Beach Boys – "Caroline, No" (1966)

I remember how you used to say

You'd never change

But that's not true

[NOTE:  The surprise about me choosing to include "Caroline, No" in this year's group of inductees into the 2 OR 3 LINES "GOLDEN DECADE" ALBUM TRACKS HALL OF FAME is that it's taken me this long to do that.  I love "Caroline, No" so much that I've featured it in on 2 or 3 lines twice.  It's the original 2010 post that appears below.]

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"Caroline, No" is the 100th song to be featured on 2 or 3 lines.  As my regular readers know, I take such milestones VERY seriously.  

I recently read a review of a new edition of Mark Twain's autobiography, and learned that Twain had said this about the "system" of autobiography that he developed:

[T]he law of the system is that I shall talk about the matter which for the moment interests me, and cast it aside and talk about something else the moment its interest for me is exhausted.  It is a system which follows no charted course [and] which is a complete and purported jumble – a course which begins nowhere, follows no specific route, and can never reach an end while I am alive. 

Mark Twain

I think Twain has written an excellent description of 2 or 3 lines. 

This what the reviewer had to say about Twain's system:

[T]his discursive ramble through his life proves nothing so much as that what interested him at any given moment is not necessarily of interest to anyone else.  Reading [Twain's autobiography] is like being trapped in a locked room with a garrulous old coot . . . who loves the sound of his own voice and hasn't the slightest inclination to turn it off.  The best passages are funny or thoughtful or touching or outspoken, sometimes all at once, but others are merely buzzes, hums and drones.

This is also an excellent description of 2 or 3 lines, n'est-ce pas?

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When I was given my first CD player on Christmas 1991, I was also given my first two CDs – one of which was the legendary Beach Boys album, Pet Sounds.  

Click here for a song from the other CD.

The last wish of Andy Lippincott, a gay character in Doonesbury who was dying of AIDS, was to live long enough to hear Pet Sounds on CD – a wish that came true just in time for him:

I bought the Pet Sounds LP in 1967 or '68, I think – so I was quite familiar with it when I was given the CD.

Pet Sounds is the album that I most associate with my teenage angst.  I had a pretty bad case of it, and when the symptoms were at their most severe, I would often put Pet Sounds on my parents' Magnavox console stereo and lie on the floor with my head directly under it.

My putative reason for doing this was to maximize the stereo effect – I'd hear the two channels very sharply separated that way.  But my real reason was because it seemed like a good way for me to hide from the world – literally (by physically putting my head into a confined space and hiding my face from view) and figuratively (by drowning out all my mental anxiety and apprehension with the sounds of the Beach Boys).

I don't have my Pet Sounds LP any more.  I gave it to my high-school girlfriend when I left for college.  This is still one of my most characteristic moves – I often attempt to communicate my feelings by quoting from songs or books.  (Other people's words articulate what I'm thinking so much better than I can.)

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There's no other album that affects me like Pet Sounds does.  It immediately transforms me into the 16-year-old version of myself.  

That's both good and bad.  And even if it's more bad than good, I can't resist listening to it every so often.

I can't really explain why Pet Sounds affects me the way it does.  If you have the album and feel like I do about it, I don't need to explain it – you get it.

If you have it and don't think it's anything special . . . well, I have nothing more to say to you.

If you're not familiar with it, PLEASE buy it or download it or get it from your local library or listen to all the songs on YouTube or whatever.  

"Caroline, No" is the final song on the album, which has been praised by Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Elton John, and many others.

Several music magazines have ranked it as the #1 album of all time, and  a panel of top musicians, songwriter, and producers assembled by the British music magazine Mojo in 1995 – 30 years after it was recorded – voted it the greatest album ever made.   

Rolling Stone magazine ranked it as the #2 album of all time, behind only Sgt. Pepper – which Beatles' producer George Martin said was the Beatles' attempt to equal Pet Sounds.

(Sorry, Beatles – you failed!)

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Brian Wilson, who wrote "Caroline, No" with the help of Tony Asher, said it was his favorite song on the album and "the prettiest ballad I've ever sung."  The song was initially released as a Brian Wilson single – not a Beach Boys single.  

Although Pet Sounds is a Beach Boys album, the other members of the group had a very limited role in creating it.  Wilson and Asher wrote virtually all of the words and music to the album's songs, and the backing tracks were recorded by a group of very skilled and prolific studio musicians (known collectively as "The Wrecking Crew").

Brian Wilson in 1966

Asher's former girlfriend was named Carol, and the song was originally written by Asher as "Carol, I Know."  Wilson misheard him and thought the title was "Caroline, No," and he and Asher decided they liked that better.  

I loved "Caroline, No" long before I had a daughter named Caroline.  As far as I recall, the song had nothing to do with our naming her that.  (I think my wife liked the name and – therefore – so did I.)

The song is clearly about a girl who no longer is in love with the singer – her feelings have changed, leaving the singer (who is still in love with her) to pine for the good old days.

For me, it's about Caroline – and all my children – growing up all too quickly.  And once your children have grown up, you're not young any more – maybe that's the real issue here, at least for me.

My youngest is only 16, and a sophomore in high school – so at least I have him for a couple of more years.  After he leaves, I have to wait for grandchildren, and who knows how long that will take.

Click here to listen to "Caroline, No."  (Please excuse me if I don't stay around and keep you company while you listen to it.  I'd probably embarrass us both if I did.)

Click here to buy "Caroline, No" from Amazon.

Sugarloaf – "Green-Eyed Lady" (1970)

Green-eyed lady feels life I never see

Setting suns and lonely lovers free

[NOTE: Sugarloaf released “Green-Eyed Lady” in August 1970 – which was the month I started college.  The other two records I associate with my first days of college are Free’s “All Right Now,” and Grand Funk Railroad’s “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home),” both of which are members of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.  Now it’s the turn of “Green-Eyed Lady” to have its day in the  sun.  I originally featured that record on my wildly popular little blog in June 2021 – below is a lightly edited version of that post.]

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In a recent 2 or 3 lines, I noted that there are a lot of songs about blue eyes but only a few about green eyes – which are the kind that yours truly has.

An old friend of mine promptly took me to task for overlooking what is without a doubt the greatest of all green-eyed songs – to wit, Sugarloaf’s 1970 hit single, “Green-Eyed Lady.”

I can’t imagine how I could have forgotten “Green-Eyed Lady” – it was released the same month I started college, and I vividly remember hearing it many times on the radio that fall.

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In 1968, keyboardist Jerry Corbetta and guitarist Bob Webber formed a band called Chocolate Hair.  Just before the release of their first album, the suits at their record label asked them to choose a new name – they were afraid that Chocolate Hair might be interpreted as racist.

I don’t know if the name Chocolate Hair is racist, but I do know that it is BY FAR the worst name for a band I’ve ever heard.

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Sugarloaf was (briefly) kind of a big deal after “Green-Eyed Lady” made it all the way to #3 on the Billboard “Hot 100.”  

Sugarloaf’s eponymous debut album 

The group opened for the Who, Deep Purple, and Eric Burdon & War (among others) in 1970-71.  In March 1971, they performed at the Grammy Awards “after” party along with Aretha Franklin and Three Dog Night.

But the band’s second album failed to make the crack the top 100, and the two singles from that album flopped.  

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After everyone except Jerry Corbetta bailed on Sugarloaf, he cobbled together a bunch of hirelings and went on tour.  The reconfigured Sugarloaf opened for Rare Earth on July 2, 1973, in my hometown – Joplin, Missouri.  (The truly awful Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show – best known for  “Sylvia’s Mother” and “The Cover of the Rolling Stone” – was also on the bill.)

Rare Earth – which was the first successful all-white band that Motown Records signed – had three top ten hits between 1969 and 1971, but was on its way down by the time the band played in Joplin . . . which explains why it played in Joplin.

The concert was held outdoors at Joplin’s 1934-vintage Junge Stadium, which seated about 3500 people.  (I saw many high school football games there.)

Junge Stadium

But rather than shelling out the $4.50 ticket price, my friends and I stood outside and listened to the concert from behind the chain-link fence that circled the stadium.

Sure, we were a long way from the stage, so we couldn’t see a lot.  Also, we were positioned at a 90-degree angle to the direction the speakers were pointing, so we couldn’t hear much either.  But $4.50 would pay for a whole week’s worth of 3.2% beer at the bars in Galena, Kansas, where it was legal for 18-year-olds to drink.  (Beer went for 25 or 35 cents a quart in Galena in 1973.)

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Click here to listen to the album version of “Green-Eyed Lady” – I love it to death, despite the incoherent lyrics.

Click here to buy “Green-Eyed Lady” from Amazon.

Spirit – "I Got a Line on You" (1968)

My summer, she's comin' on strong

I can love you, love you, love you, love you 

All year long!

[NOTE: "I Got a Line on You” peaked at #25 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in 1968.  I find it mind-boggling that it didn’t make it all the way to #1.  (I also find it mind-boggling that Randy California of Spirit, who wrote the song when he was 16 years old, was playing guitar in Jimi Hendrix’s band when he was only 15!)  To help make up for the American public’s failure to give “I’ve Got a Line on You” its due, I’ve decided to include that record in this year’s group of 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.  Here’s a slightly-edited version of my original August 16, 2013 post about that record.] 

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Summer has been comin' on strong for some time now.  It was beastly hot when we went to Cape Cod for vacation [in July 2013], which is unusual.

I'm hoping the driver of this seafood delivery truck remembered to plug in his refrigeration unit when he parked it for the night.  I hate to think how many people could have been laid low if the oysters, clams, scallops and other fruits de mer in this bad boy had been allowed to ripen.

Speaking of spoiled seafood, here's an amusing little exchange I found on an online discussion board:

CHEESEFUNGUS:  i bought a swordfish felle on monday and just took it out of the fridge, it smelled a little . . . fishy.  [NOTE: I assume "felle" means "filet."]  dude at my work said you have to eat fish right away cause they can go bad quick.  dont have much fish knowledge here.  [NOTE: Or any other kind of knowledge, I'd wager.]  its on the grill and will be done in about 10 min. BADGERBOY1:  if it was frozen the whole time then it should be fine. Unless it was bad before you froze it. Did you check to see if it had an expiration date? CHEESEFUNGUS:  I didn't freeze it I bought it fresh on Monday. 48 hrs can't be too bad?  My friggin grill ran out of gas and I had to run inside and pan fry.  [NOTE: Cheesefungus don't have much gas grill knowledge either.]   looks fine, tastes alright.  i'm about to mix it in to some cheesy noodles should be decent.  [NOTE: Is there anything that cheesy noodles doesn't make better?] Grilled swordfish (sans cheesy noodles) SALMON401: You'll be fine.  Put an extra roll of toilet paper by the throne . . . Just in case. *     *     *     *     *

I'm surprised that 2 or 3 lines has featured well over 500 songs, and that only one of them is a song by Spirit.  That's a major oversight on my part.

How would I describe Spirit's music?  Let me begin by reminding you of the traditional Indian tale of the six blind men and the elephant.

As the story goes, six blind men are asked to touch an elephant and describe it, based on what their hands tell them.  One touches the elephant's tusk, and says the elephant must be very like a spear.  Another touches its trunk, and announces that the elephant is very like a snake.  A third man touches the elephant's knee, and opines that the creature must be very like a tree.  And so on, and so forth.

Each one of the blind men was right, yet each one was wrong.  

The same is true of the music critics who have described Spirit's music as psychedelic, jazz-rock, progressive rock, or just plain pop music.  They're all right, yet they're all wrong.

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Spirit's music is uniquely eclectic, which isn't surprising given the diverse musical backgrounds of its members.

Vocalist/songwriter Jay Ferguson took classical piano lessons when he was a child, but then got interested in the banjo and started a bluegrass group with his brother.  

Drummer Ed Cassidy was a veteran jazz drummer who played with legends like Art Pepper, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Gerry Mulligan.  Cassidy – who sported a shaved head, dressed entirely in black, and positioned his bass drum sideways with pedals on both sides so he could play it with either foot – was 44 years old when Spirit's eponymous debut album was released in 1968.  (Cassidy died of cancer less than a year ago.  He was 89 years old – older than my parents.  I can't quite wrap my mind around the fact that there existed a major rock music figure who was older than my parents.)

Ed Cassidy

Cassidy's stepson, guitarist/singer/songwriter Randy California, was not quite 17 when that album hit the stores.  Born Randy Wolfe, Spirit's wunderkind was given his stage name by Jimi Hendrix.  

Randy played in a band that Hendrix formed in New York City in the summer of 1966 – he was 15 years old at the time! – and Hendrix called him "Randy California" to distinguish him from another band member named Randy (whom Hendrix christened "Randy Texas").

Randy California

Hendrix invited California to come to England with him and be part of his new band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but his parents wanted him to finish high school.

(Time out, boys and girls.  I have a feeling that most of you who have kids would have made the same decision.  So would have I.  If Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had been our son, we probably would have told him to quit spending so much time playing the piano and do his arithmetic homework because WE ARE MORONS!) 

A Molokai beach

Sadly, Randy California died in 1997, when he was just 45.  He and his 12-year-old son were swimming off the coast of Molokai, Hawaii, when they got caught up in a riptide.  Randy managed to push his son free of the riptide, but he was pulled out to sea and presumably drowned.  (His body was never recovered.)

Spirit's first album was quite good.  Its second album, The Family That Plays Together, which was released less than a year later, was outstanding.  (I got both LPs -- gently used -- from a fellow college student in 1972.  Cost me a buck, as I recall.)

The group's fourth album, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, is one of the great albums of all time.  

We'll be featuring some of the great songs from Dr. Sardonicus in the future, but today's post is about the group's only top-40 single.  "I Got a Line on You" (grammar was not the group's strong suit) is a classic three-minute (actually, 2:38) AM-radio, sing-along-to pop song.  It features one of the catchiest riffs ever and some great back-and-forth vocals in the chorus singing.

Click here to listen to "I Got a Line on You."

Click here to buy the song from Amazon.

Status Quo – "Picture of Matchstick Men" (1968)

You in the sky

You with this guy

You make men cry, you lie

In 2004, the BBC News listed the recording artists with the most hit singles in the UK.

U2 was high on that list, with 40 hit singles.  The Rolling Stones had 51, and Queen 52.

But there was one group that had had even more hit records in the UK – 61, to be exact.  And I guarantee that you couldn’t name that group if your life depended on it.

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Here’s a clue.  The group that held the record for the most hit records in the UK had had only a single hit single in the U.S. – “Pictures of Matchstick Men,” which peaked at #12 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in 1968.  

That’s right – I’m talking about the Status Quo, which was founded in 1962 by two 13-year-old schoolboys, and which released the most recent of its 33 studio albums only a few years ago.

Not a single one of those albums ever cracked the top 100 in the U.S.  But about two-thirds of them were top ten albums in the UK – including four that made it all the way to #1 and three others that peaked at #2.

It’s not unusual for a recording artist to be much more successful in the UK than in the U.S. – and vice versa.  

But the contrast between the Status Quo’s superstar status across the pond and their almost total lack of success in the U.S. is incomprehensible.

At least, it’s incomprehensible to 2 or 3 lines.  

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Francis Rossi – one of the two mates who founded the Status Quo – once gave this account of the writing of “Pictures of Matchstick Men”:

I wrote it on the bog. I'd gone there, not for the usual reasons . . . but to get away from the wife and mother-in-law.  I used to go into this narrow frizzing toilet and sit there for hours, until they finally went out.  I got three quarters of the song finished in that khazi.  The rest I finished in the lounge.

(For those of you who aren’t familiar with British slang, “bog” and “khaki” are synonyms for “toilet.”)

I found the Status Quo’s first album in the cutout bin at the Grandpa’s discount store in Joplin, Missouri a year or two after “Pictures of Matchstick Men” was released in 1968.  I think I also bought the Shocking Blue’s eponymous U.S. debut album and the Sir Douglas Quintet’s Mendocino LP at the same time – Grandpa’s cutouts were three for a dollar.

I’m not sure I ever listened to the entire Status Quo album – in fact, I may have never listened to anything on that album except for “Pictures of Matchstick Men.”

But that one track was worth every penny of the 33 and one-third cents I paid for that LP.

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Click here to listen to the “Pictures of Matchstick Men” – which is now and forever shall be a member of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.  (World without end, amen!)

Click here to buy that recording from Amazon.

Amboy Dukes – "Journey to the Center of the Mind" (1968)

Take a ride

To the land

Inside of your mind

Did you know that a man’s finger length ratio – that is, the length of his index finger divided by the length of his ring finger – tends to be lower than a woman’s?  That’s because men tend to have longer ring fingers, while women’s ring and index fingers are usually about the same length.

Another significant difference between men and women is the kind of movies they like.

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ScreenGeek recently published a list of the movies with the widest spreads between their IMDb.com rankings by men and their rankings by women.

Among the movies that men love but women hate are For a Few Dollars More, Raging Bull, Unforgiven, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Once Upon a Time in the West, Platoon, Rocky, The Great Escape, and Lawrence of Arabia – that’s two boxing movies, three Westerns, and four war movies:

On the list of movies that women favor but men disdain include rom-coms (Pride and Prejudice, The Notebook) and Disney movies (Frozen, Tangled, Beauty and the Beast):

I suppose it comes as no surprise that men prefer war films to Disney princess movies– and vice versa for women.  But there is something in these rankings that I wouldn’t have anticipated.  And that’s how strongly women and men disagree when it comes to Harry Potter movies.  

Numbers one, two, four and five on the list of female-preferred films with the greatest disparity between male and female rankings – that’s the second chart – are Harry Potter movies.  For example, the average man ranks Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix no fewer than 690 spots lower than the average woman.

In other words, if you ask the typical man and woman to list how many movies they like better than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the man’s list will have 690 more names on it.  That’s a lot of movies.

I’m not sure I could even name 690 movies.  But if I could, I guarantee you I would rate every one of them ahead of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (which is number two on the list).

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The typical male might compare the movies on these two lists and be tempted to make a sexist, smart-ass crack like “Who knew that women had such terrible taste in movies?”

2 or 3 lines is not the typical male, of course.  I would never say something like that.

Though I might think it.

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I’m surprised that I haven’t previously featured the Amboy Dukes’ 1968 hit single, “Journey to the Center of the Mind,” on my wildly popular little blog.  Better late than never!

“Journey to the Center of the Mind” – which is a real stick of dynamite – was co-written by Ted “Motor City Madman” Nugent.  

Say what you will about Nugent’s outré political beliefs and obnoxious public pronouncements, he is a fan-f*cking-tastic guitarist.  

From Wikipedia:

During the recording [of “Journey to the Center of the Mind”] there was considerable tension amongst the band members . . . . Nugent would often create an uneasy environment for the other band members when he didn’t receive enough attention.

I sympathize with Ted – I rarely receive enough attention from others, and am sometimes forced to take rather extreme steps to remedy that.

Click here to watch a video of the Amboy Dukes (plus go-go dancers) performing the newest member of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.