Tag: 1966

Thursday’s Theme Music

I’ve always had a place in my heart for the Clash, and I like the hard-edge they bring to today’s theme music. “I Fought the Law” by the Bobby Fuller Four was a hit when I was ten. Featuring clear and easy lyrics and a fast beat, I heard it on AM radio and picked it up and liked singing it. It was a decent song.

Over twenty years later (1979), with the Clash’s almost smug, sneering, raw cover, I felt it was more correct. Then, on reflection, I recognized, no, this is more about our cultural shift regarding music, and the evolution of taste. My mother disagreed. She liked Fuller’s smoother version.

I also thought it was humorous and odd after “White Riot” that the Clash recorded “I Fought the Law”. While the subject matter, an unlawful resistance theme, was similar, the songs’ structure were different. I decided the Clash were being ironic with their cover of “I Fought the Law”.

The trigger for releasing the song into my stream last night and today was a conversation with my spouse. I said, “I’m going to the ATM for some cash. Need any?” As I went, I thought, “I needed money ’cause I had none.” Naturally, the chorus followed. Fortunately, my ATM card worked, my account had cash, the law wasn’t involved, and the only fighting was within myself about how much cash to take out.

Here’s both versions. Hope you enjoy one of them. Cheers

 

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Today’s theme music comes from the “What the hell was that?” file. It’s a general file in my head. The major category is “What the hell?” Besides the mystified “What the hell was that?” sub-category, there’s “What the hell did he/she just say?”, “What the hell did he/she just do?”, and the ever-popular, “What the hell was I going to do/get/say?”.

The song’s wild musical break began streaming in my mind this morning but I can’t identify a trigger. The song was released in 1966, but I began aware of it later, hearing it on my AM/FM alarm clock a few years later. So different, it immediately went into the “What the hell was that file?” It then took a few years to determine what it was, and hear it fully. Hearing if fully, the Yardbirds and Beach Boys inspirations become clear.

Judge for yourself. Here’s “Psychotic Reaction” by Count Five, in black and white.

 

 

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Monday’s Theme Music

Today’s song came via the weather. Our forecast for today said it will be sunny but a drizzle was falling, so, you know, I was a mite skeptical. When sunshine finally broke through, so did a Donovan song, “Sunshine Superman” (1966).

I enjoy this video. Television, music, and entertainment all seemed simpler, didn’t it?

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Today’s theme music comes via Patriot on Amazon. I’ve been watching the first year. I enjoy the underplayed, minimalist, absurdist show, but its opening theme song caught my attention. I felt that I knew it but I didn’t know anything about it.

Wikipedia provided the needed details. “Train Song” by Vashti Bunyan. Originally released in 1966, I thought I knew it from that era, but found that it could have been from exposure as its use in Reebok ads or “True Detective”. Whichever the route, I find it haunting and sweet. In an aside, I discovered Vashti Bunyan has been called the “Godmother of Freak Folk.” Would that be Frock?

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Friday’s Theme Music

This is an old and familiar song. It just joined my stream today, coming from many things and nothing, as often happens with the breccia that I call my thinking.

I first heard this song, “River Deep, Mountain High” by Ike & Tina Turner, when I was young. I don’t recall the circumstances, but wikipedia tells me it was released in 1966, so it’s reasonable to think I heard it on AM radio while driving about with Mom in her car. Later covers were more commercially successful.

Ike and Tina broke up. There’s a big story behind those four words. Ike has passed away. Tina lives on.

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Thursday’s Theme Music

I awoke with Outkast’s “Hey Ya” streaming in my mind, but another song replaced it. The lyrics, sung by a woman went, “He’s the last of the secret agents, and he’s my man.”

I thought, was that Nancy Sinatra? Sure sounded like it to my brain. Thinking about Nancy granted permissions to stream “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'”, followed by a duet with Frank Sinatra, “Something Stupid”. Hearing Frank made the stream believe it was okay for him to join in, so I heard “Winchester Cathedral” and “Fly Me to the Moon”.

I’d decided I was becoming a basket case, which opened the ports for “Basketcase” by Green Day, followed by “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”. Thinking, enough, I went through a little of “Enough is Enough” by April Wine, followed by “No More Tears” (Streisand/Summers).

By then, I knew that it had been Nancy Sinatra streaming “Last of the Secret Agents” (1966). I never saw the movie, btw. Anyone know if it was any good?

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

I always think of this as a party song. It’s been covered by many, like the Blues Brothers, but I love this original.

Here is the Spencer Davis Group with Steve Winwood and their hit, “Gimme Some Lovin'”, from when I was ten, in 1966. You can imagine how this beat and the chorus appealed to a kid.

Still appeals to me.

Odd, intriguing video, though.

 

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

I’ve posted about this one before, but it’s one of my short-listed favorites. I can’t claim to have an absolute favorite song. Like movies, food, and books, the choice is about where I am and where I was. There are certain songs, like the other things, invested with rich memories.

This Four Tops song was one of those early songs that prompted us to find a faux microphone, like a hair brush, so we can pretend we’re the performer singing the song. It became part of our basement playlist on forty-fives. Later, it was part of our make-out parties. “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” has lyrics that speak to young love, passion, and hope, and we had some of that. Love that bass line, too, provided by the memorable Funk Brothers.

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Monday’s Theme Music

This is one of those songs that I know from my youth, but I don’t know who sang it.

The song is “Black Is Black,” and the group who performed it was Los Bravos. I’m streaming it today for reasons that my mind won’t reveal. It came out in nineteen sixty-six. I was ten, then, but was probably exposed to it when driving around, because pop music was always playing on the AM radio stations in that era.

Give a listen, and see if any bells chime when you hear it.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Hey, writers north of the Equator. Guess what? It’s December, and it’s winter. That puts me into a winter state of mind. Some of that crystalline white precipitation tops the mountains, hills, and forests surrounding our valley, while we endure fog, low gray cloud cover, and meek sunshine.

Looking out on this world as the furnace says good-morning, “A Hazy Shade of Winter” leaked into the stream. I thought about the Simon & Garfunkel original, and admired again, their talent and genius. But wanting something upbeat and edgier, I took to the Bangles.

Don’t you love those opening lyrics? “Time, time, time, look what’s become of me.”

Here we go.

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