Foggy Notion - Hy Weiss? or Paul Wisley

[simonm]

I didn't bother reading the whole thing, but the Guardian's 30 best VU songs list had a little snippet I was unaware of in relation to Foggy Notion. I guess it relates to the Hy Weiss credit somehow, but it's not straightforward. So: it's not (or not only) the Sally Mae reference in FG, but a whole verse that was lifted from a 45 on Weiss' Old Town label - Later For You Baby by the Solitaires.

She made me do something that I never did before
I rushed right down to a flower store
I bought her a bundle, a beautiful batch
Don't you know something?
She sent 'em right back

https://youtu.be/v3Ac47sfZTg?t=75



The only thing, it's not written by Weiss, but is credited to Paul Wisley on the label -I guess HW claimed the credit sometime later (in typical corrupt music biz shenanigans).

[Elvis Plebsley]

Interesting. I've been listening to the History of Rock in 500 songs podcast. In one episode, Hickey talked about blues hollers where the band would set up a riff and the singer would improvise a set of lyrics around that riff. Except, these weren't entirely improvised but spontaneous choices from pre existing lyrics. Many of these appear in early rock and roll songs. When I heard this episode, I immediately connected it to Foggy Notion, the Susie Q version of European Son and Miss Joanie Lee.

[iaredatsun]

Amazing that this song mystery has been solved. Well-spotted, Simon.

[lurid]

Yes well spotted indeed Simon!

[lurid]

just following this up. At Lou's early show at the Bottom Line on 5th June 1979, he slipped at least 2 verses + the chorus from this song into a >10 min version of Waiting For The Man. He obviously knew the song well, which maybe isn't surprising knowing of his great admiration of 50s doo wop etc.

I didn't bother reading the whole thing, but the Guardian's 30 best VU songs list had a little snippet I was unaware of in relation to Foggy Notion. I guess it relates to the Hy Weiss credit somehow, but it's not straightforward. So: it's not (or not only) the Sally Mae reference in FG, but a whole verse that was lifted from a 45 on Weiss' Old Town label - Later For You Baby by the Solitaires.

She made me do something that I never did before
I rushed right down to a flower store
I bought her a bundle, a beautiful batch
Don't you know something?
She sent 'em right back

https://youtu.be/v3Ac47sfZTg?t=75



The only thing, it's not written by Weiss, but is credited to Paul Wisley on the label -I guess HW claimed the credit sometime later (in typical corrupt music biz shenanigans).

[lurid]

and I see now that he did exactly the same the following evening - 6th June 1979....

[simonm]

haha - that's pretty funny! i think he obviously really loved it, as i came across another ref to him quoting Solitaires lyrics in an interview in the early 70s too! When i first listened to it i didn't like it much, but it's grown on me a lot.

[lurid]

....and the more I think about it, Lou did this on several occasions in the 1970s. In 1975 he often included one of Hank Ballard's "Annie" songs (Annie Had A Baby, Work With Me Annie) as part of "Rock And Roll" and in 1979 he started segueing "You Keep Me Hanging On" as a coda to the same song.

haha - that's pretty funny! i think he obviously really loved it, as i came across another ref to him quoting Solitaires lyrics in an interview in the early 70s too! When i first listened to it i didn't like it much, but it's grown on me a lot.

[MJG196]

....and the more I think about it, Lou did this on several occasions in the 1970s. In 1975 he often included one of Hank Ballard's "Annie" songs (Annie Had A Baby, Work With Me Annie) as part of "Rock And Roll" and in 1979 he started segueing "You Keep Me Hanging On" as a coda to the same song.

A fantastic version can be found on the Liquid Air bootleg, with I'm Waiting For The Man Medley (Work With Me Annie / Sexy Ways / I Wanna Be Black)

[iaredatsun]

Seems to me he did this with the song Ride Sally Ride, which I presume quotes from Mustang Sally (a Wilson Pickett recorded song). And even echoes the unfortunate sentiment of that song.

'All you want to do is ride around Sally (ride, Sally, ride)
All you want to do is ride around Sally (ride, Sally, ride)'