#168 – I Want To Take You Higher

#168 – I Want To Take You Higher by Sly & The Family Stone

 – At the risk of sounding like I’m standing alone in the middle of a large field with no one else to support my opinion, I believe every teenage guy that played an electric guitar in 1970 learned the opening riff to this song. Okay, maybe that’s too much of a general assumption, but I’m basing it on personal experience.

I fit that demographic and pretty sure I wasn’t alone.

Sly & The Family Stone were definitely not alone in a field when they took the crowd higher with this blast of gospel rock ‘n’ roll at Woodstock in August 1969. For the 400,000 people camped out at Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York – which over the decades grew to millions that claimed to be there –  the band’s performance was a festival highlight and a super charged Sunday morning wake-up call when they hit the stage at 3:30 am.

If anyone in that particular large field surrounded by people slept through it, I’ll make a general assumption they were in one of the emergency medical tents after dropping the brown acid the stage announcers warned festival-goers not to take.

How do I know this? Was I one of the thousands – later millions – who claims to have been at Woodstock?

Nope. I saw the movie.

Millions were there?

The Woodstock movie rolled through our area of northern Ohio during the summer of 1970. Most of us in my group of friends had listened to the three disc soundtrack LP, but the visuals proved to be an important part of the experience. I remember a carload of us (including my then current and future girlfriends – which is a different long story) heading to the theater decked out in our best hippie garb. In Ohio fashion sense, that just meant bellbottoms, a favorite t-shirt and probably blue-tinted round sunglasses. The girls enhanced their looks with southwestern style ponchos and yellow-tinted round sunglasses.

Yeah, we thought we looked cool.

For rockers the movie highlights included sets by The Who and Ten Years After. But the major impact for us came from Sly’s “Medley” performance of Dance To The Music, Music Lover and of course, I Want To Take You Higher. It was about 15 minutes of sheer energy and a main reason later to pick up the stereo needle on our soundtrack albums, place it back at the beginning of this song triad and listen to it again and again and again…

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It was also another reason to want to be in a band.

That was probably the biggest inspiration for my gang of friends to start planning our own outdoor music festival on the shores of Lake Erie. Now, that’s another long story that includes the transition between girlfriends at the same time, so I’ll save the results of this rock ‘n’ roll endeavor for another time. But basically it was just a group of high school friends looking for an excuse to have another party.

The preparation included forming a band that would headline this outdoor local extravaganza. Our first rehearsal was in a small room behind my parents’ garage. I had an electric guitar, but no amp. My best friend borrowed a bass guitar, but also had no amp. Our next move was to borrow an amp we could both use. We commandeered my dad’s drum set, which was vintage 1940’s big band style with a HUGE bass drum and only available because my dad had decided to focus his talent on playing the trumpet. We included another best buddy who didn’t have the talent to play anything, so we made him the singer.

And as another footnote, he really couldn’t sing. But it still gave us enough members to have a band.

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The final results didn’t improve much after this first rehearsal. We learned to play the riff from I Want To Take You Higher and… well, that was about it for that song. We’d play it, stop, look at each other, play it again, stop and repeat the process. We did the same with a couple Led Zeppelin riffs, The Rolling Stones’ Jumpin’ Jack Flash and then made plans for our next rehearsal.

Eventually we learned songs that were of the easier three-chord variety, like Blue Suede Shoes and Long Tall Sally, which in turn influenced the theme of our outdoor music festival. Instead of the hippie vibe of Woodstock, we renamed ours a “Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival” and now had a legitimate excuse not to play any song that had more than three chords.

Taking everyone higher!

But once again, I Want To Take You Higher and Sly’s performance in the Woodstock movie was the impetus to get our rock rolling. The song joined this Dream Song list on September 5th. The opening riff alone was a major jolt to my waking mind and no coffee was needed to kick start the day. But then again, I wasn’t going to skip my morning caffeine buzz just because my head was already buzzing. And since the song was currently in rotation on my digital playlist, it joins the recent memory category.

I don’t have any recent memories of Sly & The Family Stone, but they really made an impact all those decades ago. The more serious minded stoner hippie bands that stood on stage for too-long jam sessions were quite frankly mind numbingly boring for a group of 17 year old high schoolers looking for any excuse to throw a party, dance and laugh a lot. So when Sly appeared on the big screen and cut loose – it was like a rock ‘n’ roll magnet.

That’s what we were looking for – and that’s when we found it.

I Want To Take You Higher first came out in 1969 as the flip side of the band’s 45 rpm single, Stand. But I don’t remember anyone taking notice of it until Woodstock hit our local theater and the high-octane live version had us lifting up our blue and yellow round shades to get a better look.

I actually think I had the opening riff down on my electric guitar after only a few tries. It’s just too bad my borrowed amp wasn’t loud enough for anyone else to hear it.

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Here’s a video of Sly & The Family Stone performing a live version of I Want To Take You Higher (sometimes called Higher and Higher) from 1969. It’s not Woodstock but still brings the energy!

 

To purchase The Essential Sly & The Family Stone with I Want To Take You Higher visit Amazon.com

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Dave Schwensen is The Classic Rocker and author of The Beatles At Shea Stadium and The Beatles In Cleveland. Visit Dave’s author page on Amazon.com.

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#169 – 25 or 6 to 4

#169 – 25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago

 – Sometimes there’s nothing like a solid horn section to punch up a great rock ‘n’ roll song. For me that feeling goes back to the early days of Little Richard (though I was too young to actually experience it at the time) when a dirty-sounding saxophone raged over his pounding piano. And even today since a young Little Richard is never too old for the digital age of listening, the volume is worthy of being turned up whenever The Upsetters – his backing horn section – kick it in with him.

The same can be said for Bobby Keys and The Rolling Stones. Brown Sugar would not be the same song without his sax, even if Keith Richards and Mick Taylor had practiced what Keef refers to as “the ancient art of guitar weaving” for the instrumental break.

Saxophone was one of the founding instruments in rock ‘n’ roll. But as also a big fan of rhythm & blues, soul and Motown, a horn section with brass trumpets and trombones are also requirements. I have a feeling any promoter suggesting James Brown, Otis Redding or Marvin Gaye could have cut costs by leaving the horns at home would have found himself with nothing but an empty stage to promote.

But when I was finally old enough to experience what was happening in the world of pop music, it was the beginning of The British Invasion. Other than The Dave Clark Five with Denis Payton on sax, groups featured guitar players. Even when American groups counterpunched with The Byrds and The Lovin’ Spoonful, no one was blowing into anything other than an occasional harmonica – and that includes Bob Dylan.

With a horn section!

In May 1966 The Outsiders caught my attention with Time Won’t Let Me and a great backing horn section. Then later that summer The Beatles released Revolver with the Motown influenced Got To Get You Into My Life. But it wasn’t so much that horns were changing the pop music we were listening to. It was more like pop was borrowing from the other styles to give us a lesson in what a big segment of the youngest baby boomers was missing by only listening to our local Top 40 AM radio stations.

What does that have to do with 25 or 6 to 4? I’ll tell you…

I remember a slight bit of personal confusion when Chicago hit big in 1970. Pop had morphed into rock and the main engine driver was a high-powered electric guitar. Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton were making that notion very clear. Horns could be a great background enhancement, but none of our radio favored bands seemed to have these jazzy players as permanent members.

So with embarrassed hindsight, my perception of Chicago predated the lyrics Dire Straits sang a few years later in Sultans of Swing:

“They don’t give a damn about any trumpet playin’ band. It ain’t what they call rock and roll.”

But then Chicago changed that.

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Their innovative style as a band in the pop-rock world wasn’t really new. Al Kooper’s original Blood, Sweat & Tears made the scene in the late 1960’s and was the first group I took notice of that had a permanent horn section. But just like the subsequent version led by David Clayton-Thomas, they were too jazzy for my tastes.

It ain’t what they call rock and roll.

Chicago’s first LP under the name Chicago Transit Authority went unnoticed by me. But the opening riff of 25 or 6 to 4 when it was released in June 1970 definitely caught my attention. It rocked. And I don’t think I’m saying anything dedicated classic rock fans will object to, but it struck a rock chord by sounding a lot like Babe I’m Gonna Leave You by Led Zeppelin. And then the horn section came in over the grungy guitar and…

That’s what they call rock and roll.

This sound was coming in through my grungy brain on the morning of September 4th. It rocks its way into the recent memory category because I had just heard it. In fact, this song has occasionally crept into my Top 25 list of Most Played Songs that iTunes so conveniently keeps track of. And by the way, in case you can’t tell from the countdown aspect of these Classic Rocker ramblings, I enjoy that feature immensely.

I should have been more welcoming to the brassy horn sounds of Chicago. But as mentioned, The Guitar Gods had taken hold of the rock scene. I say this because at the time I was a player that could have fit into either section.

My guitar fumbling (for lack of a better term) started soon after The British Invasion – like many other baby boomers. But my skills have never been anything to write home about. I tend to blame that on never having the best guitars. I went more for “looks” (does it look cool?) rather than ease of playing. But trumpet was the opposite. I had access to two very cool horns and a practiced ability to play them.

My interest in the trumpet didn’t start when my parents “told me” that’s the instrument I’d play in the junior high and eventually high school band. It was a tradition on my dad’s side that started with his father and continued with him. And believe me, they were both good players. Especially my dad who played bugle in the U.S. Navy and made trumpet his creative outlet by performing with numerous bands around where we lived. He could play anything from jazz, big band to marching band. I have memories as a very little kid going with my mom to watch his shows. He had invested in a very good (let’s call it expensive) trumpet in the 1950’s and yeah, he looked and sounded cool.

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My grandfather was a lot older than my friends’ grandfathers. He was 46 when my dad was born. I don’t know how young he was when he started playing, but know he had purchased a silver cornet in 1905 and was a member of the town’s concert and marching band. Not only do I still have my dad’s trumpet, but also my grandpa’s silver cornet – and the 1905 proof of purchase receipt.

Yeah, you could say I’ve always been good at hanging on to important stuff.

Herb Alpert & TJ Brass

I alternated between the trumpet and cornet when I joined the school band, but again – I didn’t have much interest. I thought the guitar was cooler. But in April 1967 I watched a television special by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and beginning at that exact moment – by the end of the show – trumpet looked pretty cool. I’m positive that I immediately went to my room and started practicing on grandpa’s cornet. My dad – most likely shocked but overjoyed at the same time – got out his trumpet and started teaching me. Before long we were playing duets and it became a father-son bonding I’ll always have with him.

Another totally shocked victim of my new-found love for brass was our junior high band director. For close to three years I had been languishing in the lower reaches of the trumpet section, barely able to make any type of recognizable musical noise. A few weeks after the Herb Albert TV special we had tryouts for “chair placement” and I aced it.

I still remember him staring at me – smiling – and wondering out loud why this happened “to him” when I’d be moving on to the high school band and a different director in just a few months. My band friends were also flabbergasted (again – lack of a better term) when I propelled past about 30 other trumpeters from the back end of the section to third chair. I never looked – or went – back after that.

Beatles Horn Section

But would I have wanted to be in a rock band like Chicago? Honestly, not in the horn section. As Paul McCartney once pointed out, his first instrument had also been the trumpet – also a gift from his dad – but you can’t play and sing at the same time.

Since that’s what I had in mind when I auditioned for the high school musical – and aced it – my trumpet playin’ band days came to an end. When I took off for college and later New York City, a couple guitars were in the back of my station wagon and the brass horns were left behind.

But they didn’t go unused, since I’ve always been good at hanging on to important stuff. More than a century after my grandpa bought his cornet and half a century after my dad bought his trumpet, my son Paul was playing both in the high school band. But now that he’s a professional singer, they’re both on the shelf waiting for the next generation.

And as for Chicago, they’ve also lasted for a few generations. Sometimes there’s nothing like a solid horn section to punch up a great rock ‘n’ roll song. And since there are still plenty of rock ‘n’ rollers from first generation baby boomers on down, I don’t hear that sound fading out any time soon.

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To watch the original Chicago lineup performing 25 or 6 to 4, check out this video…

 

 

To purchase Chicago’s Greatest Hits with 25 or 6 to 4 visit Amazon.com

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Dave Schwensen is The Classic Rocker and author of The Beatles At Shea Stadium and The Beatles In Cleveland. Visit Dave’s author page on Amazon.com.

Copyright 2018 – North Shore Publishing

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Halloween Bonus Tracks: Top 3 Scariest Songs in Classic Rock

Can’t you hear me knockin’?

– Somebody put the fear factor into what was once the classic holiday celebration line-up. Here’s how it used to go…

July 4th was an excuse to play pyromaniac and scare the heck out of our friends by making them dodge small explosives and sparklers for our enjoyment. There’s nothing like setting off a screaming missile during a crowded and fenced-in backyard barbeque for a few yucks.

Next was Labor Day when no one needed a doctor’s note to miss work. Scaring someone isn’t mandatory, but if you’ve got a few mini explosives left over from The 4th — then why not? The element of surprise is always a fun way to scare the heck out of someone.

After Labor Day it was a countdown to see how early the TV networks would start showing Christmas commercials. Usually the ads with Santa frolicking through plastic snow with shapely female elves were in regular rotation by mid-September. These ads would scare the heck out of us procrastinators, since each viewing would serve as a reminder of our bleak future as last-minute shoppers in crowded and fenced-in discount stores.

But those days have passed-away to the other side. Now the holiday celebration is all about scaring the heck out of someone and Halloween has engulfed the entire month of October. Oh the horror…

Too hot to handle!

I’ve seen front yards pimped-out with pumpkins, ghosts, skeletons and ghouls since Labor Day. The Christmas lights our dads used to hang outside while the weather was still warm enough to avoid doing a Clark Griswold on a slippery roof have been relegated to the attic for another month. The only outdoor lights I’ve seen draped over bushes and evergreens so far have been orange and black.

As usual, I blame the explosion of Halloween holiday extravaganzas on rock’n roll. After all, it’s a lot more fun dressing up as Kiss and Lady Gaga, than Santa and Mrs. Claus. But putting the Halloween scare in pop music is old school and didn’t just start when Michael Jackson moon walked with a bunch of Hollywood zombies, or Marilyn Manson watched Nazi Week on The History Channel and decided he had an act.

The influences can be traced back to 1958 when little kids in plastic masks and one size fits all costumes sweated out the image of a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater. The hit song Purple People Eater from part time cowboy actor Sheb Wooley (he was on Rawhide, my little cretins) hit number one on the music charts and inspired everyone from high school cheerleaders to your weird uncle to dress up like Prince and claim to be a people eater.

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Believe me this was scarier for kids of the 1950’s than it was watching Ozzy Osbourne cheer for another one of his kids on Dancing with the Stars.

Doin’ The Mash!

Then in 1962 Bobby “Boris” Pickett channeled his inner Karloff for Monster Mash. Thanks to Halloween locking this song onto every classic rock radio’s playlist, it’s a lock to say it probably earns more royalties per year than White Christmas.

But these songs were more fun(ny) than scary. They were novelty records and didn’t invoke lasting nightmares that stay with you whether the disk is on a turntable or buried in a shallow grave with your uncle’s Prince Costume in the backyard.

There are three album tracks by classic rockers that still give me the creeps in broad daylight and make a quick look under the bed a mandatory nighttime exercise. They have nothing to do with Halloween, but combine the spirits of Steven King and George Romero into a musical feast of electric guitars and deadly vocals that can cut through the darkness of any night.

When it’s done by the right band, it’s scarier than retro-disco night at the local PTA fundraiser.

So to honor the spirit of Halloween for what its become – a needed delay until my kids hand deliver their Christmas gift lists – here are…

The Top Three Scariest Classic Rock Songs:

#3. Dead Babies – Alice Cooper

I have the entire Killer album loaded into my digital playlist except for this song. That’s how much it creeps me out – big time. In his defense, Alice said it was supposed to be a statement against child abuse, but for teenagers in 1971, the year this album was unleashed, it was a musical play on a series of sick jokes going around junior high lunchrooms:

“How do you make a dead baby walk? 200 dead babies and a sack of cement.”

“How do you make a dead baby float? Root beer, two scoops of ice cream and a dead baby.”

Since I’m no longer eating lunch from a tray in a junior high cafeteria, I’m probably going to hell just for writing that. If nothing else, it creeps me out – big time.

As Alice would say, “Welcome to my nightmare.”

This song was recorded by the Alice Cooper Band and not a solo from Vincent Furnier, who somewhere between releasing this disk and Billion Dollar Babies legally changed his name to Alice Cooper. For the other guys, it was worse than a sick joke. When the band eventually broke up, the lead singer owned their name. That would be like Paul McCartney changing his name to Beatles. For some reason, The Plastic Cooper Band wouldn’t carry the same image.

And image is what the Alice Cooper band was all about. When the group toured behind this album in 1972 we witnessed a makeup smeared transvestite in torn fishnets raging, threatening, and finally slashing away at plastic baby dolls on stage. Combined into a deadly medley with the LP’s final track Killer, he’s put on trial by his robe-wearing band-aides and lead to the gallows. The death dirge accompanying this dead man walking ended with Alice swinging from a noose, and then magically reappearing for an encore in white top hat and tails to sing Under My Wheels.

And it wasn’t even Halloween. If that ain’t creepy, I don’t know what is.

I’ll tell’ya what else is creepy – the video of Dead Babies from a 1971 live performance by Alice Cooper.

 

#2. Dazed and Confused – Led Zeppelin

I already know there’s gonna be some flack over this choice, but I’m going for feeling with this one. I actually did a crowd survey… okay, as much as I could standing in line at a convenience store behind some scary looking dudes who represent the new breed of metal rockers. I previewed two of my choices and here’s how they polled:

Dead Babies… uh, don’t know it.

Dazed and Confused… Are you high? What about Sabbath? Marilyn? Megadeath? Metallica…

And you know what? Yeah, they’re all pretty scary, but they ain’t Jimmy Page. So shut the hello up and figure out who gave those guys the incentive to bring a dose of Black Magic and Goth into the realm of rock in the first place.

Maybe this is a selfish choice because of how I got introduced to the song. This is from Led Zeppelin… well, we call it “I” now, but it was their first album and back then nobody knew if there would be a “II.” My best friend had the disk and told me it was the scariest song he’d ever heard. It was night, we’re sitting in a dark room and he put the needle down (this was vinyl, you gremlins) on this last song from side one.

We sat there in silence and listened.

“I’ve been dazed and confused for so long it’s not true…”

Name a teenager who can’t relate to that and I’ll show you a Rhodes Scholar. And the deal is, once we figured out who these guys were, it just got scarier. The sound waves coming out of the speakers were blacker than the circles under Keith Richards‘ eyes at the crack of noon. It wasn’t the kind of rock where you jumped out of your seat and danced. Instead you sat there wondering if anyone was gonna get out of there alive.

The meaning of the song has been interpreted as either a girl stringing along a guy making him dazed and confused, or describing an acid trip that makes a guy dazed and confused. Either way it doesn’t matter. It’s the music and the emotion. Jimmy Page conjuring up Aleister Crowley by slashing a violin bow against his electric guitar is scarier than me calling the metal dudes at the convenience store punks without getting a ten minute head start.

Turn out the lights, slap on a videotape of the original Night of the Living Dead and put the needle down on Dazed and Confused. Trick or treat – punks.

For a pre-punk 1968 black & white rock’n roll video of Led Zeppelin conjuring up Dazed and Confused, check this out…

 

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#1. Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones

If Paint It Black was… well, black– then this one is as red as Keith Richard’s eyes at the crack of noon. The Satanic Majesties of rock had ditched the flower power facade they threw out in rainbow colors a full six months after Sgt. Pepper had already dosed everyone for a Summer of Love and traded in their flowers for a walk on the dark side.

The transition started with the 1968 video for Jumpin’ Jack Flash when the Stones wore enough rouge and eyeliner to make Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley sit up straight and think about a career move. But that was only a warning for the devilish dance Mick Jagger and his clan of deviants conjured up later that year for the opening track on Beggars Banquet.

This song launched a new era of bad behavior that even Flip Wilson couldn’t excuse with, “The devil made me do it.”

The Stones were already on the Children’s Services black list for sex, drugs, drug busts and more sex by giving Mars Candy Bars a bad image. But when it was hinted they were into devil worship, the earth opened up and all hell broke loose.

Parents were horrified. Kids were mesmerized. The Stones were revitalized.

Sympathy for the Devil started as an acoustic folk song with Mick playing the part of Lucifer. Then Keith, the bluesman voted most likely to make a crossroads pact with the devil, added a tribal rhythm infectious enough to cause everyone in the recording studio to howl “Woo Woo!” at the moon.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t really the moon and only a microphone hanging from a boom stand. But if you’ve seen the movie One Plus One by Jean-Luc Godard who interspersed clips of the Stones developing this song with scenes of zombied-out models searching for something – anything – to rebel against, the microphone hanging over the group of stoned Stones and friends imitating a street corner doo-wop group could be a spaced-out metaphor for the moon.

Within a year Brian Jones, the once upon a time leader of this cult of musical personalities, was found at the bottom of his swimming pool. Five months later, after performing this song at Altamont, Jagger was quoted as saying, “We’re always having something very funny happen when we start that number.” In that case it was the stabbing death of a fan that got too close to a Hell’s Angels’ bike.

In a six minute percussion groove with piercing shrieks of electric guitar, Lucifer… ah, I mean Jagger, covers enough evil history to earn a Masters in the subject. Since Ed Sullivan had him change the lyrics to Let’s Spend The Night Together only a year earlier, Sympathy For The Devil would’ve put him over the edge and left him spinning in his prime time crypt.

For a visual trip to the other side, check out this video from a 1968 David Frost Show appearance by The Rolling Stones singing Sympathy For The Devil– with Brian Jones on the piano. It’s in glorious black & white, like the glorious original Night of the Living Dead… BOO!!!

 

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Dave Schwensen is The Classic Rocker and author of The Beatles At Shea Stadium and The Beatles In Cleveland. Visit Dave’s author page on Amazon.com.

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#170 – Purple Haze

#170 – Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix Experience

Jimi Hendrix Experience

– Like chewing aluminum foil. I’ll let that roll around in your mind for a moment…

This might be difficult for younger classic rockers to grasp, but Jimi Hendrix wasn’t an instant, overnight success. His earliest records released in England during 1967 were not exactly hits, even though other rock musicians were taking notice. On May 29th he opened a concert in London with the song Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beatles were in attendance and more than impressed since the LP had been released only three days earlier. That moment has been written and talked about countless times since because Hendrix is such a legend.

But at that time in 1967 he wasn’t… yet.

On June 3rd Sgt. Pepper was released in the U.S. and organizers for the Monterey Pop Festival starting two weeks later were doing their best to coax The Beatles into performing. They turned it down, but Paul McCartney suggested Jimi Hendrix. They went for it and that’s when the legend started becoming real.

At least for the people that were there.

Let me stand next to your fire!

For many younger teenagers living near the northern Ohio metropolis of Cleveland, now home to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we didn’t hear much (if anything at all) about this legendary rock ‘n’ roll event. This was before Rolling Stone Magazine started covering the hippie scene for those of us thousands of miles away and the film Monterey Pop with Jimi’s legend-making guitar burning performance didn’t even come out until December 1968. I’m pretty sure I didn’t see it until it made my university’s late night film lineup during the 1970’s.

Hendrix’s album Are You Experienced with Purple Haze was released in late August 1967. And since none of the songs were played on our reliable Top 40 AM “pop” radio stations, we pretty much had no idea who Jimi Hendrix was.

But during that same Summer Of Love, riots in Detroit forced my grandmother to get the heck out of Dodge. With army snipers on the roof of her apartment building near the Detroit River, she caught a Greyhound Bus and made it to our isolated niche on the shores of Lake Erie. When the fires simmered down we drove through the battle zone, packed up her stuff and moved her into an apartment near us.

It was around this time I started hearing rumors about underground music on FM radio stations.

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Since grandmothers are usually programmed never to say “No” to their favorite grandchildren, she allowed me to commandeer her FM stereo radio. Not long before this, FM was pretty much a wasteland for teenage pop music fans by featuring talk, easy listening music, weather and news. The older generations might have tuned in, but boomers were only within hearing range when we were stuck in a doctor’s or dentist’s waiting room playing FM stations that numbed us to near-death with background elevator muzak.

Through grandma’s radio I listened to songs by groups that were leading us from pop to rock. This included the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the songs Purple Haze, Fire and Foxy Lady. It was called psychedelic and sounded electric, heavy, soulful and very cool.

I was hooked.

In early winter 1968 mom and dad took my sister and me to New York City to visit our Radio City Rockette cousin. Thanks to a lake effect snowstorm that shut down the Cleveland airport, we boarded a passenger train for a twelve hour ride to Grand Central Station. Somewhere near Rockefeller Center between watching shows by the high kicking Rockettes, I wandered into a record store and saw Are You Experienced.

I bought it.

After an all night train ride home spending as much time looking at the LP cover as I did looking out the window, I finally had the chance to rip off the plastic wrapping and put it on the turntable of our family stereo. This might also be difficult for younger classic rockers to grasp, but a stereo in many boomer’s homes during the 1950’s and 60’s doubled as a piece of furniture. So I was a bit surprised when my parents allowed me to commandeer the stereo and move it into my bedroom for my own personal use. They didn’t mind rock ‘n’ roll (after all, they had taken me to see The Beatles), but this gave them a better chance to hear what was on their FM stations when I listened to Jimi’s guitar feedback behind my closed bedroom door.

But similar to discovering Jimi Hendrix at the age of fourteen, I realized my room wasn’t cool enough for this new music. Hendrix also had a look and my room had none.

Sometime that summer I found a psychedelic poster of Jimi Hendrix with the words, “Like chewing aluminum foil.” My first impression was that it was funny. But it was also different and seemed very cool.

I bought it.

But it needed a better display than just being hung up in my room, so I also bought a blue light bulb. Don’t misunderstand. This was not a blue light that could be paired up with a lava lamp to turn any kid’s bedroom into a hippie hang out. It was exactly what I said it was – a blue light bulb. I slid open my closet door, pushed the clothes on hangers as far to the side as possible, tacked up my Jimi Hendrix poster and replaced the regular light bulb (with a pull string to turn it on) with the blue bulb.

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I had a cool room.

When my pals came over I would open the closet door, push aside the clothes, pull on the blue light bulb string, and play Are You Experienced. Oh yeah… we thought we were very cool.

Purple Haze joined this Dream Song list on September 2nd. I still own my original vinyl album, but in the years since have added it to my digital playlist. And since I had just heard it, the song joins the recent memory list.

Like chewing aluminum foil? Yeah, since we weren’t really that cool you should know what’s coming…

During this phase of our high school careers, my best pal Kevin and I were pretty much inseparable. We were about fourteen or fifteen years old and if I wasn’t at his house he was at mine. We’d ride our bikes around town looking for great adventures and throw parties so we could talk-up the cute girls in our class. On weekends we’d sleep over at one of our houses so we could stay up all night watching the dumbest movies we could find on television.

Actually, we were pretty bright kids and really didn’t get into any trouble. But then again, even smart kids can be dumber than the dumbest…

One night with my Jimi Hendrix poster displayed in it’s (not that cool) blue light, we started debating what like chewing aluminum foil really meant. Was Hendrix trying to tell us something? Was it about the music or the experience?

There was only one way to find out.

We walked into the kitchen, took out two pieces of aluminum foil, popped them into our mouths and bit down. Maybe it had to do with having one or two metal tooth fillings that were popular with muzak-listening dentists in the 1960’s, but there is only one way to describe the sensation.

OUCH!!!!!

If you’ve ever made the claim that you’ll try anything once in your life – cross this one off your list. It was like having a jolt of Jimi Hendrix electric guitar feedback screaming through every nerve ending connecting our jaws to our brains. We couldn’t spit it out fast enough while trying to muffle our cries of agony so we wouldn’t wake up my mom and dad. It was bad enough to learn how dumb we could be without letting my parents in on the realization.

Decades later I can still dredge up the pain like a bad acid flashback – even though I’ve never taken acid. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to stick a live electric wire your mouth, it’s…

Like chewing aluminum foil.

To this day if Kevin and I see each other all we have to say is, “LCAF.” Believe me, the impression was lasting and we both know exactly what we’re referring to.

The legend-making part of Jimi Hendrix’s career was also a short explosion that only lasted only a few years. He died in September 1970 while I was still in high school and at a time when some rock stars were only just starting to figure out there might be a dark side to doing drugs – and teenagers learned not to chew aluminum foil.

But we didn’t stop playing his records. Like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and a certain few other legends of the rock world, Hendrix still seems to be relevant. He is still referred to as one of the best – if not THE best – rock guitar player and innovator. He changed the music forever.

He also changed the way I look at aluminum foil. LCAF.

Have a comment?

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For a live performance video of Purple Haze by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, check this out…

To purchase Are You Experienced with Purple Haze visit Amazon.com

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Dave Schwensen is The Classic Rocker and author of The Beatles At Shea Stadium and The Beatles In Cleveland. Visit Dave’s author page on Amazon.com.

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Bonus Tracks: Top 3 Back To School Songs

Bonus Tracks: Top 3 Back To School Songs

 – It doesn’t matter what generation you fit into on the pop culture chart, even if you’ve reached the status of “Can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” The end of summer means one thing:

Back to school.

Okay, I’m not using that as an incentive to quit your job, pack up your vinyl album collection and move into a dorm. I’m only giving reason to the memories swirling through your mind after you’ve realized it’s too quiet around the house. Another younger generation of kids or grandkids is heading off to the halls of higher learning, which was once our domain. Our former turf where togas were considered formal wear and empty beer kegs served as coffee tables.

For many of us college was our first real taste of freedom. Also, for many of us, it goes down in the mental bank as the final four years of freedom until these same kids and eventually grandkids punched our admittance tickets into the real world.

Yeah, we all have something to remember about school when we hit this time of year. Grade school, junior high, high school or college – we’ve been there and done that. Some of these memories are great while others recall pure embarrassment. You might be dreaming of your old dorm room and wishing you could do it again knowing what you know now, or simply glad it’s all over.

Either way, like any memory, it should have a soundtrack. And since I’m not writing these ramblings for the incoming freshmen who will be glorifying Nicki Minaj, Kanye West or Justin Bieber behind their memories decades from now… Wait. I take that back. Will anyone even remember Nicki, Kanye or Justin decades from now?

Sorry, guess I was stirring up the feeling of “been there, done that” while staring at my vinyl album collection. And since most of them date back to my college daze, it gives me an idea.

Using these historical grooved references tucked in designer cardboard sleeves as inspiration and to pay respect to Hollywood’s favorite college freshman, Rodney Dangerfield, here are my selections for the top three Back To School Classic Rock Songs. But keep in mind these are more than just songs about the topic. That’s not the main point. I’m going for the feeling, attitude and just flat-out fun that were important memory-makers prior to our admittance into the real world.

It was – and still is – called college.

You may not agree with these choices because they may not even mention the word school or be associated with the end of summer. But if it’s been a few decades since you called your roommate a jerk, slept through a test because the Student Union had dollar drafts the night before, or know more about Leave It To Beaver than you do about Justin Bieber, you’ll find a reason to relate.

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No. 3 – Student Demonstration Time by The Beach Boys.

What’s a list about songs connected with summer that doesn’t have at least one connected to The Beach Boys? Except this choice has nothing to do with daddy’s T-Bird, surfin’ girls, California girls, or even staying true to your school. It’s all about the attitude of America’s college students in the early 1970’s from a group of college dropouts later revered as America’s Band.

College students in the 60’s and 70’s didn’t Tweet or Instagram their complaints about not trusting anyone over the age of thirty. They took over administration buildings, protested, and basically did whatever they could to make it clear they weren’t happy with what was handed down to them.

In this case, we’re not talking about tacky furniture and smelly closets left by graduating seniors for incoming frosh. Student Demonstration Time is about protesting an older generation’s policies in Southeast Asia that made college campuses more popular than a government job for males over the age of eighteen, thanks to student military draft deferments.

Too heavy for you? Okay, let’s skip the bullets and free speech references in the song and soften the blow for our list…

College students will protest just about anything because that’s what they’re good at. It’s like the old Burger King “have it your way” commercials. When we were enjoying our first taste of freedom, we wanted it our way – or no way.

• Bad food in the cafeteria? Food fight.
• Conduct codes? Co-ed dorms.
• Dress codes? Streaking.

When this song closed side one of the classic Surf’s Up album in 1971, The Beach Boys were developing a social conscious despite resident genius Brian Wilson being zonked out in his bed for three years. His heir apparent and brother Carl Wilson fuzzed up his guitar and followed cousin Mike Love’s lyrical makeover of the classic Leiber and Stoller jailhouse rocker, Riot In Cell Block Nine, to put a hard edge on student protest songs. You can put this one on the next time the government screws you over or when the mashed potatoes are too soggy.

Warning: Repeated listening might awaken your inner Howard Beale (Peter Finch) attitude made famous in the 1976 film Network, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore.” Just do us all a favor if it involves streaking and keep your shorts on.

Sorry, no video for this one. But here’s an audio LINK for Student Demonstration Time on YouTube.

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No. 2 – Hot For Teacher by Van Halen

Oh man… This one is just wrong. At least that’s what the Parents Music Resource Center said when they tried to have the song and (especially) the video pulled from the airwaves in 1984. But when it comes to combining feelings of your nerve-wracking first day of school with a crush on your teacher, this one brings back both.

The song is powered by testosterone and a rapid-fire guitar and drum onslaught from the Van Halen brothers, Eddie and Alex, along with the trademark backing vocal from bassist Michael Anthony. But as always in the band’s pre-Van Hagar days (a quick nod to Sammy), Diamond David Lee Roth is the sleazy guy hanging around the schoolhouse that your parents warned you to stay away from, but will have the best stories to tell at future class reunions.

Whether you were a Waldo, the kid in the video being fast-tracked to a nervous breakdown on the first day of school, one of the mini-me Van Halen clones encouraging a show-and-tell with their playmate-worthy teacher, or somewhere in the middle, Hot For Teacher is like many of the stories we reminisce about with our old school buddies. An exaggerated fantasy.

If you haven’t seen this video in awhile, you’d better check it out. Just don’t tell the kids…

*

No. 1 – Shout by Otis Day & The Knights

Hey, cut me a break. Don’t you think I know the original Shout was by The Isley Brothers in 1959? And there was also a shortened version by The Beatles from their 1964 television special, Around The Beatles, and included on Anthology Vol. 1. But when it comes to pure back to school fun, National Lampoon’s Animal House put Otis Day & The Knights on The Campus Wall of Fame.

The film is set in 1962 which means the Isley’s original was one of the newer party songs played by every cover band that set foot in a beer soaked frat house. The entire setting was an extreme lampoon (okay, maybe not for everyone) of college life, but after the film’s release in 1978 it would’ve been hard to find anyone on academic probation that hadn’t wrapped a sheet around themselves at one time or another and shouted, “To-ga! To-ga! To-ga!”

Otis Day & The Knights were originally cast as actors with DeWayne Jessie as Otis and a young Robert Cray as the bass player. But after the soundtrack’s huge success (including Shama Lama Ding Dong), the group became a real band and toured the country.

Shout is a time proven rocker that gives every former college student the opportunity to embarrass themselves by demonstrating dance moves they’ve had no reason to update since graduation. With a gospel flavor that could’ve been James Brown’s follow-up sermon in The Blues Brothers had Jake and Elwood had gone back the next Sunday, it’s an arm waving, gator-inducing mind eraser that makes memories of going back to school a lot more fun than thoughts of returning to real life. It’s no wonder Bluto (John Belushi) spent seven years in the Delta House gaining valuable partying experience for his future career as Senator Blutarsky.

You wanna SHOUT with the Delta Tau’s? Here’s the clip from Animal House...

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Dave Schwensen is The Classic Rocker and author of The Beatles At Shea Stadium and The Beatles In Cleveland. Visit Dave’s author page on Amazon.com.

Copyright 2018 – North Shore Publishing

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#171 – A Summer Song

#171 – A Summer Song by Chad & Jeremy

 – Being a Classic Rocker is not always an exact science. Especially when the archeological dig through our minds lack video or photographic evidence from the world of pop and rock, which was once considered disposable.

If you’re not familiar with what I’m alluding to, the eras of what we consider now as pop culture during the 1950s and ’60s were thought to be nothing more than a passing fad. Many live television shows were just that – live for that moment and then gone forever. Television studios could save money by taping shows in advance of airing and then reuse that same film for the next broadcast. So a lot of what we might remember exists only in our memories.

We’re lucky when a program like The Ed Sullivan Show was a national hit, filmed for airing in all time zones and saved for later repeats. Otherwise, we might not even have these performances by Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and many others from the ’50s and ’60s to watch again and again.

This is the dilemma I faced when trying to find exact information, including video and photographic evidence, of my personal television debut. And that’s frustrating because I think of it as a worthy (personal) pop culture moment since it happened in a Dick Clark Production with Chad & Jeremy.

So to begin this archaeological dig through my mind…

Chad & Jeremy were always one of my favorite British Invasion acts on the (Cuban) heels of the Beatles kicking things off in early 1964. I’ve mentioned in earlier Classic Rockers that as a preteen I didn’t have the funds to splurge on every great record that hit the charts, so after spending on the Beatles’ latest I had to be selective. One I couldn’t resist was the duo’s Yesterday’s Gone. I loved it then and still do.

Jeremy & Chad with Laura Petrie

Though the Beatles and other groups might have been more selective on what television shows they appeared on, Chad & Jeremy seemed more accessible. Along with the usual must watch television variety shows like Ed Sullivan, Hullabaloo and Shindig, they guest-starred (with speaking roles) on The Patty Duke Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

So yeah, I knew who these guys were. I didn’t confuse them with Peter and Gordon, like some of the other kids had an annoying habit of doing.

The summer of 1966 was huge for me. I turned thirteen in June – finally a teenager – the music was great and I earned enough money in my parents’ bakery to have a decent record collection. I also went to my first concert, which was The Beatles at Cleveland Stadium.

Like I said… huge.

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But also being a teenager meant having more freedom than when I was just a “kid.” Now, this is where it morphs into not being an exact science, but sometime in either July or August I was allowed to spend a week living on my cousin’s boat at the popular amusement park, Cedar Point, in Sandusky, Ohio. You might know it now as America’s Roller Coast for it’s outlandish collection of HUGE roller coasters and other thrill rides, and to us in the 1960’s it had that same reputation. It was one of the coolest places on earth to a thirteen year old and I would be staying there with my fifteen year old cousin John with nothing more to do than ride rides, swim on the beach (where we learned to surf on wooden “pizza boards”) and roam around with no parental supervision.

Like I said… cool.

The place to be!

One of our favorite rides at that time was the go-cart track. This was very different than you might be picturing during an immediate archaeological dig through your mind. There were no loud gas-powered motors. The track was a large oval with raised curves and electrical strips imbedded into the track. The go-carts had connectors (brushes) underneath and were powered by electricity. When the guy running the ride switched on the power, we’d race around the track using the cart’s accelerator and (sometimes) the brake. When the power was turned off, that’s where we stopped.

It was a popular ride and always had a line of wannabe racers. Since John and I were living on the boat docked in the park’s marina, we’d run in as soon as the gates opened so we could race around at least a few times before it became too crowded. We followed our plan that morning and though we weren’t first in line, we were pretty close.

It was a nice day, sun was out and the sky was blue. The ride was right next to the beach, which I’ve always considered to be one of the nicest beaches on Lake Erie and we could watch boats and people swimming while we waited.

I mentioned the sun and blue sky because if you were going to film anything there really wouldn’t be a need for “studio lighting.” I’m not sure when I noticed there were television cameras set up alongside the track but being a typical thirteen year old I was more concerned about when we would get on the ride. I also remember we waiting a bit longer than what should have been “opening” time. But since we had a good place in line we weren’t about to leave.

Sort of like this – but not really.

Then a guy who seemed to be in charge of the ride asked, “Who wants to ride go-carts?” Before I knew it, John had grabbed my arm and raised it up in the air with his. Obviously he had been paying better attention than me. We were both selected along with about six or eight others and were let in to choose our go-carts.

We drove around for awhile, stopping when the power was shut off and then starting again. After a bit we were told this would be filmed for a television special and before it had a chance to sink in, Chad & Jeremy walked in through the exit gate and sat in two empty go-carts.

Yeah… very cool.

The kids left watching from the sides of the track looked pretty excited as we drove go-carts with Chad & Jeremy for about an hour (if I remember correctly) while the cameras filmed us. At one point we were stopped and I was next to Chad (if I remember correctly). With all my thirteen year old British Invasion inspiration and some unfounded need to sound English, I looked at him and said, “Hullo.”

Yeah… not very cool. At least he answered, “Hello.”

That was cool.

After they had enough film, we ended our marathon go-cart ride. The cameras were moved to the beach and Chad and Jeremy lip-synced a song. This is where video would help. I’ve always thought they sang A Summer Song, but my memory might have been influenced by the time of year. After some online research I learned they were heavily promoting their latest song Distant Shores at that time in 1966 so it might be that one instead.

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But going through my waking mind on September 1st was A Summer Song, which is what stirred this archeological mind dig in the first place. Being a C&J fan of course I own a copy and had just heard it, so it goes into the recent memory category of Dream Songs.

After the excitement of riding go-carts for television cameras, John and I found out Dick Clark Productions was at Cedar Point filming a television special. A lot of different areas were blocked off, but we found out – and saw on television a couple months later – that Paul Revere and The Raiders performed Hungry at the Pirate Ride and The Vogues lip-synced Five O’Clock World while riding in a golf cart along the Cedar Point midway.

Again… very cool.

Dick Clark bringing the action!

I don’t remember the name of the special, but I’m sure it was connected to one of Clark’s programs either American Bandstand or Where The Action Is. It was airing during fall 1966 and we watched, knowing it would be pretty exciting to see ourselves on television. An all too brief go-cart sequence (in black and white) was shown at the very beginning of the special announcing that Chad & Jeremy were featured artists. During this opening segment I remember seeing my cousin John zip by and just as my go-cart came onto the screen…

You could see me only from the neck down.

It was my national television debut, so it was still pretty cool.

But it could have been cooler.

As I said at the beginning of this rambling adventure, a lot of video from the 1960s has been lost and apparently this is one of them. Over the years I’ve occasionally been inspired to search online for any written record, video footage or photos from this Dick Clark Special and have found almost nothing. At one point there was a glimpse of hope when I found a title and air date, but never made a note of it. In other words, this slight bit of information has been lost to memory and I wasn’t able to dig it up again for this version of The Classic Rocker.

Yesterday’s gone, but C&J still cool

About five or six years ago during one of these inspired searches, I somehow found an online contact for Chad & Jeremy. Don’t ask me how, but it might have had something to do with an upcoming appearance they were making at a Beatles fan conference. Since I have written a couple books on the Beatles and been a guest author at a few of these events, maybe that’s how this connection was made.

The contact answered my query and thought it was an interesting story. He said he would ask Chad & Jeremy if they remembered anything about this and get back with me.

Yeah… okay…

But a few days later I was surprised when I received an email from this contact. He said he’d had the chance to ask. One or both said they had a memory of driving go-carts for a television special and… Well, that’s it. They had no photos, video or anything more than I did – which is a memory that’s still pretty vivid even though it took a deep archeological dig into my mind to find it.

Have a comment?

Please use the form below – and keep rockin’!

At least I didn’t have to dig too far to find of video of Chad & Jeremy performing Summer Song.

And to make it very cool – the duo is introduced by Dick Cark.

 

To purchase The Very Best of Chad & Jeremy with A Summer Song visit Amazon.com

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Dave Schwensen is The Classic Rocker and author of The Beatles At Shea Stadium and The Beatles In Cleveland. Visit Dave’s author page on Amazon.com.

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#172 – I’m Not In Love

#172 – I’m Not In Love by 10cc

 – Okay, I know 10cc is a band from England. Since I just had to look up that last gem of knowledge online, I also know sometimes there were four guys in the band and sometimes there were only two. One of them (Eric Stewart) was an original member of Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders and scored a number one hit in 1965 with Game Of Love. After Wayne split the scene, his backing group released their own hit Groovy Kind Of Love in 1966.

Now that this selected bit of trivia is out of the way…

I’m Not In Love doesn’t remind me of any of that. Maybe the 10cc two-person edition comes closest, except in my memory it’s not two English rock stars singing, but instead two college buddies trying to be funny without any talent or concept on how to carry a tune. There’s a big difference.

And believe me, I’m baffled by this.

Duo 10cc

Not my friends’ lack of talent, but the memory that has stayed with me for so long. It was just a brief clip – a slight moment in time – that should have faded away almost immediately. But for some reason an image of these two buddies pops into my head by just the thought of this song title.

I don’t even need to hear the song.

And speaking of hearing this song, I can’t remember the last time that happened. Strange, since the brief memory clip referred to above is also decades old but seems still fresh. Since I don’t own a copy of I’m Not In Love it fell immediately into the subliminal category of Dream Songs when I woke up with it stirring the other old memory in my mind on August 31st.

It reminds me of a particular episode in college and I have a general idea of when the song was released. But I saw the date when checking out the above trivia on 10cc and was able to pinpoint it to May 1975. And even though we’re more than four decades removed from that year when I was living only two doors down from my two pals in our college frat house, I still picture in my mind both these guys as young twenty-something’s.

Wow… that means I’m thinking of my college pals from decades ago as being younger looking than my kids. That should create a real shock next time I see them in person.

Anyway, here we go with a brief and lasting memory of a moment in time…

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I won’t in anyway talk myself up as some kind of Romeo. But college girls were just as important to me as my college major and to be honest, maybe even more important to a lot of other guys also. If there had been a college major in Hugh Hefner back in the 1970’s, I’m sure those classes would have maxed-out long before Accounting, Finance and even Basket Weaving.

Not like this…

College classes were written in stone. In other words, you knew where and when you had to be in the classroom if you wanted to pass and eventually graduate with anything other than a Hugh Hefner Major. My relationships with college girls never seemed to be written in stone and was mostly determined by being in the right place at the right time.

On one particular night that I semi-remember in spite of the many decades removed, I was sort of half-dating someone. Nothing serious, which is the reference to half-dating. She was coming by my room that evening so we could walk to the library together to study.

However…

An hour or two before she arrived, I met another girl that caught my attention. Where or how I again, don’t really remember. I’m not even sure if we actually dated later, but my two frat house buddies saw me hanging out with her. Later they also saw me hanging out with the girl I was half-dating and walking with to the library.

And then…

After walking my library half-date back to her dorm I met another girl who really grabbed my attention. We wound up actually dating for about a year after. And of course – on this same night – my two buddies saw us hanging out together.

So…

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It actually looked like (and I guess it could be said) I’d had three semi-dates with three different girls that same night. As I mentioned earlier, don’t consider me to be some kind of Romeo – and definitely not a Hugh. But for one night I happened to be at the right place at the right time – three separate times.

My pals had no idea what actually happened, but just to be perfectly clear I’ll fill you in briefly about each of my three dates:

1. Talking
2. Studying
3. Talking

…more like this!

Not exactly the G-rated activities a bragging Romeo would admit to or Hugh Hefner would write about. My three-date night could have been an episode on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriett, but I will admit it was fun and a bit confusing at times.

Since I had learned in my college career not to take courses with a start time written in stone before noon, I was still sleeping when my roommate left and obviously did not lock the door behind him. Sometime between snores and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, I was awoken by my two (goofball) buddies serenading me with a talentless, off-key a-capella version of I’m Not In Love.

Yeah, they thought they were funny by goofing on my assumed Romeo activities the night before while I just though they were annoying. Well… maybe a bit funny, but that didn’t come out until later. At the moment I might have had a few choice words for them and maybe emphasized it with a thrown pillow, but those details have been lost over the decades.

All that’s left is a brief moment in time when my buddies destroyed the 10cc version and left their own as a lasting memory. I won’t say that’s a bad thing. The original song still sounded pretty cool waking me up this time. It just wasn’t as funny… or annoying.

Here’s a video of 10cc (and not my goofball pals) performing I’m Not In Love.

 

To purchase The Best of 10cc with I’m Not In Love visit Amazon.com

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Dave Schwensen is The Classic Rocker and author of The Beatles At Shea Stadium and The Beatles In Cleveland. Visit Dave’s author page on Amazon.com.

Copyright 2018 – North Shore Publishing

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