Tag: 1975

Thursday’s Theme Song

Drifting further back along the memory stream today, back to nineteen seventy-two, I stumble over one of my favorite artists, a person named David Bowie.

Bowie’s song, “Changes,” came out when I was in high school. My most vivid memory, though, was talking about the song during my first permanent duty assignment in nineteen seventy-five, three years later. I was with the 2750ABW at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Permanent meant that I was assigned to the place, and would be there for a while. I was a command post emergency actions controller for the base and HQ Logistics Command. Three of us were on duty at a time, for twelve or eight hour shifts.

One night, I was on duty with Dale and Sistrunk. Studying, as we were often doing, I was singing the song to myself. “What is that you’re singing?” one asked. I explained what it was, and who performed it. They knew Bowie, but not that song, which surprised me. It was a youth’s surprise. I thought we all inhabited the same universe in America, where we all listened to rock music. But Sistrunk didn’t listen to music in his car or at home, and Dale preferred light jazz. I didn’t know the light jazz performers he enjoyed, and was amused, thinking of him as dated, when he shared their names.

That’s why “Changes” is perfect for that memory, and this time. As years passed, windows opened on myself, but they still remained small and few. I stayed in my personal garrison, spying on others, wondering what they think of me, as I thought of them. I think about the child I was, and then the man I was, and now, the person that I became, and wonder who I’ll be next.

Bowie’s lyrics capture the sentiment. “Every time I thought I’d got it made, it seemed the taste was not so sweet. So I turned myself to face me, but I’ve never caught a glimpse of how the others must see the faker. I’m much too fast to take that test.”

We think of the universe, world, and its inhabitants in terms of static existences, but really, we have snapshots of moments that we consider permanent. Almost everything is always changing. We’re just not fast enough to comprehend it.

As a bonus, it was Rick Wakeman on the piano in “Changes.” Wakeman was already known for his session work on many albums, but had formed Yes with others, another group I greatly enjoyed.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

It’s a quiet autumn Saturday morning, a perfect day to sip coffee and listen to some nineteen seventies era American rock. How ’bout Aerosmith, with “Sweet Emotion,” from nineteen seventy-five?

This one came out while I was going through technical training. I didn’t listen to music much during that period. I basically had a clock radio in my dorm room in the Triangle on Keesler Air Force Base outside of Biloxi, Mississippi.  I was there for two months, and then went to Wright-Patt for my first duty assignment, and married. With all this, it wasn’t until the next year, nineteen seventy-six, that I listened to Aerosmith.

In September of seventy-six, I reported for duty at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. “Sweet Emotion” was on Aerosmith’s “Toys In the Attic” album. I was on an unaccompanied tour and living in the barracks. I bought some stereo gear, and “Toys In the Attic.” It was available, and I knew it and liked it. I also bought Al Stewart’s “The Year of the Cat,” something by 10ccs, and Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life.”

Besides their hits of “Sweet Emotions” and “Walk This Way,” Toys had several songs I enjoyed, including “Sucking On My Big Ten Inch,” “Uncle Salty,” and “Toys In the Attic.” I listen to any of them, and I’m suddenly twenty-years old in the Philippines again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvKF3WQYADk

 

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Today’s Theme Music

The time currents are battling, splintering our hearts, minds, and senses. Would that we could do the time warp and find that place of comfort we think must exist.

Back in nineteen seventy-five, less than a blink of the galactic eye, pop culture was thrown into a spin by “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” They say it happened on August fourteenth of that year. If I could do the time warp, maybe I could ride a wave, return to there, verify that date, and breathe in the mood. On the other hand, a sliver of cerebellum thinks I’m still living and existing back then, feeding streams of knowledge across the void to me here and now. Alas, contributing to the confluence of confusion, multiple mes are feeding multiple mes, including this me, from multiple moments in my existence to create this big shiny moment that I think of now.

Oh, the hell with it. “Let’s Do The Time Warp Again.” It’s just a jump to the left, and a step to the right.

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Today’s Theme Music

Life is but a roller coaster, you know? One hour you’re up, the next hour finds you on the ground. We flutter from ecstasy to frustration, coping with drugs, alcohol and other escapes.

Love, wow, love can be the wildest roller coaster. The Ohio Players covered it in song, “Love Rollercoaster,” in nineteen seventy-five. I enjoyed the song when it came out, along with a few other million people. It became one of those ubiquitous songs, played in clubs and on the radio twenty-four/seven.

Besides being one of the anthems of nineteen seventies America, “Love Rollercoaster” is burdened with an urban myth. Not too long into the song is a scream. I never thought much about the scream, considering it part of their presentation, but others assigned serious reasons behind the scream, like people or animals being killed or injured. After explaining what caused the scream (one of the singers – surprise!), the Ohio Players embraced a vow of silence about the song, refusing to talk about the scream.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers later covered it. I enjoy their version, but, being a traditionalist, I stayed with the Ohio Players.

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Today’s Theme Music

Never been to Kathmandu, but thanks to Bob Seger, it’s a place I want to visit.

Seger was one of those hard-working people who became an “almost overnight sensation.” Starting in Detroit, he had a large regional following and a few hits, but didn’t make it nationally until after almost a decade of trying. I knew”Ramblin’, Gamblin’ Man,” but it didn’t make a great impression on me. The song that really touched me was “Night Moves.” That song was released when I was two years removed from high school and two years with the military. With it, I was hooked on Seger and sought his music. His “Live Bullet” album with “Turn the Page” remains one of my favorite live albums. As that song said:

Out there in the spotlight
You’re a million miles away
Every ounce of energy
You try to give away
As the sweat pours out your body
Like the music that you play

h/t to metrolyrics.com

I felt like Seger and the band poured it all out in that album.

But “Katmandu”, the song, has lyrics that appeal to me, too, that encourage me to chuck it all, and get the hell out of here, go to somewhere simple and quiet. Seger seemed to think that was Kathmandu.

The song was released in nineteen seventy-five, but I’ve included the “Live Bullet” version. Enjoy as you walk around this fine Sunday.

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Today’s Theme Music

Still streaming nineteen seventies stuff, I turn to Kiss.

I was never a large Kiss fan, and I don’t have a logical reason for that. They just were not me. But, one song, was acceptable to me. That’s ‘Rock and Roll All Nite’. I guess that ‘nite’ annoys me and is emblematic of what annoys me about Kiss.

This song, though, contained the essence of what I wanted back in nineteen seventy-five, when this was a hit. I wanted to rock and roll all night, and party every day. Now I prefer to read and sleep all night, and write every day.

I guess we do change.

Here’s the live version. I do like its energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIB6-BCXdxo

 

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Today’s Theme Music

Keeping it simple and staying with classic rock from the nineteen seventies. Here is Bad Company with ‘Can’t Get Enough’. While I listened to it in the barracks during technical training, hurrying around the Triangle at Keesler AFB, or driving around my first assignment at Wright-Pat, it remains a great song for streaming through your head and walking around.

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Today’s Theme Music

Marcus reminded me of an excellent song for pattering through the day.  A dance song, they provide instructions in the lyrics:

It’s just a jump to the

And then a step to the right.

With your hands on your hips.

You bring you knees in tight.

(h/t to Metrolyrics.com)

From nineteen seventy-five and ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’, ‘Let’s Do the Timewarp Again.’ It’s such a rousing, crazy song, part of a rousing, crazy movie, that it’s inspired cults. The cast was excellent, the plot was unpredictable, and the plotting was frenetic.  Beyond all of that, I could really use a timewarp today. Forward or back, left or right, I don’t know where I’d go.

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Today’s Theme Music

Awoke from my multiple dreams with my cerebral shuffle stuck on this song. I read on the intertubes that if you write it down and share it with others, and then get up and turn in a circle, spitting at the north each time, and then stop and close your eyes and say, “Song, quit me, song, quit me, song, quit me,” the song will magically stop playing in your head.

This might be a re-run. Apologies if it is, but it’s stuck in my head, and I need to rid myself of it. “Out, damn song, out.”

Here’s Foghat’s recording of ‘Fool for the City’ from 1975.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgtHflRV0cc

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Today’s Theme Music

She blew onto the scene in my mind in 1975. Four years later, she was gone.

Minnie Ripperton hit us with her five-octave prowess via ‘Lovin’ You’ in 1975. In 1976, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a radical mastectomy . Cancer had already entered her lymphatic system and nothing could be done for her. It was a matter of waiting.

She didn’t shrink away from living or dying. Everything she experienced was shared with the press. We knew her progress as her health declined. Minnie Ripperton became an American Cancer Society spokesperson. More than all of that, she impressed everyone with courage that matched her prodigious talent.

She passed away in 1979, thirty-one years old. It was a short life, but, man, did she live. ‘Lovin’ You’ is easy to sing as you walk through a day, especially if spring is finally beginning to stir.

 

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