
There’s an ageism at work in pop music - in the wider culture, really - regarding who’s allowed to enjoy sex and to talk about it. Young and Stills performed classic hits from Buffalo Springfield, CSN and CSNY, joined by both Crosby’s and Stills’ sons. Music Neil Young and Stephen Stills pay tribute to David Crosby at benefit concert Whatever he’s doing, it’s working: Dressed in high-end athleisure wear, his blue-green eyes so clear that they look like they could chill a drink, this master of the American love song is the picture of health as he discusses “Gasms” and recounts detailed episodes from throughout the career he launched nearly seven decades ago as frontman of the Miracles.

BILLY JOE ROYAL GREATEST HITS FREE
“Ain’t s- else you could call me for at 5 o’clock in the morning and say, ‘Let’s go.’”įor Robinson, golf is the most enjoyable part of an overall wellness regime that also includes yoga - he’s been practicing for 37 years - and a diet he says has been free of red meat since 1972. “There’s really nothing like it,” he says of the game, nodding toward his clubs in a corner of the room. The 83-year-old Motown legend is here in the desert to play a sold-out gig several weeks ahead of Friday’s release of his provocatively titled new album, “ Gasms.” (You know what that’s short for.) But Robinson, who calls golf “the heroin of sports,” drove out early from his home in Los Angeles to squeeze in a round before showtime.
BILLY JOE ROYAL GREATEST HITS TV
Sharon Ibrahim on “You not only killed my son, you killed me too.Smokey Robinson rises from an overstuffed armchair and lowers the volume of the Masters golf tournament on the TV in his 11th-floor suite at the Agua Caliente casino.Braves Reporter Kelly Crull Works Hard to Make It Look Easy.Sure, it was a little naughty, but after several months of “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies, maybe radio needed a little spice! And besides, most of us from that era turned out okay, right? Thank you Billy Joe, for a great career and some unforgettable radio hits. I’m glad WFLI and WGOW were brave enough to play it, because I thought it was cool. It sounds relatively innocent now, but back in ’69, some stations wouldn’t play it because of suggestive lyrics like, “Mary Hill loved to ride on the merry-go-round….All the guys got eager eyes watchin’ Mary go round…Now, in the daytime Mary Hill was a teaser….Come the night she was such a pleaser….Mary Hill was such a thrill after dark, in Cherry Hill Park.”


Go ahead, sing along: “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah….I knew you when…”įinally, his controversial hit from late 1969, “Cherry Hill Park.” This one still gets played on some greatest-hits stations, like Chattanooga’s 95.3 Big FM. I wonder how many millions of guys identified with those great Joe South-written words about being from the wrong side of the tracks: “Down in the boondocks, people put me down ’cause that’s the side of town I was born in….I love her, she loves me, but I don’t fit in her society, Lord have mercy on the boy from down in the boondocks….”īilly Joe also played on some of the WFLI “Jet-FLI Spectaculars” at Memorial Auditorium, which featured about a half-dozen hot recording acts on the same bill, for about 3 bucks! He always sang his other 1965 hit, “I Knew You When.” I heard it about a week ago on Sirius XM 60s on 6, and thought to myself, “I haven’t heard this one in a while.” It sure sounded good. In his honor, let me play you his three biggest hits.įirst, “Down in the Boondocks,” probably his best known song, a top-ten hit in the mid-60s. Just a few weeks ago, he was the headliner at the Whitwell Summer Fest.īilly Joe has passed away at the age of 73. In fact, “TJ the DJ” was usually on hand to introduce him. Later he had a few country hits in the 1980s, and since he was based in North Carolina (raised in Valdosta, Ga), he often played Chattanooga clubs and Lake Winnie. He had those big hits in the 1960s, and most of them were “oldies” to me by the time I really started paying attention to the radio. For what had to be the ten-millionth time, he smiled and told me how much that meant to him.

Like everybody else who ever met him for the first time, I told him how much I enjoyed his music, and how those songs played a big part in my youth. In 2013, he attended the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame banquet to honor his friend Tommy Jett, the Chattanooga deejay who was being inducted that night. I’m glad I finally got to meet Billy Joe Royal.
