The S Blog deals with the interests of a Sri Lankan abroad and is called The S Blog due to the many S topics covered. They include Sri Lanka, Songs, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Science Fiction, Star Trek and even other non S topics.
On YouTube, there is a video called “Sri Lanka Colombo 1984” by user Wolfgang Gegusch. I decided to write a blog post about 1980s Colombo based on the video. I’ve written similar blog posts which are “A Look Back at 1960s Colombo” two years ago and “A Look Back at 1970s Colombo” four years ago. To give context to this period, the 1980s was a time without internet, email and mobile phones for the general public. Television was something new to Sri Lanka then as it arrived in 1979. I’m embedding the video and giving my thoughts below it.
The video opens with a close up of the “Insight Guides Sri Lanka” book. I have the 1987 Fifth Edition with the same cover which I referred to in the second part of my article about how Sri Lanka switched to the metric system. We are then shown a good postcard of Colombo from this time period. The video footage starts which shows the guns at Galle Face. We see the Galle Face Hotel which looks special. I like how it’s so green with the palm trees and grass around the hotel. There’s a gigantic chess board in that green environment.
We are taken to Galle Face Green which doesn’t look to be well maintained. Looking back at this time, I see the achievement Sri Lanka has made of getting cleaner in the decades since. We see buildings with the Bank of Ceylon Tower being in construction. I notice near the Galle Face Green there are black and white markings on the edge of the pavement which doesn’t exist anymore. We see more roads nearby and go to Colombo Fort with buildings such as the State Bank of India and the red Cargills building next to it. The Colombo Fort Clock Tower looks good.
We see the Diyawanna Lake with the Sri Lankan Parliament building that was new at the time. It’s good to see the old Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) building on Dharmpala Mawatha. The SLSI played a major role in Sri Lanka’s metrication as I’ve covered in this blog. It’s unfortunate to see elephants being mistreated for a zoo performance.
This was a good look into what Colombo was like nearly 40 years ago in 1984. This is a colourful video with good cinematography. When I posted “A Look Back at 1960s Colombo” exactly two years ago in December 2021, economist Amal Sanderatne in correspondence with me suggested other blog posts like this to do, including one on the 1980s. Amal who founded Frontier Research tragically passed away in July 2023. I never met him personally, but enjoyed being in touch with him online. He is a man of integrity who contributed greatly to Sri Lanka. I dedicate this article to Amal Sanderatne.
I decided to write about an album track from Elton John. An album track means a song from an album which wasn’t a hit and/or a single. The song I’m writing about is “Bitter Fingers” from Elton John’s 1975 album “Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy”. This was during the peak of Elton John’s success. This song was written with his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. It features his original band of Davey Johnstone (guitar), Nigel Olsson (drums), Dee Murray (bass) & Ray Cooper (percussion) and is produced by Gus Dudgeon. I’m embedding the YouTube audio of the song and am discussing it below.
The song opens with Elton’s piano. There is a subtle melodic part with his piano. I suspect this instrument is bells or belltree. They are two of the instruments percussionist Ray Cooper is credited with playing alongside tambourine and congas. Elton then begins singing. Soon subtle bass by Dee Murray appears. This is followed by understated rock guitar by Davey Johnstone and barely audible drums from Nigel Olsson. When the chorus starts, Nigel’s drumming properly comes in and it becomes a full-on rock song. Nigel’s drumming and Elton’s piano rock well together in the chorus. Davey’s guitar comes in and out during this section. Davey, Nigel and Dee sing backing vocals in the chorus and at the end of the song.
After the first chorus, it goes back to the piano intro of the start. Davey’s guitar then comes in, doubling the piano which sounds good. Towards the end of the second verse, Nigel brings his drums properly in a bit before the chorus. Dee’s bass seems to be louder from the second chorus to the end of the song. After the last chorus, Davey gives a good guitar solo to conclude the song which is followed by it going into the chorus with the song soon fading. Elton is credited with playing pianos on the track so it seems he’s playing two pianos. I’m interested to know how the two pianos are featured.
Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy is an autobiographical album chronicling the early days of Elton John & Bernie Taupin’s careers before Elton became a superstar. Bitter Fingers is about Elton & Bernie’s struggles as staff songwriters at Dick James Music (DJM) where they had to write songs they weren’t interested in which were popular at the time. Steve Brown who worked in promotions at DJM told Elton & Bernie their work was awful and to instead write music they believed in. This resulted in them writing the rocking single “Lady Samantha” in early 1969. More songs recorded by Elton came out that year which were the single “It’s Me That You Need” and his debut album “Empty Sky”. Steve produced those singles and the debut album. While he didn’t produce any more songs for Elton, he set Elton & Bernie on the path to be the globally successful songwriting team they became.
Bitter Fingers is a great album track by Elton John. It’s representative of his style of music being similar to some of his well-known songs. I really like Bernie’s line about “the keyboard player’s hollow haunted eyes”. While this song was recorded in America, it has a definite English feel both lyrically and melodically. This makes sense as it deals with Elton & Bernie’s experiences in England. Gus Dudgeon did a very good job producing this melodic 1970s rocker. This song represents the songwriting of Elton John & Bernie Taupin at their best.
I decided to write an article about songs which have the same name as each other where I describe and compare them. I selected six song groupings which have the same title. I embed the official YouTube audio for one of the songs for each grouping.
Satisfied
In 1989, singer Richard Marx released an energetic pop rock song “Satisfied”. This is a guitar driven song featuring synth and organ. Fourteen years later, his Capitol Records labelmate Bob Seger released his “Satisfied” song. Bob’s song has a similar energy, but it is totally different. It’s an upbeat piano driven blues track. Five years later, soft rock singer Robbie Dupree known for “Steal Away” released a song with that name. Robbie’s “Satisfied” is similar to Bob’s song with its blues feel and piano. It has a relaxing vibe. This song is a fusion of Bob and Richard’s songs as it brings back rock being a blues rock song. One thing all three songs have in common is they all feature organ.
Satisfied - Robbie Dupree (2008)
Is This Love
We’re going to a similar type of 80s rock to Richard Marx’s “Satisfied”. In 1986, Survivor released the rock song “Is This Love”. It has a catchy melody driven by guitar and synths. Jimi Jamison sings powerfully. The following year Whitesnake released their power ballad “Is This Love”. This song also uses a mix of guitar and synths. David Coverdale sings passionately. These two songs are similar, both having an arena rock sound of its time and featuring guitar solos.
Is This Love - Survivor (1986)
Georgia
This is a change of pace to something soft. In 1976, Boz Scaggs released a song called “Georgia”. This is an optimistic soul song about a person. I like how it includes horns which are utilised well. A few years later Elton John would release a song “Georgia” about the US state. This is a gospel song where Elton plays organ and harmonium in addition to piano. There is a quiet and effective guitar solo which is totally different to a rock guitar solo. Both songs are led by the piano. They are melodic songs which feel alike as they have common genres.
Georgia - Boz Scaggs (1976)
Isn’t It Time
In 1977, The Babys released the wonderful soft rock song “Isn’t It Time”. John Waite sings so passionately. It’s a melodic piano driven song. It has so many different instruments including horns, orchestra, organ, guitars and prominent female backing vocals. All the elements are mixed in right with the guitars rocking well in a supporting role. Boz Scaggs released his own song “Isn’t It Time” three years later. This song feels like both soft rock and soul. It’s keyboard driven featuring a mixture of electric & acoustic pianos and synths. It has a rocking guitar solo at the halfway mark. These songs have a similar vibe with both having female backing vocals. Boz’s song is good, but it can’t compare to the majesty of The Babys’ song.
Isn’t It Time - The Babys (1977)
Take Me Back
We’re going to an Elton John country song released in 1980. On “Take Me Back”, Elton plays a Wurlitzer electric piano and sings in a southern accent. This is a relaxing song featuring a fiddle solo. Bonnie Tyler released her “Take Me Back” in 1983. Bonnie’s song opens with guitars and soon an acoustic piano appears that has a prominent place. This song really rocks with its heartland rock vibe. These two songs are very different genres, probably being the most different songs with the same name seen so far.
Take Me Back - Elton John (1980)
I Go Crazy
Soft rock singer Paul Davis released the warm song “I Go Crazy” in 1977. It’s a piano driven song featuring synth and understated guitar. Paul sings gently and melodically. Blues singer and guitarist Buddy Guy released his own “I Go Crazy” in 1993. His song opens with guitar which is soon joined by all instruments including piano. This is an intense blues song which features horns. The two songs are so different, though some lyrical similarities exist. I like Buddy’s song, but Paul’s song is the best, being something special.
I Go Crazy - Paul Davis (1977)
So you just read a discussion of different songs with the same name. Some of the songs featured are singles while others are album tracks. Rock is the primary genre with the other genres blues, soul, gospel, country and pop also featured. If you enjoyed this article, you may be interested in my similar article “Rock Songs Referencing Each Other”.
Bob Seger is an iconic American rock singer. He has a deep, powerful voice which can be intense & aggressive on rock songs and gentle & soft on ballads. In this article, I’ll be giving my thoughts on the power of Bob Seger’s singing referring to some of his songs. The YouTube official audio will be embedded for five of these songs discussed further down.
In his popular song “Old Time Rock & Roll”, he gives a real rock singing voice. He almost shouts while maintaining a melodic voice. He sings gently and intimately on “We’ve Got Tonight”. At the halfway point during the bridge, he suddenly changes his singing into an aggressive style which is very effective. Following the bridge, he goes back into the gentle, intimate singing. In “Katmandu” he sings so loud and does the creative stuttering “K-K-K-K-Katmandu” throughout the song.
In the heartland rocker “Even Now”, he sings so soulfully. I like how he sings both the lead and backing vocals in the chorus which would have been achieved by overdubbing. In this song, he creatively extends the words “now” and “somehow”. In the second verse, there is a good back and forth between his powerful singing and Roy Bittan’s piano notes. He closes out the song with good vocalising and saying the title.
I’ll now talk about a few of Bob’s later songs recorded in the 21st century. In his 2003 blues song “Satisfied” released in his late 50s, you can tell he’s much older than his prime, but he still sings powerfully. The lyrics “I can still snarl with the best” seems to have a double meaning that he can still sing his heart out. He sings that line so intensely. In the rock ballad “I’ll Remember You” recorded in the early 2010s and released on his last album “I Knew You When” in 2017, he sings so passionately. His singing on this track is so impressive for his senior age.
Bob often gives good vocal interjections during an instrumental section like a guitar solo or a piano solo. This could be saying something, singing the song title, ad-libbed lyrics or non-lyrical sounds. Examples of this are saying “hey” in the middle of Rick Vito’s first “Like A Rock” slide guitar solo & singing a vocal effect in the middle of the second solo, singing “ooooo” just before Pete Carr’s guitar solo in “Mainstreet”, saying “oh yeah” in Steve Nathan’s first piano solo in “Satisfied” & singing it with some vocal effects in the second piano solo.
Katmandu (1975)
Old Time Rock & Roll (1978)
We’ve Got Tonight (1978)
Satisfied (2003)
I’ll Remember You (2017)
These are my thoughts on the powerful singing of Bob Seger. He is an expressive singer who made a great contribution to rock music. I consider him to be one of the world’s best singers.
A key demand of the protests in Sri Lanka which kicked the Rajapaksas out of power last year is system change. This is something we have yet to see. In this article, I’ll be giving my thoughts on how system change can be carried out.
Constitution of Sri Lanka
One aspect relates to the Sri Lankan Constitution. Both Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, during their presidencies introduced draconian undemocratic amendments to the Constitution strengthening the power of the President, doing harm to rule of law and independence of government institutions which were the 18th Amendment in 2010 and the 20th Amendment in 2020. Following these two Rajapaksa presidencies, there were restorative amendments to the Constitution passed which were the 19th Amendment in 2015 and the 21st Amendment in 2022.
We can’t keep going back and forth between authoritarian and restorative constitutional amendments. This cycle must end. What’s tragic is that many parliamentarians voted for the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Amendments. They didn’t see the dangers of draconian amendments and even if they did, their thirst for power prevented them from voting sensibly. Then with the 20th Amendment, they went back to voting for an authoritarian amendment again not learning their lesson.
Firstly, it’s important that we learn not to vote again for rulers who seek to strengthen their powers and engage in corruption. Secondly, we need to elect sensible parliamentarians who won’t vote for such authoritarian laws. In the Parliament we should have, the government and opposition members will have different ideologies and policies, but they would all believe in values such as rule of law, integrity, good governance and serving the country well. Both sides should be competing to perform better in these fronts which would be a healthy competition.
Unity
Unity is an issue Sri Lanka has had a problem with for many years with mistrust occurring among different communities. A positive factor of last year’s protests is that it was a rare case of Sri Lankans of different ethnicities being part of a common movement. While that was one moment which didn’t solve unity, it’s imperative that we don’t go back to the way we used to be. That can very easily happen.
We need to have a united Sri Lanka with a common Sri Lankan identity. We should use what happened last year as a stepping stone to overcome our divisions and make permanent unity. It’s important to reflect on how politicians divided Sri Lankans. Unity is a valuable subject to be taught in schools. This issue ties into my previous point of the need for common values across parliamentarians. Unity should be another common value across the political divide.
Abolishing the Executive Presidency
I am of the view that the Executive Presidency needs to be abolished. This concentrates too much power on one individual. I believe it has caused much damage to Sri Lanka and is a major factor which contributed to Sri Lanka’s present state. A President who gets elected on a reform mandate gets corrupted by the system resulting in him or her not performing as promised and infuriating much of Sri Lanka.
It’s worth noting that Gotabaya Rajapaksa got elected President when the 19th Amendment was in force. The 19th Amendment greatly reduced the powers of the President. A parliamentary system could make it less likely for an individual with no political experience to be elected Head of Government. I think that we should transition into having an Executive Prime Minister with a ceremonial President.
Bribery and Corruption
Bribery and corruption unfortunately is very common in Sri Lanka including politics, the public and private sector. We need to have systems in place to deter individuals from engaging in these practices. There needs to be successful bribery and corruption prosecutions especially politicians.
We have been enabling bribery and corruption for a long time. This needs to change. Saying no to paying bribes including politicians will make a difference. If a politician asks for a bribe, when saying no there are important points to tell them. They are, this is causing damage to Sri Lanka, the need for system change and mention their election comments against bribery if they said it. Sri Lankan businesses should implement policies of not paying bribes to the government and for their staff not to solicit bribes from customers.
It’s important to teach school students the dangers of bribery and corruption including not participating in it and saying no to paying bribes. It would be useful for public servants and elected representatives to be instructed not to get involved in bribery and corruption when they start their roles. While this won’t prevent all public servants and elected representatives from engaging in these practices, it has the potential to noticeably reduce it.
Conclusion
I gave my perspective on four issues I think need to be fulfilled for system change in Sri Lanka. This is a small selection I gave with many more issues relating to system change needed. This process is an enormous challenge for us to undertake, but that shouldn’t deter us. We can accomplish system change. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this topic.
I decided to write an article of songs which reference another song. When I say referencing, I mean the lyrics include the title of another song in it. I made it a point to not feature any songs which reference another song by the same artist. I focus on classic rock music. A few songs may not fully classify as rock, but all the artists featured are rock artists. I would imagine that these references are purely coincidental. Some of the songs it’s referencing came out several years later.
I’m starting with the band Journey’s energetic rocker “Just the Same Way” sung by both their keyboardist Gregg Rolie and lead singer Steve Perry. Gregg sings “it’s after midnight” in the second line. This brings to mind the song “After Midnight”. While that song is a J.J. Cale original, the version I like the best and am referring to is the Eric Clapton version. These songs are quite different, yet are both melodic rock songs featuring piano. Just the Same Way has a hard rock feel, while “After Midnight” has both a southern rock and a blues rock feel.
In Elton John’s country rock song “Birds”, Elton sings “these days are different than the past” in the first verse bringing to mind Jackson Browne’s “These Days”. Jackson’ song is a ballad, but it has a somewhat similar musical style including the rock guitar playing by David Lindley which is comparable to Rusty Anderson’s playing in “Birds”. In the Eagles song “Lyin’ Eyes”, Glenn Frey sings at the end of the last verse “you’re still the same old girl you used to be”. Glenn’s friend Bob Seger would have his own hit “Still The Same” three years later. Both songs are similar 70s ballads. Lyin’ Eyes also sings of “hands as cold as ice”. That leads us to the great Foreigner rocker “Cold As Ice”. This song really rocks and has a great piano part.
In Jackson Browne’s rocker “The Fuse” he sings “there’s a fire high in the empty sky”. Empty Sky is the first song and title track of Elton John’s debut album. They are both long rock songs with a prominent piano part. Elton’s song is even longer and is a product of the late 60s with Jackson’s song a product of the mid 70s. Empty Sky seems to be psychedelic rock and folk rock while “The Fuse” seems to be heartland rock. In Jackson’s song “Looking Into You” he opens with “Well I looked into a house I once lived in”. Elton would sing a song “House” a few decades later. Both songs are ballads with Jackson’s song having a country rock feel and Elton’s song having a pop feel.
In Jackson Browne’s midtempo rocker “Fountain of Sorrow”, he sings “it’s good to see your smiling face tonight” a few times. This brings to mind James Taylor’s hit “Your Smiling Face” a few years later. They both have a similar 70s soft rock sound. James'es song is short and simple, while Jackson’s song is long and epic. In Jackson Browne’s first hit “Doctor My Eyes”, he sings “to awaken from these dreams”. This leads us to the song “These Dreams” by Heart. Doctor My Eyes is a piano driven midtempo rock song from the early 70s. These Dreams is so different being a synth driven mid 80s song. Doctor My Eyes sounds like an Elton John song with its piano which Jackson himself plays and Bernie Taupin (Elton John’s songwriting partner) wrote the lyrics for “These Dreams”.
We’re now moving to the late 80s with Bruce Hornsby’s “The Valley Road”. Bruce opens the song with “sometimes I lead, sometimes I follow”. This references Bob Seger’s song “Sometimes” which came out a few years earlier. They are both rock songs that were products of that time except Bruce’s song is soft while Bob’s song rocks so hard. The Valley Road has elements of heartland rock which is part of Bob’s music. Bruce’s piano is prominent in his song and while Bob’s song is guitar driven, the piano player Bill Payne has a solo.
We’re now going into Bob Seger’s heartland rocker “Even Now”. It was a hit in the US, but the song unfortunately isn’t remembered as one of his classics as it should be. I discussed the song in my previous blog post “Russ Kunkel’s Drumming for Bob Seger”. Bob sings “deep inside, it still amazes me”. This leads to Elton John’s “Amazes Me”. Bob’s song came out in the early 80s while Elton’s song came out in the late 80s. Their style of rock in each song is quite different. Elton’s song is slower and has soul influences. Both of them are melodic rockers featuring great piano and powerful expressive singing by Bob Seger and Elton John.
Billy Joel’s “She’s Right on Time” opens with him singing “turn on all the Christmas lights”. This brings to mind Journey’s “Lights”. She’s Right on Time isn’t a full on rock song, but it is probably soft rock. It’s a slowish melodic song showcasing Billy’s strengths as a singer-songwriter. Lights really rocks and touches me with its melody, piano, guitar solo, organ and Steve Perry’s vocals. It’s a song about their hometown San Francisco. You may have noticed that we both started and ended with a song by the band Journey. This represents the musical
journey we’ve been on going from song to song.
List of Articles Featuring these Songs
The following is a list of articles of mine which have featured songs discussed above. I’m not including articles where I discussed the song without including a paragraph on it or described an alternate version of the song I’d like to see e.g. cover or live version.
