Music In My Shoes
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Music In My Shoes
E77 I Should Have Known Better, Glass Houses, and Damaged Goods
Music becomes a vessel for expressing feelings we can't put into words ourselves, as Jim recounts how he used a Beatles song to declare his teenage affection on a college radio station and how Billy Joel's lyrics helped him navigate heartbreak.
• Using Beatles song "I Should Have Known Better" to woo a girl via radio dedication at age 13
• Billy Joel's Glass Houses album as soundtrack to adolescent heartbreak in 1980
• Live concert review of Gang of Four's recent April 29, 2025 show at Variety Playhouse
• Meeting original Gang of Four members and REM's Mike Mills' surprise appearance
Whether you're nostalgic for the days of handwritten radio dedications or simply appreciate how certain albums become emotional lifelines during formative years, this episode reminds us that music doesn't just mark time—it helps us navigate life's most challenging moments while creating connections that span decades.
"Music in My Shoes" where music and memories intertwine.
Learn Something New or
Remember Something Old
Please like and follow the Music in my Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages and share the podcast with your friends on social media. 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 77. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. When I was in junior high school long time ago, I would listen to a show on a college radio station. I think I mentioned it once before. Every Monday night the Beatles hour was on Adelphi University's WBAU I think it was 90.3 on your FM dial and I learned so much about the Beatles because they kind of they would play things, I think in 1980, like you know, january 1st. They were playing what the Beatles or talking about what the Beatles did January 1st 1960. So the show was kind of like they would touch on a lot of different things from like 20 years prior.
Speaker 1:Sounds kind of familiar.
Speaker 2:It does sound a little familiar, doesn't it? But it was cool, I really did. You know they also played stuff from John, Paul, George and Ringo. Like their solo stuff, Most of it, I really learned from the show. Ringo, like their solo stuff, most of it, I really learned from the show. And they would do this like radiothon, like a yearly radiothon college radio station. They actually shared the dial with another college because they just couldn't afford to have their own. And you know you would donate money, you know, I guess, to buy records and you know whatever it is that you need to do to keep a radio station going. So for a few weeks before the Radiothon, the host would come on and they would say, hey, we'll play your song, donate however many dollars and I honestly don't remember what it was or if you give this amount of money, we'll give you. You know people donated albums. We'll give you this album, or or whatever. You know it wasn't a lot of money. It was 1980.
Speaker 2:You know you weren't doing a whole lot back then yeah so 45 years ago, this spring, I came, came up with this plan all right, and I don't remember if it was late April, it was early May, but it was right around now. 45 years ago, I liked a girl I'm 13 at the time.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And I'm not sure how to tell her that I like her.
Speaker 2:Mixtape At the time mixtape didn't register. That wasn't even a part of my whole music-cabulary, if I can call it that. I like it. So I decided I was going to write a letter to the radio station and I was going to put a few single-dollar bills in it and have them read the letter and get her to listen to the show on that night. Oh, and, that was my whole plan and what it was? It was the Beatles song I Should have Known Better, which is the B-side of A Hard Day's Night from 1964. I got the original 45 at some point, you know, within the last six months of this time, because my grandmother was cleaning out my aunt's room and all these records. She just gave them to me. So I Should have Known Better at this time. It's like a new song to me. So I should have known better at this time. It's like a new song to me. I've never heard it. I've been listening, you know, maybe six months, like I said, and I'm like this song that's a pretty good b-side yeah, it really is.
Speaker 2:Song by john lennon. Great harmonica, intro and outro plays a little bit throughout the song. I should have known better with a girl like you that I would love everything you do and I do. Hey, hey, hey.
Speaker 1:And I do.
Speaker 2:There you go. You know the song quite well, jimmy. So I wrote this letter and I don't remember everything about the letter, but it was kind of like hey, can you play this song? I like this girl Blah, this girl blah, blah, blah, blah. And they read the letter on air Great, the whole letter. Now, I was not. I'm not like now where I don't have a problem saying my name. You know this is the podcast and you know I'm wearing a shirt with my picture on it. You're wearing a shirt with my picture on it. I didn't want to be known at all, so I decided to sign it Beatleman. So you know, that was the best I could come up with. And oh, I didn't mention it was 8-track Johnny's sister. Okay, again, I'm 13 years old.
Speaker 1:Cassette Carrie.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, it was Music, mary. Okay, so it was just a time in my life where just things, you know, everything was new.
Speaker 1:So you wanted the courage to tell her that you liked her, but then, when you did this elaborate thing, you still didn't tell her who you were.
Speaker 2:No, but I had told her hey, listen, I listen to this Beatles show every week?
Speaker 1:Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:You really need to listen tonight. And it wasn't just like then, I think, that I told her maybe, you know, like the Friday before and then that Monday, all throughout school I was like, hey, you got to listen, you got to listen.
Speaker 1:you know she's like what's the problem here?
Speaker 2:She's my next-door neighbor too, so it's not like there's this big, huge difference. She's my next door neighbor too, so it's not like there's this big, huge difference. And you know, she listened and they read it and I got to be honest with you, I was embarrassed as they read the letter from a standpoint of for a 13 year old. To me, like this is radio, you know, and they're talking. Now they don't know it's me, but they were so impressed that I sent in I think I sent like five, maybe $3 or five singles, I don't remember, and that they're like you know, this young man, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:This goes out to Mary and then boom, the song comes on and I'm like this is just fantastic. This is like music is really cool because it can help me with a lot of things. You know that when I tell you that I love you, oh, you're going to say you love me too, oh. And when I ask you to be mine, you're going to say you love me too, and that was the song. You know, who knows what love is when you're 13,?
Speaker 2:You know, you don't know, but that was the song that got me and it wasn't initially, it wasn't like the next day, all of a sudden, you know we're dating. But as a few weeks went by, we started to actually date. She was my girlfriend, a 13 year old, you know girlfriend. Um, I think she actually turned um 14 in May, so I was 13. She was 14. Now it sounds like a Thomas Dolby song, but anyway, that's a whole other thing, you know. And we're hanging out and, you know, going to friends' houses and it was just cool to be able to show up and be like look at me. You know, I did this thing on the radio and now I've got this girlfriend, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it was pretty cool. So, about the same time, one of the big albums that was out in the summer of 80, spring 80, summer 80, fall 80, was Billy Joel, glass Houses. Right, and it had, you May Be Right. That was the first single Peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, may 3rd of 1980, 45 years ago. You May Be Right, I May Be Crazy, oh, but it just may be the lunatic you're looking for and I'm like man. This song rocks. I like this. This is really cool. So you know it starts off with a window being shattered. It's just cool, it's just something different.
Speaker 1:And, of course, the cover of Glass Houses has Billy Joel standing in front of a house, with these huge windows covering the whole front of the house, holding a brick right.
Speaker 2:Which is actually his house at the time.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Yes, I don't think he threw a brick through his own window.
Speaker 2:No, that wasn't necessary I think that they made a little, you know in-studio sound of the glass breaking. So that was the first single. Second one was it's Still Rock and Roll to Me. That was played all summer long. I mean that song was nonstop. It peaked at number one in July of 1980. Like I said, big, big summer song. Third one was Don't Ask Me why Peaked at number 19 in September and sometimes a fantasy at number 36 in November of 80. So it was really a year of Billy Joel, a year of Glass Houses. It was a really good album. It was different from a lot of the stuff he did before. 52nd Street kind of showed some change in him, you know, getting away from just like that piano sound, just the New York state of mind, which I love. Or the entertainer or Piano man started to make some changes, but this was like a real rock and roll record.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know listening to it a lot really helped me get through those awkward early teenage years like when Mary and I were no longer together, which wasn't all that long.
Speaker 1:That's the way it works. You know when you're 13.
Speaker 2:When you're 13. That's in all that long. That's the way it works, you know, when you're 13. When you're 13. And the song All for Lena from the opening piano, you know it just sounds like a song of distress and at the time I was in distress as a 13-year-old because this girl that I went out of my way to get stuff played on the radio now is not with me and I don't even know why. You know, you don't even. I think I only remember any of this is because I wrote the letter to the radio station. The music part is what makes me remember it.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure I would remember anything about it if it wasn't for that I remember the first time I got broken up with because it was kind of a big deal and she said she wanted to be friends and I was like, well, that's a pretty good trade-off, we can be friends still. But she was just being nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she was Jimmy. I'm glad that you know that. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen, that's how naive I was.
Speaker 1:I'd never heard the let's just be friends line before that.
Speaker 2:There you go. We've all been there, we've all been there. She stood on the tracks all been there, we've all been there. She stood on the tracks waving her arms, leading me to that third rail shock Quick, as a wink, she changed her mind, jimmy, right there. Billy Joel wrote that in advance of me and her breaking up and knew I would have to listen to the song that it would help me out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you write a letter to the radio station and have them read a new thing?
Speaker 2:I did not. But you know, I felt lucky enough that at the time you know, when you're 13, boy or girl, whatever you know, life is just changing. There's so much going on in your world. And lucky enough to have music, lucky enough to have this album that you know he was singing it and I talk about this often. He was singing it like it was coming right from his heart, like he played it like it was coming from his heart. He sang it like it was and I could connect to that. I could connect to man. He knows exactly how I feel. Yeah, I'm sure that at some point he did, you know.
Speaker 1:All right, yeah, it came from a real place.
Speaker 2:So, and I mean you know, I mean you remember those times. You remember the first time someone you know broke up with you, like you said, like they're tough, it's awkward, it's not easy, you know. Yeah. So now I'm in my room watching the tube telling myself she still may drop over to say she's changed her mind. Now I wasn't watching the tube, I was listening to music. And, yeah, she didn't change her mind. All right, that never happened. All right, some of the non-single songs, sleeping With the Television On. So that song starts off with the last few bars of the national anthem, I think it is, and then that sound of the going off air.
Speaker 1:Right, like a test tone or something.
Speaker 2:Yes, back in the day, tv stations would sign off like 12 midnight or 1 am, but at a certain point there were no stations on. It was done. You know, you had nothing to watch, you know, and it was just crazy to think that that's what used to happen and that doesn't happen. Now you have 24-hour, instant access to everything, everything, whether it's the television, it's your phone, it's the internet, whatever it is. I mean, it's just nonstop. 45 years ago it's like night, night time, everybody go to sleep, you know.
Speaker 1:Because they needed people there to run the TV station and they didn't want to pay an overnight crew. So it was like all right, we're done with the second shift. Here Nobody watches TV at night, you know, overnight anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think you're exactly right. You know they didn't want to pay anyone because nobody watches it, except the people that were sleeping with the television on, where you just hear that sound and you're looking at that funky looking screen. You know, right, I mean it's, I remember it. It's funny, like you know, right, I mean it's, I remember it. It's funny, like you know, you don't think about it, but as I was thinking about, you know, talking about this topic and you know these topics, it started to all come back and the sound in my ears and the whole nine yards, you know.
Speaker 1:The other thing that uh was tough is if you woke up too early. You know like I remember being a kid and getting up for Saturday morning cartoons is if you woke up too early. You know like I remember being a kid and getting up for saturday morning cartoons, but if you were up before 6 am the tv wasn't on yet nobody was working and the cartoons didn't really start till like eight or nine.
Speaker 2:Anyway, right yeah, no, you're right about that different times. It's a good thing that we're here to remember them. Some people might have forgot yeah or or never.
Speaker 1:Had to. You know, never live through it.
Speaker 2:We lived through it and we made it Close to the borderline begins with blackout, heat wave, 44 caliber homicide, and it's the New York City blackout of 1977, which started the first day of a heat wave and it was the last of the Son of Sam's victims in July. All this taking place in July 1977. All right, son of Sam, I believe started in David Berkowitz in 1976. The last of them was in July of 1977. But you had the blackout. All five boroughs went dark. The heat wave was unbelievable. I remember, jimmy, for the heat wave we had a room upstairs in our house. We didn't sleep up there, we slept outside on. We call them chase lounges. Yeah, that's what we did, because it was cooler to sleep out in the heat than it was to be up in our room. It was so bad, it really really was.
Speaker 2:Was Long Island all out too? Long Island was not out, but we still had the heat wave Right, and I remember that we were. We went to the beach because we were going to cool off. That we were. We went to the beach because we were going to cool off. Think about that Burning sand, the sun beating down on you.
Speaker 1:That was our answer to the heat wave that we're going to go to the beach.
Speaker 2:We went to Jones Beach. You can get in the water. You could get into the water but that the sun was still just coming down on you. But I remember, like the looting you know we could see TV because we had power. The looting was unbelievable. I mean, people just went right into buildings and were taking televisions and you know, whatever they could, and they didn't care if anyone saw them. They were good to go it was dark.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was dark. The only light was the television camera people, the lights that they had on. You know, you know how they used to have all those lights that they would turn on and it would now make it a brighter scene.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they still do that. I don't know if they do. Yeah, they do. Oh well, they have to have a light in order to shoot at night.
Speaker 2:Oh, I thought technology they could do anything, I don't know. But man, I mean the, the heat, the of the .44 caliber killer. It brings me all back. It really brings me back, listening to glasshouses. So I wait in the dark listening for her, instead of my old man saying stop kidding yourself, wasting your time. Whoa and Jimmy, I should have known better. Fun show so far, jimmy, I'm enjoying it. What about you? Me too.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what I think you're going to enjoy. If you look in front of you, there's a bag. Open that bag. Oh, that is a gift's a bag Open that bag. Oh, that is a gift from a listener.
Speaker 1:Wow, oh man, that is so cool. What is it, jimmy? It is a microphone. It's like a sort of a statue of a tabletop, old-fashioned microphone. It looks kind of like a Shure SM1, I think it is. And yeah, it's so cool. Who gave this?
Speaker 2:Listener Barry, who also gave us the 96 Rock bumper stickers.
Speaker 1:Which I'm looking at right now over here on top of my little table.
Speaker 2:We have something new to add to it. Oh, thanks.
Speaker 1:Barry Wow, yeah, isn't that pretty cool, incredible.
Speaker 2:Yes, barry, thank you very much. It looks very awesome. Speaking of 96 Rock, someone else brought in half of a 96 Rock card that they were doing yard work and they found it at their house as they took stuff up and they're like they've lived there for 17 years, so I thought that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:They knew how to make things back in the 80s.
Speaker 2:Yes, they did, and that was Jennifer, so she brought that in. I thought that was kind of cool. We're not going to display that little piece of card, but it's cool that when she saw that, that immediately thought of music in my shoes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, awesome, wow. Thanks again, Barry, that's so cool.
Speaker 2:Thank you, barry. So Jimmy Gang of Four, the band Gang of Four played at the Variety Playhouse last night here in Atlanta, georgia, and it was the Long Goodbye Tour and they were featuring the album Entertainment that came out in 1979. I think, if I'm not mistaken, it was about 29 episodes we talked about the album. That's a quick time ghost. It was 29 episodes ago that we talked about the album and I decided I'm going to go. It was a last minute thing that I was going to go. I went, I looked and then I looked at resale tickets and I was able to find one for half the price and I bought it. So I went. And because getting to the Variety Playhouse from where I live it's an hour and a half. It is not a picnic, it's no fun. Okay, it is not any fun whatsoever. Going home, it's an hour, but getting there is an hour and a half of just bumper to bumper traffic, wow.
Speaker 1:I'm spoiled. It's like down the street for me.
Speaker 2:I figured you were going to say something like that. Yeah, so I get to the, to the um Variety Playhouse. There's a you know like kind of around the corner, a little place to park. I go into park. As I'm parking, there's a friend of the show, kevin Kinney, paying for his parking. I'm like Kevin, there's Jim, you know I park. We end up just talking for a few minutes. It was getting close to the show time and I saw his wife was kind of you know off in the distance and he's like, hey, I'll see you inside. I said, yeah, sounds good, so get into the show. And it was so cool. There were so many old punk rock people there and a lot of them had difficulty walking and had canes and whatever very similar to when I went to see Dead Company. But it's so cool to see so many people that they still want to be out there and they still want to be part of the scene and what's going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, slam dancing takes a toll on a body.
Speaker 2:There was no slam dancing. I can tell you that there was none, but it does take a toll. It took a toll on everybody because they didn't do any of it whatsoever. So you know, they played a ton of songs. I'm not going to go through them, I'm not even going to go through a lot of them. But you know, ether Damaged Goods I found that Essence Rare. At Home he's a Tourist. I mean, I just love that song. I just love that song so much. It is just so different and it's just the words to the song. It's like I can't believe they have a song At Home. He's a Tourist, but it's a great song. Anthrax. I Love a man in a Uniform because they took a break halfway through because they were sweating so much they had to change their clothes.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yes, mike Mills, bassist of REM, joins the band on what we All Want and it was so cool because REM used to open up for REM and Pylon used to open up for Gang of Four. Back in the day when REM was you know, they were trying to make it and so forth and both bands became friends and they've stayed friends throughout all of these years and it was just really cool. Later on Mike Mills comes back out. He's playing guitar on both of them and they do a cover of the Velvet Underground's Sweet Jane. That was actually really good. A lot of times people play that it's kind of iffy. I thought they did a great job with it, really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 2:They finished off the show playing Damaged Goods a second time. As singer John King said, because we can and I was like that great, great song, you know, kind of reminded me of like bands early, you know late 70s, early 80s bands.
Speaker 1:They didn't have a lot of stuff and they play stuff and then they play that big song that hit or what they thought people want to hit, you know, the second time towards the end when, when Greg Wheat saw NXS on their first tour, they were playing at just like a bar in Atlanta and they yeah, they only had one album's worth of material, so they played. They just started their set over and played their big hit again.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what you got to do. What you got to do and I mean it really was cool because I can't tell you the last time I heard a band play a song twice, you know. So it was cool. And when they played it the second time, everybody was standing up. It was like really one of the first times everybody, sweet chain, most people were up, but by the last song, damaged goods. The second time everybody was standing up. So there's a big fan in the variety playhouse. Okay, a lot of warehouses have them to kind of cool the place off, but they have one inside the variety playhouse up on the ceiling.
Speaker 2:And for me, as I've gotten older, when there's wind it really bothers my eyes, dries them out and they start to tear a little bit. I'm not going to lie. Well, this big fan is going and as Mike Mills is playing, I got my phone out and I'm recording the video and I can't take my hand to wipe my eye because I'm recording, you know, videoing. I don't want to stop the next thing. I know I have a tear coming down my face because my eyes are so dry and I'm saying the people next to me are going. Why is he crying because Mike Mills is playing with Gang of Four and I was like, oh, this is crazy. But you know what? I got the video. So that's all I wanted.
Speaker 1:Well done.
Speaker 2:And when it was done I had to close my eyes for like two minutes because they really were so dried out. Wow, yeah, the fan is incredible. I've never seen a big fan like that in any place I've ever been.
Speaker 1:I know the fan. It's one of those. They call them big A fans.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is correct. So after the show I have to go to the bathroom and I go into the bathroom and I kind of sling the door open and I don't realize. But there's kind of like a line in the bathroom, a few people and I hit someone, almost hit someone kind of I think I did, and I look, I'm like I'm sorry, and Kevin Kenny's like that'd be you, jim. I didn't even know he was in there. So we laughed, we, you know, talked a little bit more, and then a few minutes later I ran into John King, the singer of Gang of Four, and drummer Hugo Burnham, both original members.
Speaker 1:This is John King of Gang of Four.
Speaker 2:Hello, this is Hugo Burnham from Gang of Four and got to talk to them and it was cool. I mean it washam from Gang of Four and got to talk to them and it was cool. I mean it was just a lot of fun. I talked about the episode where we talked about entertainment and it just was really neat telling someone like hey, last year we thought your album was so cool. We talked about it, not because you're here now. At the time the tour wasn't even announced. I think they didn't announce the tour till a few days after we did that episode.
Speaker 1:Maybe they did it because of the episode.
Speaker 2:One could be thinking that, but it's not true. You know it's not true. Could?
Speaker 2:be, but it was a lot of fun, you know, got my picture with them and I said to them when I was getting the picture. I said I am going to be the envy of many people that I know because they're not going to believe that I got my picture with the both of you and they were very appreciative of that and it was a really good show. It was a really good time. So glad that I went and glad that I got that discounted ticket for it. Yeah, nice, classic early guitar, you know, that's kind of what they were known for A little bit slower than you Really Got Me, and All Day and All of the Night, but a really really good song. So Tired, tired of Waiting, tired of Waiting for you.
Speaker 2:May 11th 1985, we're going to go 20 years in the future. Power Station's Some Like it Hot super group with Robert Palmer on vocals, andy Taylor and John Taylor, guitars and bass from Duran Duran and Tony Thompson on drums from Chic. Oh yeah, and originally I believe Michael DeBar was the original lead singer of the Power Station but he had some other commitments and then it ended up that Robert Palmer came in, was going to do one song or something, I don't remember exactly, but he ended up doing almost all of them, I think, on the album. Michael DeBar has one song on it.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But all the rest of them are Robert Palmer. Some like it hot and some sweat when the heat is on. And speaking of sweating and the heat being on, it's 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.
Speaker 1:Minute with Jimmy Talking about the World Party album Goodbye Jumbo, which came out May 8th 1990. So that's been 35 years ago. Great record Really starts out with a bang it's got, is it Too Late? Is the first song on the record and then within a couple you've got Put the Message in the Box and Way Down Now. So I mean a lot of World Party's best songs just loaded onto the front of that album. So I really like that record. And speaking of the Variety Playhouse, I got to see them when Carl Wallinger made his comeback after his aneurysm, which he had in 2001, and they thought he might not survive and would never play again. But he actually came back, toured as World Party. Um, not sure how many other original members of it were with him or not, but he was fantastic. He played the Variety Playhouse in 2006. So I was really glad I got to see that.
Speaker 2:And that's perfect timing for Minute with Jimmy. Really good album. The songs really stand the test of time, Jimmy, Like if you listen to them now they're still as good as they were when that album came out.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I still do listen to them a good bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, real good stuff there. Real good stuff. I like that. It's like a world party. My name is Jimmy and, if I'm not mistaken, jimmy May 8th was 8-Track Johnny's sister, mary's birthday, for some reason.
Speaker 1:I think that it was. It's my friend Steve Broderick's birthday too, so it's a good day.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go, listen. You can contact us at musicinmyshoes at gmailcom. Please like and follow the Music in my Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages. Share the podcast on social media and turn them on to the show, because if you're turned on, I'm sure you know someone else that needs to be turned on. Thank you to those of you that have. That's it for episode 77 of Music in my Shoes. It is not the summer of 77. Thank the Lord, no blackout, no heat wave, no .44 caliber homicide. But I do want 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, 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. © BF-WATCH TV 2021.
