Chamblee54

Classic Rock Stories: The Stories Behind the Greatest Songs of All Time is due back at the Chamblee library today. If PG is going to do a book report, now is the time.
This is what you might call a concept book. Assemble a bunch of stories about rock songs, gussy them up with graphics, and sell it. It was written in 1998, which makes it ancient itself. It was worth the effort to take home from the library, and read while warming up the car.
A few of the stories are fun to hear. The original lyric to Friend of the Devil was “It looks like water but it tastes like wine”. Lou Reed says it is your fault if you took Heroin after listening to his song. Mark Farner prayed to G-d to give him a hit record, and woke up in the middle of the night and wrote I’m your captain.
Some times censorship does not work. Steppenwolf wrote The Pusher and used GD in the properly… G-d, send this terrible person to hell. Some preachers in North Carolina objected, and the police told the band not to say the offending phrase. When they did the song, John Kay kept his mouth shut, and turned the microphone to the crowd. The audience knew the line. When the time came, they shouted  GD the pusherman.
Elton John knew the value of publicity, and has been eager to talk. Funeral for a friend was something Elton would want played at his funeral. He likes sad music, especially about dead blondes. Fellow singer Rod Stewart was offered a role in Tommy, and Elton advised him not to take it. A few months later, Pinball Wizard was offered to Elton, and the three foot tall platform shoes made a splash. Rod never forgave him. Elton thought Bennie and the Jets was a very strange song, and was surprised that it became a hit.
Sometimes it is best to ignore conventional wisdom. Soon after the second CSNY album came out, four unarmed students were killed at Kent State University. Neil Young wrote “Ohio”xx, and the band came out with a single within days. The suits thought that “Teach your children”xx was going to be the hit on that album.
Stories get told about bands and songs. When Wont Get Fooled Again came out, PG was told that Pete Townshend met someone, and invited this person to his hotel room. Before long, it was discovered that what seemed to be a she was really a he. In this book, Mr. Townshend said that it was revolutionary tough talk.
Early in their career, Lynyrd Skynyrd was playing four shows a night, and did not have a lot of material. When they played Free Bird, they tried to make it longer and longer. It is generally easier to pad out one song than to write two more. Another long wonder, In a Gadda da Vida, started out as “In the garden of eden”. The singer drank a gallon of red mountain wine, and the rest is history.
Robert Plant hates Stairway to Heaven
Not As Advertised January 8, 2012 D. Turner
Lots of blank space for such a small book and really not all that interesting. I’ve read dozens of books about Rock history, and this collection is one of the weakest to date. Frankly, I’d be embarrassed to even loan this book to a friend, and would not recommend it to others.
Writen in One Afternoon August 8, 2000 vonhayek
Stories? I don’t think so. The “story” behind each song is simply a quote or two. The author didn’t want to be burdened with the task of actually writing anything. And the quotes are frequently brief. The “story” behind Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way,” for instance, is all of four lines. This is book is mostly air. And as for “Classic” Rock, I humbly submit that songs like “Substitute,” “That Smell,” “Treat Me Right” by Pat Benetar have not exactly been labeled “classic” by anyone but Morse. I think what happened here is that Morse spend an afternoon on Nexus running searches for a bunch of songs and came up with a miscellaneous series of quotes from  Rolling Stone. I feel ripped off.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.