Category: memories

Monday’s Theme Music

This is another from the latter days of my childhood. I guess David Cassidy’s passing juxtaposed with the holiday season has opened the memory stream onto that era of my existence.

I learned of Shel Silverstein through Playboy magazine. People would throw them out for recycle pickup; we’d ferret them out of the piles while we were waiting for the school bus. I didn’t know he was a song writer. I enjoyed several of his songs without being aware that he’d written them, not learning about his part in the musical portion of my childhood until Shel died in nineteen ninety-nine.

Streaming today is a Shel classic. Written by him and performed by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, “The Cover of the Rolling Stone” was ubiquitously played and referenced in every sort of social media available in nineteen seventy-two and seventy-three. Why not? The satirical lyrics about the meaning of success substantially differed from other songs out there during that era, and the band played it way over the top. Fabulous.

Listen for yourself and decide.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

In the wake of remembering David Cassidy and the Partridge Family, and Bread, another song slipped into my musical memory stream. Running on infinite loop since yesterday afternoon, I need to share it to dislodge it.

Here are the cartoon/comic strip band, The Archies, with “Sugar, Sugar,” from nineteen sixty-nine.

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Saturday’s Theme Song

Today’s theme song choice is a little…odd…for me. David Cassidy’s death triggered the choice.

When I was growing up and noticing girls, I began going to their houses. I wasn’t stalking them; they invited me.

This was around the same time that music was more interesting to me, say sixth grade. When going to their houses, though, I found their music preferences were different from mine. Whereas I leaned toward Uriah Heep, Humble Pie, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, the Stones, the Who, etc., they had the Monkees, Herman and the Hermits, David Cassidy, the Jackson 5, Osmonds, and other music that I disdained as bubble gum pap. Yeah, I was a snob.

One of those albums that I often encountered was David Gates and Bread, and their albums. The one I most remember was “Baby I’m-a Want You,” with the hit single by the same name. I was almost sixteen when this album came out. I’ve nothing against it (or the group), but that it seemed too mellow and sappy for me. Please forgive my judgement; I was a young rebel.

Those are all remembered generalities. Melissa was very into the Who. Of course, the irony that I didn’t realize until later was that my music preferences developed because I was listening to my older sister’s music.

 

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Friday’s Theme Music

Yesterday was America’s Thanksgiving holiday, so I was thinking about the first one spent away from home. That would be nineteen seventy-four. Eighteen, I’d joined the Air Force and was at basic training at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas. My uncle was in the military and lived in the area, so he and his wife, Pat, invited me to Thanksgiving at their house.

It was a terrific time. We watched the Cowboys defeat the Redskins as Clint Longley, a rookie, came in the game and threw a hail Mary that was caught and gave them the victory.

Other than that, and another day off, we were sequestered most of the time during our training, and without television or radio. But once we finished, we returned to our musical roots. For me, it was rock. Here’s Golden Earring with “Radar Love”, a song that had been released the previous year. Love that psychedelic special effects they put on the video. Sooo cheesy.

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Thursday’s Theme Music

My mind works in a stream of connections that’s difficult to corrall. Sometimes they hit and fire neurons into expected directions.

Like today. Out of the fire streams “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads. Interesting song. Anything to do with Thursday? No. Thanksgiving? Not that I recall. Dreams, or writing? Nope, and no.

It just pops in. Maybe I heard a fragment of sound or glimpsed a word or image that fired the song back to life in my head. Yeah, it’s a Frankenstein existence up there.

Cool song, though. fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better than many others.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

I associate this song with Thanksgiving, and as it’s the day before Thanksgiving in America, I thought I’d proffer this humorous, mellow gem from nineteen sixty-seven.

Peace out.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

This song has been with me just a little less than eight years of my life. I probably heard it through Mom, but I’m sure A.M. radio played a part.

“Under the Boardwalk” caught my attention as a child because of that chorus, “under the boardwalk.” I liked singing it. As I learned the other pieces, I started singing them, too. I enjoyed the Drifters’ call and response, and the song’s mellow tempo. As I grew older and started understanding the words, I appreciated the lyrics’ sentiments about being out of the sun and the song’s imagery. I knew those days when the asphalt baked and the sand sizzled and you sought cool relief or shade, and you sat with friends in a secret place, hearing other sounds and giggling.

Eventually, I caught up with the song’s romantic connotations. Now, it’s a nostalgic stream to a simpler, happier, and more innocent time, that of my youth. And though it’s about the summer, and the beach, it’s really a song for all ages and places.

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Old Love

Old love ties me to you

Sometimes, it gets us through

But sometimes, it’s like a crevasse in the way,

Something to avoid, something that darkens the day

 

Old love is a weight on my chest

Sometimes, though, it brings out my best,

But sometimes, it’s like I can’t breath,

Sometimes, sometimes, it’s short of my needs

 

Old love is a whisper in my mind

My look at you reminds me of old times

and a future so bright I had to wear shades

Old love never dies, but, yes, it fades

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Friday’s Theme Song

This song has four things going for it for me: interesting lyrics, fascinating vocals, brilliant guitar playing, a beat and sound that moves me, and it came during an exciting era for me, personally.

Well, that’s more than four items, I think. Here’s Santana with Rob Thomas with the nineteen ninety-eight release, “Smooth.”

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Once again the stream pulls me back in time.

I enjoy Eric Clapton’s style of music and performances. I immediately bought his “Journeyman” album on its release. I was stationed in Germany at that point, driving a silver Audi. I remember setting off for a Volksmarch one Sunday morning and slipping this CD into the player to hear as I sped across the landscape under gray skies and a weak sunrise.

Clapton’s version of “Before You Accuse Me” from this album became my favorite track. Bo Diddley wrote the song while I was an infant and I’ve heard numerous covers that I’ve enjoyed. Clapton’s cover is a powerful, rocking version.

Let us rock.

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