Tag: 1997

Thursday’s Theme Music

I’m a terrible fortune teller. See too many possibilities. They’re all happening, none of it is happening, and all the varieties between them are happening. Such is life when the film between realities tear and shrink.

Well, that’s how it feels, sometimes.

Here in the U.S., we’re approaching an election. “It’s yuuuge,” some might claim. The possibilities, fears, and anxieties proliferating cause rolling responses: “Oh. my,” “Oh. no,” “What the fuck,” and “Here we go.”

Third Eye Blind presented us with the perfect song for now. They did it back in 1997. “How’s It Going to Be” has a softly tinged nostalgia, illuminating the questions we all experience. “How’s It Going to Be after x,” becomes an urgent plea before falling to soft, wondering surrender.

Perfect for this special year of pandemic, climate change, shifting alliances, and elections we have numbered, 2020.

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Friday’s Theme Music

A favorite song is stuck in today’s stream, but it’s quite apt for the time. Growing up in the 1960s, Shirley Bassey was a recurring fixture in pop culture. She sang several of the Bond movie theme songs, showed up on television shows, had international hits. Her voice and style were well-known.

So it was something of a delight when the Propellerheads combined with Shirley Bassey in a retro sound, “History Repeating”, in 1997.

[Verse 1]
The word is about, there’s something evolving
Whatever may come, the world keeps revolving
They say the next big thing is here
That the revolution’s near
But to me it seems quite clear
That it’s all just a little bit of history repeating

[Verse 2]
The newspapers shout – a new style is growing
But it don’t know if it’s coming or going
There is fashion – there is fad
Some is good – some is bad
And the joke is rather sad
That it’s all just a little bit of history repeating

h/t to Genius.com

Here we are in 2020, struggling to advance rights for women, people of color, regardless of sexual gender, identity, or orientation, while a segment of society tries to anchor us to a time that’s gone. Against that, we’re fighting a pandemic, kind of like that 1917-1918 flu pandemic, and there’s talks of voting rights and states’ rights vs. Fed. rights vs. individual rights…like the American Civil War and the ongoing civil rights movement.

Also, I chose this as my theme song back in back in 2017, so, yeah, “History Repeating” works for today. And it’s a swinging tune.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

After waking up and getting up, songs filter in and out of my cogent stream. With a little surprise, I put together their identities:

“One” by U2 and “One” by Three Dog Night, “I’m the Only One” by Melissa Ethridge, “One” by Metallica, “Still the One” by Orleans, “I’m One” by the Who. Another one song, “She’s the One” by Bruce Springsteen finishes the list.

WTH?

It becomes a quietly amusing background thinking game as I do other things, wondering why songs focused on one are in my mental stream. Not necessarily new; my mind has done this to me with other topics. But I can usually pinpoint the root. It’s different today, as I don’t know what’s kicking one into the stream.

I also wonder, why those songs, and not other songs with one in them. Or maybe other songs with one played in my head but I forgot.

Oh, well. After all that, I settled on a Wallflowers favorite from 1997, “One Headlight”. That’s today’s theme music.

So long ago I don’t remember when
that’s when they said I lost my only friend
they said she died easy of a broke heart disease
as I listened through the cemetary trees

I seen the sun comin’ up at the funeral at dawn
with the long broken arm of human law
now it always seemed such a waste
she always had a pretty face
I wondered why she hung around this place

hey-ey-ey
come on try a little
nothing is forever
there’s got to be something better than in the middle
me and cinderella
put it all together
we could drive it home
with one headlight

h/t to Metrolyrics.com

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Monday’s Theme Music

Going into week three of isolation, I start thinking about changing things up.

My wife’s Y-exercise group have done some adjusting. Using Zoom, they’ve now reverted to their Monday-Wednesday-Friday exercise routine, although one hour later than usual. My beer group is considering the same thing. Having a beer with others, via Zoom, and having a chat about the news, checking up on one another, might be the change I need.

Overall, I am slooowly adjusting. I miss my long walks and solitude, and my coffee/writing routine. My wife noticed, “I don’t think I’ve seen you writing.”

“Well, I tried but there were too many interruptions. Cats…you…my brain, the net, the coronavirus.” She made arrangements to give me some ‘me’ time for a few hours in the office. That enabled some writing.

Other than that, it’s been reading, cleaning, and playing ‘puter games. Too much of the reading has been drawn toward coronavirus news. I’ve made it a habit (or a compulsion) to check on different states and countries, along with the overall sit, several damn times a day.

So, a change would do me good. That thought introduced the Sheryl Crow song, “A Change Would Do You Good” (1997).

I’ve been thinking ’bout catching a train
Leave my phone machine by the radar range
Hello it’s me, I’m not at home
If you’d like to reach me, leave me alone

A change would do you good
A change would do you good
Hello, it’s me, I’m not at home
If you’d like to reach me, leave me alone

h/t to AZLyrics.com

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Saturday’s Theme Music

It was three in the morning, and it was raining, and I was addressing something to do with cats. In that situation, everyone will naturally recall the words to “3AM” by Matchbox Twenty (1997).

I was telling the cat (being an irritant by blocking the pet door) (and looking smug about it) that he was a major irritation, and then told another cat, “It’s three AM and it’s raining, and it’s cold. Are you sure that you want to go out there?” Yes, yes, he had an urgent matter. I let him out, went to bed, tried to recover my dreams, but instead looped “3AM” in my head.

She said, “It’s cold outside” and she hands me a raincoat
She’s always worried about things like that
She said, “It’s all gonna end and it might as well be my fault”

[Refrain]
And she only sleeps when it`s raining
And she screams, and her voice is straining

[Chorus]
And she says, “Baby, it’s three AM, I must be lonely”
And she says, “Baby, well, I can’t help
But be scared of it all sometimes
And the rain’s gonna wash away, I believe this”

[Verse 2]
She’s got a little bit of something, God, it’s better than nothing
And in her color portrait world she believes that she’s got it all
She swears that the moon don’t hang quite as high as it used to

[Refrain]
And she only sleeps when it’s raining
And she screams and her voice is straining

[Chorus]
And she says, “Baby, when it’s three AM I must be lonely”
Well, heaven she says, “Baby, well, I can’t help
But be scared of it all sometimes
And the rain’s gonna wash away, I believe this”

h/t to Genius.com

P.S. The cat was back in a few minutes, trying to get in, but some smug boogerfloof was blocking the door.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Today’s song came about into the stream as I was waiting for someone else.

Hello, I’ve waited here for you
Everlong
Tonight, I throw myself into
And out of the red
Out of her head, she sang

h/t to Genius.com

Of course, only the first line had a remote connection to what was going on. I was waiting, they came, we said a few things, and went on with our business. That’s a bit unlike the Foo Fighters’ song, “Everlong” (1997) about being happy in a relationship and realizing it was ending, and if anything will ever be as wonderful as that.

Yeah, been there, more than once. Once there’s a fracture in the relationship, it doesn’t seem like anything is ever the same again. From the break comes loss, confusion, and distrust. You put it behind you, but it nags like an ulcer on your lip.

Have a nice day!

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

The monthly black mood is coming on, one with a rich ore of self-pity. Trying to wrestle myself out of the mood this morning, I started telling myself what I really wanted. That transitioned to all I really want. Lyrics from the Alanis Morissette song, “All I Really Want” (1997) crashed the stream.

And all I really want is some peace man
A place to find a common ground
And all I really want is a wavelength, ah
And all I really want is some comfort
A way to get my hands untied
And all I really want is some justice, ah

h/t to Songmeanings.com

What I really want turns out to be a complicated network of hopes, dreams, desires, and longing. Some of it requires a time machine. I think more of it requires different DNA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLHvb9V8Yzs

 

 

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Monday’s Theme Music

Waiting for my wife the other day in Trader Joe’s, I started streaming “Sex and Candy”.

Hanging around, downtown by myself
And I had so much time to sit and think about myself
Then there she was, like double cherry pie
Yeah, there she was, like disco super-fly

h/t to Genius.com

Marcy Playground’s 1997 song has so little to do with waiting for my wife that I laughed. It’s a song I enjoy the song’s lyrics and John Wozniak’s delivery. I used to stream it often while walking around. It might have returned to the infinite organic playlist.

 

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Tuesday Theme Music

I woke up streaming Third Eye Blind’s 1997 song, “Semi-Charmed Life”. Although the song arrived after a flotilla of dreams, I don’t…oh, wait, there might’ve been a connection. Just saw it.

“Semi-Charmed Life” sounds very poppish, with it’s varying cadences, the doo-doo-doo, and softer, gentler inflections. Much of the words are sung fast, but trying to hear them when it came out, I thought, “It sounds like he said she goes down on him.” Eventually, search engines developed the wherewithal to fulfill powerfully important tasks like learning song lyrics.

Yes, she did say she goes down on me. Yes, they were also singing about chopping a line, and that part about crystal meth? Yes, it’s in there, too. Later, though, on other stations, those lines were gone, yes, edited out, censored. Don’t want people hearing that sort of thing. Close your ears, children.  Don’t want to poison the air with words about drug use.

(Reminds me of those places like North Carolina who FORBID using those blasphemous words, climate-change. If they don’t talk about it, it won’t happen, right? And everyone will live happily on the beach, building new developments and golf courses forever. Love that logic.)

You really should listen to that bouncing, free-association, sing-song sloppy rhymes, besides the soft ones when he sings, “I want something else.” When you put it all together, it’s reflective and powerful, with desperate edges, but ironically poppish.

 

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Thursday’s Theme Music

I was humming this song to myself today. Actions are connected to thoughts and thoughts are connected to memories, and memories yield songs. I was quoting Popeye, “I yam what I yam”, which introduced thoughts about changing, providing the opportunity for a song to stream in:

But I’m here in my mould, I am here in my mould
And I’m a million different people from one day to the next
I can’t change my mould, no, no, no, no, no

Read more: The Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony Lyrics | MetroLyrics

I was living in Mountain View and working for PAS in Palo Alto when the song came out in 1997. Two years later, another company acquired PAS. My new boss, the director of marketing, came out on a meet and greet. I drove him to a restaurant. This song was playing in the car, and he said, “I love this song.” Music became our bond.

He was a good guy to work for, a person I wouldn’t hesitate to work for again.

 

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