Embark on a nostalgic joyride as Vinnie Giacalone joins me for a recollection of friendship and discovering music, beginning 45 years ago. We recall the night The Police "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" inspired my unique dance style, a curious mix of Snoopy's happy moves and The Blues Brothers. Laughter is in the air as we revisit Vinny's brakeless bike escapades, marking a trail from our reckless past to present-day triumphs such as 'The Organized Guy,' Vinny's own venture, now celebrating a decade. These tales of past follies and successes are the symphony of our shared history, underscored by the profound absence of guitar virtuoso Randy Rhoads, whose untimely passing took place the same day as my triumphant dance debut.
In a crescendo of personal revelations, Vinnie unveils his top five albums, including gems like "Sgt. Pepper's" and "Rumors," and The Doors "Morrison Hotel," not as a ranked list, but as gateways to cherished memories.
Jimmy and I, then meander through diverse musical landscapes, from Billy Joel's "Piano Man," "Van Halen II," The Cure, and Depeche Mode singles. The finale brings us to a live Bob Dylan performance, where the fusion of timeless classics and the fresh tracks from "Rough and Rowdy Ways" left us captivated. A tip of the hat to our guest, Vinny Giacalone, for the shared memories, - a symphony of tales, tunes, and timeless reflections.
Vinnie can be contacted at vinnie@theorganizedguy,com or check out his website at theorganizedguy.com.
Please Like and Follow our Facebook page Music In My Shoes. You can reach us at musicinmyshoes@gmail,com.
Embark on a nostalgic joyride as Vinnie Giacalone joins me for a recollection of friendship and discovering music, beginning 45 years ago. We recall the night The Police "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" inspired my unique dance style, a curious mix of Snoopy's happy moves and The Blues Brothers. Laughter is in the air as we revisit Vinny's brakeless bike escapades, marking a trail from our reckless past to present-day triumphs such as 'The Organized Guy,' Vinny's own venture, now celebrating a decade. These tales of past follies and successes are the symphony of our shared history, underscored by the profound absence of guitar virtuoso Randy Rhoads, whose untimely passing took place the same day as my triumphant dance debut.
In a crescendo of personal revelations, Vinnie unveils his top five albums, including gems like "Sgt. Pepper's" and "Rumors," and The Doors "Morrison Hotel," not as a ranked list, but as gateways to cherished memories.
Jimmy and I, then meander through diverse musical landscapes, from Billy Joel's "Piano Man," "Van Halen II," The Cure, and Depeche Mode singles. The finale brings us to a live Bob Dylan performance, where the fusion of timeless classics and the fresh tracks from "Rough and Rowdy Ways" left us captivated. A tip of the hat to our guest, Vinny Giacalone, for the shared memories, - a symphony of tales, tunes, and timeless reflections.
Vinnie can be contacted at vinnie@theorganizedguy,com or check out his website at theorganizedguy.com.
Please Like and Follow our Facebook page Music In My Shoes. You can reach us at musicinmyshoes@gmail,com.
Music.
Speaker 2:He's got the feeling in his toe-toe.
Speaker 3:You've got the feeling it's out there growing. Hey everybody, this is Jim Boj and you're listening to Music in my Shoes. That was Vic Thrill kicking off. Can you believe it? Episode 20. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. Last episode we mentioned the passing of Eric Carman. My daughter was on the show with us and as we got into the car we were leaving the studio. The raspberries go all the way comes on the radio Like perfect timing. We didn't even mention that Eric Carman was in the raspberries last week, jay.
Speaker 2:No, we didn't mention that. But then, yeah, the radio is like reminding you.
Speaker 3:It's a reminder, so we wanted to revisit that and say one. I thought it was cool. I mean you don't hear that song a ton on the radio. It comes right on and I'm like this is insane. But yeah, eric Carman was in a band before he was solo and still. Rest in peace, eric Carman. Yeah, also, in the last episode, vinny Giacalone emailed the Music in my Shoes mailbag about episode 18 and how interesting the Kathy Smith story was. I thought it was pretty interesting. I'm glad he thought it was interesting, but through the magic of technology we actually have Vinny joining us from Massa Pico, new York. Welcome to Music in my Shoes, vinny. Welcome Vinny.
Speaker 1:Bogey and Jimmy, how you doing, guys, we're doing great, we're doing good, it's great to have you with us.
Speaker 3:We go way back. We met about 45 years ago when we were in junior high. Back then they still called it junior high school. I believe it is Spent a number of years talking about rock music, anything that was current at the time. But you and I especially you and I out of our group of friends we discovered so many 60s bands, a lot of stuff that was old that I still love to this day and I know in talking with you that you still love to this day, and it's kind of cool. Whoever thought when we were in seventh, eighth grade that we would be here in 2024 talking about this?
Speaker 1:This is true, but thank God, we're still here and thank God, we're still talking about it.
Speaker 3:Yes, we are. For those of you that don't remember, we did talk about ACDC and being the number four all time album a few episodes ago and we talked about how I couldn't believe, when Bon Scott died in February of 1980, that ACDC would go on. Back then bands didn't just get another singer, bands just ended, they folded. And I talked about telling Vinny this. I was at his house and saying that's it, acdc is done, there's nothing they can do. And not only did they get a new singer, but in July of 1980, back in Black comes out, and that was something that we listened to for a really long time because it was an absolute great album 100%.
Speaker 2:First album I ever bought, by the way, as I mentioned before.
Speaker 3:And luckily it did not start off with hello, hello again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, you have the clicks for Back in Black, but then instead it just goes to hello.
Speaker 3:You do that very good, Jimmy, by the way.
Speaker 2:You've got to be really breathy with it.
Speaker 3:Yes, so, vinny, your dad's stereo. It was something that we used to listen to a lot. He had a really good stereo and a couple of things that I remember is going in and listening to the Beatles, where you would take the speakers and you would turn off one side and then turn on the other and, if you remember, we were listening and you could hear Frerezaqa and we would turn off, say, the left side or I don't remember, or the right side, and we turn on the other side and you'd hear them just singing Frerezaqa as the background vocals. So it was really cool how, with Paperback Writer, you had this whole Paul McCartney singing and this one thing, but then the background vocals with this other thing. That until you broke it down and listened to it, I don't think we really heard that and that was something that we used to listen to over and over again because it just was to us. It was just really cool being, however old we were, in eighth grade and so forth.
Speaker 2:Did you know that the stereo like the way things are hard panned in the Beatles songs, like, okay, the bass is on the left and all the vocals are on the right that wasn't done by George Martin, that was done after the fact. Generally in the US, which had stereo, which was a new thing they got the Beatles like the stems of the multi-track and just were like, okay, throw that stuff on the left, that stuff on the right. Now it's in stereo, we're done. They hadn't really come up with the idea of like panning things across the spectrum and so I always thought, oh, the Beatles are geniuses, they did it this way. It's like no, they did it in mono. And then some engineer just said, okay, yeah, we'll put this on the left and that on the right.
Speaker 3:And I think most of what they cared about was mono until Sgt Peppers came out. I think that was the first one where they tried to go and do some stereo. But I think beforehand, everything you're right to them, everything was mono. That was the way to go.
Speaker 1:But was that also a constriction of the equipment they had at the time? Now they really didn't have a lot of tracks like they do now. They didn't have the ability then to split everything up.
Speaker 2:That's right. They had four track back then, so they had just enough to do the four instruments. Really they didn't even have enough to do everything plus vocals, so they were real constricted and I think that-. Go ahead Vinnie.
Speaker 1:So, with that in mind, it actually to that credit look at what they were able to do with such limited equipment that they had at the time. They still put out some really amazing songs.
Speaker 2:I know and you listen to these recordings and they sound so beautiful and classic and they did the whole thing, including mix, in like two hours, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, vinnie, we used to listen to the doors and we used to listen to the kinks, discovering them from the 60s and if, great songs and great albums, but the technology that those bands use compared to what the Beatles were using at the the same timeframe, the same years, definitely different what the Beatles were doing compared to some of these other bands. Speaking of the doors, the doors were one of those bands that I felt, vinnie, that we kind of discovered them in 1980. And part of that was because in 79, the song, the end, was in the movie Apocalypse Now and then the release of the book no One here Gets Out Alive. The doors greatest hits came out in October of 1980. And I think everybody we knew own that record and it almost became like they were a brand new band for us. The radio seemed to play them like they were new.
Speaker 3:It was a really cool time. You know, yeah, I knew Light my Fire, I knew the, you know Love or Madly, you know the songs that everybody seems to know. But I know that we, you know, in 80 and 81, we kind of learned a lot about the doors through the radio and from buying the albums and really digging in deep to see what it was all about. Do you remember those days?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think the other part of it too that you have to remember is that in 81, it would have been his 10 year anniversary that he had passed, and back then radio stations in a sense would celebrate or remember an artist that passed. So they were also playing the doors endlessly because of you know, again because of the 10 year anniversary.
Speaker 3:Speaking of which, right around the 10 year anniversary, I remember saying to you I don't know all the words to the Crystal Ship, and one day you wrote them all out in like the most perfect handwriting that I have ever seen any man have. Well, you were a boy at the time and you gave me that piece of paper and I was like I know the words now. You know, back then you couldn't look things up on the web, you couldn't go and do all this. You had to find a place where things were. You guessed at everything.
Speaker 2:We've talked about that before you know, now there's lyrics genius or whatever, and back then there was Vinnie Giacalone writing it in longhand and very nice script.
Speaker 3:It was in perfect print. Perfect print, like it couldn't have been any better. Every T looked exactly the same, every S looked exactly the same. Wow.
Speaker 1:It was incredible. I wrote it. If I had a writer today, it would be a different story. It'd be like a doctor's handwriting.
Speaker 2:That's what I was about to ask. My handwriting's horrible now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mine is too, I think, really the only thing that I can write, because everything I do is, you know, on a computer or on a phone. The only thing I can do is my signature. That's about it, these days.
Speaker 3:So back in March of 1982, I wanted to go to the spring dance. It was at our high school. They would have dances all the time. But I didn't know how to dance and I wanted to know how to dance. So I told Vinnie and he was like, just move your legs and arms. And I told him I needed to practice, like that wasn't good enough, I just needed to figure out how to do this.
Speaker 3:So the weekend before the dance a bunch of us go to Vinnie's and he puts a speaker to the window of his house because we're outside, it's dark and he's playing songs and I just can't get the hang of dancing, until he puts on the police song. Every little thing she does is magic and it clicked all at once. Next thing I knew I'm dancing, but my dance style was a cross between Snoopy's happy dance and the Blues Brothers and the Soul man video. So I'm not really sure if that's definitely a dance. It was a sight to be seen. I'm not sure what people were thinking of it, because I know his neighbors could see. I didn't care, I was really just trying to learn how to dance. But, vinnie, do you remember that day?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and I remember how hard it was getting those speakers in the window, because back then those speakers were humongous against nothing like the technology they have today. Bye, I think it's also partly my fault that you kind of dance a little like Snoopy, because that's what I used to get accused of Looking like when I dance, so I think I gave it too much of me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but that's you showing me, you talking about how you do it. I was following you and then I just tried to give it my own little thing, where I added the blues brothers part into it and you put a combination of it and that's what it comes up with. So fun times. Let me just say I thank you. I'm not sure that other people that have seen me dance Thank you, but I do thank you all these years later. So I'm highly welcome.
Speaker 3:The dance took place on March 19th 1982. This is the same day that Randy Rhodes died in a plane crash in Florida. Randy Rhodes was the guitarist on Ozzy Osbourne's first two albums Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a madman, and playing on some of the classic songs that you know crazy train. Whether you're like Ozzy or not, everybody knows crazy train. But the song I don't know. Goodbye to romance Mr Crowley over the mountain and flying high again. So he's a passenger in a small prop plane and the bus driver of their tour bus.
Speaker 3:The tour bus had broken down. The bus driver on the field there sees a plane, gets into it without permission and starts flying the band members and the crew all around and he's kind of like buzzing the bus. That's where you kind of get as close as you can to the bus without actually hitting it. And unfortunately he got too close, the wing clipped the bus and the plane crashed and it burst into flames. Ozzy was actually asleep on the bus when it happened and you know Randy Rhodes, who was a fantastic guitarist, started out, you know, originally with quiet riot. You know was lost that day in Something that was senseless because somebody was trying to do something and have fun. That just really turned out bad.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. I can't believe that. I always knew he died in a plane crash, but I thought it was like he was on his way somewhere, but they were just goofing off in a plane.
Speaker 3:They were just goofing off in a plane, yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, it was. It was a pretty. That was a really amazing story about how he passed away.
Speaker 3:Hmm and to think. You know, to me I was so excited that night to be dancing, learning how to dance and being able to show off my new thing where other people were grieving what had happened earlier in the day, and it wasn't something that everybody knows immediately. I remember telling people that night and people didn't even know because news didn't spread the way that it does today. You know, it takes a while. Sometimes it took a while, sometimes a couple of days, before people would know about things. But I've always remembered that. I've always wanted to talk about that since and music in my shoes has given me that opportunity to do it.
Speaker 3:You know, another time is I had to go to summer school and I needed a bicycle because summer school wasn't at our high school, it was at a different high school in our town and I don't remember what happened to my bicycle.
Speaker 3:But Vinnie said I could borrow his, so I borrow his 10 speed bicycle and he's like hey, it has no brakes and I ride this bicycle and it was a bit of a struggle with no brakes. You know you're going and you you've really got to be careful. I mean there's a lot of streets getting there, but I made it to summer school, made it to my class, but I'm driving back, riding back on the, the bicycle, and I'm on this shelter lane Not far from Vinnie's and there's this curve and I'm coming to, coming around and the car is kind of coming around and I can't stop and the next thing I kind of take the bike and like turn and like hit the curb and go flying over and I was, you know, I got, was cut up, you know I think part of me was swollen and the whole nine yards. But yeah, vinnie, thank you for letting me borrow the bike and getting to summer school that day.
Speaker 1:It did have a unique way of stopping and you had to get your foot in between the bar on the, the seat bar and the wheel, just the right way, and then you could stop. If you didn't do that, you weren't stopping.
Speaker 3:Yes, I did not do that and I was not stopping, you are correct. So, vinnie, now you're known as the organized guy. Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 1:Well, I I'm actually getting ready to celebrate my 10th year in business. I've run my own business as a professional organizer right here on Long Island and I service every place between Manhattan going out to the east end to the forks, and I work with clients who have everyday clutter and Organizing problems and I work with them to help them create a Plan to resolve it. And it could be a closet, it could be a garage, it doesn't matter, it could be paperwork, but I've worked with them to Almost. We basically working with them as a coach or a mentor to guide them through a process.
Speaker 3:That's pretty cool. You know, again, I talked about your handwriting back in the day. It was absolutely perfect. So for someone like me I'm not in New York, I'm here in Atlanta, ga Do you have any spring cleaning tips for us that I can use even though I'm not up there?
Speaker 1:I always have tips that I could share with people because I'm the organized guy. So I'll give you three tips. That the first one is the most important, which is always start with a plan. What are you gonna do? The second tip I would give people is Hackle the project one step at a time, and the analogy I always share with my clients to kind of keep it a little humorous is I always ask them how do you eat an elephant? And the answer is bunch of you know.
Speaker 2:One bite at a time.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, all right. And the last thing I always tell people to do is, when they're finished up with it for the day, or whatever job we're working on, always celebrate what you accomplish, because it's really a big deal.
Speaker 3:And that's a good thing. I mean, I think that you're right. I think a lot of these spring cleaning ventures that I take part of at my house, they definitely look huge and it's like where do you start? What am I going to do? And I think you're right Just start with little bites, little pieces and just go as you can and be excited that you actually did something. That's what I do. I smile. Hey, I just cleaned up three or four feet. I feel good about this. Yep, what about you, Jimmy?
Speaker 2:No, I that's one of my mantras about any kind of housework or renovations or cleanup or anything. It's like set realistic expectations for the day and then be happy that you accomplished what you did, and that way you're not just always looking at it as a mountain of work that you're barely making any progress on. It's like, no, we set out to do this today. We did this today. We're making progress 100%.
Speaker 3:You are the optimist, and that's what I like about you, jimmy. I am. You really are so, vinny. What else you got for us?
Speaker 1:Let's see you want to talk about. Well, I have another list for you. Really, what do you got? I have? I made a short list. I made a long list, but I have a short version of it of my top five albums, oh, yeah, really I like this.
Speaker 3:Let's do it, let's hear it.
Speaker 1:And there's no particular order. These are my top five albums that I happen to like very much.
Speaker 3:And Vinny, not to cut you off, but I really think the older I get, I really think it's best when to give things like that there's no particular order. I'm just telling you my top five. You know a lot on the show. I'll say that's in my top 10, or my top 20, or my top 100. And I think people accept that a lot more than when you say this is my number three, this is my number two. Why is that not your number two? I think that should be set, you know. I think because music is not what. Is it not, jimmy, a competition? It's not a competition, jim. When you have a list and you're like in my top five, in my top 10, I think people tend to understand it more and don't judge it as much. Without further ado, vinny, let's hear your list.
Speaker 1:And this was challenging to do because once I started, it was so tempting to just keep going. However, in the interest of the audience, I have Sergeant Peppers by the Beatles. Nice, the war album from you two. Nice oh yeah, one that you and I can very much appreciate, one for the road from the kinks, very nice. Rumors by Fleetwood Mac. Oh yeah, nice, and Morrison Hotel by the doors.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's kind of out of left field.
Speaker 2:What's on Morrison Hotel? Well, Roadhouse Blues.
Speaker 1:Right, but you also have like Ship of Fools, queen of the Highway. It's just a great bluesy album to listen to. Because they bounced back from the soft parade after that album and it was really kind of reestablished them because their popularity was kind of on the skids after the Miami incident. They were really in a bad place and Morrison Hotel really brought them back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I agree with you that that it was a good rock and roll album. You know the soft parade definitely had some jazzy feel to it but Morrison Hotel was definitely kind of, you know, to the roots and it had the song Waiting for the Sun on it, which is one of my favorite songs. Peace Frog Blood in the Streets. That you know. That's a great song, you know, followed by Blue Sunday and then you know songs like Maggie McGill, the Spy.
Speaker 1:That was the one I was thinking about, maggie McGill.
Speaker 3:Yeah, A song. Did you say Lantau? Because that used to be one of your favorite songs back in the day?
Speaker 1:Lantau and Shipper Fool's Great, great. They're back on the because they're on the B side of that album, if you have the album.
Speaker 3:So what people probably don't know is that the picture for that album there was a real Morrison hotel and they went to it and the hotel didn't want to have anything to do with them taking a picture there. So what they did is they stayed in front of the hotel outside and the photographer, you know, they kind of you know scooch in and you take some pictures and it just wasn't working. And then they noticed the guy behind the desk disappeared for a second and they jump in inside the building and they get the picture. Not, you know, it was not like what they thought it was going to be, but it's definitely a very, very cool album cover. So one side of that album is called Morrison Hotel, the other side is called Hard Rock Cafe which is kind of cool, and they kind of have songs that they think are.
Speaker 3:You know there was no Hard Rock Cafe at the time. It didn't open up until 1971 over in England. So it's really cool. Some of the things that they did that you know kind of lasted and kind of been immortalized inside of a restaurant theme chain.
Speaker 2:And I get the feeling that the Morrison Hotel that wouldn't let them take a photo there probably has a photo of the album on their wall.
Speaker 1:I've read stories. The building is still there but the whole Morrison Hotel is long gone. But people still know the address and they still know that was the location of where they took that photo.
Speaker 3:So Vinnie yes sir. For those that are trying to get ahold of you, they can get you on theorganizeguycom or they can email you at vinnieattheorganizeguycom.
Speaker 1:That's Vinnie V-I-N-N-I-E at theorganizeguycom. That is correct.
Speaker 3:So for any of you up in the Manhattan area or Long Island, all the way out to the forks, as Vinnie mentioned you can get ahold of him and he can help you with any sort of organizing that you need to have done. So we really do appreciate you joining us today. Vinnie, feel free send us things in through the mailbag and, if nothing else, keep rocking, keep rolling. Thank you, we appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Hey, thank you guys. It was a pleasure speaking to you today. Thanks, vinnie. Thank you Jimmy.
Speaker 3:Hey Jimmy. Let's revisit some music, starting with Billy Joel, the piano man single. It peaked at number 25 in April of 1974. That's really surprising. 50 years ago this song comes on and everybody just starts to sing it whenever I'm around. Usually this comes on when I'm around people from New York.
Speaker 1:I will say that.
Speaker 3:But it doesn't matter where you are. You could be out at a person's house, a house party, you could be at a bar, you can be in the car and this song comes on and everybody just wants to sing the piano man. It's a great, great song. And this is about a song about him in Los Angeles playing at a bar and about the people that were all around him that he would see on a regular basis.
Speaker 2:I didn't know it was about Los Angeles. I always assumed it was New York.
Speaker 3:No, he actually had moved out to LA and thought he'd give it a shot there and see if he could hit the big time. And he ended up hitting the big time by moving back to New York and writing a song about his time in LA.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's moving out.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, there you go. That was good. I like that, jimmy. So still on Billy Joel on March 24, 1979, big Shot peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and this song was actually written after having dinner with Mick Jagger and Bianca and some of her antics while they were at dinner. And that's where this whole song came about. And I've read some things with him where he says yeah, some parts are about him, but it really started up due to this dinner that he had with Mick and Bianca. Bianca was his wife back in the day at that time. Let's move over to actually the day before March 23, 1979, van Halen II comes out. So the thing that really struck me about this album is it was recorded between December 10th and 16th 1978. It was just a couple of days. You know so many bands they'll spend a year or two or three years working on an album. They spent the 10th through the 16th of December and they busted out the album.
Speaker 2:You know one thing listening to the album now talk about the Beatles having things hard panned left and right. Van Halen had a choice. They were definitely mixing it in stereo, but Eddie's guitar is hard left. If you're listening to just the right speaker, you're barely. You're only hearing some reverb from the guitar or the second guitar part that comes in the chorus or something. But yeah, there's some hard pans in that and all the backing vocals most of them are on the right.
Speaker 3:Again, we're learning something new here at Music in my Shoes. I like that and I like things like that. I really do. I really enjoy with Vinnie where we would turn the speakers off on one side and listening and hearing things in a completely different way, you know.
Speaker 3:So this album starts off with a cover of You're no Good, which is done by several artists, but it's really known by Linda Ronstadt, who reached number one with the song February 15th 1975 and I believe it's her only number one song that she ever did, Is it? Yes, so Linda's version was actually produced by Peter Asher of the Peter and Gordon fame. But also he was the house that Paul McCartney lived in when Paul McCartney was dating Jane Asher for a number of years wrote songs in his house. All right, A little six degrees of separation. That's all I'm trying to get to. So Van Halen's version of You're no Good much harder song. It's got the signature David Lee Roth screams, Eddie Van Halen licks and the Michael Anthony backing vocals that we have all come to know and love. Really good song Dance the Night Away, first single on the album. It's one of my favorite Van Halen songs. I really like that.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you said that because I feel like a lot of guys will look at me sideways when I say that's one of my favorite Van Halen songs because it's a poppier. You know it's like a radio friendly song, but it's a great song.
Speaker 3:It's a great song and it's really good guitar work, I think, great guitar work by Eddie. I think he does a great job with it and good lyrics and I think that's where you're getting with a lot of guys when it's say that that's their favorite Van Halen song. Well, after you go from that song, then you've got Bottoms Up, which is a party song.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, but it's also like a Texas two step. It's such a cool rhythm to that song and you can almost like Hop for Teacher, like a predecessor of Hop for Teacher. You know that real kind of fast, circular kind of feeling.
Speaker 3:That's a good way to put it. That definitely is, but I like it. But I think there's too much of David Screech in that song. I think that if they took the Screech out it would be so much better. It just gets to be a bit too much in the song for me. But I love the song, I do. I enjoyed seeing them play that song live. I like listening to the song. I think it's a party song. It's fun, but they don't really need the David Screech. Yeah, women in Love. Another really good song Beautiful Girls. In my opinion it's not as good as the first Van Halen album, but it's still a solid album.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a really good album. Thank you for that reassurance. I didn't know there was a question in there.
Speaker 3:We're going to move up to March of 1984 with Night Ranger, Mr Christian. The single came out and it's another one of those songs that was all over pop and rock radio. You're motoring what's your price for flight? Forty years later, the song is still motoring. It's still the same. It's still a good song. It comes on. It takes you back to a different time in your life. I like the song.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well said. You know it's a classic.
Speaker 3:The Cure, the Caterpillar came out March 30th 1984. This was the next single to come out from the Cure after the Lovecats. Yes, from episode 15, when I try to fake tap dance at my senior variety show, Robert Smith plays guitar, bass and violin. The violin is kind of like a creepy violin at the beginning, along with the piano that's playing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very artistic and abstract.
Speaker 3:It is, but to me it also has this mid-eastern type feel to it that as you're listening to it, I just think it's a really cool different intro into a song. Looking back now, if you look at a lot of Cure songs, they have a lot of intros that are pretty cool. They probably have some of the longest instrumental beginnings to songs and most bands do on their stuff. But they do a lot of cool things they really do. So this was from the May 1984 album, the Top, which also has another good song on it, shake Dog Shake, which I really like that song and if you get an opportunity, take a listen, you might learn something new. You might remember something that you forgot, that you even knew the songs at all Depeche Mode People or People Single All right. On WLIR, it was the Screamer of the Week the last week of March 1984. Peaks at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 3rd 1985. It was almost a year and a half after WLIR was playing it that it got that high on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and I remember then. I remember one time being at a party saying to myself I can't believe this song is still being played all the time. So I did some research to see was I right or did I remember it wrong. But no, I remembered it just the way that I did. Lir played it much sooner than anybody else and then it finally hit the top 40 radio in 1985 and it kind of took off. So it was like the song that lasted forever and never went away. So the song, it's got a good message but in all honesty I think it can be a bit cheesy, not one of my favorite Depeche Mode songs, and I've read some interviews where they kind of say it's not one of their favorite songs either, and I can understand that. And they say it's kind of like a double-edged sword of that got them a lot of new fans but at the same time it was a song that they weren't necessarily that proud of the way that the not the words, not the lyrics, but kind of like the instrumentation went and so forth. So I can understand that when you get more fans and it equals bigger concerts and more money, everybody loves that. But sometimes you have to pay the piper with a type of song that you weren't planning to do.
Speaker 3:And finally, on Music in my Shoes, I went and saw Bob Dylan at the Classic Center in Athens, georgia, march 15th 2024. So I believe you have to set expectations for all the musicians when you go see them, and what I mean by that is that Bob Dylan is his own guy and I looked up before I bought tickets, what he was doing and I could see he was playing most of his latest album that came out. He wasn't doing a greatest hits tour like a lot of older artists are doing now, and I had these expectations of I'm going to hear this album. I listened to the album a lot and if he plays some other songs I know you know it's kind of a bonus I was surprised because he sounded a lot better than what I thought he was going to sound and even playing the songs that were on the album. He sounded much better now and I don't know if it's because he's been touring since 2021 on this album Album came out in 2020. And he's been playing nine songs out of the 10, you know every show His voice definitely sounds better than the record.
Speaker 3:What's interesting is that one song on the album, murder Most Foul. It's almost 17 minutes long, the longest Bob Dylan song ever. It peaked at number one on US rock digital song sales. I didn't even know that was a chart, to be honest. But it is. But he doesn't play that song. He plays the other nine songs that didn't hit. But that's Bob Dylan, that's the way Bob Dylan is and the song is kind of about John F Kennedy and the whole assassination and it goes through 16 minutes and 50 something seconds through it. He played some older songs but no Bob Dylan type hits. He did play Watching the River Flow when I paint my masterpiece. Now, when I paint my masterpiece is a great song. But he changed it up. The music was putting on the ritz. Do you remember that song?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And he sang the song to that tune. It was pretty cool. I got to be honest. It really was. He also played Most Likely you Go your Way and I'll Go Mine. I love that song. It was really good to be able to see him do that. I'll be your baby tonight to be alone with you. Every grain of sand Gotta serve somebody. I love that song. That song came out kind of in the 70s when he was kind of trying to find his way, and I just love that song and I was so happy I could be there when he played it. He also did a Johnny Cash Big River cover that he did a great job of, and probably out of all the songs that are on his latest album, 2020's Rough and Rowdy Ways Goodbye Jimmy Reed is probably the best song on the album and it was even better live. So it was cool. My expectations were superseded by even higher performance than I could have imagined and that was pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Well, that's it for the episode 20 of Music in my Shoes. I'd like to thank our guest, vinnie Giacalone, for joining us today. I'd also like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios located here in Atlanta, georgia, and to Vic Thrill for our podcast music. This is Jim Boge, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live your life and keep the music playing.