Song Lyric Sunday — “Whole Lotta Love”

Song Lyric Sunday is here again, and Helen Vahdati’s chosen theme is “give/giving.” My chosen genre is hard rock with Led Zeppelin’s 1969 song, “Whole Lotta Love.” Looking for the lyrics, I realized that lyrics sites show differing songwriting credits. One site apparently relied on an incorrect ASCAP listing that showed “Sharon” Plant instead of Robert. Although most sites correctly credit the five original band members (John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Pete Moore, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant), many omit the sixth writer, non-band-member Willie Dixon.

Willie Dixon was an American musican and songwriter who wrote “You Need Love” for bluesman Muddy Waters, who released it in 1962. The lyrics included:”Baby, you know you need coolin’ / Woman, way down inside.” In 1966 the English band Small Faces released their eponymous debut album containing a song called “You Need Loving.” Despite being a thinly-veiled copy of Willie Dixon’s song, the the album credited band members Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott as the sole writers.

Are you with me so far? In 1969, Led Zeppelin released “Whole Lotta Love,”which peaked in the U.S. at number 4 on the Billboard charts. With lyrics remarkably like Dixon’s (and, of course, the Small Faces’) and with Plant’s vocals remarkably like the Small Faces’ Steve Marriott’s, the five Zeps were the only listed writers.

Dixon did not sue the Small Faces for their duplicate of “You Need Love,” and the Small Faces did not sue Led Zeppelin (a wise move IMHO). Dixon, however, did sue Zeppelin, reaching a settlement in 1985 that included giving him writing credit on all subsequent releases.

For your listening pleasure, I’m giving (see what I did?) you videos of all three songs, together with the lyrics for “Whole Lotta Love.” Links to lyrics for the other two are up in the second paragraph. But, really, don’t you think it’d be more fun to compare their vids with the Zep lyrics?

“Whole Lotta Love“
You need coolin’, baby, I’m not foolin’,
I’m gonna send you back to schoolin’,
Way down inside, honey, you need it,
I’m gonna give you my love,
I’m gonna give you my love.

Wanna whole lotta love [4x]

You’ve been learnin’, baby, I’ve been yearnin’,
All them good times, baby, baby, I’ve been learnin’,
Way, way down inside, honey, you need it,
I’m gonna give you my love
I’m gonna give you my love.

Wanna whole lotta love [4x]

You’ve been coolin’, baby, I’ve been droolin’,
All the good times baby I’ve been misusin’,
Way, way down inside, I’m gonna give you my love,
I’m gonna give you every inch of my love,
Gonna give you my love.

Wanna whole lotta love [4x]

Yeah! All right! Let’s go!

Way down inside… woman… you need… love.

Shake for me, girl.
I wanna be your backdoor man.
Keep it coolin’, baby. [4x]

Song Lyric Sunday — Lost in Loveland

Helen’s Song Lyric Sunday theme this week — lost— gives me the opportunity to introduce you to one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Charlie Farren.

Counting bands such as Aerosmith and Boston among his contemporaries, Charlie is one of the talented musicians whose skills matured in the incubator of Boston’s fabled 70s music scene. He’s a local boy from Malden, MA, who had had a couple of regionally successful bands of his own when Aerosmith’s Joe Perry recruited him in 1980 to be lead singer in his side gig, The Joe Perry Project. Together they wrote four songs for the Project’s second album, “I’ve Got the Rock ‘N’ Rolls Again,” which also included two pre-Project Farren songs. In 1986 Charlie teamed up with drummer John Muzzy, and Project bassist David Hull (who changed his name to Heit) to form FARRENHEIT, releasing their eponymous album in 1987. Written by Farren and Heit, “Lost in Loveland” is one of the album’s three singles that, together with MTV exposure, signaled the debut of an exciting new rock act.

Two years later, after nearly 20 years as a full-time musician, Charlie impressively took a detour. With the birth of his first daughter, he chose to put music on the back burner while raising his family. For the next 20-some-odd years, his career path was in information technology. He continued to write, record, and publish CDs in his home studio, playing occasional gigs in the Boston/New England area. He returned to music full-time upon retiring from HP several years ago. Charlie’s music these days tends more toward jazzy bluesy solos than arena rock, so I’ve also included a snippet from 2014 more reflective of Charlie’s current style.

(I was unable to find lyrics on the internet, so I’ve transcribed them as best as I could from the video published on Charlie Farren’s channel. It’s not quite the same as in the 1987 recording, but if Charlie published it, I guess he approves.)

Lost in Loveland

I’ve been runnin’
Round in circles
Just waitin’ at the station
Oh yeah
All around me
Lovers laughin
I think they reached their destination
C’mon now

I don’t want to go there
If you’re not there with me (I don’t want to go there, no)
I don’t want to be there
If you’re not waitin for me (I don’t want to be there, baby)
I don’t want to stay there
If you’re not there, baby

Baby I’m stranded
Empty-handed
Just get our love in motion, honey
Oh no
Not til I find you
Til I’ve got you by the hand
And you come with me to loveland

I don’t want to go there
If you’re not there with me (I don’t want to go there, no)
I don’t want to be there
If you’re not waitin for me
I don’t want to stay there
If you’re not there, baby,
Well baby
I wonder, I wonder

(Lost in loveland)
Oh baby I’m lost in loveland
Lost in loveland
I’m lookin
Oh baby I’m lost in loveland
I been lookin for your love, baby
I lookin for you
I can’t seem to find you, no
Where are you, baby

Until I find you
Until we’re together
I’ll keep on lookin
Til I find you

I don’t want to go there
If you’re not there with me (I don’t want to go there, no)
I don’t want to be there
If you’re not waitin for me
I don’t want to stay there
If you’re not there, baby

I’m lost in loveland, honey
I’m lookin
Oh baby, I’m lost in loveland
I been lookin for you
Lost in loveland

I’m Not Proud of You

Am I the only person in the world who refuses to say “I’m proud of you?” That phrase has always struck me as turning the focus around to the speaker, as if the proud-making occasion is all about the speaker. Whenever anyone has said they’re proud of me (or anyone else), my immediate internal reaction is, “Well, good for you.” It’s only a matter of time before I actually say it aloud.

Possibly an aftereffect of parental criticism, I feel diminished to hear “I’m proud of you.” I simply don’t believe the speaker intends to honor either the accomplishment or the person. The proud-maker is the one who should be proud and probably is, wholeheartedly, until “I’m proud of you” takes a little wind out of their sail. Why steal their pride in their accomplishment?

That’s why I say, “You must be so proud of yourself.” If I express how I feel about the occasion, I’ll say, “I’m thrilled/happy/excited for you.” My feelings are for, or because of, them not me. It’s all about them.

Song Lyric Sunday — “The Music is the Magic”

Last week I actually guessed the theme for today’s Song Lyric Sunday would be “hidden.” I never saw Helen Vahdati’s confirmation of my guess, so I was as surprised as anyone else that the theme is hide/hiding/hidden. Had I known that a week ago, I probably would have chosen quickly, written, and scheduled to publish automatically today. I’m glad I didn’t because I found jazz singer, songwriter, actress, civil rights activist Abbey Lincoln.

Born in 1930, one of the youngest of 12 siblings, she taught herself to play piano by listening to records her handyman father borrowed from neighbors. Those Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughn albums were her early influences. Holiday’s influence, especially, is easily heard in “The Music is the Magic.” Considered by many to be “the musical successor to Billie Holiday,” she eschewed jazz conventions like scat and improvisation. Like Holiday, she emphasized song lyrics, imbuing the words with emotion. She wrote her first of 80 songs when she was 40, primarily because she was dissatisfied with singing romantic standards. She wanted to sing songs reflecting her values, beliefs, and experiences. Her stage persona evolved from Marilyn Monroe-esque to a woman more like herself: confident, self-assured, and proud of her cultural heritage.

Abbey Lincoln wrote “The Music is the Magic,” released in 1992.

When everything is finished in a world, the people go to look for what the artists leave. It’s the only thing that we have really in this world — is an ability to express ourselves and say, “I was here.”

— Abbey Lincoln

“The Music is the Magic”

The music is the magic of a secret world,
Secret world, a secret world.
It’s a world that is always within.

The music is the magic and the hiding place
The hiding place, the hiding place
The music is the magic and the hiding place
It’s a place where the spirit is home.

The music is the magic of a sacred world,
Sacred world, a sacred world.
The music is the magic of a sacred world,
It’s a world that is always within.

The music is the magic through a raging storm
A raging storm, raging storm
The music is the magic through the raging storm
The storm that is over again.

The music is the magic of a sacred world,
Sacred world, a sacred world.
The music is the magic of a sacred world,
It’s a world that is always within.