<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Have you ever tried to write a song?\u00a0 If one plays an instrument, I am willing to put money down that the thought has crept into mind that it shouldn\u2019t be that hard to do\u2026until one tries.<\/span><\/p>\n Strumming an interesting chord pattern or hearing a phrase that sounds like it would make a good song title are a far cry from actually assembling an entire song.\u00a0 I am always amazed when a true songwriter will get into the logistics of how a particular song was created.\u00a0 The stories range from, \u201cOh, that one wrote itself in ten minutes\u201d to \u201cI had kicked this one around for ten years before it was finished.\u201d\u00a0 Remembering the old line from the 1971 movie <\/span>Magnum Force<\/span><\/i>, (\u201cA man\u2019s got to know his limitations\u201d), I have been content interpreting songs written by those with the talent to do the heavy lifting.\u00a0 None-the-less, my lack of skill in that area does not prevent me from enjoying stories about where songwriters get their inspirations.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bachman-Turner Overdrive (B.T.O.) had a hit with the song named checked above.\u00a0 As Randy Bachman tells it, early in their touring life they were on the freeway headed to an opening slot with the Doobie Brothers in New Orleans in 1973.\u00a0 At some point, a large semi pulled up to the right of their van, followed by another to their left.\u00a0 Randy was driving so he planned on slowing down to get out of the box they were in, only to find a third semi right behind him.\u00a0 The three trucks slowed to 35 miles an hour and he could see them laughing as they talked back and forth on their CB radios.\u00a0 It dawned on Bachman that their Manitoba license plates said \u2018Friendly Manitoba\u2019 on them – apparently these guys wanted to see just how friendly Manitobans were.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the trucks took an off ramp to a truck stop, Randy followed.\u00a0 He recalled, \u201cFred (Turner) and I were the big guys in the band so we were all set to give them some grief about boxing us in.\u00a0 The first guy got out of his truck and he looked like a refrigerator with a head stuck on top.\u201d\u00a0 Faced with this 6 foot 6 inch man-mountain, they decided to take a softer approach than Bachman and Turner had originally planned.\u00a0 The trucker just said, \u201cHey, we were just trying to see how \u2018friendly\u2019 you guys from Manitoba are – let it ride.\u201d\u00a0 The potentially tense situation ended there and B.T.O. left with the seed of an idea that would become a hit record.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let It Ride<\/span><\/i> came out on <\/span>Bachman-Turner Overdrive II<\/span><\/i> in 1973 and reached No 23 on the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n Billboard Hot 100<\/span><\/i> on April 27, 1974 and No. 3 in Canada.\u00a0 It was the song that got them noticed and their next 1974 single (<\/span>Takin\u2019 Care of Business<\/span><\/i>) made B.T.O. headliners.\u00a0 <\/span>Takin\u2019 Care of Business<\/span><\/i> has an even more convoluted origin story that still makes Randy Bachman chuckle to this day.\u00a0 When he was still with The Guess Who, he decided to write a song using The Beatles\u2019 <\/span>Paperback Writer<\/span><\/i> as a model.\u00a0 The Beatles, for their part, had written <\/span>Paperback Writer<\/span><\/i> after being inspired by Chuck Berry\u2019s <\/span>Johnny B. Goode.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The lyrics of the first version of Randy\u2019s tune (then called <\/span>White Collar Worker<\/span><\/i>) were inspired by the blind recording engineer at the New York studio where The Guess Who were working.\u00a0 Bachman asked if he could ride the train home with the technician because he had never known a blind person and wondered how he managed to get around on his own.\u00a0 <\/span>White Collar Worker<\/span><\/i> tells the engineer\u2019s story right from the \u2018<\/span>Get up in the morning to the alarm clock\u2019s warning, take the 8:15 into the city\u2019 <\/span><\/i>on.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Guess Who keyboardist \/ vocalist Burton Cummings more or less shamed Bachman for copying The Beatles and said they would never record the song for fear of being sued.\u00a0 Bachman kept working on it with his post Guess Who band Brave Belt (who would later morph into B.T.O.).\u00a0 Brave Belt was about to get fired from a gig they were playing in Thunder Bay, Ontario because the crowds were not responding to their original songs.\u00a0 They resorted to playing danceable covers on their last night and out of desperation, Randy trotted out <\/span>White Collar Worker <\/span><\/i>when Turner\u2019s voice gave out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the way to the gig, he had heard radio DJ Daryl B\u2019s catch phrase, \u201cWe\u2019re taking care of business,\u201d and made a mental note that it might make a good song title.\u00a0 Randy replaced <\/span>White Collar Worker<\/span><\/i> in the lyrics with <\/span>Takin\u2019 Care of Business<\/span><\/i> and they got an immediate positive response.\u00a0 He recalled, \u201cWhen we finished the song that night, people kept clapping, stomping, and shouting \u2018takin\u2019 care of business\u2019 over and over.\u00a0 So we picked up the tempo again and reprised the song for another ten minutes.\u00a0 Afterwards, we all knew we had something.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As big as \u2018<\/span>Business<\/span><\/i>\u2019 was (No 12 in the U.S. and No. 3 in Canada), B.T.O.\u2019s only No. 1 hit turned out to be <\/span>You Ain\u2019t Seen Nothin\u2019 Yet <\/span><\/i>from 1974\u2019s <\/span>Not Fragile<\/span><\/i> album which topped the <\/span>Billboard Hot 100 <\/span><\/i>on November 9, 1974.\u00a0 That song started as a joke ribbing one of the brothers who stuttered.\u00a0 The label suits heard it and wanted it to be the next single.\u00a0 The rest is history.\u00a0 They actually tried to record a version without the stuttering chorus, but in the end it didn\u2019t have the same punch so they settled for the original \u2018joke\u2019 version to get to No. 1.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hearing Billy Joel\u2019s <\/span>Big Shot<\/span><\/i> on the radio recently, it recalled an interview where he had talked about the song.\u00a0 He admitted that, \u201cthe mock-reproachful chorus (<\/span>You had to be a big shot, didn\u2019t you, you had to open up your mouth , , ,<\/span><\/i>) were partly a reflection on his own self-distructive habits,\u201d but the original theme went a little deeper.\u00a0 Joel explained his inspiration behind the song was a dinner he had with Mick Jagger and his then-wife Bianca.\u00a0 The idea was to write about how he imagined Mick felt about his wife\u2019s partying and socialite behavior. Viewed with this angle in mind, the lyrics make perfect sense, right down to the wardrobe decisions and the morning after hangover regrets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Until I read this account, I had always thought Joel was poking holes in his own rock star image.\u00a0 He has always been one to take his observations from real life as the inspiration for songs.\u00a0 The track <\/span>Scenes from an Italian Restaurant<\/span><\/i>, for example, was another scenario he put into a song after an encounter with a waiter at one of Joel\u2019s favorite restaurants (Italian, of course).\u00a0 The waiter came to his table and asked, \u201cA bottle fo white, a bottle or red, perhaps a bottle of rose instead?\u201d which immediately stuck in his mind.\u00a0 The rest of the seven minute long tale of Brenda and Eddie was made up, but the set up did indeed happen in an Italian restaurant.\u00a0 <\/span>Scenes <\/span><\/i>was released on his 1977 album <\/span>The Stranger<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Big Shot<\/span><\/i> was a track on 1978\u2019s <\/span>52nd Street.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Drummer Corky Laing was responsible for the song <\/span>Mississippi Queen<\/span><\/i> long before guitarist Leslie West and bassist \/ producer Felix Pappalardi recorded this classic song.\u00a0 Laing\u2019s pre-Mountain band (Energy) was playing a beach club on Nantucket Island when the power went out.\u00a0 He had been watching a girl (whom someone had told him was from Mississippi and was named Molly) dancing before the lights went out.\u00a0 As she kept dancing in the emergency lights, he was afraid she was going to leave the club.\u00a0 Corky took the beat from <\/span>Up On Cripple Creek, <\/span><\/i>added the now iconic cowbell, and began singing <\/span>Mississippi Queen<\/span><\/i> at the top of his voice.\u00a0 When Molly turned to look at him, he added the <\/span>You know what I mean <\/span><\/i>part.\u00a0 This went on long enough that by the time the lights came back on, he had wrecked his voice in the pursuit of a woman who left the bar with someone else.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Leslie West and Pappalardi played at the Woodstock Festival, but with a different drummer and keyboard player than the ones who recorded <\/span>Mississippi Queen. <\/span><\/i>\u00a0Leslie wanted to make an album called <\/span>Mountain<\/span><\/i> and somehow that is how the band was billed at Woodstock.\u00a0 The original drummer (Norman Smart) didn\u2019t like the loud direction of the band and after actually asking West and Pappalardi if they could turn down the volume, he was sacked.\u00a0 Felix approached Laing about taking the drum slot as they were also adding keys player Steve Knight to formally begin the band they would call Mountain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Corky showed West the outline of <\/span>Mississippi Queen<\/span><\/i>, he cranked out the famous riff and, according to Laing, \u201cThe song basically wrote itself.\u201d\u00a0 To the notion that it only took a few takes to get it all down on tape, Leslie replied, \u201cBull, we only did two takes.\u201d\u00a0 Pappalardi knew that Corky had previously met Jimi Hendrix in Canada.\u00a0 Jimi was recording across the hall at the Record Plant so Felix asked if Laing would go over and ask if he would like to hear their new track.\u00a0 Jimi obliged and after hearing the playback, he sang the riff and said, \u201cThat is cool!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One of my favorite versions of <\/span>Mississippi Queen <\/span><\/i>is the one The Rusty Wright Band played when they appeared at the Ontonagon Theater for the Performing Arts.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Peter Frampton hit his stride as a songwriter about four bands into his career.\u00a0 He started as a heart-throb teen idol in The Herd.\u00a0 He left them to join Humble Pie before forming Frampton\u2019s Camel.\u00a0 His biggest breakthrough came when the hits from his <\/span>Frampton Comes Alive<\/span><\/i> double album began dominating the radio waves.\u00a0 It was during his time with Humble Pie that he experienced one of those magical musical moments with a song that he didn\u2019t actually write.\u00a0 Unfortunately, even Spotify labels <\/span>I Don\u2019t Need No Doctor<\/span><\/i> as a \u2018song and lyrics by Peter Frampton\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The song was written by Nick Ashford, Valarie Simpson, and Jo Armstead and recorded by Ashford in 1966.\u00a0 Ray Charles made it popular when he put his own spin on it.\u00a0 The fiery take that appears on Humble Pie\u2019s 1971 album <\/span>Performance Rockin\u2019 the Fillmore <\/span><\/i>actually turned it into a hard rock anthem just as Frampton exited the band.\u00a0 Peter used to use a power chord progression from the song to test the acoustics when they were doing soundchecks before a show.\u00a0 One night, singer \/ guitarist Steve Marriott was in the back of the hall when he heard Frampton warming up.\u00a0 He dashed to the stage yelling at Peter to keep playing and Marriott broke into the song.\u00a0 Drummer Jerry Shirley and bass player Greg Ridley joined in and they arranged the song on the spot.\u00a0 They played <\/span>Doctor<\/span><\/i> for their closer that night and every night from then on.\u00a0 The popularity of this version has led many (including Spotify, apparently) to credit Frampton for writing the song.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are many examples when a throw away guitar riff has inspired a great song.\u00a0 When the Eagles heard Joe Walsh doing a warm up exercise he used to limber up his fingers, they said, \u201cWhoa, that could be something.\u201d\u00a0 It didn\u2019t really take shape as a song until Glenn Frey was a passenger enroute to a poker game.\u00a0 As the driver weaved in and out of traffic on the freeway, he said, \u201cWell, that\u2019s life in the fast lane,\u201d which set Frey\u2019s creative mind in motion.\u00a0 Kerry Livgren of Kansas had a similar experience when his wife heard him doing a picking pattern he also used as a warm up.\u00a0 She said, \u201cYou know, you should use that in a song,\u201d and one thing led to another.\u00a0 The end creation became one of the biggest hits in the Kansas catalog, <\/span>Dust In The Wind.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Studio time is a precious commodity so producers and artists do not like to waste it.\u00a0 Jay and the Americans had a No. 3 <\/span>Billboard Hot 100 <\/span><\/i>hit in 1964 with a song called <\/span>Come A Little Bit Closer.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The song was written by Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, and Wes Farrell but Kenny Vance said it was one of those \u2018accidental\u2019 hits for The Americans.\u00a0 Vance recounted a typical studio session back then ran three hours with the musicians getting paid $65 per hour.\u00a0 The Americans had spent most of the session working on a song that just wouldn\u2019t come together.\u00a0 Rather than wasting the entire day, they decided to take a run at <\/span>Come A Little Bit Closer<\/span><\/i> right at the end of the session.\u00a0 I remember my sister being excited about seeing them in concert at NMU in the 1960s.\u00a0 It was one of the first times I can remember hearing a nationally known band on the radio that also appeared locally.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Before he appeared on programs like <\/span>Burt Sugarman\u2019s Midnight Special <\/span><\/i>or <\/span>Don Kirchner\u2019s Rock Concert<\/span><\/i>, Cub Koda attended Northern Michigan University.\u00a0 No one would doubt his songwriting cred if the only thing he had written was <\/span>Smokin\u2019 in the Boy\u2019s Room<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 We were in awe of him back when we were scratching together enough equipment to start playing gigs because Koda played his guitar through TWO Fender Twin Reverb amps.\u00a0 To add to our astonishment, he threw in a good dose of something we were not familiar with – slide guitar.\u00a0 The slide was put to great use in a song he wrote called <\/span>Tony Baloney.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>I can\u2019t say for sure if he ever recorded it, but when he was still a college student, it hinted at what was to come.\u00a0 It\u00a0 still makes me smile when I think of it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Michael\u2019s band (he wasn\u2019t \u2018Cub\u2019 yet) had recently played a gig at a bar in Ishpeming.\u00a0 I won\u2019t name any names here, but the owner had a reputation for not liking loud bands.\u00a0 Koda\u2019s band was exactly that and although I hadn\u2019t heard them play in that establishment, the slide infused rocker they played at the gig I was at told the story.\u00a0 The chorus was the key:\u00a0 <\/span>Tony Baloney says yer playin\u2019 yer blues much too loud\u2026 <\/span><\/i>and each time he sang that refrain, he did a George Thoroughgood like \u2018<\/span>WAAAAAAAA\u2019 <\/span><\/i>up the neck with his slide – kind of like he was adding an exclamation point.\u00a0 When they finished, Koda said, \u201cWell, I am guessing we won\u2019t be playing at Tony Baloney\u2019s place any more!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My old Sledgehammer guitar player Barry says he does not remember writing any original tunes when we were together, but I reminded him we almost did.\u00a0 Barry was warming up with a chord progression and a connecting riff before one rehearsal.\u00a0 We asked him, \u201cWhat is that?\u201d and he replied, \u201cOh, just something I have been working on.\u201d\u00a0 When we joined him, he began singing a few lyrics and each section ended with, \u2018<\/span>We\u2019re gonna knock down the opposite wall.\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n I probably remember this because my previous band had been called \u2018Knockdown\u2019 which no doubt came up in conversation.\u00a0 After we fooled around with it a bit, Barry said, \u201cI like the progression but I have to put some thought into the lyrics before we try it again.\u201d\u00a0 Were we close to writing a song?\u00a0 Hard to say as Barry never did finish <\/span>Knockdown the Opposite Wall <\/span><\/i>and we never played it again.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To his credit, Barry did go on to write some catchy tunes over the years and if you search out Barry Seymour, you will not have trouble finding what he has posted online.\u00a0 Barry gives me a good place to end this <\/span>FTV<\/span><\/i> that started with B.T.O. because not only was our Sledgehammer name\u00a0 inspired by the band\u2019s song, we did more than a fair share of their tunes.\u00a0 After all, our business cards said, “Sledgehammer – We Don\u2019t Do Polkas!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 From June of 2012, B.T.O. and their tune inspired by an encounter with truckers wondering how friendly Manitobans were . . . but you will notice, only the title remains and no trucks are mentioned in the lyrics!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Have you ever tried to write a song?\u00a0 If one plays an instrument, I am willing to put money down that the thought has crept into mind that it shouldn\u2019t be that hard to do\u2026until one tries. Strumming an interesting chord pattern or hearing a phrase that sounds like it would make a good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3899"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3902,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899\/revisions\/3902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}