speaking of "ball of fire," can someone tell me what the first line is? i hear "scarlet hovering my head," which makes no grammatical sense whatsoever but kind of does make sense with the rest of the song (which, by the way, makes for a fairly excellent 9/11 song!). is there some word or piece of syntax that i'm missing in there?
― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:28 (sixteen years ago) link
according to songmeanings.net you're right
― Curt1s Stephens, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:31 (sixteen years ago) link
excellent. that's confirmation enough for me!
― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:33 (sixteen years ago) link
i've had a tommy james 2cd comp for a while, but never really listened to 'Draggin' the Line' before, which is my new favourite song.
another two that aren't mentioned above but are really wonderful are 'She' and 'Loved One'
― derrrick, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:23 (sixteen years ago) link
Fucking Mirage!
― PappaWheelie V, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:44 (sixteen years ago) link
I have a hard time saying anything bad about TJ&Shondelles. In fact, the later into their catalog, the better, yeah...
― dell, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Cellophane Symphony ('69) has way good moments going on
― dell, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:50 (sixteen years ago) link
"Evergreen" from that record is a psychedelic sloe-jam of sorts, while "Making Good Time" is something that should have been covered by Elvis circa '75. It just has that kinda vibe. Vaguely swamprock, and name-checking different cities and stuff.
― dell, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh, yes. Yes. "Loved One" is...yeah. If you like "Tighter, Tighter", then...
― dell, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Dude was a GREAT singer. Maybe still so now, dunno. Can anyone report?
saw him in coney island this summer and he was kinda great. he was headlining a straight-up oldies bill, and the average age of the crowd was easily over 50. first up, johnny maestro and the brooklyn bridge ("worst that could happen") did their name proud with some nice singing over pedestrian bar-band arrangements. next up, jay black simply can't sing anymore -- i mean, really really really has no vocal skills whatsoever -- and he knows it and he spent 70 percent of his stage time telling stories and cracking jokes, which he's damn good at. dude is hilarious. he too had the pedestrian bar-band oldies lounge thing behind him. then they cleared the stage for tommy & the shondells, who came out with marshall stacks, leather pants, long hair, etc., and who were a mix of old guys and one or two young ringers who look like they play in wooden shjips in their spare time. they turned up the volume from roughly three to roughly 12, scared more than a few 60- and 70-year-olds out of the venue, sang every song you could legitimately expect to hear (i.e. most of their rhino anthology, including "mirage," "ball of fire" and other faves from this thread), and quite legimately rocked. when oasis tour the oldie circuit in 2035, i imagine they will sound similar, and i will be ok with that, though they won't be as good.
― fact checking cuz, Sunday, 30 December 2007 00:41 (sixteen years ago) link
so classic i can't even believe it.
― Emily Bjurnhjam, Sunday, 30 December 2007 00:48 (sixteen years ago) link
great story fcc, thanks.
― dell, Sunday, 30 December 2007 00:56 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, awesome story
― QuantumNoise, Sunday, 30 December 2007 02:14 (sixteen years ago) link
i wonder if Tommy knows about this whole garage/60s pop subculture? maybe he's been listening to little steven's show?
...although he should be legitimately pissed about not receiving the kind of lip service a lot of these retro bands pay to far inferior bands from the 60s.
― QuantumNoise, Sunday, 30 December 2007 02:16 (sixteen years ago) link
Anytime he wants to do a European tour, I'm there!
― Soukesian, Sunday, 30 December 2007 02:32 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, i found a fantastic 2005(or so?) version of Crystal Blue Persuasion on youtube. he's still awesome.
Mirage is great, as is Out Of The Blue.
― derrrick, Monday, 31 December 2007 08:27 (sixteen years ago) link
Tommy James in 2006
Crystal Blue Persuasion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m9d4IyCmIs
I Think We're Alone Now - not a great video, but you can tell he's still got it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzmmwsOjl7s
Crimson and Clover!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6444EeeQBiw
― derrrick, Monday, 31 December 2007 08:34 (sixteen years ago) link
look over yonder what do you see?
― andrew m., Wednesday, 30 July 2008 04:44 (fifteen years ago) link
just picked up travelin' from '70 on roulette. much goodness on here. bloody water, travelin', gotta get back to you.
"candy maker" is the jam!
― andrew m., Wednesday, 30 July 2008 04:47 (fifteen years ago) link
Read about fifty pages of his memoir Me, The Mob, And The Music and it's very good.
― Bali Eiffel Tower Hai (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Was he involved with the Mob?
― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:10 (thirteen years ago) link
You'll have to read the book ;)
― Bali Eiffel Tower Hai (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:15 (thirteen years ago) link
Let's put it this way: the very beginning of the book, the incident which prompts him to tell his story, is the death of Morris Levy. Do you know who that is?
― Bali Eiffel Tower Hai (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:16 (thirteen years ago) link
Ah, I see. I forgot they were on Roulette!
― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:18 (thirteen years ago) link
Morris Levy is such a colorful character, his cameo in Ahmet Ertegun's biography steals the show from the subject http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bkrev/hitmen-nyt.php
― Bali Eiffel Tower Hai (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 13:53 (thirteen years ago) link
"Meet the Comer" off of Christian of the World = vocal melody from Neil Young's "Helpless"
"bad vibrations everywhere..."
― dell (del), Monday, 16 August 2010 16:04 (thirteen years ago) link
Long CBC interview about the mob stuff:http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2011/02/11/tommy-james-the-mob-and-the-music/
― brio, Sunday, 13 February 2011 03:47 (thirteen years ago) link
uggest Ban PermalinkOne night when I was like 13, I was working on a poetry assignment for my Grade 8 english class, we had to assemble our own poetry anthology, meeting certain requirements, and only so many could be lyrics from songs, blah blah blah, this is not important, anyway, it was really late, like maybe 10 or something, or maybe later, because I was the only up in my house and I was working in the kitchen, but I called into the crappy radio station and requested "Crimson & Clover" and they played it, and maybe even put me on the air for like 5 seconds, I don't remember, but they definitely said my name. Which is an uncommon name. That's important to remember.Two years later, I meet this girl at a party. We talk for a while and finally feel friendly enought to tell each other our names. She looks at me and says "You're XXXXX? Did you ever request 'Crimson & Clover' on such-and-such FM? You're soooooo rad!"I got kissed with tongue for the first time that night.
― My Huckleberry Friend (Horace Mann), Friday, February 20, 2004 7:46 AM (6 years ago)
This is a fucking great story!
― Peter Pepsi (Abbbottt), Sunday, 13 February 2011 04:00 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp2u0sgwvPQ
― degrading the enemy narrative (_Rudipherous_), Saturday, 26 March 2011 20:02 (thirteen years ago) link
"ah dig snow and the rain and the bright sunshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine"
who is gonna groove to Tommy with me today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv3WB2loIA4
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 17:38 (ten years ago) link
I'm sure I've mentioned it, but how wild that three people had three huge hits with three covers of his songs in the '80s?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 14 January 2014 17:55 (ten years ago) link
miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 14 January 2014 17:56 (ten years ago) link
huggin a tree when you get near it
― andrew m., Tuesday, 14 January 2014 19:02 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax-guC_7XXs
― andrew m., Tuesday, 14 January 2014 19:03 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgUmBBN6Kj4
― andrew m., Tuesday, 14 January 2014 19:04 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unbR8vjy9cE
― andrew m., Tuesday, 14 January 2014 19:06 (ten years ago) link
Travelin' is a gold mine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah6iAzTBl9c
― andrew m., Tuesday, 14 January 2014 19:09 (ten years ago) link
trust each other in loveand we can't stop believing for a single day
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 3 April 2016 17:53 (eight years ago) link
Fun fact: "Crimson and Clover" is a rough mix. Tommy played it off-air for WLS (Chicago AM radio powerhouse) during an interview/promo spot. Unbeknownst to him, WLS recorded it. When he left the station and got in his limo, he turned on the radio and heard, "World exclusive from Tommy James and the Shondells!" and the rough mix of "Crimson." Because the station played it every 20 minutes (and because it was hugely influential in making hits), Tommy had to release it like that.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 3 April 2016 19:38 (eight years ago) link
Had no intention of seeing this (barely knew of its existence, to be honest), but now I think I will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saHzng8fxLs
― clemenza, Sunday, 17 April 2016 00:08 (eight years ago) link
got a freebie best of Tommy James CD, was kinda excited to play it. fired it up: uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggh it's a LIVE compilation from like, 2007. it says live on the spine but not on the cover, and only on the linernotes inside does it say in fine print
bleh
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 27 August 2017 21:24 (six years ago) link
ugh
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 28 August 2017 00:32 (six years ago) link
his albums on roulette are some of the best-sounding vinyl I own - Travelin' is a fantastic album
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 28 August 2017 00:36 (six years ago) link
Crimson and clover. Possibly the greatest song of all time
― mind how you go (Ross), Friday, 22 June 2018 19:09 (five years ago) link
Yes.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Friday, 22 June 2018 19:16 (five years ago) link
It's so good.
yeeaahh
― JoeStork, Friday, 22 June 2018 19:32 (five years ago) link
yep
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 22 June 2018 19:47 (five years ago) link