Talky Songs #10: The Blood of the Guitar was Chuck Berry Red!

You may know the story. The album Bad For Good was written by Jim Steinman as the sequel to Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell. But Meat's voice was wrecked and he and Jim weren't on a great terms, so Jim went and recorded it himself. I truly believe that in years to come, Jim Steinman will be remembered as one of the greatest songwriters in the history of rock n' roll... and although many would mock that opinion, I'm not alone. Here's journalist John Aizlewood...

"...nobody writes songs like Jim Steinman: he is, perhaps, the lost genius of pop, stranded - lamentably unlauded - in a world of rock with opera's attitude, where life has stopped at the point of adolescence that childhood dreams are shattered. It's how "soul" music should have turned out: every chorus is like losing your virginity, every verse is like killing your parents. It's as if Phil Spector and Richard Wagner were making records together."

As a performer though, Steinman doesn't really cut it... especially when compared to his most famous mouthpiece, the mighty Meat. I love the album Bad For Good, but I understand why it didn't make Steinman a household name. Most of the songs have subsequently been re-recorded and improved upon by Meat Loaf and others... such as Barbra Streisand, whose version of Left In The Dark is surely one of the highpoints of her entire career. Hey, if it's good enough for Kris Kristofferson, it's good enough for you...



Gentleman of a certain age - even ones who think they are immune to the charms of Ms. Streisand - may find they need a cold shower after that video. But I digress. This is a Talky Songs post, isn't it?

The one track on Bad For Good then that could not be improved upon? The one so great that even Meat Loaf used Steinman's version on the eventual Bat Out Of Hell II album? It's this: Love & Death & An American Guitar. A song that takes the infamous talky bit from Jim Morrison's The End and makes a hilarious piece of musical theatre out of it... with a punch-line that is... figuratively... to die for. And if you don't agree with me... well, you've got a hell of a lot to learn about Rock And Roll!

Talky Songs #9: Reynard The Fox

Following on from last week's post about The End by The Doors, here's the first of two songs which owe a huge debt to it.

Reynard The Fox was a medieval character that appeared in Dutch, English, German and French folklore. Julian Cope adopted the character for this epic track on his second album, 1985's Fried, using the alter ego to partly explain his own onstage self-mutilation (he'd slashed his stomach with a broken microphone stand the previous year*) in a gloriously OTT slice of Jim Morrison-esque humbug that made a huge impact on me as a teenager**.

Reynard left and went to Warwickshire, to a mound near a railway line,

With canals and a freezing swamp. He climbs high up above the countryside

And breathes freely. To the south he could see Polesworth, and to the

North he could just make out the ruins of the priory where Joss and I

Played cricket as children. We were only three miles away, probably drinking

Tea and talking,

At the same time as he was taking the Stanley knife out of

The bag. He pushed the point into his stomach,

until the light shone right

Through. And then he reached down, and he took the bag.

It's a plastic bag

With plastic handles

And plastic sides

And

And

And

AND

HE SPILLED HIS GUTS ALL OVER THE STAGE!

HE SPILLED HIS GUTS ALL OVER THE STAGE!

*Cope didn't actually spill his guts all over the stage... it was just a minor surface wound that became exaggerated in the way that all great pop legends should.

**I never spilled my guts, except that one time, after too much red wine... but I was in my 20s then and should have known better.

Talky Songs #8: The End

A song with one of the most famous talky bits ever recorded today, as The Lizard King gets oedipal on us...

The killer awoke before dawn

He put his boots on

He took a face from the ancient gallery

And he walked on down the hall

He went into the room where his sister lived, and then he

Paid a visit to his brother, and then he

He walked on down the hall, and

And he came to a door

And he looked inside

"Father?" "Yes, son?" "I want to kill you"

"Mother? I want to..."

...and if you want to dig into the history behind the writing and recording of this song, it all gets unintentionally hilarious the more you read, from Morrison throwing a TV set and drenching the recording studio in fire extinguisher foam to a historian suggesting Morrison used the word 'fuck' in this song as "a rhythm instrument". Morrison himself claims the song was originally written about breaking up with a girl (aren't 95% of all great pop songs?) but that "it could be almost anything you want it to be". Well, in that case, Jim, I say it's about ice cream, how about that?

The truth is, it's very easy to mock Jim Morrison's lyrics on the page as pretentious 6th Form psychology or hallucinogenic drivel... but these words weren't meant to be seen on the page. They were meant to be heard live or on record... and there, through Morrison's skills as a performer and his 100% conviction in his own "message", they take on a power of their own. Let your blinkers down and listen to this song on its own merits and... wow.



The End also inspired quite a few other famous performances, a couple of which I'll come to shortly...

Talky Songs #7 - Don't Set Foot Over The Railway Track

Today's talky song comes from the first Thea Gilmore album I bought, 2005's Songs From The Gutter. Luckily, I bought the limited edition 2 disc version which had this tucked away on disc 2 - a poem Thea wrote in reaction to a parliamentary debate at the time about the social divide. There are a couple of short excerpts from that debate included in the recording and although I can't find anything to identify the speaker... it does sound a hell of a lot like Theresa May. It could be Ann Widdecombe though. It's definitely some heartless Tory git.

7. Thea Gilmore - Don't Set Foot Over The Railway Track

Don't set foot over the railway track

The heathens and the spin doctors are waiting round the back

The skies are always sullen and rain races to the tarmac

So don't set foot over the railway track

Don't set foot over the railway track

The grass isn't green, it's yellow and the pavement is all cracked

The graveyard's in a coma, the church has got the blues

And Jesus has a nose-ring and Mary has tatoos

And girls paint their skins like corpses and have hair ot scouring wire

And the men all look like demons, see them dancing round their fires

Every door has leprosy, every house has got the clap

So, don't set foot over the railway track

Don't set foot over the railway track

Hope you've not been speaking to the wrong kind of people, Jack

They'll screw you son as look at you if you let them gain a foot

This line's God almighty's way of saying that you'll stay just where you're put

'Cause they're all paid up party members with a red streak like a river

They're all standing there on their side saying "promise and deliver"

They are papering their walls with pages of Kerouac

So, don't set foot over the railway track

No, don't set foot over the railway track

Apparently, Thea was never particularly happy with her own delivery of the poem... which is why she chose to re-record it 10 years later with someone much better suited to delivering such material... the great John Cooper-Clarke. Listen to his version - it could well be one of his own poems! Great piece of writing, Thea.

Talky Songs #6: Hard Luck Boy

6. Tom Brosseau - Hard Luck Boy

Busy weekend, so a very quick post for you today. Listen to today's talky song because it's a great little story from an artist I've only featured once here before and who doesn't get a lot of exposure (beyond Cerys on 6Music, who seems to be a fan). It's the story of a boy whose mother takes him on a journey to a department store in another town and... well, I won't spoil the ending, but the title gives you a hint. If you like it, I'd recommend checking out the album it came from (Perfect Abandon), although this is the only talky song on there... or its follow-up, North Dakota Impressions, which features another cool talky song that I have featured here before.

Call me cruel, but part of me wants to believe this is a true story. It makes Brosseau a fascinating individual if it is...

Tom Brosseau - Hard Luck Boy

Talky Songs #5: Willin'

Charity Chic featured the debut album from Little Feat over at his place a few days ago and chose his two favourite tracks... which led both Lynchie and myself to ask: "What about Willin'!?"

Willin' is my favourite Little Feat song and it's the song I discovered them through. It's also the first Little Feat song ever written, and allegedly the track that got Lowell George fired from The Mothers of Invention, either because a) Frank Zappa thought it was such a good song that Lowell was wasted in his band and should form his own (Zappa did help Little Feat get a recording contract); or b) because of the drugs references which Zappa didn't approve of (really!?). There's another story about how George was fired from The Mothers for playing a 15 minute guitar solo with his amp off... you can take your pick, really.

In Charity Chic's defence though, the version of Willin' on the eponymous debut album isn't my favourite - I far prefer the re-recorded version which appeared on their second album, Sailin' Shoes. That's also the version on which George plays guitar himself, since on the original recording he'd hurt his hand playing with a model airplane (ROCK 'N' ROLL!!!) so Ry Cooder filled in.

Anyway, I'm bending the rules shoehorning either version of the track into my Talky Songs feature since only the first verse is really spoken... but I had to feature it somehow, and as Charity Chic points out, a bit of Little Feat is perfect for this rare UK summer...

Talky Songs #4: Frank's Wild Years

You may be one of those people who claims not to love / like / get Tom Waits. I dunno. I know such people are out there. Some of them are even people whose opinions on other matters I respect greatly.

But really...

I mean, really...

How could you not love this?

Frank settled down in the Valley
And he hung his wild years
On a nail that he drove through
His wife's forehead.
He sold used office furniture
Out there on San Fernando Road
And assumed a $30,000 loan
At 15¼% and put a down payment
On a little two bedroom place.
His wife was a spent piece of used jet trash
Made good bloody marys,
Kept her mouth shut most of the time
Had a little Chihuahua named Carlos
That had some kind of skin disease
And was totally blind. They had a
Thoroughly modern kitchen
Self-cleaning oven (the whole bit),
Frank drove a little sedan.
They were so happy.

One night Frank was on his way home
From work, stopped at the liquor store,
Picked up a couple Mickey's Big Mouths
Drank 'em in the car on his way
To the Shell station. He got a gallon of
Gas in a can, drove home, doused
Everything in the house, torched it.
Parked across the street, laughing,
Watching it burn, all Halloween
Orange and chiminey red. Then
Frank put on a top forty station
Got on the Hollywood Freeway.
Headed north.

(And they gave Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize for Literature!?)

Never could stand that dog... 

Talky Songs #3: Somewhere Down The Crazy River

Another hot, summery talky song today... as the weather continues to defy expectations.


3. Robbie Robertson - Somewhere Down The Crazy River


Robbie Robertson's only solo hit was released in 1987 and I loved it so much I bought the 7". I was somewhat disappointed, on later buying the album, to find that the rest of the tracks weren't in the same vein. Indeed, this appears to be one of the only times Robertson has used his rich, gravelly voice in this way... rather than just doing that more straightforward "singing" stuff he was already famous for with The Band.


The rambling story features Robertson reminiscing about long summer nights spent in his hometown of Arkansas with fellow Band member Levon Helm. Apparently they used to go "fishing with dynamite"... and I'm not sure that's a metaphor. The video, directed by Martin Scorcese, features Robbie getting particularly smoochie towards the end with a young Maria McKee. Legend has it not much acting took place here.


For me, this song is as evocative of long summer nights as it is one of my childhood heroes: Huckleberry Finn. I have a special affection for Huck since playing him in a junior school play and the idea of Huck and Jim sailing down the Mississippi to freedom is extremely romantic. This song can't help but remind me of Moon River and the "Huckleberry Friend"... although the actual river is only a small part of the lyrics. But it's also a very sexy song in its own right too, dripping with the promise of hot summer nights and verging on innuendo in places. No wonder Robbie and Maria got a bit carried away in the video... although, to be frank, she can do a lot better for herself: he's old enough to be her dad!

Take a picture of this

The fields are empty, abandoned '59 Chevy

Laying in the back seat listening to Little Willie John

Yea, that's when time stood still

You know, I think I'm gonna go down to Madam X

And let her read my mind

She said, "That Voodoo stuff don't do nothing for me."

I always loved that last line above too, the tongue-twisting nature of it, emphasised by Robertson's laconic delivery. This is a great track to "talk along to", if you can approximate a half-decent southern accent. Which I can't. Not that that ever stopped me.

Talky Songs #2: David's Last Summer

If I'm going to do a series on Talky Songs, the sooner I get to Jarvis Cocker, the better. Jarvis is a master, and I can guarantee it won't be long before he features here again and again.

2. Pulp - David's Last Summer

I chose this one to start with as we've had some pretty fine weather of late. The weather people are  reporting that it'll continue. I've even heard tell that "the last time we had greenfly swarms like these was just prior to the summer of '76". Wow.

Of course, as I write this on Tuesday the 22nd of May, I can all but guarantee that by the time I publish it the temperature will have dropped by fifteen and the Daily Express will be predicting snow again. But it's nice to dream of summers being "like they were when we were young".

David's Last Summer is about one of those mythical endless summers of our youth. As much as we enjoy them while they're happening, there's always a part of us waiting for them to end. The title is ambiguous. Is it David's last happy summer? Is it his last summer with the girl in question? Is he waiting for their relationship to end just as summer eventually will because he knows good things do not last? Or did all this happen last summer and is all this just regret that it's now a distant memory?

Whatever the truth, you won't find a better evocation of summers past than in this talky song...

We made our way slowly down the path that led to the stream,
Swaying slightly,
Drunk on the sun, I suppose.
It was a real summer's day.

The air humming with heat whilst the trees beckoned us into their cool green shade.
And when we reached the stream I put a bottle of cider into the water to chill,
Both of us knowing that we'd drink it long before it had the chance.

Talky Songs #1: Belong

Just in case you're one of those people who lie awake at night worrying about the number of ongoing and unfinished series this blog has running, let me reassure you that I haven't forgotten any of them. I have an idea who the next entry for Yesterday's Big Thing will be about; I've not thought about Songs I Hated When I Was A Kid in ages but I'm sure there's a couple more out there; I still haven't revealed the most shocking of my Songs I Bought Because I Fancied The Singer; and yes, I've only managed the grand total of one post so far in my Anyone Can't Play Guitar series, but there has to at least be a post about Richard Thompson coming up, even if I quit that series then. They'll all be back when you least expect them, but as I never force a post and only write about things when the mood hits me...

...here's another new series. There are loads of these too, so potentially it could run and run. Or I might get bored with it after today. We'll see.

I do like it when singers stop singing for a bit and just talk to us. So I decided to do a series focussing on my favourite songs that feature far more talking than singing. There might be little bits of singing in them, but there's usually far more mumbling.

1. REM - Belong

Possibly the first REM song I truly fell in love with, and the very best song on their breakthrough album, Out Of Time... even though the rest are very nice too. (Yes, even Shiny Happy People. Don't be a snob. It's got Kate Pierson on it: how can you hate it?)

It's a song that starts out with a story: "Her world collapsed early Sunday morning" is arguably the best opening line Michael Stipe ever wrote. But then it gets weird and spooky. What are the "creatures that jumped the barricades and headed for the sea" and why did they make her world collapse? Are they coming for her? Can she protect her child? Why is it so important to Belong? Why does she open that window at the end...?

There may be answers to those questions if I google them, but to be honest I don't want to. The song evokes so many potential stories, I don't want to be limited by someone else's interpretation - not even Michael Stipe's.