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Night Time Is the Right Time
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Hello, family, friends, E Street Nation, night creepers, day sleepers, fans from coast to coast and around the world, welcome to Volume 24 of "From My Home to Yours", titled "The Night Time Is the Right Time".
We started off with yours truly and the E Street Band on the "Night", and then the genius of Ray Charles on "(The Night Time Is) The Right Time". Here's Chrissie Hynde with The Pretenders, "(I've Got the) Night in My Veins".
That was "Night Train to Memphis", by Roy Acuff. Roy Acuff was born in 1903, in Maynardville, Tennessee. He was known as the King of Country Music and he was the Grand Ole Opry's key figure for 40 years. He was the first living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Let's get on the "Night Train".
That was the hard funk of James Brown, the man who is, without a doubt, one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Whatever you're hearing with a funky groove on it today, or if you're listening to any R&B, hip-hop, rap, the roots of the Godfather of Soul, Soul Brother No. 1 James Brown are buried in there somewhere. Now here's the smooth pop/R&B of The Bee Gees.
That was "Ain't Even Done With the Night", by John Mellencamp. And here's Patsy Cline, with "Walkin' After Midnight".
Patsy Cline, one of the first country artists to cross over into pop, and one of the most influential voices of popular music. "Walkin' After Midnight” was her first smash on both the country and pop charts. She tragically died in a plane crash outside of Camden, Tennessee. She was the first female to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. We love you, Patsy.
That was Van "The Man” Morrison and Them, his great, great garage band of the '60s, and I believe that track was written by Bert Berns. And before that was "Night of the Drunken Cheerleaders", by The Penetrators.
That was Bob Seger and the beautiful "Night Moves". Man, I love that voice. And before that, of course, "Wild Night". James "Jimmy” Iovine, engineer, record producer, music mogul and entrepreneur par excellence, took me for a ride in nineteen-seventy-something in his orange Mercedes Benz. Now this is the first Benz anyone had ever seen, much less an orange one. And he drove me out towards Coney Island, somewhere, and he asked if he could send the E Street Band's recording of the unfinished "Because the Night” to Patti Smith, who he was producing at the time. Now Jimmy had, has always had, and still has some very sly ears. Now me, I had a nice hook and a melody on a song that I could not finish the lyrics for. So Patti took it and turned it into the hit it became, writing a beautiful love song for her husband, Fred "Sonic” Smith. Now it wouldn't have been a hit if I had finished it and released it. It needed a woman's voice, it needed Patti's voice and her vision. She turned it into something that I alone could never have created. And for that, I forever thank my lovely, lovely friend.
And that's our show. Thank you for spending this time with me, and until we meet again, go in peace.
