The big story leading up the the 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief last night was the news that Paul McCartney was going to play with the surviving members of Nirvana — Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear. Although it might have first seemed like an odd pairing, remember that McCartney and the Beatles recorded songs like “Helter Skelter.” Anyway, if you missed the performance, here the group plays a new song, “Cut Me Some Slack.”
In addition to appearing on the concert’s soundtrack, “Cut Me Some Slack” will appear in Grohl’s upcoming film, Sound City Movie.
What do you think of the performance? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Since Hurricane Sandy hit New York, it has been quite difficult to find gasoline, as stations are still closed because they do not have power and those that are open run out of gas quickly. I have seen long lines and closed stations around and outside the city.
So, today, New York City and Long Island began a gas rationing plan like New Jersey previously implemented. Drivers with license plates that end in an even number can buy gas on even-numbered days, and those with vanity plates or plates that end in an odd number can buy gas on odd-numbered days. For the most part, it should cut down the length of lines at least. And it is hard to complain too much about the temporary rationing when so many people in the area were hurt much worse by the hurricane.
The rationing reminded me of when I was a kid in the 1970s and there was gas rationing across the country. Hopefully, our regional gas problem will end quickly, but the 1970s the problem lasted long enough for The Kinks to record a song about the problem. In The Kinks’ blues-influenced “A Gallon of Gas,” the singer finds himself successful enough to finally buy a Cadillac but then discovers he cannot get gas for it. He goes to his “local dealer” to buy some gas but is told that while a number of drugs are available for a reasonable price, there is no gasoline.
There’s no more left to buy or sell; There’s no more oil left in the well; A gallon of gas can’t be purchased anywhere, For any amount of cash.
You also may track down a live performance of the song from “Rockpalast Night” in Essen in 1982. The Kinks released “A Gallon of Gas” as a single only in the U.S. in August 1979, and the song appeared on their 1978 album, Low Budget. While the song’s title may be aimed at the U.S. market, I believe the song uses the gallon measurement instead of the liter/litre because at the time the U.K. had not yet converted gas sales to the metric system, although I have found conflicting reports of the actual year the U.K. made the change at gas stations.
Bonus Gas Songs: There does not seem to be a lot of songs inspired by gas shortages, but another 1970s gas song is John Mayall’s “Gasoline Blues,” from the album The Latest Edition (1974). More recently, Britney Spears released a song called “Gasoline” on Femme Fatale (2011), although for some reason I don’t think the song has anything to do with gas prices and gas shortages (“Your touch, burning me / It’s too much, gasoline”).
What are your favorite gas-related songs? Leave your two cents in the comments.
When I heard that several stars like Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Christina Aguilera and Sting were going to appear last Friday on a one-hour “Coming Together” TV concert on NBC, I could not help thinking of the similar benefit that had aired on the four major broadcast networks September 21, 2001 after the 9/11 attacks. There were similarities to that benefit because both marked sad times with performances by many of the same artists in a darkened studio. There were some differences this time, though, such as the fact that the Fox network tried to stir up some controversy about NBC’s Sandy fundraiser.
Also, on Friday’s show, some of the performers were able to touch on some hopeful notes while still acknowledging the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. For example, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Tyler remembered better times and looked to the rebuilding when they sang “Under the Boardwalk,” accompanied by some of the other artists.
As the show went on, I tried to anticipate what Bruce Springsteen might sing. After reasoning that “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” probably would not fit with the night’s theme, I had suspected that Bruce Springsteen might perform the somber “My City of Ruins,” which he wrote about Asbury Park and which he performed after 9/11 and had performed at another show in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
Instead, though, when Springsteen and the E Street Band took the stage for the final song, they reached into their catalog for one of Springsteen’s more hopeful songs, “Land of Hope and Dreams.”
For an explanation of the legacy, history and optimism of “Land of Hope and Dreams,” check out our previous Chimesfreedom post on the song, including how the song connects to Springsteen’s ending reference here to “People Get Ready.”
Finally, remember that organizations still need your help even after Hurricane Sandy is no longer on the front pages. Visit Red Cross’s website or some of the other organizations offering help to volunteer or donate. Or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10.00 to help those hit by the hurricane.
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, there is going to be a lot of cleaning up in the following days. There are some trees down in Queens NY, like the one above, but other areas were hit much worse. The damage has spread all the way from the New Jersey coast to Ohio and beyond, causing problems and leaving people without power in a number of states. In the words of Bob Dylan, as performed below by Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, we hope you found shelter from the storm.
For our readers in the path of Hurricane Sandy, we wish you safety through the storm. Here in New York, they are shutting down the subways and making other preparations. Meanwhile, the residents have been out stocking up to prepare for the worst. It’s interesting to see the choices folks are making at the grocery stores in the face of possibly being holed up without power and refrigeration for some time. It seems the pessimists are grabbing up the water jugs, while the optimists are buying ice cream.
As a Bruce Springsteen fan, I cannot think of the name “Sandy” without thinking of “Fourth of July (Sandy),” one of the great early E Street Band songs. In this early recording, featuring the late Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons, the band performs at the Capital Center in Landover, Maryland on August 15, 1978. (The audio is a little off from the video, but it is still a cool video.)
Almost every line in the song is an arresting image in itself, whether the singer is telling us about the “tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag” or that “the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin’ fortunes better than they do.” Here and in the original, Springsteen sings to Sandy, “Love me tonight, and I promise I’ll love you forever.” But I have heard him change the words in other versions to an even more honest line, “Love me tonight, and I promise . . . I promise there won’t be any promises.”
In Songs (1998), Springsteen explained that he wrote “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” in mid-1973 after moving in with a girlfriend in a garage apartment five minutes from Asbury Park in Bradley Beach, NJ. The 23-year-old wrote it as “a goodbye to my adopted hometown and the life I’d lived there before I recorded. Sandy was a composite of some of the girls I’d known along the Shore.” He later explained the themes he was trying to address, “I used the boardwalk and the closing down of the town as a metaphor for the end of a summer romance and the changes I was experiencing in my own life.”
When the band planned to record the song, Springsteen hired a church children’s choir to sing on the track. But the kids did not show up on the day of the recording, so Suki Lahav — the wife of Springsteen’s sound engineer — sang the backing track and they overdubbed her voice to make it sound like a choir. It’s her voice you hear on “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” on The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973).
In the late 1980s, I took a road trip with a friend from Cleveland to New York, and along the way we stopped in Asbury Park. I was surprised to discover then that there actually was a fortune teller there named Madam Marie. She was closed that day, so I did not get my fortune told. But it made me realize how Springsteen was able to take things from real life and transform them into great poetry. Although Madam Marie is no longer in Asbury Park because she passed away in 2008, here is hoping that Asbury Park and other areas along the shore survive Hurricane Sandy.
What is your favorite version of “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(1974). More recently, Britney Spears released a song called “
(2011), although for some reason I don’t think the song has anything to do with gas prices and gas shortages (“Your touch, burning me / It’s too much, gasoline”).
