Tag: CCR

Wednesday’s Theme Music

A sunny flourish and a burst of heat and the calendar was made redundant, useless. We knew summer was here. The weather announced it via blazing sun, clear skies, and a sharply scaling thermometer.

Tis Wednesday, June 22, 2015. Tis summer. Nonetheless, the sunrise was at 5:35 AM and sunset will be at 8:51 PM, about the same as the day before summer began. It’s 67 F right now, with a wonderfully friendly and sweet cool breeze tempering the sun’s attitude. The cats love it. I went with the two into the backyard. After some washing (I didn’t participate), they rolled around on the patio. A scrub jay arrived. They abandoned their domestic posturing and proclaimed they’re mighty hunters, so beware.

Somewhere in all of this, the neurons introduced CCR, aka Creedence Clearwater Revival, and their song from 1970, “Up Around the Bend”. It’s pretty straightforward rock and roll. I first heard it when I was fourteen, and the song still entertains me. Hope it entertains you as well.

Stay positive, and hopeful, even optimistic. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed, and take other precautions. Act like you care about your friends and family and be responsible. I try to, with mixed results, then I try again. Now the neurons are singing the coffee song. Here’s CCR. Oh, it’s lifted from Youtube and a show called American Bandstand. They’re having a dance contest. I love this look at 1970s era pop culture – TV, music, fashion, hair, dancing, all rolled into one scene. The music doesn’t start until about 3:42, but you might want to see what it was like, at least for some, for a moment, back in the day. In reflection, I guess today’s theme is nostalgia. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

Today is February 21, 2022. Happy ___. Yes, today is a holiday in the U.S. There are fifteen different official names for this holiday in use in the United States. It started as Washington’s Birthday but grew to encompass all POTUS. But is that Presidents’, President’s, or Presidents? That’s one of the rubs. For Federal gov. use, it’s Washington’s Birthday. Advertising is the prompt behind the move to the variations of President.

Of course, it’s a Monday, part of the holidays observed on Monday in the U.S. instead of the day on which it should actually be, February 22 on the Gregorian calendar, which also is not Washington’s birthday, because the British Empire used the Julian calendar when Washington was born and the United States wasn’t yet a country.

We had a sprinkle of snow on the land this morning when the sun’s light sluiced into the textured gray sky at 6:59 AM. It’s 34 degrees F. feels and smells like winter outside (and feels like 28 degrees, they claim). The high will be 42 F before sunfall begins taking the temperature back down at 5:51 PM. Be prepared for rain and snow showers. If you hit the road and plan to go more than twenty miles up the Interstate in either direction, be ready for serious winter.

Today’s song was going on in my morning mental music stream when I officially awoke. It may be related to a forgotten dream. “Sweet Hitch-hiker” by CCR is certainly a remnant of my unforgotten youth. The song was released in 1971. I was fifteen. My three primary modes of transpo was walking, biking, and hitch-hiking. I wasn’t the sweet hitchhiker of people’s the singer’s dreams, though, just another hairy lad popping into puberty. Thumbing a ride was already on the wan because crazies were emerging, either drivers eager to do shit unto you, or hitchhikers out for blood. Yes, times were changing.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters when you can. I’m to the kit for a cup. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

Welcome to another May Monday, the tenth day of May, the one hundred thirtieth day of 2021. Sol marched into the sky at 5:55 AM and is staying until 8:20 PM. Our southern Oregon classic spring continues with cool, refreshing blue-sky mornings, clouds coming in later in the day, and a high in the low seventies. A mild wind mixes things up.

On a personal note, my kidney stone passed yesterday afternoon. A small brown pebble, I have named it Gerald. Although it talks and laughs much, it rarely moves.

Outside at midnight last night (actually stepping out after opening the door for two cats to return), I checked out the midnight sky and remembered CCR’s cover of “Midnight Special” from 1969.

Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a everlovin’ light on me.

The original song was traditional folk song, and the light is thought to reference a train light coming into a jail cell. No trains were passing by when I heard the song in my head last night. Only starshine and houselights.

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

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

A friend related her tale of venturing out to a store. Her recounting triggered jungle songs. So here we are – “Welcome to the Jungle” (GNR, 1987), “Jungle Boogie” (Kool and the Gang, 1973, here on “Soul Train”), and “Run Through the Jungle” (CCR, 1970). I think each song speaks for its niche with its musical style, but each convey the jungle with slight variations. Behind them all, though, is the sense that the civilized human scene is a jungle of wild menace. Kind of like that out there, although I haven’t heard stories of violence. I guess it’s not as much of a jungle as it was on, say, black Friday.

Here they are, in chronological order.

Any jungle songs on your mind?

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Monday’s Theme Music

You often hear what’ll happen someday. Biggest of that is, “Someday, we’ll understand.” But, for a lot of us, for many of these prophecies, someday never comes.

It was part of my morning circle. When will this come about? What day? Someday. Well, sometimes someday never comes.

John Fogerty was writing about his parents’ divorce and his own marriage breaking up when he wrote “Someday Never Comes”. I enjoy CCR’s music because of the beats and a general buoyancy they project, but Fogerty’s lyrics were often observational essays.

Here’s “Someday Never Comes” (1972).

First thing I remember was askin’ papa, “Why?”, for there were many things I didn’t know
And daddy always smiled; took me by the hand, sayin’, “Someday you’ll understand”
Well, I’m here to tell you now each and ev’ry mother’s son
You better learn it fast; you better learn it young, ’cause someday never comes

h/t lyricsfreak.com

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Saturday’s Theme Music

I was streaming this song as I walked today. It’s a favorite song. A number of performers have covered it. I think my two preferred versions are by Creedence Clearwater Revival and Marvin Gaye. CCR did a long version of it that has a little more rock ingrained, while Gaye’s version had more blues and soul to it. Gaye’s version was released in 1968 and was a huge hit. CCR came out with their version in 1970.

Here’s both versions. Hope you enjoy them.

 

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Thursday’s Theme Music

I always have enjoyed convertibles. Named spyders and spiders, roadsters, rag tops, I include the targas and tee tops in this group. The top down lets the world in when you’re motoring along.

I was trying my best to emulate that yesterday. A gentle spring sun warmed the day into aspirations of summer. Our little town was an idyllic verdant green. Sunroof and windows open, I was cruising home like it was yesteryear. To help me on that journey, the radio station played C.C.R.’s eight plus minute version of “Suzy Q”. Turning it up, I felt like a teenager for the six minutes that I listened as I drove home.

Not too much to the lyrics. Very straightforward, but I enjoy the guitar work and the variations on the drums and cymbals that arise.

 

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Today’s music is “Sharp Dressed Man,” but this is being performed by John Fogerty and Billy Gibbons, representing two of the FM staples of my rock era, CCR and ZZ Top.  Of course, I used to sing, “Every girl’s crazy about a short, fat man,” as the main chorus in “Sharp Dressed Man.” Ah, it’s musicians playing and having fun.

 

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Sunday’s Theme Music

This is a long time favorite. I hope I’ve not shared it before. If I have, suffer.

Let’s listen to CCR, sometimes more formally known as Creedence Clearwater Revival, and their song, “Bad Moon Rising,” from 1969. I like this, too, for the mondegreen, where, “There’s a bad moon on the rise,” is sometimes heard as “There’s a bath room on the right.” I’ve been known to propagate the misheard lyric and assure people those are the corrects words.

Cheers

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Today’s Theme Music

I put the mental music cloud on shuffle. ‘Fortunate Son’ by CCR was one of several songs that came up.

I know it from its initial release in 1969, when I was thirteen. CCR is an awesome band that gave us a hellabunch of memorable hits like ‘Suzie Q’, ‘Heard It Through the Grape Vine,’ Who’ll Stop the Rain,’ and ‘Run Through the Jungle’. Many of later generations know this ‘Fortunate Son’ because it’s been part of so many movies and video games about war or that era in America’s history, or from one of the many other performers who have covered the song. ‘Fortunate Son’ reflected the country’s mood as the Vietnam War raged and body bags came back. It also mirrors the trend that the world’s wealthy and powerful start and sustain war, but it’s the poor, minorities and those beguiled by their desire to do their patriotic duty that end up carrying the burden.

I was one of those last, joining in 1974, serving until 1995.

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