Celebrity Jukebox #80: Faron Young

I've made the argument before that certain celebrities are better known (in certain circles, at least) for the song that's named after them than for their own individual renown. I certainly discovered Faron Young through a song that took his name... though his fame (and notoriety) influenced many others, including Peanuts creator Charles Schultz who gave the name Faron to a cat in his long-running comic strip.

Iffypedia (and a number of other websites that have lifted their info straight off iffypedia) reports that: "A country song by Tex Garrison mentions Faron Young in his opening lyrics with the lines 'Got a stack of records when I was one, listened to Hank Williams and Faron Young.'" This, however, appears to be a good example of why we shouldn't believe everything we read on the interweb, since I can't find any other reference to that lyric... or the singer Tex Garrison... anywhere online. It appears to be a load of bunkum... unless you know differently.

Because country musicians love name-checking the great and good of their community, there are loads of records that do mention Faron... alongside the likes of Willie, Waylon and the rest. Here are a few examples...

Johnny Cash - Let There Be Country

Red Sovine - Freightliner Fever

Dale Watson - Nashville Rash

Tim Wilson - Acid Country

Jay Lee Webb - Tootsie's Wall

Then there's a couple than are a little more specific...

WD Miller - Barroom For A Shelter

They got a jukebox and a bar that's full of drinkers
But Faron Young's the only voice I hear
If misery loves company then why do I feel so lonely
With a broken heart as a souvenir

Summer Dean - Queen of the Clowns

The jukebox played Faron
And she started to think
If Faron Young were here
He would buy me a drink

Next, we have the Bottle Rockets, with a song all about choices...

Sometimes open sometimes closed
Sometimes young sometimes old
Sometimes begging sometimes proud

However, when they get to Faron... there doesn't appear to be any alternative.

Sometimes Faron... Faron Young.

The Bottle Rockets - Sometimes Found

But if country music isn't your thing... well, if country music isn't your thing then you're probably not reading this. Still, here's the modestly monikered One Star...

One Star - Astrolama (Faron Young Mix)

And now, the one you've all been waiting for: Paddy. But is Paddy a fan, that's the question? Well, clearly he's a country music fan, since the name "Prefab Sprout" came from mishearing the lyrics to Jackson: he really should have called his band "Peppered Sprout". But the song Faron Young isn't really about Faron. It's more about his biggest hit, Four In The Morning, and how things like that can become so ubiquitous they lose their original intent. In the song, Paddy is driving through America looking for something real, something new, something he's never experienced before... but all he finds are the clichés.

You offer infrared instead of sun
You offer bubble gum
You give me Faron Young, 
Four in the morning

Initially, Paddy had written the tune but didn't have a lyric. He asked the band's drummer, Michael Salmon, to give him a word to base the song on, and Salmon suggest "antiques". Which is why the lyric begins thus...

Antiques!
Every other sentiment's an antique
As obsolete as warships in the Baltic

Four In The Morning was a hit from 1971, yet it was still everywhere in the mid-80s... it was the first music video played on Country Music Television in 1983. So I guess it was an antique by then, and a perfect metaphor for what Paddy was saying. Perhaps Faron Young felt the same. By 1996, he felt so abandoned by the world of country music that he took his own life. 

Faron Young had the lowest chart placing of any of the singles released from Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen album. But it's still a classic.

Postscript...

In 2016, The Blazing Zoos finally gave Four In The Morning the sequel it deserves...

It's four in the morning and I'm listening to Four In The Morning
Faron Young never sung anything quite like he sung this one
Don't string her along, Don't treat her wrong
Guilt pays you back in the end

You can see I'm past caring
Please tell me, Faron
Why am I still up at five?

The Blazing Zoos - Still Up At Five

My Top Ten Songs About Songwriting

In a much-requested sequel to last week's post on Songwriters, here's ten songs about "the process"...


10. Jeffrey Lewis - Songs About Songwriting Suck

Let's start with a tune that rules this whole Top Ten insignficant.

There's nothing wrong with singing songs about being low and blue
Just don't feed me crap about how you know you're saying nothing new
Either have the confidence to tell me something real or something fun
Or put down the guitar until the muse returns to turn you on

I agree with him in principal, but if we followed Jeffrey's Law, the world would never have heard the nine gems below...

9. Barry Manilow - I Write The Songs

Deano suggested this last week, although he went for a cooler cover. But I'm not ashamed to say there are Barry Manilow records in my collection, or that I enjoy getting them out from time to time. On first listen, the idea that "I write the songs that make the whole world sing" seems a little arrogant. Until you realise that old Manly Barrimore (copyright Terry Wogan, 1981) isn't staking this claim for himself. Oh, no: this record is written from the perspective of Music itself.

I've been alive forever
And I wrote the very first song
I put the words and the melodies together
I am music and I write the songs

Beat that, Sting!

8. Eels - I Write The B-Sides

Which brings us to E's gloriously self-deprecating riposte to the Bazzer Boogie...

I write the b-sides
That make a small portion of the world cry
I like the seaside
And singing songs that make you not wanna die

Wonderful stuff.

7. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Wrote A Song For Everyone

A common theme in John Fogerty's songwriting was protesting against the Vietnam War draft, and this one starts in similar vein. The twist in the chorus is rather sweet though, taking us from protest anthem to ballad, as Fogerty admits he can write a song for everyone... but he can't write one for you.

6. Justin Currie - Every Song's The Same

Ah, heartbreaking cynicism, thy name is Currie. Here's your basic songwriting lesson from JC... the second line should rhyme with something in your baby's heart.

5. The Blazing Zoos - I Didn't Have The Material (Before Now)

Phew. For a second I thought the internet was going to let me down. Youtube hadn't heard of it, but fortunately I was able to locate Andrew Mueller's twanging comic-country genius on Soundcloud. If you've never heard The Blazing Zoos before - and I'd be surprised if you had - give this one a spin, please, and hear Mueller tear strips off the woman who gave him everything he needed to pen this tune...

Always wanted to write a country song
But  never had a girl who did me wrong
I didn't have the material... before now!

4. Art Brut - Formed A Band

This one will surely make its way into my inevitable Top Ten Songs About Being In A Band, when I get round to that, and you might think it'd be more appropriate there. Except for the wonderment of verse 2...

I want to be the boy -
The man -
Who writes the song
That makes Israel and Palestine
Get along
I'm gonna write a song
As universal as Happy Birthday
That's gonna make sure
That everybody knows
That everything's gonna be OK
I'm gonna take that song
And we're gonna play it
Eight weeks in a row on Top of the Pops

Eddie Argos hasn't been the same since they cancelled TOTP.

(And, yes, that is his singing voice. It's not irony. It's not rock 'n' roll. He's just talking to the kids.)

3. Harry Chapin - There Was Only One Choice

At almost 14 minutes in length, this is a masterclass in songwriting from one of the best in the business. An autobiographical rage against the machine-cum-sage lesson in life, it's epic in every way.

Strum your guitar -- sing it kid
Just write about your feelings -- not the things you never did

2. Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In The Dark

The story has become legend. Bruce had written the majority of the songs for the album that would become Born In The USA, but (to quote Tom Petty), "The A&R man says he don't hear a single." And so he was tasked with writing a radio hit... and the ensuing struggle with writers' block is chronicled metaphorically in the lyrics to Dancing In The Dark.

I get up in the evening
And I ain't got nothing to say
I come home in the morning
I go to bed feeling the same way
I ain't nothing but tired
Man I'm just tired and bored with myself
Hey there baby, I could use just a little help
You can't start a fire
You can't start a fire without a spark
This gun's for hire
Even if we're just dancing in the dark

The irony, of course, is that he almost did his job too well, creating his biggest ever radio hit... and launching Courtney Cox's career in the video to boot. But the album had plenty more singles to come...

1. The Beautiful South - Song For Whoever 

Songwriter Paul Heaton had me from that inspired opening...

I love you from the bottom of my pencil case

...but by the time Dave Hemingway hits the line about loving you because of the "PRS cheques that you bring", it became clear that nobody had ever written a love song about the fringe benefits of writing a love song before... even if they couldn't remember exactly which girl they wrote this one for.

Deep, so deep
The Number One I hope to reap
Depends upon the tears you weep
So cry, lover, cry

Oh Cathy, oh Alison
Oh Philippa, oh Sue
You made me so much money
I wrote this song for you...

See also Throw His Song Away, Prettiest Eyes, One Last Love Song, My Book... and many more. In fact, Heato's probably written more songs about songwriting than any other lyricist (since, credit where it's due, the music was mostly written by Dave Rotheray). And, no, Jeffrey Lewis, none of them suck.


So... those were my favourite songs about songwriting. Which one do you love from the bottom of your pencil case?

My Top Ten Time Travel Songs

Okay. Time circuit's on. Flux capacitor... fluxing. Engine running. All right!


10. Death In Vegas - Silver Time Machine

No, they didn't steal this from David Essex.

9. Busted - Year 3000

I like to think this blog will boldly go where other music blogs never go... Busted!

I've been to the year 3000
Not much has changed but they live underwater
And your great-great-great-great granddaughter is pretty fine...

Busted, of course, went on to spawn McFly... so extra marks for that, at least.

8. Uriah Heap - Traveller In Time

From an album called Demons & Wizards. You've got to love the 70s.

7. Grand Funk Railroad - Time Machine

Don't worry about tomorrow,
I'm gonna love you tonight

You old smoothie, you, Mr. Grand Funk.

6. Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time

Looking for a definition of the phrase "phallic imagery"? Look no further...

Also, you know that nightmare you have where you leave the house without your trousers and everyone is staring and pointing at you and eventually you get chased by a load of sailors...?

5. Robyn - Time Machine

Robyn's DeLorean needs only go in one direction. (And that will be the only time you hear those two words used together on this blog.)

4. The Blazing Zoos - Anywhere But Here

Today's the worst day of Andrew Mueller's life... except for yesterday. And he's not overly optimistic about tomorrow. His solution is to call up every science lab in town, looking for a time machine that he can borrow. You get the idea...

3. The Rocky Horror Picture Show Cast - The Time Warp

It's just a jump to the left.

2. Frank Turner - Time Machine

From the amazing new album, Tape Deck Heart... though you have to buy the Deluxe Edition to get this doozy...

I’m a gonna build myself a time machine
On particle physics and the power of steam
It runs on diesel oil and Donnie Darko daydreams...

Packed up, sat in my DeLorean
Like some kind of amateur historian
I’ll visit the Renaissance and the Romans, the Victorians
Drinking in Deadwood in the 1880s
Rock 'n roll and drive-thrus in the 1950s
Trying not to change things so the plot lines don’t get shifty...

1. Huey Lewis & The News - Back In Time 

Often overshadowed by that other Huey song from Back To The Future, this is the lesser-remembered track that plays out over the end credits. And if that sax intro doesn't take you back in time to 1985, 1.21 gigawatts isn't going to help you...

Tell me, doctor, where are we going this time
Is it the 50s - or 1999?

Ah, yes, remember when 1999 was in the distant future? 



Great Scott! Comments? Where we're going, we don't need comments...

But they're always appreciated.