Today we’re going to go for a musical ride because when the music is playing Ted Tocks Covers can take you wherever you want to go. Looking up at the departures board indicates that our destination is New Orleans, Louisiana where we will look into a sound inspired by Allen Toussaint and the Neville Brothers. After a taste of southern hospitality, the caravan will need to take a side trip to Michigan to pick up a good friend of Ted Tocks Covers. From there we will take a picturesque drive along the southern shores of the Great Lakes before we settle in Woodstock, New York, at the edge of the Catskills.
The musical centrepiece will be a band called Orleans who had a nice run of hits in the mid ‘70s before scattering in a multitude of directions. For the purposes of today’s feature, the spotlight will shine on Orleans’s multi-instrumentalist, lead and backing vocalist, and co-lyricist, John Hall.
Without getting into too much detail John Hall had an affinity for walking in the shadows of greatness and picking up the best of what they were laying down. Back in the late ‘60s his band, Kangaroo were regulars at Café Wha? in Greenwich Village where they shared the stage with an aspiring bunch of musicians from Asbury Park, New Jersey, called The Castiles. They were led by an aspiring front man by the name of Bruce Springsteen. On occasion the lead guitarist for John Hammond’s backing band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames would wander in and listen to a song or two. Less than a year later he would rise to prominence as the driving force behind the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In between gigs, John Hall and his bandmates would wander through the village, and it wouldn’t be uncommon to see Bob Dylan hanging out at a bar talking about song writing with a guy like Tim Hardin.
It was a little later on that John Hall met an enthusiastic writer for the Village Voice named Johanna. Johanna had recently written a positive review of Janis Joplin’s ‘Kosmic Blues’ album.
It needs to be noted that this was a delicate time for Janis. It was post-Big Brother and the Holding Company, and her new approach divided the critics. Because Johanna’s review was supportive, Janis granted her an interview and the pair connected on many levels. The next thing John Hall knew, Janis Joplin and Johanna were in his apartment, and they were talking about song writing. When Hall played Joplin some of his compositions, she was complimentary but she challenged the aspiring song writer to write from the perspective of someone more worldly. She doubled down on that thought by suggesting that John Hall and Johanna should write collaboratively.
You’re a writer. You’re a woman. Why don’t the two of you write me a song that a woman could sing?”
This is how ‘Half Moon’ became the turning point for John Hall and his wife to be, Johanna. In an effort to share things chronologically, here is Janis Joplin from her posthumous release, Pearl’.
How is this song not a classic rock staple? This is Janis Joplin and the Full Tilt Boogie Band at its finest.
For John and Johanna, ‘Half Moon’ opened the door for so much that followed.
Half moon, night time sky
Seven stars, heaven’s eyes
Seven songs on seven seas
Just to bring all your sweet love home to me”
Here is the Orleans version of ‘Half Moon’ which appeared on their debut album which was recorded at Muscle Shoals.
Anecdotes like this pretty much define John Hall. They illustrate his life in music. Conversations flow easily from a time where John Denver helped to ease his mind after a set went poorly, to touring with the immensely talented, Taj Mahal. Through his musical networking it wasn’t long before John Hall was in demand as a session player, being offered studio gigs for Seals and Crofts debut album, and Bonnie Raitt’s diverse breakthrough album, ‘Give It Up’. The connections ratcheted up when he was brought into Bill Graham’s orbit and the world of Fillmore East and Fillmore West, which led to gigs with Little Feat in their prime, and this wordless encounter with Duane Allman and Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band in a dressing room before a gig at a college whose name is lost to memory.
I put my guitar case down and took my Fender Stratocaster out and I went in and sat down with them and started playing along. It was just a shuffle 12-bar blues and I played rhythm guitar while each of them would play a solo, and then they would stop soloing and look at me like I should “take it” and I would play a couple of verses of a solo, and we’d just trade around in circles — just “you take it,” now the next person takes it, and now the next person takes it — and eventually we got around to a blues ending and introduced ourselves.”
By the time the calendar turned to 1972, John Hall was ready to focus on projects of his own, and Johanna was right beside him. He formed Orleans with Larry Hoppen and Wells Kelley. Larry’s brother Lance would join later that year. John Hall had a vision and he had the right personnel.
My idea right from the beginning was, “Let’s make this band be really good.”
Strangely, the band that was so driven by the New Orleans sound, that they made it their name, ended up finding their greatest success with songs like ‘Dance with Me’ and ‘Still the One’.
Wait! Stop the music.
It needs to be stated that this is not uttered with any sense of contempt or derision. Both songs serve as examples of how when music flows spontaneously there is often a natural, widespread appeal. According to John Hall, ‘Dance With Me’ kind of came in on the wind one spring morning.
Johanna, and I were in our house in Saugerties, NY. I was sitting in the living room on some spring morning playing my acoustic guitar, and she was in the kitchen making coffee or something. I started playing that melody on the guitar. I had found this open D tuning, and I was just playing that guitar part and she called in, “Sounds really good!” from the other room. She said, “It sounds like ‘Dance with Me,’” and I said, “Maybe we could think of something more original?”
Johanna stuck with her instincts and put the first verse together in about fifteen minutes.
Dance with me, I want to be your partner
Can’t you see the music is just starting
Night is calling, and I am falling
Dance with me”
Meanwhile, John tried for something more profound. Nothing came, but the music and Johanna’s part stayed with them. When Hall played it for Larry Hoppen, he implored his bandmate to finish the song. In the moment it was shelved because no other ideas were coming, but sometimes something as simple as the rhythmic beat of the road rushing under the wheels of your car, or like Kris Kristofferson wrote, the windshield wipers slapping time, can suggest words and phrases.
Johanna and John were returning home after a gig, and the line just hit her like a command. “Pick the beat up and kick your feet up.” From there she reached for an envelope and grabbed a pen. The second verse was written in less than five minutes.
Fantasy could never be so killing
I feel free, I hope that you are willing
Pick the beat up, and kick your feet up
Dance with me”
‘Dance With Me’ was recorded and released on ‘Orleans II’ in 1974 and then re-released as the second single for ’Let There Be Music’ fifty years ago. The patience paid off as the latter release went to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100
The lyrics for ‘Still the One’ came together in a similar way. Once again, Johanna Hall was just in tune with the people around her. According to John the concept arose out of an observation made by a friend who was going through a breakup. She observed that there were many songs about relationships falling apart. She openly wondered if a good song could be written about a couple who sailed through turbulent waters and came out stronger on the other side of the storm.
Challenge accepted. Once again, Johanna wrote it on the back of an envelope and when she shared the lyrics with John, he crafted the music in no time.
A friend of ours was going through a divorce and asked Johanna (Hall’s wife and lyricist) to write a song about a couple staying together. So, she did, and she handed me the finished lyric on the back of an envelope and said, ‘Do you think you can do anything with this?’ I wrote the music to it in 10 minutes, which was a good sign.”
Here is a passage from ‘Still the One’.
Still the one
That’s my better half
We’re still having fun
And you’re still the one
You’re still the one
That makes me strong
Still the one
I want to take along
We’re still having fun
And you’re still the one (yes you are)”
John Hall spoke openly about the concept in this passage.
I don’t think there’s any marriage or any relationship where people don’t have ups and downs. There’s no perfect human being, there are no perfect husbands or perfect wives or boyfriends and girlfriends. It’s a song that tries to reflect a reality that you can be in love with someone, and they can be in love with you, and you can have mostly really great times together, and still go through troubled times and difficult spots. And it’s an opportunity for spiritual growth, or for personal growth. The test is whether you get through them.”
As much as the lyrics and music came together relatively easily, the ultimate album track struggled with the groove. You can credit producer Chuck Plotkin with helping the band find the shuffle that became the memorable ’Still the One’ trademark.
Chuck was a record producer, but he listened like a man in the street. When we were rehearsing or playing a song for him, he would drum on his knees with his hands. He’d be drumming along and, all of sudden, when we would get to a particular section, he would stop drumming and say, “Something changed! What was that? I was moving, I was dancing, I was feeling it, but all of a sudden, I didn’t feel it anymore. What happened there?” and we’d have to go back and take the arrangement apart and figure out what had changed.”
Ultimately, it all came down to simplifying the instrumentation. In the words of John Hall, they were just “slamming down the beat.”
Both the single and the album, ‘Waking and Dreaming’ were released in August of 1976. Proving that it’s all about the hook, the album rose to #30 and ‘Still the One’ climbed all the way to #5.
As a naïve 11-year-old my introduction to Orleans was a steady stream of the band’s three primary hits on Toronto area AM radio. I was too young to understand the subtleties described by John Hall above, but almost fifty years later, it truly is the infectious, funky jazz-based rhythm infused with the bouncy rock and roll beat that makes people smile all these years later.
For John Hall, Orleans was only the beginning.
At the peak of the band’s popularity Hall quit Orleans in favour of a solo career. He became active in fighting to stop a nuclear plant planned for Clementon on the Hudson River, and co-founded Musicians United for Safe Energy with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Graham Nash. His second solo recording of that period (his third overall) included the title track ‘Power,’ which became an environmental anthem performed by an impressive group that included; Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, Holly Near, the Doobie Brothers and James Taylor, who cut it live at the No Nukes Concerts at Madison Square Garden.
This is where I need to hand today’s feature off to someone who was avidly following John and Johanna Hall from their early days. My friend Dave from Michigan exemplifies the Ted Tocks mission. If the theory is “music connects people”, then Dave exists as exhibit A. We met through a mutual ‘friend’, and that is Jackson Browne. I am pretty sure that I shared a Ted Tocks feature about ‘Rock Me on the Water’ with a Jackson Browne Facebook group. It must be said that Jackson Browne fans are right up there with John Prine fans as the nicest people on the internet and Dave is a fan of both. Since 2022 he has been a wonderful proponent of the features I share. It all began with this comment.
Your commentaries are so heartfelt and detailed, bringing back times that are precious to so many. Thank you so much.”
I responded with gratitude.
As I type, the music of Jackson Browne is filtering through my speakers.
Some of them were angry
At the way the earth was abused
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
And they struggled to protect her from them
Only to be confused
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived
In the naked dawn only a few survived
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge”
A perfect segue?
I will let Dave take it from here.
Our current world is a mess, an unqualified mess, because power hungry and greedy men have created a situation where money buys the things that men of social conscience cannot afford; access to the very levers of power that shape our laws as they siphon wealth from the average citizens (Mudsills in 1858 Confederate language) to the Billionaire Oligarchy as these Robber Barons increasingly remove Social Safety Nets from those most underserved. Political? Too Political? Okay, I get it, this is a music centered broadcast; BUT…Music and song writers and musicians have always played a significant part in the social fabric of change and protest; the people’s voice so to speak. In a day and age of increasing authoritarianism unlimitedly funded by the very Robber Barons we suffer, how and who balances the equation? Who and how do we fight back against this oppression? History teaches us that The Bard plays an important and unstoppable role in bringing “the people” together in common themes, musical themes where the “message” in popular songs cause us to think beyond just the melodies and rhythms, as the songwriters take up mantle of resistance to power. So, how do songs like ‘Dance with Me’ and ‘Still the One’ become related to The Movement? Not an easy segue huh? But, consider this; the band Orleans had several radio friendly hits in the 1970’s led by songwriter and session guitarist John Hall; a writer that captured the attention of one Janis Joplin who subsequently recorded the John and Joanna Hall tune ‘Half Moon’The Song “Half Moon” is one of the funkiest tunes (and most difficult guitar riffs) ever. It appeared on the debut album by the 70’s studio cats group, Orleans. The original ABC/Dunhill release simply called ‘Orleans’ is impossible to find now but it literally provides a clinic in production value and musicianship. This album also captured the attention of some of the very best songwriters of that era including; Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and others. This visibility coincided with their shared Social Conscience and formed an alliance of Musicians that used their collective influence to help shape the world around them. It resulted in The No Nukes Movement of concert and documentary significance.”
Thanks Dave! A perfect balance to the basic message that I was hoping to share. Fittingly, we will drop a little ‘Power’ right here because people in numbers is the power.
Everybody needs some power, I’m told,
To shield them from the darkness and the cold.
Some may see a way to take control
When it’s bought and sold.
I know that lives are at stake:
Yours and mine and our descendants in time.
There’s so much to gain, so much to lose,
Every one of us has to choose”
It is almost a half century later. How can it be that we are still asking all the same questions?
The musical interlude continues with ‘Takin’ it to the Streets’.
Dave’s continues…
John Hall was instrumental in the No Nukes movement and went on to serve as a US House Rep for New York’s 19th District 2007-2011, moving from a musician who championed the People, to an actual cog in the gears of government, bringing his views and persuasive powers to bear in places where real change could be affected. He walked the talk, so to speak. Point being, music is a powerful currency for Social Awareness, a much needed boost that encourages US to speak up, speak out, and resist those that would take away our common beliefs in fairness and equality as they trample the norms of society that bind us together. John Hall is an example of how music shores us up, as are folks like Jackson Browne, (Before the Deluge) or Graham Nash, (‘Chicago’ and ‘Wind on the Water‘) or Steve Earle (‘Jerusalem’ and the ‘Revolution Starts Now’). These folks followed in the footsteps of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.”
We NEED these voices; some of us get nerdy and seek them out in hopes that OUR message is reflected in the songs they write. In today’s world we have many singer songwriters addressing these social issues, but one in particular is capturing the public’s attention with his poignant sarcasm toward “the ruling class” Enter Jesse Welles to Social Media in short clips of him plaintively standing in electric powerlines, addressing the madness he sees in the world, with simple hummable tunes and lyrics that scorch the earth (The Poor) He is rising like a rocket. We NEED Jesse Welles and people like him. He gives us hope that we’re not the crazy ones.”
Here is just one of many thought-provoking songs delivered like a cross between Bob Dylan, John Prine and Billy Bragg. Here is Jesse Welles and his wicked condemnation, ‘Red’.
With Jesse Welles it is almost impossible to pare his lyrics down to one verse. It is all so good.
When the war gets here, we’re all gonna hold hands
All the Baptists and the Catholics
All the Marxists and the Fascists
When the war gets here, we’re going get on the level
Everyone looks a little bit nicer
When you finally meet the devil”
Here is Dave’s concluding remark.
This is a long way around the block to say that little known artists can get noticed as song crafters and that music and musicians can play a vital role in society as more than entertainers, but rather as advocates and decision makers in our journey towards a better “We The People” Listen to ‘Dance With Me’ or commit to ‘Still the One’ and recognize that “these songs” can lead to “that song,” and that Music is a movement with the power to change our situations, one listen at a time.”
Well said Dave!
That analysis is a whole lot better than a reflection of my ten-year-old self sitting in the basement flipping the channels from ‘The Price is Right’ to ‘The Flintstones’ on a summer morning, pausing long enough to hear an ABC commercial touting their upcoming fall lineup, using ‘Still the One’ as the connection.
Put it this way. All these years later, I am still listening to Orleans, Jackson Browne, Crosby Stills and Nash, and Bruce Springsteen. I haven’t tuned into ABC in over decade. Like Bruce said, “there’s 57 channels and nothing on”.
But, through it all, music still matters.
Blow up your TV and turn up the music.
It took me a while to get here, but let’s explore a small sample of covers and alternate recordings using today’s double feature as the guideline.
Do you remember ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ by Bobby McFerrin? This cover of ‘Dance With Me’ which was released on his self-titled debut, acts as prelude to what was to come for this unique vocalist. It lifts you off the ground. This cover represents the power of interpretation as McFerrin shares how the original spoke to him.
In 1998, John Hall released his own cover on an album appropriately entitled ‘Recovered’. Count me in on the stripped-down acoustic delivery almost every time.
Moving on to ‘Still the One’ here is a country version of the Orleans hit from Bill Anderson. Through the years the country genre became so cookie cutter, it almost became unlistenable. Anderson’s cover rose to #11 on the Hot Country Singles chart in 1977. Give me Willie and Waylon any day over this precursor to karaoke.
Orleans is still touring in the present day although Lance Hoppen is the only ‘original’ member. Here is a sample of their approach from last year.
My search for covers brought me to this 2025 version by Foxes and Fossils. This collective demonstrates the value inherent in the style that Orleans incorporated as an homage to the New Orleans sound, all those years ago.
Over and again, in these Ted Tocks features there are examples of how with music everything tends to come around in full circle. Here s just one more connection.
During the 2004 presidential election, George W. Bush attempted to use ‘Still the One’ as his campaign theme. Republicans have a strange habit of doing this because self-awareness has never been their forte. Phase 2 of the Bush-Cheney regime was immediately ordered to stop. As the song’s creator, John Hall demanded that the campaign cease using it for two reasons. First, the campaign had never received permission to use the music. Second, Hall, who was a committed Democrat, fundamentally disagreed with, and did not support Bush or the Republican party. Best of all, Hall took it up a notch and chose to embark on his own political career. In 2006, he ran for Congress and, with help from campaign appearances by musicians Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne, he successfully defeated the Republican incumbent, Sue Kelly, in his New York district. At his victory celebration, Hall did not perform ‘Still the One’ but instead, he sang “I Am A Patriot,” a song written by his friend Steven Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
As the years go by, so many familiar names return.
Yes, in music the wheel keeps on turning, and like the song says; every time the wheel turns, we are making progress.
We just need to get back to that level ground.
Please tell me the uphill portion of the journey is almost over.
Ted Tocks Covers 