Live at the Belly Up
Jack Tempchin
Season 9 Episode 2 | 56m 47sVideo has Closed Captions
Jack Tempchin a Southern California songwriter and hitmaker shares his songs.
In tonight’s episode, Jack Tempchin a Southern California songwriter and hitmaker with the Eagles, Johnny Rivers and Tom Waits shares his songs of folk, blues and rock. Featuring songs, “The One You Love”, “Slow Dancing”, “Smuggler’s Blues”, "Peaceful Easy Feeling” and more.
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Live at the Belly Up is a local public television program presented by KPBS
Live at the Belly Up
Jack Tempchin
Season 9 Episode 2 | 56m 47sVideo has Closed Captions
In tonight’s episode, Jack Tempchin a Southern California songwriter and hitmaker with the Eagles, Johnny Rivers and Tom Waits shares his songs of folk, blues and rock. Featuring songs, “The One You Love”, “Slow Dancing”, “Smuggler’s Blues”, "Peaceful Easy Feeling” and more.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipmale announcer: From beautiful downtown Solana Beach, this is San Diego's musical showcase "Live at the Belly Up."
In tonight's episode, Jack Tempchin, a Southern California songwriter and hit maker with the Eagles, Johnny Rivers, and Tom Waits, shares his songs of folk, blues, and rock.
Jack Tempchin: I'm not famous.
My songs are famous.
So I'm a songwriter.
And they'll come and there are some Eagles' songs that they'll know, but I'm just constantly writing songs.
Just like breathing to me.
And that's the point for me, is to get people to just hear some of those songs and see if there's something in those songs for them.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Take it easy.
♪ ♪ Take it slow.
♪ ♪ You don't need a place to go.
♪ ♪ A baby's smile, a lover's kiss.
♪ ♪ It don't get any better than this.
♪ ♪ Less is more, so they say.
♪ ♪ Man, that's really true today.
♪ ♪ So kick on back, give your soul a rest, ♪ ♪ and find yourself a little more of less.
♪ ♪ More of less is what you need.
♪ ♪ More of less will set you free.
♪ ♪ More of less and don't you know ♪ ♪ now's the time to let it go.
♪ ♪ So kick on back, give your soul a rest, ♪ ♪ and find yourself a little more of less.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I bought everything a man can buy, ♪ ♪ found every way to get me high.
♪ ♪ I let that go.
♪ ♪ I've had my fun.
♪ ♪ It's time to watch the river run.
♪ ♪ Less is more, so they say.
♪ ♪ Man, that's really true today.
♪ ♪ So kick on back, give your soul a rest, ♪ ♪ and find yourself a little more of less.
♪ ♪ More of less is what you need.
♪ ♪ More of less will set you free.
♪ ♪ More of less and don't you know ♪ ♪ now's the time to let it go.
♪ ♪ And kick on back, give your soul a rest, ♪ ♪ and find yourself a little more of less.
♪♪ ♪♪♪ [audience applauding] Jack: Thanks, thank you, folks.
Jack: I started in San Diego, and have been here most of my life, in coffee houses which served cider and coffee and had folk music, what we called; anything with a guy playing a guitar.
So I did that for many years, and then in 1972 the folk clubs closed and I had to do something to avoid getting a regular job.
So eventually I went to LA, and it was the era of the Troubadour.
And I had met down here--when they came to play down here, I'd met Jackson Browne, J.D.
Souther, Glenn Frey.
And so I knew those guys and stayed with them up in LA, and at the Troubadour that was the center of the musical world.
Jack: One night Glenn Frey and J.D.
Souther and I were in the El Coyote restaurant on Beverly Boulevard having some green corn tamales and they start talking about band names.
"What would we name a band?"
And Glenn said, "Well, I have a concept for a band.
It's going to be a high-flying band better than any other band."
And the band was called the Eagles, and they did a couple of my songs and then they got really super famous and finally they decided to take a vacation and they kind of broke up for about 14 years.
So when they did, Glenn called me.
I'd never written a song with him, and he said, "Well, why don't you come over to my house and we'll write a song?"
So I went over to this big A-frame house in Laurel Canyon.
He had 100 candles burning in the--and I go, "Well, Glenn, what's the deal?
You probably have a date later."
He goes, "No, no, no."
He says, "The muse, she's up there.
And you and I are not the only guys trying to write a song tonight, and we want her to come down and hang out here.
So that's why I got these candles."
We started thinking--we started writing a song and we were thinking about the muse and, you know, what if she comes down, and what if her some--what if any beautiful girl comes around and then suddenly they got to choose between two incredible guys?
And we were feeling very sympathetic and like--incredible guys like me and Glenn.
So anyway, we wrote this song for her, whoever she may be.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I know you need a friend, ♪ ♪ someone you can talk to who will understand ♪ ♪ what you're going through.
♪ ♪ When it comes to love, there's no easy answers.
♪ ♪ Only you can say what you're going to do.
♪ ♪ I heard you on the phone.
♪ ♪ You took his number, ♪ ♪ said you weren't alone but you'd call him soon.
♪ ♪ Isn't that the guy, the guy who left you crying?
♪ ♪ Isn't he the one that made you blue?
♪ ♪ When you remember those nights in his arms, ♪ ♪ you know you got to make up your mind.
♪ ♪ Are you going to stay with the one ♪ ♪ who loves you ♪ ♪ or are you going back to the one you love?
♪ ♪ Someone's going to cry ♪ ♪ when they know they've lost you.
♪ ♪ Someone's going to thank the stars above.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ What you going to say when he comes over?
♪ ♪ There's no easy way to see this through.
♪ ♪ All the broken dreams, all the disappointment.
♪ ♪ Oh, girl, what you going to do?
♪ ♪ Your heart keeps saying it's just not fair, ♪ ♪ still you got to make up your mind.
♪ ♪ Are you going to stay with the one who loves you ♪ ♪ or are you going back to the one you love?
♪ ♪ Someone's going to cry ♪ ♪ when they know they've lost you.
♪ ♪ Someone's going to thank the stars above.
♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [audience applauding] Jack: Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Jack: Oh, wow, thank you.
So when I was in high school, Crawford High School--yeah, see.
Wow.
Somehow I ended up going to a show at some little guitar store.
I got a ride.
I didn't even drive yet.
And I saw a group called the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers, and--yeah, they were a bluegrass band.
A guy played with them, ma--let's see, was it-- Mason Williams, who had a hit called "Classical Gas."
It was a bluegrass band.
And Kenny Wertz and Chris Hillman.
So Chris Hillman grew up around here, and then one day after that happened Chris got a--by the way, what is a squirrel barker?
There's no--yeah, that's what I thought.
I never--no.
So one day Chris Hillman got a call from David Crosby.
He said, "I'm putting a band together.
You want to be in the band?"
And Chris Hillman said, "Yeah."
And he goes, "Do you play bass?"
And Chris said, "No, I play mandolin."
He goes, "You're--now you're playing bass."
And the band was the Byrds; and that was Chris Hillman, founding member of the Byrds.
Then he went on to found another band called the Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram Parsons, and then later he formed his own band, I saw them here, the Desert Rose Band.
And they had ten--top ten country hits in a row.
Just incredibly awesome.
So I got to write this song with Chris Hillman, and it's kind of about, you know, your friend comes to visit you in town and you go back to your high school where you both went to high school and suddenly everything's different, all the lockers and the cla--everything's smaller.
All the classrooms are smaller.
All the trauma is reduced to tiny little memories.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I went back to my hometown.
♪ ♪ Christmas snow was on the ground.
♪ ♪ Saw the girl who used to be ♪ ♪ everything in the world to me.
♪ ♪ We went down to my old school, ♪ ♪ walked the halls remembering the rules.
♪ ♪ Thought of friends who used to be ♪ ♪ everything in the world to me.
♪ ♪ My family moved far away.
♪ ♪ We never did return.
♪ ♪ That girl found someone else to love, ♪ ♪ is the one thing that I learned.
♪ ♪ You can go home, and that's a fact.
♪ ♪ You can go home, but you can't go back.
♪ ♪ Saw the park where we first kissed.
♪ ♪ Saw the house where she used to live.
♪ ♪ Saw the dream that used to be ♪ ♪ everything in the world to me.
♪ ♪ Everything in the world to me ♪ ♪ now just a faded memory.
♪ ♪ All these years I heard it calling me.
♪ ♪ You can go home, and that's a fact.
♪ ♪ You can go home, but you can't go back.
♪♪ [audience applauding] Jack: Thanks, folks.
Jack: So back there in the '60s living around here, I just moved up to North County and I had everything.
I had everything.
Well, first of all, I had some really long hair, you know, and I guess that just makes you cool, cool.
And then I had some love beads.
So if you grew up here, this used to be like a--as a Navy town very restrictive with the police.
One of the first songs I wrote was once I grew my hair long 1 month I got stopped by the police 27 times just for walking down the street.
And so when I first went to Balboa Park and saw what they love in, I was just, "How could this be happening here?"
You know, the word hippie hadn't even been invented yet.
And there were these people in the park like me, you know.
And so this girl came up and she put some love beads around my neck, and that's the only way that you really get love beads.
Okay?
You can't just make some beads and the--so I had my love beads.
I was long hair.
Then I got a thing called a Volkswagen bus.
And I got that, yeah, and I kind of fixed it all up to travel.
You know, we liked them because they didn't take much gas and we didn't have much money.
The problem is they would--the maximum speed back then of a VW bus was 55 miles per hour and on the freeway the speed limit was 65.
So right there you were creeping along.
So I had the bus, and then I got the one final thing I needed to make it all work.
It was a girl.
Yeah, a beautiful girl.
And I put her in the bus; bam, that was it.
I had it all.
I had it all.
And so at that time we traveled for about a year and a half in that bus going all over the place and came back here to Encinitas and during that time I was falling in love.
So I wrote her this song and later it was recorded by Johnny Rivers, and she and I are still hanging out together.
So I don't know.
Pretty much of a miracle, especially when you consider all my major deficiencies.
It's pretty cool.
So here's the song for you.
♪♪♪ That knob doesn't do anything.
It's just the sho--part of the show.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ It's late at night and we're all alone, ♪ ♪ just the music of the radio.
♪ ♪ No one's coming, ♪ ♪ no one on the telephone, ♪ ♪ just me and her and the lights down low ♪ ♪ and we're slow dancing ♪ ♪ swaying to the music.
♪ ♪ Slow dancing just me and my girl.
♪ ♪ Slow dancing swaying to the music.
♪ ♪ No one else in the whole wide world.
♪ ♪ We just flow together when the lights are low.
♪ ♪ Shadows dancing all across the wall.
♪ ♪ Music's playing so soft and slow ♪ ♪ and the rest of the world so far away and small.
♪ ♪ And we're slow dancing swaying to the music, ♪ ♪ slow dancing just me and my girl, ♪ ♪ slow dancing swaying to the music.
♪ ♪ No one else in the whole wide world.
♪ ♪ "Hold me."
♪ ♪ She said, "Hold me."
♪ ♪ I'll never let her go.
♪ ♪ And as we dance together in the dark, ♪ ♪ there's so much love in this heart of mine.
♪ ♪ She whispers to me, and I hold her tight.
♪ ♪ She's the one I thought I'd never find.
♪ ♪ We're slow dancing swaying to the music, ♪ ♪ slow dancing just me and my girl, ♪ ♪ slow dancing swaying to the music.
♪ ♪ No one else in the whole wide world, ♪ ♪ in the whole wide world.
♪♪ ♪♪♪ [audience applauding] Jack: Yeah, thank you.
Thank you, folks, thank you.
Now I'd like my two buddies to come up here.
This is the Sancho London band featuring over here Norman Sancho and over here Jesse London.
[audience applauding] Jack: And then I went to an art show at a winery and this guy was playing, and it's Jesse London the guitar player.
So I invited him to come to the beach with me, and he would just come down.
And while I'm making up the song, he's playing with me and he doesn't know where I'm going 'cause I don't either.
So that's how I ran into him.
And my bass player Norman Sancho has been working with me for about 30 years as a bass player and he produced one of my albums.
So I just thought I'd have some friends do this with me.
[strumming guitar] Jack: Here's a song that--oh, yeah.
Oh yeah, this is your chance.
This is a sing-along.
Sing-alongs are tricky, you know.
It's like how do you--Pete Seeger could do it.
He'd tell you the words before each line.
I don't know how he did it.
But I have reduced the sing-along part to something very simple.
It's a song that I wrote with Glenn Frey.
You know, it's about where the billionaires gather.
But you get in your PJ and you go to wherever's the hot spot right now and that's the party town of the country, and they just party down and then one day they all get tired of it and go somewhere else.
So Glenn and I wrote this song called "Party Town," and it was actually pretty big on the radio for a while.
And your part goes--when I go like this, your part goes, "Yeah, yeah!"
So let--try that now.
all: Yeah, yeah!
Jack: I think they got it.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I got sick of my job, sick of my wife, ♪ ♪ sick of my future, and sick of my life.
♪ ♪ So then I packed up the car and I got some gas, ♪ ♪ told everybody they could kiss my wife.
♪ ♪ So I'm going to party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ Party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ Oh, they love it all.
♪ ♪ They do it right in the hall down, down in party town.
♪ ♪ Sun comes up.
♪ ♪ The sun goes down.
♪ ♪ Nobody cares in party town because they go all day, ♪ ♪ they go all night.
♪ ♪ They keep on going till they get it right, ♪ ♪ right in party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ Oh, party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ You know they love it all.
♪ ♪ They do it in the hall right in party town.
♪ ♪ I said party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ Oh, party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ I said party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ Man, it's a party town.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I'm burning like a blowtorch in my prime.
♪ ♪ Everybody here is a friend of mine.
♪ ♪ You know, I met this girl a couple shooters ago ♪ ♪ teaching me everything that I don't know ♪ ♪ about party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ Oh, party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ You know they love it all.
♪ ♪ They do it in the hall right in party town.
♪ Jack: One more time up here.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I said party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ Party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ Party town.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah!
♪ ♪ Man, it's a party town.
♪♪ ♪♪♪ [audience cheering] Jack: This is a song off an album I did called "Songs" and wrote it with John Brannon produced by Norman Sancho and it's because--it's because my friend looked at me one time and he goes, "No matter what happens in your life, Jack, never wait."
Well, what does he mean?
I pondered, you know.
What does he mean never wait?
Well, waiting is just in your mind.
So it's like everything.
So anyway, we wrote this here.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I'm waiting for a vision, waiting like a saint.
♪ ♪ I guess I'm waiting for that box of magic paint.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting for a good love piece so I can never lose.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting for the mountain, the moon.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting.
♪ ♪ Yes, I am.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting and it's almost in my hand.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I'm waiting like the sand waits for the sea.
♪ ♪ Waiting like the Statue of Liberty.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting like a racehorse waits to run.
♪ ♪ Waiting like an abandoned car rusting in the sun.
♪ ♪ Waiting for an angel all dressed in white.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting for a goddess ♪ ♪ who's wrapped in shining light.
♪ ♪ Waiting for a spirit, ♪ ♪ waiting for a queen who will take me far away ♪ ♪ from here in some kind of dream.
♪ ♪ And I'm waiting ♪ ♪ like a rat waits for the cheese.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting for you to say please.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting like a bulldog ♪ ♪ for the moment of attack.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting for a phone call, an email, and a fax.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting like a cop who says, "Hey.
♪ ♪ Hey, man, get a grip."
♪ ♪ I'm waiting like a woman waits for a sailor on a ship.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I'm waiting for a devil who wants to make a deal.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting like a starving man for a handout meal.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting for the drugs to kill the pain.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting like the desert for that first drop of rain.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting for one kiss from your lips.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting and the clock just ticks.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting and the sun goes sinking down.
♪ ♪ I'm waiting because what's lost can still be found ♪ ♪ if you keep on waiting, ♪ ♪ if you keep on waiting, ♪ ♪ if you keep on waiting.
♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [audience applauding] Jack: Hey, Jesse London, Norman Sancho.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Jack: One time my buddy Glenn came down from L.A.
He said, "Jack, I just bought the rights to a book called "Snowblind" about the cocaine trade and my manager and I are going to make a film.
So let's write a song about the drug trade."
And so we did.
[strumming guitar] So the movie never got made as usual, but my friend Glenn from--Glenn Frey from the Eagles said, "Well, Jack, you know, I think I'm going to have to start wearing spy clothes."
I go, "What do you mean?"
He goes, "Well, I'm flying first class, you know, and you never know who you're going to sit next to."
So spy clothes to him was like a regular suit coat.
You know, that was--you're the man, you know.
And the next flight he did that.
He sat next to a guy named Michael Mann who was creating a TV show called "Miami Vice."
So this song ended up in that TV show, and Glenn got to act in an episode where he played the smuggler who flew stuff in his little plane and stuff.
So it didn't come to a great end.
It was a great show.
Yeah.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Trouble on the street tonight.
♪ ♪ I feel it in my bones.
♪ ♪ I had a premonition he should not go alone.
♪ ♪ I knew the gun was loaded, but I didn't think he'd kill.
♪ ♪ Everything exploded and the blood began to spill.
♪ ♪ Baby, here's your ticket, suitcase in your hand.
♪ ♪ Here's a little money.
♪ ♪ Do it just the way we planned.
♪ ♪ You be cool for 20 hours.
♪ ♪ I'll pay you 20 grand.
♪ ♪ Yeah, I'm sorry it went down like this ♪ ♪ and someone had to lose.
♪ ♪ It's the nature of the business.
♪ ♪ It's the smuggler's blues, ♪ ♪ smuggler's blues.
♪ ♪ Sailors and the pilots, soldiers and the law, ♪ ♪ the payoffs, rip-offs and the things nobody saw.
♪ ♪ It don't matter if it's heroin or cocaine or hash.
♪ ♪ You've got to carry weapons ♪ ♪ 'cause you're dealing in cash.
♪ ♪ Lots of shady characters making dirty deals.
♪ ♪ Every name's an alias in case somebody squeals.
♪ ♪ It's the lure of easy money.
♪ ♪ It's the lure of easy money.
♪ ♪ It's got to very strong appeal.
♪ ♪ Yeah.
♪ ♪ You'd understand it better ♪ ♪ if you were standing in my shoes.
♪ ♪ It's the ultimate enticement.
♪ ♪ It's the, whoa, it's the smuggler's blues, ♪ ♪ smuggler's blues.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ They see it in the headlines.
♪ ♪ They hear it every day.
♪ ♪ Say they're going to stop it, but it doesn't go away.
♪ ♪ They move it through Miami to sell it in LA.
♪ ♪ They hide it up in Solana Beach.
♪ ♪ It's here to stay.
♪ ♪ It's propping up the government ♪ ♪ in Columbia and Peru.
♪ ♪ You ask any DEA man.
♪ ♪ "There's nothing we can do."
♪ ♪ From the office of the president ♪ ♪ right down to me and you.
♪ ♪ It's a losing proposition but one you can't refuse.
♪ ♪ It's the politics of contraband.
♪ ♪ It's the, whoa it's the smuggler's blues, ♪ ♪ smuggler's blues, ♪ ♪ smuggler's blues.
♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [audience applauding] ♪♪♪ ♪ All I want to do is feel good all the time.
♪ ♪ I'll do whatever it takes.
♪ ♪ Baby, that's the bottom line.
♪ ♪ I'm on a bender.
♪ ♪ I'm on a bender, whoa.
♪ ♪ I'm on a full moon hound dog bender ♪ ♪ and I got six long months to go.
♪ ♪ Now all I want to do is smoke, drink, and play ♪ ♪ and have some good loving and rock the night away.
♪ ♪ I'm on a bender.
♪ ♪ I'm on a bender.
♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah.
♪ ♪ I'm on a full moon hound dog bender ♪ ♪ and I got six long months to go.
♪ ♪ Now, one of these days, baby, ♪ ♪ I'm sure to clean up my act.
♪ ♪ I'll be stone sober when I face up to the fact.
♪ ♪ Yeah, one of these days ♪ ♪ I'm going to be Dudley Do-Right.
♪ ♪ But come with me, baby, 'cause I'm high tonight.
♪ ♪ Yeah.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Oh, stumbling down the street.
♪ ♪ Yeah.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Come with me, baby, while my wallet is fat.
♪ ♪ There ain't no tomorrow, ♪ ♪ so don't you worry about that.
♪ ♪ I'm on a bender.
♪ ♪ Oh, I'm on a bender.
♪ ♪ I'm on a full moon hound dog bender ♪ ♪ and I got six long months to go.
♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jack: Thank you.
[audience cheering] Jack: I was in charge of a place that created--run a place called the Backdoor San Diego State University.
Yeah.
It was a big--originally it was supposed to be a bowling alley under the student center, but they ran out of money.
So I carpeted it and built a huge sound booth and started having people play there.
My he--my blues heroes Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry played there, and Glenn Frey played there, and Tom Waits started out--it was one of his big shows there.
He started playing there.
So one night I was playing there with a buddy, and I'd always wanted to write a country song, but I wasn't from the country.
I was from here so I didn't really get it.
And I had a buddy, and he was--Rob Strandman was playing with me that night so I thought, "Well, Rob lives--you know, he's got a horse, a dog, and cowboy boots and he lives way, way, way out in the country in a place called El Cajon.
So he'll know how to do country song, you know."
And--so I had never had anything intoxicating.
I hadn't smoked pot, never had any alcohol.
And we were in the back room.
We opened up the giant refrigerator and there was a white jug.
And so we thought, "Yeah, let's just drink out of this jug."
I don't even know whose it was, and later it turned out it was hard cider.
And so in about 15 minutes Rob Strandman and I were feeling really good for some reason.
And we wrote this ecstatic, happy song and then we got up and we didn't even know what to call it.
We played it.
And then a few years later I got a call from Glenn Frey.
He must have been there that night.
And he said, "You know that country song you wrote?
I think it'd be a cool rock song."
And I went, "Yeah."
So we held this phone up to the speakers in the studio and the Eagles had recorded this song.
So it was pretty darn lucky.
And so in order to preserve my luck, I never got drunk again.
You know, you're going to get lucky with something, then just don't do it again and you keep that luck and keep the--keep that luck rolling, people, 'cause, you know, nobody ever talks about--they go work hard, but they don't tell you how to get lucky and stay lucky.
So there--so I just told you.
So anyway, here's the crazy song.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Heard some people talking just the other night, ♪ ♪ said you're going to put me on the shelf.
♪ ♪ But I got some news for you ♪ ♪ and you'll soon find out it's true, ♪ ♪ and you'll have to eat your lunch all by yourself ♪ ♪ 'cause I'm already gone ♪ ♪ and I'm feeling strong.
♪ ♪ I will sing this victory song.
♪ ♪ Woo-hoo-hoo, woo-hoo-hoo.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Now the letter that you wrote me ♪ ♪ made me stop and wonder why.
♪ ♪ I guess you felt you had to set things right.
♪ ♪ But just remember this when you look up in the sky.
♪ ♪ You can see the stars and never see the light.
♪ ♪ I don't care 'cause I'm already gone ♪ ♪ and I'm feeling strong.
♪ ♪ I will sing this victory song.
♪ ♪ Woo-hoo-hoo, woo-hoo-hoo.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Yeah.
♪ ♪ Well, I know it wasn't you that held me down, ♪ ♪ but I know it wasn't you that set me free.
♪ ♪ Oftentimes it happens.
♪ ♪ We live our lives in chains ♪ ♪ and never even know we have the key.
♪ ♪ But me I'm already gone ♪ ♪ and I'm feeling strong.
♪ ♪ I will sing this victory song.
♪ ♪ Woo-hoo-hoo, woo-hoo-hoo.
♪ ♪ Woo-hoo-hoo, woo-hoo-hoo.
♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jack: So this song is the other song done by the Eagles, and I--it's been so cool.
You know, there was a girl and she said she'd come back after my show and she never showed up.
So instead, I spent the night in this tiny little club in El Centro, and I had a piece of paper so I wrote this song.
Good thing she never showed up.
I never saw her again.
I don't remember her name.
It's funny.
But then later as I thought about it, my dad, you know, like a lot of our parents they were much cooler than us.
You know what I mean?
They went through the war, the depression.
They worked.
They brought us up.
They created a whole world that we got to live in.
And my dad--yeah, let's hear it, man.
We're just a bunch of wimps in comparison.
I like us.
I like us, but still--but my dad, he--you know, he had to work as a milkman all his life and couldn't fulfill his dreams because had kids and--so he kind of just emptied his mind.
He never had a desire to be somebody.
He didn't have to be anybody.
And so as a result he'd walk up and see anybody and just smile at them and completely open and taking them for what they were and he just had this incredible essence.
And then eventually I realized that that's what this song--that's where this song came from.
So thank you so much.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I like the way your sparkling earrings ♪ ♪ swing against your skin so bright.
♪ ♪ I want to sleep with you in the desert tonight ♪ ♪ with a billion stars all around.
♪ ♪ Got a peaceful, easy feeling.
♪ ♪ I know you won't let me down ♪ ♪ 'cause I'm already standing on the ground.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I found out a long time ago ♪ ♪ what a woman can do to your soul.
♪ ♪ Oh, but she can't take you anywhere ♪ ♪ you don't already know how to go.
♪ ♪ Got a peaceful, easy feeling.
♪ ♪ I know you won't let me down.
♪ ♪ I'm already standing on the ground.
♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Something tells me I may know you ♪ ♪ as a lover and a friend.
♪ ♪ This voice keeps whispering in my other ear.
♪ ♪ I may never see you again.
♪ ♪ Got a peaceful, easy feeling.
♪ ♪ I know you won't let me down.
♪ ♪ I'm already standing, ♪ ♪ I'm already standing, ♪ ♪ I'm already standing ♪ ♪ on the ground.
♪ ♪ Woo ooh.
♪♪ [audience applauding] Jack: Thank you, folks.
male: Jack Tempchin, ladies and gentlemen.
Jack: Oh, wow, thank you so much.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ female announcer: "Live at the Belly Up" is brought to you by Pacific Coast Grill with an oceanfront venue featuring Pacific Coast cuisine including an oyster bar, sushi rolls, and a variety of seafood.
Since 1995, PCG has used fresh, local free-range ingredients to inspire singular menu creations hosting seaside special events for groups of 12 to 220.
For reservations and event information, visit pacificcoastgrill.com.
announcer: Support for this program comes from the KPBS Explore Local Content Fund, supporting new ideas and programs for San Diego.
Support for PBS provided by:
Live at the Belly Up is a local public television program presented by KPBS















