Celebrating listener love from all corners of the world, we honor the profound connection music has across borders.
We open with a special meaning of Norman Greenbaum's ethereal "Spirit in the Sky," and then swiftly switch gears, strutting alongside Joe Jackson's fusion of genres on the edgy "Look Sharp! album.
Navigating through the neon-lit landscape of the 80s, we chuckle over the curious case of misunderstood lyrics in Talk Talk's "It's My Life," before parachuting into the electrifying era of Van Halen's "1984." Feel the adrenaline surge with the ferocious roar of Eddie Van Halen's Lamborghini on "Panama" and the synth-heavy leap of "Jump."
Finally, we turn the spotlight on The Beatles, as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of "Meet the Beatles," an album that forever altered the American music landscape. Reflect on the quirks between American and British album releases, as well as the tidal wave the Fab Four initiated.
Learn Something New or
Remember Something Old
Please Like and Follow our Facebook page Music In My Shoes.
You can contact us at musicinmyshoes@gmail,com.
Celebrating listener love from all corners of the world, we honor the profound connection music has across borders.
We open with a special meaning of Norman Greenbaum's ethereal "Spirit in the Sky," and then swiftly switch gears, strutting alongside Joe Jackson's fusion of genres on the edgy "Look Sharp! album.
Navigating through the neon-lit landscape of the 80s, we chuckle over the curious case of misunderstood lyrics in Talk Talk's "It's My Life," before parachuting into the electrifying era of Van Halen's "1984." Feel the adrenaline surge with the ferocious roar of Eddie Van Halen's Lamborghini on "Panama" and the synth-heavy leap of "Jump."
Finally, we turn the spotlight on The Beatles, as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of "Meet the Beatles," an album that forever altered the American music landscape. Reflect on the quirks between American and British album releases, as well as the tidal wave the Fab Four initiated.
Learn Something New or
Remember Something Old
Please Like and Follow our Facebook page Music In My Shoes.
You can contact us at musicinmyshoes@gmail,com.
So it's under $4 million. That's $icket. We've got the feeling in his toe-toe.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge and you're listening to Music in my Shoes. As always, I'm thrilled to be here and thank you to Big Thrill for kicking off Episode 10. Let's learn something new or remember something old. Yes, it is hard to believe. It's the 10th episode. Already. We've broadcast to 14 countries on five continents. Top countries that Music in my Shoes are obviously, you would know, is the United States of America. In the US, number two is Germany and number three the Philippines. As a matter of fact, most of our German audience listen to the show pretty quickly after it's released, and I think that's pretty cool. Wow, yes.
Speaker 1:And these are not people you know.
Speaker 2:I do not know anybody in Germany at all. No, I don't know, but thank you to all of our German friends out there. Thank you to our Filipino friends. We do appreciate you listening and, again, as I mentioned, we're in 14 countries that we broadcast it to, so it's pretty cool. I mean Ireland, peru, poland, sweden, canada I can't remember all of them off the top of my head. That's a lot, though, but it's pretty cool that people listening to the show me talking about things that I like, that remind me of good times, remind me of bands, remind me of concerts, remind me of me. So, thank you, I do appreciate that, and we thank every single one of you that do listen, and we do appreciate all of your messages, emails, calls after our episodes, so that feedback really takes us to places to make sure that we do the best we can to entertain you every single week.
Speaker 1:Music in my shoes at gmailcom.
Speaker 2:There you go. I like it, jimmy, I do like it. So since our last episode we had the funeral for my father-in-law and it was good and when I say it was good I mean it was as good as a funeral can be celebrating his life. And there was no better way to celebrate him when at the end of the service, the song Spirit in the Sky started playing in the chapel. So if you don't remember the song, it starts with like a fuzz-tone guitar and has the lyrics when I die and they lay me to rest, gonna go to the place that's the best, when I lay me down to die, going up to the Spirit in the Sky. So I think now you probably know that song. Everybody. He had said my father-in-law, larry, had said he wanted that played at his funeral and he had said it several times. My kids remembered that. I remembered that. Any of us that were close to him remembered.
Speaker 2:So as the song played it kind of changed the mood and it kind of went from sad to glad because we knew he wanted it played and it was being played and it was just really kind of cool. It really really was. It just took us, you know, kind of gave us that finality through the whole process and that opportunity to go on and continue, because life does go on. Life doesn't stop, you know. For anyone I mean, time continues to go, whether we want to believe it or not, it does. So the song came out in December 1969 and it was sung by Norman Greenbaum and it sold 2 million copies. Now I looked that up. Obviously I didn't know that it sold 2 million copies, but I could not believe how many people between 1969 and 1970 bought that single.
Speaker 1:That was all like 2 million between 69 and 70? Yes, wow.
Speaker 2:Very short period of time but it's a really catchy tune when you listen to it. Like I said, that fuzzy guitar tone when that starts, it kind of grabs you. And then he starts to sing and then it's like man, I can't turn the song off, I just got to keep listening. I know it's been in several commercials. I can't remember off the top of my head any of them.
Speaker 1:But it was in Apollo 13. I always remember that, like it wasn't at Bill Paxton that played it on the I think you're right.
Speaker 2:I think you are, and that is a good movie. I do like that movie. So that's one of those songs. If you haven't heard it, please give it a listen. Spirit in the Sky, norman Greenbaum. If you do know it and haven't heard it in a while, re-listen to it. Really really good song. So speaking of re-listening, I want to talk a little bit about Joe Jackson. The Look Sharp album came out January 5th 1979. So we're talking 45 years ago. All right, this is his debut album and it rocks. It is an unbelievable album, one of those albums that I say can come out any year and it would do well. So it could have come out in 79. It could have come out 89, 99. Really really good album and to me one of the keys of the album is the bass playing on it.
Speaker 1:The bass is as important as any other instrument in every song that's so true, Like got the time, you know, maybe the most important.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean, it really really is. It's just I find on this album listening to the bass a lot more hearing it a lot more sometimes than I even hear the guitar. Joe Jackson plays the piano. He plays harmonica on this. I don't know the names of the other band members, but the bass player is just killer in this Really is. Yeah, you talked about got the time Album starts off with one more time kind of that little raunchy guitar part and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kind of got like a ska feel to it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, that would be a great and I'm glad you brought that up, jimmy. So this album, when you listen to it, it's got ska, it's reggae influence, it's rock and roll, it's got some rockabilly. You know, if you listen to like Baby Stick Around, you know it's got some fifties parts to it, so it's all over the place, which I think that's what makes it so cool. Really really good album. Sunday Papers all right.
Speaker 2:So that's one of the reggae influenced songs and if you listen to it it talks about the Sunday Papers and talks about, you know someone not having to go outside. They can just get the whole world when they get the Sunday Paper and I know today people don't buy newspapers, they don't have them delivered. But the Sunday Paper was something that you really felt like you could get the whole world back in the day when there was no internet, when you didn't have 24-hour television. The Sunday Paper would come. One would have an expanded sports section, so you'd learn a little bit more. But it also had like a travel section and you would read it and be like, oh my God, I can go here or there, all these things that I can do. Also had an entertainment section which I read a lot, whether it was about music, movies, anything that was entertainment for people, and I think that that song really hits it on the head. It's different times. I can just grab my phone and look up anything instantly and get that gratification, whereas on the Sunday Paper they would review new albums and I couldn't wait until that next week came out so I could read hey, what is it? I don't know what it is until I open that paper up and I see the words that are in front of me. So I really, really liked that song.
Speaker 2:Is she really going out with him? So that song, the album, came out. I believe I was in seventh grade when the album came out. So is she really going out with him? That was the lead single. Came out a few months before the album and the lead off line is pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street and I just thought that line was just unbelievable. First time I hear the song, first time I hear that line, I'm sold on the song. Yeah, okay, super catchy.
Speaker 2:The song is pretty musically very minimal. It's really about him singing, kind of hearing him sing from the heart, except when it goes to the chorus that picks up a little bit. Then it comes right back down minimalistic, with the music. This here when I'm in seventh grade and listen to you know, I listen to this album religiously from like seventh grade through being a senior. Okay, this album. When you hear it and you're a young kid and you're like, how can she be going out with him? You know, yeah, he's a gorilla, or you know, what is it that she sees in him and not me? And that's what that song, that's what it really captured. When I heard that song, you know, yeah, I could really really relate to it. And I still love that song. I still do look over there where there?
Speaker 2:there you go. So I Don't know. I think that when you know certain times, certain songs and that's what to me, you know Music, why it's so much, so much more different than sports we talked a little bit about it recently is that music can Catch you with. Either you know lyrics or music, or something that just grabs you and that grabs you forever. You know that that feeling doesn't necessarily go away. Is she really going out with them? Is definitely one of those songs. That song, if I remember correctly, it was played not just on like rock radio, but it was played on top 40 radio. It was so if my mom was listening to the radio in a car, top 40 we could hear it, but if I was listening to radio station that I like, I could hear it as well. That made it pretty awesome I.
Speaker 1:Think I had that song this just kind of throws the 79 thing off, but I think it was on this KTEL compilation album I had called rock 80.
Speaker 2:And it could have been. You know, because it's sometimes some of these songs last a lot longer. You know, cheap trick live at the boot of con. I want you to want me, you know, comes out at one point. But a lot of people think that it's actually a 1980 song. But it actually came out in 1979 and I think that is she really going out with him. It actually came out, I want to say October of 1978, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh okay um, and you know, sometimes songs take a little bit time to build up and become what they are. And I do remember those KTEL records. I had some of them myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rock 80 was really good.
Speaker 2:They knew how to put out records that would make you want to buy them. So you know a few other songs on the album happy loving couples we talked about Baby, stick around. There's a bass solo in that. That's pretty cool. The song looks sharp. It's got kind of like a drum and piano solo before the guitar comes in. That's kind of cool.
Speaker 2:You know, just different than what was happening at the time in music that I was listening to. Fools in love, another reggae influence, you know, with major bass, a Song called pretty girls. And then got the time, like you had mentioned, jimmy, really good album. I've listened to it Probably three or four times over the last week or so and it doesn't disappoint. You know there's a couple of songs that you know aren't my favorites, but for the most part every song on there is a great, great thing.
Speaker 2:So I actually have Joe Jackson live at the BBC. It was recorded the month after look sharp came out, so it was recorded February 21st 1979 to be exact, and it seems to be out of print now because I kind of tried to take a look and see if I could find some information. But it's an excellent in studio version of some of the album songs that they do at the BBC. And then so Remember we're in January of 1979. In March of 79, joe Jackson records the follow-up album that's only been out for two months follow-up album I'm the man, and that comes out in October 1979. Jimmy, can you believe that?
Speaker 1:No, I didn't realize that. Wow, that's fast.
Speaker 2:It is fast and he's touring at the same time. I mean it was just insane to be able to do all of that. I'm the man and I've read in a couple of places he says that that's really look sharp. Part two it's just a continuation, no real changes With musical style. But then once he gets into the third album I think it's called beat crazy. I think it came out in like 1980.
Speaker 2:Then each album seemed to be a little bit different of Musicals taste, a musical style and not really trying to please people but to do stuff that he enjoyed with musicians he enjoyed. Yeah right, have you seen him? I have not. I've not actually seen him. I did have a Concert he played at the Calderon concert hall on Long Island and they broadcast it on the radio and I recorded it on cassette and I used to listen to it all the time and I really wish that I had seen him back in the day. He's actually coming out into on tour here in in 2024, but I think he's kind of playing his style now is some older standards type stuff that he's gonna be doing.
Speaker 1:Okay, I saw I'm doing his regular catalog, maybe 2019. Okay center stage. Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 2:I bet he was, I bet he was, I did not. I wish that I was there. So let's move on to it's my life by talk, talk. So that came out January 6th 1984, 40 years ago. I really like the music. The words I didn't really understand them. I almost felt like he was singing Low, like the music kind of overtook it, so I couldn't always tell really what what he was saying. And I thought the song starts off something like Birmingham, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's really funny how I find myself. Yet if I listen to that today, I still think it starts off with Birmingham and I don't know how, like even knowing what the words are, I still my mind just is like Birmingham, yeah, it's burned in there that and Birmingham, like that's it.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, how does that become funny, how I find myself In love with you. If I could buy my reasoning I'd pay to lose Again. If you listen to it it's really difficult to decipher any of those, those lyrics, but it is a good song came out 40 years ago Now. I do know all the words to a song that they put out two years earlier, back in March 82. Talk, talk had the song, talk, talk, mm-hmm. To me that's definitely like the end one, one of the ending new wave songs. You know new wave had that small little period of time where you called it new wave and to me that's at the the tail end of the new wave kind of era. Love, the music, understood the words. I thought it was fantastic, really liked it and it was one of those songs that was. You know it was played everywhere you went. People would dance to it or just sing along with it. Everybody seemed to know the song.
Speaker 1:So it was probably big in the dance clubs, you know. It was like kind of a had a good beat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they did a remix that they put out. It had like drums and I almost felt like they overdubbed even more drums on it to make it what it was. You know to have that beat Good song, good song. Hey, back to January of 1984. So January 6th 84, we talked about it's my Life by Talk. Talk comes out. Three days later, january 9th 1984, the Van Halen 1984 album comes out. All right, some of the song highlights the opening 1984, which is an instrumental which I thought was pretty cool. I felt like it really went right in to jump. Jump was the next song I thought it did a good job of that. Jump is actually the only number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 for Van Halen. Really, yeah, panama All right, wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 1:We're just jumping right past. Jump, like that's the only thing that we're saying about jump. I mean that was a pretty big deal for Van Halen to go like keyboard forward on a song.
Speaker 2:I thought I would just jump into the next song, but we're going to pump the brakes and we're going to come back. So you know one. I think that you know there was definitely lots of keyboards, lots of synthesizers Eddie really was into that and they had shown up on previous albums a little by little.
Speaker 1:Not to that degree, though.
Speaker 2:Not to that degree. They actually recorded this at Eddie's house in his studio. I believe it was called 5150. And it was his home studio he built and he kind of said all right, I'm taking over now, this is what we're going to do. And jump was definitely different. At times I just remember listening to it saying this can't be Van Halen. This is nothing like what they were previously, where they were like this rock band, and it's just so different. Yet I always find myself listening to the song and never turn it off. I've always liked it. It's so catchy, it's really good.
Speaker 1:It's good it's, and it does have a guitar solo in it, so it gives you a little something. You know for the guitar fans that even Halen fanatics but yeah, it's a little bit poppy for my taste, but you can't deny that it's just like, it's a great radio song.
Speaker 2:Oh, definitely, I mean definitely. And I think that hearing it on top 40, there was, you know, a lot of songs that were crossing over into top 40 that you wouldn't. You know, you would never say, oh, I'm going to hear Van Halen on top 40 radio, but here you were hearing Van Halen on top 40. That's right. So I think it was kind of cool.
Speaker 1:And then they made sure okay, you haven't forgotten, we still rock hard. And they go right into Panama.
Speaker 2:And they go into Panama. And you know, one of the coolest parts about that is when Eddie's hitting the gas on his Lamborghini. He had backed it up to the studio and they put microphones up so that they could actually get the sound of that happening. A lot different than today where you just hit a button. You know you want a car revving up you hit a button and it happens. You know you want to have a bird making a sound you hit a button and it happens.
Speaker 1:I know I've got the bird button here in my setup.
Speaker 2:I believe that you do, you know, and so today it's so much different. They, you know, they had to actually figure out where do you put the microphones when Eddie will rev the car up? How does it sound? What goes on and do that, and so many songs they had to do that with Back in the Day where it's very, very different today. That's right, top Jimmy. So, top Jimmy, he's the king. He is the king. That song rocks All right. Now that's where we start to hear some songs that rock drop dead legs, which closed outside one of the album, side two, hot for Teacher, starts All right.
Speaker 2:I had a 71 Buick Skylark and I bought this stereo for it and I paid like 800 bucks in 1985, which was a lot of money in 1985 for a car stereo. And you know, I had the equalizer, the, you know, the booster, you know whatever it was so that the sound that came out of there was unbelievable. The best song to play was Hop for Teacher, when that would start with the drums and then go into the guitar. It was so loud, it was unbelievably loud, but I just felt really cool, my ears were ready for it and going down and I remember telling people man, you got to listen to this song and I had 1984, I had the album, but I also had the cassette. I think it's when they started making the cassettes like a little bit better. I forget what they were doing with them, but the quality it was fantastic.
Speaker 1:So you would buy the album and the cassette, you wouldn't just tape the album.
Speaker 2:I would tape the album most of the time, but I had heard that the cassette was really high quality and I didn't think that I was going to be able to duplicate that when I recorded it, even though I did use all the Maxel tapes.
Speaker 1:You had to get the SA90. Yes, I did do that. That was TDK actually was the SA90. Maxel was some other high bias thing.
Speaker 2:XL2S or something and I can't remember off the top of my head, but there was some sort of technology that they had started to put on some of the cassettes and I think that the Van Halen one was one of them, the video where they have the young versions of themselves. I just thought that was so cool, because they picked out these kids that look just like each one of the members of Van Halen and they just did a great job. It was pretty cool to watch. I really enjoyed the video.
Speaker 1:And Dave is the bus driver right.
Speaker 2:I think he is. Yes, get on the bus, waldo. Yes, you were right about that, jimmy, you are. And then I think the next song after that was I'll Wait, another Good Song, and then a couple other songs that they had that weren't my favorites. I'm not going to sit and go song by song on everything, but all in all it was a pretty good album, even though it was really different from what Van Halen had been. But then again, you don't want the same thing over and over and over.
Speaker 1:And it was the original incarnation of Van Halen's last album.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that was, you know. I can't remember when David Lee Roth came back into the band and they recorded it again, but it was definitely quite some time after that.
Speaker 1:Well, I will tell you that recording that I worked on last year where David Lee Roth was singing. You know, the band Royal Machines had all these people that would come out and they'd sing like their three most popular songs. You know, I assume that's kind of how they chose the tunes and David Lee Roth saying you really got me, which is a kinks cover, jump and Panama.
Speaker 2:So two songs off 1984 are considered like the biggest crowd pleasers that Van Halen has, or at least the David Lee Roth Van Halen and the funny thing is is he wasn't really excited about 1984 from the standpoint of the synthesizers, the keyboards that we talked about and the direction things were going, but in the end it did more for them than anything else ever did, To the point where David Lee Roth left and went solo and started to do some other stuff.
Speaker 2:I saw him play and I don't remember what year it was. We played at the Music Midtown Festival, Right, and he had a guitarist that looked like Eddie Van Halen, you know, similar to him, played like Eddie Van Halen. It was just insane and I was really close up because I wanted to see the show and I don't remember who played before, but I went before. What I would do at these festivals is I would try to go to the band before so when everybody would leave, when the band ended, then I could just move up. That was kind of like my MO of how I could try and get close and I kept looking and I'm like is that Eddie Van.
Speaker 2:Halen, but he played really, really good. You know, david was definitely struggling a little bit with doing the jumps and the kicks and all of that, but it was good. 1984, 40 years old this month, january 1994. So we're going to go 30 years back to Beck and the song Loser. So it's originally released in 1993. It's pressed on like 500 vinyl 12 inch records by some small little company and they put it out and some radio stations get a hold of it and they start to play it and the next thing, you know, he gets signed by a major label. It's released to the masses and I don't know how it was a hit, but I love the song. I don't know if any of the sentences, any of the lyrics, like if do any of them have anything to do with the one before or the one coming up next. I love Sitar in a song. Anytime you could put Sitar on a song and pull it off, it's a winner For me. I don't know how, but I still think 30 years later that's another great song.
Speaker 1:It is, and I will bring up the song that I always thought kind of ripped it off, which is Pepper, by the I can't say the first word surfers.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, that is actually very, very good analogy there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's such a similar song.
Speaker 2:I never thought of that until now, but you are right about that. You know, beck ended up going on and actually singing on some of his songs kind of not the folky rap that he kind of had on this. But I think he's become a pretty good artist. I think that he's had some really good songs and is a good entertainer. And you know, didn't try and stay pigeonholed in this one song, loser, but it's a great song and I learned some Spanish in it.
Speaker 1:So just a little just a little.
Speaker 2:So we just talked about albums that came out 45 years ago, 40 years ago, 30 years ago. Next one that I wanted to talk about came out 60 years ago and that's the Beatles, meet the Beatles, and that came out January 20th of 1964. So it's actually the second American album and I don't know if a lot of people know that, but the first album that came out was called Introducing the Beatles and it's kind of semi-illegal that they released it. There's a whole story about that that we'll get into at a different time. But Meet the Beatles was actually the first album on Capitol Records, which is who they were with in America signed to throughout their career.
Speaker 2:That album starts off with I Want to Hold your Hand, and that song that makes you fall in love with the Beatles instantly. What a great song. I remember like trying to learn how to air guitar, air drum, air bass and sing like Paul and John as they're singing it, like trying to learn every single thing. And I remember always trying to do the hand claps, like trying to figure out alright, how do you do the hand claps so that it fits exactly with the song. If that song's not good enough, it goes right into I Saw Her Standing there another song that is absolutely insane. Paul McCartney sings that song. That is a great dance song. That's a great song to play at a party, a wedding, anywhere. Unbelievable at how good he does with that song. That's on the first album that. It just surprises me that they could be, they could be that good so early in their careers.
Speaker 1:Well, they had already honed their craft in Hamburg and the Cavern Club and all that stuff. They were just a machine.
Speaker 2:And they were, and that's what made them as good as they are, because you're right, by doing all of that, they really learned a lot in Hamburg. I know that I don't sound as German as you do.
Speaker 1:Jim, we have a lot of German listeners. I'm trying to. You know we do. We do. By the way, I just had a delicious bratwurst for lunch. I'm just trying to add some German stuff.
Speaker 2:So for our German friends, I want to hold your hand was not only released in English, but they also recorded it in German. Now, excuse me if I butcher this, but if I remember correctly it was called Come, gib mir Deine Hand was the actual title of I Want to Hold your Hand, and I tried to learn German by singing the song it won't be long, all I've got to do, all my loving, which is the song that they open the Ed Sullivan show with. Hold Me Tight, I Want to Be your man, which was sung by Ringo and it was given to the Rolling Stones and that I think might have been their actual first single. What a great album.
Speaker 2:Now, one of the things about Capitol Records is that they would kind of butcher up the records a little bit. They would make each album shorter than the United Kingdom versions because Capitol wanted to make as much money as they possibly could and put more albums out. So if you look from Meet the Beatles all the way up until Sergeant Pepper, sergeant Pepper is the first album that they're exactly the same Same amount of songs, same exact title lineup. But I still try and listen to the US versions because that's what I grew up on. That's how I know them. That's what I like, but that's because I've always listened to it that way.
Speaker 1:So was the first British album with the Beatles.
Speaker 2:Yes, and they use the same picture, but in Meet the Beatles I think they kind of put like a bluish tint on it if you look at it. So some songs are the same but it's a little bit different. And it's funny because you can. Some people will say, oh, I'd like help because it has this. Well, the British has that. The American version doesn't have that. You know American version.
Speaker 2:Wherever they could put some of the orchestrated tunes from movies, they would put those in where the British versions they didn't do that. They would just have a bunch of different songs that maybe did not make the actual movie. So again, I think that that was a fantastic album. So 1964 kind of kicked off the Beatles here in America, and not every episode, but I think a lot of episodes maybe, we'll just have like maybe a little, you know, quick Beatle moment where we kind of talk about what's happening with them, because they kept doing stuff, not monthly, sometimes, not even weekly, sometimes with dally they were doing things. So we'll talk a little bit, you know, about them each episode for the rest of the year because they made such an impact on music as we know it, and in a future episode we'll also talk about some of the people who watched the Ed Sullivan show and what impact was made on them to become musicians that we seem to all know.
Speaker 2:That's it for episode 10 of Music in my Shoes. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios here in Atlanta, georgia, and a big thrill for our podcast music. If you have a question or comment, you can reach us at MusicinMyShoes at gmailcom. As always, this is Jim Boge and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again and until then, keep the music playing, thank you.