arabchanter wrote:

PatReilly wrote:

for I've heard most of the things I want to hear in the world for now.

.

Come on Pat, you do realise there's still 646 albums to go yet. 
 

Aye, and there'll be some I like, but I was meaning in terms of conversations, not music......

DAY 355.
Abba............................................Arrival   (1976)











Say what you like aboot Abba but bottom line is "they've knocked it off," multi million selling singles/albums, stage shows and films, even if you think you hate them, I bet you could name one of there hits and rattle off a couple of verses quicker than a Jeff Clarke medical, they seem to have this knack of implanting their hit songs into your head, which makes your brain singalong to them whether you want to or not.


I can't say I'm too fond of their music but I have to admit defeat and say it's inescapable, with "Mamma Mia 2" out at the moment "the house of hormones" is fuckin' full of it,my kids are full on after seeing said film twice, you try to turn yourself off, but they wear you down to the point of almost complete submission, I'm hanging in but am getting to the stage where I think if it's that catchy a song and I've got to put on other music trying to mask "Knowing Me Knowing You" from fucking about with my subconscious, maybe they truly are very good tunes.



Which brings us to the album "Arrival," I wont lie and say I enjoyed it, but I did enjoy their hits from the album, I've always had a saft spot for "Knowing Me Knowing You," and "Money,Money,Money" you're probably like me and just added "It's a rich man's world," and of course, the old "spunk catchers " favourite "Dancing Queen" I can honestly say I have never danced to this song without coercion, but will confess to being dragged up by numerous drunken wumin to "dance roond the handbags"


All in all, Abba are absolutely tremendous at what they do, they seem to able to brainwash the fairer sex, which normally means we've got to suffer, but is it honestly a sufferance?


This album wont be going into my collection as I'm never gonna play this, and anyway I think we have every form of Abba music going, from vinyl to Cd to DVD the "house of hormones" has them all!





Bits & Bobs;



The girls attained fame in Sweden as solo singers; Björn was in The Hootenanny Singers and Benny was with the Hep Stars, who were known as the "Swedish Beatles." In 1972, Björn and Benny released the single "People Need Love," which featured Agnetha and Anni-Frid on backup vocals. This single was credited to "Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid," and was included on ABBA's debut album Ring Ring.


 
When the band formed, Benny and Anni-Frid were a couple, as were Björn and Agnetha. The band name is their initials as an acronym.


 
Quickly popular in Europe, ABBA became more famous when "Waterloo" won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. The Eurovision stigma held them back for a year, but they followed with a remarkable run of 18 consecutive Top 10 UK singles (eight at #1), and eight #1 albums.



 
They formed the Polar Music Company, which houses a recording studio that is still in use today. Led Zeppelin, Genesis, and The Backstreet Boys have all recorded there.


 
The group faded after the couples divorced (Björn and Agnetha 1979; Benny and Anni-Frid '81). The members then took on various solo projects: Phil Collins produced Frida's 1982 solo album Something's Going On 1982. Agnetha released Can't Shake Loose in 1983, and the boys collaborated with Tim Rice on the musical Chess, which was recorded in London 1984 and staged 1986.


 
Benny and Björn did the songwriting for the group. They were known for writing catchy songs that got right to the chorus.


 
Anni-Frid's second husband died of cancer in November 1999, 2 years after her daughter Lisse-Lot, together with Ragnar Frediksson died in a car accident in the US.


 
A national fish-canning company in Sweden had the name ABBA, but they allowed the band to use it.


 
When ABBA was active, only the Volvo car company made more money in Sweden.


 
ABBA-mania returned with the opening of the 2008 film Mamma Mia!, which was based on the group's songs. This pushed ABBA's Gold album to #1 on the UK album chart over, a position it held 16 years earlier.


 
After Chess, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus wrote a musical in Swedish called Kristina from Duvemåla. In Sweden it is considered by many as one of the greatest musicals ever - a very serious musical with 39 songs and hardly any of them Pop. It is based on Wilhelm Moberg's Utvandrarna (The emigrants) about Swedish emigrants going to America in the 19th century. It premiered in Sweden in 1995.


 
They conquered America even though they hardly ever played there - their only North American tour lasted just 18 dates in 1979.


 
Many bands write a bunch of songs and gradually whittle down the ones they want to release, but ABBA would write only about 12 songs a year, and just about every one was released. Their approach was to write a small number of songs and then focus attention on those.


 
Frida is a mezzo soprano and Agnetha sings in a high soprano, which helped create a nice contrast in their vocal sound.


 
Anni-Frid's father was a German soldier in Hitler's army. When they invaded Norway, he met Synni Lyngstad, who relocated to Sweden when Anni-Frid was an infant, and died of kidney failure when Anni was 2. Anni-Frid's father was presumed dead, but he turned up in 1977 when he was reunited with his daughter. These children of German soldiers were derided as "Tyskerbarnas" by many Norwegians. There were an estimated 12,000 children in this group, and many suffered human rights abuses for many years.


 
The foursome reunited in 2016 to celebrate the opening of Bjorn's Stockholm-based restaurant Mamma Mia! The Party, inspired by the long-running musical.

As long as they didn’t wear the super-flashy ensembles they became famous for donning onstage while they weren’t performing, they were considered deductible by Swedish law. Clearly, this inspired the group to get as creative as they wanted, but Björn would later admit to things getting a bit carried away.“Nobody can have been as badly dressed on stage as we were, In my honest opinion we looked like nuts in those years.”

 The songwriting duo went as far as to sue a British band called The KLF when they discovered they were poaching lyrics from “Dancing Queen” in 1987, but a couple of acts have managed to get their blessings to sample a song.

 First, the Fugees’ used a sample of “The Name Of The Game” for their 1996 song, “Rumble in the Jungle,” then Madonna admitted begging Benny and Bjorn for their permission to use a bit of “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight)” in her 2005 hit “Hung Up.”



“Dancing Queen” is undoubtedly one of (if not the most) popular song by the ’70s and ’80s hit-making group ABBA. Incidentally, the dazzling dynamos first performed the future prom/wedding/bar mitzvah staple at a celebration fit for a real-life queen.


The pop music group held their first live performance of the chart-topping track at a glitzy gala during festivities for the royal wedding between Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and his soon-to-be (dancing) Queen Silvia of Sweden in 1976. All hail!



ABBA’s best-selling album was “Gold” and, as it turns out, Russia once paid the music group in the valuable substance known as black gold. Due to an embargo on the Russian ruble during the Cold War, the band received royalty payments in oil commodities from states behind the Iron Curtain.


The smart exchange organized by the band’s management turned out to be quite lucrative. At their peak in the late ‘70s, ABBA contributed the most “Money, Money, Money” to Sweden’s export revenues after vehicle manufacturer Volvo.



Following the dissolution of the marriages between the members of ABBA, the Swedish supergroup sadly went on an enduring “temporary break” in 1982. When all was said and done, the group’s four members adamantly said no thanks to the prospect of reunion tours (they even reportedly turned down a $1 billion offer).


Although they had previously wanted to preserve their glory days image as “young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition,” Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson completely surprised fans when, in 2016, they took the stage together in Stockholm for the first time in more than 30 years.



Fans will have another chance to say “Thank You for the Music” when Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (sort of) reappear together for an upcoming ABBA reunion of sorts. In 2017, it was announced that the fawned-over foursome would soon release a futuristic hologram tour.


Although not exactly the type of much-anticipated live regrouping of the legendary Europop troupe that fans have been waiting for decades, the so-called “Abbatar” tour is set to launch in 2019 or 2020. The digital tour will feature virtual reality versions of the members as they appeared in their glory days.




"Dancing Queen"


 
This was written by ABBA members Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. According to ABBA's official site, it was conceived as a dance song with the working title "Boogaloo." They drew inspiration from the 1974 George McCrae disco hit "Rock Your Baby," and from the drumming on the 1972 album Gumbo by Dr. John. Their manager Stig Anderson came up with the title "Dancing Queen," and after several months working on the track, ABBA came up with arguably the world's first europop disco hit.


 
ABBA recorded this about a year before it was released. It was written and recorded around the same time as "Fernando," which was chosen as the single. They knew "Dancing Queen" would also be a hit, so they held it until the album was released before issuing it as a single.


 
ABBA performed this song on June 18, 1976 at a televised tribute to Queen Silvia and King Gustaf XVI of Sweden, who were married the next day.


 
This was the only one of ABBA's 14 US Top 40 hits to make it to #1.


 
Regarding the lyrics, "Night is young and the music's high," many listeners interpret this as a statement that the music makes you feel high. In ABBA's part of the world, however, it simply means that the music is loud.


 
Along with many other ABBA songs, this was featured in Muriel's Wedding, a hit Australian movie starring Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths.



 
According to the BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans, when this song was played at a Windsor Castle event Queen Elizabeth said: "I always try to dance when this song comes on because I am the Queen and I like to dance."


 
This song also reached #1 in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Rhodesia, South Africa, Sweden and West Germany.



 
When Benny first played Frida the song's backing track, she burst into tears. "And that was before me and Agnetha had even sung on it!" she smiled to The Guardian. "I knew it was absolutely the best song Abba had ever done."


 
This came top of a 2014 poll conducted by Blinkbox concerning the most commonly misheard lyrics in Pop. 22% of the people polled admitted they had mistaken the lyric "See that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the dancing queen" for, "See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen."


 
Chris Stein of Blondie says that his group's 1979 hit "Dreaming" is "pretty much a cop" of "Dancing Queen."


 
"Knowing Me Knowing You"


Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA came up with this song at a time when the relationships within the group were strained, and his lyric reflect that. Said Ulvaeus: "I think I wrote 'Knowing Me Knowing You' before the divorce. In many ways, Agnetha and my divorce was an amicable one, we just grew apart and decided let's split up. Benny and Frida's was a little more difficult. It was not a happy time but still very creative."


 
This is a serious song by ABBA, probably a turning point in their career. You can see a definite transition in ABBA's sound here as they are beginning to leave the Bubblegum behind and start touching on serious issues, such as divorce. One can't help but wonder if there was a foreshadowing of the divorces that would end up splitting the group up just a short few years later.



 
This song also reached #1 in Ireland, Mexico, South Africa and West Germany.




"Money, Money,Money"

At the time ABBA recorded this in 1976, they had plenty, plenty, plenty of money. The song, however, deals with what it's like to be poor in a rich man's world.


 
This song reached #1 in Australia, Belgium, France, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and West Germany.

DAY 357.
Rush................................2112   (1976)











The ambitious 2112 was a milestone in Rush's career, a make or break album for the Canadian power trio sometimes dubbed as "the biggest cult band in the world." With this release, the band drastically decided to go ahead with their own thing no matter what.

The album was well received by fans at the time, though critics dismissed it as overblown and pretentious.

ABBA have a few good tracks imo and are infinitely better than fucking 'Middle of the Road'.

DAY 358.
Jorge Ben......................................Africa/Brasil   (1976)













It is impossible to overstate the influence of Jorge Ben on the loosely affiliated international confederation of funk. By the time he created his Rio soul manifesto"Africa/Brasil, Ben had been a musical force for more than a decade, but the album's samba percussion, R&B horns, and sassy vocals, and hypnotic rhythm guitar distills Ben's hard- grooving essence.

I forgot to add this last night;

Chick Young was a good bit younger than Sally Carr when they married: they still are married, but separated years ago. Young also used to be 'in a relationship' with ex-Miss Scotland June Lake, who later on was 'in a relationship with big fat Derek Johnstone.

As for the music.................... no appeal to me. Never got the attraction of Kiss, Gene Simmons can stick his 7" tongue up his own arse.

DAY 357.
Rush................................2112   (1976)











Gotta admit this has been the hardest bit of the book so far for me, just can't get into the majority of the music in the last wee while, anyways to the album, way too much guitary,synth, with the added, choirboy getting his "albert halls" squeezed vocals for my liking.I think they spelt "Cult" wrongly earlier.


This album takes me right back to the 70s, but not to a place I was particularly fond of, this album didn't have one second that I would like to return to, and as a consequence will not be getting added to my collection.




Bits & Bobs;



They're from Toronto. In 1979 the Canadian government named them "Official Ambassadors Of Music."


 
Peart's daughter Selena was killed in a car accident in 1997. Tragedy struck again when his wife, Jacqueline, died of cancer the following year. Peart remarried in 2000.


 
Peart writes most of the lyrics. Their original drummer, John Rutsey, left the band due to creative differences and complications with his diabetes. He became a bodybuilder.


 
Geddy Lee was born Gary Lee Weinrib. "Geddy" came from his grandmother's pronunciation of "Gary" - she had a Yiddish accent. Alex Lifeson was born Alexander Zivojinovic.


 
Peart was for many years rumored to possess a doctorate degree. He does not, and has never even completed high school. Despite this, he does appear to be one of the more intelligent and literate of songwriters.


 
They first got a job to play at a coffee house called the "Coff-In." While they had dreamed of playing, they had neglected to come up with a name for their group. With no time left to contemplate, they didn't have much luck coming up with a name until John Rutsey's older brother yelled, "Why don't you call the band Rush?"


 
In 1973, Rush decided to release their first single before they released an album. Side A was a cover of a Buddy Holly song called "Not Fade Away." On side B was a Lee/Rutsey song called "You Can't Fight It." This single wasn't released worldwide. No record company in Canada would produce Rush's music, so they formed their own record company named Moon Records. The single was released only in Toronto and other parts of Canada for $0.69. It was often given away for free. It is very rare, which makes this single worth a fortune today.


 
Their early sound was mostly influenced by Cream and Led Zeppelin, but with the entry of drummer Neil Peart, the sound became more experimental and progressive, thanks to the technical abilities of the three members.



 
Peart's lyrics originally center around mythological, Sci-fi and fantasy themes. He never writes about sex or drugs.


 
Every 4 studio albums they made were followed by a live album.


 
They have won several Juno Awards, which are the Canadian equivalent of Grammys. They won Group Of The Year in 1977 and 1978, and were inducted into the Juno Hall Of Fame in 1993.


 
Alex first met Geddy in a history class at Fisherville Junior High. Their history teacher, Mr. Bissle, remembers Alex as being "very likable, fun, outgoing and levelheaded. I always had Alex sit right in front of me where I could reach him. Gary (Geddy) was more quiet and studious. He had his feet on the ground and was soft-spoken. The two of them would sit around the school playing their guitars all the time."



 
Neil Peart pronounces his last name "Peert". He pronounces his first name "Neel."



 
In the movie School of Rock, Jack Black's character, Dewey Finn, mispronounces Neil Peart's last name as "pert."



 
Lifeson owns and operates a small consumer product design engineering and manufacturing firm (The Omega Concern), is part owner of a Toronto restaurant (The Orbit Room), and is a licensed aircraft pilot and motorcycle operator.



 
Lee has produced albums for various other bands, including Rocket Science.



 
Peart uses a famously elaborate drum kit, which has ranged in size from merely large to truly elephantine. His drumming style is eclectic: he cites influences ranging from The Who's Keith Moon to jazz drummer Buddy Rich. He produced Burning For Buddy - A Tribute To The Music Of Buddy Rich in 1995, and Burning For Buddy 2 in 1997.



 
Peart has written 6 books: Drum Techniques of Rush (1985), More Drum Techniques of Rush (1989), The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa (1999), Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road (2002), Traveling Music: Playing Back the Soundtrack to My Life and Times (2004), Roadshow: Landscape With Drums: A Concert Tour by Motorcycle (2005 - this book documents his travels during Rush's 2004 R30 tour of North America and Europe).



 
Neil also released a DVD in 2002 titled Neil Peart - A Work in Progress. This 2-DVD box documents the "work in progress" of recording Rush's Test for Echo album, as well as Neil himself in the studio. Neil's special approach to drums is featured in songs from "Test," also a 4 camera shoot as Neil lays down the fiery creative drumming for which he is known. Other topics include a discussion of Neil's DW drum set, his approach to odd times, playing with a vocalist & a "guided tour" of Neil's warm-up routine.



 
Geddy Lee made a guest performance on Bob and Doug McKenzie's comedy album Great White North singing a song called "Take Off."


 
Geddy Lee and his daughter Kyla appeared in the episode "Will You Be My Lorelai, Gilmore?" of the TV show Gilmore Girls, but he was partially hidden by a crowd of people.



 
Rustley left the band shortly after their debut album was released in 1974. He was diabetic and was concerned about how the tours would affect his health. When he left Rush, he left the music business altogether. He died in his sleep on May 11, 2008 apparently of a heart attack that was the result of his diabetes. He was 55.


 
Lifeson is married to his first girlfriend, and Lee is married to his high-school sweetheart. Peart was married for 22 years before his wife died in 1997.



 
Geddy Lee is famous for playing Rickenbacker basses and Fender Jazz basses. He played a double-neck guitar/bass live for the song "A Passage To Bangkok," where he would switch from the bass neck to the guitar neck to play rhythm guitar during Alex's guitar solo.



It is also notable that Lee plays bass pedals and synth pedals with his feet as he plays bass and sings, as well as switching his hands from bass guitar to keys on different keyboards/synths.


 
In 2014, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart earned honorary Doctorates of Music degrees from Nipissing University (North Bay, ON, Canada). They were unable to attend the ceremony because of poor weather conditions, but Lee and Lifeson posted videos of their speeches online.



Lee said: "This is a situation I honestly never thought I'd be in. Imagine a high school dropout, and a rock musician no less, receiving such an honor. Finally my mother's dream finally comes true - she has a doctor for a son, oy vey!" while Lifeson joked: "My intended first act as a doctor was to write scripts for everyone, but apparently I'm not that kind of doctor."


 
Geddy Lee is a connoisseur and collector of classic wines. When Classic Rock magazine asked him which wines his bandmates would be, he replied: "Alex Lifeson would be a Zinfandel, overripe and alcoholic. And Neil Peart's a claret – one that needs aging, softening up around the edges."



 Both of Geddy Lee's parents were Jewish Holocaust survivors. First imprisoned at Auschwitz when they were 13 years old, they were separated to Bergen-Belsen and Dachau. When the war ended four years later and the Allies liberated the camps, Geddy's father set out in search of his mother and found her at a displaced persons camp. They married there and eventually emigrated to Canada.




"2112"


This piece is 20 minutes long and takes up an entire side of the album. It was the second time Rush did this, the first being "The Fountain of Lamneth" from the album Caress of Steel.


 
The song is considered a "suite" and divided into seven chapters: I) Overture, II) The Temples of Syrinx, III) Discovery, IV) Presentation, V) Oracle: The Dream, VI) Soliloquy, VII) Grand Finale. In the printed lyrics, each chapter begins with a text story, describing the events. Part one is the overture of the year 2112. Part two is about the Temples of Syrinx and the Priests that rule them. Part three is about a man who discovers an "ancient device" that is actually a guitar. Part four is the presentation (hence the part title) of the device to the priests. The priests say that there is no need for this ancient way, and crush it to pieces beneath their feet. Part five is about the man going back to his cave by the waterfall and falling asleep, dreaming of the "elder race" (the oracle) leading him back to his world. In the year 2112 the elder race of man live on a planet far far away from the Federation. Part six is about the man being unable to live under the Federation's control any longer. His only hope is that with his death he will pass into the next world. Part seven is the instrumental Grand Finale.


 
The lyrics are based on the novella Anthem by Ayn Rand, a writer and philosopher who grew up in Russia, but moved to the US as a young adult. She often wrote about the concept of "Objectivism," which focuses on reason, self-interest, and objective reality. The narrator of this story is never named.



 
There was no complete live recording of this song until the release of the 1998 Different Stages: Live three disc set. An abbreviated version appeared on the 1976 live disc All The World's A Stage.



 
The first words sung - "And the meek shall inherit the earth" - are a reference to a passage in The Bible: "Blessed are the meek, for the meek shall inherit the Earth."



 
This was considered a "concept-album" and was an example of "Prog-Rock" (progressive rock), a grand style of music popular in the '70s with bands like Yes.



 
This song is actually a criticism of the music industry, and how they try to control song length and style.


 
There is a hidden feature (Easter egg) on the Rush In Rio DVD. On the second disc, select the 2nd multi-angle video and let it begin. Then go back to the menu then select the 1st multi-angle video. Let it begin, then go back to the menu, then 1st again, then 2nd again: "2nd-1st-1st-2nd." It will open a video from 1975, "Anthem."



 
This song was recorded live for the first time in it's entirety for the Test For Echo tour and released on the 3-CD set Different Stages in 1998.



 
The song and album title spawned an image used as Rush's' logo from this time on, known as "The Starman." Long time Rush album artist/designer Hugh Syme is credited with it's creation.




 
21:12 is military time for 9:12. 9/12 is September 12, Neil Peart's birthday.


 
On the inside of the CD cover, these words are attributed to "Anonymous, 2112": "I lie awake, staring out at the bleakness of Megadon. City and sky become one, merging into a single plane, a vast sea of unbroken grey. The Twin Moons, just two pale orbs as they trace their way across the steely sky. I used to think I had a pretty good life here, just plugging into my machine for the day, then watching Templevision or reading a Temple Paper in the evening. My friend Jon always said it was nicer here than under the atmospheric domes of the Outer Planets. We have had peace since 2062, when the surviving planets were banded together under the Red Star of the Solar Federation. The less fortunate gave us a few new moons. I believed what I was told, I thought it was a good life, I thought I was happy. Then I found something that changed it all..."
Megadon was a coin-operated arcade game from the '80s that is listed as very rare now. The game merged maze games like Pac-Man with space shooting games, like Space Invaders.


 
21/12 (December 21st) is the date of the winter solstice, a very important event in some cultures, and the beginning of the lunar calendar.



 
Bassist Peter Ewers and guitarist Björn Gelotte of the metal band In Flames own a burger joint called "2112" in Gothenburg, Sweden, which was named after this song.

DAY 358.
Jorge Ben......................................Africa/Brasil   (1976)












Surprisingly I enjoyed this one, not enough to buy it but a great bit of background music.Mixing funky samba, Afro-Brazilian beats, and crunching guitars to create a pretty decent album, I will definitely be downloading this but wont be buying it just yet, but in the future who knows?


This album wont be going into my collection.




Bits & Bobs;



Jorge Ben Jor (born March 22, 1945 in Rio de Janeiro). Território Eldorado. Agência O Globo is a Brazilian popular musician. His characteristic style fuses samba, funk, rock and bossa nova with lyrics that blend humor and satire with often esoteric subject matter.


Born Jorge Duilio Lima Menezes, he first took the stage name Jorge Ben after his mother's name (of Ethiopian origin)Jorge Ben obtained his first pandeiro (Brazil's most popular type of tambourine) when he was thirteen, and two years later, was singing in a church choir. He also took part as a pandeiro player in the blocos of Carnaval, and from eighteen years of age, he began performing at parties and nightclubs with the guitar his mother gave him.It was at one of those clubs in which he performed that his musical career took off. In 1963, Jorge came on stage and sang "Mas Que Nada" to a small crowd that happened to include an executive from the recording company, Philips. One week later, Jorge Ben's first single was released.The hybrid rhythms that Jorge employed brought him some problems at the start of his career, when Brazilian music was split between the rockier sounds of the Jovem Guarda and traditional samba with its complex lyrics. But as that phase in Brazilian pop music history passed, and bossa nova became better known throughout the world, Jorge rose to prominence.Jorge Ben's first public appearances were in small festivals organised by his friends, where bossa nova and rock and roll predominated. As with most musicians of the time, Jorge was initially influenced by João Gilberto even though he was quite innovative in his own right. The aforementioned song, "Mas Que Nada", was his first big hit in Brazil, and remains to this day the most played song in the United States sung entirely in Portuguese. Outside of Brazil, the song is better known in cover versions by Sérgio Mendes and the Tamba Trio. The song has also been reinterpreted by jazz luminaries such as Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie and Al Jarreau; as well as other samba artists of the time, such as Elza Soares.
 Jorge Ben at [[Live Earth in 2007]] In 1969, Jorge Ben released his self-titled album amid the excitement of the cultural and musical Tropicália movement. The album featured Trio Mocotó as his backing band, who would go on to launch a successful career on the back of their association with Ben. The album was noted for "País Tropical," one of his most famous compositions, although it would be Wilson Simonal who would take his recording of the song to the top of the charts in Brazil that same year. Instead, the song "Charles, Anjo 45", also from the self-titled album, would become Ben's biggest self-performed chart hit of the year.In the 1970s, Jorge Ben released his most esoteric and experimental albums, most notably A Tábua de Esmeralda in 1974 and Solta o Pavão in 1975. In 1976, he released one of his most popular albums: "África Brasil," a fusion of funk and samba which relied more on the electric guitar than previous efforts. This album also features a remake of his previously released song "Taj Mahal," from which Rod Stewart's 1977 hit "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? was plagiarized (a matter that was settled in court in Ben's favor).


 In 1989, Jorge changed his recording label as well as his artistic name, becoming Jorge Benjor (or Jorge Ben Jor). At the time, it was said that there were numerological reasons for his change in name; other sources say it was in response to an incident where some of his royalties accidentally went to American guitarist George Benson.



In 2002, Jorge Ben contributed to the critically acclaimed Red Hot + Riot, a compilation CD created by the Red Hot Organization in tribute to the music and work of Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti, that raised money for various charities devoted to raising AIDS awareness and fighting the disease. He collaborated with fellow hip-hop artists Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, and Bilal to remake the famous song by Fela Kuti, "Shuffering and Shmiling," for the CD.




Rod Stewarts blatant rip-off





 

DAY 359.
Joan Armatrading........................Joan Armatrading   (1976)











Joan Armatrading the album was a good listen, but no more than that, she's a very talented singer/songwriter of that there is no question, but the album just didn't get me going at all, like previous albums that I've listened to, I wouldn't be embarrassed to have it in my collection, but couldn't see me playing it too often and then only as background.


The obvious stand outs were "Down To Zero" and "Love And Affection" but also liked "People" the rest were a bit on the slow or melancholy side for me.


This album wont be going into my collection.




Bits & Bobs;



The British singer-songwriter was born on the Caribbean Island of Saint Kitts and was raised by her grandmother on Antigua until she joined the rest of her family in Birmingham, England, at age seven.


 
Armatrading dropped out of school at 15 in favor of going to work to help support her family. Her first job at a tool manufacturing company didn't last long - she was fired for playing the guitar on her breaks.


 
The singer has successfully tried her hand at many different genres, including pop, rock, and folk rock, making her a fixture on the UK charts since her debut in the 1970s. But it was her foray into the blues that garnered her attention stateside when her 2007 album Into the Blues debuted at #1 on the US Blues chart.


 
Not only was Armatrading the first female UK artist to top the Blues Album chart, but she was also the first female UK artist to earn a Grammy nomination in a blues category (Best Contemporary Blues Album).


 
Armatrading on songwriting (The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters by Daniel Rachel): "The song will dictate. You need to follow the song: don't be the one pulling in this direction, let it pull you."


 
She made debut performance as a teen when she sang Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound Of Silence" at a concert at Birmingham University.



 
Armatrading is an introvert, and likes to keep her private life under wraps. This makes interviews a challenge for both her and the journalist. Attempts to discern her life through her songs are usually rebuffed.


 
She is a vegetarian who doesn't drink alcohol, use profanity, or smoke. She even gave up coffee and tea when she was a teenager.


 
She said that America is her favourite place to perform, since the audiences give instant feedback. "You can go to some countries, and they're applauding and they're liking it, but then at the very end they'll get up and do a standing ovation and they'll woop and wail," she said. "But it's at the very end, so you kind of spend the rest of the concerts wondering, Are they having a good time? Are they enjoying it? Is this working well?"


 
In school, she was very shy, which earned her the nickname "Joan Armorplating."


 
She finishes every song she starts writing. Many are terrible and get binned, but they always get finished.


 
She's one of the few British songwriters of the era who wasn't influenced by The Beatles. After she started writing songs, she came to appreciate Van Morrison.


 
Her deal with interpersonal relationships, never politics. "It's all about communication," she said in 2018. "I don't think that's changed over the years at all and I don't think it ever will because that's why we're here. We're here to communicate with each other."




"Down To Zero"

This song is about a woman whose confidence is cut down in a flash when her man runs off with someone else. Suddenly she is "down to zero," an unfamiliar and unexpected place.


Armatrading wrote the song after speaking with two different women who had essentially the same story. "They both felt they were beautiful women, and they couldn't understand why their men weren't so overwhelmed with their beauty that they didn't even consider glancing at another person, let alone going off with anybody else," she said. "It was just weird for me at the time that these two women were going through the same kind of thing and thinking about themselves in the same way, so I wrote that song about that situation."


 
Four different guitars were used on this track: Armatrading played 6-string, Graham Lyle played 12-string, Jerry Donahue played electric, and B. J. Cole was on pedal steel. Kenney Jones, who would later replace Keith Moon in The Who, was the drummer.




The album was produced by Glyn Johns, whose previous work includes the first Led Zeppelin album and the Eagles debut.




"People"


A track from  third album, "People" finds the English singer-songwriter coming off as a bit of a misanthrope, as she sings about all the people driving her insane. She was indeed fed up with people when she wrote the song, but it was an isolated incident.
her


"One day the phone kept ringing and none of the calls were for me," she told Black Echoes. "I was trying to practice and there was the man next door saying I had to stop because his wife was home with a broken leg. I was just trying to write a song and couldn't get on with it."




"Love And Affection"


Armatrading's first and biggest hit, she doesn't like to discuss the song. She said: "It's just deeply, deeply personal, and I can't talk about it without talking about the person I wrote it for, which I never, ever do."


 
This was the first single by a black female British singer/songwriter to achieve major success in the UK. Armatrading was born in the West Indies in 1950, and her family then moved to England when she was 7 years old. She started writing songs as a teenager, and in the '70s she appeared in a London production of the musical Hair. She has been nominated for three Grammy Awards and two Brit Awards.



 
On this single Armatrading was backed by former members of the British folk band Fairport Convention: guitarist Jerry Donahue and drummer Dave Mattacks.


 

In an interview with Daniel Rachel (The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters), Armatrading admitted that the opening line - "I'm not in love, but I'm open to persuasion" - is about herself. Someone was trying to persuade her.


 
This was one of the more difficult songs for Armatrading to write; she says it is really two songs that she combined to make one.


 
The big bass voice on this track is Clarke Peters, who at the time was using the name Pete Clarke. He was with a band called The Majestics, but it would be as an actor that he made his mark, playing Lester Freamon in the TV series The Wire and appearing in the movies John Wick and Notting Hill.



 She said she was driving along King's Road in London when inspiration for this song struck. "I can show you the spot where I was when those lyrics came to me," she said. "It was somebody trying to persuade me to be with them, and that's as much as I'm saying about that song."


 
Armatrading knew she had something special when she wrote this song, and asked that it be released as the first single from the album. Her record company wasn't so sure, but wisely complied.






 

DAY 360.
Aerosmith................................................Rocks   (1976)










Fuck me, there's yer breath of fresh air! That's more like it something with a bit of balls, something that doesn't send you to sleep, something where you don't have to think "what the fuck is this I don't get it, it must be for the more intellectual minds to deconstruct,"  No none of that old bollocks, it's just good old raw, unadulterated, rock 'n' roll.


As I said about their last album from the book "Toys In The Attic" I've always had a bit o' a saft spot for Aerosmith, and although I found all the tracks enjoyable, my particular favourites were the two opening tracks, " Back In The Saddle" and "Last Child" which methinks Ian Dury must have listened to as the music was affy like "Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll," but by and far the best tracks in my humbles were, "Sick as a Dog" and "Lick and a Promise" both songs verging on punk.



Still debating this one, I don't know if like it more than "Toys In The Attic?"
This album wont be going into my collection just yet as I have already bought "Toys In The Attic", but think it will be in the not too distant future.




Bits & Bobs;



Have written about Aerosmith just lately  (if interested)





This is an interview about the album, but done 40 years later;




The Real Story Behind Aerosmith's 'Rocks'




Aerosmith's Rocks album turned 40 this year, but neither guitarists Joe Perry nor Brad Whitford think that the record shows one bit of age. "You put it on and you can still feel the excitement we had when we made it," says Perry. "Everything was clicking for us. We had been working hard and were rising through the ranks, and we were really feeling it. I think that shows in those tracks."  "It doesn't feel like 40 years since we put it out," says Whitford. "I think you could put 'Rocks' on right now next to just about any current record, and you wouldn't know there was four decades between them. It's an honest record. I think that came through then, and it still comes through now."  'Rocks' marked a chart high-water mark for Aerosmith in the '70s, hitting number three on the Billboard Top 200 and establishing the Boston-based band as the premier American hard rock attraction of the era. Perry and Whitford sat down with Music Aficionado to reflect on the hectic pace that surrounded the making of the iconic disc and its enduring legacy.   




For most fans, 'Rocks' is generally regarded as Aerosmith's masterpiece. Any thoughts on why so many people feel it's your best work?





Brad Whitford: To tell you the truth, it's my favorite record, too. I put it right at the top. It's definitive Aerosmith. The songs are great and I love how they're recorded. It's a very cohesive record—you can listen to it from top to bottom. It's got a very raw sound. We recorded it on 16-track, so this was long before computers.  Joe Perry: I have to agree with Brad on the rawness, but it's something else, too. We learned how to be a recording band with that album. We wrote music on the fly in the studio, under the pressure of having to write songs on the spot. We didn't have all this time to put songs together and fine-tune them. Everything was very much in the moment, and I think the songs reflect where we were at that time.  Whether it's our best album ever, I don't know. I think all of our records are the best we can do at the time. We never phoned it in. It was certainly one of the most successful albums of that era and a real high point for us. Is it better than others? I think they're all right up there. 




 Aerosmith had become a fan favorite from 'Toys in the Attic' and then 'Rocks,' but critics weren't all on board yet. Did that bug you guys at all?




Perry: I guess the critics didn't get us then. It's kind of like Trump and the media: There's 15,000 people in the arena and another 5,000 that can't get in, but the press gives him five minutes and says, "He's got a foul mouth." Where's the meat, you know? We were used to bad press back then. I remember those early reviews. We'd play to 15,000 people, and then we'd read a review and be like, "Was he even there?" You see that on the internet now: One person says something negative and it goes around. It doesn't mean anything.  Whitford: We were being called "the American Rolling Stones" in those days. They were trying to do everything they could to not give us credit for what we were doing.  What kind of discussions did you have with producer Jack Douglas about the kind of record 'Rocks' should be?  Perry: I don't remember, really. It was more about getting the songs together and making them work. We wanted songs that could translate to the audience. All the songs had that dynamic to them. You can picture yourself on stage playing them. You think to yourself, "OK, if somebody likes Heartbreaker or Honky Tonk Woman, they'll probably like this. I like to think that the audience has the same tastes as me.  



Brad, you said in your book that the band was living the high life at this time. Were things getting a little out of control?




Whitford: We were doing what everybody else was doing in the '70s. It was a hectic, frantic kind of lifestyle. We were still young guys, so we didn't think anything could hurt us.  Perry: Things weren't out of control at that point. I think we were doing things in moderation. I was in a good space personally, in a good place with Steven. The seeds of it were there, I guess. The band liked to party. We always liked that lifestyle, and we still do. We didn't realize that there was going to be payback big-time if we didn't reel it in, and we didn't. You learn.  How come you guys had to write the record in the studio?. Did the label schedule a release and you had to scurry to meet the date?  Perry: Yeah, that was the case, so there was pressure—some guys felt it more than others. We were headlining a lot of places, but we were still proving ourselves. I kind of wish we could've done two albums a year. We could've if we weren't so busy touring. We knew we had to do a record, and we had to get it done. We had written some stuff on the fly with 'Toys in the Attic,' so we knew we could do it. It was just more so with 'Rocks.'  Whitford: There was a sense of urgency to everything we were doing. We were always on a schedule, and we were usually behind. The road and the studio were non-stop for us. We didn't really write on the road, so when we went in to do 'Rocks,' we had a lot of ideas. We started pre-production, which really meant that we went into a rehearsal studio and started hammering things out. 



 Did you have A&R guys poking their heads in?




Perry: No, we were pretty much left alone. Sometimes Jack would say, "By the way, the record company's coming down tomorrow." That was pretty much it.


Whitford: The label was excited. They wanted the record right now. That kind of thing happened all the time back then though.  Perry: The label was along for the ride. They saw what was happening and that we were building the audience. But I never got interference from record company people, and not to say that it's always interference. I think what John Kalodner did with us in the next decade was really good.




 Brad, both you and Tom Hamilton had more songwriting input than ever on 'Rocks.' Were there politics involved with getting your songs through, or were you two simply writing better material than before?




Whitford: There was always a bit of political craziness with the songwriting. It's more about what floats to the top during the writing stages—the cream rises. In my case, I think that Last Child and Nobody's Fault were just undeniably good songs, so there was no question that we'd do them.  Perry: I think there's a couple of reasons behind the songwriting issue. Some stuff Steven and I worked on together, but sometimes he had ideas for things and maybe one of the other guys had some music for it.  



How did you demo songs for 'Rocks'?





Whitford: There wasn't a set way that we did things. With "Last Child," it all happened at end of the day. Steven and I were about to go home, and we were hanging out in the studio. I had this idea and he sat down at the drums, and there you had it. "Nobody's Fault" was a couple of ideas that I had. Jack and I sat down and developed it. He was very instrumental with helping to get our ideas down in a cohesive matter. We called him the sixth member of the band.  



Joe, you once told Alan di Perna in Guitar World that you wrote the riff to "Back in the Saddle" on a Fender Bass VI while high on heroin.





Perry: That was early on in my life, and I have to think that I would've come up with three more songs if I was in the headspace I'm in now. I've read interviews with other artists where they talk about alcohol and drugs opening doors for their creativity, and I kind of agree with them, but it does that for five minutes. In the end it closes doors. There's things I remember really well, and it's the stuff I don't remember that is probably pretty fucked up. But I do remember I was lying flat on my back when I came up with that riff. It just happened. I started playing it and there it was. 



 Did you know the song had something special? Did you know it was a hit? 



 Perry: Honestly? No. I knew it was different because of the six-string bass. I really didn't know much about those things at the time. I had seen Peter Green play one with Fleetwood Mac. There would be a breakdown in a song, and somebody would hand him a six-string bass to do a solo. I was interested in the instrument, so I gave it a try. I figured it would be fun to play live, so that's where the riff came from. I had no idea where it would go, because it's really about Steven going, "I'm back!" 



  Whitford: The label was excited. They wanted the record right now. That kind of thing happened all the time back then though.  Perry: The label was along for the ride. They saw what was happening and that we were building the audience. But I never got interference from record company people, and not to say that it's always interference. I think what John Kalodner did with us in the next decade was really good.




 Brad, you played lead guitar on "Back in the Saddle"…



Whitford: Mmm… some of it. Not all of it.  Perry: Brad plays the lead stuff live so I can pay the six-string bass. In the studio, I did the lead stuff.  Whitford: We divvied stuff up sometimes, but it all came down to who had a better idea. There was no rivalry or anything.  Perry: A lot of times it was more like, "Hey, I'm playing this part. Can you do that part?" We tried to think of how we'd do it live. 



 Joe, you share lead vocals with Steven on the song "Combination." How did that come about?




Perry: I wanted to write a song that I could sing. Steven really liked it, and there was some discussion about him singing it himself. But I really wanted to sing those lyrics, so we shared it. I know he liked the riff and the tune, so it seemed like a natural place for him to chime in.  You wrote the song yourself. Steven once said that they're your best lyrics. 
 Perry: Well, thanks. I don't know… Hey, you're just drawing on life and setting the words to music. Otherwise, it's poetry.  



There was an instrumental swap going on in the studio with "Sick As a Dog." Tom plays guitar; Joe, you're on bass, but then you handed it to Steve so you could play guitar. What happened there?



Perry: Yeah, that was pretty funny. Well, Tom wrote the opening guitar riff, so I figured, "In order to do this right and be able to play it live, Tom should play guitar and I should play bass." We played it live in the studio the way we would do it live on stage. I love it. It's like a Chinese fire drill. At the end, I hand Steven the bass, and I pick up a 335 and do the solo going out. Once we figured it out, we got it down in three or four takes.  The recording of your next album, "Draw the Line," wasn't an easy one.



Even though you said there was excitement in the air for 'Rocks,' was there any indication of mounting tensions?




Perry: No, there was none of that for 'Rocks.' Like I said, we were too excited. It felt like all the hard work and the road work was paying off. We went from the stage and into the studio. I have nothing but gratitude for the fans for being there. We knew we were writing and recording good songs, and we'd be out there soon playing them live. Making 'Rocks' was one of the best times for us in our whole career.  Whitford: It's interesting that it's become an iconic record, because we had no idea what it would do at the time. You try not to get too caught up in things as your recording. Then suddenly it goes out and gets tested, and it catches people's ears on the radio. The record clicked, but I think it's because we were really clicking as a band. Records don't lie.



"Back In The Saddle"

 

This song describes a cowboy going to a bar, picking up a girl and spending the night with her. There is lots of sexual innuendo in the lyrics among the Old West images ("I'm like a loaded gun," "This snake is gonna rattle).

The prostitute in the song, Sukie Jones, was a creation of Steven Tyler and not a real person. One fan of the song is original Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler, who in 2003 formed a band called Suki Jones, which he later renamed Adler's Appetite.


 
"Back In The Saddle Again" was a song popularized by Gene Autry, who first recorded it in 1939. Autry was known as "The Singing Cowboy," and his song played up the cowboy persona he portrayed in movies and TV specials.

Steven Tyler decided to use the cowboy theme for his lyrics after talking with producer Jack Douglas about using the "back in the saddle" line as a way of declaring that the band was back with a new album and ready to rock hard. Tyler always thought "back in saddle" meant having sex with your girlfriend more than once in a night, so wrote the lyrics about a cowboy riding into town to satisfy his sexual urges. He wrote the lyrics in the stairwell of the Record Plant recording studio, where he would often write once the track was finished.


 
The main riff was composed by guitarist Joe Perry on a 6-string bass guitar he had recently purchased. Perry says he was "lying on the floor, stoned on heroin" when he came up with the riff. The song wasn't recorded until almost a year later, when they used their rehearsal space - a warehouse in Waltham, Massachusetts they called "The Wherehouse" - as a recording studio by bringing in a mobile recording unit to record the Rocks album.


 
This was the first track on Rocks, which was Aerosmith's fourth album. After the band put the track together around Joe Perry's guitar riff, they knew it would be a great opener for the album. Producer Jack Douglas said in the Aerosmith biography Walk This Way: "We recorded 'Back In The Saddle' to have this larger-than-life vibe, to bring the band right into the middle of the kid's head when he put on his 'phones in his bedroom late at night."


 
For the bridge, lead singer Steven Tyler taped tambourines to his cowboy boots and stomped on a piece of plywood he laid down in the studio. For the crack of the whip, they bought a bullwhip, but nobody could use it. They ended up faking the whip sound by having Tyler swing a cord in a studio to make the whirling noise, then using a cap gun for the crack.


 
By 1982, Aerosmith had lost Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, and their album recorded that year without them, Rock In A Hard Place, didn't do very well. In 1984, Perry and Whitford rejoined the band and this song took on new meaning as they embarked on the "Back In The Saddle" tour.


 
Sebastian Bach recorded this with Axl Rose for Bach's 2007 album Angel Down, his first album since his 2001 release Bach 2: Basics. In an interview with the Hartford, Connecticut radio station WCCC, Bach explained that his producer Roy Z convinced him to record the song as a way to announce his return, since "Bach was Back In The Saddle."

Rose supplied backing vocals on two other songs from the album as well. In an interview with Reuters, Bach described what it was like working with the legendary vocalist: "It took him about two hours to do 'Back in the Saddle' and '(Love Is) a Bitchslap,' and then he's like, 'Right on, OK, it's like 2, 3 in the morning.' I said, 'Dude, you gotta take one whack at this song 'Stuck Inside,' and he kinda got a little sniffy. I go, 'Would ya just do the one f--king shot?' He very carefully wrote the words he was gonna sing and came in with this f--king vocal at the end when he goes to this high part of this high harmony above the ending chorus. It's astonishing."

In the same interview, Bach revealed how he got Steve Tyler's blessing to cover the song: "I got Steve Tyler's blessing on the phone 'cause Axl called him right up there in the studio and handed me the cell phone. So to get the thumbs up from Steven and Axl's a pretty f--king good omen (to) me."


 

In 2009, United States congressman Eric Cantor, who was the House Republican Whip, had his office create a video touting his party's opposition to President Obama's stimulus bill. The video, which was posted on YouTube, featured this song with the message that the Republican party was "back in the saddle."

Aerosmith's publishing company had the video removed, and the band sent a letter to Cantor mocking him for using a song about a cowboy picking up a hooker for political propaganda. Here's the letter:

Dear Rep. Cantor,
Thanks for promoting our song about the hooker Sukie Jones. You and Sukie are made for each other. You've moved up from being the Chief Deputy Whip to Republican Whip in the 111th Congress. And her speciality is whipping bad boys like you.

Yeah, you and your Republican friends outflanked the Democrats in the stimulus battle. You showed them what a real stimulus plan should be about, didn't you, Mr. Republican Whip? Hookers, right?

You left no doubt where your mind is when you picked our song. Maybe your constituents can't hear the words. But we know you like any song about a saddle-sore cowpoke riding into a saloon town of soakin' wet girls to get some time in the rack with his four-bit hooker. (Refers to the lyrics, "Four bits gets you time in the racks." "Four Bits" was slang for 50 cents, indicating that Sukie was a cheap whore.)

And, we bet we're not the only ones who thought it was funny when your staff sent out the old AFSCME ad with the bogus sound track full of obscenities. Pretty funny. You, the bastion of conservatism who always defends America against swear words. I bet your constituents in the Bible Belt got the joke.

Hope you don't bleep all the good parts in our song when you find out what we're singing about. But, hey, you won't. That was your point, right?

Of course, we almost forgot. Your friend, Sen. David Vitter, has probably introduced you to ol' Sukie. He knows all the hookers from New Orleans to Washington.

And just imagine what you and Vitter get into on your foreign junkets. (Junkets? Where do you guys come up with these words?) I bet the taxpayers are glad to pay for all that. You guys need a break now and then.

You're known for going on the House floor to rail against swear words and how they're destroying America. But with Sukie, you can say all the bleeped words from the ads you and your staff promote. She'll spank your skinny butt every time you yell one. She'll even dress like your mother if you like that better than her leather boots and metal-studded pants suit. Or ... is that what your mom wore, too?

So, get back in the saddle again, Mr. Whip. And beg Sukie to whip you. Harder. Make it hurt. You're a bad boy, Eric.

Your buddies,
Aerosmith



Tyler had always thought of the phrase not as “making a comeback”, but “having sex more than once a night”, and therefore wrote a song about a cowboy’s sexual escapades.





"Last Child"




“Last Child” is one of few Aerosmith tracks to be written in part by rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford. There is some debate over who actually played the guitar solo on the record (most believe it to be Joe Perry), but Brad Whitford always plays it during live performances.

 When discussing his love for Rocks, which he cites as the album that made him want to learn to play guitar, Slash talks in particular about the great one-two punch of the first two songs on the album: “Back in the Saddle” and “Last Child.”

 

A swaggering, blues-fused tune, this was written by Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Brad Whitford. The lyrics contain many clever double-entendre lyrics from Tyler, and he breaks new ground by rhyming "Tallahassee" with "Sassafrasse."

The song was a modest hit, but it quickly became a live favourite and has stayed in Aerosmith's setlists throughout their run. In concert, it is often a showcase song for Whitford.


 
In the Aerosmith biography Walk This Way, Brad Whitford explained how this song came together: "After rehearsal one day, I played this riff and Steven yells, 'I love it!' and stared playing drums; he plays very different from Joey (Kramer) with a more jazzy approach, fun to work with. Joe (Perry) threw in a couple of chord changes, a D chord to an A, and then spiced up the chord a little."


 
This was one of the first songs written for Aerosmith's fourth album, Rocks. They hit it big with their previous album Toys in the Attic and the re-release of "Dream," so they suddenly found themselves with a big budget and lots of record company support. The album was recorded in a mobile studio at a warehouse outside of Boston that they called "The Wherehouse." With plenty of money, there was also plenty of drugs, but Aerosmith were still very functional addicts at the time and remained creative and productive in making the album, something that didn't happen on their next effort, Draw the Line.


 
The banjo on this track was played by Paul Prestopino, a multi-instrumentalist who had played with the folk group The Weavers. Aerosmith's producer Jack Douglas overdubbed Prestopino's part after the band recorded the song.


 
The lyrics are based on the life of the band at the time, and all the time they spent on the road. Part of it deals with the time on tour just before the band would come home ("Home sweet home..."). Some members of the band and crew had wives and girlfriends, so when a tour was coming to a close, they would refrain from sex (except oral) as a courtesy - they didn't want to bring a social disease home with them.



      



 

A/C, I should like Aerosmith, but my favourite song of theirs is from the previous 1001 album, covered in 1985. It's not listed as their song, and was the first time I mind of two bands mixing their talents on a songs. Or something like that.

You'll can guess what it is, I'm sure.

Last edited by PatReilly (07/8/2018 10:28 pm)