The Rattles are a German rock band, formed in Hamburg in 1960, most prominently known for their 1970 psychedelic hit single, ‘The Witch’. They recorded their first version of ‘The Witch’ in 1968, with vocals by Henner Hoier and in 1970, they recorded their second version of ‘The Witch’, this time with vocals by Edna Bejarano. This became their only international hit, it appeared in the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart, the top 20 in Austria, and reached the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., becoming the first German group to ever appear in the US charts and eventually this song sold over one million copies. This song is about somebody being chased through a forest by a witch and a fifteen-minute version of this song appeared on The Rattles 1971 album The Witch.
The Rattles performed in Hamburg, and played at the same venues as The Beatles on three occasions in 1962. ‘The Witch’ was written by German songwriter, producer, bassist and vocalist Herbert Hildebrandt-Winhauer who was in The Rattles from 1960–68. The group was forced to split up owing to army service and other reasons and a new line-up formed, although Hildebrandt remained as their songwriter and record producer.
Can’t you see me runnin’ I am really runnin’ For my life Guess from where I’m Comin’ Guess why I’m runnin For my life
Can’t you see the witch Can’t you see the witch Can’t you see the witch by my side
Can’t you see the witch Can’t you see the witch Can’t you see the witch by my side
Can’t you see my deathfear I can hear her voice Shoutin’ everywhere Who know what I’ve could done It must be so bad That a witch does care
Can’t you see the witch Can’t you see the witch Can’t you see the witch by my side Can’t you see the witch Can’t you see the witch Can’t you see the witch by my side
Written for Paula’s Thursday Inspiration 80 where this week’s theme is witch from the 1972 Eagles song ‘Witchy Woman’.
‘Whatever’s Written In Your Heart’ was written by Gerry Rafferty and released in 1978 on his second studio album City To City. Rafferty was a Scottish singer-songwriter who was in the band Stealers Wheel and he had big hits with ‘Baker Street’, ‘Right Down the Line’ and ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’. City To City peaked at #1 in the US and it went Platinum, eventually selling more than 5 million copies, and it remained on the charts for 49 weeks. Barbara Dickson and Joanna Carlin sang backing vocals on this track giving it a Gospel spiritual feel. The electric piano is played by Tommy Eyre which is accompanied by a hushed synthesizer in the middle.
In this melancholy song Rafferty expresses his thoughts about a relationship, as he reflects on the tensions and misunderstandings that arose in a special relationship that kept going despite long absences. Rafferty insists that in the end a true heart can win the day. Rafferty died at the age of 63 on January 4, 2011 after a long illness of liver disease. Rafferty’s daughter Martha sang this song at his funeral.
Wakin’ up here on a rainy day I swore last time that I would stay away I came down here to talk to you I said this time I might get through. I heard us speak but all the words were dead We talked all night and left it all unsaid So we agree to disagree At least we got our memory.
Whatever’s written in your heart, that’s all that matters You’ll find a way to say it all someday (yeah) Whatever’s written in your heart, that’s all that matters Yeah, night and day, night and day.
You’ve got your secrets yeah and I’ve got mine We’ve played this game now for a long long time You don’t lean on anyone You never had no place to run.
You never wanted me to get too close We love and hate the ones we need the most I tried to find a way to you One thing I could say to you.
Whatever’s written in your heart, that’s all that matters You’ll find a way to say it all someday (yeah) Whatever’s written in your heart, that’s all that matters Yeah, night and day, night and day.
Maybe I’ve always set my sights too high You take the easy way and still get by I know there ain’t no special way We all get there anyway.
I heard us speak but all the words were dead Talked all night and left it all unsaid So we agree to disagree At least we got our memory.
Whatever’s written in your heart, that’s all that matters You’ll find a way to say it all someday (yeah) Whatever’s written in your heart, that’s all that matters Yeah, night and day, night and day.
Yeah, night and day and day Yeah, night and day and day (whatever’s written in your heart)
Written for Paula’s Thursday Inspiration 79 where this week’s theme is written from the 2017 Old Dominion song ‘Written In The Sand’.
‘Seasons Of My Heart’ was written by George Jones and Darrell Edwards and released as the B-side to the #4 hit ‘Why Baby Why’ in 1955. The song was also recorded by Johnny Cash, Kitty Wells, Jerry Lee Lewis, Willie Nelson, Conway Twitty and the Grateful Dead. The year is divided up into seasons and we can associate the love that we feel with every season. Each season has own particular meaning that is dependent on what the singer of the song is going through at that period in their relationship, thus it could contain sunshine, rain or snow. The song is about love and the feelings experienced in a relationship, but the singer states that seasons do not exist when they have their lover in their life, as all they notice is flowers blooming. It is a genuinely honest song that is about being happy when you are in love, as the seasons change. There will always be good times and bad times in every relationship and even when “Winter comes, the spring is close behind”.
Jerry Garcia wanted to get into pedal steel back when he was playing the banjo, and he felt it was a snappy sounding instrument and he liked it because it was weird. Jerry saw the Flying Burrito Brothers use this instrument at the Avalon, where they opened for the Dead, on April 6, 1969. In April of 1969, Jerry Garcia purchased a pedal steel guitar because he was inspired by this instrument, and he made his stage debut on an April 24 1969 with the song ‘Silver Threads and Golden Needles’, a song that the band performed back in their Warlocks days. The pedal steel is not the easiest thing to play, it is an odd-looking thing that you sit down at, it is not a self-explanatory instrument, it’s difficult, because it is a strange instrument. Jerry didn’t take any lessons; he didn’t read any books, he just sat down and played, immersing himself in the instrument, getting up early every morning and playing for hours. Jerry began playing in coffee houses with his friend John ‘Marmaduke’ Dawson and they had so much fun, that they decided to form a band, The New Riders of the Purple Sage. Besides playing pedal steel guitar with the Grateful Dead and the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Garcia played this instrument with in the studio with the Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, It’s a Beautiful Day, Brewer and Shipley, Rowan Brothers, Paul Pena and Link Wray.
The introduction of the pedal steel by Garcia into the studio, led the way for two of their best albums Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, and onstage several new tunes were able to make limited and rare appearances in the set lists, including this George Jones number that was only played live a handful of times between the end of 1969 and the beginning of 1970. Garcia only played the pedal steel guitar from 1969 – 1974, then he picked it back up again for the Bob Dylan and Grateful Dead joint tour in July 1987.
Seasons come and seasons go We get a little sunshine, rain and snow Just the way that it was planned to be But there’s no season in my heart While you play the leading part There the flowers will bloom eternally
Chorus Your leaving, it will bring autumn sorrow And my tears like weathered leaves will fall But spring it may bring us glad tomorrow And darling, we could be happy after all
As it is in nature’s plan No season gets the upper hand How I tried to bear this fact in mind The trees are bare, the cold winds blow But by experience we should know Winter comes but the spring is close behind
[Chorus] Written for Paula’s Thursday Inspiration 78 where this week’s theme is happy from the 1996 Sheryl Crow song ‘If It Makes You Happy’.
Before the Beatles wrote the song ‘Let It Be’, the song ‘Let It Be Me’ was popular, but this song was originally published in French in 1955 as ‘Je t’appartiens’ and it was written by Gilbert Bécaud and Pierre Delanoë. The first English language version used lyrics by Manny Curtis and in 1957 it was performed by Jill Corey. It became popular worldwide with an English version by the Everly Brothers in 1960 and later, a 1964 duet by Betty Everett and Jerry Butler became a serenade that was used in a lot of weddings. The Everly Brothers rendition of ‘Let It Be Me’ reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was one of the first pop songs to use a string section, where eight violins and a cello were used. It was also the first Everly Brothers song to use strings. The Betty Everett and Jerry Butler ‘Let It Be Me’ climbed all the way to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the Cashbox R&B chart.
Bob Dylan recorded this on his 1970 Self Portrait album. George Harrison recorded this song on the 2011 documentary film Living in the Material World directed by Martin Scorsese. This is a love song that is sung to an unknown, unmentioned person, which longingly announces one’s feelings. In this song, the singer begs for a love that is forever, so they can be complete. The singer wants to be chosen, and comes off as being needy, but is hopeful that the choice will end up being them, so they won’t be lonely.
I bless the day I found you I want to stay around you And so I beg you Let it be me
Don’t take this heaven from one If you must cling to someone Now and forever Let it be me
Each time we meet, love I find complete, love Without your sweet love What would life be
So never leave me lonely Tell me you’ll love me only And that you’ll always Let it be me
Each time we meet, love I find complete, love Without your sweet love What would life be
So never leave me lonely Tell me you’ll love me only And that you’ll always Let it be me
Written for Paula’s Thursday Inspiration 77 where this week’s theme is lonely from the 1981 Billy Squire song ‘Lonely Is The Night’.
‘Crazy Fingers’ is a Grateful Dead song written by Garcia and Hunter and it came out on the 1975 Blues for Allah studio album. Hunter developed the lyrics for this song from some pages of haiku (although not the 5-7-5 kind) that he wrote in a notebook and when Jerry looked at them, he said, “Hey, this might fit together as a song.” The jazz pianist Claude Hopkins had the nickname of Crazy Fingers. The German jazz and pop pianist Fritz Schulz-Reichel went by the stage name of Crazy Otto and he wrote a song titled ‘Crazy Fingers’. Crazy Otto is mentioned in the Grateful Dead song ‘Ramble On Rose’. The Grateful Dead have a Ramble on Rose pin which features the Crazy Otto stoner pointing his finger in the air while looking for a miracle.
My best guess is that Robert Hunter is talking to God when he wrote, “Your rain falls like crazy fingers”, and anyone who took as much LSD as Hunter did, probably held many conversations with the almighty. Hunter celebrates the beauty of nature in his lyrics, “Peals of fragile thunder, Keeping time”. Rain drop size varies based on rain intensity from a drizzle to a torrential downpour and rainfall speed increases with rain drop size, so falling rain often keeps a pitter patter time. In KJV of Psalm 137 which is often called “By the Waters of Babylon” it says, “We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.” A traditional folk song titled ‘There Is a Tavern in the Town’, appeared in the 1883 edition of William H. Hill’s Student Songs uses the similar phrase, “I’ll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree”, and this is also in ‘Crazy Fingers’. Rudy Vallée recorded this in 1934 as ‘The Drunkard Song’.
Hunter uses a water theme to reflect falling in love, as he strays down to the water into the deep sea of love, beneath the sweet calm face of the sea to feel the swift undertow and he wonders if this made life sweeter. As is the case with any love, you just won’t know how it will turn out till you reach the end and hear Lady Lullaby singing specifically for you. The LSD kicks in again as Hunter sees, “Cloud hands reaching from a rainbow, Tapping at the window, Touch your hair, So swift and bright, strange figures of light, Float in air”.
In 1919, William Butler Yeats wrote the poem The Second Coming that ends with the line, “Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” and it alludes to the beast from Book of Revelation and in 1991, Joni Mitchell wrote the song ‘Slouching Towards Bethlehem’. Hunter chose a message of hope instead with his words about an event that changed the history of the world, “Who can stop what must arrive now? Something new is waiting To be born”. Hunter provides the Taoist idea of letting yourself become a gentle leaf that rides the flow of the tides when he says, “Gone are the days we stopped to decide, Where we should go, we just ride, Gone are the broken eyes, We saw through in dreams, Gone, both dream and lie”. The song ends on a carousel ride with someone reaching for the gold ring, but they aren’t able to reach it, as it slips away.
Your rain falls like crazy fingers
Peals of fragile thunder
Keeping time
Recall the days that still are to come
Some sing blue
Hang your heart on laughing willow
Stray down to the water
Deep sea of love
Beneath the sweet calm face of the sea
Swift undertow
Life may be sweeter for this, I don’t know
See how it feels in the end
May Lady Lullaby sing plainly for you
Soft, strong, sweet and true
Cloud hands reaching from a rainbow
Tapping at the window
Touch your hair
So swift and bright, strange figures of light
Float in air
Who can stop what must arrive now?
Something new is waiting
To be born
Dark as the night you’re still by my side
Shining side
Gone are the days we stopped to decide
Where we should go, we just ride
Gone are the broken eyes
We saw through in dreams
Gone, both dream and lie
Life may be sweeter for this, I don’t know
Feels like it might be alright
While Lady Lullaby sings plainly for you
Love still rings true
Midnight on a carousel ride
Reaching for the gold ring
Down inside
Never could reach it, just slips away
But I try
Written for Paula’s Thursday Inspiration 76 where this week’s theme is lady from the 1972 Moody Blues song ‘For My Lady’.
‘Heaven Help The Fool’ is a song that was written by John Barlow and Bob Weir and it was released on a Live album in 1998 by Bob Weir and composer and bass player Rob Wasserman. The Grateful Dead played this song several times in 1980 acoustic sets as an instrumental and it was also performed by most of the Bob Weir solo bands. ‘Heaven Help The Fool’ is the title song from the second solo album by Grateful Dead rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, released in 1978. It was recorded during time off from touring, in the summer of 1977, while Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart recovered from injuries sustained in a vehicular accident.
Ace is a Grateful Dead studio album that was released in 1972, that it is seen as being Bob Weir’s first solo album. Weir was a member of the band Kingfish from 1974 to 1976 who recorded and released a live eponymous album in 1976, and Weir left the group shortly after the album’s release. Bobby & The Midnites was a yacht rock country folk group that were together during the first half of the 1980s, when they released two albums, but they were better known for their live concerts. They were a side project for Bob Weir who led the group playing rhythm guitar and singing vocals. Bobby Cochran who had worked with Steppenwolf, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Leon Russell played lead guitar, and sang vocals. Dave Garland a composer, multi-instrumentalist and radio host played keyboards, saxophone, and sang vocals. Alphonso Johnson who was in the jazz fusion group Weather Report played bass and sang vocals and Billy Cobham who worked with Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra played drums and sang vocals. Bob Weir later formed the rock band RatDog after the Dead disbanded.
‘Heaven Help The Fool’ is a disco-influenced tune that sounds a lot like the Grateful Dead song ‘Saint of Circumstance’ which came out later. This song is about a guy from the Great Plains that moves to L.A. and wants to become successful by trying to be cool. He lives in Malibu, has lots of girls, and a new Mercedes. L.A. is a place of decadence and he can get what ever his heart desires there and even sell his soul to become more successful. Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in Rosedale, Mississippi and the Charlie Daniels Band went down to Georgia, but apparently the devil also hangs out in L.A. and he is willing to trade guitars for souls. Golden apples are also available in L.A. and they appear in several Greek myths. They are very desirable items and can be used to distract others and goddesses willingly strip naked for them and offer gifts as a bribe to obtain these golden apples. Hera had her own sacred golden apple tree which was guarded by a dragon.
I was born in Flatland, U.S.A.
And all my dreams lead me to L.A.
Another case of rags to riches
I learned to throw some fancy pitches
And I found out what ain’t, and which is
Just exactly cool
Heaven help the fool
Guess I showed the sons of bitches
Heaven help the fool
Got a place in Malibu
Like you’ve never seen
Pickin’ out your lady friends
From Penthouse magazine
You ought to see the chrome gleam
On my new Mercedes
All shiny and new
Hey, I’m the Jack of Diamonds
The boy with all the clues
Lotta pretty vanity
No not me
Glorified insanity
No not me
I’m a hyper-survivor, fast driver, star-driver
Heaven help the fool
Professional gimme-fiver
Heaven help the fool
Anything you want to be
You can buy, even get it free
Make yourself a smoother dancer
Fill your head with easy answers
Never a backward glancer
It’s you who makes the rules
Heaven help the fool
No, never a backward glancer
Heaven help the fool
The middle of a pentagram
Heart of a star (what you are)
You can trade your soul for an electric guitar
Fool, lotta pretty vanity
No, not me
Fool, glorified insanity
No, not me
When they offer golden apples
Are you sure you’ll refuse?
Heaven help the fool
Are you sure you’ll refuse?
Heaven help the fool
Just like a deaf man dancin’
Like a blind man shootin’ pool
Heaven help the fool
Written for Paula’s Thursday Inspiration 75 where this week’s theme is guitar from the 1972 Bread song ‘Guitar Man’.
‘Butterfly’ was written by Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann and published in 1957, and it is about a guy that chooses to end a relationship with someone that he has strong feelings for. Lowe and Mann also wrote the song ‘(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear’ which was recorded by Elvis Presley in 1957. The song is sometimes credited to Anthony September as a songwriter which was a pseudonym used by Anthony Mammarella, the producer of American Bandstand. The original recording of the song was by Charlie Gracie and it reached #1 on the Billboard chart, #10 on the R&B chart and #12 on the UK Singles Chart in 1957. A cover version by Andy Williams also reached #1 on the Billboard chart, it went to #1 in the UK, and it also reached #14 on the US R&B chart. ‘Butterfly’ was rated #11 for the year of 1957 by Billboard.
Andy Williams is probably best known for the song ‘Moon River’ which was the theme song from the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s starring Audrey Hepburn andGeorge Peppard. ‘Moon River’ was composed by Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and Henry Mancini (music), and it won an Oscar. Williams sang ‘Days of Wine and Roses’ for the 1962 movie of the same name. Williams had another big hit with ‘Love Story: Where Do I Begin?’ also a movie theme song from the 1970 movie Love Story, which starred Ali MacGraw andRyan O’Neal. Williams sang yet another movie theme song ‘Speak Softly, Love’, for 1972’s The Godfather, starring Marlon Brando andAl Pacino.
Andy Williams had a laid-back delivery and his voice charmed audiences for decades, and he formed a quartet with his three brothers. The Williams Brothers Quartet appeared on Bing Crosby’s 1944 hit ‘Swinging On a Star’ and they appeared with comedienne Kay Thompson during the late ‘40s. Andy Williams began his solo career in 1952, making several appearances on Steve Allen’s Tonight Show before signing a contract with Archie Bleyer’s Cadence Records in 1955. He hit the Top Ten in 1956 with his third single for Columbia Records, ‘Canadian Sunset’. One year later, his soft-toned cover of the Charlie Gracie rockabilly nugget ‘Butterfly’ and this song was his biggest hit.
You tell me you love me, you say you’ll be true
Then you fly around with somebody new
But I’m crazy about you, you butterfly
You treat me mean, you’re makin’ me cry
I’ve made up my mind to tell you goodbye
But I’m no good without you, you butterfly
I knew from the first time I kissed you
That you were the troublin’ kind
‘Cause the honey drips from your sweet lips
One taste and I’m outta my mind
I love you so much I know what I’ll do
I’m clippin’ your wings, your flyin’ is through
‘Cause I’m crazy about you, you butterfly
Ooh, I’m crazy about you, you butterfly
Ooh, I can’t live without you, you butterfly
I knew from the first time I kissed you
That you were the troublin’ kind
‘Cause the honey that drips from your sweet lips
One taste and I’m outta my mind
Ooh, I love you so much I know what I’ll do
I’m clippin’ your wings, your flyin’ is through
‘Cause I’m crazy about you, you butterfly
You butterfly
You butterfly
Written for Paula’s Thursday Inspiration 74 where this week’s theme is butterfly from the 1966 song ‘Elusive Butterfly by Bob Lind.
‘When Push Comes To Shove’ is a Hunter and Garcia Grateful Dead song that came out on their In The Dark album. The world is a scary place filled with frightening stuff, but in this song, a guy is afraid of love. When push comes to shove is a phrase that is said when one must commit themself to an action or a decision. This is not the time to sit on the fence, you must stop hesitating, take a stance and don’t remain neutral. The message in this song is to get off of the couch, stop watching that mystery killer from Channel Four and go out and find some love. It may not turn out perfect for you, but if you don’t give it a try, you will never know what you could have had.
Shaking in the forest, what have you to fear
Here there may be tigers to punch you in the ear
Gloves of stainless steel, bats carved out of brick
Will knock you down and push you up and give your ass a kick
When push comes to shove
You’re afraid of love
Shaking in the desert, wherefore do you cry
Here there may be rattle snakes to punch you in the eye
Shotguns full of silver, bullets made of glass
String barbed wire at your feet and do not let you pass
When push comes to shove
You’re afraid of love
Chorus
When push comes to shove
When push comes to shove
You’re afraid of love
When push comes to shove
Shaking in the bedroom, covers on your head
Cringing like a baby at the hand beneath the bed
Phantom in the closet, scratching at the door
The latest mystery killer that you saw on channel four
When push comes to shove
You’re afraid of love
Shaking in the garden, the fear within you grows
Here there may be roses to punch you in the nose
Twist their arms around you, slap you till you cry
Wrap you in their sweet perfume and love you till I die
When push comes to shove
You’re afraid of love
[chorus]
Written for Paula’s Thursday Inspiration 73 where this week’s theme is mystery from the 1997 Sarah McLachlan song ‘Building A Mystery’.
The music for ‘Saint Of Circumstance’ was started by Bob Weir in his Mill Valley home, in Marin County CA and he finished it when he was Puerto Escondido, Mexico in July 1979. John Perry Barlow wrote the lyrics and this song appeared on the Grateful Dead Go To Heaven album which was released in April 1980. After Bob wrote the music, he took it to Barlow’s ranch in Campbell County, Wyoming. Weir reached the highest point around, 9,000 feet up, of the majestic Wind River Mountains and when he turned around, he saw a big thunderstorm, (heavy rain and hail along with thunder and lightning) which he described as a rogue elephant. The storm followed him up the mountain, coming straight at him and he realized that since he was the most prominent feature for miles on the tree-less landscape, that he was in trouble. He tossed his watch and just started laughing, and then the line came to him, “I sure don’t know what I’m going for, but I’m going to go for it, for sure.” Bob ran back laughing and singing, with lightning striking within 10 feet of him, as he could smell the ozone heavy in the air, he saw fences lighting up. He was spared, and he looked at the song as being a gift from this scary event.
The song mentions the Dog Star (Sirius), “See that Dog Star shinin’.” The ancient Egyptians studied the stars, so they could calculate a more accurate measurement of what a year is. They used Sirius, the Dog Star, to predict the annual flooding of the Nile. By studying Sirius, the Egyptians became the first civilization that was able to switch from a lunar to a solar calendar. A problem showed up because every four years Sirius was a day late. This meat that the solar year is really closer to 365 days and six hours, which threw the calendar off, but eventually man came up with leap year and we added a day to February, every fourth year to account for this.
In Norse mythology the rainbow bridge Bifrost connects Asgard, the world of the gods, with Midgard, the world of humanity. Only the gods could cross this bridge, which was guarded by the god Heimdall. Yesterday as I was loading my groceries in my car, I thought that maybe I had found a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, when I saw two lottery tickets blowing around in the wind. I got my hopes up thinking that one of them might be a lucky ticket and I would become suddenly wealthy with a huge windfall, but they were both losers.
This must be heaven
Tonight I crossed the line
You must be the angel
I thought I might never find
Was it you I heard singing
Oh while I was chasing dreams
Driven by the wind
Like the dust that blows around
And the rain fallin’ down
But I never know (sure don’t know)
I never know, never know (sure don’t know)
This must be heaven
‘Cause here’s where the rainbow ends
And at last it’s the real thing
Or close enough to pretend
When that wind blows (wind blows)
And the night starts to fall
I can hear the sirens call
It’s a certain sort of sound
And the rain fallin’ down
Rain fallin’ down
Holes in what’s left of my reason
Holes in the knees of my blues
Odds against me been increasing
But I’ll pull through
Never could read no road-map
Now I don’t know what the weather might do
Hear that witch wind whining
See that dog star shining
I got a feelin’ there’s no time to lose
No time to lose
I never know (sure don’t know)
I will never know, no, no (sure don’t know)
Well it’s been heaven
Even rainbow’s will end
Now my sails are filling
The wind so willing
And I’m good as gone again
I’m still walkin’
So I’m sure that I can dance
Just a saint of circumstance
Just a tiger in a trance
And the rain fallin’ down
Rain falling down
Rain falling down
Well I never know
Just don’t know
Just don’t know
Sure don’t know what I’m goin’ for
Sure don’t know
But I’m gonna go for it for sure
Yeah for sure, yeah for sure
Sure don’t know what I’m goin’ for
Just don’t never know, never never know
But I’m gonna go for it for sure
No no no, that’s for sure, yeah for sure
Sure don’t know what I’m goin’ for
Just don’t never never know, no no
But I’m gonna go for it for sure
That’s for sure
Sure don’t know what I’m goin’ for
Yeah maybe going on a dream, going on a dream now
But I’m gonna go for it for sure
Maybe going on a feeling, maybe going on a feeling
Maybe going on a feeling
Written for Paula’s Thursday Inspiration 72 where this week’s theme is rainbow from the 1967 Rolling Stones song ‘She’s A Rainbow’.
The very first known form of swing was a dance step called the Texas Tommy which may go all the way back to the Civil War, but it did not become popular till just before 1913. This was a vigorous social dance for couples that originated in San Francisco. The Texas Tommy was supposedly the first modern couples dance of the time to include the “break-away” step (energetically dancing from closed to open position and back) while using the basic 8 count rhythm of swing dance. In 1913 in Harlem, The Broadway musical The Darktown Follies had a performance by Ethel Williams dancing with Johnny Peters along with some other performers, performing a dance called the Texas Tommy. A Texas Tommy is said to be a female prostitute who also worked the trenches and/ or walked the streets in the early 1900s.
In that same musical The Darktown Follies, a song and dance called ‘Ballin’ the Jack’ was also introduced, which is a phrase that is associated with a railroad train going at full speed, but later on this came to mean going all out physically on the dance floor, or perhaps in the bedroom, describing a particularly wild sexual encounter. ‘Ballin’ the Jack’ was applied to a slithering, grinding, sensual dance performed in honky-tonks and juke joints. Judy Garland and Gene Kelly danced to the tune in the hit 1942 movie For Me and My Gal.
In 1916, a dance called the Mooch and Sugar evolved from the Texas Tommy and by 1919 it was called the Break-A-Way. During the 1920’s when the Charleston was becoming all the rage, the Breakaway and Charleston would start to mix with and was forming a new unnamed dance style and the Lindy Hop picked up where the Charleston left off. The Charleston’s spirited syncopation and irregular rhythmic accents helped create a symbiotic relationship between musicians and dancers that owed more to West African dance aesthetics than to court, ballroom, or peasant dancing.
In 1927 this style was finally acknowledged and given a name by a fabulous swing dancer named George “Shorty” Snowden who was in a group of dancers called Whitey’s Hopping Maniac’s that rose to fame dancing in the Savoy Ballroom. Shorty George from New York’s Harlem was to re-name the ‘break-a-way’, he called it the “Lindy Hop or Lindbergh hop”; after the famous pilot Charles Augustus Lindbergh who hopped across the Atlantic making a historically successful thirty-three-hour flight to France on May 20, 1927. The lyrics of the song known as the ‘Overseas Stomp (Lindbergh Hop)’ were written by Jab Jones and Will Shade.
I know they’re gonna run to me
When they get across the sea
Every chance to win when Washington lands in France
All safe for now sugar baby
Oh mama don’t you weep and moan
Uncle Sam got your man and gone
Now they’re doing the Lindy Bird across the sea
Oh mama how can it be
You went way across the sea
Just to keep from doing that Lindy Bird with me
Oh baby well I done told you now
You should have seen me with my uniform on
I could Lindy just as sure as you’re born
And then I’d do that Lindy Bird with you
I asked her for a piece of banana
She said let me play the blues on your piano
And then I’ll do that Lindy Bird with you
She said she had a dream about a submarine
I asked her for a glass of kaola
She said let me play the blues on your victrola
And then I’ll do the Lindy Bird with you
Written for Paula’s Thursday Inspiration 71 where this week’s theme is sugar from the 1969 song ‘Sugar Sugar’ by the Archies.
