The late Walter Becker of Steely Dan was born on February 20th, 1950. The song "Kid Charlemagne" on the Royal Scam contains the stupidest line ever written in a song -- at least according to one New York cabbie. Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker have said their lyrics to "Kid Charlemagne" were inspired by the adventures of LSD chemist Owsley Stanley. But that's not what Walter wanted to talk about.
“I was in a cab in New York City and the cab driver picked me up in front of the rehearsal hall, so he knew who I was, right? And he started telling me, ‘Yeah, those Steely Dan, y’know, those guys wrote the stupidest line of any song I ever heard.’ And I said, ‘No kidding, what was that?’ And he said, ‘Y’know, in “Kid Charlemagne” where the guy goes “Is there gas in the car?/Yes, there’s gas in the car.”’ I guess that’s quite a distinction for us, to have written the stupidest line in any song that’s ever been written.”
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi celebrates his birthday on February 19th. He recalls that they recorded their first couple of albums so fast that it's actually hard to recall specifics about the making of a classic cut like "Iron Man." Their self-titled first album was completed in a single day, and the second, Paranoid, took just four days in the studio. So it's not surprising that his memories of recording “Iron Man” are barely distinguishable from those of laying down the song “Paranoid.”
“It was on the same session, you know. We done it very quick. All the Paranoid album was nothing memorable, as far as doing each track. What I did remember was we were so pleased when we done that album. We really enjoyed that album, as we did the first one. And, of course, it went in England straight to number-one, so for us we were, like, thrilled.”
Original Styx singer and keyboardist Dennis DeYoung celebrates his 73rd birthday today (February 18th) The song "Lady" was on Styx's second album, but they'd already released their fourth when it broke nationally. It peaked at number-six on the Billboard Hot 100 DeYoung recalls writing it.
“I wrote it in my garage on a Wurlitzer electric piano, and it was the first song I had written by myself for an album. It was my first attempt to be a writer on my own. That's my recollection. And it did pretty good”
On February 17th, 1975, John Lennon released the follow-up to his chart-topping Walls and Bridges, an album of early rock and roll covers simply titled Rock 'n' Roll. The John Lennon song "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" Apparently according to Yoko it was clever enough to go to number-one. And it was Lennon's only number 1 solo single. So she was right. Here she explains:
”Very clever song -- very. And, in fact, it’s the kind of song that would go to number-one, you know, hit number-one. And it did.”
Original Heart guitarist Roger Fisher was born on February 14th, 1950. Since it's Valentine's Day Heart's most romantic song is "Love Alive" from the album Little Queen. Ann Wilson just laid her lyrics over an acoustic guitar instrumental Nancy had already recorded. "Love Alive" is a perfect Valentine's Day song, Ann Wilson explains how it came together in a 1980's interview.
“I just liked the way the title sounded and also Nancy had this really great acoustic thing she was working on. She had the music all finished acoustically. It was going to be an acoustic guitar solo, but then I got this idea for the title ‘Love Alive’ and some words and they just fell in right on top of each other.”
A day after his former Genesis bandmate Steve Hackett turned 70, Peter Gabriel celebrates his 70th birthday on February 13th, 2020. Some speculate the Peter Gabriel song "Solsbury Hill" is an allegory about Gabriel's departure from Genesis. Peter Gabriel announced that he was leaving Genesis in August 1975 and began recording his solo debut in July 1976. Though "Solsbury Hill" has been said to have been inspired by a spiritual experience that occurred at a place by that name in Somerset, England, some also believe it's about his departure from the band. Here's Gabriel.
“I’m sure there was an influence there, but it wasn’t directly pointing at it. But you inevitably reflect what’s going on even if you’re not especially aware of it at the time. So, it was not a song about leaving Genesis, but there were echoes of that.”
Don Henley may be participating in his second straight Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony when it's held on May 2nd in Cleveland. Last year at the ceremony in Brooklyn, New York, he helped former girlfriend Stevie Nicks celebrate her induction by joining her to sing their 1981 hit, "Leather and Lace." This year he may present Irving Azoff, his longtime manager, with the Ahmet Ertegun Award. Here is Don Henley on possible presenting"
"They haven't really talked to me about that yet, but I'm guessing that I'm gonna get a call about that pretty soon, yeah. He very much deserves that award and, you know, if they want me to do the induction speech then I will."
The award is given to “songwriters, producers, disc jockeys, record executives, journalists and other industry professionals who have had a major influence on Rock and Roll."
Bruce Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau, will also be honored with the same award that night, and it's a safe bet to say that "The Boss" will honor him.
In 1998, when the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Henley thanked Azoff by saying, "I'd want to thank Irving Azoff without whom we wouldn't be here today." This led Glenn Frey to interrupt and say, "We might still be here, we just wouldn't have made as much money." Henley then continued with, "As I've said before, he may be Satan, but he's our Satan."
50 years ago today (February 11th), The Magic Christian, a comic film starring Ringo Starr and Peter Sellers, opened in New York City on the same day its soundtrack album, featuring "Come and Get It," was released. The song was recorded by Badfinger written by Paul McCartney about a month before longtime guitarist Joey Molland joined the band, and Sir Paul had told them if they learned it as it was, it would be a hit. He played it throughout his career with them and heard the story of how it was recorded many times.
“It was recorded about a month before I joined the band. The bass player, Ron Griffith, left for some unknown reason — I’ve heard three different stories. But the story that the guys told me about that song was Paul sent a tape round and a note saying, ‘Learn this song just exactly as it is and we’ll go in and record it and it’ll be a big hit for you.’ That’s what they did. They learned Paul’s arrangement from his demo, then they went in the studio and he recorded it. And it was a big hit, just like he said.”
50 years ago today (February 10th), ZZ Top played their very first show, at a Knights of Columbus Hall in Beaumont, Texas.When making their video for "Sharp Dressed Man" Bassist Dusty Hill still remembers a homeless man who stood next to him during the video shoot.
“’Sharp Dressed Man,’ I have a lot of memories of the video, because it was shot all at night in L.A. in a bank rigged up to look like a night club. And it was like three or four in the morning, take number whatever. I wasn’t in the shot, so I was standing there and this homeless man, who’d obviously been drinking, was standing beside me. I didn’t think anything about it, but he started telling me how they had the shot set up wrong, technically. I mean, everybody in Hollywood is in the movies, even the wino.”
Following a three-night test run in Las Vegas last fall, the Eagles will start their Hotel California tour tonight (Friday) with the first of three shows at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
Don Henley tells us the show is divided into two sets with all of Hotel California played first. Then, after a 20-minute break, they'll do a two-hour set of hits.
Don Henley on the Eagles doing Hotel California in its entirety on tour:
"We wanted to do something that we'd never done before, and we have the talent now, the personnel, to pull it off. I'm not sure we could have successfully done it before. I mean Vince [Gill] and Deacon [Frey] play a big role in our ability to do that album. And, we also wanted to add the element of the orchestra. And we have the horn section. We added a 22-piece choir just to sing 'Ah' on one song."
The 46-piece orchestra, as well as the choir, are made up of local musicians from each town they play. At one point in the three-hour show there are 77 performers on stage.
Henley says they took note of other artists doing complete albums on tour, most notably Steely Dan and Bruce Springsteen. But, he adds that there was another reason for doing it.
"People are buying vinyl records again and getting into it and buying turntables and going back to the old way of playing and listening to records and we like that. We think that's a good thing. So, we incorporated that into the show as well."
