Category: memories

Today’s Theme Music

To counter our dry, hot weather, I thought I’d post something with precipitation.

First songs to stream in were, “Let It Snow,” and “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.” “Singing in the Rain” quickly followed. Songs by New Edition, Seal and The Rescues jumped in there. Tina Turner, “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” joined the queue, and then Blind Melon, “No Rain.”

Peter Gabriel’s “Red Rain” streamed in. Yes, that’s the one. Although it offers a lightly macabre vision of someone screaming and red rain falling, Gabriel’s dreams inspired the song, and I like its heavy percussion presence. We were living in Columbia, South Carolina, when this song was released. Columbia had fantastic afternoon deluges throughout the summer, and this song reminded me of sitting on our apartment’s balcony as the rain poured, chilling the air.

Here we are, from nineteen eighty-six, and the “So” album, “Red Rain.”

 

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Today’s Theme Music

The music today is a product of a triple coincidence. There could be some causality, but it might just be linkage.

I’ve been streaming the song, “I Will Buy You A New Life.” It’s part of my mental shuffle set. I like the lyrics, and often sing or hum it to myself as I meander through activities. Everclear members wrote the song, and the band released it back in nineteen ninety-seven, a year that puts thoughts in pause to reflect on how much time has sneezed by since that song came out. Everclear had a number of terrific albums with fab songs like “Santa Monica”, and “Father of Mine,” but it’s amazing it’s been twenty years since I was driving around Half Moon Bay listening to them, dude.

Please, join me and observe a moment of silence for nineteen ninety-seven.

Zoning back into this post, the three coincidences that lands the song in the august position (get it?) as today’s theme music is one, I was singing it several times this week; two, Everclear headlined at the Jackson County Fair last month; and tres, I read that Everclear, from Portland, Oregon, is the state’s highest grossing musical act ever. With that power of three pushing the nomination, victory was assured.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

With the thermometers teasing one hundred four degrees, I was returning home in the car. The DJ said, “This song is about air conditioning.”

Air conditioning? I puzzled what he could mean.

He continued, “This is “Need You Tonight.” With this weather as hot as it is, they have to be referring to air conditioning.”

Here it is, INXS, from nineteen eighty-seven.

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Today’s Theme Music

Today’s song was a staple of our neighborhood air group. Energetic, enthusiastic, and easy to learn – important for nine-year-old air musicians – we loved getting up on our chairs in a basement with our air-guitars and air-mics, beating our air-drums, and performing “Good Lovin’.” I struggled with the group’s name; I always wanted to call them the Little Rascals, but that was a different group.

Here’s the Young Rascal’s recording of “Good Lovin’,” from nineteen sixty-five. Wow, fifty-two years ago. It aged well, don’t you think?

 

 

 

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Today’s Theme Music

As I’ve aged and semi-matured, I’ve developed fondness for certain performers. (Semi-matured; sounds like an adjective for a wine or cheese.) For example, when I used to hear Dame Judi Dench’s or Helen Mirren’s name attached to something, it automatically dialed up my interest level. I thought they were sensational actresses, and I thought they were more adept at selecting scripts and projects. Same with books and music.

In music, Billy Preston was one of those names for me. No matter the venue or music genre, I always enjoyed Preston’s performances. He had several high-charting songs, including this one, “Will It Go Round in Circles.” He has co-writer credit on the song with Bruce Fisher. Bruce and Billy also co-wrote, “You Are So Beautiful,” and “Nothing From Nothing.” A talented guy, but he seemed to deliver an energy to his music, and I admired that.

For your Monday listening pleasure, streaming from a television appearance recorded in nineteen seventy-three, Billy Preston.

 

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The Wide Receiver

I once met a man who’d been a wide-receiver.

We’d gone through a new acquisition. Marketing asked me if I wanted a job. He was the Director of Marketing, and my new boss.

Our business was coronary and peripheral catheters. I was just learning the business. He took me to hospitals. We’d watch procedures. He’d explain things and introduce me to people.

We spent a lot of time on the road, and learned things about each other. He’d been a wide-receiver in high school and college. Small, he’d been fast, quick, intelligent, and disciplined. Good route runner. But as he progressed, he encountered competition from other wide-receivers. They were faster, bigger, and stronger, and just as intelligent and disciplined.

Eventually, he left that field, but he loved football, so he became a high school football coach. Through it all, from the first spark of desire, running was what kept him going. He ran five miles every day. One night, while sharing a bottle of wine with our dinner, he confided, “I run every day, because I’m afraid to stop. I’m afraid that if I stop, I won’t ever run again.”

I think of Jon tonight because I thought, I need a break from writing. Like Jon, I’m afraid, that if I take a break, the seed that defines the essence of who I believe I am will dry up and crumble.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

The stream flowed into nineteen eighty-four, and the prophetic song, “Round and Round,” by Ratt. “What goes around, comes around. Dig.”

I was young when I encountered this. Working as the NCOIC of the 9AF Reports Section, I daily briefed the 9AF Commander and his senior staff on the preceding day’s operational activities. We were part of the now defunct Tactical Air Command, supervising fighter wings. 9AF included the area east of the Mississippi in the U.S., and Southwest Asia, often referred to outside military circles as the Middle East. This was during the Iran-Iraq War. They were all about reciprocity. Reciprocity is the essence of round and round. “You attack my shipping, I’ll attack your shipping.” So it went.

Sure. History repeats, doesn’t it? Especially in politics and war.

It also repeats on personal levels. Every year, I feel more like everything goes round and round. I get desperately tired of it. I frequently encounter people who seem to think what’s going around is being experienced for the first time. Others did not learn.

Yet, as I age, I understand, we can learn, but sometimes it’s beyond us to apply the lessons learned. We become too hard-wired into expectations and behavior developing from routines and rituals, fears and reactions, and failures and shortcomings. We’re looking for the end of the rainbow, and it stays elusively distant. Our bodies betray us, our minds betray us, and our memories betray us. Dreams fade, and goals collapse.

I’ve seen this in older generations, too. The latest craze becomes yesterday’s fad. Today’s star is tomorrow’s memory, and the next generation(s) are generally bemused by our quaint opinions about hip, cool, technology, and politics.

Round and round.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

The Alan Parsons Project was a progressive rock band. I enjoyed them, but honestly, lots of my friends didn’t care for them. Apparently the music the Alan Parson Project released was too mellow for that lot. The heyday of their music was in the late seventies, when groups like Kiss and other glam rockers were deafening stadiums of people.

So, I seemed mostly alone in my Alan Parsons Project admiration. One particular song was “Eye In The Sky.” Using this song as inspiration, I wrote a short story about the eye in the sky watching humans. No, it was never sold. It’s probably in a drawer, somewhere, though. I don’t throw writing out. I leave that to others.

Take a listen and see what you think of the song. It came out a little later, in nineteen eighty-two. Let me knows if it moves you to sleep, as it moved my friends. Cheers

 

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Today’s Theme Music

A friend asked, “Have you tried asking Siri, “I see a little silhouetto of a man?””

I’ve tried it, and it’s a hoot.

The line is from the well-known song, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” by Queen. It came out in nineteen seventy-five, a year after I graduated from high school, and remains an eminently powerful and enjoyable means to rock out. Queen also created one of the earliest and most memorable music videos, years before MTV was launched.

That makes it today’s theme music. Listen along, and do the fandango.

 

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