Going to the doctor’s today, so naturally my stream called up a song about doctor’s.
Here’s Mötley Crüe with “Doctor Feelgood” (1989).
Cheers
Sunday’s Theme Music
Today’s music choice began with a Billy Collins poem.
I don’t know what neuron decisions forced the stream of a Billy Collins poem to intersect with a 1989 song, but after a bit of that music, the Billy Collins poem moved aside, like a little Fiat 500 moves aside for a semi-tractor bearing down at seventy-five, its horn blowing like a child with a toy.
Wondering about the switch, I wondered if it was about faith and expectations running up against experience and reality. Maybe that was far-fetched.
For the record, the Billy Collins poem is “Nostalgia”. I can’t say that it’s my favorite B.C. poem because I like so many of them so much. I think that if I had to recommend just one B.C. poem, it would be “Forgetfulness”. It begins,
The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of, as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
h/t to PoetrySoup.com
Love that poem. Anyway, here’s the song, “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode.
Tuesday’s Theme Music
Once again, a debt is owed to the house clowder for coming up with a song. One cat was briefly absent, prompting me to say, “Where have you gone?” That was enough to let “Good Thing” (1989) by Fine Young Cannibals shoot into the morning stream. The cat turned up almost immediately after I began singing the song. My cats are always curious about me when I start talking, singing, or typing, apparently thinking, “What’s that sound he’s making? I better go check on him to see if he’s okay.”
Tuesday’s Them Music
Exchanged some comments with a blogger last night. He’d reminisced about enjoying Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, and AC/DC with his brother while they were growing up (Boys Will Be Boys). That reminded me how much I enjoyed Clapton, and eventually led me to streaming “Pretending” from his Journeyman album (1989). I like the power with which the song opens after the slight piano intro. The song lifts me up when I stream it in my head while I’m walking.
Monday’s Theme Music
For no particular reason other than that I like this song, I was just streaming this and singing it aloud while I was doing things in the house the other day, and thought I’d put it up as today’s theme music.
Here’s Chris Rea’s “Road to Hell” (1989).
Wednesday’s Theme Music
Today’s song, “Going Down/Love In An Elevator,” came out in 1989. I was stationed in Germany with the USAF when it was released. It immediately became a unit favorite.
The album, Pump, was a damn good Aerosmith album, equal to the task for rocking old rockers and stimulating some new ones to join the ranks.
Friday’s Theme Music
I quite enjoy this group’s first album from when I first heard a song from it. Then, with playing it, it grew to be one of my quiet favorites from the 1980s.
Of course, The Traveling Wilburys members – Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison – were musically gifted, established, and well-known. While none of that guarantees success or recognition, it worked out pretty good for them and us with that first album, The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. I think I can select any song on that album and sing the words without issue.
For today, I’m going with “End of the Line”.
Sunday’s Theme Music
I was stationed in Germany in the late 1980s, doing military service. I returned to America a few times for conferences. I’d usually visit family when I did.
So, visiting Dad in Helotes, Texas, I hear this song on the radio. And I think, I know that voice and that guitar, but I don’t know this song, and that guitar and that singer aren’t usually together. The vocalist was more distinctive. It sounded like John Waite.
Fortunately, I heard the song until the end, and this was a time and station where the song and group were mentioned at the end. The song, with a sort of fantasy sound to it, was “Forget Me Not,” and the group was Bad English.
That made sense. That voice was John Waite, and that guitarist was Neal Schon.
Bad English was a super-group. Super-groups are interesting phenomena. They form with hyperbolic announcements, typically release a few albums, tour, and then break-up. It’s always exciting news when one forms, as they’re well-established stars – that’s what makes them a super-group. The first album is generally well-received, but subsequent offerings, if there is one, are often stale. Think of Blind Faith, Cream, Asia, and GTR.
Bad English’s first album had a few hits. I bought it but didn’t play it much. They were more corporate-glam than I preferred. They released a second album and broke up.
Not really fond of this song, but one line, “I will be your keeper, you will hold the key, forget me not, forget me not, you belong to me,” sometimes streams in as I’m walking.
As it did today.
Friday’s Theme Music
Volcanos erupting in Japan and Indonesia, threats of missiles being exchanged between the U.S. and North Korea, Black Lives Matter, voter right suppression, Russia-gate, white supremacists, gun control arguments, protests, the Weinstein scandal, war refugees, Pacific Northwest and California wildfires and destruction, the Hurricane Maria disaster in Puerto Rico, hurricane and earthquake disasters in Mexico, hurricane destruction in several other American states, plans to build a wall on the southern U.S. border, the President threatening freedom of the press, the Vegas mass killer….
Contemplating it all over coffee brought to mind Billy Joel’s nineteen eighty-nine song from “Storm Front,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” He covered the headlines from nineteen forty-nine, when he was born, until the year the album was released, but the fire goes on.
At least, it feels like it on this cool, autumn morning in twenty seventeen.
Wednesday’s Theme Music
I was in stationed in Germany when this came out. The album, “Full Moon Fever,” quickly became a favorite for home listening.
It’s ironic to think of that time. The U.S.S.R. was the United States’ towering enemy. Germany was divided, a creation established at the end of World War II. The Berlin Wall stood firm. A few years later, it, and the Soviet Union, were gone. We’ve just celebrated the anniversary of Germany re-unification.
The people I was stationed with in Germany were hard-working, patriotic, dependable, and loyal. Yet, two decades later, I’m on a the other side of a political divide from them. They’re angry with pro athletes who take a knee. They want a wall built. They fear refugees and distrust Muslims. A lot of them love Con Don Trump. Many despise Hillary Clinton for reasons they can’t explain, except it’s Hillary, and they don’t trust her.
It’s interesting to contemplate what’s come between us. Maybe it was just music, a common mission, and enjoying a good time that brought us together.
One more time, from the heart, Tom Petty, with “I Won’t Back Down,” co-written with Jeff Lynne.
Michael Seidel, writer 