Time Machine week 17

Well, I had thought you might be delayed in getting this week's trip.  It seems the dreaded whatever I've had for the last couple weeks rose again after Wednesday's walk, and I was 50-70% dead at work, where OT was coming and threats of Saturday work are on the table.  At 11 AM, as 4 ibuprofens taken but 3 hours earlier began to lose their efficacy, I looked at a co-worker and said, "A merciful God would make this day go faster."

10 minutes later- no kidding- we were sent home because of a gas leak.

So I have drugs in me and am ready to write the post you will see on March 20th- the 670th anniversary of the day that French "scholars", citing a conjunction of Saturn. Mars, and Jupiter in the 40th degree of Aquarius, claimed the Black Death began.  (Yeah, tell that to the peoples of Asia and Eastern Europe who'd been dying of it already for the last 25 years.)  Of course, we won't be going back to 1345- just to 1970, where on this day General Lon Nol capped off his overthrow of Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia by attacking NVA and Khmer Rouge units near the border with Vietnam.  Oh, and Betty Friedan called a women's strike to be held on August 26.

A plague in and of herself.

Welcome to Time Machine for the week in which we heard the first notes of the Guess Who with American Woman/No Sugar Tonight, Vanity Faire with Hitchin' A Ride, and the Ides Of March (only a week late) with Vehicle.  This week, the guy who wrote the Youngbloods' hit Get Together (or says he is...), the lead singer of the Crickets- but not Buddy Holly- and his unknown hit, the finale of the Great Nineties Countdown... and this trivia poser:  On the shuffle ten this week, all the songs are by first timers except 2- and they are both the third time for the acts, a duo and a band.  The question- who's the guy who was a member of BOTH?  Here's one big, fat, gimme clue...

Our panel of stations this week include old familiars WDGY Minneapolis, KQV Pittsburgh, CKLW Detroit, WMCA New York, WFIL Philly, and newbies WIFE Indy, WLOF Orlando, WPEP Taunton MA, KIRL St. Charles, MO, WLKE Waupun, WI, KFMS San Fran, and KOWN, Escondido, CA.  They put together 22 hits in their top fives, including the number ones in San Francisco (the Beach Boys' Add Some Music To Your Day) and Detroit (ABC by the Jackson Five).  And believe it or not, they came up with a number one song in points 40-29 that actually trailed 5-3 in number one votes!  Our top four this week-

The week's #5 nationally, Edison Lighthouse with Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes, came in fourth, with the #1 vote from Philadelphia.

The week's #2, the Jaggerz with The Rapper, comes in third with the #1 vote from Taunton.

The week's #12 and climbing, with the # one votes of Pittsburgh, Orlando, St Charles, New York, and Escondido- The Beatles with Let It Be.

And the top song, here and on the national chart... stay tuned.


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Our unknown hit comes to us as the #4 in San Francisco, a tune called But For Love by a guy named Jerry Naylor, who is a member of the rockabilly Hall Of Fame.  But his real claim to fame came when Buddy Holly and the Crickets split, and they took him as a lead singer on a handful of songs, including the top ten UK hit Don't Ever Change.  That fun didn't last long, and he tried to build a country career.  The apex of that effort was a #27 song in 1975, Is That All There Is To A Honky Tonk.  Prior to that came this tune:





A close look at the writing credits there shows the name Terry Cashman- the Talking Baseball guy.  But For Love peaked at 69 two weeks after this chart appearance.



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And now, we end the Great Nineties Countdown!

5- Counting Crows, Rain King, 1993.  My personal theme song rose to #66 on the pop charts.


Me I only want the same as anyone
Henderson is wai-ai-ai-ting for the sun
Always the night endlessly begins and ends
after all the dreaming, I go home again....

4- Soul Asylum, Misery, 1995.  A #1 alternative, #20 pop hit for the guys who brought you Runaway Train.  Another tear producer for me, though I don't know why.


We could build a factory and make misery
We'll create the cure; we made the disease

Frustrated, Incorporated
Frustrated, Incorporated
Well I know just what you need
I might just have the thing
I know what you'd pay to feel

Put me out of my misery
All you suicide kings and you drama queens
Forever after happily, making misery

3- Pearl Jam, Black, 1991.  An lp cut from their debut album Ten, and my signature karaoke song.

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be a star
In somebody else's sky, why
why
why can't it be
can't it be mine....

2- Hootie and the Blowfish, Time, 1995.  #14 pop and 26 MSR- and another one that makes my nose run thinking...

Time I don't understand
Children killing in the street
Dying for the color of a rag

Time hey, there red and blue
Wash them in the ocean, make them clean
Maybe their mother won't cry tonight

Can you teach me about tomorrow
And all the pain and sorrow running free?
But tomorrow's just another day
And I don't believe in

Time is wasting time is walking
You ain't no friend of mine, I don't know where I'm goin'
I think I'm out of my mind, thinking about time
And if I die tomorrow, just lay me down in sleep...



And, those of you who have seen some of my New Years' Eve posts will know what's coming... and why.

1- Counting Crows, A Long December, 1996.  #6 pop and alternative... and for the rest, read here. 



Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after 2 AM and talked a little while about the year
It seems the winter makes you laugh a little slower
makes you talk a little lower
'bout the things you could not show her and it's been
A long December but there's reason to believe
maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself
to hold on to these moments
as they pass...


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Our six degrees starts with Chet Powers AKA Dino Valenti, who apparently wrote the song that became the Youngbloods' hit Get Together.  Well, there's no real controversy there, but the problem comes in when his folk band The Leaves recorded the tune Hey Joe, which he claimed to be the writer on.  Problem was, a man by the name of Billy Roberts already had a copyright on it since 1962.  One thread post apologist claimed that Roberts and Powers/Valenti met in jail when the latter was down and out and signed it over to him to help him out.  A bit shaky there, since Roberts sued when a friend pointed out the Leaves' version.  So Roberts wrote it... or did he?  His girlfriend at the time, a lady named Niela Miller, also a post board frequenter, claims he built it from a melody line in her song, Baby Please Don't Go To Town.  She also claimed that, knowing the shaky ground her claim was on, she didn't choose to litigate.

Hey Joe is the song made famous by Jimmy Hendrix from his lp Are You Experienced- and that title cut was covered by, believe it or not, Devo on their lp Shout.  (Here's where the story picks up speed!)  Another song covered by Devo was their hit from the Heavy Metal soundtrack, Working In The Coal Mine.  This song was written by Allen Toussaint, who also wrote Ernie K Doe's hit Mother-In-Law.  Ernie recorded that on the old Minit Records label;  Minit also had in their stable a group called the Showmen.  The Showmen eventually evolved into the Chairmen Of The Board, whose hit Give Me Just A Little More Time was the highest nationally charting song that got no love from the panel, sitting at #11.

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And now, the shuffle ten:

Rick James' second charting hit, which hit 41 pop/3 R&B in 1978, was the funky Mary Jane.  It comes in at #10 on our list.

Three Dog Night comes in at #9 with their #5 from 1969, One.

Go Away Little Girl is one of a handful of songs that hit #1 by two different artists- but the one that makes our list at #8, by the Happenings, crapped out at #12 in 1966.

The Beach Boys' celebrated their 50th anniversary with the lp That's Why God Made The Radio.  At our #7 is a cut off that lp, called Shelter.  This makes their third trip into the shuffle ten- which means our mystery man played in this band!  Know who it is yet?




At number six is Blue Oyster Cult with everyone's favorite monster, Godzilla!  This non-charting cult classic came out in 1977.


Gladys Knight and the Pips make it into the top five with their 1973 hit Neither One Of Us, which hit #2/and #1 R&B.


Are you ready for the mystery man?  Why it's Daryl Dragon, "Captain Keyboard" of the Captain and Tenille, who make the ten with their third hit, Lonely Nights/Angel Face, which hit #3 in 1976.  The Captain played on early 70s Beach Boys lps like Holland, Sunflower, and Carl and the Passions: So Tough.  It comes in at #4 on this week's shuffle.


This week's foray into the contemporary Christian charts brings us a tune from the CCM Magazine's seventh-best Christian lp of all time- a cd that Laurie introduced me to by a band called Love Song.  This band makes our #3, led by former Hondell Chuck Girard, with a tune called Welcome Back.

Sometimes you just don't know what you're missing till you leave it for awhile
Wo, oh, oh, welcome back
Wel - come   back
Wel - come   back, welcome back to Jesus...


Don Williams, a country star with 18 #1s from 1974-86 to his credit, lands one of them at our runner up spot this week.  It's called Tulsa Time, from 1978.


And at the top...  Survey says....

Simon and Garfunkel with Bridge Over Troubled Water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


and shuffle says...

Rainbow with Since You Been Gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Like Godzilla, a song that got screwed by coming out before Billboard started a MainStream Rock chart, it peaked on the main chart at #57 back in 1979.  It hit #6 in a less disco-oriented UK.

And that is a wrap!