As is my wont, I was listening to the Coverville podcast a couple weeks ago. Brian Ibbott decided to play several covers of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, some straightforward, some silly. I was disappointed, though, that he didn’t play my favorite cover by Little Roger and the Goosebumps, Stairway to Gilligan’s Island. As it turns out, Brian had played it on this April 2007 episode.
I discovered that the song, recorded in March 1978, and released it as a single in May 1978, inspired Led Zeppelin’s lawyers to threaten to sue for copyright infringement and demanded that remaining copies of the recording be destroyed. This is highly ironic, given the fact that Stairway seems to be heavily copped from the 1968 song Taurus by the group Spirit, the first song on that recent Coverville episode, a snippet of which can also be found here. In fact, this website addresses many of Led Zeppelin’s “influences”.
20. Strawberry Letter #23 – Brothers Johnson Starts off with circus music, then kicks a groove. That swirling sound at the bridge is extraordinary. Feeling: loving.
19. Eleanore – the Turtles. The story goes that their record company wanted another “Happy Together”, so the group gave them one. It has the same minor to major transition, very similar – though lovely – harmonies, and the like. So why is this song, rather than “Happy Together” on the list? Two reasons, really. One: HT was really overplayed. Two: the line “you’re my pride and joy, et cet’ra,” a throwaway line if ever I heard one. (It rhymes with “better” or more correctly, “betta”.) Love singing along. Feeling: swell.
18. Drive My Car – Beatles. I read once the intricacy of the chord structure. It’s the minor key feel of the verse and major chord feel of the chorus that grabbed me from first hearing. First song that Paul McCartney played in some 23008 concerts. Feeling: ironic.
17. Isaac Hayes – Shaft Even before the great vocal comes up, an orchestral delight, as the melody shifts from section to section. Feeling: damn right.
16. Can We Still Be Friends – Todd Rundgren The changing meter in the bridge makes it. feeling: You know the answer is no.
15. Sly & The Family Stone – Hot Fun In The Summertime Harmonies, shared vocals and an “ooo-Lord” worth waiting for. Feeling: sweaty.
14. Jerks on the Loose – the Roches. The album Keep On Doing was produced by Robert Fripp, so there are odd sonic twists and turns throughout. this song has one of my favorite (and used) couplets: “You work too ard to take this abuse Be on your guard jerks on the loose. This 30-second taste (Track 11) hardly gives the full sense of how great this song is. Feeling: on my guard.
13. (Just Like) Starting Over – John Lennon. In the fall of 1980, when the single was released, there was a lot of anticipation about it and the forthcoming Double Fantasy album. I didn’t think it was a great song, but it was sort of fun, with that faux Elvis vocal in the beginning of the verse. Then John died, and the irony of the title – we waited five years and THAT had to happen? – made me tear up for months, if not years. Feeling: still makes me very sad.
12. River – Joni Mitchell. There’s a lot of Joni I could have picked, but this one, based on Jingle Bells, is just so beautiful. The piano variations at the end seal the deal. Feeling: longing.
11. In My Room – the Beach Boys. I liked being in my room when I was a kid. I could entertain myself for hours, reading, looking at my baseball cards and listening to the radio. Yet I was somehow supposed to feel guilty for doing so. Anyway, lives on the vocals, in this case – single voice, then two-part harmony, then full harmony; very effective. Feeling: cloistered.
There is this guy I see on the bus; saw him yesterday. He is what one would call in the vernacular unbalanced. Sometimes he talks to other people, but usually it’s to himself, running down a bizarre checklist. In my professional building, I saw this woman walking towards me yesterday, also engaged in conversation. Initially, I thought she was talking to me, but then I surmised she was talking on one of those tiny communications devices. Or was she? *** There were only two TV shows on my summer schedule. No, The Greatest American Dog (or whatever it’s called) is not one of them. The one running currently is the return of The Closer, so recent that when I saw my DVR trecording last night, I didn’t remember why initially. The other, I’ll admit, was Million Dollar Password, now on hiatus. I loved the show with Allen Ludden, and still like it, but its real flaw is that no one in his or her right mind would ever go for the million dollars. To do that, one would have to have succeeded at the $250,000 level, which no one has done yet, then risk all but $25,000 of that to get five passwords out of five, with no errors, offering no more than three clues each. *** If-Then Contingencies and the Differential Effects of the Availability of an Attractive Alternative on Relationship Maintenance for Men and Women (PDF) Yes, this is heterocentric, but I SO love the title. “Temptation may be everywhere, but it’s how the different sexes react to flirtation that determines the effect it will have on their relationships. In a new study, psychologists determined men tend to look at their partners in a more negative light after meeting a single, attractive woman. On the other hand, women are likelier to work to strengthen their current relationships after meeting an available, attractive man.” *** I love adjectival forms of place names. a person from Albania is an Albanian. A person from Albany is also an Albanian. Make of that what you will. *** Another canard foiled: Evidence Shows That Tax Cuts Lose Revenue from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities “The claim that tax cuts ‘pay for themselves’ — i.e., cause so much economic growth that revenues rise faster than they would have without the tax cut — has been made repeatedly in recent years and is one of the many tax policy issues that is likely to receive renewed attention in light of the upcoming election. As explained, this claim is false. The evidence shows clearly that tax cuts lose revenue.” *** Interesting Scientific Experiment *** I’ll probably see The Dark Knight at some point. It’s only playing at least 12 screens in the county. My wife wants to see it, mostly because her high school kids will likely have seen it and she wants to keep up on their influences. Question: Do I need to, or ought I, see Batman Begins before seeing The Dark Knight? Lots of positive reviews, so I’m more interested in the negative ones, such as this one and this one, the latter with 300+ comments, most of them not appreciative of the reviewer’s POV. There’s also this mixed review in Salon; of particular note to me is the first starred comment. *** I saw this a couple months ago: Wedding Album [IMPORT] by Yoko Ono and John Lennon. I own this on vinyl, that is the first two, album-side-long cuts. #1 is Yoko saying “John!” then John replying “Yoko!” sometimes talking, sometimes yelling, for about 25 minutes. #2 is an interview and is at least interesting. Add-ons #3, #4 and #5 are B-sides of Instant Karma, Merry Xmas, and Cold Turkey, respectively, performed by Yoko. Heck, why not add Remember Love and Sisters O Sisters, other Lennon B-sides done by Ono? 1. John & Yoko 2. Amsterdam 3. Who Has Seen the Wind? [*] – John Lennon & Yoko Ono, John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band, Yoko Ono 4. Listen, the Snow Is Falling [*] 5. Don’t Worry, Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow) [*] In any case, at $76, no way in heck do I buy this.
So what am I most anticipating in the new year? READING For the first time in decades, THREE comic-related items: The Steve Ditko book. The Jack Kirby book The Fred Hembeck book. BTW, happy five years of blogging, Fred!
WATCHING More movies; likely next chance, MLK Day. Likely film: Juno. Pioneers of Television which starts TONIGHT on PBS with sitcoms (I Love Lucy; Joyce Randolph on The Honeymooners; Marlo Thomas about her father Danny’s Make Room for Daddy’ the man himself on The Andy Griffith Show; and DVD and MTM on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Football. Seriously, taping it then watching it later is SO much more efficient. Definitely some of the NFL games. Probably a bowl game or two. The Golden Globes, just to see who actually shows up and say they support the Writers’ Strike, even as they’ll be others who’ll boycott the show altogether for the same reason.
HEARING The new music I got in the last month, including the John Lennon Anthology. There’s more, but I’ll save it for my Top 10 album list.
VISITING Williamsburg, VA with the family. My in-laws have as timeshare. Visiting the BNorman Rockwell Museum, not all that far from here in Stockbridge, MA. My wife wants to see the Rockwell stuff. I really want to see LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel (through May 26, 2008), featuring Jessica Abel, Sue Coe, R. Crumb, Howard Cruse, Steve Ditko, Will Eisner, Brian Fies, Gerhard, Milt Gross, Marc Hempel, Niko Henrichon, Mark Kalesniko, Peter Kuper, Harvey Kurtzman, Matt Madden, Frans Masereel, Frank Miller, Terry Moore, Dave Sim, Art Spiegelman, Lynd Ward, Lauren Weinstein, Mark Wheatley, Barron Storey and others. Seeing my friends Gerelt-Od and Soyol who used to live in Albany then returned home to Mongolia, but who’ve been in NYC the past year; I haven’t seen them in nearly a decade. Seeing my friend Deborah, who I met in 1977 in NYC, who moved to Japan and then France, and who’ll be visiting the Western Hemisphere at some point this year. I haven’t seen her in over a quarter century.
DOING Worrying less Sleeping more Drinking more water
That’s as close to New Year’s resolutions as I go.
Today, an album called Stax Sings the Beatles is scheduled to be released. But did you know that the Beatles nearly recorded at Stax in 1966? Manager Brian Epstein coming to Memphis to scope out the soul label site, before deciding there was too little security? Here’s one article and Stax guitarist Steve Cropper’s take. Also, go here to read pages 96 and 97 of Rob Bowman’s account in his book Soulsville U.S.A.
Of course today, John Lennon would have been 67; Sean Lennon, who I saw perform earlier this year, is 32.
Here’s a montage some YouTuber made last year in honor of John’s birthday:
