Audiogrammes

“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.” — John Lennon


This post is a weird double whammy. Actually, read on… It might even be a quadruple-whammy.

I was going through my digital music library and decided I’d clean it up a bit and make some space. I don’t know how I got to a really lo-res (56kbps!!!) version of Chuck Berry’s Memphis Tennessee.
And I remembered that John Lennon had nicked Come Together‘s opening line (Here come ol’ flat-top, he was movin’ up with me) from a Chuck Berry lyric. A few google search attempts later and I had discovered it was You Can’t Catch Me. I’d always thought it was Come on…

He’d later record a whole album of Rock’n'Roll standards in order to settle this royalties issue.

It’s funny, I usually post so many lyrics, and this is a lyric-initiated blogpost but it’s actually leading to a mostly instrumental theme. Bear with me…

I then realized John Lennon was also “inspired” for Sun King, another track on Abbey Road.

Forget about the lyrics: they’re mostly gibberish and Google translate didn’t recognize the Span-talian at the end.
Focus on the progression: it sounds a lot like a Fleetwood Mac instrumental called Albatross

And the worst part is Peter Green got his inspiration from Chuck Berry‘s Deep Feeling

Once again, we have the Chuck Berry connection…
But wait, there’s more!
It seems a lot of lesser-known musicians are still not credited by the big boys. Click here to read some more about about Jake Holmes and Led Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused.

And all this “inspiration” took me straight back to that lyric from 1992: “Hail hail rock ‘n’ roll, comes from r ‘n’ b and soul…”

Ahaha ahaha ….
Pockets of hate, rockets of love
It’s never too late, the change in the color of
The color of her, the color of him
It really doesn’t matter what skin you’re in
Big yellow taxi cab passed me by
Stopped on the next corner to pick up a white guy
The color of you, the color of me
You can’t judge a man by looking at the marque

Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino
Here come Elvis, Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee
Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino
Here come Elvis, Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee


I love everything about this song: the video, the lyrics, the story behind the album “Don’t Call Me Buckwheat” as well as Garland Jeffreys‘ crazy career.

But wait! there’s more… we go full circle once again: Hail hail rock ‘n’ roll is a documentary film that chronicles two concerts celebrating Chuck Berry‘s 60th birthday!!!


Post-Scriptum: As I was finishing this post I did a small research and realized John Lennon and Chuck Berry had actually played together on the Mike Douglas show in 1972!!! Thank you WFMU. I’ll leave you with some a great version of the track that started this whole post!!!

Je suis allé au marché aux oiseaux
Et j’ai acheté des oiseaux
Pour toi
Mon amour
Je suis allé au marché aux fleurs
Et j’ai acheté des fleurs
Pour toi
Mon amour
Je suis allé au marché à la ferraille
Et j’ai acheté des chaînes
De lourdes chaînes
Pour toi
Mon amour
Et je suis allé au marché aux esclaves
Et je t’ai cherchée
Mais je ne t’ai pas trouvée
Mon amour

Tell her I’ll be waiting
In the usual place
With the tired and weary
There’s no escape
To need a woman
You’ve got to know
How the strong get weak
And the rich get poor

Slave to love
And I can’t escape
I’m a slave to love

Chains, my baby’s got me locked up in chains.
And they ain’t the kind that you can see.
Whoa, oh, these chains of love got a hold on me, yeah.

Chains, chains of love

Cette chanson a également été reprise par les Beatles.

Je ne sais pas pourquoi, mais tout ça me fait penser à la légende de Merlin l’enchanteur et de Viviane (La Dame du Lac). Commes toutes les légendes, il y a plusieurs déclinaisons mais en gros il l’aimait tellement qu’il lui a appris le sort qu’il savait qu’elle allait jeter sur lui pour qu’il devienne son “éternel amant”…

My body is a cage
That keeps me from dancing with the one I love
But my mind holds the key
My body is a cage
That keeps me from dancing with the one I love
But my mind holds the key

Still next to me
My mind holds the key
Set my spirit free

Well we know where we’re goin’
But we don’t know where we’ve been
And we know what we’re knowin’
But we can’t say what we’ve seen
And we’re not little children
And we know what we want
And the future is certain
Give us time to work it out

We’re on a ride to nowhere
Come on inside
Takin’ that ride to nowhere
We’ll take that ride

I’m feelin’ okay this mornin’
And you know,
We’re on the road to paradise
Here we go, here we go

They can tell you what to do
But they’ll make a fool of you
And it’s all right, baby, it’s all right
We’re on a road to nowhere

Said to the man at the railroad station
“I want a ticket, just for one”
He said, “well, if you insist
Where you wanna go, a miss? Oh”

Destination anywhere
East or west, I don’t care
You see my baby don’t want me no more
This old world, ain’t got no back door

Mixing it up slightly here. Have you seen The Commitments? Haven’t seen it in ages. I’m scared it might’ve not aged too well. So the Youtube link is the film version, but the download link above is the Marvelettes’.

So we’ve been from nowhere to anywhere…

Sultry in the summer heat.
I know with you we can’t be beat.
Take me somewhere.
Take me somewhere.
Take me somewhere.
Why don’t you take me somewhere?

Can you hear me calling
Out your name
You know that I’m falling
And I don’t know what to say

Oh I…
I want to be with you everywhere

Do you have the impression you’ve heard a recent cover of this song?
Or maybe it was just Cut Copy’s Take Me Over?

To lead a better life I need my love to be here…

I will be there and everywhere
Here, there and everywhere

And Bob will sign us off…

I don’t care
How many letters they sent
Morning came and morning went
Pick up your money
And pack up your tent
You ain’t goin’ nowhere

This blog is just some “reeds to talk to”: King Midas has donkey ears.
This guy is clearly not using it so I might as well steal his concept…

Do you remember that dialogue from In the Mood For love?
Chow Mo-wan: In the old days, if someone had a secret they didn’t want to share… you know what they did?
Ah Ping: Have no idea.
Chow Mo-wan: They went up a mountain, found a tree, carved a hole in it, and whispered the secret into the hole. Then they covered it with mud. And leave the secret there forever.
Ah Ping: What a pain! I’d just go to get laid.
Chow Mo-wan: Not everyone’s like you.

Listen,
Do you want to know a secret?,
Do you promise not to tell?, whoa oh, oh.

Closer,
Let me whisper in your ear,
Say the words you long to hear

It’s no secret that a friend is someone who lets you help
It’s no secret that a liar won’t believe anyone else
They say a secret is something you tell one other person
So I’m telling you, child

It’s no secret that a conscience can sometimes be a pest
It’s no secret ambition bites the nails of success
Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief
All kill their inspiration and sing about their grief

Can you keep a secret?
Honestly, no?
If I know a good story,
It bubbles out of me,
Like weeds from the ground.

Can you keep a secret?
Well, why do you ask?
It’s clear from the gallery,
You’re dying to tell me
What’s been going on.
You can’t keep it inside.
You can’t keep it inside.
You can’t keep it inside.


For the sake of this post, here’s a guilty secret: I just love Madonna’s late nineties/early noughties fast guitar tracks like this one and definitely this one:

Happiness lies in your own hand
It took me much too long to understand
How it could be
Until you shared your secret with me


I don’t know why, but I’ve always deliberately sung it “A penis lies in her own hands…”
Is that what you call a happy ending?
Once again, unforeseen full-circle has been reached. Good night!

“People often desire something but don’t really want it. Don’t be afraid to want what you desire.” – Slavoj Žižek speaking to Occupy Wall Street

I think I’ve been living under a rock. Completely out of touch with the outside world.
This movement has actually grown? I hate it when I’m that skeptical at first.
It reminds of my reaction to the initial call for demonstrations in Syria a few months ago. I stupidly scoffed…

Anyway, I think I’ll scramble back under my rock and play ostrich. Here are my thoughts for today.
No Lyrics; it would be too much. Especially this first version…

Elvis Costello – I Want You (Mediafire Link)

Bob Dylan – I Want You (Mediafire Link)

The Beatles – I Want You (Mediafire Link)