Music In My Shoes
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Music In My Shoes
E61 Cabbage Patch Dolls Keep Fallin' on My Head
What happens when a sudden ultimatum forces you to find a job overnight? Little did I know, this path would soon involve me in the Cabbage Patch doll phenomenon, handling name change requests and birth certificates amid the craze. Reflecting on these times, I ponder how the digital age has revolutionized the way we tackle tasks and access information.
Get ready to wander down memory lane through the late '70s and early '80s, as we reminisce about discovering music through workplace radios and those nostalgic K-Tel compilation albums. We'll explore how song length plays into streaming stats and feel the psychedelic folk-rock vibes of Sid Barrett's "The Madcap Laughs."
We look back at the first #1 song of the 70's "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" and its connection to the film 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.' It's the 40th anniversary of John Fogerty's "Centerfield" and believe it or not he was sued for sounding like himself. Let's reconnect with the musical tapestries that shaped our tastes. It's a celebration of musical diversity and the enduring impact of unexpected tunes on our lives.
"Music in My Shoes" where music and memories intertwine.
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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 61. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. In January 1985, jimmy, I decided not to re-enroll at NASA Community College.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Now, all these years later, I kind of wish that I had stayed with it, but I didn't. Years later, I kind of wished that I had stayed with it, but I didn't. When I went home one day and said I was not going back, my parents were not very happy. My father says I'm an adult now. I'm out of high school, I'm 18. And if that's the decision I want to make, that's okay. But have a job by tomorrow or be out of the house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:And it wasn't as clean as what I just said. It was a lot different. So I had to go search for a job and have a job by the next day. I mean, the one thing about my father is if he said something, he meant it. He did not tell you something that he did not mean, right? So I'm not really sure where to go look for a job. That wasn't, you know, in my like toolbox of things to do. Oh hey, this is how you do it. And someone never had a job I did.
Speaker 2:I was working at a flea market. I worked at a flea market for five years on the weekends and seasonal on Wednesdays, at Roosevelt Raceway Flea Market. It was horse racing during the weekend, certain days, I don't remember, and then when they weren't doing the racing, they would have this flea market there and I made decent enough money that I didn't have to get like a job at a regular place. I worked long hours on the weekend, but it was worked out well for me, good. So someone suggests to me to go to a temp agency and they're like you'll get a job, you'll have a job by tomorrow, you'll be able to stay at home, you'll be able to live at home. So I said okay. So I go to temp agency and I get an assignment and the next day I'm going to be working. So I go to this place and again I hadn't been in an organized institution of working.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I was at a flea market, you know, you kind of know what that's like. It's very unorganized, it's very different. So I go to this organized place and the first job that I have there is taking chocolate and putting it in like this little tiny box with like these different pieces kind of making, making, like a kit that's being sent somewhere to get people interested in something. I honestly don't remember what it was. And I'm like this is all right, you know I'm getting paid, I'm just doing it. It was a little boring, but you know I'm doing it. And then they said, hey, you seem to be doing good at this. Now I'm saying to myself not just then, because I say it today, because I think about it I wasn't really like working hard and yet I was doing good. So I'm like what were some of the other people doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you were showing up, I was showing up.
Speaker 2:I was showing up, I was on time. You know I wasn't hungover, I was just, you know, doing, I guess, what you were supposed to do for work. So they said they're going to move me to a different part of the company I was at. I said, yeah, that's fine, Sounds good.
Speaker 2:And so what I started to do was do you remember the Cabbage Patch dolls, the Cabbage Patch doll craze back in the 80s? Well, if you didn't like the name of your Cabbage Patch doll, you would send it in with the name you wanted to change it to. That would come to where I was now working in New York, and then we would do something, and I honestly don't remember a whole lot about what we did, but you would send your address and then we would send a birth certificate back, because, if I remember correctly, the Cabbage Patch dolls all came with a birth certificate with whatever their original name was, and it would say they were born on March 9th blah, blah, blah, blah, and their name was Brittany, daniel or whatever it could be, and the really old ones were signed by the guy that made all of them and he was from Georgia Really.
Speaker 1:So those are have always been huge collector's items. If they, he signed them on their butt.
Speaker 2:Really. Yeah, I didn't know that much about it, so it's in in Cleveland, georgia is. Babyland General Hospital I think that's what it's called, and it's still there. I think that you can go there and visit and see different things.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you can yeah.
Speaker 2:So again, 40 years ago, it's different. Today you want to do something, you go online, you go on your phone, you go on your laptop and you can just look anything up and get things done, like okay, yeah, back then you had to send in your information. You know if you remember commercials, you know if you wanted something, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, A three by five card.
Speaker 2:A three by five card. Yes, so we would get these and there was a bunch of us it wasn't just me, it was like a room full of people, that's how many of these birth certificates would come back and we would take the names and change them and then we'd send it to somewhere where they would create the new birth certificate to send off. Like I mentioned, they needed to send in their address and they didn't always do that. So I remember saying, hey, what do you do with the ones that don't have an address? They're like, just make a pile of them. Maybe they'll write us one day and say they never got it or whatever but, there's nothing you can do.
Speaker 2:So I started making this pile and the. You know, the first day I'm like man. There's a bunch of people out there. You know, I'm assuming most of them were young kids that were getting the babies, I mean the you know the cabbage patch dolls, right. And the second day I'm like man, I'm getting a lot of these. So I came up with a great idea. I didn't want them to go to waste. So what I did is any of my friends that I knew their address, I changed the Cabbage Patch doll names to their names and I had them mailed the birth certificates to their house. But then, like the third day, that wasn't fun anymore. So now I decided I'm going to send Bono Vox and I sent that to friend of the show, chris Cassidy and Stevie Nicks to another person and anybody that I, if I knew your address, you were going to get, you know, a Cabbage Patch Doll birth certificate with either your name or musician that you liked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2:I was the guy that was doing a good job and you know I've never forgotten that job. I mean it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:So did you work there for three or four days?
Speaker 2:No, I worked there. I didn't work there that long, you know, I worked there. I didn't work there that long, you know, I finished up. There was like a, you know, after Christmas is when everybody would get the cabbage patches and then they'd send in the stuff and it started to die down. And then my dad, the person who had said get a job or be out of the house, he actually got me a job where at the company he worked. He worked in the computer side of it and he got me a job over there and that's a story for another day. The Cabbage Patch thing, like you know, I can't believe it, but in 1996, when the Olympics were here in Atlanta and I had a young daughter, I bought one of the Cabbage Patch dolls and I was like telling everyone yeah, I used to be the guy that you'd send the certificates to if you wanted to change the name. I didn't think I'd still be talking about it in 2025, 40 years after.
Speaker 1:That's a pretty good story though.
Speaker 2:Isn't it? I think it is.
Speaker 1:Does anybody still have their you know, stevie Nicks birth certificate? You know.
Speaker 2:I checked with a few people and when I mentioned it, a couple of people were like, yeah, I do remember that, but they couldn't say that they still had the certificate or whatever. I think it's you know, think for them it was a novel thing. Again, I was 18 at the time, so the people that were getting these were 17 or 18 years old and it's you know, oh, this is kind of cool, but it's not necessarily anything that you hold on to, right.
Speaker 1:So my friend Matt had a similar thing in college. He, I guess, kind of like didn't make grades and I think that was the story. Anyway, he came home and was like well, mom, I'm not inm. And he's like what are you doing? She said we're going to work. She drove him down to the chicken processing plant and she had lined him up with a job and he started out like mopping up all the chicken parts off the floor and that sort of thing and he pretty quickly decided he wanted to go back to school.
Speaker 2:I bet.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I bet that he did.
Speaker 1:But if he'd had a cabbage patch job and you know, maybe he wouldn't have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I tell you, I still laugh. I mean, I know, I just said it, I know I'm repeating myself, but I was the guy that was doing a good job. I mean I wasn't doing a whole lot, you know. Yeah, again, it just blows my mind low bar yeah 40 years later, here we are still talking about it. Yeah, jimmy, have you looked at your year-end results on your streaming service that you use to listen to music, like where they you know?
Speaker 1:take a look at everything my Spotify wrapped.
Speaker 2:Yes, where they take a look at everything in 2024 and kind of break it down and so forth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it took me a while to get mine. I don't know why, but I had to get on customer service with them and they finally got it to me.
Speaker 2:But you didn't have to write to someone that was going to be in a different state that would have to look it up. You were able to—.
Speaker 1:I didn't have to send them a 3x5 card and a self-addressed stamped envelope.
Speaker 2:Because it's different times.
Speaker 1:now it's different times I got on chat with somebody that I'm not entirely sure was human and they fixed it.
Speaker 2:I don't think most of those people are human. When you do the chat, you're talking like the little bubble pops up.
Speaker 1:The bubble?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think they are.
Speaker 1:They had a name, though you know what kind of AI has a name.
Speaker 2:Bill.
Speaker 1:You know him.
Speaker 2:So talk about yours, tell me a little bit about yours.
Speaker 1:So I listened for 7,852 minutes, which I'm guessing you listened for more because you have more time in the car than I do that is true. My top song was oh Shoot by the Libertines.
Speaker 2:A great song off the album that we both thought was probably one of the best albums of 2024.
Speaker 1:My top songs were. Four of them were off of that album Night of the Hunter songs they never play on the radio. And Run Run, run, run, run Run. You might recognize from episode one of Music in my Shoes 60 episodes ago. That's right. The only other song in my top five that's not from the Libertines album is a 30-year-old song called Friends of P by the Rentals.
Speaker 2:Of any song in the world, that could be the fifth song, Friends of P. That just blows my mind, Jimmy.
Speaker 1:I love that song. Yeah, I just love it. It's my happy place when I want to ride home on a Friday afternoon listening to something fun.
Speaker 2:So, jimmy, mine my number one song Going Through your Purse by Material Issue, by Material Issue. Number two Honeysuckle Blue Drivin' and Cryin'. Number three Run, run, run the.
Speaker 1:Libertines.
Speaker 2:Number four Teen Angst what the World Needs Now by Cracker. And number five Violet, by Hole.
Speaker 1:All right. So several of those are people that have been on the show.
Speaker 2:You know to an extent or topics that we've talked about on the show.
Speaker 1:Well, we had the pedal steel player from Cracker.
Speaker 2:We did.
Speaker 1:We definitely did, and Kevin Kenney himself from Driving and Crying.
Speaker 2:And we talked about Crackerer, uh, seeing david lowry live um. We had ted ansani from material issue and we talked about um courtney love and hole when their album came out in april of 94 so, uh, it says that the Libertines.
Speaker 1:I was a top 3% fan of the Libertines.
Speaker 2:And I would believe that, because I can't believe that the Libertines album didn't chart like in the top 10 or the top 20 or the top 25 of any charts. And I'm talking about NME, I'm talking about uncut, I'm talking about paste, I'm talking about everybody you can think of. I looked in everything and they didn't, and I don't know how that's possible. I don't either. So that alone, because of how much I know you listen to them, that makes me believe that is a true statement, that you are in the top 3%.
Speaker 1:Well, my friend Trey Carter owns a record store in Carrollton, Georgia, called the Vinyl Frontier and they had all of their people that work at the store give their top records of the year and Trey himself put the Libertines all quiet on the Eastern Esplanade on there.
Speaker 2:That's a good guy. Yeah, you should probably shop at his store, if you don't.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Well, I'm not playing much vinyl these days.
Speaker 2:You know, if you whisper, he still can't hear. You Don't tell Trey, I don't listen to vinyl. Yeah, if you're loud or whisper, you can't tell. Okay, there you go. What else you got?
Speaker 1:Oh, my top artists number one, libertines, ramones, which surprised me. I love the Ramones but I don't feel like I listen to them that much. But they were number two. The Kinksinks number three, the beatles number four, and bash and pop number five bash and pop being tommy stinson from the replacements bass player.
Speaker 1:It's his uh, solo project and I just I love them so much. I listen to every single one of their songs on a regular basis and I kind of had built up in my head that oh, they're popular or a lot of people know about them, and I was reading, just kind of looking up, reviews and things and they're not very well critically acclaimed, but I think it's some of the best stuff out there. I really love it.
Speaker 2:Well, it shows by being your number five on Top Artist.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean next to the Kinks and the Beatles. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go, my Top Artist number one, the Grateful Dead, number two, the Rolling Stones, three, dead and Company, four, u2, and five, the Beatles. Now, the one thing is is that when it says top artists, it's by how many minutes you play. You know each of these bands. The Beatles, most of their songs are under three minutes and their early stuff is closer to two and a half minutes, where the Grateful Dead, I don't think, has you listened to one song last year.
Speaker 2:They don't have any songs that are two or three minutes. When you listen to it especially when I'm listening to the live songs, they're songs that are 12, 15, 20, 25 minutes, just for one song. So it's a little bit skewed. I think maybe it should be more based on plays than it is the actual minutes. Because of that, it might change things yeah.
Speaker 2:So, speaking of minutes, I listened to my streaming service for a total of 49,179 minutes in 2024. That's a lot more than me, than me and that you know I do spend a lot of time in the car. Um, I do try and do some, you know, research of albums before the. You know the show. I want to talk about something and I listen to it because I want to see does it sound as good as I remember it sounding? Does it not sound as good? You know, I I definitely do that, but I also I listen to a bunch of CDs and I listen to satellite radio also. So 49,000 plus, you know that's pretty cool. Again, I don't think I listen to the most, you know. I'm sure there's listeners out there that listen far more than I do.
Speaker 1:I bet you're way up there though, in the percentile you think I would think so.
Speaker 2:Well, does it tell you? It does not? Okay, it does not tell me, but what I will do is tell you. I'll finish up here with my five top albums. Number one, freak City Material Issue. Number two, sandinista by the Clash oh great. Number three Going Through your Purse Material Issue that's the live album that came out after Freak City. Number four All Quiet by the Libertines. And number five, kerosene Hat by Cracker.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:So I think that's pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very good. It's kind of surprising to me that two material issues made it and no Beatles or Rolling Stones made it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it is kind of surprising, but I'll listen to, going through your purse, the song I listen to that over and over. It's my number one song, so that keeps getting plays on that album, you know. So it kind of you know makes it skewed a little bit.
Speaker 1:It's kind of your friends of P.
Speaker 2:I guess it is. I guess it is. So hey, let's revisit some music from the past. Since we're talking about music from the past, former Pink Floyd founder Sid Barrett released his first solo album, the Madcap Laughs, on January 2nd 1970. It was only available in the UK and it wasn't until 1974. The album came out in the US and they didn't release it in the. He actually releases another album in 1970. They don't release both those albums until Dark Side of the Moon comes out and it's a hit. So they release both of Sid Barrett's albums together. Remember how you used to be able to buy a cassette, and one side of the cassette would be one album.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the other side of the cassette would be the other album, mm-hmm. It's kind of, and one side of the cassette would be one album, the other side of the cassette would be the other album. It's kind of what they did with Sid Barrett here. So after getting kicked out of Pink Floyd in January of 68, he had some mental issues and some heavy LSD usage and the two of them combined definitely was not good. He records tracks in the spring of 68. And then in 1969, he's got several different producers and I kind of look at this album as psychedelic folk rock. The problem is is it comes out in January 2nd 1970. It's like almost two years after when it needed to be out. Does that make sense? Like when he's recording it? It's for that time.
Speaker 2:But now things have changed. You know Music's kind of gone in a different direction, but some of the songs I mean it's a great album and it's one of those albums that a lot of people say that you have to listen to. This album it's. You know, a lot of artists love this album. But the song Love you, dark Globe, which is a song that David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, him and Roger Waters actually produced that song and David Gilmour, I think on his last tour not the one that he just had in November, but the tour before he actually played that every night on the tour he was doing Another song. Here I Go, octopus, and the standouts for me, you know, are that. But it's really a good album if you listen to the whole thing all the way through, and there's no question about it. When you're listening to it you're like there's something off about them.
Speaker 2:You'll know, as you're listening, you know. So the cover of the album is Sid and I guess, like a squatting position, he's on his bedroom floor. The cameraman is taking the picture. You know I'm trying to squat, I'm bending down low.
Speaker 2:I can't see you yes, I just realized that. And the cameraman's low from the floor, kind of taking it like a kind of a bit of an angle up and sid, painted his floor purple and orange like stripes. Purple and orange stripes, specifically stripes, purple and orange stripes, specifically for the album cover. Shoot, all right. So nothing else in the room except for like a vase with flowers next to them. Very different album cover, very different album, and indeed the madcap laughs album, and indeed the Madcap Laughs. Last episode we were talking about the first 10 videos shown on VH1, and the 10th video was the Naked Eye song. Always Something there to Remind Me. Jimmy, you mentioned it was written by Burt Bacharach. Yes, and we were discussing it if it was a cover or not. Oh yeah, so I did some research on it and the songwriting team of Bacharach and Hal David wrote it in 1963. Oh my gosh, yes, and guess who recorded the demo?
Speaker 1:Austin.
Speaker 2:Powers.
Speaker 1:Okay, no, that's not who I saw Paul McCartney.
Speaker 2:No, okay. Dionne Warwick recorded the original demo of the song Cool 1964, it reached number 49 on the Billboard charts for some guy named Lou Johnson, and several others recorded it before Naked Eye's version came out in October of 82. So that leads us to the first number one single on the Billboard charts in January 1970. All right, so this is the first song of the decade of the 70s performed by BJ Thomas and another song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
Speaker 2:Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, oh yeah, written for the 69 Western film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Outlaw train robbers. You know, they're on the run, you know, and I try not to give the movies away because sometimes I know people actually go and watch them after we mention it. But you know it's kind of a Western but there's funny parts, there's kind of. You know they do put a little bit of humor into it. So it's a little bit different but it's good. Raindrops keep falling on my head, but that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turning red.
Speaker 2:The song plays in a scene where Paul Newman is riding a bicycle with his love interest and her name was at a place in the movie and they're on a bike and when they're on this bike, like there's no stunt doubles I don't think it's them and he's riding the bike and she's on the handlebars and then she's sitting on the side you know the bar between the handlebars and the seat like easily could have got hurt, like I don't think they would do that with actors today. You know it's riding in like a farmland. You know topography that's the first time we've used that word on Music in my Shoes, but it amazes me like what they do. It's actually fun watching the scene, because I just don't think you would see that happen today. And they're playing the song while this is happening.
Speaker 2:Now, again, this is a Western, the song is about rain and it just doesn't seem to make sense. It's, you know, like no one thought that this should be in the movie. It's, you know, like no one thought that this should be in the movie. Paul newman, or you know he was like. Or robert redford, one of them was like yeah, I don't really think this should be in there. All these people, except for baccarat and the director, they're like it's perfect and people like what? But if you think about it and you listen to the words. The song is about being free and here, as he's riding the bicycle he's not on the lam, you know. He's not on the run from the law, he doesn't have people coming looking for him for the train robberies. He's actually free at this moment on the bicycle and no matter what happens that, he's just going to be happy and nothing's going to bring him down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very, very cool when you think about it. So the song wins the oscar for best original song. The song that nobody wanted in the movie. Yeah, yeah, in 2004, the American Film Institute had a 100 years, 100 songs thing that they put together. Raindrops came in at number 23. Wow, on Billboard's Hot 100 from 1958 to 2018, it ranks at number 107. This is a song and we've talked about this different times. People didn't like the song, they didn't want to release it as a single. They didn't want and it just absolutely overwhelms people and they love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that was at a time when a lot of stuff was a lot more edgy. You know, hard rock and, uh, you know you'd already had maybe the beginnings of of metal, even with, uh, you know, black sabbath was starting around that era and hendrix and you know, and, and literature and movies and everything were just kind of into a darker direction than they had been maybe in the 50s.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And then you have this happy little you know song like that, and I think it was just a mismatch, but people were ready. They were like yeah, we love that, particularly, like my parents loved that song.
Speaker 2:I love that song too, jimmy. Yeah, starts off with the ukulele. I'm drawn into it. It's got my attention. I love the words. Crying's not for me, because I'm never going to stop the rain by complaining. Because I'm free, nothing's worrying me.
Speaker 1:Another spoken word gem.
Speaker 2:There you go. So 25 years later, in 1995, manic Street Preachers released the cover of the song. It was one of the first recordings for the band after the disappearance of their lyricist, richie Edwards, on February 1st 1995. He was to fly to the US to promote the band's latest album. He checked out of his hotel in London. He leaves his suitcase and some other items there.
Speaker 2:Two weeks later, his car was found near a place called Severn Bridge, which is a known suicide site. His body was never found and in November 2008, he was declared legally dead. He could have been declared legally dead, I think, in 2003, but his family was holding on to hope and they were just like maybe, maybe, maybe. But finally they declared him legally dead in 2008 because for different legal reasons, especially a person in a band and money and all kinds of things. Yeah, so while BJ Thomas' version of Raindrops sounds like a happy-go-lucky guy who isn't going to let anything get him down, the Manic Street Preacher's version is sung more in a. We're going to keep moving forward. We're going to find a way how to deal with this kind of tone Same words, two different singers who are singing from their heart, and it gives different perspectives and it's really cool. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that.
Speaker 1:I'm not no.
Speaker 2:It's really cool when he starts to sing it. It it seems like it's going to be kind of the same as bj thomas, but then it gets to the point where you could hear him. You know it's almost like he's just saying from his heart we're going to figure out how to do this and stuff, and I just think that's super cool. And it's just funny that in 95 they did it. That's 30 years ago, which is 25 years after BJ Thomas did it. So you know, when you look at it that way, it's just 55 years later and we're still talking about it. And speaking of still talking about things, because we know Jimmy likes to talk about things it is Minute with Jimmy. It's time for Minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy. It's time for Minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy Minute with Jimmy.
Speaker 1:I'd like to talk today about the 45th anniversary of the 1980 album K-Tel Rock 80. I got this album in 1980. K-tel was a mail order compilation album thing you'd see ads for on TV. Just listen to the track listing on K-Tel Rock 80 and see if you want to laugh again. Gary Newman, cars Pretenders, brass in Pocket, sniff in the Tears Driver's Seat. Laugh again. Gary newman, cars pretenders brass in pocket, sniffing the tears driver's seat. Nick low, cruel to be kind. Joe jackson, is she really going out with him? Pat benatar, heartbreaker blondie, call me ramones. Do you remember rock and roll radio? The knack, my sharona cheap trick. I want you to want me blondie one way or another. Pat benatar, we live for love and m pop music. That's a pretty. I Want you to Want Me Blondie One Way or Another. Pat Benatar, we Live for Love and M Pop Music. That's a pretty good compilation album. Talk about yeah.
Speaker 2:I think I had one called Radioactive, and it was probably from 80 or 81. So did you actually have this album?
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, wasn't it great Again to be able to get a bunch of songs that you liked in one place? Back then was like a tough thing to do.
Speaker 1:It was a tough thing to do Because you would have to buy all of the 45s, which were like maybe $1, $1.50 each then 1980.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 1:But you could get this record for $8 that had 16 songs that you liked on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, K-Tel put out some pretty good stuff. They really did. They put those compilations out. Whatever kind of music you liked, they put a compilation. Pretty good stuff they really did they put those compilations out? Whatever kind of music you liked, they put a compilation out for you. Yeah, they were smart the people behind the whole K-Tel thing and getting the rights to put all those songs on an album was a very difficult feat.
Speaker 1:I'm sure that was very difficult because I don't know if you remember I mean kind of before our, our time, but they used to put out compilation albums in the 60s that weren't the original artists. Yes, you know.
Speaker 2:So they would this was the actual songs yes, and that is a really good album. I mean, you're talking about stuff from 79 that you know it was released and maybe it was, you know, crossed from 79 to 80 or whatever.
Speaker 1:They said I think 10 of the songs were from 79 and four of them were from 80.
Speaker 2:But that's a great album. Yeah, I like that. That's a pretty awesome Minute with Jimmy. Thank you, you're welcome Minute with Jimmy. So, jimmy, let's move up five years.
Speaker 2:January 15th 1985, the Commodores released the song Night Shift. Now, lionel Richie wasn't with them, there was a bunch of different band members. I don't know all the changes, but it was a tribute to Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson and it peaked at number three April 20th 1985. And both of them died in 1984. It was, to me, a fantastic song. I absolutely loved it and one of the reasons that I think I loved it so much is because I listened to it a lot. So I talked in the beginning of the show about that.
Speaker 2:I was working Cabbage Patch Dolls and then I ended up working at a place where my father had, you know, got me an interview and got me a job in a place and there was music that was piped in. So we had to listen to all the same music Originally when I got there. It changed later and we listened to like a top 40 station and I got to hear a lot of music that I never would have heard. And this is one of those songs that I heard a lot and you know I couldn't change the channel. It was in a different area that I heard a lot. And you know I couldn't change the channel. It was in a different area.
Speaker 2:And I remember this song and at first I was like, oh, this is all right, and I'm like I can't tell my friends I like this song. This is not anything what I like, but working there gave me the opportunity to really expand my musical knowledge on a lot of stuff. Again, like I said, that I never would have heard before if it wasn't for that. I still love this song. I mean, I talk about it because I like it. 40 years later I'll still listen to Night Ship. It's still as good as it was when it came out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always liked the song too, and very similar reasons that there wasn't much on pop radio that I liked in 1985. But that was something that, if that was on, I liked that song right. Yeah, I wasn't going to go out and buy it, but I liked it. And right around that time I worked at a blimpy sandwich shop and we had a stereo in there that nobody knew where it was. Nobody that worked there knew where the stereo was, because the owner knew. If we knew where the stereo was, we were going to turn it to our station, right, but he wanted it to be playing Fox 97, which at that time was all 60s, was that Randy and Spiff.
Speaker 1:That sounds right. They were on there eventually. I don't know if that was right those years, but yeah. So they eventually went to a 60s, 70s, 80s model. But I learned so much about 60s music from being forced to listen to Fox 97 at work Because I never would have known all these great 60s pop songs and things like the Zombies. There's just so much of that stuff, so hats off to the workplace radio so much of that stuff.
Speaker 2:So hats off to the workplace radio. Oh, I agree with you a hundred percent. I mean 100%. What ended up happening is, I think, that the sound something happened to it, I don't remember so then it became something to the effect of everybody got to listen half a day. So I might have Monday in the morning and then another guy would have after lunch to the end of in and play what we wanted to play. And you know, every day, you know twice a day, you would get all this different stuff. And I learned a ton.
Speaker 2:I worked with a guy that was from Jamaica and you know, I'm thinking I know all this Bob Marley stuff. I'm like super cool, and like this guy's playing stuff like I've never heard before. Yeah, and I can't even understand anything that they're saying. And you know I play my music and he would be like, oh, jimmy, man, I can't take that. You know it was funny. But you know, what ended up being really cool is then he would make tapes. I'd be like, hey, I kind of like that song, philip, or that. And now I had this guy, this Jamaican guy, making tapes for me that I would listen to when I was at home and it just that whole expanding of music definitely happened at this place. Now I don't want to move on to the next topic until I go back to you working at Blimpie, because I think Blimpie was the best sandwich shop ever.
Speaker 1:It's the best. Uh, now, the thing about blimpy is I don't think they had the quality control. From franchisee to franchisee I would sometimes go into another blimpy restaurant and the quality wasn't nearly as good as the one that I worked at really the one I worked at. It was all boar's head meats, everything was top of the line and we did everything by the book and everything was fresh and it was really good sandwiches. And then I'd go over to another one. Even in Atlanta there was another one three miles away and they use processed turkey and cheaper cheeses and it just didn't even taste the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you're right, because that Boris had fresh meat was just fantastic. Oh my God, I'm wanting to eat a sandwich right now. It was so good. I loved when my parents said, hey, why don't we get Blimpie? Tonight we got the coupons and we can buy this and get this, and it was fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the hardest day at Blimpie was always onion day when we had to cut the onions for the week. Because if you think your eyes water when you cut an onion, try cutting like a 15 pound bag of onions. It's the whole place Like. Everybody in the place is crying.
Speaker 2:I believe it. I don't do well with onions when people are cutting them. Same day as Night Shift was released, another album came out, john Fogerty, centerfield, january 15th 1985, also His first album in nine years and he plays all the instruments himself and he does a really good job. When you listen to the album I've listened to some albums like mccartney too he plays all the instruments and it sounds like it yeah, but when you listen to center field it doesn't necessarily have that feel you think other people are playing. First single, the Old man Down the Road, debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 late December of 84, peaked at number 10 on March 2nd 1985. It's his only single, only single in his solo career to reach the top 10.
Speaker 1:That blows my mind and isn't that the song that he got sued?
Speaker 2:that is the song that he got sued. His former music label owned the rights so he wanted to get out of his contract and I think in 1980, he said because he didn't know any better, he didn't know what things would come to all these years later. But he says you can take the rights, I don't have to do any more albums for you. I don't have to do Creedence, I don't have to do John Fogerty, I don't have to do anything. I don't particularly like you and I want nothing to do with you. And that seemed the easy thing to do when you're a young rock star. You think that you have this future and you can do whatever. Bad decision because somebody else was making all this money off of John Fogarty. So he gets sued for basically plagiarizing himself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it sounded like Run Through the Jungle, right.
Speaker 2:Run Through the Jungle. So he actually brings his guitar to court and he plays the songs and he talks about how people will say that this band, all their songs sound the same, or this type of music all sounds the same, but their ears can't tell the difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He sits there and plays the songs and has people listen and he wins. Oh, good for him. Now what he does is he wants all of his court costs reimbursed because he said it was a frivolous lawsuit. Right, he wins, and the amount this is. I don't know exactly what year the lawsuit was, I can't remember off the top of my head, but he ends up getting over $1.3 million back in court costs. Can you imagine that's how much money he had to spend because they thought he was plagiarizing himself? Yeah, it's insane.
Speaker 2:It really is. And the single center field peaked at number 44, june 29th 1985. It's crazy how things work out because it's his lowest charting song from this album, but it's his most known solo song, isn't that just absolutely crazy? I mean, put me in, coach, I'm ready to play. I've been to a bunch of baseball stadiums that have played the opening hand claps and or the entire song, still 40 years later. If you go to Truist Park, you hear it a lot.
Speaker 1:You hear it a lot.
Speaker 2:Look at me. I can be center field and right now I can be first base, I can be second base, center field, I can be wherever. But unfortunately that is the end of the show, episode 61 of Music in my Shoes. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios located right here in Atlanta, georgia, and former Blimpie employee, and to Vic Thrill for our podcast music. This is Jim Boge and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live life and keep the music playing, thank you.
