Today’s Spiritual Sunday’s selection will be the last in that category for a while, as I am retiring the daily category. This is one of the two categories that have been around since the beginning of the blog and specifically it was the lowest ranked category by my visitors in the most recent survey. Beginning tomorrow with October 1, I am making some sweeping changes in our categories by eliminating the lower ranked categories.
While Tasty Licks Tuesday, One-Hit Wonder Wednesdays, Friday Flipsides, and Saturday’s Bubbling Under feature will remain; other days will change. Monday’s selection will become Media Monday and will be an extension of TV Thursday with the addition of songs from motion pictures. Thursdays will offer Thursday Repeats and Threepeats, and Sunday will give me an opportunity to feature a variety of music.
Our song today is a song of doubt and searching and is sung by the former lead singer of Ultravox, Midge Ure. The song is a prayer from an individual who does not have a relationship with a Supreme Being and is asking for various virtues.
Released in 1988 from his “Answers to Nothing” album, “Dear God” charted as a single in the US at #95; however, it did better on the specialized charts. It placed at #6 on the Mainstream Rock chart and at #4 on the Alternative Music chart. The song sounds like it could have been performed by his previous band Ultravox. The guitars, keyboards, and vocals are all handled by Ure.
I didn’t get The Rolling Stones’ 1971 album “Sticky Fingers” until several years after its release, so when I first heard today’s Bubbling Under hit, I was unaware of who it was. It was in 1974 and WAMX in Ashland, Kentucky played the most amazing album rock in the late evenings. I often would tape the station and go to sleep, and then later listen to the cassettes.
The first night I did this, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” was at the very end of the tape and only a portion of one verse was preserved. I never knew who it was or the name of the song as such a short segment was captured. Although in retrospect, I should have recognized Mick Jagger’s vocals; however, for some unknown reason, I didn’t.
What a great cut it is. It starts with a riff that Keith Richards played in taropatch tuning (open G) on his guitar in the right channel and is joined by Charlie Watts on drums, Bill Wyman on bass, and Mick Taylor on second guitar in the left channel. Mick sings lead with Keith on back-up vocals.
The first part of the song also features Billy Preston on organ. Then abruptly the song changes direction with congas by Rocky Dijohn and Bobby Keys on sax. Producer Jimmy Miller adds some additional percussion and Stones’ road manager Stewart is there on piano.
Once the sax lead quits, Mick Taylor and his Gibson ES335 is there for very clean lead parts. This second portion of the song really was not intended to be recorded, but it happened to be a jam that the engineers caught on tape. The originally plan was to fade the song, but the jam was so good – the entire session was kept. The song ends cold – as it should. No fade was necessary.
Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark,” the first single from his 15 times platinum “Born in the USA” album, was paired with a non-album cut – “Pink Cadillac.” While the A-side charted at #2 on the Hot 100 and at #1 on the Rock charts, the B-side was an album radio favorite in 1984.
The song would not be released on an album until 1998 when it appeared on the Springsteen’s “Tracks” compilation. It was later covered by Natalie Cole in 1987 and was subsequently released as the third single from her “Everlasting” in 1988. Her version peaked at #5.
Springsteen was highly complementary of Cole’s version who was impressed that a woman would record the tune. He had different ideas in 1983 when he prevented Bette Midler from releasing the song on her “No Frills” LP. His reasoning was that it was not a song that was appropriate for a woman to sing. Midler returned to the studio and replaced the cut with a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden.”
I learned yesterday of the passing of the great crooner Andy Williams on Tuesday from bladder cancer. He was 84 years old. While his music is somewhat out of character with the rest of the performances featured on this blog, his enormous talent cannot be denied. He at least deserves a mention.
While “Moon River” was never released as a single and probably should have been, it became Williams’ best known song and was sung on his weekly variety show for nine years. The song was so inextricably linked to Williams that it became his alter ego – his autobiography was titled “Moon River and Me: A Memoir.” In addition, Branson, Missouri was the home of the Andy Williams’ Moon River Theater.
He first sung “Moon River” at the Oscars in 1962, as it was the theme from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” In the movie, Audrey Hepburn sang this Johnny Mercer/Henry Mancini collaboration. The song first appeared on his 1962 album “Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes,” which peaked at #3 and was certified gold.
While “Moon River” received mainstream radio airplay, it was never a Top 40 hit; however, it became a staple of Middle of the Road (MOR) stations – a format that was later branded as Adult Contemporary or AC. It also garnered some play on Beautiful Music/Easy Listening stations as its smooth rendition was synonymous with that style of performance.
In my years in oldies radio, “Moon River” was probably the only Andy Williams tune that I ever played – although not as often as I probably should have. Williams’ Christmas recordings would also get some airtime, as I frequently worked Christmas day to give my staff some time with their families. I was single at the time and had no local family, so it was no skin off my back to work an eight or twelve hour shift.
The work was easy, as most stations for which I worked tracked Christmas albums that were sponsored with commercials at the beginning, at the flip of sides, and the end of the album. It was basically me babysitting the equipment and answering the phone if necessary. Since I was salaried, I didn’t get time and a half for holidays – just some comp time later. During these long stretches of music, Andy Williams’ Christmas albums were pulled from storage and often played in their entirety.
Here’s to our “huckleberry friend” Andy Williams – may you rest in peace.
“Should I Stay or Should I Go?” Well, being that today is the 1,000th post and simultaneously the third anniversary of “Reading Between the Grooves,” it is the planned D-Day for this blog; however, at about 35 posts out, I started getting requests to keep it going. “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” We’ll answer that later, but right now, let’s talk about the song of the day. I think it is a fitting title for the day I release my decision on closing down this blog or continuing it.
Back in 1982, CBS Records in the UK released The Clash’s single “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” Since it charted at 17, which is a moderately good position, Epic Records in the US put out “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” not once, not twice, and not even thrice. The US single was released four times in 1982 and 1983.
The first release was a one-sided single that was hoping to capture some sales as the price was less than a conventional two sided 45 rpm. This special release was numbered as ENR-03571 and the tactic of issuing a low priced single flopped. There was another problem – while The Clash did well in the UK, they did not have that large of a following in the US. 1983’s “Rock the Casbah” and its memorable video would change that.
In June 1982, a conventional single of “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” with “Inoculated City” as the “B” side was released as Epic 14-03006. Within six weeks, a third configuration with “First Night Back in London” was issued as Epic 34-03061. Finally in January 1983, Epic re-released the final version with “Cool Confusion” as the flip as 34-03547.
I remember CBS and numerous independent promoters beating me up about this song. Although I could see this song charting on an album rock station, I didn’t think it would fit Top 40 radio – and apparently I was not alone as the song only peaked at #45.
I even had one promoter to promise to send me one of every album in the CBS catalog that included Columbia, Epic, Portrait, and a handful of other labels. As tempting that offer was, I opted not to take the promoter up on his offer. I don’t really think he was really serious about this – but you can never be too sure.
In 1991, the single was re-released in the UK where it charted the second time at the #1 spot.
From the album “Combat Rock,” Mick Jones sings the lead on the song while Joe Strummer and Tex-Mex/rockabilly artist Joe Ely are singing the Spanish backup lyrics. The Spanish is not the typical Castilian version, but rather an Ecuadorian dialect.
While I didn’t add the record thirty-years ago, I still like the song, and its message is fitting for today.
Should The Blog Stay or Should It Go?
After much deliberation on this subject and the support of a number of people, I have decided to keep it going. Here are some of the comments that influenced my decision:
I really enjoy the music you provide on your blog, most of which I have not heard for years, some of it not at all. While I don't log-in every day - and even less often over the past few months- I do truly love listening and reading.
I only just came across this blog last week...please keep going!
Hard to pick a favorite feature. I dig Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays AND Saturdays!
I can't get enough historical information about music.
Porque se nota que sabes de que hablas,como lo escribes, aunque tenga que traducirlo y sabes porqué, pues porque si uno ama la música esto se nota. Translated by Babelfish as “Because it shows that you know of what you speak, how you write, even if you have to translate it and you know why, well because if one loves the music this is noted.”
I always learn something new, and just plain like listening to music.
Only discovered this a few weeks ago through the BLUES IN F story. I know a number of DC based folks with chops and historical knowledge (Big Joe Maher, Bill Kirchen) that can channel this sort of musical cultural stream-of-consciousness and tell stories like this but they’re not writing like you are. Selfishly, I say DONT STOP! Cut back if that'll keep you in the game.
I found your blog through family history connections but music comes higher up priority list than family history. Hope you keep going - but if not thanks for your brilliant efforts thus far.
I always enjoy reading your posts on the groups and the music that I grew up with. It helps me start discussions about the music with my college age children. Always good to learn new things!
I ended up on your blog in a roundabout way... from one of your community posts 23andMe, actually. Seems we have similar interests. I'm an author and teach journalism and mass communication at a state university, I play the guitar. I love music and pop culture. I'm 53 and have fond memories of Heart, the Allman Bros., the Doors, you name it. Great stuff, thanks.
I enjoy the insight into various music.
I have more than one favorite... u r a walking AMERICAN musical treasure trove ... if you cease this blog it will have an effect on those who don't even yet know it exists...but will read it later on in their lives... speaking of, you have your own to live and do as you must... if I were you, I would try to sell the service to a magazine or some other media... u get paid, we get the goods...win/win...unless the mag charged for the blog...
I enjoy the wide variety of music you post. You've certainly added to my musical knowledge.
I learn a lot about music I didn't know before.
I love music, and you seem to have good taste in music.
It's just a great ideas with great execution
Perceptive comments, all-encompassing tangential thoughts, clarity of vision.
You can never get enough wild stuff that slipped through the cracks
I love finding out the interesting tidbits you include about the various songs and bands (from my 'youth')
I love reading all the blogs, even if they're not music that I'm usually interested in. I love learning new things about music and these blogs really branch out into some areas I'm not always familiar with.
I'm gonna miss these blog [posts] if they disappear.
Okay, I'm in a little more than a bit of a panic with only 35 posts to go. What will I do for music information? It's part of my daily routine.
I enjoy your posts....reminds me of days gone by.
I note that you are planning only a few more posts? I would urge you to carry on. Good criticism is all too rare on the internet.
I asked what features people liked the most, and of our current choices, the top three favorite features are One-Hit Wonder Wednesday at 30.43%, Tasty Licks Tuesday with 21.74%, and Saturday’s Bubbling Under Feature with 17.39%. It looks pretty good for those features to continue. I will probably scale back some when I need to – as I did last year.
In October, I will be moving and expanding TV Thursdays to Media Mondays and incorporate music from motion pictures as well as from TV shows, commercials, and live performances. Thursday’s feature will be Thursday’s Repeats and Threepeats – songs that were released more than once. I have a great one scheduled for next week. Over time, I will switch out some of the other categories when I feel that their life is abating.
In addition to the two daily changes, I plan to do a special focus outside of the daily parameters every second week of the month called the Second Week Special. My plan for October is to feature six rock songs that utilize the mandolin. Other features will be related to instrumentation, musical genre, record label, songwriter, or some other theme.
Thanks for participating in the survey and encouraging me to continue. If you want to know how this blog has done from the beginning, see the section below. Thanks again.
RBTG’s 1,000th Post/3rd Anniversary Retrospect
Like I had reported with every other 100th post anniversary, I took a look backward on how we are doing visitor wise. I began this blog on September 26, 2009, but did not start monitoring the visits until October 16, 2009. Currently, we have 57 declared followers of the blog – up from 51 in June 2012. There are many others who have visited frequently without declaring themselves as followers. The statistics are listed below:
Variable
Statistic
Unique Visitors
81,821
Times Visited
90,610
Number of Pages Viewed
134,212
People Visiting 200+ Times
1,376
People Visiting 101-200 Times
486
People Visiting 51-100 Times
311
People Visiting 26-50 Times
331
Number of Visitor Countries Represented
164
Percentage of Visitors Referred from Search Engines
64.96%
Percentage of Visitors Referred from Other Sites
26.16%
Percentage of Visitors via Direct Access
8.88%
The Top Ten Charts
As one would find in music trade magazines, I have prepared some Top Ten Charts for "Reading between the Grooves."
The Top Ten Visitor Countries
The rankings remain static when compared to the previous 900th Anniversary. Nine new countries and territories were added and include the following: Andorra, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar (Burma), Papua New Guinea, Suriname, and Tanzania.
Outside of large portion of Africa and some countries in Asia, the unreached nations include smaller countries and islands. Most of the island nations that are not represented were located in The Caribbean and Oceania.
Rank
Country
Visits
1
United States
44,529
2
United Kingdom
7,568
3
Canada
5,136
4
Germany
3,654
5
France
2,468
6
Italy
2,210
7
Australia
2,026
8
Brazil
1,966
9
Netherlands
1,467
10
Spain
1,415
Locations where RBTGs has been accessed. Click on the map for full sized image.
The Top Ten Pages via Direct Access
While most people (5,149) have visited the home page for “Reading Between the Grooves,” others enter distinct pages through page specific links and via search engine returns. Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks’ “How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away” rejoined the Top 10 this time.
The most significant move was Fairport Convention’s “Matty Groves,” which moved from six to four on the chart. This particular chart is slow moving as it is cumulative – newer features on this site will have to be really popular to catch up to the total direct access of these ten songs.
This chart represents the days that encountered the most visits and the content that was featured on those particular days. One day did not have associated content for that particular day.
All but one of the selections, the number one slot, came from the last 100 days. The #1 day is an anomaly as it represents a day that had intensive viewing of the entire blog by two new visitors. These two individuals spent a great deal of time on the blog and looked at hundreds of pages during one single weekend.
This chart represents the days that encountered the most visits by first time visitors and the content that was featured on those particular days. All but two of these days are new to this chart and eight are not older than 100 posts.
As always, I want to take this time to thank all of you for your support of this site and the encouragement to keep going forward. Thanks again for Reading between the Grooves.
Today is the last day you can register your vote to see if “Reading Between the Grooves” continues after tomorrow. This is post 999 and post 1,000, which lines up with the third anniversary tomorrow, is planned to be the last – that is, unless enough of you urge me to continue. To do that, register your feelings at the survey found at http://tinyurl.com/8juv863.
Back in the early to mid 1970s, I was a subscriber to Guitar Player magazine and was amazed by the number of artists who credited influence from a 25 year-old guitarist named Charlie Christian. Christian’s one note solos were revolutionary during the short period (1939-1942) where he was in the spotlight as a member of Benny Goodman’s band.
At first Goodman wasn’t sure of the electric guitar, but was urged by John Hammond to add Christian to the band. Hammond, who was Goodman’s father-in-law, always had a good ear for talent – just ask Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
While many guitarists were doing only rhythm and chord leads, Christian’s style emulated the horn players surrounded him and he sounded more like sax and trumpet players than he did other guitarists. The single note leads were revolutionary for the period and his pre-bebop style was fresh sounding. Thousands of guitarists owe a debt of gratitude to the man who started it all – Charlie Christian. Because of this early influence, Christian was immortalized in the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame.
One can only imagine the range of influence and the changes in the music scene had Christian not died at 25 from tuberculosis. He contracted the disease in 1940 and finally succumbed to it on May 2, 1940.
Besides reading about Charlie Christian, I was introduced to his music with the purchase of the 1972 double album: “Solo Flight: The Genius of Charlie Christian.” I bought my copy sometime around 1976; however, I don’t remember the circumstances on where specifically I got my used copy. I know I played it during my Wednesday night jazz program over WKCC from 1976 to 1978.
The cut I have chosen is credited to the Charlie Christian Jammers – one of two cuts on the album that prominently features the guitar work of Christian. This recording was not indented for release; however, we can be thankful for the engineers at Columbia Records who recorded everything on acetate – including this jam that occurred while they were testing the recording equipment.
The song is titled “Waiting for Benny,” as Goodman was late showing up for the session. This warm up included Christian, Cootie Williams on trumpet, George Auld on tenor sax, Johnny Guarnieri on piano, Artie Benson on bass, and Dave Tough on drums. This warm-up was recorded in New York on March 31, 1941. A ten second warning to “stand-by” was given by one of the engineers. This is truly great stuff.
As we countdown to 1000 posts, only two more posts remain; however, if you want this blog to continue, you can make a difference by registering your feelings in the survey found at http://tinyurl.com/8juv863.
Recently, I stumbled upon Los Angeles based Tito & Tarantula’s recording of “After Dark” and discovered a sound that I really liked their sound. Somehow I missed this band and I had not seen Quentin Tarantino’s “From Dusk Till Dawn” where the band performs this in movie.
“After Dark” was originally performed by Tito Larriva’s band the Cruzados and was co-written by Larriva and Cruzado guitarist Steven Hufsteter, who later would join Tito & Tarantula in 2002. The band recorded “After Dark” in 1996 and it was later released on the band’s first CD “Tarantism” in 1997.
I’m not sure what genre of rock you would place this song, but I have always liked dark and foreboding music like this. Besides Larriva’s lead vocal and rhythm guitar, the cut features other Tarantulas Peter Atanasoff on lead guitar, Jennifer Condos on bass, and Nick Vincent on drums and percussion.
Lyn Bertles, also a member of the band at the time of the recording, is credited on the album, but I cannot place what she might be playing on the cut as she plays violin, mandolin, recorder, and harmonica. Mark Goldenberg, who was not a band member, added guitar to this track.
Live Version from 2008
This version was recorded in Germany where the band has a large following. Personnel include Tito Larriva on guitar and vocals, Steven Hufsteter on guitar, Caroline Rippy on bass, and Alfredo Ortiz on drums.
Associate Provost and Professor of Mass Communication at Alderson Broaddus University and an adjunct faculty member at Southern New Hampshire University.
Graduate of Marshall University, West Virginia University, Southern New Hampshire University, Kentucky Christian University and Mountain State University.
Dissertation on institutional rebranding (see newriver.net) was the 2009 international winner of the Alice L. Beeman Dissertation Award for Outstanding Research in Communications and Marketing for Higher Education Advancement and was the 2008 Leo and Margaret Goodman-Malamuth Outstanding Dissertation Award for Research in Higher Education Administration.
Placed as a winner in five Active Industry Research Contemporary Hit Radio "Pick the Hits" competitions from 1983 through 1987. Each competition had 31 winners. Placed 2nd (1st among radio participants), 6th, 10th (twice), and 21st in the five competitions.
Awarded 14 gold & platinum records and an international sales award from various record companies. Winner of 30 Public Relations awards.
