Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DXIV--Hozier: Jackie and Wilson

 Back to back days--you'd think I'm trying to catch up (at least this one's only five days late)....

It's not surprising, given my penchant for a good pop tune, that the best pop song on a great album would eventually come to the fore.  This week's tune spent weeks dancing around in my head, with me studying the lyric sheet daily to remember every word, and as I did my due diligence this week and listened to it again and again in prep for this post...it was every bit as good as I remembered it.

As with last week, I've written a post about Hozier before, in Vol. CCCXCI.  Unlike last week, though, Hozier does have at least a little news in the interim, as he released his third full-length LP in 2023, a couple of EPS, and was fortunate enough to have his first number one single on the Billboard Hot 100.  He has remained active in social issues, and released a single, "Swan Upon Leda" which was a call for reproductive rights and women's empowerment.  Sadly, as the loss of Vice-President Harris showed us, we have a long way to go for those two goals here in America.

"Jackie and Wilson" was the third song on his rather eponymously entitled debut album, Hozier.  Though it was probably the best top forty oriented song on the album, it was not released as a single.  I already covered the album's chart trifecta in the earlier post.

Fun Fact:  The link (below) to the lyrics has a video wherein Hozier explains the process behind creating this week's tune.  Not surprisingly, he notes Jackie Wilson as a big influence of his, even going so far as to say that he thought Elvis Presley was the white Jackie Wilson and not the other way around.

In the video I just mentioned, Hozier said the idea behind "Jackie and Wilson" was simply to make a song that was fun--and he succeeded magnificently.  The song tells the tale of a man sitting in a bar, tired and lonely, who spots a woman and begins a fantasy of their adventurous life together replete with their kids Jackie and Wilson.  Eventually she moves on, and he's left to wait for another woman to begin another fantasy.  Hozier has a gift for the written word ("I need to be youthfully felt 'cause, God, I never felt young"), and his blue-eyed soul vocals are to die for.  Not to mention the pulsating guitar and drums mimicking time? heartbeats? through the stanzas which segue into the cotton candy sweet chorus.   And like the fantasy, the song ends as abruptly as the fantasy began.  Just a wonderful song, another slice of truck stop pie on the Pop Music Highway.

Lyric Sheet:   "Happy to lie back, watch it burn and rust/We tried the world, good God it wasn't for us..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXLVIII--Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds: Don't Pull Your Love

 I was all set to write my intro about this week's tune being released when I was in high school and being a big hit and how much I hated it until I got older...except my memory failed me.  Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds did have a #1 hit when I was in high school with a song called "Falling In Love" which was a terrible song and still is.  This week's tune was actually released when I was in sixth grade, and while I did come to appreciate it more as I got older, it never started from such a low bar.

Every now and again while doing my half-assed research for my weekly featured song, I read about a band whose history isn't all that interesting, but for the first time this week it dawned on me that not being interesting is exceedingly relative as how uninteresting can it have been to have had two top five singles and made music for a living for the better part of ten years--compared to, oh, I don't know, being an Assistant Manager at K-Mart?  Anyhoo, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds (for the record, a trio--Dan Hamilton, Joe Frank Carollo, and Tommy Reynolds) formed in 1968, managed to score a record contract by 1970, and went on to have a several hits before disbanding in 1976.  They reunited for two years from 1986-1988 for one supposes the obligatory oldies tour, before calling it a career for good.  For their career, the band released four albums with three of them charting on the Billboard 200, and nine singles with eight of them hitting the Billboard Hot 100 (and, as noted above, two of them hitting the top five).  Founding member Dan Hamilton passed away in 1994; the whereabouts of the other two band members went above and beyond my half-assed research....

"Don't Pull Your Love" was the first single the band ever released, from their debut album entitled, appropriately enough, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds.  The single reached #4 (with a bullet!); the album hit #59 and was the highest charting LP of their career.

Fun Fact:  "Don't Pull Your Love" was originally chosen to be covered by 60's pop band the Grass Roots, but they passed on it calling it "too lightweight" (whoops!).  However, they eventually came around and the the 90's they were performing it in their live shows.

While "Don't Pull Your Love" may have been chosen to be a single for the Grass Roots, the song was actually written with Elvis Presley in mind (you may have heard of him--sold a couple records in his day).  And if you listen closely--yup, there's a time or two in the song when you might think the King himself was singing.  This one is your basic "don't leave me baby because I love you so" song (my favorite line "I'll...cry for a hundred years", and the band provides from the heart vocals, a catchy melody, and some dynamite horns to whet your pop palate.  The 70's was a decade that was rivaled only by the 60's for great singles, and "Don't Pull Your Love" is a prime example of vintage seventies pop.

Lyric Sheet:  "Don't pull your love out on me, baby/If you do then I think that maybe/I'll just lay me down and cry for a hundred years..."

Enjoy:

People Who Refuse the COVID-19 Vaccine Are Why Our Lives Can't Return to Normal

Peace,

emaycee

Elvis has left the White House

At least Elvis had talent once

 The absolute best embodiment of Donald Trump since he left the White House has to be that of Fat Elvis (though Elvis was the King of Rock and Roll at one point and Trump never progressed beyond king of the Turds).

If nothing else, it's a reminder that Trump's tenure was an embarrassment--a caricature of a pathetic man and the dead carcass that remains.

Especially since Biden is on the verge of passing the biggest investment (COVID relief package) in the poor and middle class that America has ever seen....

537,000+ Dead Americans Because of Donald Trump's Incompetence

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLIII--Mickey Newbury: An American Trilogy

A few years back I was listening to this week's tune, and it dawned on me where my love for traditional American music (which, surprisingly enough, has grown as I age) came from:  my father.  My father loved this song--and a number of other songs that might be referred to as Americana--and that love trickled down to me....

Mickey Newbury, whose career began as a songwriter in the mid-sixties in Nashville, has been called a songwriter's songwriter, and with the likes of Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and John Prine singing his praises it's not hard to see why.  Unfortunately for Newbury, he was something of a rebel in the country music scene, and didn't have quite the good fortune that other country "outlaws" (Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, Jennings again) when it came to his recording career.  Over the course of thirty years, Newbury released sixteen albums, only one of which reached the Billboard 200.  He also only had two singles reach the Billboard Hot 100 (though he did have a number of hits on the country charts.  Newbury, who suffered from depression and said that he wrote about his sadness, did have quite a few hits as a songwriter (Newbury was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame), and his influence on seventies country (he was mentioned in Jennings "Luckenbach, Texas" which was featured here on FNJ) is immeasurable.  Sadly, Newbury passed away in 2002 at the all two young age of 62 from the effects of emphysema.

Fun Fact:  In 1968, Newbury had a different top five single that he had written on the Pop/Rock, Easy Listening, R & B, and Country charts.  He is the only songwriter ever to pull off this feat.

"An American Trilogy" was released in 1972 on Newbury's album, Frisco Mabel Joy.  It would peak at #26 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album would be the only one of his career to hit the top 100 on the albums chart.  Elvis Presley also had a minor hit with a live version he recorded a little after Newbury's original version.

"An American Trilogy" juxtaposes the southern anthem "Dixie" with a marching hymn of the Union Army, "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and closes with a lullaby from the Bahamas, "All My Trials."  It's entirely possible I'm reading too much into Newbury's choice of these songs, but still I wonder if he wasn't projecting a battle we still fight today between those who see an America that never was (and was a much worse place than they'd be willing to admit) and the forces that seek to actually help America fulfill its promise.  Closing with a lullaby wherein the hope is that all of life's troubles will soon be behind him is...perhaps wishful thinking?  From a strictly musical standpoint, the deliberateness of Newbury's vocals and the empathy he instills in them are a wonder, while the instrumentation is stark--an acoustic guitar, a stand up bass (guessing), and a soulful harmonica at the song's end are all Newbury needs to evoke the sadness for the past with the perseverance for a better future that "An American Trilogy" symbolizes.  Suffice it to say, it's a stunning effort from an overlooked genius, a powerful testament to what music can be.

Lyric Sheet:  "So hush little baby/Don't you cry/You know your Daddy's bound to die/But all my trials, Lord will soon be over..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CXXVI--Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Takin' Care of Business

One of the first recollections I have of this week's tune is of an air band formed in the year of its release by me (air guitar), my brother (air drums), and my brother's friend (air guitar as well) and it being one of the essential songs in our air repertoire on those few nights our parents went out and gave us the run of the house.

And yes, yes--my time as a Prince of Dorkdom began very early in my life.

Originally formed in 1971 in Winnipeg, Manitoba as Brave Belt (first good career move:  renaming band), Bachman-Turner Overdrive had a string of hits from 1974 to 1977 that are still staples of AOR radio to this day.   Led by Randy Bachman (who also had some success with the Guess Who), BTO released nine studio albums, had twelve top 100 hits, five live albums, and, uh, eleven compilation albums (the cash must be good when you're a great singles band).  In the years since their heyday, they've had roughly a zillion lineup changes, several lawsuits, and much bad blood, but they're still touring and releasing the odd single.  They also have been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and they won several Junos (Canadian Grammy) in the 70's.

Fun Fact:  Elvis (Presley, not Costello) was a big fan of this week's tune and supposedly did a cover version of it that will probably never be released.  Bummer--it might actually be worth a listen and it certainly couldn't be any worse that some of the shit cover songs music industry cretins have released through the years....

Released in 1974 from their cleverly titled second LP, Bachman-Turner Overdrive II, "Takin' Care of Business"is considered "the Provincial rock anthem of Manitoba" (hey--you take your accolades where you can get them in this goofy old world) and is one of the ten most covered rock songs of all-time.  It reached #12 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 and celebrates what has been a theme of FNJ numerous times this year:  being a musician is a much better career than being a retail manager (duh!).  Opening with some killer three chord guitar riffs, joined by a honky tonk piano, and some deft solo guitar, and livened by power drumming throughout, "Takin' Care of Business" is a joyous romp through the perks and promises of being a musician.  Bachman's throaty vocals are both light-hearted and encouraging--hell, he even tells you if you get sick of the 9 to 5 grind, that you can pick up a guitar and be a musician, too (hey, who needs this "slavin' job" anyway?).  It's a power pop gem and a perfect encapsulation of so much of what was right about music in the 1970's.

Lyric Sheet: "Get a second-hand guitar/Chances are you'll go far/If you get in with the right bunch of fellows...."

Enjoy (and please note that I own a 45 just like the one that provides the background for the video--can you say "old fart" boys and girls?):

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee