Not an uplifting song, but one that inspires a sense of hope. “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M. came out in 1992. It works as a vehicle for when you’re down and suffering, when the shit’s gone wrong, and you’ve hit the bottom, and you’re ready to start climbing back up again.
Sunday’s Theme Music
I awoke streaming an old song, which led to another and another. My brain was like a golden oldies station, if you can respect that golden and oldie are subjective terms. How you relate to them depends upon where you reside on the age spectrum.
Among the songs streamed today:
Sly and the Family Stone, “I Want to Take You Higher” (on the Mike Douglas Show – remember it?)
The Turtles, “Happy Together”
Dobie Grey, “Drift Away”
Sly and the Family Stone, “Dance to the Music” – such a lively and imaginative song
After posting this partial list, I can see how my mind pivoted through common words, themes, and times. I finally settled on this song because its signal strength had more bars. Here is “Life Is A Rock” by Reunion from 1974. It’s a novelty song, but it’s fun to listen to the lyric’s references. Enjoy.
Saturday’s Theme Music
“Turn Up the Radio” by Autograph was a party mainstream when I was stationed in Germany in the late 1980s. Drinking guys were fond of gathering in a circle and belting the song out. (At least my circle of military buddies followed this practice, to the dismay of neighbors.)
“Turn Up the Radio” was made for that activity. The lyrics were simple, and the backing music and rhythms begged for a power sing-along. Other than that one song, learned off the radio and at parties, I knew and know nothing about Autograph.
“Turn it up. Yeah.”
Friday’s Theme Music
I’ve been head-streaming this off and on for the last few days. Fragile by Yes was an album we frequently listened to in art class. I always enjoyed the silent communion among students as we listened to rock music and worked on art projects. This song, “Long Distance Runaround,” grew on my consciousness, first because of the unique sounds they employed in the song, but then the lyrics drew me in. It’s progressive seventies rock at its finest.
Thursday’s Theme Music
Today’s theme song, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” began streaming into me as felines catgregated around me wherever I went. The lyrics are repetitive – “I want you, I want you so bad” (perfect lyrics for the cats as they follow, waiting for me to sit so they can sit on my feet or jump on my lap) – but I enjoy the song’s tempo changes and the variations on how “I want you” is sung.
Wednesday’s Theme Music
I heard this one on Santa Clarita Diet last night. It’s been so long since I last heard it. The song, as performed by the Animals, came out in 1965. “It’s My Life” checks all the marks for that era’s emerging rock for me, giving me an enjoyable nostalgia rush today. I liked the lyrics and Burdon’s rusty, defiant, angry delivery – “It’s my life, and I’ll do what I want.” That’s a perfect anthem for a nine-year-old, right? Hah, yeah.
Tuesday’s Theme Music
In 1985, I was reassigned from Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan, to Shaw AFB in South Carolina. Part of a mobility unit, my primary mission was to deploy to southwest Asia and exercise command and control of deployed Air Force units. Since we didn’t do that often (other than field exercises), my secondary mission of training Air Force reservists in southwest Asia command and control took center stage. I was on the road a lot. My commander let us drive our cars to many locations. That meant I listened to a lot of music in my car.
One of my favorite albums of that time was No Jacket Required by another Genesis member, Phil Collins. That was a terrific album. While I favored several songs on it, “Sussudio” edges out “Take Me Home” and is the song I’m streaming through my head today.
Toy Appliances
I was vacuuming yesterday, utilizing the central vacuum system and its fifty feet of hose.
What a snake it would have been.
See, as a child, I used Mom’s appliances to augment my reality. She had a little home salon hair dryer. Contained in a small brown suitcase, it opened up, displaying controls and a lit mirror. You’d attach a hose which attached to a plastic bonnet that she wore on her head. An intake fan was in the middle. Several push buttons orchestrated fan speed and temperature.
The hair dryer was perfect as my spaceship’s controls. The short hose was my communication device to communicate with star base, or, if necessary, Earth Command.
Besides it, we had an Electrolux vacuum cleaner, a canister type with a hose attached. The hose became a snake, serpent, or dragon for me to fight, sometimes utilizing a discarded paper towel tube as a sword, but often something I’d need to battle with my bare hands.
The Electrolux’s canister was my rocket sled. It also worked as a time-machine, enabling a quick escape from now to the future or past. Pillows, chairs, and blankets were employed as forts while boxes were ships and rockets. Mom and Dad’s transistor radios were also communication devices. Sunglasses were useful as protective devices but also enabled me to see into other dimensions. They could also be employed to see over the horizon to far-away places, like China, Europe, South America, and Antarctica.
Things changed. Television developed. I acquired modeling clay and shaped rockets and space ships. By now I was twelve, and drawing these vessels, reading books, and watching television. While those were great vehicles for my imagination, it wasn’t quite as good as opening up the hair dryer and blasting off.
Monday’s Theme Music
I heard “Abacab” by Genesis on the radio yesterday. It’s unusual to hear it on the radio.
The song is sort of hypnotic in its sounds and words, but not very deep. Because it’s hypnotic and I’m simple prey for these things, it hung around in my head’s stream for the rest of the day and was still there this morning. But thinking about “Abacab” and Genesis, I started thinking about Mike +The Mechanics, and their music. Mike is Mike Rutherford of Genesis, and their albums and performances were side projects to his Genesis existence.
Mike +the Mechanics’ music isn’t very deep, either, but fit well on the radio stations of the time. “Silent Running,” with its chorus of “Can you hear me?”, was their first hit, so I thought I’d go with that.
Sunday’s Theme Music
This song streamed into my head while I was shaving this morning. There’s no evidence for why this song emerged from my mind’s general morning chaos. The song came out when I was eight years old, but it’s a ubiquitous melody with an easy, harmonic hook. The Beach Boys were known for those harmonies.
Michael Seidel, writer 