Topic: New Chords Postings
Sometimes you take a flyer on an album, even when you don't know too much about a band. You've heard a couple of songs and hope you like the rest. I did this back in the 70's with Jackson Hawke's debut album Forever (1976). And to this day it's one of my favourite Canadian "hidden gem" albums from the 70's.
Jackson Hawke, formed by Sault Ste. Marie natives Tim Ryan and Bob Yeomans, took its name from the surnames of the two main band members' maternal grandfathers. "You Can't Dance", the first single from Forever, enjoyed Top 40 success across Canada. The single had an added bonus in store for the band by essentially becoming a double A-side single. When DJs found the single's B-side was a cover of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic", they gave that song airplay, as well. (The official second single was "She's the One".)
In 1978, American pop duo England Dan & John Ford Coley covered the song for their album Some Things Don't Come Easy, taking it to #49 in the US. They changed some of the lyrics along the way, as noted by the Sault Star:
Yeomans still gets a charge of the slight lyric shift England Dan and John Ford Coley applied to Jackson Hawke's signature song, omitting the line, "You can't dance, you're a three-legged cow," an effort, he contends, to cinnamon-coat what lyricist Ryan intended as a "totally angry thing." (http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=799651)
The duo changed the line to "Find someone gonna show you how". Pop idol Rick Nelson also covered the song in 1977 on his album Intakes. He omitted the same line, by not including the second half of the Chorus at all.
What Yeomans says is true. Both cover versions soften and sugarcoat the song, and as a consequence they lack the rollicking, edgier, bar-band tone of the Jackson Hawke original.
The chord chart:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/crd/jacksonhawke-youcantdance.txt
Updated: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 1:38 AM EDT
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