5.14 What are the meanings of some of the references in the John Lodge solo song "Children of Rock 'n' Roll"?
"I remember oh so clear / How the world looked from Blueberry Hill" - "Blueberry Hill" was a song, which first made number one for Glenn Miller in 1940, and was also recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1949, but Lodge was probably influenced by Fats Domino's version which made number two in 1956. Lodge has also said he was influenced by rock 'n' roll movies of his youth, and Domino was in several, such as "Shake Rattle and Roll" (1956), "Jamboree" (1957), "The Girl Can't Help It" (1957) and "The Big Beat" (1958).
"We played Elysian Park / Until the night was dark" - The Moodies played the Elysian Park Love-in of November 1-2, 1969 with Jefferson Airplane, among others.
"We traveled eight miles high
/ We never saw the sky" - "Eight Miles High" was a 1966 hit song
by the Byrds. However, as with the Byrds song, it might refer to the
airplanes the Moodies traveled on for their tours (a trans-continental
flight would cruise around eight miles high), and, in Lodge's case, the
feelings of insulation he experienced just before the mid-1970s hiatus.
In a radio interview, "In the Studio," highlighting the Seventh Sojourn
album, Lodge related this story:
"I remember we were flying one day, and we'd chartered a
707 with our own
keyboard player, who sat...in like a disco floor. So when
the 707 took off, there
were just the five of us, and we had about five
people flying the plane, and we
had our own butler, and we had our own person playing
this organ. And I
remember walking from the front of the 707 to go to the
restroom at the back, to
the toilet. And I walked past the organist, playing, and
I walked past the barman,
making some drinks, and then I walked past this sort of
sitting room area with a
fireplace, I walked past two bedrooms. I went to
the toilet, and I was in there, and
I thought...I'd never been so lonely in my life! You know...it
was like walking...
down this huge tunnel of nothing. But, you know, materialism
and wealth, and
everything else, what we'd bought, you know, what we'd chartered.
And it was
just...and I suddenly realized I got back and there was
all...just the five of us,
sitting at the front, just talking about absolutely nothing.
We'd just lost all the art
of conversation, because we'd been together so much. And
I thought, "Well this is
ridiculous. I don't really want to be on this plane."
"We had a beautiful day / When an island gave way to the / Children of Rock 'n' Roll" - "It's A Beautiful Day" was a 60s group, and the island probably the Isle of Wight, which hosted music festivals which the Moodies played in 1969 and 1970. Lodge talks about these concerts in the video/DVD Legend of a Band.
"And in the garden of dreams / We found out what it means / To be the / Children of Rock 'n' Roll" - This likely refers to the Madison Square Garden concert of October 26, 1973, for which the Moodies sold out the Garden in one day.