Category: memories

Today’s Theme Song

 

This is a song about relationships, but those who write, work, or do other things can relate these words: “The more you suffer, the more it shows you really care.”

The song, “Self-Esteem,” by the Offspring, came out about year before my retirement from the Air Force. I used to quote that lyric to peers complaining about the military. They didn’t find it as amusing as I did.

I enjoyed all of the lyrics to the song. The song begins, “I wrote her off for the tenth time today, and practiced all the things I would say. But she came over. I lost my nerve. I took her back, and made her dessert.”

I enjoy how lyrics like that capture the angst of being in a relationship, resolving to change dynamics, and then lacking the will to make the desired change.

I see that in writing, too, people making plans and resolutions to write and publish more, to work harder, and then…losing their nerve, or in my case, succumbing to doubt.

Here it is, from nineteen ninety-four, the Offspring with “Self-Esteem.”

 

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Today’s Theme Music

Politics, television, advancement, publishing – I can’t get no satisfaction.

Yeah, baby. The Rolling Stones sing it best. The guitar riff, thumping, unrelenting beat and the Mick’s vocalizing of the frustration with the commercial world all come together fantastic in that nineteen sixty-five rock classic, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Jesus, I was just nine but something about that combination spoke to me. While Mick is singing about being pissed over the world’s increasing commercialization and the things he’s being sold, I get that same sense from the news of the world and my efforts to move myself forward. It’s like one stride forward and a long fall backward.

Seeing it on the old “Ed Sullivan Show” is fun. Simpler times, friends, but isn’t that what each generation notices about how life changes?

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Today’s Theme Music

“Dance Hall Days,” by Wang Chung, was supposed to be new wave.

Coming out in nineteen eighty-four, when I lived on Okinawa, I didn’t get it. What was so special about new wave? This song didn’t sound any different from other music heard on juke boxes and FM radio stations.

The lyrics were definitely weird. “Take your baby by the hair. Pull her close and say, there, there, there.” “Take your baby by the wrist. And in her mouth put amethyst.”

Yeah, strange, if you listen to them. I think they just junked out some rhyming words to a beat. It works as a stream to help dance your way through the first few days of the season’s change.

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Today’s Theme Music

Drop it all, whatever troubles you and weighs down your body, just let it go. Close your eyes and let yourself feel light and alive. It’s summer in the north, and winter’s coming south of the equator, but we can all come together and do a little dance.

Marvin Gaye, Mickey Stevenson, and Ivy Jo Hunter wrote it. It first found popularity in the U.S. with Martha and the Vandellas in nineteen sixty-four. David Bowie covered it with Mick Jaggar, Van Halen covered it with David Lee Roth singing the lead vocals, the Mamas and the Papas, and the Grateful Dead covered it, among others. Those are the ones that I remember. You probably know it from somebody else’s cover. If not, the words are easy and the beat is contagious. As they say, “Summer’s here, and the time is right, for dancing in the streets.”

Get up and sing and dance with Martha Reeves and the Vandellas with the first popular version of “Dancing in the Streets.”

 

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Footcat

Footcat (Catfinition): A feline who likes to sit on people’s feet as a strategy for getting attention or rewards.

In Use: “Rocky, a handsome European blotched tabby, was a true footcat. Whenever Michael stopped, the hefty footcat would rest on Michael’s foot, as if he was an anchor to keep Michael from walking away from him until he was petted or given a treat.”

 

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Today’s Theme Music

This is a “recent” song for me. It came out in two thousand one, so that give us a sense of reference about how much I follow music these days.

That’s true with multiple areas. Matters about baseball, football, pop-culture, music, television, and auto-racing are less followed today. Instead, I follow housing starts, unemployment rates, consumer confidence, politics, and news. I think I’m beginning to mature.

This song, “Blurry,” came out in the aftermath of 9/11, but it’s appropriate for today, because this is Father’s Day in America. This song is about a young man trying to be a good father to his son after separating from the child’s mother. It’s a common theme in today’s America.

Here’s Puddle of Mudd.

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Today’s Theme Music

I had a song selected for today. Then I saw episode eight of “The Handmaid’s Tale” last night.

The episode, ambiguous, powerful and emotional, full of shifting insights, was highlighted with a Nina Simone song. Man, I love her music. It was a perfect choice to mark the scene’s denouement.

The other choice, the original song, is “School’s Out,” by Alice Cooper.

There’s a striking dichotomy between the two songs, and the thinking behind them. The Simone song was about choices and the road being taken. The Alice Cooper song is a spiteful, joyous celebration of celebrate children’s ‘freedom from school’. I wanted to play “School’s Out” not because I go to school, but with school out, we don’t need to slow down for the school zone. Almost every major road in this small town goes through a school zone, forcing traffic into a tedious crawl. It’s a small, but annoying price, for safety, right? But hooray, speed! We can go five, sometimes ten miles per hour faster. Woo-hoo!

After some thought about it while brewing coffee this morning, I went with “School’s Out” because I didn’t want to debase the use of the Simone song in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” That powerful and shocking cautionary story shouldn’t be dragged down into the meanderings of a mindless blog like this.

Besides, Alice Cooper was part of my first concert I ever attended. The other two acts that day at Three Rivers Stadium were Uriah Heep and Humble Pie. Excellent concert. Memorable.

Here it is, from nineteen seventy-two, “School’s Out.” Crank it up and sing along, if you know the words. Just fake it, if you don’t. Nobody cares.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

It’s a funky Friday, perfect for those funky musicians, Sly and the Family Stone.

This was a perfect song to sing along when I was thirteen in nineteen sixty-nine. It’s even better now as a joyful anthem for an adult. Still, there were always questions about what in the world was he actually singing. I spent time when that song came on, to pause and listen, trying to decode the lyrics. They still don’t make a sense to me, but I still love them:

Stiff all in the collar
Fluffy in the face
Chit chat chatter tryin’
Stuffy in the place
Thank you for the party
But I could never stay
Many thangs is on my mind
Words in the way

Other lyrics made perfect, beautiful poetic sense to me:

Flamin’ eyes of people fear
Burnin’ into you
Many men are missin’ much
Hatin’ what they do
Youth and truth are makin’ love
Dig it for a starter, now
Dyin’ young is hard to take
Sellin’ out is harder

h/t to MetroLyrics

Let’s get funky with “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again).” It was years before I learned the correct title and the reveal that it was a mondegreen. So sue me; I was a kid.

 

 

 

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Today’s Theme Music

Although this song was released and charted in nineteen seventy-six, people probably know it, thanks to President Bill Clinton. He used it as the music for his campaign theme in nineteen ninety-two, and then at his inaugural ball after winning. Since then, it’s played whenever he shows up to speak at a Democratic National Convention.

And it’s good for that purpose. Before Bill Clinton used it, I used it, too, to keep myself moving forward, dreaming and hoping. It’s a rousing damn song. Here it is, Fleetwood Mac with, “Don’t Stop.”

 

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Today’s Theme Music

You hear it said so often. I was pleased and impressed that someone finally put it to music.

When I was growing up, the expression, “That’s the highway to hell,” was commonly heard. When someone disagreed with a position, it wasn’t surprising to hear them say, “I think that’s the road to hell, if we do that,” or, “You know what they say: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

It took that Australian band, AC/DC, to turn the expression into a hard-rocking hit. Between its standing as a rock music staple, and use in video games, television shows, and movies, few in the western world have probably not heard the song, or at least its opening guitar riff, or chorus. It’s a good anthem to stream in your head as you tramp around. Singing with it is good for releasing some angst.

From nineteen seventy-nine, here we go.

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