I worked with an officer while stationed at Shaw AFB, SC. He was a navigator who graduated college with a degree in Literature, and he wrote poetry on the side.
Music of the era set him off. He thought the lyrics were shallow and the liberties taken with grammar annoyed him. People used to sing in full, coherent sentences, telling a story, he would say, and the songs were often very poetic. He was my age, and it amused me that this upset him, because that’s not what popular music is about. It’s a reflection of the times and how language is used. It’s dynamic. Those were exactly some of the things that he mourned as going wrong.
I remember once we were getting ready to deploy to Egypt. Killing time as we had to do in those situations, we talked music, and he singled out this song, which had been released a few years before, as one that he particularly disliked – his exact words. His diatribe made me laugh.
Here is Eddy Grant with “Electric Avenue” from 1982.
I was with my friend, Ron, sitting at a cafe table outside. Another friend of mine, Marge (who doesn’t know Ron, and lives across the country in Ohio), came up. She said, “Can you think of anyone who played God in movies?”
As Ron and I took in the question with a look at one another, Marge said, “I’ve tried, and I can’t think of anyone.”
I said, “Well, off the top of my head, I can think of Morgan Freeman, George Burns, Alanis Morrisette – remember? She was God in Dogma.”
Ron said, “Morgan Freeman played God?”
“Yes,” I said, “in that Jim Carrey thing. I think it was called Bruce Almighty or something. I’ve never seen the whole thing. I think I saw some of it in a hotel.”
“Oh, yeah,” Ron said.
I said, “Didn’t Whoopi play God in something, too?”
None of us were sure. Marge said, “Thank you.” As she did, Ron and I pulled out laptops to Google actors who played God in movies.
That was the dream, short, sharp, and clear. What’s not clear is what it meant and why I dreamed it. My guess is that it was some food generated neuron frenzy.
Today’s music selection became streaming in my head the other day.
“Man On the Corner” by Genesis was released in 1981. I started thinking about it this week because of the purple guy.
That’s the name I’ve given him. He’s short, about five three would be my guess, and balding, with a large dark brown mustache. Wearing blue jeans in this ninety degree (F) heat every day, he wears a purple shirt, purple fanny pack, and purple shoes, and carries a purple bag.
You might have an idea of why I call him the purple man.
I usually encounter him several times a week. When I do, I say hello, and he replies…nothing. He doesn’t smile, but looks down.
When I saw him this week, he was standing on a corner by the town Safeway, and the song began streaming.
Floofography(catfinition) – An account of a pet’s life, often a cat, written or produced by another (usually a human).
In use: “A floofography about the famous floof star, Mew Collins, was released last week. Mew Collins, a domestic shorthair rocker , had several songs that charted well during his career, including “You’re In the Bathroom (And I Need to Get In)”, “Ashley”, “Catnip”, and that cat anthem, “Touch My Tummy (If You Dare)”.”
Once again, it’s time for Dirty Cello to perform at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show.
Once again, it’s in danger of being canceled due to unhealthy air from wildfire smoke. If it’s cancelled, this will be year three.
I’ve previously posted Dirty Cello playing “Rock You Like A Hurricane” and “Sweet Child of Mine”. Needing a fix, I dialed up a few songs and selected “Purple Haze” to share on this Thursday.
Although I’m generally a rocker who likes the blues and drifts toward radio music, I’ve been streaming “Ladies’ Night” in my head this week. The impact came from its inclusion in GLOW.
Released in 1979 by Kool and the Gang, I think of “Ladies’ Night” as a disco era staple. More, I thought it captured the essence of that times’ club partying sensibilities. Ladies’ Night was a promotional event to draw in more women by giving them special deals. With more women, more men would be attracted to the club, right? Sure, it’s like honey for bees.
“Ladies’ Night” played to all of that, calling out romantic lady, single baby, and sophisticated mama. These were the people at the disco, right? Come on out, ladies, it’s your night. I regret the song didn’t also address the weary student and hard worker. They were the true partiers.
Besides all of that, I always like the lines, “If you hear any noise, it ain’t the boys, it’s ladies’ night.” Always makes me smile.
I like Pearl Jam, and I like this song, “Alive”. Although released in 1991 and categorized as grunge, it’s a hard-rocking song (with softer moments) like the rock I grew up with in the late sixties and early seventies.
I’m streaming the “Logical Song” by Supertramp today. This little ditty was released in 1979. It remains a relevant song to me. As I grew, I thought I understood logic, but learned that logic is rooted in different areas for people. Where their logic has its roots defines how their logic will be applied and the results. This bastardized version of logic often twists compassion, reality, and common sense.
I later read an interview with the songwriter, Roger Hogdson. Some of his comments about what we’re taught as children stayed with me. I found the interview today after thinking about the song, and post some of it here.
This song was born from the questions that haunted me about what is the deeper meaning of life. Throughout childhood, we are told and taught so many things, and yet we are rarely told anything about the purpose of life. We are taught how to function outwardly, but are rarely guided to explore and find out who we are inwardly. From the innocence and wonder of childhood to the confusion of adolescence that often ends in the cynicism and disillusionment of adulthood, so many end their lives having no idea of who they truly are and what they came here to learn. In “The Logical Song,” I ask the fundamental question that is so present in the psyche of today’s modern world but rarely spoken out loud—who are we and what is our true purpose of being here? And that is why I believe it continues to strike a chord in people around the world. I’m continually told how the lyric is often used and discussed in schools, which tells you something.
I think about what and how we’re taught as children. Many of the words thrown at us by adults are tossed from anger, irritation, and frustration. The adults issuing the words rarely realized their comments’ impact on young minds because they were dealing with their life and world issues, and speaking from their frustrations, resentments, and irritations. (I prefer to think that the adults didn’t realize it, and weren’t being callous or deliberate in what they said, knowing what it would do to a young mind.)
But sometimes, there were adults who understood. They were the ones building us up, giving us confidence, and pressing us to read, learn, and think.
More of the Kinks today, courtesy of nothing but the random firing of neurons that develop my neural stream.
In retrospect, I think I can track a rough, macro line of the neurons firing from a dream about kinetic energy to brainstorming about kinetic time (and imaginary- and anti-time), Chi-particles (and there most certainly must be anti-Chi-particles) and the arrows of time, to writing like crazy, to sitting back and thinking about the series in progress (Incomplete States) (and novel in progress (Good-bye, Hello)) to imagining people’s reaction upon reading the series that I must be ignorant and crazy. From there, I jump to fantasy, (because, I imagine them saying, “He’s living in a fantasy world, writing that stuff,”) and, voilà, I hear the Kinks’ recording of “A Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy”.
From the Misfits album of 1978, here’s “A Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy”
I had a wild night of dreams. After awakening, feeding the cats, and thinking about the dreams, I began humming this song from 1972. Because the dream had large segments about seeing and trying to understand what I was seeing, I realized my mind had started streaming, “Doctor My Eyes” by Jackson Browne. The song came out when I was sixteen and straying along the hinterlands border between being a child and an adult. (Even at sixty-two, I still frequently reel and weave along that border.) I laughed at the connections my mind had managed to find between life, the dream, and memories.
I found this live version today and just went with the flow.
