Category: childhood

Friday’s Theme Music

Just riding the day this morning, surfin’ the news and the web, maintaining my balance, trying not to wipe out and crash.

From that, yeah, “Surfin’ Safari” by the Beach Boys (1962) plunged into my mental musical stream. It came out when I was six. Don’t know when I first heard it. Simple lyrics, etc., so it was easy to learn and memorable. Today, it seems like music from a kinder era. But then, I peruse my limited memory of U.S. history at time, refreshing myself with, oh, yeah, those protests against that war, and that war, itself, and that cold war, and an assassination the next year, and the air pollution.

So, back to surfin’ the wave of the day, trying not to wipe out.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Seems like everybody’s waiting
For a new change to come around.

[Background:]
Come around, come around, come around.

[Lead Vocal:]
Waiting for the day when the
King, Queen of soul sing around

[Background:]
Sing around, sing around, sing around, sing around.

[Lead Vocal:]
You can understand everything’s to share.
Let your spirit dance brothers everywhere.
Let your head be free, turn the wisdom key
Find it naturally – see you’re lucky to be.
Dig this sound it’s been round and round and round.

You get out your cold feet ba-by
Something on your back lay it down.

[Background:]
Lay it down, lay it down, lay it down.

[Lead Vocal:]
Don’t you know honey maybe your light might shine this whole town

[Background:]
This whole town, this whole town, this whole town, sing around.

[Lead Vocal:]
Time for you to all get down
Yeah do it

h/t to AZLyrics.com

The song is Santana with “Everybody’s Everything” (1971). Thought it fit well for these times. BTW, that’s a Neal Schon guitar solo, not Carlos.

Get ready.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

This song kicked in yesterday afternoon after I’d finished my writing session. Walking through the day, enjoying the increasing warmth and sunshine, admiring the buds on the trees and the blooming daffs, Donovan began singing “Mellow Yellow” (1966). The song stayed in the stream through the night and dominates it this morning.

And why not? It’s about being laid back. Yes, be vigilant, but stay mellow. Relax. (Well, that’s another song. We’ll save it for another day.)

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Floofhood

Floofhood (floofinition) – The state or period of being a floof.

In use: “Some humans enter floofhood after dying and being reborn, if they’re lucky (because there’s a waiting list); others are usually reborn as a mineral, such as granite, which is unfortunate, as properties may carry over into the next incarnation.”

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Monday’s Theme Music

West coast. We wake up to news of stock market plunges, oil price wars, cancellations, and falling gas prices. They’re talking about $2 a gallon gas in Florida as a real possibility, ignoring that falling demand drives that price.

COVID 19 cases are up in Oregon. As other governors have done in other states, Governor Brown declared a state of emergency this week as they scramble have people tested and monitor the situation.

Amidst all of this (and my dreams) one song popped into the stream and stayed:  “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” by George Harrison, 1973. I chose the video from a concert that celebrated George, with Jeff Lynne (ELO) singing.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

I’ve done this song before, but it’s a throwback, optimistic song. “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke was inspired by his life experiences. He released it in 1964.

It’s a good, reflective song about trying and being. The chorus is the best part (from Genius.com):

It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it will

Change has come today, the same changes as every day, every year: the weather, the shadows, the temperature, the month, the date. We’re looking for more permanent changes in other ways, to the way that people act and treat one another. We need changes to the erroneous supposition that same deserve less freedom, less equality, less opportunity, because of their skin, their religion, their sexual orientation or gender, or their heritage.

This is a cover by Brian Owens with his father. I enjoyed it, and thought that you might enjoy it, too.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Today reveals that I’m in a nostalgic, wistful mood. I stepped outside onto the back patio.  Buds are on the trees, and the air smells rain-filled. Not a new rain nor a close rain, but hints that rain was nearby. Which, after a bit of talking to cats and thinking about the rise of spring (like it’s a rebellion in the air) reminded me of other times and places that seemed. Out of that came a Rolling Stones song, which, I guessed after a bit, would’ve been heard in 1973. Getting back into the house, I looked up “100 Years Ago”, confirming, 1973, from the album Goats Head Soup. Not quite a hundred years ago, but at least most of a lifetime ago.

“The buds were bursting and the air smelled sweet and strange,
and it seemed about a hundred years ago.”

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

I was singing today’s song because it’s Tuesday, and I was ruminating over my dreams. Had to look up the date of when the song was released. It’s one of those songs that’ve been around for almost all of my life.

Turns out that “Ruby Tuesday” was released in 1967. I turned eleven years in ’67. Good years for cars. I enjoyed the ’67 Ford Mustang’s looks, along with the ’67 Chevy Camaro and the ’67 Mercury Cougar. I also like the ’67 E Jag, but it was little changed in its looks from previous years.

The lyrics (besides the main chorus) that came up with the sun today were toward the song’s end:

There’s no time to lose, I heard her say
Catch your dreams before they slip away
Dying all the time
Lose your dreams
And you will lose your mind.
Ain’t life unkind?

h/t to AZlyrics.com

Somehow, Mick and the Stones make this work. One of the things that go through my head while watching this video is the thinking, okay, what am I going to wear today, that must have progressed. Yet, being a boy from the sixties, I often dressed like this.

Fun times.

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Monday’s Theme Music

Preparing to depart the coffee shop yesterday, I bused my table. Looking into the roasting room, I saw one of the Noble employees back there. My jaw dropped.

He’s a spitting image of Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night back in the late 1960s.

640px-Three_Dog_Night_1969

Negron, Wells and Hutton of Three Dog Night in 1969

Thinking about that as I walked the town, I went through a few TDN songs – “Eli’s Coming”, “One”, “Joy to the World”, “Mama Told Me Not To come”, and “Liar”. The song that arrived to stay in the stream was one where Negron was the featured lead vocalist. That would be TDG’s cover of “Easy to Be Hard” from Hair.

Not only was it fittin’ to have Negron, the secret coffee roaster (maybe he cloned himself) singin’ a song, but the song whose lyrics fit these times of rollbacks in how we treat one another to the point of open hostility and cruelty.

How can people be so heartless
How can people be so cruel
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no

Especially people who care about strangers
Who care about evil and social injustice
Do you only care about the bleeding crowd
How about a needy friend
I need a friend

h/t to AZLyrics.com

Cheers

Love the bumper stickers in the video.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

“This Diamond Ring” (cover by Gary Lewis and the Playboys, 1965) began playing in my head as I reconstructed and evaluated my dream, which was about theater, wine, food, and clothes. Why that song, I wondered, going over the lyrics. It’s all about broken promises and lost dreams, and gathered, that must be what the dreams were about, a depressing thought at its face.

Anyway, now the song is lodged in the stream. Sharing it will release it, so here you are. Watch the video, as their performance is interesting. (So is the setting.) (Such a simpler time.) Several of those musicians look like, “Where am I, where am I,” is caught in their thinking streams.

Cheers

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