Sunday’s Theme Music

Everyone sing.

I took her home to my place, watching every move on her face
She said, “Look, what’s your game, baby?
Are you tryin’ to put me in shame? ”
I said, “Slow, don’t go so fast
Don’t you think that love can last? ”
She said, “Love, lord above, now you’re gonna trick me in love”
All right now baby, it’s all right now
All right now baby, it’s all right now

ht to lyricsfreak.com

I’m always surprised when people do and don’t know the words to popular music, but then again, we’re not all in the same vacuum. A friend of mine insists he only really knows and likes one song. That song is “Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton. That I knew it and could sing it to him impressed him.

His wife is like me. I guess we listened to a lot of music on the radio. Her husband’s excuse is that he was doing tours in Vietnam during that time. (Cue, “Country Joe and the Fish” and the “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die” rag. No, he doesn’t know that one, either.) He’s older than us.

I’m surprised, too, by the young people who know the classic rock songs. Many know them via their parents and older siblings’ listening habits, while others learn the music through movies or video games like “Guitar Hero”.

Here’s Free from 1970 with one you may or may not know, “All Right Now”.

August 26, 2018 0

Saturday’s Theme Music

I was streaming this song as I walked today. It’s a favorite song. A number of performers have covered it. I think my two preferred versions are by Creedence Clearwater Revival and Marvin Gaye. CCR did a long version of it that has a little more rock ingrained, while Gaye’s version had more blues and soul to it. Gaye’s version was released in 1968 and was a huge hit. CCR came out with their version in 1970.

Here’s both versions. Hope you enjoy them.

August 25, 2018 2

Tuesday’s Theme Music

A nostalgia stream is flooding me today. First it pushed me to consider old television shows, then I began googling places where I used to live, using the street view to remember those childhood places.

Music then came up. While I was discovering rock, pop and its bubblegum variations were very active, with a presence from groups such as the Osmonds and the Jackson 5. When “ABC” and “One Bad Apple” were big on the radio airwaves, I read a newspaper article in the Pittsburgh Press about whether Michael Jackson or Jimmy Osmond would have a successful singing career after their voices changed.

So, in memory, here’s “ABC” from 1970 on ABC’s American Bandstand with Dick Clark.

August 7, 2018 0

Friday’s Theme Music

Today I’m streaming a song out of 1970. I’m a Joe Walsh fan. Before he went off to perform on his own or with the Eagles, he was part of the James Gang. I’m streaming their best-known song today, “Funk #49.” Wondering how and why it was called “Funk #49”, I read in an interview that it was a jam that the James Gang used to do. They figured they’d done it at least fifty times, but the band’s engineer said that they hadn’t. So, they called it forty-nine.

May 11, 2018 0

Sunday’s Theme Music

I was walking this morning when this one streamed out of the ether.

“Mississippi Queen” by Mountain was one of our art class staples in high school in my senior year, 1974. Scott had a large rock vinyl collection, and brought in a huge number of albums. I don’t recall how other students reacted to it, but Scott and I really enjoyed it.

January 28, 2018 0

Saturday’s Theme Music

Well, I woke up this morning, and I got myself a beer
The future’s uncertain, and the end is always near

And with that, today’s song goes into its final minute.

I always liked singing “Roundhouse Blues” at work. A rousing, rowdy song, it was a great defiant response when bosses would say, “Let it roll.” Well, alright, let it roll.

I’d also sometimes sing, “The future’s uncertain, and the end is always clear.” I was divided about what Morrison was singing. Wasn’t till the net came about and I could look it up that I was satisfied. But my misheard word fits as well. The future for us all ends the same way, so it’s always clear. It’s all those damn little steps in between now and then that cause us problems.

Here are the Doors, from way back in 1970. That was a pretty good year to be a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, until they ran into the Big Red Machine, and the year turned sour.

January 6, 2018 0

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.

November 20, 2017 0

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.

November 14, 2017 0

Today’s Theme Music

Jimi Hendrix took me like he’d done so many others. I heard his music and thought, “Whoa. Who is that?”

Hendrix died when I was in my freshman year at high school. School had just begun a few weeks before. Attending John H. Linton Intermediate school, I was smitten with Melissa Smith. Melissa sat behind me in science. I was shy, so Melissa took it upon her to talk to me. Her opening gambit was about music. First we talked about “Tommy” and other Who songs. Then Hendrix died, so we talked about his music and death. Funny, but in my memory, Melissa was my opposite. She dressed in a preppie style, skirts, blouses and sweaters, while my attire skated along the spectrum toward unkempt hippie. My hair was a wild and curly mess while she sported something from “That Girl.” Nevertheless, we liked each other.

Years after Hendrix’s passing, I learned about his influence on the British musicians, like Clapton, Lennon, Jagger, Jones, and Townsend. Their interest and impressions of him provided me with a vicarious bond to the times. Almost fifty hears later, “Fire” energizes me in a way few other songs ever do.