Friday’s Theme Music

I awoke streaming this song, “Is It in My Head?”, in my head this morning (ha, ha).

I often wonder about the truths of perceptions, impressions, and memories. I don’t wonder about just mine, but how others came to their beliefs, and how difficult it can be to dislodge an idea after it’s burrowed into you. We’ve been exposed to evidence that the winners write history. History is often propaganda to justify and moralize decisions and sustain political or popular support. We all love heroes and myths.

So I wonder with myself about whether I remember something correctly, whether I’m too deeply embedded in silos and bubbles to perceive the truth and grasp it, and often, if I’m conning myself into hoping and believing that my writing efforts amount to anything. It’s a perpetual cycle of challenging, searching, and thinking.

Today’s song selection, made by my mind (and probably invited in by the latest rounds of dreams), “Is It in My Head” is from Quadrophenia by the Who. The album was released in 1973, when I became seventeen years old. I’d been searching and wondering well before I heard this song.

I continue searching and wondering today, almost fifty years later.

October 19, 2018 0

Thursday’s Theme Music

I awoke with Outkast’s “Hey Ya” streaming in my mind, but another song replaced it. The lyrics, sung by a woman went, “He’s the last of the secret agents, and he’s my man.”

I thought, was that Nancy Sinatra? Sure sounded like it to my brain. Thinking about Nancy granted permissions to stream “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'”, followed by a duet with Frank Sinatra, “Something Stupid”. Hearing Frank made the stream believe it was okay for him to join in, so I heard “Winchester Cathedral” and “Fly Me to the Moon”.

I’d decided I was becoming a basket case, which opened the ports for “Basketcase” by Green Day, followed by “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”. Thinking, enough, I went through a little of “Enough is Enough” by April Wine, followed by “No More Tears” (Streisand/Summers).

By then, I knew that it had been Nancy Sinatra streaming “Last of the Secret Agents” (1966). I never saw the movie, btw. Anyone know if it was any good?

October 18, 2018 0

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Today, I awoke with an actual theme song streaming in my head, to wit, the Hart to Hart music. Since the whole damn opening, including the expository introduction and the music, is stuck in my head, I need to share it to disperse it from me. Sort of like a musical exorcism.

For those of you who don’t know it, Hart to Hart was one of the last century’s American television offerings around the seventies or eighties. Starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers, along with Lionel Stander and a dog who was Freeway on the show, it was part of the fun, slick television genres populating our television fare. I wasn’t a fan, for no particular reason. It didn’t draw me (mostly because I was outside of America during those years, and American television was still mostly contained to North America), but I knew about the show through friends and family who were faithful viewers.

Although familiar with the show’s theme music, I had to research the composer. Turned out to be Mark Snow, who has done many television theme songs.

October 17, 2018 3

Sunday’s Theme Music

This song, “Rock Lobster” by the B-52s (1978), is a fun party song. It provides an excellent opportunity to play dead buy when Fred Schneider sings, “Down, down, down, down,” as the music winds down behind his urging. There’s also the goofy fun of trying to make the animal noises with Kate Pierson.

So relax, kick up and enjoy some humorous, upbeat rock.

October 14, 2018 7

Saturday’s Theme Music

Apropos of nada, I awoke to the song “City of New Orleans” (1971) streaming through me. Written by Steve Goodman, made famous by Arlo Guthrie, it’s about how people pass time while riding across America on a train, what they pass, and how the train trip is a metaphor for change in America.

October 13, 2018 0

Friday’s Theme Music

Sheryl Crow’s song, “If It Makes You Happy”, streamed in as I talked with one of the house floofs this morning. I was telling them, “You know, it’s cold out there today. Not freezing, but below forty. The sun is just coming out. Are you sure you want to go out there?”

Boo, the cat, looked up at me and said, “Meow.”

“Okay,” I said. “If it makes you happy.”

And there it was. I figured in a little while, I’d look out and see Boo huddled against the chilly air and wonder, then why are you so sad?

October 12, 2018 2

Thursday’s Theme Music

I was watching an episode of The Americans last night. I enjoy how clothing, cars, news, and pop-culture, like music, is used to convey the year.

They used “We Do What We’re Told” by Peter Gabriel (So, 1986) in the episode I watched. I thought the music was effectively employed, with the lyrics fitting the situation and the characters’ thinking and decisions.

The song’s words are simple and repetitive

we do what we’re told
we do what we’re told
we do what we’re told
told to do

one doubt
one voice
one war
one truth
one dream

h/t azlyrics.com

I thought the song’s appropriate for now, when so many people seemingly respond to news by saying, “Hey, I believe him,” without applying any critical thinking to it. I imagine them telling others in a few years, “Hey, I was just doing what I was told,” or, “I was just following orders.”

October 11, 2018 0

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Dipping into Wang Chung today. I featured “Dance Hall Days” once. This time I’m going with a favorite walking song, “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” (1986), which I often call, “Everybody Wang Chung Tonight” because of that line in the song. It’s an excellent walking song when I’m feeling optimistic or jubilant.

As an aside, a co-worker at the time hated this song. A major fan of Ratt, Judas Priest, and Rush, he felt music by groups like Wang Chung used too much techno to be true music.

October 10, 2018 0

Monday’s Theme Music

This song started streaming into my head this morning. Part of my Bay Area experience, when I lived at Moffett, Mountain View, or Half Moon Bay, this song was on repeat for a while for my daily commute.

I enjoy its soft beginning:

Drivin’ faster in my car
Falling farther, from just what we are
Smoke a cigarette, and lie some more, these conversations kill
Falling faster in my car
Time to take her home, her dizzy head is conscience laden

Yes, “Big Empty”, STP, 19whatever.

October 8, 2018 0

Sunday’s Theme Music

I was chuckling to myself as I read about the Le’Veon Bell debacle with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I read a comment that said, “Don’t let him go,” which opened me up to streaming “Don’t Let Him Go” by REO Speedwagon, 1981. I like the song’s hammering insistence of guitars and dreams, and the impassioned pleas, “Don’t let him go.” I later learned the song was supposedly about asking girlfriends to be patient with their boyfriends.