#125
Total time (1 hour 25 minutes) of the 1968 film Wonderwall. Largely ignored or unknown to the general public, it was known to a couple of Gallagher kids from Manchester, England. The title was taken for their American breakthrough hit from their album, What’s The Story Morning Glory. The band? Oasis. The song, Wonderwall is number 125.
|
#124
Number of weeks between the days in the early seventies when a total eclipse of the sun could be seen in Nova Scotia. When trying to figure out who Carly Simon was talking about in her song You’re So Vain. Those who have tried to pinpoint the individual have pointed to these dates as being pivotal to finding out who she’s singing the song about.
|
#123
John Fisher calls an audible. 1,2,3... Good Lovin'.
|
#122
Number of days between the time Chasing Cars first appeared in Grey’s Anatomy and the release of the second season of Grey’s anatomy on DVD. Just one day after the DVD release, Chasing Cars became the most downloaded song in the US.
|
#121
The age in years of the amusement park in Asbury Park, New Jersey Bruce Springsteen memorialized in many of his songs – most notably Tunnel of Love.
|
#120
Decibel level reached by The Who at a concert in southeast London putting them in the Guinness Book of World Records for the loudest performance by a rock group. They put out 76,000 watts of power at 120 decibels... The "Guinness Book of World Records" dubbed it "the loudest concert ever". Nobody in the crowd of 60,000 came home without a ringing in their ears.
|
#119
The number of vocal tracks layered together to create the mass of vocals in Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. The backing track came together quickly, but they spent days overdubbing the vocals in the studio using a 24 track tape machine. Brian May said that everyone in the band was bewildered when Freddie Mercury brought them a draft of this four-part suite - even before he told them, "That's where the operatic bits come in!" Recording technology was so taxed by the song's multitracked scaramouches and fandangos that some tapes became virtually transparent from being overdubbed so many times. At one point, the tape reels began to smoke slightly and had almost worn right down to the breaking point because of how much dubbing they had done - they almost lost one of their greatest hits, and one that would not be easy to reproduce.
|
#118
The number of months between the time Horace Silver released ‘Song For My Father’ and Steely Dan ripped it off to record ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.’
|
#117
117. The number of miles in England’s ‘Road To Hell.” The M25 motorway is an orbital motorway that almost completely encircles London. It is said to be one of the longest city bypasses in the world and is known for its frequent jams. These have been the subject of so much comment from such an early stage that even at the official opening ceremony Margaret Thatcher complained about "those who carp and criticise". The jams have inspired jokes ("the world's biggest car park", "the London Orbital Car Park" and “The Road To Hell”). Though Chris Rea's song was inspired by pollution and the world he was seeing going straight down, there’s no question England’s Road to Hell helped inspire some of his lyrical content.
|
#116
The length, in minutes and seconds (1:16), of Keith Emerson’s Moog synthesizer solo at the end of Emerson Lake and Palmer’s breakthrough song Lucky Man. Greg Lake wrote it for acoustic guitar when he was 12 years old and the band recorded it only because they needed to fill out one side of their debut album –- their record company contract called for each side to be 21 minutes long. Desperate for filler material, the band tried to make the song work. Lake asked Emerson to play a solo on his Moog synthesizer at the close of the track. The solo was totally improvised and recorded in one take. The song remains one of ELP’s best-known tracks.
|
#115
The month and day that Joe Walsh joined the Eagles. Between the release of the Eagles’ One of These Nights and the subsequent tour, Bernie Leadon left the group, disillusioned with the direction the band's music was taking. They were no longer concentrating on the country rock in which Leadon excelled and the hiring of Don Felder meant that Leadon's role had been significantly diminished. Leadon was also dating Patti Davis, Ronald Reagan's daughter, – the two of them had co-written "I Wish You Peace" on the album – which created political tensions within the group. Leadon left the band in December 1975, famously announcing his resignation by pouring a beer over Frey's head. In order to continue with their tour schedule, the group quickly replaced Leadon with Joe Walsh was asked to step in. He debuted at a concert January 15, 1976.
|
#114
The difference in time (1 minute 14 seconds) between Beck's "I Walk On Golden Splinters" and "Loser". In an early interview, Beck confessed that "Loser" was written spur of the moment after trying and failing to rap in the style of Public Enemy's Chuck D. Beck remarked "Man, I’m the worst rapper in the world—I’m just a loser." The rest of the song was largely freestyled around the premise of being an outcast from society and was built around a sample from a cover of the Dr. John song "I Walk on Gilded Splinters" by Johnny Jenkins from his album Ton-Ton Macoute!. The sample features Allman Brothers Band members Duane Allman, Jaimoe on timbales and Butch Trucks on drums.
|
#113
The number of liters (the equivalent of 30 gallons) – of the capacity of the plastic rubbish bin that Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham used throughout the band’s song "Ramble On". People think he’s playing the bongos, but it’s a trash can.
|
#112
The mile marker Marc Broussard’s tour bus was passing on a Louisiana highway when “Papa started humming the funk” and he and his father came up with the song ‘Home.’
|
#111
The month and year (November, 2001) that U2 last played a song from their Unforgettable Fire album in a live setting. The song "A Sort of Homecoming," is the first track of U2's 1984 album and it’s live premiere was during the Unforgettable Fire Tour in September of that year. It was dropped from the band's live set in June, 1987 and did not reappear until the second leg of the Elevation Tour in 2001, but problems arose when it was played at the band's homecoming gig at Slane Castle in Ireland that year as Bono forgot many of the lyrics. It made only one more Elevation Tour appearance: at a concert in Oakland in November, a fan was pulled on stage to play guitar with the band and he began playing "A Sort of Homecoming". The band played along with him but Bono's recollection of the lyrics was even worse than in Dublin. The song has not been performed since.
|
#110
The time left in Led Zeppelin’s song “The Battle of Evermore” (1:10) when Robert Plant begins to yell, “Bring It Back.” The line is a reference to Frodo in JRR Tolkien’s The Return of The King bringing the One Ring back to the fires of Mount Doom. The entire song (as well as other Zeppelin tunes) is heavily influenced by The Lord of The Rings trilogy. Plant was a big fan of Tolkien's work, and he did not hesitate to draw lyrical inspiration from it.
|
#109
The number of hours Melissa Etheridge had to write a better version of her debut album after the first suggested version was rejected. When she had to come up with some more material, she actually had less than five days to provide some new songs and a modified edition of the record for the record company. Her window of opportunity was closing. Back then she was living in Los Angeles to produce her first record while her girlfriend Kathleen was far away from her. The two had agreed to live in a non-monogamous relationship although Etheridge was never okay with it and the song she came up with tells about her pain and jealousy she was going through. The result was “Bring Me Some Water.”
|
#108
The number of seconds into the 1931 song “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime” (one of the best-known American songs of the Great Depression) when the narrator tells everyone his name is ‘Al.’ Much has been written about the title of Paul Simon’s song "You Can Call Me Al" echoing a pathos-filled stanza from the Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? “Say, don't you remember, they called me Al, It was Al, all the time.” However, Simon allegedly wrote "You Can Call Me Al" after he went to a party with his then-wife Carrie Fisher. A man at the party kept calling Paul "Al", and Carrie "Betty", inspiring Simon to write a song.
|
#107
The number of years between the time sniffing cocaine became fashionable and the release of Eric Clapton’s take on J.J. Cale's song "Cocaine". Prior to 1870, cocaine was prescribed as a local anesthetic and an antidote to opium, morphine and alcohol addiction. Pharmaceutical company Parke Davis legally sold cocaine in cigarettes, in the form of an alcoholic drink ('Coca Cordial'), in spray and tablet form, and as an injection fluid. The company promised that its cocaine products would take the place of food, and make people brave, outgoing, eloquent, and invulnerable to pain. Eventually, sniffing cocaine powder became popular; by 1916 it was illegal.
|
#106
The number of hours it took Dave Belamy to compose a song for Jim Stafford in 1973. The significance of the song was huge for both artists. Stafford was formerly in a band called Legends with an artist known as Lobo (who went on to have a number one hit with “Me And You And A Dog Named Boo”). Between Legends and a successful solo career, Stafford took Belamy’s song and turned it into gold. It went number 1 on the US charts, establishing a solo career for Stafford and the money rolled in to Dave Belamy who took the money and moved to LA with his brother creating their band The Belamy Brothers – who hit number one 2 years later with their own song, “Let Your Love Flow.” The song responsible for all the fame and fortune? Spiders and Snakes.
|
#105
The miles per hour Eric Clapton was clocked at when he was pulled over for speeding in the county of Surrey in Southeast England in 1990. He paid a fine of 300 pounds and was banned from driving for three months.
|
#104
FM104 - Rock without the Hard Edge. That¹s what The Mountain was called when it signed on at 2 in the afternoon on April 10, 1991. The first song played on the new station? ‘Rock Me on the Water’ by Jackson Browne.
|
#103
The total running time, in minutes, of the first significant TRIPLE album of the rock era, George Harrison’s three-album solo set All Things Must Pass.
|
#102
Average number of cowbell hits per minute during the song “Don’t Fear The Reaper.”
|
#101
Month and day (October 1) in 1982 when Sony unveiled the first commercially available CD player – priced at $650 – in Tokyo, with Billy Joel’s 52nd Street being the first CD to go on sale in Japan.
|
Mountain By Numbers continues...
For more Mountain By Numbers, click here.
|
