Welcome to Episode 8! This time we chat about the songs “Summer Song” and “I Need You Need Me” with insights from Alice, Jean, and June. Plus, we feature some of the bloopers from the recording of the podcast. We hope you enjoy them!
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NOTE: These podcasts will be produced once every two weeks at present. A lot of work goes into these and we’re looking for feedback from the fans to drive the direction of the podcast.
Great episode! They’re getting funnier too. Good stuff. Thank you Byron, Kristen and Alice
Hi Ricky! We’re delighted to hear that you’re enjoying our podcast. If it’s not evident, we’re having so much fun! 🙂
Thanks, Ricky!
I’m glad that the fun we three are having translates to your ears. That’s a success! When Kristen gets the giggles, it can take a take or two for her to catch her breath and continue….as the true professional she is!
Alice
I like how you got into the nuts & bolts of recording, engineering & production. To the listener, it is instanteous. In reality, it is a long process of trial & error.
Keep up the laughs!!!
Hi Aaron!
Thanks for listening, and appreciate that you care about the technicality of it all! 🙂
All best,
Kristen
Hi Aaron,
We’re learning as we go, but if you consider the source material, we’ve got it made! Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Alice
Loved the podcast. :-0 I’ve never seen a band having more fun than on the Beat-Club shoot of “Summer Song.” Nickey looks as if she’s just thought of a really cool organ solo: “Hey, get a load of this!”
Wouldn’t it be nice (intentional Beach Boys comparison) to see the original blue screen footage in all its well-lit glory. One thing, Alice – what colour is the Cadillac in your vision? 🙂
Such an intense, poignant song as “I Need You Need Me” (even the title is confused) is quite different if you read the lyrics with ordinary intonation. It’s an expression of reasonable concern for a friend, but Nickey’s panicky shouting staccato delivery coupled with the plangent instrumentation turns it into something frightening, making the listener more concerned for the singer’s sanity. “You need me” would only come from someone losing touch with reality in the circumstances, and Jean’s calm, soothing voice of reason shows she is aware of that deep down, but the long, long fade-out with Nickey’s great piano work tells us that resolution is some way off.
A perceptive, affecting psychological drama brilliantly performed, just an assignment ? Ah, that Fanny modesty…
Hello, David! Thank you for this incredible review – from the podcast to the insights about Fanny and their music. I hope you are a music critic or something of that sort, or at least you should be. We may have to read some of your feedback on the next podcast, including asking Alice what colour is the Cadillac (with fins!) in her vision. 🙂
Hi Kristen. Blushing deeply here! No, not a music critic except when I feel strongly about something; just a sometime museum catalogue and transport history author. Thanks for the kind words. ‘Course, I may be barking up the wrong tree entirely, but feel free to quote away….
“I Need you Need Me” is a command, really, isn’t it? It’s the thing most unlikely to get what the lady feels she needs, unless she manages to find a masochist, and she knows it. The insecurity revealed in Jean’s vocal part is so touching, so true to life.
If it wa’nt for unrequited,
Wouldn’ t have no love at all.
I still can’t listen to this song dry-eyed. Yes, it’s that powerful.
Regards,
Dave.
David…I feel the same way about the song. I can barely quote the lyrics and their complexity of interpretation without getting teary-eyed myself, let alone listening to it. And thanks for letting us quote you. Your feedback and in-depth analysis, based on true compassion, is the best commentary of all. True regards, Kristen
Aw, glad I’m not alone here. I thought I’d heard a similar theme before, but treated in a more light-hearted way, and it just surfaced; remember Melanie’s “Brand New Key”, written a couple of years earlier?
“It almost seems like you’re avoiding me.
I’m okay alone, but you got something I need.”
Dressed up in cute doubles entendres, but the vibe is there.
All the best.
Dave.
Wow, just wow, David.
You make me feel happy, but in a sad and knowing way that works?
Perfectly!
Alice
Hi Alice.
I’m equally sorry to be late in replying; I just forgot to look at this page for a few days.
I think I know what you mean; memories of happy times mingled with thoughts of what we could, and perhaps should, have done better.
I know more about the Fanny story now, and I think something of the tensions in the band (not the rubber kind) is beginning to surface in this track. Sad indeed.
Thanks so much for your kind words about my attempt at a review. I’m not worthy! 🙂
Dave
Dave,
I don’t know that I get weepy with this one, but I do feel the goose bumps when I let myself really listen. That’s been a surprise joy for me; re-listening intently in podcast prep, discovering some new, some known little bits that make me go, “ooooh!” Jean’s tender voice is almost buried on “I Need You Need Me,” and that’s just a damn shame. That vocal SO fits who Jean was at the time…..
Alice
Hi David,
Well, you know by now, that Kristen flipped for your excellent and thoughtful review. I’m a little behind in responding to comments, but please know that I so appreciate your thoughts. You abso(you know what)lutely nailed it!
Best,
Alice
Hi David, that’s a great analogy! I hadn’t thought of that before. I have likened “I Need You Need Me” as a precursor to Blondie’s “One Way or Another,” because both strike a similar chord in terms of focus and urgency, but not “Brand New Key.” Again, I think you have a future as a music writer and critic. Never too late!
Hi and thanks for another great podcast. Summer Song is one of my favourites,I love the happiness in the sentiment and the performance!
P.s.I would love to hear you chat about Young And Dumb sometime…
Hi Neil,
I don’t know when we’ll get to it unless we already did….oh well, we’ll be circling around to it again, I’m sure! Summer Song was such a joy to play!
Best,
Alice
Just to say Summer Song is one of my favourites, love the sentiment and the happiness in the performance both on the album and the beat club versions!
Would love to hear you guys talk about Young And Dumb sometime….
HI Neil! Yes, we definitely want to revisit “Young & Dumb,” both the recorded and live version. Thank you for this! As for “Summer Song,” definitely one of my faves too. A summer staple on the annual playlist!
My apologies to the Fanny Crew for this late response but I’ve been a bit on my ass with an annoying condition called Trigger Thumb in both of my thumbs making typing a bit of a hassle (and yes, I realize the juxtaposition of “thumb” and “ass” in that sentence may spark some hilarious theories about my lack of posting)! ‘Tiss but a minor thing as far as things go, but it’s been a bit of a bitch typing with stupid-frozen-clicky thumbs.
But fear not! There is magic in the sting of the apothecary’s hypo and I’m gradually regaining function! And now among my life experiences I may now count knowing exactly how a bratwurst feels as it splits open on the grill from the feeling of dangerous over-inflation in each thumb as the good doctor pressed the hypodermic home. I apologize to all the brats, hotdogs, and other sausage-y things I may have so cruelly treated like that in the past; I’m sorry. You were delicious, and you deserved better.
Okay, enough jibber-jabber! Time to focus on Fanny!
Two things for Byron I simply must know are:
1) Is the rimshot live or added in post?
2) How do you counter #STFUB trending on social media? Ha!
And for Alice and Dr. K, too: Thanks for the bloopers! The “look” inside the studio was endearing! The Fanny Rocks crew is having a blast and it shines through in the podcasts! Excellent work and keep it going!
Interestingly, the conversation this episode sent my mind reeling in the years back to my first memories of music beyond the sing-song rhymes of the nursery. They almost entirely involve my parent’s music. The earliest retrievable memories are from around 1969—I remember because my older brother and I got an electric football game for Christmas featuring Broadway Joe Namath’s Jets and the Baltimore Colts from that year’s Super Bowl. I insisted on always playing as the upstart (and victorious) Jets. One of the few concessions I ever won when he and I were in conflict. The things you remember, eh?
Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass and Burt Bacharach were on heavy rotation, as were novelty songs like Snoopy and the Red Baron by the Royal Guardsmen and Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton. Albums of comedy by Tom Lehrer often fueled sing-alongs when dad’s drunken IBM buddies and wives would gather in our living room and mom pulled out her guitar. I remember a circle of engineers around the hi-fi with yellow legal pads on their knees trying to follow “New Math” while mom kept cuing the record back so everybody could get all the words and check that the math was correct. Somehow the Beatles slipped in there too, even though mom and dad weren’t fans, by way of AM radio waves from Chicago and other far away places, along with Donovan and (weirdly) a group called Hedgehoppers Anonymous.
But I owe to my brother my true introduction to rock and roll the summer of 1972 after his Freshman year at SUNY, Buffalo when he rolled home with crates of albums all over the spectrum of popular music at the time; Rolling Stones, Rare Earth, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Neil Young, and Joan Baez among others. He also brought a super sweet system to play them on, which pissed dad off to no end because it was so much better than his. But of course, I also owe to my brother the belief while I was very young that there were actually tiny people inside the radio playing the songs which led to a curious me excitedly tearing the back off the radio on our kitchen counter to see!
Obviously I didn’t know anything about electronics at the time but luckily I knew enough to unplug the damn thing first! That incident also led to me learning the first bits about electronics in my life when my dad, after he calmed down from shouting himself blue at me, explained how radios worked.
Onward. Life and Art continue their reflective duet, each dancing in imitation of the other in the exhilarating whirl of the moment. And now my project list includes finishing a weird little bit of writing prompted spontaneously—curse you, auto writing!—from the ides of trigger thumbs.
Stay safe, gather strength, and may the Groove be with you!
Jim
The rim-shot is added in post, it’s just easier that way. If #STFUB is trending at all, I’d be honored. Also, I have a big mouth and I do have a tendency to rattle on, so it’s a good hash-tag to have.
I was 12 in 1969. Besides the Moon landing and Woodstock, I remember vividly songs like “In the Year 2525,” “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In,” “Hair” by the Cowsills, and of course the Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar.” Having three older sisters who listened to WLS-AM constantly, I grow up with ’60 pop/rock music. I consider myself a ’70s rocker, but deep down, I know more about the ’60s music than I do the ’70s.
Thanks for the comment!
Hi Jim,
I SOOOOOOO love reading your comments/thoughts/free-rein-brain waves! Please keep them coming. I hope your thumbs feel better soon!
Love,
Alice
I just saw Jim’s bit about Hedgehoppers Anonymous. They were a band of Royal Air Force ground crew, hence the name, and their big hit, Good News Week, was about environmental pollution from nuclear weapons. Don’t change much, do it?
David,
Nope, it don’t…..sad.
Alice
Alice,
Recently rediscovered, Fanny and these podcasts. Love ’em!
Was a fan back in the day. Was always a bit of a rock and roll rebel
and Fanny was a contributor. I always liked different. All girl band
back in the day? Different. But, oh so talented!
You lady’s were as talented as any band at that time.
Favorite songs…”Blind Alley” and “I Need You Need Me”.
Blind Alley was not only a reflection of what was happening in
America in the 60’s and 70’s it’s appropriate for 2020.
Could have been written in todays political climate. It’s timeless!
Thank you for being you. You ladies’ are a great example of ignoring societal
norms and doing what you wanted to do. Being teacher and father I have always
encouraged students and daughter alike to do what you love to do. Girls are just as capable.
Follow your heart, it will never steer you wrong.
Thanks again!
Long live, Fanny.
Chuck from Kent, Ohio.
Hi Chuck,
The part of your note that hit me hardest – “Being teacher and father……..Girls are just as capable.” HOW LUCKY for your daughter and for your students! I remember, outside of my family (mostly my mother), encouragement was rare for anything outside of the “Girls” box. I wanted to take mechanical drawing in high school, and I was the only girl signed up for the class, it was determined I would be too much of a distraction for the boys, and was not allowed to enjoy that education. Maybe that’s why, with clothes packed inside my drums, I left home shortly after graduating high school, headed to California seeking freedom to be me. I guess I found it there, yes? YES!
Thank you for your lovely note and for taking the time to write it and send it in! Please keep lifting those students (and your daughter) up. We really need them, especially now.
Best,
Alice