As I landed in Pittsburgh last night, a Smith cover of a Beatles/Shirelles song began streaming. I haven’t lived in Pittsburgh, PA, since the early seventies. I usually visit the city for about five days at a time every two or three years. But it offers that energy that says, home. My soul feels more settled among the neighborhoods nestled among the western PA. rivers, mountains, and bridges.
Here’s “Baby It’s You” (1969), written by Burt Bacharach, Luther Dixon, and Mack David, and performed by Smith.
I’d been blue last week, you know, a few days of WTF and WTH coursing through me as I read news, experienced disappointment and weariness, took a jaunt down what’s-the-point lane, and pouted a bit in the pity-poor-me cul-de-sac. Yeah, a helluva neighborhood. Other streets include, who-cares boulevard and nobody-gives-a-damn avenue. We share drinks at the I’m-tired-of-this-shit cafe.
Some blues music periodically trickled through the street. Eventually, a song that was released in 1965, when I was nine, gained momentum in the stream. That would be Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”. I listened to covers from Red Hot Chili Peppers, Harry Nilsson, and others, good work all, but the original’s rhythm and tone carried me most.
So here it be, from me to thee, courtesy of technology and Youtube. Gotta admit, watching young Bob and his signs puts a smile on my face.
Today’s song choice is straight out of thinking about the past. Ginger Baker, a musician of some renown, passed away at eighty years old last week. He was part of several groups that I enjoyed. One was Blind Faith.
Blind Faith was Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Richard Grech, and the previously mentioned Baker. It didn’t last long, as Clapton wasn’t satisfied with the sound and performance. The group put out some memorable songs, though. Thinking of them, I searched the net and found this video of the group performing “Presence of the Lord” (1969). Sweet flashback.
I enjoy these Playing for Change/Song Around the World, and I’m fond of “The Weight” by the Band (1968), so I had to share this puppy. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Hope you stay and listen to the next song on the playlist, “Higher Ground” (Stevie Wonder, 1973), a Song Aound the World from 2011.
“Something”, a 1969 Beatles song written by George Harrison, has been playing a lot recently. Maybe it’s the time of year or the movie “Yesterday”, or I’m enjoying selective hearing.
I can’t say that “Something” is my favorite Beatles song, but it’s definitely on the short list. Like books and foods, my favorite shifts with mood, moment, and memory. Harrison has a couple on my short list, like “Here Comes the Sun” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.
Another floof-inspired choice. Two of our three boys squared off. Mewing, yowling, and growling, Boo said, “There’s not room for two of us in this entryway.” Papi’s got us back up. “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? There’s no one else here so you must be talkin’ to me.”
It was Saturday night. “Enough,” I said. “Keep it up, and I’ll get the squirt gun. Boo, be quiet. Papi, go around him.”
They did as told. Yeah, surprised me, too. Guess they feared that squirt gun. As Boo went out and I closed the door behind him, I finished, “Saturday night’s not alright for fighting.”
That, of course, introduced the Elton John/Bernie Taupin tune of that name from 1973, when I was just seventeen. Here we go.
Today’s song is perfect for the moment. A cat’s attentions awoke me about five this morning. Dream pieces stayed with me while I attended the cat, and since I was up, visited the water closet. Sometime during this period, ELO’s 1975 song, “I Can’t Get It Out of My Head”, started streaming because I couldn’t get that dream out of my head.
Now, like the title, I can’t get this soft, mystical, prog-rock song out of my head. Over to you.
Thinking about having a beer with friends at our annual Haroldfest tonight when this energetic old rock song streamed in. Even though it’s by this group led by this guy named Santana, I don’t I’ve heard it on the radio in about four decades.
The lines that brought it into mind:
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
Sing it loud
It’s time for you to all get down
Yeah do it.
The Wayback Machine injected another song into the stream yesterday.
I was out walking through an autumn day. Reds, golds, oranges, and yellows have been splashed across the foliage but leaves aren’t dropping yet. Temperatures have dropped in a fallish segment, thirties to forties at night, fifties to sixties in the day, with rain showers.
As I walked through this, I noticed how many people weren’t dressed for the day. Maybe, like my friend, in his loud flowery, tropical shirt, they’re making a last stand for summer. Perhaps they expected the area to follow its tradition of quickly reverting to warmer weather, or, it could be that they’re just denying that the season changed, or they’re not paying attention. I also thought that they were tough people, unfazed by chilly, soggy weather, and were wearing tee shirts and sandals because the weather wasn’t affecting them like the rest of us mortals. The majority them looked cold and a bit miz, though.
So, reflecting on the weather change, I chanced to glance upon a far-away scene, where the leaves were a splash of fiery color on the mountain. Natch, the WM poured a 1975 Marshall Tucker Band song, “Fire on the Mountain” into the stream, and off I went, humming and singing as I continued on.
Of course, “Fire on the Mountain” is about a futile search for gold so a man can improve his family’s situation. He fails and dies. That’s often life, innit?
Michael Seidel, writer 