By Madeline Bocaro ©
HELLO!
My favorite first album track is Alice Cooper’s bombastic ‘Hello Hurray’ on Billion Dollar Babies in 1973. Let the show begin!
‘Hello Hooray’ (written by Rolf Kempf) was sung by Judy Collins live and on her 1968 album Who Knows Where the Time Goes. Alice Cooper has adapted it with different lyrics and different spelling of the title.
‘Ready as this audience’ that’s coming here to dream / loving every second, every movement, every scream”
That is how exciting rock concerts used to be – especially seeing the spectacular original Alice Cooper Group! We would hang on every word and movement – and it was a true spectacle! And those were the days when an album came with all kinds of goodies like panties inside a school desk (School’s Out) , gigantic billion dollar bills and a fold-out wallet jacket with Billion Dollar Babies!
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7U2vxb2gTY
Listen – Judy Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB0TtT6NVcA
Watch: Performed by the song’s composer Rolf Kempf:
In a similar vein, Cheap Trick start their 1977 album In Color with ‘Hello There’ asking if we’re ready to rock. It’s just short of two minutes long, yet explosive introduction to their amazing second album!
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKjs4qoSZ0c
Shonen Knife do the same (in tribute to Cheap Trick) with ‘Konnichiwa’ which is the same length as ‘Hello There’. It kicks off their Happy Hour album in 1998.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWBPDlhRU74
‘Hello Goodbye’ is a Paul McCartney song – a non-album Beatles single in 1967. It was included on the American release of Magical Mystery Tour. An innocuous song, typical of Paul.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywZqBGHDTlA
‘Hello, I Love You’ was a 1968 No. 1 hit by The Doors on their album Waiting For the Sun. The impulsive Jim Morrison falls in love without knowing someone’s name. He must scream ‘HELLO’ at the end of the song as the ‘queen of the angels’ ignores him. Even in their simplest songs, Jim manages some pure poetry;
Sidewalk crouches at her feet / Like a dog that begs for something sweet
Do you hope to make her see you fool ? / Do you hope to pluck this dusky jewel ?
(I wonder if this is where Iggy got the idea for The Stooges’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog”.)
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f1z-nHvt3c
‘Hello, this is Yoko.’ A track called ‘Telephone Piece’ ends Side Four of Yoko Ono’s album Fly (1971). A telephone rings six times, Yoko answers it and says ‘Hello, this is Yoko’. It is so cool that she voiced it in the language (and ringtone) of each country that the Fly album was released in; USA, UK and Japan. This track is sampled in Yoko’s song ‘Talking To The Universe” on her album Rising (1995). Telephone Piece then evolved into an interactive museum piece at her exhibitions. A telephone sits atop a pedestal in the middle of a Plexiglas maze (actually, her artwork called Amaze) with the instruction:
When the phone rings, Know that it’s me. Y.O.
Listen to all three versions here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60foC_3pPLg
(In the case of the UK version, the phone ring is different. On the Japanese vinyl, Yoko answers, “Moshi moshi, Yoko desu.”)
Read my full story about Telephone Piece
‘Hello New York’ is by Silverhead (1973) featuring singer Michael Des Barres (later of Detective) and Nigel Harrison (later of Blondie) on their second album Sixteen and Savaged. It’s a great song with an Alice Cooper Group feel to it,
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHoaBuoDXCo
‘Hello It’s Me’ was first recorded in 1968 by Todd Rundgren with his band The Nazz. He later re-recorded it as a solo artist, releasing it as a single from his 1968 album Something/Anything.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLeCB7Kn-VE
The Glam rock band Hello had a hit with their song ‘New York Groove’ in 1974. The song was written by Russ Ballard of the band Argent. It became an even bigger hit when it was covered by Ace Frehley of KISS on his 1978 solo album.
Listen – Hello: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zox2qo-wzb0
Ace Frehley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKdHy18rZcI
‘Hello Earth’ is on Hounds of Love (1985) by Kate Bush. It features a sample from a Georgian song ‘Tsintskaro’. The voice uttering, “It’s in the trees! It’s coming!” comes from a séance scene in the 1957 horror move Night of the Demon. Kate has said that the song is about “ …a person who is alone in the water for the night. It’s about their past, present and future coming to keep them awake, to stop them drowning, to stop them going to sleep until the morning comes.”
Hello earth /With just one hand held up high
I can blot you out / Out of sight
Peek-a-boo, / Peek-a-boo, little earth
David Bowie’s industrial techno ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ from his 1996 album Outside was co-written by Brian Eno. The Pet Shop Boys did a remix (with Bowie’s new vocal) incorporating cut-up lyrics from ‘Space Oddity in 1997. This song also has a lot of ‘Bye Byes’ in it, which segues into our Goodbye songs…
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heal8E-3Hh8
Watch Bowie perform ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ with The Foo Fighters on his 50th birthday:
GOODBYE
‘Go Now!’ by The Moody Blues was released in 1964 in the U.K. and in 1965 in the USA. the singer begs his love to leave before she sees him cry. It was previously recorded in 1964 by American singer Bessie Banks, but the British Invasion version usurped her success.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmYo0ZRpOgo
‘Here She Comes Now’ is on the second The Velvet Underground album, White Light / White Heat. I am still not sure if she ever comes.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds_LUEe23dM
Also from The Velvet Underground we have ‘There She Goes Again’ which appears on their first album (The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967). The intro borrows from Marvin Gaye’s ‘Hitch Hike’ (1962).
Listen (mono version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=124QxMlef4I
Listen – Marvin Gaye, ‘Hitch Hike’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmClweWITZQ
‘Goodbye’ was written by Paul McCartney (credited as Lennon/McCartney) for the lovely singer Mary Hopkin. It was released on The Beatles’ label, Apple Records in March 1969. Mary previously had a huge hit with ‘Those Were the Days’, also on Apple. Of all her songs, this one highlights her sweet voice the best. She married renowned record producer Tony Visconti in 1971. Listen to Paul’s pure vocal gorgeous home demo release on the Abbey Road 50th Anniversary edition in 2019.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q27u5YvgEdU
Paul McCartney’s home demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EIcqz-sjy4
Serge Gainsbourg released the single “Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais” (‘I just came to tell you that I’m Going’). He pretentiously includes the sound of a woman softly sobbing throughout the song. It has been performed by many others during tributes to Serge (listen to Marianne Faithfull below). Jarvis Cocker of Pulp recorded the song in 2006 for the album from Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited.
Listen -Serge Gainsbourg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN17XrPrHZM
Listen: – Marianne Faithfull Live on Serge Gainsbourg tv Special – Taratata:
Listen: Jarvis Cocker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JKJLlNKy5k
Although they began recording it album in 1973, The Rolling Stones’ album It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll’ was released in 1974 – just before guitarist Mick Taylor left the band. ‘Till The Next Goodbye’ is a beautiful ballad – but it is soooo funny the way Mick pronounces ‘elderberry waaaaane’ like a country bumpkin! The album cover painting was done by Guy Peellaert (whom David Bowie secretly nabbed to do his own 1974 Diamond Dogs album cover after seeing the artist’s work for the Stones). It’s based on the German photo below depicting Hitler and his troops descending a staircase surrounded by his minions. The Stones, in the same scenario are surrounded and feted by beautiful Grecian maidens. Jagger felt the need to pal around with Hitler’s cinematographer Leni Riefenstahl that year, creator of the iconic Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will.
Watch & Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS-pwTsmcnw
‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ was a hit for The Jackson 5 in 1971 with 12-year old Michael Jackson on lead vocals. The arrangement makes nice use of a xylophone. The song was disco-fied by Gloria Gaynor in 1974.
Listen – The Jackson 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvmqYZr0RFo
Gloria Gaynor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCSvNZWpXaM
‘Goodbye To Love’ was a huge hit for The Carpenters in 1972. Tony Peluso who plays the fuzz-guitar solo on ‘Goodbye To Love’ was interviewed for a PBS documentary on The Carpenters. This was the one of the first power ballads. Richard Carpenter said that they got letters from fans complaining that The Carpenters had sold out when that song became a big hit. I did not like The Carpenters at all (especially after they made a rude comment about Mott The Hoople!) but years later when Mick Ronson told me how much he liked them, I began to listen more closely. This is truly a great song.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jixeE8gkT-s
As the writer and arranger of many of Klaus Nomi’s songs, Kristian Hoffman told Scott Woody to replicate the guitar solo on this song on Nomi’s second album titled Simple Man in 1982.
Klaus Nomi ‘Simple Man’ – Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6AvbfXeN_g
My Klaus Nomi story: https://madelinex.com/2017/12/02/klaus/
The rockin’ glam ‘Gudby T’ Jane’ by Slade was on their third album Slayed? in 1972 – a big hit in the U.K. The band is notorious for spelling their song titles in a very weird way. A couple of their best tunes were made into American hits in the 1980s by Quiet Riot’ (‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ in 1983 and ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’ in 1984).
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HP6UblnU5Q
The Elton John song, ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ is the title track and single from his 1973 double album. Bernie Taupin has said that his lyrics are about being disillusioned by fame and high society, and about a crossroads in his relationship with Elton. Taupin grew up on a farm in England. He also loved the movie The Wizard of Oz – the first film he had ever seen as a child.
As a country boy now witnessing a completely different life of fame and fortune due to Elton John’s huge success, Taupin longs for his simple life on the farm. “I should have stayed on the farm / I should have listened to my old man.” For him, the future lies ‘beyond the yellow brick road’ – on a trip back to the simple life he once had. “So goodbye yellow brick road / Where the dogs of society howl / You can’t plant me in your penthouse / I’m going back to my plough…”
There is a theory that L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz books meant for the yellow brick road to represent the gold standard for U.S. currency. Oz. is the abbreviation of ‘ounce’, and the road is yellow/gold. The ruby slippers were originally silver in the Oz books. The Scarecrow character was to represent American farmers and their late 19th century plight.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgy6ANiEaY8
‘The Saturday Gigs’ was Mott The Hoople’s farewell song released in October 1974 with Mick Ronson on guitar (when Ariel Bender left the band). I ordered ‘The Saturday Gigs’ single as an import from England and was elated to receive it weeks later. But upon hearing the ‘goodbyes’ at the fadeout of the beautiful ballad – a lyrical tribute to their fans – I realized that the band was breaking up (they already had by the time I got the single) and I cried!! The record was a bit warped at the end, so the ‘goodbyes’ sounded even more eerily sad!! I was honored to attend their 2009 reunion gigs at Hammersmith, with ‘The Saturday Gigs’ performed as their final song, with the ‘Goodbyes’ echoing endlessly.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufG9WEaE1gc
My review of Mott The Hoople’s 2009 reunion gigs:
https://madelinex.com/2009/10/15/boogaloo-dudes-the-return-of-mott-the-hoople/
Also see my review of Mott The Hoople’s 2019 gig in NYC…
https://madelinex.com/2019/04/12/the-hoople-rock-nyc-april-10-2019/
At the end of every Def Leppard concert, singer Joe Elliott tells the cheering crowd, “Don’t you ever forget us, and we’ll never forget you!” (the words that Ian Hunter speaks over the farewell ending of ‘Saturday Gigs’).
See my Interview with Joe Elliott about Mott The Hoople:
‘Glad To See You Go’ is on The Ramones’ second album, Leave Home (1977). It’s about a guy who shoots his girlfriend and is glad to see her “go, go, go, go, goodbye.” Still, you can’t help enjoying this crazy song!
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuIHuOLcg38
‘Goodbye Girl’ by Squeeze appears on their 1979 debut album Cool For Cats. The singer meets a girl who absconds with all his stuff after a night at a motel.
(The Squeeze video for a different song on the album ‘Up the Junction’ was made in the kitchen at John and Yoko’s Ascot home Tittenhurst Park.)
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qwn3wHVVto
‘Up The Junction’ – Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=RQciegmLPAo
The fabulous ‘Goodbye To You’ by Scandal was a hit in 1982. It’s a fantastic pop song with a Farfisa organ solo and the vocals of Patti Smyth who went on to record solo albums. Patti was married to Richard Hell and to John McEnroe
Watch & Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_50-gOeBilc
‘Too Late For Goodbyes’ is a reggae pop tune on Julian Lennon’s debut album Valotte released in 1984. Julian is a wonderful solo artist, however the critics are always blinded by the legend of his father.
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQs1Ynq0rlk
Due to John Lennon’s tragic death, Yoko Ono has several Goodbye songs; ‘Goodbye Sadness’ is on her album released six months after John’s passing, Season of Glass (1981) – a work of beauty, sadness and healing. It is sometimes emotionally trying, but we become enveloped in its delicate aural mist. “My voice kept cracking while I recorded the songs. I finally thought maybe I shouldn’t put the album out. Then it occurred to me there were probably many people in the world whose voices were cracking for many reasons. I realized my songs were the songs of the desperate. It was all right to show myself as how I was.” – Yoko
See my full story about the album Season of Glass:
https://madelinex.com/2019/06/08/shattered-season-of-glass-yoko-ono/
‘Never Say Goodbye’ from Yoko’s album It’s Alright (I See Rainbows) in 1983 contains a sample of John’s screaming vocal from their Wedding Album (1969). Their young son Sean wakes Yoko from a nightmare. ‘Goodbye My Love’ is on John’s final album, released four years after his death by Yoko, titled Milk and Honey. The songs were from the 1980 Double Fantasy sessions of dialogue between John and Yoko. ‘There’s No Goodbye Between Us’ appears on her 2013 album ‘Take Me to the Land of Hell’. A rough version was released on Onobox (Rykodisc, 1992). This could be a beautiful love song about anybody, but obviously John has never left Yoko. Mellophones and backward piano loops bring a wonderful other-worldliness to the song.
Goodbye Sadness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRAl5Kqfy0g
Never Say Goodbye: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXkIwcICnk4
Goodbye My Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVAQSL8JzuI
There’s No Goodbye Between Us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOsPpnq2trU
The Jangly pop tune by The La’s from Liverpool – ‘There She Goes’ (1988) has the same stops and starts as The Velvet Underground’s ‘There She Goes Again’ borrowed from Marvin Gaye’s ‘Hitch Hike’ (see above)! The single sleeve is evocative of Roald Dahl’s Kiss Kiss book cover (1960). Dahl also wrote the story of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu2iv-vMKT8
See my ‘Playlists’ category
for more themed playlists.
https://madelinex.com/category/playlists/
Also see ‘About a Song’
(My stories about specific songs)
https://madelinex.com/category/about-a-song/
ALSO SEE:
A Chain of Songs
Orange Sunshine
Eat to the Beat
Main Menu:
Excellent – wonderful selections and pics. Very interesting bits about Oz aongst others, and good call on the ‘Dog that begs …’ leading into Wanna Be Your Dog … I think it’s a distinct possibility, knowing how in thrall Ig and Co were to The Doors … I think I’ve heard a different story with every interview regarding the Dog origin … That it was just part of Ann Arbor slang frinstance … One biggie tho, one line of Punk evolution is that the mighty THEM record a cover version of Big Joe Williams ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ (forgive me and beg your kind indulgence, i know you know all this, hear an old man tell his cockamamie stories), any way Van Morrison sounds like he sings ‘ I wanna be your dawg …’ and subsequently, everyone in Detroit was covering the THEM verison, and the MC5 and Amboy Jooks (who put it out as a super-heavy single (erm, I think – I am the original unreliable reporter)) sing ‘… I wanna be yo’ dawg’. The actual line, drawn from innumerable work songs and blues immemorial is ‘… another man done gone …’, Like, he escaped? Or worse? And then it becomes, in terms of wooing and so forth, your gentleman has up and gone away, may I take his place? Short version – rock progression as chinese whispers – you don’t refer to the sheet music, which has been transcribed wrongly by someone whose musical preference is more toward Mozart than Blind Willie McTell, you listen to the record and in the magic of crosspollination the ecstasy of error creeps in … This is one reason why rock as a culture might not be dead, but has cooled off like Lava turning into stone – we can study everything instantly and in high definition. When all you had of Iggy and the STooges was a one page condensation by Nick Kent and a few photos, and a three week wait for an import copy, the feeling of specialness and occasion goes through the roof, the imagination takes flight to fill in all the gaps and unanswered questions. I’m not suggesting that this is necessarily super-wonderful or that where we are at now is Lousy, or that swapping delusion for clear eyed accuracy is preferable. It’s always the best of times, the worst of times. Why, all the links and iages in the above article are simply an embarassment of riches. Just one half-functioning observers observatiosn, for what it’s worth … Note: it might be that Big Joe does sing I wan’ be yo’ dawg after all. Mike Bloomfield’s (very short) book Me and Big Joe is required reading – I think there’s a PDF on archive.org, if not, avoid the ridiculously expensive second hand sellers, and head for The Best Of High Times, ed. Ann Nocenti, which includes the text in near entirety. You got me on a roll (I know! Sorry.) – I want to follow ‘ … Dog’ thru’ the punk years and beyond – Ig’s red dog collar, which garnered Ed Sander’s opprobrium – Siouxsie Sioux’s piece of guerilla kink performance theatre leading a pal into a pub at lunchtime on the end of a dog lead – Shocking! for ’70s London, and no doubt a hoot for all concerned – was it an Iggy inspired jape? Osterberg later tried to seduce the delectable Sioux with a street corner serenade – I think, and this is strictly unfounded gossip – she remained aloof to Ig’s charms! She really was an Ice Queen! Swoon! The Jerks conclude their debut single with a plodding piss take of Dog. Hell and the Voidoids encore with it (did you see them perform it?). Iggy’s’77 bands knocked out superb versions, with the grace and power of Olympian athletes. Well, it’s my usual splurge of half truths, half forgotten anecdotes and inaccuracies of spurious origin – but that’s kind of Punk, the Pot Noodle version of which could be White kids inspired by the blues perform their own mangled reworkings, which eventually mutate in proximity to other influences and crawl off to live in Lofts, basements and crash pads of tehir very own. You know Gossamer out of the Bugs Bunny cartoons? Taht’s what they look like. Love On Ya!