I associate this song with Thanksgiving, and as it’s the day before Thanksgiving in America, I thought I’d proffer this humorous, mellow gem from nineteen sixty-seven.
Peace out.
Monday’s Theme Song
Today’s song comes from yesterday’s movie.
We watched “Thor: Ragnorok” at the cinema yesterday. The movie features Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” twice. Led Zep III was one of those albums that I listened to repetitively when I was fourteen in nineteen seventy, and I came to know the album by heart. Once I heard “Immigrant Song,” I streamed the subsequent tracks into my head. Eventually, “Celebration Day” dominated more than the rest. Always like that beginning sound, and then the words, “Her face is cracked from smiling, all the fears that she’s been hiding, and it seems that pretty soon, everybody’s gonna know.”
Here, let me play it for you, and get it out of my head.
Sunday’s Theme Music
This song has been with me just a little less than eight years of my life. I probably heard it through Mom, but I’m sure A.M. radio played a part.
“Under the Boardwalk” caught my attention as a child because of that chorus, “under the boardwalk.” I liked singing it. As I learned the other pieces, I started singing them, too. I enjoyed the Drifters’ call and response, and the song’s mellow tempo. As I grew older and started understanding the words, I appreciated the lyrics’ sentiments about being out of the sun and the song’s imagery. I knew those days when the asphalt baked and the sand sizzled and you sought cool relief or shade, and you sat with friends in a secret place, hearing other sounds and giggling.
Eventually, I caught up with the song’s romantic connotations. Now, it’s a nostalgic stream to a simpler, happier, and more innocent time, that of my youth. And though it’s about the summer, and the beach, it’s really a song for all ages and places.
Saturday’s Theme Music
A song is trapped in my stream. I’m sharing it to dislodge it from my consciousness.
Imagine Dragons seem skilled at hooking me. I like several of their songs. I shared “Believer” before. I’ve heard “Thunder” a few times this week; it’s the song that’s gotten stuck. So here it is, for you, Imagine Dragons with “Thunder.”
Sing along with it:
Thunder, thunder
Thunder, thun-, thunder
Thun-thun-thunder, thunder, thunder
Thunder, thun-, thunder
Thun-thun-thunder, thunder
Thunder, feel the thunder
Lightning then the thunder
Thunder, feel the thunder
Lightning then the thunder
Thunder, thunder
Thunder
You ever notice how thunder starts looking weird as a word after typing it several times?
No, me, neither.
Friday’s Theme Song
This song has four things going for it for me: interesting lyrics, fascinating vocals, brilliant guitar playing, a beat and sound that moves me, and it came during an exciting era for me, personally.
Well, that’s more than four items, I think. Here’s Santana with Rob Thomas with the nineteen ninety-eight release, “Smooth.”
Thursday’s Theme Music
Once again the stream pulls me back in time.
I enjoy Eric Clapton’s style of music and performances. I immediately bought his “Journeyman” album on its release. I was stationed in Germany at that point, driving a silver Audi. I remember setting off for a Volksmarch one Sunday morning and slipping this CD into the player to hear as I sped across the landscape under gray skies and a weak sunrise.
Clapton’s version of “Before You Accuse Me” from this album became my favorite track. Bo Diddley wrote the song while I was an infant and I’ve heard numerous covers that I’ve enjoyed. Clapton’s cover is a powerful, rocking version.
Let us rock.
Wednesday’s Theme Music
I don’t surf. Okay, big deal, right? I’m probably not alone in that declaration. But sometime in my youth, I adopted a private attitude that I’m riding the waves of the day. I think this song, “Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day” by Jethro Tull, directly contributed to my approach.
Skate away on the day’s thin ice, ride the waves and surf through the day. Do what needs to be done to get through.
Tuesday’s Theme Music
Neurons fired, streams opened, and this song came to me today. Although I’m a Blood, Sweat and Tears fan, I don’t own any of their albums. Still, I know a number of their songs, like “Spinning Wheel”, “When I Die”, and “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”, the song that passed into my slipstream of memory was “Lucretia MacEvil”. Sit back and enjoy Clayton-Thomas’ throaty vocals and that soulful fat brass sound.
The August Holiday
The best thing about Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the December holiday triumvirate in America is that they make it difficult for November and December to sneak up on us. It’s hard to be unaware of the calendar with all that commercial preparation – advertising, music, and sales, repeatedly presented at high volume – taking place.
That’s the trouble with August in America: no real holiday to mark the calendar. Sure, we have Labor Day at September’s beginning, but it’s one of those nebulous Federal Monday holidays. People often ask each other, “When is Labor Day this year?”, meaning, what day does Labor Day fall on? Then you hit that long stretch from there until Halloween. Days skim by on such untroubled water. Suddenly September has turned to October, and you’re playing catch-up with time.
It’s a game that’s hard to win.
Monday’s Theme Music
Dropping back into the seventies again. I’ve always enjoyed the southern rock style. Although the blues draw me like the sound of a can opening draws cats, the likes of Marshal Tucker, the Charlie Daniels Band, and Lynyrd Skynyrd all provided some smooth Top 40 enticements. This one, “Heard It In A Love Song,” by M.T. is one of those.
The song’s lyrics talk to me. The main chorus is about hearing truth in a love song, while the rest of the stanzas regard moving on after being with a woman for a while. That seemed like a popular romantic nature for men: I love you, but I gotta go, because of who I am. Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On” is a little similar, except the lyrics call for him to ramble on to find the queen of his dreams.
I guess it’s all about restlessness, searching, and the inability to search if you stay in one place. Bruce Hornsby plays piano on this while that’s Eubanks with that sweet flute.
