Category: memories

Wednesday’s Theme Music

I was streaming “Eye of the Tiger” (Survivor, 1982) in my head as I was cleaning the carpets today.

“Eye of the Tiger” is one of those songs that was released and gained popularity while my wife and I lived outside of America working for Uncle Sam. In this case, we were at Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan. I was mostly working twelve-hour shifts in the 603rd MASS Command Post. Between those shifts and typhoons, it seems like we didn’t hear much from the outside world. When we visited Hawaii on leave, we discovered that McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets were the next greatest thing, MTV had launched and was gaining popularity, and Rocky III was the hot movie, with “Eye of the Tiger” as the movie’s defining song.

It all seemed a little surreal.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

“For the Love of Money” by the O’Jays was released in 1974, the year I escaped high school by way of a bar of soap carved to look like a diploma. Like a zillion other people, I immediately took to the song’s funky sounds, hip lyrics, and the message that money corrupts. I started singing it then, and I still sing it now.

For the love of money, people will steal from their mother
For the love of money, people will rob their own brother
For the love of money, people can’t even walk the street
Because they never know who in the world they’re gonna meet
For that mean, oh mean, mean green
Almighty dollar, cash money

h/t to genius.com

It seems like this song is more relevant today than it was over a quarter of a century ago. If you don’t have money, you have to get it, and if you have it, you hold onto it. If you have a lot of it, it becomes a disease to hold onto what you have and get more. Money inspires corruption, power, selfishness, and greed. It’s a simplistic take in a complicated world.

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Monday’s Theme Music

It’s strange of me to be streaming Paula Abdul. It’s not the musical style that I normally stream.

I enjoy the poppy and catchy song, “Straight Up”, but the song also inspires me. The way I remember hearing it — and this may have been from Casey Kasem on American Top Forty — Paula was working as a choreographer and trying to make it as a music star by recording at night, after work. She heard a demo of this song. While others didn’t think much of it, she heard something, liked it, and made it work. Others didn’t believe in her, but she believed in herself. It became her first hit.

That’s what all of us need: to believe in yourself.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

This is a hopeful song streaming today. “Love Will Find A Way” by Pablo Cruise (1978) is about experiencing the betrayal and heartache of lost love, and the wonder whether you’ll ever find love and happiness. Some don’t try, once they’ve been burnt. Others think that love doesn’t exist or matter, and more settle for a safe zone of living with another that you sometimes love, but sometimes hate. A few, though, never find love, and an’t sure about what they seek.

 

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Someone shared this vocals & guitars only video of Queen on FB. I enjoyed it and thought, let’s share it as today’s theme music.

Hope you enjoy this recording of Freddie Mercury and Queen performing “Killer Queen” as much as I do.

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Friday’s Theme Music

When I post something, I’ve developed a practice of confirming that I haven’t posted it before. This is new to my blogging, probably started within the last six months.

Today I search for Aerosmith. I laughed when I saw how many times I’ve posted an Aerosmith song, including “Livin’ On the Edge” twice.

(As an shameful aside, seeing the errors in my posts make me blush. My posts are typically off the top of my head and written without much thought. (Obviously, right?) I could really use a second and third review of them before posting, and perhaps an editor.)

Well, I’m not posting an Aerosmith song today. Instead, I’m posting Run-DMC’s cover of “Walk This Way” from 1986, featuring Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. “Walk This Way” is a favorite walking song, and I enjoy the Run-DMC edition a great deal.

 

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Thursday’s Theme Music.

I guess this is a throwback Thursday. Of course, many of my days are throwbacks. Some are throwaways.

I found myself streaming some ZZ Top as I walked this morning.

Jesus just left Chicago and he’s bound for New Orleans.
Well now, Jesus just left Chicago and he’s bound for New Orleans.
Yeah, yeah.
Workin’ from one end to the other and all points in between.

Took a jump through Mississippi, well, muddy water turned to wine.
Took a jump through Mississippi, muddy water turned to wine.
Yeah, yeah.
Then out to California through the forests and the pines.
Ah, take me with you, Jesus.

h/t to Lyricsfreak.com

Why this song, today? I don’t know. Maybe a smell that I didn’t consciously notice triggered a memory, or two neurons ran into each other on an axon and reminisced about the old days. Perhaps I whiffed someone toking up and connected that to  ZZ Top. Perhaps, in worrying about the present and future, I subconsciously longed for the past, and dredged up times that were simpler and happier for me. Maybe there’s no logic at all, but just random impulses.

The world may never know.

 

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

The music today comes via a personal experience. Trying to give my cat a pill, I kept saying, “Come on, give a little bit.” He never did but I managed to get the pill into him.

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However, the diabolical little flooflaw then went under my desk and spit it out. When I retrieved it, I discovered three more pills. 

Grrr.

I crunched the pill up and put it into a little dab of water and administered it to him via an eye-dropper.

So, in honor of Quinn, here’s a past hit streaming through my awareness, Supertramp with “Give A Little Bit” from 1977.

 

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

I’ve always enjoyed War. Their music speaks to me. Today’s song, “Why Can’t We Be Friends”, is an excellent accompaniment to walking about town. As part of the writing practice, I walk and think about where I’m at with my writing and editing projects. Once freed of that, I drift into other things. This song, though, was heard coming from a Toyota pickup truck as it trundled by. Picking up on it, I sang it and some other War songs, like “Smile Happy”, “Low Rider”, “The World Is A Ghetto”, and “Spill the Wine”. Such classics.

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Monday’s Theme Music

“You come and go, you come and go.”

Culture Club released “Karma Chameleon” in 1983. Stationed at Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan, I was hanging out with Jeff. Several years older than me, he was my best bud. While I enjoyed guitar-driven tunes, Jeff was a fan of lyrics and vocals, and he loved harmonies. “Karma Chameleon” was one of Jeff’s favorite songs, so I heard it quite a bit.

Oddly, Jeff associated it with an event that happened to him while he was stationed in Thailand. I think it’s the karma connection. I don’t know. He didn’t realize that he often told this story after having a few beers and hearing “Karma Chameleon”.

Getting off a mid shift, he was heading home in the morning. As he was at the corner waiting for the bus, smoking a cigarette beside a stranger, a car pulled up and stopped. People in the car opened up, shooting and killing the stranger. They then looked at Jeff. Still smoking, Jeff turned around, looked the other way, and waited to be shot. He was hoping to convey, “I saw nothing.” It must have worked, as the car drove off after a few tense seconds. Jeff then hauled ass himself.

Something released Jeff into the memory stream this morning, dragging this song with it. So, for your pleasure….

 

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