Tag: 1974

Sunday’s Theme Music

The deciduous trees were so lovely recently in golds and yellows, scarlets and reds, oranges, yellow-green, russet and brown. A few windy days and the leaves lay heavy on the ground as naked skeletal branches wave toward the sky. Blue sky holds today, a few clouds trickling in, high and away, as if they’re spying on us from lofty perches. They might be winter’s advance guard. I think I hear them whispering, “Winter is coming.” Whether they’ll bring the ice king, we’ll see.

Today is October’s last day, the 31st. We’re galloping through 2021’s final quarter, racing toward Thanksgiving in the U.S., and dashing toward the December holiday season. Sunrise cameth at 7:42 AM. So late, right? But next Sunday, Nov. 7, DST ends and we turn the clocks back. By then, the sunrise will be about 8 AM, so we’ll roll it back to 7 AM. But we’ll suffer on the day’s posterior end. Sunset today comes at 6:10 PM. That’ll dial back to before six next week, so we’ll be looking at sunsets before 5 PM after next Sunday. And we’ll still be moving toward the longest night in December.

Today, though, it’s 51 degrees F. High today will only be 61 degrees but right now, it’s a soft, gorgeous day. The cats and I went out together. I paused for a deep inhale. Was so clear and invigorating, I hung around and repeated deep breaths for several minutes. Stress, frustrations, anxieties all washed out. Into the morning mental music stream came The Hollies’s 1974 cover of “The Air That I Breathe”. Works for me on October’s final day.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters as needed. Speaking of needs, I’m heading into the kitchen for some coffee. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Sunrise, sunset, smoke, weak sun, high temperatures, COVID-19 spiking. Yes, this is Saturday, 8/14/21. Hope your Friday the 13th went well.

So the sunrise, sunset, air quality, and temperature numbers go 6:12 AM, 8:11 PM, 162 (very unhealthy) and 100 F, again. COVID-19 case numbers are in the hundreds in our county. Highest ever. Delta variant. Unvaccinated account fo over 98 percent, according one doc. Hospitals overcrowded. ICUs full. Emergency assistance sought from the state. Plans to put up field hospitals. COVID-19 deaths are also the highest ever in our southern Oregon county.

Our town, though, remains a small oasis. More were vaccinated. Wore masks. Took precautions. Most cases in the county originate in two towns that went heavy for Trump. Who eschewed masking with extreme contempt. Sneered at vaccines. Fighting to keep their children from being vaccinated or wearing masks. Yep, even while they have the highest COVID-19 case numbers in the state. I think there’s some moral there. If I could just put my finger on it.

Busy, busy, dream night. Cats contributed. Keeping two of the three in due to heavy smoke. Third, the youngest, is too adamant to be kept in. Paws at windows. Beats blinds. Screams for freedom. Raises a ruckus with the other two. Because I’m keeping the two older bois in, the pet door is closed. Hence my multiple sleep interruptions.

Anyway, while brewing desperately desired coffee this AM, I was pondering dreams. So real. Was that a dream or is that a memory? Wasn’t sure with some of them. Worried me about my state of mind. Anyway, from that arose a song by Mister John Lennon. “#9 Dream” (1974). When I heard it on the radio, I also heard the DJ saying that the song came to Lennon in a dream. But the word, “Was it in a dream, was it just a dream? I know, yes, I know, seemed so very real, it seemed so real to me.” Had never seen this video until today. Eye opening and thought provoking, IMO.

Study hard and stay in school. No, wait. Started on the wrong phrases, didn’t I? Guess it was a slip back to 1974. Test negative and stay positive. Wear a mask as needed and get the vax. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Sunshine came to Wednesday, 5/12/21 in Ashland, Oregon, 5:53 AM. The light quickly exposed the night for what it was, a dark place where many go to rest. Few can resist the night; it rolls in, and they start yawning. Their eyes begin closing as night’s magic sweeps over them. Their heads soon nod. Slumping, their breathing deepens. As people fall into heavy slumber, night’s minions quietly move in, resetting reality. Night’s efforts will begin again at 8:22 PM. Meanwhile, daylight will strain to keep the borders secure.

Channeling Mick Jagger and the Stones today. Began by thinking about time, hurry, and rushing around, leading directly to some “Tumbling Dice” lyrics.

Always in a hurry, I never stop to worry
Don’t see the time flashin’ by
Honey, got no money
I’m all sixes and sevens and nines
Say now, baby, I’m the rank outsider
You can be my partner in crime

Baby, I can’t stay
You got to roll me and call me the tumbling
Roll me and call me the tumbling dice
Baby, oh my

h/t to Genius.com

Although I like the studio (’72) version better for tempo, piano, and familiarity, watching performers play their music in concert fascinates me. The little side winks, grins, and double-takes are extra flavoring, bringing in a sharper human side. So I went with with both a studio version and a 1974 recorded live version so you can hear the difference and decide which you prefer. With either, it’s a good party moment when they come to that chorus, “Baby. I can’t stay.” People enjoy belting that out.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Mother, May I? Yes, you may.

Yes, it’s May 1, 2021, a Saturday, for official transcripts. 2021’s fifth month has leaped onto our backs, the preceding four months going by on express rails. Sunanigins began in Ashland at 0607 and will cease at 2010.

We were over on Oregon’s coast, admiring the Pacific Ocean, for the last several days. An enchanting host, the Pacific gurgled with bright sunshine and flirted with fog. I love hearing the waves booming over the rocks with great explosive thuds that send shivers through the earth. Amazing.

Back in Ashland, the weather service claims the the days have been sunny and in the eighties in Ashland. If so, the weather slipped us a change up. April showers are falling, though it’s May. I’m for it; give us more rain, please. We’ve already had reports of wildfires. Fire services scrambled and put them all out, but it does give the day an edge to read about this.

Musically, I’m humming the song, “Down Down” by Status Quo (1974). It’s a rockin’ song. Driven by that line, “You’ll be back to find your way, again, again, again, again” (don’t know how many times they say again there), I was thinking, okay, back to writing. You took three days off. Need to get back to it. That’s sort of a party trick for writers, to find your way back, again, again, again, again, etc. That’s why the song occupies my mind space this morning.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. That is all.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Hello, good morning, good afternoon, good day, and good night.

Today is Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021, the ninety-fourth day of the year. Sol stepped up at 6:49 AM in Ashland. We expect her to do a fade at 7:40 PM. The hours in between those times are expected to be brimming with sunshine that warms us to the seventy degree F mark. We’re at 54 now, but it doesn’t feel that warm as a cold mountain breeze with a wintry grudge scraps the edge off the sun’s heat.

Today’s music choice is an old Spinners song with Dionne Warwick. “Then Came You” was released in 1974 (hey, my high school senior year) and reached number one. Infused with a little disco vibe into its R&B structure, it stayed popular in dance clubs for several years. As to clues about why it’s in my head this morning…there are none. The little neurons responsible for orchestrating recollection of this tune are staying incognito.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers, all.

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Friday’s Theme Music

Today is January 22, 2021. Sunrise is 7:33 AM and sunset is 5:13 PM in Ashland, Oregon, moving us closer to ten hours of sunlit. Our temperature is 37 F. Choppy layers of clouds, like pieces of clothing being sorted and stretched, are moving as the weather finds itself. A storm is shyly crowding in. We might have snow next week. We’ll definitely have colder weather.

Hammerin’ Hank Aaron passed away. Hammerin’ Hank broke Babe Ruth’s MLB home run record in 1974. I graduated high school and joined the military that year, so that’s childhood’s end for me.

When I think of my childhood, Hank Aaron and baseball were a large part of it, almost as big as music and politics. Music was defined by its growing presence on television and the increasing number of festivals and stadium shows. Other things from that era include the Doomsday Clock and the chance of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. using nukes, the Vietnam War and the peace talks, Watergate, student protests and riots in the 1960s, the oil embargo and gas shortages, and the explosive spread of cable television. Reasoner, Smith, Rather, Brinkley, and Hunt gave us the news at night. We were sending rockets with men in them to the moon and talking about the future of computers where everyone would have one in their home. The EPA had been created and the ERA was still a possibility, acronyms which were regularly discussed in school and on talk show panels.

It’s nice having President Biden in the White House. Nice not waking up to see what madness Biden’s predecessor was saying. Been a while since I read about a Karen employing privilege to insult and attack others. Coincidence? No.

Today’s song comes after another busy dream night. In one dream, I and others sometimes say, “There she goes,” in response to someone we’re looking for. In the course of thinking about that dream and phrase, the LA’s 1991 song, “There She Goes”, jumped into the thoughts. I guess my mind thought that would be helpful. It wasn’t.

Anyway, “There She Goes” is a strange song to me. It feels and sounds like something that should have been a hit in the early seventies or late sixties due its simple structure and sound. It’s also a brief song, under three minutes. Growing up with pop/rock, songs on the radio were typically three to four minutes long, so this song is ending just when you expect it to explode with something more. It doesn’t, leaving me asking, “Was that it?”

Here we go. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get vaccinated. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

A 1974 song by the Hollies — some might call it an old song — came into my head this morning. A dream prompted its visit. Basically, the dream prompted me to visit some old memories. As part of that, I ended up recalling my graduation year, 1974, and going to high school dances. The Hollies song, “The Air That I Breathe”, was popular because it was a current song and a ballad, making it perfect for slow, close dancing.

Hope you enjoy the song and it brings to mind some close dances in dim rooms for you. Stay positive, test negative, and wear a mask. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

A song — well, late youth. By mid-1974, I’d turned adult, becoming a legal adult (well, that varies by state, country, and era, doesn’t it?), graduated high school, left home, and joined the military.

Still, I count “I Can Dance (Long Tall Glasses)” by Leo Sayer as a song from my youth. It’s a fun song. It came to me last night when I started dancing with the cat in the kitchen. I was dancing to another song in my head. My cat (Tucker, the big long-haired black and white fella) was bugging me for something (who knows, with cats?). He sat down to watch, so saying that I was dancing with my cat is a stretch. The look he was gifting me said, “What are you doing?”

To which I replied, “I can dance, you know I can dance.” Summarizing the essence of the Sayer song, he’s hungry, comes across a sign offering friend food and drink, but discovers that you have to dance for your meal. He then goes from claiming he can’t dance to declarations that he can dance.

Sure. It was just a matter of finding the right motivation and having faith in yerself, isn’t it?

Here’s the song.

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Today’s offering has no roots in cats, dreams, politics, or news. This 1974 hit just started playing in my head. Specifically, the chorus jumped to mind:

Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder, so my DJ told me
Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie

h/t to Genius.com

Recognize it? I’m impressed if you do. The song references ninety-two songs, dances, bands, performers, and companies of the pop era to that point.

Give a listen to “Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)” by Reunion, please.

 

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Rolled out of bed (leaving a cat behind) still thinking about a dream. Then pondered, what is today’s theme music?

Brain Alexa said, “Playing, ‘I’ve Got the Music in Me’.”

I said, “Who is it by?”

No answer.

“What year did it come out?”

No answer.

Had to wiki that stuff to learn that it was the Kiki Dee Band who released it in 1974.

There are some uplifting lyrics.

Ain’t got no trouble in my life,
No foolish dream to make me cry.
I’m never frightened or worried,
I know I’ll always get by.
I heat up (I heat up)
I cool down (I cool down)
When something gets in my way I go round it.
Don’t let life get me down
Gonna take life the way that I found it.

CHORUS
I got the music in me
I got the music in me
I got the music in me
I got the music in me
I got the music in me
I got the music in me

They say that life is a circle (circle)
But that ain’t the way that I’ve found it.
Gonna move in a straight line (ooh)
Keeping my feet firmly on the ground.
I heat up (I heat up)
I cool down (I cool down)
I got words in my head so I say them.
Don’t let life get me down,
Catch a hold of my blues and just play them.

CHORUS

Feel funky

Feel good
Gonna tell ya
I’m in the neighbourhood
Gonna fly like a bird on the wing
Hold on to your hat honey,
Sing, sing, sing, sing
Heat up, cool down (cool down)
I got words in my head so I say them
Don’t let life get me down (Don’t let it get ya down)
Catch a hold of my blues and just play them.

CHORUS 2x

Ain’t got no trouble in my life,
No foolish dream to make me cry.
I’m never frightened I’m never worried,
I know, I know I’ll always get by.

CHORUS 2x

I got the music
Pretty music
I got the music
In me

Don’t let it get ya down
Don’t let it get ya down
Don’t let it get you down
Don’t let it get ya down
Don’t let it get ya down
Don’t let it get you down
Ha, ha, ha, ha

h/t to Metrolyrics.com

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