The Shower’s Anthem

 Song 716: This week the playlist comes around to The Rain Song by Led Zeppelin, written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. As the April moisture continues to come down from the sky in the Northeast, another ballad about downpour currently has a strong resonance in this area. When the LZ Houses of the Holy 33 arrived in the early spring of 1973, my wife and I lived in an attractive apartment at the south end of Evanston, IL. The place's living room had a gas-powered fireplace, which could make an entertaining flame appear, although neither of us had any particular interest in relaxing next to such a blaze, so we rarely watched the fire that grew so low. We did find out, much to our surprise, that soon after we adopted a pair of feline siblings, the male tabby climbed up the fireplace's small vent and got to the building's roof. Fortunately, our upstairs neighbor alerted us to the meow sounds coming from above her space, so I rescued our furry buddy Joker. A few months earlier, I had felt the coldness of my winter in the Windy City region, and I would experience that frigidity more times over the next few years before heading to the milder temperatures of the East Bay. During my decade on the West Coast, I did not have to see the white flakes coming down - just a little rain during certain stretches.

Humor During Precipitation

 Song 715: This week the playlist applauds Laughter in the Rain by Neil Sedaka, written by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Facing another week of likely April showers puddling up my neighborhood again, I don't dismiss the possibility of hearing giggling during the downpour, although I doubt that I myself will snicker at any of the precipitation. When Mr. Sedaka started to get folks chuckling over the drizzle in the early fall of 1974, my wife and I had returned to the Chicago area, splitting up and finding separate places to snooze under covers. We had parted due to my sense of something missing in the relationship - a misunderstanding triggered by a previous romance, as I explain in the second edition of my book Expecting the Broken Brain to Do Mental Pushups, which I now have released, and which can be purchased from Amazon - the links are at mentalpushups.com. While singing along with Neil could raise a smile 50 years ago, I personally did NOT love the rainy days then, and I don't feel that way these days either. I do try to always remember to take my parasol with me whenever I might need it, because without an umbrella, I could get soaked to the skin.

Understanding Necessary Downpour

 Song 714: This week the playlist recognizes Baby the Rain Must Fall by Glenn Yarbrough, written by Elmer Bernstein and Ernie Sheldon, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. As the April showers start falling in the U.S. northeastern states, all of us in that area understand the basic reality expressed by this tune's title and chorus line. After the Beatles rocked my world in early 1964, at first I mostly paid attention to them and their fellow British invaders, but by the time the following year arrived I also had noticed at least a few memorable musical rambles coming from domestic sources, including this melodic forecast which climbed the charts during the colder stretch of early 1965. I was not rich or famous at the time, but I didn't dismiss the possibility - I did NOT swim the sea or fly above the sky, but I DID climb a mountain or two, and I always understood that wherever my heart leads me, that's the place I must go.

The Comic

 Song 713: This week the playlist features The Joker by The Steve Miller Band, written by Eddie Curtis, Ahmet Ertegun and Steve Miller, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. With tomorrow being this year's April Fool's Day, tonight feels like a good time to feature a particular musical comedian. When this farcical gag came along in the fall of 1973, my wife and I had lived in the southern part of my college town of Evanston, IL, for about a year. During that stretch, I got to know a fellow I would describe as a low-level crook, and who once said to me, "Getting high is not my thing." While I soon concluded that I had little in common with this guy, I did share his POV regarding alcohol and/or drug intake. I did not become a smoker or a midnight toker, despite being a picker and a grinner. I would gladly play my music in the sun whenever possible, though I had limited options during the Windy City frigid months, but I would get to do it a lot more often starting in the following February when my partner and I moved to the much milder Atlanta, GA, area. Back in that era, I had decided that regardless of my own personal situation, I sure don't want to hurt no one and it would bother me if I did do so, even in some unintended manner.

Enjoying Wet Evenings

 Song 712: This week on the playlist you can hear I Love a Rainy Night by Eddie Rabbitt, written by David Malloy, Eddie Rabbitt and Even Stevens, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When this amorous anthem came along around the beginning of 1981, I had gotten a few months into a third year at an attractive comfortable home in Oakland, CA. I would often spend time sitting by the place's small front porch with my housemate and close friend Doug, listening to the interesting sounds the radio brought our way as we savored the moderate Bay Area temperatures, and this one quickly got us both roped in. While I didn't feel the same enjoyment of precipitous experiences that the singer expressed, I greatly appreciated having left the frigid Windy City, and, given the choice, I would much prefer warm downpour over chilly white flurries. I might NOT love to hear the thunder, but I could watch the lightning when it would light up the sky at night, and it felt good to know I would probably wake up to a sunny day the next morning.

Small Pair Vehicle

 Song 711: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Little Deuce Coupe by The Beach Boys, written by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. After the Beatles rocked my world 60 years ago in February, I mostly paid attention to the British Invaders, but a few hits from this side of the Atlantic Ocean also lit my ears, including a handful of chart toppers from a particular West Coast quintet of seashore fellows. This moving hot rod ride had arrived during the previous summer, before I got pulled into the RnR airwave current, and when I heard it soon after I started spending more time with the transistor radio, I probably didn’t know it was a golden oldie, but I sure did know that I enjoyed the musical zone that it quickly covered. Hearing it felt like coming off the line when the light turns green, and it made me feel like maybe I had a set of wings so that, in a tuneful way, I could fly. On a sad side note, I decided to do a Beach Boys song this week after hearing the sad news that Brian Wilson lost his wife in January of this year. I feel sorry for his loss, and I wanted to send some good vibes his way.

Fantastic Guy's Aging Difficulties

 Song 710: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's amusing lift Superman's Midlife Crisis comes from a buddy who I connected with in the 1990s named Joe Giacoio, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. He joined my mailing list after attending a performance I did on a Bronx folk stage, and not long after, I heard him play at another place in the area and I liked what I heard from him. We soon developed a close friendship, and when he compiled the 1997 album CD that would have this ballad as its title track, I took pictures of him for the project and helped him put together the record's imagery, which I'd say personifies this tune's message. If you haven't heard the song, you might not know that Spiderman took a job with accounting, but you may very well understand that you can't turn back the clock for a quick trip home and you probably realize that you can't change clothes behind a cellular phone.

Checked You Out

 Song 709: This week the playlist recognizes I Looked at You by The Doors, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Three years and a half after the Fab Four rocked my world, just as they started heading in a psychedelic direction, a fresh L.A. quartet rocked the charts and while I couldn't own a devil's music 33 at the time, I had plenty of friends who could, and did, open up The Doors LP and ride around its spins, so I soon got to know the entire album, even though I never listened to it at home, and it quickly became one of my favorite discs. Over the next two years, as I worked on the student newspaper with a handful of my fellow classmates, we would put together the periodical in a certain room at the HS after classes ended, leaving the school when we finished it a few hours after most of the other students had departed. As we put together each issue, we would also listen to records we liked, and I know we always had The Doors on the turntable for every edition we assembled in those years. When I remember the student newspaper work we did, I always associate it with The Doors, to the point that I don't recall any of the other records we listened to, even though I know we did spin other discs on the player as well. When we started getting an issue's articles together and editing the contents, once we were on our way, we could, and would, never turn back - we would get the job done, even when it meant that a few of us might get home from school too late.

Provide Your Complete Passion

 Song 708: Last week's thought was Let's Work Together and the week before was the moment for All My Loving, so this week seems like the right time to Gimme All Your Lovin' by ZZ Top, written by Billy Gibbons, and you can find an amusing YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. By the time such a rocking plea got a lot of listeners going along with that request in early 1983, I had resided for about a year and a half in a really pleasant home in Berkeley, CA, that sat near the pizza joint where the singer/songwriter circle that I had joined a few years earlier would regularly gather and share compositions. I had become a fan of the lurching Texas trio soon after they appeared near the beginning of the 1970s, and had actually attended a concert they did in Chicago in early 1977, so it didn't take long for them to get me singing along with their 1983 bluesy call. I soon understood that when someone has got to move it up that they should work it like a screwball would.

Common Efforts

 Song 707: This week on the playlist you can hear Let's Work Together by Canned Heat, written by Wilbert Harrison, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Shortly before my sophomore college year began in September of 1970, this bluesy anthem started getting everyone to sing along, and it conveyed a message that most of my classmates, and probably the majority of university scholars around the country, had come to understand quite clearly in the spring of that year. Soon after the 5/4/70 event, I joined demonstrations at N.U. which echoed gatherings across the nation that expressed our anger at the killing of four Kent State pupils, and while our voices speaking out didn't end the Vietnam War, as far as I know, no other student protesters in the U.S. got shot down during the following years as opposition to the Southeast Asia conflict continued to swell. Many of us would walk hand in hand when we had a good place to stand to voice our disapproval of that mass murder.

My Entire Passion

 Song 706: This week the playlist applauds All My Loving by The Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Sixty years ago, fairly soon after I got to my junior high school on the morning of 2/10, I started hearing my classmates use a word that I thought referred to a group of insects, but I couldn't imagine why such conversations would happen in the middle of a cold upstate NY winter. Since I had no clue about the big story I had missed, I also didn't know what question to ask, but after a couple of days I finally did pose a question to my neighbor playmate. He chuckled to learn that his smart buddy didn't know the biggest news of the previous week. Finding out about what my family and I had missed on Sunday night, we all planned to watch the 2/16 Ed Sullivan Show, and when we did so, although the rest of our circle had no interest in what they heard and saw, my younger brother and I got roped in, and we insisted on viewing the entire program, contrary to other family members who wanted to shut off the TV. Watching them perform She Loves You, (Song 653), the Fab Four rocked my world. I thought their next tune sounded really cool, and then they got to this one, which felt even better. Witnessing that performance sparked a whole new view of the musical world for me, and gave me hope that my dreams will come true.

Transporting Over a Notable Stream

 Song 705: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Ferry Cross the Mersey by Gerry and the Pacemakers, written by Gerry Marsden, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Not long after a certain Fab Four rocked my world six decades ago, I started paying a lot more attention to the radio than I ever had before, and particularly riding along with a whole bunch of British Invader musical rambles. This lift arrived about a year later, and became yet one more anthem from the English noisemakers that moved me in a very rocking way. I had probably not known much about the United Kingdom's geography previously, but by the time this ride came along the airwaves, I had learned about the stream that the ferry crossed and its proximity to an urban area that had achieved a lot more public recognition, thanks to the quartet who I plan to feature next week. While Life goes on day after day and People they rush everywhere, I personally have not taken a Ferry Cross the Mersey, and I don't expect to do so any time soon, but maybe it could happen someday.

Feline in the Crib

Song 704: This week the playlist features Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin, written by Harry Chapin and Sandra Chapin, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Around the time that a lot of listeners got purrty impressed by this furry ballad, I managed to luckily find an affordable room in an apartment on the south end of Evanston. My wife and I had returned to the area in July as our romance came to an unfortunate climax, mainly due to a misunderstanding on my side that would haunt me for many years to come. Although I don't remember the moment when I first caught HC's meow melody, during that stretch I very soon had the chorus lines completely in hand and on my mind. Growing up, I had often heard my folks say, "There aren't enough hours in the day.” Even back then, most working class types understood that message, which resonates much stronger in the present day. While we can have numerous differences, the one thing so many of us have in common is that we have got a lot to do. All too often, we can't seem to find the time to get together and have a good time then.

Greatly Submerged

 Song 703: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's captivating dive In So Deep comes from another one of my Fast Folk colleagues, Wendy Beckerman, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. She performed the tune at the 1991 FF show at The Bottom Line, and that's the source for the recording on the YT video. I rarely went to those shows, which the group regularly did once a year, so I probably didn't hear it then, but I did hear her do it at one of our other gatherings - possibly I might have witnessed her introduce the piece to the group at Jack Hardy's apartment where, during a weekly meeting, we would all share our shiny new ramblings with each other. Given the romantic attachment that Ms. B had with a prominent member of the circle, I can understand how she got in so deep she didn't know how to get out, even by using a broom that she had in hand to sweep the weekly dusting of doubt.

Provide a Bit of Illumination

 Song 702: This week the playlist recognizes Shed a Little Light by James Taylor, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. The fellow who inspired this JT 1993 anthem got shot and killed on April 4 of my junior HS year, and similar to the official story of the JFK assassination that had happened a few years earlier, and the authorized statements about the RFK assassination that occurred a couple of months later, the approved narrative about 4/4/68 did not sound right to me. A year and a half down the road, when I resided in the Chicago area as a university student, the Fred Hampton murder happened, and soon enough, I found out from dependable sources about how the FBI got local law enforcement to execute him, so those facts further validated my conclusions about the butchery of MLK, Jr. The more I've learned about him, the greater my respect has grown, and when one of my favorite singer/songwriter stars did a melodic tribute to him in the late summer of 1993, I thought he said some things really well. As a holiday arrives tomorrow that honors Mr. King, we know we Can't get no light from the dollar bill or any real light from a TV screen, but the King guy DID shed a little light and help us to recognize that there are ties between us - all men and women living on earth.

Occassionally During the Cold Season

 Song 701: This week the playlist comes around to Sometimes in Winter by Blood, Sweat & Tears, written by Steve Katz, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. This tune, and the album that it resides on, appeared shortly before the Christmas of my HS senior year, and a couple of the record's other tracks - most notably Spinning Wheel - got a lot of attention in the following months of 1969. While residing with my folks and brothers, I could not afford to buy an LP, even if my parents had given me permission to do so, which they probably would not have done for any of the devil's music which they despised, so I might not have heard this cool anthem at that time. Living in Bobb Hall at N.U. the following year, I did get to hear a lot more of the music I liked, thanks to some fellow students who had impressive disc collections, so Sometimes in that Winter, hearing about frigidity repeatedly got me moving along with this beat. I had decided during that era to spend whatever little amount I could afford to mainly build my own stock of 33s and bypass live shows, but in my college sophomore year I made an exception to the rule and bought a ticket for a BS&T concert - one of very few that I experienced. These days, Sometimes in winter I gaze into the streets and walk through snow, but thankfully, the chilly Northeast temperatures in my region rarely, if ever, have the kind of negative numbers that the frigid Windy City daily highs and lows often do in a new year’s first few months.