This song, “Song Sung Blue” by Neil Diamond, slipped into my mindstream this morning. Don’t know why. Not really the rock that I generally listen to, the words and melody are easy to learn. It’s a casual choice for a casual day.
Friday’s Theme Music
I’ve been head-streaming this off and on for the last few days. Fragile by Yes was an album we frequently listened to in art class. I always enjoyed the silent communion among students as we listened to rock music and worked on art projects. This song, “Long Distance Runaround,” grew on my consciousness, first because of the unique sounds they employed in the song, but then the lyrics drew me in. It’s progressive seventies rock at its finest.
Monday’s Theme Music
I like the time changes of this song. It begins with an older rockabilly tone to it before it segues into 1970s rock. It’s all about music and the generation gap (remember that expression?). Anyway, I thought it appropriate for the U.S., where we just jumped through the daylight savings time hoop. Here’s Loggins & Messina with “Your Mama Don’t Dance” from 1972.
Sunday’s Theme Music
Streaming from my childhood once again. I enjoy this song for its organ solo. Because of that, I prefer the long version. Thinking about the words, there aren’t many verses in the song. Most of us know the title lines: “Hold your head up.”
Here’s Argent, with Rod Argent (formerly of The Zombies, which must count for something) on keyboards.
Tuesday’s Theme Music
I first heard this song as a version by the Byrds in 1969. Then it sorted faded away, but resurfaced a few years later, by the Doobie Brothers. I’ve found that many others have covered it. It’s just one of those songs.
“Jesus Is Just Alright” has interesting (but not numerous lyrics). Upbeat, with changing tempos, it has religious overtones but remains light and reflective, and a simple statement. “I don’t care what they may say, I don’t care what they may do.” I love that firm belief, this is what I believe, believe what you want.
I feel obliged to mention that it’s about faith, not facts. You can have firm beliefs in your faith; that’s cool. If you’re a fiction writer, you can create your own facts within the structure of fiction. But when it comes to reality, you can’t just declare, this is what I believe, I don’t care what your facts say.
Challenging to hold this apparently contradictory processes and directions in your head. Messy, innit?
Something to think about on a Tuesday.
Monday’s Theme Music
Ah, folk rock.
Today’s song comes to me via “Frankie & Grace.” Robert surprises Sol with tickets to a folk rock cruise. Sol gets on Internet message boards and exclaims, “There’s a rumor Dan Fogelberg is going to be the special guest.” Robert replies, “I think Dan Fogelberg is dead.”
I looked it up on Wikipedia. Robert was right. Fogelberg died in the last decade when he was fifty-one years old. Thoughts of Fogelberg triggered memories of the folk rock music of the late sixties and early seventies, and Fogelberg’s work. It’s all “Part of the Plan.”
I have these moments
All steady and strong
I’m feeling so holy and humble
The next thing I know
I’m all worried and weak
And I feel myself
Starting to crumble
h/t azlyrics.comh/t azlyrics.com
Tuesday’s Theme Music
Don’t know about you, but Gospel music often talks to me. Aided by a dream, this song streamed into my consciousness from the year 1972. “I’ll Take You There” was a great song for the time because its slow beat allowed a close, swaying slow-dance with a girl, something that I sought when I was a sixteen year old boy. It’s like a feel-good song of hope, not for love alone, but for progress and civil rights.
Here are the Staple Singers with their 1972 hit.
Thursday’s Theme Music
I started thinking about this song on the fifteenth. The fifteenth used to be my pay day, back in the days when the man employed me.
It’s always fascinating how pay day affects the area’s dynamics. Being close to poor when I was a married airmen in the Air Force, I understood. Every penny was saved and accounted for in the budget. Saving enough to pay for a treat, like Ho-hos, was a big deal. Ho-hos were ninety-nine cents back then.
But we knew we were more fortunate than others. We lived paycheck to paycheck, but we were saving, and slowly pulled ahead. We had food, electricity, clean water, shelter, and security. We had each other, a cat, and a car.
So, in honor of who I was, and the others who work and struggle, here is ZZ Top’s “Just Got Paid,” from 1972.
Saturday’s Theme Music
Another Who offering has hooked into my streaming memories.
This one, “Join Together,” was released in 1972, while I was in high school. I remember hearing it and thinking, that’s the Who, because they always had a distinctive sound, especially with Daltry’s voice. Like a lot of Who songs, interesting sounds, instruments, and arrangements lend Who songs thickly textured melodies. I like that. I prefer complications in books, movies, and music. At the same time, I’ve always been invested in guitar sounds. That’s why the guitar draws me to a lot of southern urban rock, and blues, or blues-rock, and classic rock. But even with Townsend’s synthesizers, the Who prevail and maintain a hold as one of my favorite rock groups.
Here’s “Join Together.”
Wednesday’s Theme Music
I was already a Humble Pie fan when this song came out in nineteen seventy, having seen them in concert. I ate this album up, but the first song from side two – there’s some vinyl lingo for you – was my favorite. Two things about this song and group; I rarely encounter people who know either one. Bummer. Nineteen seventy-two was a fun year, and this song fit it perfectly.
Here’s “Thirty Days In the Hole.”
Michael Seidel, writer 