Huey Lewis and THE NEWS!

Molly and I are going to see Huey Lewis and The News at the NW Wash Fair this summer and I gotta tell ya, I feel like a girl waiting behind the rope line in 1988 for HLATN to get our of their limo to go win a grammy.  In honor of Sir Huey (knighted by me), I have been making up these little blips about Huey.  I think people on Facebook think I am nuts, understandably.  So here I am back on my googlized blogging machine.  Here are the first few.

1) When asked how he was inspired to write some of his hits, Huey told a story of when he was jailed in France for being a renegade. He was jailed on a small island called Elba where he met a small man, Napoleon. This small frenchman inspired Huey to write a song about how being imprisoned would change his point of view. This is how "Hip To Be Square" came about. Pretty sure Napoleon is mentioned in the liner notes for the album, "Fore!" I believe this happened.

2) The version of "Back in Time" used on the "Back to the Future" soundtrack was actually the third version Huey Lewis wrote. The first two ended up being used for the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. Little known fact.

" I thought it was "power of love"?"

As a matter of *fact, Huey was commissioned by Julius Caesar to write a love song for Cleopatra. Though Huey and The News rocked the senate halls when they performed it, Julius thought it might be a little to rockin' for Cleo's taste. So Huey went back to the drawing board and wrote "Cruisin'". Many believed Julius' murder is attributed to him NOT using "Power of Love" (which is a far superior song).

3)  In 1984, Huey and his band of merry men (the News) were walking through Russia, similar to Kane in Kung Fu walking the Earth, and stopped to play some music in the streets of St. Petersburg. A man with a very distinct birthmark on the top of his head heard Huey and the News singing "It's Alright". This man took what he heard as sign of the future, particularly the chorus, "It's alright, to have a good time, yes it's alright." Huey saw this man with a tear in his eye and a smile on his face. Huey tapped his hand over his heart, pointed at the man, and mouthed "glasnost", or "openess". Gorbachev took to power in 1985 starting a chain reaction of what would be the end of the Cold War. I believe Gorbachev talked about this in an interview with Maxim Magazine some years later.