Friday’s Theme Music

Hope the day finds you well.

I saw a spotlight show on the Eagles at Camelot Theater last night. A local band, East Main Band, played the Eagles hits while the Eagles story and anecdotes were related to the audience.

I wasn’t originally a big fan of the Eagles musical group. Their early music were too mellow and country-oriented. I admired their harmonies, and they had memorable lyrics about relationships and living, but they didn’t do much for me. That didn’t stop me from hearing them on AM and FM radio, or at parties, and learning their songs. Eventually, the Eagles acquired a harder sound that appealed to me more. That’s when I actually acquired the music. Their shift culminated in their hyper-hit album, Hotel California. 

The song that hung in my stream from last night was “James Dean”. This was my favorite Eagles song from their first four albums. So here we go, with the departed Glenn Frey on rhythm guitar and lead vocals. Happy Friday.

 

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Today’s music is AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”. I heard it on the radio yesterday, reminding me of the problem I have with the song.

Here are the lyrics where my problem with the song begins:

Pick up the phone, I’m always home
Call me any time
Just ring 362 436 oh
I lead a life of crime

h/t to Azlyrics.com

My problem is, how are you leading a life of crime if you’re always home? I’ve heard of working from home, but come on, now. It’d be different if he didn’t go on and state that he’ll take care of things:

Pick up the phone, leave her alone
It’s time you made a stand
For a fee, I’m happy to be
Your back door man hey

If he’s a back door man, he’s not at home, is he? False advertising, that’s what it is. You gotta love that alliteration, though.

 

My Dirty List

Time for a small vanity project (as if every post made on this blog isn’t a vanity project, right?).

I think everyone has certain movies that they love to watch regardless of others’ ratings and reviews. It’s our dirty secret.

Here is my dirty list. I’ve seen each of these movies at least a dozen times, and have a few of them on DVDs, but I still watch them when they come on. Some of them don’t come on much any more, because they’re old, and in black and white, and a few of them depressed people.

The list isn’t in any order. Each movie has several particularly favorite scenes. Thinking about those, I realize they usually come at the movie’s end. IMDB helped me with the quotes because my memory isn’t that good.

Unforgiven (1992) – “It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.”

Fail Safe (1964) – “You learned too well, Professor. You learned so well that now there’s no difference between you and what you want to kill.”

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) – “I believe virtually everything I read, and I think that is what makes me more of a selective human than someone who doesn’t believe anything.”

A Christmas Story (1983) – “Oh, fudge. Except I didn’t say fudge.”

The Great Escape (1963) – “Cooler.”

Tropic Thunder (2008) – “I know who I am. I’m the dude playin’ the dude, disguised as another dude!”

Being There (1979) – “It’s for sure a white man’s world in America. Look here: I raised that boy since he was the size of a piss-ant. And I’ll say right now, he never learned to read and write. No, sir. Had no brains at all. Was stuffed with rice pudding between th’ ears. Shortchanged by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass. Look at him now! Yes, sir, all you’ve gotta be is white in America, to get whatever you want. Gobbledy-gook!”

No Country for Old Men (1997) – “What you got ain’t nothin’ new. This country’s hard on people. You can’t stop what’s coming. It ain’t all waiting on you. That’s vanity.”

On The Beach (1959) – “The trouble with you is you want a simple answer. There isn’t any. The war started when people accepted the idiotic principle that peace could be maintained – – by arranging to defend themselves with weapons they couldn’t possibly use – – without committing suicide. Everybody had an atomic bomb, and counter-bombs, and counter-counter bombs. The devices outgrew us; we couldn’t control them.”

Fifty First Dates (2004) – “Sharks are like dogs, they only bite when you touch their private parts.”

Bladerunner (1982) – “Time…to die.”

Bridge Over the River Kwai (1957) – “Are they both mad? Or am I going mad? Or is it the sun?”

Love Actually (2003) – “A tiny, insignificant detail.”

Men In Black (1997) – “No, ma’am. We at the FBI do not have a sense of humor we’re aware of. May we come in?”

The Dirty Dozen (1967) – “I reckon the folks’d be a sight happier if I died like a soldier. Can’t say I would.”

Doctor Strangelove (1964) – “Well, boys, we got three engines out, we got more holes in us than a horse trader’s mule, the radio is gone and we’re leaking fuel and if we was flying any lower why we’d need sleigh bells on this thing… but we got one little budge on them Rooskies. At this height why they might harpoon us but they dang sure ain’t gonna spot us on no radar screen!”

What of you? Andy dirty secrets about the movies you watch again and again?

 

 

 

 

Friday’s Theme Music

Today finds me streaming and humming “Tom Sawyer” by Rush. This is another, “WTF are they singing?” song. Here are the lyrics with purchase in my brain matter this morning:

What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
-Catch the mist – Catch the myth
-Catch the mystery – Catch the drift

The world is the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide

Today’s Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the space he invades
He gets by on you

No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government.
Always hopeful, yet discontent
He knows changes aren’t permanent –
But change is

h/t to rush.com

It’s all part of a classic Rush presentation, along with the drumming and guitar work.

Although this song is from 1981, I became aware of Rush in 1974. They were opening for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann at Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena that year. I knew Heep and Mann (I wore out “The Magician’s Birthday” and “Easy Livin'” by the first) but I had no idea who Rush was. I wanted to attend that concert, but I was living in West Virginia then. Having graduated from high school and feeling pessimistic about the future, I’d already enlisted in the Air Force and was awaiting the day to go onto active duty.

As it was, I was in the military, stationed in San Antonio, Texas, with orders for Okinawa when this song was released. Rush has had many hits and terrific albums, but I think “Tom Sawyer” remains my favorite.

Thursday’s Theme Music

Knowing the root of a morning stream would be welcomed, because, sometimes those choices stream in from nowhere in my cerebralsphere. Today’s surprise visitor hails from my graduation year, 1974. A television and A.M. radio mellow staple, I can sing every word to “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone. I remember it being used to sweet effect at the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy, but I haven’t seen that movie in a few years. The streaming began as I was popping through my trends, feeding the cats, making my coffee, and worrying over my writing, an average morning at home on the Michael Scale.

It’s just one of those things.

 

Wednesday’s Theme Music

I’ve posted about this one before, but it’s one of my short-listed favorites. I can’t claim to have an absolute favorite song. Like movies, food, and books, the choice is about where I am and where I was. There are certain songs, like the other things, invested with rich memories.

This Four Tops song was one of those early songs that prompted us to find a faux microphone, like a hair brush, so we can pretend we’re the performer singing the song. It became part of our basement playlist on forty-fives. Later, it was part of our make-out parties. “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” has lyrics that speak to young love, passion, and hope, and we had some of that. Love that bass line, too, provided by the memorable Funk Brothers.

Tuesday’s Theme Music

A classic of my youth by Marvin Gaye, I often feel this is the perfect song for the times. But as I’ve aged, read, and learned, I’ve recognized it could be the perfect song for many times and situations.

From 1971, here is “What’s Going On.”

Friday’s Theme Music

Today I’m streaming a song out of 1970. I’m a Joe Walsh fan. Before he went off to perform on his own or with the Eagles, he was part of the James Gang. I’m streaming their best-known song today, “Funk #49.” Wondering how and why it was called “Funk #49”, I read in an interview that it was a jam that the James Gang used to do. They figured they’d done it at least fifty times, but the band’s engineer said that they hadn’t. So, they called it forty-nine.

Thursday’s Theme Music

Alice Cooper came into my scene around 1969, when I was thirteen. Their Killer album, with its snake on a blood-red cover, was a favorite. From that album were “School’s Out” and “I’m Eighteen”. Those two songs were generally played a couple times a day at very loud volume for a few months after the album came out in 1971, but my favorite song on it was “Under My Wheels”.

Lyrics draw me, and did the same with this song. The delivery, backed by rising guitars and horns, becomes more frenetic and intense, which I thought was a reflection of some relationships. He wants one thing, she’s offering something else, and it’s all messed up.

Monday’s Theme Music

Streaming back via the Wayback Machine to 1971, I was reminded of a lot of music that I enjoyed. The Who, Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart, The Doors, Jethro Tull, Yes, John Lennon, Elton John…a solid foundation of future classics were out that year. Against all those albums was a simple sound delivered by Bad Finger. Right off of Straight Up, here’s “Baby Blue”.

I admit, the album disappointed me a bit. It seemed too simple and a little derivative. Once again, my exposure, through an eight-track cassette on a continual loop, came via a friend. He played this album whenever he drove his father’s Ford 500. This was about two years after the album came out. I honestly think he only had three or four eight-tracks. He played this one so often, it developed all sorts of warble.

I still laugh thinking about it.

 

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