Wordless: At the Hop

This is the album cover for “At the Hop”…..by Danny and the Juniors. The song was originally written as “Do the Bop”, but American Bandstand host, Dick Clark, advised the group to re-write the lyrics because the dance known as The Bop was not as popular as it had been. After the change the song remained in the top number one spot for a month.

Find other wordless images published by other bloggers here.

Peg

The song Peg by Steely Dan was the first song from the Aja (1977) album that became a single.

Did you know?

*the guitar solo is by Jay Graydon on the original cut, and he worked on the final version for over six hours?

*Michael McDonald can be heard as a backup vocal on the chorus?

*that more than likely the song concerns a porn actress by the name Peg, and that a “foreign” movie was another way to describe a porn movie?

*that the song peaked on U.S. charts at #11?



Here is a video that discusses the song’s recordation:



Here are the lyrics:

I've seen your picture
Your name in lights above it
This is your big debut
It's like a dream come true
So won't you smile for the camera
I know they're gonna love it

I like your pin shot
I keep it with your letter
Done up in blueprint blue
It sure looks good on you
And when you smile for the camera
I know I'll love you better

Peg
It will come back to you
Peg
It will come back to you
Then the shutter falls
You see it all in 3-D
It's your favorite foreign movie

Wordless: Strange Brew...The Very Best of Cream

The ultimate band providing a hybrid of blues, hard rock and psychedelic rock.

Here’s the title cut:

An official site for the band can be found here…..

Happy Wednesday!
The Wordless Wednesday hub can be found here

Shine

Collective Soul hales from Stockbridge Georgia and were inducted into the Georgia Hall of Music Fame in 2006. This video is from two days of shows the band did with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra on April 23 and 24, 2005.

What an experience for those kids to play with a hit band!

Here are the lyrics to Shine:

Give me a word
Give me a sign
Show me where to look
Tell me what will I find (What will I find?)

Lay me on the ground
Fly me in the sky
Show me where to look
Tell me what will I find (What will I find?)

Chorus
Yea, Yea, Yea Oh, Heaven let your light shine down (x4)
Love is in the waterLove is in the air
Show me where to look
Tell me will love be there (Will love be there?)
Teach me how to speak Teach me how to share
Teach me where to go
Tell me will love be there (Will love be there?)

Chorus
Give me a word
Give me a sign
Show me where to look
Tell me what will I find (What will I find?)
Lay me on the ground

Fly me in the sky
Show me where to look
Tell me what will I find (What will I find?)

Chorus
I'm going to let it shine (x2)
Heavens little light gonna shine on me
Yea yea heavens little light gonna shine on meshine, shine on meshine, come on and shine

While the band is not officially a Christian band….some of the members are Christians.
Their website is found here.

Personal Jesus

So have you ever thought about making someone into your own personal Jesus?

Apparently Martin Gore of Depeche Mode fame did. The song, Personal Jesus, was inspired by the relationship between Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley as detailed in the book Elvis and Me.
In an article published in Spin Magazine Gore stated, “It’s a song about being a Jesus for somebody else, someone to give you hope and care. It’s about how Elvis was her man and her mentor and how often that happens in love relationships; how everybody’s heart is like a god in some way, and that’s not a very balanced view of someone , is it?"

I agree….it’s not a balanced view of someone, but I love the song and I like Depeche Mode.

Some of the adjectives used to describe Depeche Mode is successful, influential, and longest lived for bands that emerged from the early 80s.

The marketing campaign for the song, Personal Jesus, is pretty interesting. Advertisements were placed in the personal columns of UK regional newspapers with the words “Your own personal Jesus” and a phone number was provided. When the number was called folks heard the song.

The song has been covered by many including Marilyn Manson and Johnny Cash.

Here are the lyrics:

Reach out and touch faith

Your own person Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who’s there.

Feeling unknown
And you’re all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I’ll make you a believer

Take a second best
Put me to the test
Things on your chest
You need to confess
I will deliver
You know I’m a forgiver

Reach out and touch faith
Reach out and touch faith

Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who’s there

Feeling unknown
And you’re all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
I’ll make you a believer
I will deliver
You know I’m a forgiver

Reach out and touch faith

Your own personal Jesus

Reach out and touch faith


The official website for Depeche Mode can be found here

I Just Want to Stop

Wow, his hair.....I loved his hair.



Prior to using his own name for his recordings, Vanelli used the pseudonym Vann Elli. I’m glad he finally decided to go with his original.

Gino Vanelli's official website

Toto's Africa Performed a Different Way

The group featured in this video is Perpetuum Jazzile, a Slovenian a cappella group.

Notice there is no music being played.



The group’s website is found here

Of course, we are more used to the original version by the group Toto.

Have you ever heard the saying that we should only write about what we know?

With that idea in mind the inspiration for this song was a fictional situation where a white boy attempts to write a song about Africa, but since he had never been to Africa or didn’t have much knowledge about it at all he used what he had previously read or seen in movies or on television.

Here are the lyrics:

I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in twelve-thirty flight
Her moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say: "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"

[Chorus:]
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become

[Repeat chorus]
[Instrumental break]
Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you
[Repeat chorus]

Steely Dan….Do It Again