Download    Ah, Janis Joplin. Such a sweet innocent voice amidst all the turmoil of the late sixties. NOT!  The girl was loud and raucous and had a voice that was somehow raw and sexy at the same time.  She was a force to be reckoned with and if you didn’t like… well, that was just too bad.

Janis recorded “Bobby McGee” for her Pearl album just a few days before her death in October of 1970.  It was written by Kris Kristofferson and first recorded by Roger Miller, who had a semi-hit with it.  Kristofferson recorded it himself, of course, but it’s the Joplin version that people most remember.  He didn’t even hear her recording of his song until the day after she died.  The song went to number one on the Singles Chart, making it the second ever number one hit released posthumously – the first being “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding.

I was never wild about this tune.  I mean, I liked it okay,  but just the idea of Janis recording it so close to her death is intriguing.  What I discovered while working up this arrangement is that her back-up band kicked butt!  Especially the keyboards – who knew?  She broke away from the band “Big Brother and the Holding Company” and formed her own band called “The Kozmic Blues Band”, taking “Big Brother’s” keyboard player, Steve Ryder, with her – excellent idea.  After dissecting the song and trying to mimic Ryder’s piano genius, I have a new appreciation for this composition.  And the bass player wasn’t any slouch either.

I hate the sudden ending, but in the interest of being as true to the original as possible – there it is.  If you perform this song and you have dancers, you’ll have to warn them:  “The song ends in 4 beats so be ready, people.  All right… STOP!”

  Download Instrumental    Jason is from Spencer, Wisconsin.. I have no idea where that is (other than Wisconsin), but the man wants backup tracks to a song called “Six Days on the Road”.  It’s a song almost anyone can sing… and that’s right up my alley.

The funny thing is…. the artist who had a huge hit with this song in 1963 was Dave Dudley – also from Spencer, Wisconsin.  Could this be the reason Jason is so anxious to get these backups?  None of my business.  Dudley built a career out of truck-driving songs even though he had never set foot inside a semi.  His songs included “One More Mile”, “Trucker’s Prayer” and “Truck Driver’s Waltz”.  His musical influence was behind the Burt Reynolds movie Smokey and the Bandit  and had an impact on a whole new generation of musicians.  His last single, released in 1980, was “Rolaids, Doan’s Pills, and Preparation H” (think about it).

The melody to this tune is a little repetitive, but it’s the words that make the song.  My favorite verse includes the lines: “I could have a lot of women but I’m not like some other guys/ I could find one to hold me tight, but I could never make believe it’s right”.  Imagine that – a trucker who doesn’t have the morals of an alley cat.  Refreshing…

[It’s on the Country List]

  Download    It’s 2:30 in the morning at a small but popular club in Boca Raton.  The last of the customers had finally stumbled out the door and the band was packing up after a high-energy night.  I had just closed up the piano and my Hammond B3 (the sweetest-sounding organ on the planet).  I was still trying to get used to playing piano with one hand and organ with the other, but it was coming along.

I sat down at a corner table and sipped on my last scotch of the night.  The bass player was still onstage plucking out a song that was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.  The drummer was over by the bar chatting up the waitress.  “Good luck with that one,”  I thought.  John, my horn player and best friend, dropped into the seat across from me..  ” ‘Yakety Sax’  sounded like a funeral dirge tonight, ” was all I could think of to say.  He gave me a sad smile and said, “Yeah, I know.”

“She was in the crowd tonight.”

He looked up at me.  “I saw her.  So?”

“Well,” I said, “she wants you back.”

John thought about that for a minute.  He looked toward the stage and seemed to be listening to whatever song the bass man was working on.  “You think she wants to come back, huh?”  I nodded.  “Not this time,” he replied and ambled toward the stage.  I watched him pick up his tenor and adjust his mic.  I sighed… then joined him on stage.  My drummer soon followed, abandoning his love interest.

There’s nothing like the call of “just one more song”, especially when the place is closed, quiet, and safe.  After that, we all left by the same door, each heading off in different directions.  Tomorrow night, we’d come together and do it all again.

    Disco died in 1978 – and the man to blame for its demise is Rod Stewart – and this song. “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” brought an end to the disco era simply because Mr. Stewart was never supposed to dip his toe in the tainted pool of disco music.  Rod had earned a reputation as a hard-rocking party animal and this was what his fans expected – not a Saturday Night Fever rerun with him gyrating around in spandex pants – very disturbing.  This song was simply the last straw and we weren’t going to take it anymore!

But, I’ll have to admit, in the seventies I enjoyed that pounding beat with the bass and drums simultaneously driving you to the dance floor.  There was just something about the whole scene that was intoxicating (quite literally) and I spent many a night under the disco ball – and many nights playing that crap so other people could dance.  It was fun and reasonably innocent and I’d take those days back in a hot minute.  So, naturally, we have some disco in our repertoire… and you should too.

There was no saxophone in the original, but this arrangement has a nice tenor in the back half just to make it more interesting…. and longer, so your people can dance an extra two minutes or so.  And if they’re wearing spandex – even better.