Here Comes The Weekend |
"Greetings, creatures of Earths, fellows, freaks, interstellar rock fans, local beach bums, New Jersians, ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls, listeners from sea to shining sea and around the globe. Welcome to Volume 20 of 'From My Home to Yours,' titled 'Here Comes the Weekend'. What is better than the weekend? Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Even a non-working bum like me can remember being in school and counting the days, hours, minutes and seconds before that 3 o'clock bell rang on Friday afternoon, and I was free, free of anybody running my life, telling me where I had to be, when I had to be there. I would burst through the school doors, walk that happy mile from school, down through town, throw my books on the kitchen table, run to my room, rip myself out of my school clothes, deposit them on the floor, settle in for two and a half days of blissful freedom. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, the weekend! My God, how I lived for it. And there is no song that totally captures the anticipation of that moment better than the Easybeats single, coming straight from Down Under, 'Friday on My Mind'."
"Easybeats, 'Friday on My Mind.' Epic. And here's The Cure, with 'Friday I'm in Love'."
"'Friday I'm in Love'. Hell yes, I am. Friday night was the CYO dance. I'd be there in front of the band, not dancing, but doing my real homework of the week, studying, studying, studying that lead guitarist's hands, inscrutably watching every riff and run he made, and then I would run home while the other kids were gettin' their pizza down at Federici's, chasing the girls. I would run up to my room, and early into Saturday morning I would be trying to replicate what I had seen down at the dance until I dropped to sleep with the guitar in my hands. Then, at 16, I would hop up around, oh, 11 o'clock. I would head to the bus terminal. I would hop on the Lincoln Transit bus headed for Washington Square Park and Greenwich Village. I lived in the Village on weekends. As a teenager, anything to get me from that big boot pressing down on my neck in my lovely little redneck town. That piece of MacDougal from … I guess from about Washington Square to Bleecker, I think is the only piece of the authentic '60s Village that's still intact. And I lived on that piece of concrete for, I don't know, '65, '66, '67. If you go there now, you can see it exactly as it was when Steve Van Zandt and I together tramped the concrete, from the park to the Cafe Wha? … check it out.
"That was 'Saturday Waits' by Loney, Dear and before that 'Saturday in the Park' by Chicago."
"Now, there was only one time when the weekend could be truly toxic, and that was when you had freshly broken up with your girl. Then the weekend would stick in your guts and break your heart with time and emptiness. This is the incredible Kristina Train, with 'Saturdays Are the Greatest'."
"That was the great voice of Kristina Train from her album Dark Black. This is an album you have to own. You have to have it in your library. It's one of my favorite records of, I don't know, the past decade. And it was terribly overlooked here in the States. And it just deserves a much bigger audience. Dark Black, Dark Black, Dark Black, Kristina Train. You will not regret checking into this wonderful piece of music."
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Chairman of the Board."
"Saturday night. That's the night the weekend was centered upon. The night when it's supposed to happen. You're supposed to meet that girl, play that killer set with your band, hang with your boys, go to the movies, and wait, wait, wait for transcendence … The Drifters."
"That was Cat Stevens with 'Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody'. Of course that was originally cut by Sam Cooke. And before that, the beautiful 'Saturday Night at the Movies'. That just brings so much emotion with it that … The Drifters were simply one of my favorite groups of all time. 'Saturday Night at the Movies', the immortal Drifters. A lead sung by Johnny Moore. Beautiful job. Written by the amazing Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and produced by Bert Berns. Tony Joe White, bring us the Southern funk!"
"That's right, 'cause as Tony Joe White just said, 'when you look good, you feel good, and everything is gonna be all right come Saturday night'. Then you wake up, and it's Sunday morning. This is the Acid House Kings."
"As I got older, I'd spent my Friday and Saturday nights at the Stone Pony or in other clubs in Asbury Park. Never took a drink till I was 24 years old: tequila at the Osprey in Manasquan, compliments of my great friend Big Danny, and after that, for quite a while, I tried to make up for lost time. So when I woke up on a Sunday morning, feeling hazy, exposed and guilty, was when I felt terrible but knew I had had a good time. Ouch."
"That was Kris Kristofferson, with the classic and oh-so-truthful 'Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down'. I've been there, and I've done that."
"Loverboy, a great hit. Now, here's the man who had the answer to it all, back in the '60s. My friend, the legendary Gary U.S. Bonds, who knew all trouble would be gone if there was just a seven-day weekend."
"And that's our show. Please have a great weekend, and go in peace. Taking us out will be the fabulous Dave Edmunds."
| By Bruce Springsteen via E Street Radio. |