Boss Radio

The strange things you think about while you're driving... Yes, I know you're supposed to think about driving but I can't stop my brain from thinking whatever the heck it wants to, and today it suddenly found a connection between the following songs:

Louie Louie
Money
Wimoweh
Smokestack lightnin'

Having located this link it went on trying to think of other songs that also had this thing in common and it came up with 'Twist & shout' which I immediately disallowed. It nearly qualifies, but not quite. It then suggested 'Somewhere beyond the sea' and 'Mac the knife' which I promptly poured scorn upon, and then found myself wondering about the supplementary question, how does one 'mac' a knife?

I think I may have found new depths within the narrow confines of the term 'digression'.

So, you want to know the connection between the song that you've heard of and the one that you think you've heard of, plus the two that you haven't heard of although one of them sounds familiar?

For various reasons, although they are all much covered songs, none of them has been covered by a soundalike. The covers are all covers of a subsequent version of the song which changed it in some way. Except... OK, which of the songs doesn't this apply to and why is it still in the list? I'll tell you before you kill me, it's Smokestack lightnin', which for some reason is always played incorrectly by everyone.

Of the rest, all covers of Louie Louie since the release of the Kingsmen's cover, have been inspired by the Kingsmen's version, the original by Richard Berry & the Pharoes is long ago forgotten. The Kingsmen's version is now so all-encompassing that even Richard Berry himself took to singing their version of the song.

As for the song that launched Motown, 'Money' had an R&B piano/guitar riff in the background. When the Beatles covered the song they - deliberately or not - changed the riff to something similar but heavier, and every cover of the song since then has been based upon the Beatles cover. Some people even think they wrote the song.

Then there's poor old Solomon Linda who wrote one of the best selling African songs of all time. He died almost penniless having written the song which, for decades, was the song to feature in any movie, show, or documentary about Africa. It's title wasn't even Wimoweh, that's simply what it sounds like. The orignal title was 'M'bube'. When the Weavers covered the song they played it in compound time, the original was in simple time. Every version of the song since has followed the Weavers' rendition.

And so we return to Smokestack Lightnin'. For reasons that no one will probably ever be able to explain, when white blues players get ahold of the riff they play it where it sounds right, just after the first beat of the bar. On the original by Howlin' Wolf (And hey, he wrote it, he should know) the riff anticipates the start of the bar and actually comes in on the '4' of '1 - 2 - 3 - 4'.

I think I may deserve some kind of recognition from the R'n'R hall of fame for this...

But I suspect that all I'll get is more strange looks from the audience when I try to play these songs correctly.