Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
I was streaming several songs this morning, including “Timothy Leary” by the Moody Blues, but looking out the window at the emerging spring day and the hopes for more pleasant weather, I selected another oldie for today’s theme.
Here’s Friends of Distinction with “Grazing In The Grass” (1969). As Harry Elston sings, “What a trip just watching as the world goes past.” Perfect for a mellow-ish Sunday.
I had a dream that I was searching for a combination. The combination would open the door and allow me to escape. It was all tres noir, black shadows, dim lighting, and unpainted cinder-block walls.
That led me to try to remember one of our bank account numbers. As I kept repeating the numbers, I wished for a ten-key number pad so that I could better visualize the number.
When I awoke, I knew the number without issue, but that whole repeating numbers sequence led me to “Jenny” by Tommy Tutone (1981). Many people know this number for some reason… Perhaps it’s because it seemed like it was being played everywhere.
Found myself singing The Cult, “She Sells Sanctuary” (1985). Sanctuary was on my mind, partly through writing and reading influence but also due to various news articles and local events. Locally, forty-eight hundred customers, including my house, have been without natural gas since Monday. It’s expected to be restored by Friday afternoon at my house. That diminished my sense of sanctuary but also stirred reflections on how much is accepted and taken for granted as a given – gas and electricity to heat and cook water to bath, drink, and cook; and protection from the elements. I see homeless people everyday that don’t have these things. I recognize they don’t have them and feel for them, but with my temporary losses magnified my empathy for people going without. As too many times with privileged folks like me, it takes an inconvenience to look harder and think deeper.
I thought my cats were singing today’s theme music. As I did the morning rituals of feeding cats, dressing, and foraging for coffee, they took turns stalking me, rubbing against my legs, sitting on my feet, giving me adoring gazes, and purring like mad. They wouldn’t relent, and I picked up that they were singing, “I got my mind set on you.”
You might recall the 1987 George Harrison cover of the 1962 song, “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You,” released by Harrison as “Got My Mind Set on You”, or the Weird Al parody, “(This Song’s Just) Six Words Long”. According to the feline streams hitting my music stream (a wholly telepathic thing), the cats were singing the Harrison cover.
I’ll go with it, just to purge it from my stream.
Today’s music popped into the stream out of my dreams. An old favorite from 1969 by the Who, the song came out when I was thirteen. I was singing it to myself when I went into science class. Melissa, the girl behind me, said, “Do you like the Who?” Sure, yes, etc. Melissa invited me over to her house to listen to music.
Here’s “Pinball Wizard”. The song and memory all seem innocuous now, but it was a big deal when I was thirteen.
I have stones on my mind today. Probably will for for several more days to weeks. Hard to say with kidney stones.
With those as my guide and inspiration from another blogger, Kenneth, I started streaming some Bob Dylan this morning. Of course, it’s the 1965 classic, “Like A Rolling Stone”. It felt like it took years to understand the lyrics, but as a kid, I always liked the intonation of, “Like a rolling stone.”
Runnin’ behind today. Awoken with a sharp abdominal pain at 6:30. After a bathroom visit, “To the Google,” I cried. I’d begun to guess that I was attempting to pass a kidney stone.
The Googles agreed with me.
I did some home remedies that I was sure would work because they were on the ‘net. Three hours later, that was done, but I was a bit worn out, so I read and went to bed.
Back up at eleven, my stream fed me this Night Ranger tune, “When You Close Your Eyes” (1983), proving that you can still rock in the free mind.
I was on the road today. Naturally, that opened my music stream to road songs. One of them that popped up early is by Canned Heat. AM Radio and the growing pop revolution introduced them to me in my early teens. I didn’t appreciate how much the blues inspired them until about six years later, when I was listening to ZZ Top and the Allman Brothers Band.
Besides Canned Heat, I was singing “Hit the Road, Jack,” “Truckin'”, “Little Red Corvette”, “American Pie”, “Little GTO”, “Beep Beep”, “Uneasy Rider”, “The Way”, “Sweet Hitchhiker”, “Life Is A Highway”, “One Headlight”, “Drive My Car”, “Mustang Sally”, “Little Deuce Coupe”, “Pink Cadillac”, “The Leader of the Pack”, “Dead Man’s Curve”, “On the Road Again”, “Where the Streets Have No Name”, “Route 66”, “Born to Be Wild”, “Ninety-nine Miles From LA”, “Midnight Rider”, “Fast Car”, “Runnin’ Down A Dream”, and “Radar Love”. You can place the performers to the songs.
You have any favorite road songs that I should have been streaming? I’d like to know them. Sharing is caring, friends.
Here’s Canned Heat with “On the Road Again” from 1968.
The cats inspired today’s theme music. I’d gotten out of bed and came into the office. From the other room came the sounds of a clumsy cat in the kitty litter box. A few moments later, a stink cyclone struck me.
As I hastened to attend the natural disaster, I told the cat (who wanted out, and I understand why), “I love you but sometimes love stinks.”
J. Geils Band, “Love Stinks”, 1980.
Today’s song is one I sing briefly for myself almost every morning because I’ve tortured the lyrics to address my morning coffee ritual.
“Pour some coffee for me.
“Make it black, hot and strong,
“I can drink it all day long.”
Here’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me”, Def Leppard, 1987.
Michael Seidel, writer 