"Won't Talk About It," by Billy Bragg

I don’t remember how I found out about Billy Bragg (perhaps listening to WORT, the community-based radio station in Madison, WI), but I was hooked forever once I did. How deep did my devotion run? As a very poor grad student, I used some Borders dollars to buy four (4!) Billy Bragg CDs at half price in what was surely my CD allotment for the year. (Yes, we bought CDs back then.) Billy Bragg doesn’t have the greatest voice, he doesn’t wield an axe in the manner of guitar legends, but his songs are earnest and powerful and simple. (Don't get me wrong, he's a great guitar player, but he's no Clapton or Whit Smith.) He carries on and furthers the tradition of protest/folk music (in fact, he's known equally for his politics as his music), while also singing about romantic themes in less-than-traditional ways.

Billy Bragg was in Milwaukee on September 9, 2010 for a concert at Turner Hall, about 10 years after I first heard his music, and I was there! Super concert, but even better rally! I left feeling as though I'd just attended a revival for secular humanism!
"Won't Talk About It" is from the album Brewing Up with Billy Bragg (1984). Unfortunately, even though I think this song is worthy of posting on Spoken Interludes, perhaps others don't agree with me as I can't find a version of it online to share. I came up with a lame amazon sample--that's it. Buy it to hear the whole thing!

Lame amazon.com link. It's track 13.

It’s another dead evening here
It’s already midnight and I’m still so awake
I see your lights are still on
I know you’re alone
His car isn’t there
Why don’t you come over
Is it because you’re afraid of what people will say
Stepping out with someone like me
I shouldn’t care about it if I was you
I’m not the only man in town
Honey, your secret’s safe with me
I won’t talk about it…

You know, I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately
Now is just the time for us
Just the time for us to get together
You and me
Just think of it
Alone
Doesn’t matter what people say, where you come from
Where I’ve lived
Just us together
It’s hard for you to see, but…
Your secret is safe with me
I won't talk about it...

Meat Loaf, "You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth"

Meat Loaf (aka Michael Lee Aday) has a long and very storied musical career spanning six decades. From his early career in the late 1960s with bands of various names including Meat Loaf Soul, Popcorn Blizzard, Floating Circus, and Stoney & Meatloaf (and touring with the likes of Janis Joplin, The Who, The Greatful Dead, Bob Seger, and Alice Cooper!). Meat Loaf joined the Los Angeles production of the musical Hair. In 1973, Mr. Loaf was also part of the stage production The Rocky Horror Show, which led to him being part of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Since going solo in 1977, he has toured essentially continuously.

Meat Loaf is an avid baseball fan and according to Wikipedia, is said to have cheated death on "numerous occasions".

Fun fact: Meat Loaf also recorded lead vocals on Ted Nugent's Free-for-All album in 1976.

"You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth" includes a great spoken prelude with a rather Twilight-esque conversation with a werewolf.

On a hot summer night.
Would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Will he offer me his mouth?
Yes
Will he offer me his teeth?
Yes
Wlll he offer me his jaws?
Yes
Will he offer me his hunger?
Yes
Again.
Will he offer me his hunger?
Yes
And will he starve without me?
Yes
And does he love me?
Yes
Yes
On a hot summer night.
Would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
Yes
I bet you say that to all the boys.

The Moody Blues, "Nights in White Satin (Late Lament)"

Released in 1967 by The Moody Blues, Nights in White Satin is purported to be a tale of unrequited love.

Breath deep
The gathering gloom
Watch lights fade
From every room
Bedsitter people
Look back and lament
Another day's useless
Energy spent

Impassioned lovers
Wrestle as one
Lonely man cries for love
And has none
New mother picks up
And suckles her son
Senior citizens
Wish they were young

Cold hearted orb
That rules the night
Removes the colours
From our sight
Red is gray and
Yellow white
But we decide
Which is right
And
Which is an Illusion

The Shangri-Las, "Leader of the Pack"

The Shangri-Las had their biggest hit with "Leader of the Pack," which reached number one on the Billboard charts in 1964. It's the first song I remember hearing about a girl who may or may not have been a "bad" girl; she went out with the leader of a motorcycle gang! Yes, she broke up with him at her parents' behest, but how did that turn out? Broken glass and roaring out-of-control engines, that's how! I'm afraid the lesson I learned from this song was simple: be a good girl, or...someone will die. Perhaps I was a rather malleable audience for the teen tragedy genre of the pop world.

"Leader of the Pack" is a double treat. Not only is the climax of the song rendered in the form of a short speech, but the introduction is a dialogue between members of The Shangri-Las to set up the dramatic action.

Intro:
Is she really going out with him?
Well, there she is. Let's ask her.
Betty, is that Jimmy's ring you're wearing?
Mm-hmm
Gee, it must be great riding with him.
Is he picking you up after school today?
Uh-uh
By the way, where'd you meet him?

Verse:
He sort of smiled and kissed me goodbye
The tears were beginning to show
As he drove away on that rainy night
I begged him to go slow
But whether he heard, I'll never know
Look out! Look out! Look out! Look out!

(Ugh. Who, besides me, wants to deck Robert Goulet?)

C.W. McCall, "Four Wheel Drive"

Bill Fries became an accidental overnight country sensation. Starting as a jingle writer at an ad agency in Omaha, Fries stumbled into a career in country music after writing songs for Metz Baking's Old Home Bread television commercials. Fries's ads became very popular in Iowa (and in fact, won a Clio award in 1974). These ads featured a hungry truck driver named C.W. McCall. Fries wrote more songs, adopted the C.W. McCall persona and began releasing records in the mid 1970s, eventually recording his most popular song and #1 hit, "Convoy" in 1976. Interesting fact: Chip Davis, later of Mannheim Steamroller, wrote music for Fries. Fries wrote his lyrics and sang on his records. Most songs meld well with the mid 1970s pop culture icons who drove truck, talked on CB radios, and had a penchant for avoiding Smokeys. From 1975's "Wolf creek Pass," here's an excerpt from a song sounding decidedly like chase music, thanks to the prominent banjo. 

Look out now, here he comes. Oh, we gonna get it on now. Don't hit that fella with the banjo. We gonna swim this here creek now, Smokey. Yard wide an' a foot deep. Nishnabotna river they call it. Might have to winch ya out. Don't do a wheelie on that there gopher mound now, Smokey. Can you dig it Smokey? Got four on the floor an' four in the air on that one, didn't we? Goodness gracious...likely bust my shocks...

The Ink Spots, "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire"

One song serves as the inspiration for this collection. I remember when I first heard it. I was housesitting and flipping through the CDs set out by the owners of the house for me to check out in the week they'd be gone. (They did that with movies, too. Thanks to them, I know about The More the Merrier with Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea. "Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead!") I listened to the Nat King Cole Trio that week, early stuff from before 1943. Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt played for me from the hot jazz clubs of Paris. But when the CD player moved to the third disc in the tray, the Ink Spots crooned and I swooned. This number gets me every time.

I don't want to set the world on fire, honey
I love you too much
I just want to start a great big flame down in your heart
You see, way down inside of me, darling
I have only one desire
And that one desire is you
And I know nobody else ain't gonna do

The White Stripes, "Little Acorns"

Less of a spoken interlude and more of a spoken prelude, The White Stripes featured this paragraph of spoken text on their Grammy-winning album, Elephant. Seemingly, the text is narrated by a 1960s elementary school science filmstrip narrator.

When problems overwhelm us and sadness smothers us where do we find the will and the courage to continue? Well the answer may come in the caring voice of a friend, a chance encounter with a book, or from a personal faith.For Janet help came from her faith, but it also from a squirrel. Shortly after her divorce, Janet lost her father, then she lost her job.She had mounting money problems. But Janet not only survived, she worked her way out of despondency and now she says, life is good again. How could this happen? She told me that late one autumn day, when she was at her lowest she watched a squirrel storing up nuts for the winter. One at a time he would take them to the nest. And she thought, if that squirrel can take care of himself with the harsh winter coming on, so can I. Once I ripped my problems into small pieces I was able to carry them, just like those acorns, one at a time.

The Highwaymen, "The Last Cowboy Song"

The Highwaymen was an "outlaw country" group comprised of four country music legends: Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson. Most of their work consisted of covers of already popular songs. Released in 1985, "The Last Cowboy Song" was a cover of a 1980 work by William Edwin "Ed" Bruce, Jr., better known as Ed Bruce.

The old Chisholm Trail is covered in concrete
They truck it to market in fifty foot rigs
They roll by his marker and don't even notice
Like living and dying was all he ever did

Donovan, "Atlantis"

Donovan is a Scottish singer/songwriter and a folk contemporary of Bob Dylan. "Atlantis" was released in 1968 and includes the word antediluvian.

The continent of Atlantis was an island
which lay before the great flood
in the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean.
So great an area of land, that from her western shores
those beautiful sailors journeyed
to the South and the North Americas with ease,
in their ships with painted sails.
To the East Africa was a neighbour, across a short strait of sea miles.
The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of The Atlantian culture.
The antediluvian kings colonised the world
All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas
In all legends from all lands were from fair Atlantis.
Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships to all corners of the Earth.
On board were the Twelve:
The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,
The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.
Though Gods they were -
And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind
Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new
Hail Atlantis!

Lee Fields and the Expressions, "You're the Kind of Girl"

Lee Fields started his professional singing career in 1967 at the age of 17. He showed up in New York City with a stranger's business card in hand and two dollars in his pocket, and hasn't stopped since. "You're the Kind of Girl" is included on Faithful Man, released in 2012.

I call you just to let you know
That's it's you I adore
And since you walked in my life
My life means so much more

More here, here, and here.

Scissor Sisters, "Any Which Way"

Ana Matronic is a lead singer of the Scissor Sisters, an American glam rock/disco/pop band formed in 2001. "Any Which Way" was released in September 2010.

You know, baby, when I was taking my pantyhose out of their egg this evening, I thought, "I'm gonna find that man who is the right shade of bottle tan, a man that smells like cocoa butter and cash..."

Jack Scott, "My True Love"

Jack Scott is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter who had his first major hit in 1958 with a double-sided recording: "Leroy" and "My True Love."

Darling, I love you
I'll always be true
My prayers, they were answered
And the Lord sent me you