The ROX-TV February Rearview, old songs with new takes, a little something for the road less travelled by, walk with me

Welcome back to the ROX-TV website. As always I’m happy to see the returning readers and would like to say hello to the people stopping by for the first time. We are ten days into February and the weather is only half cooperating in Michigan. The snow and ice are hanging around like a friend at the bar with no money. Although no one calls them out, everyone is really thinking “what the fuck are you still doing here?”. I guess it’s still early in the season, so it’s not totally unreasonable to have the shit laying around, I’m just over it. So, with the grey days upon us, I figured it was a good time to revisit the old library for some jams of yesterday.

I’ve compiled a few songs that mean something to me, for whatever reason and thought that I would pass them on to you with a little back story or whatever. Like I said before, I’m from the 1990’s and sometimes the best way to find interesting music back then was word of mouth. I guess the game has changed some, and its now word of computer, but the feeling is still the same. People who like good music are always searching for a song, at least I hope that’s still the case. I’m afraid if you’re not in the market to get turned onto a new jam, this might not be the article for you. So with that warning out of the way, let’s take a small (sometimes large) step back in time for some shit that I’ve been banging for years. Let’s go……..

Sam Cooke: Twistin the Night Away

Released January 9th, 1962

For those of you who have never heard of him, Sam was born in January of 1931 and tragically passed away on December 11th, 1964. The man was an amazing song writer, performer, and everything that goes along with that. He came up in Mississippi and later relocated to Chicago. He dabbled in some R and B projects before going solo in 1957. The man then became an absolute sensation, dropping a row of hits that are un-parallel even by today’s standards (my opinion). There was a cluster of hits, eight to be exact, and beyond that he released a shit load of singles, with twenty-nine of them charting. The man was a fucking genius. Sadly, he was killed by gunfire in 1964 after being shot by the manager of a motel in Los Angelos. The family has always questioned the circumstances although at the time it was ruled a justifiable homicide. Sam was a civil rights activist and used the clout he had from music to bring white and blacks together for the cause. He rolled with Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali among many others.

I first got introduced to Sam Cooke’s music by my father, who has always loved R and B music. When I hear this song it takes me back to the early eighties, driving around in one of my dad’s gigantic Impalas. The tunes would come on and my dad would turn up the sounds. He would punch the gas and away we’d go, just like Sam Cooke….Twistin the Night Away. This is a bad mamma jamma.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Stop

Released: 2003

Album: Take them on, on your own

Now this is song that takes me back to the early 2000’s when life was a little hectic for me. I was drinking very heavily and making a lot of really reckless decisions with life in general. I first got introduced to this song by someone, I think it was my brother-in-law and perhaps it was picked up at the local record shop on a Saturday music shopping day? At least that is some kind of vague explanation. To be honest the days were pretty crazy back then so the exact timing is cloudy but it doesn’t matter. This song is pure fucking energy and launched a hundred dangerous nights for me out on the town, sometimes ripping through the city late at night with a forty ouncer in my lap and a case of beer in the back seat, looking for trouble or a friend.

Even today when I hear this track, there is a powerful feeling that comes over me. I would call it pure electricity and you can guess how my DNA reacts to that. This is a song that you could use to drive nine hours straight, wasted drunk at a high speed or use to explode right before a throw down. Once you hear it, I think you will agree that it has a driving force that I’ve seldom ever witnessed matched in my own life.

The actual band was formed in California in the late 1990’s. They have eight studio albums to their credit and a host of other shit for sale. Once I hit this album and song, I never really advanced much with them because I never felt the need to, I’ve been stuck on this song for almost twenty years now. Music can have a strange effect on me from time to time, and if its dope, it never let’s go.

Silhouettes: Get a Job

Released: November 1957

A-Side: I am lonely (Records had two sides in case you’ve never seen one. The best song was on the A Side and the second best choice was on the B Side. That was not the case with this release however.

I have to hand it to my dad; this was and still is one of his favorite tracks. If you’ve ever heard it, you can probably figure out why. It’s a swinging song, with amazing vocal parts and music. Just like Sam Cooke, this song reminds me of playing in one of my dad’s big old Junkers we used to roll around in back in the 1980’s. You could pick up a reliable car for about $500 dollars back then in Flint and that’s what the old man did. He worked at AC and other General Motors shops in Flint, but with five kids, new cars were not in the budget. Eventually when my mom went back to school and became a teacher, the money situation improved but by then, I was out of the house on my own journey.

My dad still has the old tape that this song was on, basically a heart and soul fifties compilation that used to blast out of the speakers of the ride. I credit my dad with handing down some real nice foundations for a love of music and an ear for good old school jams. This is one of my favorite childhood songs he would play. It’s been around for a minute. The Silhouettes had a number one hit with this song in February of 1958 on the pop and r and b singles charts. The band performed the song on American Bandstand and also Dick Clark’s show. It would go on to sell a million copies or so.

Yellowman: Zungguzungguguzungguzeng

Released: 1983

When I first started trying to get off the bottle back in 2013 for the seventeenth thousandth time, I started smoking marijuana at a feverish pace. It seemed to help and before long I was head long down into a serious relationship with the ganja. It seemed to offer a life better than that of a full time suicide drunk. It was not uncommon for me to blow .43 on the PBT’s at the hospital and I will add that was a “walking and talking” version of myself that I am not proud of. I was going through a thing, maybe it never really ended but having high three and four blood alcohol content levels is surely a way to go out fast. I somehow righted the ship for a time with the pot and got my medical card in the middle of 2014 after getting fed up with the street markets. I eventually opened a three room grow operation (All legal and sanctioned by the State of Michigan) and produced my own smoke for the next four years. Occasionally I would drop some off here and there, kick around a few ounces but nothing heavy. The dispos back then were only paying $165 or so an ounce and everyone was growing. I got sick of bucketing water every night, high power bills, and said to hell with it somewhere into 2018.

During this time, I got “groovy” I suppose you could say. I had been a pretty in your face, hard charging, drinking sort of chap up until 2013. Once the weed came into town, it changed my whole life, including the music that I listened to. I always like Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff, but when I get serious about smoking, I eventually came across the Yellowman. If you have any knowledge of his music, you’ll know what I mean when I say that this guy’s style sounded good high (or not high) all the time. I would roll a mega bomber with a snake of shatter inside the middle, and let the THC mellow me on down. Good stuff. The guy had a tough ride early in life when he was abandoned by his parents and raised in an orphanage in Jamacia. He was also an albino, which made life extra hard for him in Kingston because it was not a socially acceptable thing in Jamacia for reasons that I don’t have to explain with colonialism in mind. You can put two and two together. Anyway, the dude got cancer early on in his career and was eventually disfigured from the disease. A tough and rough life, and great music. This guy is celebrated, that much I know, I do.

Wolf Parade: “I’ll believe in anything”

Released: 2006 Single on Sub Pop

Now this is a song that I found during the stoner sessions of my life sometime around 2014, during one of my daily trips to the YouTube universe. I was in a suspended state of animation, having not succumbed to death by the bottle, but also not knowing what to do with myself. For years I banked on dying of alcoholism and then when I was able to put the brakes on, I was left confused. I was still alive but had no idea what to do next. From a day-to-day point of view and also from long view shot going forward. I had blown up my work life with no hopes of going back, my degree wasn’t really something that allowed for additional opportunities and so there I was. Not dead, but strangely not much very alive. Maybe I was just healing. Sadly, the salvation of the green plant started to fail me around 2019 and going into 2020. Thats a bitch because for the most part of the last nine years give or take, it’s been a good ride. Oh well, another time on that.

I loved this song when I first found it but would eventually keep pushing and actual forget completely about it. That is until about two weeks ago, when she came back to me from out of the YouTube fog machine. It was a weird resurfacing but maybe it just wanted to be featured in a ROX-TV article and pushed back to the front of the line to get involved. Either way, this is a wonderful song with a pretty entertaining video. They really stepped outside of the norms and delivered a humor laced video with some charm seldom seen before or since. So, without further to do, the boys from Montreal bring you “I’ll believe in anything”….

To be continued…?

Signing Off,

Mike Shepard

ROX-TV Head Writer

shepard2909@hotmail.com

(Yup dad got me hip to this one too)