Category: music

The Best & Worst

Several good results emerge from being able (and maybe allowing myself) to stream music in my brain.

  1. A power supply is always available. Don’t need to worry about AC/DC, plugging in anywhere, or recharging anything.
  2. No headphones, speakers, or ear buds required.
  3. They’re already paid for, so financial expenditures are limited to acquiring new materials, if and when I’m required to pay for them.
  4. A lot of my favorites are played.

Some negatives do exist.

  1. It’s hard to turn some songs off.
  2. The mental streaming algorithms seem to favor repetition.
  3. It’s a limited library of songs.

And of course, free will is often derailed. For instance, right now I’m streaming this.

The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody’s out on the run tonight
but there’s no place left to hide
Together Wendy we can live with the sadness
I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul
Oh-oh, someday girl I don’t know when
we’re gonna get to that place
Where we really wanna go
and we’ll walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us
baby we were born to run

h/t AZLyrics.com

It’s not by choice, and it’s been running about thirty minutes. Stream along with me, if you know the tune.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Ever see a bird soaring, kiting, or flying over the planet on some destination and think, I’d like to to fly like that? I’d like to fly away, sail, soar and wheel. Maybe you just wish for it in a more metaphysical way, dreaming of rising above your days of toil, strife, and trouble, longing for a better life.

I know I’ve had those days. Steve Miller captured the sentiment in musical expression in “Fly Like An Eagle” from 1976.

Feed the babies
Who don’t have enough to eat
Shoe the children
With no shoes on their feet
House the people
Livin’ in the street
Oh, oh, there’s a solution

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

New Year. Don’t know about you, but on a personal quantum level, I feel good about it. Feel like I’m in tune.

Which is a nice segue for today’s music. Here’s Daltry and the Who with the Pete Townsend composition, “Getting In Tune,” from 1971, as fine a year as there is. The song starts soft and then rises and quickens, a perfect metaphor for 2018.

 

 

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New Year’s Theme Song

A reminder from the past.

Forget about the past and all your sorrows,
The future won’t last,
It will soon be over tomorrow.

“It Don’t Come Easy,” by Ringo Starr.

 

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Burton Cummings and the Guess Who were an impressive group. After making it in their home nation of Canada, they hit the international scene. We loved them in America, with songs like “American Woman,” “Bus Rider,” “Undun,” “No Time Left for You,” and several enjoyable albums. Cummings went on to a solo career, and the band broke up. Out of that rose Bachmann-Turner Ovedrive (BTO), also a successful band.

But one Guess Who offering started streaming in me head last night. “Hang On to Your Life” ends with some verses from Psalm 22. It used to amuse me to tell others these verses. I selected this song today, though, because I thought it was a good song to end 2017.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

I’m a Kinks’ fan. Saw them once in concert in Germany. Beautiful venue, which seemed more suited to ballet and opera than rock.

This song,”Come Dancing,” from State of Confusion, is a later release. I didn’t know about the song’s back story for years. Its sound is a throwback with elements of bepop to me in parts, and invites dancing.

State of Confusion was an interesting album. My favorite song on it was “Long Distance,” a wistful, but depressing song. But when I compared album thoughts with others, I discovered the song wasn’t always on every album, a fact that a Brit friend confirmed.

Anyway, “Come Dancing.”

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Friday’s Theme Music

Closing out 2017, I figure it’s a good time to listen to some old music.

Funny to think of this song, “Reeling in the Years,” as old music. This song was released in 1972, when I was just sixteen. It remains fresh sounding to me. Yet, I know how different it sounds, and I know that Steely Dan broke up long ago, then got back together, and then Walter Becker died. The band’s symmetry is a perfect illustration of how life passes for most of us, with triumphs and struggles, but ultimately, somehow becoming finalized with our deaths. That’s life, in all its glory, cruelty, and normalcy.

Ironic to listen to “Reeling in the Years,” though, knowing one of them no longer reels in the years. I always wonder, is death really that much worse than living? Maybe something else goes on with the energy that is us as the body moulders and fades.

Yes, those left behind find it painful. It’s a hard path to follow, because when others die, we’re forced onto new paths. Some of the paths have only a sight variation, depending on how close we were to the deceased. But sometimes, it’s like we’ve fallen off a cliff and have to pick ourselves up and learn to walk again.

Sorry, off-topic. Let’s get more upbeat. Here’s “Reeling in the Years.”

 

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Streaming from Australia, again, and Men at Work, again. This one came out on their second album, in 1983. The streaming in my head was triggered by a cat. I’d been asleep. They wanted out. Guess what happened? Yeah. The cat’s will be done.

Returning to bed, I started writing in my head. Writing in my head is great for my writing, but not especially helpful for sleeping. I managed to throttle back the words and divert myself with lessor matters. But I then sang, “I can’t get to sleep,” and “Overkill” streamed into my thoughts. That prompted memories of hearing the song while living on Okinawa, Japan, and the friends of the time, Mike and Lori, and Jeff, and my command post peers at the 603rd MASS. After spinning the memory Rolodex for fifteen minutes, sleep was achieved.

Here it is, “Overkill.”

 

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Getting ready for a better year. That would be next year, 2018. To get it started, let’s jump on the back of this song.

Here’s “Let the Good Times Roll,” performed by B.B. King and Bobby Bland. Sweet. Crank it, baby.

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