Download    A gent by the name of Joe South began his career in 1958 with the novelty song “The Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor”.  Joe wrote the song and performed it in Atlanta when he was 18 years old.  The song eventually was recorded by The Big Bopper and was a semi-hit.   Thankfully, he got a little more serious with his song writing and gave us such treasures as “Games People Play”, which he recorded himself – “Rose Garden” by Lynn Anderson – and this little gem I’m featuring today “Down in the Boondocks”.

Billy Joe Royal recorded South’s tune in 1965 and it went to number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  I can still remember singing along with it as a kid.  The story line is “poor boy can’t have rich girl” – reminds me of the Johnny Rivers hit “Poor Side of Town” with a story line “poor boy ridicules poor girl who thought she could hook up with a rich guy and now she’s come back to poor boy – wrong”.  Okay, that’s a stretch, but “Boondocks” was a catchy tune back in the day and can be used in a sixties set.

    Every now and then (not often) a song comes along that just takes your breath away the moment you hear it.  You file it away under “best ever” and it haunts you the rest of your life.  You’re walking along the beach and that same melody comes drifting across the sand from an outside cafe.  Or you hear another artist cover it and you think “I like the original better”.  But it’s always out there somewhere, lurking and waiting to pounce – bringing back perhaps bittersweet memories or just a reminder that you used to be younger.  “Landslide” is just such a song.

Stevie Nicks wrote this during a time in her life when she wasn’t sure what direction to go.  She and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham were having trouble in their relationship and Polydor Records had dropped their album BuckinghamNicks.  Stevie visited a friend in Colorado (Aspen, of course) and wrote the lyrics while taking in the beauty of the state through a living room window.  Years later in an interview, she commented, ” looking out at The Rocky Mountains pondering the avalanche of everything that had come crashing down on us…. at that moment, my life truly felt like a landslide in many ways”.

Buckingham and Nicks went on to join Fleetwood Mac and vaulted the band to the top of the charts with Rumors – the best album of all time.  This song has been performed at every one of their concerts since then and we do it on every job ourselves.  Since there isn’t any keyboard part, I cue up the sequence for Karen, then  I go sit in the crowd and listen to her perform it… still takes my breath away.

   This song can be a terrific closer for the night.  You always want to send your crowd home with a smile on their face… and what better song than this?

It was composed by Charlie Chaplin for his 1936 movie Modern Times.  Originally an instrumental soundtrack for the movie, it was released in 1954 by Nat King Cole with wonderful lyrics – “You’ll find that life is still worthwhile – if you’ll just – smile”.  The MP3 and midi files (without the lead line) are on the Pop/Rock list.

September 4th is my mother’s birthday.  She always had one of her great smiles for me – no matter what.  Today, give a stranger one of your smiles – it might be the only sunshine he sees all day.

    I’m not a big fan of the polka.  As a kid, accordion was my primary instrument and polka requests were common… too common.  But, of course, it was an accordion after all.  By the time I was 14 I felt like if I played “Beer Barrel” or “Clarinet” one more time I’d just crawl away into a hole somewhere.  But my Grandfather Zobrist loved polkas – and I would have played anything for him.  Once I put the accordion away for good and took to piano, I vowed never to do another polka.  I kinda felt that way about waltzes too.

But, of course, that didn’t work out.  There are still folks out there who love polkas.  Since I’m of German-Swiss descent myself, I can spot ’em coming a mile away.  But we try to steer them toward this song by The Beatles.  “Ob La Di, Ob La Da” is a happy tune that lends itself to dancing the… you guessed it… the POLKA!  Paul McCartney wrote it in his usual irreverent style but John Lennon “loathed” the song (he was much too serious).  I like it myself, mostly because I don’t have to roll out another beer barrel… unless somebody insists, of course.

On your next gig, try using this Beatles tune as a substitute for that German dance.  It’s a lot more fun and the lyrics are downright cute.  I’ll bet even Grandpa would tap his feet on this one…. but then he would have said “now how about a real polka, boy”.  (sigh)

   It was written by Carl Perkins in 1955 and ushered in a music era known as “rockabilly”.  Perkins was playing a dance somewhere when, during a break between songs, he heard some guy sternly warn his dance partner, “Uh-uh, don’t step on the suedes”.  Carl looked down and noted the jerk had on blue suede shoes (now with a scuff mark) and thought, “this great-looking gal and all he’s worried about are his shoes.”  Hey, Carl…. they’re blue suedes, man!  Such was the inspiration for this song.

Recording cover versions of songs was standard practice during the 50’s, and RCA wanted it’s new recording artist, one Elvis Presley, to cut another version of “blue suede”.  This song and “Heartbreak Hotel” rose on the charts at roughly the same time.  There was some “discussion”  between Carl Perkins and Presely over who was going to release it first and score the hit, but Elvis eventually gave in to pressure from RCA.

You can click on the play button above and hear my rendition.  Obviously I’m no Elvis, but the tune lends itself well to mediocre singers.  In other words, anybody can do this one.  Karaoke, anyone?  I tried to keep it as “rockabilly” as I could, using two different guitar voices on my Yamaha.  It usually goes over pretty well on a job so, if you don’t have a band, try this sequence.  The midi sequence and the MP3 version are on the Pop/Rock list.  Go, Cat, Go!

  There once was a guy named Norman Greenbaum (well, still is, but he’s past 70 – not that there’s anything wrong with that). He is, to me, the King of One-Hit Wonders. He wrote a great song back in 1969 called “Spirit in the Sky”.  Although he’s Jewish (nothing wrong with that either) the song definitely had a Christian theme. But what a great underlying rock beat and bass line. Always loved this tune. He also recorded “The Eggplant That Ate Chicago”… but we won’t go there.
We perform this song in a considerably different way, but still with that infectious beat. Click on the SoundCloud player below and you can hear how we do it. Keep in mind, I’m a player – not a singer. But I’ve subjected many people over the years to my limited vocal talents anyway – how obnoxious is THAT?! If you’re a performer and want to try this one onstage, you can download my instrumental backups backups from the Pop/Rock list – it’s a keeper!