Part 2 up and running ...

Dude!

My Current Top Ten:

1. Angel of the Morning, Juice Newton
2. Come a Little Bit Closer, Jay and the Americans
3. Dancing Queen, Abba
4. December 1963 (Oh What a Night), The Four Seasons
5. Walk Like a Man, The Four Seasons
6. The Ballad of the Green Berets, Sgt. Barry Sadler
7. The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, Vicki Lawrence
8. Cats in the Cradle, Harry Chapin
9. When It's Springtime in Alaska, Johnny Horton
10. Staying Alive, the Bee Gees

Extra 30 points if anyone can find the common thread in all these songs.

Mike, first of all it's good to see you posting so frequently on Nitcent again. You've been missed.

As for what your songs have in common, that's easy! You like them.

Oh.

That's not what you meant.

Nevermind.

At first I thought the common thread was "walking". "Stayin' Alive", "Angel of the Morning", "Oh, What a Night (December, 1963)", "Cats In the Cradle" mentiion it in the lyrics. It's in the title of your other Four Season choice. However, "Dancing Queen" only implies it. ("You come in to look for a king.") I'm not familiar enough with your other four songs to know if they mention walking.

I've also considered "night" and "home", but those fizzled out on me.

I dunno. I'd say they were all 70s songs except I'm pretty sure Johnny Horton's song was from the early to mid-Sixties. And Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler's song most definitely a Sixties tune. (I think Jay and the Americans were also strictly a product of the Sixties, too.)

So for now, I'm stumped. And to think somebody tried to claim I have an "encyclopedic knowledge" of music. I just proved them wrong.

np - The Other Side of the Mirror - Stevie Nicks

All involve love, but almost none are traditional love.

Angel of the Morning--love for the "Angel"
Come a Little Bit Closer--love for dancing girl
Dancing Queen--love in a club (sort of)
Oh What a Night--love in a one-night stand
Walk Like a Man--love gone bad
Ballad of the Green Berets--love for country and love for son
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia--love turned violent
Cats in the Cradle--love never dealt with
When It's Springtime in Alaska--love that kills
Staying Alive--love for life, love in a club, I guess.

Truth be told, there was really no supercool link, I just wanted to see if someone could do a Kevin Baconesque link with them all.

You mean I racked my brains last night for nothing? You tricked me! (No, I'm not really angry.)

Y'know at work today I thought I had the answer, too. A little research has proven me wrong. The Jay and the American, Johnny Horton and Juice Newton songs do not qualify. What is it the other songs have in common? They hit Number One on the Pop charts.

Here, btw, are the lyrics to The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive":

"Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around
since I was born.
And now it's all right. It's OK.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
the New York Time's effect on man.

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.

Well now, I get low and I get high,
and if I can't get either, I really try.
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes.
I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose.
You know it's all right. It's OK.
I'll live to see another day.
We can try to understand
the New York Time's effect on man.

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.

Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me yeah. Stayin' alive.

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around
since I was born.
And now it's all right. It's OK.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
the New York Time's effect on man.

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother,
you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin',
and we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.

Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me yeah.
I'm Stayin' alive."

To me it's more lyrically defiant, rather a celebration of life. But that's my interpretation of the song. (I posted the lyrics because you seemed a mite uncertain as to their meaning.)

I'll always think of the bar scene in the film Airplane! when "Stayin' Alive" is mentioned, even though Saturday Night Fever is where it first appeared.

TrekGrrl still gets hysterical at that scene, especially the two Girl Scouts fighting.

They all sort of have a chorus too.

Well, despite this sad, depressing, dreary day, I got a laugh out of something. Off WinMX I downloaded "Stayin' Alive" - as performed by Frank Zappa with Ozzy Osbourne on vocals. The song starts with Ozzy doing his maniacal laugh from "Crazy Train" and him saying, "All aboard the Disco Train". Later, during an instrumental break, Frank Zappa can be heard intoning, "I am Disco Man!", a take off on Ozzy's old band, Black Sabbath's "Iron Man". This is such a strange and hilarious track. I've needed it today.

I guess this belongs here...

Lately I’ve been in the process of transferring a bunch of my Rockabilly vinyl to CD’s so that eventually I can make a compilation disc. It’s not that big a project, really, but it has been fun. Specifically I’m talking about the period between 1955 and 1960, and primarily the Sun and RCA catalogs (to me the term is not just stylistically descriptive, but a period definition as well. You can make the same type of music today, but it really would be “Rockabilly Revival”.) Elvis Presley is credited with originating the style, and when he expanded his scope it seems that the rest of the population went with him and left Rockabilly behind. Sun and RCA were major players because of Elvis, of course. When Sam Phillips sold Elvis’ contract to RCA Sun had enough money to sign the likes of Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent and Johnny Burnette. RCA also had a stable of Country artists who they encouraged to cross over, and also signed a bunch of other local acts to try to latch onto the next Elvis at the ground level.

The stuff that the collectors (I can’t really say that I’m one) drool over is the obscure homegrown stuff that went nowhere, but that just comes with the territory I guess. I do have a compilation that was released in 1988 (Get Hot or Go Home), however, and some of that obscure legendary stuff can be really amazing. In particular I’m thinking of the four Joe Clay recordings made on May 24, 1956- they are without a doubt the best Rockabilly recordings that I own. Clay is a renowned “shoulda-been” and the story goes like this: Clay went to NYC to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. During rehearsals Sullivan objected to his suggestive performance of the song “Ducktail” and made him do a cover of the Platters’ “Only You” instead, and so his single got no traction. While in NYC he had the opportunity to do the famed session with top studio musicians, including guitarist Mickey Baker (later of Mickey and Sylvia) and two drummers. All four tracks are tremendously aggressive, almost (dare I say) modern in relation to the times. Two were released as singles, went nowhere, and that was that. The 1988 compilation featured all 9 of Clay’s recorded tracks (5 previously unreleased) and is a must have for Rockabilly fans for that alone. As to why his career fizzled I cannot say, just one of those things.

Another fave is Billy Lee Riley. A lot of people are familiar with Robert Gordon’s cover of his song “Red Hot” (which borrowed liberally from Robert Johnson’s “They’re Red Hot) from the 1970’s, but Riley’s version matches it in intensity. Gordon also did his “Flying Saucers Rock and Roll”, which is another of my all time bestest. On the surface it’s got a lot going for it in a fun B-movie kind of way, but I think there’s a subtext there too. It’s essentially about how these flying saucers land on earth, the Martians get out, start jamming and everybody parties down. A great line in it is “I couldn’t understand a thing they said/ it was the crazy beat just stopped me dead”- to me that’s a perfect mockery of what the adults of the era were saying about Rock and Roll in general, that you couldn’t make out the words and such, and a really great way of getting it across. If I can pare the sentiment down a bit it just make a great title for my compilation…

Anyway- Elvis, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran, etc, they’re all great too but if you’re looking to dig a bit deeper those are a few places to start.

Billy Lee Riley released an album as recently as 1999; Shade Tree Blues. The record finds Riley moving away from the rockabilly sound that got him his fame and start, and into (as the title suggests) the Blues. It's actually a pretty damned good disc and I recommend it to anyone looking for a good blues record to listen to.

np - The Soul Cages - Sting

"Music is a world within itself and a language we all understand." - Stevie Wonder

That's good to know, Benn. It sounds like one of those things I'd be leary of checking out without firsthand knowledge because sometimes a person just can't recapture the magic.

The last I heard from Riley was on John Prine's 'shoulda been better' Pink Cadillac, recorded at Sun studios with Sun personnel.

BTW- I found a webpage about Joe Clay- it seems that his problem back then was with a horrible manager who alienated him from RCA. He also has attempted a comeback of sorts (can't vouch for it though.)

I happened to get my copy of Riley's Shade Tree Blues for free at a CD Warehouse in Addison, Texas. It was one of several CDs they were giving away. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Matter of fact, I gave it another play this afternoon.

"Music is a is a world within itself and a language we all understand." - Stevie Wonder

More fav's, no quiz.

Sympathy For the Devil -- Rolling Stones
Accidentally Like a Martyr -- Warren Zevon
All Along the Watchtower -- Jimi Hendrix
Black Dog -- Led Zeppelin
Charlie Brown -- The Coasters

Why is everybody always pickin' on me?

Not really sure just where to put this post but this thread seems about as good as any other: The 50-year-old song that started it all. CNN article on Bill Haley's and the Comets' hit, "(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock", becoming a big hit 50 years ago Saturday, July 9, 1955, thanks to the movie Blackboard Jungle having it as their opening theme. The song was actually recorded by Bill and the boys in 1954 but didn't shoot to any prominence till that movie came out.