A Couple of Musical Interludes

A stroll down Memory Lane, through the grooveyard of forgotten favorites

(Note to Readers: When I started this newsletter, my intent was for it to not be exclusively political, but to also include pop culture, reminiscences, and even the occasional joke. Well, I think we can all use a change-up from the political content that has certainly dominated it lately, so here’s something just a bit different, a throwback to less-complicated times. As always, please feel free to Like, Comment, and Share.)

A Couple of Musical Interludes (a stroll down Memory Lane, through the grooveyard of forgotten favorites)

The news tends, of late, to be particularly disturbing and depressing, and so I welcome any opportunity to direct my thoughts to less-unpleasant topics. Lately I've accomplished this by focusing on a random phrase I've encountered and letting it remind me, via free-association, of a piece of music, usually a song I haven't heard or thought about in years, sometimes even decades.

I'm often surprised to find that I remember tunes and lyrics from so long ago, but if my memory needs refreshing that can be accomplished via the miracle of the internet, and I can also learn new details about the song, and then it becomes my mental soundtrack for a day or two. And, as it runs through my head, I can't help but smile.

This started the other day, when I heard the phrase "four-lane highway." Because it doesn’t take much to drag an almost-forgotten song (especially one with a great lyric!) up from my memory, that little phrase reminded me of Joni Mitchell’s “Raised on Robbery,” which she wrote as well as performed.

It's a song about a “rough but pleasin’” gal trying to pick up a guy in the lounge of the Empire Hotel in Saskatoon (which is Joni's hometown). The particular stanza that stood out in my memory was:

We had a little money once
They were pushing through a four-lane highway
Government gave us three thousand dollars
You should have seen it fly away
First he bought a '57 Biscayne
He put it in a ditch
He drunk up all the rest
That son of a bitch
His blood's bad whiskey
I was raised on robbery

It was on Joni's 1974 hit album, “Court and Spark,” which also featured “Free Man in Paris” and “Help Me.” You can watch and listen to her perform it live here. Watching her reminds me of how (and why) I was infatuated with Joni Mitchell for years and years, and to some degree remain so (and she’s not the only performer who, despite her Liberal politics, tugged at my heartstrings; I’ve carried a torch for Joan Baez for years as well). I’ve also had a weakness for women named Joan or variations thereof. 

The album cut can be heard here.

Here's (one version of) the complete lyrics:

He was sitting in the lounge of the Empire Hotel
He was drinking for diversion
He was thinking for himself
Blue money* ridin' on the Maple Leafs
Along comes a lady in lacy sleeves
She says let me sit down
You know, drinkin' alone's a shame (It's a shame it's a crying shame)
Look at those jokers
Losin' at that hockey game
Hey Honey-you've got lots of cash
Bring us round a bottle
And we'll have some laughs
Gin's what I'm drinking
I was raised on robbery

I'm a pretty good cook
Sitting on my groceries
Come up to my kitchen
I'll show you my best recipes
I try and I try but I can't save a cent
I'm up after midnight, cooking
Trying to make my rent
I'm rough but I'm pleasin'
I was raised on robbery

We had a little money once
They were pushing through a four-lane highway
Government gave us three thousand dollars
You should have seen it fly away
First he bought a '57 Biscayne
He put it in the ditch
He drunk up all the rest
That son of a bitch
His blood's bad whiskey
I was raised on robbery

You know you ain't bad lookin'
I like the way you hold your drinks
Come home with me, Honey
I ain't asking for no full-length mink
Hey, where you goin'?
Don't go yet
Your glass ain't empty and we just met
You're mean when you're loaded
I was raised on robbery

*I've always had a keen ear for slang, but the only places I've ever heard the expression "blue money" are in this song and in Van Morrison's song with that title. At first I thought it was Canadian slang, since each denomination of Canadian paper money is a different color; I thought it was slang for bills of a higher denomination. But it's only the Canadian $5 bill that's blue, and Van Morrison isn't Canadian, but Irish. So I'll have to go with the internet's definition of "blue money" as "money squandered or spent unwisely."

Anyway, I let that song run through my head until a similar thought process reminded me of another. There was recently a video clip that "went viral" of a Kansas City preacher, Pastor Carlton Funderburke, vociferously berating his congregation for failing to buy him an expensive watch.

In this case, the phrase that caught my ear was "broke, busted and disgusted." I knew I’d heard it before, and whaddya know? I reached into my memory banks and pulled up “Creeque Alley,” the autobiographical 1966 hit song by The Mamas and the Papas that chronicles how their group was formed (and also alludes to the formation of The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Byrds, and The Mugwumps, and names some of the personnel of those groups). 

That much I knew already, and a few minutes of research revealed that Creeque (pronounced “creaky”) Alley was actually Creeque’s Alley in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, the site of a club called Sparky’s Waterfront Saloon, where John and Michelle Phillips performed in the early ‘60s, before eventually teaming up with Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot to form The Mamas and the Papas.

D’ya suppose Pastor Funderburke is a Mamas & Papas fan?

Here are the lyrics (“Broke, busted, disgusted” is in the first line of the final stanza):

John and Mitchy were gettin' kind of itchy

Just to leave the folk music behind

Zal and Denny workin' for a penny

Tryin' to get a fish on the line

In a coffee house Sebastian* sat

And after every number they'd pass the hat

McGuinn and McGuire** just a-gettin’ higher

In L.A., you know where that's at

And no one's gettin' fat except Mama Cass

Zally said Denny, you know there aren't many
Who can sing a song the way that you do, let's go south
Denny said Zally, golly, don't you think that I wish
I could play guitar like you
Zal, Denny and Sebastian sat (at the Night Owl)
And after every number they'd pass the hat
McGuinn and McGuire still a gettin' higher
In L.A., you know where that's at
And no one's gettin' fat except Mama Cass

When Cass was a sophomore, planned to go to Swarthmore
But she changed her mind one day
Standin' on the turnpike, thumb out to hitchhike
Take me to New York right away
When Denny met Cass he gave her love bumps
Called John and Zal and that was the Mugwumps
McGuinn and McGuire couldn't get no higher
But that's what they were aimin' at
And no one's gettin' fat except Mama Cass

Mugwumps, high jumps, low slumps, big bumps
Don't you work as hard as you play?
Make up, break up, everything is shake up
Guess it had to be that way
Sebastian and Zal formed the Spoonful
Michelle, John, and Denny gettin' very tuneful
McGuinn and McGuire just a-catchin' fire
In L.A., you know where that's at
And everybody's gettin' fat except Mama Cass
Di di di dit dit dit di di di dit, whoa

Broke, busted, disgusted, agents can't be trusted
And Mitchy wants to go to the sea
Cass can't make it, she says we'll have to fake it
We knew she'd come eventually
Greasin' on American Express cards
It's low rent, but keeping out the heat's hard
Duffy's good vibrations and our imaginations
Can't go on indefinitely
And California Dreamin' is becomin' a reality

*John Sebastian, co-founder, with Zal Yanovsky, of The Lovin' Spoonful.

**Roger McGuinn was the lead singer of The Byrds, an early folk-rock group which also featured David Crosby (later of Crosby, Stills & Nash); their hits included a cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn, Turn, Turn," a Pete Seeger song which quoted from the Book of Ecclesiastes, and an early "psychedelic" hit, "Eight Miles High." Barry McGuire had the famous 1965 anti-war anthem (written by P.F. Stone), "Eve of Destruction" (with lyrics that resonate even today).

In case you’ve never heard "Creeque Alley," or don’t remember it, you can hear and watch The Mamas and the Papas perform it here, and even follow the lyrics via subtitles, followed by videos of them performing some of their other hits, including their cover of "Dedicated to the One I Love" (the original, by The Shirelles -- one of the great "girl groups" of the '60s -- can be heard here). Watch, listen, and see if The Mamas and The Papas don't take you back to happier (and hippier) times.

And, because I have a joke for just about every topic (no matter how tasteless):

Remember, if Mama Cass and Karen Carpenter had just shared that ham sandwich, they might both still be alive today!

(For those who don't know, Karen Carpenter was anorexic, and essentially starved herself to death; Cass Elliot choked to death on a ham sandwich.)

ST