Music In My Shoes
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Music In My Shoes
E53 Hatful of The Amityville Horror and Veruca Salt
Ever wondered what ties together horror, history, and harmony? Journey back with us to 1974 as we recount the eerie events and unravel the stories that transformed a house into The Amityville Horror, inspiring books and film alike.
But fear not, as we transition from terror to tunes, indulging in the nostalgia of music that unites us all. Remember when ZZ Top’s “Cheap Sunglasses” blasted through your speakers, or when Neil Young and Crazy Horse delivered a mesmerizing mix of acoustic and electric on “Live Rust”? We reminisce about the universal language of music through these groundbreaking albums. The Smiths' "Hatful of Hollow" also makes its mark as we dive into their collective brilliance that captivated fans worldwide.
As the episode draws to a close, we look back at Veruca Salt's 1994 "American Thighs' album and unravel the unexpected connections between artists. Discover how a phone call from Chicago to Los Angeles became an integral part of an iconic track, illustrating the interconnectedness of the music world.
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 53. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something. Old Jimmy, are you familiar with the Amityville Horror? Yeah, well, I'm glad that means we can talk a little bit about it.
Speaker 1:I mean barely familiar, because I never saw it. I was scared of scary movies. I still am. I don't like seeing scary movies, but I knew enough about it because I was a kid when it came out and everybody talked about it. I saw some scenes, maybe I saw a little bit of it on cable.
Speaker 2:It's funny saying that you saw it on cable. Cable that actually ages you when you say I saw it on cable, yeah, because things don't have cables anymore. Those days are all done, things don't have cables anymore.
Speaker 1:Those days were all done. We had a rigged cable box that we weren't paying for the movie channels, but I'd fix the chip inside of it. Really, yeah, all you had to do was bend some prongs on this one chip and put it back in and you got all the channels.
Speaker 2:I think the statute. What is it? Statute of limitation? What is the word? How do you say that?
Speaker 1:Statute All. What is it? Statute of Limitations what is the word? How do you say that? Statute All right, the Statute of Limitations is probably up by now. I hope so, because this is going out to the world, I know.
Speaker 2:It is going out to the world. Speaking of going out to the world and I know that we're you know I brought up Amityville Horror Four more countries have started listening to us since episode 50. So we're at 53 countries. So maybe one of these countries has something to do with other chips and prongs, and all of that so that people can watch whatever they want to watch.
Speaker 2:So if you don't know about the Amityville Horror, it's a 1979 movie. It's based on paranormal events at a house located in Amityville, new York, and it all starts on November 13th 1974, which is 50 years ago, and six people were shot dead around 3 am. A mother, a father, four children ranging from 9 to 18 in ages, and they were all found in their beds. Early evening, 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr, also known as Butch, goes into a bar saying he needs help, that someone had shot his family. He convinces some of the bar patrons to come back to his house and they see the gruesome scene for themselves. Now if someone runs into a bar and I happen to be there or a restaurant or whatever, and says my family was shot, I need you to come to the house with me. I would think you'd call 911.
Speaker 1:That's what you do, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, say yeah, let me go with you. And that's my thoughts, and maybe I'm wrong. I think you're agreeing with me, Jimmy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now, although in 1974, I don't know if they had it in New York, but in Atlanta we didn't have 911 yet. Really, yeah, I actually looked this up recently because I was trying to tell my son that we didn't have 911 when I was little and he was like really, and I looked it up and it was rolled out in different parts of the country, in different cities over a period of like 15 years or something and I don't think Atlanta got it until the mid to late seventies.
Speaker 2:Wow, I did not know that. I learned something new. I like it. So they do call the police. So they do call the police and the police come and this Ronald DeFeo Jr Butch. He tells the police he believes a mob hitman killed them and they take him to a police station for his own protection. But as they're talking to him he starts to have these inconsistencies, his story starts changing and then by the next day, november 14th, he confesses to killing his family himself. His trial begins in October 1975. And his lawyer's defense strategy was insanity, which I think that's a pretty easy thing to go for. Insanity, right, you know, november 21st 75, he's found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder and on December 4th 1975, he's sentenced to six sentences of 25 years to life for each one of you know his family members that he had killed. The house where the murders took place remained empty until George and Kathy Lutz bought it, moved in December 18th 1975. So literally just after he's sentenced.
Speaker 2:Did they know about it. They did because the real estate agent told them about it, to just to make sure that they knew beforehand and that they didn't get caught up on some technicality after buying it. Right, I think that you have. You know, full disclosure about things and so forth. But they did know and they said that they were okay. But they did know and they said that they were okay. This is when the alleged paranormal events begin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, I'm getting scared right now. By the way, this is creepy.
Speaker 2:Really, yeah, wow. A voice saying get out, green, slime and pig-like eyes outside a second-story bedroom window that were red, red and so on. Just all kinds of crazy things. Yeah, january 14th 1976, the lutzes leave the house. The next day, movers come to the house, take all their belongings but they don't see anything funky, no problems. Nobody saying get out, no pig-like eyes, nothing at all. I don't know of any other homeowners that went through anything like that. In anything that I've ever heard or read, no one had any of those same situations, shall we say.
Speaker 2:1977, the book the Amityville Horror is published. 79, the film comes out based on the book. Now, growing up on Long Island, new York, as kids we were all aware of Mount Misery in Huntington, or the Devil Worshippers House as we called it in Massapequa, or the Amityville Horror House, and there was quite a few nights that we would drive to one of them. It'd be this thing like hey, let's go here and drive and do this. Even my kids had been asking for a very long time to go by the Amityville Horror House and I finally did four months ago, and as we drove by we slowed down but they didn't want to stop. They're like taking pictures with their phone, but we're not stopping. You know, even though it's 2024, it's 50 years after the murders Ghosts don't care.
Speaker 2:So one of the things is that when the movie came out, if you look at the posters to make it look a little creepier, to scare people like yourself, jimmy, it had like a chimney fireplace that went up into a chimney and it kind of made it look a little more demonic. I guess you could say there is no chimney, that was just added for the effects. Hmm, all right, the two I like windows. They've been replaced, They've just regular windows, so it doesn't look like a house is looking at you, right, and as a kid I remember that I remember going to it and you'd be like, wow, the house is looking at me.
Speaker 1:Okay, it had that kind of barn. Look to it. Yes, it did.
Speaker 2:And it's funny because you look at all that but you don't realize on the backside of the house, the other end it's not really the back, it would be the other end of the house it goes out to water and boats and all kinds of things. There's a whole different world on the other side and all you know is what you see when you're on that street and you're looking at it. So, while the Amityville horror is based on the Lutzes, 28 days in the house only 28 days. In my opinion it's kind of suspect, to say the least, because no one talked about anything beforehand, no one talked about anything after and, as a matter of fact, some of the people that lived there said they had no issues in their time, that they lived there. But what is real is that six people lost their lives 50 years ago, and that's the real horror of the whole thing to me.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:DeFeo. He died in prison in 2021. And not a minute too soon. Last episode I mentioned seeing Jeff Lynne's ELO in concert. Recently, as I was walking to get the train home, after I met this guy, jim, and his wife, and we just started talking about music and bands and shows and that's what I like about music. I mean, it's what I love about music that you can start a conversation with someone you've never met but you have something kind of in common with them just from the show and it's like, hey, have you seen this band, or have you seen this band, or I'm starting to listen to this group and so forth, and you listen to their stories and they're listening to yours and you walk away with, oh hey, I got to listen to this, or I got to check this out, or that sounds like it was pretty cool. Do you ever find that happening?
Speaker 1:with you. Oh, yeah, yeah, all the time.
Speaker 2:I think it's just really, really cool and I mean we ended up you have to take a couple of trains. We were waiting for the one train. We got on the train, you know, and we kind of went separate. We got off the train and then we're right back together and we're talking about different things and I mean it was just a blast. It really was, and I hope other people get to have that same sort of enjoyment when going out and stuff. And you know, I definitely picked up some things. I heard some good stories, some good shows. Um, I think everyone should have that, that opportunity to to talk to people that they don't know when they're going to a show. Right, you know, because music is not a competition. You go to a sporting event. You might talk to someone that's from a different you know rooting for a different team, and maybe you don't have anything in common.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, that can be fun too, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it can be. It can be fun if you're a team one, that's true, but music, on the other hand, it's just cool to talk about. I love it. So let's revisit some albums from the past. Speaking of music, let's go to November 1979. Zz Top and I think I'm pronouncing it right. If I'm not, jimmy, you step in here Deguaylo.
Speaker 1:I really don't know if that's right or not.
Speaker 2:Well, we're going to go with it, all right, all right. First song is is I thank you, which was originally a sam and dave song from 1968, and I love the zz top version. It peaked at number 34 on the billboard hot 100 in march of 1980. I'm bad, I'm nationwide. That's on the album. Yeah, just a funky blues number. Billy gibbons' guitar work is really on. I mean, I just love that song, manic Mechanic. I don't know if you're familiar with that song. So Manic Mechanic, he sings with Billy Gibbons, sings with this voice that you remember on TV if they wanted to hide someone's um who they were and they would have that voice.
Speaker 2:That's the voice he sings with and he got it from watching an episode of Phil Donahue and he started calling up the producers like, hey, I want to sing that, how do I do it? And they were like we don't know who you are. And finally they said, okay, this is how you do it. And he sings this song, manic Mechanic, in that voice. It's a pretty cool song. I've always kind of liked it.
Speaker 2:Cheap sunglasses, rock and blues, great song to sing along with and I remember it being on the radio a lot. But it only got to number 89 on the Billboard Hot 100, which just really makes me think because of I Thank you got up there in the top 40, but Cheap Sunglasses, one of their biggest songs, didn't. That's weird, you know, really, really weird. And the choice is up to you because they come in two classes rhinestone shades or cheap sunglasses. I like the cheap sunglasses, jimmy.
Speaker 2:Back on episode 43, we spoke about the Neil Young and Crazy Horse album Rust Never Sleeps. Five months after it came out, neil and the band released Live Rust in November 1979, a double album that starts off acoustically on side one with Sugar Mountain and includes After the Gold Rush and my, my, hey, hey Out of the Blue Side two opens with when you Dance. I Can Really Love and I really like that song. I think that's a fantastic song, really liked listening to it. Between the loner and the needle and the damage done. You hear an announcer telling people to get off the towers and then a no rain chant begins. That announcer and that part is actually audio from the Woodstock concert in August 1969. For some reason they decided to put it on this album. It doesn't make sense why they did it, but when you listen to it it sounds really cool. It really does, you know.
Speaker 1:They probably wished that they had used it before, and it's like, well, put it on this one.
Speaker 2:There you go. Next song is Lotta Love, which Nicolette Larson recorded as her debut single peaked at no 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February of 79. She previously sang background vocals on a couple of his albums. I think she had a short relationship with him. Also. His version's okay. Her version was really good. It was one of those songs that was on the radio. It was definitely very different vibe when you listen to her version.
Speaker 2:Side 3, great versions of Powderfinger and Cinnamon Girl, and the Cinnamon Girl guitar solo was just awesome. Again, great guitar work. On side 4's Like a Hurricane and hey, hey, my, my and To the Black. And hey hey is the same version that's on Russ Never Sleeps, except on Russ Never Sleeps they removed the crowd, so the sound of the crowd. It's a really good live album. Now they play this a lot on the radio and I remember when it came out saying that sounds exactly like Rust Never Sleeps version and I could never figure out why. And then later on I found out it's the same song just without the crowd. Ah, so, but it's a really good album. Rust Never Sleeps is a really good album. Then, having this live Rust, I mean it was, you know, at that age where I'm. I mean, how old was I at that time? I was 12, I guess I was. You know, that was just a cool time to be listening to music, real cool time.
Speaker 2:The Smiths okay, hat Full of Hollow, released November 12th 1984. Now I knew a few of the songs, but this was the first Smith's album that I bought and I think it was an import when I bought it and some of the songs were from John Peel sessions, so it had to be good. You know, I'm like I gotta buy this cause it has to be good. Right, it was a compilation LP and Morrissey on vocals, johnny marr on guitar, andy rourke on bass, mike joyce on drums, opens with william it was really nothing, which is the first song they played when I saw them live at the beacon theater in 1985. The bass playing is just unbelievable how good it can be on this song and every song on the album and it made me, you know, just really really get into the smiths, because it wasn't just Morrissey's vocals and it wasn't just Johnny Mars guitar. I mean Andy Rourke on the bass was just absolutely fantastic the way he would play. It was just awesome.
Speaker 2:The original what Difference Does it Make is a good song, but I think the version on this album, which is from a John Peel session, is great. Each instrument is just so much better on here. The drums are just looser and make a fantastic beat for the song. It just it sounds like they're playing live in your living room when you listen to it and I just love it. I love. What difference does it make? It's definitely in my top 100 songs of all time.
Speaker 2:This Charming man another John Peel session. I could listen to the bass line by itself. It's that good. So if they said, hey, we're gonna just release this charming man, it's just the bass line, I would buy it. I just love it. I can't say enough. You know, unfortunately, andy Rourke passed away. I think it was 2023, and just some of the work that he did is just unbelievable. I think he played bass on uh, shanae o'connor's, uh emperor's new clothes. Um, he. He did it on a few other things I can't think of off the top of my head. How soon is now is probably the most known Smith song. Originally, the B-side of William is really nothing. It was released as an A-side single in November 1984 in the US and in 1985 in the UK. I am the sun and the air of a shyness that is criminally vulgar. I am the sun and air of nothing. In particular, how could you not like a song that starts with that?
Speaker 1:Good question.
Speaker 2:There you go. I was hoping you would say something like that. In 2021, rolling Stone named it number 421 on the 500 greatest songs of all time, and this song originally was a B-side to William. It was really nothing. It just shows you that you know record companies, labels, they want to put stuff out that they think is going to be good, and so many times the B-side or a song that was kind of thrown to the side ends up being the song. In 1990, soho sampled the guitar riff for their song Hippie Chick, and the band was okay with it. They said, yeah, you can do it. And then Love, spit Love, which was fronted by the psychedelic first singer, richard Butler his brother was in the band also recorded a version for the 1996 the Craft soundtrack Another scary movie, jimmy, did you see the Craft? No, I didn't see it either. Okay, but I think it was scary.
Speaker 1:So that explains why I didn't see it.
Speaker 2:There you go. Total of 16 songs on the album. I just touched on a few of them, but it ends with please, please, please, let me get what I want. A slower ballad appeared on the 1986 film Pretty in Pink. I think that's where it started to gain a lot of popularity, but it's a really good song. If you're looking to, you know, listen to the Smiths for the first time, hat Full of Hollow definitely is a good choice. You get a good range of different stuff. Speaking of good range of different stuff, we always get that. Whenever we have a minute with Jimmy, it's time for a minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy. It's time for a minute with Jimmy minute with Jimmy, minute with Jimmy.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm talking about the 35th anniversary of the B-52's album Cosmic Thing from 1989. The B-52s put out two albums in 1979, 1980. The first yellow album, you know, self-titled. The red album, wild Planet Just great, you know trend-setting kind of albums, had some big hits on them. And then 1983's album, whammy, whammy. I loved it but it didn't really have any hits. And then they had a really bad album called bouncing off the satellites. That was not very good. So cosmic thing was like boom, the b-52s are back. And it had love, shack and rome and deadbeat club and all these great songs on it. So I was really happy for the B-52s and I got to see them that year at Legion Field in Athens, georgia, when I was a student. So they did a free show for all the students.
Speaker 2:Very cool. I love the sound of that. I did see them on that tour also. I want to say I saw them. I think the Violent Femmes opened up for them when I saw them at I think it was Radio City Music Hall, if I'm not mistaken, and that was a great comeback album for them. You know, when that album came out I remember saying, wow, it's been years since the B-52s had something. You know good, because the yellow and the red albums are just fantastic albums and I like a few of the whammy. You know good, because the yellow and the red albums are just fantastic albums and I like a few of the whammy.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, legal tenders kind of cheesy I liked it, but you know it's good, the song whammy kiss, yeah, whammy kiss me, whammy hug, I mean. Hey, it's better than anything. On bouncing off the satellites that is correct uh, butter Bean was kind of a fun song, butter Bean yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's funny though, because, like I was saying in 89—, A song for a future generation.
Speaker 1:I really like that song.
Speaker 2:That is actually a good song. Yeah, that is. It's funny that it's 35 years later, because I remember when the album came out and I'm like like it's been years since they've had a good album. Now we're talking about this album. That's 35 years, right, you know, old in itself. B-52's a great party band, a great band, just things that they would do a lot of fun. I mean, I had a lot of fun growing up listening to them and my friends listening to them and where we would play. You know really the whole entire Red album.
Speaker 2:We would play that straight through when I was younger. Yeah, good times, good times, and that's a good choice for your minute with Jimmy.
Speaker 1:Thanks. I'll add one other thing. In the song Deadbeat Club they mentioned a few different Athens Georgia places from when they were. The song's kind of about them just being these kids in hamburger place and I played guitar there every Thursday night and so at the time that they put that song out, they were talking about the place that I was playing, which was kind of cool.
Speaker 2:That is very cool. That's like you feel part of the whole thing. Yep, I liked, and you know, by me there's an Atlanta highway and I know it's not what they were talking about in the song Love Shack, but there is an Atlanta highway by me and every time I see the sign get on it I always think of the song. No doubt about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people would point out where. That's where the Love Shack was. You know it was tucked way back in the middle of a field. It's a funky old shack and you got to get back.
Speaker 2:My name is Jimmy the field. It's a funky old shack and you got to get back. And with that let's move on over to September 27, 1994. There was a lot of good music to come out in 1994. We've talked a lot about it throughout this year and one of my favorite albums was the Veruca Salt album, american Thighs album, american Thighs I love that album. I still do. Yes, veruca Salt is a nod to the unruly child in the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Yes, american Thighs is a nod to the line from the ACDC song you Shook Me All Night Long. Oh yeah, I don't think there's a bad song on it. I think it's one of those albums that you can put on from the beginning and listen all the way through.
Speaker 2:Nina Gordon, luis Post both singers, guitarists, creative music that still sounds fantastic 30 years later. Their voices are as close to perfect as they can be. It's almost like they were made to sing together and that's just so cool. And the fact that one would write a song. They didn't write a whole lot of them together. It would really be Nina would write it or Luis would write it, and then they'd be like all right, I got this song and here we go and play it.
Speaker 2:Most popular song from the album was Seether, with its opening guitar chords and ow, and I think that's how people remember that song, first single released, peaked at number eight on the Billboard Modern Rock tracks. My favorite song on the album is number one, blind. It was the second single peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Monorock charts. Leveloir which of Us is Blind? Leveloir Left Me in the Dark. Leveloir, I Can't See a Thing, but you Is it Morning man. I just love those words. I think it's fantastic. I really love that song. I think it's fantastic. I really love that song. I love the bass throughout the song and the guitar solo, the words. Some of the other songs are All Hail Me, spider-man 79, victroler, twin Star I can name every song on here. Really really cool album and it's a glimpse of college and alternative rock radio from 1994 into 1995.
Speaker 2:Some fun facts about Veruca Salt American Thighs was produced by Brad Wood who produced the Liz Phair album Exile in Guyville in 1993, which was kind of a big album out at the time. And then right after that album, boom, american Thighs comes out. Veruca Salt play the stand-in band for Pavement in Pavement's video for Painted Soldiers oh cool, a song that appeared on the Kids in the Hall Brain Candy soundtrack. It's a pretty cool video, oh cool. And at the end you see Veruca Salt ending the video, singing it. You know, just, you know not really hitting the words when they should and stuff, but it's kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Nobody's in pavement anymore. Right, it's just them. Right, it's just them.
Speaker 2:And it's kind of cool because they get fired, like I think one scene they get fired they're with like their kids and you know it's just the nature of the music business. You know, it's just the nature of the music business. The 1997 Veruca Salt record Eight Arms to Hold you was the original working title for the Beatles film that eventually became Help in 1965. That was what it was called Eight Arms to Hold you. Bob Rock produced the album. He was the guitarist in the band the Paolas who sang the song Eyes of a Stranger from the Valley Girls soundtrack.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like things how they just come into all these circles. You know, louise Post was the inspiration for the 1997 Foo Fighters song Everlong. She was dating Dave Grohl and he wanted her to sing on the song, so he called her up. He wakes her up in Chicago. He's calling from LA. He has her sing some background and say some things, records it over the telephone to the studio and then puts it on the album and I just think that that's like crazy, but it's cool, it is. You know. Yeah, it's definitely cool to be able to do that. So I think Veruca Salt is tied into all these other things. It's like the six degrees of separation.
Speaker 1:There's no Kevin Bacon, but it's you know, I bet there is somewhere in there.
Speaker 2:I bet there probably is if I looked into it a little bit more. But on that note, that's going to be the separation for us. On episode 53 of Music in my Shoes, I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, 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, thank you.
