#83 – This Hotel Room
#83 – This Hotel Room
-by Stacy Garwood-
This Hotel Room is one of those quirky, fun songs that I have come to associate with Jimmy’s music, and it was on one of the early albums, the iconic Havana Daydreamin’. It’s a song with a subject that most people can associate with, having spent a night or two in some roadside motel room or stacked up on the third floor of some intriguing downtown hotel. The song is another of the songs that Jimmy covered that was written by his very good friend, the immensely talented Steve Goodman.
This Hotel Room was released on JB’s 1976 record Havana Daydreamin’. It’s also one of my very favorite of the album covers, with all the suave style of the seventies wrapped up in Leisure Suit Jimmy.
“Uh this hotel room’s gotta lotta stuff, Laundry bag and a shoe shine cloth, Thirty two hangers and a touch tone phone, Well a light that comes on when I ain’t home…”
This song was one of a few covers on Havana Daydreamin’, the others being Defying Gravity by Jesse Winchester and Big Red, which was written by Grey “Fingers” Taylor, long time Coral Reefer. Steve Goodman wrote this song and is a cowriter on Woman Goin’ Crazy on Caroline Street. They had cowritten together before on Jimmy’s albums, such as Door Number Three, which came out on 1974’s A1A album.
Steve Goodman wrote this song in 1975 and released it the same year on his album for Asylum Records called Jessie’s Jig & Other Favorites. The song was never released as a single, and the record did not have much success in the music world, but several people were aware of the gem that Steve Goodman was. Jimmy Buffett was one of those people.
“They got an air conditioner for when I’m hot, A radiator for when I’m not, Two big chairs sittin’ side by side, With a holy bible and the TV Guide…”
Jimmy and Steve had become good friends during these early years of their careers, and Jimmy has given Steve credit with showing him the ropes around Steve’s hometown of Chicago. Steve Goodman also led Jimmy down the path to being a loyal fan of the Chicago Cubs, a team that Steve was devoted to. They would spend the afternoons in the bleacher seats at Wrigley Field and then spend their evenings performing at locations in Chicago, such as the Quiet Knight.
This was the first song of Steve’s that Jimmy covered on one of his own records but would not be the last. In 1977, Jimmy would cover Banana Republics, a song that many people have been shocked to find out was not written by Jimmy, but by the talented Steve Goodman. That is a song that is a bit of a gritty look at life as an expatriate living in the tropics.
This Hotel Room is a song about living out of a hotel room, as many performers do, as they travel from gig to gig. This song touches with great humor on things that most people can associate with, whether they stayed in a motel room for one night while passing through, or in a hotel room for days on end. It captures all of the charm and all of the humor of these quaint locations, and some of the not so charming things, as well.
“I gotta second story view from curb to curb, I gotta sign that reads Do Not Disturb, A monogrammed towel and a bucket of ice, A chest of drawers and a mirror that lies…”
I can only imagine why Jimmy decided on this song, but if I had to guess, I would say he appreciated the humor of the lyrics, as well as the honest truth in the song. Jimmy was also a man who spent a lot of time living out of hotel rooms, and in those early years, one can imagine that the rooms were not as nice as they probably were in later years. He recorded it a year after Steve Goodman initially did, commemorating some of the great things about hotel life in the seventies.
One of the things that I appreciate most about this song is that it is both humorous, as well as having an earthy sort of charm. Jimmy’s version is wonderful and I have always loved it. Steve’s version is much like himself, charming, enjoyable and a little quirky.
Jimmy has this song on his studio album Havana Daydreamin’ but also has it on two live albums, Live in Las Vegas and Live in Cincinnati. Both are fun live versions of the fun song, and I think you can hear how much Jimmy enjoyed the song, just by the way he sounds. And if you find a video of these live performances, I think you can see the enjoyment, as well as hear it in his voice. The crowd always seems to love it too.
I have watched a couple live performances of Steve doing this song, and in a couple of them, he gives credit and dedicates the song to an Indianapolis hotel that has Quality in the name, either the Quality Courts Motor Hotel, or possibly the Quality Quartz Motor Hotel. If anyone knows for sure, I would love to hear. If it’s still standing, I think the place needs a plaque commemorating its importance in songwriting lore.
A particular favorite video of mine to watch is a live performance Steve Goodman did for Austin City limits and I recommend a little walk through YouTube to witness this lively and entertaining performance. The man had charisma and energy, especially inspiring when you realize that man was living with a diagnosis of Leukemia since he was a young man and years of treatments that must have taken a toll, but in performances, he was vibrant and entertaining. To the point of jumping up and down, laughing and jamming a verse and chorus out on stage.
“They got a room service menu for food and drink, A porcelain throne and an aluminum sink, Two big pillows to rest my head, A Magic Fingers and a king-size bed…”
Steve’s obvious enjoyment of the last line of that verse and its following chorus are one of my favorite things about watching him perform. I think he must have had a great sense of humor and probably stayed in more than one hotel room that had a vibrating bed.
Which led my down a little research into Magic Fingers and how it has become a part hotel, motel and roadside lore and American culture.
So, let’s talk about John Houghtaling, the inventor of Magic Fingers, and how he touched America, and landed in a Jimmy Buffett album via a Steve Goodman song. John Houghtaling was born in the mid-west state of Missouri in 1916, although his family moved often in his early years because of his father’s job. He, like many people of his generation, joined the call and served in the US Army during WWII, first serving as a gunnery instructor before being sent to England where he flew twenty missions as part of the Army Air Corps on a B17 Flying Fortress, one of the most iconic planes of the World War II era. He survived his missions and service in the 452nd Bombardment Squadron and returned home after his military service was completed.
He worked many jobs, including as a hotel bellman, and several jobs in the sales industry. One of his sales jobs included a time in the 1950’s selling vibrating beds. Interestingly, I found that vibrating beds had been around for some time, including beds that were operated first by servants, then eventually steam power and finally electric power. But these were all large, clumsy, and quite expensive. The electric beds that Mr. Houghtaling was selling for another company included the vibrator built into a heavy and expensive bed frame that broke down often and were difficult to maintain.
So he was inspired to try something a little different, but with a better effect. And after reportedly experimenting with about three hundred motors, he found a motor that could be mounted to a regular box spring, making them both cost effective and small enough to be easily fitted to existing beds, and with the additions of a coin operated box, people could have a very unique experience while traveling. It was promoted as a luxury item, and with the help of his wife with the name, Magic Fingers, Mr. Houghtaling’s company eventually sold over one million of the devices to hotels all over the country.
The coin operated box sat beside the bed, and for one quarter, a person could have fifteen minutes of vibrational relaxation while drifting off to sleep. And if you wanted more “relaxation”, you just popped another quarter in the box and bought yourself another fifteen minutes of heaven. Not only was he an inventor, but he was also a savvy businessman, because he supplied technicians for maintenance on the beds, as well as to collect the quarters, with those coin profits then shared by the Magic Fingers company as well as the hotel owner. At one point, it was reported that his company was bringing over a million dollars in revenue per year, one quarter at a time. As a matter of fact, so much money was dropped into these devices that theft became a problem. People busted into the devices, damaging them beyond repair, eventually causing owners to find them more of a liability than an asset by the late seventies and early eighties.
I am sad to say that I never experienced a Magic Finger’s bed, but if I had the opportunity, I certainly would have persuaded my parents to drop more than just one quarter in the device. But even without experiencing Magic Fingers for myself, I was aware of it as a cultural phenomenon.
“Put in a quarter, Turn out the light, Magic Fingers makes you feel alright…”
“Uh feel alright, Feel alright, Magic Fingers make you feel alright…
Probably because Magic Fingers was not just hotel/motel lore, it touched mainstream media as well, talked about in movies and on television. Most notably, the Magic Fingers was a focus in both the Steve Martin and John Candy comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles and National Lampoons Vacation, where Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo attempted a romantic episode and ended up vibrated right out of the bed. Even into the nineties, Magic Fingers was still touching Hollywood by showing up in one of my favorite episodes of the X Files, where it was the staid and practical Agent Dana Scully who dropped the quarter in the device, although it was Agent Fox Mulder who benefitted from the bed when she was called away to perform yet another autopsy.
So, Cheers!!! to Mr. John Houghtaling, for creating something that not only is a nod to ingenuity and savvy business that created an empire, but also has become a part of Americana roadside lore. And giving something for Steve Goodman to write a song about!
A very interesting thing that Steve Goodman did while constructing this song, is that while he has a chorus, it’s never the same as the previous use. The song has lyrics, then a chorus that focuses on the end of his previous lyric, repeating ideas like “I ain’t home”, “TV Guide”, “Mirror that lies”, “Feel alright”, and “Comin’ home”, which comes across as quite fun and I think wonderfully charming and original, two things I have come to associate with Steve Goodman’s songwriting. Hence, we focus again on great aspects of hotel life, not only in a verse but repeated rousingly in the chorus, including a gorilla disguise.
“Uh this ol’ hotel’s all right with me, They pay the postage if you lose the key, This hotel room’s gotta lot of stuff, But I do believe I’ve had enough…
“Called my baby said don’t you pout, I’m packin’ my bags and I’m checking out, Just as soon as you hang up the telephone, Stick a candle in the window I’m coming home…”
While this song never gets old, staying in motels and hotels certainly does, which I am sure that both Steve Goodman and Jimmy Buffett were well aware of. And in that sense, I am sure something as unique and at that time trendy as Magic Fingers helped ease the monotony of a hotel stay thanks to John Houghtaling, enough that Steve Goodman used it as a bit of a muse in his song, and that Jimmy Buffett liked enough to put on an several albums, studio and live, and in that way, all three of these men have become part of an American life of travel, whether you are a musician earning a living on the road or a family on a summer vacation. This song is always worthy of being on any vacation playlist!
Stacy
Please enjoy This Hotel Room. I have included the link below. Enjoy!
The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.
