Charlotte McCaffrey was the guitarist in a band called The Eyes when a punk with purple hair, ripped stockings and dressed in a garbage bag invited her to join an all-female music group. She did, even though none of her new bandmates knew how to play their instruments. They came a long way, however ,and McCaffrey wrote some big hits for her new band, The Go-Gos, including “Vacation,” “Head Over Heels,” and their first single (released in the UK, second in the US), “We Got the Beat.”

That’s McCaffrey to the left of the stage. She’s the introverted Go-Go who is a proud songwriter but doesn’t crave the spotlight.

Songfacts.com asked McCaffrey about writing “We Got the Beat” and she told them:

I thought it would be very clever to do “Going To A Go-Go.” I thought, Well, let’s try working this out as a cover song. Which is really funny when I think about it. I was listening to it a lot one day, and later that night, the song came to me within 5 minutes. I don’t even know if it has anything to do with listening to that song, but this whole idea came to me. It was one of those things that just went right through me and came out my hand; I wrote it down, recorded it a little bit, and then brought it into rehearsal a few days later.

Here’s Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “Going to a Go-Go”:

Familiar opening drum beat, no?

Some random facts about the single’s chart position: “We Got the Beat” stalled at #2 on the Billboard Charts behind Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock and Roll” (which she didn’t write). That same year, 1982, “We Got the Beat” was competing with the Rolling Stones’ version of “Going to a Go-Go” released as a single off the live album Still Life .

(I remember thinking the Stones looked old in 1982.)

So, I mentioned that “We Got the Beat” was both the first and second single from the Go-Gos. A version was released in the UK before being re-recorded and released again in the States. Here’s the audio from their UK release on Stiff Records (their label-mates included The Specials and Madness):

The sound quality is pretty different — the UK version is definitely flatter and the drums and guitars are muddier. The drums don’t start the song. The subsequent remix for US release in early 1982 is much cleaner and a bit faster.

The AV Club has a very good retrospective of Beauty and the Beat, the Go-gos’ first record. There’s a lot there about the sexism they faced as the first all girl band to write and record their own songs to make a #1 record, and the change from punk to pop. The article quotes the great rock critic and historian Greil Marcus who reviewed the album in Rolling Stone:

Beauty And The Beat sounds innocent mostly because we have learned to associate innocence with the sound of joy; if the album has a message, it’s that it takes toughness and nerve to make that sound.

More videos!

Early footage of the punk rock phenomenon that was The Go-Gos in 1979. Here they cover Josie Cotton’s terrific “Johnny Are You Queer?” in 75 seconds (it’s worth it to hear Cotton’s version so you can hear the lyrics).

The Go-Gos prove that, Yeah, they “still got it” from September 2012:

One woman (and a looper):

I’m only posting this as a sort of virtual milk-carton, can someone make sure that these kids were not performing under duress? Call home, children.

This is not the same song — it’s “Wipeout” — but the group is called We Got the Beat youth percussion and came up on my YouTube search and I was impressed:

The title “The Water Is Wide” and the modern lyrics date from 1906 when Cecil Sharp assimilated lyrics, probably from multiple sources, into the song.

As usual, we need to thank Pete Seeger for popularizing the song during the mid-20th century folk revival. Emmylou Harris and Teddy Thompson (son of Richard and Linda) performed the song at Seeger’s 90th birthday concert (they are backed up by Kate and Anna McGarrigle and Martha and Rufus Wainwright, among others).

The English composer Benjamin Britten, known for writing The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, wrote an arrangement for The Water is Wide for piano and voice (1948). Here he plays piano accompaniment for singer Peter Pears (Britten’s life partner).

Okay, so we’ve established some pedigree for “The Water Is Wide” and clearly it’s a beautiful melody. So beautiful, in fact, that composers and songwriters went to that well quite often. Strap on your seatbelts… here we go:

The British composer John Rutter’s Suite For Strings (1971) uses the melody in the 3rd movement

A number of Christian hymns borrow the melody, including “: “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “An Upper Room did our Lord Prepare,” “The Gift of Love,” and “Thou Gracious God, Whose Mercy Lends” (that last one sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir).

In 1963, The New Christy Minstrels released a familiar tune as “Last Farewell”:

Bob Dylan wrote “Lay Down Your Weary Tune” around a now familiar melody, performed here by The Byrds:

Similarly, U2 credits The Edge with the words and music to “Van Diemen’s Land” from 1988’s Rattle and Hum but, well…

And now, with feedback, Neil Young’s environmentally concerned “Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)” (the singing is quite nice once you get past the first minute of electric guitar):

In 1991, the French singer Renaud recorded “La ballade nord-irlandaise” (The Ballad of Northern Ireland”), introducing the tune widely to the francophone world.

Okay, back to “The Water Is Wide.” During the Lilith Fair concerts, Sarah MacLachlan, Jewel and the Indigo Girls collaborated on a version of the song:

Check out the a capella at 3:07

As someone (maybe) once said, “Good artists borrow; great artists steal.” Or maybe there are melodies that burrow into our heads and we can’t let go. If so, this seems to be one of them.

The Indigo Girls, Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, each write individually, although they have performed together since they were teenagers. Closer To Fine, their biggest early hit, was written by Saliers.

In an interview with the website Songfacts.com, she spoke about the song:

It is based on real experiences. I mean, all of my songs, they’re a combination of real experiences and what I observe through other peoples’ behavior and experience. So that song… I was with my family in Vermont, and we were sitting in this, like, rustic cabin, and I was sitting on a front porch and looking out into the trees, which, you know, whenever you’re such a bucolic setting, it can make you feel very philosophical. So that’s how I was feeling. And that song is about not beating yourself up too hard to get your answer from one place. There’s no panacea, that in order to be balanced or feel closer to fine it’s okay to draw from this or to draw from that, to draw from a bunch of different sources. So it’s about being confused but looking for the answers, and in the end knowing that you’re going to be fine. No seeking just one definitive answer.

I remember in high school one of my teachers had a poster of Rasputin on his door. You know, and his pictures just looked so bizarre to me, and always struck me. And I sort of put those images together, and it was sort of a poke at academia and the way it can sometimes be removed from reality. So I was saying I don’t think this professor has the right to judge me in terms of real life, when we’re caught up in this insular, sort of strange academic world. So that was sort of a comment about that.

Amy and I used to be a bar band, and we would play ’til 3 a.m. like every night. So practically… for 13 nights in a row. Three sets, finishing at 3 a.m., so I had some early experiences at bars at 3 a.m., certainly.

The Indigo Girls were nominated for a best new artist Grammy following the release of their self-titled, second album which contained “Closer to Fine.” They lost that Grammy to… guesses? Milli Vanilli. Harsh.

Their recording of the song featured members of the Irish band Hothouse Flowers (on mandolin, tin whistle, bodhran and backing vocals). You might remember Hothouse Flowers’ song “Don’t Go”:

The song also featured backing vocals from Luka Bloom (Christy Moore’s younger brother), a great songwriter and performer in his own right.

The Girls must have been in some sort of Irish phase.

I learned how to play guitar around the time “Closer To Fine” came out and it was one of those songs that people passed along because the chords are just a little bit different from standard but if you master them, you sound just like the record. (Or so we told ourselves.)

In particular, this was a moment when the C9 chord was huge. Learn this chord and it seemed like you could play a whole bunch of songs.

Just on acoustic guitar, you hear C9 on “Closer To Fine” (1989) and Guns n Roses’ “Patience” (1989) and the same chord shape is used in Lyle Lovett’s “If I Had a Boat” (1987) and Oasis’ “Wonderwall” (1995).

On electric, you can hear it on “Welcome to the Jungle” (1987) (Izzy Stradlin’ must like this chord) and the GoGos’ “Head Over Heels (1984).

Once you master that C9 — and figure out the strumming pattern — “Closer To Fine” sounds great. There aren’t too many oddball covers of the song, but here’s a small selection of other versions:

“Closer To Fine” with male voices, from two guys from Sister Hazel

A punk version:

The Indigo Girls play “Closer To Fine” at every concert (fans might not go home until they do). They claim they are not tired of doing the song, in part because they invite their opening act, audience members or other guests to sing along so it’s always a little different.

So here’s… sigh… a version with ADA Claire Kincaid — I mean, actress (and former Toronto busker) Jill Hennesy:

For some reason Jill keeps giving the satan salute. Not sure if I like her more or less because of it.

First off, I have to protest the egregious punctuation in the song’s title. “Octopus’ Garden,” please!

Okay, now that I’m off that soapbox, what’s to say about this song?

The song is credited to Richard Starkey (aka Ringo Starr), and according to George Harrison this was only the second song Ringo ever wrote! In 1981, Ringo talked about writing the song:

I wrote “Octopus’s Garden” in Sardinia. Peter Sellers had lent us his yacht and we went out for the day… I stayed out on deck with the captain and we talked about octopuses. He told me that they hang out in their caves and they go around the seabed finding shiny stones and tin cans and bottles to put in front of their cave like a garden. I thought this was fabulous, because at the time I just wanted to be under the sea too. A couple of tokes later with the guitar – and we had Octopus’s Garden

Why did Ringo want to be “under the sea, too”? Well, he took the trip in the midst of the recording of the White Album, as he felt he needed a break from the fractious nature of the Beatles at the time. So bad feelings led to the a joyous experience and song. There’s probably a parable or koan in there.

In the film Let It Be, there is a scene where George is helping Ringo work out some chord changes, but Ringo is given full writing credit. George was one of Ringo’s biggest boosters, perhaps because they could relate to the long shadow cast by their band’s primary songwriters.

Back in 1969, George had this to say about his bandmate and his song:

Ringo gets bored playing the drums, and at home he plays a bit of piano, but he only knows about three chords. He knows about the same on guitar. I think it’s a really great song, because on the surface, it’s just like a daft kids’ song, but the lyrics are great. For me, you know, I find very deep meaning in the lyrics, which Ringo probably doesn’t see, but all the thing like ‘resting our head on the sea bed’ and ‘We’ll be warm beneath the storm’ which is really great, you know. Because it’s like this level is a storm, and if you get sort of deep in your consciousness, it’s very peaceful. So Ringo’s writing his cosmic songs without noticing.

Do octopi really make gardens? I’ve heard that they do, but I’ve never seen one. Apparently their homes are not decorated with shiny stones, but rather littered with the detritus of the mollusks that served as meals.

Don’t know anything else about the song but I have heard some amazing stories about octopi.

Here is a fascinating magazine story about establishing a relationship with an octopus at the New England Aquarium from Orion Magazine.

A volunteer at the NE Aquarium told us how smart the octopus is. At one point, the Aquarium was missing fish from its tanks and suspecting a thief, installed a nighttime videocamera. What the camera found was the octopus getting out of its own tank, and attacking and eating fish from other tanks before returning home!

The animals are so smart that to stimulate them, they encase their meals in multiple locked boxes, forcing the octopi to solve puzzles to get to their food. (There’s more about this in that Orion article.)

The most amazing video (well, besides the octopus on land [love the Minnesotan accent at 1:19]) is the octopus vs. shark:

Any guesses as to what happens when a sea lion meets an octopus?

Wait, this is supposed to be a music blog. Sorry. Back to “Octopus’s Garden”:

Not the most effective mashup ever, but since we mentioned Blondie (back here), I thought I’d link to “Glass Octopus” (Heart of… , … Garden). The backing vocals at 1:38 are nice.

And here’s a link to a parody video with lyrics about Ringo wanting to contribute more to the band.

I had no idea that The Tide is High was not a Blondie original. The song was written by John Holt, but who is John Holt?

John Holt (b. 1947) is a Jamaican songwriter and former member of the band The Paragons. Here’s the Paragons’ hit from 1967, a song told from the point of view of a man pursuing a girl and featuring a great violin solo by “White Rum” Raymond, starting at 1:33.

The Paragons were a rocksteady group — rocksteady describing a pre-cursor to reggae that really only lasted from 1966 to 1968 and featuring soulful R&B type singing over a musical track that emphasized off beats. Reggae developed out of rocksteady but has more elaborate bass lines, electronic keyboard parts, and more percussive rhythm guitar. Here’s John Holt’s recording of Tide is High after he left the Paragons for a solo career (from around 1971-2).

Prominent, melodic bass, cleaner production, more electronic and less acoustic (bye bye violin) — this is reggae!

Ten years later, in 1980, Blondie, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein (also a romantic couple) recorded the Tide is High. In 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Harry is quoted: “I first heard ‘The Tide Is High’ on a compilation tape that someone had given me while we were in London. Chris (Stein) and I both fell in love with the song and decided it was too good to resist.”

Blondie is a quintessential New Wave band, but what that actually means is sort of up for grabs. New Wave began with a punk-sort of subculture, but then swallowed rap, reggae and other world musics, electronic music and disco to spew out pop hits from the late 1970s through the 1980s.

The Tide is High is Blondie’s take on Jamaican music (they had a rap song with Rapture and disco with Heart of Glass and Call Me). They added horns and strings and lots of percussion (according to Stein, this included “8 tracks of drum sticks tapping on a piano bench”).

They also apparently hired a director on drugs to make the video (crazed but sane enough to remain on the right side of The Empire of Copyright that is Lucasfilm):

Weird.

Okay, so you can’t keep a good song down (and we have to keep John Holt’s royalty checks flowing) so in 2002, Atomic Kitten, an oddly tanned trio of British women recorded The Tide is High (Get the Feeling). See what they did there? They added a bridge to get a little bit of that songwriting royalty money.

Pop in the early 21st century: processed guitar riff, lots of keyboards, and a passive, fun-loving version of sexuality that is in direct contrast to Deborah Harry’s aggressive growling. Someone should write a thesis about the evolution of feminine sexuality in pop music using these two tracks. Or, you could just watch The History of Wooing Men through pop music.

The Telegraph UK included Atomic Kitten’s Tide is High in a list of 5 worst cover songs ever.

Then in 2008, The Tide is High fully enters the hip-hop era as a backing track for rapper Kardinal Offishall on a track called Numba 1 (Tide is High). The music is totally reworked, emphasizing rhythm with the sung chorus being the only bit of melody left. While Keri Hilson sings the chorus vowing to be Numba 1 (perhaps even more passively than the Atomic Kittens), Kardinal Offishall raps about how he’s happy to have the girl as a “trophy piece” and she’s never going to be his wife. Canadian hip hop, represent, yo!

There are a ton more cover versions of this song, but I just wanted to highlight a few more just for giggles. Here’s Siw Inger singing in German, Die Zeit ist Reif (I can think of two decent pop songs in German and they are both about space technology. Coincidence or national character? You decide):

Rockin’ the pantsuit. If you ever imagined an alternate reality where Hilary Clinton was a Europop star, here is a window into that world.

(No space technology but a cardboard robot appears in the instrumental break.)

Okay, so by now you’ve figured that I’m not a big fan of Atomic Kitten, so I won’t post their Spanish version of the song. Instead here’s an acoustic cover by two women who call themselves Sundae Street:

This song is called Ser Tu Pasion. According to Google Translate, here are some sample lyrics:

It’s not what you do that it hurts more
Is that how you do the rest
I am not of those who
Always leave without further
Oh no

Be your passion are my obsession
Number one in your heart
Be your passion are my obsession
Number one in your heart
Heart (Your Heart)
Obsession

There’s another Spanish version with different lyrics called La Numero Uno. Here’s Nydia Rojas (who looks a bit like a young Linda Ronstadt) with La Numero Uno. I like the backing track which uses a lot of the melodic elements of the Blondie version but with a Mexi-Californian instrumentation and feel. I couldn’t find a transcription of the lyrics, but if you understand Spanish, which translation do you like more? Comment!

Finally, just to totally drive this song into the ground, here’s Lilian, a multi-hued alien who sings in English and… Vietnamese?

Okay, we’ve gotten a bit far off the beaten track here. A final quote, from Sean Lennon talking to Rolling Stone in 2006 about his dad, John Lennon:

“My father had an old Wurlitzer in the game room of our house on Long Island. It was filled with 45s, mostly Elvis and The Everly Brothers. The one modern song I remember him listening to was ‘The Tide Is High’ by Blondie, which he played constantly. When I hear that song, I see my father, unshaven, his hair pulled back into a ponytail, dancing to and fro in a worn-out pair of denim shorts, with me at his feet, trying my best to coordinate tiny limbs.”

Did you ever learn a new word and suddenly found that it was ubiquitous? Was the word “ubiquitous”?

Well, a few things have popped up that reminded me of the Newton Family Singers so I thought I’d point them out for people who want to look them over.

ITEM: Zadie Smith wrote about her epiphany with Joni Mitchell in a December issue of the New Yorker (subscription required). The reflections were less about Mitchell per se, and more abou how art can sneak up on you and overwhelm you for reasons that are beyond, well, reason. Smith describes being turned off by the Joni’s angular melodies and odd singing style and demanding her husband turn off the music on a road trip. On that trip, they stopped at Tintern Abbey and Smith found that Mitchell’s music had wormed its way into her brain and suddenly she was obsessed with it, and crying over it.

ITEM: Showtime is airing a documentary, “History of the Eagles,” in two parts this Friday and Saturday (Feb 15 & 16, 2013). The two main Eagles, Glenn Frey and Don Henley discuss their history in the New York Times. Will the film include a version of Seven Bridges Road? We can only hope. The trailer for the doc:

ITEM: The Grammys happened. I was busy watching Downton Abby. But I was happy that one of my favorite records of this past year was a nominee in the Folk Album category: Leaving Eden by the Carolina Chocolate Drops (cd/mp3). If you like beautiful voices singing in harmony, accompanied by banjo, guitar and mandolin, I recommend this highly. The album consists of originals and covers of traditional songs and the production is great. I’ve listened to previous Carolina Chocolate Drops albums, but this is the one that got me hooked and stayed in the cd player for a long time.

ITEM: Okay, there’s no real news here, but I’ve been totally obsessed with Gillian Welch’s song Hard Times and just need to share it with other people.

Watch Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings Play ‘Hard Times’ on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

(The sound is not so good on this amateur recording, but I had to include it for her introduction at 1:47 which reveals that Andy is a Gillian Welch-type banjo player.)

Okay, that’s it for a quick look backwards. Stay tuned for more news on the songs for the Spring Concert!

Both Sides Now by Jason Falkner:

BSN by Carly Rae (Call Me Maybe) Jepsen (radio appearance with acoustic guitar and mandolin accompaniment)

BSN by Carly Rae Jepsen, with phasing electronic dance music

All Canadian women are required to cover Joni Mitchell. Here’s the duo Dala:

Bing Crosby (with crazy jazz phrasing and angelic backup singers):

Here’s one of the most definitive versions, by Judy Collins:

Joni Mitchell herself, recently, with orchestral arrangement:

“Classic” Joni from 1968:

It’s clear that “Paradise” is about nostalgia for a small-town home, and the environmental degradation that makes “going home again” an impossibility. But is it poetic invention or a historic retelling?

One of the first songs John Prine ever performed on stage, “Paradise” tells the story of the town of Paradise in Muhlenberg County, KY. The town was torn down in 1967 by the Tennessee Valley Authority due to concerns about the toxicity of the Paradise Fossil Plant (a coal burning electric utility).

So while the area was definitely impacted by energy companies, the historic details don’t match exactly with the songs lyrics.

The Peabody Coal Company is a real company, however, and is now known as Peabody Energy, trading on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker BTU.

If you want a sense of what the area looks like, including the Green River and the abandoned old prison on Airdrie Hill, The John Prine Shrine has a photo essay that illustrate the lyrics:

http://www.jpshrine.org/picshow/paradise/paradise.html

The song has been covered by John Denver, John Fogerty, Dwight Yoakam and others. It’s worth listening to hear how different groups harmonize the the chorus.

My favorite is probably Jim and Jesse with an amazing keening high tenor harmony:

Here’s Johnny Cash:

There’s John Prine again, with Marty Stuart on mandolin and Vince Gill on guitar here, but I prefer 2010’s Bonnaroo concert, featuring a Prine encore where he’s joined by Kris Kristopherson.

Ruth’s background as a composer was helpful in transcribing many of the recordings collected by the Lomaxes and archived by the Library of Congress (and subsequently published by Smithsonian Folkways and now online). Her marriage to Charles produced four children — Pete’s half-siblings — including Peggy and Mike.

Peggy Seeger has been a folk-singer, songwriter, political activist and muse. She recorded (with her brother Mike) American Folk Songs for Children (1955) and wrote “I’m Gonna Be an Engineer.”

The Seeger family has always been left-leaning (Charles lost a job at UC Berkeley for opposing American involvement in the First World War — too liberal for Berkeley!). Peggy travelled to the Soviet Union and China before US had diplomatic relations with the Communist nations and ran into trouble with the US Dept of State. As a result, she ended up as an ex-pat in England where she met Ewan MacColl. They had three children together (although he was married to another at the time) and MacColl wrote a song about falling in love with her. You may remember Roberta Flack’s version of that song, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face:

Oh, also, one of MacColl’s daughters (not with Peggy) was Kirsty, the awesome singer and songwriter who sang on The Pogues’ most excellent Christmas song: “Fairytale of New York,” (produced by Kirsty MacColl’s husband at the time, Steve Lillywhite [who also produced an album called "Boy" for some Irish band {who came here expecting a U2 reference? Not me}]). She also recorded Electric Landlady, which not only has the best title for an album ever (probably suggested by Johnny Marr of the Smiths), but also includes the song “In These Shoes?”

Okay, so Kirsty MacColl is Pete Seeger’s half-sister’s lover’s daughter.

Back to the Seegers.

Peggy’s brother Mike Seeger (Pete’s half-brother) was an accomplished folk musician who formed a trio called the New Lost City Ramblers, an important band that produced a more old-timey sound, more historical and not as polished as his half-brother’s band The Weavers. Here’s an NPR story on the 50th anniversary of the New Lost City Ramblers. It’s not hard to draw a direct line from Mike Seeger to events like the annual Lowell Banjo and Fiddle Festival.

The latest folk-singing Seeger to gain some prominence is Tao Seeger, the grandson of Pete and his wife Toshi. Here’s Tao singing one of his grandfather’s songs:

He also performed with his grandfather, Bruce Springsteen and a few other folks at President Obama’s inauguration:

Tao records in Spanish and English and has performed with The Mammals, as well as with Sarah Guthrie. But her family is a tale for another day.