Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Notorious RBG is playing locally. My thoughts go to Notorious B.I.G. when I hear or read comments about the Ruth Bader Ginsburg movie. That’s how my mind and its connectome plays. Likewise, I connect specific groups or performers with certain genres and categories of music. Right or wrong, Biggie Smalls was a handful of performers who I link to classic rap.
Here’s to the music and the art, and the past and the future. Notorious B.I.G. with “One More Chance” from 1995. It’s a mellow sound.
Quinn was all excited, accosting me as I stepped out of the shower. “I have a new song,” he said. “I’ve written the lyrics. Let me sing them to you.”
WAKE UP!
I wannawanna wannawanna
wannawanna
I wannawanna wannawanna
wannawanna
I wannawanna wannawanna
eat now eat now eat now!
“Then it repeats,” Quinn said. “I’ll get T.C. to do a screaming guitar bridge. I call it “Blue Cat @4AM”. It’s a new sound I’m exploring that I call speed floof.”
My cats have started a musical band. They called themselves T.C. and the Backyard Boys.
T.C. is Tucker Cat. Black and white, he plays lead guitar and shares lead vocals with Quinn the black paws. Quinn is the brooding genius who writes their material. Their favorite songs are “Catch the Mouse”, “Watch the Birds”, “What’s that Noise”, and “You Want to Fight”.
Quinn plays the rhythm guitar, too, while Boo is on drums and Papi is the orange cat on the keyboards who also plays bass. Papi and Boo provide backing vocals, too.
Boo – no photo available.
Playing only at night, they call their music floof rock. It sounds like caterwauling to me.
Ah, a little Tuesday Weezer. “Say It Ain’t So.” It’s a relationship song.
Somebody’s Heine’
Is crowdin’ my icebox
Somebody’s cold one
Is givin’ me chills
Guess I’ll just close my eyes
Oh yeah
Alright
Feels good
Inside
Flip on the tele
Wrestle with Jimmy
Something is bubbling
Behind my back
The bottle is ready to blow
1995. Fun video. Terrific album.
(The formatting issue is a WordPress matter. Looks fine on the draft, doesn’t work on the published version.)
I know exactly when I started streaming this song. After completing some yard-work, I went for a walk. As I did, I wondered about the number of Priuses in Ashland. It seems like the number one car. Subaru is well represented, too, followed by BMW models. More Teslas are showing up, but they have a long way to go before they catch the Prius.
As I thought this, I thought about counting cards and remembered, “We count only blue cars, skip the cracks in the street and asked many questions, like children often do.”
Yes, it was Dishwalla and “Counting Blue Cars” from 1995.
It’s a fun song in a fun time streaming through my memory. We’re talking about the final stages of a long party, when few lights are on and only a few close friends remain. UB40 with “Red, Red Wine” begins. Smiling, we all sway and sing wherever we were sitting or standing. Yes, I know Marley did it first, but this was 1983 on Okinawa, and that’s what song plays in memory.
Good way to end a party.
Today’s theme music is a personal favorite from the seventies. I thought Elton John’s song, “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” (co-written with Bernie Taupin) was a rocking song. Featuring a rocking edge with pleasurable guitar work by Davey Johnstone, I considered it perfect for going out and throwing down some drinks with friends.
Still do, I think. “Saturday! Saturday, Saturday! Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday’s alright for fighting.”
Let’s pop back to 1997.
The scene is San Jose, California. The group is Smash Mouth. They were the summer’s rising flavor. One song that caught on was a little ditty called “Walkin on the Sun”.
It ain’t no joke I’d like to buy the world a toke
And teach the world to sing in perfect harmony
And teach the world to snuff the fires and the liars
Hey I know it’s just a song but it’s spice for the recipe
This is a love attack I know it went out but it’s back.
It’s just like any fad it retracts before impact
And just like fashion it’s a passion for the with it and hip
If you got the goods they’ll come and buy it just to stay in the clique
It’s just a song, but it something to help you think. Cheers
I always enjoy the sense of being lost and finding yourself. Maybe I enjoy that sense because I do it often, and I do it often because I like the feeling of reward I get from finding myself after being lost. It can be a pretty damning web.
I was thinking of all that today as I walked, recalling “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” by KT Tunstall. Her song always imparts that sense that, out of all being presented in our minds, there are pieces we must pick out and fit together to solve part of the puzzles that we are. The thing about solving the puzzles that we are is, we’re never finished. As dynamic as southern Oregon weather, we as people change as frequently.
I don’t know what you think about the song, or the search for yourself, but it’s a good tool for furthering exploration of my infinite existence. The song came out just fourteen years ago, though. Before it, I often used Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” for the same purpose. You might realize that “Comfortably Numb” only came out in 1980, and ask (if you’ve read this far), “What song did you use before that?”
Well, that would be “The Real Me” by The Who. And before then?
Hell, who knows?
I was streaming this song in my head this morning after having a wild, wild dream during the night.
“Wild, Wild Life” by the Talking Heads isn’t my favorite TH song, but I always enjoyed these lyrics. I thought they observe and mock modern complexities, hypocrisies, and ambiguities. I’ve often encountered Americans dissatisfied with life and their work, people who want to shake things up for themselves, something to give their life a more satisfactory edge as youth’s dreams fossilize into adult reality and the ruts become traps. So people party, have affairs, or do crazy things.
Well, that’s how I interpret life and this song. Your mileage may vary.
It was years before I saw the video for the song. Although the song came out in 1986, I was traveling across America, visiting Africa and Korea for the military, and never saw the video until much, much later. Its pop culture references are good for a laugh, especially the Billy Idol and Madonna imitations.
On the way to the coffee shop, to get some wild, wild life.
