Tag: 1973

Sunday’s Theme Music

This song, “Ramblin’ Man”, was recorded a year after Duane Allman died. I was a big Allman Brothers Band fan when he died after a massive motorcycle accident. “Live at the Fillmore East,” released on July of 1971, was one of my recurring go-to albums. A month after “Ramblin’ Man” was recorded, Berry Oakley, Duane’s friend and the group’s bassist, died in a motorcycle accident a few blocks from where Duane had his accident.

Dicky Betts sang “Ramblin’ Man,” which explained a lot for me. When I first heard it, I thought, boy, Gregg’s vocals sound a lot different on this. That song, though, captured the uplifting, rambunctious, rambling spirit I often felt while I was traveling. The pace feels faster with the song’s guitar solos, and the notes make me feel like I’m soaring on a wind.

It’s a memorable song, and has been used in many movies and venues. Here they are, the Allman Brothers Band with “Ramblin’ Man” from 1973, my junior year in high school.

 

 

 

2

Thursday’s Theme Music

As I endured the cold and its migrations, interactions, and pain during the last few days and nights, I began assigning musical instruments and notes to my experience, thinking, how would my cold sound musically? Just something to while away the sleepless, mucus filled hours.

Doing so reminded me of “Love Reign O’er Me,” by the Who. The song begins with a thunderstorm and rain. The song is the final cut of the Who rock-opera, Quadraphenia, and marks the final act and possibly redemption of the main character after chaotic struggles with love, drugs, family, violence, and identity.

Mom bought the album for me for Christmas 1973, based on my older sister’s recommendation. Thanks, Mom and sis!

1

Tuesday’s Theme Music

So much is written about money, right? About needing it, hating it, not having it, and wanting it. It’s the root of all evil, yet churches are on net, television, and radio, begging for it. It’s not the money, though, right? As Marie (Bernadette Peters) said in The Jerk, “I don’t care about losing the money. It’s losing all the stuff.”

Today’s song is one of my all-time favorites. Why? I like the clashing drums, screaming guitars, and scathing lyrics. “Money. Get back. Keep your hands off my stack.”

Here’s Pink Floyd with “Money” from waaayyy back when I was young.

 

 

0

Wednesday’s Theme Music

1973 wasn’t the best of years for me.

I became seventeen that year. I’d moved in with my father the year before, 1972. He retired from the Air Force, and we moved to West Virginia. We bought a place, and it burned down. Just about all the few possessions I had when I quit living with Mom were gone. We didn’t have insurance. The paperwork and payment were on the dining room table, and burned.

I was hoping for better with 1973. It went great for a while, but then I cut off the end of my big toe while cutting the grass with a gas-powered lawn mower. That took me out of sports and doing many things. Frequently a loner, I retreated into art, music, and reading, which were always my natural sanctuaries.

Fortunately, ’73 was a good year for music. This song, “Drift Away” performed and released by Dobie Gray, summed up the year for me.

Beginnin’ to think that I’m wastin’ time
I don’t understand the things I do
The world outside looks so unkind
Now I’m countin’ on you to carry me through

Oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock ‘n’ roll and drift away
Yeah, give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock ‘n’ roll and drift away

And when my mind is free
You know a melody can move me
And when I’m feelin’ blue
The guitar’s comin’ through to soothe me

h/t to elyrics.net

 

 

2

Friday’s Theme Music

Yesterday was America’s Thanksgiving holiday, so I was thinking about the first one spent away from home. That would be nineteen seventy-four. Eighteen, I’d joined the Air Force and was at basic training at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas. My uncle was in the military and lived in the area, so he and his wife, Pat, invited me to Thanksgiving at their house.

It was a terrific time. We watched the Cowboys defeat the Redskins as Clint Longley, a rookie, came in the game and threw a hail Mary that was caught and gave them the victory.

Other than that, and another day off, we were sequestered most of the time during our training, and without television or radio. But once we finished, we returned to our musical roots. For me, it was rock. Here’s Golden Earring with “Radar Love”, a song that had been released the previous year. Love that psychedelic special effects they put on the video. Sooo cheesy.

0

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.

 

0

Saturday’s Theme Music

Fall has claimed us. Leaves have turned. Many have rained down, filling gutters and carpeting lawns and sidewalks. So I turn to “Dancing Days” by Led Zeppelin. I have firm reasoning, oh, yes, I do. Although the vegetation is going along with the timeline, we have glorious sunshine. A cold front has taken command. Nights are cold, but the sky is clear, and that sunshine pushes our temperatures up into the mid seventies. We might even touch eighty.

So dancing days are here again. It may be fall, but it feels like summer afternoons. Maybe it’s just a state of mind.

1

Tuesday’s Theme Music

I thought, “Tuesday,” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ballad, “Tuesday’s Gone,” streamed in from their first album, released in nineteen seventy-three.

It’s a relaxing, reflective song. I was in my last year of high school when I first heard it. It feels like a song that’s right for going into your final year. After a final year of anything, everything is changed, which is the sentiment I infer from “Tuesday’s Gone.”

0

Sunday’s Theme Music

The Wayback Machine began streaming another relic of a song to me. This one blasted me from the early 70s. I’ve found that when my writing sessions are going strong, my song list shifts into that period. It wasn’t my happiest time, so I don’t know why I stream that era’s music.

Here’s those synthetic progressive rock masters, Emerson, Lake and Palmer – ELP – with, “Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends.”

0

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Once again, I’m streaming music in via the Wayback Machine. This time, the rotary dial has spun around and landed on an Allman Brothers Band offering.

I spent hours listening to the ABA when I was in my teens, first on thirty-three R.P.M. vinyl, and then on cassette and open reels. I’d get prone on the shag-rug carpeting, lights off and the volume up, and let the music pummel me. I’d moved through those mediums seeking faithful fidelity, free of wow and flutter, and buzz and hum. Yes, I was insane.

“Ramblin Man,” written by band-member Dickey Betts, came out in seventy-three, when I was entering my senior year at high school. The song is off the album, “Brothers and Sisters.” A popular song, it’s probably one of ABA’s best known releases.

I offer it for your Tuesday pleasure, but it’s acceptable to enjoy it on other days.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑