more often than not, you can pull up conclusive information on nagging bits of trivia by plumbing the limitless depths of the web. but there's times when an answer proves elusive.
below is a scene from cheech and chong's next movie:
aside from the obvious awesome on display -- the motorcycle in the living room, chong's extended coughing fit, etc. -- you may notice that the song playing in the background is ridiculously bad ass. if you were to pull up the youtube page this clip is from, you'd find that a lot of the people posting comments think so, too. however, you'd also find that no one there has any idea where this smoking chunk of maximum rock came from.
the closest i've come to an answer is that steven lukather of toto played on this song; it is not, however, as some suggest, a cover of 'hell on wheels', the 1979 cher disco poop that he also happened to play on.
with its righteous, god-of-rock vocal delivery (check in particular the way the singer stretches "wind" into two syllables), bombing riffage and hallelujah "takin' off" refrain, this is quite possibly one of greatest proto-metal classic rock songs ever, and sadly, it may not actually exist anywhere outside of this celluloid moment.
if anyone's got the sleuthing skills to track this number down, i'd be eternally grateful.
7 comments:
why does his website say it's hell on wheels if it isn't?http://www.stevelukather.net/Session.aspx?id=322
probably because his website's curator is some doofus who doesn't know steven lukather personally and only got an autographed picture for his troubles.
check the lyrics to the cher song, they're completely different:
Cher
Prisoner (1979)
Hell On Wheels
Well I'm hell on wheels
I'm a roller mama
I can slide down places that you never knew
Try me on for size, at the rollerama
If you tie my laces. then I'll follow you,
follow you, follow you, Oh
CHORUS:
See something I like,
gonna go for it
See something I want,
I'm gonna go after it
See something I like,
gonna go for it
See something I want,
Let's roll
hell on wheels, let's roll
Come on and roll with me
I roll till quarter to three yeah
And let's rock
hell on wheels, let's rock
Come on and rock it with me
I'll make you feel so free, yeah,
Look out, look out, look out
Well I'm hell on wheels,
say I'm roller crazy
I won't go too fast, I won't go too far
We'll be high on wheels, if the room gets hazy
Just look out for me,
I'm your guiding star, guiding star, guiding star
See something you like, better go for it
See something you want, better get down on it
See something you like, better go for it
See something you want
Let's roll
hell on wheels, let's roll
Come on and roll with me
We'll roll till quarter to three, yeah
let's rock, hell on wheels, let's rock
Come on and rock it with me
I'll make you feel so free, yeah,
look out, look out, look out
If you see something you like,
better go for it
If you see something you want,
you better, get down on it
If I see something I like,
I'm gonna go for it
If I see something I want
You know I'm gonna get down on it
Cause I'm hell on wheels,
I'm a roll on mama
I can slide down places that you never knew
Try me on for size at the rollerama
If you tie my laces and I'll follow you
Follow you follow you
right, but it's not the cher song he supposedly covered. it was the fu manchu song, which starts with,"Fu ManChu Hell On Wheels lyrics
Cut yourself off from the pack
Flat out against the freaks
There's nothin' they won't try
Hot head - heavy foot they meet
It's been so many days
And we tried every way
We knew of a Masterplan
So put the keys in my hand
In my hand x2
At a time when you would think
All of a sudden it hits the streets"
(youtube version here)
no, it's talking about the cher song, which came out a year before cheech and chong's next was released in 1980. the members of fu manchu were probably still playing with colorforms and drinking ovaltine at the time.
to add to the confusion, steve lukather contributed a guitar solo to cher's hell on wheels, a move which, aptly enough, must've bumped up his chances of actually going to hell.
stupid cheechandchong.com for providing misinformation, then...
ripe discussion, chappies. I I'm particularly fond of jomilkman's joke about lukather going to hell for pitching in on cher's behalf.
It's so hot. Alli is asleep on the air conditioned kitchen floor, seriously.
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