Music In My Shoes
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Music In My Shoes
E52 Happy Days
Ever pondered how a simple TV show could leave an indelible mark on pop culture? Join us as we explore the whimsical world of "Gilligan's Island" and "Happy Days," two iconic series that captured hearts. Get ready for a delightful journey through television history as we recount the charming absurdities that defined these shows.
Our nostalgia trip doesn't end there; it continues with a vibrant discussion on music that shaped generations. From a Public Image Limited concert in 1984 to an Electric Light Orchestra tour in 2024, we cover it all.
We conclude with a heartfelt tribute to the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh. We look back at a "Box of Rain," a song that offers comfort and hope. Tune in for a nostalgic celebration of television, music, and the enduring connections they create across generations.
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.
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 52. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. So, jimmy, 60 years ago, in September 1964, gilligan's Island debuted on television.
Speaker 1:What a great day for humanity. I love Gilligan's Island.
Speaker 2:I do too. I think everyone knows the theme song. Just sit back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip that started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship. Yeah, sometimes I feel like I'm reciting poetry.
Speaker 1:I gotta be honest with you. I love it.
Speaker 2:It cracks me up. I apologize, ladies and gentlemen, I do, but it's the adventures of seven castaways. They're lost at sea. They're on an uncharted desert isle. So I got a question for you. Jim, you love Gilligan's Island, I do. We've never talked about this before. No, I'm perplexed. An uncharted desert isle, if they're like in the middle of you know, I'm assuming they took off from California. They're in the Pacific Ocean. A desert.
Speaker 1:They call it a desert isle, but it's a deserted isle.
Speaker 2:Right, but what they just shorten it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think they. Just they needed to take a syllable out for the rhyme scheme to work, and so they're like desert isle fine.
Speaker 2:I just learned something new.
Speaker 1:And I don't know that it was really deserted. Every once in a while they ran across some people that were, you know, on the other side of the island or something.
Speaker 2:That were not supposed to be there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But they were.
Speaker 1:Just for one episode and then, oh yeah, they're gone.
Speaker 2:They're gone, figured out how to get off the island.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very, very strange they had a guy on an airplane one time that was called Wrong Way Conway that ended up on the island. They thought that he was going to put him in his airplane, but nope, he flew away without him.
Speaker 2:And that's what happened in every episode. Somehow, some way, they were still there. So the first season was filmed in black and white. It was in color the next two seasons, but it ended on April 17th 1967. When it ended, if I'm not mistaken, it was actually higher in the ratings than the Monkees. The Monkees were out at the same time, but I don't know. I think I remember something with, like, maybe Gunsmoke was going off the air and they decide to put it in its time slot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's what I remember is that the guy, like the head of the network, said what you guys are canceling gun smoke no way. And so they went back. After they told them, yeah, you know, you're renewed, the guy said, well, you got to cancel something else, you got to bring Gunsmoke back. And so they canceled Gilligan's Island.
Speaker 2:What a shame.
Speaker 1:I know what a shame, and they never got to say goodbye, they never got to say you know? I mean, of course they did, because they did they did the reunion Harlem. Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island, specials and all those yeah.
Speaker 2:Gilligan's Island specials and all those. Yeah Right, I forgot about the Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island. You're right about that. So I used to watch the reruns as a kid, every day. I mean, I was into it. I think they were right around 100 episodes I'm not 100% sure, but I would just keep watching that. Even though I remembered everything from it at the time, I just like I gotta watch it. It's gilligan's island. I could not get enough of it. You had gilligan the skipper.
Speaker 2:Now I feel like I'm reciting the beginning of the song um, you know the millionaire, so the millionaire, jim bacchus, he ended up being the voice of that animated Scrooge.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So I remember hearing Scrooge and I'm like hey, I know that voice, I know who that is, Mr Howell. But Mr Howell, he was in something else. I remember seeing a movie and I can't think of what the name of it was, but to me, out of all of the people, he was the one that really kept going and doing things and, you know, making a name for himself besides Gilligan's Island.
Speaker 1:That's tough when you're on Gilligan's Island. They were just typecast. And the other thing that happened with the Gilligan's Island people is it was the first show to really go into heavy syndication and, like you said, you know guys like us would watch it in the seventies and eighties after school on repeats. But but prior to that shows would really only repeat the following year. You know, like the season ended and then over the summer they would show rerun and then it would be onto the new season and once it was off the air they were moving on to new shows. There weren't, uh, independent stations, there weren't enough channels to be running old content. But then when cable came around and more you know tv stations, then they were running stuff and the Gilligan's Island people didn't get paid for any of it.
Speaker 2:The actors, they only got paid for something like the first four airings of it and and that was in the contract because nobody ever thought they would air more than that many times wow, like yeah lawyers didn't even think to ask for more, because nobody had ever done that that's pretty crazy, but I mean, if you think about it, if it's never been done before, to think that that forward has to be difficult, has to be difficult.
Speaker 1:But it's hard. When they were typecast they couldn't really work because people said, well, we're not going to hire you. You're Gilligan, you know Right. And yeah, maybe, if we just want a one-off player that you're basically playing Gilligan, you know he had to do those kind of roles. Well, he was on the Far Out Space Nuts. You remember that show the Saturday morning live action show.
Speaker 2:No, I was going to say I've never even heard of that. I'm going to be honest, I thought he was. Was he in a TV show called Dobie Gillis?
Speaker 1:But that was prior to Right prior.
Speaker 2:I've never seen it so I don't know anything about it, but I was just thinking he was in that right.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, he was the main character. No, he was Dobie Gillis' beatnik friend, maynard G Krebs. Obviously you've seen it because you know a lot about it. He had a little goatee.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Kind of like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.
Speaker 1:Exactly like Shaggy. I think Shaggy was probably modeled after Maynard G Krebs.
Speaker 2:Oh, there you go. Yeah, so you had. You know, we talked about the millionaire and I can't say anything, but also his wife Lovey. I mean, that's all I can remember. Yeah, his wife Lovey, you know.
Speaker 1:Oh well, Thurston and Mrs Howell, Mrs Howell, I don't remember Ginger the professor, marianne the professor.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you're going to get deserted on an island, the professor is probably like the best person you could possibly have yeah. Yet they were still on that island.
Speaker 1:No, he would come up with a great idea, it would have one thing wrong with it. And then the next episode they would just abandon the idea Like no, you can try the raft again, Just don't, you know, do it that way. But no, they never did.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's why the show lasted for three years, because if they had done something again, realizing their mistake, and just made it better than the show would have ended.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they would have been like sorry, it's episode six and they got off the island.
Speaker 2:Bye and then there would have never been any problem with Gunsmoke, because it would all been over and it wouldn't have competed against the monkeys, and it would have set the world into a world of not syndication the way that we know it today.
Speaker 1:Wow, what they should have done is combine the shows and had Gunsmoke go to Gilligan's Island and have them just kind of battle it out on the island Cage match of sorts.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's some thinking. That's definitely some thinking.
Speaker 1:Note to self call NBC.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go. Well, I think, in all honesty I think it was on CBS. Monkeys were on NBC. That I know. Monkeys were on NBC. I'm know Monkeys were on NBC. I'm going to go with this was CBS. So in 1978, Little Roger and the Goosebumps recorded Stairway to Gilligan's Island. Have you ever heard that?
Speaker 1:I don't think so.
Speaker 2:So they used the words from the Gilligan's Island theme song to the music of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and I got to be honest, they did a really good job with it. I remember when the song came out I couldn't remember who sang it, I had to look it up. But I remember the song. That's why I've looked it up. I remember this Gilligan's Island song to Stairway to Heaven. Give it a listen if you can. Listeners out there check it out Again. It's Little Roger and the Goosebumps Stairway to Gilligan's Island. Let us know what you thought of it and mostly you know the effort that they put into it to make it similar to Stairway to Heaven and the thoughts. I just think it's really cool. So please listen, let us know, jimmy, you listen, let us know on the next episode For sure.
Speaker 2:So let's fast forward 10 years to January 1974, and Happy Days debuted on television, taking place in 1950s and early 1960s. Milwaukee, wisconsin. Place in 1950s and early 1960s. Milwaukee, wisconsin. Introduced the world to Fonzie, richie Potsie, ralph Mouth, joni, arnold, al and countless other characters. I mean I could sit here and name a million people, but that's most of them, though.
Speaker 2:It's most of them yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean Chachi's, the only one I'm thinking that you left out.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, you had Leather.
Speaker 1:Tuscadero.
Speaker 2:Leather Tuscadero was played by Suzy Quatro Right. So Suzy Quatro, who actually had hit songs, ended up being on the show, and I have to be honest when she was on the show.
Speaker 1:I had no idea she had hit songs.
Speaker 2:Did she sing a song on the show? Hit songs. Did she sing a song on the show? She didn't just sing one. I'm going to say she sang through different episodes. I'm going to say she sang between five and eight songs on that show. We'll have to check it out, but that's my guess. She sang a bunch.
Speaker 2:I like to hear them I like Leather Tuscadero better than Pinky Tuscadero. I like Leather Tuscadero better than Pinky Tuscadero. So Jefferson High School, that's where they went, the fictitious—I'm assuming it was fictitious, you know. But they had those blue high school jackets. Yeah, you know the Lettermans with the big J on it. You know Arnold's Drive-In later became Al's Drive-In, the jukebox there. You know Fonzie'd have to hit it sometimes to get it started. I mean, that was some good television to me.
Speaker 1:I still refer to it as Fonzie maintenance when I go up to something and try to fix it by just banging on it with my fist.
Speaker 2:Really, yeah, look at that 50 years later and you call it Fonzie maintenance. I like it. Hey, there you go. The opening theme was originally Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and the Comets, but they re-recorded it for the show, so it wasn't the original 1954 version. They re-recorded it in 1973 for the show.
Speaker 1:But it was still Bill Haley right.
Speaker 2:Still Bill Haley. It wasn't all the Comets, because actually one of the guitarists from the original Comets, right after they recorded the song, was killed.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 2:So this is the current Comets in 1973. They changed to the song Happy Days by Pratt McClain and that peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1976. And part of that went goodbye gray sky, hello blue. There's nothing can hold me when I hold you, Feel so right. It can't be wrong Rocking and rolling all week long.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I didn't sound so poetic at that time.
Speaker 1:I still, I would give you poetic, I would say Well, thank you.
Speaker 2:So the show was filmed in front of a live studio audience and Tom Bosley, who played Mr Cunningham, he would always say that as the show was going, and that's when cast members you know they show up the first time in the episode and the crowd just starts cheering and you know carrying on and everything. And I always liked that. I liked things that were filmed in front of a live studio audience, off of that and they could feel the vibe if something was going good, you know, if they sang a song or they did this and you know that's just so much better to me than the canned laughter that you get from sitcoms, true, you know. So I talked about them singing on the show. We talked about Leather Tuscadero, I would say Potsy, who's played by Anson Williams, I would say heatsy, who's played by Anson Williams. I would say he sang in at least 50 episodes of that show. Wow.
Speaker 2:And I remember Joni, played by Aaron Moran, and Chachi, played by Scott Baio. I remember them singing a bunch of songs together, them singing a bunch of songs together. I don't remember Joni singing alone. But then when Chachi joined the show, all of a sudden they were doing like duets and stuff. Even Mr Cunningham belted one out. Every once in a while he would sing some old time song. But you know, every time I hear Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino, or Put your head on my shoulders by paul anka, it reminds me of different scenes from happy days but those were both potsy right.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, yeah, I remember those the blueberry hill.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it would be potsy, richie and, uh, ralph. You know they would do it together but potsy would sing these potsy, actually, head on my Shoulders. That's the episode where he, the band, you know him, richie and Potsy. Potsy, richie and Ralph have a band and they're practicing and Fonzie says, you know, you got to practice. And he's looking in Joni's eyes and she, you know, falls in love with him because he's singing.
Speaker 2:Put your Head on my Shoulders like taking it, you know, literally, and it's a funny, funny episode because she falls asleep and then actually has a dream that she marries him. So it's kind of cool. I mean it was a good show, really good show. I enjoyed it. Remember the scenes.
Speaker 1:But we know that Joanie loves Chachi.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that didn't do so well. She supposedly did not want to do the show, she didn't want to leave Happy Days because she just felt that was working. She liked those people, she liked that group and she was kind of forced to leave and she ended up coming back for the last season after Joni Loves Chachi did not do so well and was canceled. So remember the sayings you mentioned, one before A, a yeah, what about? I am the Fonz.
Speaker 1:That's a saying. Yes, I didn't know that was a saying.
Speaker 2:I am the Fonz.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, do you remember he would say that Well, there you go, sit on it.
Speaker 2:Sit on it.
Speaker 1:Sit on it, of course, which?
Speaker 2:he would say, but then it just started to become something that everybody on the show would say or as whoa, you know, yeah, and I remember my brother having a shirt you know we're like in elementary school and it had a picture of Fonzie on the front and it you his like thumbs up and at the top it said hey. And then I don't know if it was on the side or underneath it says I am the Fonz, I just I want that shirt so bad yeah, I mean, I always remembered that shirt that he had.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was just a great time, great show.
Speaker 1:So I feel like the word cool you know as a as a kid. I was like five years old when Happy Days first premiered, or six, and that was the first I'd really heard the word cool used much in common parlance and so to me that was a big part of Happy Days was that they called things cool, like oh the Fonz is cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean they did, and you know they would call certain people nerds and oh nerds, that's right yeah.
Speaker 2:You know these different things and it just was. It was a cool show. Now the show was about, you know, I would say, the life that my parents lived when they were kids, because they, you know, not necessarily kids, but when they were younger, in the 50s and then going into the 60s. You know, they might have been a little bit older than what those characters were, but that was kind of what their life and what they were going through when you saw, you know that world. But I loved it. I just thought it was so cool, loved it, loved it, loved it.
Speaker 1:I can't get enough. America loved it.
Speaker 2:I mean, do you remember, fonzie? He got on his motorcycle and he jumped the trash cans and it was like this big thing Is he going to make it.
Speaker 1:It was huge and it was so good that then they tried to get him to jump a shark on water skis.
Speaker 2:And what ended up coming from that Jump the shark? Another saying that nobody realizes it has to do with happy days yeah. Another saying that nobody realizes it has to do with happy days, but that is it.
Speaker 1:So I saw a little thing about that and Henry Winkler said that his parents met Gary Marshall, the creator of the show, and they were bragging about Henry and said, oh, have you seen him water ski yet? And Gary says I didn't know you could water ski. And Henry's like, oh my God, now he's going to make me water ski yet. And Gary says I didn't know you could water ski. And Henry's like, oh my God, now he's going to make me water ski on the show. And sure enough they wrote that episode where he's skiing with a bathing suit and a leather jacket.
Speaker 2:Leather jacket.
Speaker 1:And he has to jump a shark.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, crazy, crazy, crazy. And so jumping the shark or jump the shark, the saying is. I guess it's about when you run out of ideas or something sort of to that effect, that—.
Speaker 1:When something's past its prime.
Speaker 2:Right Past its prime that you just come up with anything. That's what it is, and it's just so funny that all these years later, it still holds true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, like you said, most people have no idea that it's from happy days.
Speaker 2:So if I ever come in here in shorts and a leather jacket, the time is up.
Speaker 1:I'm going to make you water ski.
Speaker 2:There you go. Hey, speaking of Gary Marshall, remember Penny Marshall Of course. So Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, I think her name was.
Speaker 1:That's right, laverne and Shirley.
Speaker 2:They were on the show. They were on Happy Days First, before they spun off onto Laverne and Shirley. We talked about Joni Loves Chachi, and then Mork. Yes, mork was on the show. I think that might have been his first time acting. Now, he was a comedian. I knew who he was as a comedian. We used to watch on HBO or you know whatever channel at the time his you know comedic routines.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think would he be on the Tonight Show and stuff. He would be on the Tonight.
Speaker 2:Show. Yes, he would do all these things. And here this was his first acting experience, I believe, on Happy Days, and then ended up taking it, you know, as a spinoff to Mork Mindy, and then we know all the movies he ended up doing and he ended up becoming an actor more than he was a comedian.
Speaker 1:That's right. I remember that Mork episode because what you did on Wednesday morning, you know, after Happy Days, laverne and Shirley night, you got to school and you talked about the show. That happened last night because every person in the world watched Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. It felt like and it was the biggest deal when the Mork episode came on that everybody just thought that was the coolest, funniest thing. That guy Mork is the greatest character, and so then we were all so excited when we heard he's getting his own show.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was like nothing else. I mean, he was so bizarre. You know, mork for Mork.
Speaker 1:Mork for.
Speaker 2:Mork, it was something else. So the show started in 74, like I mentioned, it ended in 1984. And then in 1994, weezer released the song Buddy Holly, where the video is a tribute to Happy Days, showing the band and clips of the show, and the song itself is great. We've talked about the song before Adding the video and to me it's just a masterpiece. The video by Spike Jonze is insane. The work that they put into it and it's just so good. If you haven't seen the video and I hope you have I mean, it's been around for 30 years, won all kinds of awards at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. What was funny is a bunch of the cast members did not want their likeness used and Fonzie was like one of the first. That kind of was like all right, yeah, I'll do it. And then David Geffen reached out to Anson Williams and you know just different people and they finally got everyone to agree to actually be in it and I'm sure they're happy that they were in it because the video was just amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and for people that don't know it, you know it was an actual scene of the band playing in Arnold's restaurant from the show that they did this amazing, seamless kind of thing where they turned it into Weezer playing at Arnold's and they put vintage footage in mixed with new stuff and it was amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Al Del Vecchio said that Weezer was from Kenosha, when they're actually from LA, but Al is from Kenosha. Ah, so these happy days are yours and mine happy days. With my birthday coming up, I decided to look up the least and most popular birth dates in the US. The least and most popular birth dates in the US and per Kathy Morris at Zippiacom, because that's where I looked it up. The 10 least popular birth dates in the US Number one December 25th, christmas. Number two January 1st, new Year's Day. Number three December 24th, christmas Eve.
Speaker 1:Number four, July 4th, my son's birthday. July 4th yeah, Independence Day. So the hospital here in Atlanta known as the Baby Factory Northside Hospital there are always so many people giving birth at any given time. We were one of two families in there having a child that night.
Speaker 2:That shows you Number four, July 4th, least popular birth date, hey. But you know what? He won't meet many people that have that birth date.
Speaker 1:It's a great birth day.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1:They put up fireworks and nobody else gets presents.
Speaker 2:There you go, I like it. I like it. Number five, january 2nd. Number six, december 26th. Number seven, december 26th. Number 7, november 27th. 8, november 23rd. 9, november 25th, because they're all related to Thanksgiving, depending on what week it falls in any given year. And then number 10, october 31st, halloween. Those are the 10 least popular birthdates. Most of it has to do with doctors and nurses. They are on PTO, on vacation. They're doing less cesareans, c-sections, you know just different things like that that are rolled into it. People don't want to have, you know, that done at that point in time because it's a holiday season. Nine out of the 10 most common birth dates in the US are in September. This kind of blew my mind.
Speaker 1:Well.
Speaker 2:So I'm not going to go through all the dates, but number one through number five, all in September. Number six September, july 7th. So they try and avoid July 4th as much as they can, but July 7th, boom. That's when we're going to schedule the C-sections, that's when everybody's back from vacation. Let's do it. Interesting I think Ringo Starr was born on July 7th, if I'm not mistaken, and then 7 through 10 are in September. It's just crazy to think how that works like that.
Speaker 1:But see Ringo Starr being from England, they wouldn't care if it was 4th of July.
Speaker 2:They would not, but he was still born on, I believe, July 7th. That was very good. So I started attending Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York, in the fall of 1984, 40 years ago. City, New York, in the fall of 1984, 40 years ago. In October, while walking to class, I see the Public Image Limited PIL logo drawn on the sidewalk in chalk and had the date 11-11-1984. And it seemed like every day I was there. When I was walking to classes there were more pill logos on the sidewalks all over campus. This was their advertising for a show at the student union in the basement. I couldn't wait to go to the show. I thought this was just so super cool that they're going to advertise by having people write in chalk and I'm not just saying like they wrote it, they actually made you know the pill.
Speaker 1:They drew the logo.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, the logo, and they put a lot of effort into it. Yet I never saw anyone do it, but I saw them all around and to be able to see John Lydon, the former Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, he didn't disappoint, it was so good. You know, there's only a few hundred people that can fit into this place. They played a bunch of songs from their latest album, which was this Is what you Want, this Is what you Get Bad Life. Tie Me to the Length of that. This Is Not a Love Song, some older pill songs like Annalisa and Public Image. When they played Public Image I was just like this is just unbelievable Love. That song. It was so cool to see it played live and in the student union, like I said, there was only a couple hundred people. I mean, he's probably, you know, 40 feet from me, that's how close I. You know I got up there. And then two Sex Pistols songs, bodies and Anarchy in the UK.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, I didn't realize they would do those.
Speaker 2:And it was a wow moment for me. I'm still 17 years old and I'm saying to myself I just saw the Clash in April and now here I am seeing I'm still calling him Johnny Rotten I'm seeing Johnny Rotten.
Speaker 1:He went back and forth with the name.
Speaker 2:He did and I just was like I thought it was the coolest thing, Like I had seen some really cool things in 1984. And that was definitely one of the moments. If we shoot up to 2024, ELO, Jeff Lynn, you remember Electric Light Orchestra?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I saw them October 12th and they played at the State Farm Arena here in Atlanta and it's the over-and-out tour, so it's supposed to be the last time that they're playing. It was really good. I know some people that had seen the last tour that he was here and they weren't overly thrilled with it. I thought it was good. I thought he did a really good job. But you know songs that everybody knows Evil Woman, do Ya?
Speaker 1:Telephone Line.
Speaker 2:Telephone Line. Living Thing. Turn to Stone, don't Bring Me Down and Encore's Mr Blue Sky, I just thought it was fantastic he has done so much. We could talk about him forever with all of the people that he's produced being in the Traveling Wilburys, just all kinds of things that he's done. And I really like Jeff Lynne and I'm really glad I got the opportunity to go see that Guess what time it is.
Speaker 1:What time?
Speaker 2:It's. Music in my Shoes Mailbag time Music in my shoes mailbag. So from our podcast checker, sue Ann, referencing our last episode Matthew Sweet was in the film. Oh God, I can't even read my own handwriting Ready One more time. Matthew Sweet was in the fictional band Ming T in the Austin Powers movie.
Speaker 1:Yes, he was.
Speaker 2:I forgot about that. Barry Manilow also wrote the theme song to American Bandstand Bandstand.
Speaker 2:Boogie, and he sang it too he sang it and it was the theme for 37 years. I had totally forgotten about that. Thank you, sue Ann. And from Randy on Long Island, new York, talk about remembering something old and learning something new. When you and Jimmy were talking about New York groove and you couldn't off the top of your head remember the songwriter. I didn't know either. I decided to look it up. Oh oh, named after former Zombies keyboardist Rod Argent. Turns out Russ Ballard is quite the prolific songwriter. Hey, when you write into us, if you could use words that are a little easier for me to pronounce, that would be fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, keep them to two syllables folks.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you, randy. So he was quite the prolific songwriter, along with New York Groove Ace Frehley, 1978,. He wrote Liar 1971, for Three Dog Night. You Can Do Magic. 82, by America Since You've Been Gone, 1979, by Rainbow. I love that song. That's a really good song. Winning 1981, santana. I don't think most people know that's Santana. That almost sounds like something that you would think is like Jefferson Starship or a band like that. Not Santana. I mean, in my opinion I do. I know there's something going on in 1982 by Frida, formerly of ABBA, that was a cool song.
Speaker 2:I like that. I think it's the way that they you know the whole beat of it. It's really cool. I like that. I think it's the way that they you know the whole beat of it. It's really cool. And the song was produced by Phil Collins and also featured Phil Collins on drums.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:Quite a few catchy tunes there and I really love Since You've Been Gone and Winning Really enjoyed episode 51,. Keep Up the Good Work, Randy. That's good stuff. I learned something new. Jimmy learned something new. A lot of good songs there. Thank you very much. We do appreciate it.
Speaker 1:I was at a restaurant last night and they were playing Back in the New York Groove.
Speaker 2:Were they really. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1:Music in my shoes mailbag.
Speaker 2:I don't know about you, jimmy, but I'm having fun on this episode. It feels like we're just. We're in the music in my shoes groove, yeah, going, going, going.
Speaker 1:Let's keep it rolling.
Speaker 2:Let's keep it rolling with Minute with Jimmy. It's time for Minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy.
Speaker 1:It's time for Minute with Jimmy, minute with Jimmy, minute with Jimmy. So we're going back 35 years to 1989. Bob Mould, formerly of Husker Du, puts out his first solo album. That's entitled Workbook. And it's such a cool departure for him because Husker Du was always known for really hard-edged kind of post-punk music and this is a chance he really stripped back and had a lot more of an acoustic sound. The first song on the record is just this very almost classical acoustic instrumental piece that he does, called Sunspots, and then he hits you straight out with like three of his greatest songs Sunspots that's the first instrumental. Wishing Well, heartbreak, a Stranger, see a Little Light all three of those songs just classic Bob Mould songs and the whole album. It's one of those that every song on it is good. You can just leave it on and listen through and it was cool to find out that this guy has another side to him. He's now, over the years, gone all different directions to him.
Speaker 2:You know he's now over the years gone all different directions and you're right about that, jimmy. It is cool when you do see different sides of people. I know sometimes people want you know their singer or their guitarist that they love to be the same. I don't think that it's any fun for musicians to be the same that they were five years ago, 10 years ago, 20, 30, you know as you go on. So it's kind of cool to see another side that you like, that you can enjoy that side of them besides what you're used to. I really dig that with different musicians when they do that.
Speaker 1:Me too.
Speaker 2:I'm going to give that album a listen Do it yeah. I will. My name is Jimmy. So, speaking of albums, pulp fiction soundtrack september 27th 1994. This was released in september, a couple of weeks before the film's release. It's a great soundtrack. Jimmy, I know that you're a huge Pulp Fiction film fan.
Speaker 1:Also a huge soundtrack fan.
Speaker 2:We talked about, you know, the movie and Shawshank and Forrest Gump, and I think Forrest Gump ended up winning Best Picture. And you know, looking back, it probably shouldn't have, you know, as you look back through time, but the soundtrack to me, the soundtrack is similar to Forrest Gump. The soundtrack to me, the soundtrack's similar to Forrest Gump From the standpoint back in 94, you know, people weren't making a lot of their own CDs yet. That wasn't, you know, something that was happening. So to have you know this group of different musicians and different music genres that you could listen to on one CD, or the double CD of Forrest Gump, was just absolutely so cool because I think at that point we were still listening all the way through. We weren't, you know, hitting the yeah you know, let me hit the.
Speaker 2:You know fast forward or whatever it was. So you know, Miserlew by Dick Dale and the Deltones what a way. I mean just the opening chords for that soundtrack. It is so cool.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean, it's a song that I'd never heard before. I don't know if you had, but it was such a cool way for him to set the tone of that movie.
Speaker 2:Oh, without a doubt, jungle Boogie by Kool and the Gang Love it. I did not know that song very well at all until it was on this soundtrack. I absolutely love that song.
Speaker 1:Me too.
Speaker 2:Let's Stay Together. By Al Green Bustin' Surfboards by the Tornadoes. Now, the movie has nothing to do with surfing, if you're listening and have not seen the movie before. And I think he just kind of picked out music, or music was suggested to him because they were just cool songs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's weird how well they work with the movie. You know you wouldn't have chosen that. He was so unique.
Speaker 2:Yeah, without a doubt. Lonesome Town by Ricky Nelson, son of a Preacher man, dusty Springfield. You know I'm not going to name all of them and every time I say that I always do you Never Can Tell with Chuck Berry, great song.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's from the dancing scene too at the restaurant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the big dancing scene that people all know. Girl, you'll Be a Woman. Soon Urge Overkill. I mean, that was a hit on the radio. That was a big song, you know, originally done by Neil Diamond. The song that I really, really love on this album that I had never heard before If Love is a Red Dress, hang Me in Rags, maria McKee. What a song. I mean. It's one of those songs I've talked about plenty of times. I love songs that it sounds like they're singing it from their heart, like what they're singing about happened to them, it's about them, and those songs I love them. That's a perfect example to me. Just love it. Comanche by the Rebels, flowers on the Wall, the Statler Brothers. I didn't know that song. I could listen to that song all the time. Now, though, I love it, I do.
Speaker 1:And I think was that even paired up with like the Gimp scene or Bruce Willis like getting away or something, it was like such great usage of that kind of quirky little country song.
Speaker 2:That's great usage of that kind of quirky little country song.
Speaker 2:But you know, surf Rider by the Lively Ones, and then it had this dialogue that was sprinkled in on the soundtrack and you know what was it? The Royale with Cheese and personality about a pig, and you know all these different things. So it made it really cool to listen to the soundtrack. It definitely is super cool and, again, by putting all those different things together, so much different than what you can do today you know, you stream, you can save it, you can make playlists like instantly, it wasn't something that you could do back then. And so to have all these different pieces of music from different times and different ways of life, because most people that listen to surf music weren't listening to Ricky Nelson or listening to, you know, urge Overkill, you know. So it just is cool how they put it together. Like you said, definitely like that album and again, I know you love the movie. Like that album and again, I know you love the movie.
Speaker 2:On October 25th 2024, phil Lesh passed away. As the bass player for the Grateful Dead, he helped forge the San Francisco sound that became the Grateful Dead jam band sound. He could play bass that was so different than what others would play. It was like he was on a totally different level, hearing things in songs that would make us expand our minds so that we would start to hear them as well. From 1970s American Beauty album, and with Phil on lead vocals, box of Rain is a truly an amazing song. What do you want me to do, to do for you to see you through? A box of rain will ease the pain and love will see you through. Thank you, phil.
Speaker 2:That's it for episode 52 of Music in my Shoes. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios. Show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios located here in Atlanta, georgia and big 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 let you hide now.
