Category: Music

Happy Birthday Elvis: Clean Up Your Own Backyard

Elvis Presey Trouble with Girls On this date in 1935, Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. His simplified life story is that an awkward young boy grew into a young man who rocketed to stardom in the 1950s with his musical talent and then went to Hollywood where he lost his way making second-rate movies. Eventually, the story goes, the man found his musical roots in a television special, but then lost his way again in a spiral of excess and over-medication.

But one’s life cannot be simplified into a few sentences. The general story line is inaccurate on a number of levels, including the general assertion that Elvis made no decent movies or music during the time he made films. While a number of the films are only interesting because of Elvis’s presence and there is a lot of cheesy music like “Do the Clam,” the King was still capable of hitting one out of the park now and then during this period. Several songs you know originally came from his movies, like “Can’t Help Falling in Love” from Blue Hawaii (1961).

The clip below is a song you may not have ever heard if you have not seen the movie, The Trouble With Girls (and How to Get Into It) (1969). The film itself is among his more interesting and unusual movies, despite the title that makes it sound completely generic. Unlike other Presley vehicles, The Trouble With Girls does not feature him in almost every scene (he’s in about one-third of the film), and at various times before production Glenn Ford and Dick Van Dycke were slotted to play Elvis’s role as Walter Hale. His character is the manager of a traveling chautauqua, which is a school that provides education combined with entertainment. You may read more about the unusual movie at this fan site.

The musical highlight of the movie is where Elvis performs “Clean Up Your Own Backyard.” The bluesy song is an excellent vehicle for Elvis, and the lyrics about hypocrisy is a good lesson for all of us. Before we judge Presley’s life, “Clean up your own backyard / You tend to your business, I’ll tend to mine.”

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    Devil’s Right Hand Arrest in New York City

    pellet gun Recently, a woman from Tennessee was arrested for carrying a licensed gun in New York City. The case has sparked some uproar because of the unusual facts. The woman, Meredith Graves, apparently was carrying a gun licensed in her home state of Tennessee while visiting the 9/11 Memorial in New York. After seeing a “No Guns” sign, Ms. Graves asked police where she could check her gun. Subsequently, she was arrested under a New York law prohibiting people from carrying a loaded gun, even if the gun is licensed in another state.

    The case is a perfect illustration of the old adage, “Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse.” Generally, that is true in the law, as one may understand that someone should not be able to commit robbery and then say they did not know it was against the law. Only very rarely can ignorance of the law rise to a Due Process problem when someone is punished for violating a law they did not know existed. Under this case, a court would probably hold that when someone travels to another state with a gun, it is not unfair to require them to check the local laws on whether they can pack heat.

    Here, Ms. Graves had every intent to comply with the law and was arrested for violating a New York law she did not know existed. A prosecutor sought a felony conviction, which could result in a sentence of up to 3 1/2 years. This case seems like a perfect one for a prosecutor to use discretion to avoid a conviction of someone who did not wish to cause any harm and who tried to comply with the law — even if she could have done things a little better. My guess is that the prosecutor is using the case to help publicize the New York law to tell tourists to leave their guns at home. 

    There are a number of slang terms for guns, and one of the coolest is “the Devil’s right hand,” used in the song of the same name written by Steve Earle from his album, Copperhead Road (1988). The song begins with the singer’s first encounter with what his mama called “the Devil’s right hand,” illustrating a fascination that ends up with the singer using a gun to kill another man during a fight in the card game. Like Ms. Graves, the singer pleads not guilty and blames it all on “the Devil’s right hand.” Here is a young Steve Earle performing the song.

    It is somewhat surprising that the song has not been covered more often by rock groups, considering the song’s catchy music and edgy lyrics. Perhaps the best cover is by The Highwaymen. That version makes good use of all of the members of the group: Johnny Cash, Waylong Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson.

    Two of the members of that group — Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash — recorded their own solo versions too. Here is the group version. So listen to the song one more time as a reminder to check those gun laws when you travel.

    UPDATE:  In March 2012, Merredith Graves reached a deal with prosecutors so she did not face any jail time for carrying bringing her gun to town.

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    (Back in the) USSR Established on Today’s Date

    USSR flag On December 30, 1922, following the Russian Revolution, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (“USSR“) was established. The country was created out of a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation (which was later divided into the Georgian, Azerbaijan, and Armenian republics).

    Before being dissolved in 1991, the Soviet Union eventually included fifteen republics: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

    When any Beatles fan hears “USSR,” the person’s mind wanders to the Beatles classic “Back in the USSR” from the two-disc The Beatles (1968), otherwise known as The White Album.”

    Although the song is about the USSR in the title, underlying the song is a tribute to American rock and roll. The title evokes Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA.” And in the chorus there is a nod to the Beach Boys’ “California Girls“:

    Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out
    They leave the west behind
    And Moscow girls make me sing and shout. . .

    Another line in the chorus mixes the USSR Georgia and the USA state Georgia to evoke Ray Charles and “Georgia on my Mind.” That song was recorded by Charles in 1960 and written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell in 1930.  As a tribute, the Beatles sing, “That Georgia’s always on my my my my my my my my my mind.”

    Although “Back in the USSR” takes the conflict of the Cold War to make a piece of beautiful music, there was conflict among the band members when the song was recorded. In a precursor to later band troubles, during the making of The White Album, Ringo Star quit the group for a short period. “Back in the USSR” was recorded during this period.

    So, Ringo does not play on the song. Most believe that the drums on the song were a composite of the other band members taking a turn at the skins, although a majority of the drumming may be McCartney, the primary writer of the song. For an earlier version of “Back in the USSR,” check out this Beatles demo:

    Paul McCartney eventually performed the song in Russia in 2003. By then, neither the countries of the USSR nor the men of the Beatles were together.

    Still, it is a good performance. I suspect the people in the crowd know how lucky they are.

    What do you think of Back in the USSR? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Dion Has the Blues

    Dion Bronx in Blue Dion Dimucci has made some wonderful music since the dawn of the rock and roll era. His song “Runaround Sue” is one of my favorite all-time songs, and I love other songs he made with the Belmonts and solo.

    For a long time through the late 1980s and 1990s, though, I assumed he was not around anymore because I had not heard anything about him since those days. And then one night at a Bruce Springsteen concert, Springsteen told how he reworked his own “If I Fall Behind” from his Tunnel of Love album after hearing Dion cover it. It is a beautiful song that Springsteen has played in a variety of ways, including an excellent Irish music version with the Seeger Session band. But his Dion doo wop version of “If I Fall Behind” was a revelation because it made me realize Dion was still around. Being a Springsteen fan and loving old Dion music, I had to track down Dion’s recording, which Dion later put on the album Deja Nu (2000). I liked the album a lot, and I’ve been keeping up with Dion’s new releases ever since.

    Some of his most amazing recent work is on two blues CD’s of classic covers with a few originals: Bronx in Blue (2006) and Son of Skip James (2007). I bought the first one because I had read good reviews of it and saw it on sale at a store. It might first seem odd that Dion is singing blues songs, but he grew up listening to blues music in the Bronx. The albums are excellent. There are not videos for most of the songs, but I did find this one of “Worried Blues”:

    Below is Dion’s take on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Built for Comfort,” which appears on Bronx in Blue:

    His third blues CD, Tank Full of Blues, is due out January 24. This week Rolling Stone premiered one of the songs off the CD, “I Read It (in the Rolling Stone).” Finally, one other thing I love about Dion is that he seems to write his own updates on his Facebook page. And he still writes using 1950s slang. The cat is cool. Give him a “Like.” For crying out loud, he is a legend and has been making music for seven decades. You can at least press a button for the guy.

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    Billy Joel Saw the Lights Go Out on Broadway

    Billy Joel Shea Stadium Billy Joel recently became the only non-classical musician to have his portrait unveiled at Steinway Hall, home to the piano maker Steinway & Sons. Except for Elton John, there probably is not another pop musicians as associated with the piano as Joel. So it is a fitting tribute.

    One of my favorite Billy Joel songs is “Miami 2017,” and in the following video, Billy Joel explains the inspiration behind the song. “Miami 2017” originally appeared on The Stranger (1977), and a live version later appeared on Joel’s collection of lesser-known previously released tracks, Songs in the Attic (1981).

    Near the end of the video below, Joel plays a part of the song. But in the beginning, Joel describes his reaction to the federal government’s refusal to bail out a defaulting New York City in 1975. Then, he explains that his song’s title evokes a retired New Yorker living in Florida in the year 2017 telling what he had witnessed.

    If that gave you a taste for hearing the entire song, check out this video of Billy Joel singing the song as part of his 2008 performances that closed down Shea Stadium before the stadium was reduced to a pile of rubble. Hence, the lyric change at around the 2:40 mark, “The Mets can play / One more game in Shea,” before sinking Manhattan out at sea.



    What is your favorite Billy Joel song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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