Author: freefallin14

Chicago -Baby, What a Big Surprise

This is my contribution to Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt…Birthday/Cake/Gift/Party/Surprise.

From their 1977 album, Chicago XI. The song peaked at #4 on Billboard’s HOT 100 chart on December 2, 1977.

Baby, What a Big Surprise

Right before my very eyes
I thought that you were only fakin’ it
And like before my heart was takin’ it
Baby what a big surprise
Right before my very eyes
Oh, oh, oh, woah, oh
Yesterday it seemed to me
My life was nothing more than wasted time
But here today you’ve softly changed my mind
Baby, what a big surprise
Right before my very eyes, oh, oh
Oh, woah, oh, oh
Just to be alone
Was a little more than I could take
Then you came to stay, oh
Hold me in the morning
Love me in the afternoon
Help me find my way, hey yeah
Now and then just like before
I think about the love I’ve thrown away
But now it doesn’t matter anyway
Baby what a big surprise
Right before my very eyes
Oh, oh, oh, woah, oh
Baby what a big surprise
Right before my very eyes
Oh, oh, oh, woah, oh
Baby what a big surprise
Right before my very eyes
Oh, oh, oh, woah, oh
Baby what a big surprise
Right before my very eyes
Oh, oh, oh, woah, oh
Baby what a big surprise
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Peter P. Cetera

AC/DC – Touch Too Much

This is my contribution to Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt…Touch/Feel.

From their 1979 album, Highway To Hell. The song reached #29 on the UK’s singles chart in 1980. It did not chart in America.

From Songfacts

This is about the dangers of excess, which the band was quite familiar with. They were notorious for their wild parties, girls, and drinking. Lead singer Bon Scott drank himself to death six months after this was released.
Released as a single, this became just the second AC/DC song to chart in the UK, following “Rock ‘N’ Roll Damnation,” which made #24.
Bon Scott’s last performance was when he lip-synched this song when the band performed it on Top of the Pops, a popular British music show. The show aired February 7, 1980; Scott died 12 days later.
Considering how many of their songs are about drinking, it is surprising that AC/DC guitarist Angus Young didn’t touch the stuff. When he was young, a bad encounter with Bond 7 Australian whiskey turned him off from alcohol.

 

Touch Too Much

It was one of those nights
When you turned out the lights
And everything comes into view
She was taking her time
I was losing my mind
There was nothing that she wouldn’t do
It wasn’t the first
It wasn’t the last
She knew we was making love
I was so satisfied
Deep down inside
Like a hand in a velvet glove

Seems like a touch, a touch too much
Seems like a touch, a touch too much
Too much for my body, too much for my brain
This kind of woman’s gonna drive me insane
She’s got a touch, a touch too much

She had the face of an angel
Smiling with sin
A body of Venus with arms
Dealing with danger
Stroking my skin
Let the thunder and lightening start
It wasn’t the first
It wasn’t the last
It wasn’t that she didn’t care
She wanted it hard
And wanted it fast
She liked it done medium rare

Seems like a touch, a touch too much
Seems like a touch, a touch too much
Too much for my body, too much for my brain
This kind of woman’s gonna drive me insane
She’s got a touch, a touch too much

Seems like a touch, touch too much
You know it’s much too much, much too much
I really want to feel your touch too much
Girl you know you’re getting me much too much
Seems like a touch
Just a dirty little touch
I really need your touch
‘Cause you’re much too much too much

Seems like a touch, a touch too much
Seems like a touch, a touch too much
Too much for my body, too much for my brain
This kind of woman’s gonna drive me insane
She’s got a touch, a touch too much Writer/s: RONALD BELFORD SCOTT, ANGUS MCKINNON YOUNG, MALCOLM MITCHELL YOUNG

Primal Scream – Movin’ On Up

From their 1991 album, Screamadelica. The song peaked at #2 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart on November 22, 1991. One Youtube post said It’s like Amazing Grace meets Sympathy For The Devil.

From Songfacts

This Screamadelica album opener started out like a “slow, gospel kind of ballad, like a Curtis Mayfield-type thing,” frontman Bobby Gillespie told NME. “We couldn’t work out a way of giving it motion or a forward-thrust, so to speak. Then one day (guitarist) Andrew Innes had the idea to do the Bo Diddley-style/Who ‘Magic Bus‘ guitar, very syncopated, and that gave it the forward motion and the rock ‘n roll attitude.”
Gillespie on the simplicity of the lyrics (to NME): “I like country and soul and blues imagery, it’s very simple and direct, and it’s written in a language that anybody can understand. But it’s hard to write that simple because people will always want to complicate things to show of that they can, you know, they think they can write better than they actually can. It’s all about communicating and touching people.”
The lyrics “I was blind, now I can see, you made a believer out of me,” were taken from the German rock band Can’s 1969 song “Yoo Doo Right,” from their debut album, Monster Movie.

Movin’ On Up

I was blind, now I can see
You made a believer out of me
I was blind, now I can see
You made a believer out of me

I’m movin’ on up now
Getting out of the darkness
My light shines on
My light shines on
My light shines on

I was lost
Now I’m found
I believe in you
I got no bounds
I was lost
Now I’m found
I believe in you
I got no bounds

I’m movin’ on up now
Getting out of the darkness
My light shines on
My light shines on
My light shines on (my light shines on)
My light shines on (my light shines on)
My light shines on

(My light shines on)
(My light shines on)
(My light shines on)
(My light shines on)

I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on)
I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on)
I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on)
I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on)
I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on)
I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on)
I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on)
I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on)
I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on)
I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on)
I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on)
I’m gettin’ out of the darkness (my light shines on) Writer/s: Andrew Innes, Bobby Gillespie, Robert Young

Eric Clapton – Promises

This is my contribution to Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt…Promise/Vow/Oath.

From his 1978 album, Backless. The song peaked at #9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart on January 19, 1979.

From rbhsjukebox

This song was written by Richard Feldman and Roger Linn. It features a wonderful harmony vocal from long-time Clapton collaborator (and frequent co-writer) Marcy Levy. She is perhaps better known as Marcella Detroit, the name she assumed as half of the short-lived but massively successful duo Shakespears Sister. Clapton’s vocal is nicely delivered, with just the right bitterness for the lyrics, and Levy’s accompaniment bolsters it perfectly.

Ironically titled, Promises is about broken oaths and the end of a relationship. It’s well-constructed, a perfect three-minute pop song, handled smoothly by a seasoned performer and his sympathetic band.

One other note, Roger Linn invented the first drum machine.

Promises

I don’t care if you never come home
I don’t mind if you just keep on rowin’ away on a distant sea
‘Cause I don’t love you and you don’t love me
You cause a commotion when you come to town
You give ’em a smile and they melt
And your lovers and friends is all good and fine
But I don’t like yours and you don’t like mine
La la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
I don’t care what you do at night
Oh, I don’t care how you get you delites
We’ll leave it alone and just let it be
I don’t love you and you don’t love me
I got a problem, can you relate
I got a woman callin’ love hate
We made a vow we’d always be friends
How could we know that promises end
La la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
I tried to love for years upon years
You refuse to take me for real
It’s time you saw what I want you to see
I’d still love you if you’d just love me
I got a problem, can you relate
I got a woman callin’ love hate
We made a vow we’d always be friends
How could we know that promises end
La la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
Wohoo, la la la la la la la

Sammy Hagar – Give To Live

This is my contribution to Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt…Give/Get/Take/Receive/Send

From his 1987 album, I Never Said Goodbye. The song reached #23 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart on August 28, 1987.

Give To Live

Ooo I can see that you’ve got fire in your eyes
And pain inside your heart
So many things have come
And torn your world apart
Oh baby, baby, baby
Don’t give up
Don’t give up
Don’t give up
If you want love
If you want love
You’ve got to give a little
If you want love
If you want faith
You just believe a little
If you want love
If you want peace
Turn your cheek a little
Oh you’ve got to give
You’ve got to give
You’ve got to give to live
An empty hand reaching out for someone
An empty heart takes so little to fill
It’s so much easier to push instead of pull
Oh baby, baby, baby
Don’t give up
Don’t give up
Don’t give up
If you want love
If you want love
You’ve got to give a little
If you want love
If you want faith
You just believe a little
If you want love
If you want peace
Turn your cheek a little
Oh you’ve got to give
You’ve got to give
You’ve got to give to live
Each man’s a country in his own right
Oh everybody needs a friend
One friend one God one country
No man can defend
Yeah
I believe in faith and destination
But so much of that ties in our own hands
But if you know what you want
Just go on out and get it
Oh baby, baby just don’t give up no, no
Ah don’t give up, yeah, yeah
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Sammy Hagar

Dennis Brown – Wichita Lineman

This is my contribution to Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt…North/South/East/West

The single was released on January 1, 1971. This may be one of the best covers ever recorded. It is stripped down and not polished like Glen Campbell’s original version.

From Songfacts

In a Songfacts interview with Jimmy Webb, he explained how he puts himself into the shoes of the subjects of this songs. Said Webb: “I’ve never worked with high-tension wires or anything like that. My characters were all ordinary guys. They were all blue-collar guys who did ordinary jobs. As Billy Joel likes to say, which is pretty accurate, he said, ‘They’re ordinary people thinking extraordinary thoughts.’ I always appreciated that comment, because I thought it was very close to what I was doing or what I was trying to do. And they came from ordinary towns. They came from places like Galveston and Wichita and places like that.

No, I never worked for the phone company. But then, I’m not a journalist. I’m not Woody Guthrie. I’m a songwriter and I can write about anything I want to. I feel that you should know something about what you’re doing and you should have an image, and I have a very specific image of a guy I saw working up on the wires out in the Oklahoma panhandle one time with a telephone in his hand talking to somebody. And this exquisite aesthetic balance of all these telephone poles just decreasing in size as they got further and further away from the viewer – that being me – and as I passed him, he began to diminish in size. The country is so flat, it was like this one quick snapshot of this guy rigged up on a pole with this telephone in his hand. And this song came about, really, from wondering what that was like, what it would be like to be working up on a telephone pole and what would you be talking about? Was he talking to his girlfriend? Probably just doing one of those checks where they called up and said, ‘Mile marker 46,’ you know. ‘Everything’s working so far.'”

Wichita Lineman

I am a lineman for the county
And I drive the main road
Searchin’ in the sun for another overload
I hear you singin’ in the wire
I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita lineman is still on the line

I know I need a small vacation
But it don’t look like rain
And if it snows that stretch down south
Won’t ever stand the strain
And I need you more than want you
And I want you for all time
And the Wichita lineman is still on the line

And I need you more than want you
And I want you for all time
And the Wichita lineman is still on the line Writer/s: Jimmy Webb

‘Til Tuesday – Voices Carry

This is my contribution to Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt…Listen/Hear/Talk/Speak

The title song from their 1985 album. The song peaked at #8 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart on July 12, 1985.

From Songfacts

“Voices Carry” was the debut single, from the debut album of the same name, and greatest claim to fame for the group ‘Til Tuesday. The lyrics were written by lead singer Aimee Mann, with music credited to the whole band.

The haunting, captivating tone of this song hit like a sledgehammer in 1985, when all else seemed to be twang and bubblegum. Notice the intense bass playing under the husky vocal declaring each line like an entry in a diary. There are very dark undertones in the song, hinting at an abusive relationship – “I try so hard not to get upset, because I know all the trouble I’ll get.” And while at first the guy is simply telling her to hush, later in the song this is elevated to “shut up!”

‘Til Tuesday came out of Boston, Massachusetts after winning a radio contest, Boston’s WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble, in 1983, with the song “Love in a Vacuum,” which was re-recorded for Voices Carry. They established themselves as one of the new wave bands of the mid-’80s, staggering out into American culture to mix with the Minneapolis sound, the tail end of punk, and the blooming of the first yuppies – they’re often compared to The Cars.

‘Til Tuesday only charted in the Top-40 once more, with “What About Love” (not to be confused with the Heart song that the Swiffer mop company ruined forever with their sappy commercials). After faithfully hanging in there for four more albums, they broke up in 1988. Kind of like The Velvet Underground, they are now seen as a band ahead of their time, adored by critics but not selling well enough to stay together.

“Voices Carry” got a massive boost in popularity from their video rotating on MTV. This song also garnered ‘Til Tuesday an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. The video shows Aimee Mann in her distinctive haircut looking like a starched Pomeranian with a rat-tail. And at the break, there’s a little playlet with her oaf of a boyfriend sporting a wifebeater berates her for having a music career instead of being his hausfrau.

Voices Carry

I’m in the dark, I’d like to read his mind
But I’m frightened of the things I might find
Oh, there must be something he’s thinking of
To tear him away-a-ay
When I tell him that I’m falling in love
Why does he say-a-ay

Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Uh-ah

I try so hard not to get upset
Because I know all the trouble I’ll get
Oh, he tells me tears are something to hide
And something to fear-eh-eh
And I try so hard to keep it inside
So no one can hear

Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Uh-ah

Oh!
He wants me, but only part of the time
He wants me, if he can keep me in line

Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, shut up now, voices carry
Hush hush, keep it down now, voices carry
Hush hush, darling, she might overhear
Hush, hush – voices carry

He said shut up – he said shut up
Oh God can’t you keep it down
Voices carry
Hush hush, voices carry

I wish he would let me talk

Writer/s: Aimee Mann, Robert Holmes, Michael Hausman, Joey Pesce

AC/DC – I Put The Finger On You

This is my contribution to Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt…Ankles/Hands/Feet/Fingers/Toes/Wrists

From their 1981 album, For Those About to Rock, We Salute You.  AC/DC gives 110% in this live performance.

I Put The Finger On You

I put the finger on you, yeah
My hands all outta control
I can’t stop it gettin’ down on you
It’s movin’ of its own accord
I got fire in my finger tips
Radiate it all to you
I can’t control it
Can’t even hold it
It’s knockin’ on your door and you know what it’s for
I put the finger right on you
I put the finger right on you
You put your finger on me too
And I put the finger, I put the finger, I put the finger
I put the finger

I got the finger on you for sure
It’s the key to unlockin’ your door
Don’t you know
I broken thru’ your security
My hands ain’t tied no more, you better watch out
I can’t control it
Can’t even hold it
Sneakin’ up for your pleasure
You can feel it on your ankle
Feel it on your knee
Feel it on your thigh
Can you feel me
I put the finger right on you
I put the finger right on you
You put your finger on me too
I put the finger, I put the finger, I put the finger
I put the finger on you

I can’t control it
Can’t even hold it
Sneakin’ up for your pleasure
You can feel it on your ankle
Feel it on your knee
Feel it on your thigh
Can you feel me
Put it, right on you
Put it, right on you
I’ll do it if you
Want me to
Come on put it
Come on put it
I put the finger on you, I put the finger on you, I put the finger on you
I put the finger on you, I put the finger on you, I put the finger on you

So close
I hit the spot
I put the finger
Right on
You

Writer(s): Malcolm Mitchell Young, Angus Mckinnon Young, Brian Johnson

Kenny Wayne Shepherd – Blue on Black

From his 1997 album, Trouble Is… The song reached #78 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart on May 8, 1998.

From Songfacts

When you mix blue and black, the black consumes the blue. It’s a powerful metaphor for a one-sided or broken relationship, which seems to be what the song is about, although with lines like “tears on a river, push on a shove” it could also relate to a death or abuse of some kind. In a Songfacts interview with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, he said: “So many people have applied it to a death in the family, an abusive relationship, a broken relationship, or whatever. There are so many different ways. That’s what’s beautiful about music and lyrics is trying to write a song that the listener can apply to their own experience in whatever way seems fit. And that’s one of those songs.”
Shepherd wrote this with the husband-and-wife team of Tia Sillers and Mark Selby, who also composed “There’s Your Trouble” for Dixie Chicks. “We wrote that when we were down in New Orleans,” Shepherd told Songfacts. “I had the music, and Mark and I were just rolling with the music and tried to develop things up. Tia came up with this idea based on a shirt that I was wearing that was blue and black. She noticed the two colors that were dominant on my shirt, and if you mix those two colors together, black consumes the blue. It doesn’t amount to anything if you put the two together: You still have one color, instead of creating a new color.”
With this track, Shepherd became one of the few blues artists to land on the Hot 100. He never returned to that chart, but consistently went to #1 on the Billboard Blues Albums tally.
Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads produced this track and the rest of the Trouble Is… album.

Blue on Black

Night
Falls and I’am alone
Skin
Yeah chilled me to the bone
You
Turned and you ran
Oh yea
Oh slipped
Right from my hand
Blue on black
Tears on a river
Push on a shove
It don’t mean much
Joker on jack
Match on a fire
Cold on ice
As a dead man’s touch
Whisper on a scream
Doesn’t change a thing
Doesn’t bring you back
Blue on black

Blind
Oh now I see
Truth
Lies and in between
Wrong
Can’t be undone
Slipped
From the tip of your tongue

Blue on black
Tears on a river
Push on a shove
It don’t mean much
Joker on jack
Match on a fire
Cold on ice
As a dead man’s touch
Whisper on a scream
Doesn’t change a thing
Doesn’t bring you back
Blue on black

Writer/s: Tia Sillers, Mark Selby, Kenny Shepherd

 

Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories – Stay (I Missed You)

This is my contribution to Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt…Come/Go/Leave/Stay

From the 1994 Reality Bites soundtrack and from her 1995 album, Tails. The song peaked at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart on August 19, 1994.

From Songfacts

In our interview with Lisa Loeb, she explained: “At the time I was having arguments with my boyfriend, who was actually my co-producer as well – we made records together. And then I go off into some other areas: I remember somebody close to me was going through severe, severe depression. A lot of times in my songs, I get into some phase where I describe some other situation, and there’s a whole verse in there about somebody who is very, very depressed. But yeah, it was a story about a breakup I was going through, and that situation where it’s gotten into your head too much. Partially because somebody else is telling you that you’re only hearing what you want to, and that puts you in a little bit of a tailspin. It puts me in a little bit of a tailspin, because you can’t figure out what’s actually real, are you only seeing things through your own eyes? Are you actually seeing things the way that they really are, or are you making things up? And at what point do you know whether you’re seeing things the way that they really are?”
This was used in the movie Reality Bites. Loeb’s friend, Ethan Hawke, brought it to the attention of Ben Stiller, who saw Loeb perform and used her song in his movie. It was a huge break for Loeb, who did not have a record deal at the time. When she found out the song was going on the soundtrack, she knew it was the end of her temp work – she had a gig with the consulting firm Ernst & Young at the time).
Long before this song became a hit, Loeb performed it at her shows, where it got a great response and was one of her most requested songs. Says Loeb: “I usually write songs that are more fictional, and for some reason when I sat down to write that song, I let myself write more about how I was feeling at that moment. And that’s something I think about a lot as I continue to write music, that the songs that I write that are more personal and without as much editing, are the ones that people connect to more.”

Stay (I Missed You)

You say I only hear what I want to
You say I talk so all the time so.

And I thought what I felt was simple,
And I thought that I don’t belong,
And now that I am leaving,
Now I know that I did something wrong ’cause I missed you.
Yeah, I missed you.

And you say I only hear what I want to:
I don’t listen hard,
I don’t pay attention to the distance that you’re running
Or to anyone, anywhere,
I don’t understand if you really care,
I’m only hearing negative: no, no, no (bad)

And so I, I turned the radio on, I turned the radio up
And this woman was singin’ my song:
The lover’s in love and the other’s run away,
The lover is cryin’ ’cause the other won’t stay.

Some of us hover when we weep for the other who was
Dying since the day they were born.
Well, this is not that:
I think that I’m throwing, but I’m thrown.

And I thought I’d live forever, but now I’m not so sure.

You try to tell me that I’m clever,
But that won’t take my anyhow, or anywhere with you.

You said that I was naive,
And I thought that I was strong.
I thought, “hey, I can leave, I can leave.”
Oh but now I know that I was wrong, ’cause I missed you.

You said, “I caught you ’cause I want you and one day I’ll let you go.”
You try to give away a keeper, or keep me ’cause you know you’re just so scared to lose.
And you say, “Stay.”

You say I only hear what I want to.

Writer/s: Lisa A. Loeb