It’s possible that you have only bits and pieces of the theme song from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. This song was also use on Michael J. Fox’s movie: The Secret of My Success.  Here’s the entire song: Oh Yeah!

This month, 25 years ago, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was released.  There was some wonderful and prophetic casting (Charlie Sheen as a druggie, Ben Stein as the economics teacher) and some of great and memorable lines.

Here’s a bit of FBDO history and trivia from Wikipedia:

Economic lecture

Ben Stein’s famous monotonic lecture about the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act was not originally in Hughes’s script. Stein, by happenstance, was lecturing off-camera to the amusement of the student cast. “I was just going to do it off camera, but the student extras laughed so hard when they heard my voice that (Hughes) said do it on camera, improvise, something you know a lot about. When I gave the lecture about supply side economics, I thought they were applauding. Everybody on the set applauded. I thought they were applauding because they had learned something about supply side economics. But they were applauding because they thought I was boring…It was the best day of my life,” Stein said.

Last week I was doing a little late night research on a song that I was working on, Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing. Some of the covers that I stumbled upon were quite amazing, and it got me thinking: Could this be the greatest cover song ever? Take a listen/look at some of these:

by Calos Vamos

by The Coors

by Bob Culbertson

by Sting

by John Mayer

by Eric Clapton & Duane Allman

by Derek and the Dominos

by Eric Clapton & Carlos Santana

by Toto

by Eric Clapton & Allman Brothers

by Satriani, Vai, Malmsteen

by Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood

by Santana & Joe Cocker

by Stevie Ray Vaughan

by Eric Clapton & Sheryl Crow

by Steve Vai

and, the studio version by Hendrix

I watched a documentary recently on the life and career of musician, Bill Withers.  The film is entitled: Still Bill, and shares some of his musical pasts but also his distaste for the music business in general and his present day life. He has largely eschewed the music business for the past 25 years, and refers to it as ‘The Fame Game.’

Many may remember him as the iconic author of soul/pop hits from the early 1970′s such as Ain’t No Sunshine, and Lean on Me.  The former is one of my favorite pieces of music and I’ve been working on a version of it for the past 30 years or so.

He has a really interesting background. He was one of 13 children and grew up in a small coal mining town in West Virginia, joined the Navy at 18 and was in the service for 9 years. He was building toilets for 747′s when his music career took off. (He got out of the service in 1970 and I wonder if our paths ever crossed when we were in Japan and the Philippines.)

Here’s the trailer for the film:

Ain’t No Sunshine:

Have you ever been so obsessed by a piece of music that you just left it on repeat and listened to it over, and over, and over, and over?

I found myself in that mode this past fall after I heard Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs and their thrice nominated album: God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise.

Frankly, I was not all that familiar with his work, but I am now.

I was first hooked by the song, Beg Steal Or Borrow, which was nominated for song of the year. But after a few listens to the album that obsession was transplanted to For the Summer.

The Grammy Awards are on Sunday, February 13, at 8 PM on CBS.
There are awards in over 100 categories. Here is the complete list on Grammy.com

Here are both of those songs that I was railing on about:

I love it when someone shares music with me and I’m inspired. This happened recently when a new friend of mine, Tom Lanen, pointed me towards the Brit Duo: Underworld.

To describe it as ‘electronic/dance/techno’ is somewhat accurate, but does not do it justice IMO. I think Tom had the best explanation when he told me, “It’s great winter music.”

Here’s Bird-1 from their album released recently. If you do take a listen, the song builds and then rips it up at around the 3:20 mark.

Bird-1 by Underworld

Here’s Tom’s recent blog post on Underworld. Tom is a branding and design guru so there’s more meat on the bones here than a mere music review.

Wikipedia’s Underworld entry.

This is a bit of a a serpentine story that started when doing some music research on a song that I was working on. It ended up with the discovery that the intro to Led Zeppelin’s iconic song, Stairway to Heaven was ripped from another band. Also, along the way, an association with Jimmy James, aka Jimi Hendrix.

The story first starts with the song It’s All the Same, by the sick puppies. Perhaps you’ve heard this song in its association with the Free Hugs video that has been viewed nearly 65 million times on YouTube.

Actually, I was looking for an acoustic version of this song, and I found one that was quite amazing. You have to wade through a commercial in the beginning of this version but it is worth it.

OK, I then switched over to Rhapsody to see if I could find some other versions of the song worth considering. Now, you’ve probably noticed this, but the title of a song cannot be copywritten, so there are usually multiple songs with the same song title.

That’s where it started to get interesting. The band Spirit, a psychedelic rock group from the 60′s also did a song by the exact same title. So I cued up the Spirit song and several more. That’s when I came across the song Taurus, which is an instrumental that has a remarkable likeness to the StH intro. Sure enough, after a little digging it turns out that Led Zeppelin opened for Spirit in a 1968 U.S. tour, and even played one of Spirit’s songs in their set. They were certainly familiar with Tarus.

Take a listen to Taurus. The STH intro riff kicks in about 45 seconds in: Taurus by Spirit

And Spirit was an interesting story in their own right. Spirit was formed by 15 year old Randy California and his stepfather, jazz drummer, Ed Cassidy. It seems that Randy went with his new stepfather in 1966 to the New York City area, so his father could find gigs and met and played in a band called Jimmy James & the Blue Flames. Jimmy James was shortly to make a trip to England and use his given name, Jimi Hendrix. Randy’s parents forbade him from going with Jimi, as he still had to finish high school, of course.  Hendrix actually gave Randy his name. His real hame was Randy Craig Wolfe, and Jimi called him Randy California to set him apart from the other Randy in the Blue Flames who was dubbed Randy Texas.

Randy and his stepfather formed the band Spirit in 1968 while he was just 16 years old, and Randy wrote Spirit’s biggest hit: I Got a Line on You. Sadly, Randy California died in 1997 while saving his son from drowning in Hawaii.

There’s more to the story actually, but for now, take a look at this Spanish acoustic version of the song by Rodrigo y Gabriela.  I’m not a big fan of STH, but I love this.

I saw this amazing video of the Gettysburg Address and on this anniversary of its delivery on November 19 many years ago, here it is.

Also here’s the link to a previous blog post, and our trip to the Gettysburg Memorial: Thoughts on Sacrifice and Humility.

I remember the first time I heard this song. Uh, sort of. I remember that I was in the Sanders Theater at Harvard and it was performed by John Gorka. Exactly WHEN that was is a mystery. But I was certainly struck right between the eyes by this song and it is still on my playlist.

The story of the genesis of this song is a little muddy. The summary is that a young woman wrote this poem during WWII, and John put them to music a few years back. There’s a bit of an urban legend that it was found by a nurse in a fallen soldier’s belongings in the Philippines, but no.

Here’s a video of JG’s version and the lyrics are below.

Here are the lyrics:

Let them in, Peter,
They are very tired
Give them couches where the angels sleep
And light those fires

Let them wake whole again
To brand new dawns
Fired with the sun
Not wartime’s bloody guns

May their peace be deep
Remember where the broken bodies lie
God knows how young they were
To have to die
God knows how young they were to have to die

Give them things they like
Let them make some noise
Give roadhouse bands, not golden harps
To these our boys

And let them love, Peter
‘Cause they’ve had no time
They should have trees and bird songs
And hills to climb

The taste of summer in a ripened pear
And girls sweet as meadow winds
With flowing hair

Tell them how they are missed
And say not to fear
It’s gonna be alright
With us down here

Let them in, Peter…

Here’s a blurb on the original poem and the author.

This article excerpt appeared in the Sunday Edition of the Oakland Tribune on December 17, 1961, page 2S.

“It was the summer of 1942, and things were not going well for us in the war,” said Elma Dean in her quiet voice, “and so many of our sons, some of my friend’s sons, were being killed. I was going around with tears in my eyes.”

Her tears for the heartbreak of other mothers were crystalized in a poem, “Letter to St. Peter, ” and the tiny Oakland housewife suddenly became known around the world. Her sonnet of lament for boys so young to die, and hope that something would make up for what they missed down here, brought her letters from mothers throughout the nation, was inscribed on the wall of an American cemetery in England, was read by a United States senator at another cemetery in Europe, and found its way even into the National Geographic and the Congresssional Record.

“It was a maybe a little sentimental,” said the author “and it isn’t the best poem I’ve done, but it was what the public liked the best. I’ve been in many anthologies–not the vanity kind–but I am happiest about being in Louis Untermeyer’s ‘Mid-Century Edition of Modern American and British Poetry”– and it was another poem, one from the New Yorker.”

In the process or becoming a poet, winning awards and getting into anthologies, Elma also enjoyed being a wife and mother–and now grandmother. [About her husband's reaction to her poetry,] “I’m afraid he’s an admirer of mine,” said Elma with a gentle, hazel-eyed smile. “When I showed the St. Peter poem to him, as I always do when I think I’ve done something any good, he said, “this will make the readers Digest.”

Letter To Saint Peter
By Elma Dean

Let them in, Peter, they are very tired;

Give them the couches where the angels sleep.

Let them wake whole again to new dawns fired

With sun not war. And may their peace be deep.

Remember where the broken bodies lie…

And give them things they like. Let them make noise.

God knows how young they were to have to die!

Give swing bands, not gold harps, to these our boys.

Let them love, Peter,-they have had no time-

Girls sweet as meadow wind, with flowering hair…

They should have trees and bird song, hills to climb-

The taste of summer in a ripened pear.

Tell them they are missed. Say not to fear;

It’s going to be all right with us down here.

Mix together a book signing on the marketing secrets of the Grateful Dead, Mexican food, a former role as the harmonica player in a garage band, and somehow you end up on stage next to Jim Morrison of the Doors.

The only other time I ever remember having a rock and roll dream was several years ago I was playing Jimi Hendrix, note for note, and I woke up and the song was playing on the radio. This was a different – way different.

So that evening Kathleen and I went to a book signing and went out for Mexican food after. Amazingly both of these things somehow factored into the dream.

OK, first the book signing. David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan are both ‘thought leaders’ in the world of web, marketing, social media and such. Their recent collaboration, “Marketing Secrets from the Grateful Dead” is a snapshot of how the Dead used grassroots marketing and social media hooks to build their brand, before they was even called such things. Although I have seen the Dead a couple of times, I really don’t consider myself a Deadhead, but Jerry Garcia does play a part later.

As far as how the Mexican food factors in: Have you ever noticed how dreams get all wild when the food is spicy, too much MSG, etc? I can only assume that the over-spiced Mex feast factored in somehow.

Anyway, later we hit the sack and I’m reading my new book all about the marketing secrets of the Grateful Dead and all that as I drift off to sleep…

I’m on stage playing harmonica on “Roadhouse Blues” with The Doors. (As a side note: I did play harmonica in that song in a garage band in my youth.) I can’t see anyone in the crowd, as the stage lights are blinding, and I can remember playing the song all the way through note for note. I’m in the front of the stage to the right of Jim Morrison. He’s not exactly the Jim of leather pants and bare chested lizard king fame. He’s short and squat, kind of pudgy, with long stringy hair and wearing a fedora. He was kind of decrepit looking and aged: perhaps in his 70′s. Weird!

Jim Morrison before and after

Well, I’m feeling pretty good about my performance and my buddy Jim starts railing on about how terrible I had played the part. I just remember thinking: “That was about as good as I’ve ever played that song.” As I stood there listening to his rant, I peeked over his shoulder and there is Garcia riffing on his guitar, grinning from ear to ear, obviously bemused by our interchange. He’s dressed all in black and not a ‘touch of gray’, so he’s certainly in his youth.

And that’s where I wake up.

Some additional notes:

Although I’m not a big Dead follower, I do confess to still being a big fan of Jerry Garcia’s work in the early 70′s, in particular: Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty, Garcia (his first solo LP), Old and in the Way, and The New Riders of the Purple Sage’s first album. These musical works, all with the common thread of Garcia at his height of instrumental mastery, and all recorded in the 70-73 time frame are just amazing.

Here’s the home of Hubspot, Brian Halligan’s company.
Here’s David Meerman Scott’s website.

I tried to find live versions of “Roadhouse Blues” with a harmonica part. There were only live versions of the song with the keyboards playing the harmonica part. As it turns out, John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful played harmonica on the studio version. The Doors were getting lots of bad publicity at the time so Sebastian is identified as G. Puglese on the album. Of course, the song is covered by lots of people and is one of the the quintessential bar band songs.

Here’s a cool mashup version of Roadhouse Blues with John Lee Hooker:

This is a video of a performance at TED by Natalie Merchant. From her new CD, Leave Your Sleep, that takes a group of 19th poems and sets it to music.