#175
Number of months between the publication of Arthur Koestler’s 1967 non-fiction work, “ The Ghost in the Machine” and the release of the Police album of the same title. Arthur Koestler's reaction to the album is said to have been muted. He knew little about the burgeoning New Wave scene, and said in an interview, “It turns out there is a pop group called The Police — I don't know why they are called that, presumably to distinguish them from the punks — and they've made an album of my essay The Ghost in the Machine. I didn't know anything about it until my clipping agency sent me a review of the record. In his younger days, Sting was an avid reader of Koestler. Another of The Police's albums Synchronicity was also inspired by Koestler's The Roots of Coincidence, which mentions Carl Jung's theory of synchronicity.
#174
Number of miles from Seattle, Washington to Portland, Oregon – a trip taken on Amtrak by the author in the Shawn Mullins’ song ‘September in Seattle’ when he says, “Amtrak down the coastline to the city of the roses.”
#173
Rank on the US album charts for Pearl Jam’s album Vitalogy shortly after its release in late 1994, right before it set the record for the biggest one-week leap on the album charts – from #173 to #1 the following week.
#172
Number of years between the time Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor was written and the time and Walter Murphy released his own take on the classical piece. In the early 1970s, Murphy became interested in adapting classical music into disco songs and coming out with hits, after seeing two songs of different genres based on composer Johann Sebastian Bach's music, "Joy" by Apollo 100, and "A Lover's Concerto" by the Toys, become popular. To try to attain this feat, Murphy made a demo tape with disco adaptations of several classical and neo-classical works in it, and mailed it to every record label in New York City. The response was unimpressive, and only a rendition of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5 generated any interest amongst the various labels. This interest led to the owner of Private Stock Records, Larry Uttal, giving Murphy the chance to record the rendition, which was creatively dubbed "A Fifth Of Beethoven." Even though Murphy played nearly every instrument on the instrumental, his record company cautioned that the record would stand a better chance if credited to a group rather than an individual. To Walter's annoyance, they came up with the name Walter Murphy and The Big Apple Band.
#171
Population in thousands of the One Particular Harbor Jimmy Buffett writes about in Tahiti.
#170
Month and year all of the members of the Beatles were together for their last group recording session at Abbey Road Studio. The work was to overdub some harmony vocals and re-record some guitar parts for inclusion on Let it Be.
#169
Month and year (January 31, 1969) Iron Butterfly, riding high from the reception they were receiving from Ina-Gadda-Da-Vida, were completely and totally upstaged by their opening act and thus refused to go on stage after their opener finished. Their opening act? Led Zeppelin touring in support of their 1969 debut.
#168
Number of hours the only number 1 song Yes ever recorded held the number 1 position in America.
#167
Current assesed value (in hundreds of thousands) of the Pink House in Bloomington, Indiana, which MTV gave away in 1984 in conjunction with the John Mellencamp song. The winner was Susan Miles of Bellevue, Wash., then 22. Mellencamp and his band threw a house-warming party for Miles and 20 of her closest friends who were flown in from the West Coast. After the party, Miles never moved in, held on to it just long enough to qualify for a tax break and then sold it. She also won a pink Jeep CJ7, a Pioneer stereo system, a widescreen TV and 500 cases of Hawaiian Punch..The original song was inspired by an old man Mellencamp saw as he cruised along an overpass while driving himself home to Bloomington from the Indianapolis airport. He looked down and saw a black man sitting with a cat in his arms on the front porch of his old pink shack. The Interstate ran within feet of the man's front yard, but he didn't seem disturbed by the commotion around him. "He waved, and I waved back," Mellencamp said. "That's how "Pink Houses" started.
#166
Age (in years) of Beale Street – constructed in 1841. Beale Street is the street in Downtown Memphis, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately 1.8 miles. It is a significant location in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are major tourist attractions. Festivals and outdoor concerts periodically bring large crowds to the street and its surrounding areas. It’s the focal point of many songs – notably in Marc Cohn’s debut, Walking in Memphis.
#165
Amount (in Euros) to fly from Geneva, Switzerland to St.Petersburg, Russia. The distance Vladimir Lenin traveled (by train) when he was smuggled by the Germans to Russia during the first World War. This trip is referred to in the 1985 Pet Shop Boys hit, West End Girls. Lead singer, Neil Tennant has a degree in history and his interest in Russian history is evident in many other Pet Shop Boys projects.
#164
Number of days between the marriage of David Eisenhower, the grandson of President Dwight David Eisenhower and Julie Nixon, the daughter of President Richard Nixon in 1968 and John Fogerty writing the song he says was inspired by their relationship. Fogerty says that he was just looking at the two of them “hanging out” and he “just had the feeling that none of those people were going to be involved in the war.” The result was ‘Fortunate Son.’
#163
Number of minutes it took for the Beatles to record A Hard Day’s Night. The recording took place 7 days prior to the end of filming. The version that ended up making it on the album was the 9th take. This was their 1st stab at it – unusable due to a number of sonic issues, forgotten lyrics and – most obviously – the Beatles laughing at the end of the song.
#162
Number of dollars it cost for the Cowboy Junkies to record their second album, The Trinity Session. According to the band's website, the band wanted to record live with one stereo microphone direct to tape. The Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto was used for its natural reverb, but to better persuade the officials of the historic church, the band claimed to be The Timmins Family Singers and said they were recording a Christmas special for radio. The band was unable to rehearse with most of the guest musicians before the day of the session. Considering the method of recording, this could have been disastrous for the numbers which required seven or more musicians, but after paying a security guard twenty five dollars for an extra two hours, the band was able to finish, and even recorded "Misguided Angel" in a single take.
#161
Number of hours between the release of David Bowie’s Space Oddity and man’s first landing on the moon. Bowie’s record label “rush-released” the song in order to coincide with the Apollo 11 launching.
#160
Number of months between the time David Bowie released Space Oddity and Peter Schilling answered (using Bowie’s character) with Major Tom.
#159
Length in inches of the shadow, cast in bronze, that emanates from the life-size Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial statue on the shore of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas.
#158
Number of days it took Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to record Darkness on the Edge of Town at the Record Plant in New York City in 1977/1978.
#157
Number of years between the time Akron, OH was founded and Akron native, Chrissie Hynde returned to Akron to see her town had undergone a makeover. She wrote about her displeasure in My City Was Gone. The song reflected her growing interest in environmental and social concerns; discovering that rampant development and pollution had destroyed the "pretty countryside" of her youth. The song makes a number of specific references in and around Akron, Ohio, including South Howard Street (line 5), the historic center of Akron, which was leveled to make way for an urban plaza with three skyscrapers and two parking decks (line 8).
#156
Number of days between the opening salvo of the Croatian War of Independence and the much publicized death of famous TV journalist, Gordan Lederer. Lederer was shot and killed by a Serb sniper. His death was decried by the world with many having had the chance to watch the video he was shooting at the time of his death. A video of his work was put together with a shortened version of Dire Straits’ ‘Brothers in Arms’ – a song to memorialize the beauty of his work and the senselessness of his death.
#155
The difference (1 minute 55 seconds) in time between B.B. King’s 1965 tune ‘How Blue Can You Get’ and The Primitive Radio Gods’ 1996 tune “Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hands” which samples B.B.’s tune.
#154
Number of seconds into Barenaked Ladies "One Week" -- right before the song ends -- when Steven Page and Ed Robertson sing the line "Birchmount Stadium, home of the Robbie." It refers to an annual charity soccer tournament at Birchmount Stadium in Scarborough, Ontario, on the outskirts of Toronto. The Robbie International Soccer Tournament -- known simply as The Robbie -- was inspired by a three year old kid with cystic fibrosis named Robbie Wimbs.
#153
Number of “Saturday Night Live” episodes in which Phil Hartman performed. That success came after he’d worked as a graphic designer, one of his most famous creations being the simple horse drawing which appeared on Poco’s multi-platinum album, “Legend.”
#152
Number of days James Taylor was a patient at Austen Riggs, a private psychiatric clinic in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During his struggle with depression and heroin withdrawal at Austen Riggs following the demise of his band The Flying Machine, he wrote the last two verses to a song he’d begun in London while in the throes of addiction – hence the line, “Sweet dreams and Flying Machines in pieces on the ground” in his song “Fire and Rain.”
#151
Seconds into U2’s “God Part II” where Bono references Bruce Cockburn’s Lovers in a dangerous time. According to Cockburn, his song was inspired by seeing teenagers expressing romantic love in a schoolyard. In the song, he contrasts the hopefulness and joy of new love with the despair of a wider world where notions of the future often carried a sense of foreboding and doom. However, especially in light of Cockburn's next single "If I Had a Rocket Launcher", the song has also been interpreted by listeners and critics as referring to the same Guatemalan refugee crisis that inspired the later song, or to the then-emerging HIV/AIDS crisis. Cockburn acknowledged in later interviews that he was pleased by both of these alternate interpretations.
