Tuesday Tunes 298: Right

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In case you hadn’t realised, my recent sets of black and brown songs were prompted by those being the colours of shirts worn by Fascists in Italy, the UK and Germany in the 1930s, and the descent of present day US into fascism under the current ‘president.’ One amongst his many grifts is to sell his moronic supporters merchandise declaring that he is right about everything, when clearly the opposite is true, but they lap it up nevertheless. So another idea struck me – how about a set of songs with right in their title? I compiled a list in next to no time and it currently stands at 21 tunes, so I may be doing this more than once! For today, here in no particular order are five that I like.

Back to the Seventies for the first one:

The Climax Blues Band released Couldn’t Get It Right on their ninth album, Gold Plated, in October 1976, and the track was also a single to promote the album. Both did well: the album reached #27 in the US and #56 in the UK, and the single peaked at #3 in the US, #8 in Canada and #10 in the UK. They had a few more hit singles and albums in the US but they were one hit wonders here in the UK. A pity really, as I liked this a lot.

That must have been a good decade, as here is another from it:

Bloody Well Right is from Supertramp’s third and breakthrough album, Crime Of The Century, which was released in October 1974 and reached #4 in the UK and #38 in the US, earning Gold discs in both countries but going Platinum in Canada, where it sold a million copies. This track was released as a double A-side single with Dreamer that December, peaking at #13 in the UK and #35 in the US. I played this just a few months back as part of my tribute to Rick Davies after he passed away, but this time I’m giving you a longer version, without the ‘special’ effects that a tv producer thought were clever. Trust me, they weren’t!

A little bit later now, for one which I’m expecting will be new to many:

 

Right In Time was the opening track on Lucinda Williams’ fifth album, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road, which was released in June 1998, and peaked at #65 in the US. It was also released as a single at that time, but didn’t chart anywhere. I didn’t know of Lucinda prior to this, and came across the album by lucky chance. In those days I worked very near to Paddington Station in London, and the station’s shops were a regular lunchtime haunt, especially the branch of Our Price records. They had a £2.99 remainders bin and I found the CD in that. Seeing that it was co-produced by Steve Earle and his own producer, Ray Kennedy, I took a punt. I’ve never regretted that, since the opening notes of this song, and now have just about everything Lucinda has recorded – initially on CD and nowadays in my Apple Music library. She counts for most people as ‘Americana,’ which is a favourite genre of mine.

I’m going back to my early days in music for this next one, a massive Sixties UK hit:

The Honeycombs were an English group founded in 1963 in north London. They had a chart-topping, million-selling 1964 hit with Have I the Right? and featured Anne ‘Honey’ Lantree on drums, one of the few high-profile female drummers at that time. They were unable to replicate the success of that first single, though, and disbanded by 1967. Have I The Right was released in June 1964 and reached #1 in the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Sweden, and #5 in the US. The song was recorded by producer Joe Meek in his London apartment studio, and the prominent part of the drums that carry the song was enhanced by having the members of the group stamp their feet on the wooden stairs to the studio. Meek recorded the sound with five microphones he had fixed to the banisters with bicycle clips. For the finishing touch someone beat a tambourine directly onto a microphone. But I’m not sure they really needed all of that: Honey knew how to beat the crap out of the drums without any help!

I’m closing today with one that I have loved since it first came out, and the video is great fun:

Billy Joel released You May Be Right as a single in March 1980 as a taster of his seventh album, Glass Houses, which came out five days later and on which it was the opening track. The single got to #7 in the US and earned a Platinum Disc there for a million sales, but for some reason it wasn’t a UK hit, despite receiving enough airplay to feature in the Record Business magazine’s Airplay chart. The album went to #1 in the US and Canada, and #9 in the UK, going 7x Platinum if the US for 7m sales, 5x Platinum in Canada for 740,000, and Gold in the UK for 100,000, of which my purchase was one. It’s a fine album, and I don’t think we did either it or this single justice – Billy was having so much fun with this, so how could we have let him down!

That’s all for today, but as I said I’ll be back next week with another set of right songs for you. Stay warm and well, and I’ll see you again in a couple of days.

 

[As usual, I’ll be sharing this at Esme’s Senior Salon Pit Stop and Cathy’s Monday’s Music Moves Me links, so do please take a look to see what you can find there]

24 thoughts on “Tuesday Tunes 298: Right”

  2. Climax Blues is an old 70s throwback tune. I was a teenager when it was popular. I was young adult in Billy Joel’s biggest and early years. He had some great hits from the 80s. Excellent set of songs! Thanks for joining the 4M party and I apologize for the late visit. Have a boogietastic week, Clive!

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    • I’m pleased you enjoyed these, Cathy, and there will be another set of ‘right’ songs tomorrow. It won’t fit your theme but I’ll drop them in anyway! You have a great week too 👍

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  3. Right on! I liked your selection. I am positive that the Honeycombs song you played had slightly different lyrics than I remember but maybe not. It’s such a good song to stomp your feet to. I’m also a big Billy Joel fan. Yes, Lucinda Williams was new to me. Alana ramblinwitham

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    • I’m pleased you enjoyed them. As far as I know there was only one set of lyrics for The Honeycombs’ song, but as you say it’s a good stomper, in the mode of the Dave Clark Five. That’s one of my favourite Billy Joel songs. I’m a big Lucinda Williams fan 👍

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  4. I love all of these, Clive – thank you. I saw Supertramp on their Breakfast in America tour in London. Absolutely brilliant musicians and showmen.

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  7. All five work for me Clive. I do wonder if ‘Bloody Well Right’ fell foul of the censorious Right-thinking American record execs or the prim stern and sour-faced Legions of Patriotic Mothers Against Smut? ‘Ooooh, our children’s tender ears can’t be subjected to such foul vulgarity! We’d better ban it from the playlists, or better yet burn the entire record. And let’s throw in a few shifty leftwards looking books while we’re at it.’

    Lucinda is a nice change up today, always nice to hear her turn up.

    No wonder ‘Have I The Right?’ was such a stomper of a song, it was literally engineered that way.

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    • I’m pleased you like them. In the States ‘Bloody Well Right’ was the more successful side of the single, while here it was ‘Dreamer.’ The MAGA mums weren’t as powerful then!

      Glad you like Lucinda too.

      Joe Meek had a reputation for being creative with his recordings and that is a typical example.

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  8. Terrific list. LOVE Supertramp. I shared this before, but I saw Billy Joel at his Madison Square Garden residency and when he performs “You May Be Right” he seques into Led Zeppelin’s “Rock’n’Roll” for a few minutes…terrific song and mashup!

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