Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Today’s song is from a movie. I saw the movie back in the mid-1960s when I was a child. For some reason, it popped into my head last night and stayed awhile.
So, here it is, from the 1965 production of ‘Cinderella’, Leslie Ann Warren singing ‘In My Own Little Corner’.
We watched ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ last night. Great tale. Great mythology. Sensational imagination on display. Wonderful artwork. Neat, different ideas – at least for me. Some, of course, predictable. That’s to happen if you’re a thinking reader or movie watching.
Themes develop. Characters are established and arcs developed. The story unfolds. It’s rarely totally new or fresh. The beauty and pleasure often arrive with the nuances of execution and the story’s internal truths. This reflects humanity, art and history. We build on what’s gone before, even when we can’t remember what’s gone before, even when it’s been distorted to portray another existence.
The song at the end was an unexpected pleasure. George Harrison could have been thinking about Kubo’s tale when he wrote ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’. Regina Spektor’s presentation chilled and moved me. ‘Rolling Stone’ called it haunting. I agree with that. I have a new regard for the shamisen.
Today’s song is one that used to start up whenever I’d hit the road during my military and civilian career, or during holidays. For a while, it was a lot of traveling. It looks glamorous on paper between all those countries, states and cities, but it wasn’t.
It’s simple beat and lyrics make it a terrific song for singing while walking around, to. From 1980 and the movie, ‘Honeysuckle Rose’, here’s Willie Nelson with, ‘On the Road Again’.
This album had the honor of being the last piece of vinyl that I bought. I was living on Okinawa in Japan, then, assigned to the 603rd MASS at Kadena AB. DVD players arrived during my tour’s final year, so I bought one for $400. That’s since been replaced by less expensive players with better quality many times over. Before CDs, I bought music on vinyl or cassettes.
This album, ‘Come On, Feel the Noize’, by Quiet Riot, was bought while we still lived off base on the economy in 1983. I had Bose 301 and 910 speakers with a Sansui amp. The combination filled the tiny apartment. Ah, to be young and stupid. We moved onto base housing the next year but rotated to the U.S. by the end of ’84.
I no longer have the album, selling it at a base yard sale.
The song was originally released by Slade in 1973. For fun, here is a video of them with that. It’s such a tamer version but their clothing was very interesting, very glam rock. I was surprised that people commented that they’d never seen or heard Slade in the states. I remember buying and listening to their album in 1973.
An old favorite, Steve Winwood wrote this song. Blind Faith with Winwood on vocals, recorded and released the song in 1969. Others covered it multiple times. I like this live version from Guitar Crossroads, with Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhill.
It’s a good walking song, and easy to sing in your head. Enjoy.
Pulling one out of the memory cloud, I came up with a classic. ‘Black Magic Woman’ was written by Peter Green and performed by Fleetwood Mac.
I did not much care for that song and rarely heard it.
Two years later, Carlos Santana put it on ‘Abraxas’. I think that’s the one most people know. Most people think Santana wrote ‘Black Magic Woman’, and are unaware of Fleetwood Mac’s version. I’m speaking of the people I know in America. Other peoples in other countries, or or other ages and persuasions, may know differently.
The differences, IMO, is that Green came up with the lyrics but he and his band couldn’t provide it with the musical structure needed. Carlos, on the other hand, with his powerful licks set against that soft, mysterious organ, a steady bass that sings the lyrics at times, a Latin beat, and Gregg Rolie’s vocals, seems like a much more fully realized vision.
Did anyone else feel that last night? Felt like a giant rubber band had been stretched to its limit. Now, snap, it was released. A shift took place.
Perhaps it’s only a personal shift. I awoke this morning feeling fantastic, like I’m twenty years younger. I slept well and experienced deep and clear, OMG amazing dreams. Feels different for me today, though. I hope others encounter this feeling of change, too. It’s a fine elixir and an awesome way to start a day. Yes, even better than coffee.
In honor of the changes I feel, I searched the mental cloud for a song that felt right and pulled on out of the file marked ‘Feb, 1996’. One of the hot groups then was Smashing Pumpkins. This song of theirs, about Billy Corgan’s coming of age when he was twelve, feels about right. It was a different sound for the Pumpkins; I like it.
Here is ‘1979’.
It’s a springly day again. Yes, Winter still wields a razor edge wind. Circling and prowling the valley, his blade sometimes scores your cheeks and hands. The sunshine helps keep him away. Everyone believes there is one Winter but there are several. The more aggressive ones that roam the U.S. have gone East. The one remaining with us makes many threats but he’s mostly benign. Sunshine intimidates him and drives him into the shadows.
Sunday, of course, is quiet. This area, southern Oregon, is a realm of traditional American values that developed in the last century plus as trade unions successfully campaigned for having weekends off. Sunday mornings are not for working unless it’s an essential service. The list of essential services has grown, and fewer people dress and go to Church, but Sunday remains a quieter and more relaxed morning than the week’s other days.
Into that scenario, I introduce a little Led Zeppelin. From ‘Led Zeppelin II’ and 1969, it’s time once again to ‘Ramble On’, a very good walking song.
I am not a Justin Timberlake fan. Nothing against him; he’s not my cuppa.
That doesn’t stop his music from entering my neural stream and getting jammed into my brain. In some net surfing this morning, I discovered a 2014 NPR story on the Harmony Project. I liked this quote:
“I feel like music really connects with education,” she says. “It helps you concentrate more.”
The speaker was tenth grader Monica Miranda, who was in her third year of the Harmony Project. Her statement struck me as an interesting insight. When I walk, I often mentally write or problem solve. I wonder if I’ve developed a habit of remembering music when I walk and think to help me concentrate more? It may have been a subconscious practice I developed that became reinforced with success. It’s something for further research for me.
Anyway, ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’ from 2016 is running on the mental loop today. Maybe if I unleash it on you, it’ll escape my mind (or I’ll escape it). The song, I mean.
Not my mind.
Or maybe that is what I meant.
Now I’m all confused.
On to the music.
When I was young, I sought better sound in my stereos.
Whether from imagination or real ability, I often detected hums and distortion that irritated me. Conducting trail and error set-ups in those pre-Internet days of the mid 1970s, I separated power wires and speaker wires and ensured I had solid connections between everything. I bought gold wires to improve the sound and kept searching for better equipment. Vinyl had the best initial sound IMO but it was a fragile state that would begin deteriorating with play. Cassettes and eight track players always introduced warble and distortion as the tapes stretched. Muddiness would creep in.
I ended up buying an open-reel system. I developed a habit of recording my vinyl on an open reel. Although a cumbersome system, open-reel maintained the best sound quality. I would record the album on open-reel for my home use and cassette for my portable use and store the vinyl to protect it. Once the cassette quality began diminishing, I would record it anew.
But while noticing the sound difference on my systems at home, I also discovered that some albums came out sounding better in the beginning. Their colors were sharper, finer and clearer. A few of those albums mesmerized me with the beauty of their sound. Some combined that with wonderful lyrics and melodies, becoming astonishing, special albums.
The first of these that struck me in such a way was Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, a now classic rock album. But it was only one album, not much of a data set. The second album that established itself as having high production values (as I learned it was called) was ‘Songs In the Key of LIfe,’ by Stevie Wonder. I don’t know much about music production, then or now, but I thought that Stevie’s album was beautiful in and of the ways I mentioned. I was stationed in the Philippines, at Clark Air Base with the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing, when the album came out. Intent on staying active, reading and saving money, I did a lot of walking.
‘Sir Duke’, from this album, was my favorite walking-around sound for that era’s mental playback system. It’s a good theme song to bring on Friday.
(As an aside, I wince at hearing this digital version; it sounds way too tinny to me. But that’s me.)
