From the Vaults: Name That Tune!

 

     From time to time, I am asked to reveal a secret;  where do ideas for these FTV articles come from?  There is no simple answer but let me give it a shot:  anywhere and everywhere.  It isn’t much different than what songwriters say happens when they hear a phrase or musical riff that sticks with them.  If it stays with them long enough, one thing leads to another and a song emerges.  Things I pick up in conversation, reading, from TV and radio – anything that bounces around in my head long enough can become the kernel of an article.  Driving down the highway often allows my brain to ping-pong an idea back and forth enough to see if it has potential.

     Case in point, the December 2023 / January 2023 issue of AARP magazine included a quiz that generated the title of this FTV.  I do not have the luxury of printing the answer key upside down so you will be on your honor not to cheat.  I didn’t get all the titles correct in the AARP quiz, but I did recall all the tunes that went with the lyrics with the exception of #3.  Unlike the AARP quiz, I am not going to put photos next to # 1, 6, 8, 17, or 18 . . . those clues were a little too obvious (especially for #1).  Time to ‘fine tune’ your memory:

1. Well since my baby left me, well I found a new place to dwell / Well its down the end of a lonely street . . .
2. Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans, way back up in the woods among the evergreens / There stood a log cabin made of earth & wood, where lived a country boy named. . .
3. Oh, when the sun beats down and burns the tar on the roof / And your shoes get so hot, you wish your tired feet were fireproof . . .
4. Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you / Tomorrow I’ll miss you . . .
5. I need love, to ease my mind / I need to find, find someone to call mine . . .
6. I bet you’re wonderin’ how I knew / ‘Bout your plans to make me blue . . .
7. How many roads must a man walk down / Before they can call him a man? . . .
8. People say I’m the life of the party, ‘cause I tell a joke or two / Although I might be laughing loud and hearty, deep inside I’m blue . . .l

9.You know it would be untrue / You know that I would be a liar . . .

10. I’m a-gonna raise a fuss, I’m gonna raise a holler / About working all summer just a-trying to earn a dollar . . .
11. I keep a close watch on this heart of mine / I keep my eyes wide open all the time . . .
12. Look at me / I’m as helpless as a kitten up a tree . . .
13. And now, the end is here, and so I face the final curtain / My friend, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain . . .
14. Don’t know much about history / Don’t know much about biology . . .
15. All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray / I’ve been for a walk, on a winter’s day . . .
16. Well, East Coast girls are hip / I really dig those styles they wear . . .
17. Hello darkness, my old friend / I’ve come to talk with you again . . .
18. Callin’ out around the world:  Are you ready for a brand new beat? / Summer’s here and the time is right . . .
19. I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day / When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May . . .
20. The night we met I knew I needed you so / And if I had the chance I’d never let you go . . .

Answers to 1-20:  1- Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis -1956) 2-Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry-1958) 3-Under the Boardwalk (The Drifters-1964) 4-All My Loving (The Beatles-1963) 5-You Can’t Hurry Love (The Supremes-1966) 6-I Heard It Through the Grapevine (Gladys Knight and the Pips-1967 Marvin Gaye-1968 CCR-1970) 7-Blowin’ in the Wind (Dylan-1963) 8-The Tracks of My Tears (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles -1965) 9-Light My Fire (The Doors-1967 10-Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran-1958 or Blue Cheer-1968 or The Who-1970) 11-I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash-1956) 12-Misty (Johnny Mathis-1959) 13-My Way (Frank Sinatra-1969) 14-Wonderful World (Sam Cooke-1960) 15-California Dreaming (The Mamas & the Papas-1965) 16-California Girls (The Beach Boys-1965) 17-The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel-1964) 18-Dancin’ in the Streets (Martha & the Vandellas-1964) 19-My Girl (The Temptations-1964) 20-Be My Baby (The Ronettes-1963) 

     So how did you do?  The WOAS West Coast Bureau often says the soundtrack of our lives helps us conjure up many memories and emotions, so even if you can’t put a finger on all the artists listed, I am betting they still triggered your brain to go back in time.  Time for round two?  All of the songs listed from 1-20 are set in the time frame for those of us who have reached a certain age.  Perhaps we should challenge those with a few less trips around the Sun under their belt.  Tunes 21-40 in the money round are newer, but all over the genre map.  Same rules about cheating apply – Ding:

21. She’s a good girl, loves her mama / Loves Jesus and America too . . .
22. My shadow’s the only one that walks beside me / My shadow heart’s the only thing that’s beating / Sometimes, I wish someone out there will find me . . .
23. I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter dancing through the fire / ‘Cause I am a champion . . .
24. The wind blows hard against this mountainside, across the sea to my soul / It reaches into where I cannot hide, Setting my feet upon the road . . .
25. And whatever it takes I’ll find it somehow, whatever it needs I’ll show I’m strong / Whatever it takes I’ll make it happen, finding out where I belong . . .
26. Now you move so fine /  Let me lay it on the line / I wanna know, what you’re doin’ after the show? . . .
27. You had your time, you had the power / You’ve yet to have your finest hour . . .
28. While the rest of them dudes were makin’ their friends / Boy, I beg your pardon I was losin’ mine . . .
29. And she thinks I’m psycho ‘cause I like to rhyme her name with things, but / Sophistication isn’t what you wear, or who you know . . .
30. Facing twenty-thousand of your friends, how can anyone be so lonely? / Part of a success that never ends / Still I’m thinking about you only . . .
31. We sailed on together, we drifted apart / And here you are by my side . . .
32. If you wake up and don’t want to smile, it takes just a little while / Open your eyes and look at the day, you’ll see things in a different way . . .
33. Sitting in the classroom thinking it’s a drag / Listening to the teacher rap, it just ain’t my bag . . .
34. I’ve never seen a diamond in the flesh, I cut my teeth on wedding rings in the movies /  And I’m not proud of my address, in a torn up town, no postcode envy . . .
35. So I remember we were driving in your car / Speed so fast I felt like I was drunk / City lights lay out before us / And your arm felt nice wrapped around my shoulder . . .
36. What you say about his company, is what you say about society / Catch the mist, catch the myth, catch the mystery, catch the drift . . .
37. Thirteen month old baby, broke the looking glass / Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past . . .
38. I had a brother at Khe Sanh, fightin’ off all the Viet Cong / They’re still there, he’s all gone, he had a woman he loved in Saigon . . .
39. I’ll play along with the charade, there doesn’t seem to be a reason to change / You know, I feel so dirty when they start talking cute, I wanna tell her I love her but the point is probably moot . . .
40. We’re in the homestretch of the hard times / We took a hard left but we’re alright / Yeah life can sure try to put love through it but / We built this right so nothing’s ever gonna move it

Answers for 21-40:  21 – Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty-1989) 22 – Boulevard of Broken Dreams – (Green Day-2004) 23 – Roar  (Roar-2013) 24 – Kyrie (Mr Mister-1985) 25 – Believe (Cher-1998) 26 – Hot Blooded (Foreigner – 2019) 27 – Radio Ga Ga (Queen-1984) 28 – Mississippi Queen (Mountain-1970) 29 – Better than Revenge (Taylor’s Version) (Taylor Swift-2023) 30-Super Trouper (ABBA-1980) 31- Open Arms (Journey-1981) 32 – Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow (Fleetwood Mac-1977) 33 – Smokin’ in the Boy’s Room (Brownsville Station-1973 / Motley Crue-1985) 34 – Royals (Lorde-2012) 35 – Fast Car (Tracy Chapman-1988 / Luke Combs-2023) 36-Tom Sawyer (Rush-1981) 37 – Superstitious (Stevie Wonder-1972 / Beck, Bogart & Appice -1973) 38 – Born in the USA (Bruce Springsteen-1984) 39 – Jesse’s Girl (Rick Springfield-1981) 40 – The Bones (Marin Morris -2019)

     With a little space left to fill, I thought we could play a different game for the bonus round. See if you can fill out the blanks in the last set of lyrics for Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire.  With nine stanzas and a chorus between each verse, it would take more space than we have here to run down this whole history lesson in a song, so I cherry picked the last verse and chorus – see if you can fill in the blanks without looking at the last key:

Bonus Round:  Birth control, __ __ __, Richard Nixon back again, _______, Woodstock, _______, Punk rock, Begin, ____, Palestine, __ __ __ __ / Ayatollahs __ ___, Russian in _____ / ‘Wheel of Fortune’,_____, heavy metal suicide / Foreign debts, _____  ____, AIDS, ____, Bernie Goetz / Hypodermics on the shore, ____  ____  ____  ____ / Rock and roller, ____ ____, I can’t take it any more / Chorus – We didn’t start the fire, ___ ___ ____ ____, since the world’s been turning / We didn’t start the fire, ___ ____ ___ ___ ___  it will still burn on and on and on. 

(Bonus Round Key) Ho Chi Minh, Moonshot, Watergate, Terror on the airline, in Iran, Afghanistan / Sally Ride, homeless vets, crack, China’s under martial law, cola wars

Chorus – It was always burning, But when we are gone

     One tune out of all the others above kept coming back to me;  The Beach Boys California Girls.  Brian Wilson referred to this song as a ‘hymn to youth’ and the Beach Boys ‘anthem’.  Wilson said it was one of his favorite songs even though he wasn’t totally satisfied with how the final vocals came out on the record.  As for his inspiration, he said the song was conceived on his first acid trip while he was thinking about Western film scores.  According to Wiki, “The song is distinguished for its orchestral prelude, layered vocals, and chromaticism.  It was the band’s first recording with touring musician Bruce Johnston who was not yet officially a member of the band.  California Girls inspired The Beatles to write a parody, Back in the USSR (from their White Album) as well as many other songs with similar titles (like Katy Perry’s California Gurls).  David Lee Roth’s 2010 version peaked at #3 on the charts, just like The Beach Boys original release (back in 1965).”

     Wilson elaborated on the creation of the song in a 2007 interview:  “[Sitting at the piano] I was thinking about the music from cowboy movies.  And I sat down and started playing it, bum-buh deeda, bum,-buh deeda.  I did that for about an hour.  I got these chords going.  Then I got this melody, it came pretty fast after that.”  In his mind, Wilson was trying for a feel much like the Drifters Under the Boardwalk and the shuffle beat was influenced by Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. 

     Singer Mike Love helped him finish the lyrics the next day but the band’s publisher (Murry Wilson, the Wilson brother’s father) did not give him credit.  Love was successful in getting his songwriting credit restored via a 1990 lawsuit.  They later clashed on who wrote what with Love claiming he wrote ‘everything but the ‘I wish they all could be California girls’ part.  Wilson maintains it was a collaborative back and forth with both contributing lines.  Noted session musician Carol Kaye says Brian Wilson was responsible for all of the music with the exception of the bass parts she laid down.  Kaye also invented the bass fill at the end of the bridge section.

     If I have managed to load you down with a few ‘earwigs’ (you know, those pesky little snippets of songs you can’t get out of your head), I am sorry.  Actually, I am not because I am plagued with them all of the time.  The best way I have found to get them out of my head is to share them with someone else.  You are most welcome!  Now, if someone would please take California Girls out of my head for a bit (bum-buh deeda, bum-buh deeda . . .)

Top Piece Video – After that big build up, what else could it be?