Part 297: “The World Must Change”

EARTH

RECORD STORE TALES Part 297: “The World Must Change”

1997. A middle-aged mustached gentleman walked into my store with Eric Clapton’s latest single, “Change the World”.

“Hi,” he said. “I bought this at HMV, but it’s not what I wanted. I’m looking for a song, I think it’s called “The World Must Change”. Do you know it?

I searched my memory for a bit but drew a blank.

“I heard it on the radio. It’s a real hard-driving song,” he said, “and I could swear in the lyrics, he was singing ‘the world must change’. I told the girl at HMV and she said it was Eric Clapton. She sold me this, and it’s definitely not the right song.”

If he told the girl at HMV that it was a “hard-driving” song, I don’t know how she came up with “Change the World”, unless she’d never heard “Change the World” before. It is anything but hard-driving.

The fellow searched my rock section for pretty much any CD that look like it had songs about changing the world, and listened to a number of them, but came out blank.

A Google search today reveals little, aside from a George Benson song called “Everything Must Change”, but that is even further away from “hard-driving” than the Clapton track.

He ended up selling his Clapton single to me for $2, because HMV wouldn’t take it back once opened. It was a huge drop from the $9.99 sticker price, and he wasn’t happy, but $2 was pretty much top dollar for us to buy CD singles at the time (unless you had something rare, like an old Metallica single). I felt genuinely bad that I couldn’t find that song for him. I suggested he call the radio station on which he heard the track.

Now today, I appeal to the Internets at large:  Any ideas what song it could have been? Post a comment!

64 comments

  2. Ahh yes, the classic, “Yeah I heard a song on the radio and I think it’s by X and I think it said something like da da da da, but I’m not really sure how it goes and if you steer me the wrong way I will throw a hissy fit and storm out of here like a petulant child’, thing.

    If I had a nickel….

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  3. Hmm…. I’d have to go with the theory that it wasn’t Mr. Clapton. How about “I’d Love to Change the World” by Ten Years After?
    A huge hit for them from ’71. It starts out slow but has a driving middle theme and great guitar solo in the middle.

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    2. I was going to suggest “Them Changes” by Buddy Miles. He’s done several versions, one with Santana that really kicks. But I think you’re right with Ten Years After

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      1. I assumed, and maybe the HMV girl did too, that it was a newer song. Just based on his age and that he’d never heard it on the radio before. But you never know.

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        2. Actually, I rocked a stache and goat, but only long enough for Cindy to express her disapproval of how scratchy was for smooching. I was smooth-shaven again post-haste.

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    1. I like the Ozzy option a lot here and it’s much closer to the date this guy was in the store. Either this or the TYA tune could have been on the radio (depending on the station I guess).
      I sense a playlist in one of my future blogs about world changing song themes. Three or four good ones here incl MJ. Maybe top it off with John Mayer’s “Waitin’….” too.

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    2. He beat me to it. I was initially thinking that maybe it was some Marvin Gaye song, he had several like What’s Going On, where he was on about people getting along, fixing the world, etc. But yeah, the Ozzy makes total sense.

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  7. Although I disapprove of the app ‘shazam’ (it ruined my contribution to trivia night, the name that tune!) – I’ll concede, it would have been useful here.
    Though it’s more fun to try and figure out the song without technology!
    I’ve been singing MJ’s “man in the mirror” since reading this post – he sings about making the WORLD a better place, take a look at yourself and make a CHANGE – but I wouldn’t call it hard driving.

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      1. I read all of this and realized I am completely without opinion on Michael Jackson and his albums. Deserted barren waste of opinion. Bereft.

        Nope, I got nothing.

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        1. You never even owned Thriller? Man, when I was a kid, if you lived in the suburbs that arrived in your mailbox with boxes of Tide.

          We’ll be mentioning Michael in brief next week. Stay tuned.

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        2. Nope, never owned Thriller. I had a few of the trading cards (may still have them). My sister was into the Jackson thing, I never was. I was, of course, fully aware of all the songs, but never had the record.

          UPDATE: My lovely wife says her vinyl of Thriller ought to still be at her parents’ house, if I want it. Um, no.

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      2. I never owned Dangerous, I recall liking a couple of songs, I believe Slash showed up in the video for ‘give in to me’

        Bad’s his last one on the 1001 (off the wall and thriller were obviously on there as well!)

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        1. Yup you’re right about Give In to Me, which was my favourite song from Dangerous.

          So do you have the 1001 memorized or something??? How do you know this stuff?

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        2. haha – getting there!
          There’s still the odd artist that surprises me when I flip through the book, but I’m getting close to at least being able to see an artist name, know there’s at least 1 album, then confirm with my excel spreadsheets to see the actual album name(s)

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        3. Spreadsheet must help indeed!

          When this project is all said and done, I’d be curious how many of these 1001 albums before Geoff’s 1001 albums, you know what I mean?

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        4. I think the comment might be missing a verb – I’m not sure what you mean, please explain – and I should do a screenshot of my excel file at some point, without it I’d be lost!

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        5. Yeah something got deleted there. What I meant to ask is, when you’re done the 1001, I’m curious how many of those albums would make it onto your own personal 1001 list. But you have a ways to go yet!

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        6. A very good question – I decided a while ago that the ‘1001 you must hear’ doesn’t mean they’re the best 1001, but the most significant in understanding music between 1955-2005.

          So if I were to go with the philosophy of the 1001 that were most significant to me, I bet there would be a lot of overlap – but the omissions of TTH, Sloan, and Blue Rodeo (and many more) would be rectified!

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        7. Blue Rodeo and Sloan had such a huge impact on me. The Hip was Mrs LeBrain. Blue Rodeo in particular though. I saw them live in ’91 with Bobby Wiseman still on keyboards, and I was a believer ever since. They got me from heartbreak to heartbreak!

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        8. Such a consistent group – I’m a big fan of the Keelor/Cuddy double lead singer format. I don’t think I saw them live until the early 2000s but they had me at Rain Down on Me!

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        9. What a mighty song. As far as keelor goes, it’s his soloing I used to love. I understand that he only plays acoustic now, because of hearing loss. That’s why Colin Cripps is in the band now. The times I saw them live, Greg’s electric solos were highlights. They were Neil Young-like noise-fests.

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        10. I saw them earlier this year (great show as per usual) – I was wondering why Keelor stuck with the acoustic, that makes sense, a shame though.

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        12. Oooo, I’m really letting my geek flag fly here, but I LOVE spreadsheets. Especially spreadsheets that are music collection-related. Way back when I owned a Winblows computer (this is ages ago, now), I used Excel all the time. My Mac has their version, Numbers, but it’s not the same.

          Yes, I could get Excel for Mac, but I went one better, with mine: I made a blog of it. It was a labour of love, and is still ongoing, but it’s been so much fun. Plus, if the house burns down, I have off-site proof of what I owned. http://whatownsme.worpress.org, if you’re curious. If not, s’cool. I just like to have a list all in one place. It’s entirely satisfying.

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        13. This is a safe place for such geek flags – nice to meet a fellow spreadsheet enthusiast!
          Great collection – smart idea keeping the online record.

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        16. Thanks! Ultimately, I want that blog to have all the everything I have here, and little KMA links beside each one – give me years, I can do it!

          The online idea is a cool one, so long as WP doesn’t go weird on us. ;) I like the idea of externalizing the list, just in case something happens. Plus, this way, you guys get to snoop. :)

          I always wanna make spreadsheet three dimensional, and it never works. I tried Access but that was a huge pain in the ass.

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        18. Thanks! I know it’s a lot, visually, but I was trying to be complete. I used to have another site where I took the pictures of each one, but then I thought well bugger this for a lark, the work’s already done for me. That and more! So now I just link. Wiki is the go-to. If not them, Discogs. Then Amazon. Then after that it’s anything I can find on it.

          You’ll notice weirdo backlink comments in the KMA where I linked it to the collection site (WhatOwnsMe). I’m not computer savvy enough to make it not do that. But they’re fairly unobtrusive.

          And man, I have so much more work to do. SO MUCH. When it’s all done, though, I will be posting about it in BLOCK CAPS, and shouting hallelujahs from the tops of the Niagara escarpment…

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        19. Here’s my official request for a series on Blue Rodeo. Seriously one of the best bands in this country. C’mon Mike, when you get done with Halen! GIVE ‘ER!

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        21. I’m thinking I’m gonna do the box set that came out in 2012. It’s everything up to Five Days in July I believe, with 3 bonus discs.

          Of course this would require a minimum of six posts. Throw in that early single they did as the Hi-Fi’s…

          OK, gears are turning, ideas forming.

          Keep in mind it took me six months to complete this Van Halen series.

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        22. It’s funny when the reviews are posted so quickly in succession – I forget that there’s all that listening, reflecting + writing time that goes into each post. It doesn’t just happen – glad the BR wheels are in motion!

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        23. I’ve managed to keep up my post-a-day pace for over 2 years. Actually the first 6 months were closer to 2 posts every day.

          Having said that, my well of old writing is getting closer and closer to the bottom. I don’t know when I’m going to publish it, but I’m writing the end chapters of Record Store Tales, and planning a followup series. Even my reviews — I had maybe 800 saved up. But many I’ve discarded, and all have been revised.

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        27. When you’re done, and you write “Stephen’s 1001” (hint!) I’ll be in line to buy it and see what you have gleaned from all your musical experiences!

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