Dateline : JAN 8, 2008

Hey Gang! Did ya'll have a nice Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Holiday Season, etc etc? Well I sure did ..... Santa brought me a digital piano ....a few days late , but perhaps a harbinger if you will for this entry and for what may lie ahead for me in 2008 in the music biz? ??? But that's another story for another day. Speaking of daze, do you know what day it is today? Some would say it's New Hampshire primary day....and they would be right and some would say it's Elvis' Birthday and they would be right too..... Both are important to me, not that I can do anything about either, nor can Ole King Presley, who would of been 73 today had he taken better care of himself.....

So here I am thinking today about music, dates and the passage of time ( I can't believe I have been in and out of the music game for 52 years now ..... ) But truth be told, this web glob entry started formulating yesterday afternoon Jan 7th, which I might note is the birthday of my old pal and first bandmate guitarist, bassist Doug Percoco. But it also originally had NOTHING to do with music, but rather those Knapp folks who seem to be joined at the hip with me since 2001.

I was just googling along yesterday, checking "the internets" for any new entries from anyone on any of the Knapps and of course many Google entries come up these days with the name Spooner associated with it. I must of miss keyed a search which is very easy for a one fingered typist to do and I saw this foreign language entry : Faen Dainse Bjorn Saksgard with the only English words Ken Spooner, Kim Williams and Joyscouts embedded in it. ????

Whoa What Have We Here Thought I? And so ....

Well old Bjorn Saksgard himself brought up 45 (now that's a telling number) entries on Google and that's without the proper spelling, made impossible by utilizing an English keyboard that does not allow for all those neat little doo- dad marks above the letters used in many European languages. The first thing I found out was, Bjorn is Norwegian which is mighty close to Swedish (a big part of my DNA).

One of the first web pages I came up on with a sound samples of Bjorn's album Titled "NO" had this one called "Faen Dainse" on which it stated in further information was Musik Av (by) Ken Spooner, & Text Av Kim Williams , only partially true said I, as I wrote a whole lot of the Text and 100% of the Music to that one. But that was a small point because when I KLIKED ON The LYT button that played the sound Sample

I was amazed at how much of the melody seemed to have changed or as they say LOST IN TRANSLATION or was it just Bjorn's artistic vision of it. So much that I wasn't quite sure if indeed "Faen Dainse" was indeed my treasured ironic rent payer " If The Devil Danced In Empty Pockets, He'd Have A Ball In Mine which just might hold the record for a record with the longest title (I don't know ? ) SONY and Epic Records shortened it up to "If The Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets) " obviously their marketing department never saw some of 45 Record Label gems I did as kid in MAD Magazine eg "Hannibal Crossed The Alps, But I Cant Get Around You " by Louis Prima or listened to Homer & Jethro warble on "The Shades Of Niagra Were Falling Fast , But I Got A Pretty Good Look Anyway".

I first tried to purchase a download on one of the many European music sites so I could hear the entire song , but the secure server and the payments accepted were all over the map and seemed to get lost in translation too. Determined I searched for the song on trusty old I Tunes and whadda ya know, there it was in their Norway Store.!! So for 99 cents US , I was able to download the whole enchilada . The opening of the song was reminiscent and when I heard Bjorn sing DIABLO MOTORS &*(__ vvhenjst von Scheik;e Helluva lufta mae ( I think Bjorn sings DIABLO MOTOR) I knew for sure I had the right one baby. Ironacaly Diablo Motors was the very last two words written on the song. As after Kim & I thought we had it pretty well set, I went changed the opening line from I'll Tell You A Tale Of A Whale Of Sale ...to Diablo Motors Had A Hell Of A Sale Downtown Yesterday.....

When my wife Anne arrived home from work I played it for her without giving her any clues to what she was about to hear. I said listen to this .....

As soon as the words came out of Bjorn's mouth ......She got that What The Hell Look scrunched up on her face, and I thought Ahh Ha !!...I'm gonna tell her what she is listening to. But before I could, she said , "That's If The Devil Danced isn't it. What Languague Is It?"..... And I got that look on my face...HOW THE HELL DID YOU KNOW... says I , Bjorn has gone and changed the melody .... Well Somehow she did.... Women..... they are something else again!!!

But now you get to hear it too alongside of the original recording by Joe Diffie that he took all the way to Number 1 in America, Canada and several other countries. Joe I might add also sang the original demo version of it back in 1989 (not the one that's on my Allow Me To Demonstrate CD) that I still have on cassette someplace around here and someday will get around to converting to a digital file. For the Record : Funny thing is Joe did not want to record Devil Danced for the record....But Garth Brooks did ! (but that's another story for another time .........

BTW: I Tunes and for good reason, has all their sound files in the MP4 (protected format) which means I can play it on my computer but no one else can. VERY UNDERSTANDABLE from a Songwriters point of view , who I may add is the very person last to see any of the royalty money but glad to see it later than never. But I wanted to share Bjorn's version with friends , and whomever else has too much time on their hands and reads my mad ramblings here. So I looked for a converter to take the MP4 file and convert it to MP3. Found it on the internets without too much difficulty, but the one I did find is limited to 3 mins of recording time. The original song was only 2;47 but Bjorn has seen fit to let his jolly band the Joyscouts stretch out a bit on the instrumental and thereby has extended the song to 3:11..... Not as long as the Dance Mix Sony did for the song back in '91 , extending it into Like A Rolling Stone or Hey Jude territory, but long enough to pull the plug on Bjorn and The Boys before they can end it properly . Trust me they do and there is nothing wrong with your internet connection, computer etc so hold your calls please)