Category: Music

You and Me and Cisco Know

Cisco

Folksinger Gilbert Vandine “Cisco” Houston was born in Wilmington, Delaware on August 18, 1918.  Houston is probably best-known for his work with Woody Guthrie, but he also performed with artists like Lead Belly and the Almanac Singers.

Houston had a great voice and was a wonderful interpreter of traditional songs and folk songs written by others.  But he also wrote some songs and worked for good causes with Guthrie, touring migrant camps and supporting workers’ rights.

Houston died at a relatively young age from stomach cancer in California on April 29, 1961.  Below Houston sings “The Preacher and the Slave (Pie in the Sky),” a song written by activist and songwriter Joe Hill.

Although Cisco Houston is not remembered as well as some of his contemporaries, he has always been respected by other folk singers.

Houston is referenced in a number of songs, including Steve Earle’s “Christmas in Washington (Come Back Woody Guthrie).” In that song, Earle laments, “To listen to the radio / You’d think that all was well / But you and me and Cisco know / It’s going straight to hell.”

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    How Farah Fawcett Inspired “Midnight Train to Georgia”

    One evening in 1970, songwriter Jim Weatherly called up a friend from his college years, the actor Lee Majors.  Weatherly and Majors played in a flag-football league together.  But the actor was not home, and his girlfriend Farah Fawcett answered the phone, saying something that would inspire Weatherly to write the song “Midnight Train to Georgia.”

    After reporting that Majors was not home, Fawcett said she was packing for a trip.  More specifically, she said she was preparing to take a midnight plane to Houston to visit her parents.  Weatherly, who had a songwriter’s ear, immediately recognized a great phrase for a song.

    Weatherly’s “Midnight Plane to Houston”

    As Weatherly explained in the book Anatomy of a Song: The Inside Stories Behind 45 Iconic Hits, by Marc Myers, Weatherly created the song “Midnight Plane to Houston” in about 45 minutes.  Weatherly recorded the song on an album of songs, hoping a famous singer would record one or more of the songs.

    Below is Weatherly’s own recording of “Midnight Plane.”

    Cissy Houston’s Changes

    Cissy Houston, the mother of Whitney Houston, was the first to want to record “Midnight Plane.”  But because she was from Georgia, and because people she knew took trains instead of planes, she asked to change to title.  Weatherly agreed, and the title about a train going to Georgia was born.

    Houston recorded the song as “Midnite Train to Georgia” in Memphis in 1972 (released with spelling “Midnight” in the UK).  But without much support from the label, the song went nowhere. Houston’s version has more strings than the later hit recording, but it is still a very good recording.

    Gladys Knight & the Pips Create a Classic

    But then, Weatherly’s manager-publisher sent the song to Gladys Knight, who also was from Georgia.  She loved the song.

    Although she loved Houston’s version, she wanted a different sound.  She also made some tweaks to Weatherly’s lyrics with his permission.  Her producer added several horn players, including saxophone player Michael Brecker, while putting less emphasis on the rhythm section.

    When Gladys Knight & the Pips recorded their vocal tracks in Detroit, she thought of problems in her own marriage.  Her husband at the time was unhappy because she was on the road so much.  They would eventually divorce in 1973.  But, as Knight explained in Anatomy of a Song, “I was going through the exact same thing that I was singing about when recording — which is probably why it sounds so personal.”

    During the recording session, the leader of the Pips, Merald “Bubba” Knight asked her to ad-lib some gospel phrases at the end of the song.  Gladys had trouble coming up with good lines, so Bubba, who also was her brother, fed her lines through her headset.  The improvised lines included “My world, his world, our world” and “I’ve got to go, I’ve got to go.”

    The song was finally completed.

    After “Midnight Train to Georgia” was released in August 1973, it became the group’s first number-one hit song on October 27, 1973. It also won the 1974 Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus.

    And that is the story behind the song.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Last Known Survivor Stalks His Prey in the Night

    On July 24, 1982, the band Survivor hit the top of the Billboard pop charts with the song “Eye of the Tiger.” The song from Rocky III (1982) continued to hold that position at the top for six weeks.

    Sylvester Stallone had sought out the band after hearing their 1981 song “Poor Man’s Son.” The songwriters in the band –Frankie Sullivan and Jim Peterik — responded to Stallone’s request for something with a “rock beat” with the hard-hitting “Eye of the Tiger.”

    “Eye of the Tiger” has some clunky lyrics, such as “They stack the odds ’till we take to the street/ For the kill with the skill to survive.” But it was a great song for the over-the-top Rocky III, and the band’s lead singer at the time, Dave Bickler, does a great job.

    Rocky III is one of my favorites in the franchise. After all, it has Hulk Hogan and Mr. T, introducing the latter’s catch phrase, “I pity the fool.” But the song title captures the essential theme of the movie about a man trying to find what made him find success in the first place after becoming complacent.

    Another cool thing is how the band named Survivor managed to work in the words “survive” or “survivor” so many times. The words appear at least six times in the song.

    The song’s six-week run at the top of the charts was longer than the run of the other hit from the Rocky franchise. “Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky).” That song from the first Rocky (1976) was the number-one song for one week in 1977. “Eye of the Tiger” also was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

    As for Survivor, they never matched the hit status of “Eye of the Tiger.” The band members changed over time, with some breakups and getting back together. And singer Jimi Jamison, who became lead singer after the success of “Eye of the Tiger,” passed away in 2014. “Eye of the Tiger” singer Bickler had joined the band again before that, but in 2016 he was fired. But, living up to the group’s name, the band Survivor is still around and continues to tour.

    What is your favorite Rocky music? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Senator Robert Byrd Played Fiddle On Hee Haw

    Byrd Fiddle Many people remember Robert Byrd as a Senator from West Virginia. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 2010, making him the longest serving Senator in U.S. history. And that is not counting his earlier service in the House of Representatives from 1953 until 1959. But did you know at one time he played a mean fiddle, including a performance on Hee Haw?

    Byrd was born in North Carolina on November 20, 1917, and he died while still in office on June 28, 1910. His long service made him the last Congressman to have served while Harry S. Truman was president. Although he had filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights Act (and earlier been a member of the Ku Klux Klan), he later publicly changed his position on civil rights. And although he had supported the Vietnam War, he received attention near the end of his career as a Republican who strongly opposed the Iraq War.

    Byrd also was a fiddle player. He played square dances as a teen and played until 1982 when a benign hand tremor affected his playing. After becoming Senator, he made several appearances with his fiddle, including the Kennedy Center, the Grand Ole Opry, and Hee Haw.

    Byrd played fiddle and sang the traditional song “The Roving Gambler” on a 1979 episode of Hee Haw. Unfortunately, that episode is not currently available on YouTube, but in the below video he performs on Pop Goes the Country.

    In 1978, the Senate Majority Leader also recorded an album. Appropriately, it was titled, U.S. Senator Robert Byrd: Mountain Fiddler (1978).

    Below from the album is “Come Sundown,” which was written by Kris Kristofferson and made famous by Bobby Bare.

    Who is your favorite performer who recorded as a secondary career? Leave your two cents in the comments. Portrait of Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd by Michael Shane Neal via public domain.

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    The Uncommon Champion of the Common Man: Henry Wallace

    VP Wallace Henry Agard Wallace was born on a farm in Iowa on October 7, 1888. His father Henry Cantwell Wallace would serve as Secretary of Agriculture in the administrations of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. But the son would surpass his father to become a leading figure of the 1930s and 1940s, even if many do not remember him today.

    Henry A. Wallace served as Vice President of the United States (1941–1945), Secretary of Agriculture (1933–1940), and Secretary of Commerce (1945–1946). After serving in those offices, he helped found the Progressive Party and served as its presidential nominee in the 1948 presidential election.

    Wallace was controversial at the time for many of his views. Although he was serving as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice president at the time, during the 1944 Democratic National Convention, the convention attendees through a manipulated process replaced him on the ticket with Harry S. Truman in what some have called a “coup.” Of course, had Wallace stayed on the ticket with Roosevelt, he would have gone on to be president instead of Truman when Roosevelt died.

    His later candidacy for president in 1948 included many positions ahead of their time. The Progressive Party platform promoted universal health insurance, voting rights for African-Americans, an end to the Cold War, and an end to segregation. But Wallace was hurt because the Communist Party endorsed him, and he only received 2.4% of the popular vote.

    Many critics argue that Wallace would not have been a good president because of his idealism and some other views. But most agree some of his most important work was in the area of agricultural science, not politics. His work led to a breeding chicken that that at one point supplied most of the world’s eggs.

    “Wallace ’48”

    Still, many look back fondly on his idealism and his hopes for a different world, wondering what might have been. For example, many historians conclude that he would not have used the atomic bombs on Japan.

    The band The Hangdogs in recent years wrote and recorded the song “Wallace ’48” in tribute to the man. One may wonder that if Wallace had this catchy song for his presidential campaign as “the uncommon champion of the common man,” might history have been different.

    The Hangdogs, unfortunately, are no longer together. But the New York-based country band made some great music worth checking out.  Also, heycmdrcody recently did an interesting interview with the band’s Matthew Grimm about the history of the band.

    As for Henry Wallace, he died on November 18, 1965. He was a complex man, in more ways than can be summarized in a song or a short post. But his complexity, such as the fact that he later supported Richard Nixon for president, is all the more reason to learn more about him.

    Photo of Henry Wallace via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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