Friday, May 12, 2023

La Fin de la Semaine Essay Question: Special “Selling Out or Compromise?” Edition

From 1967, please try to enjoy barely second tier Summer of Love San Francisco band The Sons of Champlin and their, er, interestingly over the top version of Brill Building auteurs Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill's wise and haunting "Shades of Grey."

The song is, deservedly, better known from the beautifully arranged chamber-rock take on The Monkees' Headquarters album the same year,,,

...but the Champlins' everything but the folk-rock kitchen sink production has a certain goofy period feel that charmed me when I first discovered it last week. As for SOC in general, their titular front-man Bill Champlin went on to play with Chicago, so the less said about him and them the better.

But now, on to business. To wit:

...and your favorite post-Elvis song in which the words black or white figure prominently in the title or lyrics is...?

Discuss.

And have a great weekend, everybody!

23 comments:

Haik Mendelovich said...

Three Dog Night's absolutely definitive rendition of Black and White, of course. /s

Cleveland Jeff said...

Black Maria Todd Rundgren
Baby's In Black Beatles
Black and Blue Rainbow Sons Of Champlin
Black Coffee In Bed Squeeze
Black And White Three Dog Night
White Light, White Heat Velvet Underground
White City Erin McKeown
White Room Cream
White Trash Wedding Dixie Chicks
White Wheeled Limousine Bruce Hornsby
A Whiter Shade Of Pale Procol Harum

And for a more appreciative take on The Sons of Champlin, see
https://kleaveburg.blogspot.com/2009/12/sons-of-champlin.html

Sal Nunziato said...

Black Eyed Susan- Paul Westerberg
White Line Fever- Motorhead

Gummo said...

White Bird - It's a Beautiful Day
Black is Black - Los Bravos
Black Limousine - Rolling Stones
Paint It Black - Stones
Blackbird - Beatles
White Wedding - Billy Idol



Anonymous said...

Ill take Gummos list sans White Bird. For you not from the '60s early '70s this song was played ihcessantly on FM radio. I hated it as much as " Green Eye Lady"
Pretentious, yes but I'll take ElP if I have to be subjugated to that.
BTW - I only knew about SOC from the Fillmore / Avalon posters that I bought from
Rolling Stone...;-)
Rob

Anonymous said...

Black Day in July - Gordon Lightfoot
Black or White - Michael Jackson

edward said...

Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Black & White World
Lou Reed - I Wanna Be Black
Tom Waits- Big Black Mariah
The Dickies (ok, the Moody Blues if you prefer) - Nights in White Satin

Allan Rosenberg said...

I'm going to tweak the concept just a little.

;-)


I Saw the Light - Todd Rundgren

Darkness, Darkness - The Youngbloods.

Captain Al

Anonymous said...

Oh, and

Black Lipstick - The Thieves :)

Play That Funky Music White Boy - Wild Cherry

VR

Anonymous said...

testing

Anonymous said...

OK, this was supposed to post before my other entries but it must be floating around in the ether. Had to reconstruct in a hurry all typos intact
Shit! I keep posting and it disappears, here goes another try

Anonymous said...

Blackberry Way - The Move
Long Cool Woman In a Black Dress - hollies
Black Magic Woman - Flewtwood Mac & Santana

VR

Anonymous said...

We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together - Patti Smith version from any number of bootlegs "Went down to Harlem to look for something black ... "

Brother Louie - Stories "She was black as the night, Louie was whiter than white ..."

Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Pants - Chris Spedding (The Cheers)

Black Pu**y - Stones (working version of Brown Sugar)
Black Dog - Led Zeppelin

VR

Anonymous said...

Jesus Cristo

Sorry for all the entries. It was supposed to be two total. Something weird was going on. I had to do it piece by piece and out of order.

Hope they posted this time.

VR

steve simels said...

They did, VR.

Welcome back, BTW. When you went on hiatus, I worried something bad might have happened other than writers cramp.😎

mistah charley, sb, ma, phd, jsps said...

[I'll believe it when I see it in] Black and White - Todd Rundgren - "people will believe anything"

Anonymous said...

testing

Anonymous said...

Thanks Steve.

Yesterday I spent the entire day and night in "beautiful downtown Burbank." I went with my dad and Sandy to the classic car show there. My dad brought his 1966 Pontiac 2+2 and I took my 1957 Chevy Sedan Delivery. We had dinner and hit some bars till closing time.

When I got home I checked your blog and figured I'd make a quick entry. But I kept having to write it over to the point of giving up. I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't post.

VR

Anonymous said...


I know. It seems very Blackberry Wayish :)

A few times after the original lengthy post didn't go through, I thought maybe the Gods of the blogosphere didn't like "Black Pussy" so I gave it the "Black Pu**y" treatment.

That didn't fix it either. Long Cool Woman as the first song was fucking up the transmission. Seriously.

It made my brain hurt.

As far as "hiatus" goes, I was pretty much off the grid at the place in Idaho. Plus travel and concerts and general hedonism.

Before going to Idaho, Tom Petty died. That stupid fucker. I went to all three shows at the Bowl and I knew something was wrong. Same set every night which was not like him. Same set pretty much the whole tour. The light had already started to go out in his eyes at the shows. He seemed tired and phoning it in. What a bummer.

Other than that, I've been burning the church house down.

VR

Anonymous said...

I had to do this one in pieces, too.

The mid portion will not publish because I use

Long Cool Woman In a Black Dress as the first one on the list

in an example of what I had done.

It's fucking weird. As soon as I list it second it publishes as per last night.

That was supposed to be the first portion of the comment (which was better and originally included all the others as one piece). Except for the Thieves / Wild Cherry which was supposed to be the "tag on" but posted first.

It makes no sense. Oh well, much adieu

VR

Allan Rosenberg said...

Okay, a couple of Big Blacks:

Big Black Smoke - Kinks
Big Black Car - Hounds

Captain Al

Anonymous said...

Putting the mania back in List-O-Mania

Black Friday & Black Cow - Steel Dildo
White Honey - Graham Parker
Black Rider & Black Diamond Bay - Bob Dylan (Black Crow Blues too)
Black Roses - Jim Lauderdale
Long Black Veil - Lefty Frizzell
Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud) - James Brown
Black Muddy Water - Grateful Dead
White Lightning and Wine - Heart

Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Dylan "That long black cloud is comin' down"

Roisin Dubh (Black Rose) : A Rock Legend - Thin Lizzy

Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) - Neil Young
Black - Pearl Jam
Black Crow - Joni Mitchell

Tom Petty - It'll All Work Out (She wore faded jeans and soft black leather ...) (a great song BTW from LMUIHE)

Black Queen - Stephen Stills
Black Water - Doobie Brothers
Black Night - Deep Purple

Hey Negrita - Rolling Stones (judges?)
Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden

Tom Petty - Luna (God, I love this. One of his best IMHO) (makes me flash on being in the back of a 1966 Skylark Gran Sport convertible, high in the Hollywood Hills making out with a guy and being the answer to his dreams, waning crescent and all. Luna glide down from the moon.)

VR

It's a waning crescent tonight, too.

Speaking of TP, I saw Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs tonight. Way better than I expected. Plus, we know the drummer. It was fun. And they give till it hurts on stage.

Just for the fuck of it, I'm gonna try this with Long Cool Woman on top and see if it works. Just testing. It did not work. WTF. It's maddening I tell you.

Try it at home. See what results you get.

Anonymous said...

White light cut a scar in the sky
Thin line of silver
The night was all clouded with dreams
Wind made me shiver
Black and yellow pools of light
Outside my window
Luna come to me tonight
I am a prisoner
Luna glide down from the moon

The clouds are all silver and black
Floating around me
Luna come into my eyes
Luna surround me
With black and yellow pools of light
Fall by my window
Luna come to me tonight
I am a prisoner
Luna glide down from the moon