is as strong a decision as every last lyric.
Thank you for LWs ‘Rock’n’Roll Heart’, Rick. Fine song! (Good ‘official music video’, too.)
Good Saturday morning KD.
I note you are a Cats supporter, so a relaxed weekend ahead.
My first few Dylan contributions featured ‘talkin” songs, and I am surprised (but delighted) that my final Dylan entry to this theme is also a ‘talkin” song and 100% on theme:
TV Talkin’ Song – from 1990’s Under The Red Sky album (the entire song is about the evil of TV – I offer selected lines)
‘There was someone on a platform talking to the folks
About the T.V. god and all the pain that it invokes
“It’s too bright a light”, he said, “For anybody’s eyes
If you’ve never seen one, it’s a blessing in disguise”
‘”It will lead you into some strange pursuits
Lead you to the land of forbidden fruits
It will scramble up your head and drag your brain about
Sometimes you gotta do like Elvis did and shoot the damn thing out”
The crowd began to riot and they grabbed hold of the man
There was pushing, there was shoving and everybody ran
T.V crew was there to film it, they jumped right over me
Later on that evening, I watched it on T.V
Good morning, Karl – I was Geelong born and raised and, yes, follow the local team. Didn’t expect much from the Cats this year, but have been pleasantly surprised.
And what a spot-on song to round off your Dylan contributions to our theme!
It’s been a quiet weekend on the theme front KD. BTW – pleasant surprises are the best.
I read that Mark Moffatt, who was a member of early 1980’s Aussie band The Monitors, passed away just over a week ago (aged 74).
Their one & only album (Back From Their Recent Illnesses) has a song titled:
‘TV Song’ – it is a pleasantly surprising listen with ‘radio’ also getting repeat mentions in the chorus.
Thanks, Karl, for The Monitors’ ‘TV Song’. Like you, I found out about Moffatt’s recent passing, so it’s particularly topical.
Some Tom T:
Homecoming (You heard my record on the radio/Oh, well, it’s just another song/But I’ve got a hit recorded/And it’ll be out on the market ‘fore too long) – one of Tom T’s finest songs, a conversation with his ageing father, he has stopped by to see as his band has played a gig in his hometown, it is a heartbreaking multilayered vignette on the price of success, family tensions and memories.
The Little Lady Preacher (Oh, the little lady preacher from the limestone church/I’ll never forget her, I guess/She preached each Sunday mornin’ on the local radio/With a big black Bible and a snow-white dress/She was 19 years of age and was developed to a fault/But I will admit she knew the Bible well/A little white lace hanky marked the text that she would use/She’d breathe into that microphone and send us all to hell) – this song is a ripper, with barely double entendres throughout, wrapped up in a neat message of agency and a dig at religion.
Spokane Motel Blues ((Willie Nelson’s picking out in Austin/And Waylon’s hanging out in Mexico/I’m stuck in Spokane in a motel room/And Kris is making movin’ picture shows) – this is almost a writing exercise, which Tom does with ease and wit, he has actually written several books on songwriting, oh and Spokane is in Washington state, a long way from the heart of country music.
Many thanks for the Tom T songs and commentary, Rick – always a fine thing to receive highly relevant material connected to a legendary songwriter and performer.
Another excellent song in terms of our current theme – involving TV in this instance – is Jackson Browne’s ‘Lawyers in Love’ from the album of the same name (1983). The most relevant lines in this context are: ‘Eating from TV trays, tuned into Happy Days’ and ‘Last night I watched the news from Washington, the Capitol’.
Great Jackson Browne album, saw him in concert following the album Lives in the Balance, that came after LiL. These lyrics from the title track of Lives: On the radio talk shows and TV/You hear one thing again and again/How the USA stands for freedom/And we come to the aid of a friend/But who are the ones that we call our friends.
Cheers
Thank you, Rick, for ‘Lives in the Balance’ – enjoyed the connection to my previous comments regarding Browne, too.
A bit of Perf and DoubleUA:
Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs song, Waiting for the Cyclone: Belinda’s bored so she clicks on the telly/Someone yells out to turn it down/Zac the dog is lying on his belly/Tongue out, na, na, na, nana, na, na
The Triffids, Too Hot to Move, Too Hot to Think: And from this window, I can see the street below/I can hear the hit parade on the radio/There’s dirty dishes piling up in the sink/But it’s too hot to move, and it?s too hot to think
The Triffids (Jill Birt on eerily childlike vocals), Tarrilup Bridge: I packed my bag/Left a note on the fridge/And I drove off the end of the Tarrilup Bridge./Now you read about me in the papers/They say I’m going to be a big star/They’re making a movie about my life/And you’re going to play the starring part
Thanks for the WA trio, Rick – some great music has certainly come from that part of the world.
Where I got to know ‘Too Hot to Move’ is from that 1984 ABC TV series Sweet and Sour (Deborah Conway did the lead vocal here) – love the song a great deal!
‘Wow’, written and performed by Kate Bush, from her LIonheart album (1978): ‘He’ll never make the screen /
He’ll never make the Sweeney / Be that movie queen…’
The Lionheart album, incidentally, has historically been viewed by many as one of Bush’s lesser records. However, for me, it has its own important place in Kate’s body of work, having a distinctive warm, sensual quality, creating a world unto itself, and signifying a particularly important time in my life – to the extent that I wrote a poem and poetry collection with the title Lionheart Summer. https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/almanac-poetry-and-music-lionheart-summer/
Like father, like son, a few from the Earle’s:
Steve songs:
Satellite Radio (Is there anybody out there? One-two-three on the satellite radio?/Does anybody care, are you listenin’ to me? On the satellite radio/At the galaxy’s end where the stars burn bright, are you tunin’ in and turnin’ on?/Is there anybody listenin’ to us tonight on the satellite radio?)
F the CC (I used to listen to the radio/And I don’t guess they’re listenin’ to me no more//They talk too much but that’s okay/I don’t understand a single word they say) – have a listen, Steve at his angriest and this song from 2004 is as relevant today, except nobody censors bigotry no more …
Justin Townes (RIP):
Midnight at the Movies (I ain’t got nowhere to be. Ain’t nobody waiting at home for me/And there’s nothing lonelier than midnight at the movies, again) – you want sad and tender, JTE delivers
Am I that Lonely Tonight (Hear my father on the radio singing take me home again/300 miles from the Carolina coast and I’m/I’m skin and bones again/Sometimes I wish that I could get away/Sometimes I wish that he’d just call/Am I that lonely tonight, I don’t know) – see above
Thanks for the Earle material, Rick. Certainly a bunch of quality songs! (What a fine, driving country rocker is F the CC!)
And Paul Simon’s brilliant ‘The Boy in the Bubble’ contains direct and not-quite-as-direct references to various media.
‘The bomb in the baby carriage was wired to the radio…’
‘The way the camera follows us in slo-mo / The way we look to us all…’
‘Staccato signals of constant information…’
Speaking of Paul Simon,
7 O’Clock News/Silent Night -Simon and Garfunkel. Paul and Art sing the traditional Xmas carol while a voice over them reads the news with items about Vietnam, Civil Rights and the death of Lenny Bruce.
Derek Bentley – Ewan McColl (written by Karl Dallas)
“It’s of a great adventure, to you that I will tell
Of how they hanged a half-grown lad and how it all befell
It was guns and comics, films of war that made his education”
This song refers to the killing of a policeman by two teenagers in London in 1952. Dallas (and McColl) blamed post war popular culture for the incident. I don’t think this is among McColl’s best political songs.
Two much better songs were released about Bentley and Chris Craig in the 1980s. Let Him Dangle by Elvis Costello and Bentley and Craig by Ralph McTell. Both songs focus on the facts that Bentley was in police custody when 16 year old Craig shot PC Miles. Craig was considered to young to be hanged so the authorities hanged 19 year old Bentley instead. The outrageousness of this outcome is best summed up in this verse by Ralph McTell written thirty years after the incident.
“Oh, you men on our behalf who sanctioned that boy’s death
There’s still one thing left to do
You can pardon Derek Bentley who never took a life
For Derek Bentley cannot pardon you”
I realise I have gone way off topic but I couldn’t mention McColl’s song without mentioning the more powerful songs on the same events by Costello and McTell.
Thanks for the heads up Dave, I don’t know the McTell song, will check it out later today. The Costello song is pretty good, and when it came out I was struck deeply, not just by the Crown’s misuse of justice and power but also the chorus:
If killing anybody is a terrible crime
Why does this bloodthirsty chorus come ’round from time to time?
Let him dangle.
And now, I’ll segue back to the theme with 4 Costello songs from two albums before Spike.
Glitter Gulch, a spot on send up of TV game shows in all their garish glory
American Without Tears (Outside in New Orleans the heat was almost frightening/But my hotel room as usual was freezing and unkind/On TV they prosecute anyone who’s exciting/So I put on my overcoat and went down to find …) that example is good enough, but wait, there’s more. A latter verse goes back in time to WW2, with these lyrics: At a dock in Southampton full of tearful goodbyes/Newsreel commentators said “Cheerio, G.I. brides”. And I reckon this might be the first appearance of ‘Newsreel’ in this theme. But wait, there’s more!
American Without Tears #2 (Twilight Version) is a similar song that appeared on an Little Elvis album of b-sides, with a different take, this time a reflection of the experience of a “G.I. Bride” life and marriage in the US and different lyrics and I reckon a slightly better, more heartfelt song. (“Arnie,” she said to me, “Will you turn down the radio/You haven’t slept a wink since we came to Havana/When’re you going to get the strength to go over to Florida?/All you ever listen to is the Voice of America”)
Tokyo Storm Warning (The sky fell over cheap Korean monster-movie scenery/And spilled into the mezzanine of the crushed capsule hotel) – from Blood and Chocolate, an incredible mid 80s Costello album, this song is Little Elvis at his finest Dylan attempt in all his raging glory.
Two excellent, highly detailed sets of comments, Dave and Rick – thanks so much! So interesting to read. In this instance, I’ll allow the comments concerned to speak for themselves, except to note that it’s often gratifying to see how the comments connected to our themed pieces relate to each other as the overall discussion unfolds and proceeds.
My mention of Paul Simon’s ‘The Boy in the Bubble’ has compelled me to share a mondegreen associated with it. For those who don’t know, the unusual and typically amusing phenomenon of mondegreens basically concerns those mishearings/misinterpretations usually associated with songs and poems.
Ever since I first heard the Simon song just mentioned, I thought the lines about ‘…the boy in the bubble /
And the baby with the baboon’s heart’ were actually ‘…the boy in the bubble / And the baby with the babbling heart’! I used to think jeez, Simon is really riffing with language there!
For more about mondegreens, I’ve written about them in some detail previously for The Footy Almanac website: https://www.footyalmanac.com.au/almanac-humour-hes-got-the-whole-world-in-his-pants-mondegreens/
To add to what I’ve written immediately above – I only became aware of what the correct lines were in relation to ‘The Boy in the Bubble’ when I checked its lyrics earlier today!
It’s taken 151 comments, but, for me, one of my absolute favourite radio songs has finally become present in my head: Warren Zevon’s superb, much-covered ‘Carmelita’ (first recorded by Canadian singer Murray McLauchlan in 1972). As many would know, the song begins: ‘I hear mariachi static on my radio / And the tubes they glow in the dark…’
Great pick up KD, I love this song, in WZ five best songs. And it was there in front of us the whole time!
So I’ll throw out Television, the Drug of the Nation by Michael Franti’s early band, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. First Hip Hop band I saw live at (I think) The Prince in St Kilda early 90s.
And does Heart of Gold (I’ve been to Hollywood, I’ve been to Redwood) squeeze in?
Cheers
Thanks, Rick, re ‘Carmelita’ – it’s interesting how some wonderful songs can ‘hide in plain sight’ (an expression I’ve used before in relation to some theme-connected numbers, I know).
Thank you, also, for ‘Television, the Drug of the Nation’ – just checked it out. Bit of a trip!
And ‘Heart of Gold’ sneaks under our theme’s umbrella, I reckon, partly because I’m biased and love the song! (But also because ‘movieland’ [i.e. Hollywood’] is referenced.)
I think another major song that can be admitted under our theme’s umbrella is the iconic ‘I was Only 19’, written by John Schumann and a big hit for Redgum, of course. TV is referenced via ‘the Channel Seven chopper’.
‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’, a good 1990s pop-rock song by American band, Deep Blue Something. The catchy chorus goes:
:’And I said, “What about Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”
She said, “I think I remember that film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it”
And I said, “Well, that’s the one thing we’ve got”
New theme coming this Friday, 24 September!
Hey KD I think you mean Friday, 27 September.
Anyways, my son was playing an Allan Jackson song the other day and I reckon it might well be a signature tune for this theme, or at least the radio part. That’d be, Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow (Daddy’s got a radio/He won it 30 years ago/He said, “Son I just know we’re going to hear you singing on it some day”).
Another couple of Allan Jackson songs that fit in here are:
A Little Bluer Than That (Well tonight if you turn your radio on/You might hear a sad, sad song/About someone who lost everything they had/It may sound like me/But I’m a little bluer than that)
Thank God for the Radio, first recorded by The Kendalls (Thank God for the radio/Playin’ all night long/Playin’ all the songs/That mean so much to me and you).
And a Johnny Cash song (that I might have already put up):
The Night Hank Williams Came to Town – “I Love Lucy” debuted on TV/That was one big event we didn’t see/’Cause no one stayed at home for miles around/It was the night Hank Williams came to town.
Yep, Rick, thank you for your correction in terms of the arrival date of our next song theme. I’d better put it in capitals – it’s FRIDAY 27 SEPTEMBER.
Thanks so much for your latest selections in connection with this current theme, too. I’m pretty sure you haven’t doubled up on ‘The Night Hank Williams Came to Town’, either – I just had a good look back through the list before your most recent choices.
Springsteen turned 75 on Monday and I raise my glass to him.
Bobby Jean – his tribute to Miami Steve, who left the E Street band around the time of BitUSA, to pursue his own music (Well, maybe you’ll be out there on that road somewhere/In some bus or train travelling along/In some motel room, there’ll be a radio playing/And you’ll hear me sing this song/Well, if you do, you’ll know I’m thinking of you)
Dancing in the Dark – do you know the story of how this magnificent song came to be, Landau, Springsteen’s producer and right hand, said to Bruce when he handed in the BitUSA recordings, that the album needed a standout lead single and “ordered” Bruce to go write one. So he wrote DitD, a tale so true to Bruce, about coping, about the anguish trying to understand himself, success and the rapidly changing world around him, all set to a dance rock beat (Messages keep getting clearer/Radio’s on and I’m moving ’round my place/I check my look in the mirror/I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face)
Restless Nights – where Bruce brings his love of power pop to the fore, think the Raspberries, The Knack etc, and this is Bruce at his power pop best, even more than that, this is a killer song from The River recordings that didn’t even make it on to the album! (On late night movie screens/Young lovers look so sure/Lost in wide awake dreams/Than they can’t afford)
A Good Man is Hard to Find – Bruce lifts the title of a Flannery O’Connor short story but not the story. Her story is a dark and brooding tale, about a family killed by a convict. Bruce’s song is a more literal story about a woman who loses her husband to the Vietnam war (She sits by the light of her Christmas tree/With the radio softly on/Thinkin’ how a good man is so hard to find)
Johnny Bye-Bye – Springsteen takes an idea within a Chuck Berry song and turns it into his lament for Elvis ((Hey little girl with the red dress on/There’s party tonight down in Memphis town/I’ll be going down there if you need a ride/The man on the radio says Elvis Presley’s died)
And of course, the Chuck Berry song:
Bye Bye Johnny – a more sombre, reflective take on his hit song, Johnny B. Goode, which itself was one of rocknroll’s first songs to reflect on rocknroll stardom, which is where Bruce took the idea to juxtapose Chuck’s song with his own thoughts about Elvis (She drew out all her money out of the Southern Trust/And put her little boy aboard a Greyhound Bus/Leaving Louisiana for the Golden West/Down came the tears from her happiness/Her own little son name Johnny B. Goode/Was gonna make some motion pictures out in Hollywood)
Wonderful Springsteen material, as usual, Rick – befitting in connection with the great man’s 75th. I raise my glass, too, and it fits well that I have Budweiser in the fridge as I write this!
And here’s a wonderful song that deserves mentioning in the same breath (so to speak) as any of the ones you’ve just put forward: Lou Reed’s ‘Dirty Blvd.’, from his acclaimed New York album (1989). Some lines from this song, as you may recall:
‘Outside it’s a bright night, there’s an opera at Lincoln Center
Movie stars arrive by limousine
The klieg lights shoot up over the skyline of Manhattan
But the lights are out on the mean streets’
And it probably doesn’t bear repeating here what, er, act the ‘TV whores’ in the following verse of the song are ‘calling the cops out for’…
That Lou Reed song/album is a ripper, from an artist as patchy as anything but when shone he was a master. Sweet Jane anyone. Saw him at Selinas in Sydney in Jan 84, one hell of a gig. Cheers
Thanks for the feedback re Lou, Rick. And it’s always interesting to obtain info about how the person concerned was in a live performance context.