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TAG: 70s music
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songspeak
He’s got the Jack
This songspeak took place a couple weeks ago on one of my poker nights. I’m not going to explain the game of no limit texas hold ‘em here, but for those familiar with the game, the story will make sense.I wasn’t playing this hand, but was just observing along with everyone else at the table. It was a guy and girl in in the pot together (I’ll withhold the names to protect the innocent), and the flop was J 8 8, I believe. They both checked. The turn was an A, the girl made a substantial bet, and the guy called. The river was another J, the guy bet big, and after thinking for a minute, she finally felt like she had to call. After she called, but before they showed their cards, I was singing The Jack by AC/DC at the end of the table, “He’s got the jack…he’s got the jack”. The woman sitting next to me commented that she loves that song. The guy indeed showed a jack for a full house, beating the girl’s 2 pair, aces over 8’s (this isn’t the blog or place to analyze how horrible his move of calling her turn bet was when it was obvious she had an ace or 8 and he was only drawing to 2 outs, but I digress…)
The Jack is one of my favorite Bon Scott-era AC/DC songs. It’s basically a song about an STD, but uses playing cards and poker as a clever metaphor. Lyrically, one of AC/DC’s better efforts. At least, the studio version. The live version now performed by Brian Johnson has alternate lyrics and is more of a straightforward to-the-point description of said disease.
*Disclaimer – The point of this story is that guy had a jack playing card in his hand. I have no idea if he has the disease “the jack” or not.
Tags: 70s music, ac/dc, bon scott, brian johnson, full house, he's got the jack, no limit texas hold 'em, playing cards, poker, poker night, sexually transmitted disease, STD, the clap, the jack, two pair
5 comments
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songspeak
Red Lobster!
"Red looooooobster, is a little ol' place where, we can eat some shri-imp!"
It’s my favorite time of the year.
No, not Halloween. Not even Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Autumn is Endless Shrimp season at Red Lobster. It only happens once a year, and only for a limited time. It has become a tradition of sorts for Matt and I. The closest Red Lobster is about 45 minutes/an hour away, but that won’t stop us. Tonight is the night we go and eat as many shrimp as humanly possible.
I’ve been looking forward to this day since we walked out the Red Lobster’s door last year after partaking in the Endless Shrimp extravaganza. And all morning, in my head, I’ve been singing “Red Lobster!” to the tune of Rock Lobster by the B-52’s.
This will be the greatest night in recent memory.
Tags: 00s restaurant promotions, 70s music, autumn, b-52's, christmas, Cindy Wilson, endless shrimp, favorite time of the year, Fred Schneider, halloween, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland, red lobster, rock lobster, thanksgiving
2 comments
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songspeak
Tragedy: A metal tribute to the Bee Gees
There is a band trying to “decimate” the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Massachusetts on Thursday, October 16th. This band is Tragedy, the “all metal” tribute to the Bee Gees. Someone posted a link to Tragedy’s myspace on MassLive’s SoundBoard forum and it looks like they’re AWESOME.They play 80s metal versions of popular Bee Gees songs like Stayin’ Alive, Jive Talkin’, How Deep Is Your Love, More Than A Woman, Tragedy, and others.
From MetroMix:
How does one combine heavy metal and the Bee Gees?
It’s easy: We love disco, and we love metal. On the surface, they’re polar opposites, sort of like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, I guess. But it works, and it’s fun to go against the grain.How did you get so popular so quickly? You’re headlining an 1100 capacity venue.
We’re fucking awesome, that’s the main thing. As we like to say, we rock sweet balls and do no wrong.What’s with the popularity of tribute bands now?
Our success doesn’t really come from the tribute band scene. We play with some, like this weekend, but we play with some non-tribute bands as well; we’ve played with jam bands like Umphrey’s McGee and punk bands like Murphy’s Law. This isn’t a standard tribute—I mean, it’s songs people know, and that does help—but it’s a concept turned on its head.Who’s your fanbase?
It varies. See, I think almost everyone like the Bee Gees, and almost everyone loves heavy metal, either genuinely or an ironic way. Admittedly, we don’t get many hardcore Bee Gees fans, but they have a universal appeal.What’s your stage show like?
It’s mayhem. We have the three brothers up front, singing, playing cowbells, wearing tight white satin. And we have our beautiful back-up singers: Women’s Gibb, Angelpussy, Olivia Newton-Chong and Linda Gibb. Oh, and we have an intern/towel boy named Lance. He’s kind of an idiot.Tragedy has an album coming out on October 20th called “We Rock Sweet Balls And Can Do No Wrong”.
You can hear many of the songs on their website, letsmaketragedyhappen.com. Here’s a video for “Stayin’ Alive”…Tags: 70s music, 80s music, bee gees, decimate, disco, heavy, how deep is your love, iron horse, jive talkin, let's make tragedy happen, massachusetts, metal, more than a woman, new york city, northampton, nyc, stayin alive, tragedy, tribute band, we rock sweet balls and can do no wrong
1 comment
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songspeak
My Best Friend’s Girl
Last night, Jo and I went to see My Best Friend’s Girl, starring Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, and Jason Biggs. I have no excuse other than we had a babysitter, and it was the only movie we could remotely agree on.
It was a bit funnier than we expected, but it was your standard romantic comedy fare. This isn’t a movie review site, so I’m not going to waste your time telling you how average it is. Or how utterly “Dane Cook” Dane Cook is.
My reason for bringing it up is because the movie gets its title from the Cars song of the same name (from 1978’s self-titled album). This makes sense not only because of the plot of the movie, but also because the movie takes place in Boston (why they didn’t name it after a Boston song, I’ll never know). Though for a movie that shares its name with the Cars song, it’s surprising that the song isn’t used in the film. Oh, wait a minute. Yes it is. Repeatedly. I mean, really. To the point of ridiculousness.
Movies using song titles as their own title is definitely a form of songspeak, and there are many others. Some Kind of Wonderful, for one. I’m sure there’s a whole laundry list of them. Can you think of more? Post ‘em in the comments.Tags: 00s movies, 70s music, alec baldwin, boston, dane cook, jason biggs, kate hudson, movies with song titles, my best friend's girl, romantic comedy, some kind of wonderful, the cars
3 comments
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last exit
A permanent lapse of Richard Wright from Pink Floyd
Keyboard player and founding member of Pink Floyd, Richard Wright, died today in Britain after struggling with cancer. He met fellow band members Roger Waters and Nick Mason white attending Regent Street Polytechnic (now The University of Westminster) in 1965 and played on every album except The Final Cut.Though dominated by Roger Waters and later, David Gilmour, Wright had a heavy influence on the band’s sound and wrote songs as well. Some of his more recognized compositions, like “Us And Them” from Dark Side of the Moon as well as his early keyboard and synthesizer work introduced the rich synth sound to other bands in the 60s and 70s.
From the New York Times
A Pink Floyd spokesman says founding member Richard Wright has died. He was 65. Wright died Monday, September 15, 2008 after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. His family did not want to give more details about his death… He wrote “The Great Gig In The Sky” and “Us And Them” from Pink Floyd’s 1973 “The Dark Side Of The Moon.” He left the group in the early 1980s to form his own band but rejoined Pink Floyd for their 1987 album “A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
Tags: 60s music, 70s music, 80s music, a momentary lapse of reason, dark side of the moon, david gilmour, dead, death, died, nick mason, pink floyd, regent street polytechnic, richard wright, roger waters, sigma 6, synth, sythesizer, the final cut, the great gig in the sky, the university of westminster, the wall
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songspeak
The Matt Who Hated the Man Who Sold the World
There is one purpose for this post, and that’s to get under Matt’s skin.
Some of you may remember that in the early 90’s, Nirvana did an edition of MTV Unplugged. It was pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty good. Many of the songs from the set became singles and got lots of radio airplay.
One of those was their cover of The Man Who Sold the World, originally released by David Bowie. Well, this sent Matt into a rage the likes of which I’d never seen. Whenever it came on the radio, he would tell anyone within earshot, “I didn’t like this song when it first came out, and I don’t like it now!” It was as if Nirvana had performed the song just to stick it to Matt, or at least that’s what he thought.
This has become a running gag here at Songspeak, and if I ever hear the song when Matt’s around, I always bring up how he didn’t like the song when it first came out, and he doesn’t like it now.
So, just for Matt, here you go:
And just for good measure:
Tags: 70s music, 90s music, 90s tv, covers, david bowie, david bowie cover, i didn't like it then and i don't like it now, mtv, mtv unplugged, nirvana, the man who sold the world, unplugged
5 comments
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songspeak
Girl performs Carry On Wayward Son on a keyboard, and it TOTALLY ROCKS
We’re not in Kansas anymore. About 20 seconds in, you’ll see what I mean. She recreates all instruments in the song using this Yamaha keyboard. That’s some fancy footwork. Carry on, my wayward son…
Thanks to Jeff for the link. The girl’s version of Rush’s YYZ is also quite awesome.
And watch the original version of Carry On Wayward Son, by Kansas… it’s truly amazing to see how many band members and instruments they used after watching the girl’s performance on the keyboard.
Tags: 10 year old, 70s music, carry on my wayward son, carry on wayward son, electone, girl, japan, japanese, kansas, keyboard, recital, rush, stage, synthesizer, we're not in kansas anymore, yamaha, yyz
3 comments
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misheard lyrics
Hold me closer, Tony Danza
This misheard lyric comes from an early episode of Friends. Phoebe is talking about the song by Elton John about Tony Danza, and starts singing, “Hold me closer, Tony Danza“.I don’t think anyone had the heart to tell her it was “Hold me closer, tiny dancer“. But I like her version better.
The song also had a brief resurgence in the 2000 movie Almost Famous.
And speaking of Tony Danza, it’s a shame his short-lived talk show got canceled. I was a big fan of the Danzitions segments on The Soup. There’s an example in this clip:
Tags: 00s movies, 00s tv, 70s music, 90s tv, Almost Famous, danzitions, Friends, hold me closer tiny dancer, hold me closer tony danza, Phoebe, Phoebe Buffet, the soup, Tiny Dancer, Tony Danza, ukelele update
1 comment
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songspeak
Dungarees make me feel fine
This is a very short songstory from about 10 years ago. Back then, when Matt was in college and still living in his parents’ basement, that was the hangout spot for everyone. We’d watch TV, movies, play games, whatever. We didn’t have no internet, but man I never will forget this songspeak.We used to hang out quite often with Adam D., before his Killswitch Engage days. Adam was always good for an obscure songspeak. One night as we were getting ready to leave Matt’s house, I was talking to Adam about jeans, and for some reason, I called them dungarees. Adam then sang, “Dungarees, make me feel fine” to the tune of Summer Breeze by Seals & Crofts. It caught me off guard, and I lol’ed quite heartily.
Sometimes I miss those days in Matt’s old house. Matty Movie Madness nights were a grand tradition. Oh, the days of yore.
Tags: 70s music, adam d., adam dutkiewicz, basement hangout, blue jeans, bluejeans, days of yore, dungarees, jeans, killswitch engage, matty movie madness, seals & crofts, seals and crofts, summer breeze, summer breeze makes me feel fine, yore
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songspeak
U Can’t Putt This!
We’ve posted here before about the use of songspeak in commercials. However, I don’t know that we’ve ever praised the virtues of the local commercial. The Office even dedicated an episode to the art of the local commercial.
This post is a wonderful example of the local commercial combined with songspeak in advertising. Fenway Golf is a mini-golf/pitch & putt/driving range/par 3 golf course/batting cage all-around activity center located in East Longmeadow, MA. It’s a fun place to spend a Saturday with the family, but more importantly, it has one of the most phenomenal local commercials we’ve ever seen.
It features their own special version of U Can’t Touch This by MC Hammer (which itself samples Superfreak by Rick James). There must be something about that catchy bassline, given that numerous commercials have utilized both songs, or alternate versions thereof (Mohegan Sun, for instance, or the many examples here). Well, in Fenway Golf’s version, their adorable golf ball mascot bounces to and fro throughout the grounds, singing his own catchy version of the MC Hammer classic.Words really don’t do it justice, so you’ll just have to see for yourself:
Tags: 00s tv, 00s tv commercials, 70s music, 90s music, east longmeadow, fenway golf, local commercials, mc hammer, rick james, songspeak in advertising, stop hammertime, superfreak, the office, u can't touch this
2 comments
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