Everyone knows the signature tune of Gladys Knight & The Pips, the huge 1973 hit (although it didn't make the UK charts until three years later) in which Gladys catches a late train back to Georgia to be with the man she loves, because she'd "rather live in his world than live without him in mine".
Not everyone knows that the song originally featured an entirely different destination, and mode of transportation.
And even if you did know that, did you know that Jim Weatherly wrote the song following a conversation with Farrah "Jill Munroe" Fawcett, shortly after she'd started dating Lee "Steve Austin / Colt Severs" Majors? It sounds like Farrah would have gone anywhere to be with Lee, even if it involved taking a midnight plane to Houston...
Since featuring Midnight Train To Georgia a few weeks back, I've been dipping into the Gladys Knight & The Pips back catalogue, which is where I came across this little ditty, one of the B-sides to Midnight Train (along with a largely superfluous - aren't they always - instrumental of the A-Side).
Window Raisin' Granny is, I'm guessing, semi-autobiographical, written by Gladys and her brother Merald Woodlow Knight, Jr. (Bubba), who I'm guessing takes lead vocals here. I can't find much background info on the interweb, but it makes me smile and very few things do these days. Hence it's a Positive Song...
Songwriter Jim Weatherly passed away earlier this month, aged 77. Having written songs for Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney, he worked predominantly in country music... yet his three biggest hits came in the soul arena, via Gladys Knight & The Pips: You're The Best Thing (That Ever Happened To Me), Neither One Of Us Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye... and this, undoubtedly his most famous composition...
A genuine soul classic.
The song was, however, originally recorded by Weatherly himself... with a different title... a different destination... and a different mode of transport.
Many years later, Jim would take a crack at the more famous version. Careful though, there are a couple of versions out there, and with all due respect, one of them sounds like bad karaoke. This would be the one to listen to.
For a proper re-interpretation, more true to Weatherly's original vision, here's Neil Diamond.
Yes, it's everything you'd expect from a Neil Diamond cover, but stripped back with that voice to the forefront. No, it's nowhere as good as Gladys... but you can't improve on perfection.
I had to use a spreadsheet to work out the winner yesterday, and I'm still not entirely sure I got it right. I think Lynchie just took it, ahead of a sterling performance from Chris, with Charity Chic coming in third, but only after being awarded bonus points for, as George put it, "showing off. Alyson, Rigid Digit*, George and Ramone666 hoovered up the rest.
(*By the way, if any of you haven't yet read Rigid Digit's latest post, I recommend you do so immediately... it struck a lot of chords with me.)
Thanks for once again proving his quiz has got plenty of Razzmatazz! Here are this week's answers...
10. What do football players say to the ref at the start of a match? Clan named ? loses an atom.
Finally finished watching Breaking Bad last week. Yeah, only ten years behind everybody else. This tune features heavily in one of the closing episodes.
3. Thankful when it gets dark and you can hear the Greenwich Time Signal even though you're on your way to see the satellites?
Tortuous clue that. When you're glad it's night, you can hear the pips from GMT, and you're taking the late train to see the Georgia Satellites?
Many, many years ago, when they had such things, my mum used to be a switchboard operator. The stories she could tell about the things she heard! Do we even still have operators? I can't imagine too many people dedicating a song to a pre-recorded "virtual switchboard". Press one for "the romance is dead".
Special mention to Operator Please, the band who recorded the amazing Just A Song About Ping Pong and The Operator by The Coral, which is actually about getting kidnapped and operated on by a bunch of psycho surgeons. Or something.
Ever fallen in love with a video you shouldn't have?
Wikipedia informs me that if you play the arcade game Dance Dance Revolution, you get to dance to this song... in an arcade. Glad I don't believe anything I read on wikipedia.
Dennis keeps trying to get through to Sylvia. Her mother just wants him to leave her alone. The operator keeps demanding "forty cents more" to continue the conversation "for the next three minutes".
1. Tom Waits - Martha
I almost gave this one to Dr. Hook, which would have been suitably anti-cool of me. But then I remembered this...
Operator, number please It´s been so many years And she´ll remember my old voice While I fight the tears Hello, hello there, is this Martha ? This is old Tom Frost And I am calling long distance Don´t worry ´bout the cost...
Tom Waits sounds like a weary old man on this recording. The scary / crazy thing is, he was 24 years old when it was released...
Those are the songs that get me calling the operator - but which one would be your hold music of choice?
