Just a simple song for a hot day in our little city, “Hot Child in the City,” by Nick Gilder, nineteen seventy-eight.
Today’s Theme Music
Sometimes, I heard some of the lyrics of this song and think, those are the perfect words for an organic writer.
I’m riffing off the E.L. Doctorow quotes:
“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
Yes, that’s my sentiment. Sometimes wrong turns are taken. So when I hear these words from the Oasis song, “Wonderwall,” I think of the Doctorow quote:
And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
The song continues, “There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don’t know how.” That seems to me what writing is often about; we see the scenes and the characters, and seek to explain, but we don’t know how. That’s writing.
Here it is, from nineteen ninety-five, “Wonderwall.”
Today’s Theme Music
Today’s music is dedicated to my muse, or muses. I’m not sure if I have one, or a madhouse, within me. And on that subject, shouldn’t a muse be external to me? Perhaps my problem is that the inner voices that j’accuse of being the muse(s) are not muses. Let’s not speculate on what they might be, if the voices don’t belong to the muse(s).
(I know that if I’m writing voice as plural – voices – I’m implying there are multiple voices. There are. But I can’t rule out that the voices aren’t from one source, pretending to be many voices. See the problem? I could have a muse like Robin Williams or Jonathan Winters doing multiple voices in my head.
Returning to the song, here is Pat Benatar with “Heartbreaker,” from nineteen seventy-nine.
Today’s Theme Music
Going with a simple, memorable song today, “Imagine,” by John Lennon. As a fiction writer, I enjoy imagining characters, settings, places, et cetera, along with a better existence for all of us.
Hope you’re familiar with the song. If not, listen and hear something new. Being sentimental, I decided to go with Chris Cornell‘s acoustic version, recording in twenty fifteen. His suicide this year was something I never imagined.
Today’s Theme Music
To counter our dry, hot weather, I thought I’d post something with precipitation.
First songs to stream in were, “Let It Snow,” and “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.” “Singing in the Rain” quickly followed. Songs by New Edition, Seal and The Rescues jumped in there. Tina Turner, “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” joined the queue, and then Blind Melon, “No Rain.”
Peter Gabriel’s “Red Rain” streamed in. Yes, that’s the one. Although it offers a lightly macabre vision of someone screaming and red rain falling, Gabriel’s dreams inspired the song, and I like its heavy percussion presence. We were living in Columbia, South Carolina, when this song was released. Columbia had fantastic afternoon deluges throughout the summer, and this song reminded me of sitting on our apartment’s balcony as the rain poured, chilling the air.
Here we are, from nineteen eighty-six, and the “So” album, “Red Rain.”
Today’s Theme Music
“Don’t Dream It’s Over,” by Crowded House, nineteen eighty-six.
Today’s Theme Music
I awoke with, “Hey mister tambourine man, play a song for me,” streaming through my head. It’s a mellow classic, innit? Yeah, and much too mellow for me that morning. I’ve not really been a mellow music man. I prefer something harder, with screaming vocals, slashing guitars, and a hailstorm of drumming.
Ah, what better than “Highway Star,” by Deep Purple, from the “Made In Japan” live album. It’s not soulful, but elemental, and probably in the top five on my fave list of live rock albums, due to the sentimentality of who I was when I first heard it. I had it on eight track, and wore that mutha out. It became first, comical, and then, irritating, as the eight track slowly lost its fidelity and developed lots of warble, wow and flutter. It was, like, woof. Eventually, I quit listening to it, but once CDs came out over a decade later, I hunted down a remastered copy.
Listening to it, I’m back in high school, with the lights off and the music up, riding a sonic wave.
Today’s Theme Music
The music today is a product of a triple coincidence. There could be some causality, but it might just be linkage.
I’ve been streaming the song, “I Will Buy You A New Life.” It’s part of my mental shuffle set. I like the lyrics, and often sing or hum it to myself as I meander through activities. Everclear members wrote the song, and the band released it back in nineteen ninety-seven, a year that puts thoughts in pause to reflect on how much time has sneezed by since that song came out. Everclear had a number of terrific albums with fab songs like “Santa Monica”, and “Father of Mine,” but it’s amazing it’s been twenty years since I was driving around Half Moon Bay listening to them, dude.
Please, join me and observe a moment of silence for nineteen ninety-seven.
Zoning back into this post, the three coincidences that lands the song in the august position (get it?) as today’s theme music is one, I was singing it several times this week; two, Everclear headlined at the Jackson County Fair last month; and tres, I read that Everclear, from Portland, Oregon, is the state’s highest grossing musical act ever. With that power of three pushing the nomination, victory was assured.
Today’s Theme Music
With the thermometers teasing one hundred four degrees, I was returning home in the car. The DJ said, “This song is about air conditioning.”
Air conditioning? I puzzled what he could mean.
He continued, “This is “Need You Tonight.” With this weather as hot as it is, they have to be referring to air conditioning.”
Here it is, INXS, from nineteen eighty-seven.
