Life is a Rock

October 29, 2017 9:42 AM

Life is a Rock (and the Radio Rolled Me) is a song by a group named Reunion. If you want to know what was going on in 1974 in rock radio music world, you'll get a good idea if you listen to the lyrics. Better yet, read the lyrics. 

"Life Is A Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" is a 1974 song by an ad hoc group of studio musicians called Reunion, with lead vocals by Joey Levine, a pioneer of the bubblegum genre pop music that ran from 1967 to 1972. He was also the lead singer of the Ohio Express. "Life Is a Rock" is a laundry list of disc jockeys, musicians, songwriters, record labels, song titles, and lyrics from the 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's delivered in a fast patter that Levine is known for. This single's version peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and reached #33 in the UK Singles Chart and includes 90 mentionables (listed below). The LP version adds more. Levine, a songwriter and record producer as well, is responsible for many well-remembered TV commercial "jingles" for brand names such as Pepsi, Sears, Coke, Dr. Pepper, Budweiser, Oreo, and often sang lead in those as well. He still continues to write music for commercials as of 2016.

There's lots of references here - I'm sure I missed some or got some wrong.

B. B. Bumble and the Stingers, Mott the Hoople, Ray Charles Singers
Lonnie Mack and twangin' Eddy
Here's my ring we're goin' steady
Take it easy, take me higher, liar liar, house on fire
Locomotion, Poco, Passion, Deeper Purple, Satisfaction
Baby baby gotta gotta gimme gimme gettin' hotter
Sammy's cookin', Lesley Gore and Ritchie Valens - end of story
Mahavishnu, fujiyama, kama-sutra, rama-lama
Richard Perry, Spector, Barry, Righteous, Archies, Nilsson, Harry
Shimmy shimmy ko-ko bop and Fats is back and Finger Poppin'
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me (whoa whoa)
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me (life is a rock, whoo whoo)
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie
FM, AM, hits are clickin' while the clock is tock-a-tickin'
Friends and Romans, salutations, Brenda and the Tabulations
Carly Simon, Noddy Holder, Rolling Stone and centerfoldin'
Johnny Cash and Johnny Rivers, can't stop now, I got the shivers
Mungo Jerry, Peter Peter Paul and Paul and Mary Mary
Dr. John the nightly tripper, Doris Day and Jack the Ripper
Gotta go Sir, gotta swelter, Leon Russell, Gimme Shelter
Miracles in smokey places, slide guitars and Fender basses
Mushroom omelet, Bonnie Bramlett, Wilson Pickett, stomp and kick it
Life is a rock but the radio...
Life is a rock but the radio...
Whoo!
Arthur Janov's "Primal Screamin'", Hawkins, Jay and Dale and Ronnie
Kukla, Fran and Norman, Okla Denver, John and Osmond, Donny
JJ Cale and ZZ Top and LL Bean and De De Dinah
David Bowie, Steely Dan and sing me prouder, CC Rider
Edgar Winter, Joanie Sommers, Osmond Brothers, Johnny Thunders
Eric Clapton, pedal wah-wah, Stephen Foster, do-dah do-dah
Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, Surfer Girl and Little Honda
Tighter, tighter, honey, honey, sugar, sugar, yummy, yummy
CBS and Warner Brothers, RCA and all the others
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me (Life is a rock, whoo whoo)
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me
Whoa whoa whoa who-o-oa
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me (Life is a rock, whoo whoo)
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie
(Ooh-ing in background)
Spoken: "Listen, remember, they're playing our song"
Rock it, sock it
Alan Freed me Murray Kaufman, try to leave me
Fish, and Swim, and Boston Monkey
Make it bad and play it funky
(Wanna take you higher!)
Freddie King and Albert King B.B. King and frolicking
Get it on and Nat Gerardi, Papalardi, Hale and Hearty! (Baby baby baby baby, light my fire!)
(Celebrate!) Yeah (Dance to the music!)
There's a perfect more than human gentle words of Randy Newman;
One, two, three; so oh so please, I need a breather! (Celebrate, dance to the music) (Wanna take you higher!)
Aretha!
Tito Puente, Boffalongo, Cuban War and even Mongo
Peter Dial, Alex Hood, Boogie Brass (Baby baby baby baby, light my fire!)
(Celebrate! Dance to the music!)
Baby... Everything is all right - Whoo!
California (Everything is all right)
Beatlemania (Uptight)
New York City (Out of sight)
Transylvania
S&G
Bobby Vee
And SRO; yeah!

posted by ashbury (41 comments total)

We didn't start the fire...
posted by infini at 9:45 AM on October 29, 2017 [4 favorites]

At one time in the early 80s, I could sing the entire song. That's an awfully weird thing to be proud of.
posted by Miss Cellania at 10:11 AM on October 29, 2017 [8 favorites]

Seriously, what did I just say in the Leonard Nimoy thread?
posted by humboldt32 at 10:30 AM on October 29, 2017

LCD: Tell me about "Life is a Rock but the Radio Rolled Me"?

LEVINE: That song is imitated a lot I think, by people like REM, with 'The End of The World' and Billy Joel with 'We Didn't Start The Fire.' Not directly, but a lot of songs are based on people's memory of our song. Some guy called me and said [affects dunderhead accent]'I think that's the first rap record!' And I said, 'I don't know about that.' And he said, 'Well, before that you had country rap, and story raps, but just rhythmic rhyming of words flowing together, that was the first!' So I said, 'Look, I'm the father of bubblegum-don't make me the father of rap. Somebody will put me on a hit list.'
posted by rhizome at 10:32 AM on October 29, 2017 [8 favorites]

A thread like this is what MeFi is for. Very nice.
posted by NedKoppel at 10:50 AM on October 29, 2017 [2 favorites]

This song used to be regionally copped by radio stations. I remember a WLS version,
"Eight Nine Oh, on your radio dial" interspersed with DJ and Newscasters names.
posted by Chitownfats at 11:04 AM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the work involved in transcribing as well as finding great links. I am going to be here a while.
posted by layceepee at 11:18 AM on October 29, 2017 [2 favorites]

Surely he doesn't think he invented the patter song? At very least you'd think he'd be aware of, say, "I've Been Everywhere."
posted by darksasami at 11:27 AM on October 29, 2017 [5 favorites]

Ha! This song is a guilty pleasure. I've been revisiting the 70s in the last few years.
posted by Savannah at 11:30 AM on October 29, 2017

For the line

"Tighter, tighter, honey, honey, sugar, sugar, yummy, yummy"

I'd propose Alive N Kickin's "Tighter and Tighter," ABBA's "Honey Honey," the Archies "Sugar, Sugar" (linked to under "Archies" above) and Ohio Express' "Yummy Yummy Yummy."
posted by the sobsister at 11:37 AM on October 29, 2017 [11 favorites]

And great job researching and posting this! Hadn't heard this song in ages and had never seen the lyrics.
posted by the sobsister at 11:39 AM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's fascinating how that song immediately took me back to the time and place I was in when it was in regular radio rotation...too bad I don't particularly care to be taken back to it (nothing traumatic, it was just a boring depressing cookie-cutter suburban time in my life).

Still, amazing job with the links!
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:48 AM on October 29, 2017

Tighter, tighter, honey,honey, sugar, sugar, yummy, yummy

Not entirely sure about these two references, but the timelines fit.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 11:51 AM on October 29, 2017

Ah, and once again I see I somehow managed to miss that my additions were already covered. I shall go hang my head with shame.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 11:56 AM on October 29, 2017

I have always wanted to know the words and meaning to this ever since I was dancing to this in my best friend's basement. Her brother had the song on 45 and the basement had a pale green shag rug.
posted by biggreenplant at 12:03 PM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ha, this was on a "Funny Bone Favorites" LP owned by my parents, that I listened to repeatedly as a child.
posted by daisystomper at 12:20 PM on October 29, 2017 [3 favorites]

Maybe you've got it linked up there, but just stumbled onto this topical this is what you get if you have cool kids video.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:30 PM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Can't have a thread about this song without the McDonald's version...
posted by jozxyqk at 12:44 PM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

And daisystomper, I had the same Funny Bone Favorites album on 8-track, played over and over on my 2-XL robot.
posted by jozxyqk at 1:01 PM on October 29, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oh, '70s... Mr. Jaws
posted by NedKoppel at 1:01 PM on October 29, 2017 [4 favorites]

Ha, this was on a "Funny Bone Favorites" LP owned by my parents, that I listened to repeatedly as a child.

Same here - I had a Fisher Price record player and I would pick up the needle and reset it to listen to this song over and over. Wow does this post take me back.
posted by Metro Gnome at 1:07 PM on October 29, 2017

If you can find Tracey Ullman's 1983 cover, her speed with the patter still blows me away...
posted by cheshyre at 1:08 PM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Tracey Ullman's cover. I had on my list of links but chose not to include it.
posted by ashbury at 1:11 PM on October 29, 2017 [2 favorites]

Norman Dolph, who wrote the lyrics, also producer a very rare acetate by the Velvet Underground that was recorded before the group's official debut on the "banana album."
posted by jonp72 at 2:18 PM on October 29, 2017

Never saw the lyrics before.
I never heard of Tito Puente until I saw 'Stripes'.
posted by MtDewd at 2:20 PM on October 29, 2017

Ashbury, thank you for the trip back in time—you made my day. I was 20 when the song was released and like Miss Cellania, I also once knew the lyrics by heart (though I had probably forgotten them by the early 80s).

I have cued up my favorites (added some extra Bonnie Bramlett, was reminded of Dusty Springfield, so included a couple of hers), so I'm good for the next several hours.


I will admit to a minor "senior moment" when I read "He was also the lead singer of the Ohio Express." I was certain this was a mistake. The king of bubblegum couldn't possibly be responsible for "Sweet Sticky Thing", "Fire", "Skin Tight", etc, so I Googled for the truth.

Oh, yeah, Ohio Players.
posted by she's not there at 3:11 PM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

The '70s were the pre-Weird-Al-Golden-Age of novelty records, with Dickie Goodman's Cut & Paste pastiches, Ray Stevens' prime (including The Streak, who shoved all other streaking songs off the charts), CB Radios and CW McCall, Rick Dees and his Disco Duck, the relatively subtle Jim Stafford, Shel Silverstein's dual identity (kid songs and very adult songs), Kung Fu Fighting, and Dr. Demento's first radio syndication... but nothing was as meta (decades before the term was coined) as "Life Is A Rock".
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:40 PM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

My right hand up, there's a 1980 version of "Life is a Rock." I have it on vinyl; haven't found it yet on YT.

Speaking of having a hand up: I used to pump my fist in the air when singing along to the 1974 version when David Bowie's name came up. /olderthandirt
posted by datawrangler at 4:33 PM on October 29, 2017

Thanks. Bits of this have been randomly popping into my head since the mid 70s! :)
posted by Samarium at 5:11 PM on October 29, 2017

“Baby... Everything is all right ... (Uptight)... (Out of sight)” is early Stevie Wonder, from 1965.
posted by LeLiLo at 5:53 PM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

For "get it on" may I propose Bang A Gong (Get It On), by T. Rex (#10, 1972).

But (ooh-ing in background) is definitely the Four Tops' Baby I Need Your Loving.
posted by ogooglebar at 8:30 PM on October 29, 2017

Also, just teasing with the chorus after the second verse is a genius move.
posted by ogooglebar at 8:33 PM on October 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

That's the weirdest "I've Been Everywhere" cover I've heard today.
posted by freebird at 8:55 PM on October 29, 2017

Finally! Something about this song has been bugging me all day, and I finally dislodged it from where it was stuck between the folds in my brain: the lyrics "life is a rock" are precisely to the tune of [I Saw Her A] "-gain last night."
posted by darksasami at 2:28 AM on October 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

Love me some 70s music. I really think we should make "Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo" the National Anthem. Rick Derringer is a Christian now, which should help the medicine go down, for some of our countrypersons.
posted by thelonius at 3:56 AM on October 30, 2017

I had no idea that the lead singer of "Life Is A Rock" was the lead singer of Ohio Express.

I was a teenager in the 1970s. This thread brings me joy. Thank you.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 6:33 AM on October 30, 2017

He also wrote the "Trust the Gorton's fisherman" and "Sometimes you feel like a nut" jingles.
posted by rhizome at 10:16 AM on October 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

'Boston Monkey' might be a reference to the Otis Redding song. Or the Manhattans'--there are probably others.

I interpret 'Make it bad and play it funky' as a reference to James Brown, whose hits include 'Make it Funky' and 'Super Bad.'

'Wanna Take You Higher' is Sly and the Family Stone, and [Everything is Alright] 'Uptight' [Outasight] is Stevie Wonder.
posted by box at 1:48 PM on October 30, 2017

Impressive cover of probably one of the hardest songs to cover!
posted by rhizome at 3:58 PM on October 30, 2017

Good post.

I first heard the song in James Gunn's early superhero comedy 'The Specials', where several characters dance to it. Underrated film and song, I reckon.
posted by gadge emeritus at 8:38 AM on October 31, 2017

Kukla, Fran and Ollie
posted by Rumple at 10:36 AM on November 4, 2017