Interview with Steppenwolf's Goldy McJohn

In 1968, Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild" signalled a shift in the counterculture from flower power to something, well, wilder.
And the wildest thing about Steppenwolf was probably the hair on keyboard player Goldy McJohn's head.

"I go into the shower one day," says Goldy. "And I come out and start shaking my head and let it dry in the sun and it's like "Wooooooooh"! And I'm like "Woah! Cool!"

Steppenwolf sealed its outlaw biker image on the soundtrack to Dennis Hopper's underground classic Easy Rider.

But as Steppenwolf found fame, Goldy found drugs.
Listen to the beginning of "Magic Carpet Ride". Goldy says the reason the organ comes in late is because he was THAT out of it.



"I was forced to take LSD." he told me. "I was forced to take a lot of stuff and then I found out 'Wow. This stuff is great.
'Can't get enough of it. Where's the next hit?'
I'm like paranoid. I can't wait. It's a buzz and then you smooth out and calm out and you're really cool and John (Kay) would be on top of me going 'Woah, yeah baby'.

Goldy says it was in one of those drugged out dazes that he signed away his legal rights to the songs as well as the name of the band.
When I met him, his house was unheated.
But at least Goldy McJohn has found a new addiction: golf.

"Each club is like a chord change." he says.
"That's what it does for me even if it's bad, it's good.
It's like 'Ok, try to hit the little white ball'.

Goldy now has his own website .

Source Code's Vera Farmiga picks the song that makes her time travel

The sci fi thriller SOURCE CODE, now out on DVD, has a new take on time travel. So 1001Songs asked the stars to name a song that takes them back in time... to happy childhood memories.


VERA FARMIGA

Oscar nominee (for Up In The Air) Vera Farmiga grew up in a strict Ukranian home in New Jersey. She didn't learn to speak English until she was six.

Her childhood song?


"Oh God you wouldn't know it if I mentioned it.
It would be these kooky Ukranian folkloric songs of my childhood that my grandma used to sing.
There are recordings of it.
In fact I put in the film that I directed. (HIGHER GROUND out later this year)

Source Code director ZOWIE BOWIE on the song that makes him Time Travel

The terrific sci fi thriller SOURCE CODE, now out on DVD , has a new take on time travel. So 1001Songs asked the director Duncan Jones ( AKA Zowie Bowie) to name a song that takes him back in time... to happy childhood memories.

DUNCAN JONES
( aka Zowie Bowie)

Both Duncan Jones and his father, David Bowie, first hit the mainstream with artistic takes on lonely spacemen as their topics. Dad had "Space Oddity". Duncan had Moon. A "mesmerizing mindbender" that Vera Farmiga claims to have seen 8 times.

The song that takes him back isn't one of his dad's though. It was a UK hit from the 80's.

" There's a piece of music which I used in "Moon" and then used again in "Source Code". It's a song by a guy called Chesney Hawkes from the UK and I used it as an alarm clock ring in Moon and I used it as a cell phone ring in Source Code and that's kind of my Alfred Hitchcock shadow in the background so I'm hoping to use that in every film I can but that certainly puts me back in time"

I should add after seeing SOURCE CODE and MOON, I think it is becoming less and less important to point out he's David Bowie's son. He's a masterful director in his own right.

SOURCE CODE stars pick fave songs from childhood

The sci fi thriller SOURCE CODE, now available on DVD, has a new take on time travel. So 1001Songs asked the stars of the movie and director Duncan Jones ( AKA Zowie Bowie) to name songs that take them back in time... to happy childhood memories.
First off:

DUNCAN JONES
( aka Zowie Bowie)

Both Duncan Jones and his father, David Bowie, first hit the mainstream with artistic takes on lonely spacemen as their topics. Dad had "Space Oddity". Duncan had Moon. A "mesmerizing mindbender" that Vera Farmiga claims to have seen 8 times.

The song that takes him back isn't one of his dad's though. It was a UK hit from the 80's.

" There's a piece of music which I used in "Moon" and then used again in "Source Code". It's a song by a guy called Chesney Hawkes from the UK and I used it as an alarm clock ring in Moon and I used it as a cell phone ring in Source Code and that's kind of my Alfred Hitchcock shadow in the background so I'm hoping to use that in every film I can but that certainly puts me back in time"




VERA FARMIGA

Oscar nominee (for Up In The Air) Vera Farmiga grew up in a strict Ukranian home in New Jersey. She didn't learn to speak English until she was six.

Her childhood song?


"Oh God you wouldn't know it if I mentioned it.
It would be these kooky Ukranian folkloric songs of my childhood that my grandma used to sing.
There are recordings of it.
In fact I put in the film that I directed. (HIGHER GROUND out later this year)




JAKE GYLLENHAAL

My interview with the star of Source Code was cut off so sharply I didn't have time to ask. But he did tell KCRW's Liza Richardson recently that his pick would be "The Fox" by Burl Ives.

"My father used to sing this to me -- and I love Burl Ives just as a character, just as a musician -- and when I was a little kid we were robbed outside of our house. We were driving home, we pulled up and we were robbed and ever since I was always really nervous about falling asleep, you know, naturally, and so my dad would sing this to me before I'd go to bed."



MICHELLE MONAGHAN

Jake's romantic interest in Source Code is Iowa native Michelle Monaghan. And like most people from Iowa, she's incredibly kind. You may have seen her in Mission Impossible III or Gone Baby Gone

Michelle's childhood tune? A #1 country song from 1987.

"Oh my gosh any kind of country music. "Fishin' in the Dark" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Yeah that song takes me back. That's a good song. Something that I played and my parents played a lot."





Surprised Duncan Jones didn't name one of his dad's tunes? He's learned not to favor one over the other. He told 1001Songs "if I picked one favorite song, Dad would be furious".

#17 Wizzard "See My Baby Jive" 1973

Every band needs a bass player who can take the stage in rollerskates.
Roy Wood formed Wizzard after The Move broke up and followed his muse into Phil Spector-ish Wall of Sound pop. "See My Baby Jive" hit #1 in the UK and Ireland but did nothing in the US.

They certainly made glam fun. Roy's war paint and crazy hair lit up TV screens in close-ups. But in the wide shots audiences might see a pantomine horse, costumed gorillas and angels on rollerskates.

"See My Baby Jive" held the top of the UK charts for an entire month before Suzi Quatro's "Can the Can" kicked it aside.




ABBA has said the song inspired the sound of "Waterloo". Still trying to figure out why "See My Baby Jive" didn't jive with American audiences.

See My Baby Jive

#16 The Saints "Memories Are Made of This" 1978

Aren't you a mess? You shouldn't act like this
You stand right there and laugh in my face
You ask me why I haven't left

To the old timers looking for Dean Martin's "Memories Are Made of This", you've come to the wrong page. So slag off.
This is one of the many great songs on Eternally Yours , a cut-out cassette I bought at a Woolworth's in Reno for $2.99 in 1980.
Best three dollars I ever spent. It's an amazing album from one of Australia's greatest bands. Full of blustery horns, minor chords and major attitude.
Bob Geldorf said "Rock music in the seventies was changed by three bands—the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and The Saints".

So if you were expecting to hear Dean sing:

Take one fresh and tender kiss
Add one stolen night of bliss
One girl, one boy
Some grief, some joy
Memories are made of this

Sorry. You've got Chris Bailey snarling lyrics that wouldn't pass the PC test these days:

You're living your life in a chain gang - you're so well guarded
You're living your life in a chain gang - you're so retarded

The Saints Memories Are Made of This

The Cars "Sad Song"

It's like the last twenty-five years haven't even happened!
Wait a minute:
Is that a good thing?
You be the judge.
For the official video:click here

5 Horrible Songs that Mar Great Albums

1. "Mother" from SynchronicityAndy Summers' Mother was a bomb dropped right into the heart of The Police's Synchronicity. Small wonder that it was the last album the blond boys did together.



2. Mind Gardens for Younger Than YesterdayDavid Crosby must have been inspired by The Incredible String Band for this foray into psychedelic folk. Roger McGuinn hated including the song on the poppy Younger Than Yesterday, claiming the tune had no "rhythm, meter, or rhyme." Crosby was fired during the recording of the next album.



3. Phenomenal Cat from Village Green Preservation SocietyWere The Kinks smoking helium? "Phenomenal Cat" is kitty litter compared to the rest of Village Green Preservation Society, which has become a fan favorite for good reason.
At least it's better than Bowie's equally helium filled "Laughing Gnome"




4. Fitter, Happier from OK Computer
It's the NOT OK tune on OK Computer. Described by Thom Yorke as a checklist of slogans for the 1990s he considers "Fitter, Happier" "the most upsetting thing I've ever written". Might have been better as liner notes.



5. Student Demonstration Time from Surf's UpThe Beach Boys were always better at offering us breakaways from our troubled times than commenting on them. But good old Mike Love had something to say about student protests--even if it meant swiping the Leiber-Stoller song "Riot in Cell Block #9" to do it. The must skip track off Surf's Up was also released as a single as if it say "Look, we can crank up our guitars too!"

What's your choice for wretched songs that nearly ruin great albums?

Interview with Paul Revere & The Raiders singer Mark Lindsay

Even if his name no longer rings so many bells, his music will. As the pony-tailed lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders, Mark Lindsay sang on more than a dozen Top 40 hits and made more than 700 television appearances.

 



"We've gotten a lot of reviews," he told me , " Especially from European venues that say
'Hey man, the Raiders were the American Stones'."

Teen idol magazines called Mark the American Mick Jagger...with the Paul McCartney looks.
Though he was legally blind, Mark was rarely photographed wearing glasses.

"If you look at Tiger Beat or 16
here I was this clean cut all american guy
but inside I was still this raucous raunchy punk
hanging in the rafters you know?
So it was weird it was like not really being there you know?"

In the early days the Raiders really were punks, outdrawing Northwest bands like The Wailers and Sonics by playing loud and raunchy shows.


"I had a 100 foot cord for my microphone so I could go roll around or go to the restroom and give people a version of 'Fever' they never heard before".

It all came together for The Raiders in 1965.
They got signed by Columbia Records and Dick Clark made them the house band for "Where The Action Is".
The show could be seen every weekday afternoon nationwide for two years.

"Dick Clark signed us for 13 weeks under the assumption that if the show took off he'd hire a real band.
Well after 13 weeks we were getting bags and bags of mail and we became that real band."

They could be a real goofy band. The Raiders began wearing revolutionary war costumes they discovered in a Portland costume shop.

"When you look at the bass player and he's wearing a lace dickie it's hard to have a bad time you know?" Lindsay laughs.

For more than two years The Raiders were a huge hit making machine. Among their biggest hits was one of rock's first anti-drug songs, "Kicks".
"I didn't really realize it was an anti drug statement," says Lindsay today. " I thought it was about 'Gee it's hard to have as much fun as you used to have.'"



Even after "Action" went off the air, The Raiders continued their string of hits, but eventually the band broke up and Mark went solo. But he--and The Raiders--would be heard from again.
In 1971, Mark recorded a twelve year old song with some LA sessionmen.

"I went to (Paul) Revere and said this record is either going to be the biggest record we've ever done or the biggest flop. I said if you want to put the Raiders name on it you can."

"Indian Reservation " became the Raiders only #1 single.
Had he put the single out as Mark Lindsay perhaps his name would be better remembered.





 In the four decades since, Mark has stayed busy by recording, owning a restaurant, performing and working behind the scenes as an A&R man.
 Revere, on the other hand, is touring the casino circuit with his ersatz Raiders.
If Lindsay holds a grudge he's not making it public.

"Those were the days my friend.
I thought they'd never end and they didn't!!!"

Paul Revere and the Raiders-Ballad of a Useless Man

#15 Captain Beefheart "My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains" 1972

Arguably rock's most eccentric character, Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart is best known for his ear bending avant garde gumbo of Delta Blues and Beat Poetry as heard on Trout Mask Replica.
This is something else entirely.

One story is that Beefheart wrote most of the album Clear Spot on an eight hour car journey from Boston to Yale.
I'd like to think he wrote this song passing my hometown in Connecticut at Exit 58.
With beautiful interlacing guitar work from Bill Harkleroad AKA Zoot Horn Rollow, this is Beefheart's most poignant love song.Ever.

My arms are just two things in the way
Until I can wrap them around you
You can make my sad song happy
Make a bad world good


I hate to hear other people hear me sing this song
If it reaches you before I do
Follow this song to I love you
That’s where I’ll find you
And my head is my only house unless it rains


Another fave from Clear Spot , "Too Much Time" sounds so accessible it could have been something Van Morrison recorded on Moondance, a mellow Memphis-styled R&B tune with a great horn section and lovely backing vocals.






Why did Beefheart record such a tame album three years after Trout Mask Replica? For one thing Warner Brothers brought in Van Morrison/Doobie Brothers producer Ted Templeman to guide Beefheart to do something a bit more commercial. Clear Spot cracked the Billboard Top 200 racing up the charts all the way to ...well, #191. So he failed miserably. But what a failure!


Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band My Head is My Only House Unless It Rains

Interview with The Whipped Cream & Other Delights Model

In the 1960's Seattle's doe-eyed Dolores Erickson became one of the nation's top fashion models. But her most famous photo shoot involved little in the way of fashion. In a Los Angeles garage, Dolores smothered herself in shaving cream to pose for one of the most famous and sexiest album covers of all time.
"It didn't seem risque to me," Dolores told me decades later in a cafe."You know, a low decolletage has always been in."
The album cover promised "whipped cream and other delights". For decades men have fantasized about those "other delights" with the tantalizing woman smothered in form fitting foam.

"I had a bikini underneath and at one point it did slip all the way down but I wasn't aware of it."
Dolores is now an artist living in Kelso Washington. But she'll never shake that sultry image that helped Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass sell eleven million albums.
"I've done so many wonderful things", she laughs. "I just think it's ironic that this happens to be my ghost."
For dessert I had the waiter bring out a small cup of whipped cream for Dolores.
"Mmmm, " she said after a spoonful."It's great.Corny but great".

                                                         
                                                Photo from Seattle Times

#14 Czerwone Gitary "Nie Zadzieraj Nosa" (1966)

The Red Guitars were the Polish Beatles. The songwriting team of Klenczon/Krajewski showed off their gift for Beatlesque melodies on songs like "Don't Be Stuck Up" from their debut album To Wlasnie My. The band was huge in the mid-60's . Their second album sold more than a quarter of a million copies. They toured all over the Eastern Bloc. Like Lennon and McCartney they progressed from beat pop to experimenting with other instruments. You can even hear their Balalaikas ringing out on some.

They also got involved in silly projects like the film below. Imagine an even more poorly executed Magical Mystery Tour and you'll know what it's like to sit through this far out 1969 Soviet film "In the Thirteenth Hour of the Night".
Czerwone Gitary are the second band to appear. And, once again, they've recorded a Beatlesque ear worm.

 


The band recorded 82 albums over all these decades and as late as 2007 were still playing together on stage.


Czerwone Gitary -Nie Zadzieraj Nosa

#13 Tower of Power "Only So Much Oil in the Ground" 1974

,, Oil

In the mid 70's, Oakland's Tower of Power were the funkiest band on the West Coast. The first three albums are great but Urban Renewal leads the pack because of this tune. The message and sound haven't edged a bit. The brass kicks ass. And TOP still play tight funky shows today.

Like the song says, there's only so much oil in the ground. Oil  is a non renewable commodity AND The Low Fuel Warning Light is already on.
In the US we consume 20 million barrels of oil a day.
We produce 7 million.
Our presence in the Mideast is about keeping our country moving. As the middle classes of China and India grow, the pressure will be even greater on that resource.  Might want to start coming up with some kind of alternative soon.

Tower of Power - Only So Much Oil in the Ground