Neurons fired, streams opened, and this song came to me today. Although I’m a Blood, Sweat and Tears fan, I don’t own any of their albums. Still, I know a number of their songs, like “Spinning Wheel”, “When I Die”, and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”, the song that passed into my slipstream of memory was “Lucretia MacEvil”. Sit back and enjoy Clayton-Thomas’ throaty vocals and that soulful fat brass sound.
Monday’s Theme Music
Dropping back into the seventies again. I’ve always enjoyed the southern rock style. Although the blues draw me like the sound of a can opening draws cats, the likes of Marshal Tucker, the Charlie Daniels Band, and Lynyrd Skynyrd all provided some smooth Top 40 enticements. This one, “Heard It In A Love Song,” by M.T. is one of those.
The song’s lyrics talk to me. The main chorus is about hearing truth in a love song, while the rest of the stanzas regard moving on after being with a woman for a while. That seemed like a popular romantic nature for men: I love you, but I gotta go, because of who I am. Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On” is a little similar, except the lyrics call for him to ramble on to find the queen of his dreams.
I guess it’s all about restlessness, searching, and the inability to search if you stay in one place. Bruce Hornsby plays piano on this while that’s Eubanks with that sweet flute.
Sunday’s Theme Music
Ah, The Band. Oddly, I was reminded of them when I was attending a Veteran’s Day Concert presented by the Southern Oregon Concert Band. Besides the Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful, a medley of Irving Berlin, World War I music, Aaron Copeland songs, and John Philip Sousa were presented, along with each of the U.S. military services’ march songs.
But I walked away thinking about The Band, and this song, “The Weight.” Perhaps it was because the concert program reminded me of my youth. Mired in the middle of my early growth was a little event folks call Woodstock. Part of it was “The Weight.” The song has a folksy sense that reminds me of a Faulkner album and makes me smile. I always thought of it as good road music, with questions without answers, answers without explanations, and anecdotes with gravity that give shape to our lives and change our hopes.
Hope you find something in it, too.
Saturday’s Theme Music
Something from nineteen seventy-seven. Billy Joel had already established himself as a star by this year, but his album, “The Stranger,” gained him critical acclaim, awards, and increased popularity.
I enjoy the album. It came out the year I returned from my fifteen month assignment in the Philippines. The album seems like rock and roll and Americana. My favorite song is one called “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant,” but the album includes “She’s Always A Woman,” “Just The Way You Are,” and “Only The Good Die Young.”
However, I woke up streaming, “Movin’ Out.” The song expresses Joel’s disappointment with people moving up by buying consumer grades and making purchases to impress others. It’s a favorite theme for me, so here we are.
Friday’s Theme Music
Always enjoy B.B. Is the last name required? We saw him in concert in Santa Cruz during a festival, and loved it. He was such a rascal on stage.
Here he is with U2 performing the King classic, “When Love Comes to Town.”
Thursday’s Theme Music
Saw a photo that reminded me of this song.
I’d returned to America in February, nineteen ninety-one, taking up residence in the SF Bay area with an assignment as the Superintendent of the 750th Space Group Command Post at Onizuka Air Station in Sunnyvale. Most of the airmen assigned to the command post were young, and in their first assignment. Naturally, they listened to current music that ranged across the spectrum.
This song had been a major hit in America the previous year, so it was still heard often. It was also natural as comedic fodder because of its style. Something would happen, and someone would remark, “You can’t touch this.” Yes, it’s “U Can’t Touch This,” with MC Hammer.
Ah, it was fun times back in the days of yore, with a good group of people. The base is gone, and the people have spread out across the planet. I stay in contact with some via Facebook an other social media. I wish them all well.
Tuesday’s Theme Music
My wife and I were picking up fur last night. The cats leave it like Hansel and Gretel left crumbs to find their way back. I guess the cats, worried about losing their way from the litter box to their food bowl to their sleeping locations, leave the fur clumps to help them find their way. “I’ll just leave this fur and follow it back.”
Doing this task last night, I streamed, “I’m a fur picker. I’m a fur picker. Picking up fur. Fur, fur, fur.” The song was to the head music, “I’m A Girl Watcher,” a song from nineteen sixty-seven. I thought, that’ll be my Tuesday theme music.
Then, I began thinking about the song and the times. The song objectifies women. The attitude incubated at that point can lead to some of the rapes, molesting, and harassing now revealed across America.
Or I am overthinking it? I’m prone to such things. I can hear other argue, the song is about a boy who is growing up and developing an interest in sex, in this case, in girls. It’s completely innocent. To which I hear others say, it’s not completely innocent. It’s mostly innocent, but it’s part of larger cultural and social trends about women’s roles and men’s attitude toward women in America.
It was a lot to think about before my morning coffee. I decided not to do that song. Instead, I give you song from a year later, The Moody Blues with “Tuesday Afternoon.” I believe the song’s line, “The gentle voices I hear, explain it all with a sigh,” perfectly exemplifies my thinking conundrum about being a girl-watcher.
It’s a complicated world. My thinking probably makes it appear more complicated than it is.
Monday’s Theme Music
Since it’s Monday, and so many songs feature Monday in their titles or lyrics, I thought I’d go with “Wooly Bully.” “Wooly Bully” does not mention Monday, as far as I know. I’ve never looked up the lyrics, but I must admit that I don’t understand most of them. As far as I know, they go, “Mattie told Hattie about a thing she saw. Something (with big horns?) and a wooly jaw. Wooly bully, wooly bully.” Mattie also tells Hattie to take a chance. The singer shouts, “I like it, I like it.”
I don’t know. I like singing that woolly bully chorus. Very liberating.
I learned the song from a forty-five RPM record on a little phonograph. I want to say it was a Capitol record, from what I remember, but I was young, and didn’t pay attention.
Here is Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs from, geez, I’m guessing mid-nineteen sixties, with “Woolly Bully.”
Sunday’s Theme Music
Recalling another anniversary (my life is full of ’em!), this one being my retirement from the U.S. Air Force in November, 1995. I was stationed at Onizuka Air Station in Sunnyvale, California. This song, “Cumbersome,” by Seven Mary Three, was a popular tune of the time. To paraphrase the lyrics, I’d enjoyed my military career and had some success, but it had become cumbersome.
Saturday’s Theme Music
From late in that magical decade referred to as the nineteen seventies comes this song.
But wait, was the nineteen seventies magical? I suppose it depends on how old you were, and where, right? If you’re a fortunate person, you experience one decade as magical in your life. The seventies are it for me. Moved to Ohio, met my wife, moved to West Virginia, graduated high school, joined the military, relocated to Ohio, bought a Camaro, married, served in the Philippines, sold the Camaro, bought a Porsche and drove across most of America, lived in Texas, quit the military, went back to West Virginia, bought a restaurant, quit the restaurant, lost the Porsche to fire, re-enlisted in the military, went back to Texas and bought a Firebird. It was action backed, and fun.
This song, “Don’t Bring Me Down,” by E.L.O. was part of the musical atmosphere. I find it fun to sing as I walk around, especially all those no, no, no, no passages, and “Grooss,” which I sing as Bruce, as most people do.
Here it is, from nineteen seventy-nine. Things weren’t simpler, just different.
Michael Seidel, writer 