People tell me you’ve been writing some very interesting rock ‘n’ roll songs, and I could use one,’ ” Taylor, now 75, recalled. “He said to me, ‘Chip, I know you’ve been writing some great country songs. “Wild Thing” was written to order for a songwriter named Gerry Granahan, who was producing a local group named the Wild Ones. (Yes, he’s actor Jon Voight’s brother.) He couldn’t read or write music, but he had a knack for songwriting, and he landed a job as a staff writer for April Blackwood Music at 1650 Broadway in New York, which Taylor describes as “more sweaty” than the famous Brill Building about a block away. Any novice can probably play it as well as the Troggs, who weren’t even tuned properly.Īnd you probably don’t even have to play it at all: Like Van Morrison’s classic “Gloria,” “you can throw a guitar on the ground, and it will by itself play (it),” Barry said.Ĭhip Taylor was born James Voight in Yonkers, New York. “It’s the most garage-bandy of all garage-band songs,” said author Dave Barry, who’s performed the tune countless times with his group of music-playing writers, the Rock Bottom Remainders. It’s stupid and defiant, powerful and primitive, everything rock ‘n’ roll ever wanted to be in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Its list of performers is extensive: Jimi Hendrix, X, the Runaways, Hank Williams Jr., Sam Kinison, Liz Phair and perhaps every pimple-faced 16-year-old who’s ever picked up a guitar.
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