Music In My Shoes
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Music In My Shoes
E43 Hey Hey, My My, Rock and Roll Can Never Die
Tune in to this episode of "Music In My Shoes" as we unravel the fascinating story behind Neil Young and Crazy Horse's "Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black)" and its acoustic counterpart, "My, My, Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue)." Discover how Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo influenced the iconic line "it's better to burn out 'cause rust never sleeps.' We'll also reflect on the generational debates ignited by references to Elvis Presley and Johnny Rotten, celebrating Young's complex legacy as the "Godfather of Grunge."
Take a nostalgic stroll through the golden age of rock and pop with us. From the Beach Boys' infectious "I Get Around" to the familiar sound of Peter and Gordon's "A World Without Love," we'll uncover the stories and secrets behind these timeless hits. Relive the vivid imagery of the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk," the innovative sound of the Zombies' "She's Not There," and the emotive charm of the Shangri-La's "Remember Walking in the Sand." Each song is a testament to the creative genius of these legendary artists and their lasting impact on music history.
Our journey continues as we delve into the unique sound of Big Star, drawing connections to the Rubber Soul-era Beatles and The Byrds, and celebrating their influence on bands like The Replacements. We'll share memories of an unforgettable live performance of Billy Idol's electrifying 1984 show at the Nassau Coliseum. Finally, we'll reflect on the poignant farewell of the 8G Band on Late Night with Seth Meyers, featuring Bob Mould's intense rendition of "Makes No Sense at All." Join us for a heartfelt tribute to the enduring power of music and the unforgettable memories it creates.
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He's got the feeling in his toe-toe.
Speaker 2:He's got the feeling and it's out there growing. Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge and you're listening to Music In my Shoes. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 43. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. August 27th 1979, the single hey, hey, my, my Into the Black by Neil Young and Crazy Horse is released With the B side of the 45,. For those of you that don't remember, 45, a little tiny record had one song on one side, another song on the other.
Speaker 1:Spun around 45 times a minute.
Speaker 2:There you go, rpms, yeah. So the B side of the 45 was Neil Young doing my, my, hey, hey, out of the blue, confused yet.
Speaker 1:I think so.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say that's good.
Speaker 1:I think for the purposes of this podcast it's good.
Speaker 2:All right, Well, good, because I can explain a little bit about it. Please do so. My my, hey, hey is the first song on the Russ Never Sleeps album and is the acoustic version. My my, hey, hey. Rock and roll is here to stay. It's better to burn out than to fade away. My my, hey, hey, yeah, hey, hey, my my is the last song on the album and it's the rock version. Hey, hey, my my. Rock and roll can never die. There's more to the picture than meets the eye. Hey, hey, my, my. In this version of the song, it's better to burn out than to fade away is changed to it's better to burn out because Russ never sleeps. And that line the change in that that all came from Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo.
Speaker 1:Cool. Wow, I would never have guessed that.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:So in 1977, neil Young collaborates with Devo. He's doing a film and it's called Human Highway. Let me just tell you the reviews are horrendous when it first came out. It took a long time for it to come out. Now I think some people have reviews that are better because they look at it as more of a historical type thing. But he gets Devo to come do this movie. You can YouTube it. It's almost 10 minutes of them playing hey, hey, my my Neil Young and Devo. Wow, with Mark singing it. Neil's just playing the guitar. It's insane to watch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to see this, it's insane to watch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to see this. So the song earned Neil Young the Godfather of Grunge title. And if you listen to the song and I listen to it a bunch you know it's no accident that before every show, stuff that I might talk about I'm listening to and reflecting do I feel the same, as you know what I once felt? And hey, hey, my, my is just a freaking, unbelievable rock song. That to me yes, that is where I can see a lot of people that wanted to listen to grunge when it came out that that would be, you know, not the first song, or, but close to the beginning and close to you know the way Neil Young plays. Now he'll release an album that we'll talk about later in the year, live Rust and when you listen to that, I mean it's like a grunge album, just many, many moons before we would say grunge.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's pretty cool. If you're not familiar with it, you know. The acoustic version, I think, is fantastic. The rock version's fantastic. I will tell you this that there's a part of the song where it goes the king is gone, but he's not forgotten. Is this the story of Johnny Rotten? And as I'm listening to this, you know, does he say is this the story of johnny rotten?
Speaker 1:and as I'm listening to this, you know say is this or this is no, I think everybody thinks this is the story of johnny rotten.
Speaker 2:It's. Is this the story? I never knew this so young jim, I'm probably about 12, I'm thinking if.
Speaker 2:I'm doing my math correctly in my head. I'm listening to this and you know, for me I think Neil Young, prior to Russ Never Sleeps. That was kind of you know my parents or my uncles, you know music that was for them. But Russ Never Sleeps, I kind of took it as wait. This is music for me. This is my generation's Neil Young and I would play that song and my father would go absolutely insane because he was a big Elvis fan and he would be like Elvis is the king, not Johnny Rotten, and, just you know, almost go off on a tirade about the whole thing because he could not believe Neil Young would actually say something like that. So the song was written in 1977. I think I mentioned that Elvis died in 77. The King is gone, but he's not forgotten.
Speaker 1:Sex Pistols' only album came out in 77.
Speaker 2:Exactly and to Neil Young. He kind of was like you know, when Elvis first came out the parents didn't like him and the kids liked him and you know thought he was a danger with all this rock and roll business and everything. Elvis and Johnny Rotten, with some of the things that they were doing, not necessarily comparing their musical styles or their songs or their singing abilities, but just kind of where they were in their careers at one point, and making this comparison Did not go over well with my father, I can tell you that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure it didn't go over well with a lot of people. The Sex Pistols were not popular with most people.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. Yeah, and I would say still aren't very popular with most people. You know, it's just the way that it is. But due to the fact that music is not a competition, we can end up liking the sax pistols. We can like neil young. I like elvis, you know, I um, you know he sings a bunch of songs that I like. I mean, we've talked about him, we talked about the 68 comeback special. You know there's a lot of things. So I think that you can enjoy all different parts of music and it's okay with me me too so.
Speaker 2:So, jimmy, I saw this article online by a guy named Jonathan Eag I'm not sure I'm pronouncing it correctly, but it was via fansided and it was about singles that are 60 years old and I'm like 60 years old, wow. And I'm not going to mention them all, you know I'll add a few, but there were some pretty good songs that came out in 1964. Right, you know, a World Without Love, peter and Gordon. Yeah, paul McCartney moves into his then-girlfriend Jane Asher's home in 1963. Paul had written a song when he was about 16 years old. John Lennon didn't like it, so it wasn't going to be a Beatles song. John couldn't get past the first line and was like this is not happening.
Speaker 1:What is it? Please Lock Me Away.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is, and he could not get past that. Paul lets Peter and Gordon record the song Again. Now he's living at Jane Asher's house Peter is Jane Asher's brother and is living at the house also and, to everyone's surprise, it reaches number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Please lock me away and don't allow the day here inside where I hide With my loneliness.
Speaker 1:We used to do that song in chorus in high school.
Speaker 2:I love the song. I think it's absolutely a fantastic song and I honestly don't know that I knew that Paul McCartney had written it until probably I'd say maybe 15 years ago. I didn't know, but I always compared it to a Beatles song. Right, I had just never really sat down to do any research on it. Well, it sounds like a Beatles song because it is and there's actually like a home recording that Paul had done at the Asher home and it's just him with a guitar. He doesn't have all the words at that point, but it's the song that ends up coming out by Peter and Gordon, no question about it. So Peter went on to produce hit records for James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, among others, and multiple records for them, not just one. I mean, he did a ton. He is someone that I think everybody should get to know. He knows so much about the music business, he has produced so many things. He just got an award earlier this year by the Grammys I forget you know Lifetime Achievement Award, something of that. This guy is really good. He's on SiriusXM with the Beatles channel. He has a show. If you get a chance to check him out, definitely do, because you learn something new every single time that you listen to him, cool.
Speaker 2:So I just mentioned Elvis Presley 1964, viva Las Vegas. All right, we mentioned back on episode six about the comeback special in 1968. Yeah, and here in 64, you know he was at that point again where he's not making very good movies, not making very good songs. But Viva Las Vegas, the movie and the song, I think is the exception. And I'm in agreement with this guy, jonathan, who wrote this article, when he says Elvis got to work with Ann-Margret and sing a killer song. Ann-margret's fantastic, great job in that movie.
Speaker 2:If you've not seen Viva Las Vegas, check it out. Bright light city, gonna set my soul, gonna Set my Soul on Fire. I love how that song opens up. I just think it's a killer song. I listened to it a bunch yesterday and I just still love it. You know, there are times I got to be honest with you. There's times where I'll be gung-ho on saying I'm going to talk about this, let's do this, and then I listen to it. I'm like man, that song's terrible. I don't like it the way I used to Younger me, liked it for whatever the reason was, and then I guess it didn't stand that test of time. Right, you know this definitely has. So when you watch the movie, have you seen the movie Jimmy? No, so when you watch, the movie.
Speaker 1:Have you seen the movie, jimmy?
Speaker 2:No, so when you watch it because I know you're going to watch it now it's about Las Vegas in 1964. It shows Vegas. You know Vegas, you know obviously, viva Las Vegas. It's all very prominent in the movie. So you get to see what it was like mid-60s. And I got to go there a few times in between 1998 and 2004,. And it was going through a little bit of a transition, but it was a fun place. Have you been to Vegas?
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, and downtown Vegas, which is probably what the 1964 Vegas was.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, yes. What are they calling it now? Downtown Vegas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the.
Speaker 2:Vegas, that's not on the Strip.
Speaker 1:There's the Strip and there's Downtown.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I haven't been in a while. I definitely want to go back because I think it's just taken a whole different turn with knocking down so many of the iconic casinos and hotels and now, you know, putting new things up and continuing to put new things up. That's the one thing about Vegas it doesn't stay still, it just keeps reinventing itself. So viva Las Vegas. Beach Boys, I get around, jonathan writes. They turn to what they know cars, girls and soaring harmonies. I think that's a fantastic line. I mean, that truly is the early Beach Boys. You know, pre-pet Sounds and so forth. We always take my car because it's never been beat and we've never missed yet with the girls we meet, just you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's a classic and Mike Love's vocal is fantastic.
Speaker 2:It's just great yeah, he's got the the great vocal. Brian wilson, you know, goes with that high. You know harmonies and it's just such a great combination. That's the one thing about the beach boys they really picked the right people to help them sing, to do all the stuff, forget about playing instruments and all of that. Just the the vocal part was just a fantastic thing.
Speaker 1:Well, you talk about Brian Wilson's high vocal part. Now, I know you know this because you're Jim Boge and you know lyrics to everything but me. I don't know the lyrics to very much and I had no idea what he was saying. It's I'm a real cool head, I'm making real good bread. It's, I'm a real cool head, I'm making real good bread.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be honest, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, okay, I did not know that.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's good. I like learning something new and I like learning something new from you. Jimmy, thank you, you're welcome. I think that's one of the things, though, when you learn something new. We talked about the Beatles and they had Frere Jacques on one of the songs. Just these different cool things that you don't know about, and then you find out and it's just like wow, that's just really cool.
Speaker 1:I want to know about the Frere Jacques thing now.
Speaker 2:Frere Jacques, they did that on Paperback Rider. So if you listen to Paperback Rider, their backups, their harmonies, their background vocals, they do is Farajaka in a much Beatle way and British and the whole thing.
Speaker 2:But it's really cool because, until someone pointed it out, I listened to the song forever. I actually listened to it with Vinnie Giacalone from the episode you Don't Know, giacalone. We discovered that together. I would say that probably I'd say probably 1981 if I'm guessing right. So you know, it was pretty cool because we just turned the speaker I think you turned it to the right or something and then that's what you heard. You know mostly where it turned down the regular vocals, because you know the Beatles did the channels and you could really listen to the song in a much different way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that song too.
Speaker 2:It is. It's a really good song, really good song. You know it's not about love. It's a song about, you know, regular people wanting to be a writer and you know it's kind of cool when bands get away from the love thing. You know, because I think it forces you. I think the love thing comes from within and you know you broke up with someone or you're dating someone new, or this happened and it comes much easier than trying to write a story about something that's maybe not true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, that's my opinion, that's what I think it's like they created a character and a story kind of like in Eleanor Rigby or something like that. Correct.
Speaker 2:And I think that starting there by the time they got to Eleanor Rigby, it was much easier to do because of the fact of having songs like Paperback Writer, you know, forcing yourself to actually do it. Yeah, so we're going to go from there to Under the Boardwalk by the Drifters. All right, this song takes me back to a different time where life is just not so complicated. And being on a blanket with my baby. The song mentions you can almost taste the hot dogs and french fries they sell. I just love that song. I just think it's so cool that they have this song. You know, under the boardwalk and you know all this different stuff. But they mention about the smells, they mention about the sounds, everything. Really really good song there by the Drifters the zombies she's Not there. Oh yeah, great words, love the keyboards. Really good rock song. And the singer is hurt they're no longer together and trying to warn other guys about her. That's like my real quick thing of. What is this song about?
Speaker 1:And that was 64?.
Speaker 2:That was 1964.
Speaker 1:Wow, they were ahead of their time, because that sounds more like to me like a 1967 British song or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah they definitely were Rod Argent. You know he went on to form Argent after. Hold your Head Up.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, you know he wasn't the singer. I don't remember who the singer was, but he was smart enough to know that he can't sing. But he can write and do stuff and that's where you got the zombies and Argent, like I mentioned.
Speaker 2:I love the zombies, but it's too late to say you're sorry. How would I know? Why should I care? Please don't bother trying to find her. She's not there. Jimmy, the last line of every verse and chorus is she's Not there. I just think that's so cool that you can write it so that the same line ends every verse and chorus. That doesn't happen a lot.
Speaker 1:No, that's good writing right there.
Speaker 2:That is good writing the Shangri-La. Remember Walking in the Sand? Do you remember that song?
Speaker 1:Are we talking about the kink song? No, okay, they have a Shangri-La song too.
Speaker 2:So Shangri-La is the name of the band.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:And they sang this song. It was actually in 64, if I'm not mistaken, there was a song called Shangri-La that actually was in the top 100 of 1964. This is actually a band name. It was an all-female band. They sang the song Remember Walking in the Sand, and this song it's a little bit different. It's a relationship ended but unlike she's Not there, she's reminiscing about the good times. We've all been there. You know relationship ends. There was nothing bad about it. Everything is good. But it's just a sad and lonely feel to the song and it's got these crazy sound of seagulls whenever they sing the chorus. So you're listening to it and it's. You know she's singing about the good times, but the music makes it sound like it's so down and depressing and then when she sings the chorus there's seagulls playing. It's just so bizarre how they came up with this. It peaks at number five on the Billboard Hot 100. And get this A teenage Billy Joel, long before he became the piano man, played piano on the demo what.
Speaker 2:Yes, not the record that was released, but on the actual demo. Billy Joel would go into New York City when he was younger and they would have a ton of writers there, a ton of record companies, all kinds of things going on. So if you were just in the right place at the right time you could get something out of it, and whether Neil Diamond would be hanging out back in the day. Neil Diamond, ellie Greenwich, greenwich I'm not really sure how to pronounce the name Jeff Barry, I mean, those are people that wrote a lot of songs but they didn't always play the instruments and they needed someone there. And you know, young Billy Joel and young a lot of people would be there in New York City and be like, hey, we need a piano part. That kind of goes, you know like this.
Speaker 1:I wonder how old he was, though.
Speaker 2:I think he was somewhere like 15, 16 years old, you know. So it's pretty cool knowing about that. That is so December 1979, 45 years ago. So we're talking about 60 years ago when the Shangri-La does the song. 45 years ago, in December 1979, aerosmith released the cover of the song with Mary Weiss, the original lead singer of the Shangri-La, singing backup vocals but was uncredited for them. And when you listen to the song there's no doubt in your mind there's a female singing. It was her. She had gotten out of the music business, she was done with it. She just didn't really care for it and just got like a normal job and did her own thing. It's off the Night in the Ruts album and it was the only single released and I remember no pun intended it getting plenty of airplay on the radio. Night in the Ruts not a very good album by Aerosmith.
Speaker 1:And it's kind of a Spinal Tap album.
Speaker 2:title yes, they were kind of literally in the ruts at the time with, you know, drug abuse, alcohol, where the band was going, you know, I think somewhere right around then. That's when Joe Perry was leaving for a few years and so forth. But they do this cover and it's a good one. I mean I listened to it a ton and it's a good one. I mean, I listened to it a ton. I almost thought that I had the 45 or if I didn't have it, 8-track. Johnny had the 45 and I was borrowing it from him but I was listening to the Renting but yeah, I was renting it from him.
Speaker 2:That is correct, but Mary Weiss died back in January of this year so she's no longer with us. Sorry to hear that. No particular place to go. Chuck Berry Classic Chuck Berry rock and roll song and I think he takes the music from the song School Days. I think he just says, hey, play the same music. I'm just going to change the words. If I'm not mistaken, he recycled a lot.
Speaker 2:He was good at that Cruising and playing the radio with no particular place to go. Love that. I think that line is just so cool and I remember when I got a car and I was driving I would play that song and I remember people saying where are you going? I have no particular place to go, but I'm driving in the car and I'm listening to some music.
Speaker 2:House of the Rising Sun by the Animals, An old folk song that has gone through multiple lyric changes Some parts, not some parts, but at some times this song was sung from a female perspective, Sometimes it was sung from a male perspective. It just changed. It's so crazy how much this has changed, but most people know these words by the animals. Their version of it. It's got this haunting organ. I really feel Eric Burden sings from his soul, even though it's not a song where you would sing from your soul about a house of ill repute. But he is and it's just such an unlikely Billboard number one song in September of 1964. Like, if you listen to it, what music was like in 1964, you know a lot of. It was poppy and happy and all this stuff that you could sing along, and that's not what House of the Rising Sun is. I think it's a great song. Some people say that's the first classic rock and roll song. I don't think I can argue with that. I definitely can see why people would say that. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Well and I disagree with you on that it's not a song to sing from your soul. Mothers tell your children not to do the things I've done. It's longing to go back and do things differently and not end up in the house of ill repute.
Speaker 2:There you go. That's why you're on the show, jimmy. Thank you Setting me straight Now. I see, I never looked at it that way, but I'm glad that you brought that up. I mean, that's a great point. As a matter of fact, I wish I could listen to it right now. Hold on, that was good, jimmy. I like that. You know what. I like that so much. I want to hear some more from you. I think right now it's time for Minute with Jimmy. It's time for Minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy. It's time for Minute with Jimmy.
Speaker 1:Minute with Jimmy Minute with Jimmy. Today we're talking about the 1974 album by the band Big Star called Radio City, and Big Star was a band that were critical darlings. If the critics had their way, they would have been the biggest band in the world, but instead most people never heard of Big Star, and I love them. This album was one of their greatest. It has a couple of their best songs on it. A good place to start if you don't know Big Star is the song called September Girls. But it's one of these albums. Every song on it's great and they're touring right now. It's a tribute because there's only one surviving member, jody Stevens, and he's the drummer and he plays with them REM's Mike Mills, the DB's Chris Stamey, the Posey's John Auer and Wilco's Pat Sansone. So my daughter got to see him in Jersey City the other night, said they were amazing, sent me a bunch of videos.
Speaker 2:That's a minute with Jimmy. That was pretty good. So big Big Star is Alex Chilton. Correct, Alex Chilton, for those of you who don't remember was in the box tops singing.
Speaker 1:The Letter.
Speaker 2:There you go, the Letter. That is correct. And so, jimmy, real quick here, because Big Star is a band that so many people absolutely love, and you're 100% right, the critics just thought everything of them. Why do you think that they just didn't become popular like everyone thought they should have?
Speaker 1:I think that that time I think the early 70s was such a transitional time for music, for culture and everything, that some things got lost in the shuffle. And like, if you've ever seen that movie about Rodriguez called Searching for Sugar man, you know anything about that? No, oh, my gosh, you need to check that out. It's pretty amazing story that this guy that put out records in the early seventies and I don't want to give anything away, but, uh, I'll check it out he, he found out he had more fans than he realized. Um, so anyway, you know they. I think that the sound of big star was kind of like reminds me a little bit of rubber soul era Beatles, maybe some birds, and that stuff was. Things were changing so fast. Nobody was really looking for that at that time. And uh, I think stuff on the radio was either like rock or pop, right right, or easy listening, and they didn't fit in any category. And of course, aor stations hadn't really started up yet. That wasn't until the mid-70s, I feel like.
Speaker 1:And so at least in my part of the country I feel like, and so, at least in my part of the country, they might've had one in New York City, but so there just weren't places to find out about bands that weren't on the radio.
Speaker 2:And I think they got were victims of that. That's very good. I like that. I think that's probably hitting a nail right on the head with that, and then also the replacements on the head with that, and then also the replacements Paul Westerberg I mean they loved Alex Chilton and then they had a song by that. They wrote about him. They love listening to you know, big star, and it's just kind of cool. I think, ultimately, what's super cool is that your daughter you know someone that's young went to see them recently and that's really cool. I like that when music can just go through generations.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and she loves Big Star. It's a very, very cool thing. Like your daughters, you know, I'm sure they're into all kinds of great music too, so it's nice to have your kids appreciate music.
Speaker 2:Met him with Jimmy. Met him with Jimmy, went in with Jimmy. Met him with Jimmy. Met him with Jimmy. I'd have to say that was not planned whatsoever. All right.
Speaker 1:I think somebody's trying to tell us that was it Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, jimmy, you're welcome. Hey, the Electric Light Orchestra don't bring me down. It peaks at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 8th 1979. In 2016, billboard's top 500 pop songs of all time their list. It was ranked 215 on that list and I don't know if they've done one since then, but in 2016. Pretty high up for all-time pop songs. And it's off of the album Discovery, and the album back cover has a guy. He's a palace guard. He's Brad Garrett and that's the guy that played Ray's brother on the TV show Everybody Loves Raymond.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:That was one of his first jobs was getting dressed up and playing this palace guard for the Electric Light Orchestra. Also in 1979, cheap Trick Dream Police single comes out as the band's single. Ain't that a Shame? From Abudakon album was peaking at number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September of 79, they released Dream Police. Cheap Trick was really good with releasing singles even when it was from a new album timing it. So it was just always something out there by them and as one was kind of peaking then they release another one. So as one was coming down, then one was going up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was also that they had a couple of albums out before Budokan that they hadn't really gotten noticed nationally as much, correct. And then Budokan put them on the map and there were singles from that.
Speaker 2:There were singles from the new album, yeah, yeah, I think that Dream Police is a power pop classic. All the instruments, they just kind of feed off of each other. The vocals feed off the instruments. I love the chorus because they're waiting for me, they're looking for me every single night. They're driving me insane. Those men inside my brain. Just love it. Love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, august 30th 1984, the best new song or screamer of the week on WLIR radio was U2, pride In the Name of Love. Now, the single didn't actually come out to like the first week of September but I guess radio got advanced copies or so. It was great to hear new U2 music but it was so different from everything they had done before. The band makes three videos for the song because they didn't like the first two and the third one was the one that got a lot of play on MTV and I think that's kind of what softened my thoughts on the new direction of U2 was kind of seeing the videos and if you think about it, there's a lot of songs that became popular that never would have if it wasn't for MTV, if you weren't watching it, and just like oh, you know, I got to request that video, I got to see that video, I think for me.
Speaker 2:You know, u2 was a certain thing. The first. You know three albums and then you know Pride in the Name of Love is just so different. It's serious, it's, you know, just very, very different from them. That video, I think, is what made me start to see that I could like them what was the video in front of the castle?
Speaker 1:I can't remember what the video was.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's kind of like. If I remember it's almost like it's panning up to the castle and then it's going through like the rooms where they had recorded that slain castle in Ireland, where they had recorded the unforgettable fire. The song peaks at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, yeah, that it was that low.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't believe that but it is. I checked it out actually multiple times because I did not think that that was the case. Right? So yes, and again, that was August 30th 1984. Let's go about a week later to September 8th 1984. Billy Idol plays the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, new York. It's the last night of the American tour. A ton of us go to the show. I had floor seats was really close. Got to see Billy Idol, his guitarist, steve Stevens, and they start off with Generation X's Ready, steady Go. Oh great, and it was great, a great version. I remember it being great. I decided I was going to listen to it last night because I just wanted to. Again, is this as good as I remember it being? And I listened to the show last night and I can't be honest, it was actually better than I remember it being.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you said that.
Speaker 2:It really, really was a good show. White Wedding sounded fantastic. You know he played all his hits Rebel, yell, dancing With Myself.
Speaker 1:I mean Rebel Yell. That was a new album at the time. Right that, it's Rebel Yell Dancing With Myself. I mean Rebel.
Speaker 2:Yell. That was a new album at the time, right, that was. You know what he was touring for, hot in the City. So there was the song Hot in the City. But then they did like this 12-inch remix the New York remix, I think it was and so he changed the words, you know, to Hot Long Island Night, hot New York Night. You know the crowd would go crazy.
Speaker 2:Blue Highway Eyes Without a Face, money, money, fun night, fun concert and a lot of good times listening to Billy Idol 40 years ago. I can tell you that For sure. The Toadies, possum Kingdom, august 30th 1994. Okay, all right Kingdom, august 30th 1994. Okay, all right. From the opening guitar riff you know you're about to hear a great song. Like that is like hey, what is this? Like you got to stop and now just listen to what's happening. If you don't know the song, please give it a listen and then let me know what you think. I don't want to talk too much more about this. I really want people to tell me your thoughts on this song, especially if you've never heard it before. I think this song is just fantastic and it's classic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:Earlier this summer, late Night with Seth Meyers was announced to be coming back for his 12th season, but due to budget cuts, the 8G band, who was the house band for the show, would not. Fred Armisen, who was originally part of the band, came back for their last performance on August 22nd 2024, and get this Bob Mould joined to sing his Husker Du song. Makes no Sense At All.
Speaker 1:I saw it yeah.
Speaker 2:Which is a good choice considering the situation. Fred Armisen comedian, actor, musician he knows a lot about music history. Like he'll come up on reels on my phone and I'll watch, because he really knows a whole lot. He was playing drums. He did a good job. I've seen him play guitar. I've seen him do, I've seen him do like the history of punk music and you know 10 songs or 20. I can't remember what it is. He's definitely super talented. But what did you think about Bob showing up? Singing Makes no Sense At All.
Speaker 1:I thought he sounded amazing. I thought he put more into it than I've seen him and I mean I've seen some great live shows with him but he really he put a lot into that. Like by the end of the song he was like taking it up to the next level. And I think if you look at that here, their band, which probably in the grand scheme doesn't cost that much money for a company like NBC, and they're cutting their budget so they don't have a band anymore and I bet you, fred and Seth, are thinking that makes no sense at all.
Speaker 2:And that is it for episode 43 of Music in my Shoes. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, who makes all the sense in the world to me, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios located here in Atlanta, georgia, and 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 life and keep the music playing. I'll never be alone.
