Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
You ever think about the beginning of “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer?” “You know Dasher and Dancer…etc…Blitzen. But do you recall? The most famous reindeer of all?”
Isn’t that reversed? Wouldn’t you know the most famous of reindeer, and recall it more readily than the rest?
We averted a small disaster today. While walking yesterday, I heard a train blowing its horn. I instantly twisted a long-lost song in my mind:
“There is nothing like a train,
Nothing in this world.
There is nothing you can name,
that is anything like a train.”
It was a sorry parody of “There Is Nothing Like A Dame” from the musical, “South Pacific.” I know the song and the rest of the soundtrack well, thanks to Mom. She had it on vinyl, thirty-three R.P.M., and often played it on the stereo while cleaning the house. Her house was — is — spotless, let me tell you. I heard that song frequently.
My parody remained in my headstream until late last night. I thought I’d need to post about it to relieve get me out of the loop. Then Rod Stewart singing “Maggie May” replaced it.
So, here we are. That’s Ronnie Wood on guitar. Take it, Rod.
“Clocks.” By Coldplay. Just because these lyrics are looping through my streams:
The lights go out, and I can’t be saved.
Tides that I tried to swim against
Have brought me down upon my knees.
Oh I beg, I beg and plead, singing
Come out of things unsaid,
Shoot an apple off my head and a
Trouble that can’t be named,
A tiger’s waiting to be tamed, singing
So here you go. Sing along. “The lights go out, and I can’t be saved. Tides that I tried to swim against, have brought me down upon my knees.”
Today’s song, “Tin Man,” was released in nineteen seventy-four. Among the trillion events happening that year, I graduated high school and joined the U.S. Air Force.
The next year found me married, and the year after that, I was stationed at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Our news sources were mostly the Pacific Stars & Stripes newspaper and the Armed Forces Radio and Television Services. Our local affiliate was the Armed Forces Network (AFN) Philippines. The big thing that always stood out about AFN is that they were constantly warning us about habus and finding unexploded ordinance.
I enjoyed “Tin Man” and America’s other offerings a great deal. I learned more about them because the group met because their fathers were serving in the Air Force. Thus, The Stars & Stripes and AFN carried quite a bit about them.
Here’s “Tin Man.” It’s a mellow song. Hope you’re having a mellow day, and not deeply into the many messes going on in the world.
*snark alert* I’m plagued with Christmas music for some reason today. I heard some good songs yesterday. They’re good to me; your preferences are probably different. The performers included Burl Ives, Johnny Mathis, and the Eagles. The person I was with said, “I like this song. They’re playing good music today.” Like they were telepathic, innit?
“Yes, I like Burl Ives and his cover of “Frosty the Snowman,”” I said.
“I don’t know who that is,” the other said. He’s about thirty-five years old. “Is that who it was?”
Oh, generation dagger! I’ve slipped it into others, when I was young. Now I try keeping it sheathed. I asked him about the previous two songs, by Johnny Mathis and the Eagles. They knew who the Eagles were, but didn’t know that was them playing. Johnny Mathis was another dagger.
Out of this morass, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts arrived with a song for the day. Her group hit the music scene as we were living on Okinawa. Music coverage by AFRTS was split among all the genres, so information was sparse. Most rock/pop tidbits were delivered via Casey Kasem and American Top 40, played on Sundays. When I eventually returned to America (after a few years) and saw Joan Jett on MTV at a friend’s house, I realized that she’d been part of the Runaways. Yes, that’s how slow I can be.
“I Hate Myself for Loving You” is one of my favorite J2 offerings. It has fine hard-rock harmonics, with ironic lyrics that are revealing about human nature, and the nature of our desires and attractions. You can hear Desmond Child’s influence, and recognize the similarity of the songs he wrote/co-wrote for Kiss, Aerosmith, Bon-Jovi, and others. Give it a listen.
From nineteen eighty-eight.
George Benson had taken us with earlier albums and hits, but his take of “On Broadway” always enlivened the scene when it played. Released in nineteen seventy-eight, when it came on, everyone jumped up, dancing and singing along with it, and trying to scat with Benson.
Good song for a chilly Friday.
Today’s theme music is a courtesy of Don Henley and Mike Campbell. The song is, “The Boys of Summer.”
This song, with lyrics like, “I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac,” about looking back and change, and coping with it. I’m a person that looks back a great deal. I’m not obsessed with it, but looking back helps me re-imagine where I’m going. It’s one of those arrows of time. Looking back helps me keep straight.
A little voice inside my head said, “Don’t look back. You can never look back.”
I thought I knew what love was,
What did I know?
Those days are gone forever,
I should just let them go, but-
Today’s technology encourages looking back. I can watch movies that star actors that died, leading me to wonder, are they still alive? I can check a friend’s post, even though he died a few years ago, and replay movies, television shows, and interviews from the past, and pretend that past is today, or yesterday, although it was created decades ago.
It’s nostalgia, isn’t it? It is for me. Television, pop and rock music, and movies were part of my scenes as I grew up. Songs come on and take me back to a happier moment, as do smells, and touches. I like going back there; I like feeling happy.
There are fewer happier moments today. Experiences temper my expectations, and I’ve become jaded. It could be from looking back, or simply being cursed with too much ability to recall times and events. It’s part of who I am, so I don’t decry it.
Well, maybe I decry it a little, because that’s who I am, as well.
I was already a Humble Pie fan when this song came out in nineteen seventy, having seen them in concert. I ate this album up, but the first song from side two – there’s some vinyl lingo for you – was my favorite. Two things about this song and group; I rarely encounter people who know either one. Bummer. Nineteen seventy-two was a fun year, and this song fit it perfectly.
Here’s “Thirty Days In the Hole.”
“Eddie and The Cruisers” was a pretty strange movie. I enjoyed most of it, and watched it to the end. In fact, it was the end that I found the strangest aspect. But I liked the cast, and enjoyed the song, “On the Dark Side,” performed by John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band. It has a lot of that Jersey sound, and I remember that’s what some parts of the movie was about. That’s what I’m streaming today. For fun, I have the actual band and their video, and the scene from the movie. Hope you listen and enjoy them.
This is one of those songs that I know from my youth, but I don’t know who sang it.
The song is “Black Is Black,” and the group who performed it was Los Bravos. I’m streaming it today for reasons that my mind won’t reveal. It came out in nineteen sixty-six. I was ten, then, but was probably exposed to it when driving around, because pop music was always playing on the AM radio stations in that era.
Give a listen, and see if any bells chime when you hear it.
Michael Seidel, writer 