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All Night Long is one of those great late 70’s metal songs, dripping and oozing with testosterone. It’s a song that’s about one thing, and one thing only: sex. That’s not a bad thing either. Heck, do people even make songs like this anymore?

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

You’re walking up with your eyes on me
It’s looking good but I just don’t know
I need a girl who can keep her head
All night long
You didn’t came just to see the show
I guess you know what you wanna see
The way you smile lets me know
I can’t go wrong
I wanna touch you
I wanna feel you
I wanna make you mine
I wanna love you all night long
I wanna be with you all night long
I wanna love you all night long
I wanna be with you all night long
I saw you standing down by the stage
Your black stockings and you see - through dress
Your mouth is open but I don’t wanna hear you
Say goodnight
You’re sort of young but you’re over age
I don’t care ’cause I live your style
I don’t know about your main but
You look alright
I wanna touch you
I wanna feel you
I wanna make you mine
I wanna love you all night long
I wanna be with you all night long
I wanna love you all night long
I wanna be with you all night long
Your mind is dirty but your hands are clean
You show no class but your legs are long
I know I can’t stand another night
On my own
Hey girl would you like some wine
What’s your name are you by yourself
Are you the one what do you say
Can I take you home
I wanna touch you
I wanna feel you
I wanna make you mine
I wanna love you all night long
I wanna be with you all night long
I wanna love you all night long
I wanna be with you all night long

No, I am not going to talk about Fiona Apple’s cover. That deserves it’s own post.

The original is quite strong in it’s own right. The song starts out slowly and quietly, builds up through anger and sadness, ending with quiet regret. it’s one of Elvis’s best vocal performances as he conveys the feelings of a man who’s lost his love to someone else quite well.

The Attractions, as always, are on top of their game as well. The song isn’t as complex musically as some of the other songs they’re famous for, but they show excellent restraint in building an atmosphere of changes in movement during the song.

Here’s a link to a mashup

And of course, the lyrics:

Oh my baby baby I love you more than I can tell
I don’t think I can live without you
And I know that I never will
Oh my baby baby I want you so it scares me to death
I can’t say anymore than “I love you”
Everything else is a waste of breath
I want you
You’ve had your fun you don’t get well no more
I want you
Your fingernails go dragging down the wall
Be careful darling you might fall
I want you
I woke up and one of us was crying
I want you
You said “Young man I do believe you’re dying”
I want you
If you need a second opinion as you seem to do these days
I want you
You can look in my eyes and you can count the ways
I want you
Did you mean to tell me but seem to forget
I want you
Since when were you so generous and inarticulate
I want you
It’s the stupid details that my heart is breaking for
It’s the way your shoulders shake and what they’re shaking for
it’s knowing that he knows you now after only guessing
I want you
It’s the thought of him undressing you or you undressing
I want you
He tossed some tattered compliment your way
I want you
And you were fool enough to love it when he said
“I want you”
I want you
The truth can’t hurt you it’s just like the dark
It scares you witless
But in time you see things clear and stark
I want you
Go on and hurt me then we’ll let it drop
I want you
I’m afraid I won’t know where to stop
I want you
I’m not ashamed to say I cried for you
I want you
I want to know the things you did that we do too
I want you
I want to hear he pleases you more than I do
I want you
I might as well be useless for all it means to you
I want you
Did you call his name out as he held you down
I want you
Oh no my darling not with that clown
I want you
You’ve had your fun you don’t get well no more
I want you
No-one who wants you could want you more
I want you
Every night when I go off to bed and when I wake up
I want you
I want you
I’m going to say it again ’til I instill it
I know I’m going to feel this way until you kill it
I want you
I want you

Kiss Me isn’t the deepest song, or the best song–but it’s a damned fun song. I love Steven Duffy’s hopeful and optimistic vocals, the sheer joy of his voice when he gets what he wants–it’s an excellent song.

Oh, and it has a good beat and you can dance to it too.

Here’s a link to a tribute video

And of course, the lyrics:

In my young life I have received
Callers as though they were Christmas Eve.
Disappointed and I don’t know why.
She gave me laughter and hope
And a sock in the eye. (A love like this is sealed with a kiss)

Wow I feel so fresh today.
Barefoot in the snow to make love in the hay.
The stars are bright in the abyss,
Now I can feel you in my arms
I explode inside your kiss.

Rebel Waltz isn’t one of the best known Clash songs, but it is a really good one. From the Sandinista! album (which I personally think is better than London Calling), it’s an odd tune by the Clash, a 3/4 waltz. It’s got a gorgeous, seemingly ethereal mood, describing what is likely the last night of a group of rebels in some war. From Rock and Roll Meandering Nonsense:

“Rebel Waltz” is a forgotten song on the Clash’s forgotten Sandinista album. As the title says, it is a waltz, but with an edge. I’m not sure what war this involves or even if that’s important, but the lyrics describe the resolve in a rebel army before (or perhaps after) a battle they cannot (or did not) win. There is a surreal sense to “Rebel Waltz” that suggests that the scene may actually follow the battle in which the rebels were slaughtered. At any rate, the song shows that the Clash can be a powerful band even on low-key songs. Even their waltz is for rebels.

Anyway, it’s a beautiful and haunting song, and it is slightly forgotten, which is a shame.

You can listen to the song below:

And of course, the lyrics:

I slept and I dreamed of a time long ago
I saw an army of rebels, dancing on air
I dreamed as I slept, I could see the campfires,
A song of the battle, that was born in the flames,
and the rebels were waltzing on air.

As the smoke of our hopes rose high from the field
My eyes played tricks through the moon and the trees
I slept as I dreamed I saw the army rise
A voice began to call, stand till you fall
The tune was an old rebel one.

Ah, the irrepressible Bootsy Collins. Where to begin?

As a child, I did not like that “race music”. I found it (and still find the vast majority of it) boring, repetitive, close-minded, and I just didn’t like the way it sounded. Then I heard Bootsy…

Bootsy was fun. Bootsy was silly. Bootsy was really, really cool. And Bootsy can definitely play some bass. But don’t just take my word for it. From Rolling Stone:

Bootsy’s Rubber Band has about as much intellectual content as a Saturday morning cartoon show, which really doesn’t separate it from most other funk and grind bands (or power-rock groups). What makes Bootsy stand out is a low-grade, comic-book sense of humor that producer George Clinton is able to fuse with some of the most lyrical post-James Brown funk this side of Parliament/Funkadelic. In fact, it’s impossible to mention Bootsy Collins without bringing up Parliament/Funkadelic, the band Bootsy has helped shape since his departure from James Brown.

If that isn’t a good reason to like a performer, I don’t know what is.

Mind you, it wouldn’t matter if the music weren’t any good. Thankfully such is not the case. What’s a Telephone Bill? is actually sort of a nice romantic sentiment–until you realize how incredibly silly and funny the song is. Bootsy’s spoken word delivery is way over the top, and his asides are reminiscent of Popeye’s from the 1930’s black and white cartoons. Plus, even if you take Bootsy out of the equation, it’s still a damned good song. In fact, it would quickly end up on the “music to get laid to” mix CD.

Here’s a link to a tribute video

And of course, the lyrics:

Hello baby
Yes, it’s your friendly phone fanatic again
Oh yeah I’m loaded
With verbal rap ability, baby
You know you inspire me to poetry
So listen while I recite naughty nothings
That’ll wet your eardrums

Maybe I’ll manicure your toenails
And uh, make sweet love to you baby!
Rub my body with yours
Wait a minute operator, I’m not talking to you!

This song screamed “one-hit-wonder” from the first time I heard it. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad song–I wouldnt’ be writing about it if I felt it was–but it does have that feel and appeal. I love the strange percussion–I believe that one of the instruments the drummer is playing is a frying pan–and the oddness of Stanard Ridgway’s vocals. Also, it’s a great sing-along song as well.

From Wikipedia:

Wall of Voodoo vocalist Stan Ridgway and guitarist Marc Moreland traced the inspiration for the song to listening to high-wattage unregulated AM border-blaster Mexican radio stations (among them XERF, XEG, and XERB) which, starting circa the 1930s, were received practically around the globe (”I turn the switch and check the number / I leave it on when in bed I slumber”). Some of the stations boasted a million watts, which was 20 times higher than allowed in the US.

Sitting just south of the Rio Grande (”I feel a hot wind on my shoulder / I dial it in from south of the border”), these stations avoided American broadcast and trade regulations, and became the medium of favor for countless quacks spouting political rants (”I dial it in and tune the station / They talk about the U.S. inflation”), selling homemade pharmaceuticals pre-FDA (”… I buy the product and never use it”), self-published manifestos, and may have even been the starting point for Televangelism as we know it. Wolfman Jack started his career in that market, spinning a schizophrenic mix of genres.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
And the touch of a world that is older
I turn the switch and check the number
I leave it on when in bed I slumber
I hear the rhythms of the music
I buy the product and never use it
I hear the talking of the DJ
Can’t understand, just what does he say?

Radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio, radio…
(What does he say?)

I love it when there’s tons of information about a song and you don’t have to listen to me blather on about how fun it is, or how it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it.

Tales Of Brave Ulysses is one of those classic songs that thankfully has reams written about it, but there’s not a whole lot you really need to know about the song–other than that it rocks! And rocking is good.

At the same time, the song has some cool, evocative lyrics and a really nice chord progression. The story behind the song and the lyrics can be found at Wikipedia:

The lyrics are inspired by Homer’s Odyssey, an account of the adventures undertaken by Ulysses. This can be seen in the song’s reference to “naked ears … tortured by the sirens sweetly singing,” an event from Homer’s epic. When interviewed on the episode of the VH1 show, Classic Albums, which featured Disraeli Gears, lyricist Martin Sharp explained that he had recently returned from Ibiza, which was the source of many of the images in the song (e.g. “tiny purple fishes run laughing through her fingers”) and the general feeling of having left an idyll to return to “the hard lands of the winter”; Clapton stated in the same show that he had been independently writing a tune based on the Loving Spoonful’s “Summer in the City”, and when Sharp gave him the words (on the back of a bar napkin) they fit the tune.

As a special treat, I give you not one, not two, but three different links to videos:

• Here’s a link to a tribute video
• Here’s a link to a live performance from the 1960’s
• And here’s a link to a reunion tour from a couple of years ago

And of course, the lyrics:

You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever,
But you rode upon a steamer to the violence of the sun.

The tiny purple fishes run lauging through your fingers,
And you want to take her with you to the hard land of the winter.

This is such a peppy song, I love it. Of course, the subject matter isn’t quite so peppy, but it’s not exactly evil either. A much better than average song about a fickle woman walking all over the hearts of the men she bewitches, it’s still a fun song with some great lyrics (EC=great lyrics? Who knew?).

It is most assuredly a fun song. The jaunty bass line plays against the eager strummed guitar, and Costello’s vocals harry and hector the song along through several key changes, and it’s just a fun song to listen to.

You can listen to the song below:

And of course, the lyrics:

(chorus)
It’s going round the town
It’s going round the town
It’s going round the town
You’re so lovable

(chorus)

Delia’s Gone is in many ways a typical Johnny Cash song, full of black humor and regret. In the hands of another singer, this song could be absolutely brutally painful, or woefully plastic. In Cash’s capable hands, it’s a masterpiece.

Johnny Cash brings a grim tongue in cheek quality to this song, in many ways a counterpoint to Robert Johnson’s 32-20 Blues. However, he manages to avoid the manic insanity of Johnson’s tune, with a little more regret and a little more anger. In many ways, he makes this song about killing someone more or less palatable.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

Delia, oh, Delia Delia all my life
If I hadn’t have shot poor
Delia I’d have had her for my wife
Delia’s gone, one more round Delia’s gone

So if you woman’s devilish
You can let her run
Or you can bring her down and do her
Like Delia got done
Delia’s gone, one more round Delia’s gone

XTC have long been known as a quirky, but quite good, English pop band. However, one thing I don’t think they’ve been given much credit for is crafting some of the sweetest, most intelligent love songs out there. The Mayor Of Simpleton is one of those lovely songs.

The song has a fabulous bass line (I have no idea how Colin Moulding can sing backups and leads playing the complicated bass lines that he does), and some terribly sweet and clever lyrics. I particularly enjoy how very positive Andy Partridge’s vocals are. It would be easy to toss out Cole Porter like lyrics like Well I don’t know how many pounds make up a ton, Of all the Nobel prizes that I’ve never won and give an aura of sincerity, but you feel like Partridge means it. That’s really great.

Here’s a link to the video

And of course, the lyrics:

Never been near a university,
Never took a paper or a learned degree,
And some of your friends think that’s stupid of me,
But it’s nothing that I care about.

When all logic grows cold and all thinking gets done,
You’ll be warm in the arms of the Mayor of Simpleton.
You’ll be warm in the arms of the Mayor of Simpleton.
You’ll be warm in the arms of the Mayor.
(Please be upstanding for the Mayor of Simpleton.)