Last Saturday, I staged a Battle of the Bands between Cheap Trick and George Thorogood, both of whom had songs named "You Talk Too Much," neither of which were the same and neither of which were the same as Joe Jones’s song back in the ’60’s. Time to announce the winner!
George Thorogood: 10 (11)
Cheapo Trick: 5
Mary B cast a vote for herself and for "The Cute One," and I wasn’t sure whether to count that as one vote or two, thus the parenthetical score. In the end, George Thorogood won by a healthy margin, no matter how you count them. Congratulations to George Thorogood and a pat on the back to Cheap Trick for giving it the old college try.
Our next battle, thanks to the wonders of the leap year, will be on Sunday, March 1. Join us then!
Today,we’re going to talk about animal sounds, just like Linda asked us to. I have a lot of experience with cats, so naturally that’s what I’ll talk about.
I heard recently (not too recently, but recently enough) that cats only vocalize (or speak) to humans and not to other cats. Which is all right so far as it goes, but they do speak to other cats, mostly in growls and howls when they’re getting ready to fight. It’s not the cat that’s initiating the fight that does the growling and howling; it’s the cat being threatened that does most of the talking, which gets louder as he or she is getting backed into a corner. The closer the aggressor gets, the louder the growling and howling gets. This is a good thing if you’re in the living room and the contretemps is happening in the basement or one of the bedrooms, so that the supervising human can run up the stairs and break it up. So, maybe they are talking to us then, too.
Another time they howl is right before they’re ready to puke. This is when, if they’re sitting beside you on the couch, it’s a good time to shoo them. You might have to give them a shove to get them to jump down, but it’s easier to clean barf off the carpet than the furniture.
You’ve probably heard that Siamese cats are noisy. You heard correctly. We had a Siamese when we lived in Chicago named Natasha, and she was quite loud, especially when she’d go into heat. We never had her spayed. We’ve also had three part-Siamese cats, one of whom was Sherman. He was jet black and pretty big, but had this delicate squeak of a voice that somehow didn’t fit. We thought it was cute. Lucy looked the most like a chocolate-point Siamese, and she had the voice to match, earning her the epithet "Daddy’s Little Noise Box." Amy, the third, was always a bit strange; she’d hide in the bedroom most of the day and only come down for meals. She had this voice that was a cross between a cat’s and a duck’s. It took her years to warm up to Mary and me. Don’t know that her voice had anything to do with it.
Wish I had pictures to share…
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Ronnie Van Zant and Allen Collins wrote "That Smell" "as a warning about the consequences of careless overuse of drugs and alcohol". At the time, the band was abusing drugs and alcohol with reckless abandon. It appeared on Skynyrd’s 1977 album Street Survivors; three days after the album was released, Van Zant and several other members of the band died in a plane crash. The song was released as a single in 1977, but failed to chart.
We visited WKMH in Detroit back in September 2018. During the ’60’sa and into the ’70’s it was WKNR, "Keener 13," and played Top 40 music. Here’s their Top 10 from this date in 1972.
Don McLean, “American Pie” What more can be (or needs to be) said about this song?
Denise LaSalle, “Now Run And Tell That” I don’t remember this being on Top 40 radio in Chicago, which is surprising, because she was a blues, R&B and soul singer who, after the death of Koko Taylor, was recognized as “Queen of the Blues.”
Neil Young, “Heart of Gold” Neil’s only #1 in the United States and his first #1 in Canada, from the 1971 album Harvest.
T. Rex, “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” T. Rex went from a “psychedelic folk” duo to a “glam rock” band when that genre became popular.
Apollo 100, “Joy” Apollo 100 was made up of British session players who had a little fun with Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”
Lunar Funk, “Mr. Penguin (Part 1) Can’t find much about Lunar Funk, other than they recorded on the Bell label and that they also went by Bad Smoke, The Counts, and the Fabulous Counts.
The Osmonds, “Down By The Lazy River” From their Phase III album, when they decided to write their own material and play their own instruments.
The Dramatics, “In The Rain” Their second crossover hit, also from the album Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get. This reached #5 on the Hot 100 and was their only #1 on the R&B chart.
Joe Tex, “I Gotcha” Joe scored a number ofr Top 10 hits on the R&B chart but only a couple on the Hot 100. This reached #2 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the R&B chart.
Harry Nilsson, “Without You” Harry’s first #1 on the Hot 100 was a #1 in most of the English-speaking world.
Back in 1988 or 1989, I saw Robert Cray at Chastain Park. The band that opened for him was The Nighthawks, whose lead singer at the time was Jimmy Hall, formerly the frontman for Wet Willie. A couple of years ago, I read an article about him, remembered seeing him, and dropped him an email. He was really happy to know that people still remembered him. "Keep On Smilin’" was Wet Willie’s big hit, reaching #10 on the Hot 100 in 1974.
