Asleep All Night
This week over at Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has given us the prompts, above/below/between, which must be somewhere in the song we choose. This time, out of thousands of songs and for whatever reason, I decided on Asleep at the Wheel’s Stay a Little Longer.
In 1969, Ray Benson (a nice Jewish boy from Philly) and Lucky Oceans (Reuben Gosfield) co-founded Asleep at the Wheel in Paw Paw, West Virginia, and soon after they found themselves opening for Alice Cooper and Hot Tuna in Washington, DC. A year later, they moved to East Oakland, California at the invitation of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. After being mentioned in Rolling Stone magazine by Van Morrison, they landed a record deal with United Artists. In 1973, their debut album, Comin’ Right At Ya was released by United Artists. At the request of Willie Nelson, they left Oakland for Austin in 1974.
Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel have been presented numerous awards throughout their career. Most recently, the 16th Annual Midsouth Regional Emmy Award for the making of “A Ride With Bob”, recognition by Mayor Kirk Watson of Austin, Texas, and the Darrel K. Royal Music Patron Award by The Texas Heritage Songwriters’ Association. In 2007, The Austin Chronicle recognized Asleep at the Wheel for Band of the Year, Best Country Band, and into their Hall of Fame. Benson was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame in 2002, was given The Texas Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996, and recognized as an Outstanding Producer by the National Academy of Recording Arts in 1988. He has also been given numerous Citations of Achievement by Broadcast Music, Inc. for his work in the country music field. Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel have been one of the strongest names in Country Music for the last forty years.
Lyrics
You ought to see my blue eyed Sally
She lives a way down on Shinbone Alley
The number on the gate, the number on the door
And the next house over is the grocery store
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer
Can’t go home if you’re going by the mill
‘Cause the bridge washed out at the bottom of the hill
Big creek’s up, and the big creek’s level
Plow my corn with a double shovel
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer
Sitting in the window, singing to my love
When slop bucket fell from the window up above
Mule and the grasshopper eating ice cream
Mule got sick and they laid him on the green
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer
Grab your gal and pat her on the head
If she don’t like biscuits, feed her cornbread
The gals around big creek, about half grown
They jump on a man like a dog on a bone
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer
Stay all night, stay a little longer
Dance all night, dance a little longer
Pull off your coat throw it in the corner
Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer.
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The Dark
Today over at Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has asked us to choose a song that uses clear/light/dark in the title or lyrics. I chose one of my favorites, “On the Dark Side” by John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band.
Lyrics
The dark side’s calling now
Nothing is real
She’ll never know just how I feel
From out of the shadows
She walks like a dream
Makes me feel crazy
Makes me feel so mean
Ain’t nothing gonna save you
From a love that’s blind
Slip to the dark side
You cross that line
On the dark side, oh yeah
On the dark side, oh yeah
Dark side’s calling now
Nothing is real
She’ll never know just how I feel
From out of the shadows
She walks like a dream
Makes me feel crazy
Makes me feel so mean
Ain’t nothing gonna save you
From a love that’s blind
Slip to the dark side
You cross that line
On the dark side, oh yeah
On the dark side, oh yeah
Ain’t nothing gonna save you
From a love that’s blind
Slip to the dark side
You cross that line
On the dark side, oh yeah
On the dark side, oh yeah
On the dark side, oh yeah
On the dark side, oh yeah
They first achieved success with a 1980 self-released single pairing two of their songs, “Wild Summer Nights” and “Tender Years”, which sold over 10,000 copies and had radio play up and down the Atlantic seaboard. Despite their success, the act was ignored by the major labels due to persistent critical comparisons to Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. They finally achieved international success when producer Kenny Vance, a longtime fan, offered them the score to a movie soundtrack he was helming based on a best-selling novel about a legendary bar band, Eddie and the Cruisers. Thanks to frequent airings of the film on HBO and the purchase of the soundtrack album by their established fanbase as well as hundreds of thousands of new converts, Eddie and the Cruisers: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart and produced a number 7 hit single (“On the Dark Side”) on the Billboard Hot 100. “On the Dark Side” also held number-one on the Album Rock Tracks chart for five weeks. The album was eventually certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.
