38 Special

The band in 2010

38 Special (AKA .38 Special or spelled out as Thirty-eight Special) is an American rock band formed by singer-guitarists Donnie Van Zant and Don Barnes in Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1974, the band practiced in an old barn near Yulee, Florida. They kept the barn locked and nailed down from the outside so their equipment would be safe and entered by climbing a ladder into a second-story loft. One day, someone called the cops thinking there were illegal activities there. 

The barn was surrounded by Nassau County Sheriffs and when the bandmates peered out, they saw a bunch of .38 Special guns pointed at them. The .38 Special was the standard service cartridge for the majority of United States police departments from the 1920s to the 1990s. As the story goes, the band members were unable to come out because of a padlock on the door. One of the cops said, "That's all right. We'll let this .38 special do the talking", and shot off the lock.

They are known for their hit songs, including "Hold On Loosely" and "Caught Up in You", among various other Top 40 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 during the 1980s and early 1990s, including "Rockin' into the Night", "You Keep Runnin' Away", "If I'd Been the One", "Back Where You Belong", "Teacher, Teacher", "Like No Other Night", "Second Chance" and "The Sound of Your Voice."

Though without any original members, a 38 Special band still tours.

The Very Best of the A&M Years (1977-1988)

Anthology -38 Special
The Best of .38 Special - 20th Century Masters
Wild-Eyed Southern Boys
Tour de Force
Strength in Numbers
Special Forces
38 Special
38 Special - Live
Rock & Roll Strategy
Rockin' Into the Night
The Millennium Collection: The Best of .38 Special
Live at Sturgis
Best Shots
Drivetrain
Extended Versions Double Bill - Lynyrd Skynyrd / 38 Special
Bone Against Steel
Extended Versions
Wild-Eyed Christmas Night
Special Delivery
Christmas

The Lucky Four-Leaf Clover

Irish 3-leaf clover

According to St. Patrick's Day lore, Patrick used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Christian holy trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) to the native Irish, and the shamrock is one of the major symbols of the holiday. 

So what is the origin of the four-leaf clover being considered lucky?

The most obvious reason is that most clovers have only three leaves, and finding a four-leaf clover is uncommon (about 1 in 5,000). Its scarcity makes it special and so a symbol of luck.

But historically, the Celts in Ireland believed four-leaf clovers had magical properties, offering protection against evil spirits and bad luck. 

Druids thought they could help detect and ward off bad omens.

Some early Christians appropriated that belief and linked the four leaves to the cross and saw them as a sign of God's favor.

Each leaf is said to represent something.
First leaf: Hope
Second leaf: Faith
Third leaf: Love
Fourth leaf: Luck

During the 19th century in Victorian britain, four-leaf clovers became a popular symbol of luck and love, often pressed into books or exchanged as tokens.

The idea of luck associated with four-leaf clovers has persisted over time, reinforced by pop culture, misinterpreted St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, and general folklore.

Feeling Under the Weather

How did  “feeling under the weather” come to mean that someone is not feeling well.

Sailors would rest under the bow of a ship if they became seasick during a voyage. This was the best place as it would protect the sailor from bad weather. Those who were ill were described as being under the weather,

Steal Your Thunder; Specious; Limelight;

Here's an origin that sounds specious to me. By the way, specious means superficially plausible, but actually wrong.  - which itself has a specious origin in late Middle English (in the sense ‘beautiful’) from the earlier Latin specious (fair).

I found that “steal your thunder” - which today means to take the attention or limelight away from someone. By the way, the term "limelight" comes from the discovery in the 1820s that heating calcium oxide with oxygen and hydrogen produces a brilliant white light. The light was used as a theatrical spotlight and to illuminate stages. 

Back to "steal your thunder" which is said to have a quite literal origin. In the 18th-century, playwright John Dennis wanted an authentic sound of thunder for his play. He invented a thunder-making machine, but his play flopped. Later, he learned that someone had seen his machine in action and made a similar one for another play. It was pretty much the same machine but was not credited with the invention. This other person had literally stolen his thunder.

Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane photographed by Herb Greene at the Matrix club, San Francisco, in 1966. 

Top row from left: Jack Casady, Grace Slick, Marty Balin; 

bottom row from left: Jorma Kaukonen, Paul Kantner, Spencer Dryden. 

A cropped version of this photo was used for the front cover of Surrealistic Pillow.  Link

Paul Kantner put together the original Jefferson Airplane and one member he recruited was his college friend, blues guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. Kaukonen is given credit for the band's name because he has said that, "I had this friend [Steve Talbot] in Berkeley who came up with funny names for people. His name for me was Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane [kind of a reference to blues pioneer Blind Lemon Jefferson]. When the guys were looking for band names and nobody could come up with something, I remember saying, 'You want a silly band name? I got a silly band name for you!'"

So the name has no real meaning. But it survived the reincarnation of the band as Jefferson Starship, but not the final version that was simply Starship.

Something that used the band's name as a direct reference is the practice of making a quick roach clip for a marijuana joint by splitting a matchstick into a “V” formation allowing the user to smoke the very end of a joint without burning their fingers. That makeshift clip became known (at least on the West Coast) as a Jefferson Airplane.

The group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to achieve international commercial success. They headlined the Monterey Pop Festival (1967), Woodstock (1969), Altamont Free Concert (1969), and the first Isle of Wight Festival (1968) in England. 

Their 1967 breakout album Surrealistic Pillow was one of the most significant recordings of the Summer of Love. Two songs from that album, "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", are among Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time"

Despite several lineup changes, the band continued and in 1989, the classic 1966–70 lineup of Jefferson Airplane reunited (with the exception of drummer Spencer Dryden) for a tour and album. The self-titled album was released by Epic to modest sales but the accompanying tour was considered a success  Jefferson Airplane is the eighth and final studio album by the band. Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady all returned for the album and supporting tour, The album and accompanying tour would mark the last time Jefferson Airplane would perform together until their 1996 induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Jefferson Airplane evolved into Jefferson Starship in January 1974. Between 1974 and 1984, they released eight gold or platinum-selling studio albums and had nine top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

1975's Red Octopus marked the official return of Marty Balin as vocalist. The Balin-penned single "Miracles” peaked at #3 on the chart, and along with the single “Play on Love” helped to propel the album to eventual multiple-platinum status and topped the Billboard 200 chart. It might surprise fans to know that it would be the biggest-selling album of the band's career. 

Starship was initially a continuation of Jefferson Starship, but because of a different musical direction and loss of personnel, a lawsuit settlement led to a name change that required dropping the "Jefferson" in the name. Their 1985 pop album Knee Deep in the Hoopla had two number-one hits -"We Built This City" and "Sara."

MAIN ALBUMS of the Original Band Lineup

Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966)

Surrealistic Pillow (1967)

After Bathing at Baxter's (1967)

Crown of Creation (1968)

Volunteers (1969)

Bless Its Pointed Little Head (1969)