Got an interesting story about a song, or a band?

Finch Platte · **Posted:** Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:55 pm

I was in the grocery store & heard Ride, Captain, Ride over the PA, and I always liked the story behind the music.

...Blues Image went on to its own share of acclaim. The act moved to Miami Beach, where 19 year old Pinera and Company, with wealthy suntan company owners The Collier Brothers, opened and ran their own non-alcoholic theatre Thee Image. He began booking, playing and jamming with acts from Jimi Hendrix to the Doors to the Grateful Dead. The group moved to L.A. landed a deal with Atlantic Records and cut an album of mostly original blues songs, but sales were weak. Just as the band was finishing its second album, the label threatened to dump the act if it couldn't produce a hit single.

"The producer came in and said, 'Do you have any more songs, because if you don't, this is your last day in the studio, I've got Steppenwolf and Three Dog Night out there waiting for studio time" Pinera says. "So I said, 'Oh, I have a song,' which I didn't have exactly. So I went into the bathroom, and I shut the door, and I just meditated. I calmed my mind, and I started hearing music. I went out and sat at the piano, which was a Rhodes Model No. 73, which had 73 keys. So I say, 'Okay, I need a first word.' And what came into my head was 73. I liked the rhythm, and I went, '73 men sailed in, from the San Francisco Bay. . . . The song sort of just wrote itself from there."

The keyboard player Frank Konte clinked out a melody for the chorus, and Pinera added the lyrics to "Ride, captain, ride, upon your mystery ship. . . ." and the rest is rock history. The song reached No. 1 in 1970.

Let's hear your story. If you don't have one, make one up & we'll try to tell if it's BS or not. :cheers:

Edit: I wonder what he really did in the bathroom...

Edit edit: Oh, wait, there's more: http://www.classicrockallstars.com/biography/mike.html :shock:

PopTodd · **Posted:** Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:12 pm

The story behind "Le Freak" by Chic:
The band were going for a night out and decided to go to Studio 54 -- the famous NYC disco. When they got there, the bouncer refused to let them in. They argued their case with him for a while, but still couldn't get in. Pissed off, they walked off and improvised a little tune as they walked away, shouting:
"Aaaawwww FUCK YOU!!!"
It stuck with them and they changed the lyrics to:
"Awwwww... FREAK OUT!
Le Freak, c'est chic."
And a disco/funk classic was born.

Probably already very well-known around here. But I still like it and enjoy picturing the guys walking away from the club, pissed off and singing that to the night.

Z · **Joined:** Sat Oct 23, 2004 1:38 pm **Posts:** 7979

ELO - Mr Blue Sky

everyone knows this, but i like it. jeff lynne was writing out of the blue in some chateau in switzerland. a lot of it had been written, but it was far from complete and time was running out. for two weeks, he barely put a thing to paper. it was rainy and miserable out, too. and then he wakes up one morning, the sun is shining and he writes "mr blue sky" and the rest of the album that day.

FT · **Posted:** Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:02 pm

PopTodd Wrote:

The story behind "Le Freak" by Chic:
The band were going for a night out and decided to go to Studio 54 -- the famous NYC disco. When they got there, the bouncer refused to let them in. They argued their case with him for a while, but still couldn't get in. Pissed off, they walked off and improvised a little tune as they walked away, shouting:
"Aaaawwww FUCK YOU!!!"
It stuck with them and they changed the lyrics to:
"Awwwww... FREAK OUT!
Le Freak, c'est chic."
And a disco/funk classic was born.

Probably already very well-known around here. But I still like it and enjoy picturing the guys walking away from the club, pissed off and singing that to the night.

Loved Nile Rodgers telling this one on Behind the Music...must have been one on Studio 54, because I don't think they did one on Chic.

Sex, Drugs, and Dave · **Posted:** Fri Jan 28, 2011 12:00 am

apparently Nile Rodgers is pretty sick...hope he beats it

seafoam · **Posted:** Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:04 am

I don't know why but this came to me first :

Fleetwood Mac (Nicks) - Rhiannon

Quote:

Nicks discovered Rhiannon through a novel called Triad, by Mary Leader. The novel is about a woman named Branwen, who is possessed by another woman named Rhiannon. There is mention of the Welsh legend of Rhiannon in the novel, but the characters in the novel bear little resemblance to their original Welsh namesakes (both Rhiannon and Branwen are major female characters in the medieval Welsh prose tales of the Mabinogi).

Nicks bought the novel in an airport just before a long flight and thought the name was so pretty that she wanted to write something about a girl named Rhiannon. She wrote "Rhiannon" in 1974, three months before joining Fleetwood Mac, and has claimed it took 10 minutes to write.

After writing the song, Nicks learned that Rhiannon originated from a Welsh goddess, and was amazed that the haunting song lyrics applied to the Welsh Rhiannon as well. Nicks researched the Mabinogion story and began work on a Rhiannon project, unsure of whether it would become a movie, a musical, a cartoon, or a ballet. There are several "Rhiannon Songs" from this unfinished project including "Stay Away" and "Maker of Birds". Nicks wrote the Fleetwood Mac song "Angel" based on the Rhiannon story.

Nicks avoided wearing black clothing for "about two years" in an effort to distance herself from the witchcraft and dark arts associations surrounding her as a result of the lyrics to "Rhiannon" giving fans the wrong impression.[

seafoam · **Posted:** Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:34 am

I guess the song says it all anyway, but if I remember correctly there's a pretty elaborated back story on Steve Earle's "Goodbye" from his biography about heading to Mexico with a ladyfriend and being all high and drunk on Tequila for weeks and finally leaving on his own.

jewels santana · **Joined:** Thu Nov 04, 2004 2:36 pm **Posts:** 10198

"Teenage FBI" is about one of his students catching him picking his nose.

Z · **Joined:** Sat Oct 23, 2004 1:38 pm **Posts:** 7979

rolling stones were recording in chicago and someone from the band asked the valentinos' manager for "it's all over now." he handed it over. when bobby womack found out, he was furious with the manager. when the first royalty check came through, womack went to his manager and supposedly said, "you can give mick jagger any song he wants."

(i'm listening to the 2120 s michigan bootleg right now.)

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