The Ed Sullivan Show, Beatles Anthology 2, Jethro Tull, and Rush Tom Sawyer E125

One TV host with a stiff posture and a sharp instinct helped rewrite the map of American pop culture. We’re talking about The Ed Sullivan Show, the variety powerhouse that ran from 1948 to March 28, 1971 and acted like a weekly national stage for music, comedy, Broadway, and everything in between. When Ed thought you had talent, he put you in front of the country, and millions of people trusted his taste because there weren’t a hundred other places to look. 

We walk through why that kind of platform mattered, including how the show opened doors for artists who couldn’t get booked elsewhere, and how a single appearance could change record sales and career trajectories overnight. Then we hit the seismic moment: the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, the audience size, and the “I want to start a band” shockwave that followed. We also get into the messier side of live TV, where censorship and control collide with artists who refuse to play along, with stories that bring The Doors, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan into the same conversation. 

From there we shift into pure music history joy: why Beatles Anthology 2 is such a rewarding listen, how “Real Love” landed, and what demos, takes, and studio chatter reveal about the band’s growth. We keep the momentum going with Jethro Tull’s Aqualung era, then jump through chart-tied milestones from Blondie’s “Rapture” to Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight,” plus Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock and Roll.” Jimmy’s segment spotlights Guided by Voices and the art of making a big studio sound intentionally lo-fi, before we cap things off with more ’90s rock favorites. 

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Transcript

Cold Open And Host Banter

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Hey everybody, this is Jim Boj, and you're listening to Music in My Shoes Podcasting Worldwide. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 125. I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. Let's. Wow, I like that, Jimmy. You're enthusiastic. You know what?

SPEAKER_02 0:41

I'm all in today.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

You know what? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not where I was going to start, but we're going to start there. Okay. So what days are you not all in?

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Oh, that's right. I'm always all in.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Oh, okay. I just wanted to clarify that. Hey, I love doing interviews. I love having guests on the show. It's a lot of fun. But I also love talking with you. I love the banter. Yeah. Good old potatoes. Yeah. The regular way that we do the show. I love that also. So it's good to be here with you where it's just you and I.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

That's right. None of these fancy celebrities.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

And thank God you're all in today.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

I'm all in, right. It makes two of us.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Man, that's great. You know what? I think I'm ready to end the show right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

That's right.

Ed Sullivan’s Origin Story

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Honestly, that's right. That was a good show, Jimmy. That was exciting. Yes. No, we're not going to do that. But what we are going to do is we're going to talk about March 28th, 1971, when the Ed Sullivan show went off the air. And the first show was broadcast June 20th, 1948. And it was called Toast of the Town. Wasn't the Ed Sullivan show? I did not know that. It was called Toast of the Town. He was the host. The first guest included Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and Rogers and Hammerstein.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

And, you know, they're the musical theater legends, you know, all those Broadway type things.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Oh, yeah, I know all about them.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

And it's just so cool to think they were on the first Ed Sullivan show.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

That is cool. And you know, I just saw this movie called Blue Moon that is uh has Ethan Hawk that is playing um Hart. His last name is Hart, and it used to be Rogers and Hart. And then when uh Hart went, sorry, when Rogers did Oklahoma, he did it with Hammerstein, and it became such a big hit that everybody was like, oh, we need Rogers and Hammerstein to write everything, and Hart was out in the cold. But Hart wrote that song, Blue Moon, You Left Me Standing.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

I know that song. I remember it from uh Greece.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Oh, yeah. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Big part of the Blue Moon that everybody got to see. But that's a whole nother story.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Is that the same song? It's not bump up. No. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

And is it? Oh, wait. Is it? I don't know. I just remember Blue Moon and you know Drop Trow.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

It wasn't uh the one by Duran Duran.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Grease came out in 1978.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

No, that was New Moon on Monday.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Oh my god. Grease came out in like 1978. It was about the 50s. Nothing to do with Duran Duran. And New Moon on Monday at all.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

But likewise.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

That came out in 1983.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Blue Moon was written in the 40s, I think. So that's what makes me think.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Didn't Elvis do a Blue Moon over Kentucky?

SPEAKER_02 3:47

Um something about Kentucky.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

I think he did. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Is it Blue Moon over Kentucky or just Moon over Kentucky?

SPEAKER_01 3:54

I don't know. But you know what? We have gone off in multiple different directions.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Many moons, many moons.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Many moons about all kinds of crazy stuff. I'm not really sure whether Duran Duran came in, Jimmy, but it's good to be back here.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

New moon on Monday. You remember that song?

SPEAKER_01 4:09

But Greece. 1978. All right. Hey, the banter is great. I love it. Thank you. Welcome back. And again, let me say this one more time. Thank God you're all in, because I would hate to see if you weren't.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Yeah.

A National Stage For Everyone

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Oh man. Wow. Anyway, let's carry on. So the Ed Sullivan show was the show that America learned of entertainers, you know, whether it was music, dance, vaudeville, circus axe, I mean, you name it. And whether they were American or from another country, the Ed Sullivan show is where a lot of people really got to see things for the first time, expose them to many different things that they weren't used to. And it could be rock, which, you know, it wasn't in 1948, but you know, it could be blues, it could be polka, it could be country and western, rock, like I said. A lot of black artists were able to get on Ed Sullivan when they weren't able to get on other TV shows.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

I didn't know that. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Yeah, so it was an opportunity. If Ed thought you had talent, and if Ed thought there was something about you that other people would like, he got you on the show. And that's how all these people across America were introduced to so many different people.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

And people trusted him, I think. Like, oh, well, we need to watch this show because he has all the best stuff.

The Beatles Break America Open

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Well, not just that, you're a hundred percent correct. But the artists, for the most part, all trusted him because they knew that he was the one that picked them and genuinely wanted them on the show because he thought they had something to bring and that people would enjoy it. And whether it became more record sales or going to circus act shows or going to Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, whatever it is, they believed in him and they trusted him also. And he would stand up for people once he had them on the show. So I think really the first band that comes to mind for most people would be the Beatles. You know, the Beatles getting their big break on the Ed Sullivan show. In 1963, Ed's in England, he's at Heathrow Airport, and all these fans are going crazy because the Beatles are landing, they were in some other country, and he's like, Man, this this kind of reminds me of Elvis. And he decides to sign them to come and do his show. And the deal was for three consecutive Sunday nights, starting with February 9th, 1964. I think the first song they did was All My Loving. 73 million people watched that show in 1964. Wow. That's insane. It really is. And many more people who watched it decided they wanted to be in a band. And we've talked about that throughout, you know, the history of Music in My Shoes. How many people, and and a bunch of guests have talked about that as well. That, you know, they saw the Beatles, or the Beatles influenced them to become, you know, a rock and roll or whatever you want to call it. But it's just amazing how that could happen. But there was just so many people on there. I mean, Louis Armstrong was on there, Pearl Bailey, the Doors, the Jackson 5, the Platters. I mean, I could go on with, you know, the Rolling Stones and so many different people that got their break. They did a lot of stuff with uh with musicals where they would have people come on and, you know, do their latest songs, even sometimes before the musicals came out, because it was the Ed Sullivan show. Of course. So Elvis Presley, while it was not his first TV appearance, he was on, I think he was on probably about three times, and he set a record something like the first time that he was on the show.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Yeah, they should have been.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

And it's just insane to think.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

I, you know, I mean, there were only like two or three channels, but still.

Legends Who Passed Through The Show

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Right. And I I think it was like 1956. So again, there wasn't a lot of TVs. There was only a couple of channels that, you know, people the Ed Sullivan show was probably the one of the last shows that where back in the day people would huddle around the radio and they listen to, you know, Orson Wells' show and, you know, whoever. Here they were huddled around the TV watching Ed Sullivan. And, you know, a dad might not want to have the kids watching the rock and roll band, but they're like, oh, dad, please. And, you know, eventually that's what would happen. And so many people watched all of these things with their parents because there wasn't anything else to do. Really cool show. I think that so much of what came after those appearances and after the Ed Sullivan show went off the air really is because of Ed Sullivan. And because he really didn't back down, like I mentioned. If he thought you had talent, he put you on the show. Now there were some controversies. He had the doors on, and he asked them, you know, not to say, you know, certain words.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

We couldn't get much higher, I think.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Yeah, I think you're right. And you know, Jim Morrison agreed backstage, and as soon as he got on stage and he was supposed to sing it, it's like he did that part like even more so that you could see the whole facial expression.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Yeah, he's such a prankster.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

And I think that, you know, he was told he'd never do the Ed Sullivan show again. He's like, I already did it, you know. So what difference does it make? I've been on there. You know, the Rolling Stones, let's spend the night together. Um Bo Diddley. Why was that?

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Did they just sell that as it's just about a sleepover? We're just having it about a slumber party.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah, but Ed Sullivan didn't take it that way. And Ed Sullivan would ask you a lot of times personally not to do it. He'd come right up to you and say, Hey, you can you change the line? Or these are the songs we'd like you to play. We're gonna have you on the show. Bo Diddley one time decided, yeah, for my second song, I'm doing a different song. And you know, Ed Sullivan wasn't happy with that.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Uh like Elvis Costello did on Saturday Night Live.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Yeah. Hey, Bob Dylan agreed to do a song, and then they decided they didn't want him to do that. Could he do another one? He goes, Yeah, no, I want to play out that song. Just got up and left before the show even started. Wow. So, you know, there were some little controversies here and there. But any show has that. And I think it's just really cool. If you get a chance, you know, they have the best of Ed Sullivan to go take a look at it, watch some of these things. I mean, it is just super duper cool.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Where do you find the best of Ed Sullivan?

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Uh, I know that they have best of Ed Sullivan um CDs and stuff, but I'm sure you can go on YouTube and watch them.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

You know, I would think so.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Look something up, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Yeah. So ratings dropped, especially with younger viewers, and that is the whole key to everything because the younger viewers are the people that are spending the money for the sponsors. And CBS just canceled the show. No finale show, no thanks, just done.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

What year was that?

SPEAKER_01 11:56

That was in 1971, March 28th, 1971.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Okay.

Censorship Fights And Onstage Rebellion

SPEAKER_01 12:01

And Ed Sullivan died three years later of cancer. And, you know, if you ever saw him, he always kind of stood kind of strange. He had a disease that gave him like really bad arthritis in the back. So he had the stiff neck, but it also brought his shoulders up. And so when he would talk, you know. The thing about Ed Sullivan, and I don't mean this in a mean way at all, but people talk about you have a face for radio. Like I have a face for podcasting, audio, okay? And Ed Sullivan probably had the face. He was a uh New York entertainment column. He wrote for a paper, and he had a face for that and a face for radio, and not for television. He wasn't like other people, he wasn't like a Steve Allen. He wasn't like these people that were extremely charismatic, but he was charismatic in his own way. And it lasted, like I said, from 1948 to 71. And he was, you know, people making fun of him, like, oh, we got a really big shoe, you know, just all those things. He he never said that, you know. Oh, he didn't. He never he would say show, but he never said shoe. Yeah, like people made that up, and people think that that's things that he said because it's just part of the lore of Ed Sullivan. On March 18th, 1996, the Beatles Anthology 2 came out. We spoke about that a few months ago when Anthology 1 came out. This was Anthology 2. This is demos, rare recordings, live recordings of songs from early 65 to about February 1968. This is my favorite of all the anthology compilations. Just some really cool stuff. It started out with the song Real Love. That was the second song that they released that John Lennon had done solo, and then they, you know, Paul, George, and Ringo, they all got together, added instruments, added vocals, created a new song. And while it wasn't as good as the original Free as a Bird that came out on the first one, it was just still cool to hear a new Beatles song.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

You know? And that actually reached number one on Billboard March 23rd of 1996. So it was cool to see the Beatles on the charts. They had not released, before Free as a Bird, they had not released a single while they were together since 1970 when they did the long and winding road. So it was just cool to have that. And some of the songs on here. So let me tell you this, because I did not mention this last time. I actually had the anthology set, I got it on cassette, multiple cassettes, for Christmas 1989.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

And I was working somewhere, and someone found out that I liked the Beatles. I worked in another department. The guy was, you know, he was older than me. And we just started talking about it. And he could see I really knew a lot about them. And he for Christmas gave me a TDK 10-pack of cassettes, you know, the box, you know, you would buy cassettes in a 10-pack. It was the Beatles anthology, which it wasn't called that because anthology didn't come out until 1995, the first one. And it was the Rolling Stones recording sessions for different albums. Oh, cool. All on cassette. And I remember listening to it and I was like, this is so super cool. When I tell you that the cassettes that I have, it's almost every single song, almost in the order of anthology.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Really?

Cancellation, Legacy, And The Man

SPEAKER_01 16:12

And I got it in 1989. Wow. Yeah. It was just insane. Just insane that you could have something that would be so cool like that. He also gave me the um the Beatles Let It Be, the um get back recording sessions when they're on the roof. I got the whole copy of that. And that wasn't in the best sounding quality, but it was still cool to have.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

How was the quality on the other stuff?

Beatles Anthology 2 Deep Cuts

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Really good. Really good. Yeah. So it was cool, but it, you know, once it came out in 96, I got the vinyl, I got the CD, then eventually, you know, I was able to stream it. But some of the stuff that really kind of, you know, I liked about it is, you know, I talked about real love. That was a July 1980 John Lennon song. That easily could have been on Double Fantasy if he had finished it, but he didn't. And it ended up being on Anthology 2. But the song I'm Down, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away. And, you know, they take takes one, two, and five. They put them together from February 18th, 1965. And that's what I like. It's like recording date, location, what take it is. I really dig that stuff. You know, that means a lot. I don't think that they had released that song. I think it's only here on anthology. Yesterday, take one, which is a little bit different than the yesterday that we know. Uh It's Only Love. Then it's got uh I Feel Fine from uh you know England live, Ticket to Ride, Yesterday, help, you know, just all this stuff. Everybody's trying to be my baby live from Shea Stadium. Just super duper cool stuff. And when you you listen to it, and you you know, sometimes you hear them talking in the studio, but as you listen to it in order, you could see and s and and not see, but hear in such a short period of time, how they just kept getting better and better and better and in everything that they did. And it just it just amazes me. And you know, it kind of ends up, you know, with uh disc two, it's got strawberry fields, it's the demo sequence where they take all the parts of John writing in and you know, just him and acoustic guitar, and then the next thing is adding this, and then adding, and you just kind of listen to it, and it's it's just insane. Uh Penny Lane. You know, these songs are from November and December of 1966 when you talk about Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, the beginning of January of 67, a day in the life. It wasn't that much earlier, where it was April 66, they're doing Tax Man, they're doing Eleanor Rigby, and that they took this huge leap in just a matter of months.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

I watched a thing just the other night about Penny Lane. It was on PBS, they have like a Beatles, the history of the songs kind of a show. And it's amazing when you when they break down all the different tracks and layers that they added, and Paul was like, I'm not satisfied, we need something else. And so he happened to be listening to a symphonic concert on the radio and uh like the New York Philharmonic or London Philharmonic, and they had this special kind of trumpet, like a soprano trumpet. I'm not saying the right term, but like a really high trumpet. And he's like, that's what Penny Lane needs. And so the little, you know, that sound that's the signature kind of, you know, that high-pitched sound, that was the very last thing they added on Penny Lane.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

And think if they didn't put it on, it really adds so much to the song. Yeah, it really does. That's a cool story. Um, good morning, good mornings on there. Uh Sgt. Peppers, as they're recording it kind of live, and you know, they don't go with it, but it's kind of like a track where they're just kind of practicing the song and your mother should know. Hello, goodbye, Lady Madonna and Across the Universe. So and Across the Universe, they they recorded that multiple times. I love that song. I think it's a great song. Fantastic song. This is take two. This is one of my favorite versions of it. It's really cool. Like I said last time, if you haven't listened to anthology and you want to see the Beatles in a different way, how they thought, this is what you need to listen to. And if you want to pick one of the anthologies, because there are four, originally three, they just released the fourth one, you know, late last year. I would go with number two. And that's this one right here.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

All right.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

The Beatles staying with the Beatles. Nowhere man, March 26, 1966, peaked at number three on Billboard Hot 100. He's a real nowhere man sitting in his nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody. John was trying to write a song for like five hours and couldn't write it. And then decides, I'm done, I'm gonna go lay down, and that just pops into his head.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

Ah.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

And then he was able to write the whole song once he had kind of the, you know. And now I don't know what he was saying to himself, but you know, in my mind, I have it that he's like, Oh, I'm such a nobody. I'm going nowhere with this. I can't do it. Man, I'm a nowhere man, you know? And I'm not saying that. What he said. I'm making this all up, but it would almost fit. It would. You know? So John Lennon joined George Harrison to play the solo together. They used the same exact guitars and played the solo. And if you listen to it, it definitely sounds like, hey, something's different about that. That's because they played it note for note at the same time. Oh. That's really cool. In the UK, it was on Rubber Soul, and in the US, it was a single first. And then later it was on Yesterday and Today. It was also in the Beatles 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine. In the shuffling madness of the locomotive breath, runs the all-time loser headlong to his death. Jimmy, that's the opening lines of the March 1971 Jethro Tull single, Locomotive Breath.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

It went nowhere. Okay. You know the song?

SPEAKER_02 22:59

No. Really? I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

I think this is definitely this is a top 250 rock song, uh a song of all time, in my opinion. Really? It starts off with classical like piano, and eventually the band joins in to make this thing a rocker. But you can't forget Ian Anderson's flute. And he does a flute solo. That's what makes Jethro Tall so cool, because it's classical piano like at times. Then they're rocking, and instead of the guitar solo, Ian Anderson just busts out the flute. And it's really funny because the lead guitarist would always want to get the if he got a solo, he'd want to get it on, you know, as few takes as possible.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Because if he didn't, Ian would be like, yeah, I'm just gonna do a flute solo. Okay. So he was always aware of I gotta nail this and I gotta do it now, you know? Right. This song rocks, okay? It absolutely rocks. It's on the Jethro Tull album, Aqua Lung, celebrating 55 years since its release. The second single, Hymn 43, stalled at number 91 on Billboard in August of 71. The title song Aqua Lung. Oh, thank God you know this one, Jimmy. And you know, it's sitting on the park bench, but it's got lyrics in it, like snot running down his nose, greasy fingers smearing, shabby clothes. And this was a huge song. I mean, this is the second most played um Jethro Tall song, and the words are just crazy. Like some of these words they would not make it on the radio today. There's no doubt about it. Cross-eyed Mary. The song begins with a flute and a piano opening. Again, very un-rock-like, but they managed to pull it off. It was just so freaking cool. Who would be a poor man, a beggar man, a thief, if he had a rich man in his hand, and who would steal the candy from a laughing baby's mouth if he could take it from the money man? I was a kid, I had no idea what that meant, but I was like, that that means something. I like that. That's cool. It's just another rocker. So in 1976, Jethro Toll released Locomotive Breath. Again, they re-released it. It only peaked at number 62 on Billboard, March 20th, 1976. Album Oriented Rock made this an FM staple, even though Jimmy never heard it, and one of their most popular songs. I think it was the most played song in concert for Jethro Toll.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Well, I might recognize it. I don't know it by the locomotive breath title. Really? That's not a very appealing title.

Nowhere Man And Studio Craft

SPEAKER_01 26:01

That's the way Jethro Toll is. And it's funny because people didn't call I called them Jethro Tull, but everybody I knew was like, hey, did you hear the new Toll song? You know, like, you know, everybody had to like, you know, condense it. It's kind of like instead of Led Zeppelin, but you hear the new Led Zeppelin Zeppelin? Right. I always wanted to give the full title, really, to the bands. Yeah. So I always said Jethro Tull. I never said Tull. So anyway, the day before this peaks at number 91, they release another song, Too Old to Rock and Roll, Too Young to Die, from the album of the same name. And what a great song. It's a regular listen for me, and it's been a regular listen for me forever. And when I was nine, I thought this was a cool song. Now, 50 years later, it makes more sense to me. But as the last sentence in the song says, No, you're never too old to rock and roll if you're too young to die. I really enjoyed talking about Jethro Tall, and I can talk about it because it's music in my shoes. And this is like one of the things that I really consider in my shoes. Like, people don't talk about Jethro Tall a lot. True. This is the second time on the show that we have talked about Jethro Tall, and it makes me happy.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

That's good. I don't think locomotive breath gets nearly enough airtime, like in general conversation, and you've changed that. I got him.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Oh my lord. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, you're right, Jimmy. It does not. It does not. But you know what? We're gonna move on a little bit to something that definitely is in more conversation. The band Blondie, they had the song Rapture. It peaked at number one on Billboard Hot 100, March 28th, 1981. I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of the song. So I went back to listen. Again, we talked about this before. A lot of times I go back to listen or watch something to see have my thoughts, my feelings changed at all. And I gotta be honest, I kind of like the beginning. I like the beginning of the song more than I thought that I liked it. But then it kind of strays off for me. Deborah Harry is not a good rapper, and I know that that was kind of at the beginning, and it just doesn't really do anything for me.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

Yeah, I I think it's kind of fun, but you know, music is not a competition.

Jethro Tull’s Aqualung Era

SPEAKER_01 28:43

It's not a competition. So the saxophone on the song is played by Tom Scott, and he was actually in the Blues Brothers, but he quit just before the Blues Brothers movie was made. So he's on the first two albums, and then he quits over money. But he's played on albums by Joan Baez, Glenn Campbell, The Carpenters, Neil Diamond, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and the 1975 number one single Listen to What the Man Said by Paul McCartney and Wings. I can't tell you how many albums this guy's been on. It's incredible. And to think he could have made it even bigger by being in the Blues Brothers movie. That's one thing that he missed. He did. Rush, Tom Sawyer off their Moving Pictures album peaked at number eight, March 28th, 1981. And that was on mainstream rock airplay. So mainstream rock airplay is based only on what radio stations are playing. Billboard Hot 100 is radio stations, sales of albums. It's you know kind of a different way of looking at things. Okay. So strictly radio airplay. This is 45 years ago, rushed Tom Sawyer. The hit of the drum and cymbal, and then the synthesizer, that sweeping sound. A modern day warrior, mean mean stride. Today's Tom Sawyer, Mean Mean Pride. This song was almost too much for me to take at 14. Like it was just unbelievable. And then put headphones on and listen to the song, oh my lord. It was like, whoa, just opening my mind. Like it was really, really probably listening to Led Zeppelin 2, the car's first album, this album are some of the best stereo headphone albums that you can listen to. Just absolutely insane. The drums, the bass, the guitar, the synthesizer, the world is, the world is, love and life are deep. Maybe as his eyes are wide. Wow. Wow. Staying with Rush, Jimmy, Limelight reached number 55 on Billboard, April 4th, 1981. And number four on Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay, April 18th, 1981. A song about living in the fishbowl that comes with fame. Living in the limelight, the universal dream for those who wish to seem, those who wish to be, must put aside the alienation, get on with the fascination, the real relation, the underlying theme. That almost sounds like it's out of Bill and Ted's excellent adventure.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

Neil Purt is definitely, you know, he's got that gift of flowery language.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Without a doubt. Yeah. Some rush back in the day, that was fun. That was fun. Hey, staying in April 1981, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, I Love Rock and Roll was a screamer of the week on WLIR. So back in 81, WLIR was not the new wave station that I was listening to. It was kind of, they just played whatever they wanted to. They might play Joan Jett, they might play Robert Palmer, they might play The Who, they might play just really anybody. And in the first week of April '81, I Love Rock and Roll, Screamer of the Week, Joan Jet was huge on Long Island. This is a whole year before it reached number one on Billboard, March 20th, 1982. Wow. The single wasn't released nationwide. I think it was January. January or February of 1982. A cover of a song by the band Arrows. It's pretty much note for note, beat for beat cover of the song. When you listen to the Arrows version and you l it's it's down to a T.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

I don't know. The guitar solo might be your.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

The guitar solo is different, but everything else on it is pretty much the same. Joan Jett saw the Arrows performed the song on TV while she was in England in 76 touring with the Runaways. Runaways were trying to do a version of it. They really didn't want to. And Joan Jett ended up doing it first time in 1979 when she did it with uh Sex Pistols, Steve Jones, and Paul Cook. We talked about this, I don't know, six, seven episodes ago. And then the version we all know in 1981 with the black carts. Video was done in color, but she had it changed to black and white because she thought it would be a better vibe and a better feel. And I agree, that video in black and white is just super cool. I love rock and roll, so put another dime in the jukebox baby. Oh man. You know how much I love rock and roll? So much that it's tick, tick, tick. It's 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.

Blondie, Rush, And Joan Jett

SPEAKER_02 34:21

Alright, I'm gonna talk about the 1996 release by Guided by Voices called Under the Bushes, Under the Stars, March 26, 1996. So 30 years ago. It was produced by the Pixies Kim Deal for the most part. They had multiple producers and four different studios on it, including uh Steve Albini, was one of the producers on one of the songs. Uh has some really great guided by voices songs. The official Iron Man Rally song to remake The Young Flyer, Adam Eyes, and Drag Days. Those are staples in their set to this day. It was the first album that they had done that was not done on a four-track recorder, kind of lo-fi. They actually did it in big 24-track studios. And so they had to use different tricks to make it sound as lo-fi as their fans were used to hearing. So they would like he would sing through a guitar amp, or they would, you know, have something run to a different cassette or something like that to give it the signature sound that they had. That's a good record.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

I'm not familiar with it, so I'd definitely listen, but isn't it funny that when you record in a better studio that you have to do things to make it sound?

SPEAKER_02 35:40

Yeah, when you're guided by voices, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

That's funny that you, you know, they would go through all of that. I know. Very cool. I'll listen to it. I'll let you know what I think.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

They they said one time uh Robert Pollard said that his vision for the band was he wanted the songs to sound like you had found a Beatles bootleg, a live Beatles bootleg, and you know, it was kind of crummy sounding, but awesome because you had something that nobody else had. And so the imperfections are intentional from the beginning for them.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Very cool. Yeah. I like it. My name was Jimmy. So staying in 1996, on March 16th, Green Day's Brainstorm Jaded peaked at number eight on Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay. I really like this combo of songs. I like sometimes when bands will do stuff, Led Zeppelin's done it, they did it, and you know, the first song's a certain way, and it just goes right into the next song. You know, it's just so super cool. And the song, when it begins, it almost sounds like uh crazy train, you know? Dun dun.

SPEAKER_03 36:49

Yeah.

Minute With Jimmy And Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_01 36:50

You know, like and oh, and then it goes into the little punk version at the end, and you're like, the song's over. You're like, man, I'm spent, you know. It's just a good song. Good song. I know you like it. I do, yeah, of course. So Space Hog in the meantime reached number one on Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay, April 6th, 1996.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Great song.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

One of my favorite songs from 1996. This is a really, really good song. We love the all, the all of you, where lands are green and skies are blue, when all in all we're just like you, we love the all of you. Man, those are some good words. And not only do we love you, we love you so much to tell you that that's it for this episode 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 Vic Thrill for our podcast music. You can reach us at musicinmyshoes at gmail.com. Please like and follow the Music in My Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages. This is Jim Boge, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. All the world's a stage, we are merely players. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, you're never too old to rock and roll. If you're too young to die, live life and keep the music playing.