And Ian Gillan of Deep Purple fame was Jesus on the original album.
Actually, as she was with James Taylor when she wrote it, if I had to bet, my money would be on him.
(And if I’m right, that would make me the fifth person who knows) 
Judy Collins’s godfather was her father’s best friend, Holden Bowler. He served in the Navy with Jerome David Salinger, who used his first name for the protagonist of Catcher in the Rye.
Joan Baez’s sister Mimi was married to folk singer Richard Farina, who became best friends at Columbia Univeristy with Thomas Pynchon, and wrote a song called “V” after Pychon’s first book.
It’s odd that America’s two most reclusive authors have ties to female folk singers.
I was going to add news of his death until I looked it up…he’s still alive! I thought I heard years ago that he died of AIDS.
Sounds like we’re both right. The title was inspired by the dish, but the song is about the dog.
Speaking of “Who Are You” it mentions Myrtle Beach SC in the line “I know there’s a place you walked where love falls from the trees” That line is about the Meher Baba center in Myrtle Beach. Not many people know that big beach resort has a center for an obscure religion.
Speaking of which, that is the Baba of “Baba O’Reilly”. Mr. Townshend is quite the devotee.
So is In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel.
Guess she had a thing for musicians.
Yep, and I, and I’m sure you, both went :smack: over forgetting to mention that Donovan is the second voice on Billion Dollar Babies!
Perhaps a little less known is that Silverstein based the song on his friend (Mr.) Jean Shepherd, radio raconteur, TV personality, author, and screenwriter of A Christmas Story.
Shepherd was named for his father, Jean, who was himself named after the character Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.
The narrator’s line in the movie, “Aunt Clara had for years labored under the delusion that I was not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl,” makes more sense in the context of the author’s name, rather than the character’s (Raphie).
I guess it’s not really little-known, but I have no idea how “YMCA” became popular, being about promiscuous gay sex and all.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Carly has always been coy or vague about the subject of “You’re So Vain,” sometimes saying it was a composite character, sometimes saying, “There’s nothing in it that isn’t true of Warren Beatty,” sometimes saying it was pure fiction, sometimes indicating that it WAS about a real person but that she’d never tell who.
Well, I saw Carly Simon on Michael Eisner’s talk show a few months back, and she spelled out for the first time (well, the first time I ever heard) exactly how “You’re So Vain” came to be. And IF she was telling the truth, the song really WASN’T about any one person, because she didn’t write it all at once.
She said she’s long been in the habit of carrying around a notebook with her, to jot down any lyrical or melody ideas that strike her. She came up with the line, “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you” and jotted it down, thinking it was very clever, and that maybe she could find a song to use that line in. She said she came up with the melody and some other verses over the course of about a year.
The lyrics of the first verse (surprisingly) pertained to husband James Taylor! Even though Taylor is not the kind of Warren Beatty-ish swinger the song conjures up, there was apparently an evening when Taylor was feeling rather handsome and cocky before a party they were planning to attend, and she was teasing him for being so full of himself that night.
It’s not as if Carly sat down one afternoon and quickly hammered out a vicious song about Warren Beatty (whom she DID date) or any other specific individual. She STARTED with a clever line, gradually pieced together some verses, and after months of work, ended up with a song that fit together so perfectly, it SEEMED to be a portrait of a specific sleazy individual.
Down In Palisades Park was written by Chuck Barris of Gong Show fame.
The Christmas song “Do you hear what I hear?” is a peace song written after the writer was freaked out by the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Filter’s song “Hey Man Nice Shot” was a reference to Budd Dwyer, the Pennsylvania politician who shot himself on live TV at a press conference.
During “Hey Jude”, towards the end, you can hear John Lennon clearly say “I need to go to the bathrooom.”
This thread needs to be resurrected…
Well I’ve paid all the dues I’m gonna pay
And I learned the truth from Lenny Bruce
That all my wealth won’t by me health
And so I smoke a pint of tea each day…
Police officers in donut shops rarely walk like Egyptians. Fact.
Anyone know why Fat Charlie the Archangel sloped into the room?
Not about a song, but a musician: The drummer for the Jefferson Airplane, Spencer Dryden, was a nephew of Charlie Chaplin: his father was Chaplin’s half-brother.
For the David Bowie single Blue Jean an extended promotional video was made. Indeed you had a 21 minute short movie Jazzin’ For Blue Jean and a smaller portion of that became the promotional video for the song.
The promotional video has Bowie as a singer and also as a man on a date who has taken his girl to watch Bowie.
Now FINALLY I get to the little known fact. Portraying the bass player in Bowie’s backing band is Richard Fairbrass from Right Said Fred. He didn’t actually play on the recording though.
Blue Jean video
Right Said Fred’s biggest hit I’m Too Sexy
TCMF-2L
The song “A Horse with No Name” by America was written at the home of musician Arthur Brown (of “Fire” fame), near Puddletown, Dorset, England.
Hey, no one said it had to be interesting !