Rick's Music Trivia

After the Beatles broke up in 1970, McCartney recorded two albums: McCartney, (1970), credited to himself, and Ram, (1971), with wife Linda. He had insisted from the beginning of their marriage that Linda should be involved in his musical projects, notwithstanding her lack of previous experience as a musician, so that they did not have to be apart when he was on tour. Ram was recorded in New York where McCartney auditioned a number of drummers and guitarists, selecting Seiwell and guitarist David Spinozza. When Spinozza became unavailable due to other session commitments, Hugh McCracken was enlisted to take his place.

After the release of Ram, McCartney decided to form a new group and asked Seiwell and McCracken to join. Seiwell accepted, but McCracken declined, so McCartney invited Denny Laine whom he had known since the early 1960s, to join. Laine, who was working on a solo album at the time, got a phone call from McCartney enquiring if he would like to work with him, as McCartney said: “I’d known him in the past and I just rang him and asked him, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘Nothing’, so I said, ‘Right. Come on then!’ Laine then dropped plans for his album there and then.

 In August 1971, Seiwell and Laine joined Paul and Linda McCartney to record Paul’s third post-Beatles album for Apple Records. The result was Wild Life released on December 7. It was the first project to credit Wings as the artist. The band name is said to have come to McCartney as he was praying in the hospital while Linda was giving birth to their second child together, Stella on September, 13 1971. Paul McCartney recalled in the film, Wingspan that the birth of Stella was “a bit of a drama”; there were complications at the birth and that both Linda and the baby almost died. He was praying fervently and the image of wings came to his mind. He decided to name his new band “Wings”.

The band’s first two albums, Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway (the latter featuring guitarist, Henry McCullough) were viewed as artistic disappointments beside McCartney’s work with the Beatles. In an attempt to capture the spontaneity of live performances, five of Wild Life’s eight songs were first takes by the band.  The album included a cover of Mickey and Slyvia’s, Love is Strange. Like Ram, Wild Life left music critics cold, a response that typified the anti-McCartney sentiments that prevailed among the music press following the Beatles’ break-up. Wings struggled to gain artistic credibility, particularly during the early 1970s, with critics, fans and McCartney’s musical peers alike ridiculing the inclusion of Linda as a keyboard player and backing vocalist.

After the release of title track of the James Bond movie Live and Let Die McCullough and Seiwell resigned from the band. The McCartneys and Laine then released 1973’s Band On The Run, a commercial and critical success that spawned two top ten singles. As he had in the Beatles, McCartney would serve as the chief bassist and lead singer for Wings and he doubled on guitar, keyboards, drums and assorted instruments at various times.

After Band on the Run, Jimmy McCullough, former lead guitarist in Thunderclap Newman joined the band as well as drummer Geoff Britton only for Britton to quit shortly afterwards and be replaced by Joe English. With the new line-up, Wings released Venus and Mars which included the number one single “Listen To What the Man Said” and undertook a highly successful world tour over 1975–76. Intended as more of a group effort, Wings At the Speed of Sound was issued midway through the tour and featured the hit singles Silly Love Songs and Let ‘em In.

In 1977, the band earned their only UK number one single, with Mull of Kintyre which became the then-best-selling UK single in history. Wings experienced another line-up shuffle, however, with both McCulloch and English departing before the release of the group’s 1978 album London Town. The McCartneys and Laine again added new members, recruiting guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holley. The resulting album, Back to the Egg,was a relative flop, with its singles under-performing and the critical reception negative.

Paul McCartney and his family arrived in Japan on  January, 16  1980 for the planned eleven-date Wings’ concert tour of Japan (due to visit Budokan Hall, Tokyo from January 21 to 24 1980.) McCartney was arrested immediately upon arriving at Tokyo Airport for possession of 219 grams (7.7 ounces) of marijuana (with an estimated street value of 600,000 yen hidden in Paul’s luggage. The arrest put the tour in jeopardy and Wings’ music was immediately banned from all television and radio stations across Japan. Wings’ Japanese promoters claimed that almost 100,000 tickets for the concerts had been sold, representing a possible loss of well over 100 million yen. The promoters had no option but to cancel all of the tour dates the day after McCartney’s arrest. The other band members of Wings, except Linda, left Japan and returned to England on January 21, 1980.

McCartney spent ten days in jail before being (unexpectedly) released without charge on January, 25 1980 and deported After returning to England, McCartney decided to release his solo album McCartney 11 and plans for a US tour were subsequently dropped. Meanwhile, Denny Laine released the single “Japanese Tears” and formed the short-lived Denny Laine Band with Steve Holley and released a solo album Japanese Tears that December.

By 1980, McCartney was growing weary of maintaining Wings and his personal and professional aspirations began to diverge from the group. The McCartneys now had three school-age children and had moved out of London to the countryside of East Sussex, desiring that their children have a normal upbringing. Musically, McCartney was dissatisfied by the band’s performances during the 1979 UK tour, and when rehearsals for the next album began in October, it was apparent his latest songs were not a good fit for the band. Consequently, he and George Martin, who would be producing the album, decided not to use Wings for recording. Instead, top session musicians and guest artists were brought in to make the best possible album. In November 1980, Holley and Juber were told they would not be needed for the new album and other than sessions in January 1981 to finish work on the next album of previously unreleased tracks, no further activities were scheduled for Wings. Juber has said he could see the “writing on the wall” regarding Wings’ future at that point and moved to New York to continue his career there.

Laine stayed on for the sessions in Montserrat in February 1981 but his relationship with McCartney had become strained over business and personal matters. Laine had begun to feel that he was not being adequately compensated for his role in Wings, and was particularly bitter that he was employed as a contract writer on “Mull of Kintyre”, a song he co-wrote and appeared in the video with McCartney. He had been paid a flat fee for his contributions so when the song became a hit, he didn’t share in the royalties.

Laine was also upset with McCartney over his drug arrest in Japan which meant a loss of extra income from the tour as well as putting future tour plans in doubt. Laine’s marriage was also troubled, and his wife and the McCartneys did not get along well, adding to his upset with Wings. In April 1981, Laine announced he was leaving Wings, citing the lack of tour plans as the reason. While Laine’s departure effectively ended the band, a spokesman for McCartney said that Wings still continued as an active concept.  McCartney finally acknowledged the band no longer existed while promoting the release of Tug of War in 1982. Wings discontinued for good in 1981.

Here for you to enjoy (or not) is Wings With a Little Luck. https://youtu.be/_GoNc4y5oWs

Rick

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen was born on September 23, 1949, at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey.  He lived on South Street and attended Freehold Borough High School. His father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen (1924-1998), was of Dutch/Irish ancestry, and worked as a bus driver, among other vocations, but was unemployed most of the time. Springsteen said his mother, Adele Ann (née Zerilli), a legal secretary and of Italian ancestry, was the main breadwinner. He has two younger sisters, Virginia and Pamela. Pamela had a brief film career, but left acting to pursue still photography full-time. Bruce’s father, suffered from mental health issues through his life which worsened in his later years.

Springsteen’s last name is of Dutch origin, literally translating to “jumping stone” but more generally meaning a kind of stone used as a stepping stone in unpaved streets or between two houses. The Springsteens are among the early Dutch families who settled in the colony in the 1600s.

Raised a Catholic, Springsteen attended the St. Rose of Lima Catholic school in Freehold Borough, where he was at odds with the nuns and rejected the strictures imposed upon him, even though some of his later music reflects a Catholic ethos and includes a few rock-influenced, traditional hymns. In a 2012 interview, he explained that it was his Catholic upbringing rather than political ideology that most influenced his music. He noted in the interview that his faith had given him a “very active spiritual life”, although he joked that this “made it very difficult sexually.” He added: “Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.

In ninth grade, Springsteen began attending the public high school but did not fit in there either. Former teachers have said he was a “loner”, who wanted nothing more than to play his guitar.” He graduated in 1967, but felt so uncomfortable that he skipped the ceremony. He briefly attended Ocean County College but dropped out.

Springsteen grew up hearing fellow New Jersey singer, Frank Sinatra on the radio. He became interested in being involved in music himself when, in 1956 and 1957, at the age of seven, he saw Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show. Soon after this his mother rented him a guitar for $6 a week but it failed to provide him with the ‘instant gratification’ he desired. In 1964, Springsteen saw the three Beatles appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and, inspired, he bought his first guitar for $18.95 at the Western Auto Appliance Store. Thereafter he started playing for audiences with a band called the Rogues at local venues such as the Elks Lodge in Freehold.

In late 1964, Springsteen’s mother took out a loan to buy her 16-year-old son a $60 Kent guitar, an act he subsequently memorialized in his song “The Wish”. The following year, he went to the house of Tex and Marion Vinyard, who sponsored young bands in town. They helped him become the lead guitarist and subsequently one of the lead singers of the Castiles. His first gig with the Castiles was possibly at a trailer park in New Jersey. The Castiles recorded two original songs at a public recording studio in Brick Township and played a variety of venues, including Café Wha? in Greenwich Village. Marion Vinyard said that she believed the young Springsteen when he promised he would make it big.

Drafted in the United States Armed Forces when he was 18, Springsteen failed the physical examination and did not serve in Vietnam. He had suffered a concussion in a motorcycle accident when he was 17, and this together with his “crazy” behavior at induction gave him a classification of 4F which made him unacceptable for service.

In the late-1960s, Springsteen performed briefly in a power trio known as Earth, playing in clubs in New Jersey, with one major show at the Hotel Diplomat in New York.  Earth consisted of John Graham on bass, and Mike Burke on drums. Bob Alfano was later added on organ, but was replaced for two gigs by Frank ‘Flash’ Craig.

Springsteen acquired the nickname “The Boss” when he played club gigs with a band he took on the task of collecting the band’s nightly pay and distributing it amongst his bandmates. The nickname also reportedly sprang from games of Monopoly that Springsteen would play with other Jersey Shore musicians. Springsteen is not fond of this nickname, due to his dislike of bosses but seems to have since tacitly accepted it. Previously he had the nickname “Doctor.”

His prolific songwriting ability (with “more words in some individual songs than other artists had in whole albums”, as his future record label would describe it in early publicity campaigns) brought his skills to the attention of several people who were about to change his life: New managers Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos, who in turn brought him to the attention of Columbia Records talent scout John Hammond. Hammond auditioned Springsteen in May 1972.

Even after Springsteen gained international acclaim, his New Jersey roots showed through in his music, and he often praised “the great state of New Jersey” in his live shows. Drawing on his extensive local appeal, he has routinely sold out consecutive nights in major New Jersey, and New York venues. He has also made many surprise appearances at The Stone Pony and other shore nightclubs over the years.

 Springsteen was signed to Columbia Records in 1972 by Clive Davis who had signed Bob Dylan to the same label a decade earlier. Despite the expectations of Columbia Records’ executives that Springsteen would record an acoustic album, he brought many of his New Jersey-based colleagues into the studio with him, thus forming the E Street Band (although it would not be formally named for several months). His debut album, Greetings From Ashbury Park was released in January 1973, established him as a critical favorite^. though sales were slow.

Music critic Lester Bangs wrote in Creem in 1975 that ” when Springsteen’s first album was released “… many of us dismissed it: he wrote like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison sang like Van Morrison and Robbie Robertson, and led a band that sounded like Van Morrison’s.”

In September 1973, Springsteen’s second album was released, again to critical acclaim but no commercial success. Springsteen’s songs became grander in form and scope, with the E Street Band providing a less folksy, more R&B vibe

In the May 22, 1974 issue of Boston’s The Real Paper, music critic Jon Landau wrote, “after seeing a performance at the Harvard Square Theater, “I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time.” Landau helped to finish the epic new album Born to Run and subsequently became Springsteen’s manager and producer. Given an enormous budget in a last-ditch effort at a commercially viable record, Springsteen became bogged down in the recording process while striving for a Wall of Sound production. But fed by the release of an early mix to nearly a dozen radio stations, anticipation built toward the album’s release.

The album took more than 14 months to record, with six months spent on the song “Born to Run”. During this time, Springsteen battled with anger and frustration over the album, saying he heard “sounds in [his] head” that he could not explain to the others in the studio. It was during these recording sessions that “Miami” Steve Van Zandt would stumble into the studio just in time to help Springsteen organize the horn section on Tenth Avenue Freeze Out. Van Zandt, who would eventually join the E Street Band, had been a longtime friend of Springsteen, as well as a collaborator on earlier musical projects, and understood where he was coming from, which helped him to translate some of the sounds Springsteen was hearing. Still, by the end of the grueling recording sessions Springsteen was not satisfied, and upon first hearing the finished album, threw it into the alley and told Jon Landau he would rather just cut it live at The Bottom Line (a place he often played.)

On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York’s The Bottom Line club. With the release of Born To Run on August 25, 1975, Springsteen finally found success. The album peaked at No. 3 and while reception at US top 40 radio outlets for the album’s two singles was not overwhelming (“Born to Run” reached a modest No. 23 on the Billboard charts, and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” peaked at No. 83), almost every track on the album received airplay, especially “Born to Run.”

By the late 1970s, Springsteen had earned a reputation in the pop world as a songwriter whose material could provide hits for other bands. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band had achieved a US No. 1 pop hit with a heavily rearranged version of Greetings‘, “Blinded by the Light” in early 1977. Patti Smith reached No. 13 with her take on Springsteen’s unreleased “Because The Night (with revised lyrics by Smith) in 1978, while The Pointer Sisters hit No. 2 in 1979 with Springsteen’s also unreleased Fire.

Although Many of the recordings of the E Street Band were shelved, other songs from the 1978-79  sessions would later be released, including “Born In The USA  and “Glory Days.  According to the Marsh biographies, Springsteen was depressed when he wrote this material, and the result is a brutal depiction of American life. While his next album, Nebraska did not sell as well as Springsteen’s three previous albums, it garnered widespread critical praise (including being named “Album of the Year” by Rolling Stone magazine’s critics) and influenced later works by other major artists, including U2’s album, The Joshua Tree. Springsteen did not tour in conjunction with Nebraska’s release.

 Springsteen is probably best known for his 1984  album, Born In The USA which sold 15 million copies in the U.S., 30 million worldwide, and became one of the best-selling albums of all time with seven singles hitting the Top 10. The title track was a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam Veterans, some of whom were Springsteen’s friends. The lyrics in the verses were entirely unambiguous when listened to, but the anthemic music and the title of the song made it hard for many, from politicians to the common person, to get the lyrics—except those in the chorus, which could be read many ways. The song made a huge political impact, as he was advocating for the rights of the common working-class man.

The song was widely misinterpreted and in connection with the 1984 presidental campaign became the subject of folklore. In 1984, conservative columnist George Will attended a Springsteen concert and then wrote a column praising Springsteen’s work ethic. Six days after the column was printed, in a campaign rally in New Jersey, Ronald Reagan said, “America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire—New Jersey’s own, Bruce Springsteen.” Two nights later, at a concert in Pittsburgh, Springsteen told the crowd, “Well, the president was mentioning my name in his speech the other day and I kind of got to wondering what his favorite album of mine must’ve been, you know? I don’t think it was the Nebraskaalbum. I don’t think he’s been listening to this one.” He then began playing “Johnny 99”, with its allusions to closing factories and criminals.

Springsteen also turned down several million dollars offered by the Chrysler Corporation to use “Born in the U.S.A.” in a car commercial. In later years, to eliminate the bombast and make the song’s original meaning more explicitly clear, Springsteen performed the song accompanied only by acoustic guitar, thus returning to how the song was originally conceived. The original acoustic version of the song, recorded in 1982 during the Nebraska sessions, appeared on the 1998 archival release, Tracks.

Dancing In The Dark was the biggest of seven hit singles from Born in the U.S.A., peaking at No. 2 on the music charts. The video for the song showed a young Courtney Cox dancing on stage with Springsteen, which helped start the actress’s career. The song “Cover Me was written by Springsteen for Donna Summer but his record company persuaded him to keep it for the new album. A big fan of Summer’s work, Springsteen wrote another song for her, Protection.

During the album’s tour, Springsteen met actress Julianne Phillips whom he would marry in 1985. He also that year took part in the recording of the USA for Africa charity song “We Are The World”; however he declined to play at Live Aid. He later stated that he “simply did not realize how big the whole thing was going to be”. He has since expressed regret at turning down Bob Geldorf’s invitation, stating that he could have played a couple of acoustic songs had there been no slot available for a full band performance.

Here is one of my /Springsteen favorites, Downbound Train from 1984. Enjoy (or not). https://youtu.be/Nc_mv46NwT4

Rick