Paperback Writer, Carole King "Tapestry", and Somebody Put Something in My Drink E137

We bounce from a killer Cracker and Drivin N Cryin concert to a surreal moment where Heart’s “Barracuda” follows us through LaGuardia. The mailbag sparks stories about meeting listeners, debating concerts, and how the songs we love can turn into life lessons we don’t forget. 
• Cracker plays loose and confident 
• Drivin N Cryin opening run and why “Scarred But Smarter” still hits 
• “Barracuda” in the airport and walking to the beat 
• listener messages and meeting people at shows 
• mixed fan reactions to Echo and the Bunnymen shows 
• “Paperback Writer” details and rediscovering old songs 
• Carole King and why Tapestry lasts 
• The Runaways, the Ramones, The Cure, and LL Cool J time-hopping through pop history 

Learn Something New or
Remember Something Old

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Reach out to us at musicinmyshoes@gmail.com

Transcript

Cracker Meets Drivin N Cryin Night

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge, and you're listening to Music in My Shoes, Podcasting Worldwide. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 137. I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. So, Jimmy, we've talked about the band Cracker. We've talked about Driving and Crying, Kevin Kinney. And I had the opportunity recently to see Cracker open up for Driving and Crying, which to me is a fantastic bill. Right. In Greenville, South Carolina on June 5th. And it it was just a fantastic show. It started out, first of all, getting ready to walk in. Who comes walking out? Johnny Hickman. He's going to get something to eat, and he's with uh a couple of people from the band. Talk to him, and he mentioned how so many people say to him that the episode that him and Kevin Kinney did is a favorite of theirs. Oh, great. So we were talking about it for a few. You know, I didn't hold him up too long. He needed to eat before the big show. You know, he did that. First show of the summer tour. It looked like they were having a lot of fun. It felt like there was no pressure on them, that they were the opening band and they could just go up, and they just seemed to be just having a grand old time. Really, really was fun. It was a lot of fun. They jumped right into things with Euro Trash Girl. It was nonstop, good songs from there. Like I said, Driving and Crying came on after, and they came out on fire. They start with Let's Go Dancing, Honeysuckle Blue, Crushing Flowers, which is right off the new album, and then Scarred But Smarter. Wow. And Scarred But Smarter sounds just as good as it did on the original album in the late 80s. And if you think about it, how many times do you go to a show and a band plays one of their first songs? You don't hear the excitement or the enthusiasm. It's almost like they're kind of going through the motions.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

But it sounded like they had just recorded it yesterday. It was so good. I was like, man, this is pretty exciting.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

That's good because he did the new version of it, right? Recently. He he did like a sort of a different version. There's the version for the compilation that somebody did. But didn't we? T.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Hardy Morris did the um with uh David Um Barbie. They did that on the compilation, the Let's Go Dancing.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

But didn't Kevin rework it for something else?

SPEAKER_03 3:09

Kevin has reworked it as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

I like the old one.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

The old one. It's just straight on rock and roll, little punk. Just, you know, it's great. And you know, if you listen to the words, you know, nobody ever said it was fair. And you know, like it is it's great. If you don't know the song, you need to listen to it. It is a fantastic song. It really is. It is. So I posted a video from the show of Driving and Crying playing the song Build a Fire, and Coco Owens, the drummer of Cracker, he commented that was a great show. So when the drummer of another band is saying that that was a great show, you know that was a great show. Right.

Barracuda Follows Through LaGuardia

SPEAKER_03 3:51

So the next day I flew up to New York to uh LaGuardia Airport, and as I'm walking from the plane to the passenger pickup, I realize there's a song playing that I know, and I keep walking, but the song's following me. You know how sometimes in an airport you hear the song, but then you go maybe 50 feet and then there's something else?

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

The whole song Follow Me, it was Barracuda by heart. And I'm like walking to the beat of Barracuda. I'm singing it, and it was just kind of cool. They had it kind of loud, too. Like it wasn't the normal airport music that you hear, and it was just, it was just fun. It really was a lot of fun for me. Um, I love that song, Jimmy. I think, you know, we talked about Hart being one of those bands in the 70s, late 70s. They were, you know, one of the premier bands. Barracuda, I could listen to that all day long.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Yeah, it's a great song.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Really, really good song. You lying so low in the weeds, I bet you gonna ambush me. You'd have me down, down, down, down on my knees. Now, wouldn't ya? Barracuda. Beautiful, Jim. Thank you. I appreciate that, Jimmy.

Mailbag Love And Fan Run-Ins

SPEAKER_03 5:18

Hey Jimmy. Yeah. You know what time it is? What? Music in my shoes mailbag time. Mailbag. Music in my shoes mailbag. Well, Jimmy, you're Jimmy, and I'm Jim, but we had another Jim in Atlanta, Georgia, and he wrote, I really enjoy your podcast. We met on the train after the Jeff Lynn ELO show. So that show was back in October 2024. And I do remember meeting Jim, and it was before we got on the train, and he saw my music and my shoes shirt on. We started talking about music, and then we ended up on the same train. And I think we actually transferred at Buckhead or so to get, you know, the train to North Springs. And we just kept talking. And he was a really cool guy, never met him before, and I just thought that was really cool that here it is, 20 months later, he's writing that he's been listening to the show ever since that night that we met. So that's really cool. I appreciate that. I also want to thank the listeners who came over to me to say hello at the Cracker Driving and Crying show that I just mentioned in South Carolina. It was kind of, you know, funny, just multiple people coming over saying hello, hey, I met you here. I love the show. And I I love that. I'm glad that people enjoy listening to the banter that we have going on each week here, Jimmy. And then also everyone that came over at the Echo and the Bunnyman show, the Kevin Kinney-Peter Buck shows last month, you know, please feel free to come up. I'm more than happy to speak to people about the show, about music you listen to, ideas. It's fun to me, it really is. So at the Echo Show, I met a guy named Alex, real cool guy, and he actually had met Mike Ness of social distortion at some point, and got Mike Ness to write his name like on his shoul shoulder, like, you know, towards his back. And then he got a tattoo of it, and he showed me Mike Ness's autograph, which I thought was, you know, pretty cool. Pretty cool looking, you know?

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't do it, but more power to the guy.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

So i you wouldn't do it.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

No.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

Is there anybody that if they would write on you somewhere that you would tattoo it on you?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

I don't think so. No. Really? No, I don't I don't need somebody's signature on me.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

All right, hold on, Jimmy. I'm coming out there, I'm going to write my name on you. Uh you know, I never thought about it. I mean, you know, I didn't think about, oh, would I do this or not do this? Now I know people that have tattoos, their mother or their father's signature or a grandparent that they got tattooed on them, but I've never thought about saying, hey, yeah, can you write your name on my back? I'm not going to wash myself until I go and get a tattoo. And and don't take this wrong, Alex was a really cool guy, and this is a you know a cool thing that he wanted to do, and I just never thought about it. But I guess, you know, maybe if Paul McCartney I might do that.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

He was my thought that, like, if anybody, it would be Paul McCartney, and I still wouldn't do it. But that's me. That's my hang up. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it.

SPEAKER_03 8:41

You know, Keith Richards.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

No. Really? No. Wow. I don't want Keith Richards writing on my back and forever.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Oh man. You know, and I had no idea. I'm glad I asked the question. Yeah, I'm glad you did. Wow. Yeah, I'm interested in knowing w if there's other people that have any tattoos that are based on famous people writing somewhere on their body.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

I bet there are a lot of them.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

I bet there's a lot more than what we think.

Echo And The Bunnymen Reactions

SPEAKER_03 9:15

So talking about that echo show, it kind of was a mixed bag for me, and I talked about that on a previous episode. And I posted a video, Lips Like Sugar, on our social media. And Kim says, absolutely fantastic. Thank you for sharing. Ryan in Atlanta, the show was a nightmare. He is barely alive. Eric comments, the music was still spot on, but the vocals leave a bit to be desired. And I think that that's where I would be.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

That would be that was your synopsis. My synopsis. Especially by the end of the show.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

Yes. Michelle says, we were there on the rail. It was a great show, and she actually put a clip. She was right there at the front, and she actually posted a video of where she was. Very cool video. Unfortunately, they just kept putting in so much smoke, you know, the smoke machines. You just saw more of smoke than you actually saw of Ian. So but it's just interesting, everybody's take. Mark from Don't Go Back to Rockville, Maryland, chimed in with Weird Show this evening in D.C., Washington, D.C. Music was fantastic, but Ian was off his game, and that's a shame. Julian Virginia adds, he was ranting Norfolk. I couldn't get a word or two of what he was saying. And this guy next to me was from England, and he was having difficulty understanding him also. So I mean, it's all over the place of the way people saw the shows, and this is three different shows. This is Atlanta, a show in Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C., of what people thought. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

He might have had a quart too many again. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

Pint, but I think you had mentioned maybe a gallon or so.

Records, Memories, And Music Trivia

SPEAKER_03 11:14

Billboard hits of May 1981, all those years ago, episode 132, George in Houston, Texas, been through three copies, all with picture sleeve of Jesse's Girl, wore out two copies, lost one in an apartment fire. Now, obviously George loves the song. It sucks that he had an apartment fire, and luckily he's okay. Hope he didn't lose a whole lot more. Yeah. But that's where he called it. I'm not buying Jesse's Girl anymore. He had it three times, three times the charm. Ricky says he had George Harrison's All Those Years Ago, Billy Squire The Stroke, Ario Speedwagon Take It on the Run, Rick Springfield Jesse's Girl, and Kim Carnes Betty Davis Eyes, all songs that were featured on that particular Billboard Hot 100 of May 1981. Referencing silly love songs Will Farrell, Paul McCartney SNL, and the Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers episode 134, Tim and Atlanta added, the cool kids still have their Sticky Fingers LP with the real zipper, and then mentioned something about you playing a song from Sticky Fingers at the Virginia Highlands Summerfest. Oh, yeah. That you mentioned grapes. You mentioned it on that you were going to do it on the show also.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

It was Dead Flowers.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

And how did it go?

SPEAKER_01 12:48

I thought it was great. Yeah, we had an awesome time playing and good crowd. So it was a fun festival.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

So I don't remember I I think you told me off air that you hadn't even practiced the song yet and you were going to be playing it.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Did you didn't we had about a week to put it together, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Okay. Mm-hmm. And it sounded good? Yeah, it came right together. It was awesome. I love that song. I bet it did. And that's a perfect, you know, like acoustic song, you know? You're not taking a this rock and roll song and making it acoustic. It's an acoustic song, so it's definitely sounds good. I'm glad that went well.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

And uh yeah, Tim did the lead vocals and I did the harmonies.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

Excellent. Now I didn't go because that's when I was at LaGuardia Airport listening to Hart Barracuda at the same time. It was following you, apparently. It was following me, yes it was. As for Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 40th anniversary, Van Halen Fair Warning, and the Smiths, The Queen Is Dead, episode 135, Graham from Jensen Beach, Florida says Fair Warning is the best Van Halen album, which is saying a fair bit. Little play on words there from Graham. So I forgot, but when I was going to NASA Community College, I used to get a ride home from this guy, John Weber. We went to high school together. And my first fall that I was there, we would drive home and he would play Fair Warning all the time. And he had like one of the top-of-the-line stereos in his car. It was just unbelievable. It was so much fun. And I just remembered that.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

What kind of car was it? Oh, you know. I'm picturing like a Firebird or a 280Z or something.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

It was something like that. I can't remember. I'll actually reach out to him. I should have reached out to him. I don't remember. But it had one heck of a stereo, and you thought you were in concert when he put that on. And Van Halen Fair Warning was like, seemed to be the thing we listened to whenever he would drive me home from NASA Community College. So it was some good times. Our own podcast checker, Sue Wann, texted that the parade in Ferris Bueller's day off was a real parade in Chicago. The Von Steuben Day Parade. So I had to look it up because like I didn't know what that meant.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Was it a German thing?

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Yes. Baron Friedrich von Steuben, and that's the short part, Jimmy. He's got like six more names to him.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Oh great.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

Yeah. He's almost like Laura Slade Wiggins. It was just unbelievable how many names that he had. He was born in Prussia, came to the U.S. and trained the Continental Army under General George Washington in the late 1700s during the Revolutionary War. Because the Continental Army was not trained well at all. And he's credited with that. And Jimmy, for all of that, he was awarded Ferris lip syncing to twist and shout in his parade.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

And Donka Shane.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

And Donka Shane. Which is German. German. It all makes sense now when you think about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

I heard it means thank you. Does it? I think maybe.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

Oh we'll have to find out.

unknown 16:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

Donka Shane for letting me know. And that's it for the mailbag.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Music in my shoes mailbag.

Beatles Secrets Inside Paperback Writer

SPEAKER_03 16:34

Hey, let's revisit some more Music in my shoes. The Beatles Paperback Writer peaked at number one on Billboard June 25th, 1966, 60 years ago. Challenged to write a non-love song, Paul came up with Paperback Rider. In the third verse, as Paul sings, it's a thousand pages, give or take a few, I'll be writing more in a week or two. You hear John Lennon and George Harrison singing background vocals of Frera Jacca.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Oh, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

So as the song is going on, you know, Frera Jacca's like Frere Jacca, Frera Jacca, Dormezvous. But in this, they're going Frere Jacka.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

You like paperback writer. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

And it's so cool. Vinny Jackalone, who was on episode 20, can you believe that? We're on episode 137.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:39

Vinny was on episode 20, You Don't Know Jack Alone. And we talked about when Vinny and I were young kids and we were learning about music and going to his parents' house and taking the speakers and turning, you know, all the way to the left or all the way to the right. And he was the one that told me about Frera Jaca. And, you know, again, I don't know. It could have been the right or left. I don't know. And I was like, oh my lord, this is unbelievable. Like this was opening up this whole new craziness because I had no idea, even though I had known the song forever, I didn't know that's what they were doing.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

I didn't know till now.

SPEAKER_03 18:17

There you go. I like that. And I hope that other people now will want to go and listen to it. It's a little different now because I listen to a lot on my speaker, my Bluetooth speaker, that's just one thing. It doesn't have multiple things where I can channels. I can't do anything with it. It's not like the old days where you could do stuff.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Aaron Ross Powell You can actually put them in stereo depending on what kind of speaker it is. If you have two of them, you can make one the left and one the right.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

Oh really? Yeah. I probably need to like JBLs can do that. I probably need to get one then so that I can do that because then I could listen. But it's just so cool. It's I like discovering things when you've been listening to something, and all of a sudden you find out something that you never knew all this time. Love it. Just like you just learned.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

I love that song, and you know So do I, friend.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

Dormez vu, dormez vu.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

We don't know the rest of it.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

Din din don. Yes. That was good, Jimmy. I like that.

Carole King And The Power Of Lyrics

SPEAKER_03 19:21

Hey, Carol King, It's Too Late, I Feel the Earth Move, kind of like a double A side. Number one on Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks starting June 19th, 1971. It was her only number one hit, which is surprising. I would have thought that she had more. Off of the Tapestry album, a really good album that I listened to a ton of in the 70s and 80s. I had the vinyl and listened to it nonstop. I still have the record. It's one of the ones that I know where they are. And that song was on that breakup cassette tape that I've talked about multiple times. Music is good, the lyrics are good. It used to be so easy living here with you. You were light and breezy, and I knew just what to do. Now you look so unhappy, and I feel like a fool. I just love the words. I think that's one of the things I I I really enjoy about this song. Again, it feels like it's coming from the heart, that it's something that she's really going through in real life, and I love those things. That you can feel it. You can feel the heartbreak, I guess you could say, you know? And that's something that uh, you know, by now anyone that's listened to the show should know that I love those type of songs. That's what makes me happy.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Aaron Ross Powell And she started out just writing songs for other people. She worked in the Brill Building, which is kind of a place where songwriters churn out hits for other, you know, pop stars. And she did that for years before she really started putting her own stuff out. And tapestry, you know, just hit huge.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

Yeah. On that album, every song she either wrote or co-wrote, and some of them were songs that she had written, like you said, for others before. The song It's Too Late is ranked number 310 on the 2021 version of the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. And the album Tapestry is ranked number 25 on the 2020 version of Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time. Wow, that's high. I feel the Earth Move, So Far Away, Home Again, Beautiful, You've Got a Friend, which James Taylor made a hit, you know, not long after this album. Will You Love Me Tomorrow? I think the Sherelles did that in the early 60s. Smackwater Jack, Tapestry, You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman. Who did that?

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Aretha Franklin.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

Aretha Franklin.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

And so Carol King, when she was given Kennedy Center honors in 2015, Aretha Franklin came out and sang You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman for. And you know, Aretha was in her 70s. She hadn't been performing for a while, and you're kind of wondering if she was going to be good, and she was amazing. Carol King was brought to tears. And Aretha died just three years later.

SPEAKER_03 22:25

Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow. But that's really cool that she was able to get out there and sing a song that was so important to both of them.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

To both of them.

SPEAKER_03 22:34

Yeah. Carol King is one of those people, like you said, she wrote all these songs, then she had the tapestry albums. I mean, she had a ton of albums. Tapestry was the biggest one for her. But man, it it's good. So Smackwater Jack, I just mentioned that

A Regret That Becomes A Lesson

SPEAKER_03 22:49

song. It reminds me of a girl I knew, her name was Tracy Farrell, and she loved the song and she loved the album. And she was a really good friend of mine. And we got into an argument in 1988. And then I moved from New York to Atlanta in 1990. And then in late 1990, I started thinking about I'm going to reach out to her, I'm going to give her a call and apologize because, you know, we got into an argument and it was my fault. Now remember, back then you could not just pick up your cell phone because there weren't cell phones. Back then it was a long distance call that was a lot of money, that, you know, you needed to call on Sundays when it was this cheaper rate. And a lot of times when you were calling long distance, you seem to always get people's answering machines. And that was just the way that it was. So I'm like, I'm going to give her a call. And I, you know, I'm like building myself up for it just to say, hey, how how's it going? What's going on and stuff? And before I could do it, in January 1991, she lost her life in a car accident on the Southern State Parkway. And it's a pivotal moment for me. She was 22 at the time, I think I was 23, because that's when I learned about not necessarily waiting, about really doing something. If it's important, don't wait for tomorrow because you don't know if tomorrow's gonna come. And that is where I really learned that lesson, you know, about life. Unfortunately, with the you know, the loss of her life, it definitely changed things for me and uh my outlook. And, you know, I wish I could go back and just say, hey, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, and a fantastic person. Um, real quick story. Her mother worked for Lufthansa Airlines, and a band came in and they were running late for a show in New York City. They landed at JFK, and back then it wasn't like today with the limos when you weren't a big band or anything. And the mom had uh a Camaro, and she got the band in the Camaro, and she drove them to where they were playing the show, Depeche Mode, got out of the Camaro, and then went on to perform that night. And what a crazy story. Um just uh some really, really good times. So I regret not picking up the phone, and it's something that I, you know, I don't think about every single day, but I think about it often. And it was uh uh something that, you know, when I hear Smackwater Jack, it reminds me of her. When I hear anything with the tapestry album, it just reminds me of, you know, all the things I've been able to do in my life since 1991 that she hasn't been able to.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Yeah.

The Runaways Light The Punk Fuse

SPEAKER_03 26:01

Jimmy, the Runaways' debut single, Cherry Bomb, was released June 1976. So 50 years ago, Joan Jet Lita Four, you know, the rest of the band.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

That's uh it's kind of like, you know, the cast of Gilligan's Island and the rest. It's Joan Jett, Lita Ford, you know, and the other one, members of the Runaways.

SPEAKER_03 26:22

Right, right. Sorry, I I apologize, but you're right. It it is. Uh here on Runaway Island. Um, they hung out with the Ramones. They hung out with The Damned, they hung out with uh Billy Idol and Generation X and the Sex Pistols. Those were the bands that they just felt comfortable around, the people that, you know, because they were young kids. I mean, Joan Jett was probably 16, 17, you know, all of them were somewhere around those ages, seven, 16, 17, 18 or whatever. And I think for like Joan Jett or Lita Ford or anyone else from the cast of The Runaways Island, that if they look back now, I bet they they cherish it a lot more now, really grasping who these people were that they were hanging out with. As compared to at the time, not real probably realizing as a lot of young people don't, you know?

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Well, and also to just have put out an album that is punk, I guess, you know, is probably considered a punk album, The Runaways and Cherry Bomb. And to have that out in 1976, you know, the Ramones putting out their first album in 1976 was sort of the bomb that went off, and then everybody followed that. And most albums didn't come out till 1977 from other punk bands because they had to kind of get the band together, get the songs, get a record deal, get it out. And so obviously Joan Jett and Lita Ford and and the rest were already on that track. You know, they already had it going prior to 1976.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

Yeah, they had someone that put the band together, so they had a little bit leg up on people that was looking for people to play parts in the band, and you know, that's how the runaways got together, so they were able to put some stuff quickly together. But still, you're right, it was 1976, it was a whole different world back then. Hello, daddy, hello mom, I'm your ch ch ch chch ch ch ch ch ch Cherry Bomb.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

You had to get the right number of chosen.

SPEAKER_03 28:31

Yeah, I did. I did. If you don't know that song, we've talked about it before. Joan Jett actually did a um cover version of that. That was fantastic. She did that in uh early 1985, I believe it

Ramones Chaos Meets Peter Gabriel

SPEAKER_03 28:46

was. The fourth week of June 1986, there was a tie for the WLIR New York Screamer of the Week, the best new song of the week, big time by Peter Gabriel, that we'll get into more in depth on a future episode. And the other, Ramon's Somebody Put Something in My Drink. It's off the album Animal Boy that Jimmy spoke about during a previous minute with Jimmy. And I just wanted to highlight it again, written by their drummer at the time, Richie Ramon. And you know, he wrote it because of an incident where somebody actually did put something in his drink, kicked the jukebox, slammed the door, drink, drink, drink, drink some more. I can't think. Hey, what's in that drink? It feels like somebody.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Put something in my drink.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

I like this song. It's got a great beat, and for me, Jimmy, when the song came out, it felt like a Ramones song. Like I think Something to Believe in was probably the single right before it. It'd been a while since there was like a good Ramon single, and I like this. And again, it was the best new song on WLIR, fourth week of June.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Pretty cool, and and it's so different from Peter Gabriel. So big time.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

That's the album, so. Yeah, very different. But yet they it was a tie.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

I don't know what else to say.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

I don't know what else to say either. You know what? Because we don't know what to say, and I'm looking at you and you're looking at me, tick, tick, tick, it's minute with Jimmy.

Minute With Jimmy On The Cure

SPEAKER_03 30:27

It's time for a minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy. It's time for a minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

Alright, so in uh 1986, the Cure released Boys Don't Cry as a single to accompany the release of Standing on a Beach, their singles collection, which kind of ironically uh didn't have the new version of it on it. It the collection had the original 1979 mix, and that record then went to number 22 on the UK singles chart. It kind of started uh a string of hits for the cure, and it was just re-released in 2026 as Boys Don't Cry 86 Mix, and it has some extra songs on it that are B-sides, the original B-side from 1979, Plastic Passion, and a few other songs that are all good songs. But uh the the amazing thing listening to Boys Don't Cry is it's pretty much exactly the same as what came out in 79. He he changed the vocals a little, changed the mix a little. But for that song to have come out in 1979 and then been such a big hit in 1986 just shows you how far ahead of its time it was.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

Oh, yeah. Without a doubt, Jimmy. Uh it is a great song. It really is. And it's one of those songs, the first time that I heard it, I was like, wow. And I've thought that ever since. You know, it didn't grow on me. It was a first time hearing it.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

And this is fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

If you're making a retro TV show or movie about 1979, you don't put boys don't cry in it because it sounds out of place. It sounds like that's doesn't fit the time period, you know? Yeah, if you're making it about 1986, you put that song in it.

SPEAKER_03 32:27

That's funny you say that. I would agree with you on that. I definitely would. And I think somewhere in 86 also is when the famous logo of Robert Smith standing there. It's kind of like the silhouette was taken in 1986. I don't know if they were making a video or doing something for it could have been for Boys Don't Cry 86. I don't know for a fact, but I do know the picture was taken that everybody seems to, you know, say, Oh, I see that. I know it's Robert Smith and the cure.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Right. He's got the hair, he's got the guitar, it's a silhouette. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:03

Yes. Back in 86. Oh, that is a good song. Yeah. I would do most anything to get you back by my side. Well, you know what? I'll tell you what's another good song.

LL Cool J Turns Criticism Into Fuel

SPEAKER_03 33:15

We're gonna go to 1991. LL Cool J, Mama said Knock You Out. It peaked at number 17 on Billboard June 15th, 1991, 35 years ago. Don't call it a comeback. I've been here for years. I'm gonna knock you out, huh? Mama said knock you out, huh? That is about as cheesy as I can get, but I'm gonna go with it. So LL kind of fell out of the scene and his songs weren't what they once were, and his grandmother told him to knock out the critics, and that's where he kind of came up with the whole thing. Mama said knock you out. It was, you know, his grandmother that had said it. Billboard ranks it as the number 406 song on its 500 best pop songs of all time. And I think that's the first time I've ever mentioned that chart. Normally it's the top songs.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

This is the top pop song pop songs helped by grandmother's advice.

SPEAKER_03 34:24

There you go. You've got it all going on there, Jimmy. I can tell you that.

Thanks, Contact Info, And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_03 34:29

Listen, I'd like to stay here, but I don't want to get knocked out. So unfortunately, 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 Thrilled 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 Boj, 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.