Speaker 1: A centeral is the protection of I Heard Radio. The
Speaker 1: following contains spoilers about the episode reputation. When Bob Purse
Speaker 1: was at the Mammoth Music March Sale, he had picked
Speaker 1: up a half dozen or more real to real tapes
Speaker 1: marked with what appeared to be the same handwriting. This
Speaker 1: included recordings of Don and Merrigil Moorland, as well as
Speaker 1: some other oddities. Two of them had the phrase the
Speaker 1: Tallest Rock on them, and another one said t R
Speaker 1: several times, which I took to probably mean tallest Rock,
Speaker 1: which is a piece of this has never been written about.
Speaker 1: The Tallest Rock is a song about the Sears Tower.
Speaker 1: You can tell these are people that are working on
Speaker 1: the Sears Tower, which was going to be the tallest
Speaker 1: building in the world when it was finished. Every now
Speaker 1: and then there's a bit of talking about how they're
Speaker 1: negotiating with the folks building the Sears to hour to
Speaker 1: be able to play this song when it's dedicated and opened.
Speaker 1: When I looked it up many many years ago, I
Speaker 1: did find a hit for a story about how some
Speaker 1: electricians that helped build the Series Tower performed a song
Speaker 1: called the Tallest Rocket. Its opening ceremonies. On May three,
Speaker 1: seventy nine, the Chicago Tribune read today's ceremony was almost postponed.
Speaker 1: The weather was raw and windy. The final girder contained
Speaker 1: the signatures of the twelve thousand people who had worked
Speaker 1: on the project. The construction chief was worried that the
Speaker 1: pound beam might smash into some windows on the way up,
Speaker 1: but a few hundred people had already gathered at the site.
Speaker 1: The girdon was hoisted and set in place. That was
Speaker 1: the signal. A chorus of electrical workers burst into song.
Speaker 1: He's gott understand. I listened to the tallest drack tapes once,
Speaker 1: probably nine, so that's almost twenty years ago. I still
Speaker 1: have them, I could, I could pull them out in
Speaker 1: less than two minutes. Well down in my game up
Speaker 1: there's nothing higher, not the dulcet tones of Marigael Moreland.
Speaker 1: But regardless of your opinion of the material, it's a
Speaker 1: fascinating record of four friends in a band with one song.
Speaker 1: If you, like me, have ever been in what we'll
Speaker 1: call an ephemeral band, you'll appreciate both the exuberance and
Speaker 1: the tremendous amount of work demonstrated on these tapes and
Speaker 1: with ambition there are thirty takes of the full song
Speaker 1: plus false starts. And then we got steadily working out
Speaker 1: single sections BA punches of just the ending. Okay, we
Speaker 1: got to practice the ending we know outside that. All right,
Speaker 1: let's do the tapes begin sometime before Christmas en two
Speaker 1: with five acapella takes plus a horrific screen. It seems
Speaker 1: like they have yet to pitch this idea to the
Speaker 1: Sears people. All right, now what I'm gonna do. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start, maybe even tomorrow night, but one of these
Speaker 1: nights I'm going to start writing. We'll let it and
Speaker 1: then I want all you guys to look at before
Speaker 1: I mail it. And I figured, if well, how the
Speaker 1: rest of holidays go by about the middle of January,
Speaker 1: we'll get the thing to him. Now, are you better?
Speaker 1: You better? You're better? Make a get smoked. Some urgency
Speaker 1: has felt because not everyone is sure they'll still be
Speaker 1: on this job by the time the dedication ceremony rolls around. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean someone does get Oh no, no, it's somebody
Speaker 1: gets smoked. But we'll do We'll just say, Mr mc jazz,
Speaker 1: we gotta come back there. The dedications thing. This guy, Damn,
Speaker 1: we gotta be working on the job, right. We worked
Speaker 1: in the job at one time or another. Yeah, we've
Speaker 1: bled our hearts out for that, andyer, that's right and
Speaker 1: all of that. Consequently, if you're gonna smoke us off
Speaker 1: the job, you're bad people. That's it. So we'll shame
Speaker 1: Amanda keeping us there. You want to put on the
Speaker 1: last six thirty two screw on the last flex receptacle, right, John,
Speaker 1: Now we'll make some copies of this whole message, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: we gotta vy him here, We've gotta buy him all. Right.
Speaker 1: In three ish months a lot has changed. So now
Speaker 1: it's March three and we've heard from Sears. You guys
Speaker 1: have all read the letter. Sears is okay to performance
Speaker 1: of the tallest rock at the dedication, And this is
Speaker 1: our rehearsal in preparation for the topping out ceremony, which
Speaker 1: Serious wants us to do. The approach of the song
Speaker 1: will be a little different. We've decided now, of course,
Speaker 1: that we're going to get a drummer and a guitared
Speaker 1: and we're gonna put this thing into rock beat. They
Speaker 1: all know the tune fairly well. We know the words
Speaker 1: by heart. The endeavor itself looms a little larger in
Speaker 1: everyone's mind. I never taught this thing will go that far.
Speaker 1: The fellows are changing their mind's a little too now.
Speaker 1: They don't talk like that anymore. Is like they would
Speaker 1: have if they would have mentioned it to him. They
Speaker 1: had been keeping it a secret. It's a good thing
Speaker 1: we didn't mention. That never happened in I think we
Speaker 1: kept a pretty good secret to myself. I think, guys,
Speaker 1: and I think it's a credit at all of us,
Speaker 1: kind of. I opened up a little bit around the
Speaker 1: neighborhoo where I know it wouldn't hurt her yet. Right
Speaker 1: that we've we've we've all. It's kind of hard to
Speaker 1: hold something like that excited about it, you know. I
Speaker 1: always kept it with the thought that well, even if
Speaker 1: it never went anywhere, we did have a good time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had a good time. Even four four heart nosed
Speaker 1: electicians will be kept it like that all the way through.
Speaker 1: It sounds like they anticipated getting some flak from their coworkers.
Speaker 1: I didn't even tell Bruno, you know. And the other
Speaker 1: day he gave me a little shot and I said, well,
Speaker 1: now you see why I didn't spread it around adapting
Speaker 1: the new rock and roll sound meant a lot more
Speaker 1: takes come down even though we know the words. It's
Speaker 1: like a reconversion. We're gonna it's different at different, but
Speaker 1: there's nothing. I'm going to a rock and it's slower
Speaker 1: and it's well, it's the thing. I believe your kids
Speaker 1: are gonna like it better. They're gonna like it. They're
Speaker 1: gonna like they're gonna very much better, guys than I figured.
Speaker 1: If we do the first time, like you's kind of
Speaker 1: a staccattle, you know, it is a sattle. That's right,
Speaker 1: It's okay, that's staccattle. All right. Now let's listen to
Speaker 1: our songs. Wait, bab, what are you doing a race
Speaker 1: in the series? Yeah, you got it. You gotta go
Speaker 1: up to three fifty. You're you're you're racing something. You're recording.
Speaker 1: If we even get to sing it at the tapping out,
Speaker 1: it will be well worth while and it will Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, that's right. And I'll tell you if if
Speaker 1: it doesn't do anything else, but let someone realize the
Speaker 1: talent of this guy that he can write songs pulse.
Speaker 1: So now you just hope he keeps us on mind
Speaker 1: for later on. For Moore Records. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: You want to be able to pretty, that's right here.
Speaker 1: Sure I look shaby MyD be able to beat the
Speaker 1: year old men. I wrote you know one of my
Speaker 1: first rock things. You know what. The name of it
Speaker 1: was Backfire, Backfire as performed with Don Morland's the Flip
Speaker 1: Side of the seven Ascetate with reputation on it and fire.
Speaker 1: Exactly how that song came together remains on the tar.
Speaker 1: You But after a little more practice and when some
Speaker 1: p they're ready for their first audience, let's shut it
Speaker 1: off and let's let the woman come down a listen.
Speaker 1: All right, very good market. Let's okay, move the chairs again.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stand here, right, I'll get we're everything down
Speaker 1: the work hi and bye. There's nothing uh. And even
Speaker 1: though they're still making adjustments rose from and performance. Now,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get a little bit more on the gyrations
Speaker 1: later because they have begun to make plans that go
Speaker 1: beyond the topping out ceremony. Now, if they accept us
Speaker 1: for a commercial, like for a television commercial, we can
Speaker 1: always change awards to put series in their day insisting
Speaker 1: there's no sweat there. That's that's that's very simple. And
Speaker 1: even tell Howard he should keep his summer open. You
Speaker 1: don't know what's gonna happen. They may say, Hey, God,
Speaker 1: damn it, we need you people to make a recording
Speaker 1: such and such a date now for we're set for
Speaker 1: a vacation. We gotta wipe it out. That's it. I'm
Speaker 1: down in. There's something roup of country and still game
Speaker 1: by five for what and doe where is that tradis?
Speaker 1: And when them yeah said by word back and with
Speaker 1: some crime grows. It seemed she was playing sunshine and
Speaker 1: rain dur her pain over columns, rain the winds, never
Speaker 1: so head to see her slaying. We're so high de
Speaker 1: grave me this guy who ain't the smaller fun bill
Speaker 1: the smallest fun. He had a handmaid run. So she's
Speaker 1: ahead right, went through FI through through five FI through
Speaker 1: a B. In the only other mention I could find
Speaker 1: of the Tallest Rock retrospective about the Sears Tower, also
Speaker 1: in the Chicago Tribune, it seems that they went with
Speaker 1: the stripped down version after rock. Finally, a quartet of
Speaker 1: acapella electrical workers called the Tower Bums lifted an original
Speaker 1: ditty called the Tallest Rock She stands like a rock,
Speaker 1: a whole city block. She hovers over the Flock Special
Speaker 1: Thanks to Bob Purse and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.
Speaker 1: If we only had this on video tape instead of
Speaker 1: audio tape, it would be something else. Today is to
Speaker 1: getting the food of the rocks more than anything. For hour,
Speaker 1: you ain't nowhere, Collars time, This collars time. He had
Speaker 1: a handmade round. No man d right ro