Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Today’s song is another that my mind kicked into my mental stream this morning, where it’s been going around like a washer on the rinse cycle. Maybe thoughts about who I am, or my wife, or the cats caused it. Perhaps something in my writing and editing process ignited the song’s entry into my stream. Don’t know.
Let’s do “Something About You”, Level 42, 1985.
Began streaming this 1970 song yesterday afternoon during my après-writing walk-about. “For united we stand, divided we fall, and if our backs should ever be against the wall, we’ll be together, together, you and I.”
Although I often get down (trigger a background streaming of Kool & The Gang performing “Jungle Boogie” (1973)) by world events, especially with the rise of white supremacy and a growing impression that large segments of America’s population are concerned about only themselves, leading to a de facto policy of screw everyone else, and the Earth, too, singing “United We Stand” by Brotherhood of Man (1970) lifted my spirits.
Listen. Sing along. Hope.
Back in my military days, it was a thing to hit a base club for a few drinks with peers. The clubs were usually segregated by ranks – Airman, NCO, and Officers’ Club, or Open Mess. Food and drinks were cheap, and then there was happy hour.
In 1980, I was stationed at Randolph AFB in Texas. One co-worker and friend used to immediately hit the jukebox when we hit the club, even before ordering. He’d always select this Triumph song, “Lay It On the Line”. Then he’d sit there, pensive, waiting for the song. When it came on, he’d sit there, singing it to himself, lips moving, absent of where he was and what was happening around him.
Never saw him again after Randolph. Looked for him but never found a trace.
Today’s theme music is another throwback that popped into the morning’s music stream.
Born in the USA was a huge hit album for Bruce Springsteen. Released in 1984 when we were stationed on Okinawa, in Japan, it was the first CD that we bought after buying a CD player and then searching for something to play on it. Seems like a lifetime ago. Was, when you think about the years, what’s that, 2019 minus 2084? Yeah, do the math.
I enjoyed every song on that album but the one my mind chose to stream today is “Cover Me”. “The whole world is out there, just trying to score. I’ve seen enough, don’t want to see any more, cover me. Wrap your arms around me, cover me.”
We saw Bruce perform “Cover Me” during his Tunnel of Love tour in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1988. Good show.
Another blogger posted about taking his son to see Lynyrd Skynyrd and Status Quo in concert. I thought that’d be a rockin’ thing for a father and son to do together, and he wrote about it in his usual charming and humorous, slightly weary way. Skynyrd was part of my formulative southern rock education. I came across Status Quo much later, hearing quite a bit of them when I lived in Germany for a few years and criss-crossed Europe on different assignments. I don’t recall hearing much of them in America. It helped, I guess, that I had Brit friends who were big Status Quo fans for a while.
Thinking of Status Quo, I began streaming “Beginning of the End” (2007). It’s a regular walking tune for me. Lyrics like, “Is this the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning. The way you got me goin’ tells me I don’t know. I don’t understand any song that you are singin’. The jury’s out, we’re gonna let you know.” They play crisply against a hard rock, fast moving beat. Good video to my eye. The London Eye fascinates me, and the band looks like they’re enjoying themselves, like proper rockers should.
Hope you enjoy the tune.
A stream popped into my mind. It began with Reese Witherspoon. I’d read some article on her. I remembered her as Tracy Flick in Election. Then I struggled with, who was the male lead in that movie?
First to pop into my thinking was that guy from Fidelity, you know, the one who starred in Grosse Pointe Blank? He has that sister, Joan.
Yes, John Cusack, that’s right. No, that wasn’t him in Election. Whoever was in Election had been in WarGames, Biloxi Blues, and The Freshman. A Matthew. Clean-cut, kind of a boyish look. Matthew… Ward? What? No. Matthew. Matt…LeBlanc. No. Matthew Perry. Shut up. Matthew McConaughey. No, fool. Matthew…Matthew…
Damn.
Go back. Ally Sheedy was in WarGames. That doesn’t help. Matthew was in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, remember? Yes, what’s his last name? What’s his last name? Married to Sarah Jessica Parker. Remember her in L.A. Story as Steve Martin’s character’s young girlfriend?
At last: Broderick. Matthew Broderick.
Thank you.
Now who played the scientist in WarGames? Was in 9 to 5, Tootsie, Cloak and Dagger… Starts with a D. Daryl?
What?
Something a little lighter today, huh? A little Hall & Oates, a little song about New York City, a little 1982 sound and look, a little “Maneater”. Love that bass groove.
Just thinking about recent news and politics and remembered the song, “This Is Not America”. The song was a collaboration between David Bowie and the Pat Metheny Group, with Bowie providing the vocals. The song was used in the movie, The Falcon and the Snowman.
The movie is based on the true story of two young American men who become Soviet spies, selling classified information. One is motivated by disillusionment while the other needs money for drugs and partying. Released in 1985, the movie starred Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton.
I was in the military when the movie and song came out, working in a mob unit in South Carolina. Then I headed to Germany and a highly classified unit. While on that assignment, our unit was involved in a couple trials of former members who sold classified information, and several other spies exposed in the U.S. It was all very spy-vs.-spy, but it ended up with more heat on us. Although I was only a functionary, I was glad to put all that behind me after the collapse of the U.S.S.R.
Today’s song comes from another person’s post. Jill Dennison posted “Ain’t That A Shame” by Fats Domino. After enjoying it, my stream countered with Cheap Trick’s version from “Live at Budokan” (1979). I enjoy the original and the CT cover, but the latter is stuck in my head, so here’s some rock and roll for your Wednesday’s theme music. Feel the beat.
This one comes completely via the memory stream, inserted their by a friend’s Facebook post.
When I was fifteen, I’d listen to this McDonald and Giles tune, “Tomorrow’s People – the Children of Today” (1971) on my old phonograph player. A quarter weighed the arm down against the needle skipping. I’d acquired some huge speakers and wired this hybrid stereo. I’d put this on, lay down, and listen to it at a soft volume. I found it relaxing and reassuring.
Bittersweet to hear this song, then and now. It’s about children playing in sunshine. One set of lines that always strikes me:
And who will open their eyes
To see what they can see
And then while looking around
Feel the warmth of reality
At the time I listened to this, I’d left Mom’s home and was living with my Dad. He was in the Air Force and freshly back from overseas assignments. I read and drew a lot, a loner, listening to music. I’d known families back then where the children lived in hard misery, parents who tortured their children with cigarettes or made them stay in a closet for hours in the dark. It was monstrous to think of adults treating children like that. Then, of course, I matured and discovered that there are adults who brutalize children and delight in it.
I admit, I never thought my government, the government that I joined and supported during my military years, would ever be part of the monstrosities we’re learning about in the Trump Camps. I’m ashamed and mortified.
Sorry that it’s such a downer of a post. Probably shouldn’t write this things until I’ve had at least a sniff of freshly brewed coffee to mitigate my dark side.
Michael Seidel, writer 