Tag: 1976

Sunday’s Theme Music

Today’s theme music entered my stream due to some nocturnal emissions.

Nocturnal emissions, if you don’t know, is also known as phantom writing. It’s the practice of writing in your bed when you’re supposed to be sleeping.

I’d been sleeping when both calf muscles seized, throwing me awake. After my wife and I rubbed the spasm with some toe-flexing help, I went through the dream I’d been in and then my thoughts drifted into the novel in progress. Turning to what’s happening in the novel, I thought, “What are these deeds? Who is doing them?”

That created an easy transition to “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” by AC/DC (1976). With that rocking my head, sleep easily pulled me in.

Sing along if it moves you. The words are easy to learn.

 

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Today’s song splashed into my stream apropos of naught. So, I thought I’d splash it onto this page.

Coming out in the disco era, it has the disco tones that you’d expect. I was twenty and stationed in the Philippines when it hit the airways. It was a good dance tune when you were out clubbing. The dance floor always filled when the song began.

Here’s Tavares and “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” (1976).

Cheers

 

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Saturday’s Theme Music

I was reading about the militias heading south to the border to meet the caravan. Some had already arrived in a few towns, where the people were confused about why the militia were. People interviewed in those towns felt that the caravan issue and illegal immigrant issues were being overblown. Of course that may be a result of what I read, and not the truth.

All of that paramilitary talk reminded me of how volatile the UK was for so long, which triggered memories of an old Sex Pistols’ song, “Anarchy in the U.K.” (1976). The song contains chunks of initials. When I first heard it, the meanings behind the initials were a mystery. The press took it up and gave us explanations that it was about the paramilitary groups, primarily Irish, that were for and against the British.

It all provides some hope that if the UK can survive, maybe America can as well. Well, honestly America will survive. It’s a question of what form it’ll have in the future, whether it’ll be fifty states or several republics, a dictatorship or some other form of government. Inherent in that question are the greater questions of equality, freedom, and the environment.

Let’s rock.

 

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Monday’s Theme Music

In this throwback, I started streaming this song sometime yesterday afternoon. “Show Me the Way” by Peter Frampton, from the Frampton Comes Alive! album was a monster hit from a monster album. Nothing against Frampton, but this isn’t one of my favorites as an album, song, or performer, but I heard it often as I traveled throughout 1976-77. I always preferred edgier stuff, but edgier stuff in rarely heard on commercial radio in those years.

I’m not certain of the genesis for streaming this song yesterday or continuing it this morning. Is it the weather triggering memories of youth, or the jetsam of a lost thought? Perhaps it’s just echoes of mortality or mourning for another time. It could be just a misfired neuron setting others off.

Who the hell knows.

 

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Thursday’s Theme Music

In a lovely piece of cynicism, my mind looked at the map of Oregon’s wildfires today and the smoky blue sky outside and began channeling Boston’s “Smokin'” from 1976.

I don’t know how I became so cynical. Of course, my mother is cynical, as is my father, so it could be in my genes. Or it could be from all those protests during my formative years in the 1960s, or the corrupting influence of rock and roll. Maybe it was all the reading I did when I was a child, or how the stars were aligned when I was born or conceived, or my years of government service.

I don’t know. Let’s just enjoy the music.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Perhaps I am mired in the past. I ended up thinking of my time at Clark AB in the Philippines as I walked yesterday in 1976, and recalled my buddy, Bopie. He and I worked at the same place. I arrived about two weeks after him. We lived in the same barracks (dorm, in Air Force terminology), on the same floor. He was about seven doors down from me.

The first time I really met him, though, was when we were off-duty at a unit function. He was wearing a red tee-shirt. On the back, in yellow letters, was Bopie. Walking up behind him, I said it. Starting, he turned and looked at me with a short laugh. “You are the first person that ever said my name right the first time.” His name was Ray, but Bopie was the name he liked to use (that was never explained to me).

We were shift workers, and often shared time off, so we would run around together sometimes. He introduced me to a lot of music and comedy that I didn’t know, including the movie, Car Wash, featuring the song, “Car Wash” by Rose Royce.

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Friday’s Theme Music

This isn’t the usual rock stuff that I listen to, but “Rubberband Man” by the Spinners is a secret favorite song. I enjoy the lyrics, beat, bass, vocals, and lyrics. Upbeat, but mellow, it’s a song that makes me move as I re-stream it in my mind while walking.

“You’re bound to lose control when the rubberband man starts to jam.”

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Today’s music is AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”. I heard it on the radio yesterday, reminding me of the problem I have with the song.

Here are the lyrics where my problem with the song begins:

Pick up the phone, I’m always home
Call me any time
Just ring 362 436 oh
I lead a life of crime

h/t to Azlyrics.com

My problem is, how are you leading a life of crime if you’re always home? I’ve heard of working from home, but come on, now. It’d be different if he didn’t go on and state that he’ll take care of things:

Pick up the phone, leave her alone
It’s time you made a stand
For a fee, I’m happy to be
Your back door man hey

If he’s a back door man, he’s not at home, is he? False advertising, that’s what it is. You gotta love that alliteration, though.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

1976 was an enjoyable year for the most part. Twenty years old, I celebrated my first year of marriage, and my second year in the U.S. Air Force, and then was sent to Clark Air Base and the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing in the Philippines on unaccompanied assignment. I ended up listening to a lot of music while reading in my room when I was studying for my promotion, walking around the base, exploring Angelis City, or working. I didn’t have a television, and besides, AFRTS’ offerings were well-meaning but not to my taste.

A friend introduced me to an Irish rock band name Thin Lizzy. She was a big fan of this group that I’d never heard before. One of the songs was “The Boys Are Back in Town,” partly because she incessantly played it, enthusing about the singer’s style. I just liked it because I thought it was a rocking tune.

 

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Ever see a bird soaring, kiting, or flying over the planet on some destination and think, I’d like to to fly like that? I’d like to fly away, sail, soar and wheel. Maybe you just wish for it in a more metaphysical way, dreaming of rising above your days of toil, strife, and trouble, longing for a better life.

I know I’ve had those days. Steve Miller captured the sentiment in musical expression in “Fly Like An Eagle” from 1976.

Feed the babies
Who don’t have enough to eat
Shoe the children
With no shoes on their feet
House the people
Livin’ in the street
Oh, oh, there’s a solution

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