I thought this thirty-nine year old song was a good choice for theme music for this day in July, 2018.
Monday’s Theme Music
Cranking up a childhood favorite, “I’m Going Home” by Ten Years After, as played at Woodstock. The song’s frenetic energy at the beginning and end appealed to me as a thirteen-year-old. Now I think the guitar riffs capture the feel of the original rockers. Well, they sample quite a bit of others in this medley.
Of course, in the military, when a deployment was ending, and then later, in marketing, when a show was ending, and then in management, when I could finally leave corporate headquarters and go home, this was my internal joy song – “I’m going home!”
Lot of memories of time and place embedded in this song for me.
Wednesday Theme Music
Thinking about music from 1974, the year that I celebrated my eighteenth birthday, I recalled “Smokin’ In the Boys’ Room”.
I like the song’s rocking simplicity of being in school, breakin’ rules, and our permanent records. Brownsville Station did it in 1974; Mötley Crüe covered it almost a dozen years later. Not bucking the normal status quo, the younger folks often prefer the Mötley Crüe version. That’s how it is, right? Newer equals better, or preferred. I, tsk, tsk, prefer the original. Not surprising, either; I’ve heard that from older people about things that my generation later re-interpreted.
(I like that cycle. Didn’t use to, but I’ve come to enjoy, admire, and respect it.)
But 1974 was the year I heard the song, my formative era, if you will, and all that I associate with it. That’s the year I graduated high school, became an adult, moved away from home, and joined the military, so I’m loyal to Brownsville Station’s version.
Let’s celebrate.
Monday’s Theme Music
This song, “Heatwave”, performed by Martha and the Vandellas, came out in July, 1963. I’d just turned seven, so I’ve known this song almost all of my life. It’s a terrific song, full of energy, pop, and harmonies, with some fat sax thrown in. Many other excellent covers have since been offered, but I’ll stay with the original, thanks.
Clap along, clap along.
Friday’s Theme Music
I don’t know where I first heard this hit. It came out in ’63. I was seven. It’s not Mom and Dad’s style of music, and my older sister was only nine, so I discount all those sources. Later, of course, it was played on AM pop and FM rock stations, and wormed its way into movies like Animal House. I dig (catch that lingo) that the hit was performed by a band from Portland in my adopted state of Oregon.
Here is “Louie Louie” performed by The Kingsmen.
Wednesday’s Theme Music
I always think of this as a party song. It’s been covered by many, like the Blues Brothers, but I love this original.
Here is the Spencer Davis Group with Steve Winwood and their hit, “Gimme Some Lovin'”, from when I was ten, in 1966. You can imagine how this beat and the chorus appealed to a kid.
Still appeals to me.
Odd, intriguing video, though.
Monday’s Theme Music
I frequently think that there is a thin veil of existence that keeps me from successfully achieving goals. Sometimes, the stillest moments, I think I can see it, just barely shading my thoughts and being. It often comes when I’ve built energy toward a direction and I’m closing on the finish, but see the quantity of work that still remains.
Then I urge myself, break on through. So the Doors’ song, “Break On Through (To the Other Side)” became one of my rallying songs. Almost there – break on through. Press on. Go, go, go.
Saturday’s Theme Music
Today’s theme owes its presence in my stream to Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Dionne Warwick, and Helix.
It stayed in my stream because it had a presence in my life. “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” was a hit for that impressive singer/songwriter trio way back when I was twelve years old, so I grew up with it. Living on the Peninsula in Mountain View and Sunnyvale between San Francisco and San Jose, we naturally joked about the way to San Jose. Then, watching Helix on Netflix the other night, the song was used to help create the pilot’s surreal opening scenes.
Here we go, then. It’s a mellow, jaunty vehicle for singing along, so feel free to indulge yourself.
Monday’s Theme Music
It seems like I’m staunchly streaming 1971. I’d heard “Every Picture Tells A Story” on the radio the other day and awoke with Rod Stewart singing “Maggie May” in my head.
With that, I thought about that year. Wasn’t watching much television that comes to mind. I listened to music, wrote, and drew. Infatuated with cars, I bought sketch pads and designed cars. I thought I might go into car designing, but things changed.
1976 found me in U.S.A.F. and stationed at Clark AB in the Philippines with the 3rd TFW. I was nineteen, and one of the guys I worked with was thirty-four. We were having a San Miguel beer at an office-sponsored BBQ when “Maggie May” came on the radio. He said, “Oh, I love this song.”
That surprised me. Before his confession, I’d only heard him listen to country and western music, so I started talking to him about music. We had a wonderful conversation, one that was eye-opening for me about judgments and the slide of time.
Remembering A Dad Moment
1971
Besides being a rock fan and fifteen years old, I was an auto racing fan. My father was in the U.S.A.F. He’d just returned from being stationed in Germany and was now stationed at DESC near Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio when I moved in with him. He surprised me with tickets to the premiere of LeMans with Steve McQueen.
Whenever I hear the movie’s opening minutes, I’m back in that packed movie theater, one of the few children in the place, remembering the movie’s beginning, and Dad. The start is just the sounds and images of racing cars of the era screaming around the French race track. To non-fans, it’s probably noise. But to racing fans, the sounds of Porsches and Ferraris of different-sized engines, Alfas, Corvettes, and Matras can all be heard as individual howls.
Dad had no interest in seeing the movie, but he knew I wanted to. So, thanks, Dad.
